"The Talk"

Tonight, together, Jake and I had the talk with Ashton. Ashton's response in a whisper, "did you have to do that to have me?" And then some giggles ensued. ;) Good talk!

Ashton's a Bear

At our last Pack Meeting Ashton got his Wolf among lots of other awards. So fun to have Uncle Rich and Aunt Sophi as the Cubmaster and Assistant.

 Lesson on Teamwork, working together. So cute!

 So fun to have Lincoln in our Pack!

FHE

Ashton taught our FHE a couple of weeks ago. It was a beautiful lesson on the Armor of God. He used an orange, it would float with the peel on and sink in the water when the peel was off. Sierra helped him. Felt the spirit, loved every minute.

I could get used to this

Toffee

We got to bring Toffee, Ashton's class pet, home with us for a weekend. That was sure fun, stinky and quite the adventure. :)

Raising money for cancer

 A boy in Ashton's class brought pretzels to school to sell to raise money for cancer. My son has a good heart and he wanted to raise money for cancer too. We made cookies and popcorn and Ashton baggied them up and sold them at school. We had a few hiccups (had to get it approved before he could sell them) but he didn't let that discourage him. When they gave him the ok he sold all he could and raised $15 for cancer research.

Last weekend Briana was hiking the Grand Canyon with my dad and Norris, Mom and I got to take care of her boys. Loved having them. Love building those relationships! Want them to love their Auntie and cousins! On Saturday Briana came home and on Sunday we got to have everyone over for dinner. Mom made yummy food as usual and I pulled homemade (by Sierra) cupcakes out of the freezer. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Corbin! He turned 2!

Last Friday Sierra had planned a swim party for her primary class. Luckily 2 of her friends came. They swam and we brought popsicles. Because there were only 2 girls plus Si and Ashton and Nixon they each got to have like 5 popsicles. :)

 I registered for my class. That is terrifying.
Sierra's legs are finally healing thanks to the introduction to Doterra Essential Oils. LOVE them!
We have been really enjoying watching the Olympics! Swimming is our fav!
Ashton was invited to go with my mom camping with Brett and Briana and today they are at Sea World! Lucky guy! He was going to have a busy weekend but we let him make the choice. Of course he chose to go with Grammy.
Today was his last day of basketball, a private karate lesson, his bball party and tomorrow he was supposed to give a talk. Hopefully he can give his talk another week cuz he already put it together and was practicing it. He's a busy guy! :) We signed up to bring cupcakes to his party and we still need to make an appearance cuz Jake helped coach. Sierra made cupcakes and we frosted them this morning. They turned out SO cute!

Miss my boy! Had fun last night with Sierra, took her to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days". Cruised around the mall, Brookstone is SO fun! Took her to Soup Plantation for dinner. Jake and I have never been. Sierra went for a birthday party and now it's her fav! I ate so much!!! All you can eat buffet=danger! It rained yesterday too, lightening and thunder, AWESOME!

"A Little Part of Me Died This Morning"

On the way to school...
Ashton: Mom is Santa Real?
Me: Uh...No
A: He's not!
Me: No, I'm sorry!
A: (sad face)
Me: The excitement of Christmas morning will still be there!
A: I kinda had a feeling when I saw Sierra come out of her room with stockings on Christmas Eve. (She filled mine and Jake's stockings and apparently buddy boy wasn't asleep yet, oops!)
Who eats the cookies?
Me: (I raised my hand)
A: That's why you said "maybe we should put out cucumbers so Santa can have something healthy to eat".
Me: haha, now Ashton you have a special job. You have to keep the secret and help others to still believe, especially those who are younger than you.
A: ok, especially the kindergardners.
Me: :)

Modern Mommy

Today we were driving from school to meet daddy at his new office building to help him unpack and get his office decorated, Sierra said to me, "mommy no offense but you are finally a modern mommy!"
I responded, "really? Why?" She said, "cause you have your i phone with your earphones and your hard plastic cup."
I finally made it! Awesome! :) She's so CUTE, so HIGH FASHION! :)
And Ashton; not feeling well with a fever after school, darn it! He is still not doing well when I drop him off at school. Crying and not wanting to leave my side. We got him a WORRY book and started reading it this week, I think it's awesome! It helps children overcome their anxiety. I'll let you know how it goes.
He also still says "hostipal" for hospital, I think it's so cute! :)

