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

Baby Trey

Here are the details of Trey's birth--it won't get too graphic, I promise. I went to the doctor November 4th to find I was dilated to 3 cm but nothing was happening (this was enough to get me excited--I've never dilated at all with the others, really). She did what is sometimes done to help things get started without meds (I told you I wouldn't get graphic). Nothing happened until we went to dinner that evening and I had regular contractions about 10 minutes apart for an hour or so. Then they stopped. I felt like labor was probably going to start either that night or the next day, so I talked to the kids about it and cleaned as much as I could--tried out the new Dyson and completely filled it up!-- before watching the results of the election and going to bed. At 1:45 I woke up with a major contraction, sat up and checked the time and then laid back down. Another one hit pretty quickly. When the third one came soon after that, I sat up to check the time again and saw it was only 1:50! I couldn't lay down any more, so I got up and went through a couple of more before waking up Jessy to time them and help me by pushing on my back. It took him several attempts at timing before he woke up enough to remember when the previous one started and to be able to figure out how long it was between them (let's just say I was in no mood to be amused with him at that point in time!!). The contractions weren't consistently spaced or the same lengths, so I was nervous I'd be sent home from the hospital, but they were pretty hard and not more than 3 minutes apart, so I gathered up my stuff and went out to the car. I'm not sure what Jessy was doing, but he eventually came out, too. (Okay, he was really tired from working on the basement and I was only out there a few minutes before he came out.) We left home at 2:30 am and Jessy only ran two red lights (they were dumb ones and nobody was around). About 10 minutes before we got to the hospital I really felt I had to push (we were on I-15). Jessy's face was a sight to see when I said that. He got very pale and started reassuring me that I did not have to push and would make it to the hospital because we were almost there. (I think he was reassuring himself.) As we were checking in to the labor and delivery unit, the nurses at the desk asked which baby it was for me--when I said my fourth and the contractions were really strong, they skipped triage and took me straight to a room. The nurse checked me right away and announced we were "at a 9"--suddenly there was a flurry of activity and the two nurses that had been casually setting things up somehow multiplied into at least 5 people all busily calling the doctor or trying to get an IV in or asking about my medical history or getting gloves on "just in case." Luckily the midwife made it to the hospital in about 10 minutes. She took one look, broke my water, and Trey was born with the next contractions. Like Jessy said, it was 22 minutes from check-in to delivery. Crazy! It was all such a whirlwind, but it was definitely a good way to do it when you want to go natural. The nurse told me that if I have another, I need to go to the hospital with the first contraction, since now my pregnancy history will have rapid labor to go along with extra-large baby. (My mom says that Trey came so fast because Hunter made the chute big. That might be too graphic, but funny anyway.)
Trey is gorgeous (what mother would say anything else?). I thought he was bald when I first saw him, but he has quite a bit of hair--it's just a golden-brown color rather than the black hair our other kids had. He has Jessy's lips, droopy left eye (at this point, I sometimes think we have a mini pirate), and little head (his head circ falls in the 16th percentile--our other kids are no less than 75%). When the nurses cleared out after he was born, he was so alert and just cooed and gurgled and looked all around while Jessy held him. He is a good baby and sleeps SO MUCH!! I always thought people were lying when they said their babies slept most of the time and didn't cry much. It is possible, it just took us four tries to get one of that kind! Everything with this delivery/recovery has been so much easier than the rest--and not just because it's the fourth time. I really feel blessed!As you can see, Trey is loved. I think Daddy appreciates the "good baby" factor as much as I do and he loves holding him at his alert times (plus he's a fantastic diaper changer). Savannah loves to hold him, is an expert at getting him to sleep, and has even fed him! Hunter can't get enough, and when his cold sore goes away, he will return to plastering Trey with kisses and cuddles and holding him, then returning him, then wanting him back, then... Collin said he would not like the baby if we named him Trey (he thought we should name him Collin, or as a last resort Hunter, because those are the best names), but as you can see, he was all smiles when he met him for the first time. We love our baby and are so glad he finally came to join our family!