Volunteering

Every Thursday I volunteer in jared and Kamryn's 1st grade class. I give spelling tests to 4 kids - each child in the class has their own spelling list each week. And then I do whatever the teacher asks me to do.

Last week I put up this bulletin board - which is in the main hall.

This is Kamryn's comic retell of "The Mitten"

This is Jared's comic retell of "The Mitten"

Jazz Game

Last week Paul called from work to say he had 3 tickets to go to the Jazz game that night and would we like to go. Brooke volunteered to stay home with Jared and Kamryn. So Taylor and I got to go. The best part was we got to see the game from the Layton Suite. We had a great dinner and got to choose our desserts from the dessert cart :) Oh yeah, and watch the game, which the Jazz won.

Between

I never remember to take the BEFORE picture on a big project.

So here is the BETWEEN picture.

This is the back half of our storage room. Its normally FILLED with lots of STUFF. I've decided that I want it finished so it can be my office/sewing/craft room. Its really a domino effect of decisions. Where all my office stuff is now is in the back half of our family room in the basement. It used to be a big open room where we had a ping pong table. With the addition of 2 more kids when we had the twins we needed more bedrooms and lost the ping pong room. Well, we'd like it back - especially for the teens to have a place to hang out. This was really prompted after Taylor and his friends spent about 8 hours playing ping pong at the cabin.

So, we've moved all the stuff from the storage room into Justin's room. I did most of the work in one day! The only stuff left in there is Paul's :) So, I'm giving us a year to get this project finished - that's the goal anyway. We've at least got to get the room cleaned out before Justin gets back.

Jared and Kamryn photos

While we were at the cabin

Susan and Kierra braided Kamryn's hair in lots of braids

this is the results

it turned out really cute

and we think it made her look really grown up

jared in his super cool angry bird jammies

the pjs I got him for Christmas didn't fit so I was able to exchange for these

I scored big points when I brought these home

Jared had to go to the dentist last week

to have 2 teeth pulled and a cavity filled

he was very brave

didn't cry at all

and didn't ask for me to come back

he had to have the teeth pulled

because the 2 adult teeth were fully grown in

behind the baby teeth

Welcome to 2012

We were very lucky to get the cabin for new years weekend. That is our favorite place to be for New Years Eve. We were up there with my parents and one of my sisters and her family and one of my brothers and his family. Paul and I were sad that Taylor and Brooke chose to not come and go to parties with their friends instead (but we understood). So it was just Jared and Kamryn up with us.

We were there from Friday to Monday (I even kept Jared and Kamryn out of school on Monday) and it was such a great weekend. We went to church up there and the best surprise was that they only had sacrament meeting since it was a New Years Day - what a great idea.

We enjoyed playing games, watching movies, eating lots of good food and just relaxing. Its such a wonderful place and we're so grateful to our parents for such a great getaway place.

There is not much snow but there's enough to go sledding.

Most of Monday was spent outside in the sun and snow.

what a fun train

susan is a great mom to sled with her kids

(luckily, I had the job to take pictures)

Even my dad took several runs down

the sledding road

Kamryn loved being outside in the sun

(jared chose to stay inside on Monday

and play video games with his cousin Jake)

katie

(who can resist this cute face)

Kierra and Kamryn

Kierra is such a great friend, cousin, big sister to Kamryn

while we were at the cabin someone asked Kamryn who her best friend is

and she said Kierra

What a great ride

they went down all the runs

over and over

this is mostly to prove that I was really there

A Wonderful Christmas

It really was a wonderful Christmas. I think it was extra special for several reasons, the biggest thing was it being on Sunday this year. I honestly don't remember the last Sunday Christmas which I think was when Jared and Kamryn were 6 months old. I can see the pictures in my mind but don't remember a lot of that actual day.

On Christmas morning I woke up at 8:00 (after being up until 2, and why we were up so late, we didn't have anything to put together. We just don't do enough in advance) and was surprised it was that late and we hadn't heard anything from Jared and Kamryn. Paul and I both showered and got ready and at 9:00 we still hadn't heard from anyone. We were getting to the point that we didn't know if we'd get to do any Christmas before church.

At 9:30 I went down to Taylor's room to check on the kids again and they were all awake and just laying there in their beds. So they came upstairs and we all got ready for church and had some quick bowls of cereal. Then we finally got to go in the living room to see what Santa brought. Santa really spoiled us this year. Our family gifts were our trip to San Diego but there were still a lot of presents to open.

