JONES'N FOR FUN!

Last day of the month...

2011-02-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of February and if I want to keep up on my goals I had better post today! This month was pretty good. February is a hard month because of the weather and the lack of vitamin D, ya know? My boys had practically the entire month off because they were off track. I get tired of that real quick but it was super nice to have babysitters home so I could leave and go kid-less if I needed to.

We had our annual candlelight Valentines dinner with the family. That is a fun tradition that we all like a lot but it takes a lot of prep work. We had an extra yummy steak and salmon dinner with asparagus and squash. Mmmm. Chocolate dipped strawberries and cheesecake for dessert (that no one ate cause the boys had a bad cold but it is always better the next day anyways).

Charlie ate chocolate and looked darn cute doing it!

Oooh, I had a fabulous girls weekend with my best friends from high school. We stayed at the Grand America, went shopping up in Park City and stayed up late doing ZUMBA! It was a blast! I wish I had pictures to document the occasion but we were too busy to take pics I guess. I want to do duplicate the weekend with all my good friends ;) so let's get a plan going girls. I don't know who I am talking to here cause I don't think any of my friends look at this blog LOL!

I have done my duty for this month... C-YA

Goals...

2011-01-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Since it is still January we are FINALLY going to have our annual goal setting FHE tonight. I REALLY love doing this every year. There is some PoWeR in setting goals. Even just writing down the things that you want to improve/accomplish is powerful because even if you never look at those things again for the rest of the year, you are still a lot more likely to accomplish some of those things versus if you never wrote them down. Does that make sense???? Well it's a fact people. There is some kind of magic in it and I think it is cool. We haven't gotten around to goal setting yet because of the craptastic month we have had. (I think I am going to submit craptastic to Webster...it's a good one)

Crappy event #1 and only (cause this is so crappy that we only need 1) is that Clark's dad suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. He literally fell over and died. He was busy working and serving as he did every single day and when he was done, he was done for good. Paramedics were able to get his heart going and so we had three days to love him and say goodbye and make peace with the fact that this was really happening. I hate seeing my husband and kids sob. It cracks your heart in a big way. Not to mention my sweet mother in law. I really love my father in law also, and realized that he was really my second daddy. I will miss him popping up at my front door with something that we need saying "Well hello young lady!" And to my boys always "Hello young man!" I look around my home and realize that he has left a big impression that I never realized before. I see all the Christmas books that he put together every year for I don't know how long. I see a rocking horse, and multiple wood toys that he made for Charlie and several pinewood derby cars that he made for Nicholas and Ethan. I see the tile that he layed in our bathroom. I see several tools that he let us borrow and then insisted that we keep. I look outside and see the swingset he cemented for life in the backyard. I then realize he gave us the trampoline, picnic table, and big shade umbrella. He helped dig drains and put gravel on the side of our house. I look at my flower beds and remember that every spring he delivers a big pile of mulch to us. SOOO many little kindnesses. He always did what he could for us and for everybody around him. My boys will sure miss going to BYU football and basketball games with Grandpa. They got so spoiled when they went with him! He would buy them anything they looked at at those games from hats to hotdogs and dippin dots. It's hard to think that my boys won't be going on one more fishing trip to trial lake with Grandpa too. So many wonderful memories...

Alrightly, so maybe I will get to writing my goal on this here blog soon. One goal that I will write is that I want to update this thing at least once a month. I wrote it down here so there is some power in that right???

Ah...good intentions.

2010-12-14T08:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas is almost here!

On Saturday Nicholas and I went out on a little mother/son shopping day at the mall. We were NOT productive AT ALL! We were kind of selfish and only looked at stuff we wanted for ourselves and only came away with one present. BUT, we had a lot of fun and it wasn't stressful. The stress will set in at the end of this week when I realize that I only have a week left to get things done. I am determined though, to not have an overly done christmas! Here are some pics of our outing together...

At the apple store, playing/drooling over the Mac we want...

Didn't you know these hats are the latest and coolest??? Um...either did I!

Candied almonds Mmmmm!!!

Thankful for...

2010-11-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

This month is the month of Thanksgiving and I have truly never felt so thankful for so many things. Despite the surprises that life has thrown my way, I feel blessed and happy that we have had so many good experiences to balance out the not so pleasant ones. I am so thankful for the stability of the Gospel in my life. Our Heavenly Father and our Savior are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and I can always count on them. I know that there is a plan and that with faith I can make it through the roughest storms. I am SOOO thankful for my wonderful friends! I can't believe how blessed I am in this area of my life. I feel truly looked after and know that I have been sent these angels to be my friends to help me along to give support and love and acceptance. And oh I can't forget loving parents that make me want to be just like them when I grow up. How did I get these wonderful parents? They are so selfless and such an inspiration to me. I am thankful for a husband that is willing to do what needs to be done! I am thankful for his positive attitude and for all the meals that he has made this year while he has been home! Thank you Clark for being my Manny! Seriously, you are such a great dad and I am very thankful that you let me be me and you never act embarrassed of my dancing and you don't act put out if I sometimes am in and out and gone for long periods of time. I guess I had better mention that I am thankful for my children ;) Yes I love those little monsters! They make me laugh and the older ones make me a little crazy too but oh I love them! I hope that I don't cause them too much money in therapy when they grow up!

What the heck?

2010-05-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

What the heck? Why haven't I updated this thing?? I made our blog private because some stupid jerk left a rude comment. I didn't feel like it was worth it to blog anymore so I haven't. But I am over the idiocy of others and I ultimately have control over what comments get posted anyway. So, if you want to leave a mean comment, bring it on! Just don't be such a coward as to not leave the identity of who you are! Come on! I love a good confrontation...I can dish it out big time! For the rest of my sweet friends, sorry about that little rant!

