Keeping Up with the Joneses

A glimpse into the busy and very blessed life of the Jones Family!







Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Dear Dad,
Happy birthday! I love you and love to do things with you. Someday I want to be just like you. I hope you have a really special day.
Love,
Hunter




Cutest boy in the world....





Thursday, March 20, 2008

Couldn't resist....

Here's the little brother from the movie, "A Christmas Story" and Hunter from our ski trip. Any resemblance? He was so puffy and we laughed about the line from the movie, "I can't put my arms down!" because it was so true!


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

How in the world...

...did time go by so fast?

Hunter at 3 months old.....

Hunter at 15 months old....

Hunter at 2 years and 3 months....


He is in one way still the baby I brought home from that hospital- I still see glimpses of that little tiny Hunter, and yet he is growing into such a little boy! It's so amazing!

Always busy...

Seems like life is never dull around here. The other day, after Hunter was bathed and clean, off he ran to get into something. After a few minutes of quiet, this is what I found....

He had found a pen in the sunroom by the computer and was doing "kuh-wers" all over. That's Hunter's way of saying "colors." I never realized how hard it is to get pen off when it's covering most of your body!

Once dressed, he made his way into his room and proceeded to pull out every single book from the baskets and the shelves. This is pre-mess! He looks so cute in his madras shorts!


Hunter loves to visit daddy at the office. The other day I needed to go and make some copies for a baby shower and had told Hunter that we were going to the office. At the end of our street, instead of taking a right to head towards the office, I turned left to return some movies first. I looked in my rearview mirror to see Hunter pointing over his shoulder to the back saying, "No mama, dat way. Dat way to da office." I am still in disbelief that he has such a sense of direction at this age!

Hunter is entering a silly stage. He knows when people are looking at him or if we are talking about him and he will make silly faces by squiting his eyes closed, scrunching up his nose and showing his teeth. It's hysterical in person.

When I ask him what daddy does at the office, instead of saying that he is working, Hunter tells me that "He eats da candy." I guess that's since he gets goodies and treats when he visits up at the office! Hilarious!

He got a new pair of Crocs today at Whole Earth and talked about them the entire way home. "My new shoes." "My shoes." "Look at da shoes." Is what I heard all the way home!

While we were running errands, as we went in the third store for the day, I said, "Hunter, maybe we'll find a treasure." Well, two stores later, I see him dashing off in front of me towards the front window of the store saying, "I see da treasure." Sure enough, sitting on the floor of this ladies' boutique was a wooden chest that looked like a treaure chest! When I asked him what was in it and asked if "Food" or "Toys" or "Clothes" were in it, he said "No, money." He thinks that there is money in the treasure chest. Maybe watching Dora has paid off after all this time!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Jones Family Vacation

We just got back from a great trip to Park City, UT with the Jones Family. We had a great time!

First episode at SA Airport... Natalie's ID is expired. That means intense screening and they swabbed everything I brought for explosives. Don't be embarrassed to travel with me!
Hunter did great on the flights- as long as the candy and goodies kept coming! I had packed a bag of cars and trucks to keep him occupied, so those along with his portable DVD player were the ticket. It was a comedy of errors the entire trip starting with our flight to Dallas. Guess who charged the DVD player and then left it on for 2 days straight? You guessed it... me! That meant that after pulling it out, the much anticipated movie was not to be seen on that flight. Try telling a 2-year-old that the movie player is not working!

Once in Dallas, we met up with the rest of the family. Thus began a great time in Hunter's world- having great buddies to tag along with for the next several days. We thought he would be in serious withdrawal today without anyone to play with!

The first night, we went to Chris and I's favorite place in Park City, the Riverhorse Restaurant. Situated on the top floor of a building on Main Street, it's a delicious place for a great steak or something more unusual. The night was not as we remembered because we had Hunter who had napped a total of one hour that day. Not pretty! I had to repeatedly get up from the table to snatch him since sitting in his chair was not his favorite thing that evening. At one point, the true low point of my trip, I slipped on a wet spot on the floor, proceeded to fall down on the floor with a thud, but not before bringing down a plate from the vacant table I grabbed. It shattered much like my pride right there on the floor. What fun! You should have seen Hunter's face when he was placed at the table again. He knew he was in trouble.

The next day, our first day on the slopes, could not have been more ideal. The weather was beautiful and Chris, Russell and Brandon and I skiied as much of the mountain as we could cover.

As for more mess ups, I managed to lose my lift ticket on the first day after one run! Seriously! I had to buy another ticket after skiing down the "bunny slope" and basically eat the cost of the one I had lost. Another moment of greatness!

Hunter's highlights were playing with his cousins, David and Ryan. The three boys had a blast playing in the snow and just being together. The smile that covers Hunter's face when he is with his cousins is precious! He loves to have playmates!

The 2nd day on the slopes was great too! Summer and I joined the boys after lunch and it was a lot of fun all being together. The weather was a little colder and definitely windier, so a stop for hot chocolate on the slopes was a must!

Day 3 of skiing brought some great fun! After a morning with the boys and sledding outside the condo, we all went out for the afternoon. As soon as I had on all 45 layers, it was snowing pretty good outside. Once we had gotten down to the base and gotten our lift tickets, the sun had come out in full force and we were hot. Scott and David joined us that afternoon, so we all went to watch David try out the First Timer run. He did great and was a blast to watch!

Chris and I took off for a little while to do some other runs that we hadn't done yet and later met up with Scott, Brandon and Russell. We skiied that afternoon until it was truly a white-out on the mountain. We ended up making the 3.5 mile trek back down the mountain in heavy snow and we nearly frozen by the time we made it to the bottom.

The last of the errors...Salt Lake Airport... all 10 of us ready to get home... get to terminal... flight cancelled! After over an hour of arranging, we were able to get a late afternoon flight to San Antonio, Russell a mid afternoon flight to Houston and the rest of the group had to spend the night in Salt Lake and take a flight the next day. Who would have thought!

The day was LONG... 2 runs through security, lots of sitting and doing nothing, airport snacks for meals (yuck), and then barely getting on the flight because we didn't have our passes from security with the TSA stamp on them. Holy moly! After all of that, if we didn't get on that flight I would have had a nervous breakdown!

Last of errors, or wait, second to last.... guess who's main piece of luggage was left off of the flight? Mine! Good thing I took my make-up bag out before we checked it to get some of the weight out of it. The last of my mess ups... leaving my purse in Scott's rental car and now it is in Waco. What fun! I hope this pattern doesn't continue! I'm exhausted from trouble-shooting my own antics!

Pictures to come.... camera is in my purse! At least I think it is!