LOST!!!!

I know there has been more exciting things going on with the Joneses lately with Christmas coming up soon. I promise I will post those soon. I have been sick in bed all day and decided to watch some of the old episodes of Lost I some of the teasers for the new season that starts on January 21st!!!!  I don't get into any other show and actually we just got hooked this summer on Lost. We are so, ok maybe I am so excited!!!

Finally......

Mckenna and I made a deal, she would be out of diapers by my birthday. Well my birthday was last Sunday and she still was wearing diapers. Although she was asking to go to the bathroom often she still wouldn't budge and not wear diapers. I told her on my birthday that it was time to not wear diapers and she said "Um no probably I will still wear my diapers". UGH!

On Thursday we were coming down to our last few diapers and I told her when they are gone you can wear big girl panties or pull ups. She said "No, I am wearing diapers and you need to go buy me some more." I didn't. In fact I steered clear of any store that carried diapers. You would have thought she was a drug addict looking for a fix. She tore apart my bedroom and looked in every bag and purse that I have ever used looking for a diaper that I left behind. It really was quite pathetic although she was really quiet while she was frantically looking for "the diaper" so I got a lot of  things done. She never found one. 

She has never been a whiny child, in fact she has been just the opposite, a very good baby. Until Thursday, needless to say it was not a good day at our house. She cried and sobbed for a DIAPER!!!!  Not chocolate, not cookies, not candy, not to play a little longer but.....a DIAPER!!!!!  I held my ground, although I really thought going to Walmart would be easier than listening to the sobbing of a three year old. She had no choice but to wear pull ups on Thursday and Friday. By Friday life was a little better and she was getting the hang of really going potty she went several times even when we were in the mall!! This morning I told her ok we are wearing big girl panties she said "OK". 

I thought we were going to have a problem she came in and said "Mom I went poop in my new panties" ......I throw those away because that's just gross and I am not cleaning them, putting them in my washer or anywhere else other than the trash.  I looked waiting to be horrified....nothing...so we ran really quick and she was so proud of herself when she was done. Mike wanted me to take a picture of it so I could blog about it...but I thought I would spare our family the embarrassment and not gross out the two people that actually read this thing! She has gone all day with no accidents! 

I am sad in one way because now my baby is no longer a baby. I never have to go to the baby section again. BUT on the other hand I will never have another child in diapers and have to potty train again AND now I will save about $40 a month between diapers and wipes...perhaps I can get someone to come and do my floors...hmmmm...

Soothing Sunday

Bootcamp at the Joneses

Jones feet part 2..

Jessika and Jessica decided on Friday they wanted to go and see Twilight...again. So being the good sport that I am took them to the movies and then do a little shopping. About halfway through the movie I get a text from Mike that he had to take Dani to the walk in clinic. Apparently she wanted to keep up with me and lets see what we can do to our feet. 

She really doesn't look as hysterical as Mike made it out to be. 

OK Dani you win the injured foot of the weekend contest!

Dani had been out in the back yard near the fire pit which still had some smoldering soot. She had flip flops on but somehow drug her foot through the white ash. She has second degree burns on the top of her toes. She has been a good sport all weekend and is even going to school tomorrow. 

Thanksgiving

Let me first start by saying without a doubt Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Maybe it's because I love to cook so much. I love experimenting each year with the turkey and stuffing..so far every year everything has turned out great and I haven't had any mishaps with either. Usually I have the menu planned out weeks in advance, with the dessert menu always longer than the real food. This year I didn't.

The day before I usually cook but I didn't. I actually didn't start until well after 5 pm. I finally went to bed around 11 feeling like I had accomplished alot and wouldn't have the much to do in the morning. I woke up at 6:30 am to see the family minus Dani and Mckenna off to play in the annual Turkey Bowl (football) and I put the turkey in the oven. I started a few things and straightened up a little. I had a couple of friends who were coming for dinner offer to come and help but I assured them all was well and everything was going according to schedule. I was on the phone with one of my friends as I was saying that I really wasn't stressed as I usually was. That changed quickly when I stepped on what I though was a small splinter...I looked at my foot and this is what I saw.....

Since Mike wasn't back yet and I have an extremely low threshold of pain she graciously offered to come and help me. She was at my house in less than 5 minutes and begun surgery on my foot. I wasn't too concerned until she asked for a scalpel.....yes I have lots of those laying around. Mike called about that time and he was at Walmart so he got something scalpely like...a razor blade. Most of it came out but some of it was stuck way down in my foot. Between the two of them cutting and prodding I am still not sure if it all came out. I really thought I was going to have to go to the walk in clinic....the jury is still out on that one. Actually on Sunday I dug the rest of the splinter out of my foot....

