Our little friend Gracelynn

Our littlest friend has been coming to our house. Her momma has gone back to work and we get to play with baby Grace. This sweet little girl is 2 months old today! Jess and Brandon both love to snuggle and play with her. Brandon has taken to saying her name to song... last week, it was to the tune of "Jingle Bells."

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Christmas morning

a few pictures of the kids from Christmas morning.

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Christmas Eve

We spend Christmas Eve at my in-laws house each year. Fortunate for us, it is not "over the hills and through the woods."  It is just a 15 minute jaunt away. I think it takes us longer to make sure that we have gathered everything up than it does to get there! 

We usually let the kids open their gifts from grandma and grandpa once the immediate family has arrived. Then exchange gifts for the rest of the family after dinner. Grandma (mom) had prepared a wonderful dinner; complete with individual sized cream pies for dessert. YUM! I had chocolate- just in case you were wondering! :)

The kids were spoiled by the rest of the family... who am I kidding?? So were we!! Thank you to all of you. We appreciate it all. And it was great to spend the evening with family. We finally called it a night. (good thing we live close!!) Packed up the goods and headed home. Once home, even though it was late and raining, Brandon had to throw out the "reindeer food" that he had made at school.  And Jess pick out which cookies we were leaving out for Santa. (thanks Aunt Shannon for letting us bring a few extras home. Santa thought they were delicious!)

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I will work on getting some pictures up from Christmas morning/day and I also wanted to show some more of our little friend Gracelynn. She has grown so much!

Family Christmas

I was going to wait until tomorrow, but why do that? Here are a few(ish) pictures from our Jones family Christmas.

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Thank you! ...for everything! The good food, conversation, gifts... all of it. We had a great time and I know that kids did too. They were asleep in no time at all!

For Grandma and Great Rachel...

Do you see it?  We put it on the tree when we got home Friday night.

It's perfect!

Even Santa says that the Colts are #1.

We took a ton of pictures from our early Christmas with the Jones family... And I mean the whole Jones family. I will work on getting a smilebox up to share. (And a copy of pictures for you Rachel.)

Family of Colts fans

Our Colts themed little tree. It is in the entry way for everyone to see as soon as they come in our house.

Look who was at Grandma's house when we went to drop off Jess and Brandon- Baby Dylan! He is one whole month old now.

So,of course, we had to get a group picture. (and just in case you're wondering, Brandon's shirt has Colts on the hood and down the sleeve.)

And look who was still there after the game!

And then there was another group picture. Only this time it is the Jones boys...with THEIR boys.

And again with the token girl.

GO COLTS!

???

Just wondering....when it has been 30 minutes since the kiddos have gone to bed and you hear someone click her light off when she realizes I'm still upstairs...

She is practicing multiplication flashcards.

Ummm, ok. What to do with her?


And on a completely different note, I went to my first Colts without Steve. This is the first game since we've had our tickets that we have not gone together. Only 3 games that we have missed and shared the tickets. (When we got married, one for job emergency, one for vacation) My sister in law was nice enough to go with me. Thanks Shannon! We had a good time. And we WON!!  (again)  12-0 Go Colts! 

A little preview

...of our Christmas readiness. Or the getting there at least.

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On a sad note, my uncle passed away early this morning. Glendon is my mom's only brother. This is from our family reunion this past July. (my mom-standing on the far left, Aunt Alice, Aunt Jean, Uncle Glendon, Aunt Juanita-baby of the family, and sitting, Aunt RoseMarie-Glendon's wife, Aunt Necia-my Great Aunt, Aunt Ora-the oldest; missing 2 more sisters Aunt Eva and Aunt Ollie also gone too soon.)

Ray

Ray spent about a week with us. I am a couple of weeks behind in sharing. But better late than never, right? So cute on the days he arrived early to give hugs good bye and wave to the bus. Not to mention that Jess and Brandon were so very excited when they each came home from school. He was a very good boy for me. The last two pictures are from this past Wednesday. Ray was only here for a few hours. His momma didn't have to work that day, but had made plans.  He was a fussy boy when he came in. That is so not like him when he comes to my house! He was asleep about 5 minutes after we waved bye to his momma.  But happy and ready to play with Brandon when he woke up.

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There is another post for Thanksgiving after this one.  I know, two posts, one day. Let's not go crazy or anything.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. We did!

Daddy had to work that morning. "Not a big deal... it's supposed to be an easy one." Famous last words!! He didn't get home until about the time we were supposed to be at Aunt Linda's house. After a super fast shower, we headed out the door. As it turns out, we were actually right on time! The turkey needed a little extra time in the oven; so it worked out well for us. I really don't like being late. Everything was delicious!! Welllll... except for "that" cranberry salad. Which I had two big servings of and brought some home with me. It was terrible!! :) (obviously, I love it. And I am quite happy that I am the only one in my house to eat it. Now I don't have to share!)

Baby Dylan celebrated his very first Thanksgiving. He was passed around for everyone to love on and slept the whole time. Hopefully, he was kind to his parents that night! Love his sweet little face.

Brandon had been feeling under the weather, but seemed to be right as rain when he woke up Thursday morning. A trend that has been continuing. Something else to be thankful for!
It was a relaxing afternoon with loads of delicious food. It is shameful to say, but we really didn't take very many pictures this time. So here is a small sample...

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Breakfast

I didn't realize that we were dressing for breakfast now...

...with top hats and fancy hairbows.

