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! 

Mckenna and the never ending potting training saga

Everyday Mckenna and I have this conversation that goes something like this:

Mom: Mckenna let's go get some big girls panties on so you can go potty on the big potty

Mckenna: No mom I think I better wear my diaper....which she goes in and hand picks the correct character in the pampers box

Next day...

Mom:  Mckenna once we are done with this box of diapers we won't have any more and you will have to wear big girl panties.

Mckenna: After a long pause thinking....well you probably better go to Walmart and buy some more ( I am so serious she said probably)

Upon the kids returning back to school

Mckenna : When do I get to go to school?

Mom: Well you have to wear big girl panties to go to school so lets get rid of the diapers and you get to go to school

Mckenna: After a long pause thinking.....well I guess I probably better stay home with you then

UGHH!!!  These are just a couple of the conversations that her and I have had over the past several months. She refuses to think about it or talk about it. I am convinced that one day she will just make up her mind and start going potty on the big potty. Well....yesterday I came home from a Relief Society activity and Mckenna had decided that she was going to wear big girl panties. She had a couple of accidents, some almost made it tries and one time where she actually made it. Of course we made a HUGE deal about it. I thought today is the day...and I am almost out of diapers....when it was time to go to bed she brought me a diaper to put on her and she quickly fell asleep. 

This morning I said let's put on big girl panties, she said "um no I want a diaper mom". And so the never ending saga continues.....I am confident that she won't get married in pampers.....let's hope not anyway! 

Trunk or Treat

So after the family picture field trip it was time to go home and get ready for the annual Trunk or Treat at our church. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to Mike that I thought it would be a good idea if we had a theme costume for our family. Really the possibilities are endless with a group our size. He wasn't too excited about the whole idea, he's usually a good sport about these things and I am the one that's hesitant. I was persistent about it and came up with several ideas to choose from. I thought we could be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Mike didn't want to be a dwarf....I really didn't want to dress up in a Snow White costume and wig but in the spirit of family unity I was willing to do it. Mike really wasn't buying in to it. So I said fine lets just be Snow White in the seven dorks.....the creative lightbulb went off and so we came up with Off Whyte and the seven dorks.... 

Off Whyte and the seven dorks starring Allison as Off Whyte, Mike as Daddy dork, Jessika as Pointless, Jessica as Hopeless, Cody as Knock Knock, Michael as Who's There, Danielle as Smartee pants, Mckenna as Perfect Dork.....

"What we aren't eating the cupcakes"

"I'm pretty bored by this whole thing when does the trunk or treating start?"

Yes, I really am with him and yes, I really do love him. But does anyone know a good dentist?

Mike walked around the entire night asking people if they wanted a kiss, he was quite disgusting looking, when they turned up their nose at him he quickly gave them a chocolate kiss. He's such the joker!!! Even though the kids at first were not too excited about being dorks we all pulled it off and it will be a memory we will not soon forget.....I have to start thinking about next year!!!

Family Pictures

I have been wanting to update our family pictures since it's been a couple of years. However, the thought of going through the whole process of coordinating clothes, schedules and everything else that goes along with pictures for 9 people needless to say is a daunting task. So we bit the bullet and I made the appointment at Sears. I figured if I did it on a weekday instead of Saturday we would be able to make it in and out fairly easy. Well we could get in easy with 9 people it's the getting out with 9 people that would be tricky. 

The kids didn't have school on Friday so I decided that was the day. I was really impressed that we all got out the door at the appointment time, no mishaps and were on our way. All the way there we got the usual "How long is this going to take?" or "When will we be done?" depending on which child asked the question as if the answer would change. My answer was always consistent...the faster everyone cooperates and smiles the faster we will be done. I kept remembering the last family portrait session and the hours it seemed to get everyone to smile at the same time. I was really hoping that this wouldn't take that long, so I could get them to do it again, ok so that I could convince Mike to do it again.

 We got to Sears and they took us right in. I will say that the very young girl, she just graduated from high school last year, was a little overwhelmed by ALL of the children. She was a good sport and took us back to her little photo room. 30 minutes later we were finished, yes I did say 30 minutes. Mike and I were beyond impressed that everyone cooperated, this means I will be able to do this again, with the exception of Mckenna who always cooperates and goes along with everything. To her defense, she did wake up with a terrible cold that morning and would only take a picture if she was sitting in my lap...until we got to the food court and she announced "It's time to take our pictures now". So here are the results of our field trip on Friday......

HELP!!!

Ok so I decided that I would take control of this whole blog thing since it was my idea to begin with. Mike is out of town so I thought I could take advantage of this time and try to figure it out. I thought how hard can it be to add some pictures WELL I can tell you that it has taken me 2 days to just make the slideshow and then when I finally figured out how to do that...then there was the whole process about getting it to our blog. I still am not sure why it's not under the column entitled slideshow?!?!? Doesn't it know that's where it's supposed to be??? There's no click and dragging on the slideshow to move it where it is supposed to be either! UGH! I am totally up for anyone who would like to come and show me how to make this whole blog thing work and help me make my page pretty...I will bake you any treat you want....

Anyway here are some random pictures of our family. Stay tuned as we try to figure this out!

General Conference

Another great conference took place this weekend.  

We're so proud of our kids for....being...awa...uh....alive during all 4 sessions.  We noticed it got a little harder as time went on for everyone to keep focused.  That's just room for improvement in the future.  

During the last session, someone snuck around with a camera and got some rather revealing shots of what was going on in the Jones home this afternoon.  

We of course, can neither confirm nor deny these pictures are accurate or are really of us.  These days you can photo shop just about anything.  We don't have photo shop though, which only makes this a bigger mystery.  But you be the judge.  Is this real?  Or is it memorex?  (that dates this author a little)