Leaves are falling all around and they are making a huge mess, I'm tired of them being tracked in the house! But at least the boys are having fun.

Saturday it was off to Nauvoo for the stake RS activity? Conference? Whatever it was. It was good but a little crazy...when the lady was telling us about a use for everything bread mix and said "Cuz who buys hot dog buns?" I wanted to shout "ME! Because they are 85 cents at Aldi and there is NO mess, and besides who cares if you don't know 'exactly' what went into it, Hello! You're eating it with a Hot Dog the ultimate mystery meat for heavens sake." I refrained but that's kind of the level of over the top it was. This gal makes her own everything-and has a website about it all and oh yeah she planted her own wheat field last year just to see if she could harvest her own. Impressive, yes! But, I'm just say'n probably not my stage of life! And if  everything goes poof tomorrow...maybe I'll try to hitch hike to her house with one of horse and buggies around for a little wheat ;) The little cleaning class was basically a list of things I don't get done-great-and the cute crafts for kids class was good but when Chatty Kathy entered I wondered if we were ever going to get out of there. I know way more about that lady's childhood and what she liked to draw than I care too. Ohhh (sigh) so after that little vent are you going to believe me if I tell you it was good activity? It was, I picked up some good things, I just had to vent a little too. It was just a really long weekend!

Sunday I survived. I was sustained as Primary President. Wait WHATTT???? Yeah that's pretty much what I'm ask'n too. When the Bishop called me I wanted to call Kim and cry, instead was just grouchy with Isaac when he smiled and chuckled about it. That poor guy-but really its in his best interest to figured out when is a good time to laugh and when its not! Anyway... Oh boy...we'll do our best. Don't ask me how we're going to swing ward council-I haven't figured it out yet! Cannon was super excited that mom got to go with him to primary though, I loved that.

Super dad was at it again Monday night, the kids didn't nap but he'd been telling them they would carve they're pumpkins so they went for it. I remember it as being awful, the pumpkins guts making me want to puke and so on...pumpkin guts are so minor after kids. Especially in the middle of the 6 month potty training with Colt!

 

Cannon got to draw his own face on and he is super proud of his Ghost pumpkin. Colt and I were going for Tow Mater....

They are on the porch but the boys loved the initial lighting test run in the bathroom. So cool to them. 
Preschool was awesome and of course we had more costume fun. This is the only pic of Colt with his beard. He hates it. 

Thursday we went to one of Isaac's classes. It was fun to go but that is nap time and rest assured I paid for that little trip. YIKES. The kids really do have a blast just dressing up. Sunday Isaac was gone again on another one of those "real quick" home teaching trips but we were FaceTime'n my parents (and Aunt Laur) and the boys wanted to put their costumes on, and they just left them on and played for hours~they love it, and it totally makes all the work worth it. I wish Colts head was turned but the smile is there, so I still just love this pic!

 

My ideas of grandure??? oh that was a sleigh and Rudolph's body to pull it. I kind of stole the idea from our friend Katie in Mississippi who was a horse last year and let her daughter ride her. I didn't make mine weight bearing...but I should have. My kids, other kids, they all want to ride Rudolph. Anyway, Maybe it was cuter in my mind?! I wish Cannon's costume had skinnier legs for when he was hooked up and Colt wouldn't smile. I did have to wake him up to take him to the (pretty lame...whoops did I just say that?) ward trunk or treat and it was pretty dang cold but, you get the idea and we had fun. I took my good camera but its still out in the car so the phone pic will have to suffice. (And I let Cannon be 100% in charge of the tinsel just for the record.) 

And a little randomness because its what we do...We've been referring to the wagon as the sleigh all week so Colt -little undie man-loaded it up with toys (duh) and then threw poor old Rudolph on top. And Cannon my little tailor?? With the costumes I've been sewing a lot and there is this machine in the house and he was just itching to use it. So finally I let him try it...it wasn't a total disaster...put I'm ready to get it put away!

A few more just funny things they say. Cannon was begging to watch the tablet, I said something along the lines of "You'd watch TV all day." To which he said "But Grampa likes TV....So when I get older I can just watch TV all day?"

And I gave the boys a blow pop, that's the treat we dressed up and took to Isaac's class, so Colt licks it, gets a huge grin on his face and says "tastes yike dum dum!" Then later he was eating some left over lucky charm type cereal that he got at the RS thing and of course just picking out the marshmallows and with same grin "tastes yike marties" both hilarious, dum dums and smarties, they still reign around here! It won't  last but I've gotta enjoy it while it does!