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was beautiful and we were able to sit out on the back porch comfortably to enjoy turkey and all the trimmings. We had lots of friends to enjoy the day with and ended the day with a bonfire in the back yard.

Yes I will take the credit for that bird!!!

Soothing Sunday

Today after church Mckenna wanted to help do something. I told her she could use the swiffer on the floor. Our floor ALWAYS has hair on it, thank you very much Sam. When I told her to put the swiffer away when I went to check on her this is what I found......

She did it so well I think her name will be added to the chore chart...the other kids will be so happy!

Look siblings......she even does chores with a smile! 

AND she poses for the camera!!!!

After she finished the entire floor she said don't walk on the floor cause it's all clean now and it's still wet....wonder where she hears that from!!!

Please take note of the outfit...she has worn this for 3 days. As soon as we get home she goes straight to her "PJ's" as she calls them and changes out of her other clothes. I think I will have to hide them because it doesn't matter if they are in the dirty clothes hamper or not she goes and gets them.  She says they are her favorite....I am just happy that there is one child in our house that is happy to do chores....but she is only 3!!!

Twilight

The long awaited for day finally came. At our house, minus the younger boys and girls, we have been anticipating for THE movie. We have all read the books, yes even dad, Jessica and I have finished all 4 books, hurry and catch up dad and Jessika. Over the summer the girls begged us to please take them out of school to see the movie. We agreed as they never miss school. As the day approached I was invited to a "moms only" night out to see the movie at midnight. You would think that I would have gotten grief from the teenagers, no, I got grief from my husband who desperately wanted to go and see the movie at midnight with the rest of us! He even offered to wear a dress! He graciously got over it when I reminded him that we were going the next day with the girls.

My friend Amy hosted a party at her house. It was fabulous! We had a great time socializing and eating in the wee hours of the night. It was great to get out with the girls with no kids in tow! We headed off to the midnight movie most of us yawning wondering if we would stay awake through them movie. I will admit that I was the only one who did nod off for part of the movie! 

Don't we look great at 11 PM!!!!

Amy and Kristy with their goodie bags that they DON'T have to share with the kids!

On a mission to see the movie!!!!

We couldn't take the camera into the movie theater to further capture the moment. Apparently there is some federal law that you can't bring cameras into the theater, so the security guard kept the camera until after the movie. He wouldn't even come in and take a picture of us BEFORE the movie started. Anyway, who would have known I just thought you were supposed to turn your cell phone off and now the newly added advertisement...not to TEXT!!!  I could go on about the whole camera thing but I won't. 

On Thursday I had read one review of the movie and it wasn't that favorable. I refused to read another thing about the movie. I thought it better be good because I have to see it twice in 13 hours!!!! The movie was GREAT! It was the only movie that I have seen where it actually followed the book! I just feel like the movie is not over because there is 3 more books!!!!! I got home at 3 am....everyone was sleeping. YEA!! 

A couple of hours later, thank you honey for making sure the kids got to school on time,  I got up took and shower and we left at 10:30 off to pick up girls from school and be at the 12:50 showing. The girls were really excited about the Twilight shirts we had gotten for them, all their friends had them but they liked theirs so much better, thanks Amy. It was a different experience watching it with my teenage daughters than hours before. We kept hearing comments about how HOT Edward was and the awwee that's so sweet etc. etc. Jessika kept saying "Mommy he's soooo cuuutteee". They loved the movie and I was grateful that I was able to see the movie again to see the part that I slept through!!! I forgot the camera at home, in my sleepless stupor,  so we don't have any pictures of the event. Sorry girls. We can't wait for the next movie!!! 

Just a side note---the movie Twilight cost $37 million to make. Friday and Saturday alone the movie grossed $70.5 million!!!!  Hopefully that's enough incentive for them to get going on the next 3 movies!!!

Soothing Sunday

This afternoon I asked Dani if she wanted to make cookies. Of course, what eight year old wouldn't want to make cookies. So her and I made cookies with lots of input from dear old dad as to what kind of cookies we should make, chocolate chip. Dani made the cookies by herself reading the instructions with just a tad bit of help. I will say that she did and great job and even went and got the swiffer all by herself when the flour went flying out of the mixer! Dani and I started to play cards and left the actual baking part to Dad since he was in the kitchen so much. 

I kept hearing Mike say don't eat these cookies to each child as they passed through the kitchen. I looked over and noticed he got one of my "pretty" plates and he was piling the cookies on them. Then he got out the press and seal, if you haven't tried it you totally have to it's WAY better than saran wrap. I walk into the kitchen and he is writing on the cookies "Most Excellent Cookies". I am like why are you writing on them? He said don't we have to take these to church tonight? I'm like no, we made them for us. 

