Halloween Outfits

Is anyone else but me glad that the elections are over??? I didn't love either candidate, and I don't get too involved with politics but now I hope that we can move on with life! Here's to hoping that Obama does a decent job, and not screw things up too badly!

Anyway, I am actually glad that Halloween is over too. I loved seeing my little nieces and nephews in their outfits, but for some stupid reason, I gorged on freaking candy all day long! Not before, not MUCH since, but on that day, it was like I had been deprived of sugar all my life or something!!!

Below are some pics of my favorite little characters on that crazy day. I made my outfit for the day. I thought it was rather appropriate if you ask me! Not to worry, Boston had a scowl on his face all night because he didn't feel well. Cooper screamed bloody murder anytime anyone wanted to get a picture of him. I think it was because he could!!! I borrowed a couple of pics from the mothers' blogs of Brooklynn, and Boston. Cooper was no where to be found, but I think his bat ears can be seen in one of them!

Once A Month?

I promise I am not turning into one of those "only once a month" bloggers. Life has been super crazy since returning from NYC. Just as an example, before leaving for NYC, my family went to Las Vegas for some more baseball fun. After returning from NYC a week later, I did enough laundry to pack up and go to Vegas again since Mitch's season is coming to a close very soon. (My family goes through withdrawals if there aren't any baseball games to go to).

Upon returning, Mitch & Tavi had their 3rd child, a little girl!!! They finally got their princess among those two non-stop baseball boys. They are going to be such good brothers, and it is already obvious how much they love their little sister!

Baby Boston, now longer such a little baby, turned 1 the day after Baby Stori was born. Too bad Boston and his parents were still in Texas for it :(

Anyway, if this wasn't enough adventure for one month, let's add moving into the equation! What possessed us to move to a third floor apartment is beyond me. Anyway, it is a nicer area, a nicer apartment, more parking, supposedly a better ward, and best of all, there is NO PIGGY!!! (For now anyway).

Stori Mekai Jones was born Thursday, August 7th!!!

(I stole the pics from Tavi's blog since I can't find my camera right now in all my boxes)

I have been trying to upload pics from my NYC trip, but things are taking a little longer than expected to do so. I will get those uploaded as fast as I can and get you some more posts asap!

Baby Girl Jones

Easton called my parents the other day and told my Mom that he was going to have a baby sister! Tavi took the boys to Kanab for a couple of weeks before they go to Japan for the rest of the summer, and Tavi had a friend whose husband who is an Ultrasound Technician. They figured they would give it a go, even though it is still a little bit early to be 100% certain. From what I gather, they got a good shot of the certain region needed to detect the baby's gender, so they are 90% for sure that it is a girl!!! Tavi really wanted to have a girl being that she has the two boys, and they may just stop at three kids. They only wanted three or four to begin with. Cooper will be 2 1/2 when the baby is born, and Easton will be almost 5!

The two babies, Boston, and Brooklynn will be 1 when the baby is born. Mitch and Tavi are still not sure where Tavi will have the baby. If she is having it in America, Mitch can't be here (it's not just a hop, skip and a jump away ya know), and she has to come home in like July (she will only be over in Japan with Mitch for a few months, and he will have to spend the rest of the summer [til like October] alone. If Tavi has the baby in Japan...well that just opens up a whole big can of what ifs. They are going to check out the options, and see if there is some way Tavi and the boys might be able to stay there with him. Mitch and Tavi have heard from some people that there is no such thing as an epidural in Japan. Again, they have a lot of questions and things they need to figure out!!!

Not only has it been shown that the Jones kids can have girls with Ericka having Brooklynn, but so can the Jones boys with Mitch and Tavi now having a girl. Now my label for my posts :niece(s) will actually make sense!

Charlie Bit Me

Why does this keep reminding me of something my two nephews Easton and Cooper would do??? Probably because I really can see them doing it. Not very long ago, my brother and s-i-l were sitting on the couch in their living room when all of a sudden they hear:

"Jump Cooper, I'll catch you!"

Cooper then proceeded to jump off the kitchen counter into his brother's arms. Let's just say that Easton got flattened! Easton is 4, and Cooper is not quite 2. Cooper weighs almost as much as his older brother, so the thought of little chubbers jumping off the kitchen counter to Easton, makes me roll on the ground laughing! That is like adding another 20 pounds on top of the 35 pounds Cooper already has on him. A whopping 55 pounds flying through the air and a slender kid like Easton probably wondering while Cooper was in mid air, what in the crap he got himself into!

