He May Not Survive!

I don't know if it's just in his nature, or if he is not getting enough attention, but Jason is my mess-maker. The above photo shows the accused covered in peanut butter when he was only about eighteen months old. I had posted about this when it happened, but if you cannot remember, he had taken advantage of the fact that I was busy with baby Kinsey at that time.

He has just been potty trained, and is able to go to the bathroom all by himself. Unfortunately, sometimes I don't go into the bathroom with him and, well, he gets into trouble. He has emptied bottles of BRAND NEW shampoo and conditioner all over the bathroom floor and toilet, emptied! I only buy either Suave or V05, whichever is 99 cents that day, but it still burns me up!

It always gets just a little bit too quiet whenever he goes to the toilet alone and on one such occasion this is what I found; Jason covered in my foundation cream and said cream smeared all over the door and floor. What am I supposed to do with him?! I still have not been able to get the foundation off of the door...

Last night, when I realized he had been MIA, and it had been too quiet for too long, I go into the bathroom to find this. A BRAND NEW bottle of hubby's shave cream on the floor! That's Jason's potty in the background, an YES that pile of shave cream is nearly as big as the potty! Again, I buy the Barbasol brand that is only $1.67 at Macey's, but hubby had to dry shave the next morning, and that's just not fair!

Here is the one that makes me the most upset. Both Erica and Natty got nail polish, and Erica got some acrylic paints for Christmas. They really didn't grasp the whole idea of putting their things away, where Jason COULD NOT get to them, until this. He had previously gotten into the nail polish and painted his toe and finger nails, as well as his face, arms, legs and belly. And I would get after him for getting into it, and get after the girls even more for having it accessible to him. Well, again, I was busy with the older kids and their homeschooling assignments, and it was just way too quiet. I open the girls door to see...

THIS!!!

Yep, that's right! Acrylic paint all over the carpet! And, yes, that IS a Sharpie marker WITHOUT a lid.

Other messes I have found:

-Jason and Kinsey with only diapers on, flour all over the kitchen floor and themselves, and they were LICKING THE FLOUR OFF THE FLOOR!

-Erica's lotion all over the closet walls.

-Jason and Kinsey covered in Vaseline and said Vaseline all over MY CURTAINS!

-A box of dry macaroni and cheese (with cheese powder) and a box of cherry Jello mixed together in Jason's play grill. I guess he was trying to make himself lunch.

-An entire box of Cheerios dumped onto the floor and smashed into Cheerio flour.

-Halloween make-up all over Jason, the bathroom counter and the mirror.

So, friends and family, do you understand why he may not survive? I try to laugh about it, and maybe I will in the future, but I have a permanent scowl right now. I think he's cute enough to survive, and he makes us laugh so hard with other things he does, so....

Christmas!

This Christmas was full of surprises, and it started Dec. 20th. It is turning into a tradition for Mom to have a party for the grandkids on the Sunday before Christmas, and she had been very busy...and sneaky!! Grandma Gull had saved all of Grandpa's jeans, and Mom found out. She took all of the jeans, adn made blankets! Now, this wasn't just one blanket, or five....But, ELEVEN!! She made one each for herself, Dad, my three brothers and me, her three brothers, and Grandma! Here is how mine turned out!

Each blanket had a theme. Mine was bees, like 'busy as a bee', Cory's was music, Mike's was golf, Tyler's was cowboyish, Mom's was cabin, and Dad's was all five. I don't know what her brother's or Grandma's themes were. This was the best gift I got!

She also put some of the students she works with and Kay Thomas-Perkins to work. They made really cute fleece blankets, and stockings for each of the NINE grandkids! She is such a sneak-but!

Here's Daniel's stuff..his blanket theme was fishing.

Erica's theme was bees.

Here are Natty's 'weiner dog' jammies. Her blanket theme was bees too.

Jason's theme was cars.

Each of the grandkids had an opportunity to show off their talents too. Here are Natty and Shug singing a song they learned in Primary.

Kinsey's theme was turtles.

Little Lydia did a 'butt dance"

Daniel and Erica did a goofy duet.

The girls sang a song with Grandpa.

The boys sang with Grandpa too. Thanks, Mom and Dad for such a fun evening!











Christmas morning was fun too. Everyone got some cool gifts and was happy.

Yeah...Guitar Hero!!

Kinsey was not impressed with waking up at 5:30 a.m.!

Daniel and Jason have fun fighting with their Nerf swords.

Erica was happy with her Caboodle full of supplies to give manicures and pedicures!

Jason always is so happy with whatever he gets. This is his expression when he opened a hat and mittens!

