Oops, has it really been two weeks!! :P

I told myself last Sunday (when it got too late to stay up and post) that I would just post on Monday.... Now here we are at Sunday again..... oops! We've been keeping busy though! We've had water gun fights, preschool at our house, birthday parties, zoo trips and doctors appointments. I had a doctor check up last week and all's well. I'm growing just as I should be and feeling good. I pulled out maternity clothes this week to get dressed for church since nothing else really fits anymore. Eileen likes to tell me on a daily basis just how "BIIIIIIG" my tummy is getting. She is so excited. She is sure it will be a baby sister. I keep telling her, that it's not under my control and that we will find out next month. I've also been looking at pics of the other kids from when they were babies and getting excited too!

We celebrated my sisters birthday this week so the kids were very excited about getting to play with Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon and Grandpa and Grandma. They played with Sandi and Jon's dog Mojo and splashed in the pool in their clothes and got to play on the trampoline and swing set with Sandi and Jon. We put them to bed last night exhausted, but happy. :)

Other than that we have mostly just been enjoying the beautiful weather we are having. It's mostly been in the upper 70's and mid to low 80's and mostly sunny. The kids LOVE playing in the yard, riding bikes and drawing with chalk. Dan and I have mostly just trying to coax our lawn, flower bed and garden box to get green and stay green instead of dying.... (we aren't very good at this by the way....) We do have some beautiful roses, but otherwise.... So that's how we have been keeping busy!

Aaron and Easter

Well, Aaron had his 15 month check up this week. He did a great job. He hardly cried when he got his shots and he was an angel while the Doctor checked him. He is progressing normally for his age. He is a climber. He is always trying to keep up with his sisters so he is on the move. He loves to talk and sing with his sisters. It is so cute to listen to him in the back of the car singing along with his sisters. (Lalalalala) We also discovered that Aaron is truly a Jones boy. He's just little. He is in the 5th Percentile for his weight and only a bit better at 30% for his height. So our little Jones boy continues to amaze us. I for one am always amazed at how he can eat SOOO much food and still not get any bigger!!!!! :P

This Easter weekend we had some fun. We went to my Dad's ward Easter Activity. It was fun to see and chat with all the people from the ward. The kids (though they don't remember anyone) stood around shyly for a minute or two then went off and found some friends. They did a small Easter egg hunt, but my sweet girls just aren't aggressive enough. They got a grand total of 3 eggs total. The did however enjoy getting to eat more candy than they have ever eaten before and having their faces painted.

We had Grandma and Grandpa Cox up for dinner and did a small egg hunt for the kids in the back yard. (They were a bit disappointed about the Egg hunt part of Saturday) Eileen had a blast looking around and taking hints about where to look for hidden eggs. Anna loved looking and finding eggs like her big sister, but she didn't quite get it at first. At first she would go, pick up an egg, and the open it, put the candy in her basket and then drop the plastic egg back on the ground. I explained that she was supposed to put the egg in the basket and from then on she would pick up an egg, open it, put the candy in the basket and then drop the egg in too. :) Aaron was just cute! He would walk around and pick up an egg then he would want to play with that egg until Daddy convinced him to put it in the basket. Then he would go pick up another one to play with. He LOVES opening them and then trying to close them. In fact, I kept him distracted for nearly half an hour that way at church today!

We finished our Easter by watching "Finding Faith in Christ" with the kids. Eileen has really been trying to understand the idea of the atonement and resurrection recently and she really enjoyed watching the video. It was a very sweet reminder of the real reason we celebrate Easter.

Spring has Sprung!!

Well spring has mostly arrived here (with the one day exception of a freeze that killed our tomato plants...) So this week for Family Home Evening, we tried to fly a kite. I say tried because we never got it to stay up. The wind would catch it and then it would spiral to the ground. But the girls had a lot of fun with it even so! They had fun helping Dan make it too! After the kite failed, we moved to the back yard and played on the trampoline and the swing set. Dan would bounce the girls and they LOVED it! Of course that is what they want him to do every night now! Aaron during all this just watched and sat in the swing and played with mommy. But eventually he got his carefully guarded chance on the trampoline too with daddy bouncing him gently. He wasn't quite sure what to think!

We have kept our selves busy this week. Between preschool, lunch dates with friends, surprise birthday parties, baby showers, and of course General Conference, we have been going all week. We've been grateful this week for the opportunity to relax (as much as you can with 3 kids climbing all over you) and enjoy Conference.

Spring Break!!!!

This past week has been our spring break, and since Dan is a teacher, and none of the kids are in school yet, it means a nice fun week for us! We all LOVE having daddy around.