Tonight we had Young Women in Excellence at church so that's where the most excellent cookies came from. He was trying and he was really clever. 

So tonight as I was catching up on all my reading for the day I realized I hadn't posted our Soothing Sunday. I thought about the cookie thing but didn't get a picture because the batteries died, but I later found out my dear sweet husband took pictures of the cookies so that I could blog about it. 

So as we were sitting on the couch our dog, Sam, who is NOT allowed on the couch was trying to get some love and attention from Mike........

They are seriously having a deep conversation....so we all had a soothing Sunday I came home from our church meeting to Dani and Mckenna sleeping, thanks Mom,

(Mike) actually got to eat more chocolate chip cookies than they thought they could AND Sam got some serious attention and was allowed on our couch just long enough for me to grab the camera. 

Canning

I love to can. Why you might ask? Especially when there is a Publix 30 seconds from my house where everything is neatly arranged on the shelves or in the freezer? It's my own therapy, kind of like baking but the results last so much longer. 

My friend Tricia also loves to can, I think secretly she loves it more than I do.  I have canned mainly fruits and preserves but we decided that we wanted to do something different....let's try canning meat.  We got a really good deal on chicken so we thought why not let's try it! 

So at 1:00 yesterday me, Tricia and our moms started to can 80 lhs of chicken. Cutting and chopping chicken, garlic, herbs and onions......

After we started the first batch in the pressure cooker, around 3 pm, I decided that with only one pressure cooker, that fits only 7 cans, we would be here all night and all day Saturday. So I quickly started calling all my friends who I thought would have a pressure cooker. Thank you Becky for letting me borrow your and especially for bringing it to me! 

Tricia multitasking!!

Yummy chicken boiling...I wish there was a way to post scratch and sniff stickers on here so you could appreciate the aroma that was in my kitchen....so yummy....

My photographer left to go watch the new James Bond movie and my hands were much too greasy so there wasn't any pictures of the pressure cooking, but here's what chicken looks like after you can it....actually it looks kind of gross but I know it tastes so yummy! 

Of course we would have nothing left to waste so we made our own chicken broth. They all wanted to save other parts of "yuck" but I convinced them that we didn't need to save everything....

Tricia and her mom left around 9 pm. I took the last batch out of the pressure cooker at 11:30 pm. It was a LONG day, but I love looking at the jars filled with food lined up on my counter. Ok maybe I love to look at peaches or strawberry preserves in a jar, because they are so pretty, but honestly canned chicken looks like a science experiment gone bad or those jars that have dead animals in them in science class.  

Soothing Sunday

So there's no picture to capture this one but as I was attempting to take a nap this afternoon Mckenna came into my room, climbed up in the bed and said "Mom are you sad at dad?" I said "No" she said "are you happy with dad?" I said "Yes" she said "Then why are you sleeping?" I said "because I am tired"  she said "well then I need to read you a bedtime story" I told her really it was fine she could go and help dad with making cookies, yes he really does and was making homemade cookies. She picked up Mike's novel from his night stand flipped through a couple of pages and realized there were no pictures so she said "No I think I need to sing you a song".  She started singing "I am a child of God" for those of you who don't know the song the words go like this:

I am a child of God and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home with parents kind of dear (the real words are kind and dear). Lead me guide me walk beside me help me find the way teach me all that I must to do have them live with me someday (to live with Him someday).  

I had to laugh when she sang the "kind of dear" part since she had thought I was mad at dad because I was sleeping. Even though I was dead tired I didn't have the heart to fall asleep while she was singing because I needed to watch her while she was singing and clap and cheer when she was finished each time. Yes she is 3 so she had to sing more than once. Maybe I will get a nap next Sunday.....

Favorite job..well almost

Mckenna loves to collect firewood. Actually she loves to collect just about anything.

Check out those boots!!!

Soothing Sunday

Since we take Sunday's literally as a day of rest at our house we came up with Soothing Sunday's. This is what went on at our house today.....what a life!!!

Sunday dinner

We have a tradition in our family that on Halloween night I make a disgusting dinner...not in taste but in look. Since the Jessikca's were not with us for dinner on Halloween night we decided we would postpone our Halloween dinner until Saturday,....then there was the BYU game so we had to have wings so we decided we would just have it on Sunday. The kids love it and really look forward to what kind of creation I am going to come up with.

This is the famous foot, complete with huge toenails and blood coming out of the top of the foot where it was chopped off.  I made puke potatoes, notice the green to the right of the foot complete with chunks and all......the kids kept commenting that it should taste like mint. 

