A great day

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We had a wonderful time. Greg's office puts on a Halloween party for the kids, complete with terrifying decorations (it took us 10 minutes to convince Aubrey to leave Greg's office), fantastic costumes, trick or treating, and a sugar laden buffet. As you can see from the pictures, we had a cowgirl and a cowboy. Greg got into the spirit and threw together his own version of a cowboy costume. I took inventory of my closet and decided I would wear anything that didn't make me look like a blimp, which did not include any cute cowgirl clothes. Afterward we stopped and visited Aunt KayLynn and Uncle David, as well as Greg's dad at his store. The kids were a hit and REALLY learned how the whole "trick or treat" thing works. We spent this evening answering our own doorbell and reassuring Aubrey that we were not giving away her candy. Holidays get more and more fun each year as the kids get older. Now onto Thanksgiving!

p.s. I had to include a picture of our friends Roth and Mandy. They went as Jim and Pam from "The Office."

A Haircut or a Homicide??

After deciding that Nathan's hair was ridiculously long, I decided to cut it. Twenty minutes later his hair had gone from ridiculously long to just ridiculous. I did a terrible job and it could only be salvaged by a professional. So, this morning we marched into "Great Clips" for Nathan's first real haircut. To say that he didn't behave nicely is putting it mildly. He was insane. He nearly needed a tranquilizer (as did I) to make it through. The tears and snot and drool flowed, even though he was being bribed with a sucker and a movie. Aubrey watched in horrified fascination. I don't think she'd ever seen another human being lose it quite the way Nathan did. The end result though is a very grown up little haircut that is stinking cute. I think I'll take him in for his next cut on his 16th birthday. And Greg can do it.

Baerlocher Baby

Our great friends Angela and Justin welcomed their third baby into the world today. Their little girl, Grace Christine, was born at about 2:45 this afternoon, weighing in at 8 lbs. 14.5 oz. and 20 inches long. Angela said that she has a little bit of dark hair and chubby cheeks. She is joining big brothers Adam and Tyler. It has been a long wait, as anyone who has ever been pregnant knows, and they are thrilled that their daughter is here. Congratulations Baerlocher family!

It was a good day to be a Coug

I know this email be offensive to all you U of W alumni, but YEAH COUGARS! We went to the WSU/UCLA game yesterday and watched them walk all over UCLA. The sun was shining, it was a gorgeous fall day, the whole fam got to enjoy a great football game, and we won! We also got to see some friends of Greg's that we hadn't seen for a long time. We hadn't seen Matt in over three years (a high school friend and groomsman in our wedding) and enjoyed the chance to catch up. Greg's parents watched the kids for the day too which was, I must confess, fabulous. Two kids three and under at a swamped college campus followed by a four hour sit to watch a game??? Insanity is what that would have been. As it was we sat, enjoyed good food, great conversation, and a perfect football day.

I am attaching a few pictures. I would appreciate it if you would disregard my double chin. It seems to have a life of its own these days.

Too painful to watch

While I am not typically a baseball fan, Greg has sucked me into watching the playoffs, and now the World Series, this year. Who couldn't resist cheering for the Colorado Rockies when they swept the Diamondbacks? I took this good cheer and fervor into last night's opening game, thinking of my Rockies as the Little Engine that Could. The Red Socks are a hard team to root against but putting in a yell for the underdog can't be beat. Except that last night there wasn't ONE DARN thing to cheer for the Rockies about. We had TIVO'd the game and during the 5th inning, as the Rockies pitcher WALKED IN RUN AFTER RUN, I would cling to Greg's arm and screech, "Fast forward it, fast forward it!" It was agonizing. Greg can't watch parts of "The Office", he finds them too embarrassing, and that's how I felt about last nights game. Just make the pain stop! I was confident that any moment the phone would ring and it would be the Rockies bullpen asking if I could make a quick flight in to pitch. I don't think I could have been any worse.

I guess I'll watch again tonight but only if I have TIVO'd it so that I can race right through any truly miserable parts. I don't have a good feeling for Colorado. They were not a pretty sight last night.

Happy Halloween!

We kicked off our Halloween festivities this evening with pumpkin carving and the painting of my ever growing belly. The kids thought painting my stomach was a blast and found pumpkin carving to be a bore. Greg and I would try to coax them back over to the pumpkins ("Aubrey honey, look, it's a happy pumpkin! Nathan, look, do you want to touch the seeds?") and they'd give us a moment's worth of faked interest and go back to chasing our cat Tika. They liked the finished products though and were even more impressed when we lit the candles and turned the lights off. Greg got a great shot of our glowing pumpkin faces. Enjoy!

Preschool in a box

This post is for all of you with kids who are reading my blog. At our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting a wonderful woman by the name of Lisa gave us a demonstration on "preschool in a box". She is the mother of six kids and used to be preschool teacher. She has put together all these boxes of activities for her children and they are amazing. What is great about them is that they are nothing special! Feeling inspired today, I went on a dollar store run and came up with about seven of my own boxes. They include things like one filled with craft sticks, puff balls, and glue to create things with, a tupperware full of rice with measuring spoons and funnels to play in it with, buttons and string and pipe cleaner to make things with, zillions of erasers and cups to sort and arrange by color, a container of sea shells and a counting book to practice numbers, a magnetic fishing pole with fish so that the kids can fish for different numbers and colors....the list goes on. I think I spent about $20 on everything and each box is something different and special. The kids had a ball with all of it. I let Aubrey help me pick everything out too and she loved feeling included. Nathan uses the boxes in different ways but as Lisa pointed out, everything is learning! If you want to feel like a killer mom, go get some tupperware, rice, and a few colorful things, and ta da, you are mommy of the year!

