Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas 2009!

We are slightly belated in our Christmas cards this year ... but, we did manage to put together a slide show of our 2009. Trey has been growing in leaps and bounds ... now 'running', playing with his brothers and sister, and actually started to sign so we can communicate (not to mention this cute little head nod that he does to indicate his agreement for something he wants.) Hunter has started preschool and loves anything Star Wars. He loves his little cousin Mia (who you will see in the photos) and they have good times fighting the bad guys. Collin is still our sports extraordinare and loves soccer, football and baseball. He is playing on an indoor league right now. Oh, and did I mention he loves everything BYU as well (although I did get him to root for Utah against Cal last night :) Savannah turned 8 this year and was baptized. She is on a competition tumbling team and Jessy coached her soccer team. Kelli is holding the fort as Mom with 4 munchkins running around. She is the activity days leader for the ward girls. She also finished her first triathlon this year and did a 5K. Jessy started a new job at a communications defense company in Salt Lake, accomplished his goal of a 100-mile bike ride and started a Fit Butt Fun family fitness club. He also did a week-long fishing trip with the scouts up in the Wind Rivers. We also made a family vacation to Disneyland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios. On a sad note, Grandma (Dorothy) Jones passed away in November this year and we miss her tons but look forward to seeing her again.

We are all happy and healthy and wishing you a Merry Christmas and prosperous upcoming 2010. Paste the link in your browser and enjoy the show.
http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d544d324e54517a
4e544a384d5449334
e4463324f54453d0d0a&sb=1

Sunday, December 13, 2009

December Update!

We haven't been too good about keeping up the blog. I think Kelli mainly uses facebook and I just haven't been very good about getting things updated since returning back from Australia. I do miss documenting all the little things that happen, and now that we heaps of snow outside I have the only excuse I need not to work out in the yard! I'd like to say that life is settling down a bit, but that would reason for things to go crazy once again.

Since our last post quite a bit has happened. We took the kids down to southern California and did the Disneyland, Sea World, Universal Studios tour. Great times were had by all as we traveled with Kelli's sister Angie and her husband Robert and son Colton. We didn't go to the beach because the kids didn't want to get 'sand in their swimsuits' ... I guess that's what Savannah gets for rolling around in the surf the last few years down under.





The sad news from the past 2 months is that our Grandma Jones past away. Her and Grandpa Jones have been the lifeline of our family and it has been extremely hard to come to terms with the fact that she isn't with us in this life anymore. She always had a way of making people laugh and had a passion for her family. Things happened so fast as she struggled with gout and then a short month or two after being diagnosed with bone cancer she passed away. We all know she is free from her physical pains, but the hole she left in our lives will take a lot of time to heal; and even then something will always be missing. I guess, though, it just goes to show how much we all think of her.



I left my job at ATK over a month ago and started as a program manager at a different defense company local here to Salt Lake. We really like where we live so I don't see us moving any time soon, but the commute of ~50 minutes is a bear and a half. It's ok though - iPOD and talk shows are wonderful things :) Things are crazy at the new job, but it's a good crazy. I really like the people I work with and the technology is pretty darn amazing.

We just had our first big snow storm of the year last night and today. I finally got to break out my new snowblower, and it was a good thing we had it, too. The snow was about a foot and half deep and it was very, very wet. It took a long time with a snowblower and don't even want to think about how long it would have been without. Trey had his first opportunity to frolic the eskimo way and he didn't waste anytime. The kid is so darn stinkin' cute.






We ventured down to Provo for the Utah/BYU game. It was an awesome game, but unfortunately the Utes lost. I was somewhat torn because Collin stayed with his Uncle Chris the night before and met some of the BYU players in Chris' dorm. They said he could come down the locker room if things 'went well'. Since they won Collin got to go down on the field and mingle with the players. He was smiling from ear to ear :)




We also had some good friends over for a Christmas party. A shout out to our Aussie friends -- we introduced our friends to a bona fide Aussie quiz night. It was a good time and another huge benefit of being close to home is spending time with long-lost friends.