The Jones Clan

Madison Kathleen

2011-09-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I'm a little (or A LOT) behind on posting. But I just had to announce the arrival of our sweet new little one...Madison Kathleen, AKA Maddie Kay! This precious girl was born on September 1 at 11 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. It was a very short but intense labor as I was able to live my dream of having an unmedicated labor! It wouldn't have been possible without the awesome hubby and wonderful doula, Sonia Gauthier. It was quite an experience and I'm so glad I did it. Don't know if I'd ever do it again, but we will see. ;-)

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-08-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Grammy sends gingerbread houses every year and the kids love decorating them and putting them up for display around the house.

It's been so fun having Morgan and Roy go to the same school this year. They did a fun Christmas program where they sing and sign the words to the songs.

Thanksgiving

2011-05-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

We had another small Thanksgiving in 2010. Just our little family and Roy's mom and dad. Roy tried a new turkey that I had heard about from my good friend Koosh. We used bacon to flavor the turkey and it was awesome!! And there's never anything better than the dressing we make. It was a nice laid back holiday. How thankful we are for our little family and all of our extended family members and friends! And can't forget good food to fill our bellies!

33!

2011-05-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

A Visit With Grammy and Grampy

2011-05-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

In November we were lucky to get a nice little visit with my parents. They came down for a few days and the kids loved every minute of it!

My dad was able to assist Roy some on the plane and they even took it for a spin (but just on the ground for now).

We enjoyed a nice nature walk in our backyard.

We really apprecite them taking vacation time to come see us. We don't see them near enough. Love you guys!

Halloween

2011-03-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

These pictures are opposite of the way that I would like them because I can't figure out how to switch the order on my new computer. I'm sure I, and everyone else that sees this, will survive. We had a fun Halloween. Not much more explanation needed...

Showing off some of the spoils at the end of trunk-or-treat.

He wasn't too fond of the vibrating spider.

We ran into Morgan's good friend Angel.

He isn't asleep here, the flash just made him close his eyes. But he was pretty out of it throughout the whole thing. Just laid back and enjoyed I guess.

Playing games at trunk or treat.

They got these pumkins on a field trip at a VERY large pumpkin patch at Apple Annie's in Willcox. We had a blast. They were too small to carve though so we had to get creative.

All ready for their preschool Halloween party.

This picture was mostly just to show off Morgan's hair thing and shirt. :-)

October birthdays

2011-03-17T18:29:00.001-07:00

October is a big month for us because we have 3 birthdays and Halloween. So Flory and I get honorable mention for having birthdays in October. We are back to back, the 22nd and 23rd, so sometimes we share a cake. This year she wanted German chocolate and I wanted carrot cake (a delicious recipe that you may want to have) so we got separate ones this year. Happy birthday to us!!

Ar-tist

2011-03-16T10:30:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of Morgan's drawings. We love that her pictures are starting to look like real things. So are Roy's for that matter. I'll have to post some of his first pictures later, but for now, here are some of my favorites of Morgan's...

Okay, I have to admit that this one is a little creepy, but I still love it.This is my favorite butterfly ever!
We may have a little artist on our hands. She certainly doesn't get it from me because this is how good I draw now! lol

Roy Boy is 3!!

2011-03-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

We had a real small party for Roy at home with a Spiderman theme. He had a blast!!

Grammy and Grampy Dallof sent a gift and a note and Roy was so excited that he wanted to hang the note on the wall!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

Sandrail

2011-02-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Our main highlight of September 2010 is that we went to Mesa and picked up a sandrail. It's not for us unfortunately but for Roy's brother Ben. But we get use of it while Roy does some modifications to it. We've really enjoyed it so far!

Charles n Breanne

2011-02-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

These two lovely people got married on August 14, 2010. It was a beautiful wedding and they are the cutest couple. They just fit perfectly together. Here's some pictures from the wedding events.

The lovely bride!

Roy boy was so excited after this kiss...awww!
There is almost nothing more that Morgan loves than when someone gets married because then they get to wear their "Princess dress".
I was able to capture a pretty good face here. And the fact he's wearing Morgan's crown just makes it even better.
The 5 grandkids. (There are actually 6 now!)

Marci and Brandon Park

2011-02-14T09:59:00.000-08:00

My beautiful sister married the love of her life on July 31st, 2010. She is so happy and they will get to be sealed in the temple around that same time in 2011. All of us couldn't be happier for her as she really deserves the best!! Plus Brandon has 3 girls: Emma, Grace and Sophie, so Mauz gets to be a mom and we love having 3 new neices! Here are some pictures from our trip there and the wedding...

All the girls got "Twinkle Toes". These ladies come to your house and basically paint your nails with glitter. It was a lot of fun.

My niece Hannah and sister Tami fell in love with Dallin. They held him basically all of the time which was a huge relief for me!
The best family picture we could get. We hope to get another real soon!
Mauz's friend did all of her pictures. We badly needed a Dallof family photo and she took several great ones.
She got one each of Morgan and Roy. I wish I would have thought to have her get one of Dallin so I could get all 3 framed. I sorta stole these from her website, so I'll give you a link to it in case you ever need a photographer in the Salt Lake area. She was really good... http://blog.carr iebutlerphotograp hy.c om/

Walkin down the aisle.
The ceremony
First dance
Morgan with her new cousin, Sophie
Kys caught the bouqet...that's trouble.

The beautiful cake made by my mom.
Mauz with a few of her favorite girls. I think Morgan is a bit jealous!
But then she got her own special kiss so she was happy.
We had a few days after the wedding to just relax and play.
This was the first time most of my family had seen Dallin, so it was fun to compare him with Carson. They're the two youngest grandkids and are only 3 months apart.

Sleepin by Aunt Kiki
We got to have a nice dinner at Famous Dave's with a lot of the family before we left.
We found out that Dallin really really likes limes.Kysa and Hannah insisted on calling Dallin Ducky because they said he looks like a duck. I guess I see the resemblence. :)

It was a great trip and we are sad that we haven't been able to go back since. We have had a visit from Grammy and Grampy though so that makes it a little easier. We miss them!

WAAAY Behind!!

2011-02-14T09:05:00.001-08:00

I'm going to make an attempt to catch up. I don't know why but I haven't been into the blogging spirit lately. As a result I'm about 6 months behind. Anyhow...here goes...

End of summer stuff

2010-11-26T12:50:00.000-08:00

Towards the end of the summer we were making a lot of trips out to the airport to visit Roy as he worked on the airplane. He would ride this scooter out to the automatic gate to open it for us. I think he wishes we visited more so he could ride on it more.

He gave rides to the kids on his friend Eric's four-wheeler.

He has worked hard on this beauty. I will have to make a new post later with pictures of the almost finished product!!

The 3 kiddos

We came back from a week long vacation and our yard was overgrown with weeds. All that tilling to waste!! No grass this year. Maybe we'll get some in early next year.

One of our beautiful summer sunsets.

The end of summer brings school. This year Morgan and Roy get to go to preschool together. This is them on their first day. Mixed emotions for everyone!!

4th of July

2010-09-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

I ended up having a real mild case of food poisoning on the morning of the 4th so we didn't go to the parade in Benson or any of the day activities. But in the evening I was feeling well enough to go to fireworks (and even well enough to eat some KFC), so we went to Benson for that. We always just park in the parking lot of a company where Roy's dad use to work and we sit next to our car and eat and watch and then leave. It was fun--the firework show is pretty impressive for such a little town. Morgan and Roy were both a little scared and Dallin was just shocked.