So big things have been happening in the Jones family. Some big ups and some major downs but when it comes down to it we are pretty darn happy so we'll keep on keeping on. That's all you can do right?

Highlighting the ups (cause no-one wants to hear about the downs including myself)
Charlie had his number 1 birthday! WHAT? Yes it is true! Our little monster baby is one year old! Here are some pictures of his very special day...

You get to choose Charlie! Which one do you pick?? He chose blue BTW

Ahh, he is a super cute boy and we love him tons and tons! He makes our downs feel lighter and he always brings us to smiles real quick!

What else, what else...oh Clark has done some projects around the house that I have been planning for him to do for a million years or so. He finally got beadboard put up around our island in the kitchen. He did a great job and I helped a little. I painted so that is a good contribution. Now give me your opinion. To distress or not to distress.? You see, I always planned on scuffing it up and sanding it down. I love that look. But after I painted it and it was all shiny and new, Clark chickened out and told me not too. But of course, the ultimate decision is mine so I think I'm going to have to do it. You can always paint over it if it doesn't look good...right?

We also had a surprise trip to St George. It was much needed and way fun! We went with some good friends who took pity on us and who were so kind to let us crash their vacation! They knew Clark had the time off from work ;). My favorite thing was going to Zion National Park. It is one of my favorite places. We have so many good time memories at that place and I am so glad we could go and make some more! My kids love, love, love to swim so they had a blast doing that non-stop! It was Charlie's first time swimming and he loved it!

What else...Oh my Birthday! It was a fun birthday! I went out multiple times with friends but wasn't good about taking pictures, and yes I wore the same shirt on two occasions. I have the best friends who made my birthday really fun. I have lots of love for my dear friends. I am definitely blessed in that area of my life. I wish I could have celebrated with everyone. BUT Clark thinks that I celebrated enough and I say NEVER! I am thankful...

Look at my my cute friends! These are my "oldest" friends in the picture above. NOT that we are OLD! (Marcee--if you ever look at this blog don't be mad that I put a picture of you on here!)

And a couple of cute pictures that I just love...

Date Night Dance

2010-03-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well the night finally came...and went...the Date Night Dance! It was SOOO fun! We all danced hard! In fact I am still sore! My neck is kinda killing me but it was worth it. We will have to do it again for sure. The chocolate fountains were so much fun and everyone brought the yummiest treats! We definitely proved that everything tastes good with chocolate on it! I am so glad that we took time to learn the Hoedown Throwdown and other line dances at aerobics. It made it a lot more fun. It was like in the movies when everyone just miraculously knows the same dance. I hope everyone had as much fun as we did. I sure loved dancing with my hubby!

A little SUNSHINE!

2010-02-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened around here lately and I can't bring myself to do an update. Instead I thought that I would distract myself with some sun. I am officially sick of cold weather. Everyone knows that now is the time to start thinking about Spring and Summer! Now is the time to get ready to think about putting on a swimming suit. How do we know this? Just go to the store...the swim-suits are everywhere! If you don't get a suit now it's hard to find one that you like...With that in mind I had to snatch up some cute swim trunks with surf boards on it and a swim shirt for Charlie! Then I had to put them on him and take pictures of course. He loves the camera BTW. He gets so excited to cheese it up whenever I get it out! LOVE IT! So here is a little bit of my sunshine to brighten my day and hopefully yours!

New Years and Resolutions!

2010-01-04T11:10:00.001-08:00

HaPpY NeW YeAr! We had so much fun on New Year's Eve with great friends and great food. Throw in some illegal fireworks and you've got a great party! We won't mention how the fireworks almost killed the girls watching their BOYS have a great time blowing things up! Hahaha. It's the First Monday of the new year and you know what that means...FHE Family goal setting session. Every New year our little family takes the opportunity to set family goals. We write them down and put them up so we can remember them throughout the year. The goals range from vacations that we want to take, to helping individuals accomplish things that are important to them. We already started a family goal to read the scriptures every night NO MATTER WHAT. Even if we are on vacation, even if it's way past our bedtimes and we are so tired. We have been doing it for about 6 weeks and it has been awesome.

I wanted to list 10 things that are MY goals for the year...

#1. The Exercies goal- Exercise 6 x's per week. EVEN ON SATURDAYS!

#2. Build up my food storage

#3. With Clark (finally) finish all the projects around the house. The list is long

#4. Grow a garden

#5. Have pictures of family printed and put in books- doesn't need to be fancy!

#6. Try one new recipe a week

#7. Learn a new skill-(like sewing

#8. Be more organized- computer room, my closet, etc.

#9. Take time to enjoy my kids-especially the older ones! Take them on dates.

#10. Get away with Clark---ALONE

oh and one more which is pretty darn important...

**Work on developing my relationship with Christ!**

Sun Valley in the WINTER

2010-01-04T10:47:00.001-08:00

After Christmas we went to Sun Valley to experience the place in winter. Because it is in fact a ski resort as well as a great place to visit in the summer. It was also Nicholas' birthday on the 29th and we wanted to do something fun for his birthday. Our visit consisted of Room service, swimming in the outdoor pool, Tubing at Dollar Mountain, Room Service, Swiiming, Eating, lots of Hot Chocolate and eating some more! It was really fun. Nicholas got a new Ski outfit for his Birthday and got to Swim three time on his birthday so he was a happy kid. Charlie got bundled up too many times to count and he looked so cute with his chubby dimpled cheeks sticking out. Everyone was in love with him!

