TANNER IS 2!!!

Tanner turned 2 this week. How do long days turn into such lightening quick years? Don't blink. I sure love this little guy. He's a pistol! A basketball playing motorcycle and tractor loving Poppa treat eating Pistol. And it terms of last weeks post--I love the heck out of him. Maybe he has me wrapped around his little finger too! We started out his birthday morning with a Poppa treat because Tuesday night I decided to jump in last minute on my friends photography class. These were my low aperture (blurred background) "homework" and I knew I could get him to sit there for the price of a Poppa treat. --the tears were because Colt tried to help him unwrap it...oh brother--

Birthday pics to boot right? wrong. Wrong. Oh boy do I have a lot to learn. There's a reason I always turn my camera to Auto--or use my phone!! But it been fun trying to learn. And Tann's obviously not always so amused with having to be the model. haha. Sorry buddy. If that grin wasn't so cute I might let ya off the hook. 

Ok but I'm WAY ahead of myself. This week--there's no way to remember everything so I'll just do the best I can. Saturday night the I got everything all clean up and Grama's Easter goodies set out. Then headed for bed! The Easter bunny comes to our house on Saturday and we try our best to keep our focus on the Savior on Sunday. Last year he came in the middle of the day-this year he just set stuff out by Grama's stuff. Just seemed easiest. Cannon's starting to pick up on inconsistencies. Oh well. It was a fun day though.

 

Tanner was struggling to share--no matter who's stuffed animal it really was. He was all over the extra treats around the house though, and straight sugar (from a spilled pixie stick type thing) Sure mom, I just lick that up. Gross. The kids did pretty good playing conference bingo. Actually they consistently did awesome for about one hour of each session but then they were done. Too bad the sessions last 2 hours...

 

We loved participating in the solemn assembly. What a cool and sacred experience to sustain the prophet of God! Sustaining Elder Gong and Elder Soares was also really cool--Cannon already loves Elder Soares because he's from Brazil and Isaac served there. He said "I think he's going to be one of my new favorites!" And Isaac and I got to shake hand andvisit briefly with Elder Gong after he came to our stake conference when we lived in Ivins. We were just helping put away chairs and he came up to us. Pretty cool! 

Sometime Saturday Isaac asked me if there was a setting on the oven where just the top turned on. Not having ANY idea what he was up to, I said "Yeah, that's what broil does." Well...a few hours later he tried to use it. He must not have realized as he was turning it past the 450 degrees mark and on up to Broil that it was going to get pretty darn hot. He then proceed to put this part of the motorcycle in it. We're lucky we didn't have a bigger disaster. All that happened was he stunk up the house. Well and ruined this piece. He wanted to warm it up so he could peal the stickers off it...instead I guess we'll just buy new ones. I didn't have my phone but I grabbed his and snapped this. Then sent it to myself. His comment was "We don't have document EVERYTHING." I laughed and said "Yeah but I'm not missing this."

 

Sunday the boys were a little disappointed the Easter Bunny didn't come back and give them what they had actually requested.  (The Easter Bunny doesn't take request around here-just brings "Something he knows they'll like.") They made they're own fun by talking Isaac into hiding a few eggs for them to hunt down stairs. I totally missed the picture of all of them marching in a row holding their little baskets. I counted it as quality family fun. Tanner didn't last long but of course he was game for tagging his brothers along to start. I think they had fun.  And we got 6 inches of Snow. Brrr. For Easter--in April! Brrr its too dang cold here.

 

Monday I can't even remember but Tuesday was a pretty big day. We bought a house. WHAT??? True story. We bought hundred year old farm house that we'd only seen in the dark by flashlight. OH MY. But we're kind excited about it. So adventure looms...I did marry Isaac.
Of course theres a story. Oh actually if your a regular at reading the blog its the very house I asked Isaac on his birthday if he was going to buy, but he didn't. Now we did.
It was a foreclosure. So that right there tells you we have some work to do, right? Anyway, its just outside of town on 5 acres. Isaac had been eyeing it for a while. But we only had the following 4 pictures to look at.