emotions, sickness, and precious

Tonight was baptism preview.
We had my family, Dunn's, Bergener's, mom and Chris, over for dinner.
We had lunch at my dad's house.
Jake had PPI's this afternoon at our house.
We had Stake Conference today.
Yesterday Jake had meetings.
Ashton had a basketball game too; we played against giants, seriously about 3 of their players were like 6 ft. tall; and we didn't do to hot. Now coach wants to have 2 practices a week. :0
It rained yesterday too, LOVE it when it rains! :)
Now about the baptism preview. I wasn't sure about this from the start, my baby is old enough to get baptized, what is happening. A huge milestone is approaching! We left Sierra home with the family and Jake, Ashton and myself went over to the church. We headed into the Relief Society room, the doors to the font were open and we sat where Ashton wanted to sit, which was close to the front. It was a beautiful program! I was emotional the whole time, even when Heather was just talking logistics I was emotional. And at the end Kim Morris was telling each of the kids one of their outstanding qualities that she has noticed about them. She said that Ashton is sooo SMART! :) She also told the Bishop that she has not a doubt in her mind that each of these children have a desire to be baptized. Then following her beautiful words we sang a song and then I was up to say the prayer. I walked up the front, made eye contact with my boy who was sitting on the front row and I lost it. I then made eye contact with my husband who was looking at me, not sure if I could do it. I closed my eyes and prayed and cried the ENTIRE time. I couldn't get a grip! I am grateful for the primary leaders and the beautiful program they put on. I am grateful for my Savior and for the example of baptism that he set. My son is SO excited to be baptized! He wishes he didn't have to wait until October 13th, Aunt Sophi's birthday. :)
Last weekend we went to Jenn and Bill's house. They moved into a new home up North, Livermore, and we wanted to see it. It was a long weekend cause of a holiday and we thought perfect. It was a nice trip however, Ashton threw up everywhere the first night we were there. You know, it's bad enough cleaning up throw up at home but when you are in someone else's house and your husband's family, you don't know where anything is, I was rinsing out his sleeping bag, jammies, blanket in the kitchen sink. Jenn was wonderful, she was up helping me and I appreciated it. He was sick on Saturday throwing up all day, tried to eat some In 'n out fries and soda but threw it all up. We didn't really get to do anything but it was fun to spend time together and be away. Jenn finished teaching me how to embroider the edges of burp cloths too, so I worked on that while I sat with Ashton.
On Monday we were driving home and Jake saw on Facebook that a new member of our family arrived!
Jane Maureen Mendenhall made her appearance on the morning of January 16th! Congrats to Chase, Jacque and big brother Luke.

We haven't met her yet but we look forward to it! :) I love her already, look at those beautiful, perfect features!

Back to School and Fire Drills

I hate back to school after winter break, it is torture! I hate having to be up at the crack of dawn, hustling to get to school, packing lunches, working in classrooms, nervous kids. UGH!
Sierra was nervous to go back yesterday but never showed it, she had a great day! Ashton on the other hand has major anxiety about FIRE DRILLS! It was hard enough for him to go back to school after 3 weeks off and then on top of it he is afraid that they are going to have another fire drill. I assured them they were not, I asked his teacher to please let me know when they are having a fire drill so I can be there with him. All day on Monday he said he had a tummyache. It started in the morning and I told him it was just nerves and he needed to try to go to school. I got a phonecall from Sierra around lunchtime and she told me Ashton was sick. I told her that his teacher needs to call me if he needs to be picked up. I called his school and asked if they knew anything about him being sick. The lady at the front desk said that he had been up to sit with her and he did try calling me. She then put me through to him and then his teacher. Ashton assured me that he was sick, she said she thought it was nerves cause he was fine and playing at recess. I also asked him if he had eaten his lunch and snack. "yes, mom, I ate everything! I don't feel good!" Ummm yeah. If he was sick with the flu he would not have eaten a thing but he doesn't realize that. I told him that I would come pick him up. I had more time to think and I just went and sat with him during the last 2 hours of school, however, I had told him that if I came over to pick him up he was not going to go to karate. He didn't care.
Fast forward...we are home from school, his tummy doesn't hurt anymore, in fact it stopped hurting as we were driving home :) AMAZING and he realizes that I'm not budging on the no karate thing and he is in tears!!! HORRIBLE! BEGGING! "mom this hurts so bad!"
mom: what hurts?
A: not going to karate, hurts SO bad!
His sister was so sensitive and took him crying to his room and told him to put on his karate uniform, they were going to have karate class at home. She was throwing angry birds at him and he had to punch and kick them away. She is a doll! She had him stand in horse stance and he did it for 5 minutes. He came running out to the kitchen, so happy, to tell me all about it.
Fast forward...we took Sierra to piano and while we were waiting in the car for her we were playing video games and I checked my emails on my phone. I got an email from Ashton's teacher informing me that there was going to be a fire drill at school in the morning. I informed Ashton and he began to panic! I told him to calm down that I would be there with him. Still freaking out!!!
Fast forward...this morning I'm in the shower. Ashton comes in to tell me he just threw up. I got out of the shower and cleaned up a tiny bit of throw up. I told him he was just nervous and he needed to get dressed. He assured me he was not just nervous that he was SICK! He layed on the couch as I was rushing around and I kept telling him to get up and get dressed. "BUT, I'm SICK!"
Right as Sierra and I were getting ready to walk out the door I told him to hurry up, he still wasn't dressed. He couldn't eat and felt nauseous on the way to school. I told him that we would wait outside until after the fire drill. He seemed to be better when I told him that. I went in his classroom and told his teacher we would be outside until after the fire drill. She said ok. Well, they delayed the drill until 10 instead of 9, so we went in the classroom for a bit but he was nervous the whole time. 10 to 10 we took his book box and went back outside. At 10 I went into the classroom to get his snack, as I was in there the alarm went off! It is LOUD and there are flashing lights. The other kids were fine, just covering their ears. Ashton was happy he didn't come in with me.
When I left at after lunch I had to reassure him multiple times that they were not going to have anymore fire drills today. He got to go to karate today!
I'm exhausted!