Saturday morning we took the boys to the rotary club service project. We put together little food bank sack lunch type things. Cannons prayer at the end of the day was the best "thankful my friends could come do service too (Jeff and Julia came and brought their kids too) and please bless those kids to eat that food and be healthy and strong." 

I was glad we went and once to boys quit helping fill sacks and started being in charge of breaking down boxes-we were able to get a lot done :) they were awesome filling the sacks too-just not the most efficient.

Then it was stake conference, yikes, that's a whole new ball game here. Isaac had to go to Priesthood leadership in MS too but it was only 25 minutes away then we'd meet him there. Here it's 2 hours away, they broadcast the regular sessions here to Kirksville but  there is no way for him to get back in time for the Sat night broadcast...so I should have got a babysitter but I didn't and it was me'n the boys to the nursery. Other families have to so the same thing so the boys had fun with all the toys and their friends and once they got things going we could hear just fine -it's just a long night. Isaac came home all spiritually fed and uplifted. I came home spiritually fed but exhausted with kids that still needed dinner (yeah it was 8:00 and I hadn't fed my kids-why can't I remember those adult sessions are 2 full hours?? They only had a yogurt before we left-whoops) anyway got home after 8 still staring down the barrel of dinner baths and the nighttime routine! Sunday we went to church an hour earlier and got done two hours earlier-that part was awesome:) 2 hour "reverent" on the bench was a little rough but it t was a good conference. And boy, Isaac and I better start specifically preparing and saving now, they were pounding senior couple missionaries! And they say it sneaks up on ya...

Sunday night Isaac went home teaching ...for 5 hours!!!! Holy Cow. Famous last words "I won't be long." Yeah right. My Gramdma used to say "If you're gone longer than ten days, write." Maybe I should steal her line. Actually if I'd live by it it would save me a long of stress.
One fun thing though was the boys and I played Hide and Seek while he was gone. Hilarious.  So fun. I pretty much had to be Colts teammate so he's the only one I really got pics of, and he gave us away when we were hiding every time...but it was seriously just one of those fun fun things with my kids. I had to document it, its times like that I always want to remember! Colt was pretty funny hunting for Cannon too he'd mean  "Where could Cannon be?" But it comes out more like "Uh nannon be?" And he puts his little hands out to his sides with his palms up. So funny. And Cannon just loved feeling like he was better at the game. Quite the competition these two have. "I beat you." is one of their favorite lines-no matter what we're doing. 

I've been holding the boys off on buying pumpkins for weeks, I've been telling them this week because then we'd only have to have them for 2 weeks, but the dang things totally went up in price this week. That sucked. Isaac wanted so bad to "Not be those people that spend more money just because they make more money." But this is evidence that I am -at least to some extent-those people. I wouldn't have given in on pumpkins while we were students. Oh well. And really I have one word...Treadmill. Yeah I think its fine that I bought a couple pumpkins ;) So with pumpkins on the brain... how about a little Halloween sneak peak? My once a year creative outlet :) We're having a good time. I have ideas of grandeur with a sleigh and such but I don't know if its going to materialize, I'm running out of time. We'll see but we have a start...

Its keeping us busy and having fun so that's the best part. Isaac been way busy all week. Monday he was tinkering with a door of a kids car that he home teaches that family. Tuesday, he went back to their house to fix it (and took the boys-they love that) then our home teachers came. They are awesome, so that was good. Wednesday we had the missionaries over then he had to head back into work to kind of get caught up/or ahead. Then Thursday he helped a guy in our ward our on his home teaching route. While he was gone a gal from our ward called and said he had volunteered to help someone move, she was just reminding him and said they were kind of desperate. So when he walked in the door I passed on the message. To which he was like "I gave her my number." But he called the guy he'd just been home teaching with and they headed out on a little service project... and yet again it was a 5 hour project! Holy Cow. I was sure they must have been the only ones there but it turns out they had tons of help-just no good truck to load. I guess it was an unorganized disaster.  Thursday my new visiting teachers also came. They are nice.  Although one of them is a Mets fan...and the mets just man handled my Cubbies in the NLCS :( hmmm not so sure about that. AND today...today we headed to STL. My friend Robyn from our ward in Mississippi was going through the St. Louis temple for her own endowment so we went for it. It was good too-fun to be in the temple with her and a beautiful temple!. Isaac super dad doesn't teach on Fridays so he was able to sneak away and took the boys to the (free...awesome!) STL zoo. A good time was had by all!.