 

 

Uhh...that's not a lot to go on. But Isaac had been out there a few times, so he'd seen more. He even took his dad out there when he was here. Well, last Friday I said "Lets just go look" (more with the intent of eliminating it for good that being interested) And as we were driving out there Tanner Mooed and said "Cow" with delight the whole drive and I was just thinking no way no way no way. Then we turn on to the dirt road. No way no way. Then as we get close Isaac sees a car there and gets all excited "I'm going to talk to them" I shrug. (And text my best friend Cassie rolling eye emoji's)  He scares the lady not expecting anyone TO DEATH then chats with her for a while. Then he came to the car stuck his head in and said "Get out here, quick" I did but it was just kind of a way of him solidifying hey look I'm a nice guy-here's my wife, my kids are in the car...etc. So he didn't seem like a creeper. Anyway she let us look through the old farm house. But the power was off. It was her husbands, he passed away 5 years ago and slowly she just ended up losing it. It was listed on the auction site as 3 bed 1 bath but when we walked through it was actually 4 bed 3 bath. And it was like hmm I actually feel fine about it. So Friday we looked at it. The auction was Tuesday and we went for it! (And I might add we prayed pretty hard about it over the course of those few short days.) Isaac was SO tempted to try and go below the reserve price because we know its been up for auction and not sold for months, but we also new someone else wanted to go look at it and with the added information we had of extra bathrooms and such, we have to move from here anyway, we didn't want to mess around. Oh I forgot the lady ended up messaging me on Facebook and telling me that a young family is just what the house needed and she felt good about it, so that was cool. I of course didn't find the message until Isaac had called and touched base with her and she told him about it so I went looking for it. But anyway, we will lose a lot of space as far as living room/kitchen but we feel like for all that room for the boys to roam around it was worth it. Dream home? NEVER! But a good little place for our family, for right now? We think so!...WHEN we get it fixed up. Its a project.
Isaac is in heaven.
So are the boys.
SO what more could I ask for?

Oh wait there's more, the lady was heartbroken about not know what she was going to do with her big Newfoundland dog...you see where this is going right???
Oh My! But I agreed to it because Isaac told me that dog would keep all snakes and anything else out of that yard. And of course I was terrified of it at first its beastly huge and ran right up to the van but when I did get out it like it just looked at me and then walked away. He really does kind of guard the perimeter of the area, we were out there yesterday and he perked all up--then ran 3 random other dogs off. I have 4 little boys (one of them is 36) that are over the moon excited! I have been perfectly clear that it is Ms Erin's dog and it can stay at our house. Cannon says with delight "We're renting the dog and we don't have to pay!!!"
I remains to be seen how this will all turn out.
I'm serious though- not our dog, Erin's dog!...now if she's interested in a trade...hahaha

 

 

Tuesday was pretty high stress though--the auction ended while Isaac was teaching class so I was watching it...And just like that we bought a house. A farmhouse no less. Time will tell...

I don't remember Wednesday but we fed the missionaries and got started on Tanner's birthday a little early with Cake. Thursday were at it for sure!

Thursday we got to go back out and actually see the house in the light. Isaac asked if I had buyers remorse. I answered NO-and that I think we paid a fair price and that we have A LOT of work to do.

I took a ton of pictures of inside and such but...there's just a lot of her stuff still there so...we'll go for before and after shots AFTER its cleaned out. I also took tons of pics of Tanner with my good camera while we were out there practicing for my class...oh boy. When I mess with the camera settings its pretty much a disaster! (I posted the one already--yikes) But I'm learning, hopefully it will get better! That afternoon we went swimming at Bro Williams pool for Tann's birthday. I left my phone home so not one single picture. And that night we had pizza and the tractor cake. It was a good day.  We are so glad Tanner is in our family--it was fun to celebrate!

 

 

I'm no cake artist but they don't seem to mind. 