Jess and Brandon meet Dylan

We took the kiddos to meet the baby Friday night. They were so excited!! Jess wanted to know when she could hold him, pretty much from the moment she got in the door. But they just loved him! And loved loving on him. I think we all did! But how could you not?!? --Just look at that sweet face! The camera battery died. So we didn't capture near as many pictures as we "normally" would have. (something close to a billion, maybe) But we did get some super cute ones. My absolute favorite is Brandon kissing Dylan. He just melts my heart, that sweet boy of mine. Ahh Jess, the little mama. Love, love, love how much they love their cousins!

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I-I-I see you

Baby Dylan, see that empty spot?

It's just your size!

Gracelynn

Yesterday afternoon I got to spend a few hours with this sweet girl. I told you that you would see more of her! Gracelynn is now 2 1/2 weeks old. She had such adorable, fleeting smiles when her Nana would talk to her. And I missed capturing any of them! I just love her!

Meet Dylan

I went to meet Dylan last night. He is so..... perfect, beautiful, sweet, snuggly. And already pretty good at nursing, burping and pooping! What a champ! I'm sure I stayed waaaay too long. Aunt Shannon and I had him all to ourselves. And she left before I did. So I couldn't miss out on all these one on one snuggles. I wanted to bring him home with me. I know his cousins would love to get their own snuggles and lovins.
Congratulations Mike and Rachel!!

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Sooner rather than later

Welllll, it looks as though Baby Dylan wanted to arrive sooner rather than later. As I mentioned previously, he was scheduled for tomorrow- Friday the 13th. I guess he didn't like that. Aunt Rachel went to the hospital in the (very) early morning hours. I don't know the exact time, but Baby Dylan arrived sometime around 8:00 (I'm guessing, as they delivered via Cesarean anyway.) weighing 8lbs 11oz and 22 inches. I'm told that everyone is doing well.

I only have the picture that was sent to my cell phone. Like that is big enough to really see him anyway!! But since the hospital has come up with this crazy new rule about not having children in the waiting room, I don't know when I will be able to capture some pictures of my own.

Brandon's 1st Tooth

My sweet boy lost his first tooth today! He is growing up right before my eyes.

We were eating dinner and he tells us that his "teeth hurt." What the heck does that mean? Told him to let me see, show me where it hurts. Weren't we surprised to see his little tooth practically out!! It didn't take much wiggling to finish the job.

Over the weekend

Let's start off by saying that I am diggin' this 60-70 degree weather we are having for November. I say this is the way it should be ALL the time!! We took advantage of this great weather to head to the park for pictures. (Like about a zillion other people did.) But I think that overall, it was pretty successful. Although, I think that it was easier when they were younger. Easier to get them both to smile at the same time, and not the goofy smile. Nice smiles....(sigh)

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Sunday is football day. We had a 1:00 game, so the kiddos were taken to grandma and grandpa's house early. We like to get downtown early. I guess it can be considered our "pregame ritual." It was another beautiful day. Two weeks in a row that the stadium had the roof open. As for the game itself, I love that the teams are actually on the field for the National Anthem. I don't know why. It just seems right. Not to mention that I get all mushy...yes, at the singing of the National Anthem. Call me crazy. So looking forward to this weeks game!!

Coming Soon...

to a hospital near...me! Baby Dylan has now been scheduled to arrive next week! On...dum,dum,dum...Friday the 13.



We can't wait to meet him. Seems like just yesterday, or maybe last week, since Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel shared the news.

Halloween 2009

Our kiddos spent the entire day in their Halloween costumes. And they loved it!! We needed to run to the other side of town to make a quick visit to Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel's house. I've had a few baby items to give and kept forgetting. (OPPS, sorry guys) But since the kiddos don't get to trick or treat Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel, this worked out perfectly. It was great to get a little visit in; all be it, a short one. We left and headed out to grandma's house. Since grandma and grandpa now live in a neighborhood with lots of kids, she wouldn't be handing out candy for me at my house. So we did a quick stop by for grandma to see the kids dressed up.(and trick or treated)Then off to our own house to grab a bite to eat. Uncle Alvin and Aunt Shannon brought Ray over again this year to go out with Jess and Brandon. I stayed at home to pass out our candy. But considering it was pretty darn cold out, I think I was the lucky one. Although I would have liked being out with daddy and the kids, it was cozy warm inside!
Jess and Brandon had pretty much gone thru the whole neighborhood when Brandon decided he was done. So he came home and helped pass out candy. At one point he put a chair right in front of the door with the candy bowl on his lap. Just waiting for more kids to show up. Jess and daddy hit a few more houses, then called it a night.
Both kids enjoyed having a big pile of candy on the floor, sorting into smaller piles. Only to throw everything back into their bags. The silly things that make them happy!

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A trip to the pumpkin patch that wasn't

Last week we took a trip out to the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the fact that the ride on the tractor out to the pumpkins is only on the weekends. Surely we did not want to pick one of the pumpkins just laying around out front! So we snapped a few pictures and left pumpkin-less. Plans were made to return in a few days (Saturday).

Well it was Fall Break for the kids, so they spent Friday night at grandma and grandpa's house. We intended to pick them up in the afternoon and head to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard. Instead, we get a phone call asking for the kids to spend another night. Wellll, that depends. If the kids stay, there will be no trip to get pumpkins. They will just have to chose from the supermarket. A Sunday trip was not even suggested. It was a 1:00 football game to watch!! PRIORITIES!! pumpkins/football, pumpkins/football.... no brainer.

Anyway, we went on Wednesday to the Old Farm Market. Not quite the supermarket, but not quite the store at the pumpkin patch either. But the kids were fine with this. We chose our pumpkins from the not very wide selection and came home. Thursday, we carved our masterpieces. Although everything didn't go quite as we had planned, in the end we have happy kiddos.

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Today was the kids got to go "mismatched" for school. I think this picture is too cute. Brandon had started tickling Jess to get her to smile.