Ashlynn-Kiwanis Terrific Kid Club Luncheon

Ellyce and Jillian-1st time drivers
Jillian loved the carosel.
So did Ellyce-look at that smile!
Ashlynn-She's one Terrific Kid, isn't she?


Ashlynn was invited to attend a luncheon today at Peter Piper Pizza for the Kiwanis Terrific Kid Club. At Legacy School, she was chosen out of all of the kindergarten classes to be a part of this fun thing. One student was chosen from each grade level to be part of this Terrific Kid Club as well. The other schools in Maricopa also had students there to represent their school and class. We are so proud of her for getting this chance to represent the Kindergarten classes at Legacy Traditional School. According to the Kiwanis Club representative, Ashlynn was chosen by her principal for various reasons like her grades, her behavior in class and behavior towards her classmates, and so on. How awesome is that? She certainly had a wonderful time, as did Ellyce and Jillian...but who doesn't love Peter Piper Pizza?

Painting project...

I decided to paint our bedroom/bathroom-which I've been wanting to do for quite a while now, but haven't had the motivation to get going on it. For some reason, when I'm at the end of my pregnancy, I get that motivation and practically paint every room (okay, I'm exaggerating, but still). I found a paint color that is just gorgeous-it's called TEAL DEAL. It's a deep teal blue color-which I know what you are thinking: TEAL, really? It really is a beautiful, fun, fresh color and it looks great. After two coats of paint, a lot of cleaning up, a lot of crazy kids who wanted to help mommy paint, and some seriously sore legs and back, here is the final product. The wall behind our bed is the teal and the rest of the walls are a beautiful pale blue color which brightens up the room-makes it more inviting. Hope you like it-I certainly do!

I am so creative somedays...

Yes, I know. I sound so sure of myself, but I was so excited after I had finished this really cute apron. My friend, Chantae, made an adorable one, so I did my best to copy hers. Hers is much cuter, but hey, I'm trying my best without a pattern. Here is Ashlynn modeling the reversible apron-one side has flowers while the other has polka dots (a "Cindy" favorite)...Hurray for me today! Let's hope tomorrow is as productive (and creative).

Latest kiddo updates...

It is so good to be home. Although the work never seems to get done, that's okay. After being in St. Louis for an entire week without our little girls, it is really nice to get back to their (and my) schedule. The girls had a most wonderful time with Grandma and her boys, but it was nice to see that they were more than thrilled to see us when we got home. Here are some most recent pictures of our little princesses.

Ashlynn's First Piano Lesson

Ashlynn started piano lessons about two weeks ago and is doing an amazing job already. She loves her teacher, which by the way is her music teacher at school, Tavia Sherwood. She is great and is a lot of fun! Ashlynn has been very dedicated to practicing her scales (right hand and left hand) each and every day. She also practices her assigned songs out of her piano book-which incidently was the same book that I used to have as a kid (how funny). We're so proud of her and her hard work-and to think, this is only her second week! Hmmm it must be in her blood!

It's April, you fool...already?

Not a whole lot has happened in the past two weeks other than a cold that lasted WAY TOO LONG! Lynne, Taylor, Hansan, and Dallan came down for their spring break last week. It was fun having them here. Nathan and Taylor played a lot of tennis-or as much as they could. On Friday before Lynne and the boys left we all got together for a BBQ at our place. Luke, Emrie, Miles, Masey, Richard, Jena, Timothy, Lynne, and the boys all came out. It was great. We had fun just being together-Family is so important. Lynne and the twins are actually going to be coming back down on Sunday to stay for another week while Nathan and I go to St. Louis for a much needed vacation. Lynne's going to stay with the girls...how wonderful, huh?

Well, the weather here has been incredible lately. 80 degrees most days and just plain INCREDIBLE! The girls have been running through the sprinklers even...crazy to think they're already doing that considering this is the first day of April. That's Arizona for you-nice and hot! So here are a couple pictures of the girls enjoying the wonderful AZ weather.

Our backyard...