We have to be in Nauvoo tomorrow, (I was totally going to sluff the stake RS activity until Isaac was asked -I thought he'd volunteered but he clarified- anyway to be the priesthood there...he's so stink'n good.) So we talked about just staying overnight but that just ends up being a ton of work and it wasn't going to save us much driving time so we came back. And we'll head out again tomorrow. Life is busy. But life is good. 

Oh one more thing

Wednesday driving home from preschool Cannon says "Mom, is it time for Poppa Great to go live in heaven and get to see his wife?" I said I didn't know but that he was old and he's lived a long time so probably before too long-he said "What are you to Poppa Great?" And I explained I was his granddaughter then he said "he will miss you though." And I said he would miss getting to have my cute kids come visit too but that dying is ok and it can be a good thing. That night I got a call from a Grampa's phone-it was sweet Marianne-a friend from high school that works at the VA home where Grampa is staying. He was wanting some help tearing down some walls or something crazy-I could hardly understand him. He took several falls last weekend and I guess he's been pretty out there ever since-I just played along though, told him my boys would love to help, asked him if he had a plan of attack and such but it really made me think-that little Cann Man he's just pretty in tune. Maybe he'll be on this earth for a long time still but it just doesn't seem like it,  it probably won't be long...

Remember when I used to put crazy things Isaac said on the sidebar of the blog? Yeah, it's main entries these days!

Today in the land of ~what could possibly be next?~ Isaac called and told me someone on the radio was giving away chickens and he wanted to get them. He wanted my nod of approval-no way-I told him "Do whatever you want, you're going to anyway." But also clarified that the comment was reality and in no way my vote of support. Sigh. (Lucky for me the lady had already given her chickens away...but she did encourage him to just get some young ones. Time will tell...time will tell.)

It seems as though I can sum up the week with the following picture...(at least I can follow it up with a picture of how much the boys love it)

Oh that stupid treadmill...we did get to try it out Wednesday ;) (and we parked the heavy dang thing right under a heater vent-UG-whoops) finally the other night after we'd used it but then he had it completely tore apart again I finally said basically "Look, this is what I have against the dumb treadmill and your single focus: it's no longer 'I'm so glad when daddy comes home' it's oh crap now I have twice as much work." Because I have to try and keep his two little helpers away from it because I don't want them all greasy, or flung off a moving belt, or electrocuted, and so on. Or the night he bypassed dinner to work on the treadmill then I had the fight on my hands why they couldn't skip dinner and go help...I tell ya-its a pain. Then throw in the "Hey honey bear, can you come help me -just real quick-" every few minutes and I have to go hold the flashlight or push this button on or just whatever little thing. By time he finally gives up for the night I just want to get my exercise by beating the dumb thing with a sledge hammer (we don't have one) and hope it goes away!!!!!! So after my big vent to him he replied "I'll get it figured out soon." I was look'n for a little different answer than that...but to his credit the next day -he had fall break and didn't have to work so he still got his treadmill time in-but he did the dishes and ordered pizza for dinner! My vent must have been a little better received than I had originally thought :)
Anyway! It is what it is! It's back together again and we've used it a couple times, I just have my doubts about it staying put together...And we did some fun things this week too. Saturday morning we went to the Truman homecoming parade. 2 weeks ago a parade in Santa Clara=shorts and t-shirts. Last weekend a parade in Kirksville=Bundled Up! It was cold!

Cannon loved the bands, they were his favorite part! Colt loved the candy, they'd throw a dumb dumb at his feet and he'd squeal with delight "dum dum a dum dum!!!!" It never got old to him, I think the gal next to him had way more fun watching him than the parade. (And I did too) 

Saturday Mr. Big Stuff rode his bike to Walmart with his dad. They are so cute. Walmart is close (about a mile probably) but when he told me they went right along the main (pretty busy) rode I figured it was probably best I wasn't there to witness it. And after last weeks picture with Colt on Isaac's bike seat, do you want to place on whether they wore helmets? Probably not.

They are pretty cute though, they picked up the potatoes I needed for dinner the next day and brought me  a huge thing of mums too. Cannon talked Isaac into buying it for me-for Valentines. So funny. They got one for a lady Isaac works with who lives along that main drag too. They'd seen her out mowing her lawn on their way by so they just thought it would be nice. I'm picturing the 2 grocery sacks with flowers busting out of them, plus the potatoes on the bikes. Too funny. Too cute.
That night we went to a little hot dog roast with Stacey's (that Isaac works with) family and friends. They boys had a blast and we had a good time too. Isaac loved getting to chat with her dad. I was wearing my BYU sweatshirt and there was a guy there who was a cougar fan. He was from Southern Utah, I said "oh sweet what part?" and he said "Hildale." umm ...gulp... I fell bad that I thought it was SO WEIRD but I never had the guts to ask him if he was FLDS or a break off or whatever but he and his wife were both really nice and we avoided awkwardness by talking about how beautiful it our there. Good enough.

