Le Sigh....

Well the contract on our house fell through.... :( So now we are back to waiting....

This has been an eventful week. Monday we got to go and see the newest Bessendorfer and she is adorable!!! She slept the whole time we were there and she is soo sweet! We got to see Aunt Linda and meet Joseph and had a wonderful dinner.... then my kids peed all over themselves and we had to go home.....

Thursday Paul and Candace and family got in town. We had tons of fun playing with them. Soo fun to watch the cousins play together. It's so nice to be a bit nearer to them - we've missed them!

My mom got in on Friday - which also happened to be her birthday - so we had some family over for a little birthday party. I made a cake which was WAY overcooked - so i threw it out and started over and made one that was MUCH more edible! :) Food was good and company was better!

Saturday and Sunday I was performing in firesides with the choir that I joined a week and a half ago. They went well - I don't think i messed up too much!! :) The Colorado Mormon Chorale is somewhat similar to Evening Song (which I sang in in Texas) but bigger. :) I'm looking forward to rehearsals full of Christmas music now and can't wait for the Christmas Season!! LOL - I think Dan took all the pictures this week on his phone - so when I can get him to send me some of them I will post them :)

Another One Bites the Dust

Another what? you ask? Another tooth. Eileen is now down 3 teeth. She has an adorable lopsided grin. This evening when she went to bed she cried like her heart was breaking - Dan had dropped the tooth and hadn't found it yet and Eileen was horrified at the idea that there would be no tooth in her tooth box when the tooth fairy came. She and Anna got to go to a friends birthday party yesterday and had tons of fun and tons of junk food. Anna was sick last night and this morning - thankfully it seems to have passed and Dan and I are just chalking it up to too much JUNK!

The weather here has been beautiful (at least until last night when it started drizzling and has kept going all day) so the kids and I spent most of the week walking around and enjoying the weather. There is a walking/bike/running path that runs right by our house and 3 out of 5 days this week, Anna and Aaron were begging to go on walks/bike rides along the path. It's a lovely walk and the kids love it. Anna and Aaron pedal their hearts out and we probably end up going at least a mile before we are done. It also makes nap time go more smoothly :)

Dan and I are very excited to have our house under contract and we are praying that all goes smoothly and that we will soon be able to put the money for those house payments and the utility bills into savings. We aren't making any money off the deal - but at least we won't have to keep paying for a house we aren't living in! Anna's big thing right now is wanting to do my hair - she loves to brush it and spray it with water and put clips in it. She tries to put hair bands in it, but she isn't able to make it work and she gets very frustrated with herself. As long as she sticks to brushing and clips we are both very happy (i love having my hair brushed!)

Evie has reached a new level in her mobility. She has started climbing everything she can find. She climbs Dan's and I's bed - she climbs onto rocking chairs (small ones) she climbs onto anything that she can manage and then sits there and looks at us proudly. She is such a character! She loves to make noises with her mouth and loves to put things on her head and loves to play patty-cake. She loves to snuggle and she loves her blankie. She is starting to want to follow her brothers and sisters around.

Well that's life around the Jones house - insane but fun! Next week the real insanity begins - starting next Thursday and going for about 2 and a half weeks - we will have house guests, and Dan will be gone for some of it on business trips, and Eileen has a week off school in there. Oh yeah and a holiday... Life will be fun but CRAZY!!! We can't wait to see family though!

Conference and Canning

I'm going for the whole alliteration idea.... anyway - we have had a great weekend! My dad came out on Wednesday - he had a business meeting in Colorado Springs, and spent a few days with us around the meeting. The kids had a blast with Grandpa (and I don't think we scared him too badly...) He watched the kids for us on Friday night so Dan and I could go to the temple and then for dinner. Going to the temple right before conference was just amazing and he and I were both very glad to have gone having come out feeling at peace with some big decisions we've had to make lately. This week we also got some Bartlett pears and have been canning them... YUMMY!!! We went to my aunt and uncle's house this morning and had a great time enjoying breakfast with them and playing. They also had some stuff they were getting rid of that we got to pick through - and the kids loved coming home with a couple new toys. Conference was amazing. LOL - I don't do New Years Resolutions really - I find that most of my resolutions are made around this time of year (or April) when I hear the words of the apostles and resolve on things I can do better. So my goals after this conference? Be more thankful - I think I'm pretty good at being thankful to my husband - but I really want to make an effort to tell my kids that I appreciate them more. Be more consistent with personal scripture study - Family and couple study is regular - but I need to make time for personal study more consistently.
(if you are wondering what happened to Aaron's face and arms - he colored all over himself with markers.... and didn't want his picture taken)

Less Boxes = More fun!