Our little trees-minus one Juniper, which we had to go back into town for...
Doesn't that look great? And it's not even completely finished!
This is the Ruby Red Grapefruit tree: We'll call her Ruby!
This is the Blue Juniper tree, and since there are 4 of them, each of the girls get their own named after them.
This is our Orange tree-and I can't remember what kind of orange tree it is, so she doesn't have a name yet.

-OUR BACKYARD-

We've lived in our house for almost 4 years now. And since about a month or two after we moved in, our backyard has been almost complete minus the far back section which has been just dirt (and weeds mostly). The rest is wall to wall grass-which is perfect for the kids to run on. Next to the house we have a little tool shed that holds the lawn mower and various yard tools. On the other side is a cement patio for the girls to ride their little scooters on. It's been wonderful, but now it's going to be AWESOME!

Well, Nathan decided today that we'd head in to Lowe's and find some trees for the yard. It was so fun looking through the different trees they had in their garden center there. We ended up with 4 Blue Juniper trees and 2 citrus trees: 1 ruby red grapefruit tree and 1 orange tree. We were so excited. Richard and Jena met us at Lowe's with their little truck so they could take the trees out to our house for us. They helped us dig holes, pulls weeds, rake rocks (oh the wonderful memories of raking rocks), leveling the ground for the trees.

The only left to do now is hook up the drip system to the trees, lay down that liner stuff, and put the wood chips on top of that, and VOILA: backyard complete (after almost 4 years). I am so excited! All that digging and raking made me want to grow a little garden (or at least plant some flowers for the girls)...one step at a time, right?

Surprise: Nathan's turning 30!

Left: Collin Martin, Below: Josh and John, Miles and Emrie, the amazing invitation...



Nate and Jason playing a game of pool.
One section of our massive buffet of foods.
The birthday boy making a wish.
The other section of our food buffet.
-THE CAKE-

For the past two weeks, I have secretly been planning a surprise birthday party for Nathan. He'll be turning 30 on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. I know he's not big on parties, but I figured this would be the birthday of all birthdays that actually REQUIRED a party to go along with it. Stephanie designed the invitations, which were completely amazing (and everyone loved them). Everyone kept saying how clever they thought I was for the invites, but really, I couldn't take any credit--so to give credit where credit is due: THANKS, STEPH!

So I had the invitations all sent out last week just in case. I then made preparations as to where the party would be. Josh and Kara said we could have the party at their house since they have a pool table and ping pong, and most recently a dart board. We figured this would keep the boys busy while us wives talked about crafts or something they would think was completely lame. Our plans were moving along swimmingly until it came to the making of the cake. Nathan had sent me a picture of a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) cake that he really wanted to have for his birthday about a month ago. So I knew that with a bit of help from my multi-talented friend, Bridgette Balmes, I could make it for him.

At any UFC fight, the competitors fight in an octagon shaped cage. The fights themselves get pretty intense-hence the need for the fight to be contained inside a cage. But in order for me to make the cake appear octagonal, we had to fudge it a bit. The bottom layer of the cake was a big square (chocolate flavored), the top layer was circular (vanilla flavored)...the cage and letters were made from melted chocolate chips. IT WAS SO FUN TO MAKE! Once again, I've got to give most of the credit to Bridgette who is a master at making frosting look flawless. Not only was the cake completely awesome-we added our own little side joke to it. Look for the "Snow White" Polly pocket doll on it-she's the UFC Ring Girl that the boys at the party were assuming was the actual UFC Ring Girl, Edith. So funny!

On Thursday night, the night before the party, Nathan took Ashlynn on a Daddy-Daughter date to Red Robin and then to the Phoenix Suns game. She almost spilled the beans about the surprise party when she made mention of the "Snow White" cake that Mommy made for him. Thank goodness she didn't know any more of the details because then we would have been in trouble. Josh has been helping me keep this a secret from Nate for the past two weeks-I totally think that Josh could sell ice to Eskimos if he really wanted to because even after hearing about some glorious "Snow White" cake that mommy had made for him (which she even told him that he wasn't supposed to know about it)...Nate was completely clueless about the party.

