Bon Jovi and Jimmer take over

There has been quite a bit of commotion in our home this past week. As you probably heard in the video, we have been listening to the music of Bon Jovi a lot because mom and dad are going their Salt Lake concert tomorrow (this was mom’s Christmas gift to dad). They are getting really excited but are also sad their friend, Dan who was originally going to come with them, has moved and can no longer make it. On their way, I will be dropped off at Smith’s in Draper. I’m sure I’ll have a great time there because I get to go see Cousin Jake play the drums in a band concert.
Another contributor to the commotion has been Jimmer and BYU’s basketball team. As most of you know, it is March Madness and BYU has made it to the Sweet 16 in the national collegiate tournament. Mom and dad are a little addicted. If it were possible, their lives would revolve around me and watching basketball right now. After the last game that BYU dominated, dad was doing an Irish jig in the living room for the last ten minutes. If you have a few minutes, here are some you tube videos that are pretty entertaining:
If you watch closely, you can see 2 of my old roommates dancing beside the 3rd.


This video is funnier if you have seen the “bed intruder” music video also on youtube.


The last contributor to the commotion is mostly mom’s fault. On Saturday she had her last organized Church Basketball game. At the very end of the game, she went in for a steal and jammed her right hand middle finger. Either it is the worst jam she has ever had (and she has had quite a few) or dad’s right when he says there may be sprained or fractured. Anyway, the commotion comes when mom and dad bicker about how to care for it. Dad deals with this everyday and obviously knows how to heal it, but mom isn’t very good about listening and following instructions. She was good on Saturday about icing it because she had to play piano in Church the next day but after that she hasn’t been very good. In her defense, putting your finger in ice cold water for 20 minutes 3 times a day and wearing a bulky splint all day and night is not fun especially when you have a crazy kid like me to take care of.

New Cousin!!

This is me in my “happy place”: no pants, warm milk in a bottle and of course my “melmo”.

The best update of all is that I have yet another boy cousin on the Schlenker side (that makes 5 grandsons on the Schlenker side so far and no girls; I guess Derek and his future wife will have to be in charge of making baby girls). Beckham Mark Schlenker was born on March 10 and joined Uncle Mark and Auntie Laurel’s family. They now have thee boys and I can’t wait to see them all again so we can all play. I am sure I will be as obsessed with little Beckham as Ashton and Nick were with me when I was younger. Mommy and me are always looking for ways to get up to Canada, so if you know of an inexpensive way, please let us know!!



I have been learning so many new words lately! The three latest are “all gone” (galgon), hat and elmo (melmo). I love watching Elmo on Sesame Street so when mom and dad found a stuffed Elmo for me, I was overjoyed! He even laughs when you push his belly.
So for the past couple of months I have not been dealing with as much separation anxiety as I have in the past. But in the last couple of weeks, I have been even more extreme and simply love strangers. Mom wishes she could put me in nursery now because she thinks I would thrive. Having babysitters is so fun and going out to play is even better. Last week at Stake Conference, I wasn’t thrilled about sitting on my mom’s lap so I went for a strole and found a very friendly teenage boy. I sat in his lap and ate my cracker for about the last 15 minutes of Conference. Mom and dad didn’t know what to think but they will definitely embrace this new development.

This is me in NURSERY! Even though I am not yet 18 months, dad has been taking me for the past couple of Sundays and so far I love it (he just has to stay with me the whole time because of the 18 month rule). The first time I went, I fell off the little person chair and cut my lip so I didn’t last the whole time. But this last Sunday went much better. Mom and dad are in shock that I am so grown up.

Last week, mom substituted for a music class again. I was able to stay with one of my best friends, Rusty who lives really close to us. His mommy is so nice and took very good care of me. Mom loves that she has nice people that she can trust close by because we are not geographically close to many family members. Last week turned out to be a great experience for both of us!

This video may need some explanation: Recently mom has discovered that some particular face movements make me laugh, specifically opening and shutting eyes and raising and lowering eyebrows. A couple of days ago I tried to imitate her and this video is of exactly that. My imitation attempts had mom laughing so hard she knew she had to share it. At the end, you can hear me singing my favorite song, “Poor Old Horse” which is pretty cute as well.



If I’m not walking outside, I’m crawling with shoes on my hands.

what a great life!

Just for laughs.


For my mom’s birthday, I thought I would give her the gift of waking up an hour and a half earlier than I usually do. I figured she would want to be awake for more of her special day. Turns out I was wrong though. Since we were up so early, mom had time to get ready and then we were off to institute. The rest of the day was pretty normal until daddy came home. He had arranged for a babysitter to come so he could take mom out. They went to Good Wood for supper, then for frozen yogurt and then to see “The King’s Speech”. Overall it was a very special day. Mommy wanted to thank everyone who gave or sent her cards and all those who called to wish her the best! As for gifts, I got her a balloon which I actually like to play with more than her, dad got her a women’s size basketball, and everyone else gave her money. With her money she bought a new curling rod for her hair which she LOVES and hopes to also buy a day of snowboarding. From G & G Campbell, she got a pair of mittens from the Vancouver Olympics. She had seen these in pictures and really wanted a pair so she is absolutely thrilled!
BYU basketball has been so fun to watch this year and Mom and Daddy decided to take me to an afternoon home game. They were a little nervous I wouldn’t like the constant loud noise especially because it was verses Utah. Much to their happiness and surprise, however, I loved every moment. When they turned the lights off and played the music really loud at the beginning, I was right into it clapping and smiling from ear to ear. Because of mom and dad’s love of BYU and even great love for me, it was a very proud moment for them!

