Growing Up With the Jones Family

Way Past Due

2012-01-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas From the Jones Family

Well everyone we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that you have all been able to get started on your New Year's Resolutions. Finally posting this letter was one of my Resolutions. I'm only like 3 weeks later then I wanted to be, but I'm hoping better late then never will apply this time.

We Joneses had a great year. It was a year of challenges and growing that was sometimes painful and sometimes very very rewarding.

There was a time when I thought the kids would never grow up. That we would be stuck in this cycle every day for the rest of my life of doing everything for them. The only communication crying and cooing. Now I can't get them to stop growing. That cycle I thought would never end is long gone. Now I'm wishing I could have a little bit of that back and do a better job of enjoying them young.

As a family we have had a lot of trips this year. We have been 3 times to Utah. We took the kids to Disneyland and the Beach in May. We all had a great time together and the kids ask constantly when we are going back. All of my sisters and I got together here in Colorado in July which was marvelous. Matt and I got to go to Florida all by ourselves and had a great time focusing on just spending time together.

Let's see, what have we been up to individually this year.
I turned 33 this year. I am have been learning how to balance getting my kids to and from school, preschool, dance, soccer, scouts and other various play dates and outings. I know I haven't even scratched the surface of this yet, but man it has been "fun" getting myself so organized and time conscious. I have enjoyed working on my scrapbooks when I have time. I love spending time with friends and on the phone with my family, especially my sisters. They help me to keep going everyday when I feel like I can't do one more thing. I am still loving working with the young women at church. They help me feel young and lively. They make me laugh and add a lot of joy to my life.

Matt is soon to be 32. He is still working at Scitor where he enjoys entertaining his co-workers and working hard. He is a great Dad. He is great at explaining difficult things simply and impresses me often with the patience and love he has for our children. He has been serving as Financial Clerk in our Ward for a good part of this year. Matt is still and even more so a wonderful husband. He helps me to be a better person every day. He is my best friend, my support and often times my guide. He still makes me laugh and helps me to be light and happy.

Gideon turned 8 this year. He was baptized in May and we got to have both sets of Grandparents here plus LeAnn and family, M'Recia, Brent and Melissa for the special day. He is enjoying 3rd Grade and at this point of his life would like to grow up to be a scientist. Gideon a lot of the time is a very sweet and deep thinking boy. He tries very hard to be nice to others and is a awesome older brother. He does like to be as independent as possible and likes to wake up to his own alarm for school. He loves scouts and is looking forward to more fun with that in the upcoming year. Gideon enjoys reading and finally has our permission to read the 4th Harry Potter book. He can't wait to delve in.

Eden is 6 going on 15. She loves anything she thinks is pretty. She still wears skirts a lot but has learned to not fight with me when I say to put pants on. Eden did dance this year again and did very well in the Christmas program. She loves, loves, loves 1st grade and her teacher so much. Everyday I pick her up from school and ask her how it was and every day is wonderful. She loves playing dress-up with Larke and loves having play dates with friends. She is very good at writing and is turning into a great little reader. She is also very funny and is constantly saying things to make everyone laugh. Eden has started to really try to be a peace maker and volunteers to be last a lot.

Larke is 5. She is a very sweet little girl. She tends to be more quiet then our other kids and so she surprises me sometimes with her cheerfulness and exuberance. She still loves to wrestle with Gideon. She often takes a beating where Rush is concerned, and she does so often with tears in her eyes but not hitting back. She has really been enjoying the Preschool Group we have been doing this year and has been finally willing to write her letters. It is amazing to see her blossom. She can read some words even. I think she is going to love Kindergarden next year. Larke loves playing on starfall and the Kinect. She still loves to snuggle and her ducky blanket.

Rush is 2. He can be such a fun boy. He has started talking a ton and learns new words everyday. He loves to sing as well. Christmas was fun because every time you turn around he was singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. He loves Superman and has discovered Krypto the Super Dog. Rush loves to be flown around the room pretending to be Superman while he giggles and squeals. He can be thoroughly delightful one second and a complete pill the next. He loves stealing my nose and having me steal his. He has gotten a little better about not hitting all the time. He loves to eat. He gives great hugs and kisses. We are hoping this year will be better at church for him. 1-4pm was a difficult time for him. Rushmore loves everyone in the family.

Well that is our year and family in a nutshell. We aren't perfect, but we do love each other. We are grateful for a Heavenly Father who has so richly blessed us and Jesus Christ who has made it possible for us to be better then we are. All our Love,

The Jones Family

It'sa Us The Mario Family

2011-11-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

The only picture I got of Rushmore with the mustache on. So glad we took it when we did.
Larke wanted to be a kitty cat for Preschool.
Halloween was fun this year. We debated about whether to do the chipmunks and chipettes or Mario. Mario seemed more feasible so that is what we did. I was Waluigi, Matt was Wario, Gideon was Mario, Eden was Princess Peach, Larke was Princess Daisy and Rushmore was Baby Luigi. It is one of our favorite family traditions to dress up as a family for Halloween. I don't know if anything can beat the turtles of last year, but Mario was awesome too. I learned that wearing a fake mustache is itchy and sweaty. It took some time to talk Larke into the wig, but once she got over it she thought it was pretty fun. Making hats is harder than sewing overalls, just in case you were wondering. If you have any suggestions for next year let me know.

Signs of Love

2011-11-01T08:03:00.001-07:00

These are the signs the kids made for us at the airport. They worked really hard on them and I wanted to be able to remember how much they love us and how excited they were to see us.

Orlando

2011-11-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

In early October Matt and I got to go on our last Scitor trip as far as we know. We spent an extra 4 days together. It was an awesome get away just because we were together. It was so nice just to have each other to please. We were reminded again that we do really like each other and that we are the most important people in each other's lives.

The Tree of Life at the Animal Kingdom. This tree is huge and covered with carvings of different animals. We were awestruck.
It was pouring buckets the day we went to Universal Studios. We thought this picture would be so ironic.
I thought standing in a coke bottle would be a good photo op. I was shocked when it actually started spraying water on me. I didn't need to get any more wet that day.
This is Rickshaw Falls at Universal's Islands of Adventure. So fun!
Our favorite roller coaster of the Trip. The Hulk! It was a crazy ride.
Hogwarts

Hogsmeade
Gotta have a Spidey picture!
Me with my favorite X-Man, Rogue.
Cyclops was the most fun. He was just a funny guy. We told him that he was better than Wolverine and he couldn't wait to tell Wolverine about it.
Indiana Jones Stunt Show

Our last 2 days at the parks were the best. Our favorite park was Universal's Islands of Adventure. Totally worth a stop if you are going to Orlando. Awesome roller coasters, Hogwarts, Super Heroes galore and tons of fun. The last day we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. The stunt shows were awesome. We did the Star Tours ride 3 times. Oh and we ran into our old babysitter Brandi at the Beauty and the Beast show. She was there with the husband on their honeymoon. It was very unexpected and fun to see them.

It was nice to know that our kids were so well taken care of. It was nice to know they missed us and that they were happy to have us home. Jessica brought them into the airport to meet us. They made us welcome home signs. They jumped up and down when they saw us and rained us with hugs and kisses. It was such a nice way to come home.

Trampoline Nap

2011-11-01T06:57:00.001-07:00

This is I believe the 2nd time we have found Rush asleep on the Trampoline! He just loves jumping on it and apparently wearing himself out so much he can just plop right down and sleep. So cute!

Dear Larke

2011-09-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

How could anyone not love you? You are such a sweetheart. You are still my snugly little girl. If you are not sitting on my lap, you are often sitting right next to me. Just like you are right now as I write this post, with your head leaning on my arm. Please remember your promise to not grow anymore. Please always stay my little girl, with your you sweet smile and contagious laugh. You still love your ducky and go get it every time we get home. Rushmore loves to take your toys and hit your head and pull your hair and you often just take it until I can come and rescue you. You love to play Starfall on the computer and love playing with your toys. You do not like writing, but we are working on it. You are very smart though. I often hear you sing songs very quietly. You surprise me sometimes when you tell me a story or just talk to me about what you are thinking about. You have just always been quieter than Eden and Gideon. The older you get though the more communicative you have gotten. You can still get shy especially with people outside the family.
You love your siblings. You love to do what they are doing. You love when they involve you. I have been laughing at you and Eden lately because you have created your own language and talk to each other in that language. You often ask Eden how to say different things in your secret language. You love jumping on the trampoline with Gideon especially. You also wrestle with Gideon which I always think is so funny. You sitting on him. Thank you for being so patient with Rushmore. Thank you for sharing with him and playing with him. Someday he will be a good friend to you too. Every once in a while he will find your ducky and bring it to you. You do have some good times together.

I just found out that you like Belle. You said one day that she was your favorite because she has a yellow dress. I enjoyed putting that into your Birthday. Thanks to Grandma Jones you get to have a Belle dress to play in all your own.

You guys were all so funny about the cake. Gideon saw the undressed barbie sticking out of the cake and said "Mom, are you sure that is very appropriate?" It was so funny because it wasn't appropriate and because he thought I would leave it like that. You were so concerned about what I was doing with your new barbie. You wanted to know if you were going to get it back and I had to explain several times what I was doing. I think you were happy with the result.
I love you my Larke girl. I miss you being my baby, but I love how you are now too. I know I will still love you and even more as you get older. I just don't know if I will ever stop missing having you as my little girl. You are a bright light in my day and I am so grateful for you.

Love You Always--

Mom

Preschool

2011-09-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Larke started Preschool a week ago. She is having a great time and enjoying making some new friends. She has been a little confused as to why she hasn't gone to Kindergarden since she just turned 5, but she has a late birthday. I explained to her and she seems happy now. I really love the group I am doing it with. I get to have my 1st time teaching them next week and I am looking forward to it. I love this age. Kids are so interested in the world around them. Every time I take Larke to Preschool Rushmore needs a backpack too. He wears it the whole time til we pick her up again. It is pretty funny.

Peanuts

2011-09-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

So Matt wanted to go to the opening of a new location of his favorite comic store around here. I was a little less then thrilled to go and almost left a couple minutes after we got there to take the girls grocery shopping. Everything was 50% off for the opening day and Matt was hoping to find a couple of specific things. We came across these peanuts figures in their Halloween costumes. At this store they were normally $52.00 but were on sale for $26.00. We watch the Great Pumpkin every year at Halloween time. I decided I really wanted to have them for decoration and so we got them. On the back of the box it shows a Snoopy house that goes with that make spooky noises that I thought would be a good addition. So when we got home we looked it up on e-bay. We found that we got a very good deal. Someone was selling the set for $100.00 and to get just the Snoopy house was $40.00. All this to say I am even more satisfied with my purchase, I do not need a Snoopy house and I look forward to years of Halloween and getting to put up our Peanut figurines.