A visit 6 years past due

2010-09-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

We love this family! We were good friends with them when we lived in New Orleans. They had two kids and we had 0. Natalie and I were VT companions and Anthony and Roy had a ton of invention ideas between the two of them. 6 years, 6 kids, one airplane accident, several hurricanes and many moves later we finally got together. The Perry's came to visit us in St. David. We had a bbq and visited like we'd been hanging out every weekend for the past 6 years. It was a blast. Their 5 kids and our 3 got along so great. We've since been to their place in Gilbert and tried to get together a couple of other times as well. We hadn't realized what we'd missed! Thanks for being such great friends guys!!

I wish I'd gotten more pictures of the kids...but this is all I got. Their oldest and youngest, Brigham and Rigdon....and our youngest, Dallin. Brigham was such a little tike when we last saw them it was mind boggling to see him this old and so good with all the little ones. All of their kids were amazingly well behaved, I was impressed!

Nat and I

Another hair cut

2010-07-05T17:51:00.003-07:00

I love this kids long hair. Okay, so I admit that I let it get a little out of control, but I still love it. It just fits his boyish personality perfectly.

So I was pretty sad when I found that Morgan had taken the scissors to his hair once again and done this...

Papa had been wanting to buzz Roy's hair for the longest time, but he loves the long hair as much or more than I do and couldn't get himself to do it (plus he had no permission from yours truly). But after seeing this we had no choice but to buzz, and they were both really quite pleased about it.
Apparently the whole ordeal wore him out. He NEVER zonks out like this. It was only 6 pm, but I put him in his bed and he was out for the rest of the night!
Holding the mop :-( I do like the haircut and think it makes him look like a total stud. I just don't know if I'm ready for my little boy to turn into a little stud just yet. Grow it back out or leave it short?? Any opinions here? Most people say they like it better short, but think of it as your own boy. Would you really want him to gain a few years so quickly?

1st solids

2010-07-05T17:51:00.001-07:00

When I first gave rice cereal to Dallin he seemed to really like it. But then I waited a while before giving it to him and he wasn't quite so sure. Here he is after one feeding of rice, innocently awaiting what would come next...

Peas!!! Now doesn't that picture speak 1,000 words?! LOL!

The girl who slept in her parents bed forever

2010-07-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite songs to sing to the kids is "You'll Be in My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan. Over the past few years Roy and I have developed a new version of it in regards to our oldest.

"You'll be in our bed, yes you'll be in our bed.
From this day on, now and forever more!
You'll be in our bed, no matter what we say.
You'll be here in our bed, always. Always."

Here's Morgan in our bed as a baby.

Here she is in our bed when Roy was a baby.

Now we have baby #3, and here's Morgan in our bed with him!

I actually think it's pretty cute, and maybe I'm saying that because as of about a month ago, she is actually no longer in our bed. She wasn't there forever, just until she was 4. But hey, now she'll probably never sleep there again (other than the occasional nightmare perhaps) so I'm glad I had her there for those 4 years!

Summer 'n Stuff

2010-07-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Our summer so far has been nice. Nice meaning that we've had a good time but not been too busy. We've played in the water a lot (via the hose while watering plants), gotten the yard ready to plant grass, watched lots of movies, moved our airplane from a shop to the airport for final preparations before selling it, and relaxed a whole lot!

Getting ready to play with water.

He's ready to go help Papa with airplanes!

I got the yard all tilled and now we're ready to plant grass (although we may wait to plant til the monsoons come so it's cooler and so we don't have to water as often).

I was having such a hard time getting Dallin to sleep so I brought him outside with me while I tilled. He fell asleep in about 2 minutes, I guess he liked the noise!
My first french braids ever! It has since become my favorite summer hairdo for her....but it takes me about 20 minutes, yikes!
Roy relaxin with the kids.
The airplane is at the airport, yay! This is a big step toward finally getting rid of it (anyone want to buy a plane?).
Our big summer adventure comes in a few weeks when we drive to Utah for my sister Mauz's wedding. It should be fun, especially the drive (wink)!

The Rollover

2010-06-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

Dallin started rolling over last week. I almost caught the 2nd ever roll on camera, but as soon as he saw the camera he was more interested in it than in rolling. Figures. But this was among the first. He can only go from his back to his tummy and he gets a little upset when he's been on his tummy too long. I love it when he does the 'Superman', lifting his arms and legs up in the air so he's just on his tummy!

The 3

2010-06-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

Preschool graduation

2010-06-02T13:50:00.001-07:00

I guess it's more like 'preschool promotion' because Morgan has graduated from her first year of preschool to her 2nd year, hurray! I can't believe she actually made it. lol. They read all of the kids names and then the kids sang, "What time is it? Summer time." from one of the High School Musicals. I have an adorable video of her singing and signing the song but it's on another device and I haven't yet figured out how to get it from here to there.

We're especially excited because next year Roy gets to go with her! It's a little pricey and he's a little young (he'll go to it for 3 years!) but they're going to have a blast together and I know they'll learn a TON. And only a side note... (ha) mom will get some R & R!

Miss Morgan (her preschool nickname) waiting to get her certificate

Roy was absolutely enthralled with there performance and stayed in this spot for the whole thing. For those of you that don't know him well, that's quite a feat!

After the performance.

Morgan with her Certificate of Advancement :-)

The big #4!!

2010-06-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that our precious girl turned 4 years old on May 9th! She has been nothing but a joy to us and we are very proud of all that she has learned. She is such a smart girl and an AMAZING big sister and an INCREDIBLY good helper to her mommy. Sometimes I ask her to get me something and she will bring it to me. Then I think of something else that I need and she'll get it and bring it to me. Often it will happen 4 or 5 times and she just does it for me without complaining, and I think she actually enjoys it because she knows what a big girl she is. Oh how we love our girl and appreciate having here in our family!

The day before her birthday we had a combined party with her cousin Danielle, whose birthday is on May 10th. She and her family came down here to St. David and all the kids had such a fun time.

We had a princess themed party so we had the girls dress as princesses.

Roy wanted to dress as a princess too, but instead we dug out this adorable Indian costume that Flory made years ago for her own kids.

The girls are showing off the favorite gift of the day.

The boys in the middle of all the action.
Crystal made this adorable cake to go along with our theme.
Blowing out candles.
Grandma West and the two birthday girls.
The grandkids.
Her birthday was on a Sunday so she got to wear a pretty dress all day and in this picture she's posing with her new locket.
Opening presents.
We got a Barbie movie from the library a few weeks ago and she was so sad when we had to take it back so we got one for her and she loves it!
The kids enjoying cake...

Slacker

2010-06-02T12:52:00.001-07:00

That's what I've been when it comes to this blog. I was just thinking that most people see all of these same pictures on facebook, so is it even worth posting things twice?? But I think this is more of a journal than anything...so who cares how many people check it out. It's a fun, cute and easy way to make a history of our family. PLUS...there are a couple people not on fb who I know keep up with us here. So this post is mostly for me...so I can read it and remember to keep up on the blog!

Squiggly

2010-05-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is my most recent nickname for our youngest, Dallin. But I come up with many and often so we'll see if it sticks. I thought I'd do a post with some pictures of him because he's changing the most (plus on request from a friend). He has been a little clingy lately but other than that he has been the easiest little baby. He's quiet in the car, he sleeps through the night, and he's entertained by his siblings so mom doesn't have to attend to him ALL the time.