A good deed

In Ashton's class they are collecting canned food for the Food Pantry...

Ashton came home on Monday, he and his friend, Collin, had made a sign...

"Please donate canned food to K-1 for a Thanksgiving Meal!"

He asked if for Family Home Evening we could go around to our neighbors with his sign and ask for canned food donations. Great idea! So, at about 7:30 our family went all together around to the neighbors to ask for donations for school for the Food Pantry. Ashton was so nervous, daddy helped him! :) But, he held up his sign at every door, very proud! He had great success! Everyone was so nice and told Ashton it was so kind what he was doing! A neighbor even came over tonight with more canned food. We drove to Grandma and Grandpa's and Grandpa gave us some canned food too! We brought in 2 full brown bags of canned food this morning to school. Ashton's teacher was so proud of him!

"Ashton, time to go put your clean clothes away"

Day #2

This is Ashton's first year being on our neighborhood swim team. Today was his 2nd practice. He LOVES it! Yesterday we got to the pool and he stood next to me and very matter of factly said, "I'm not getting in the water."
mom: Yes you are!
A: "no, I'm not."
mom: YES you are!
A: Nope
(then the bribery)
mom: if you get in the water I will give you your money that is in the cupboard.
A: okay where do I get in
He has NEVER used a kickboard before and it is so cute! He looks all around to see if he is beating the other kids. He bobs his little booty up and down to try and go faster. He's competitive just like his sister! :)

it's only the 2nd day and coach Patrick moved him to the lane with the faster kids because he said he was doing good. I don't know if he's ready for THAT, but he seems to be fine and it's great because he is being challenged.
He gets out of the pool and asks me, "mom, did I do good?"
"Yay, you did SO good!"
He says "I went to the deep end lots of times without you!"
"mommy is SO proud!" :)

Happy Easter!

