QUARANTINE!!!

Our house has been put under quarantine. Every single member of our family has been sick this week. It all started with Dan, who almost never gets sick. He brought it home, then Eileen got "a frog in her throat," then Anna and Aaron, and finally me. Eileen was really cute about it. You could tell she didn't feel great and that her throat was a bit congested but she just happily walked around talking about the frog in her throat. Anna also has taken it fairly well, just a bit more tired than usual. Aaron has struggled. I ended up panicking when I found his temprature at 104 on Tuesday night and took him to a Care Now since our pediatrician was closed for the day. They checked his blood oxygen levels since he was really wheezy and gave him an oxygen treatment and then sent us to the Emergency Room. During all this Dan was teaching a class and not available, so my mom came up to help with the girls while I took Aaron down to the hospital. This trip ended up being useless. We waited in the waiting room for an hour and a half before they had room for us (it was VERY busy) then they took us to a room, x-rayed his chest and sucked his nose clear. Then sent us home saying he was fine and that we should just give him baby motrim when he needed it. He also had a small infection in one ear so we were told to check up with our pediatrician in a couple of days. I should have gone there first... They were suprised that the hospital hadn't checked for RSV and suprised that they hadn't given us a nebulizer for more oxygen treatments, because our little boy was (as the doctor put it) wheezing like a choo choo train. They sent us home with a few more prescriptions and a nebulizer and he finally seems to have some energy back and isn't wheezing anymore. I really like our Pediatrician. So no big suprise that after spending 3 hours holding a baby who was coughing in my face I ended up sick also. So now we are just waiting for this to pass and hoping to survive the next week. Thankfully we have kind friends who have brought food over (since I can't stand to cook right now) and parents near by who drop their life at a moments notice to help. Now I just wish we hadn't gotten my poor mom sick too!! :( Fortunatly Dan is about back to normal and has been a huge help when he can be home. The Lord has truly blessed me with a thoughtful and caring hubby!!

Why My Kids are So funny

1. We give the kids mini pizza's and salads for dinner. Eileen eats the salad and won't touch the pizza.

2. Anna has been having gastro-intestinal issues this week, and this week she ripped a loud one in Relief Society and then mumbled "cuze me"

3. Aaron has just started walking. He takes off and wobbles 4 or 5 steps before falling. While he is walking his hands are up in the air and he is all over the place.
4. Eileen has an imaginary dog, penguin, and prince.

5 Anna loves to look at pictures and tell me what is in every picture. "Mommy, that's you!!"

6. Aaron loves to climb up on a toy train that he got for Christmas and try to get Daddy's computer.

Aaron's Checkup

Well Aaron had his one year old check up yesterday. We discovered that he is following in the grand Jones boy traditions. He is in the 25th percentile for height and 10th for weight. He is officially my smallest one year old. So now the question is, why does he feel SOOOOO big when I carry him!!!!! Picking him up feels like hefting a rock (just softer) Doc says he looks healthy and it's nothing to worry about. What Dan and I can't understand is how we can put so much food in the kid and still have him be small. The kid eats more than I do!!! Anyway, so that's it really, not too exciting, but he is healthy, happy and well loved.

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

That's right, today my baby turns 1. It's amazing how this year has flown. He is very mobile! He's taken a few steps on his own, but still prefers crawling. He loves to climb. He climbs all over chairs, stools, and people. He loves to wave and clap his hands. He eats like a bottomless pit. He smiles and the whole room lights up. He adores his sisters (which works well since they adore him too) He always wants to be where they are and do what they are doing. And that is my little boy in a nut shell (help I'm in a nutshell!!) What will the next year hold? We'll see!

Our First Marathon...

