Mess Maker, Mess Maker make me a mess. . .

This post is all Ben.  When Uncle Jared came and stayed at our house in the spring he would sing songs for each of the kids, variations on other songs.  Well, Ben's song is "Mess Maker" from the original song of "Matchmaker."  When Uncle Jared was once again here, he learned that Ben is still very much a mess maker.  Here is a sampling of Ben:

Let's dump the flour on the floor.  Once mom finds out we will try to make everything better by trying to help sweep it up (and spill two more times on the trip to the garbage can). 

Oh look, the compost scraps got left out with a knife, let's make sure those scraps are cut small enough.  This picture was made safer because when I initially found him happily cut apples up he was using a sharp knife.  And it doesn't matter where you have them, the kid will find them and try to use them.  He also finished up by dumping the whole bowl out to make sure there was nothing left to cut up.

What, don't play with this because I might spill it?  Oh you mean like that.  And yes, these three events happened the same day (hence the orange shirt in all, it wasn't just coinsidence). But these messes happen all the time. 

Here's more spices on the counter.  I don't have a picture of the time he emptied two different spice containers onto the top of what I was thinking was going to be a part of dinner. 

Is this what we do with pudding?

Oh wait, both hands, that's right.  We have the hardest time with pudding, yogurt and the like.  I think it is because it falls of the spoon before he gets it too his mouth and then since it's already on the counter or table he just spreads it around. 

This is a good dancing spot.  All I can say is at least he was sitting on the counter and not standing.  And this picture was taken before the kids broke my CD player.  They still won't stay off the counter.  Even Sam sometimes.  We consider this independence and call it good most days.  :)

And here is the cute boy not making a mess.  He's a darling, but he is two years old!

Happy New Years!

I am finally get around to getting some more pictures up and I just realized that I completed bypassed Christmas.  In my defense, those pictures are on Justin's camera and thus on his computer.  Maybe later.  New Years Eve is the party we host for every year.  It's easier than trying to get people together during Christmas.  And Jared usually comes so I don't have to do any cooking, he does it and could probably feed the whole group himself but everyone else helps out.  This year there was no theme (okay so in reality there has only been one year with theme).  We had soup and bread.  Oh and a hot chocolate bar.  That was fun.  Although there are lots of chocolate things left for me to think about snacking on.  My favorite part of the hot chocolate bar was the spoons that I created for the kids.  I had melted chocolate, dipped the spoons in said chocolate and then put marshmallows, crushed candy canes, or red hots on them.  The kids could then take a spoon, add it to hot chocolate and bingo, they got their add-ins and a spoon with less mess (ideally).  The younger kids loved it.  Sam and his friend Lucas decided to try their hand at how much chocolate they could mix in (or just take home in a cup).
This picture is my proof that my kids all stayed up until midnight.  Yes all four of them were still up.  Ben was up because he was still moving.  Michelle was up because she fell asleep at 5 and woke back up at 7 pm.  The other two, well, Hannah was up because everyone else was and Sam was the one trying to stay up until midnight.  This is the first year in a very long time that we have stayed up until midnight.

The other fantastic part to our party is we know full well that we are not getting everyone to stay until midnight.  We all have small children, we know how that goes.  So our party starts in the afternoon and usually ends around 8 pm.  Now with that being noted, we do fireworks at 7 pm.  Sparklers for all the kids (and me, I love fireworks!) and then Justin lit some fireworks.  Not a lot (and not all strung together like in July) but enough.

Here is what happens when you throw ground type ones in the snow, kinds of cool. 

And here is blurry evidence of people at our house.  Yes is was freezing cold, the kids who did sparklers are about all who ventured off the porch.  We discovered one of the windows was a prime location but by then we were mostly done with fireworks.

So happy new years to all our friends and family.  We are excited for a new year with new things to do.  My big plan for the year is to finish a bunch of unfinished projects (the first being Christmas presents) and hopefully not start too many new projects (that really depends on how many really good sales the quilt store has, most of my unfinished projects are quilts--and yes, I am trying to get something on that frame to quilt, but first I have to get to the frame, yeah, organization should be on my list as well).