He's just starting to grab onto things and brings those things directly to his mouth. He's not even the slightest bit interested in doing anything but lay on his back. Once or twice he has rolled onto his side, but only on accident I think. Did I mention he's a big daddy's boy, even though his daddy loves to startle him by doing "Where's the baby? There he is!" (mimicking Diego on Ice Age perfectly). He's also already 17 lbs! I think with this one we'll be waiting for him to turn 1 to go into the forward facing carseat instead of waiting on the 20 lbs like we did with the other two. Oh, and he's such a HAPPY baby!!

Grandma Flory took the older two kids to Laveen for the day so it was just Dallin and I together all day long. One of the MANY things I decided to do was to do a photo shoot. It didn't turn out just the way I expected, but there were several cute shots...

Charles n Breanne

2010-05-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

These two lovely people got engaged a few weeks ago and we're all so thrilled!! They are so good together and we're looking forward to their wedding on August 14th.

The kids have always loved Charles so much. Enter Breanne and they are doubly enthralled. Needless to say, Charles and Breanne both put up with a lot and are so patient with our little monsters.

I Love to See the Temple

2010-05-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

We have a new temple that will be dedicated in just 3 days!! We now only get to drive an hour and a half instead of three to get to one. This makes temple trips a lot more doable with little ones. We are soooo excited and plan on going often!!!

The Gila Valley Temple

♫Happy Anniversary To Us♫

2010-05-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

On April 12th we celebrated our 7 year anniversary. We've been waiting til our anniversary to try Gracie's Station inBenson. We were pleasantly surprised by both the quality and prices. We'll be going back often. We've had quite the journey thus far and look forward to many more years together. To eternity in fact...

Easter

2010-04-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Easter Rabbit, as Morgan calls him, comes to us on Saturday. That way we get to play and have fun and save Sunday for focusing on the true the meaning of Easter, the resurrection of our Savior. Since conference was on Saturday we had a short little hunt between sessions and the kids had a great time.

I didn't want to deal with food coloring so we just put stickers on the eggs. But before I could get Roy his stickers this was what his egg looked like.

Morgan was content to put one sticker on her egg. Then she wanted to eat it.

Roy gettin ready for the hunt.

The hunt...

Thank you Easter bunny...bok bok!

Grammy and Grampy

2010-03-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

We had SOOO much fun with my parents for an entire week!! They don't get to visit often so we squoze everything in we could.

We took them to some of our favorite restaurants. This is at Magaly's, our favorite Mexican joint.

He was having a rough night!

We went to the mine in Bisbee, always a chilly 47 degrees. The kids loved riding the train!!

Morgan performed her famous I Love to See the Temple on the piano for grammy & grampy, lol. I'll have to video tape it sometime and put it on here, it's pretty hilarious!

They love bringing their pillows and blankets in the living room and 'sleeping'.

Grammy and grampy bought some bubbles for the kids so we went to the park to play with them. It was a real windy day but the kids didn't care, they had a blast.

This is defintitely a kodak moment, grampy putting on the jammies. Roy boy asked him to do in one night and then he wouldn't let anyone do it after that. Grampy actually enjoyed it I think! :)

I don't know if you can tell here, but I think this little guy may be our 1st blondie!

Our only kid free night at our favorite steak place, The Depot, in Tombstone. We had a great time.

My mom has been wanting to show us the reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos for a while, so that was the last thing we did before taking them to the airport. It was short and sweet but pretty cool. Try it if you haven't already!

The only thing we didn't get to do while they were here was go to Kartchner Caverns. Who knew they'd be booked for the entire week. They're more popular than we thought I guess! We wish my parents could visit more often, we miss them so much!! We'll be real excited when they move down here (wink wink) and we can see them all the time!

SpongeBob

2010-03-29T16:48:00.001-07:00

LOL!!!

Gum

2010-03-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

Morgan has been asking for gum for the majority of her childhood. When we would tell her she had to spit it out eventually she decided she didn't want to try it anymore. She finally decided she was ready a couple weeks ago and this was the result. I guess it was too strong because as you can see here she keeps it in her mouth for about 10 seconds.

Dallin's Blessing

2010-03-23T17:16:00.001-07:00

Our little Dallin Christopher was blessed on March 14, 2010. My parents were able to come from Utah, so that made it extra special

We got the cutest little tuxedo for Dallin. We love it but the shoulders on the jacket are huge! We got a few pictures with it on so we could have some with the full outfit. It was a lot cuter without.

Dallin with Grampy Dallof

Dallin with Grammy Dallof

4 generation photo

What a beautiful day for our precious boy!

Drifting

2010-03-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

There's no rhyme or reason to these photos, they're just some that I like.

Roy with 2 of his favorites...an orange and his "funny shirt". He and Morgan both call it that. The best part is that they don't even know it says 'funny'.

I was thinking he looked a little like Yoda in this photo, but one of my friend's suggested Shrek and I couldn't agree more!

These guys have been loving popsicles lately. I love that we have popsicle weather year-round!!

Papa helping Morgan put a necklace on. He's always helping her with stuff like this, I think it's the most adorable thing ever!

a cute one of Dallin

In this pic the kids are opposite of the norm. Roy was refusing to open his eyes. Normally he takes amazing pictures (not that he's not cute here). Morgan's eyes are actually open and she's smiling. She's a tough one to get a good picture of...her eyes are usually just half open or closed in pictures for some reason.

For example: 3 pics of Morgan in a row...
and 3 of Roy in a row...

lol.

We love to...

2010-03-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

BOWL!! Unfortunately we don't get to very often. But Ben was in town and that's what he wanted to do so we did it. We even got Roy and Flory to join us, not an easy task! We had a great time...but decided to get a refund before playing our second game because we didn't want our scores to get more pathetic than the 1st, lol. Maybe when the kids are grown we'll get on a league and perfect our skills.

The Champion V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!

Au Revoir

2010-03-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

Joseph left for the MTC on March 3rd. On the 24th he'll be on his way to Boston, MA to serve a 2 year mission for the LDS church. We are excited for him, but also a little mad at him. We love this kid so much and don't want to be without him. :) He is just such a good guy, always helping Roy with projects, helping me with the kids...and he enjoyed doing these things for us!! There's not enough I could say about him, he's not your average 19 year old kid. We'll miss him!!

These are just a few pictures of the little get together we had at our place the Sunday before he left. We had 45 family members there, but I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone.

Joseph

Lizzie, Crystal and Keith's little girl

Roy's sisters, Barbara and Crystal

Crystal and Keith

Cousins Rebecca and Jenn and Aunt Sandra

Aunt Kari and Grandma West

The Heiser's: Aubrey, Barbara, the Ed's, Desiree

Barb and Flory

Love these 2!! Charles and girlfriend Breanne

Morgan with cousin Danielle

The 'big bear' Ben

This little guy slept through the whole thing

The Jones family

My Review of Moby Wrap Baby Carrier - Sand

2010-02-23T11:59:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The design of the Moby Wrap Baby Carrier uses your entire back, as well as your shoulders, to carry the weight of your baby. Unlike other carriers, which have narrow straps or go across one shoulder, the Moby Wrap is a wide piece of fabric that is wrapped over both shoulders. It is amazingly comfor...

LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

By Mints mom of 3 from St. David, AZ (1 hour south of Tucson) on 2/23/2010

Pros: Easy Use, Stylish, Lightweight, Strong Construction, Comfortable

Cons: Warm

Best Uses: Infants, Daily Use, Newborn, Travel, Out & About

Describe Yourself: Parent of Two or More Children

I just got the Moby yesterday but have already used it a ton. I put my baby (Dallin, 2 months) in it and he falls asleep instantly! I looked at the book once for how to put it on, but now I can put it on without looking. I'm excited to try different holds with it, but I know I'm going to love it and use it for a long time! The ONLY bad thing I can say is that it gets a little warm when doing chores/exercising. But I really don't think there's any way of making the fabric thinner and having it still be as supportive. Wish I would have had it with my first two!