Eileen told us the other day that she didn't like moving because she didn't like packing everything up - because then there was no fun stuff to play with. Now we have officially gotten all the kids books out (lol - the toys were already out at that time) and she has finally stopped complaining! The kids LOVE books - and I love that they love books. I love the chances for teaching and learning that come with books, I love that I get to snuggle with them when we read books, and I love stories!

Eileen asked me today in church if I could help her figure out how to do homework. I asked her if her teacher had given her any homework - she said no - but she wanted to know how to do homework. So I explained what homework was and told her that if she wanted to practice stuff that she learned in school we could make up homework for her to practice. Such a smartie pants!

Dan planned this wonderful birthday date (a bit late - but it was the only time we could manage) and as usual the best laid plans went to waste. His fabulous idea fell through (or at least must be postponed for another date) and instead we went to the cinema grill for half decent food and a funny movie. Thanks to Aunt Tina for baby sitting!

Next month is kinda a big month for us - we have LOTS of family coming in to town and staying with us - so Saturday was aimed at making our house somewhat presentable (or at least clearing out boxes) We are very excited - and glad for a kick in the pants to get us moving on finishing the unpacking. :)

Heehee - if you have gotten this far - you may have noticed a lack of pictures... oops - have to do better next week - gonna have to get some pics of the kids playing ball in the back yard - Dan has been teaching Eileen how to hit a ball with a bat.

Birthdays

This has been a crazy week around here. Dan left on Monday morning for a business trip. Monday progressed fairly normally and easily - at least until the dryer broke with 2 more loads to dry.... but otherwise - it was fine!
Tuesday - which happened to be my 31st birthday (not my 30th Jones Family!) Started out normal. Eileen went to school - and the rest of us had fun playing and running around outside. My Grandpa came over with a little dinner to celebrate my birthday. The kids went to bed - tired but fine... then around 11:30 Eileen came downstairs covered in puke. I stripped her down - put her in the shower and went to change her sheets. After the shower and brushing her teeth, she was feeling better so I tucked her back in and went back downstairs to go to bed. At around 1:30 she came down again - having thrown up - but fortunately having gotten it all in the toilet (she's such a big girl!!) We brushed her teeth and sat and read for awhile until her tummy felt ok again, then back to bed for both of us. Finally - around 4am she came down again - once again needing clothing change and sheet changes. This time I sent her to bed with an empty garbage can next to her bed - just in case. Eileen was finally asleep for the rest of the night - but that didn't help me since Evie got up at 6am.... Needless to say Eileen stayed home from school that day, and we were both tired. Thursday she was feeling better and went back to school - thankfully no one else got sick and Dan came home on Friday to nothing worse than a very messy house and a very tired wife. :)

This week I finally finished a project that I have been working on for a few years now. This quilt was started by (i think) my great great great aunt. The Sunbonnet Sue squares were found in my Grandmother's basement when she passed away. They were in varying degrees of done-ness. Now the top is pieced and all that is left is to get it quilted. I'm rather proud of myself - having never done anything like this before, and can't wait to see the finished product.
Thursday this week was Evie's 1st Birthday - I can't believe my baby is one year old - I also can't believe that for the first time - one of my kids has reached their first birthday with out me being pregnant - we thought Aaron might have - but we were wrong.... this time we are positive. :) She is growing and moving and developing her own little unique personality. She loves doing her own thing and dancing to her own beat. She is trying to climb all over everything and steal her siblings toys. She still hates eating, but we're getting there.

So how big are you Evie!??!

