Keeping up with the Jones'

Happy New Year!

2009-01-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Kati inspired me to start this New Year's tradition-everyone traces their hand and then chooses 5 goals they will try to accomplish in the next year. I like goals better than the whole resolution thing-that never seems to work out well for me ;)

Christmas

2009-01-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

We simply had a wonderful Christmastime-I've been waiting months to say that :). We made tons of treats (with intentions of giving them all away of course), cut down our big tree, made gingerbread houses, played in the snow, and watched lots of Christmas movies-you gotta love December!

All ready for some snow fun...

if only I had taken a picture 5 minutes later when Mark was the only one still outside-we really need some snow clothes!

My little Seattleites don't quite know what to do with all the sunshine

Rig just being cute!

Christmas Day

Tess got a dress-ups, a barbie car, a boy barbie and a few other things. The boy barbie was essential-lately she had been putting pants on her girl barbie, calling her a boy and pairing her up to get married-like I said, the boy barbie was essential!

Sawyer's cool new "smile"-he got a car & track set, action figures, baseball bases and a few other things-he was in heaven!

Rig, opening presents and performing his favorite trick "whooooo"

Mark, Tess, & Sawyer building an ice cave

Mark and Sawyer in the cave

Rig is 6 months!

2009-01-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Half-Birthday to my sweet-wiggly-squishy-precious-Rigdon!

Aren't they sweet?

Tess puts together some really interesting dress-ups, in case you couldn't tell. And yes, that is a dish towel around her neck.

Thanksgiving in Portland

2009-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year in Portland with a portion of Mark's family. We had a great time playing games, watching movies, hanging out and, of course, we ate entirely too much-I love Thanksgiving!

These are some of the pictures from our trip to OMSI

(Oregon Museum of Science & Industry)

Halloween 2008

2009-01-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

Halloween Take I
Halloween Take II

Apparently my kids seem think that choosing just one thing to be for Halloween is too simple

The cake walk at our playgroup party-such fun!
Thanks Alycia!

Ferocious huh?

Mark's 30!

2009-01-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

Happy 30th Birthday Mark!

You are the greatest dad and husband-we are so lucky to have you!

Tessa's 4th Birthday

2009-01-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

October 28 2004 our beautiful Tessa was born-It's hard to believe she's 4 already! Tessa is such a sweetheart and always willing/wanting to help. She loves playing make-believe, reading books, dressing-up and playing games.

Her birthday this year started out with a few gifts when she woke up (she gets her lovely morning hair from me) :)

My sis-in-law inspired me to start a fun birthday tradition: the birthday kid gets to pick out 1 small toy/treat for each sibling to open on their birthday. I think it's a fun idea especially when the other kids don't quite get the whole birthday thing. Thanks Julie!

We went to the Children's Museum with some of our friends and after the kids played for a while we had some cupcakes-yum cherry chip my favorite-I figure until she has a preference, I should get mine, right?

The kids spotted a bit of frosting on the lid...
going...

going...

gone

Why do we even make cakes for children? From now on I think I'll just give them their own container of frosting and a spoon-Happy Birthday!

When Mark got home from work we went to a pumpkin patch. There was a hay maze, a petting zoo, a playground, a corn pit, and giant pumpkins-pretty fun!

That evening we had some more friends come over for cake and ice cream. Tessa got to pick out who/what topped her cake and she picked Cinderella in her wedding dress-it looks a bit too much like a wedding cake and it kinda freaked me out :)

Family Pictures

2009-01-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

My fabulous sister Robin took these (along with our banner pic) while we were it AZ. She is an AMAZING photographer check out her blog: http://www.portraitsbyrobinlee.blogspot.com/

Thanks Robin!

Trip to Arizona

2009-01-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun on our trip to AZ (as usual). We hung out with family, ate yummy food, played outside, swam, and rode ponies!

Rig got to meet everyone and we got to meet Liberty who is about 2 weeks younger than Rig. They look like they remember each other huh? :)

One night when we were all sitting around at my parents, my dad pulls up with a pony! (He had been thinking of getting one for a while) As you can see Tessa got pretty comfy riding her.

As you can probaby tell, my parent's back yard is not meant for horses, but any of you who know my dad know that that's irrelevant :)

We even got a chance to celebrate Tessa and Mark's Birthdays with the whole family.

Cute boys

2009-01-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

More Fun at the Zoo

2009-01-17T21:08:00.000-08:00

"Stop trying to fit it when you were born to stand out"

When I saw this swan standing on one foot among all the flamingos I couldn't stop laughing (it looks like a goose, I know, but apparently it's some unlucky type of swan) Haven't we all felt like this at one time in our lives? Trying our hardest to blend in and it just doesn't work.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

2008-10-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Mark put Sawyer up on the ledge against the glass to take this picture-he didn't realize just how scary this situation was to a 2-year-old who has a 1/2 inch of glass between him and the biggest creature he's ever seen. About a second after he took this, Sawyer freaked out and jumped into my arms. He may need therapy someday but...cool picture :)

We're in front of the walrus in this picture-I'm pretty sure Rig is watching him.
Check out the antlers on that reindeer!

