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!

helmets aren't just for riding bikes

This morning a friend invited us to head to a local park and let our "big kids" (3 year olds) practice riding their bikes on the basketball court. Because I am a mother/nurse/paranoid woman, she isn't allowed within 3 feet of her bike without a helmet. On the way home from our head injury free outing she asked me why she has to wear a helmet. I explained in simple terms about big owies on heads, very sad mommies and daddies, and insurance deductibles. (Maybe not the last one.) She paused for a moment and said, "I think Nathan should just wear a helmet when he's on a bike and when he's not on a bike." I had to laugh out loud because that is the absolute truth! I guess Greg and I aren't the only ones who have noticed that our little boy seems intent on a concussion before he is 2. Things in our house that are not safe for small boys include the stairs, dining room chairs, dining room table, beds, any toy over 6 inches high, all living room furniture, and two cats.

Welcoming us to the blogging world

Since I am a self proclaimed blog spy I decided I should get one of our own set up so others can spy on us. (Only if you're invited though, of course!) Brittany assured me that it was easy and after fiddling around with it for a bit I decided that she's right, even a tired pregnant lady can figure it out.

Here are some recent pictures to get us started. There is Nathan, seeing if he can fit in a pot, Aubrey stating that she is a "stinker wilikins", the kids dancing with Grandma and Grandpa Jones, and Jenny and I showing off our new, svelt physiques