He's the man!

Happy Father's Day to Jared! We had a great time honoring him on Father's Day. We let him sleep in until 7 (which was unfortunately a couple hours later than most of us) and made him breakfast in bed. He opened presents, ate ribs for dinner and a cheesecake for dessert. Our only complaint about the day is that we wish we could have had our father's over to join us for dinner! More and more on holidays or special occasions we wish we lived closer to more family!!

Jared has been working so much lately. He leaves early in the morning and most days has been coming home from 6-8 for dinner then heading back to work until at least midnight. Some nights he doesn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. He's so tired and very frustrated with work but he just keeps trucking along. There is so much I could say about what a good father Jared is but I just want to write one thing so the kids can always read this and know how much he loves them. I've never asked Jared to come home for dinner and help get the kids ready for bed before he heads back to work. I know he could work straight through the evening and be able to get a few more hours of sleep at night. He chooses though, to sacrifice his sleep rather than his time with his family. As exhausted as he may be, he comes home and immediately starts playing tag, hide and seek, wrestling and whatever else the kids want to do. He helps them get ready for bed, gives them a hug and a kiss, tells them he loves them, and heads out the door again. Hopefully things will ease up a bit at work soon but in the meantime we certainly know he loves us and we LOVE him!

A few pictures the kids and their Daddy on Father's day...

Jared got a gift from each of the kids and we all gave him a router saw

I never see Jared fall asleep sitting up but the last couple weeks, trying to live on very little sleep, I've found him like this a couple of times.

One night he was able to bring some plans home and worked all night at home rather than the office.

We washed our cars on Saturday and the kids washed their little car at the same time. They really worked hard on it and it was a very clean car when they were done!


We got a new niece this last week!! The kids love their new cousin Reese Katherine Nelson.

First picture of all six of the Jones cousins

We got to bring Sophie and Lexie to our house for a few hours on Saturday and they all had a great time! Cousins are wonderful!

Playing in the sprinkler

Here is the picture we sent to the grandpas for Father's Day

Another shot from the photo session

Last weekend Jared and Bradley got up early on Saturday morning and headed up to the lake to go fishing. He took Mackayla on one of these early morning trips last summer and Bradley was so happy to have his turn. They didn't catch any fish but had a great time together.

Loaded up and ready to head to the Lake

Blowing bubbles

Enjoying the mild summer weather we've had so far.

This summer I'm going to be taking the kids around the world. We started out visiting China and Japan. They chose to travel by rocket ship on this first trip so we got their very quickly. :) They learned about pandas, the great wall of China, sumo wrestling, and a few other things. They painted hieroglyphics, made lanterns, learned a couple words, and had a Chinese food for dinner one night. Derek gave us a few tips on the proper dinner etiquette and they loved eating with chop sticks! They even got to try some sushi.

Jacob loved his chopsticks a little too much and they became quite dangerous.

We've been in Australia now and will hopefully travel somewhere else tomorrow!