(legalese)

Like night and day

2010-02-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

A normal day in Roy's life

A sick day in Roy's life

I wish I had a picture of me on each of these days because they would be just as different! I would wish for him to be sick more often if the little guy weren't so miserable.

Valentine Cuties

2010-02-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day is not a real big holiday for us. But Morgan did have a party at preschool, so we took some cute pictures and I want to share them with the world!

Just got home from her school party

She's a bit mischievous, can ya tell by the look?

Spreading the love! Maybe this is why we're all sick this week?!
Our 3 Valentine's

January Reflected

2010-02-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

January has been a long one but a good one. 3 kids is quite an adjustment. I've heard that 3 is the hardest, so we are now good to have as many as our hearts desire. :) We've experienced many baby firsts, a visit from a favorite aunt, a gathering of all 5 Jones cousins, a new sunbeam, many frustrations, but mostly the enjoyment of our family growing in closeness and in numbers!

Dallin's ready for his 1st outing. We went to the park and he slept through it. Such a good baby!

My sister Mauz and I
Mauz and the older kids
Papa and his boys
The 5 Jones cousins...Dallin, Morgan, Roy, Danielle and Lizzie
We discovered that he naps best in the laundry room with the dryer on. So I moved the bassinet in there and that's where he naps!
I LOVE this picture. It's just an example of how much the kids love their baby brother!
Ready for his 1st time to church!

1st bath
1st photo as a family of 5 excluding hospital pictures. We went through many briberies to get to this point!

Christmas

2010-01-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind on our Christmas post. But that could be due to the fact that in the days following Christmas I was a little busy trying to have a baby and since then just trying to adjust to life with 3 chilluns! We had a small but very wonderful Christmas. Thanks to Grandparents on both sides the kids enjoyed it thoroughly! Grandma Flory even wrapped everything since I tripped and fell on Christmas eve and had to spend the night in the hospital so they could monitor the baby and make sure he was alright (and he was)! Here's a slideshow with all of the pictures....

We're especially thankful for the true meaning of Christmas...friends, family, and our Savior!

Dallin Christopher

2010-01-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

Our new addition is finally here!! Our baby BOY Dallin Christopher was born on December 28th at 6:38 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long! After much debate, prayer and ridicule from others, we decided to try and have him naturally even after having the previous 2 by c-section. After 24 hours and every classic intervention I was able to have him naturally!! We were so excited, especially because it opens the door for us to have the 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 kids that we've always wanted. ;-)

Morgan and Roy couldn't get enough of him when they came to see him and were very sad when they had to leave their baby brother. Since mom and baby have been home all they want to do is hold and hug and kiss him, give him his binky and help me change his diapers. They are great helpers and along with them, the best hubby ever and a houseful of family my job has been made very easy! We are so excited to be a family of 5...welcome to the world little Dallin!!

Just the 4 of us

2009-12-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving was our smallest yet. It was our first with just our little family. We were in St. David, but Roy's family drove to Albuquerque to spend some time with his brother Ben. We wanted to go but Roy boy was sick and we didn't want to deal with a 6 hour drive each way. Both Roy's and my favorite food was probably the most delicious homemade dressing that we got 6 years ago from Natalie Perry, a good friend from New Orleans. The kids favorite would have to be our 'better than homemade' bread (Rhodes).

We're so thankful for this wonderful holiday to remember all we're thankful for. Our family, friends, a roof over our heads, food on the table and especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Picture day

2009-12-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

We had fun on Morgan's picture day at preschool. I thought I would try curlers for a nice loose curl look. Ha! Her hair was no less curly than Shirley Temple's and a whole lot frizzier. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but after I got over the shock I thought it turned out pretty cute.

She loves to look all girly and done up. So once all of the pulling and twisting was over she was excited to go to school and get pictures taken (who knew they had picture day in preschool anyway?)

Roy was feeling a little left out so aunt Barbar did his hair as well. Then he was a happy camper!

Happy Birthday Papa Roy!

2009-12-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

Roy is now the big 32, yippeee!! Yes, this happened about a month ago, but I figured I better get caught up before #3 is here in about 2 weeks. He and I had a nice long date in Tucson where we caught Disney's A Christmas Carol (wouldn't recommend it), our second movie on the big screen this year. All day long he indulged on many favorite food choices as he'd been doing a serious diet for 3 weeks. He deserved and enjoyed the indulgence!!Happy 32nd Papa Son...we love you!

A precious moment

2009-12-02T13:26:00.000-08:00

We have had some sleep issues with our kids. Surprisingly Roy boy has been the easy one. He either has to be in the room completely by himself or have someone to snuggle with. Unfortunately when he snuggles with Morgan she wakes up, cries and has to spend the rest of the night sleeping in our bed or with one of us in her bed.

This particular night we heard Roy crying for a few minutes and then suddenly he calmed down. We peeked in there after a little while and this is what we found.How precious! We were quite surprised that she didn't wake up and were hopeful that maybe they could just stay together the rest of the night and comfort each other. But sure enough she woke up a little while later and in turn woke him up...so we had two crying children to deal with. These precious moments never seem to last long...but they do happen pretty often. We're grateful for them.

The Crime

2009-12-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

The perpetrator...the weapon...the victim...the crime...the outcome...our sweet little boy now looks at least 5 years older! :( He did need a haircut anyway though and at least it grows pretty fast! How could we get too mad at our little hairstylist!?

Halloween

2009-11-24T16:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm a month behind on posting. Oh well, at least I have the blog looking all Chrismassy and stuff. That's a step in the right direction eh?

Getting the little man into his costume.

The lovely Pirate Princess and Chicken Little.The happy Princess.

The sassy Princess.

Our arrival at trunk-or-treat. We LOVE trunk-or-treat!

They didn't quite get the whole maze idea. But it was still entertaining to watch them try and figure it out.One of the many games out of someone's trunk. You play the game and then get the treat.Collecting his reward.A successful night with plenty of candy (half of which got thrown away when they weren't looking)!There's nothing like eating a sucker in a chicken costume.It was a fun, low stress, short evening. That's why we love Halloween!

Pre S-C-H-O-O-L

2009-11-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

We have been anxious to get Morgan started in preschool. She's been asking about it for a while, but we couldn't really start until we got back to Arizona. We found a wonderful one in Benson that incorporates Spanish and sign language in their daily lessons. This is her first day...
She has been going for a few weeks now and she just loves it. She has already learned so much already. We are SO excited because we have been wanting her to have more stimulation then we could provide. I'm sure just like any other 3 year old she learns so fast and soaks up so much right now that we want her to learn as much as possible while she actually enjoys it! :)

Roy Boy is 2!!

2009-11-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

We celebrated this little guys birthday a couple weeks after the fact so that Papa could be there. We went to Chuck E. Cheese with just the four of us and the kids love us. Roy Aaron, you sure keep us on our toes, but there's not a more adorable boy out there! You are so precious to us, we love you son!
After several attempts at trying to throw the ball up, she figured out a way to make it a bit easier.

He followed suit of course.

Sweet Reunion

2009-11-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

October 11th was a good day. After 39 days these guys got their Papa back. Wow, I didn't realize how hard it would be to have the hubby gone for so long! We won't do that again if we have control over it. Kudos to all the wives who have to send their hubby's overseas or to the spouses who go without each other for long periods of time for any reason!