Well, we finished and we survived.... And the only reason you are going to get more information that that is because it doesn't hurt to sit or type. Now walking...that's a whole different story. :) So Wednesday morning, we (we being our family, my sister and her husband and my parents) all started out for Houston area. The drive was mostly uneventful (except a brief scare with those bumpy things on the side of the road to wake up people who are dozing at the wheel....) We made a few pit stops for Anna to go to the bathroom and a quick lunch stop, and arrived at our hotel in Huston about 4 hours later. We spent the evening getting dinner and finding a place to get some forgotten basics (aka. formula...) and then headed back to crash for a VERY early New Years Eve. I think we were all in bed and asleep before 10pm.Early the next morning those of us participating in the marathon got up and left Grandma wiht 3 screaming kids, to go to the race. We arrived cold, but ready. Some excited and some nervous. At precisely 8am the race started. I was by far the slowest person there so it was a good thing that I was only doing the half. My dad beat me....walking! My sister Sandi did awesome! She managed to keep a good steady pace for the whole thing, she beat her goal time and most amazing of all, she did it with HUGE blisters on her feet. I don't know that I would have had the strength to finish with that added pain! But my sister is amazin, she set a goal and she did it! Her husband Jon also did great! Jon's sister was also running the race and she qualified for the Boston Marathon! Dan did AMAZING! I couldn't believe how well he did (especially for not having trained very hard!) He was at the head of the pack for most of the race and in good enough spirits doing it that he suprised me with a good smack on the bum as he lapped me! In the last couple of miles he nearly dropped dead, but he still finished and made it back! My dad was a powerhouse speed walker and managed to go faster than many of the joggers, including me!! My motto was the whole "Slow and Steady" thing, just without the winning the race part! I found someone else going my pace and she and I stuck together keeping eachother going the whole 2 laps of the half marathon. I finished in just under 3 hours. After my legs ached and were all tingly, but by the time the others had finished and come in, I was doing fine. Today we are all sore, tired and waddling instead of walking, but we did it. I don't know that Dan will ever do one again, but I think I might be willing to do a half again, and maybe even a marathon one day.

So that afternoon, we headed back to the hotel and tried to crash, but what actually ended up happening is that everyone but me crashed... I was too busy being kept awake by 3 noisy, screaming kids. We then grabbed dinner and headed in for another early night. The next day, we packed up and headed home. So here I am, tired and sore, but excited to have accomplished something and glad to be back in my own bed! Although I think that the kids will miss the hotel beds....

Merry Christmas!!!!

Well we had a fun Christmas! On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story together and talked about Jesus and what Christmas means. Eileen learned "Picture a Christmas" this year in Primary and she has been singing it all month. This week she added a new verse. This new third voice goes something like this- "picture the evil mean king Herod and he wanted to cut off all the babies heads...." (They did a neat primary Christmas activity on Sunday and they had someone portraying King Herod and he was rather enthusiastic... ) :) For some reason Eileen was very curious about why and how Herod wanted to kill the babies.

So Christmas morning was also fun (aside from Aaron being sick and having a 102.4 fever) Eileen was so funny, she got so excited about everything. Anna got her stocking and found the cereal and pop tarts in the top and went to the table ready to eat, everything else forgotten! Aaron just wanted to play with all his sisters stuff! I had fun this year using up extra fabric and making Christmas presents. I made bags for the kids and put note books and colored pencils in them. We couldn't get Anna to open up anything once she found the book and colored pencils! Dan found a jump rope for the kids and the girls got very excited about that too. We went outside with them and they jumped over the rope while we held it. :)

After we had opened gifts and played for awhile, we went down to Grandma and Grandpa's house for brunch and gifts and dinner. We had lots of fun playing with Grandma Penny and Grandma and Grandpa Cox. That evening we had a yummy dinner and then went home for bed. Our wonderful day was capped off by a video call with Dan's parents from Malaysia. The kids had lots of fun talking to them and showing them some of their gifts.

The next day brought even more fun when Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon and Great Grandpa Francone showed up! It's so nice to get to see family! Life is great. Now we just need to get ourselves ready for a marathon and get poor Aaron over this cold. :( Wish us luck!! Sorry there aren't more pictures, but there are so many cute ones that this post would have ended up being a book by itself with the pictures and their explainations! Maybe I'll get more up eventually!