Friday night, all the guests had arrived and were waiting on Nate and Josh to show up...and at 6:45 PM, the birthday boy showed up-totally speechless. WE GOT HIM GOOD! He was so surprised-it was great. Everyone had brought an appetizer and Kara and I had made a bunch of food on our own (just in case)...so her entire island and table were packed with almost every kind of food known to man. We had orange chicken, tortilla roll-ups, chips and dip, veggie tray, strawberries, shrimp platter, sushi, pizza rolls, bagel bites, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, dinner rolls, crackers and cheese, mini cupcakes, brownies, candy, soda...you name it, we probably had it. The party was a huge hit.

All of Nathan's good buddies were there: Karl and Chantae Cooper, Kolby and Lynette Chase, Jason (friend from the gym), John Graff, Emrie and Luke Stoten, Richard and Jena Jones, and Josh and Kara Martin. Now this was just the adults-most everyone had at least one kid. I think there were about 11 kids (including our girls)-funny enough there were only 3 little boys there; the rest were girls. The big boys played pool and darts...while us girls hung out and talked. It was so fun...the kids had a blast too. Overall-it was a surprisingly wonderful night. Happy Birthday, Nathan!

New baby sling...

I made this baby sling for my friend Kara's new baby, Morgyn. It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and work on a project on my sewing machine. This only took me about 15 minutes to make-which was a total miracle. I usually have to redo stuff, but I guess I got lucky this time. It's difficult to see the pattern but it's just a black and white check. How fun!

Time out...

Ellyce and Jillian were not sharing this morning and Mommy was trying to clean up-so they both got sent to the stairs for a time out. I thought it was so funny-because they were both so mad that they had to sit by each other on the stairs...they didn't want to share the stairs either. Which was why they got sent there in the first place-for not sharing...Silly girls.

Mommy wanted a milkshake...so did the girls

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Since we didn't have any ice cream in our house-yes, I know that is so wrong...I put about 10 mini ice cream sandwiches in the blender and called it good. The girls loved it-they drank like 2 cup fulls. Jillian was the best...the first sip she took, about half of it came out all over her face and shirt. Once Ellyce saw that I was taking pictures, she wanted to get in on the action...she loves getting her pictures taken. And Ashlynn, we can't forget her. She was making silly faces just for the camera-my little poser! So, enjoy our pictures of messy faces and homemade milkshakes.

We're having another girl...Hurray!

If you haven't heard the great news, we're having baby girl number four! We just found out yesterday-but Nathan knew it from the start. It's pretty funny-he's psychic. The lady that was doing our ultrasound has done both Ellyce's and Jillian's...she was keeping her fingers crossed for us so that this last one would have been a boy, but there was no denying the 3 white lines that indicate: GIRL GIRL GIRL! Not hard to mistake that for anything else-I've seen it way too many times.

Our newest little girl looks very healthy, has 10 fingers, 10 toes, a gorgeous profile just like her sisters, and seems to be incredibly flexible. Her first picture was of her feet over her head-she's a yoga master already. She looks likes she's got long legs too-dancer legs.

I guess all we need now (besides prom dresses and college funds) is some names-if you think of any please let me know...I'm fresh out. Jillian took our last great name.

Ellyce turns 3-Years-Old!

Ellyce had her 3rd birthday on Thursday, February 12th. I posted some pictures on our family blog site, but wanted to put some more of the silly ones on here. So enjoy, Ellyce's moment in the spotlight being the big 3-year-old!

January is already gone...

The month of January flew by way too quickly. I can't believe that in about 10 days my second little baby will be turning 3 years old. Talk about flying by way too quickly...seems just like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. How is it that time slips away from us? And now we are expecting yet another baby into our home. Already we're about 16 1/2 weeks along and I'm counting the weeks until we find out what we're having. Seriously-we're almost halfway in this pregnancy. Not that I would wish my pregnancy would slow down, more like time itself.