Then presents.

Today seemed uneventful but that is ok because we wrapped up a VERY eventful week.
Stay Tuned...you know there's all kinds of stories just around the corner!

"I love the heck out of ya"

So Isaac has always been good to say "I love you" but sometimes he says "I love the heck out've ya" I kinda just usually roll my eyes or whatever, well, the other day I spit it back at him--and kind of smiled. Its really fun to say, and its true. I love the heck out've him.

...and who else could make that ugly tie look good? My mom gave him and the boys Easter ties but his came in a 4 pack-she figured what the heck, he'll end up wearing them. When I opened the box the one she specifically picked for Easter was really sharp but when I saw the brown and gold I thought bleh! Oh course its the first one he picked to wear but, by George, he looks good.
So anyway...
Saturday we had Poppa treats (Hershey Kisses) at some point. Oh boy it was pure delight for Tan Man, I just kept taking pictures because he was so funny.

Isaac had the Truman Showcase and some meetings down at the church but we met him at the school art show in between. Cann is a good little artist.

Grama hooked them up with an Easter loot--treats and ties, that was last week and it just keeps coming,  more this weekend. We are so spoiled.

Then just playing.

This week was a dang lot of cleaning and taking pictures of this house. I took a lot of stuff off the walls, its kinda weird but it makes it feel more like we really are moving.

Check up at the dentist. Colt didn't have any cavities-one little spot we're going to keep our eye on but Cannon said "What?!?! Colt eats tons of treats!" True but if he got his dads teeth that would be AWESOME!

 

And look at these next two of Tan, better hope you're on the dad's teeth team too buddy. (He is seriously the cutest and funniest little shopper. He just throws stuff in, like the basket is his hoop.

Thursday was no school, that's tough on working parents but we got to have Cannon's best buddy from school Ethan over. We had a pretty massive fort. I loved this pic because Cannon is looking down at Colt peaking up through and smiling. It just seems like the moments of Cann smiling at something Colt does are too few and far between but I like it when I see it--and I have evidence.

More Easter goodies from Grama. The other grandkids were making race cars when everyone got together from Grampa Chip's birthday, so we participated from 1400 miles away. And the bottom right pic--grama surprises, that came last night. SO FUN. But we had more friends over today while school was out so after I found them last night, I hid them in the Garage and I will re-set them out tonight.  (She put Mrs. Hardee up to being the Easter Bunny, how cute is that? I text Dorothy and told her I think I believe in the Easter Bunny!)

Both times we had friends over we busted out the bounce house. Too cold for outside...we had to pull out all the stops!

But I truthfully I don't have a single pic from today, holy cow, its been a busy one. The Bishopric put themselves in charge of the ward activity.  (Because Isaac had volunteered the High Priests when he was the HP Grouop leader...but he knew he was going to be called as bishop so he didn't want to feel like he dumped it on them.) Anyway...Holy cow. I make more work for myself, I freely admit that, but it was a ton of work. I think I've been getting ready since Wednesday. I made the frosting and the cookies for the "cake decorating station" ...and ok that doesn't sound like much but I was also in charge of the screen printing station. (I thought it was silly but it turned out great-that a win for Isaac) and I made soup and cinnamon rolls for it. Ok it doesn't sound like 3 days worth of stress but trying to keep the house clean (showed it once) and kid entertained-it wasn't picnic. But it was worth it, I think it turned out nice.
What else? We had a nice couple stay with a few nights, they will be students here next year so we'll get to know them. But they were great, really the perfect house guests. They called Isaac and after they were best friends and he'd talked to them for 45 min I said "Tell'm they can stay here if they want." (Totally not why they called) but they took us up on it turned out great.
I looked at some friend in our wards house Monday, I really liked it but...and there's a lot of good things but I think we kind of want to be as cheap as possible. So now we're eying foreclosures again. Who knows. Time will tell. He actually might have found one I like the price:potential ratio...we'll see! Of course I'll let ya know next week if we buy a house. Ha.
I don't know what else, its bedtime!
Oh yeah this week Tanner started mimicking "ok" its pretty cute. And we're excited for Conference. 