FYI: You might have noticed this before, Tessa is really in to "posing" for pictures. Now, I know that most kids get a cheesy grin when they see a camera but Tess takes it one giant step further. She comes up with poses that she calls "ballet" or "gymnastics" or some where she just does bizarre things with her face. She might not be the most normal child but she's ours :)

Penguins (you probably need to blow it up to see them) (Tessa thought this pouty lip face was great)
Otters-I've always thought they were pretty cute but I think this picture is changing my mind. They look a bit too rodent like for me.
I took several pictures of them in front of the elephants and in all of them Tess had to put her chin on her shoulder-goofy kid, I know.

1st Day of Preschool

2008-10-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

Tessa started going to a little preschool in September. She LOVES it! Her favorite parts are: "learning letters, playing with toys and...when we play again" (already such an overachiever :)

I had to take this picture because the backpack she is using is the same backpack I used when I went to preschool-cool huh?

The Good, the Bad, & the UGLY

2008-10-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Seattle, like anywhere else has it's good things and bad things. To illustrate my point...

The Good:

No I did not take this picture, but we do see bald eagles a lot.

Nope didn't take this one either but we have seen killer whales a few times

Took this one! This is at the Tulip Festival this past April. So, before I move on to the more negative portion of this post I should say that it is BEAUTIFUL here and what we lack in quantity of sunny days we make up for in quality. Now...

The Bad:

Opposums are maybe the ugliest creatures on this planet. In fact, when I see one dead on the road I think "cool 1 down 300 million to go" (sorry to those who love them) So, that being said, you can imagine my excitment when Tess noticed something walking across our back fence a few months ago. Yep a cat-sized rat thing in my back yard-luckily we haven't seen him since.

Me and the kids actually kind of like snails (Tess and Sawyer keep themselves busy lining them all up on the sidewalk) Mark, however insists that they make it on the "bad" list because they attract moles which ruin our yard.

The rain is of course kind of a bummer but I'm determined to not let it slow us down this year. Plus-the kids look pretty cute in their coats don't you think?

The UGLY:

When I get to heaven I'm determined to inquire about slugs-I mean seriously.

An Eventful Summer

2008-10-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Silly Kids

2008-09-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty cute-please excuse the off-centeredness (is that a word?) Oh and I have no idea what the headband is about-he doesn't wear those normally...so don't worry dad :)

Olympic Fever!!!

2008-08-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

Just have to say I'm obsessed with the Olympics! I've been looking forward to them since January when I walked into Costco and all the fancy TVs were showing great moments in olympic history and I heard it...the olympic song! Ever since then I've been counting down to
8-8-08! My kids are obsessed too. Tessa started crying tonight because she didn't want to go to bed before we turned it on. Don't worry I caved and she and I watch the recap from yesterday. Are any of you as into this as we are? Weren't the opening ceremonies cool? Did you see the mens 4x100 freestyle relay? (If not watch it www.nbcolympics.com) Go USA!

July & Beyond

2008-08-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

4th of July

The 4th of July is tied with Thanksgiving for my absolute favorite holiday. Every year I'm determined to pack in as many holiday festivities as I possibly can. This year we went to a breakfast at our church (complete with bike parade), went to a parade, had a BBQ with some friends, and watched fireworks.

One of the coolest things about eastern WA is that fireworks are legal (even the big, huge ones!) so instead of loading up to go to a fireworks show you sit in your front yard and watch the neighborhood put on a show for about 5 hours. It's seriously the coolest thing EVER!Look at them, so excited to be a part of the bike parade!
Bike parade drop-outs. Taken approximately 4.5 minutes after the previous picture.

Swimming Lessons

Summer games 2020 here she comes!

Rig's Blessing
Rigdon Cole Jones

Blessed July 20, 2008

What an awesome day! The blessing was beautiful and we had so much fun spending time with family and friends.

Finally complete!

Well kinda :)

About mid-July marked the end of our 5-week siding/painting project-and by "our" I mean Mark. He tore down and replaced the siding on 2 sides, trimmed out all the windows, preped, painted and added some new fixtures. We decided a while back that he should take on this project right after Rig was born in order to take full advantage of his "my wife just had a baby sick time"-needless to say I was excited for him to finish so that we could have a husband/dad again.

Trip to Canada
While my parents where here we took a quick trip up to Vancouver and Victoria B.C. They are both beautiful cities and we crammed as much sight-seeing as we could.

The Butchart Gardens were beautiful-thanks mom and dad for a great trip.
SeaFair
SeaFair is a big festival in Seattle, the hydroplane races and the airshow are the 2 biggest attractions. This year we went down to a park with our friends the Owens to watch the Blue Angels-they're amazing! Whenever I see something like this I always want to get decked out in American attire and watch Top Gun or something-what can I say it's cool to be an American!

(Apparently this is the only show "the blues" put on over water. If you blow-up the picture above you can see all the boats out to see the show.)
Isn't summer great?!

Our Little Smushes

2008-07-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is Rigdon (our most recent addition). He is 6 weeks old and super cute-in case you couldn't tell :) Likes: being held, eating, sleeping, swinging occasionaly. Dislikes: not being held, riding in the car, tummy time. It's amazing how fast new babies just fit into your family.
Sawyer is 2 now and is such a sweetheart. He loves balls, cars, tools, ANYTHING outside, and wearing his swim trunk...every day. Like most 2-year-olds he's passionate about whatever he's doing and is willing to throw a tantrum if need be.
Tess is 3 1/2 and is such a sweet easy-going girl (most of the time). She loves riding her bike, and playing "mommies"/house with dolls, ponies, cars, Sawyer, Mark, Me and anything else she can find.