It always feels like the 24 hours we're given each day is never enough to get all the things done that really need to be done. Can any of you tell me the trick to getting ahead? Or is that something that is impossible? I've been saying to myself that I would wipe down all the blinds and windows this week and yet, the vacuuming and dusting, bathrooms and mopping all need done too. How is it possible to keep your house clean, cook, help your children with homework, and enjoy some quality time with your spouse? HELP---

All this talk of time just makes me realize how short this life truly is. I love my time as a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. I know that we are given this time on earth to show how capable we are of making the time last and making our time useful in each of those categories. The challenge is knowing what needs to be sacrificed in order to make that time useful...right? My mom just passed this along: Be thankful for what you have and use all that you have to bless the lives of others every day...That's all we really need to do.

High School Musical On Ice Tour...

Last night, Ashlynn, Ellyce, Aunt Jena, and I went to watch the High School Musical On Ice Tour. A great guy on Nathan's new team has a brother that works at the US Airways Center (which is where the Phoenix Suns play) and he got us four tickets to see the show. It was so fun. It was a little bit past their bedtime, so they were definitely exhausted by the time it was over. Nevertheless, all of us girls had so much fun. The skaters danced/skated and sang all the songs from High School Musical I and II and some from the newest HSM movie High School Musical III.

The show was great-the seats were perfect-the atmosphere was wonderful...and of course, the company was priceless. The girls were loving every single minute of it. I did want to share some of the pictures we were able to take during the performance. We certainly had a blast-hope you enjoy the photos.

New Year's Resolutions...

Although I am still trying to finish writing my New Year's Resolutions, I think that I have been trying my hardest do actually try out the ones I've written down. Keeping up with the blog hasn't been written down so that's probably why I haven't been doing so well with this one. Perhaps if I write it down I would be more on the ball with this resolution. And as for now, I just wanted to check in.

We are 14 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Too bad we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Perhaps next month, right? I'm so excited, a little scared, and completely exhausted. Even now as I am trying to write down all the things that have been going on with me and the girls, I am about to fall asleep.

Until hopefully sooner than later, I will write down my resolutions and make a viable effort to get them all started and then just move forward. Soon, yes...very soon. Happy New Year (again).

Happy 2009!

I can't believe that it's 2009 already. That means one more year and I will have been out of high school for 10 years...holy bananas. I still haven't come up with my New Year's Resolutions quite yet. I was trying to go back and see the previous years' resolutions and begin the revision process. One year I remember actually making a resolution to get pregnant and surprisingly enough like 2 weeks later we found out we were pregnant with Jillian. Silly how that worked out-got pregnant and had a child the same year.

Anyway-I hope you are all having better luck than I am at getting those resolutions started. Any suggestions? I'll take any advice at the present. Love you all. And a Happy New Year. P.S. The picture of Ellyce is exactly I'm feeling-AHHH!

December is almost over...

I can't believe that we all survived Thanksgiving and now Christmas. This December has flown by incredibly fast. It is amazing to me how time flies-in a blink of an eye, yet another year has come and gone. I do need to provide everyone a bit more information on our holidays, so enjoy this (hopefully not) long-winded speech about how we survived.

Thanksgiving: We loaded up the family and drove all the way up to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. Michael, Nathan's younger brother, had just returned home from his mission to Russia. It was great to see him-still the same Michael, just a bit older. He gave an excellent homecoming talk about the people there in Russia. From what he's told us, it seems that those were the best two years of his life. He loved the people, the country, the culture...everything. It's great to have him home. Well, going on. Thanksgiving was great. Just before we had headed out Nathan and I got some interesting news about a new addition to our family. I am not talking about the dog either. WE'RE PREGNANT again with another Jones something. I won't lie-it's probably a girl (again). We're trying not to get our hopes up, but we'll gladly take whatever comes our way. We already have the three most beautiful girls in the whole world already so what's one more right. As of right now, December 27th, we are 12 weeks along. We'll be able to know for certain in about 6-8 more weeks (which at this point seems like an incredibly long time).

