Arizona...

Another of our favorite things is late winter trips to Arizona. We got to spend a long weekend in Arizona at the beginning of the month. We loved seeing family and the weather was wonderful! It certainly put us in the mood for spring.

We were there for both Nini and Jason's birthdays. The kids were VERY excited to have two birthday parties to attend.

Nini and the kids watching Peter Pan

We spent one afternoon at Fountain Hills

It is one of the biggest fountains in the country

The kids were actually more entertained by the ducks than the water...oh well.

Bradley figured there was no sense waiting until he was a teenager to start this habit. He spent some time on the family vacation by himself in the bedroom listening to "his" Ipod.

Bradley and Mackayla loved playing in the pantry. They used it as their castle or elevator.

Having a dam good time! We stopped at Glen Canyon Dam on the way home. The view of the canyon there is amazing, but the kids were more excited about some old cardboard cutout of a sheep...again, oh well.

Back home, hanging out with dad.

The kids thought it would be funny to have a big bowl of cereal together one morning.

We were just going to have left overs the other night for dinner. I called the kids in and told them dinner was on the table. They thought it was so funny that dinner was in a big tower. I wanted to record this moment because I know this time will go by so quickly. In just a few short years, the kids won't think I'm funny anymore. ;)

Enjoying a popsicle. Jacob finally cut his two bottom teeth this week.

Just the boys

Nothing better than time with Daddy...

These are a few of my favorite things...

Here a few of our favorite things these days...

Mackayla LOVES lemon pepper, or as she calls it, Lemon-Pep.
When we set the table we always include it since she wants it on most of her foods. She sprinkles lemon pepper on all her vegetables, pastas, and pretty much most things we eat.

Mackayla's and Bradley's favorite show to watch on TV now days is Dinosaur Train. Since they are into dinosaurs so much I took them on a trip to the little dinosaur musuem at BYU last week.

One of the kids' favorite past times is to help Dad or Mom with whatever project they are doing. Here they are painting the living room.

Bradley's favorite movie is Cars. He's loved the movie for a long time but just recently has started loving it with a renewed passion. We discovered in the bonus features a 7 min show called Mater and the Ghostlight and he LOVES it! He'd watch it over and over again for hours if we'd let him. He knows every line and is always quoting the movie. He even talks in a cute little hillbilly mater voice when saying Mater lines.

I don't know that Bradley has a favorite food but as long as he has something to dip it in he loves it. Sour cream is one of his favorite dips. If you don't watch him carefully though he gets a little carried away with it.

Bradley also loves to eat butter. He's always getting into trouble for sticking his fingers in the butter tub to scoop out a taste. The other day he was again reminded that it was bad manners and that he better NOT put his finger in the butter again. A few minutes later we looked over and he was (with his fingers out) licking the butter out of the tub. The poor boy really didnt think he was doing anything wrong since his fingers weren't in the butter.

Jacob's favorite thing to do these days is to scoot and roll all over the floor. He loves that if he sees something he wants he can get to it himself.

He also LOVES being cute!

Our family's favorite addition to our house- a FENCE! We are so excited to have a fenced yard now and can't wait for Spring to come!

One of my favorite past times- watching the whole family doing push-ups together!

Jared's new favorite hobby and my favorite Christmas present- this table!

Jared finally had time to make this beautiful sofa table for me. He had given me the plans he had drawn up for Christmas and now the masterpiece is finally sitting in our entryway. He used the cabinet shop at work and seriously did a very impressive job!

Another of my favorite things- a great deal! We were at walmart this weekend when they just happened to be putting all the kids winter pajamas on clearance for 1 dollar!

I had to fight the crowds but ended up with 13 pairs of pajamas for $13!

Mackayla's favorite color is still pink but we have had some exciting events in our house as far as favorite colors are concerned. Bradley's favorite color has always been blue, as assigned to him at birth by his sister. He has now declared though that his favorite color is GREEN! He tells us his other favorite color is "boy red" not to be confused with girl red. Mackayla has also informed us just recently that she has added orange to her favorite colors. As you can tell by all this big news, things have been wild and crazy here at the Jones house.

Sweetheart Ball

We had our first annual Sweetheart Ball on Saturday night. The kids were SO excited about it all week. We had a nice dinner then danced the night away. We got out the disco ball and created a great dancing mood. We all had a wonderful time, and now Mackayla keeps asking when our next ball will be.

Dinner

Jacob, the little party animal!

Mackayla looked beautiful on the dance floor.





Aren't they cute?!?!

I got to dance with each of my men.

Jared and I tried to get a picture of us together. The first was a taken by Jared, the second by Mackayla.

It's a dark picture, I know, but we were trying to capture the lights of the disco ball.

We made our heart shaped pizza for dinner on Valentine's Day. It was delicous!

I did it again. I forgot and turned the camera side ways while doing a video. Sorry. Here's a little dark glimpse of the dancing.