We kicked off our week by going to the grand opening of a CiCi's Pizza and waiting outside in line for free buffet passes and had a free lunch. Kids had lots of fun eating pizza and playing with the big kids (which included a few of Dan's students)

That night for Family Home Evening, we went to the near by play ground for some fun and a picnic dinner. The kids loved the idea of having peanut butter and honey sandwiches for dinner. We called some friend who lived in the area had had lots of fun eating and playing together. They are a family full of boys and Aaron just LOVED it! He also discovered the slide and he LOVES that too!!

Wednesday, we went to the mall to let the kids play and to do some Christmas Returns (yeah ok, so we're lame...) anyway, the kids had fun playing, Aaron had fun wandering and Mommy had fun picking out new shoes for Aaron.

Thursday Afternoon, we went to the park with some friends and swung on swings, played hop-scotch (on the LONGEST hop-scotch I've ever seen - over 100 numbers! Drawn in chalk of course!) climbed, screamed, slid down slides, ran in circles after eachother talked, took pictures and peed our pants - well that last one was just Anna.... But we had fun and got tired!

Friday night we met a bunch of friends from our ward at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano for another picnic dinner. Grandpa met us there and the kids had a blast running around with all their friends and eating another picnic lunch.

Saturday we spent the day down at Grandpa and Grandma's house. we went in their (heated) pool and played with Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon. We grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs and relaxed.

In between all this there have been bike rides, walks, playing in the back yard, reading stories, and the usual fun stuff.

Now we didn't just spend the whole week playing, we got some work done too. We put a tree in our front yard (a real one!) we weeded the flower bed, sprayed the lawn, cleaned the house, got our garden box ready, and Dan even managed to get some school work done!

This week Aaron also discovered the joy of climbing. He figured out how to get on the table, how to climb on the couch, and how to get at daddy's computer. But most of all he discovered ths slide in our back yard, and that he can now climb well enough to get to it. So earlier today, he climbed up the ladder and went down the slide, all by himself. Don't believe me??? Watch.

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Haha, I feel like I say this every week, but I guess that's what happens when you have kids! Monday was the usual craziness that comes when you try to take 3 small kids to the grocery store and trying to do all the laundry! Business as usual, but we always end the day tired. :)
This week was also our week for having Preschool at our house. Having 6 kids age 4 and under roaming our house is always kinda crazy, but the lesson plans this week were rather sparse, so I had 6 crazy kids and nothing to do to keep them busy! Thankfully the weather was nice on Tuesday, so we spent alot of time outside looking for signs of spring.
Wednesday we went to a potluck lunch saying goodbye to a friend of ours who is moving away this week. I have been her visiting teacher for over 2 years now and feel like I have learned so much more than I taught. She is an AMAZING person that will be missed by our family and our ward. Wednesday was also the beginning of a much needed streak of rainy days. While it's rough on the kids to have to stay inside, we are grateful for it.
Thursday was Preschool again, this time with no outdoor release because of the rain. We talked about St. Patricks Day and the color green. The kids got a kick out of making green Jello.
Friday and Saturday we were just REALLY excited to have Daddy home!!!! With wrestling over, it was nice to have him for the weekend. We made a trip to Costco and played around the house.
Sunday (which is never a day of rest when church happens during nap time!) started with bread making which the kids HAD to help with. Then of course choir and church and home teaching followed by a Ward Dessert Party that evening. A busy, but fun day.
The kids have also been keeping busy. Eileen loves preschool and is such a social person. She loves being around other kids and is a HUGE helper to mommy. She always tries to do what she thinks is best. Sometimes she and I disagree about what that is, but once I convince her that I am right, she is ready to help! ("I know what you are 'just' doing, but if you really want to help me, I need to do this instead") She is such a sweetie!
Anna is still working on potty training. We have been mostly accident free, but I still don't get what the problem is! The only way to keep her accident-free is to have her go potty every half hour or so. Even then, once in awhile, she has an accident. Anyway, I'm trying to be vigilint and keep her going regularly, and so the (insanity invoking) accidents have been fewer and further between.
Aaron is climbing. All over. This week he figured out how to get onto chairs, the table, and the couch. Now that he is upwardly mobile, there seems to be no keeping him on the floor.
Anyway, there you have it, not too exciting, but crazy none the less!

Impromptu trip to Austin...