Finally Caught Up

2011-08-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

It was the 1st day of 1st grade for Eden and the 1st day of 3rd Grade for Gideon. Gideon is such a good big brother. He takes his responsibility of getting Eden to class very seriously. He is still young enough or good enough that holding his little sister's hand doesn't embarrass him. Eden still looks up to him, just as she has from the day she was born. Listening to Gideon ask Eden several times if she was excited for her 1st day and then after school, him asking her how things went. Siblings can be such a beautiful wonderful thing. They give each other something that I can not give to them. Sniff...I love these 2 ya whos. I miss having them around. School is a blessing and a curse. My younger kids seem to be without direction. They miss having the more experienced players telling them what to do, say, and think. I know pretty soon Larke and Rush will figure out that they like not always being told what to do and we will all adapt. For right now though we're still in transition.

Jones Family Fun

2011-08-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

We did some really cool and fun things with Matt's family on our last trip for the summer. We went to Utah and enjoyed some family time playing at the pool, eating wonderful food, playing with cousins, going sailing, talking, and playing Dance Central and 5 Crowns. Some of the things we did outside the house were fun too.

We went to Temple Square and took the kids to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the Joseph Smith movie. We also took the kids to see the Kristus. It really is an absolutely gorgeous work of art.

We went to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur museum, where the kids enjoyed swimming away from sharks, pretending to throw spears at a mammoth skeleton, uncovering skeletons in the dig area, and just plain discovering.

We also went to the gardens at Thanksgiving point where I have never been. It was stunning. The most beautiful garden was the secret garden. I can't really describe it, so if you have the chance, go see it yourself. The whole thing was just wonderful. I enjoyed taking pictures of the kids being cute.

We fed the coy fish

The Secret Garden

Rolling down the hill-ah, to be a kid

We went to see the Up house. This house building company has built it to sell and it is on the route for parade of homes. This house is adorable. There are themed girl (princess) and boy (toy story) bedrooms and a theater in the basement. There is a nursery upstairs with the same mural from the movie. They had chairs built to match those from the movie, where they sit together. My favorite room was the kitchen. I love the old fashioned looking frig and the color scheme. Like I said adorable, all of it.

All in all we had a marvelous time and thank Mom and Dad for hosting us yet again and coming up with such fun things for us to do. We miss you all and truly look forward to our next visit.

Miscellaneous Summer Fun

2011-08-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

How can you go wrong with a summer full of fun with a new trampoline (to us anyway, hooray for craigslist), slip n' slide, and swimming. Well I've discovered you really can't. These things make for perfect summer fun. I even hopped into a swimsuit myself to show the kids that they really could make it to the end of the slip n' slide. It has been a great summer and a full summer. I have really enjoyed spending some quality time with my kids and watching them enjoy quality time with each other.

Rush x 2

2011-08-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

I love this boy! He has been such a delightful addition to our family. He has this cute little run that I know he will grow out of, but I hope it is not too soon.

He loves his siblings. He love to tackle and to be tackled by them. They all adore him and think it is so fun when he learns something new or says a new word. They do not always love sharing the trampoline with him, but they are learning.

He loved the 4th of July just before his birthday. He was so fun as he pointed out the colored lights in the sky.

He is still a good napper. Aren't kids just beautiful when they sleep.
This is one of my all time favorite shots of Rushmore. He loves girl toys, much to Matt's chagrin and when Pretty Pretty Princess is out he has a very hard time sharing with others. Pink was the first color he learned. I'm not too worried. I'm chalking it up to having 2 older sisters and something that he will grow out of soon enough. If you look below you can see he already enjoys dressing up as super heroes.

He loves posing for the camera and has a hard time letting me take pictures of the other kids.
Rush is a silly, happy, fun little 2 year old. He is talking up a storm. He knows lots of colors and loves saying them over and over. He loves pointing out all the parts of our faces. He loves his tongue. He loves puzzles and books. He does not like things on his body to be fixed, like re positioning a hat or shirt. That makes him mad. He loves food and will eat just about anything I put in front of him. Like with all of my kids there is great joy and sadness in watching him grow up. Everyday him needing me less and less, a relief and a disappointment. It is a wonderful and hard thing to be needed as a Mother. I love my Rushmore. He is such a source of happiness in our home.

Sisters

2011-07-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

So I got to have a sister party the 2nd weekend in July. Sharon was already out here visiting LeAnn and me. We talked Evelyn into driving to Colorado on her way to Utah to see the 3 of us. I realized about a week before this all happened that all of us sisters would be together but one. I decided to call Juleen and see if I could convince her to come out too. It didn't take too much convincing on her part. She bought a one way ticket thinking that Evelyn could drive her back to Utah and hoping that her van wouldn't be too full. I had a week to keep it under my hat and not spill the beans.

I picked Juleen up at the airport and on the way home I got a phone call from Sharon to see where I was and then from LeAnn to discuss menus. Juleen tried hard not to giggle too loudly in the seat next to me. We got to my house and enjoyed Sharon's shock. We discussed almost the whole drive to LeAnn's how we were going to spring the surprise of Juleen being there. We ended up having her hide by the side of the house and jump out. We stayed up late just talking and enjoying each others' company. Eric made us a delicious late night snack of mozzarella on toasted bread with tomato and basil. Then in the morning we woke up and had a yummy berry casserole and got ready. We left all the kids in the charge of Eli and Natalia and had a sisters lunch and pedicure. Then we went shopping together and bought new hair accessories(especially for Sharon's new do) and got delicious frozen yogurt. We went back to LeAnn's to find a relatively clean house and happy kids. We played games and really had just an all around fabulous day! Saturday we went to a charity called Savannah's Race and celebrated Rushmore's birthday because he turned 2! Evelyn and Juleen stayed at my house and Sharon went back to LeAnn's. On Sunday LeAnn and Sharon surprised us by coming back to play games. We had a great time playing Liebrary, which is a lot like balderdash. We laughed so stinking hard. It really was one of the best weekends I have had in years. I love my sisters so much and I am so grateful to Ellie and Natalia for being good sports and keeping the kids for us the whole day. They even did the little girls hair and makeup and had them put on a fashion show. What cutie pies.

Before and after shots for Friday morning. We clean up pretty good.

Auntie Sharon

2011-07-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

Go Gideon Go!

Auntie Sharon being silly with Larke.
So we did some fun things while Sharon was at my house. We took the kids to Skate City as you see above. We had the 4th of July which I already posted about. She watched our kids so that Matt and I could have an overnight to ourselves for our 9th Anniversary. By the way, I love you, love you, love you still and more everyday Matt! We played Lost Cities, taking turns losing. Although Sharon beat me a sound 10 times before I ever won a hand. We did a Zumba class with my 1 laurel that showed up that night. We watched the first 3 Terminator movies in the basement so Sharon could see them edited, thanks to Matt. Most of all we talked and enjoyed each others company. I wish Sharon lived closer and we could play more often.

Happy 4th

2011-07-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

I love the 4th of July. It is right up there with Christmas for me. I love the food and the fireworks that come with this holiday. I love dressing my kids and myself in red, white and blue. I love that my sister LeAnn and her family always comes out here to enjoy the fireworks with us. This year was an extra special 4th because we also got to have my sister Sharon here. She got to stay for a whole week and a half. Now I was not feeling my best this 4th, but it was still a good day and wonderful to have my sisters there.

I had to put in a real picture of Matt so that I had proof that he didn't look like a Terminator the whole night.

Me and my honey! He is so handsome and ironic, Terminator with a Michael Jackson glove. Where does he get this stuff, I don't know, but I am glad he does. He sure does make life fun.
Sharon and Me! Love her to pieces!
The kids playing while we wait.
Rushmore really enjoyed the fireworks this year. He was so cute. He would point at them and say "red light, blue light" etc. It would have been perfect if I'd have just been feeling better. Oh well, there is always next year.

Bobcat

2011-07-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Gideon got his Bobcat on the last day of June. He was so excited to earn his first merit badge. Thanks to his leaders for all their help.

Cabin with the Porters

2011-07-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

So our friends the Porters invited us to come do an overnight with them at their family cabin. We had a great time. The kids loved the exploring, hiking, and leaping over the little creek. We also got to make smores. They loved the swing in the main room and we had to put a limit on how high they could push each other. Our kids love Cadence and Keegan both, but especially Keegan because we watched him for a few months when he was still 1.

Trying to fix the chainsaw

We have really appreciated the friendship that we have been able to share with the Porters. It is hard sometimes to find a couple that we all get along together and we have been able to have that with the Porters. Matt and Matt get to play video games together. Jeanette and I get to scrapbook and discuss Young Women stuff. But also when we all talk together it is also fun. They recently decided to move away to New York. We are going to miss them and hope we will be able to keep in touch. We hope they know that they are loved and appreciated.

Dancing Fools

2011-07-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

I got to have the unique experience of volunteering to be with the kids during the 2nd show. Eden was in the earlier show and Larke was in the evening show. Larke and I watched Eden's performance. She did great! Eden then came back with me to hang out with the kids. My friend Brittney was so nice to let Eden sit with her for at least half the show so she could watch the dances. I got to go watch Larke dance backstage. Her favorite part was when she got to lead the group in a big circle around the stage. They both did a terrific job.

Flash and Color

2011-07-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

We had our 2nd annual photo shoot with the girls in their dance outfits. This year we did the pictures right before the dress rehearsal. Rush could not be kept away. He is so funny. He wants to be part of everything.

This is my favorite of Eden. She looks so saucy, just like her outfit.

This is my favorite one of Larke. She looks sweet and devious at the same time. I had to take the picture below because I loved the ruffle bottom of her outfit. So cute.

One Busy Summer

2011-07-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

So there are so many things that I have been wanting to post about. It has been so busy around this house. We have had too much fun doing too many fun things for me to write about them. Right after we got back from California things got kicking. Getting ready for girls camp and watching 2 extra girls for a good portion of the summer occupied alot of my time that week. Then Gideon had scout camp the 2nd week of June. The week after that was Girls Camp. I went the whole time this year and had so much fun with the girls and the other leaders that were there. We all wished that we had had one more day. As soon as I got from camp I was getting the girls ready for their dance recital. 3 hours after I got home from camp we had the girls at their rehearsal. Then all of Saturday was the actual recital.