Christmas

2010-01-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

Santa came to our house, even though there were some major doubts as to His existence. These murmurings and suspicions were kept inside and not spoken aloud because the consequences of doubting Santa out loud meant a terrible repercussion...he wouldn't come! No fooling! So even though it wasn't spoken of, some of the magic was missing. There was no watching the Santa tracker from NORAD, and there wasn't the hurry to bed before Santa catches us frenzy. There was no mention of setting out cookies, and the usual letter that Santa leaves threatening, I mean encouraging, the boys to be good the upcoming year wasn't left for the boys to find Christmas morning. Sad. The bright side is that we can start anew with Charlie so at least there is that to look forward to. Christmas Eve is my favorite part of Christmas. We have an annual family Christmas party at my parents house. My sisters and brothers come if they can and we have a fantastic program! At least I think it is fantastic. I think it is something that Clark has really had to get used to. It is what Christmas is all about to me and when it has to change I don't know what I'll do! My nieces play Christmas music expertly on their violins and my sister and her girls sing and play beautiful music on the piano. My brother-in-law recites the funniest poems that I've heard every Christmas Eve since I was 4 years old! It is at these times when everyone is regaling us with their talents that I realize I pretty much suck and that I haven't taught my boys any better. So, Nicholas memorized part of the Grinch stole Christmas and recited that. It was great that he represented our family! Then the part of the night that everyone looks forward to every year...The Money game. That is what we call it. My mom wraps about 25 gifts with funny things, like dollar store games and giant candy bars. We read the night before Christmas and pass the gifts around about a million times. The object is to try to get the big prize. You see, she has money hidden in these silly gifts and there is sometimes a 20 dollar bill to be found! There are also several ones and a couple of fives. This year I got the mother load! Ah it was great! Christmas day was fun also. The boys got way too much as usual. I always think that they are going to have a modest Christmas and worry that I didn't really get them anything. Then when it is all brought out from hiding, it just keeps coming and treasures are found that you have forgotten about and by the end you have this embarrassing load of presents. Not only are they under the tree but they are extending far out in every direction! But of course I will not let that happen next year and either will any of you...ya right!

2009-12-16T13:31:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Too Lazy I guess

2009-12-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Oaky so It is too cold and snowy to deliver flyers, so I am not going to be including everyone in my great idea of Toys for Tots instead of neighbor gifts after all. I will save the flyer for next year and be more proactive EARLIER! So, if you don't get a neighbor gift from us just know that we love all y'all!!

Santa Baby

2009-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Tis the season oh yes it is! I am sure that everyone has their trees up and decorated but we are still in the process around here. It is taking a long time because everything I get out I have to show Charlie and then I end up taking pictures etc. Here is my favorite picture...at least from today. OOOOHHHH TOO CUTE!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We love, love, love all our wonderful friends amd neighbors. We are truly blessed that our neighbors ARE our friends. Speaking of Neighbors and friends...for anyone who reads this, and I know that there are so many ;), we are trying to get our neighors to participate in a Toys for Tots drive INSTEAD of doing neighbor gifts. More info to come...we are making flyers etc. We thought it would be nice to focus our energy on something to show our kids a little bit more CHRISTmas spirit. Next FHE we are going to shop for a toy and then we will collect toys for everyone to donate. Not necessarily on Monday but by the 19th or so. I know that there are some very crafty neighbors who do such fun neighbor gifts (myself included of course...j/k,) and people may already have plans or have purchased things and that is great. Love all y'all who are prepared! But for anyone that wants to participate, please do!! We will bring a flyer around most likely tomorrow (Saturday). I wanted to have them out by the 1st but...I hurt my back and haven't done much of anything this week.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

You've come a long way baby!

2009-10-23T12:06:00.001-07:00

Today my little Charlie is 6 months old! Where has the time gone? We' have definitely come a long way in 6 months! Charlie is the best part of all of our days around here. We all seem to live to make him smile and laugh. I don't know what we did for entertainment before he came along. Look at this cute smile! He has two teeth already, but I can't seem to get a picture of them darnit.

leetle bit more on Sun Valley

2009-09-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

So a little bit more about our trip to Sun Valley... It was sooo much fun! We filled all our time with lots of activities and had such a great time. We want to make it a tradition to go on Labor Day because they have so many fun things going on. My favorite thing was the ice show. It was amazing. I had a perma-grin the whole time. Ethan's favorite part was a really fancy Sunday brunch. He likes all things ritzy. Here are just a few pics of some of the things we did.
Here is Clark with a Viper, I think...Ha ha I am such a girl! They had a car auction that was really fun to watch! Next year we are going to bring $10,000 and see what we can pick up...ya right! Ethan was shopping for the car he wants to pick his prom date up in. He kept asking if he looked good next to every car. It was funny.

We all went horseback riding, all of us except for Charlie that is. Clark and I took turns taking the boys. It was really fun but a killer to the knees! It was the boys first time riding and they acted like old pros. This is Nicholas on Truman. They teased Nicholas that his horse's nickname was the "widow-maker"...ya, I don't think so. He was sleeping when Nicholas climbed up on him!

Here's Ethan and Clark coming in from their ride. I am not posting the picture of me on a horse because you might mistake it for a picture of a cow riding a horse! Seriously Clark took THE most unflattering picture of me from behind twisting in a weird way...anyway, nobody wants to see that!

Here are all of our cute boys in the Lodge lobby...This was right after the boys got in a tug a war with Charlie as the rope! They were fighting over who got to hold him. Luckily this was the end result.

And here is our one family picture outside the Lodge. Fun times!

Leaving Sun Valley

2009-09-07T09:21:00.001-07:00

Wrapping up with breakfast at Gretchen's… Be home in abt 5 hrs! Bummer… We had a great time with swimming, horseback rides, more swimming, & some tasty food. I'll let Jana tell y'all more, but back in a bit!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Ethan's going horseback riding for his first time

2009-09-06T11:57:00.001-07:00

Ethan's getting to know Gus, his trusty steed…

-- Posted from my iPhone

Sun Valley

2009-09-05T20:16:00.001-07:00

Little kids at the ice skating show at Sun Valley. It's hilarious!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Our new car

2009-09-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here's Nicholas standing in front of our new car and a pic of the dash… I wish!!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Random stuff

2009-08-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is just way cute!