The best part of the whole meal was that we had the missionaries over for dinner....the look on their face when we put the potatoes on the table and then the meat foot was priceless...I am not sure if they will come back anytime soon....

I already have the menu for next year....brains and worms anyone want to come!!!  I can't wait!!!

Family 5k

Saturday our family participated in a 5k, yes the whole family. We all finished in less than an hour. Dad came in first, from our family in 29 minutes...sorry honey no one was there to take your picture when you came through the finish line.

Cody came in second......with mom right on his heels......

Michael was leisurely walking his last lap in.....

but not before Danielle came racing across the finish line. She ran the most out of all the kids! 

Dad felt bad for Michael so he motivated Michael to run the rest of the way in and came across the finish line with him! 

Although we didn't have a camera following the girls....this was their pace the entire way until....

We had the announcer call their names over the bull horn so then and only then did they start running.....I think they finished dead last for the entire race but I know some heavy duty bonding was going on during that hour walk! 

Mckenna participated by riding in her stroller, running, walking and then dancing around the field with dad waiting for the rest of us to finish. 

In spite of all the horror flashbacks of high school gym class and absolutely hating to participate in anything physical much less running.....I had time to reflect on what a brat I was as a PE student. We did all have a good time and will be looking for more opportunities to do this again as a family.  

Trick or treating

These are some pictures from Halloween. The kids had a 

great time. Mckenna and Dani didn't care that we weren't

out for hours, however the boys wanted to stay out all 

night. We were home by 9:30......I wonder if I freeze the candy they got 

can I save it for next year? 

Danielle was Hannah Montana..she sang to us all night! Mckenna

decided on Thursday that she wanted to be a pumpkin...and

Dani needed to be a black cat. Maybe next year. Michael had this

way scary mask with a big black curly afro. We didn't get a picture

because Mckenna was scared to death of it so he had to keep it

well hidden from us. Cody started out being a wrestler and he 

and Michael 

just ended up spray painting their hair and painting their 

faces. They were just in it for the candy!

The boys went off with some friends in our old neighborhood

while the littlest girls were with us. Mckenna loved going 

with her big sister to each of the houses. It was fun to watch them go up to each house and how slow Mckenna would walk behind Dani 

depending on how scary the houses were. At one of the houses a man 

told her how pretty she was and she said I know...at least she said 

thank you. Honestly I don't know where we got her! 

Jessika was at a football game marching and the other Jessica

was competing in her swim meet. Which by the way she made

the finals and will be swimming again next Friday! Yea Jessica!

Sorry for all the posts I feel like now I am caught up and I have 

figured out how to post videos and multiple pictures yea go me! 

Halloween Party

Mckenna had a few friends over Halloween morning for a little party. They 

had a great time decorating their pumpkins and eating mummy dogs...but the 

best fun was just hanging out together and playing. 

Country living part 2.....

As if the well incident wasn't enough for one day of what can happen when you live in the country......

Yes, a deer ran into the side of our truck.......we aren't sure if she lived or not but she wasn't into the side of the road...otherwise I guess we would have had venison for dinner!!!

Country living.....

When we moved last February to the "country", we are 30 seconds from a grocery store and restaurants, we discovered new things like a well, septic system, generator, gas stove, gas hot water heater etc. etc. When Mike came home with a generator less than 2 days after we moved in I thought why did you go and buy that? We have never had one before why would we need one now? If the power goes out because of a hurricane or whatever we will just use flashlights, we can build a fire in our backyard or light a candle. I was quickly informed by one of our friends if we lost power and wanted water we needed to have a generator....WHAT??? If you didn't know wells run off of electricity who would have known? I guess I just took for granted all the years we had city water, we pay the bill and someone else had to worry about it. I told Mike that we should probably have a someone teach us, more importantly me, since he travels all the time how to hook  up that generator in case of power outage...I still don't know how to do it. 

On Thursday night I was baking and enjoying the nice cool weather with the windows open. Cody and Mckenna were playing nicely in the family room. It was just what I had been waiting for all day! Cody decided on his own that he would go and take a shower. (Notice I said on his own and no prodding from me) About 3 minutes later he comes out and says "Mom what happens if the water just turns off?" At first I thought he was kidding until I turned on the kitchen faucet...nothing. The first thought that ran through my mind was did I pay the bill. Oh yea, I don't have a bill. Now what! Mike is out of town by the way. So I quickly called my friend and said what do I do? She's like why are you calling me? Call the county. That would be great but remember I have a well!!!!  Her husband got on the phone and walked me through what could possibly be the problem. After turning the power off, going out into the dark, chasing a lizard out of the box that I needed to be in and don't forget the ants that love to live near the well.....it still didn't work. He informed me that we probably needed a pressure pump from Home Depot that closes in 20 minutes!!!  It's 15 minutes from my house. In a panic, mostly because our teenage daughter would be home from a long day of school and band and would be wanting a shower and honestly I really didn't want to "rough it". I made it to Home Depot and back to our house in 23 minutes! I know that time really does stand still when we need it to! 