Our Crazy Boring Week

It's funny, but the last couple of weeks have seemed both VERY busy and very uneventful. I'm not sure how we can be so busy doing nothing interesting.... So what have we been up to? Well, I managed to survive my concert season and even managed to get well enough to cover for the soloist who lost her voice. (yep it went through the whole choir) Dan has had his usual contingent of wrestling meets and tournaments. Eileen has had preschool. I've had soccer games. We've had all our church commitments. (which some how involves more at this time of year that all the rest of the year combined-at least for me) So now, school is out, music is done, and wrestling is off for the week. Do we get to breath? Of course not, it's the holidays!! :)
The kids are growing like crazy! Aaron has been taking steps by himself. He will only do it if it is absolutely necessary and if he only has a couple of steps to go, otherwise he plops down like a rag doll and refuses to stand on his feet at all. He has taken a much more active interest in climbing, much to my dismay. We have a couple of stools in the house to help the girls reach things and help with things. Any time I leave him for a few seconds with access to one of these stools, he is up it faster than I can say "Aaron, get down from there now!!!" The problem is he looks so cute there! The other day I heard him fussing a bit and I found him in the bathroom. He had climbed the girls stool and was trying to play in the sink, but the stool had slid back and he had gotten stuck. He was suspended between the sink and the stool, holding on to the stool with just a couple of toes. For once I didn't run for the camera.... :) What a crazy little boy!!
Anna has had an obnoxious back sliding in her potty training. She has had more accidents this week than in the entire potty training process combined. I guess it's just the crazy schedule that we have been on. I was afraid when we started potty training that the holidays would cause problems, but she was ready, and I was sick of changing diapers. She is learning so much and talking so much. She loves to imitate her sister. When Eileen says something Anna repeats it. So she is leaning many new words and slowly getting easier to understand. Her sweet smile and cuddly nature warm my heart! She always wants to sit with me and be cuddled with and read to. Tonight as they were getting ready for bed Anna told Dan that she doesn't get tooth paste. (she has been caught recently eating tooth paste, so I don't leave it on the counter any more!) She is a stickler for making sure that she and everyone else are following mommy's rules... (of course this is entirely selective!)
Eileen just amazes me. The other day while she was showering, Dan went in to check on her and he found ZOO in foam bath letters on the wall. Eileen sees him and says "Z-O-O that spells zoo! See daddy I spelled zoo!" I didn't know she knew how to spell zoo! So the next day she asks me how to spell dog. So we sat there and sounded it out together. Sure enough, the next time she was in the tub, she spelled DOG on the wall. Her next word was CAT. I am just amazed that my 4 year old little girl is already starting to read and write and spell! Today at church, she sat on my lap during the Sacrament and we talked quietly about Jesus. She told me all about how Jesus was born and how he hung on the cross and how he loves little children. It was so sweet to talk to her about these beautiful stories and see her understanding.
So there is what we have been up to! Now I need to go to bed and recover from the weekend... :)

Friends

John Lennon sang "I get by with a little help from my friends." I have a greater understanding of the truth of that now. This week has been kinda crazy for us. My heavy concert season has started as has Dan's wrestling season. Our family calendar for the week was filled up for every day of the week. We knew that it would be crazy and we prepared ourselves for it. What we forgot to prepare for was everything else that would go wrong.... Last Saturday I wasn't feeling so hot, but I kinda figured it was just tired from a crazy holiday and that it would go away with a good night sleep. I was wrong. It kept getting worse, until Wednesday, I ended up having to miss the concert because I had no voice. Thursday was no better. I was feeling run ragged and tired, sick and very annoyed at an internet connection that had been out for 2 days. I called a friend that I was going to hang out with this week to apologize for my lack of communication and to say that we would have to put off our playdate on the assumption that she didn't want my cold near her 2 month old son. :) Later that day, she showed up on my doorstep with lunch. Delicious soup, bread, cheesecake and warm cookies. I don't know that I can put words to how much this lifted my spirits that day, and in the day since just remembering kindness. I am so grateful for the people that the Lord puts in our lives to lift us up when we are feeling down. I am grateful for the friends and family who have helped me "get by"

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Saturday we went to a Christmas Tree farm to get our Christmas Tree. The girls loved watching the people shake the tree and put the netting around it after we had picked it out. We all had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and the girls got a kick out of smelling the tree! So we took it home and set it up and then for FHE on Monday, we decorated. After Dan and I got the lights on, we all pulled out ornaments and started trying to hang them on the tree. Aaron mostly just pulled ornaments out and tried to eat them. Or he would pull off ones that had already been hung up and try to eat those. If those didn't work, he would just go after the tree! Oddly enough, Anna seemed to manage getting the ornaments on the tree better than Eileen. She would pull ornaments out of the box and then ask who's ornament it was. She loved looking at my old ornaments from when I was a kid. She was so funny to listen to. Eileen really struggled with getting the hooks over the branches. She too loved pulling out the ornaments and she wanted to tell everyone else where to put each ornament. So thanks to our three talented tree decoraters, we now have one beautiful Christmas tree in our house. Eileen is actually old enough this year to understand some of our talk about the real meaning of Christmas. As part of our FHE lesson, we talked about what Christmas is celebrating. We talked about how we give gifts just like the wise men gave gifts to Jesus. We told her how we give gifts to eachother to show out love for eachother. We then asked her what gifts we can give to Jesus this Christmas, what would make Jesus happy. She throught for a second then very seriously told us that Jesus wants a Littlest Pet Shop and that would make him happy. Dan and I had a hard time not cracking up, but what sweet innocence! Gotta love kids!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, we didn't have a terribly exciting Thanksgiving, but the food was really good, the company was better and really what more can you ask for! For years my mom has complained about making rolls for Thanksgiving because she thinks she doesn't make rolls well, and they aren't worth the effort. So this year, I decided to take on the challenge. I called my good friend Megan who makes VERY yummy rolls and asked her to come over to teach me how to make rolls. So today I tackled rolls. I am excited to say that they came out very yummy!! Aaron kept trying to escape up the stairs. So here are the kids hanging out on the balcony upstairs!
Also in a rare occasion, someone other than me picked up the camera, so here is a picture of me waiting for dinner! And of course, my handsome husband carving the turkey! So that was our Thanksgiving. We enjoyed the time with my parents and the chance to remember the many reasons we have to be grateful.

