The latest is Isaac wants to get some loaner horses and try to sell them for a guy in our ward. Have mercy! I better be getting some good wife points in heaven or something (I’m not convinced I get them here but I am convinced I am uniquely qualified 🤷‍♀️ Surely no sane person would go for this… after Guinea Fowl twice, and Goats and we killed off 50!!!! chickens this winter… and yet here we are…) Yesterday he didn’t have to work but spent the day cutting down a tree and putting up a electric fence. (Just what I want down our driveway as the weather finally gets nice enough for the kids to play outside. Not really but Oh well) he had me come scope it out I told him I didn’t like where it was and he shrugged and said it wasn’t permanent. 

 I think his real passion is change itself-which I completely hate so hopefully we balance each other out…

Ok so I guess back to the week. 

Good news-the Easter Bunny came! And it was dang cold so Isaac just took Colt to soccer and I stayed home and played Betty Baker. 

We looked at the weather and decided we’d better go to the cemetery that afternoon cuz Sunday looked a little sketchy. 

Riz had some little daffodils 👍🏻 They were in a little better shape before Seth & Tanner stomped all over them! The big ones behind them should bloom soon. 

Then just sharing some chips with the brothers. 

Isaac has been going to build the boys a sandbox since…we moved here??? I dunno but anyway a long time. Saturday he just all the sudden was all over it and made it happen. 

Monday the boys didn’t have school and Isaac had the day off so they went and got some more sand (because the couple bags we had didn’t really dent it) 

Look at this helper! I’m a pretty lucky mom! 

Sunday was Easter-Isaac ended up having to speak and Colt gave a talk too. They both did great! 

After church we had a “linger longer” (that’s why I was playing Betty Baker) where the really wanted people to get their pictures taken to update the LDS tool app. The boys and I cooperated…the Bishop not so much 🤣

Remember Sethy’s grin when he was helping stir dinner? Yeah wasn’t happening! When we got back in the car he told me “mom I only smile when you take my picture” and I guess really I take WAY more so I’d rather have it that way but sheesh I couldn’t even buy him off with a treat! The bottom one was Bro Gillette’s best silly face. 

And that darn Tanner it is so hard to get a picture with a real smile that his eyes open…then I saw the one of me. Oh crud! Maybe I’m where he gets it. 

Oh well. We tried! 

And our Easter weather…

Monday was nice cuz they didn’t have school. And the rest of the week just kind of zoomed by. 

Tuesday we bought a new microwave and we’re learning just how bad the other one had gotten-were smoke’n everything. Ha. 

Isaac thought he got one that was the same brand but…not even close. That made install kind of a pain-but Isaac’s the one that has to deal with it. And he made it work! 

We’re back in the microwave popcorn business! Yay! 

They actually prefer the kind I make,  they call it “good kind of popcorn” but I’m not always willing so sometimes they need a backup plan. 

A little artwork from Tan..

And Thursday we went to Colts music program at school-he did great! The music teacher requested they “dress their best” so we had a little screen time bribe for the shirt and tie. 😊





And I think that’s it as far as pictures on my phone that remind me what we’ve been up to. 

Until next week. 

 

. 

Saturday Soccer got rained out-again-but I wasn’t sad cuz it simplified my morning! Isaac had gone to Memphis to support one of the youth. I met him at the highway as he was coming back and he took Cannon to his 3 on 3 tournament. He watched a couple games then we traded and he came home and watched the other boys while I went and watched Cannon. They ended up deciding 60 degrees was good enough and took the kayak and canoe out to the lake and had a blast but…undocumented. 😉

Cannon (over-documented) had a blast too and they beat everyone except the 6th grade teams. Those kids are a LOT bigger! Like I think they must have fall birthdays so they’re really basically 2 years older…maybe? 

Sunday…I guess was normal-can’t remember much. 

Oh wait no it wasn’t. I hung out at our neighbors all afternoon. Sethy walked own by himself 😳 pretty sure Cannon wouldn’t do that! But then the boys were kind of back and forth. Ray had gotten called in on a fire and I was really glad he would call and let us help. I just visited with Char the whole time. With her health  he just can’t really leave her alone, but she got along fine while I was there. That evening our good friend Danny Goering stopped by on his was through town it was fun to see him -but made me miss his wife and kids too. The missionaries came over and watched their little face to face thing with us. They were so excited that it had people sharing their testimonies in their native languages…less than exciting for the kids…just my opinion. 

Monday we got outside YaY, and they had so much fun with the kayak they put it in our swamp pool. 

Dr Ison…is not that kind of Dr…unless it’s his motorcycle 🤣. Bummer though, it was making a weird noise and the car is leaking coolant, so sometimes he fills it up and still drives it but we’ve been sharing the van a lot too. Oh and spring pics-that I’m not buying. 



Thanks though interstate. 

Tuesday the missionaries came over and we found out that we’re losing Sister Holland she has to go home for knee surgery-bummer! 

She had this Polaroid camera…the kids thought it was cool…I think there’s a reason cameras have come a long way. So we grabbed a selfie with Isaacs long arm too! 