Called to Serve

One of the disadvantages to living where we live is that we never see missionaries. I've never seen them in our ward and have never seen a sign up sheet to have them for dinner. When we were in Provo we would at least them walking as we drove past the MTC but now we never see them at all. A couple weeks ago we decided to teach the kids a little about missionaries and what they look like and do. We put together a little package to send to Jared's cousin Chelsea that just left on her misson. Jared showed them the pictures from his mission and told them stories about it. They then dressed up as missionaries and looked so cute!

I've had a few people tell me that they believe they were given babies that were good sleepers because Heavenly Father knew they couldn't handle no sleep. So, along those same lines I told Jared that I'm sure our kids would get called somewhere close for their missions because Heavenly Father knows I couldn't handle sending them too far away. I told Mackayla and Bradley that some day they would get to teach the wonderful people of Oregon. Jared then proceeded to try and teach them some Chinese and told them they would probably go to China. I guess Jared didn't buy that theory. :)

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This video has bad lighting and sound but if you listen carefully you can hear Jacob saying DaDa. He was just babbling but the kids were so excited that he said his first word!

A New Year!

We've enjoyed the first month of this new year. Here's what's been going on in the Jones' house this month.

We've been working on getting Jacob to eat baby foods. He was getting really sick from the rice cereal, so we've skipped that for now and have been trying to get him to eat veggies and fruits. This picture shows the face he makes after every bite. We still can't get him to leave any of the vegetables in his mouth, but he now will at least eat apple sauce and peaches. This has been much trickier than getting the first two kids to start eating foods.

Jared spent a week in Las Vegas for the International Builders Show. He knew I was dreading him being gone, so he arranged a while ago to fly his mom up to help me out and keep me company while he was gone. It was very nice of him and so nice of her to come! Instead of going crazy and being so lonely for the whole time, we had a great time! The kids were in heaven playing hide and seek, coloring, and reading books with Nini.

Jared's parents gave us a wheat grinder for Christmas. His grandma gave us some wheat and other bread making items so, while Mom Jones was here, I had her teach me the "ways of the wheat." She showed me how to use my wheat grinder and how to make some delicious bread.
Here are the kids making rolls with Nini.
Mackayla loving the home made bread

Our tub is starting to get really full as Jacob occasionally joins them in the bath now.

Our cute little duck

While I shower I usually put Jacob in a bassinet right by the shower where I can make sure he's ok and protected from his brother. Mackayla is so good about playing with him and keeping him happy while I'm in the shower, but when I got out the other day, Mackayla was no where around but I found this little bunny. She loves to dress him up!

Jacob enjoys his computer time

Jared is particularly excited for Jacob to get big enough to play with Bradley since Bradley's best friend is Mackayla; thus he plays with many "girlie" toys. I had to call Jared the other week with some good news for him. Bradley was playing dolls with Mackayla but he then asked me to bring him his tool box because he needed his drill to fix her dress. The boy in him does still shine through!

Mackayla loves to play dress up, and Bradley, being only two, doesn't see the harm in joining in.

Mackayla got a new dress the other day and was having a wonderful time trying it on. Bradley, of course, wanted a turn too. He looked very pretty! :)

When Bradley has one of his two year old melt-downs, he usually runs and throws himself down on the floor outside our pantry. He has titled this area "my crying room." He has fallen asleep here a couple of times.

Some other big news for Bradley is that he is in the process of POTTY TRAINING! He has been without a diaper for two fulls days and has done great! We're crossing our fingers, praying, and doing whatever else we can, in the hopes that it continues to go this smoothly!!

Mackayla has been such a good helper and even takes Bradley potty by herself sometimes. She helps him get his underwear off, praises him when he does his business, and is so sweet about it the whole time. When Mackayla was born, many people told me it was going to be so wonderful to have a girl first beacuse she would be such a good helper with the other children. This is SO true now! She's the best big sister and the most wonderful helper for her mom!!

That's our summary of January! Hurry up spring!

Mackayla turns 4!

Mackayla had her 4th birthday at the beginning of the month. She's proud to be a four year old and becoming so much more independent!

We got back into town from Yakima, the evening before her birthday. So, after we got unpacked and settled a bit I quickly made her a castle cake, as requested. By morning, one tower had already fallen over and the cake was starting to lean but she didn't care at all. She thought it was wonderful so I considered the cake a success anyway.

Mackayla was delighted to have her cousin, Sophie, at the party. The Nelson's were in town so it made it an extra special day that we got to have them over also.



Jacob and his newest cousin Lexy just hanging out together.

Mackayla didn't want to have two birthday parties but we finally talked her into having a "practice party" in Yakima before we left. She wanted pink cupcakes for that party. She also thought we should have green cupcakes in case some of the boys didn't want to eat a pink one.

She sure LOVES her baby brother and is always taking good care of him.

We had a little post-christmas party with Papa and Nini via web-cam.

We opened the gifts from them and wanted to share the occassion with them so we brought the laptop in and did a video call.