I shouldn't post pictures of girls camp on my personal blog and I don't have pictures of scout camp, but I guess I can write about them because they were very important. Gideon really enjoyed his first experience with scout camp. He got to help come up with and memorize a cheer for his purple group of boys that he was with all week. It went: "Here at Valley Day Camp we're the purple team, on the go, all day long, we won't run out of steam!" He said it a lot. He loved the chance that he had to try a little archery, and finally on the last day he did hit his target. They got to do crafts everyday and the day I was there they got watch a soda shoot out of a bottle over 6 ft. into the air. It was pretty awesome. Gideon's favorite part was getting to make a rocket and also getting to shoot it into the air. It really was a fun week for him.

Girls camp was wet, windy, and really great. I got to go with Beth Bigelow and Victoria Jones. It was so fun to get to know them a little bit better. The girls were so fun. The best night with the girls was on Thursday night. We had a fire and roasted marshmellows and ate gummy bears and told funny jokes and stories and froze together. It was pretty cold at night and I slept in an emergency blanket. I looked like a baked potatoe and was noisy, but I could feel my toes in the morning, so I guess it was a fair trade off. I was pretty excited that I finally hit the target doing archery. I think this was my 3rd or 4th time trying and I have never hit the target before. I usually overshoot and veer to the right. It was fun to finally hit the target, not it the middle or anything but still. I also got to shoot a rifle which was also fun. I have discovered I actually enjoy shooting quite a bit. I got to canoe and have my testimony boosted. I hope I get to go again next year.

Day 7 - Check Out and Heading Home

2011-07-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

The last day in California was a bit bittersweet. Bitter to have it all end, to check out of the hotel, to pack up. Sweet to know we had such good memories to take home, and nice to know we were going to be sleeping in our own home again. We almost got to ride in a hot air balloon for free, but it was too windy. I hope we get to do it sometime, I've always wanted to try riding in a hot air balloon. It was hard to leave and I still have desires to be there again. Oh well, reality and every day life have their great moments as well. There's always next time.

Day 6 - Last Disney Day (sniff, sniff)

2011-07-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Soaking our feet after a long day and week of playing as a family.Eden got to give a kiss to Flynn Rider. It may have been the ultimate highlight of the trip for her.

The girls and I waited for an hour and a half to meet the princesses. The verdict. For the girls it was totally worth it. For me it was worth it to see the girls be so excited.

The Famous Tea Cups

Matt makes fun of me for saying chester drawers when I am talking about dressers. We had to take a picture at this store.

The kids were most excited meet Chip and Dale out of all the characters, besides Mickey and Minnie. They love watching Rescue Rangers. They were a little disappointed to not meet Gadget, but they loved riding Gadget's rollercoaster.

Meeting Mickey

I had so much fun at Disneyland with my family. It was the best vacation I've had with my kids. It was totally worth the occasional grumpiness of Rushmore. We did consider leaving him behind, but for the most part he was wonderful to have along. I have a ton of pictures of the parade that I didn't put up. The parade was so fun. All the charaters were there, the music was great, it was wonderful. It was all so nastalgic to be at Disneyland. All the movies I grew up with, the characters I loved, to share it with my kids was awesome. I would love to go back. I did not want to come home.

Day 5 - Universal Studios/Beach

2011-06-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

We ended up going back to Universal Studios the next day so we could finish all the things that we didn't get to do on Tuesday. I rode the Jurassic Park ride with Gideon and Eden. Eden was so funny, I wasn't sure she was going to like it, but she did and she made dinosaur noises the whole time. It was hilarious. We did the Terminator Show which was totally awesome! Finally we did the Simpsons ride, which was Gideon's favorite ride at Universal. He liked how you felt like you were in the screen. I think this was the only ride that made me feel just a bit queasy, but it was still very fun. The kids liked being Maggie's pacifier.

After Universal Studios we went back to the beach and had a barbecue with the Martins and had more fun playing in the waves and sand and of course flying kites. We did walk down to the end of the Pier which was very windy, but fun. We passed a pelican, lots of fishermen, and we even got to see a seal over by the end of the pier.

Day 4 - Universal Studios

2011-06-06T13:30:00.001-07:00

We look so awesome riding the Terminator Bike

Aaaaaahhhhhh........Shark! Poor Gideon

Matt and Doc Brown-one of the first things Matt and Gideon did when we got home was watch Back to The Future, which was spurred by Matt seeing Doc Brown. Gideon loved it.
This was one of the bad guys in the Water World Show which was very fun. He was on the Agent X episode of Chuck from the recent season. Matt and I checked it out when we got home. He had a 2 second scene where he is killed by Casey. Oh well, it was still fun to have our picture with him.
I really do Love Lucy!

Curious George was so cute. He was my favorite character at Universal. He was sweet and gave Rush a great big hug. Rush loved the attention.

Universal Studios was really cool. The hours were not as good but they had some pretty amazing rides and shows. We did the Studio Tour which included the King Kong ride and it was stinking cool. Eden did not like the King Kong part because again she thought were transported to a different world. The Shrek 4-D show was fun too. The kids really enjoyed the Curious George Ball room and park. The animal show was a lot of fun. The kids loved the dogs and monkeys and birds flying overhead. The Special Effects Show was probably my least favorite show but it was still fun. Gideon and Matt went on the Jurassic Park ride and the Mummy ride. I tried to make it to the Jurassic Park ride but they had closed the escalators. It was a fun day.

Day 3 - California Adventure

2011-06-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Waiting in line for Toy Story Mania with silly Eden and Larke.

Meeting Woody and Brother Bear

Being a Toy is so cool!

Showing off our Minnie Mouse hats. I know it is a ridiculous thing to spend money on but I really enjoyed wearing my ears. I may not have looked cute to anyone else but me and my family, but that's okay.

The kids were very excited to meet Minnie Mouse outside of California Soaring, which was very cool. Rush was acting pretty tired and would only let me hold him. Then he saw Minnie and he got very happy, very fast. It was so cute.This is us waiting for forever for World of Color, but man was it worth it. I know it's so dumb, but I practically cried though the whole thing. It was gorgeous. It was everything I love about Disney. So nostalgic of my childhood.

So we obviously did not take as many pictures this day. We really enjoyed Toy Story Mania, The Aladdin Show, California Screaming, Grizzly River Run and the swinging Ferris Wheel. Perhaps not so well enjoyed by some of us was the Tower of Terror. We took Eden and Larke on this ride with us and Larke surprisingly (or not) did better then Eden. She would not believe me after the ride was over that we were not longer in the Twilight Zone. She thought for sure that we were in a different world. A direct quote from her about the Tower of Terror "that ride was not wonderful!" The Aladdin show was however wonderful and the Genie was hilarious and the carpet flying right over my head was magical. A definite highlight to our day. We also started trading pins this day and that was a fun thing to do for the rest of the time.

Day 2 - The Beach

2011-06-06T12:22:00.001-07:00

On Sunday we tried to choose a more relaxing activity so we went to Newport Beach. We brought a kite and were given 2 more by the end of the evening. The beach is The Perfect place to fly a kite. You just hand it to the air and the air grabs it and sets it flying. Eden spent a lot of her time flying her kite although we all enjoyed playing in the waves, picnicing, finding shells. When we first got there it was overcast and not very warm, but it cleared up fast and got warm enough to play in the water. It was funny to hear Spencer yell at the ocean, about how it couldn't beat him.

California Vacation-Day 1

2011-06-04T14:57:00.001-07:00

This was on the train at the airport. It was the 1st time for the kids to fly and the airport was very exciting. The best parts of the airport were of coarse the escalators and the train. They loved it. Larke had a little bit of a hard time mastering the escalators. She would get unbalanced by the movement and would have to sit down. She did finally master it though.

This was waiting to get off the plane. The kids were all very good on the flight.

Rush sat with me for the most part. He loved looking out the window, shutting the window, opening the window, pressing his face to the window, etc. There was a cute little boy that sat in front of us that kept peeking over and that kept him somewhat entertained as well. My sister LeAnn took him for a little while so that I could help Larke make some paper dolls. I really enjoyed playing with Rush and Larke on the plane.

We finally got settled in our hotel around 10pm California time. We really liked our hotel. We had a king bed for Matt and me, then sliding doors to separate us from the kids area. They had bunk beds for the girls, a pull-out bed for Gideon, and a crib for Rush. The kids used the little table a lot during the week.

We started bright and early the next morning. We got to Disneyland a little after 8am and played the day away.

This is the Jedi Training. Gideon wore his cape and brought a light-saber in hopes that they would choose him from the crowd. We were so excited when they didn't only choose Gideon, but Eden and Spencer also. We really enjoyed the show and watching the kids learn to be real Jedis.

Gideon and Eden got to try their skills on Darth Vader.Spencer fought off Darth Maul very valiantly!

Darth Vader tried to turn the kids to the dark side but they were all withstood all his persuasion and passed their Jedi Training, they even received diplomas.

Gideon was just a little excited by the experience. Spencer and Gideon were great friends the whole trip and even came up with a handshake they named the California Idiot.

Matt playing around in Gideon's cape while waiting in line for the Finding Nemo Submarine ride.

Enjoying all the Classics. Eden's favorite was the Peter Pan ride which is very magical.

Even though Star Tours was supposed to be closed while we were there they we doing some research on line flow so we were all very excited to try it out. Gideon loved that he was chosen as the rebel spy. LeAnn closed her eyes the whole time and I have to say that it the ride that almost put me out of my seat. I loved it.

Our first character meeting as we left the park to go get some dinner.

We came back after dinner but did not take any more pictures. The other rides we did that day were the Indiana Jones ride, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, and almost everything in Fantasy Land. We also really enjoyed the Fantasmic Show and the fireworks at night. It was a great tiring day.

Eden's New Do

2011-05-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ever since the horrendous knot incident Eden has been wanting a haircut with less tangles to brush out. We decided to go all the way and send her hair to locks of love. So here she is with her new do. We've been flipping it out and she loves it. She thinks she looks like Rapunzel at the end of Tangled. She has asked me a ton of times if she does and I of course agree that she does. She has been showing everyone, thinking that no one is going to recognize her. She is still the same adorable Eden.

Baptism

2011-05-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

These two are pictures I took to use on the program. Gideon really wanted one where he was reading his scriptures. He saw another baptismal program that had a picture just like this and he wanted one too. So that is what we did.

Matt and Gideon in white, getting ready.
Larke showing off the program.

LeAnn, Lauren, and Gideon

Me and my sweet boy

Grandma and Grandpa Jones

Grandma and Grandpa Christenson

M'Recia and Brent

The Whole Family

It is a crazy experience watching your child be baptized. For the last 2 months we have been preparing Gideon to be able understand the covenant of baptism. Our FHE lessons have all focused on helping him learning the essentials of the Gospel. We have been using my old missionary lessons as a guide. It has been a wonderful experience witnessing his understanding grow and being able to see how much he already understands. The great thing about teaching kids the gospel is seeing their willingness to accept, learn and their desire to be good and righteous.