Jared by all of his Santa presents

its fun watching the kids go through their stockings

check out that big Santa present for Brooke

Kamryn with her new baby doll that Santa brought

Brooke, wearing her new gloves, intently reading the info

on the movie she got - Pride and Prejudice

what a cute little mommy

Jared checking out the Batcave Santa brought him

Taylor was very patient and waited until after church

to open most of his Santa presents

Baby Bella, Wulfy the Husky Webkinz, and Kamryn

Jared with his new bullfrog webkinz

he named him Super J

Paul opening some of his Santa presents

he didn't do too well guessing this year

Brooke with her new luggage

for her summer trip to Europe

Taylor with his iHome that Santa brought

Paul, so BadAwesome

WOW!!!

Big surprise from Santa

an iPad for the family

cheers

Brooke at the Shingleton family gathering Christmas night

Jared and Jaxon having a boxing match

with the socker boppers they both got

I got a great surprise too - a new iPhone! Now maybe I can be more organized and remember things better :)

The best present of all was a letter from Justin. It came as quite a surpise. We didn't expect anything but I just happened to be checking my email and there was an email from Justin. It was such a great letter and really long and full of info about his Christmas Eve and Christmas activities to that point. I read it out loud to everyone and teared up several times. Such a great gift and perfect end to our Christmas gift opening.

Merry Christmas Eve

Kamryn modeling her new pjs

Jared in his new jammies

They each got 2 new pair of jammies

(mostly cuz they really need them)

very typical picture of Paul

on Christmas eve

my mom at our house

on christmas eve

all the kids in their new christmas jammies

Hanging out in Taylor's newly cleaned room

pretending to be asleep

Jared and Kamryn decided they wanted to sleep in Taylor's room tonight.

Hope that works out ok

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Happy Festivus

We've been having lots of fun this holiday season (shh, don't tell Justin).

Here are some photos of what we've been doing:

Brooke and her kindergarten friend

Taylor with his kindergarten friend, and buddy Matt

For our Christmas service project the youth in our ward use their own money to shop at the dollar store for gifts for these kindergarten kids. They wrap them and then this past Monday we all went to deliver them and spend the morning with the kindergarten class. Our youth did a few centers with the kids: making an ornament, frosting cookies, and reading books. Then they opened their presents and even had a special visit from Santa.

Kamryn at the quilting activity

Jared tossing in some tortillas

Kamryn driving the delivery truck

Kamryn taking a turn to do spanish dancing

Jared and Kamryn helped to build Nephi's boat

and then did some fishing

Taylor and Brooke trying to beat each other at the computer games

On Tuesday we went downtown to go to the Church's History Museum. We got the great idea from my friend Jenny. After looking at her pictures I thought it would be fun for us to go too. I was glad Brooke and Taylor were willing to come with us. We all enjoyed the fun activities they have on the children's floor.

Our friend, Barry Wallace

at the live nativity

Kathryn Ramirez at her market in Bethlehem

the luminaries lighting the way to the stable

three wise men

the nativity

the shepherds and the wise men visiting

the baby Jesus

the shepherds

(Taylor and his fellow young men)

My good friend, Desiree, is our stake's cultural arts specialist. She has had this vision to do a live nativity and she pulled it off this year. With lots of help and support the evening turned out so amazing. It was really neat to take our family back in time to visit Bethlehem.

Brooke, Kamryn and Jared frosting cookies

We always make sugar cookies for Christmas. This year we made them a few days early so we could fix up a package to take down to Justin and his district in the MTC. Everyone in our family helped to frost and decorate the cookies. I actually drove down to Provo yesterday so I could take advantage of the BYU same day delivery to the MTC that is so much cheaper than sending it from up here.

Taylor

Kamryn and Brooke playing tag

Kamryn playing at Bouncing Off the Walls

Group sing along with Santa

lots of the Jones cousins having fun with Santa

Taylor and Jadon

Jared and Kamryn waiting patiently to talk to Santa

Jared talking to santa

he told him he wanted some transformers

Kamryn talking to Santa

first she told him she wanted a real puppy

but mom said no way

so then she told Santa to surprise her

We even got Taylor to chat with Santa

he also requested a surprise

Jared going down the giant slide

Every year the extended Jones family party is at Bouncing Off the Walls. Its a lot of fun for everyone to play on the inflatables and then we have food and a visit from Santa.

Today we made an impromptu visit to Gardner Village (so I didn't have my camera with me). It was me and all 4 kids. We did the elf scavenger hunt and found all of the elves. Then we went to get the prize at Sweet Afton's. I highly recommend this activity, lots of fun for us.