As I was pulling in our driveway our friend was pulling out. He had fixed the problem. He came back to show me what I needed to do in the event that this happens again. There's contacts that get dirty and need to be cleaned.  I did learn a couple of things that night....how to clean contacts on a well and that we need to have a couple, ok at least one pressure pump in our food storage in the event that we need to replace it in the middle of the night. 

The Evolution of Mckenna's hair

On Thursday Mckenna finally got a real haircut! After many many requests by Mike and Jessika I finally caved and got her hair cut. I am not sure why I wouldn't do it I guess it was because it was her baby hair and after 3 1/2 years I was kind of attached. Not because I did cute things to her hair all the time, in fact she usually wouldn't let me do anything with it other than wash and brush it.  Sometimes she would tolerate Jessika braiding it but that usually would come out in less than 5 minutes after her big sissy would spend almost an hour trying to get a 3 year old to sit still. 

3 months

Before going in to have her hair cut....she was a little confused as to why I took so many pictures of the back of her hair...aren't you supposed to take a picture of my face???? 

"Finally mom takes a picture of my face!!!"

I will admit that I should have done this sooner.....She loves her new hair cut and if she didn't have sassiness and attitude before she sure has it now! She shakes her head side to side and just laughs as her new shorter locks hits her face. 

Sunday afternoons

Life doesn't get much better than this......

I obviously didn't realize that I was technology challenged.....so the post that goes with these pictures is entitled "The Jessikca's"...one day I will figure it out! 

Our ongoing saga....

Can someone please explain how our darling 3 year old can write her alphabet but can't use the bathroom????  This past week Mckenna has shown more interest in writing her letters.  She has been doing a great job writing them, yes only on paper....if only she would show this much excitement in using the potty!!!  

Last week when it was that dreaded time again to buy diapers I thought why should I spend $18.94 to get Pampers....let's try the Wal Mart version at only $10.97 because it was obvious the Pampers were much too absorbant. Mckenna very quickly announced that we had the wrong diapers. I heard all about it through Wal Mart. When we got home and I tried to change her diaper she told me that those weren't her diapers and she wasn't wearing them. I said fine you can wear big girl pants....well she wasn't having any part of that. When I finally convinced her they do the same job, come to find out even better, as her old diapers she reluctantly let me put one on her. I wish I would have been able to get the camera to catch the look on her face. She so didn't believe me. I'm still a little irritated that I have spent so much on Pampers all this time and could have spent half as much on the Wal Mart version.....I don't even want to think about that one.

When Jessika changed her diaper later in the day she announced to Jessika "Mom bought me these stupid diapers they are the wrong ones you know." She obviously was traumatized by not having Elmo on her rear after all this time. Are you kidding me?!?!?? That just makes me want to just tell her that we are no longer buying diapers so get over it and just wear big girls pants. I'll try it and let you know how that goes.....

The Jessikca's

The Jessikca's, as we sometimes refer to them in our house, had an exciting weekend with school events. We will start with the oldest....

Jessika plays the flute in her high school marching band. On Saturday they had the annual FBA's which is a competition for all of the high school marching bands in the county. Her school has the largest marching band in the county (246) with the next biggest being 147. They earned a superior which is the highest score. Her school has earned a superior rating for over 20 years.

Jessica is on her swim team at her high school this year. She has been on a city team before and decided that's what she wanted to do in high school. She had a swim competition last Saturday and placed first in the Relay and second in the Fly. There was a ton of high schools there competing and she is competing right now as I type. She placed third in the Relay this morning so she will be staying for finals tonight.....so stay tuned! 

Ok so I can't figure out how to post the slideshow of Jessica swimming so it's in the next post......

Introducing....the ballerina

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Y and saw that they offered dance 

classes for preschoolers. I thought that would be a great 

opportunity for Mckenna to have some activity and interaction 

with other kids other than my workout time at the gym. 

So we signed her up. She so loves it! She is so excited to go to

her dance class and is eager to show anyone who will watch 

what she has learned. Poor Cody had to endure criss 

cross apple sauce on his square of the carpet and standing on his toes with his hands over his head....he was a good sport though and he would 

die if he knew I repeated that!