Sunday Isaac was set apart in his new calling as the High Priest group leader. That should keep him busy-he'll be some good young blood for that :)

Preschool was awesome again this week! (Tues Wed and Thurs sure seem to go by fast)  he comes home with darling projects (fish and frogs this week) but I really need to figure out a system where they rotate from the fridge to the trash...there's just too many!

Tuesday was highlighted by a trip to the Verizon store-as crazy as that sounds its true! Every time Isaac and I talk about phones its a stressful disaster, but finally I just went in to talk to them about our options. I had been there a while but toward the end I was explaining that Isaac just wanted a "dumb" phone but to be able to access the web with his old smart phone on WiFi. The guy was like he can get a new "dumb" phone and it would only be $20 per month or he could just keep his old smart phone and it would only be $20 a month, so finally I said "So why isn't it only $20 a month right now?" And the guy was like "Oh I can fix that for you." Obviously not what they offer when you walk in the door but he ended up fixing it so all of them that were out of contract were only $20-it was awesome. Even if my phone is struggling, I don't want a new phone at the thought of it only being $20 a month :) I'm going to milk it for a while.

The boys are good but crazy. They do this crazy thing were they love to dump water on the table and then lap it up like dogs. Its disgusting but I haven't been able to stop it. They fight like crazy and play like crazy. It feels like more on the fighting end but they really are good friends too. And sometimes they like to team up against me-stinkers! 

Colt sure is getting to be expressive. He strings together a lot of 4 and 5 words sentences...usually in the form of demands. Little stinker. Sometimes it's only 3 words, after a few collisions riding bikes Colt tells Cannon any time he gets close "No bump me! No bump me!" It's pretty cute. The poor little toad was sick today. He loves dum dums and smarties and sometimes just wants a treat and asks for a "dummy" I think its so funny and I'm assuming he's just kind of combining the too??? who know.
Cannon oscillates between best helper ever-and biggest stinker. I definitely prefer the former.
He was really concerned the other day and said "Mom, I need to tell you something." I said "Okay what?" and he replied with "I think Pete on Mickey Mouse smokes candles." I said I didn't know that and we talked about how smoking is bad for our bodies and against the word of wisdom. Then the next day he told me he thought our new neighbor "smoked candles too" I think the candle description is so funny but I did finally tell him they were called cigarettes. I've never seen the neighbor smoking but then we got into the "not be judgmental" conversation but how do you explain "judging" to a 4 year old...yikes this parenting thing-its no walk in the park that's for sure! But I sure do love'm! So, hard-yes. Worth it-definitely!
Until next time.

Treadmill, preschool, and no training wheels!

I woke him up taking this picture but it was just so cute with his little scriptures pile on his bed.