This is just way gross...

And this is just way cute too!

K- there are some pictures. I don't update my blog very often because it just takes too long to type with one hand while holding a baby with the other. I have tried a number of times and gave up. The said baby is sleeping for the next couple seconds so I will try to actually post this time.

Random thoughts that are coming to me are...I just read a really good book for book club. Jill Rudman's pick and I have to say it was really good. I am pretty sure that I am going to make it required reading for both my older boys. It is called: Little Britches- My Father and I were Ranchers. (I think that is the name). Can't wait to discuss tomorrow night!

I really like year round school for the fact that I am school shopping for them at totally different times then the rest of the world is school shopping. We don't have to deal with massive crowds when traditional school starts. Seriously, have you been to the mall lately?! The shoes stores alone are crazy crowded. I also like that I really don't feel the need to do a major wardrobe update before school starts because they are really always going school, so we don't have to worry about a big haul of new stuff all at once.

I really love my neighbors! I love that we can ask for help and know that we are not putting any one out...too bad. And vice versa I hope.

I also like that everyone keeps giving me their $5.00 off coupons for Similac and also their samples that they get in the mail! Awesome and SO nice!

Alright my seconds are up...he's awake!

Shark Bait or Boo?

2009-07-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

I can't decide if this is "Shark Bait Ooh Haha" or Boo from Monsters, Inc...

School starts

2009-07-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

School started this week! Nicholas and Ethan are in the 4th and 5th grade? What's that you say? My kids are how old?? I AM HOW OLD?! That's right we are all aging very rapidly around here. I am consoled by the fact that every one else is aging too... Anyway, they had a great first week! Who wouldn't when you get 2 early out days and a three day weekend? I only wish that the excitement would last the entire year. There is nothing more exciting then starting fresh! Also, here are some more pictures of Charlie. 12 days post-op and he is looking amazing.

4 days after surgery

2009-07-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here is Mr. Cutey Patutey four days after surgery! Looking good and happy! Darn those stupid arm restraints! Every kid that sees Charlie asks, "what happened to his arms?" I say, "Nothing happened to his arms, why?" Nothing did happen to his arms they just look like they are broken and in casts is all...

More on the surgery

2009-07-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

I never posted about our experience in the hospital for Charlie's surgery. It was quite the crappy day as Clark stated...Charlie was so happy when he woke up and was so unbelieveably good before surgery. He had to fast, so I was really worried that he would be screaming wanting to eat but, miraculously, he was calm and content. I know that we were blessed! The surgery went great and the hardest thing about it was seeing him in the recovery room. There is nothing anyone can say that can prepare you for that moment. It is the most heartbreaking moment of my life and I felt completely helpless. I couldn't comfort him, he was soo upset and I could hardly speak because I was so overcome with emotion. I calmed down and when Clark got to see him he felt the same way. I looked over at him and he had tears streaming down his cheeks. I have got to say that I have only seen Clark cry 2 or 3 times since I have known him. When I saw him I lost it for the next hour. But then things calmed down and Charlie ate like nothing was wrong and we did really well. I hope that I never have to see one of my kids in the hospital again! We are soooo glad that it is over with!! Here are some pictures of before and right after.

Post-Op Charlie

2009-07-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

Wow... What a crappy day! The poor boy woke up so stinkin' happy this morning, had no idea what was in store! He (and we!) are doing much better now and should be home tomorrow morning. The surgery actually went extremely well and we are grateful for Dr. Morales' skill. He's dealing with the pain & discomfort super well and just being a trooper. He tries to smile & it's cute & sad at the same time :)

-- Post From My iPhone

At the hospital...

2009-07-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

Well, here we are at the hospital! Everything so far has been fairly non-eventful. Charlie slept right up until the docs came to take him back. His surgery was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. but didn't go back until a half hour later. Jana did better than I thought she would handing Charlie over to the doctor! We're in the waiting room now, but here are some pics pre-surgery...

-- Post From My iPhone

Ashlee?!? Ashlee Johnson!?!

2009-07-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a pic or two of crazy Ashlee Johnson at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night. We got her off the saddle before it got too out of control ;) Happy Birthday on Tuesday, Ashlee!!

-- Post From My iPhone

Charlie's blessing

2009-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Charlie Stephen was blessed yesterday and it was really a great day! We had a lot of family and friends come. In fact, I think they took up more than half of the congregation. There weren't a lot of our ward there, due to the holiday I guess. It was really nice. We are so blessed to have so many people come and support our family. We had a yummy brunch afterwards with really yummy fattening food! Just what I need I tell ya!
Here are some pictures with the uncles and Grandpa Charlie and Grandpa Stephen. I love this picture, it is everyone that stood in the circle when he was blessed. The other picture is taken with my sweet mother and then there is an exhausted baby Charlie. It's hard work being the center of attention!

Pretty BRIDE-al shower

2009-07-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

For the 4th celebration I helped give a bridal shower for my adorable neice Cassie! It was a family shower and it was super fun! Here are some pictures from the shower. We especially had a great time making veils. I also had to take a picture of this towel cake that I made...isn't is the cutest thing?? But not as cute as the Bride!

Ode to Dad

2009-06-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

SO, Father's day is this sunday and I just wanted to pay tribute to the dad in our home. My loverly husband Clark. He is THE best dad ever in my opinion. It is so, so fun to see him as a new dad again after almost 9 years. Every day when he comes home from work he goes straight for Charlie and they rock, listen to music, coo at eachother and eat and sleep together...