I really appreciate the family that came to celebrate this wonderful day with us. My parents, Matt's parents, M'Recia and Brent, and Melissa all drove down from Utah and of course my sister LeAnn and her family came from an hour away. LeAnn gave a wonderful talk on baptism and how it is the key to coming back to Heavenly Father. Gideon was so funny with how he interacted with my sister during this talk. He was so excited to begin and kept making cute comments. My Mother in law, Joy, also gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost. She talked about the children's book Tootle. It was perfect. It was on Gideon's level and very representative of life in general. I am always amazed how short the baptism is. It is simple and sweet. Gideon was so glad the water was warm. I was so afraid that I was going to cry the whole time, but I did pretty good. I cried during the opening song and I cried during the confirmation. I may have cried other times, but not enough for me to remember. I did not cry during the song I sang with my Dad and Gideon which was good. Rushmore helped keep me grounded by lying on the floor fussing through the whole song.

Matt gave Gideon a beautiful blessing. The Spirit in the room was really strong. It was a great experience. Compared with the baptism it was so much more personal.

After the baptism we came home and had lunch and played games and just enjoyed being together as a family.

I am so grateful that Gideon is my son and the oldest in our family. I am grateful that my other kids have such a great big brother to look up to. I love my boy.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-05-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Matt has been working on this egg for a couple of years. I think it looks awesome!

The kids all had a great time at the church Easter egg hunt. Rush enjoyed eating the candy and finding the eggs equally well. After that we went home and did Easter baskets for the kids. I got Tangled in my basket and the girls each got a Tangled Barbie. So then we had to watch it. I loved it, it was adorable. All in all a great day. The next day was Stake Conference and Elder Perry came to speak. Gideon was so excited to shake his hand and tell him that he was getting baptized in a week. After that we went to my sister's for Easter dinner. It was delicious and I just love my sister so any day with her is good.

Mario!

2011-04-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

I cut out all of these for decorating the goodie bags for Gideon's 8th Birthday Party!

Eden was not happy about me forcing her to wear a mustache.

Christopher

It seems like every picture I got of Gideon by himself his mouth is wide open.

Cousin Lauren!

Eden and Lauren skating together.Bryce

Cousin Spencer-Gideon's favorite cousin

There it is again!

Gideon just had his 1st outside the home birthday party. We went to Skate City with friends and family and had a great time. I did some preparation before hand making party hats and goody bags for all the kids. The hats were so easy and it was so fun to see the kids in them. The bags were definitely more time intensive. Lots of gluing and cricut cutting. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun making it cute. The most stressful part was the kids wanting me to be finished so they could see it all done. They all were so excited for Gideon's party and were begging for days to put the bags together. Then when they were put together they wanted to have them. I had to hide them away in the basement for a couple of days. My favorite part of the goody bags were the gold chocolate coins and the mustaches that we put in them. It was so fun to see the kids skate around in their hats and mustaches. I loved the Princess Peach hats for the girls, they turned out so cute. From school Gideon had Lauren and Kaitlyn. From Church Gideon had Bryce, Daniel, Christopher, Joshua, Paige, and Isabelle. Of course he had his sisters and brother there and his cousins Ellie, Spencer, and Lauren. The kids were all happy and well behaved. I believe I will declare success for this one.

Hail King Silly!

2011-04-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

One morning I came down to find Rushmore like this. It made me happy so I thought I would share. I'm pretty sure he did it all himself.

A Most Horrendous Knot

2011-04-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

So combine World Market, 4 kids, boredom (waiting for Mom to decide things, not fun for kids), cool little fan toys, and Eden's long hair. What do you get? This time it was one horrendous knot. Gideon decided to see if the small toy fan would blow Eden's long hair while I was shopping. Well I wasn't paying complete attention until Eden screams and I see Gideon tugging trying to pull the fan out. Poor Eden. I got the fan out. We bought our stuff. We left. I thought maybe I could comb it out. Nothing doing. When we got home I felt around the knot and it was actually hard in several places. So we cut it off and Eden was so relieved. It looks kind of like a rat's tail. Don't you think?

Snow in April

2011-04-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

There really is nothing too crazy about snow in April. The crazy thing is that it was 80 degrees the day before and my kids were running through the sprinkler in their swimsuits.

6 And Counting

2011-04-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Lauren gave Eden fake nails, which she loved and was able to keep on for a whole day. She actually lost most of them in her sleep.
Lauren spent the night and the girls had fun doing water color on each other.

Eden being a puppy

Eden wanted a pink puppy cake with cherry frosting. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Her school crown
Her new dress!
Her long awaited pillow pet.

Eden's birthday was over Spring break so we got to go swimming which she really wanted to do. It was a fun day, but she was just a little under the weather.

Some things I love about Eden at this age are:

*Her fashion sense- she loves clothes and shoes, but doesn't fight me nearly so much as she used to about wearing pants

*She is learning how to read-she is getting so good at sounding out words and she is constantly impressing me with the words she can read without having to try. Her handwriting is also getting very nice and she is getting good at writing complete sentences all on her own.

*Eden loves her siblings-she tries to make sure everyone is happy for the most part and loves being the mother. The favorite game is Gideon is the Dad and Eden is the Mom and Larke and Rush are their babies. I am of course not so pleased with my role which is of course, Grandma. She plays well with any and all of her siblings as long as she is happy. Which is most of the time.

*Eden has a great sense of humor and often makes us laugh. She says she wants 10 kids. I say, more power to you sister friend.

*Gideon says his favorite thing about Eden is that she is playful.

*Eden says her favorite thing about herself is that she shares her toys. (This is a direct quote. I can neither confirm nor deny this statement.)

*Eden has gone through 2 boyfriends her first year in school so far, I am afraid of it getting worse as she gets older.

*She is beautiful, and her smile is contagious. She is an excellent helper and is often happy to do anything I need help with.

I love you Eden! Stop growing up!

Hospitals

2011-04-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

I took Rush to the hospital the first part of March. He had a low fever and a terrible sounding cough, but what really had me worried was how fast it came on and how labored his breathing was. I tried to get him into see our pediatrician, but they had no appointments til the next day and the nurse said not to wait to take him in if he was having breathing issues. I debated and debated about whether or not to take him in. After the other kids got out of school and I found them all a place to go I took him to the Hospital#1 around 3:15pm. I felt dumb. I thought for sure they would send me home with nothing to show. Well, I was wrong. The Dr did a test for RSV which to my surprise came back negative. So they did a chest x-ray and found that he had pneumonia. Thankfully we caught it pretty early and it was only in one of the lobes of one of the lungs. They put him on oxygen which he hated and put in an IV which he hated worse. The IV was the absolute worst part of this whole experience. Three different nurses tried to put in the IV, finally on the 4th attempt they were able to get the IV into the left hand. Rush and I both cried through the whole process. He looked at me while I talked to him with tears streaming down my face. I tried to be brave, but I felt so helpless. I knew they were helping my baby by hurting him, and it was so terrible. He looked like he had a cast on with how well they padded and protected the IV. None of us wanted to do that again. Through the IV they gave him some saline and a dose of some really good antibiotics. The Dr and I discussed whether or not to admit Rush. She really encouraged me to have him admitted, so I agreed. Enter Hospital # 2. They said they didn't have room for us at #1 so they called an ambulance to transfer us. Then the nurse came in and told me a room had just cleared and we wouldn't have to leave. Then the nurse came back and said even though the room was available there weren't enough nurses to take care of my boy. So the ambulance was summoned yet again. In the meantime Matt and Matt Porter arrived to give Rush a blessing, which I was so grateful for. It was hard to want to let Matt return to our other kids. I was feeling a little scared, confused and alone at the moment. I am so grateful they were able to come by and give me a boost to strength. The ambulance came and they had me sit on the bed and hold Rush on my lap. I think Rush actually really enjoyed the ride and was glad to goodbye to the nurses who had put in his IV. For the whole time we were at #1 after the IV the nurses would come in and he would say Ouwie, ouwie, ouwie until the nurses left the room even when they didn't touch him. At #2 the nurse got us all settled around 11pm. I didn't really get a good picture of the bed that they had Rush in, but it looked like a crib. It was about 3 1/2 ft off the ground, maybe a ft or so longer than a regular crib, but definitely not as long as a twin. Anyway all this to explain that that is where I spent much of the night and the next day climbing in and out of. Rush finally was able to sleep after we got to #2, but he woke up about 6 times during the night saying ouwie, ouwie, ouwie. He woke up once when they came in to give him an albuterol treatment, but he calmed down as I sang him back to sleep. I finally gave up on sleeping on the couch and climbed up into his crib in the hopes that he and I would sleep better. I had to put up the rail as I was a little worried about falling out, but we both slept a little better after that.In the morning I was able to get him to eat some food. We spent some time snuggling in this chair, we spent some time sleeping, we spent some time waiting for the Dr watching cartoons. We played peek a boo and tickle tickle. By late afternoon Rush was starting to feel better and I really wanted to give him a bath and take him for a little walk. He had gotten a bloody nose because of the oxygen and I wanted to get him good and clean. After his bath the nurse got us a wagon and we went for a walk up and down the hall about 20 times. Every time we passed the nurses or an open door Rush would say Hi and wave. He liked to look at the posters on the wall, especially the puppy one. I could really tell he was feeling so much better which was relieving. It was actually nice to dedicate myself to just him that day. I love this boy so much. They discharged us that night around 10pm and we finally got home at around 10:30pm. Rush got to be on oxygen and antibiotics for the 2 weeks after our adventure, which was not so fun. I am so grateful our stay was not longer and that we caught the pneumonia so early. A few days after Rush was off the oxygen he got some other bug and threw up several times. I think I can safely say that he will hopefully be able to stay somewhat healthy for the near future.

Choir Boy

2011-04-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Gubber Peas

When Testing

This year Gideon got to have his first experience with choir. They would meet twice a week after school for January and February. The 1st week of March they did 2 performances for the students and one evening concert for parents and families. His favorite songs were Gubber Peas which was a song about roasted peanuts) and All Night, All Day (a gospel song). They also sang On Top of Spagetti, When Testing (they wore sunglasses for that one, because testing or atleast doing well testing is oh so cool), The Boompah Band, Shortnin' Bread, Be a Friend, The Loco-Motion, Triple Play, Our Song, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, We Got The Beat and Gideon got to sing a short duet in A Place in the Choir.

