Costume fun

We dressed up the girls tonight and set out to meet some of our new neighbors and do some trick or treating. The guys stayed home to pass out candy. Tonight we had Mr. T, the lion that said "roarrrr," Miss O the banana eating monkey and Miss M, the makeup wearing Cinderella (this was a first). Miss O lasted about 20 minutes and Miss M almost an hour. Our 200+ pieces of candy also lasted about an hour.

Mr. T the lion, it was very cute, the face hole didn't have enough room for all his cheek chub.

The trick or treaters in our back yard (also the view of the back of the house I promised you)

Mmm bananas....

Cinderella standing in our back yard, you can see the awesome playground that is just feets away from our house in the pic below.

The reason we participate in trick or treating is not because we love Halloween or anything, but because we think its a good opportunity to be neighborly. However, we decided this year that trick or treating is a bit too scary for the girls. They get really scared of all the obnoxious decorations and freaky costumes. And for some reason, many adults think it is really fun to dress as witches or dead people to hand out candy. The girls would not even walk near those houses (which is fine by me). So, I think we will stick with church fall festivals or something in the future.

Mr. J and I are going to watch Expelled now, the new documentary by Ben Stein... should be interesting!

Pumpkin Painting

Although pumpkin carving is a fun tradition to do in October, we learned last year that it's not really the best use of pumpkins when you live in a hot desert. After about a day, the pumpkins start to shrivel up from the hot sun and look awful (see above). So this year, we decided we would paint our pumpkins. And being the mom of preschoolers, I had 2 very willing artists. So I got a couple paint brushes and some washable paint and we went for it.

Miss M making her rainbow pumpkin I painted faces on them and the girls got to pick what colors and shapes I used. Notice the green ears with pink star earrings.

Little bro watching.. we decided to let him have a turn painting and made a footprint pumpkin for him. I thought putting paint on his feet was less dangerous than putting paint on the hands.
Miss O and her pink/blue/yellow pumpkin with a jack o lantern face...


The artists after they were all done. I was trying to get a pic of the paint on their clothes but they actually look pretty clean. I think I need to purchase some smocks.

Stay tuned for costume pics...

The ultrasound says...

It's a girl!

We had our ultrasound this morning and got the big news. We are so blessed to be adding another sweet Jones girl to our family. She is weighing in at 10 ounces right now. It was so neat to watch her little heart beat and see her waving her hands all around. We haven't decided on any names yet but we do have some ideas. Please be praying for our baby as she is growing. I will try to post some pics of the ultrasound soon.

The Please Machine

Mr. T has earned himself a new nickname, it is "The Please Machine." A week ago as we were enjoying breadsticks at Olive Garden, he finally signed 'please' for the first time. We have taught all our kids a few basic words in sign language, such as 'please', 'thank you', 'more' and 'all done' and all have them have caught on at different times. Miss M learned the signs quite early and I think Miss O was around a year old. Well Mr. T is 14 months now and we were starting to wonder when he was going to catch on. So, the whole family was very excited to see his new skill. We find that using sign language with them cuts down a lot on whining. Anyways, on Friday and Saturday, although Mr. T knew the sign for "please" he didn't really like the idea of having to sign it before he got anything, he just wanted us to give him food when he whined. So Mr. J, the very patient man that he is, sat with him and showed him the sign over and over until he finally would do it. So breakfast and dinner on Saturday, Mr. J worked with him for close to an hour, on Sunday morning it was about a half hour and at lunch about 15 minutes. By dinner time, Mr. T finally realized what a huge benefit it was for him to say 'please' and he was signing it all the time. And, if he couldn't reach his chest (like if his bib was in the way) to do the please motion, he would rub his leg, or the table. It has been very exciting to see his progress. Our baby boy is growing up!

Speaking of growing up, Miss M and Miss O are doing their fair share of that as well. Miss O is still working on potty training. The brand new elmo undies are really helping. Our goal is to be completely done by her birthday in December and I think it will happen. Miss M is enjoying her AWANA class and is doing a great job memorizing her verses. We have also began teaching her to read using a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and she is loving it. I have never taught anyone to read before and wasn't sure how effective I would be, but it's such a joy to see her try hard and succeed. For a while she had a hard time writing the letter "s" (hers had a few too many curves), and she is a bit of a perfectionist, so it was hard for me to even get her to try, because she didn't want to mess up. I didn't really know what to do, so I asked my very wise sister, a kindergarten teacher, and she gave me some tips and today she did it! She was so proud that she had finally learned how to draw s's, that she drew a whole page of them to show Mr. J.

