Pink Cupcakes

In early March, the kids and I spent the morning making pink cupcakes, just like in the library book they got that week called Pinkilicious. The kids had lots of fun and they were very delicious!

It's Official

I have been waiting a while to write this post. For the last year and a half Mr. J has almost deployed and then got his orders canceled a couple of times. Most recently we thought he was going and then it got canceled and we thought he was going in July. Well, about a week and a half ago he got a tasking to leave today and.. it didn't get canceled. He was picked up at 7 am and is now really gone.

Mr. J's orders say he will be gone for 101 days, which means he will be back the end of July. Last night, he went to the commissary and bought a ton of candy. He brought it all home and helped each of the kids fill a container of a 110 pieces of candy. He told them they could have a piece every day and when it was all gone, he would be home. He even made one for me with my favorite Dove chocolates!

The last couple weeks have been full of great family time, eating out way too many times (since Mr. J will get to have chow hall food for a couple of months), purchasing a laptop and mp3 player, packing, a few tears and lots of Miss E cuddle time. Since she is so little, she will probably change the most over the next 4 months. We were so thankful the Mr. J got to be here for her birth and this first month of adjusting to 4 kids. His original leave date was the date she was due... so every day after that that he was here felt like a gift!

For those of you who know Mr. J, you know he is an excellent father, husband and friend. I told him that it made it harder for me to say good bye because of this reason....

UPDATE: So I started writing this post yesterday (Sunday) morning shortly after he left. Then the kids and I played dress up and took a walk to the playground. Then that afternoon, Deanna and Tom came over and made us a delicious dinner and hung out. It was so nice cause I had two adults to converse with and it made things feel more normal. That night I got to talk to Mr. J for a long time since he was in Baltimore for the night, waiting to leave. This morning, we practiced using Skype (computer camera phone) from his hotel lobby and it worked great. The kids loved getting to see him and talk to him. Especially Mr. T since he doesn't really talk on a normal phone. Our day went by well, the girls went to preschool. Today was tea party dress up day so, of course, they loved that. While they were there, Mr. T, Miss E and I worked out by going for a long walk around base and then we met Deanna at the base Starbucks cause she was on her lunch break (she works at the preschool/daycare center on base). This afternoon, the kids took great naps and we spent the early evening playing at the playground. Now we are having movie night. They have their jammies on and are eating popcorn in the living room and watching Swiss Family Robinson. Mr. J should be on a plane now traveling to his final destination. Please pray for his safety and for rest for him, he has trouble sleeping on planes. Also, pray for the kids and I, that these pesty colds would go away (especially in Miss E). Please email or leave me a comment if you would like Mr. J's address. As soon as he gets it, I will send it to you. I do have an email address that he will check regularly if you want that too.

Happy Easter from the Jones Family!

We hope everyone had a great Easter celebrating the Resurrection of Christ. It was a great day for our family. We had awesome fellowship this morning over breakfast with our church family as well as Deanna and Tom. Then we went to worship service where we got to sing some great hymns and hear a really good message. Although I have heard the resurrection account many times before, it is always so amazing to me how Jesus, who lived a perfect life, would die on the cross for a sinner like me... and so awesome how 3 days later God rose Him from death. What a fabulous reason to celebrate!

This afternoon we went to Freedom Park on base and celebrated Easter with our friends from the Nellis Chapel. Again, we got to sing some awesome worship songs and eat more yummy food. The kids did an easter egg hunt and flew kites. Tom and Mr. J played wall ball under a stealth bomber display. It was really fun. Here are some Easter pics

Wall ball

We had a great time with Deanna and Tom today! I love that we got to spend the whole day with them!

Our little bunny girl

Tom calls my sling the "hippy mommy sack" but I love it! Thanks to my awesome friend who sent it all the way from Germany. How did I have 3 kids without one?

The kids got so much candy this week, that means Mr. J and I eat a lot of it!

Some boy at the park gave the girls this mickie mouse kite, they enjoyed flying it and so did Uncle Tom

And this is our sweet Miss E at 2 1/2 weeks old. So beautiful! She is doing very well. Last night she gave me 6 straight hours of sleep!

Meeting Grandpa and Grandma Jones

We were so blessed to have Mr. J's parent's here the week of Miss E's arrival. The kids had so much fun with them! Gma J used to be a preschool teacher and always thinks of very fun things to do with the kids. On one of her previous visits, she let the kids fingerpaint with chocolate pudding. While they were here this time, they played playdough, went on walks and hikes, baked cinnamon rolls and homemade bread. It was great! It was also so neat to have them there to meet Miss E when she was so fresh and new. Since they live in Montana, it usually takes a while before they get to meet their newest grandbabies. After we brought Miss E home and she got to meet all her siblings, Gpa J read to her Psalm 139 and prayed for her. What a fabulous start to her new little life! Enjoy the pictures

This is one of Miss E's first times being really alert... she was really studying her Gma J

I always like to have my cupboards stocked with baking stuff because Mr. J can usually talk his mom into making him some delicious cinnamon rolls! Yum!