The kids all did a great job. There were definitely songs they knew better like Gubber Peas, but you could tell they worked hard and were having fun. The day after the concert they got to have a choir party which may have been Gideon's favorite part. He got pizza and candy and got to watch a movie. Matt and I both like to sing so it is fun for me to see him participate in choir.

Larke and Rush

2011-04-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

Whether it is swinging on the swing together, Rush allowing Larke to put him in handcuffs, dancing around, wrestling, or playing outside these kids are so funny together.

My Cowboy

2011-04-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Stick 'em up!

Gideon's music teacher at school taught the class how to square dance. Rush, Larke and I all got to go to the school to watch Gideon dance. He was so excited to dress up as a cowboy. We even borrowed some cowboy boots so that he could be authentic. One of the things I love best about Gideon is his enthusiam. He gets excited about things and it is so nice.

100th Day of School

2011-02-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

The 100th day of school is a fun day at school. They always celebrate it. Eden put 100 candy corns in a bag to take to school and came home with a 100 hat and glasses. They were very cute. Gideon came home with a question/answer sheet and I liked his answers so I wanted to write them down.
1. If I had $100, I would...Go to Disney World
2. If I had 100 pencils, I would...use one at a time
3. If I had 100 mosquito bites, I would...Run to the doctor
4. If I had 100 friends, I would...play with them all
5. If I had 100 legs, I would...cut off 98
6. If I had 100 eyes, I would...see the world
7. If I had 100 toys, I would...play with them all
8. If I had 100 family members, I would...get a bigger house
9. If I had 100 houses, I would...give them away
10. If I had 100 schools, I would...teach them one at a time
All the things in bold are what Gideon wrote. I think my favorite is the one about the legs.

Sledding

2011-02-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've gotten to take the kids sledding 2 times so far. Really it should probably be more, but oh well. I've taken the younger kids in the morning and then gotten stuff for Gideon so I can take him after school. Poor Gideon, the first time I tried to take him after school the snow was all gone because it had been so warm. So we came home and I pulled him on a sled around the back yard for a little while. Last time he did actually sled down the hill and really enjoyed it. I however did not get a picture of him. Rushmore loved sledding. He wanted to do it over and over. I got a little tired of going up and down the hill that many times, but he was so cute it was hard to say "I'm done". One of my friends sent him once down the hill by himself. I just about fainted dead away. He was just fine although maybe a little nervous. He was happy though. We are going to hope for more snow so that we can go again.

Umbrella

2011-02-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Dress up was taken to a whole new level at our house the other day. Eden wanted an umbrella to use inside the house and I told her no. So she came up with her own umbrella which I think turned out much better anyway. We had a friend over to play and at one point all three of them had hats on lightsabers or swords and passed them off as umbrellas. I was proud of them for being so creative. I love how Eden has taken to carrying around purses filled with her treasures. Little girls are such a crack up.

Happy Day

2011-02-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

Matt turned 31 at the end of January. The kids were a lot of fun for Matt's birthday. They each made Matt a book that they made themselves. Larke's was 1 page folded in half colored yellow. Eden's was 2 pages with pictures of Eden giving Matt her birthday book and his reaction to it. Gideon's book had about 8 pages with a picture and a sentence on each page about all the things he was grateful for about Matt. It was really very sweet and he pretty much did the whole thing on his own. I made Matt a banana cream cheese cake that he requested and gyros. Both of which were very yummy. It was fun to have the kids be so involved. I think they did a great job making Matt feel special on his birthday.

Fisherman

2011-02-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Rush looks like such a little fisherman in these pictures. Way too grown up and yet so stinking cute. He has been alot of fun lately. He loves to laugh and be tickled and wave bye bye and blink his eyes at me. He brought me a toy dog of Eden's yesterday and said doggy. I had no idea he could say doggy and know what it was. He jabbers a ton and says real words like here you go, bye bye, mom, mommy, dad, daddy, NO, mine. He is getting so big. I love most of all his laugh. It is just plain contagious.

Messy Face

2011-02-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

In my opinion it is one of the best things as a parent to experience the happy messy face. It is just so stinking cute when kids are so into their food that they are covered in it. They are learning how to feed themselves and just not quite succeeding. I went to McDonalds with my sister a couple of weeks ago and she and I were laughing about how carefully Rush would dip his french fries in his ketchup and yet he can end up with messy face at other times. It's nice to see the face clean too! I guess those baby faces are cute clean or dirty.

Cookies

2011-02-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Cookies are so fun. I don't always love making cookies with my kids because they just want to get to the eating which makes the making of them a little painful. It is fun however to see them want to be helpful. They need a little more patience to not be in such a hurry for the end result that they ruin the dough and I need to be more patient in helping them learn that. I think it is so important to let your kids try things, that is how they learn. I didn't actually realize that it would be so hard for me to let go about some things and let them try. I am grateful for the times when I have let go and we've made cookies together. Who knew that cookies had such an important lesson for me to learn.

Family Pictures

2011-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

Poor M'Recia has been trying for atleast a year to get a new Jones family picture. We've has 2 new grandkids and M'Recia and Brent were married since our last family picture. She decided on Jewel tones and jeans because people didn't like the idea of doing bright shirts with dark pants. We all teased her mercilessly about the jewel tones. Poor M'Recia again. The pictures turned out great. We tried to get some pictures of just us and our kids and they were horrible. They were being crazy and wouldn't look at the camera and just plain pills. Thank goodness for photo shop and M'Recia's ability to use it. Other then our kids it was a quite hilarious picture taking experience with a lot of teasing and Alec jumping in front of the camera right when the picture was being taken.

Christmas Morning 2010

2011-02-13T15:43:00.000-08:00

Kids coming down Christmas Morning.

Rushmore bouncing on a balloon. His favorite pasttime that morning.Larke figuring out a yo-yo
Gideon really wanted a Nutcracker for Christmas and was so excited to get it from Santa. He did break the handle off the 1st day and thank goodness for glue.

I dressed up in the girls new dress-up.

Rushmore figuring out the whole stocking thing.

The Spoils
Matt wrapped these presents for Rushmore and proceeded to put letters on them to spell out his name. I thought it was cute.
Rushmore playing on his new sit and spin. He wasn't always nice to Grandma Jones but he did let her help him out on Christmas morning, which was nice for all of us.

We enjoyed getting spoiled by all of our loved ones. My favorite gift from Matt were some beautiful earrings. They have dried flowers in a teardrop glass shape. He said they just looked like me and he was right. I have worn them a ton.

Christmas Eve At the Joneses

2011-01-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

The Nativity-All the grandkids put on the Nativity. Chelise was Mary. Eden was the Angel and the Star, but she wanted to be a sheep, Larke was the Wise Men, Alec and Dallin were the shepherds, and Gideon was Joseph. My favorite part of this years Nativity was when Gideon picked up the baby Jesus and put him on Larke's ducky pillow pet. Maybe he thought it would be more comfortable. All the kids gathered around it and Larke didn't mind sharing with the baby Jesus. It was great.

Making ornaments-The kids really enjoyed making ornaments after dinner. They also enjoyed just coloring on the butcher paper. It was a fun way to keep them occupied.

Brent trying to win over a coloring Rushmore. Only if you give him more fruit snacks Brent.
Melissa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn't Preston just adorable. I love his curly hair.

The kid table-what goofballs

Loving on Indy

Rush being cute over Mac and Cheese.

Playing with Grandpa's iPad

Larke still loving on her duckies.All the kids loved this snow globe.

We had a fun and full Christmas Eve at the Joneses. A nativity, crafts for kids, little presents for the kids, family stories, good food and awesome company. It was a great time. Thanks so much to Joy and Mike for hosting and putting up with all of us crazies. We loved being there and spending such a wonderful holiday with you all.

Retirement

2011-01-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Larke saying farewell to her 1st 2 duckies.
4 year old ducky, 2 year old ducky, brand new ducky

Maybe it is silly of me to allow this obsession with the ducky to remain so healthy and strong. I can't help it, she is just so stinking cute about her ducky. My mom has made Larke yet another ducky, a final ducky to the ducky trilogy. About a month and a half ago Larke's newer ducky started getting a hole in it. Matt kept encouraging me to fix it, but I kind of felt like it was a lost cause. I knew Larke was not above accepting new duckies so I asked my mom if she would make her a new, last ducky blanket. I had plans for the old ones. After Larke opened her ducky blanket and her new ducky pillow pet (total surprise to us all and complete score, of course Larke adores it) she said farewell to her old duckies. I cut them up. I kept a small piece of each to scrapbook and a larger piece of each that she could keep in the car for when we went places. Larke, I believe has accepted that this ducky is a stay at home ducky. Then we threw the rest away. Larke obviously doesn't mind. Look at that smile. She just told me tonight that the thing she was grateful for today is her new ducky blanket. She loves that it is so soft. She has given up her pillow of late and will only use her ducky pillow pet to sleep on. After she opened those presents I think she thanked my mom every 5 minutes for them for the rest of the time we were there. Hopefully her sweetness and gratitude made up for Rush being a stinker. Thanks Mom, for making Larke's Christmas awesome!

Our Visit at Grma and Grpa Christenson's

2011-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Eden playing with her tiny tea set from my parents. She loves it, it is perfect for her.

Rush being cute with toys at my parents. It may have been the only time he was cute the whole time we were there. So glad I documented it.

Larke playing with toy ice cream. She carried it around half the time we were there.
Eden being very silly stuffing ornaments into her leotard.Larke, so tired she fell asleep on the kitchen floor with her beloved ducky.

The kids love playing playdough and air hockey at my parents. There is a lot of space to play in and toys to play with. We also got to build a snowman with all that snow we drove through. I have no documentation because I was having too much fun building it and because I had to stop because Rushmore was screaming. As Gideon was putting the finishing touches on our snowman, it all fell apart. It was so sad. I was actually watching from the window telling Gideon that his cousins were there to play with him. He had made a face with pieces of wood and had done such a great job. I watched it all crumble and I saw Gideon's despair. It was pretty tragic to see him work so hard and have it all fall apart.

Rushmore was such a punk at my parents house. Every time my poor mother would enter a room he would scream at her even if he had just been playing with her minutes before. He got to have rides on her walker and talk to her and show her how he stuck the toys on his fingers and still I can't count the number of times he screamed at her because she walked in his general direction. I got so mad at him as we were packing to leave. He was being especially bratty that morning. (probably overtired and teething, but still) I finally looked at him and told him off. I don't believe he yelled at her anymore. Maybe he just needed a stern talking too. Thankfully I know my Mom still loves me and a very undeserving Rushmore.

I love being with my family and I am so glad we got to share part of our Christmas with them.

