The beauty of tradition

Would you believe that its become a Christmas tradition to take a picture of my sister Hannah pretending to punch our mom in the face?

(The addition of brother-in-law Matt in the back is just a bonus.)

All about a Danish

Our little Dane turned three on January 14. Three year old birthdays are so much fun because they GET IT. That means that they understand that they are awesome, that they can say things like "I get to go first-take that from you-eat that-make a general nuisance of myself- because it's my birthday!!" and that the events of the day (or days as our family seems to do) revolve around them.

I always make the kids a special breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their birthdays. Knowing that Dane loves pancakes I asked him what he wanted for his breakfast. He paused to think and said, "Syrup." Later I asked what he wanted for dinner and he said, "Soup." This floored me because making him eat any kind of soup is a full assault battle. "What kind of soup?" I asked. "Syrup soup." Hey, at least the kid knows his own mind!

Dane truly had a wonderful birthday. He loved his cake, he loved his gifts, he loved going to Chuck E. Cheese, and he loved all the special attention. I love birthdays too, it's a chance to really dote on one of the kids and go out of the way to make them feel special. My mom always made a big deal out of our birthdays and they are some of my best childhood memories. I am hoping to repeat that with our kiddos. In a house full of kids it's a big deal to have a day or two devoted only to you! OH, and thank you to all our wonderful family who spent the day with us and made his day special. Grandma Julie, you were missed!

I included many pictures of his birthday as well as the shots I took for his third birthday. I think I have a couple of ones that are good enough to avoid the JC Penneys. Of course the photo shoot ended up with him tantruming and crying in time out but hey, you can't tell from the photos!

Happy Monday folks!

will I ever post again?

Yes, I will. Someday. When I have time.

In the meantime, here are a few random pictures taken over our Christmas break. You know, that break that was almost a month ago.

On tap for future blog posts: Christmas (maybe, if it isn't Easter already), Dane's 3rd birthday, and my attempt at taking Dane's 3 year pictures myself. That super fun process ended up with him tantruming and being sent to his room. Good times.

My baby is 7 months old today. SEVEN MONTHS?!?!?!? Guess it's time for another one. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Ride until we barf or bust

When you know people, the way I know people, you get invited to super swanky events. You know, play dates, birthday parties, and the occasional SUPER AWESOME INVITATION ONLY CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE RIVER FRONT PARK CAROUSEL. I know, it might be tough for me to reenter normal society after an event like that.

Okay, it was really cool. It was hosted by some wheelchair vendors (seriously) for all the medical facilities they provide their services to. My awesome physical therapist friend Kat is on that short list and got us invited as well. They kids had a blast. Santa was there, taking pictures and handing out candy canes. There was a mountain of super nice swanky event caliber sugar cookies, any beverage you can imagine, and most importantly, as many rides on that awesome carousel as you wanted. Or until you barfed, which ever came first. Best part for me? It was all free. The kids had a blast. A BLAST. I wonder how many awesome people I will need to know to turn this into a family tradition?

Things on this old blog will be slow and quiet over the holidays so have a very Merry Christmas and a great new year. Enjoy your friends and family and may you too do something so fun that you too do it until you barf. (Like the way my mom and I eat 70 pounds of divinity.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!








How's that for a title?

Not for sale

At about 7:30 this morning the cars started lining up.

By 9:00 a.m. when I brought Aubrey to school they stretched all the way down my street, lining both sides. Dozens of people rushed toward our neighbors house, trying to beat out the person next to them for some treasure.

Our elderly neighbor passed away two months ago and her family is holding her estate sale today. I had no idea these things were this popular. There has been an unrelenting stream of vehicles for several hours now.

It doesn't take a brilliant philosopher to deduce that ones life, a quality life, had better be about more than the stuff one owns. One day someone could open your home to the public and allow perfect strangers to buy up all the things that you thought were important. Your furniture, the art on your walls, the dishes in your cupboards, all the tools in your garage. It all goes.

What they won't be able to take is the family you had, the friends you had, the relationships you built, the impact and influence you had on the people around you, and your faith in God.

I hope you get the opportunity today to work on building up those things that one day won't be for sale!

You know it's Christmas when...

Yikes! This was supposed to be an Elf Yourself but we are experiencing technical difficulties. Stay tuned.

Will Dane lose the first tooth in our family?

The details are still a bit hazy.

"We were playing a pillow game and he was throwing and I was catching, oh, and the bunk bed, oh and it was funny because he was using his repulsor rays but my web was more powerful and then Dane threw the pillow and WAP he hit something and I think it was his finger and and and and....."

This is what is streaming out of Nathan's mouth as I pick a sobbing Dane up off the top bunk bed, Aubrey's bed, blood and drool dripping out of his mouth.

Mouth injuries always look like they are bleeding a lot because of all the saliva but WHOA, Dane had a lot of blood in his mouth. We sat in the bathroom for five minutes just putting a wet wash cloth in his mouth and trying to figure out where the bleeding was even coming from. This of course is happening as every member of our small group Bible Study was arriving. Heck, it was Melissa who said, "Maybe you should get him a popcicle." (THANKS MELISSA, I HOPE YOUR BABY IS BORN TONIGHT IN REPAYMENT FOR YOUR KINDNESS.)