Bout it.

Saturday was a little wiffle ball at the church. I got a good chuckle out of Colt "helping" Tanner...we still have to help Colt some of the time. Tanner mostly wanted to play "Hoop Hoop Hoop" but after a few minutes of watching his brothers hit the ball then run around he decided...ok maybe this is a game and fun too. His little toddler run is the cutest! Cannon's still the fastest but Colt's not too shabby when Cannon's chasing him. They got worn out so...mission accomplished.

Saturday night Cannon was biting on a pillow (??? I don't know, I think they were playing puppy or something) At any rate, Colt yanked on it and that was about it for Cann's other front tooth. He had to work a little to get it the rest of the way out but not much. Then here's his request for the tooth fairy.

Dream on kid. He got 20 nickles. The only other thing I remember from Saturday was just kind-of puttering around getting ready for Primary. I didn't have sharing time, but I had goodies for the kids (and teachers) and thank you notes for my presidency and such. Sunday in sacrament meeting we were released. I knew it was coming. I'd known since I read the letter from the First Presidency to President Church approving the referral that Isaac be called as bishop. So no surprises and obviously Isaac was able to keep be in the loop as to when it would happen but Holy Cow, it was tough. Its all I've done in Kirksville. I just kept thinking that I should be doing cartwheels but instead found my eyes sweating. Hmm. Oh well. And the kids were so dang extra sweet. The new president is awesome and will be fantastic!!! (she's in the the back right, long dark hair holding the little blonde headed boy) ...I told the bishop I'm going to weasel my way back into primary somehow. I really do love it and these people...

Primary always needs teachers! They'll take me back! One of my favorite thing was Jasper (white shirt at tie just to the left of Cann Man up there) turned around in sacrament meeting -I was sitting right behind him- and said "What? You quit?" I said "No way man, I got fired." But it just kind of a cute exchange that made me feel like the kids loved me and wanted me there but...of course, with few exceptions all callings end. So we move on.
Monday's big news was Cannon signed up for Baseball. I said maybe Grampa would have to make the trek out to watch one of his games, to which he replied "Or he can watch me on TV mom." I chuckled and said that I might have to video some and he said "Mom, that would be way too long of a video." So apparently we signed up for the big leagues. Haha.
I don't know when I took the picture below but I'll tell you what, I'm way more on board with the kids building forts out of the couch cushions that are down stairs than upstairs...this show you how much my opinion matters...

Colt kept saying "Take a picture take a picture" I said "You know dad hates it when you climb on the back of the couch, why would I take a picture?" To which little stinker said "Mom!...send it to Grama, not dad!" Haha, I did! And told both Grama and Dad about it.
TanTan has spring fever something fierce! Now if we could just get spring to show up!

Today we watched Adalyn, Colt always has a good time playing with her. Tanner was cramping their style until they started playing in his crib. That many balls is totally his happy place. Eventually it turned into a fort too. 

 

We had our friends the Alder's over for dinner tonight--they invited us but we said "No way--come this way!" It was good to visit and the kids had a blast. We also made cinnamon rolls tonight because I need to make some next Friday for the soup and cinnamon rolls talent show shin dig down at the church and I'm just out of practice. Actually I'm glad a practiced. Tanner seemed to thing the middles were alright. Hmm 

Oh and I guess there's a house update. We're not so interested in this one anymore (after getting the home inspection report back) but that means she is going to put it on the market. The realtor came over today. They've got to take pictures and stuff so I feel like I have a lot of cleaning up to do--and getting LOTS of things off the walls. Family pics of course- but even our pictures of the Savior. I wouldn't want someone to look at it on zillow and recognize the LDS art and think it was a member selling it because...I dunno I just thing that could create a false expectation and...there's a reason (or 50 pages of reasons) we don't want it.
Anyway...another night...and its late.