SOOOO BIG!!!

And the rest of my cheesy bunch. What goof balls! Gotta love them though!

Today Dan made me my birthday cake and next weekend he has an exciting date planned for us - but I'll tell you about that next week! :P

Our Week

We had lots of fun this week - on Monday, we got together with family for grilling and playing and swimming. The kids had tons of fun playing with cousins and we had lots of fun ignoring them :) And see - I actually took pictures this week! :)


We also had lots of fun playing at the near by park - it's right next to Eileen's school and is within easy walking distance - easy enough for even Evelyn to walk the whole way (and she LOVES to) The kids love riding their bikes there and we even run into friends there sometimes. Anna amazed us all by going all the way across the monkey bars all by herself - Eileen of course won't even attempt this :) She spent most of the evening we were there on Friday going across - not always making it the whole way - but always amazing me none-the-less :)
Well Dan is headed out of town next week - just in time to miss both my birthday and Evie's birthday! LOL - pretty impressive for his first business trip with the new company! Heehee - oh well - I'll probably wax sentimental about Evie turning one later this week - so until then..... :)

Adjusting

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that life has changed. It's funny how with all change there are things that you enjoy and things that you miss. I miss my friends, I miss my appliances, I miss my parents. I enjoy making new friends, I enjoy having more room, I enjoy sending the kids outside to play.
We are still unpacking - we finally have carpet in the master bedroom and it's finally looking like we are getting somewhere. Dan and I finally have a bed room, the kids have a play room and the house is getting more live-able. Oddly enough though - we will probably have little to no furniture in at least 3-4 rooms of the house! And odder still - we will probably leave it that way - if we are going to buy furniture it will be for a house that we are staying in for awhile - not just a rental.

Ok - so I was bad and didn't take many pictures this week - but here is a rather funny one from this morning - the girls and I were getting ready - can you tell that Aaron dressed himself :) This week has mostly consisted of the normal everyday stuff. Tonight we went to dinner with a family in our ward - it was fun to make new friends and fun to get together with people. We also went down on Monday night to my Uncle and Aunt's house and had dinner with them.

Life is good - and we are enjoying ourselves here - so when are y'all going to come visit us! :)

Hello from Sunny Colorado!

Well - we made it - we are officially here in Colorado and in our house... not exactly settled, but here! We are still surrounded by boxes.... :) Dan and I's bedroom is still carpet-less (should be in by Tuesday... hopefully...) So we have been unable to un-pack our bedroom stuff and unable to pack the stuff that will go in the room that our bed is in for now.We took a trip to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Cox before we left - the kids had tons of fun feeding the birds, petting the animals and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. We rode the Carousel - which the girls love - but Aaron did NOT! I ended up needing to stand with my arms around him until it stopped. Aaron loved petting the goats and anything else he could touch!
So Saturday morning the kids and I packed up into the van and took off for Colorado. The drive took a bit longer than anticipated - since I kept missing turn offs - for some reason - they aren't marked very well.... So after a long but mostly uneventful drive - we arrived safely and began our life as Coloradans (or whatever...)


One of our first things to do was get Eileen registered for school - since it had long since started here. So Wednesday, Eileen started her first day of school! Here she is all dolled up in her pink pants and pink backpack and purple (because i couldn't find pink) lunchbox. She has already made friends in school, but I think she is in a bit of a rowdy class which she doesn't like.
So our week has mostly been full of un-packing and trying to get settled in (as much as possible) my greatest accomplishment has been to make our kitchen functioning - enough that we got bread made this weekend.
We have also gotten to see a lot of Great Grandpa - he has been a bit help in entertaining the kids and letting me get stuff done - and we also went over to visit him yesterday and went swimming in his pool. The kids had a great time - but were shivering and freezing any time they got out of the pool!
We have loved the difference in the weather. Everyone here is complaining that it is too hot and miserable - our family thinks it's perfect... LOL - after coming from 104 degree weather and 80-90% humidity, this feels almost like fall weather!! LOL

We are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the dryness - lots of little (and not so little) discomforts - we hope we adjust soon - Aaron and Evie are both a bit sick and Aaron is coughing a lot - we finally went out and got him a humidifier - but it only helps at night. We are having to make a conscious effort to drink more water and we are using lots of lotion and chapstick. :)

So that has been the last two weeks for us.

