Yikes! This week!!

Saturday was a classic Ison disaster!

Isaac Cannon and Colton took off Saturday morning (They were going to be gone before 8:00 for sure… So around 8:30…) They headed to someplace 4 hours and 15 min away south of St. Louis somewhere and to get another kid horse from a horse rescue ranch. Addi wanted to go so bad but they were able to sneak away—thank goodness! 

They didn’t get back until 9:30
AND…they came home empty handed! 

Do you think he might take it as a sign…no chance! 

I’m the one that said prayers Friday night and I prayed they get the right horse… When they came up with none, I figured the heavens are open!

There was one they kind of liked, but it cribbed. (No way—or we’d still have moose) but supposedly the cribbing collar works on him. And it only had one eye. Oh and there was no chance it was loading in our little trailer.  The lady has never texted him back since Saturday, but I think he’s still at least interested in it. (I am not) I’m not sure if she is interested in selling it to him. I don’t know it was weird not the horse just the whole horse rescue place and really none of the ones that were kid horses had been ridden…who knows.

Then it was Sunday. Pretty regular, fast Sunday, Tanner looks down at the bread on the sacrament tray (whole wheat ultra healthy vegan whatever) turns up his nose and says “I guess I’ll eat it-cuz I’m super hungry” I know I shouldn’t document that-it’s not the purpose or the point but it was hilarious and …maybe we should volunteer to bring the bread sometimes.  

I knew Cannon wasn’t feeling very good when he slept all Sunday afternoon, but he stayed home sick on Monday. Addi was sick Tuesday.  Wednesday they  were all home because it was an “erratic weather” day… just a little snow but all day long and the wind was whipping so we hunkered down. And Thursday Seth should’ve stayed home, but I decided he was fine and sent him anyways… But he came home and had a big old nap after school, whoops! 

And now we’re on to spring break… sweet

Let’s see what stories the pics tell:

Oh I let these guys waste some of their money that was burning a whole in their pockets while the others were in the horse hunt. Wasted…definitely… but they had a ton of fun and when Tanner was having a meltdown I had to remind him that all the fuel they burned driving was also wasted (sheesh) 

They did have a lot of fun before they broke…I do think that’s worth something…(even if it was just my sanity) 

Addster and I went to the cemetery to see if anything was coming up. Not much. Rizzy’s tulips in front of our house are about 3 inches high—not over there. Add wanted to ride bikes there…we settled on riding once we got there. 

Her and Seth (and I) did get out in a little ride after school one day…and had to stop and pet Ray’s turkeys. 



Tanner and Colt’s school had a kindness challenge this week, I loved them doing extra, kind, things. 

We also got into my collection of  Max Lucado children’s books this week, I really enjoyed reading them to the kids and they loved them. 

Lego ships! This one was pretty impressive with all its moving parts.

We made Bro Speaks a birthday cake this week (and us some choc muffins out of it.) 

We played (and fought) and jumped around in the jumphouse on that cold windy everyone was home day. 

Cute little Addi bring’n dad an apple (she loves that apron because of the pocket) 

Decent weather…well almost—time to get work’n on dad’s building! 

Of course they’re playing on this—I’m sure they could sense me wanting to get rid of it! 

And I wish this wasn’t such a common scene (sigh) 

Oh and today was the Read-a-thon at the elementary but because Colt is a mentor he got to pick a couple stories and read to a 3rd grade class—Tanners was one of the classes. Tonight they told us Tan’s class tagged him with a new nickname “Taller Tanner” I think it’s kinda cute but…poor Colt he’s in Cannon’s shadow at school and then instead of Tanner being in his it’s the other way around. Oh well—I don’t think he’s a kid that it will really bother. Thankfully. 

Bout it.  

https://youtu.be/i-ba66EzisU?si=eK6ZZcBhUP717y3h

Seth is 6…that blows my mind!

Basketball is over! Thank goodness! I do like coaching but let’s just be honest and admit it doesn’t bring out the best in me. 😏

I can’t remember what we did Saturday morning, but Tanner went to a birthday party Saturday afternoon and Isaac and Cannon went and watched the Truman game or at least part of it and then when it was time to go to basketball, Tanner and I and the younger two went up to Schuyler  County (the tablet in hand so Paw Patrol could babysit) while  Isaac, Colt and Cannon headed south to the stake priesthood meeting. 

They beat us home. 