Anyway-Thanksgiving was great. All the 9 Jones kids were together once again. The boys spent most of the time either playing with their wide arrangement of computer/technology gadgets or playing with some other sort of techno device like the Wii or the XBox 360 (video games). The girls tried our best to help out in the kitchen and keep the kids from destroying the house (or going nuts). I was surprised how many people could fit into Lynne's house...very impressive. We took a couple trips to Idaho Falls for some holiday shopping and even made time to enjoy a movie or two. I was certainly colder there than down here in Phoenix. When we left our house, it was like 75 degrees still, so the chill of the Idaho weather was a bit much for this Phoenix girl.

Once we had arrived back in Phoenix, we all had to get back into the swing of things. Like getting Ashlynn back to school, bedtime routines, and house cleaning routines as well. Of course, even that usually takes a week. But no worries, like I said, WE SURVIVED. I turned 27 years old on December 2nd. Nathan, the girls, and I went out to eat at the Olive Garden. It was wonderful. Then after that celebration of me getting another year older, we tried to get ourselves prepared for the Christmas holiday. We put up our tree and even lights on the outside of our house (which was the first time since we've been married). We even were able to give our puppy away as an extra bonus for me (since I apparently am not a DOG person-loved the dog, but knowing I was having another little baby in the house, I didn't want the additional stress that another "child"/pet brings). We gave Ollie to a young family who actually was going to purchase Ollie even before we did, but whatever-they got her in the end. I bet she's loving her new home, even though at night I do sort of miss how she would snuggle with me on the couch after the girls went to bed.

Goodness, I've missed so much. On December 21st, Nathan and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary. Funny enough, it was a Sunday and about mid-afternoon we both realized that it was our anniversary. Ashlynn had asked me what day it was, and it didn't even really click with me (or Nathan) that it was indeed our anniversary. We had celebrated it a week early since it fell on a Sunday this year...we had Richard and Jena come over and they watched the kids while Nathan and I finished our Christmas shoppping. We had a wonderful date night eating at the Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious. We went all out-I got a steak and Nathan got fish...and to top it off, CHEESECAKE for desert. Wonderful way to celebrate your anniversary...babysitter, excellent food, and being with the person you love the most.

Well, for Christmas this year, Lynne and the boys came down from Idaho to celebrate it with us. There was a ton of people in our house like 15 altogether I think. It was crazy, but fun nonetheless. The girls were so excited with what Santa had brought them...scooters. Mom and Dad (Nana and Papa) had spoiled us with a GPS system...it was amazing. I of course am terrible with technology so Nathan has been playing with it since Christmas. We all got spoiled with everything this year...and it's funny. After it's all over, you seems to forget (so easily) the gifts you were given. You just start to enjoy the memories of the season both past and present.

All in all, I am just so surprised how quickly these past two months have gone by. We'll be issuing in the new year come Wednesday evening...Wow, 2009. Where is the time going? Well to all of you who are far away (or even down the street), we want to wish you a Happy Holiday season and may you all keep the spirit of Christmas in your hearts the year round. Love you all and miss you more that I can say. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Latest projects for JG Company...

I think I have finally narrowed down my business names down to two: JG Company or CinderBee Jones. Of course, JG stands for Jones Girls. Among the collections, soon to come, each daughter will have their own special category. That'll be pretty fun. I'll have to take a vote on which name is best...so help me out.

Anyways here are some fabric and patterns that I am planning on making. Let me know what you think.

It's another girl...our dog, that is!

This past Thursday we acquired a 3-month-old puppy. She's a mini-pin/chihuahua mix. We decided to give her a new name-OLIVE, but we call her Ollie for short. She's a very playful little pup. She loves the girls and loves being outside. I don't think that the girls have been outside this much since, well, ever. All the girls are out digging in the dirt and just enjoying the cool weather (by cool, I mean about 70-75 degrees). Although these pictures don't even come close to how cute she really is, they're about as good as it's going to get...Ollie's like Speed Racer (so Ashlynn says). She's wicked fast and fun fun fun! She fits right in! So without further ado, here is the latest addition to the house of Jones Girls!

Family Photos...