Here he is excited to get some Spiderman bouncy balls!

Natty was so suprised with her FurReal Friends Chipmunk. Santa was lucky to get the last one anywhere!

My Beautiful Dancing Girls

Our "big" girls recently performed at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, and the Festival of Trees in Sandy. They have had such a fun time with dance, and love their teacher, Megan. Megan is only 14 years old, and has been teaching dance since she was 11! They danced to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", "Can You Move it Like This", and "Joy to the World". They did a wonderful job, and I couldn't be happier having such beautiful girls!

This is the outfit for "Rockin'"
Blurry...Daniel was acting as "paparatzi"(that's probably spelled wrong, and I don't care!)

Another blurry one...That's Natty with her legs sticking straight out! I could never accomplish that in all of the 11 years of dance I took!

This is their ballet costume; they are dancing to "Joy to the World" Erica's on the left, Natty on the right. This is at Festival of Trees. They were supposed to dance to "Rockin" as well, but the music didn't cooperate.

Ni hablar.

Better Late Than Never Halloween Pics!

I'm not doing a very good job of blogging at all!!! I still want to post my pics of the kids, pumpkins, costumes and cupcakes! They all had a fun time carving the jack-o-lanterns and the three oldest did all of the work on their own!!! I helped Jason with his batman one.

We had a great party at Mom and Dad's on Halloween afternoon, and the kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treating. Daniel went on his own with his friends, and the girls helped me with the little ones.

All of the grandkids loved playing in the leaves at Grandma's and Grandpa's house!

I made some super cool cupcakes. Kinsey would pick the bugs off, throw them away, then eat the cupcakes. She does not like bugs!

Lydia Jean Mendenhall

My new niece is here! Tyler and Amanda are the proud parents of LYDIA JEAN MENDENHALL, born Thursday, 6 August 2009. She weighed a hefty 9lbs. 1oz. and was 20 1/2 in. long!!! And, she is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! (My biggest baby was Erica weighing 6 lbs. 13 oz.!) I could have stayed all day long just holding her and looking into her perfect face!
Erica and I were in Midway on a Girl Scout trip when she was born, and I couldn't go to bed until I heard the news that she was here! Then, once I got the news, I couldn't get to sleep worrying about Amanda! For your first baby to be 9 lbs. 1oz., you are going to be hurting A LOT!I was just hoping and praying that she was going to be okay.
On Friday, we were at Jordanelle reservoir with the Girl Scouts and then off to the Olympic Park for the alpine slide, and Park City Resort for the human maze. The whole day I was wanting to get back home to give hubby and kids a big hug, then visit little Lydia! No luck! We didn't get back home 'till 9:00! So, I had to wait until Saturday!!! By then, they were already home, and when I got there, all three of them were asleep! (Sorry Amanda and Tyler! I hope you are getting more sleep.) But, grandma Melanie was there to bring Lydia down and wake the new mommy and daddy! Amanda was doing GREAT!
Tyler and Amanda, I am so happy for you both! Lydia is so perfect! You both look happy, tired, and a little worried. Please don't hesitate to ask for any help you might need!
Again, congratulations on your beautiful baby Lydia!

2nd Annual Tour de Donut!

To kick off Steel Days in American Fork, they held the 2nd Annual Tour de Donut. A 21 mile bicycle race made up of three 7-mile loops. For every donut you eat, after each loop, 3 minutes is taken off of your time. Andres competed, but didn't eat donuts. I got some pretty good pics of people stuffing themselves with donuts! The winner of the race had a time of 00:00:00! He ate twenty-something donuts. I think I would be seriously ill trying to eat one donut and then ride a bike that hard! Everyone looked like they were having a great time! Andres is in the orange and grey shirt.

KRISTEN'S BALD-FACE HORNET'S NEST!!

We had a unique opportunity to see a cross section of a hornet's nest at the home of a fellow homeschooler (Kristen). When they left for a vacation, the nest was only about the size of a baseball. When they returned home, it had grown to this size! That is a quarter taped to the window to give it some perspective.As you can see, the hornets are building the nest right on the window, so it is possible to see what is going on inside! You can see the larvae at towards the top of the nest wriggling around.

If you look closely at the top of the nest in this picture, you can see some white dots. Those are the larvae. You can also see the different colors in the nest. If you were able to see Kristen's wooden fence, you can see exactly the same colors! These hornets chew off pieces of wood, make a pulp, and add it to the nest. We could actually see the workers adding on more pulp to the nest, and others tending to the larvae inside! This was so AMAZING!

Thank you, Kristen, for sharing this with us!