Our Texas ward turned out in force to help us off - we had tons of ladies to help pack and clean on Thursday and Friday and tons of men to help us load the truck on Friday night. Plus a bunch of my friends took me out to dinner Friday night. We are going to miss that ward - but we are looking forward to new friends to be made.

Until next week!

The Insanity

Our life has been thrown into absolute insanity. Dan was offered a job working for his cousin in Colorado. After much prayer and thought we have accepted the offer and will be trying to get ourselves moved in the next couple of weeks. Between the start of the school year and the need for Dan to be out there for meetings, we are going to try and bust our backsides and get all our stuff packed up and moved by a week from Friday. I'm not totally sure how (or even if) we will pull this off - but either way - the next two weeks will be total insanity!!!

On a different note - Eileen has lost another tooth and now has a sizeable gap in the front of her grin.

Today I went in to start packing up clothes I won't need between now and then (sweaters in 100 degree weather?? NO!) and in the process started sorting out some of those clothes that I have that I have resigned myself in to never being able to wear again.... Eileen saw the pile and asked if she could play dress up in them - i said she could and the kids spent the rest of the day dressing up and playing in mommy's old clothes. (and of course - posing for pictures) Aaron loved dressing up - but wouldn't hold still for pictures :

Welcome Home!!

First thing I hear from Eileen "Mommy - we're loaded up with SUGAR!!" LOL - my kids had a wonderful week getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa! When I got home and tried to hold Evie - she just gave me the "what do you want with me" look and went to Grandpa. LOL
Dan and I finished our last day in Vancouver with a 6 mile bike ride around the peninsula - the weather and scenery were just GORGEOUS!!! - I miss oceans and trees.... :) Our area has neither. The whole ride was like this - beautiful trees and rocks on one side and the ocean on the other. And then a movie - the flight home was uneventful (lol - which is a good thing!)
After coming home we enjoyed a nice day with Grandma and Grandpa Jones - the only downside was our AC breaking down in the middle of the hottest week of the summer... thankfully it was in the evening and once the sun went down it was tolerable (well for me... Dan's parents - not so much.) Today we went down and spent the afternoon at my parents house to escape the heat - fortunately for us after an night and morning of resting it was easily fixed....It's amazing how much kids can grow in a week - we come back and Evie is walking everywhere (never crawls any more) and Aaron decided to start potty training himself.... He still wears a diaper - we haven't really pushed the issue yet, but any time his sisters use the potty - he wants to also - and he pees and poops in it. He's got that all figured out - and he loves to wipe himself - but can't quite figure out how to wipe the poop - the only problem is that if anyone goes in to try and help them - he waves his hand at them and says "no no - way way!!" (away) and shoos us out. LOL! What a funny boy!
Some pictures of the kids :)

Evie in Eileen's fort in the living room. :) She thought it was fun to sneak in there and out the other side...

Our indoor picnic (since it was too hot to eat outside!)
Playing in the new little pool that Grandma and Grandpa Jones got them.

Oh Canada!

Well - here I am posting from beautiful Vancouver, Brittish Columbia! Dan and I have been here for 5 days now and we have been enjoying ourselves immensly! The scenery is gorgeous and while the work is tiring - the time together has been great. The kids are all having a marvelous time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones (LOL - I'm not sure they want mommy and daddy to come back!) Hopefully they are taking pictures that I can share with you later.. speaking of which maybe I should do that too...

Dan and I got to celebrate our 8th anniversary here yesterday (in the same city that we took our honeymoom) and we spend the afternoon walking around enjoying the scenery and then we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restraunt right on the harbor. After we walked all over the penninsula on our way to Theater Under the Stars. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Techni-color Dreamcoat. The show was great and we had a lot of fun - even running into two senior missionary couples who were at the show because the lead character is in one of the wards they serve in.

Heehee - ok hopefully I will be back later with pictures!