Thanks for being such a great dad! We all love you SOOOO!

BTW my friend Shellee came by a week or so ago and took some awesome pictures of Charlie. You can check out some of them on her blog. Just look to your right and click on photography by Shellee. Go ahead! take a look...right now! You know you want to! You'll be glad you did...

He did it!

2009-06-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I don't have a picture because that would be too hard to do. I had to work hard at it and a camera would just get in the way. What am I talking about?! Charlie smiled! He did it! Charlie smiled long and hard and it was SOOOO cute! I can't believe how much a true smile totally transforms a face! I had tears streaming down my face, it was awesome! I called Clark right away to tell him and as I was telling him Charlie smiled some more and even laughed a little. Clark heard it and boy, was he jealous as all of you should be! So, to my mother and to Missy Fox who thought they were going to get him to smile at them first, I officially am sticking my tongue out at you...neener neener! I just want to say...He likes me, he really likes me, and it is all worth it!

2009-06-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in awhile. My life is pretty much keeping Charlie alive and happy. I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair with a baby attached to me. Clark told me today that he thinks Charlie is high maintainance...what?! Of course he is! he is a 5 1/2 week old baby. He still thinks he is higher maintainance than the others...he just doesn't remember I think. And I don't like him saying that about my baby!
This boy loves to suck on...anything. In real life this binkie isn't this big! I don't know what it is about the camera that makes it look bigger than he is.
Aaww, what a peaceful little guy...for a few minutes anyway.
This was taken on Mother's day. These are my boys with their second cousins, my neice Shelly's boys. They are also Jones boys. So here are all the Jones boys! Now she just needs one more boy to make things even.

2009-05-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

If sleeping positions are hereditary, he must get this from Jana...

2009-05-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's funny to me how much we are pre-programmed to do certain things, like stretch! Why do we stretch? Because it feels good! This kid is the best stretcher. You pick him up after a little nap and he does this seemingly back-breaking contortion, but when he's done, you can tell that it felt sooooooooo good! Not only do I wish I could stretch like that, I also wish I looked as cute doing it. For some reason, I'm thinking that my face would communicate extreme pain & discomfort...

Our Nip Tuck boy...What a Cutie!!

2009-04-25T15:07:00.001-07:00

Here is Charlie! He is THE sweetest little thing ever! He is so awesome! His breath is like heaven! We all just adore him! He is a handsome boy and will be even more so with a little nip tuck. It's hard to tell from the picture but his little cleft is really minor and doesn't affect his palate or anything else.

Here is his favortie frog pose. his little feet are curled up like a frog. SO CUTE!

Here is our little guy waiting to come home at nearly 9:00 pm last night! Mom was determined not to spend another night in the hospital. We had to wait until Charlie ate one more time before they would let us leave...easier said than done! This little guy likes to sleep and wouldn't wake up!! We finally did make it though. Thank Goodness!

Baby Charlie Stephen Jones is here!

2009-04-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Baby Charlie is finally here! He was 7 lbs 9 0z and 20 inches long, born at approximately 11:45-ish a.m. on 4/23/09. It was an eventful day, starting from the minute we got to the hospital. We tried to use the elevators & they didn't work... Jana wanted to use the stairs, so we got up to the 2nd floor, and the door was locked! A nurse came out but let the door shut behind her and couldn't get back in. Turns out there was a Code Pink! Code Pink is when someone tries to steal a baby!!! Turns out, the babies have a wristband that shuts down the elevators & locks the doors if they get too close. A nurse passed too close to the elevators with a baby and locked down the floor.

As you can see, Jana & Charlie are both doing well. Charlie has a very little cleft lip, but he's freakin' awesome. He has all his arms, legs, fingers, toes, eyes, nose, & boy parts; everything is exactly where it should be.

There'll be more pics to come over the next little while, but Jana & Charlie are doing great!!

Pregnant still...

2009-04-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Whew, our anniversary is still in tact...no new birthday to displace it from future celebrations! But now I am ready baby. Feel free to come anytime! I was up most of the night with PAINFUL contractions and I was positive that we would be on our way to the hospital this morning. But just as the sun began to rise...they stopped...completely! What the? What was the point of no sleep? Is this natures way of getting me even more prepared for sleepless nights? I believe so. I will try not to complain. If not before, than the bean will be coming on Thursday! Hurray!

12 Years!!

2009-04-17T12:02:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is our 12 year Anniversary! This is us when we were younger, skinnier, and into Doc Martins. This is Clark and I as we emerged from the Bountiful Temple as babies, I mean a married couple. Can I just ask my younger self, What is on your head?!? Oh how I wish that I could do some of the wedding stuff again. I swear that I have better taste now. But then I would just feel the same as I do now in another 12 years. So, I know it is corny to pay tribute to your spouse on your blog...but hey everybody does it right? Clark is seriously the best husband ever! He is sooo patient and good to me it is unreal. I have a new found appreciation for him all the time. Especially through this pregnancy. He does everything for me, he never complains (ex. that I don't make dinner) and he really does all the things I ask him to do without making me feel like I am putting him out in the slightest. I am really lucky and I know it!! Happy Anniversary Sweets!

K- so the baby better not be born tomorrow or our anniversary will fade away and be taken over by a birthday and I don't like to share!

Charlie

2009-03-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Wow! 3 posts in 2 days! What is going on? I just wanted to show off the cute letters I just made for our new addition. I forget how fun it is to do a good project.

Update on Love thy Neighbors?...

2009-03-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

I love the police! They are my heroes! After going crazy and not being able to take it anymore I called and made a noise complaint around midnight. The police showed up and 2 hours later, after rounding up who knows how many people and finding drugs, underage drinking etc, people were arrested! I am so glad that I called the police! I will never hesitate to call again. So beware all you party-ers out there...This is not the place for you!