Evanston

2011-01-06T19:23:00.000-08:00

As I said in my last post we did not leave until after the girls dance recital around 6pm for my parents. There was snow the whole way. It was the snowiest drive we have ever had thus far. The roads were never super scary (well to Matt anyway, I may have been a tad bit scared). We made it to Rock Springs around 12:30 and I was pretty done in and wanted to stop for the night. We decided to carry on the trek and after gas and potty breaks got back on the road around 12:50 or so. We didn't make it to Evanston until 3am and by then I was completely done in. We stopped at a Motel and tried our very best to get some rest. The kids were troopers and did awesome in the car. They slept and were pretty good about transferring to the room. We tried to let Rush sleep in bed with us, but after a while he wasn't interested. We put his blanket on the floor and I laid down with him there. He fell asleep in about 5 minutes that way. He woke up around 5am but I did the same thing with him again and he fell right back to sleep. It was not the most comfortable bed, but we were no longer on snowy roads in a moving vehicle. The kids loved waking up in the morning in the hotel. Matt got some cute pictures of everyone. While Eden was in the bathroom he got a picture of Gideon and Larke really asleep. Everyone started getting up then and he was trying to reenact a sleeping picture with all three of the older kids and Larke kept on opening her eyes. He'd say "let's try again, this time Larke, shut your eyes, pretend to be asleep" She just could not keep those eyes shut. We have like 6 pictures of them in bed together, every single one Larke has her eyes open. The kids thought it was so awesome to watch cartoons in the hotel room. They also loved the continental breakfast. All in all it was a swell yet tiring adventure for us all.

Christmas Recital

2011-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

So we left for Utah on the 20th, but before we could leave we needed to watch our cute little girls dance in their Christmas Recital. Larke's class danced to Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. We recorded it, but it did not turn out very well. So I'll try to describe the funny stuff she did. First the girls were supposed to be swinging their bodies from side to side. Larke was doing this funny thing where she was bending her knees instead. She did the silliest curtsy. She constantly watched the teacher off stage to see what she was supposed to be doing. She forgot to blow a kiss at the end and started walking off stage when the teacher stopped her to blow a kiss(it was so sweet and cute). Larke was so adorable. I was proud of her for getting up there and not being scared. In fact when I picked her up she was crying because she wanted to do it again.

Eden did so good on her dance. They danced to a song called Cookies and Milk that I have never heard before, but very cute. She hardly looked at the teacher at all and was full of smiles and confidence. My favorite part of Eden's dance was when all the girls took turns partnering up in the middle of the stage and popping all their limbs out like a star. Eden was the last girl to go and did a perfect star jump all by herself that was so cute. Then she ended it with a perfect curtsy and a kiss and wave to the crowd. She was so pleased with the crowd cheering her on she held up the line to get off the stage.

I was so proud of both our girls and look forward to their recital in May.

December Randomness

2011-01-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

I am not quite sure where December went. One minute it was here and I was crazy busy and the next it's all over and it's a new year to boot. These are some of the things we did in December before we traveled to Utah to visit family. We did building kids club at Home Depot. We saw the Parade of Lights downtown. The older kids loved it and insisted on sticking it out until Santa came, but Rushmore was a pill. We went to the Winterfest in our town. The kids favorite part of that was getting Rudolph glasses, so that when they would look at all the lit up trees they saw Rudolph everywhere. Matt and I were trying to reenact one of our favorite pictures of Gideon when he was a baby. At the Winterfest in 2003 Gideon wore the same jacket that Rushmore was wearing this year, but we just could not get Rushmore to smile. And for some reason we thought Gideon was up on Matt's shoulders, but he wasn't. Oh well, they were still cute pictures.

Decorating for Christmas was fun this year. The kids were so excited to help. Matt left the lights rolled up, lit, and up on the roof like that for 3 days. He wanted to put up a sign that said baa hum bug. I finally got up there and did them myself. I am grateful I didn't fall down. I am also grateful that when my phone slid down the roof that it landed in the bushes and received no damage whatsoever. Last but not least I made about a million cookies with my sister and friend to give to those we love. Always a good but stressful time. I made fudge, peanut brittle, fudge jumbos, cashew caramel thumbprints, meringue santa hats and pecan pie bites. And I gained 3 pounds in December so I must have enjoyed the food. Rushmore it turns out has gotten in all four of his eye teeth this month so all the grumpiness was somewhat warranted.

Laughter

2011-01-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

This happened sometime in the month of December. It happens alot, but this time I actually caught it on the camera. Larke has been sitting on her siblings for years making her giggle. Now I guess it is time for her to repay the favor. I love hearing laughter in our house, it makes life so much more fun.

Miscellanious

2010-11-07T14:54:00.001-08:00

So this is my last post. I think it is #5 today so if you are interested in the others you can keep going down. First, I celebrated my 32nd birthday on Thursday. I liked 32. It was a great day. I got to go to the park with the kids, have lunch at a friends house, watch Eden at dance, and spend the afternoon and evening with my family. Friday Matt stayed home with the kids and I got to have fun with LeAnn whose birthday is a week before mine. We had lunch, got pedicures and did a little shopping. I love this tradition. It is the best part of getting older.

Rush decided that he likes Snoopy so I had to post pictures of him loving on Snoopy for Joy. I hope you like them.

Eden had her 50th day of school on Friday. That had a 50's party and the Bigelows let us borrow an adorable poodle skirt. I thought she looked so cute.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2010-11-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a week late posting this, but I just cannot get caught up. I've been updating this blog already for going on 3 hours, but I really wanted to get it done today. Rush is unequivically the cutest Ninja Turtle I've ever seen. His shell bounced every where with every step. He happily kept his hat, gloves, and mask on for several different events. All the kids were so much fun. We've been dressing up together for 3 Halloweens now and have decides that this is the way we want to celebrate Halloween. I was able to find the base costume for the 3 older kids. I made them all a mask, gloves, belt and hat for their costumes. Rush's costume I had to add a felt chest and ties to the arms and legs. Matt made his Shredder costume, except that I sewed his cape. He did such a good job, but was disappointed when people thought that he was Darth Vader. All in all a very fun Halloween and if you have any group ideas for next year let me know.

Visiting Evy

2010-11-07T13:35:00.001-08:00

The best part about going to Dallas was being close enough to visit my sister Evelyn and her family. They live in a little town called Glen Rose about 1 hr and a half away from Dallas. We had a great time visiting with them. I got to be an aunt to my 4 neices Natalia, Alexandra, Isabella, and Makenna and my step-nephew Jack (who is totally awesome) without my own kids needing my attention. That was probably my favorite part. Makenna loved going back and forth between Matt and I saying which was the favorite of the minute. Most of those minutes, I'm happy to say, I had the favorite status. I loved getting to tuck them in and just plain getting to be with them in their own home. My brother in law Scott works at a place called Fossil Rim. It is the coolest place. He drove us around the free range animal preserve in a zebra jeep. We fed all kinds of animals. I fed the ostriches and emus out of the cup and giraffes right out of my hand (my favorite part, it was so awesome, yet slimy). The rest of the animals we fed by throwing the food on the ground because they would bite. We learned that girl rhinos are so cantancerous that they need a decoy boy rhino in a separate area to get the other boy rhino to reproduce with the ladies. We learned that Emu eggshells are the same color as their beautiful neck feathers. Giraffes muzzles are soft, their tongues are slimy and the bottom half is purple but the top half is pink. We learned that male giraffes have darker spots and we saw the male kick a deer in the antlers to get the deer away from the food. (that was cool) We also learned that all the cheetahs in American zoos can be traced back to the Fossil Rim animal preserve. We also got to race two cheetahs in our jeep. Of course we were separated by a fence and the jeep only got up to about 35 mph. We felt like we were on a Safari. It was so much fun. My biggest thanks to Ev and Scott for having us and to the kids for loving us. It was a great time and we can't wait to visit again.

2010-11-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Matt and I on the 50 yard star of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium

Taking a tour of the stadium. Learned that it is the largest stadium in the world at 3 million square feet at least I'm pretty sure that is what they said. They told us how they have the biggest doors in the world and how they open and if they open wrong they can break the whole building. We got to sit in a cushy room that people can lease and also tour where the press sits.
Checking out how tall Matt is in Yards.Our business trip logo spinning up on the biggest LCD screen in the world.

Matt and Todd giving a very serious review of the business meeting.
We did a self guided tour of the locker room and got yelled at for standing on the locker bench for a picture. Apparently each locker area is worth $10,000. So crazy. We also went to the cheerleaders' locker room but I purposely did not take a picture of it. Each locker has a 4ft picture of the cheerleader that uses it and every other available space is pink or a mirror.
Matt and I together on the side jumbo tron. I wanted him to act like he was proposing, but that didn't happen. Instead he was eating dibs.Our friends Todd and Cheri on the jumbo tron.

Besides all these pictures we have video of all of us attempting to punt, kick a field goal, catch and throw to the end zone and sometimes succeeding. It was definitely a fun place to have a business meeting. They had a small marching band, posted the colors, had a 6-8 year old girl with a big voice sing us the National Anthem and had group leaders to rile us up in shouting matches. Then they talked to us for about an hour about how the company was doing and different achievements parts of the company have had this past year. These Scitor business meetings are the best business meetings I've been too. They are fun, informative, and they get you all proud that in my case my husband works there. It is a great company and we are both so grateful for the 7 years we have had with them so far. We are already looking forward to Orlando next year and are trying to find someway to take the kids to Disneyworld beforehand.

We've never taken them and have wanted to for atleast a few years now.

Updates on the Shed

2010-11-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is mostly for Matt's parents so they can see how far we have come since they came to help. Yesterday we finished the outside of the shed except for the trim around the window and putting in an outdoor outlet, also I guess we still need to do the handle on the door. We have however completely finished the electrical wiring for the inside and reburied our trench. The sprinklers are also moved and the trim and drip edge are all put in. The root that Matt is sporting in the last picture is a root I came across while digging the trench to move the sprinkler away from the back corner of the yard. The ground in that area is infested with the roots of our neighbors aspen tree which likes to send seedlings into our yard. Urrg! That was by far the most beastly root we came across. It probably took a combined a good 20 minutes hatcheting, sawing, and cursing at it to cut out the section he is holding up. I'm so glad that we have been able to get so much of it done. We've really had a hard time finding the time to work on it, but I know we have done our best to do so and I am so happy with the results. It is going to be such a useful space.