I have to say I absolutely love being a mommy. It is the greatest job in the world!

Our house!

Finally, after 2 months of living here, I am posting a picture of our house! We moved in the end of August to a 4 bed/ 3 bath brand new house on the base. The contractors who act as our property managers were planning to demolish our 50 year old 3 bed/ 2 bath house we were living in. We were so glad to move into a bigger house since are family keeps growing. Below are pictures of the front of our house with desert landscaping (this is very exciting for us because we had a ton of grass at our old house that was very hard to keep up to the housing standard of greeness because WE LIVE IN A DESERT!). Also posted are pictures of our kitchen with lots more cupboard/counter space and, one of my favorite features... a regular size sink! Our last house had 4 inch deep sink that was very hard to wash our dishes in. Also, not shown, is a water softener/filter. It is so nice to be able to not have to pay for water that is drinkable. People who had visited us may remember how icky it tasted.
Coming soon (hopefully it will be sooner than 2 months), I will post room pics and the best feature of all... the backyard park!

To the left of where this picture is taken are two pantries and the room on the other side of the wall is a full size laundry room with utility sink and more cupboard space.

Look how deep this is!
Pull out faucet and water filter

In case you were wondering what are old base house looked like.. this is is the first pic that Chris texted me when I was still living in Spokane.

P.S. I think I set a record for myself by posting 4 posts today! I kept having ideas of what to post in my mind but hadn't had time to post. Stay tuned for a very exciting post on 30 Oct, Thursday, we have our ultrasound and will hopefully find out if we are expecting a baby girl or a baby boy. We will keep you posted!

10 years...

Next week will mark the 10th annviersary of the first time Mr. J and I met. Here is the story....

Although we had lived in the same town, gone to most of the same schools and had many mutual friends, Mr J and I did not meet until after he was out of high school and I was in my senior year. We know God had waited until then to have us meet because He has perfect timing! We met through 2 friends who were (at the time) dating, Stefan and Vanessa. It was Vanessa's birthday so we all went to TGI Fridays for dinner. I had the privilege of sitting across the table from the older guy in the blue sweater who at the time worked at the local steel mill. We talked that night and then went our seperate ways again. It wasn't until a couple of months later that we went to a swing dancing class with our friends (that was all the rage back in the 90's, haha) and got to know each other while dancing. We officially started dating in March, and got married a little over 4 years after we first met. Mr. J took me to my senior prom in May of 1999. For your viewing enjoyment, I have posted some pictures below. I love the first picture, we stopped at his grandparents house on our way to dinner and they had him stand on a big book so he could be taller than me (we are the same height without shoes, but I was wearing heels that day).

Ahh, didn't we look so young?

In remembrance of my Grandpa Jerry

Last Saturday, the world lost a wonderful man, my Grandpa Jerry died at the age of 93. I have so many fond memories of him that I thought I would share some with you. .. I remember as a kid I always loved the smell of his aftershave and cologne, and as my sister mentioned in her blog, his pressed shirts and bolo ties. We really enjoyed our visits to their homes (in Montana, Vegas, and then Boise) where we would often play card games, especially "Oh Heck" a game where grandpa would always bid zero. I loved the toast and oatmeal he would make for us when we would go visit. He always had a sense of humor and could make anyone laugh. I am so thankful that my kids got a chance to meet him. On our move to Vegas, we stayed a night in Boise. I remember Miss M loved playing with him. He showed her how to ride his cane like a horse and even let her bury him in pillows and blankets. He will be missed by so many. We love you Grandpa Jerry and look forward to seeing you in heaven!

My grandma, grandpa and Aunt Mary Lou at their wedding in Hawaii in Feb 1981. They were married for 27 years. What I think is amazing is both of them had been married for at least that long to their first spouses (and were widowed).

My sister Deanna and I with grandpa.