Love thy neighbors?

2009-03-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

So it is late at night and my husband is on a trip and I have no one to vent to so I am posting a complaint about my back door idiots...I mean neighbors. They are a bunch of guys (6 or 7), who play in a band and practice twice everyday and drive me insane! I have been pretty nice about it I think. I mean I haven't hated them or anything. They keep to themselves after all. I have just been sooo annoyed and wonder why oh why do they live in our nice neighborhood? And why oh why does the owner rent his house to them? But tonight...I am trying to hold myself back from marching over and banging on all their windows and doors and telling them what inconsiderate jerks they are. Do you think that a crazy pregnant woman who can't sleep would scare them? I have rushed out of my back door three times to do just that and then stopped myself only because I know that Clark would not be pleased to hear about it. They are playing some rap crap with all their windows open and I have had it! It is seriously like they are in my house it is so loud. To all of the other neighbors surrounding me that I love, I want to apologize that I just screamed out into the night at them... at the top of my lungs. I hope that I didn't scare anyone but I am trying to sleep and I couldn't take it anymore! They have made me contribute to the madness. Where is officer Johnson when I need him?!?

Wishing for Spring!

2009-03-05T08:01:00.001-08:00

Oh how I hate to wake up to snow...again! I am so wishing that the weather would change for good! I changed our family picture to a lovely scene of last summer when everything was green and warm! This is my inspiration for today. It will one day be warm again...I just know it!

2009-02-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

For Valentines day we had our 2nd annual family candlelight dinner. The boys REALLY enjoy doing this and we'll keep the tradition going as long as they are still interested. Here is a picture of the beloved heart cheesecake. Beloved by Clark and Nicholas. Nicholas is pretty obsessed with cheesecake.

My laugh of the day!

2009-01-05T12:56:00.001-08:00

So, my sweet boys went out to shovel the driveway and sidewalks and I took some pictures from the window. Nicholas was shoveling and slipped and went all the way DOWN! I caught it with my new trusty camera! Way to go camera! I laughed so hard! Nicholas is a good sport and was laughing too. Wish you all could have been there to see it...we all need to laugh that hard! On another note...they are now shoveling the neighbors driveway. Ah...what good boys!

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

2009-01-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Nicholas had a birthday on December 29th. We decided that since he seems to get jipped on his birthday (because it's right after Christmas and everyone is always away visiting family so he doesn't get a real party), that we would do something special for him. We stayed at The Grand America. The boys had THE best time! Here is Nicholas after swimming and eating room service, in his robe and slippers on his bed.

Just a quickie...

2008-12-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

I had to share this... I saw it on Facebook and it needs to be passed along!! Remember the Muppets?

Pink or Blue? I smell a contest!!

2008-12-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

What are your guesses? In fact, maybe we ought to start a little contest here to guess gender, weight, length, & due date! I think it's a great idea!! So, for those of you that glance your way over here from time to time, add a comment w/ your guesses. The person that gets the closest guess to all 4 will win something really outstanding from us. Like, how about you get to change a couple of really bad diapers? Or maybe a 3 a.m. wake-up call to come rock him back to sleep? Or babysitting him for the first time? I can hear the voice in your head now, "What? That's not a prize. I don't want to rock him back to sleep! Wait a minute, did I read that right? He just said 'him'! Was that really what they're having or were they just picking a gender for the sake of not having to say 'it'?!? I think he actually might have slipped up and told us the gender!!"

Yes. It's true. IT'S A BOY (I did it small so it didin't jump off the page at you all!!)!! I'll let Jana elaborate a little bit more (she did below this posting), but suffice it to say that we were both pretty sure that the news we received from the ultrasound tech wouldn't be a surprise, and we were right. By yesterday morning we were both fairly certain that another boy would be joining our family, and almost as soon as the tech put the jelly spreader on Jana's belly, there it was! Definitely a boy... and BTW, it doesn't look anything like that baby in the upper right corner of this page. Ours looks more like a black and white blob, almost like a Rorschach test, with little bits of grey sprinkled in.

It's a baby ???

2008-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you who follow this blog (Is there anyone?) We did indeed find out the gender of the bean...We are way excited to announce that we will be welcoming another BOY! What?! Not what anyone thought it would be. I thought the bean was a boy lately and yes, there is no doubt about it! My Mom was the most excited. When I told her she shouted and laughed and was so excited that it made me feel really good. I think the boys are happy. Nicholas is really fine with any baby as long as there is a baby and Ethan says it's great but less enthusiastically. But it will be great. We got lots of cute pictures but I'm too lazy to put them on right now...maybe Clark will later. Oh, and most importantly, everything about the bean looks good and right on schedule!

Surprise!

2008-12-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

Surprise this is Not Clark and I have changed the background without his permission. (That's not to say that I need his permission.) Is this background manly enough for Clark to continue blogging? I think so. So, the main reason that I haven't been posting is because I have no visuals to go along with my ramblings. Our camera is broken...so hint hint, (Clark) that would be a good gift for Christmas. I think that as a girl you need some visual proof of an event otherwise there is nothing to write about. Did it actually happen? There have been many fabulous moments I have wanted to preserve over the last few months too...Like Halloween and the sinful;) Twilight movie that I went to with some fun friends from my ward and a lot of other very important events that are now forgotten because we don't have a camera so I can't remember what they are. Maybe that is because my brain has shrunk since I have been incubating the bean. Most definitely that is the reason! I am so so so excited about the bean BTW! We hopefully will find out on December 11th what we are having. Everyone wants us to have a girl including Nicholas, Ethan and me. (and Clark too I think) Of course we will take what we can get, but we would like to even out the hormones in this house just a little bit. Immediately my mind jumps to the thought "be careful what you wish for". I think it might be fun NOT to find out what we are having but Clark says no way. Instead he is opting for us knowing and not telling anyone else. I don't know how well that would be received though, any thoughts? Okay this is the post about nothing so I'll end there with one more note:

Happy Birthday to my Brother Kenny today! How old are you today? You must be ancient by now right? I can say that because I am by far the youngest in my family!