Greenbluff and hearts

We went on our annual adventure to Greenbluff this Saturday. My parents, KayLynn and David, Hannah, and her friend Kari all were in town for it as well. We picked out pumpkins, Aubrey rode a pony, the kids played in a farm equivalent of a sandbox (filled with dried peas), we ate polish sausages, and enjoyed the GORGEOUS October day.
We had told Aubrey that she could pick out her pumpkin and she hung out in indecisionville forever. She would roam the pumpkins, touch them softly, push them over, and keep going. Greg and I decided we would just have to pick one out for her and took our pumpkins and paid for them. At that precise moment she picked out this small, green pumpkin, far more reminiscent of a zucchini than a pumpkin, and fell in love. It was such a pathetic looking specimen that they just gave it to her. (Obviously, it was the Halloween equivalent of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.) Nathan spent the whole time trying to pick up every single pumpkin. You know, the 40 pound variety that are taller than he is. Kids are funny.

Oh, and about hearts. Are Greg and I the only ones that love each other intensely 99% of the time and greatly dislike each other while playing games together?? We played hearts last night with KayLynn and David and it was as it always is; trash talking that turns mean, funny jabs that become personal attacks, sarcastic comments, and a general desire to poke the other person's eyes out. I hold firm that Greg is a terrible winner and a terrible loser, he thinks I'm a complainer that can't take the fact that he generally kicks my tail in all games. (Which is, unfortunately, quite true.) Our marriage only stands firm because we play games against, or with each other, oh, once a year.

p.s. Yes, the number of pictures for this post borders on the absurd.

It's 7:00 p.m., do you know where your children are?

Yesterday's bedtime had a recipe all day in the making. Nathan took one early, short nap, Aubrey didn't nap at all, they were both up early, neither slept well because of coughing colds, and were exhausted by 6:30. Both of my kids were in bed and asleep at 7 p.m. last night and neither woke up until after 7 a.m. this morning. Am I a bad mother if I say it was divine?

Girl's Weekend

For those of you who don't know, I spent last weekend in the company of my four dear friends from high school. In an attempt at tradition, we celebrated the second annual girl's weekend in Seattle. We enjoyed a rental house decorated circa 1972, fine Seattle dining (thank you Duke's Chowder House!), great shopping (thank you Megan for introducing me to "Anthropologie") and fun conversation (thanks to everyone). We also witnessed the historic moment when Jenny pressed her pregnant belly button onto Megan, quite possibly the highlight of the weekend. We were also accompanied by Miss Louesa, Brittany's adorable baby girl, and got to see that smile in action for three days. I was glad to get to participate this year, being as I spent the first girl's weekend at home, nursing a 4 month old baby and taking care of a two year old. We'll see what happens next year with the introduction of Baby Jones #3...

We were thankful for a good time with friends, safe travels for everyone, and the chance to appreciate our families at home. Man, was I ready to see my husband and kids!

Practically perfect in every way

We had our third ultrasound for the baby today and our doc, plus a consulting doc, confirmed that our baby does have bilateral club feet. (Chelsie, sorry, I didn't realize I hadn't filled you in on this.) They also took a careful look at the baby's hands as well as its spine because these are two areas that sometimes have deformities associated with club feet. Like last time though everything else looked perfect and we all feel confident that this is an isolated birth defect. We have also found out since our last ultrasound that Greg was braced for being "pigeon toed" when he was a baby so we get to blame this faulty gene on him. We have already talked to the patient care coordinator at Shriner's Hospital and we will start progressive casting of the baby within two weeks of delivery. We are doing fine with all of this. It's correctable, it's not life threatening, and it can be treated successfully and completely by 3-4 years of age. It will make for a crazy new baby experience but we'll all get through it and Jones #3 will be an Olympic sprinter someday.

Thanks for all the prayers. We are just thankful that the baby is healthy in all other ways and that we have this information in advance so we can be prepared. We are most excited to snuggle this perfect new baby and welcome it to our family.

Jack and Jill fell down the hill

Last night, after having a quick, action packed weekend in the Tri-Cities and Yakima, our kids came home grumpy and well, grumpy. Greg and I were trying to unpack when I heard them shrieking. (The "I"m not hurt, just MAD" kind of shrieking.) Before we could intervene I saw Nathan push Aubrey and Aubrey push Nathan back...causing him to fall down the stairs from our family room to the basement. By the time I got there Nathan was already standing up and wailing, Aubrey was wailing because I had screamed at her to sit in the corner and Greg was hanging up the phone, thinking someone surely was dead. Ahhh, what a night.

On a less violent note, we had a great weekend. We spent Friday with our dear friends the Baerlochers and got in some brief, but great, visiting before leaving Saturday morning for Yakima. Saturday my mom, sister, and I went to Jenny's baby shower and got to see Jen and baby Anna get properly spoiled. That night was a celebration of my sister Hannah's 19th birthday and we came back home on Sunday. We sure know how to fill up a weekend!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. The ones of the kids are from making brownies this morning. I think we ate more batter than brownies.

Final note: we have our follow up ultrasound on Wednesday. They are going to relook at the baby's feet and we'll get a better feel for what we are dealing with. Keep our little unborn baby in your prayers!