Holiday Happenings

I have been a very bad girl. Bad me, bad! Anyway, just before Christmas my family all traveled to Las Vegas for the BYU vs UCLA Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl (a football game). My cousin obtained about 40 tickets in the main endzone section of the UNLV football stadium. All of them were taken up by family and friends. I think including the kids, there were about 27ish family members at the game who traveled from various places in Utah and Nevada. Despite the cold weather, and the near loss by my BYU Cougars, we had a ton of fun...

After we got home (no thanks to two hour flight delays, but better than driving in black ice conditions on I-15), all of my siblings happened to stay over at my parents house on Christmas Eve. We had a huge dinner consisting of Tenderloin Steaks, Salmon, Shrimp, Crab Dip, 7 Layer Dip, Clam Chowder and a Veggie Tray (it was ALMOST as huge as the dinner they have for the Super Bowl...[another football game, only on a professional level])!!! We opened pajamas, and woke up early thanks to two crying babies, two young boys excited for Santa, and my sissy flopping around on the air mattress!

Thanks to the many service men and women for this!!! It covered the entire field!!!

Brooklynn was SO bundled up, she couldn't even move her arms!

Baby Brooklynn (left) and Baby Boston (right)

Baby Boston helping Grandpa open his present!

Cooper and Easton got Matching Cars Pajamas. They couldn't wait to open the tent/sleeping bags that went with them either!

Hope all your Holidays went well...I promise to post more often in 2008!

Day of Fun

I kidnapped the boys one afternoon a couple of weeks ago and had Shameonyou21 take some pictures of them for me. Cooper was really hard cause he wouldn't smile very much, and I don't think he felt very well. Easton was hammin' it up the entire time.

Another friend of mine brought her little girl along for the ride too, so I think the added distraction didn't help much. I thought they turned out cute, even though these are the only pictures Shameonyou21 liked. Dang photographers think they know it all!!!

You all know I love the TV Show "Friends" quite a bit. I could not help it when I saw Cooper pull this face all day long. I kept flashing back to Chandler when he and Monica are taking engagement photos, and Chandler cannot smile. In fact, these are his "bedroom eyes!"

VS

"Someone on the subway licked my neck, they licked my neck!"

"Awe, Willie's still alive!"

Baby Boston

Nephew #3 has finally arrived!!!! After weeks of labor pains/contractions, Lauren delivered baby Boston yesterday afternoon!!! I am so ticked that I can't see him in person for three more weeks. I tried to pull the guilt card with Brady, in saying that if I had thousands of dollars at my disposal, I would fly him out to see me. Nice try huh!!!

Brady's response was, "Don't worry, we'll be home in a few weeks!"

HOW RUDE!!! My parents told me I couldn't fly out to VA. with them this weekend because I had to watch the shop! JERKS! I am just being shot down right and left here!

Anyway, Brady thought that this kid was gonna shoot right out for some reason, but it took about 11 hours instead! It's no wonder though, when you see how big he is!

BOSTON BRADY JONES
August 8, 2007

9 lbs. 8 oz. 22" long

Check out Brady and Lauren's site to see a couple of cute videos they've uploaded!!!

The Hotties

Tavi (my sister-in-law) had these taken at Kiddie Kandids before they left for Kanab this week. Apparently, Cooper was a ham, so easy to work with, and so it made it hard to choose which prints to use. Easton on the other hand was kind of a pain, even though he usually loves his picture taken. He kept making faces at the photographer, and his mom had to get after him a little bit to knock it off and be serious!

I am going to miss them a ton while they are in Japan, but they will have a great experience, and I am happy that they will get to be with their daddy through this whole thing. I thought I would brag about my nephews just a bit with you all!!!

COOPER (13 Months)

EASTON (3rs. Old)


THE BROTHERS

More Happenings and Stuff

In addition to my previous list of fun things that happened in January, my sissy announced on New Years Eve that she was also expecting! YEA!!! My parents are obviously thrilled. "More Grandbabies...HOORAY!" She is only three weeks behind my sister-in-law, so we are going to have two brand new babies around the house for Grandma to kiss their cheeks off!

I think that's it though. Unless I find out that I got hired on at Costco for real (not just seasonal), there will be another announcement. Until then, I think things will calm down a bit.