Wednesday was children and youth where they made “peep houses” and the leaders sent the extra treats home for our brothers. Seth and Tanner were pumped but yikes we’ve had enough treats. 


Thursday I put Isaac in charge of dinner and he cooked the ham I had bought for Easter dinner! He said “it’s close enough to Easter” …he didn’t earn the nickname “celebrater hater” for nothing. Cannon (ever the celebrater) freaked out but I told him Aldi would have more hams and if we weren’t sick of it we could buy another one. But truth be told we’ll probably just have leftovers. Seems crazy to me but also very easy so—with the mom life ya gotta take the layups when they give’m to ya! 🤷‍♀️

Today the boys didn’t have school. Cannon found out about his baseball team and had practice. He’s super excited! It is a fun group! I always feel so flakey on that when we head to Utah though but who knows how our travel plans will shake out??? I sure don’t! (Isaac is itching to go though!) Tanner Colt and Seth play so well together and spent most of the day outside. Tanners RC car from last week broke Sunday I felt dumb but the dang thing was $80 I felt like it should last more than 2 days, but it wouldn’t turn. So I took it back. Isaac helped them research them a little and they ordered a new one off the internet. It came today and I’m not sure a UPS man has ever been greeted more jubilantly. But…they broke it already! (So then I’m thinking crud maybe they broke the other one and it was their own faults it wouldn’t turn-who knows) but they probably broke the new one because it can go so fast. (apparently it was for age 14 and up so…6…good enough…🤔…we do whatever we want)  but they’ve JB welded it for now and they did buy one you can buy replacement parts for this time so I guess time will tell. 

Tonight Isaac is churching it which means the bedtime routine is all me 😩

And we try to keep Sunday for Jesus so the Easter bunny usually shows up here on Saturday—sooooo ideally they would go the heck to bed! 

Pleeeeease! But no luck yet…

Bout it! 

Conference and Tanner is 6!

Saturday we froze our tails off watching Colt play soccer. Yikes. 

And when we got home it was time to watch conference. Isaac went into work (and presumably enjoyed conference) I didn’t put in the work ahead of time to help it be enjoyable for the kids-I know better, I should have, but sheesh it was a battle all day long! The best was when the 2nd session was just getting going and Tanner in prime form told me he hated it and that it was so boring then just a few seconds later Elder Holland shared that note from the little girl who said it was “so boring! Why do we half to do it, tell me why?” I was like oh Tanner that’s you man! You’re not the only one buddy! 

But I love conference. 

I wish Isaac loved to watch it with us…but It is what it is.

Isaac brought home pizza and after all day Saturday plus him being gone those days last week, I took off for a little break before the women’s session started, and got home just as it did. I vetoed the watching it at the church option because I didn’t want to dress up and laying around just sounded more comfy. 

Isaac had brought home pizza but he didn’t really get the boys to eat it—so we had dinner at 8:30 and chased the  kids to bed. 

Spiritual feast? More like day of war we barely survived! Yikes. 

When Pres Nelson said right off the bat “May this conference be a time of peace and spiritual feasting for you.” I was like “what?!” This guy had 10 kids right?! But at least we can re-listen to the talks. Feast and peace pending! 

Oh the other rotten thing about Conf is we couldn't get it to stream-I feel like just listening makes it even harder. Oh well. Part of having the hot spot junky internet at the farm house. 

Sunday morning was basically more of the same. Sunday afternoon the boys talked Isaac into listening with us. 

And it was good to hear what they actually heard-listened to-and liked as we discussed it for Come Follow Me. 

And President Nelson asked us to end a conflict in our lives…I’m pretty sure for me that means I have to stop hating the pump truck and everything about it. 

Not easy-but I want to follow the prophet so I’ll do it. It will be worth it. 

Then we were pretty much in get to Tanners birthday mode. 

And Tuesday finally came! 

That’s a truckload of treats cake.

And it’s not a Tennessee shirt-it’s an orange T for Tanner shirt 😉

In Puerto Rico he decided he wanted a water birthday but it really hasn’t been that fun since the highs have been in the low 40s this week. It even snowed today although thankfully it didn’t stick! 

That kayak should be super fun though…eventually. 



Free screen time. All their birthday dreams coming true 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ And the the pic I got from his teacher. 

The missionaries always come on Tuesday so we had them eat some cake with us (and they did even after Tanner spit blew out those candles-yikes-at least they were all in one corner. I cut from the other side for the rest of us But still!!) 

Seth and I worked on our conference train…Mr Independent was having a great time. I might try to get him to move his to his room…we’ll see. 

Not much else.

Just plugg’n along. 

Oh Cannon gets to play in a little 3 on 3 tournament  with two of his best buddies Brett and Luke. They are both in this class this year and (maybe I feel bad for his teacher 😉) but they had a little practice and he is super pumped about it! 

Tanner and I got to sneak out on a little kid date. He had some birthday money that was burning a hole in his pocket 😉 that combine with his leftover gift card and he ended up with a giant rc car! He was pretty happy! 