We have had a crazy week! Monday morning we went with our friends, the Tolberts, to the Discovery Museum down at the Dallas Fair Park. They were having a celebration so we all got free passes to go and play! The kids had so much fun!! Mommy went nuts (too many kids, too much going on and very hard to keep track of my little ones!) but the kids LOVED it. They made crowns, made dino tracks, listened to stories, played with bubbles, played with balls, learned about our bodies, pretended to be firefighters, played in the water and the sand, checked out crazy mirrors, and learned lots of cool stuff! There was so much to do and Eileen could easily have been happy there for many more hours, but the others needed naps and food, so we stopped for lunch and then went home to recover!

With Dan being gone so much recently we had all been missing him lots and lots. So this week when the opportunity presented itself to go with him on this trip to Austin, we jumped at it. (At least we jumped at it, once we convinced Eileen that it was ok to miss a day of preschool...) So Tuesday night we decided we were going and packed up and left Wednesday morning. Dan was driving the bus, so the kids and I followed in our car. Part way down we stopped for lunch at an outlet mall, (Aaron loved shopping for clothes there...) then we arrived in Austin that afternoon. We spent an enjoyable evening playing in the hotel room and then went to IHOP for smiley face pancakes for dinner. The next day we went swimming for a bit in the morning (until the kids lips started turning blue!) then nap time (much too short of a nap time for mommy!) and in the afternoon we found a playground near by while taking a walk. That evening the whole group (school kids and all) went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner and Dan let the girls ride on the bus. They LOVED it! They were so excited, and Eileen kept saying how she sat next to one of the kids. (She didn't, she sat next to one of the other teachers) Dan ordered a crab bucket and Eileen HATED the crab! It scared her! As soon as dinner arrived and we could eat I took the kids back for bed since they were rather tired and cranky! The next morning, we went to a nearby mall to get the kids wiggles out before strapping them into a car for hours. Eileen asked as we headed back to the hotel for lunch if she could watch TV during lunch again (we had brought bread and peanut butter and had been feeding the kids that for lunches) she wanted to watch Dora again. She wanted to watch the same episode that she had seen the day before. I had to explain to her how TV works, that it has different shows all the time. I love that she needed that explained to her, because it means she doesn't watch TV much! (I guess it's hard when we don't get any channels...) Anyway, we had fun, got exhausted and Anna peed in all her clothes, but we got to see daddy and do something different, and that made it all worth it.

The Zoo and beyond....

Wednesday we went with our friends the Alcalas to the zoo. Evan is 4, Sydney is 2 and Isaac is not yet 1. We all had a great time. We saw lots of animals and tried lots of things. We checked out the Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, Primates, Kangaroos and much more! We went to the kids area and played in the water, climbed on everything and petted animals. It was a gorgeous day! It was sunny and warm and perfect for a day at the zoo! We ended the day with a ride on the carousel where the kids has a blast (except Sydney) :( And the moms got a bit dizzy! Either way, the day was a success! (a success meaning, we all had fun, we all got tired and we came home and napped, and Mom didn't go insane!)

The rest of the week has been crazy! Dan left early on Thursday to go down to Austin for Wrestling State competition. The kids missed him lots (well for that matter, so did I) until he got back on Sunday afternoon. We had stake conference this morning and thankfully we were able to sit near friends who were very helpful and thoughtful (THANK YOU Gillian!!!!) and the kids managed to make it through 2 hours with mom only going slightly crazy! :) Either way, it was nice to have a Sunday where the kids got naps. So we survived the weekend with no daddy and while we aren't looking forward to doing it again next weekend, we know we can make it through.

Night Out

Dan got coupons for free cards for a new place near our house called Main Event. The coupons were for the type of games that you would find at a place like Chuck E Cheeses. The kids had a great time. Watching them squeal with delight and run all over (thankfully it was mostly empty on a Tuesday Night!) from game to game! One of the funnest parts of the evening was watching Eileen play air hockey with Dan. Every time she managed to score on him she would jump up and down laughing and doing a victory jig! It was the cutest!! Anna just loved looking at everything and trying everything. She sat on this motorcycle for quite awhile and never actually played the game, she just sat there while the short advertisement video played and thought that was enough! Even Mommy and Daddy got in on the action! Finally we had used our cards and the kids went to go pick out prizes. They ended up choosing a stuffed Lion and a stuffed Tiger. Eileen calls her lion Sam. Either way, we all had a great time and enjoyed being all together.

Lessons Learned....

This week I learned some hard lessons. I think that the Lord decided that I really needed to be humbled this week. I have a wonderful family, and all too often I take them for granted and expect too much out of them.