Somehow, we drew the very last game of the whole winter basketball league season. Great. We won the first game but I really only remember much about the second one. We traded buckets the first few minutes and then we kinda let them run away with it to where it was like 12 to 4 or something like that… slowly be crawled back into the game. I think it was 12 to 12 and then 14 to 14. I hate the running clock but all season long-We’ve had a running clock no matter what! If we would’ve had a running clock we would’ve ended in a tie and it would’ve saved a lot of emotional anguish 😩. AND It also would’ve changed when I used my single time out…🤯 Maybe you can tell I’m still a little bitter about it… But it is over-hopefully we learn from it, it’s good for the boys to see those close game situations. I would’ve liked for our last two shot attempts, not to have been three-pointers!!!🤯🤯🤯 Tann shot one thinking the time was running out, but there were still 27 seconds left… (and we were in the gym where you actually can see the clock…but I guess they’re not used to that…I think being in that gym is why the score table girl kept stopping the clock too)  They ended up getting a bucket with about 17 seconds left and a foul cuz we gave up a million offensive rebounds down there. Oh and an injury didn’t help me either—because it  stopped the clock and I had to sub and in hindsight I subbed in the kid that plays in the post but I probably should’ve put the other kid in—even if it wasn’t his position😬. Back to the clock-last time we played up there we wasted 2 minutes of game time at the end of the game on a kid fumbling around trying to tie his shoe) anyway we rebounded the free-throw and never got a shot off, even though we had the ball 9 seconds and somebody just standing alone under the basket…

So maybe I need to be done with basketball…At least for this go around. 

Oh and I had lots of sisters at the game I could give my phone to for pics but…I didn’t want any more pics from 18 miles away of the back of peoples head…

Presumably stake priesthood meeting was good although I really only heard about the donuts and hot chocolate. 

Monday fun…she says it’s Sethy’s raccoon gun

Colt…leave your scriptures in the car at your own risk! Addi—read’m up!! 

We had horrible weather with highs in the single digits last week but this week 50’s!!! We’ll take it!!! Seth wanted to walk up the driveway after school. 

A little hockey on the melting pool-you bet! 

And Wednesday we had a birthday cake project! Seth (I’m sure with visions of building with marshmallows) decided he wanted a temple cake…

I wanted him to get go try but anticipating the disaster…I built a back up plan gingerbread house style. 

His bottom layer was great but when he started to go up…his walls were tipping like crazy. So we decided that could be the visitors center that is under construction in Nauvoo right now and he came and worked on the gingerbread house of God. 



Look how cute—I feel like I could sent this pic to the Friend Magazine😉

(The other cool thing about this is he’s wearing his “focused” shirt…the longitude and latitude coordinates above the line -that you can’t really see but they are there- are the coordinates for the Nauvoo Temple♥️) 


Then we added the visitor center—which in real life is front left corner but…we put it where it would fit. 

Birthday!!!!

So many people (well church friends anyway) home school around here but seriously…Mrs Feeney can love (and teach) my kids better than I can during the days! That’s been the case with multiple teachers (I admit, I can think of a few exceptions but overall!!!!!) I’m thankful for great teachers and at least for now I’m happy to keep sending them to school! 

Look at these two—he adores her and she loves him right back!! 

We had a little wood stacking project, trying to clean off Isaac‘s trailer and so we were put in the rest of the firewood out in the barn. Enzo had to be right up in our grill the whole time. Which Addi of course loved! Me, well… Check the scowl. I guess we know where Tanner gets it. 





Brothers helping build those birthday Lego sets. That’s actually what they’re doing right now too. 

I found this little orange cook this morning, she really wanted me to turn it on…I declined! 

They are talking about going to get another kid horse tomorrow…

Have mercy! 

Whatever keeps them happy I guess…

2 months later I finally made a video…
https://youtu.be/yxQI-CsTC54?si=KFB8J0vxYip6v9m3

I’m so glad he’s as old (and wise😉) as me again. I’ve been waiting for him to catch up since September! 

  

We hate the cold! Why do we live here? 

Hmmm

Saturday I put him to work on my printer…should’ve ask’d him months ago! It was kind of a pain—but he got it put back together. (I had channeled my Ison and tore it apart…and even got it to work again with the help of YouTube but I had no chance on back together.) 

Other Saturday shenanigans included Cannon trying to “dunk” on his siblings. And an orbi war…(that Isaac got in on too) 



Seth got his present from the primary cuz his birthday is in February—socks and he got to pick them! 🤣

Seth’s new hiding place. 

Monday monopoly 

Tuesday (school canceled again) we busted out Ticket to Ride I bought it at Christmas time…it was pretty fun. 

Wednesday was a late start but they finally went to school and everyone except Cannon finally got those Valentine parties in! Too bad you can’t really see Seth’s cute red apron!  

Yesterday was another late start and my friend Salwa and I got up at 4:00 on headed to Columbia at 4:30 got there just after 6:00 visited with our friend in the hospital and we’re back by 9:00! Isaac was just heading out the door with the boys to take them to school but Seth wanted me to so I did! 

Thankfully our friend is home now but I’m glad we went! 

It was a busy day though-that basketball practice after (you better believe I ordered pizza for dinner) and then a baby shower for a gal in the ward that night! Yikes…safe to say I didn’t do as much today. 

But we “celebrated” with a dinner I know Isaac likes but I don’t make a ton and cake…and he got work pants and gloves…if he wants something else I’m sure he’ll go buy it😉! 