Potties and Pirates and Pajamas OH MY!!

Kind of an odd title, but this weekend has been an interesting one. Eileen came home from preschool on Thursday with a Pirate Costume. She was very excited about it and told me on the way home that the reason that the edges were jagged was because an alligator had tried to eat her! I think the idea was talking about pilgrims journeying to the new world, but Eileen's memories came out sounding more like Peter Pan. :)
Dan has started into wrestling season again, and as a result had had to be away a lot. When he came home with his new coach shirts, he asked Eileen if she liked his new shirt, and she said "Yes, can I have it?" Instead Dan gave her one of his old ones, and of course Anna needed one too. When she said how much she was going to miss Daddy, we told her she could just wear his shirt to help her feel better. So the girls have worn them as PJ's while Dan was away at wrestling. They just look so cute!!

Finally, our big news, we (by that I mean me) are potty training Anna. Anna ran around bottomless all morning and held it all in until after lunch when she let a little leak. (fortunately she had been confined to the kitchen so it was easy clean up) She came and told me and we rushed her to the toilet where she sat for 10 minutes before she finally let it all out in the toilet. Eileen, Aaron and I all clapped and cheered for her! I then put her in a diaper and put her down for her nap. After naps she was still dry, so I sat her on the potty and and shortly she again went in the potty! I'm so excited, we made it through the first day of potty training with out any major accidents and a couple successes. Not that she is anywhere near potty trained yet, but it's nice to have the first day go so well. Eileen was also a HUGE help, she sat i the bathroom with Anna and read books to her and brought in books for her to look at. What a sweet big sister! Aaron of course tried to get into everything, but he clapped for her when she did it!

Happy Birthday Eileen!

Today my little girl turned 4. I can't believe how much she has grown this last year. This has been a big year for her. With preshcool starting and a new brother joining the family. she has truly grown up before my eyes. We had a birthday party for her Saturday night so her Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon could be there. It was so funny to watch her open her presents. Most of them were clothes since she was in desperate need of some cool weather clothes, but she was very diplomatic about it, saying how cute each thing was. She even let Anna open some and ooh and aah for her... :) Dan had been gone all day for a bus driver training course and found a surprise when her got home...
Dan had stayed up late the night before to make a special "hot air balloon" cake "just like mommy's" for Eileen because that was the birthday cake she wanted. Unfortunately, she and Anna were unable to wait until after the party to eat some. I caught Eileen chewing some of it, and walked into the kitchen to find Anna's fingers still in it and cake all over her face, hands and the floor. They didn't get any more cake that night....

Eileen's present from Dan and I was a kid tough camera. She opened it first (that was a mistake on our part!) and wanted to play with it the rest of the night instead of opening her other presents! She spent all evening snapping pictures. It was so cute to watch. She got so excited when we showed her that she could put them on her computer!
The first thing she did when we put some on her computer was open them in Paint and color all over them! Here are a couple of pictures she took that night. I think we have a future photographer on our hands! I'm just impressed that she took pictures of what she aimed at!




A few fun facts about Eileen at 4 years old :

1. Eileen love to say "actually..." and then of course she tells us how things really are... :)
2. Eileen loves jokes. Her favorite is "knock knock" - "who's there" - "Elephant!" - "elephant who?" - "ANNA!!!!" None of her jokes make sense, but that's the funny part!
3. Eileen loves to sing. She sings everything, including how her friend Austin is 5 and is going to kindergarten next year"
4. She loves to play computer games and is VERY good at them.
5. She loves to play house and invites Mommy out to visit her at her house.
6. She loves to watch movies (maybe because she only gets to watch stuff once or twice a week) especially "Toy Story" "Bob the Builder" and "Veggie Tales"
7. Her favorite food (the one she requested for her birthday dinner) is Mac and Cheese, in any form.
We love you Eileen!!

Happy Halloween!