Anna has been potty training and we had thought her mostly potty trained. But over the last couple of months she has been making it clear that she really wasn't potty trained. This week it got really bad. She was having 1-2 accidents every day! Some of them with in an hour of her last potty trip. This was making me VERY upset. Between morning (who ever thought of calling this 'morning sickness' was totally off base!!) sickness and hormones, Anna was seeing a sharp side of my temper with each accident. On Saturday I lost it with her completely, I sent her to the bathroom and told her to stay there until I said she could leave. As I steamed and stewed over this I just got my self more and more worked up until (as I was trying to get lunch ready) the though occurred to me just what I was doing. I couldn't believe my behavior and just how totally off it was from how the Savior would have me treat my little ones. Pregnancy hormones then exploded and I broke down sobbing. I went to find my sweet little accident-prone girl and apologized to her and snuggled her and loved her. Eileen saw me upset and it upset her. She also started crying and when I asked her why she was crying, she told me that she was "worried about" me. So all three of us snuggled for a while (while Aaron tried to eat his sandwich and made a HUGE mess!) and then Eileen looked up at me and said "Mommy what does 'worry' mean?" So my day got a bit better. I had a new mind set and was not so ready to snap at my kids. The problem was that all this getting my self upset had just exhausted my body. I couldn't make myself get up to do anything. When Dan got home from the wrestling tournament around 7 pm he found me curled up on the floor and the kids running amok. He sweetly took charge, got the kids bathed and to bed and got me fed so I felt a little better. This was not exactly the way he wanted to spend an evening, after spending his whole day (starting at 5 am) working and worrying about me. Later that night came self realization number two. Dan and I had a nice long talk before bed and I realized (not because of his words!) that I had been being very selfish. I had been thinking of my self and my problems and my morning sickness and not about the needs of my family. Our scripture study that night was talking about Christ's atonement and all I could think of as we read was how grateful I am for the chance to be forgiven for my mistakes. The chance that I have to wipe the slate clean and start over. I am also very grateful for loving kids and a patient husband.

Ok so the end of the drama! Other fun stuff this week. I took the Eileen and Aaron to get their pictures taken. (a little late for birthday, pictures, but hey, better late than never) Eileen just loved it! She is such a ham for the camera! She had tons of fun posing and looking pretty! Aaron was less cooperative! He didn't want to leave his mommy! And the few times we managed to get him off of me, he still wouldn't give his beautiful smiles for the camera. We did manage to get a cute shot anyway. Will show those when I get them! Until then her is them just being cute with bubbles!

Suprise!!

That's right, Dan and I are officially on number 4. After finding that my nausea didn't fade with the rest of my cold, and two months had passed since I stopped nursing Aaron, we took a test and called the doc. The ultrasound tech said that I was just over 7 weeks (last Monday) and set my due date for September 27th.

3 Stories to Tell about our week

Ok so I've got one story per child from this week.

Our first story comes from Anna. Today during church we had an intermediate hymn. As the hymn was ending Anna very loudly announced that it was time for here to go to nursery and proceeded to try and coax Dan or I to get up and take her to nursery. She was sure that this was the closing hymn and that she got to go to nursery soon. She loves nursery!!!
Our next story is from Eileen. Dan and I went out for Dinner last night. I like to get a bit dressed up for these occasions and had done so this time. As I was loading the kids into the car to go pick up the babysitter, I was leaning over Eileen to buckle her in. While leaning over her he said to me "Mommy you look very pretty! You look like a princess instead of a mommy!" WOOHOO I have achieved princess status in my daughters eyes, and really what more can you ask for! What a sweet little girl I have!!
And finally our little Aaron. During Sunday School today he started digging through my bag. He spent quite awhile digging and finally emerged triumphant with a bag of Goldfish that had been buried in there. I don't think he knew they were there, but he was very excited to find them. He squeezed it for awhile then took it to Dan as if to say "open it please" Dan pretended to not know what he wanted and pretended to put it in his pocket. Aaron grabbed it back and continued to poke at the bag and even tried to chew it open. When it became clear that he couldn't open it and that Daddy wouldn't open it, he brought it to me. I then took him outside and gave him a few. He is such a smartie!!

Quarantine Lifted

Well, we're not exactly back to normal, Aaron and I are still snuffly and sniffly, but things are much better. We even managed to get out of the house today for the first time. We went down to the library for story time and to the grocery store. Then I was spent and we had to go home! The girls were ecstatic to get out of the house. Poor kids have been getting sick of the house. At least the weather has been nice so they could play outside. The girls had some fun making cookies with Daddy the other night and Dan managed to get this hillarious picture!! This is why they love helping daddy so much! Anyway, we are almost ready to face the world again, so look out! Here we come

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.