We're so glad to have you home Papa Roy...we love you!!

Lotsa time

2009-09-26T19:55:00.001-07:00

The kids and I have been in Utah for almost a month now and have been able to do some fun activities with family and friends. This is just a few pictures since I am bad at taking them while here for some reason. The kids have LOVED spending time with Grammy and Grampy and their aunts and uncles and cousins...it's so fun to see how each has their own special relationship with every individual person.

The pictures in order:
A big family birthday party where some Tongan dancers came and performed a mini luau.
Making cookies with Grammy and their cousin Mia.
Prego pics of me and my sister Leslie...I've been to 3 of her baby showers since we've been here! The pictures were at the first shower.
The kids with my parents cats. They love every opportunity they get with them because I'm allergic and normally throw them out every chance I get!

We'll be here another 2 weeks, so I'll be posting more pictures later.

Little Spellers

2009-09-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

Morgan and Roy spelling their names...Morgan with a bit of coaxing and Roy with a bit of help!

ta ta

2009-09-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Ta ta Seattle, ta ta Washington. We had a good summer, but we will not miss this place much. Was it beautiful?? Yes...breathtaking! It just didn't strike a chord with us. Was it the crazy winding roads and horrible street planning or the apartments with no a/c that had a pregnant woman sweating all summer?? Probably a combination, but we are grateful to be leaving the 'Evergreen' state.

We are a little sad that we never made it to many of the touristy attractions such as the space needle and Pikes market, but we will survive.

This isn't meant to be pessimistic, just honest. We are grateful for the good productive summer we had, but are even more grateful to be going home. Of course, that's not until mid-October...but we are excited nontheless!!

There were a couple highlights. For me these were, #1 The hotels we stayed in that had a/c, and, #2 The Lake.

The kids and I loved coming here as often as we could for walks, a beach, a huge playground, and some of the most delicious hamburgers ever. In fact Morgan called the place where we lived 'Lake Washington'. Whenever we were away on one of the out of town jaunts she would ask, "When are we going back to Lake Washington?"

I may miss the lake, but I think that's the only thing. I would like to say, "Good bye Washington and HELOOOOO Arizona!!"

No, my children do NOT drink soda!!

2009-08-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

You can't tell can you? What that really is is colored water put in a Arby's cup so that they think they're drinking soda. Ha, I wish! We have tried it though, lol! Who knew that they would immediately be able to tell the difference and ask to drink ours??

You see, Roy and I have quite enjoyed Diet Coke as our 'drink of choice' over the past few years. We have, however, drastically cut back by replacing 'the drink' with Fortune Delight and Calli Tea made by Sunrider (a company that we love). But every once in a while we get this thirst that cannot be quenced by anything but 'the drink'. It probably happens more often than we would like to admit, and unfortunately our children share our affinity, or shall we say addiction, (gasp) for it!! We try to hide 'the drink' or to just get one when the kids are sleeping or when we are on a date. But inevitably they catch us and we are forced to either deal with a crying fit or.... share.

We don't like crying fits.

One of these days we hope to have the strength to 'just say no' 100% of the time, for the benefit of both us and our offspring. But until then....these pictures speak 1000 words!!

Dress up King

2009-08-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

I find it quite hilarious that our son loves dressing up. I don't think this means he'll have 'issues' when he grows up...he just loves his sissy and wants to do whatever she does!! Here are some examples...

You can't really tell, but this are some of Morgan's princess panties. I suppose the fact that he wants to wear underwear isn't girly, but we'll be sure to buy him some manly ones when the time comes!

Family Outing

2009-08-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our outing yesterday. We didn't do anything new or exciting, we just enjoyed being together for an entire day!! We're really looking forward to August 31-September 4 when we'll have Papa to ourselves exclusively until he leaves for Dallas, TX for extended season :(. He'll be there for 5 weeks, and the kids and I will most likely stay in Salt Lake while he's there.

The 'Couples Dinner'

2009-08-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

There are 6 other married couples here in the Platinum selling group. We thought we'd get together last Sunday for a dinner since the summer is almost over and we haven't spent much time together as couples. Little did I know that the other wives had been planning a surprise baby shower for me and for Michelle...she and I are the pregnant ladies in the group. We had a delicious pot luck dinner and played a fun version of Mafia so that the husbands wouldn't be completely bored! I'm not in any of the pictures because I'm always the one taking the pictures. :)

The kids had a blast playing with the decor...

and helping mommy open presents.

This is Eden, Nat and Carlota's little girl.Madden, Jason and Missy's little boy. Eden and Madden are the only other kids here. The kids have loved spending time with them!!Jud and MichelleAlexa getting into the Mafia game:)Justin and ElissaA Sunday wouldn't be right around here without a little horseplay with one or both uncles, so this is how we ended the day!!Thanks gals for the shower...we sure had a blast!!

Knockin' on Heaven's Door...

2009-08-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

...is just what we were doing 5 years ago. Roy was knocking a little louder than me, but we were both pretty close to leaving this life on August 10, 2004. It was a quite a life changing experience for us both. Despite the physical changes that Roy has had to adjust to, we gained a greater perspective on life and appreciate living so much more. Plus, we have two little miracles and one on the way that have made us even more happy and appreciative to be alive.

If tomorrow never comes,
will she know how much I love her?
Will I try in every way,
to show her every day,
that she's my only one?
And if my time on earth were through,
and she must face this world without me,
is the love I gave her in the past,
gonna be enough to last,
if tomorrow never comes?

This Garth Brooks song is one that we think of often when we think back to that day. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow, so let those that you love know how much you love them TODAY!!

Question: When did your child sleep through the night?

2009-08-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

Answer: 3 months!! Ha, I wish. Try 22 months!! What a wonderful day. It's the first time in 3 1/2 years that I haven't had to get up in the middle of the night with one of my children, wow! And all it took was 15 minutes of crying. I wish I would have tried this months ago!

After he fell asleep last night I went in to check on him and this is was I found.

And this is where he fell asleep for his nap today. I can tell this is going to be entertaining.

Mobius

2009-08-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the Mobius Children's Museum in Spokane with my good friend Missy Streiff and her little boy Madden. Both of the kids love him! Roy calls him 'Ma ma' like the 'a' sound in flag. I didn't get any great picture of them with him though:(.

They had so much fun even though it cost $6 and it was very small compared to the Salt Lake chidren's museum. Morgan's favorite things were of course the girly painting and dressing up, while Roy loved the boats in the water and the cars. He still did the other things, but wasn't too happy about them.

"It's a little bit me..."

2009-07-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

K...so I have decided that my posts have been a bit, what's the word...boring! Not that the kids are boring or anything, but it has just been lacking a little bit of the strange person that I really am. I'm not going to say that anything is going to get more exciting. In fact, most people will probably be rolling their eyes. But, I can promise that in addition to the regular 'ol postings there will be some inserted here and there that have just a little more of a Mindee touch to them.

For instance, I bought some 9 grain bread the other day and asked Roy what he thought about them making good pb & j sandwiches. He thought it would be a waste of bread. Then I made one for him last night and he said, "You are not going to believe how good this is. That's what I want for breakfast tomorrow!" Today I decided that I must try it for myself, and these were the results....

It went from this...

...to this...

...to this in about 10 seconds flat!
And I was a happy camper!!

Born on the 4th of July!!

2009-07-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

We had Aunt Mauz visit us again for a couple of weeks. The kids had so much fun with her!! She got to be here for the 4th and we had a great day...