One night this week I ran a little errand and my cute boys cleaned out the garage so I could park in it. Only problem...the car doesn't really fit. I mean it does-but barely. I twas really nice of them though!
So here's the story...
OH MY!
You know how on an excel sheet you can do those little comments so there's just a little triangle that says-hey there's more here- that's what I need for the treadmill adventures! Only maybe I need more than a little side note-I might need a whole new blog- Last Friday when Isaac was all gung ho about it we took him lunch and while I'd originally agreed to it I was like "Eh I'm not so sure." Because at this point I think his dad had talked him out of using little green so I knew that yeah, he was getting great deal but plus a hundred bucks to rent the truck and plus a hundred bucks for gas...the good deal just doubled! So I wasn't so sold on it, and the other NON selling factor was that he was like "I don't know if I'll run on it but you've proven you will, I wouldn't buy it just for me." So I thought WHOA Whoa whoa I don't want it, don't buy it for me! And I told him as much when we took him lunch Friday-to which he said, "Oh we're buying it, I'm committed  now." Shrug Ok. Now let me interject that somewhere along this process he asked me if I thought he'd be able to run on a treadmill downstairs, I said yes. He's 6'5" but our ceiling is like 7'6" or something like that. I know because I'm so concerned we're going to freeze to death this winter I thought maybe Santa could bring the boys one of those inflatable jump house bouncers for Christmas so I looked into it. I was thinking, indoor (thumbs up) energy out (thumbs up) I thought it sounded great but the darn thing (well the one I want) is 8 ft tall :( (thumbs down) anyway so I'd done a little ceiling height measurement recently and I thought the foot he had to spare would be plenty. So Saturday he went to get the treadmill-gone by 6AM, drove 4 hours, picked it up, drove back we unloaded it together (no small project the sucker weighs like 400 lbs or something ridiculous like that) but by time we got it done, he took off to return the truck then when he came home he grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Priesthood session. So basically it was a long day for him but it was a stink'n long -no break- day for me too! Anyway he's been FULLY CONSUMED with that stupid treadmill. He loves it, its good for him to have a project and something he can tinker with (I thinking cement mixer trailers and jet ski for any of my long time readers...maybe I didn't realized how good I had it while we were in Mississippi and he was in school) back on track though-- I didn't even know he was buying a treadmill that DIDN'T WORK!...oh have mercy. But anyway he got it and it was just kind of one thing after another bad news bad news bad news. Starting with: who knows what he was measuring down stairs but that thing didn't just fit through the sliding glass door down stairs like he thought it would. And ending with him coming home (maybe Tuesday) and telling me the computer that runs the motor-wasn't even there! (Don't laugh -I'm telling myself that-...yeah right! LAUGH I was cracking up typing it!) So I guess he was talking to one of his graduate classes about his treadmill woes and they were like "Look Man, cut your losses, that's why we go to school-so we don't have to deal with crap like that." I said "I love that class-have I taken them cookies? I need to!" But do you think Mr. Unconventional was going to just give up? Not a chance. So he's pretty slow to tell me all the bad news, cuz, really that's no fun. But the next day he called with a smile in his voice "You're never going to believe this..." And basically they're sending him a controller for that motor-for free-he was so excited. So then he was ready, that thing was coming in the house! He was willing to go to the effort to finagle it in with a furniture dolly and a regular dolly on its side through that door downstairs.  Luckily Jeff had the needed dolly's and  he (who am I kidding? WE!! I totally had to help) were in business. So we eventually got it in the door and the next thing I know he was talking all crazy about getting a TV to put in front of it. Hello, we've lived for 5 1/2 years without a TV I hardly think we need one for the treadmill that doesn't work that he doesn't know if he'll run on when (or if) it ever does work. So we tip it up, and....no worries about the TV-the handles almost it the ceiling! And for that matter so does Isaac's head. There's NO WAY he could run on that. (The pic I took didn't turn out) He said "I'll bend down." I said "I know that was a huge pain in the butt to get in here, but how about the garage?" He basically said he didn't want it in the garage and that he could just bend down. I said "You're going to run hunched over?" He said "No just leaning and 'it declines.'" If you're laughing right now-join the crowd, if you're not, I'm impressed, AND you must not have the same visual in your head that I have in mine. (darn picture that did't work)
So that's the latest with the stupid treadmill. Unfortunately for me its probably to be continued! Oh wait there is one more thing, that company is Utah based (oh the new apostle Elder Stevenson originally founded it) but they are exporting their manufacturing as of the end of this month, so last night we're laying in bed and Isaac says "I think I want to start manufacturing treadmills." I said "I'm not going to lose any sleep over it yet!" Seriously, we're 2 months into a normal job that should have career written all over it and he's dreaming and scheming about manufacturing treadmills...what next? Wait, I did NOT ask that!

So there she is! Sorry about the long saga...sometimes its a form of therapy for me to type it out-
On to the rest of the week!
Monday for FHE we caught a HS softball game, it was pretty fun. The guy Isaac is supposed to home teach with has a granddaughter that plays. It a super small town (Kirksville is big to them) but I think the whole town was there, the girls played then the boys played baseball. It was just kind of old school. I liked it. Then Tuesday Cann Man started preschool! He was a nervous a little guy clinging to my leg, tears in his eyes (so heart breaking) but within minutes he was playing with the HUGE tractor and HUGE play lizards and by time they were feeding the fish he decided it would be fine if I left. The hardest part was Colt totally wanted to stay and play. Hopefully he'll get to go to Mrs. Hardee's preschool next year.

