Our lives

I admit I've been a blogging slacker. No reason. Here are our most recent happenings in a nutshell:

1. Hunter is officially potty trained. No special tricks, just made him earn his Wii time by going to the potty and like magic it happened.

2. All four kids are currently sick with colds/congestion. We're actually grateful they all got it at once and they're not puking (knock on wood).

3. I went shopping (to the mall--hasn't happened in a great while). On my last stop, my credit card was denied. Turns out someone got our credit card number and decided to go on a shopping spree of their own. (Our bank's fraud protection squad caught it so quick!)

4. Jessy has been chosen to give a lecture to grad students. Unfortunately, it's on a subject he knows very little about. On the up side, he has studied up on this particular subject for the past two weeks and feels like he can actually do it--go, Jessy!

5. Trey has started laughing. He's very ticklish.

6. I found a recipe for baked taco salad shells. One of our new favorites. Yum.

7. Savannah has another wiggly tooth. Do you think she could get some new ones before losing any more??

8. Collin has come up with plans to paint a BYU football field in our backyard when the snow melts. The drawings are all over the house. And he has given several away to friends and family.

9. Our garage door opener is now fixed. Yea! The repairman just fixed a broken wire (shame on the first repairman who tried to make Jessy buy a $500 motor!!).

10. The kids are learning the 13th Article of Faith--Savannah's got it down, and Collin is almost there (we overlook the pronunciation--"birtuous" and "ammunition of Paul" are close enough).

Ice Running?

There was also a video of Hunter taking a few steps on his own with his itty, bitty skates, but honestly, something about Savannah's style cracks me up. I don't know if it's the oversized gloves or what, but something about her form makes me laugh. The best part is the last 10 seconds or so, sorry for the other 35 seconds of them standing around, deciding what to do next.
And here are the sideliners--Trey was very content (he'd just filled his diaper--of course he was happy!), and Collin quickly decided that ice skating wasn't for him. I guess hockey won't be one of his passions.

COULD IT BE TRUE???????

Rumor has it that my sister-in-law Stacy saw a package of cookies at Target. It was labeled as "Tim Tams" and also had "Australia's favorite cookie." She said they looked like the Tim Tams we sent them. If they look like Tim Tams and they sound like Tim Tams... This could be a dream come true (especially since Jessy doesn't know that Savannah and I just ate half of our last package!!). Good bye, New Year's Resolutions. Hello, Tim Tam slam!!

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.

The Sit Up Challenge(d)

Jessy issued a challenge to his family to do the most sit-ups in December. He's got it down to how many crunches equal a sit-up, etc. He never told the kids about it, but I think the boys have picked up on their father's actions on their own.

Merry Christmas!!

So, I was playing with the camera settings, trying to get a cool picture using a technique I saw on a local tv show, when I finally got a picture where the person wasn't blurred along with the background. Unfortunately, he was doing more than the walking I'd told him to.

I love Hunter.

Newborn Guess Who

Can you guess which Jones baby is which??? The answers are at the bottom...I'll have to cheat to make sure I get them right.





The babies are, from top to bottom: Hunter, Trey, Savannah, and Collin