"He is not here, for he is risen..." What a beautiful morning we had. No Easter bunny yet, we just got ready as usual and got to church on time. Today is about our Savior! Sacrament meeting was amazing...Sierra sang with her class and the two older classes, "Does Jesus Really Live Again", so sweet! Sis. Heyborne gave a great talk on the final days of Christ's life. She put it so beautifully and it really touched my heart and Bro. Woodhouse taught from the scriptures and I love the scriptures...I studied the last week of Christ's life and taught it to my Beehives with pictures from the Gospel Art Kit we have...I loved learning and studying the details...also in the Friend I read with my kids the final week of Christ's life...they have it set up so every day you can read what Christ did THAT day. It was amazing because when you are reading what he did on Thursday and it's Thursday, it seems more real. I am grateful for my Savior and for his strength and endurance, for his willingness to do his Father's will, for his sacrifice for all of us, for his love and forgiveness.
Sierra gave a talk today and what is significant is she wrote it herself...she did such a great job!
"In John 19:30 Jesus says"It is finished" as He was on the cross dying. "Father into they hands I commend (give) my spirit." Jesus bowed His head and gave up His only life. Lightning crashed, the earth seemed gloomy and sad. He stayed in heaven for three days teaching the spirits in heaven, then on the 3rd day He was risen. Jesus was able to be resurrected because He is our Savior. When Mary and other women went to the tomb to put spices and ointment on Jesus' body they noticed the stone was rolled away. When they entered the tomb, they saw a "young man sitting on the right side, clothed in long white garment...And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen, He is not here." Luke 24:4-7. Jesus later visited all His disciples and ate fish and honeycomb to show He truly was risen. Jesus really is our Savior and Redeemer. He was born King of the Jews, performed miracles, then died for all the sins of the world. Today Jesus stands on the right hand of God listening to our prayers and watching us do service.
I know Jesus really truly is our Savior and Redeemer. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ..."
Easter Egg hunt #1 at home after church (the Easter Bunny came during church, what a nice Easter bunny!)

We went out to Aunt Ruthie's and Uncle Randy's house in the afternoon and it is so much fun, we had a massive awesome Easter Egg hunt with about 200 eggs and it was way fun! These are the kids waiting for the go!

I know I'm sorry, nice booty shot!
The aftermath, what fun! Grammy got such fun things to fill the eggs: sticky hands, silly bands, bouncy balls, whistles, sticky frogs, rubber lizards...
It was such a fun afternoon, the kids love it out there.
Then we headed to Jake's parents for another Easter Feast...Ashton asked Grandma if they could have another Easter egg hunt, but she didn't have any eggs so we got our bags of plastic eggs out of the car and Sierra and Ashton took turns hiding for each other in Grandmas back yard, entertained them for a long time! :)

In other news: The tooth fairy got to visit our house too! Ashton lost another tooth. That makes 4! Funny story, he was getting in the bath and I was helping him take his shirts off...the long sleeved one had buttons at the top...well, we got the shirt off and then there was a big white thing in his nostril...I said "What is that, a booger?" He looked up at me and said "it's my tooth!" and grinned at me with blood all over his mouth. His tooth got caught on a button and it pulled it out and then it got stuck in his nostril as we pulled the shirt over his head! NEVER seen that
before. :)
and he sure does talk cute with those 2 front teeth missing! :)

Don't want to forget...

Last night my little boy was sleeping next to me. In the middle of the night he kissed my chin. I woke up and said, "Thankyou!" He just smiled and snuggled and we both fell back to sleep. What a sweet boy! :)

not my baby anymore...

Ashton said to me about a month ago, "mom, why does it feel like there are more teeth down here?" I looked and oh dear, there is 2 rows of teeth. I told him, cool!!! Just like a shark! Needless to say, I've been a bit concerned and have been telling him to wiggle wiggle. Trying to avoid paying the dentist.
He was hungry and it was close to bedtime. I told him to go get an apple. He did and he was biting away at his apple. When he was done he said, "mom my tooth is really really wiggly now. and it truly was! YAY! So for the next hour he was working at it, daddy was working at it and mommy too! He really wanted it out so the tooth fairy could come...


and at this point he was being so brave. He doesn't like to see blood and he could taste it too. looked a little bit scared and I kept asking him if he was ok and if it hurt. he was fine...so brave.

and then it happened, mommy plucked it out, YAY! mommy got a little emotional too. His first tooth! My baby lost his first tooth!

Sierra let him borrow her Tooth Fairy Eeyore and he put his tooth in the pocket and slept in his bed the WHOLE night because mommy told him that if he left and came to sleep in my room the tooth fairy would get confused and not leave him money because there was no child in bed. HE DID IT! and he got "1 dollar and 25 cents!"

What a clever boy...

has learned to master legos mostly on his own and mommy is so happy! :)

fries

Today I took Ashton to El Pollo Loco after school. I got him a small fry. When we got home he pulled out a super long french fry and said "WHOA! This is not a small fry this is a large fry. I thought we ordered a small fry." :)

FHE

It was Ashton's turn to teach the lesson and he made an activity for us to do together...

that is a picture of Jesus in the middle and on each of the squares to the left is a good thing and we needed to put our orange square, that had Jesus' face drawn on it, on top of our favorite thing. For example; the temple, paying tithing, CTR, being reverent, helping others, etc. and at the end of the activity I asked him if he wanted to say anything and he said "I know my Savior lives!"