Morgan loves wearing her cowboy boots that match Mauz's.
We went to Lake Washington during the day for some fun activities. I've finally gone back to short hair because my apartment is so dang hot!Morgan's favorite was all of the big blowup slides.Roy had a good time just standing there while everyone else jumped around him.They both really wanted their faces painted. Morgan wanted fireworks...Roy couldn't say what he wanted, but he loves baseballs, so I decided on that to match his shirt.
The best treat of all is that Papa got to come home early for a bbq and fireworks. The first and only time we will see him this summer before 10pm Monday-Saturday. The kids couldn't get enough of him, we loved it!!These are the rest of the Platinum guys and their families that sell home safety systems with Roy.The start of the fireworks. Roy didn't last very long though, they scared him quite a bit. He rotated between me, Joseph and Charles. Resting his head on our shoulders and sneaking a peak at the sky every once in a while.

III

2009-07-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

3 is a wonderful number. 3 is the only prime triangular number. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4. 3 is the third Heegner number.

Things that come in 3's:
3 Billy Goats Gruff
3 French Hens
3 Little Pigs
3 Stooges
3 Blind Mice
3 Wise Men
3 Cheers
3 Musketeers
3 Dog Night
3 Ring Circus
3 Men and a Baby
3 Ring Notebooks
and...
3 Jones Children!!!That's right, we are expecting baby #3 and couldn't be more excited!! My due date is January 1, 2010...Happy New Year to us! That means I'm 15 weeks along now. The reason for the pink AND blue footprints is because, once again, we won't be finding out the gender...we will find out the moment the baby is born...woohoo!!

Video Scad

2009-06-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

I've really been slacking at taking videos of our kids. This could be because our good video camera is full and I have no place to put the videos. Lately, with Barb's help, I've been taking a lot with our regular camera and I want to share some of the ones that I think are the most fantastic. Here goes...

Roy Boy loves this little bouncy ball. Barb was playing 'fetch' with him and he was having a blast. I especially love Morgan's outfit at the end, if you can call it that. But she fits in well with all the movie stars and the things they are wearing these days, right? ;-)

She's singing "My Eternal Family"...it's the new primary song for the year. I taught it to the primary when I was in St David and I would sing it over and over to myself first so that I could learn it. Well, Morgan really listens and she was singing it with me about the 5th or 6th time through!

This is just a misc. video of some of the things Roy Boy says and signs.

So you think YOU can dance. Here's our little dancing queen...with a lovely outfit to boot:) Morgan is all about 'special' outfits!!

Days of the Week

2009-06-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

This song that Morgan is singing is from Signing Time. She doesn't quite get them in the right order, but that's what I love about it!!

Cari and Bryan Standing!!

2009-05-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

My sister Rare (Cari) married a fabulous guy on May 16th. His name is Bryan Standing. The two of them couldn't be any more different. But they do both belong to the same church. And they both love Star Trek, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Those are enough similarities for them....indeed, opposites attract! I love my sister so much and am so happy that she has found her true love! We are all so happy to welcome Bryan to the family -- she couldn't have found anyone better!

Here is the bride to be at one of her 5 bridal showers.
Morgan was more than willing to 'share' Aunt Kiki's gifts with her :).While we were waiting for the lovely couple to come out of the temple, Morgan said several times that she and brother were going to get married. I think they are getting married in this picture...lol!One of the first if not THE first picture of The Standing's.Morgan and Grammy Dallof at the temple...she loves her Grammy so much! Morgan and I both got to be in the wedding...her as a flower girl of course...me as a bridesmaid. It was a lot of fun!
My boys.We took a few moments to pose for some family pictures at the reception.This is more like the way we really are:-)Me and my handsome fella!Adorable flower girl and beautiful bride. I love this picture!!

Nnn...ga

2009-05-20T18:50:00.001-07:00

The title is the best way I can figure out to type the way Roy Boy says water or any drink for that matter. You'll have to watch the video to hear how it actually sounds. It's pretty funny because he says it in the back of he's throat. We love it!

Our big girl turned 3!!

2009-05-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Morgan turned the big 3 on the 9th! Since it was just the kids and I to celebrate I decided to do something fun and easy...go to the park! The kids both love it and it's a 5 minute walk from our apartment. This is the site of the park...the lake. I am just obsessed with this lake and it's surroundings. So far it's the only thing I'll miss when we leave here in 4 months. :)

This is just a random pole that she's hanging on. It was her favorite thing to do at the park.His favorite thing is to go up the stairs and down the slide. Over and over and over.We went to a little burger place that's there by the lake for the big birthday dinner. I know, I was going a little big by getting burgers...what can I say! In this photo she is posing under the table.Licking the cake bowl clean. Making a cake wouldn't be complete without doing that right?Charles arrived in Renton Friday night. We are all happy (but the kids especially) to be graced by his presence.Charles kind of riles the kids up...especially after not seeing them for a couple of months...so here they are running wild through the house at 11 'o clock at night.I think he was sad that I made them stop running.The masterpiece cake. I am pretty creative.
She enjoyed it...that's the important thing!Thanks to Grammy Dallof and Aunt Mauz for providing the gifts.Here's the birthday song. We had to do it at 11 pm because that's when Papa gets home. Morgan was plenty awake enough to enjoy it though.

She really had a fun day and loved all of the birthday calls. Happy Birthday, we love you Morgan Marie!!

Journey

2009-04-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

We have had a fairly eventful 3 weeks. This is going to be a bit of a longer post since I haven't posted in a while. But I will try to minimize the words and have mostly pictures. On April 11 we left St. David to drive to Renton, WA (near Seattle). This is a picture of one of Arizona's beautiful sunsets just a few days before we left.

Unfortunately for some reason we don't do near as much picture taking as we should while we're traveling. I've got pictures of the kids by themselves, but not much of them with my family in Salt Lake, where we stopped for 2 weeks on our way through. We had such a great time with them! The kids just LOVE Grammy and Grampy Dallof and all of their aunts and uncles. We were so excited also to meet Bryan, my sister Rare's fiancée.

We stayed at my sister Mauz's. She just recently had shoulder surgery do do an injury from a rollover accident, so I was able to help her with cleaning, wrapping her shoulder and making lots of pb and j sandwiches! This is a picture of Morgan dressed up 'Mauz style' using Mauz's clothes of course.

Roy Boy saying 'CHEE!' (cheese) for the camera. He is truly a cheeseball! Morgan snuggling up to uncle Adam to watch tv. Playing in G & G Dallof's living room and having a great time!

We were sad to leave my family, but looking forward to our new adventure. So we loaded the kids and the car and hit the road. Roy Boy had gotten a little flu bug the day before we left, so we crossed our fingers that the drive would go smoothly. He had one major blowout, which I won't go into further, but other than that he was pretty tired so it actually made the trip kind of nice. Here's the kids in their carseats, they were both such troopers!!

Here's a view from our window driving through Oregon, a beautiful place.
We were just enjoying the nice scenic drive and were about 3 hours from our destination when a guy in a Ford truck cut us off in our lane and knocked us into the median. Luckily it was a nice big, grassy median and fortunately Roy has lots of experience driving off road vehicles as he kept great control of the car...we very easily could have flipped. We were in a big cloud of dust and couldn't see much, and when we stopped we saw that we were in oncoming traffic. As soon as we stopped Morgan said, "I don't want to do that again." Priceless! And of course, Roy got us away from oncoming traffic and back to the other side of the freeway.

SOOO, we are all just fine. The car is probably totaled, as you'll see in the following pictures, but we don't care much. It still drives and we are just happy to be alive.We were very relieved to finally get to our new place! Here is the kids bedroom. We're not use to them sleeping in another room, so we'll see how that goes.Our living room/dining room area. Very spacious for the kids to run around in. The apartment came furnished, very nice, we love it!