Our Ducky Girl is 4 Years Old

2010-09-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

All Larke would say she wanted was a ducky. She wanted also a ducky cake. The cake did not turn out as cute as I wanted, but she still loved it. Her favorite gifts were the sleeping bag, (which she has slept with every night since) totally awesome beads I got at Target and 6 little Hello Kitty figures and of course the Littlest Pet Shop ducky I found. I think she really enjoyed her day. We went to the Children's Museum in the morning and had a calm afternoon. I think the hardest part for her was waiting to open presents. She has been sharing her presents very nicely which has made it much more pleasant. I can't believe she is already 4. Larke still loves to snuggle. She loves sitting on laps, she always has. She obviously still loves her ducky. She talks more and more all the time, but she just doesn't seem to as interested in talking as my other kids have been. I love her so much. She is such a delight most of the time. She definitely has her moments of tantrums and being mean to her siblings, but for the most part she makes our days great.

Lasik

2010-09-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I got Lasik done on the 17th. It is very nice to wake up and see the world. These pictures were taken the day after the surgery. It all went really well and now I am just dealing with the dryness that they cautioned about before hand. I'm grateful it went well, I was nervous, but it all turned out great.

Bread Creations

2010-09-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

When I was little I remember my Mom letting my sister Sharon and I make shapes out of the left over dough when she would make bread. I loved that I had my own bread that I made. I always thought that it was so special. She also had these tiny bread loaf pans that I would use sometimes too. I need to get me some of those. Anyway, we made bread on Sunday and I finally did this activity with my kids. I have been meaning to do it for years, but I would always think of it too late. We had a lot of fun making these. Gideon made a Ben 10 omnitrix and a jet. Eden made a puppy and a heart. I made Larke a ducky and I made a flower for myself. That is the problem with doing things that remind me of being a kid, I have a hard time just letting my kids do it. Thanks Mom for letting me do this as a kid!

Shedding

2010-09-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

So this is the progression of our new shed. Matt and I have been planning on doing a shed in our yard for a long time. Well we finally did it. Matt's parents came out for Labor Day weekend and helped us put it all together. Since Matt's parents built the house that Matt grew up in and love doing other home projects, they have a lot more experience than we do. We are so grateful that they came to help us out. We got so much more done with 4. I got to learn alot of things like framing, how to put in a window, how to build a loft, how to use a nail gun, a miter saw, how to build a truss for a roof and how to do a foundation. I really enjoyed working with Joy. The most fun for me was probably the nail gun and putting together the trusses for the roof. I did smash two of my fingers with a big Bertha (the best hammer) and got numberless splinters. The kids were awesome. They were ignored for 4 days. By day 4 Rush would not have it anymore, but they were so good. Gideon really enjoyed trying out the small nail gun. The girls and Rushmore loved walking on the floor and the walls as we were putting them together. Every time Rushmore could he found his way up on the floor. There were 2 scary moments when the wall with the window was blown over and when one of the main trusses fell off the top. Thankfully nobody was hurt either time. Mike came up with a much better way to do the roof by doing the loft first. So much easier! We got the last wall up which made the sides much more sturdy.

Since most of these pictures I have finished the painting of the walls and most of the roof is on and Matt has finished about half of the shingling. This has been a great learning experience for me. Thanks again to Mike and Joy for making this all possible. Next time we'll have a more relaxing vacation!

1st Day of School

2010-09-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Eden finally had her 1st day of Kindergarden. Listening to her talk about it and you'd think she was waiting "forever". She had been asking all summer if it was time for her to start school yet. She has a few weeks under her belt already and she is still excited to go everyday. She is getting so big and I have to admit that I got a little choked up that first day. I am so excited for her to learn.

Gideon is now an experienced school goer since he is in 2nd Grade. He has done so well in school so far. I am so proud of him. He is cheerful and enthusiastic in almost everything he does. He does awesome in reading and math. This year we are really going to work on spelling and writing. I know he'll do awesome. I love picking up Gideon from school because he is always so glad to see me and so excited to tell me about his day. He has a little competition with Eden to talk right when they get in the car but they are getting better at taking turns.

Belleview Park

2010-08-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

I think that Belleview Park has got to be the most adorable park I've ever taken my kids to. It has a stream to play in, a petting zoo and a train ride. The petting zoo and the train are $1.50 a piece so it is a little pricey for just taking the kids to the park, not to mention the 45 minute drive it takes to get there. It is worth it though when you get to play at such a fun place. My highlights for this trip to the park: Rushmore being stinking adorable in the water-even when he tried to eat the rocks, the kids playing with absolutely no fighting, being with my sister, listening to Larke claim that the baby ducks were hers and finally teaching Gideon how to skip rocks in the water just like my Dad taught me and seeing him do it once.

The Bay

2010-08-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

At least once a summer my sister and I like to take our kids to the Bay. It is a good size pool for younger kids with slides for younger kids. We have a blast everytime we go. Eden has recently discovered that she thinks goggles are awesome and she has been so fun to swim with lately.

Flutterbys

2010-08-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the Butterfly Pavilion this week. Which by the way is much cheaper if you have a group of atleast 10, but you have to make a reservation atleast 72 hrs in advance. You get a whole $2 off per person if you do this so I think the forethought is worth the savings. All the kids were brave enough to hold the tarachula except for Larke who is apparently afraid of everything right now. She doesn't want to touch it and she doesn't want it touching her. The kids had fun frolicking around looking at bugs and trying to take pictures of the butterflies. I enjoyed being with my wonderful sister LeAnn and her sister in law Karen. It was fun and the gift shop unfortunately has some very cute things that I really had to restrain myself. One more thing about the Butterfly Pavilion. Gideon and Spencer tried to scare me with a fake taranchula that Spencer was holding in his hand. I, however, was not fooled and I flicked it out of his hand and it landed right in front of a Dad there with his kids. He however was fooled and it gave him quite a scare. I think his wife enjoyed his discomfort the most, but it was definitely a highlight to my day.

Bubbles

2010-08-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago. We had such a blast. I think that we spent like 5 hours there. My favorite exhibit by far was the bubble room. It's a fairly new exhibit at the museum and it was so fun. They have tubes with smoke coming out of them that you can use to make your own smoke filled bubbles, Eden's favorite part They had a huge bubble maker that you can control. They have smoke filled bubbles that fall from the ceiling. There is an area where you pull on a rope and can be surrounded by 4 bubble walls. My favorite part was playing with these very simple metal round with handles that you can make very large long bubbles with. I made the kids all take turns letting me put them in a bubble, because the rounds were big enough to put over the top of a kid body. So fun!
The kids enjoyed the fire truck, the painting, the dress-up, the grocery store, the sand box area, the climbing and well everything. Gideon got to be in a radio play as a detective and Eden helped to make sound effects. It was such a fun day. I love the Children's Museum. I love that it is a place that all of my kids enjoy. I love being able to play with them there.

Just A Picture Of Matt And I On Our Anniversary

2010-08-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

SOCCER!

2010-08-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

So the last couple months Gideon has had his first experiences with playing soccer. He was very unsure the first game and cried for half the game. Once he got to know his coach and teammates better he enjoyed it alot more. He has gotten to goalie a part of 2 different games and got scored on once and stopped a goal once. He has been getting a little more confident with each game and practice. He has enjoyed learning how to kick, pass and hit the ball with his head. One game he was being a little more aggressive then he usually is and got knocked down. He scraped up his elbow pretty good, but kept on playing. I patched him up during a quarter break, but then he got hurt again when the biggest boy on our team accidently kicked the ball hard into Gideon's stomach. He totally lost his breathe and took a break with me for 5 minutes. I was really proud of him for going back out there after these 2 incidents in the same game. It has been fun to watch him learn.

Rush Photoshoot

2010-07-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

My camera is not the best and trying to get a one year old to sit long enough to take some pictures is, let us say difficult. Even so, we ended up with some pictures that I am happy with. I wish I had a cute hat for the motorcycle picture, but oh well. Some of them you can tell, I did not clean up at all, and yes I know his shirt is backwards. I did it on purpose because I liked the shirt but I didn't want the writing. We couldn't get a good picture of him standing alone not holding on to anything, so you get to see a bad picture. Anyway he apparently likes to stick out his tongue a lot but it is a cute tongue so it's okay.

Rush Turns One!

2010-07-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Matt catches Uncle Eric putting frosting on Rush's nose. His face wasn't dirty enough apparently.

Rush's birthday got to be a little bit scattered this year. We did some celebrating a few days early on the 4th since we had cousins there to celebrate with us. We gave him the awesome rocking motorcycle that I found at a neighbors garage sale. We also gave him a box of Kleenex to take out the tissues to his heart's content. On his actual birthday we did some fun stuff that the older kids probably enjoyed more. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for a while then we did McDonalds for lunch with my sister, and finally we went rollerskating. It was a full day of stuff that Rush observed more than participated. He did get to open more presents yesterday. I made him a blanket of fleece, he got some clothes and one of my favorite all time little kid toys, a ball popper. They are so fun! I can't believe he is 1 already. We are so glad to have him in our family. He is a fun boy and we love him.

He can stand for a few seconds on his own and can walk holding hands (I completely acknowledge that it is probably my fault that he isn't walking, I haven't really encouraged him at all, oh well). He feeds himself pretty much anything and is most happy when he is eating. He loves going up the stairs. Not a huge fan of down the stairs yet, but he's getting there. He loves playing in the bathroom, unrolling toilet paper and playing in the toilet. I was mortified the other day when Eden brought me his pacifier and telling me that she had found it in the toilet. I thought it better not to ask for any details and just sterilized it as soon as possible. He has his 4 front teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). He says uh oh and da da da da da. He sleeps through the night and has for months. He still gives open mouth kisses and loves being around his siblings. I think most of all he loves me, although Matt is not far behind. His smile has really changed since he got teeth. He crinkles his nose up a lot more. We all love him and can't believe he has already had his first birthday. Crazy!

4th of July/Take 2

2010-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

So a smaller town near us held back their fireworks until the 5th so we decided to try again with the whole not getting rained on while enjoying fireworks thing. The kids enjoyed dancing to the music and playing the Hampsons who joined us for the fun. Gideon was being He-Man and the girls were being She-Ra which was of course not awesome, but they had fun. Rushmore was a pill almost the whole time. He was so tired since this was the 2nd night in a row that he was being kept up. His crankiness put a damper on the fun, but the other kids loved it. 2 days in a row with fireworks, can it get any better than that? Except now they have to wait a whole year for fireworks and I think they thought that they would be allowed to watch fireworks everyday since they got it 2 days in a row.