Well, The girls, and especially Eileen, were very excited about Halloween this year. Dan and I have been talking up Eileen's old Ladybug costume to her for a while now, so she was excited to get into it when the time finally came. She kept walking around saying "I a lady-bug!" About 4 months ago, Eileen told us that she wanted to be Jessi (From 'Toy Story') for Halloween. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy are slackers, so as of Thursday morning, she had no costume. So mommy spent Thursday morning (while Eileen was at preshcool) looking for a costume for Eileen. She had told everyone that she wanted to be a "Cow-she" so mommy went hunting and got rather frustrated... 3 hours later, I picked Eileen up and we went home. She was so excited about her costume that she wore it for the next 2 days straight.
Aaron was a chicken...literally. :) He wore Anna's old chicken costume. It barely fit, but hey, for a hour, who cares! He still looks very cute! (Of course he is very cute...so no surprise there!)The girls favorite part was getting to Trick or Treat with Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon. We walked around the neighborhood and Eileen rode her "horse" and Anna was carried by Aunt Sandi. The girls made out like bandits and we are now have plenty of candy to last us the year, and to still have enough to hand out next year!!

Our Buddy Jack

For Family Night on Monday we carved a pumpkin. Eileen was very excited about the whole thing, Anna wasn't quite sure what to make of it. While Eileen was willing to dig her hands in and pull out the pumpkin goop, Anna wanted no part in it! As you can see in the picture, she would barely touch it when forced to. Eileen had lots of fun with it. We asked her what kind of face she wanted Jack to have and she said she wanted him to have a "scary face," so Dan carved a scary face for him. Eileen has been talking all week about how scary our pumpkin is and how he is going to scare everyone. In fact it was apparently so scary that Anna refused to sit next to it so I could get a picture with all of the kids next to our pumpkin. Aaron was a whole different story. He was rather curious about what everyone was doing with the pumpkin, but once he tried it once, he had no interest in touching the goop again. What he was interested in was trying to put everything into his mouth (so what's new!!) He tried to eat the pieces of the pumpkin that were cut out (the top, eyes, nose and mouth) and when we took that away, he picked up the spoon that we had used to clean out the insides and ate that. So now, our buddy Jack is sitting on our front porch waiting for Halloween and the girls are very excited about tomorrow and wearing their costumes and going trick-or-treating! We tried on costumes today and they all look so cute!! Eileen was so excited about tomorrow that we had a hard time convincing her to take her costume off for dinner so that she wouldn't get it dirty. Have a Happy and safe Halloween everyone!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. We met Grandpa there and spent the first hour just walking around and letting the kids go where they wanted and just making sure at least one of us was following each of them! There are tons of fun things to climb on, a tractor, a train, and a truck. There are tons of painted wooden characters that the kids loved to look at, like Nemo, and Dalmations, Care Bears and Dora. Eileen went into the maze for little kids and managed to find her way out in about 15 seconds. I barely had time to walk around the maze to the end before she was on her way out. So next she attempted the bigger kid maze. (Mom was a bit worried since adults were not allowed in) She took a bit longer getting through that one, but once she did, she ran right back to the entrance and re-entered it! Anna was not interested in the mazes, but she spent a long time running around looking at everything and climbing on everything. She knew what she wanted to see and do and did not want anyone telling her where to go. After we all met back up and the girls got to have their faces painted. Eileen got a cute orange, black and white spot that was suppoesd to be Nemo, and Anna got a black pokey spot that was supposed to be a spider. I'd blame the girls for wiggling, but they sat still as stones for the ladies, so I guess they were just in a hurry with so many kids there... Anyway, after the face painting, we went over to where the hay rides were and went on the hay ride. The kids loved it, and after running almost 10 miles that morning, I was just glad to sit. After the hay ride, we went to the bounce houses and the girls bounced for awhile where the girls bounced them selves silly, then we wandered around the hay stacks and pumpkins for a bit until crankiness and fatigue drove mommy and daddy to beg to go home. After a fun filled morning, we all drove home and most of us passed out in the car on the way! Then that evening we went to celebrate Grandma Cox's birthday with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jon and Aunt Sandi. After a fun, but exhausting day, we all went to bed quickly and slept soundly! Best part was the memories made. The kids will hopfully have memories of fun times together as a family, and I have fond memories of watching them explore and learn and enjoy. And the second best part? Admission= $0 Mazes= $0 Face Painting= $0 Hay Rides= $0 Bounce House=$0 Rediscovering just how brilliant, adorable and adventurous your children are...PRICELESS!!! :)