Ok now I think that’s it.

It makes me absolutely crazy when I have to start over on the blog! I don’t know what I did but I managed to lose things again today -darn. 

So I feel like I’ve already told the stories I’ve already typed everything out and now it’s gone…and …

It was not the best week before I had to re-blog. 

I did find one good positive though. I took the kids into school tues-thurs (which Cannon hates-but Tanner loves) Cannon hates it because I make them say the articles of faith on the way in. So this week we were studying come follow me stuff in Exodus ch 7 (oh the boys loved learning about the plagues by the way) but anyways we were talking about the verse that says that the Lord hardens Pharaoh’s heart but we know from the Joseph Smith translation that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and so we were talking about how it’s important to have the correct translation and Tanner piped up and said “thats number 8 mom” yes!!!! Victory! That was a win for a mom! 

Anyway. 

There’s my positive…cuz most of the week…not much winning.

Saturday…soccer got rained out. Cleaning the church didn’t. And we took care of the animals-can’t remember much else. 

Lots of this Saturday  

https://youtu.be/A6sZ6_O3Dns

Sunday Colt was sick. But after the week before and the run around poor Colt got left with a phone and the rest of us went to church like normal. He didn’t know what time we were supposed to be home so that made him a little nervous but he was a trooper. 

Monday Cann on was sick again-after him puking at school Friday I wasn’t willing to go the tough it out route so he stayed home again. Isaac and I needed to meet with a guy via zoom so at least we had Cann (and  a screen don’t let me kid ya he wouldn’t have done it without the screen) but Cann tended Seth. 

Afterward my phone was dead so it was in charging and I missed a call from Isaac. 

Oh wait back up-this is the trouble with having already typed it once today-

Sunday night we were sitting around waiting for Isaac to get off the phone to do CFM. He said something about going to Utah-when he got off the phone I asked him when he was going to Utah? And he answered  “oh we will talk about it”

We’ll we didn’t. 

Back to Monday. 

I missed a call from him Monday so I text back knowing that he was in class and said I wanted Seth the power nap but I would call after. Well we played a little phone tag but ultimately he called when I was driving in to get the boys from school and told me he was going to Utah. (He gave me a reason why that didn’t have anything to do with the pump company and it’s not really fair to the people involved to put it on my blog without permission. But I’m not quite that dumb-it was totally a pump company trip.) At any rate he was headed to Utah and I asked “when?” he said “tonight I gotta leave here pretty quick” because with the schedule of things he couldn’t take the puddle jumper he was going to have to drive to St Louis. So I picked up the boys and we hurried back as fast as we could to see dad but ultimately he got a church call that he needed to take care of before he left and we waved to him on the road as he drove past. 

See ya Thursday. 

We text a little that night like this one: 

And he sent the boys a pic of the plane he was riding on but mostly it was late he’s tired and super busy when there but on this end it feels like we’re just out of sight-out of mind. It sucks. I talked to him a whopping 2 1/2 minutes the whole time he was gone. That’s what I hate about when he leaves. And I hated being the last to know-I guess he’d been asking the big boys on the way into school if they wanted to go. Anyway that wasn’t the worst part-the worst part was by Tuesday morning I had the stomach bug that has been ravaging our house! 😩 but I still had to take care of 4 kids-and no help. I just kept asking the boys questions? “Did you feel like this?” “Did you have this?” One of my questions about being so dang hungry and not being able to eat Colt said “Yeah mom, you just gotta tough it  out!!” Thanks buddy.

So it was pretty grim around here. 

Survival… and barely. 

Pictures-yeah right! 

But mid morning Wednesday I finally started feeling a little better. Thankfully it was a short bug it’s just been so dang spread out. So after school Wed we went to the library and then we went to the local pizza joint to redeem Tanner‘s “caught being good” ticket. I still didn’t feel great -I didn’t eat anything until we got home just to be safe- but we usually try to do something fun to kind of survive dad being gone and that’s what we picked. Oh and waffle cone Wednesday of course. Instead of crayons they gave the kids these goofy wikki  stix. 

And luckily Isaac got back (about 5:30) Thursday morning. He told us a crazy story about pulling over to sleep and waking up to the sound of cracking plastic! The semi he’s pulled behind just backed into him but thankfully it only cracked his license plate cover, but he didn’t wait to find that out he just started honking and flashing his lights and had to flag the guy down. Crazy! But anyway—it woke him up enough to finish the drive home. 

Seth and dad hung out while I had somewhere to be-I think he was pretty happy to have his dad back! 

Last night we celebrated him being home with popcorn and hot chocolate-today it was nice enough for the boys to play outside in shorts. Missouri weather. 

Tonight we had the missionaries for dinner and later tried to spray some of the mud off the cars. Bout it. Oh and the torture of piano. 

I have a couple movies of Tan—so cute of him reading and…one of the Tanner we are dealing with every single day when things don’t go his way 😩

But I’m not going to get them on here tonight.