Mr. T enjoyed wrestling with Gpa

The kids love being read to and Gpa J was happy to do so

Gpa J reading and praying for Miss E!

Our growing family...

At 11:30 on March 25th, we were able to bring Baby E home to meet the siblings! This was such a precious time for all of us. They all adore their sister and loved having a chance to snuggle her. Enjoy the pics!

Hospital Visitors

The arrival of Baby E was especially fun for us because we had lots of visitors at the hospital, most importantly Aunt Nanny got to meet Baby E when she was only an hour old! With Mr. T, she had to wait 4 months.... but since she lives and works on base, she came on her lunch break. Living far away from family, Mr. J and I usually have had pretty quiet hospital stays. We did have a handful of visitors in Spokane (including my favorite, Mrs. M who would bring us yummy food) and we were still fairly new to town when I had Mr. T so I think we just had the kids up to visit. Another very special visitor we got to have this time was Grandma Jones. She came to the hospital with Chris in the afternoon. In the past, the babies have been a few weeks or months old before they have got to meet them.
We were missing 3 very important visitors... all the kids. Because it was nearing the end of RSV season (Nov 1 to Apr 1), no children under the age of 12 are allowed on the unit. This was probably hardest on me cause I couldn't wait to see them and have them meet their sister. But they did fine and all got to meet her on the 25th when we came home. That will be my next post!

Yeah for Deanna getting to visit me!! She even brought me a starbucks!

Aunt Nanny and Uncle Tom

Our fellow AWANA Trek leaders, Mrs. K and Mr. J came and visited us so they could meet the new Trek Mascot, Miss E. They brought cigars so we could take pictures of the guys with them and Mrs. K made us a cute frame. Also, Commander K and her daughter Miss C (below) stopped by to meet the baby and brought us beautiful tulips!

Miss E's birth day!

We were so happy to welcome Miss E into our family on March 24th! Although her due date was not until the 31st, the doctors thought it would be a good idea to induce me a week early since I tend to have big babies. On the 23rd, I went in for an appt where I found I was still dilated to 5 cm (I had been this far dilated for a whole week!) and the midwife scheduled me to come in the following morning at 6:30 am! The rest of that day was filled with getting ready, finishing laundry, writing out meal plan/schedule for the week, etc. That night around 10pm we picked up Mr. J's mom and dad at the airport. They flew down from Montana for the week and we were so glad to have them. I will do a post about their visit soon.

The next morning, after my last straight 6 hours of sleep for a while, I woke up at 5 am to call the labor and delivery floor to make sure they weren't too full. Then I took a shower and ate a huge breakfast. I was soo starving all day/night when I was in labor with Miss M, that I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I arrived at 6:30 and began the admit process. Since the hospital is only 2 minutes away, I told Mr. J to come around 8:30 so he could have breakfast with the kids. After Mr. J got there, the on call doctor came in to assess me and decide the plan. It just so happens that family practice doctors were on call on Tuesdays, so my doctor was someone I worked with quite often in my job as a nurse in the clinic. Thankfully, the doctor for that day was a female doctor that I really liked, so it wasn't as weird as it would have been if it was one of the males I worked with. We decided since I was so far dilated to have her break my water and see if that would start labor. After she did that and we waited for about an hour, no painful contractions were starting, so we decided to start the Pitocin in my IV. My first painful contraction came a little after 9:30. I breathed through my contractions without requesting an epidural at the beginning. I have had an epidural with the other 3. My theory always was that I don't go medication free when I go to the dentist, so why should I when I am in labor? It worked fine for the first one, excellent for the second baby but with the third one, Mr. T, I don't remember getting any pain relief from it because by the time it was in, it was time for me to push. Also, I always had low back pain afterwards from where the needle went in at. So I was contemplating going without one (something I never thought I would do!). After about an hour of painful contractions and annoying daytime tv, the doctor checked again and I was dilated to an 8. Shortly after that, my body was telling me it was time to push this baby out (because of the previous epidurals, I hadn't felt that urge much before)! And after one push, she entered this world!! It was amazing how fast everything went. She was beautiful and big! 9 lb 7 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. Shortly after she was born, she nursed for the first time and did awesome! I felt great after I had her. I could get up and walk around, it was fabulous. I also was so glad she was born at 11:00 am because I had started to get hungry and so they were able to bring me a real lunch tray. Even though it was hosptial food, it tasted so good!

Mr. J and I feel so blessed to welcome another sweet baby into our family. We can't wait to share more pictures and stories of her as she grows. Thank you all for your prayers!! Stay tuned for more posts about Miss E's arrival!