The game was the Saturday before Valentine’s Day so I guess that is what we did to celebrate. On the actual day, nothing was really different other than dad trying to pick up a heart shaped pizza that turned out not being heart shaped. O ya, and mom and daddy exchanged gifts: mom gave dad a little stuffed bear holding a heart and sitting on candy and dad gave mom a beautiful pair of earrings and a heart necklace.

Dad was able to find some time to explore some mountains near Springville during President’s Day weekend. He got some pretty amazing pictures!

Fun in the snow… a storm brought in 9 inches over night and the next day was sooo beautiful, mom and I wouldn’t pass up the fun!


Latley a new thing I have been doing is dancing. Mom and dad find this very entertaining and finally got it on tape today when we were at a friend’s 1st birthday party.

more videos

Check out my mad fork skills


Having fun with Dada. I am getting pretty good at wrestling. I even know how to "body slam" and hopefully we will get that in video soon.

Jersey Cakes

This is a quick post for Uncle Adam. New Years morning, mommy made one of her favorite breakfasts for everyone. Her family calls them monsters because of how they rise in the oven, but typically they are called German Pancakes. For some strange reason, Uncle Adam thought they were called Jersey Cakes. Who knows where he got that from, but we all enjoyed making fun of him for it. Here is the recipe as promised:

6 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
5 tbs melted butter

Mix all BUT the butter together (mixing in a blender is best to get it frothy). After spraying a 9x13 pan, pore melted butter in the pan and coat the entire bottom. Pore mixture into the pan (butter will be pushed to the edges). Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until most the moisture is gone from the top. When you first take it out of he oven, you will notice the ballooned edges (thus the "monster" name) but they will shrink as it cools as bit. Enjoy warm with powdered sugar and syrup.

On Feb 9th I will be 16 months old!! On Feb 7th mom will be 25!!!

This videos shows one of my favorite hobbies. I always put my hand up to my face whenever I drop something like i'm saying "o o" or "where'd it go?".



There are so many new things I am doing:

Some new words I say are “all done”, shoes, and yes. “Yes” is mom and dad’s favorite because I can answer questions. When my answer is no I just look at them with a blank stare. Mom is happy I learned “yes” before “no” because she would rather me be a “yes baby”. The only problem is, I don’t get “no”. I always think mom and dad are just playing when they say it, so I laugh and continue to do whatever they want me to stop doing. They even started trying 1 minute time outs in my room when I misbehave but it doesn’t seem to register that I am being punished. I am perfectly happy playing in my room with the door shut. Some people have recommended that they try putting me in my crib for time out but mom is worried about that. She worked so hard to help me have a good association with sleeping time in my crib, she doesn’t want to take that away. She would welcome ANY other suggestions people have to help me understand the meaning of “no” or “stop”.

Now I walk about half the time and crawl about half the time. I love walking around outside to look at cars, cows, blowing leaves and snow.

Mom and dad have been super impressed with my ability to eat with a fork. I get discouraged if mom forgets to give me one. I think she is forgetting what I big boy I am.

I am a big boy except when it comes to wanting to drink milk from a sippy cup. Mom has tried to give it to me for about 2 weeks now. At first I took it, took some drinks and abandoned it, but now I won’t even try and she ends up giving me a bottle; she knows how important drinking milk is still for my age. I think she is hoping that, like my breast feeding weaning, one day I’ll just take it and be happy from then on. Mom will take any suggestions on this challenge as well.

Here is a quick update on mommy:

She still loves going to institute but doesn’t really like taking me anymore. Luckily however, her good friend Shelly has a class break when mommy wants to attend her class so she plays with me in the building lobby. For the 2 minutes after mommy leaves, I am not a big fan of the arrangement at all, but Shelly is so fun we end up having a great time. What a good friend!!

One of the highlights of mom’s week is playing basketball each Saturday. She heard that our Stake had a league and was able to get on a pretty good team. Even though she is pretty sore after each game, she loves reviving the skills that she had in high school.

We made our 3rd bedroom into a “moffice” (mom-office) for mommy. Now she can organize all of her primary and scout stuff as well as keep her sewing machine up to work on projects. One of the best parts is she can light any fragranced candles she wants and daddy can’t complain (she is loving the hazelnut latte candle she got for Christmas).

Daddy:

He still loves shooting and has had the opportunity to go out to practice with some buddies lately. He also added some new speakers to his truck and is tuning up his bike a lot. Since mommy got her moffice, daddy has taken over the garage and made it into his “work man cave”. Mommy appreciates when daddy keeps his “special fragrances” down there as well.

Play

Upon reading the blog entry, Auntie Andi revealed that she did have pictures from the play! Mommy has so much fun doing this with the kids. This is the second play she has directed and Marin, being apart of both so far, thinks that we should make it a tradition.