Peaches!!

This week has been just 'peachy' LOL - BAD joke!! On Thursday we all packed up and went up to a local peach farm and spent the morning picking and eating peaches. Aaron just kept picking up peaches and taking a few bites out of them - then putting them back in the bucket! Mommy and Daddy did most of the peach picking and the kids did most of the peach eating. Either way - we came home with a whole bunch of peaches!
We then spent most of Thursday canning peaches and making peach cobbler and then after letting the rest ripen - we canned more peaches on Saturday - we are now looking forward to fresh canned peaches this year!



My mom went in for knee replacement surgery this week and came home a few days ago. I am trying my best to keep their fridge stocked (lol - I know how my dad cooks!!) And will probably spend the next couple days down there to help her out while my dad is out of town. Hopefully by then she will be a bit more mobile and comfortable.

We also went over to have dinner with some friends tonight and had a great time! The kids had a blast playing and the grown-ups enjoyed talking. Food was great- company was even better :)

All-in-all a very busy week - and it's only getting busier!

My Little Girl is Growing Up!

Dan pulled Eileen's front tooth out with pliers today.... her idea.... He would have pulled both the bottom ones - but the other one was too slippery. :) So now my sweet little girl now has a gap on the bottom half of her mouth. When did she grow up so much??


Here's her tooth in a little box I made for her. She is eagerly waiting to see what the tooth fairy brings her now.

Movie time... i hope

Well - Evie officially gets the award for being the youngest walker in our family.... She wasn't even 10 months old yet when she started walking. She is now comfortable enough to walk all the way across the room. She still crawls alot since it's still faster for her, but the tables are slowly tipping. Proof?? You want proof?? Well here it is...


So aside from Evie practicing her walking we had a busy but uneventful week. We went out on the boat where Dan worked on his 180s - it's soo cute - after anyone went out wakeboarding (regardless of skill level) Aaron would tell them when they got back in what a great job they did. Such a sweetie.

Today Aaron looked at me in church and said 'watch this mommy, watch this' he then proceeded to puff out his cheeks and then wacked himself on his cheeks with his hands. Then said "see mommy!! see mommy!!" His simple sentences and sweet words are just the cutest thing and make even his huge terrible tantrums bearable!

Anna has been growing up so much - her speech is getting more understandable and next week we will be going to a meeting to see if she will be able to go to pre-school next year. We took her to get her pictures taken since she is now a big 4 year old. She thought it was the funniest thing in the world to move after the photographer posed her.... we had a hard time getting the good shots in between the shots of her jutting her chin out or making other funny faces... Silly girl!!!


Sometimes it's easy to forget that Eileen is only 5. She is such a mature, responsible sweet girl. She is my big helper and I'm already wondering what I'm going to do with her gone at Kindergarten all day... :( She is REALLY looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa Jones visiting and talks about it in every prayer she says. She has been watching the calendar and counting down the days until they get here.

Crayons

Eileen and Anna love to color and draw - the spend hours and use up piles of paper and boxes of crayons doing it. Eileen loves all the fun color names in her 74 crayon box so when she tells me about her drawings - she tells me what colors she used on them. Today she brought me a drawing with a bunny - and this conversation followed....

Eileen: That's cotton candy and or-child
Mommy: wait... what? You mean orchid?
Eileen: No Or-child (she runs to get the crayon) See Or-child
Mommy: no...see orchid- that kinda looks like or-child but it's pronounced orchid.
Anna: see this one mommy - what's this one called
Mommy: brown....
Anna: yeah - but what's the name of it? (holding it 2 inches from my face)
Mommy: brown....

Eileen also loves to practice her writing. She found a sticky pad and came in and asked me how to spell "you" - I told her - she left and i went back to whatever I was doing. She came back a few minutes later with these notes for Dan and I.

Credits: Summer's Eve by Nibbles Skribbles and Ruby Lane

Evie is walking all over. She can walk half way across a room now - by her self. She is soo cute and wobbly! I'm amazed - she was our latest crawler, but earliest walker. Oooo they are growing up too fast!!!