Good times at home ...

Thank goodness for Kelli and her willingness to keep up the blog in my extended ‘absence’. Actually, it’s been more like a confinement in the basement the past 3 months. Straight from work to downstairs – nailing wood, running wires (only got electrocuted once!), hanging insulation and the like. Thanks to the great generosity of many family members we were able to get the majority of the basement work done within the 3 months and before Thanksgiving. As such we were able to spread out a little more when the entire Jones clan came over for 4 days of family reunion bliss :) We had a great time enjoying one another’s company, playing games, doing activities and eating lots of scrumptious food

If you don’t mind a few moments of personal reflection – the last couple of months have been somewhat anxious and exciting all wrapped in one. With the economy in a downturn and a democratic president coming into office, one can only help wonder if moving from the government security to a private sector defense contractor was a smart move. My company seems solid and still moving steadily forward with our contracts. Our group of 10 people does a lot of preliminary design for new projects, so as long as the company is vibrant and trying to bring in new business, one can conclude that we should always have work to do. Right now we are doing the design on the replacement for the space shuttle. It’s a lot of fun and I’m really enjoying it. All the wondering and anxiety goes by the wayside though every time we have a family get together. I see the expression on our kids faces and those of grandmas/grandpas/cousins and the like and I get a feeling this is indeed where we need to be right now. We’ll just keep working hard and I’m sure things will work out.

The kids have been very good at their one line comments lately, but I haven’t been very good about writing them down. Collin just today during our tithing settlement had a pretty good one. The bishop turned to him and asked what we should pay. After some thoughtful contemplation he responded, “Uh, pay attention?” We all got a good chuckle out of that one.

We also had the opportunity to get some high school friends together. It’s been a long time since the old gang gathered in one place, so it was good to reminisce and have some laughs. We’ve really enjoyed the holiday season. We’ve been able to hang lights and decorate the Christmas tree along with all sorts of other decorations. We were even able to watch the first presidency’s Christmas devotional – live!

Trey is doing very well and growing by the day. All his brothers and sister are extremely helpful and good to one another. Savannah has actually mellowed out quite a bit since assuming the big sister role with the little one --- only to be replaced by Hunter who has had a harder time adjusting to having a new attention grabber on the scene. He’s become quite mischievous with everything – include peeing on the new carpet downstairs and hiding a video game under the plastic toy slide. Hopefully it’s just a phase :)

Well – till next time our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.