(His pile of preschool projects) 

Its awesome! She is so great with them! Its called "Under God's rainbow preschool" so its Christian based. They learn a scripture every week (perfect for us for the Ponderizing like we were encouraged to do in general conference, I had wanted to do it with my kids too) They learn bible songs along with the academia and boy do they sing praises;)  its different, but I think its good. Mrs. Hardee shares her faith with the kids everyday and Cannon is having opportunities to share his too. Yesterday she told me about the day before when she had a cup of coffee, he was like "Is that coffee?" and she said it was, he said  in some way or another that she shouldn't drink coffee, because its against the Word of Wisdom. She asked if his mom drank coffee, he said "no" then if his dad drank coffee, he said "no" then she smiled and said "You're Mormon aren't you?" and he said "Yes!" I just thought it was so great. And she told him she wouldn't drink coffee.  (And then me later try to explain to my 4 year old, it is against the Word of Wisdom and that its because its not good for our bodies and we could end up wanting to have it more and more and more -addictive to 4yr old???-but that it was ok if Mrs. Hardee chose to drink it but we choose not to because of what we know) UG that just seems like a lot for a 4 year old-even sharp as he is- to process. When I found out I was super apologetic to her and and just said "Sorry, Sorry about the Coffee" but she was really quick to be like "No way, don't you apologize one bit." So it was cool the respect she has for our beliefs and what I've tried to teach Cannon. I guess where she used to live she had a really good friend that was a Mormon so that's always awesome when people have had positive interactions with other members. Seriously though she is preschool superwoman! We love her! After day one I told him we had preschool again the next day and he was jumping for joy, and he wants to head out the door the second he wakes up, so its just been 3 really good days! (Plus errands with only Colt while Cann's at school-they're a breeze!)

The other big news is-see ya later training wheels! He LOVES to ride his bike, he still won't go down hills but he's loving the freedom of no training wheels! (When we played High Low the other night though he still said Preschool was his High-over bikes-you know it was good.) But he rides any chance he gets and he's just gotten better and better. And Colt is of course rock'n the strider bike. Its October, we're finally getting some good use out of what we bought them for Christmas last year ;) I have a couple movies but not much in the picture dept. Well...this one I'm not sure I want documented proof of how unsafe it is. CRUD.

And the movies...(sorry if they're super shaky I didn't wait around for youtube to "stabilize" them)

Pretty cute eh?

I had to post a several to shoe the progress :) he improves so much each day! (We do still have to help him get on-that part is annoying but I've trained him to walk his bike to where ever I'm at...so he's getting exercise and I'm being lazy.)

And to finish off our excitement for the week we started making Halloween costumes...Santa and Rudolph here we come. We'll see what I can pull off, so far Cannons looks just like the monkey costume I made 2 years ago :( darn, it's partly because that was the only brown I could find, I  would have like a more deer like color but no luck. And the other part is because I used the same pattern, duh, come on Lyndi, oh well. Cannon informed me today he wants a real deer head...good luck with that bud. And unfortunately for him I haven't got any tricks up my sleeve to help him fly either-the kid dreams big! 

We had a great trip! And Isaac really was SO well taken care of by our ward family here! He went to a play and had dinner with Bishop and ate at the Lingwall's twice and Cannon's primary teachers family, the Orton's had him over too. He was probably better fed than when I'm here ;)
Saturday we were headed to pick up a quart of honey for Grandma Ison and we stumbled on to the Swiss Days Parade. It was a great. My mom pulled right up to the front row (I thought I was riding with Isaac) and the kids loaded up on candy-it turned out to be a really fun little parade.

We also stopped in at Grandma Cottam's quick that afternoon.
Saturday evening Grama wanted pictures with the grandkids...what a night nightmare! I don't even have any of the evidence, I'll have to have her send some. We ended up watching Women's Conference a little later that night, she thought after my kids went to bed-the problem-my kids DON'T go to bed. UG. But we survived. 

Sunday we went up to Ivins to Riley's primary program. Ann and Elsie have cousins on both sides in that ward so we all went and it was fun~that's a lot of chaos on the benches though! It was a cute little program though, Riley did great.
Then was it Sunday there was an eclipse? I don't know but one of the nights we were up visiting Poppa Great and Uncle Steve stopped by with Grama Cottam, but we weren't there so my mom text and said to stop by his house on our way home. So we did and it was SO FUN! They were having a "Moon Party" and We got to see Uncle Steve and Aunt Sher, Uncle Rob and Aunt Joyce, and Grandma Cottam. PLUS Steve and Sherrie's neighbors (Karen and Andy Hawks) were there, they were in our ward in Ivins and we team taught Sunday School with them. It was really great to visit with them and catch up too. Andy had a little helicopter the boys were pretty enthralled with.
Oh then who knows what else we did...just tried to enjoy our time. It was a quick trip but it was really really fun. We had a great time!