The day after our arrival Morgan and Papa Roy both got the stomach flu. Morgan was sleeping almost all the time. She fell asleep on the bathroom floor while I was taking a shower, poor thing!!Roy Boy was basically better by then, but still pretty tuckered out.We have had a few odd and end things happen since being here that make it seem like someone is trying to get us to leave. And we feel like it's because we are where we're supposed to be and that things are going to go well for us here! This picture is an example of how we feel about everything...happy and content!!Most of all we are thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who is obviously watching over us!! And we feel like this journey of life is once again just beginning.

I think we have a winner!

2009-04-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

We just can't resist keeping one of these adorable creatures, and I think we've chosen the one. Her temporary name is Lilo until we decide if we like it or not. She's the runt and she's just sweet and cute!

He is showing his approval on our decision!
How could we resist this face!?They are all so cute...we still need homes for most of them!!

SEATTLE here we come!!

2009-04-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

We will be leaving for Seattle in a week or so and we'll be there for 4-6 months. Roy is going to be selling home security systems for Platinum Protection. We are pretty excited for this new little adventure of ours. We've found that we have a hard time staying in one place for too long...I'm sure this is obvious to others as well! We plan to return to St. David, but we may be doing this every summer. We just like doing new things, and this is definitely that!

The condos we'll be staying in. They're right on Lake Washington.
The view of Lake Washington from the condos.

Also, if anyone is interesting in a police/fire/medical security system let us know. They have an awesome deal where they give you the equipment and installation free and you just pay the monthly and activation fees. If you want to check it out online here is the website.....http://www.platinumprotect.com/......let us know if you have any questions.

We'll be in Utah around April 15-25, so we'd love to visit with anyone we haven't seen in a while. Drop us a line if you'll be in town then!

Pups

2009-03-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because I've been trying to get a video on here and for some reason it hasn't worked. I guess I'll have to move on or I may never post again! Our dog had 9 puppies a week and a half ago! The kids are SO smitten by them. They always want to hold and 'love' them. Morgan does real well and will just carry one around for an hour. Roy boy's definition of love means laying on top of them! Here are a few pictures. I haven't taken any for a few days, and they are so much cuter now. If anyone wants one please let me know!! They are Shepradors (mom is lab/retriever, dad is australian shepherd).

Picture Tag

2009-03-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged a couple times for this and it's just taken me forever to do. But I sorta just closed my eyes and picked a random picture, so here it is...This is Morgan at about 4 months old taking a bath in my parents kitchen sink...which she still loves to do! I'm not going to tag anyone else, but it's kinda fun, so just do it if you want to!

Schlepping

2009-02-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

This isn't a normal thing around here...she just started dragging (or schlepping) him around one night. It was particularly funny to me because this happened the same day my friend Nina posted a video of her little girl pulling her baby sister in a laundry basket. It's great because these two definitely find ways to entertain each other!

S-N-O-W!!

2009-02-18T14:07:00.000-08:00

I know that to most of you, snow is NOT an exciting thing. 3 years ago I felt the same way. In fact, I was itching to get away from it. This has been our first real snow since living here in southern Arizona. There was only about 2 inches but school was canceled, which made me laugh! We think it is so beautiful here because it is out of place.

The kids and Roy and I had a great time playing in it for about half an hour. Then we went inside to warm up and by afternoon it was all gone. That's one of the many things we love about it here. And believe me...we would not be the least bit disappointed to only have one snow day every 2 1/2 years!!

PS Our 'big' snow was on the 10th, and every day since has been at least 60 degrees! Tomorrow we're supposed to hit 72...woohoo!!

Raspberries

2009-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

Morgan has discovered how to blow raspberries on her brothers tummy, and she makes some pretty impressive sounds. The first time she did it they were both laughing hysterically. By the time I caught it on video of course it wasn't as funny to either of them, but it was still cute.

A Mauz Holiday

2009-02-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

My sister Mauz was in a rollover car accident in December and she hurt her shoulder. She hasn't been able to work since then and her hubby decided that she should come visit us since she had so much time on her hands. We got a week of Mauz at the end of January and loved every minute of it, especially the kids!! While we didn't do anything particularly grand, we just enjoyed being together.

Do they look anything like our actual kids?

2009-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

I found this fun website where you put in a picture of you and your spouse and it shows you how your children are supposed to look. I thought it would be fun since we already have kids, to see if they were accurate at all. I don't think they are, does anyone else? It was fun at least!

Bah--o!!

2009-01-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

People think the only word Roy Boy can say is ball (or bah-o) because it's the only thing he does say these days. He can say a few other words...like mama, papa, no, and yeah. But he rarely does. Mama comes in 2nd to ball, but not a close 2nd. I think he's signing more words than he says. He signs ball (of course), cookie, cracker, train, more, hat and maybe a handful of others. He doesn't have to say a lot though...he says it all in his actions. Uncle Joseph came up with a good name for him the other day, he's our Destroyer!!

Christmas Tomfoolery

2008-12-29T17:29:00.001-08:00

This is a slideshow of our festivities throughout the Christmas season....the kids seeing Santa, our Jones family Christmas party, Christmas day, and other random things. Most of you probably won't recognize a bunch of people. They are Roy's siblings, parents, bro-in-law and niece. We have had a wonderful time this season (other than not being able to visit my family) and wish everyone a Happy New Year!!

Family Pictures

2008-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

We've really been in need of a nice new family picture and decided to get dressed up and just do our own. We thought they turned out decent considering we're not a professional studio or anything. The first is our favorite of the whole family and we especially like the last one of the kids.

Picture Slapdash

2008-12-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

This post is just a slew of pictures over the past few weeks. We haven't had too many exciting events lately, so I thought I would just share a few of the best pictures we've taken. I'm a person of few words, but I really like taking pictures!

Morgan posing as we get ready to head out to our first of two Thanksgiving dinners in Mesa.
Grandma Flory and the 2 granddaughters. Oh, and can't forget Barbar.
What to say about Uncle Joseph...Roy just loves him.

Being at a new house wouldn't be complete without the kids exploring. Morgan heads straight for the stairs of the bunk bed. Roy Boy to the thing with wheels. Typical.Both kids zonked in the car on the way home from Mesa, and stayed that way even after we got them out of their carseats. It wasn't even 6 pm. But we weren't lucky enough to have it last all night!

Next on the agenda was putting up the Christmas tree. Morgan was a really big 'help'.The real fun, of course, came from the empty Christmas tree box.
Roy's 1st experience with an Oreo was a success.The kids loved posing for Grammy Dallof as I took pictures of them with the special blankets she made for them with material from my Grandpa Green's mission to Tahiti in 1958.

He's cruisin!

2008-11-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

About a month ago we found out that Roy Boy has anemia. He's been taking iron since then and he has turned into a little monster! A good monster, but a monster nonetheless. Everything has more volume and he's just more hyper in general. He has been taking steps since October 5th, a few days after his first birthday. But his walking has really taken off this past week. It's been a lot of fun to watch him explore his new found skill!

Bingo

2008-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

Baby Roy is not a very good traveler. He's gotten better over the past couple months, but he still doesn't love it. The thing that has gotten us through (and my sister Marci can attest) is a very simple song...Bingo! This song will calm him down every time. If we have sung it 20 times in a row, and try switching to another song...he gets upset. Normally we just sing it til he falls asleep. Morgan knows how much it helps calm him. The past few days when we're at home and he starts crying she starts singing it. I couldn't help but get it on video. She only sings it 3 times here, normally it's over and over and over just like we do in the car. And it's normally complete with the clapping and all, but hey, I'm lucky she sat still long enough for what I got. The best part is that it really does help calm him. Of course, everything she does helps, because he loves her so much. Hope you enjoy the song!!