A shotgun weekend...

2008-11-17T10:10:00.001-08:00

At my work, we do a lot of business with OC Tanner. Our sales guy invited me to a pheasant club last Friday, with some of his other clients, to go on a pheasant hunt. Since we've already established that I'm a manly-man and don't believe in blogging, taking Twilight quizzes (I'm a Jasper, btw...), or buying sweaters for myself at the Gateway, I'm not too ashamed to tell you that this was my first pheasant hunt. In fact, I bought my shotgun a week before the hunt and loaded it for the first time just a couple of hours before I shot my first bird. I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to hit anything, but as you can see, it all worked out ok. Nicholas thought it was the coolest thing ever, Ethan didn't want anything to do w/ the birds. I ended up taking them w/ me on a campout w/ the scouts and having them for dinner that night. In case any of you need to know a quick & effective way to clean the birds, let me know! It involves stepping on the wings & pulling the legs... ;)

Sheesh...

2008-11-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

President Obama & the Utes beat TCU... is there any reason to go on?!? Surely these must be signs of the end of the world! No, I'm only kidding... (kind of!)

While I am disappointed that my candidates (McCain & Palin, for those of you don't know me) aren't going to be in the White House come Jan. 20th, I fully support the process and the office of the President. I've been telling the boys for months that if Obama wins, we're moving to Taiwan! So on the morning after the election, the boys were asking Jana if we really were going to move and if Obama was going to take away our guns... (with sarcasm) I have no idea where they got that idea!! ;)

Other than that, what else is going on... Halloween was kinda weird. I mean, I know by nature Halloween should be weird, but come on... 70 degrees, a warm rain & mosquitoes?!? A week or two before that, we had 6 inches of snow! A few days after Halloween, more snow!! I went out w/ the boys & Josh Peterson, and I gotta say, they did an excellent job of canvassing the neighborhood. This was the first year that we got around the entire Perry Homes subdivision. They had a great time... Jana sat on the porch handing out candy, and then sent Ethan over to dance on Ken Hargis' lawn. He puts his speakers in the window, plays disco music, & makes funny comments over the mic. I see a karaoke competition coming up at our next neighborhood BBQ!!

Jana's doing well w/ the baby thing. No throwing up so far! There have been some close calls though. Typically when I'm going over train tracks, making left turns, making right turns, going straight, going slow, going fast, breathing, existing, etc. Pretty much anything and nothing can cause a wave of nausea and cause Jana to put out her arms, close her eyes, breathe deeply and say, "Stop [insert any action/activity]! It's making me sick..." In fact, we were coming home from Highland a few weeks ago and I decided that I needed to clean the windshield. Jana was asleep in the front seat. I pulled the windshield-wiper-stick-thingy to pump out some fluid, and as the wipers jumped across the windshield, it made an awful, scary noise. It scared Jana so badly, in fact, I'm still trying to find an animal noise that compares to the sound that came out of her, but scared her right in to nausea. Oops... my bad. Anyway, overall Jana's doing great!

Eight years later...

2008-10-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it's time to annouce that we will soon be back in diapers. No, I haven't become incontinent. We're jumping back into the baby thing! Nick is nearly 10, Ethan is 8, and come end of April-beginning of May we'll have #3 joining us. In fact, the baby should be arriving about a week after I run the half marathon. If we time it right, I could be recuperating in a bed right next to Jana... ;)

There'll be more posted on this topic a little later. I'm in Tulsa tonight, just working on some work stuff & thought I better update our family blog. But that brings me to something that's got me a little... um, perplexed:

Why, out of all of the people we know (that have blogs), WHY AM I THE ONLY GUY POSTING STUFF?!? I look around at all of our friends & neighbors blogs, and I'll be danged! Everyone else's blogs are being maintained/updated by the wife/mom/master of the house... Now, please don't misinterpret my confusion. I'm not at all suggesting that this should be Jana's thing & she should be the one posting & keeping everyone informed. Ah, here's the perfect analogy:

Let's pretend I'm at The Gateway, walking around by myself, just doing a little window shopping. Stopping at a store window front, I see a sweater that I really like. I enter the store, go over to the sweater table-thing, and start holding up various colors to see which one looks the best (remember, we're pretending. In real life, I just grab whatever color I think is my size, buy it, go home, try it on, it doesn't fit, jump back in the car, return to store, return sweater. Repeat 3 times...). I select a sweater in a navy blue, and proceed to the changing room to try it on. As I'm sitting there, waiting for a room to become available, I finally start to look around and take notice of my environment. "Wait a minute...", I think to myself. "Why do I feel so immasculated all of a sudden?" I ponder. GASP!!! I'M IN A WOMENS CLOTHING STORE!!! Running out, with my head pulled back into my shirt like a turtle, I run for the door, however a little confused because I really liked that sweater!

Do you see what I mean? Anyway, I've decided that, you know what, I like this blog thing! I'm going to embrace it, but don't be surprised if I tell a random story about guns or beef jerky or big engines or some other manly topic. And I'll DEFINITELY be encouraging Jana to take the lead on our blog!!

NObama!

2008-10-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

It probably won't matter much, but I've got to vent. After watching the VP debate and reading the anti-Palin articles that followed, I decided there wasn't enough anti-Biden. Believe me, its well-deserved! The dang media is so liberal that its a pretty safe bet that you won't hear this on any of the major news outlets.