Grampa played superman a couple times and took both boys to Home Depot and the corrals by himself by the next trip up there though he was wanting some help-haha. The only problem is when I was there Colt was Mr. Clingy. When I wasn't he was fine-oh well. 

Here's a pile of pics of us just doing our thing...

Cannon was asking me the other day about convertibles, I told him that Grama (aunt) Kay had one so it was PERFECT when she showed up in it! I took the boys for a little spin around the block. Cannon asked me if I knew how to drive a convertible-then he asked if it could go fast. Yes and No! Not without car seats it couldn't!

 And those poor dogs!

Tuesday was kindof like a bonus day but we didn't do anything, I was pretty nervous about travelling through the night. We went down to Vegas that evening and hung out at Mark and Gingers. That way grama and grampa were able to go home and a semi decent hour and Ginger was able to slip us over to the airport at 11 o'clock at night. We has a great time and the boys had a blast with Britt in the Hot Tub~she was darling with them.
And about the airport, why did I think my kids would sleep? Silly Me.
And we do the traveling through the night thing but usually there are 2 of us. Yikes. Once we finally got on the plane I told Cannon he had to go to sleep, he said "Why?" and I assured him that it was the rule and that everyone on the whole plane was going to sleep~so he went to sleep. Colt not so much.

Again, YIKES. But we did sleep a little on the flight and landed in KC around 5:30. Pretty  sure I was awake for good at 5:09 considering it was 3:15 on my watch in the picture-sleep was minimal! But we survived and the nicest people helped me get to the car. They were really sweet. Colt was not digging the ride in the wagon plan, so they were very helpful. Once loaded up both boys were totally zonked out before we ever even got out if the parking lot, so I figured if I could it was in my best interest to just keep driving. Which I did. I called Isaac to chat several times, and my mom a couple times. Thinking I would listen to scriptures was a horrible idea. That was the longest hardest to stay awake 3 minutes of the drive. But we made it driving straight through pulled in around 9:30 or so and all 3 of us crawled right in bed. Isaac came home, he played with Cannon when he got up. Colt slept until about 3 in the afternoon. Isaac had gone back to work before he ever woke up. But we survived. It was brutal~but doable, I'd totally do it again. (Just not the next day like Cannon asked!)
Since getting back we jumped right in to the routine. I found Cannon a preschool that starts next week that I'm really excited about. And we celebrated our first pay check!!! WAHOOO!!! Money in instead of only money out??? What's that like? We don't know. 

We also got a new couch and love seat!!! That was a little surprise from Grama when we moved...but it took 6 weeks to get delivered. I really like them!

Yesterday Isaac had a health screening, today he found a treadmill he wants to buy. Lol. Love that guy! His plan is to go pick it up tomorrow. He wanted to use little green to pick it up I just said PLEASE CALL YOUR DAD and ask his opinion, he's says "why?" And I just say "he can talk some sense into you when I can't." He claims I just don't like the unconventional, I claim I'm just a sane person and when he wants to pull things like that his sanity is questionable! In the end thankfully he called his dad-who said it probably wouldn't be a good idea to put something that heavy on the roof of little green, and Isaac agreed not to do it. Thank You Ralph! But seriously-I could have told him that, wait!!! I did!!!! Funny guy.
Tonight we actually got a babysitter and went out! That is super rare, but it was something with the faculty from work and Isaac committed to go  so we went. We went out to eat and then to a play on campus which was painful and we left early, tacky I know but we had to get out of there, and it was getting late. The boys did great but if anyone asks can we say Colt was screaming his head off and that's why we had to leave??? its usually true...I'm just kidding and really I hope it wasn't too bad that we left, but we had to! The most interesting part to either one of us was that it was set in Mississippi. 
And tomorrow is General Conference which of course we are very excited about!!!

At the Truman football game Sat night.

Oh Boy, where should I start?... With a selfie that's not very good? I hate selfies-there's a reason that my FB profile is a good 10 years old. Honest. But hey why would I change it, I was skinny, blonde, and I curled my hair once in a while. All things of the past. Ha ha. Anyway I just really wanted to show off the necklace Isaac gave me for my birthday-I love it.