This was probably 10 years ago when grandma and grandpa visited us in WA. Grandpa's 90th birthday at my dad's with Deanna and Miss M. Uh oh, what happened to grandpa?
Our last visit to see Grandpa in December when he was at the nursing home. This is the first time he got to meet Mr. T. We'll miss you grandpa.

Happy Birthdays

Two of my favorite people are celebrating birthdays this month. The first one is my dad - he celebrated his birthday on the 16th of this month. Here are some pictures of past birthdays, the first one is in 1984 when I was 3 and he was turning 30, the next is maybe when he turned 40? I am not sure, I just think its funny that his shirt says aging Graysfully, but he still has blonde hair. The last one is of him and my stepmom Charlene a couple years back at our house in Spokane. I hope you had a great day dad! We love you!

The next birthday this month is my great friend Molly. We met in 1996 in high school, the summer before our sophomore year and were inseperable. We have kept in contact through the years and now instead of talking about high school things now, we talk about mommy things (she has two sweet babies now). I hope you have a great day tomorrow Molly!
High school graduation 1999
The two of us when Molly was visiting Spokane in 2006. We realized it was 10 years from the day we had first met, so we took pictures on this rock in our front yard for our 10 year friend anniversary. Haha

Mom gets married in Vegas

Last week my mom and Mike came to Vegas to get married. They stayed at the Excalibur (the cool castle hotel where Miss M thinks princesses live). My little brother and his wife Emily made a surprise trip in from ENGLAND for the wedding. We all got to go swimming in the pool which the kids loved. Also, Mom, Emily and Deanna and went to a yummy Tapas (spanish appetizers) bar called Firefly for an early dinner and then to Ka - a cirque de soleil show at the MGM the night before the wedding. The wedding was also at the Excalibur, but Mom and Mike chose not to wear the knight and princess costumes. We had great wedding cake - cupcakes from The Cupcakery and they were delicious! Thanks Deanna for posting these pics on facebook. I will probably post more on here after Emily posts hers because our camera is broke... the flash doesnt work so everything is blurry. We need to by a new one.. if anyone has any suggestions on what kind to get, please let me know!

This picture is from Ka, this was before they made us put the cameras away
Deanna and Tom looking all snazzy for the wedding
My handsome bros
The laughing wedding picture

Mom, Mike and Andy, Mikes bro
Deliciousness
After the wedding, all us kids went to the Bass Pro shop. The girls love to see the big giraffes and lions. Well this was the visit where Miss M learned that all the animals were all alive at one time, roaming the earth and they had been hunted and stuffed.. and put on display at Bass Pro.... Well she thought a lot about this, and then we found her hugging this mannequin kid and talking to him... turns out she thought the mannequins were all once alive and had been stuffed to model clothing. I explained to her that they had always been pretend, and she was very happy about that.

Jim and Em
The little copycat

We have 8 legged houseguests....

Remember how I told you our last base house had an ant problem? Well, we were so happy to leave there to come to our brand new house. Well unfortunately since this house is brand new, it was built in what was an empty field. So the spiders from the field have come to live with us. And they aren't just any spiders, these are the kind with a red hour glass on their back.. you guessed it... BLACK WIDOWS!! We had a seen a couple of them at our old house but only outside. For those of you who remember, Mr. J has a couple as pets at his office. Anyways, apparently this is egg hatching week and we had baby black widows coming out from under the dishwasher and flying out from the vent on our ceiling. Once we noticed we had a problem, we called the housing office and they quickly sent the exterminator man to our house. Now I am finding lots of dead bugs, including a fully mature black widow upside down dead in our downstairs bathroom. About 5 minutes ago, Miss M called me to kill a baby one that had weaved a little web on her doll house roof. Oh the fun of living in the desert. Please pray these little spiders don't bite us.

California part 2

In early August, on our way up to Washington, we took the long way through California. Here are some more pictures from San Francisco and the Redwood forest.

The boys with Alcatraz in the background Miss M and I on the ferry
Mr. J's aunt and uncle who used to live in San Francisco, told us about this great spot where we could go and watch the sunset and see the bridge. It was beautiful!
At the Redwood forest
Miss O and the stick she found

There was a gift store right past the redwoods that had a huge Paul Bunyan at it. The kids thought it was quite cool... until he began talking to them. They had someone in a secret location that was being his voice and Olivia thought it was so scary!