Oh and I haven’t got things saved yet but I should be back in the video business soon because I bought a new storage device! 👍🏻

Happy Valentines Day

I guess this means we’re half way through February—that’s kinda crazy! 

Cann played basketball in Jeff’s City last week. If I would have read the bracket closer I would have known I could take him but instead I just sent him with the Farwells. He had a BLAST and they won 2 of the 3 games so they got medals…whatever. He was gone extra long because Luke’s sister also had evening games. Here, his siblings missed him like crazy! (I don’t think it was mutual😏) 

Tanner had afternoon games that I had to be here to coach so that’s why I didn’t take Cann but also Isaac still wasn’t 100% and that’s just tough on the rest of the kids. Anyway we debated whether Isaac should go and ultimately just Tanner and I went to his games. I handed my phone to one of the sisters that has taken pics for me before but…I don’t know—I guess I thought she’d sit on the front row or something. She brought my phone back after the first game and I was like “oh I just want pics…if you don’t want to take them will you hand it to someone else?” So she kept it…and I ended up with 30 pictures of the back of her dad’s head! 

…

They mostly look like the one in the corner! I only had 2 pics  that even had Tanner in at all. 

Oh well beggars can’t be choosers. 

You can see he tried to just shoot out of the trap…if he doesn’t quit dribbling into traps I’m going to go crazy! There  were 3 guys on him…somebody’s open! 

Sunday smiles! 

Colt was smiling AFTER-church cuz he had to give a talk but he did a great job. 

Stirring with both hands! 

I wanted to make valentine cookies—she wanted to make muffins…we settled on both😉

And she’s pretty proud of herself—getting to whatever she wants that I used to be able to hide on the fridge. 

And then it was valentines box making time. Colt was supposed to have his there by the 11th! So he shrugged and said he’d take one of the old monkey boxes. And there was one in the back of their closet. Perfect! 

But Seth wanted and airplane…I can’t say I did my best—but I did my ok we can pull this off…and Tanner wanted a helicopter. I was just shaking my head when super dad said “I can help him make a helicopter!” 

So they started with a sketch…





Seth’s pics are kinda in between Tan’s but the best/worst part was the morning I was making lunches and I grabbed Seth’s lunch box and a stack of papers out of his backpack and there was the note that said the Art teacher made bags with all the kids so you don’t need to make a valentines box. 

Oh. Great. 

At least me helping Seth put Isaac on the helicopter project because I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have pulled that off. 

And it got pretty late (like probably after 10:00…and this after we’d stayed up the night before and watched the Chiefs get their tails kicked in the Super Bowl so two late nights in a row) 

But they did it! 

Even though they still haven’t cut a hole in it for the valentines. 

Wednesday it was supposed to snow so we pretty much knew they’d cancel school. All the valentines parties were scheduled for Thursday because today (Friday) was a professional development day…and Monday is just off??? But they canceled Thursday too (Do our kids even go to school?) and had them do those AMI packets…so whatever. 6 day weekend. 

It’s just so dang cold we hunker down and don’t do much…

They love it when Cann plays legos with them. Tanner/Cannon bought a new set. 

We did make cookies eventually 



Tuesday evening was Tanners music program and art show. That school is just not set up for performances…but they still try to have them. 

Tan did good. He was a little ornery (ok that’s putting it mildly-he was rip’n mad and throwing a fit) that he had to go at all -he had a speaking part we couldn’t just ditch it- but  check it out, he got it done and I even caught him smiling! 

As he was grumbling about having to go back to school I just told him to ask the principal to let him out an hour early the next time he was going to have to go back for an hour-he wouldn’t do it-and really it just made him more mad but little did he know he would have to go back for a week!! 

It was a good trade Tan! 

Anyway 

Look at these smiles…I wish I saw them when it wasn’t a screen!!

Somebody who gave us hand me downs had cute Valentine’s Day clothes…good thing it’s red or I never would’ve got her to wear it. And Grama was going to hook them up with a treat box but her order got canceled so these guys got to pick their own treats/toys. 

They had a blast. 

Well Cann didn’t come because he is embarrassed of how they act in the store. Sometimes I am too but I was annoyed he wouldn’t come…I just really think he should love hanging out with our family…but he just doesn’t. At least not all the time…hopefully some times 🤞🏻… maybe I’m dreaming. And he’s only 13 we have more teenage years ahead. 😊 And really he probably just wanted to pocket his money anyway. Which is fine. 

My shoppers…they were mostly good in the store. 

Seth told me it was the best valentines of his life. 

Sweet! Maybe mine too! Isaac went to the grocery store for me yesterday to get milk and bread while I was at basketball and he came home with some chocolate cookies-and a chocolate bar. That was a great start-And tonight he took us all out for Mexican so I didn’t have to cook or clean up at all! It was fantastic—and it was delicious! I’ll take it!!

I think that’s about it.