I sent the same pic to my mom to and she wondered if I was showing her a picture of my hair-no I just put it  down for 2 seconds and took the picture, It does look deceptively blonde int the pic-its brown as can be. (I don't know if I written about it on here yet or not but if Colt sees my hair down he looks at me like Mom, what are you doing? and says "UP, UP" motioning for me to put it up) Maybe I should do a little more with myself...someday... But anyway I love the necklace and haven't taken it off! I didn't know Isaac would do so awesome on my birthday present though, so I did the usual thing and did my own thing (Its kind of how things typically work for us. He and the boys went shopping for me at Christmas time -cute- and came home with a can of pepper spray...maybe I'm a brat but it was less than exciting, but know worries, Santa had my back.) Anyway I purchased my own little (or big)  birthday present and bought plane tickets home! It got a little harry not knowing when he was going to defend his dissertation. I was super nervous I wasn't going to get to end up using them but it all worked out  :) and I actually didn't tell Isaac about them until his defense date was set- that was stressfull enough I didn't want to complicate things. But I did get all 3 tickets and the one checked bag for $260 bucks so it was a risk I had to take! So the boys and I are in Utah. I love it! We are happy to live in Kirkville and we felt really good about that job but ahhhh there's just something about coming home :) I love it.
Travelling-its a nightmare

Being here-worth it.
Here they are on the plane.

We got in WAY LATE Tuesday night (part of flying when the tickets are cheap) But boy was I in for a surprise the next morning. My incredibly talented and amazing mom made this unbelievable quilt that commemorates our 3 years in MS! It is SO COOL the picture totally doesn't do it justice (but I took pictures of each individual block and hope to make a collage that does a better job of capturing all the detail AND significance!!!) We had talked about trading quilt blocks when we moved...I made two then life got in the way and she just kept going --and while technically I'd seen the first couple I TOTALLY forgot about it and she managed to keep it secret, for 3 years!!! So impressive! (She confessed to a lot of little white lies to haha) it has almost every significant event though!! From when we flew away until Isaac's finishing his degree-just last week, and everything in between, the flood in 2012, the different Halloween costumes, all the trips home, the tornado...it is incredible!!

The boys have been a little disappointed the cousins don't live here -they were getting used to 24hr play- but Kami and the girls came down Wed for a few minutes and the kids had a blast!!!

Oh these boys and the dogs. They're in heaven. Actually tonight Chip is out at the ranch and Colton is currently sleeping on his bed "to keep the dogs company" (which is actually an upgrade from the laying on the floor with them on the rugs telling me that's where he wanted to go night night)

I'm not a soda drinker, but I've always loved sip of my dad's pepsi-its just the best, and apparently its hereditary :)

We've been up to see Poppa Great a few times, and of course hooked him up with some Hershey Kisses (Its kind of the job we give ourselves-the first day I asked him how his stash was and he said he'd been "Outta those for a long time") He's usually pretty sharp when we are there. The first night when we stopped by was the first time I'd seen him just kind of not with it, he asked if we'd got to see Chip at all but Chip was sitting right there 2 feet away from him. But the next time we went he was sharp as a could be! Danged old age. Or maybe the chocolate helped ;)

Last week I FINALLY posted pictures from Kanaraville Falls and today we got to meet up with Grandma Ison and Aunt Marjorie and do it again!! It's a really pretty hike! We went pretty much at Colt's pace, (he wanted to pick up rocks and sticks and throw them every two seconds) so it took a while and Cannon wasn't about to go without a swimming suit because there was water. Of course if Cannon had to have a swimming suit-so did Colton and I didn't pack swimming suits (gasp-I know-don't tell Isaac) so the boys are rock'n the suits I left at my mom's house not last summer but the one before. Colts said size 3-6 months and Cannon's said 12-18! Good thing he's a skinny little twerp!

After our hike we headed over to the ranch and the boys got to ride Monty! They were loving life. We had one little scare but luckily Grampa has some quick reflexes. JK's dumb horse got messing around and kinda spooked Monty well he pretty much jumped out from under Cannon but Grampa felt the horse jump and turned and caught Cannon mid fall. It was a nice catch, I was grateful!! Cann was a little shook up but he was fine, not hurt at all so I told him he had to get back on, he wasn't going for it but I wasn't backing down I said he had to get back on either with me or by himself, he chose by himself and did fine, settled right down. After Colt had another turn Cannon was begging to go again so that was great.

Monty's our favorite but the boys were pretty cute standing in the back of the truck talking to the other horses too.

We hit Marv's and then topped the day off with Kami and the girls stopping by. Holy Cow I'm tired. We shove a lot of fun into the days though! There are so many details and stories that are missing but oh well. At least I got post done.