Roy's 31!

2008-11-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

I want to say a special happy birthday to Roy here on our blog, even though I get to spend all day with him. I wanted to do something big last year for his 30th, but couldn't because something else big happened, my sister Leslie got married! I couldn't think of anything he would like more than for his daughter (who has him wrapped around her little finger) to sing him a happy birthday song...

You have to listen very closely but she gets most of the words in there. She calls Roy papa, so she's sings, "Happy birthday to Papa!"

We got to spend a kidless evening in Tucson...a treat from Roy's parents, and have a nice dinner... a treat from my parents. Roy, like me, loves his mom's German chocolate cake, so that's what he got at the end of the day. Hope you enjoyed your day, we love you Papa Roy!!

Halloween

2008-11-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Our trick-or-treaters...

the Pumpkin...
and the Princess!

Our community is so spread out that they have trunk-or-treat at the high school football field. Here's the kids enjoying some of the activities there.

Roy couldn't wait to put his costume together. He is dressed up as many of the high schoolers around here dress every day. When we went to trunk-or-treat there were many boys not in costume that were wearing almost this identical outfit, sweatband and all!
My interpretation of an 80's girl, since I was just a kid in the 80's.
Don't we look cute together!
I couldn't help but put this adorable picture of our Princess on the potty. She's been potty trained for about 2 weeks and it's fabulous!
It was a fun Halloween...we were a little late to trunk-or-treat, so they started dumping candy in Morgan's bag. We gave her one sucker, put the bag away, and don't plan on giving her much more. We're not big candy fans, but it sure was fun getting dressed up and enjoying the festivities!

Birthday Fun

2008-10-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

I am now 26! My sweet 15 year old sis-in-law Barb wanted to take me out. I got the kids dressed up in the their adorable Halloween outfits from Grammy Dallof and we headed into the nearest 'big' town, Sierra Vista. We spent the day there and Barb paid for everything, including gas. She bought me a few misc. things, but mostly we just enjoyed our time together...thanks sis!

Then Grandma watched the kids so Roy and I could go to dinner. We went to The Depot in Tombstone, which is one of our favorite places. Burger for me and steak for Roy of course!

I came home to my favorite cake...homemade German Chocolate from my mom-in-law...and enjoyed it quite thoroughly!Thanks to all who called, emailed and sent cards...it was a great birthday!!

Charles is home!!

2008-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

Roy's brother Charles returned from serving a successful 2 year mission in Portugal on October 17th! He had traveled about 20 hours with not much sleep the night before and no sleep on any of his flights. He was quite exhausted but still stayed up late to visit with the family and gave a fabulous talk in church on Sunday. The whole family did a musical number...Lord, I Would Follow Thee...and we did quite well considering we only had 2 days to practice it with everyone. We've really enjoyed having him home.

Waiting with much anticipation!

Of course, Mom gets the first hug.

1 1
Visiting with family after the 'homecoming' talk in church.

The WHOLE Jones family

Roy Boy is 1!!

2008-10-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Baby Roy turned one on October 1st. We just had a little family party at Grandma Flory's. I made a cake to let him dive into. I didn't have any hesitations on having him destroy it because it didn't end up looking all that pretty. He's not as precocious as Morgan...it took us a long time to coax her to dive into her first birthday cake...so we thought it wouldn't take him long to dig his hands into it. We did end up having to do about as much coaxing as we did with Morgan, probably just because everyone's attention was on him. In the end he had a great time tearing it apart!

We splurged and got this adorable little horse for him because he LOVES climbing on things. It also wires up to the tv and has several interactive games for the kids to play. We haven't connected it to the tv yet, but both Morgan and Roy enjoyed just climbing on it, just like we thought they would. The kids also got some cute Halloween attire from Grammy Dallof which we look forward to using! Happy Birthday to our Roy Boy!

Healthy

2008-10-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Morgan and Roy are healthy and happy. Both kids still have lots of spots that need to heal (hopefully with minimal scarring), but the actual sickness is over and we are so thankful!

We can now play outside without worrying about the heat causing more itching. The kids love going outside...which makes me so grateful that we now have a yard with grass. They both love our dog Cinder so much. They can sit on her, pull her tail, grab her mouth, and basically do anything else and she just sits there and lets them. We hope they stay good friends as they grow up!

More Chickenpox!

2008-09-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Poor guy!! His case was not a mild one after all. In fact it seems to be a bit worse than Morgan's. He is a trooper though...aside from being up most of the night because of the itching, he has been pretty happy through it all. Especially if he's being held. Mom's not getting a whole lot done, but at least it gives him some comfort.

Now it's his turn to get oatmeal baths. They are supposed to help with the itching...we'll see. We have heard of several others in our ward that have gotten them. Oops, I guess we started an epidemic after all!

Morgan is so intent on wanting to take care of him while he doesn't feel good. She has asked to hold him about 6 times today, once after she kicked him in the face and made him cry! He calms down instanty when she touches him

Signing Time

2008-09-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

This is my plug for Signing Time, videos meant to teach children how to use sign language to communicate. We KNOW that teaching Morgan to sign was a huge plus in her learning to talk and to make it so she has virtually skipped the terrible twos. Baby Roy signed earlier than her...the video shows his 1st sign, milk (opening and closing the fist), which he did one day before he turned 9 months old. Now he signs dog, milk, mama, more, cookie, and cracker. Signing does NOT stunt speech, it helps it...we love these videos and encourage those whose children are having difficulty with speech to start teaching them sign through these videos. Even those that don't have difficulties can benefit...it's a 2nd language! Roy and I enjoy learning the signs as well. I hope to have a link to the website soon, but until then you can find out more about it at signingtime.com.

Roy's Passion

2008-09-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

Other than his wife and kids of course, Roy's passion is airplanes!! He grew up around them and around family members that are pilots. Although he isn't flying much currently, he too is a true blue through and through pilot. I know it's hard for him to be around them so much and not get to fly, but we feel very fortunate that he is doing something he loves.

These are pictures of our plane. It is a Cessna 172. The first is it's condition when we got it, and the second is some of the progress that has been made on it

This is the plane that Roy is working on currently to give us some cash to finish up our plane. It's a DC3, which is a WWII freight plane. That is him standing under the left prop. He's enjoying working on it!

Cinder and Chickenpox

2008-09-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

We decided that we wanted a dog and found the perfect one on freecycle. She's a 5 month old lab/retriever mix. Still young enough for the change not to be too hard on her and yet she has had a little bit of training already. She adjusted well to her new 'country' home and is already protective of the whole family. She's a great dog! We asked Morgan what she wanted to name her and she said "Cinderella!" We thought it was just a little too undoglike, so we shortened it to Cinder. But Morgan likes to call her "Rella".:-)

The day after we got Cinder I noticed a spot behind Morgan's ear and didn't think much of it until the next day when they were all over. Needless to say they were chickenpox and she proceeded to get more over the next few days. She did very well considering...her main issue was the itching, mostly on her back and tummy. As you can see they are very concentrated on her face, but luckily she hasn't done too much scratching on those ones. We think baby Roy has a real mild case now. He just has a few spots that are blistering. Hopefully it stays mild. We are worried about the nursery and the day care at the gym. Hopefully we didn't start an outbreak!