I know it's a lot to read, but I'm trying to eliminate some misinformation. Here are some false statements Biden made in the debate and the truth:

BIDEN: Complained about "economic policies of the last eight years" that led to "excessive deregulation."

THE FACTS: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation that liberal groups are blaming for part of the financial crisis. The law allowed Wall Street investment banks to create the kind of mortgage-related securities at the core of the problem now. The law was widely backed by Republicans as well as by Democratic President Clinton, who argues it has stopped the crisis today from being worse.

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BIDEN: Warned that Republican presidential candidate John McCain's $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health coverage "will go straight to the insurance company."

THE FACTS: Of course it would, because it's meant to pay for insurance. That's like saying money for a car loan will go straight to the car dealer.

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BIDEN: Said McCain supports tax breaks for oil companies, and "wants to give them another $4 billion tax cut."

THE FACTS: Biden is repeating a favorite saw of the Obama campaign, and it's misleading. McCain supports a cut in income taxes for all corporations, and doesn't single out any one industry for that benefit.

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BIDEN: "As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health care industry -- deregulate it and let the free market move -- like he did for the banking industry."

THE FACTS: Biden and Obama have been perpetuating this distortion of what McCain wrote in an article for the American Academy of Actuaries. McCain, laying out his health plan, only referred to deregulation when saying people should be allowed to buy health insurance across state lines. In that context, he wrote: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

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PALIN: "Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year."

BIDEN: "The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes. The vote she's referring to, John McCain voted the exact same way."

THE FACTS: The vote was on a nonbinding budget resolution that assumed that President Bush's tax cuts would expire, as scheduled, in 2011. If that actually happened, it could mean higher taxes for people making as little as about $42,000. But Obama is proposing tax increases only on the wealthy, and would cut taxes for most others. In the March 14 budget resolution supported by Obama and Biden, McCain actually did not vote.

Sinclair's "Fall Social" at Snowbird

2008-09-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Another quick one... we went to Snowbird on Saturday for a department thing for work. Every year our department has a "fall social" at some family-friendly place. Lunch & activities are paid for and we usually have a great time. This year was Snowbird, so the activities were bull-riding, alpine slide, zip line, rock wall, & tram. We had a blast and the colors were spectacular! But sheesh, what was in those burgers? It definitely had the texture of mystery meat... ewww.

2008-09-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one... Ethan wrote a book! If you weren't aware, he's kind of a Star Wars nut, so he wrote "The History of the Dark Side". I PDF'ed it for all y'all...

2008-09-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again at that mountain we know and love as Timp. A week after hiking it with the fam, we decided to take our scouts up there. They are, left to right, Nick Kennedy, Crick (yes, Crick) Spackman, me in my search & rescue/commando/tactical/survival vest, & Jason Draney. Jason's obviously not a scout (sorry Jason!), but one of the other leaders. We left Syracuse around 5:45 a.m., on the trail by 7:45 a.m., summited and back in the car exactly 8 hrs later. Yep, 15 miles in 8hrs, climbing to a stunning beautiful 11,749 feet. We had a blast...

Some of the funnier things that happened: heading up the canyon, we came around a bend and suprised a group of female joggers (prob students at the Y). Well, I guess the only really surprised one was the girl 3 feet off the road "relieving" herself. She jumped up as we passed her... sure hope she was finished... Hiking down the mountain, we were following a guy that was listening to the BYU game. Midway through the 2nd quarter, he got on this kick of yelling, "UCLA fumbled... BYU scored!" He did it 3 times!! Then, when we got back to the parking lot, we found, courtesy of our national parks finest in uniform, a parking ticket for $125!!! Wait, that's not funny... sure am glad I was the one to volunteer to drive that morning. Don't worry, Jana. I've written them a letter asking them to repaint the stripes at the parking lot AND to pretty please reduce or remove the fine.

Other than that, the only other thing to write about is Nicholas' & Ethan's football game tonight. I'm in Sun Valley right now, so I didn't get to see the game. I'll let Jana tackle that one (dang, I'm good...).

Later!!

Hiking a STEEP mountain!

2008-09-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we decided to go hike the caves at Timpanogas. We got there and got in line and the cave tours sold out to the person right in front of us! But who cares? We can still hike to the top and it will be totally worth it...right? We won't be mad at all when we finally climb the steepest trail known to man only to realize we can't partake in the only reward at the end of the steep hike...the tour of the cool caves with stalactites and everything. Did I mention the hike was steep? It was kind of a bummer to just turn around and go back, but holy cow it was beautiful up there. And it was good for my lazy behind and apparantly for my lazy calves because they are still sore. Aahh, good times...

Finally!!

2008-09-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

The Jones Family blog is up and running! After paining ourselves trying to interpret java, html, and a little pig latin, we were able to finally apply an imple-say ackground-bay. Yep, a family of rocket scientists...

For those of you that give a darn, this is as much for you as it is for us. We decided it was time to journalize (I know, it's not a word. I'm a rocket scientist, not a word-type person who knows stuff...) where was I... oh yeah, we need to get stuff down for generations and stuff. What better place than on the World Wide Web! BTW, did you know that some smart people are designing a better web that's supposed to wipe this one off the face of the earth? Yep, it's true... it's called "The Grid". Scary, huh... a world without the internet. Sure would make this blogging thing easier. Read about it here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3689881.ece

But then again, the scientists at CERN are also creating a super-collider that "might" create blackholes and wipe out our planet. This is all supposed to go live around Halloween. Oooh, scary... Again, why are we all blogging? Kidding!!

Anyway, all that aside, we, The Joneses, will do our best to keep you informed of our joys, our sorrows (ok, not really), and everything in between. Again, only for those of you that give a darn...