Last night I had the pleasure of going to dinner with my good friends Nemesis, and Rules for a Reason. Sometimes it is even that much more fun when you can just vent all of the frustrations that are going on in your life. Last night was much of the same. We are all three gorgeous, successful (they both have their masters degrees, and I finally got my associates degree), single women who don't like it when people think of us as having some sort of disease. In the Utah-Mormon Culture, we are sad sights to behold. There is something wrong with us because we are not married, nor seriously dating anyone at the moment.

We decided that since we are all fed up with the "Oh so sadness" that gets thrown our way, that we would come up with some little sassy comebacks to shut them up. I don't remember all of them, so hopefully one, or both will either comment on this post, or write one of their own to add to it.

My favorites:

• Attack something they are most sensitive about. In my instance, it would be my mother's sons. Anyone who is really familiar with my family knows that the best way to get my mother angry is to say her son is cocky or something!

• Tell them you are dying of cancer, or that you have some other form of disease. When they feel as though they have just stuck their foot in their mouth, you push it in even further by telling them how it really is.

• Explain that you and your "partner" can't be legally married yet in Utah, so you are either going to move to San Francisco, or Canada; OR you had to break it off because of the above mentioned problem.

Why is it, that even when you do go on a date, everyone is already planning your wedding?

Why is it that everyone seems to think that you should be depressed, and sitting at home. Yet, likes to throw out the fact that you aren't trying hard enough to find a husband?

Why is it that everyone's uncle's cousin's great aunt's neighbor's friend's mother-in-law's dog's hair groomer who lives in Wisconsin is single, and you would be perfect for each other. Just for the fact that you are both single, and not actually compatible personality wise?

After dinner, I came home and cleaned up my apartment a bit, then snuggled into my bed and turned on Pride and Prejudice (the one with Kiera Knightly). I am pretty sure I have mentioned it before, but there is one line that I can relate to so very much. It is the part where Lizzy is outside swinging on the tire swing and her friend Charlotte comes to tell her that she is engaged to Mr. Collins. When Lizzy expresses her lack of enthusiasm for the union, Charlotte defends her decision:

"I am 27 years old, I've no money, and no prospects. I'm already a burden to my parents...Don't judge me Lizzy. Don't judge me."

The three dots are in place of the phrase "And I'm afraid." I didn't put that in the actual quote because I don't relate to that part so much. I am not going to be sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, and I don't care what you think! Just don't tell me how you think I should feel, or that I am not trying. If so, beware! I get angry just thinking about my mother saying that to me, so actually hearing it again may make me slap you silly!

On a lighter note. Here are some hotties you should take a look at. I would like to thank the folks at KiddieKandids.com for allowing me to borrow these without their permission!

The Newest Edition of the Jones Family

Wow what a week! I went on a trip to Ohio to visit my family with my mom, and we ended up having to pay an extra $300 to change our flight to come home earlier because the security alarm selling group got moved to Denver from Cincinnatti because it was a much better area. We did get to watch about four days of baseball games, which if you know my family, is a normal way to spend vacations.

We got to fly home on the same flight as my baseball player brother because he was coming home for the birth of his second child. The doctors were going to induce labor Saturday morning, but since my brother couldn't get a flight out from Columbus, Ohio until late afternoon on Saturday, they decided to wait until Sunday morning to induce labor since they were basically working around Mitch's schedule anyway. We arrived in Salt Lake about 9 p.m. Saturday night, and drove my brother home to his house in Springville. We arrived there about 10 p.m. and left shortly thereafter. About midnight my sister-in-law's water broke all by itself. Talk about mind over matter! We have all been fearful that Tavi would go into labor before her husband could make it home for the birth. I guess that baby just needed his daddy to be there before he would budge an inch!

My other nephew has been quite the proud big brother. He gets mad when others are holding his baby brother because he wants to hold him and kiss him all the time. Truthfully we were all a bit surprised, because as the only grandchild on this side of the family, he has been quite spoiled and definately not starved for attention and kisses from everyone around! We are all just waiting to see how long it takes him to snap out of the "proud big brother" mode and try to hit the baby with his baseball bat (he trys to hit everyone else already if you irritate him)!

Without further ado, I want you all to meet:

Cooper Shea Jones

Born May 28, 2006

8 lbs 10 oz. 20.5" Long