Tonight Dane is the proud owner of a nice fat lip, cut up gums, and a front tooth that has been knocked at a slight angle and is loose. Do I need to remind you that this is the kid who broke his arm at 19 months? Yeah, he did.

I called our dentist, who is so nice and chill that we first talked Gonzaga basketball and home schooling before we got around to Dane's tooth. The short answer? It's fine. Tooth at weird angle? As long as it doesn't impact his bite, no problem. Cut gums? As long as it doesn't get infected it will heal fast. If the tooth gets dark and nasty and snaggle toothish? No biggy, we pull it and wait for a grown up tooth to come in a few years. No problem. Just another normal day at the Jones house.

Aubrey will NEVER FORGIVE HIM if he loses a tooth before her.

p.s. The photo has nothing to do with this story other than it is a picture of Dane and it is cute.

Daneisms

Dane has been unknowingly hilarious lately. Here are my top three from my nearly three year old.

1. After waking up from his nap I said, "How did you sleep my little sweetums?" With a GRUMPY face he replied, "I am not a sweetums. You can call me The Danish!"

2. He has new snow boots with a reindeer face on them. He said today, "My boots stomp like thunder!"

3. He came up to me today, make shift gun in hand and said, "I'm one of the bad dudes." He proceeded to give the nearly three year old version of an evil laugh. He yelled, "Listen to my evil crackle!!"

We sure love our Danish.

Not dead

But you kind of thought I was, didn't you?

Here's what's happening, in no particular order.

1. Four kids, six and under, is busy. In case you were wondering.

2. I am planning on home schooling next year. Go ahead, talk amongst yourselves.

3. Next week is a short week because it is Thanksgiving break. After that it's three more work weeks and then our entire family has two whole weeks off for Christmas. YEAH!!

4. I have already decorated for Christmas. We don't have our tree up yet but everything else is up. I don't care what you say, I love it, it't not too early, and it makes us all happy. I listened to a Harry Connick Jr. Christmas cd all morning. It might be time to boot up my Pandora Christmas play list.

5. In about 1 1/2 weeks Greg will begin his first venture into the coaching world. He will be a kindergarten/1st grade coach for the Upward League. His sweet daughter Aubrey "THE BOMB" Jones is on his team. Go dragons!!

6. We have gotten to hang out with so many fun friends lately. Dinners, play dates, baby-sitting friends, etc. Now Greg and I just need a date!

7. I turned 31. I didn't die but I do think the smile lines around my eyes are starting to not go away when I'm done smiling. I wonder if six years of no sleep has anything to do with that?

8. My mom played this funny little email joke, sending the same email over and over again about an article on brain fog, pretending that she kept forgetting she had already sent it. It took the fourth email for me to get the joke. Talk about brain fog!

That's about all you've been missing folks. That and I found out that my across the street, so awesome, 20 year old baby-sitter got a full time job. She has been watching my kids every Wednesday morning for two hours so I can do WHATEVER I WANT. I was bummed for me but she really needed the job. Then she told me that she works noon to 6 p.m. and would continue our once a week baby-sitting. HOORAY!!!! She thinks she is getting married and moving next summer but I have other plans for her. Good-bye marriage, hello living in my basement!

Monster Mash

A well posed, gallery quality, family photo.
Seriously, this is about as good as kid pics go around here. I mean, at least they are all facing the same direction.
Greg, wearing the wizard costume I made him back B.C. (before children), in our newlywed, apartment dwelling days. I love it that he still wears it.
Aubrey loved her costume. I thought it turned out pretty cool.
Look how tough Nathan is! He wanted to be addressed as "Black Beard".
Dane, one second before ripping is mask off. He was cute without it on too.
Johanna, the Gonzaga cheerleader. Over the course of the weekend she was also a skeleton and a pumpkin. She had many outfit changes because she has the ability to poop out all diapers and outfits with astonishing regularity. (KayLynn, I promise I got the poop stain out of this one!)

Happy Halloween! We went to Aubrey's school party, Greg's big work party, and did a little of our own trick or treating on Halloween night. Greg's work party is by far the best. It is an annual event where all three floors of the company decorate and all the employees' kids get to go trick or treating there for a few hours. There is a big pot luck meal and everyone enjoys it, adults included. It is a manageable crowd, a manageable amount of candy, and you're not outside freezing your patookies off. (I made up that word, patookies. It means whatever you want it to mean. In our house it usually means toes.)

Enjoy the pictures, the kids had a blast dressing up this year. Dane was going to be a ghost, I made him a ghost costume, he practiced saying, "B-B-B-B-BOOOOOO!" for weeks on end, and within two minutes of wearing his costume he ripped it off and said, "It's driving me crazy!" Thankfully we had a reserved skeleton costume from last year just waiting to be worn. He refused to wear the mask though, or the gloves. Dane has opinions. A lot of opinions.

Happy November!