My friend, Bridgette Balmes, took our family pictures this past Friday. It was so much fun-well, not so much as fun, but more like chaotic-type of fun. The girls wouldn't really stand still or one would be looking someplace else or one was running away. All in all I think we did a pretty good job; actually thanks to Bridgette-she did a fabulous job. And this is the only picture we've been able to see thus far. Hope you enjoy a preview of some family photos probably coming your way as a Christmas card.

Just a side note-I think it's pretty funny how we're set up here. Ashlynn is being Ashlynn: posing right in the front. Ellyce is hanging on my leg. Jillian is loving on her Daddy. Nate looks as handsome as ever-even though he thinks otherwise. And me, I'm trying not to look like I'm trying to keep them all together. By the way did you happen to nice the Phoenix Suns color scheme going on (minus the orange)? Nice call-GO SUNS!

Happy Election Day!

Can you see their "I voted" stickers? They were my big voting helpers today. Happy Voting!

Today was the big day for voting. I dropped Ashlynn off at school then took Ellyce and Jillian with me to VOTE! I was expecting some seriously long lines and of course, some very reluctant children of mine...However, I got right in, got my ballot, voted, turned it in, and didn't have to try and find where my kids were. They stood right beside me while I made my voice heard. I was so proud and honored. We all got our special stickers too-which of course, was the ultimate highlight of their trip to the polls.

I want them to know, even though they may not quite understand any of what went on today, that I am so very grateful and priviledged to have the right to vote for the president of our country, to make my own voice heard out of the millions voting today. I hope someday they will take pride in the fact that they are blessed to be able to vote for who is in charge of this great nation. Hope you all have voted (and if not, hurry up)-Happy Election Day to all!

So much for keeping up with the Jones'...

I can't even keep up with my own blog. I've been what really feels like EXTREMELY busy for the past two weeks. My friend Kara started a new business where she does vinyl lettering on well, just about anything. I thought it would be a fun adventure to help her out on so I thought I could contribute by making some little Snuggly blankets so we could put together some gift packages for people to purchase. These packages would contain a snuggly blanket, the baby's name on either blocks or a plaque, bows or binky holders, Tinkle targets, and pee pee tee pees with whatever else we could think of.

So we have been working like non-stop all this past week to get ready for today's first "show". Today was Founder's Day in Maricopa. Kara reserved us a booth space about a month ago, but we of course procrastinated until just last week to get enough things together. We had both figured that today's showing would probably not bring either of us any profit, but we thought oh well, it would get our name out there. So back to our crazy week. I think that I was over at Kara's at least 4 out of the five days this past week just trying to make sure we had enough "material" to show the people at Founder's day. We made some extra holdiay things for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Christmas. So we figured we were pretty set.

Well, today was our first show. The set up went well enough other than the wind was insane...quite aggrivating to say the least. But we were able to get our tables filled with stuff for people to see and hopefully buy. Well, once people started moving on in, we figured we'd get some serious interest right away. We had a ton of people take our business cards, but no one was quite willing to customize their orders for vinyl sayings. Until like mid-afternoon, nothing. Then finally someone ordered their family's name on these 4x4 blocks. So cute. Then she also ordered her unborn son's name on the blocks too as a separate order. We were so excited. She gave us a deposit-so to speak on the blocks so we told her we'd get them to her within a week. She was so excited. So were we!

A little while later another lady had come by and ordered something to replace another little something she had broken. It was a shadow box that held a little bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey and the saying on the glass front read-"In case of an emergency, break the glass". Well funny enough she didn't have an actual emergency, the box simply fell off the shelf where it was kept and the glass broke. She wanted us to recreate this little thing for her, so Kara is going to have to go into town this week to try and find a smaller shadow box to complete this ladies order.

I realized that no one was really interested in the little snuggly blankets. I want to keep a few of them to put them into the baskets for other shows but I think that I am going to try to turn my attention to making purses, small clutch like purses, handbags, and those types of things. I think that those are the ticket to making actual money for the hard work we've been doing. Our next show is October 25th. It is an actual craft fair so people are going to be looking for something to buy. I think that even if they don't buy what we have there they will certainly make orders for customized products. Hope that turns out better than this did...although I am quite sure that anything after the windy day we had today, will be like a ray of sunshine!