4th of July/Take 1

2010-07-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

We kept on waiting and waiting to go to the field where we usually watch fireworks because the weather was getting progressively worse. We hoped that they would put off the fireworks until the 5th, but it was not to be. We ended up parked at the side of the road watching the fireworks in the rain. Doesn't that sound like drudgery! Well it was great fun. Gideon and his cousin Spencer yelled USA! USA! USA! the entire 20 minutes - 30 minutes the fireworks were going on. Except of course when they took a break to sing the National Anthem. These boys made it a very memorable 4th of July because they had a wonderful time even though they were getting soaked. Thanks Boys!

2010-07-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Also: Matt bought the kids She-Ra on DVD so I am mad at him.

8 Years!

2010-07-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

So today is our 8 year anniversary. I can't believe that it has been that long and yet it seems too that it should be longer than that. I have a hard time remembering life BM(before Matt). It seems like we have always been together. Life together is not always rainbows and sunshine, but when it is, it is so wonderful. Married life is so much better and worse, fulfilling and lonely, beautiful and frustrating than I ever was able to imagine BM. Sometimes we fall out of sync and we have to work to love each other. Other times we are ridiculously in love. Most of the time we are somewhere in the middle leaning one way or the other. For the most part we are very happy together and life is good. We have learned a lot about forgiveness and being forgiven. We still have a long way to go, but I am so grateful to be on this journey with him. He makes me think about things that I've never thought about, he has improved my vocabulary and grammar even if I was a sometimes unwilling student, and he makes me laugh everyday. I love watching him teach our kids, tickle our kids, read to our kids, laugh with our kids and loving our kids. I still adore his hair and his laugh is still my most favorite sound in the world. He is my best friend and I am so grateful that in this whole wide world of people we were able to find and love each other. I love you Matt, and always will. Thanks for 8 wonderful years.

Protect the Children

2010-06-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

So you know how you strive to protect your children from the scary and harder things of life? This week I failed. I am of course speaking of my children's new obsession with Pokemon. I thought I had escaped the influence of Pokemon in my and my kids' lives. I thought maybe it was old enough that it would skip their generation. But alas it was not to be... How did my children discover Pokemon, you ask? Well we let the kids watch things on Netflix on-line on the x-box. Gideon swore to me that he was going to turn on Voltron, of which Matt has fond childhood memories. On his way to Voltron Gideon saw Pokemon and wanted to check it out. Without consulting me he began the show and before you could say Jack Robinson my kids were hooked. On Tuesday in the bath Eden and Larke were playing with the toys saying "Pikachu, I choose you!" , and telling them what powers to use to fight each other. Heaven help us all if they discover the cards and toys, etc.

My Little Ballerinas

2010-05-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have had fun this weekend taking pictures of my girls in their outfits for their upcoming dance recital. Matt taught me how to tweek them with Paint Shop Pro. I am so pleased with how they turned out.

Toothless Wonder

2010-05-17T09:07:00.001-07:00

While we were on our trip Gideon finally lost one of his front teeth. They have both been loose for several months and we have been slowly working on them. I'm afraid I have been a little obsessive about it. I just have been longing to see his cute toothless smile. A few days after we got home we noticed that the one on the bottom next to the middle was about to fall out so we pulled out that one too. Two days after that Gideon pulled out his other front tooth and we ended up with the adorable grin as seen above.

For the first two teeth Gideon recieved $1.00 a piece from the toothfairy. He seemed a little disappointed each time and I found out that he wanted instead a cookie. So I had him write to the toothfairy and inform her of the fact because the toothfairy is used to giving money to children. So this is what he wrote. "I want a cookie." I told him that he needed to put more. So this is what we together came up with, in case you can't read the note. "Dear Tooth Fairy, Thank You for the dollars, but I want a cookie please. Cute huh? The toothfairy responded with a promise for a cookie next time.

Cacti

2010-05-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

We made this cute project the last day of Preschool with the girls. It's made with a paper cup oval green papers and toothpicks. They got to make their own cactus. Even Larke loved this project. We used rocks outside to balance the cacti so they wouldn't fall over. I loved making these with the girls.

Preschool Graduation

2010-05-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

Eden, Larke, and Makenzie

Eden and Makenzie are getting ready to start Kindergarden next year. Preschool was alot of fun to do with the girls this year. We have had just the 3 girls doing it this year, which has been easy and hard in different ways. Eden can get a little emotional and in a small group it can be difficult when she is in a mood. It has been fun to see her learning and growing and preparing for Kindergarden.

Ode to Great Grandma Jones

2010-05-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

My Father in Law, Mike with his mother Margie.

Grandma Jones at M'Recia's Wedding. I love this picture of her.I put this picture up because I love her bathing suit. So cute.Arthur and Margie on their wedding day.
She was always so stylish. Such a pretty lady.Great Grandma Jones with Eden and Gideon when he was still Scooter.

Her name was Margie Fay Lewis Jones. She was a generous beautiful woman. She passed away Thursday, April 22nd at the age of 83. Some of the things that stood out to me about Grandma Jones were that she loved to be crafty. Her home was full of stuff that she made. Margie loved to crosstitch, arrange flowers, paint, and decorate cakes. I loved visiting her home at Christmas. She always had beautiful ornaments on her tree and a Christmas villiage under her tree. One of the things that has stuck out to me from the funeral is my Father in Law saying how he always thought that she was the most beautiful out of all the mothers he knew. I loved seeing her pictures and trying to imagine what her life was like growing up in a small town on a farm in Utah. She had the spunk to leave that small town and go to California when she was done with High School where she married and raised her 5 children.

One of the things that I enjoyed most was visiting the town she grew up in. It was very small. The church where her Dad was a Bishop for 16 years was a shell, but the home where she grew up is still lived in, by I don't know who. We saw the hill where she used to play and where one of her siblings is buried. I also enjoyed learning that she was a Temple worker for years, just like my Grandma Anne.

We love you Grandma Jones. You were a gracious, beautiful, generous woman. You will be sorely missed.

Home Depot and Iron Man

2010-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Something that Matt's parents have turned us onto, for those of you out there that haven't heard, Home Depot does a free kid craft the first Saturday of every month. They give the kids a free apron and a pin and certificate when the project is finished. My kids have enjoyed doing so much with their Grandma and Grandpa Jones that they have been asking to do it again. This last time we were with them the kids made a planters box for Mother's Day. They were so excited to give them to me. Even though they made them a full week before Mother's Day Gideon was trying very hard to hide it from me. It was sweet. Gideon got the Iron Man mask with leftover birthday money and toothfairy money. He thinks he is pretty awesome when he has it on.

Dinosaur Museum

2010-05-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

We had a quick trip to visit family and my parents took us all to the dinosaur museum. The kids had a lot of fun going through all the exibits and playing together with Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Mom and each other. *So after posting this the first time M'Recia reminded me that Larke got very upset when Matt tried to convince her that she has bones just like the dinosaurs. Matt tried to show her by feeling her arms and saying "see, feel your bones right here!" She really didn't like that at all. She cried and yelled that she did not have bones. I just asked her if she has bones, and although it did not make her cry this time it was still a resounding "NO!".

Wow

2010-04-22T10:05:00.001-07:00

So over the last day I have done about 7 new posts. If you are interested look below. If you don't have the time to look at all of them I'm very sorry for you, because there are so many cute pictures.

Gideon Turns 7

2010-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Ben 10 Amatrix Cake.

Jedi cape made my Grandma Christenson.
Gideon bowling for his birthday.Spencer and Gideon chowing down on Popcorn in-between turns.My sister LeAnn with Rushmore. I realized that I don't have very many pictures of LeAnn. Sad!

Poor Rushmore. All he wanted was for me to hold him.

The girls watching the ball .

So Gideon wanted to go bowling for his birthday. His cousins came to go bowling with us and we had a great time. LeAnn won. We bowled for 1 and 1/2 hours with 7 people and one lane and finished only one game. I let the girls pretty much bowl on their own and they were so slow. I'd watch as the ball would take two minutes to roll down the lane. For those of you who haven't been bowling in the last 10 years they have started measuring how many mph the ball goes down the lane. For a very large majority of the game we were under 2 mph down the lane thus the almost 2 hrs for 1 game of bowling. Gideon was so funny. He would kind of run up to the lane and try to let the ball fly. It would bounce with a loud clunk and start it's slow journey to the pins. It was a little expensive, but I think we all enjoyed it and I wanted his birthday to be special.

Gideon has 4 loose teeth right now. He is reading very well. He amazes me sometimes with the words he figures out. He loves his siblings. He is still my biggest helper. He loves video games, especially when he gets to play with his Dad. Eden is his biggest fan and tells me daily that he is the handsomest and that she wishes he weren't her brother so she could marry "The Handsome" which is her newest nickname for Gideon. We love him dearly. He is such a good big brother.

My Seersucker Boys

2010-04-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

Matt has always liked to dress with a little more flair. When I first met him he wore a bowtie almost every Sunday. He doesn't wear the bowtie as much anymore, but he loves to have nice socks, french cuffed shirts and cufflinks whenever possible. A few years ago he bought a Seersucker Suit to wear to church. I think that he looks very handsome in it, but he has recieved enough ribbing from others that he doesn't wear it that often. Last week I found a seersucker suit for Rushmore on sale at Target. If they would have had Gideon's size I would have gotten him one as well. So Matt and Rush were twins for church on Sunday in their seersucker suits. I thought they were so handsome I had to get a picture of them together.

Happy Easter!!!

2010-04-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

I always have to do an egg that says He is Risen for my Dad and Matt always has to come up with the most irreverent egg he can think of. This year that was an Alien egg. I admit it came out kind-of cool, but still very irreverent.

The kids having a picnic on Easter and Sugar coming over to say Hello.
Our attempt at an Easter picture.

I have so many pictures of the girls in this pose. Hugging because they love new clothes.
Eden with one of her Easter treasures.Gideon with his 1st real nerf gun. What was I thinking putting it in an Easter basket you say? I'm not quite sure.

Larke just exclaimed looking at this picture "Look it's my Share Bear". Yup, it is!
Larke at the Ward Easter Egg Hunt. Below:

We had a quite Easter at home this year. Yummy ham and General Conference. An excellent combination. It was a beautiful session of conference. A wonderful way to spend Easter. So many wonderful witnesses of our Savior and his role in our lives.

Impromptu Photo Shoot with Rushmore

2010-04-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Rushmore was sitting on the floor playing with this hat. He was being so cute I had to snag my camera and get some pictures of him. He has been such a happy boy. I'm so glad that he is part of our family. He makes me smile alot. Last night he was up and all the rest of the kids were in bed. Matt was holding him and they were just giggling and laughing, it was so irresistable. I just had to laugh with them. Matt made the comment of how he wished that Rushmore could remember the times of laughter as a baby. Wouldn't that be nice?