Christmas Vacation

Here we come! We are off in a few hours for Indiana to spend Christmas with our family. We are really excited. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. The little Jedi's are getting excited to see what Santa brought them. Hopefully we will get a chance to post a few pictures before we head off again. When we get back from Indiana we are heading to Idaho for Uncle Richard's wedding. We are so excited for them.

FIRE, FROSTY, FORWARD

WOW! What a busy week this has been on top of Christmas preparations. We started the week off with an early morning FIRE at Jongr's school on Monday. It burned through 6 second grade classrooms and their is smoke damage throughout the building. They lost all of their computers and other technology. It is so sad! Our awesome principal though had every grade assigned to a new school for Tuesday, so the kids only missed one day of school. It has been a hard week on the teachers and administration and interesting for the kids. Thankfully the fire didn't harm anyone and it only 2 weeks before Christmas break and we are going to be able to come back to the school in January.
The weather has been very FROSTY here in Houston for us. We actually had snow on Wednesday evening that stuck to the ground and the cars. It was weird to see snow at our own house. It has been more than 7 years since we have seen it fall where we live. We are especially grateful for our cold weather clothing and a special thanks to Aunt Jen for sending Tucker a coat. We sure have needed it this week! We had FROST on the windows of the car on Friday morning too, I had to dig out the old ice scraper that we keep in the trunk for our trips to ID.
Jonev has mastered the FORWARD motion of crawling. He was chasing me around the kitchen yesterday as I was baking away. I would walk one way and he would follow me and then grab my leg. He wanted to be up and seeing what I was doing. He loves the mixers and is fascinated by them, just like the other boys. They all enjoy helping me to cook whatever I am making and are already pretty handy in the kitchen for their ages.

We are busily making the final preparations this week for our trip to IN for Christmas. It is like Christmas is a week early for us because I have to be done by next Wednesday so that we can pack and be ready to go. LOL!

no mom and dad onle jongr and jontu

This is the sign that I found outside of Jongr's bedroom this afternoon after he got mad at me for not letting him open the Christmas package that we just received. It made me smile! He thought that he was pretty clever writing it all by himself. He even thought it was funny when I came into the room to check on him. Good thing he was happily playing with his lego's and not mad anymore. I will have to eventually tell him that onle has a "y".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONGR!

Today Jongr is 6, this morning he woke up and said "I can't believe I am 6 already!" He is so excited to be 6. It is so cute. He has school today and then we are going to watch Clone Wars and eat mini hamburgers and have chocolate cake with chocolate chips with chocolate mousse with chocolate covered strawberries. This little jedi LOVES CHOCOLATE! He gets all crazy about chocolate, it is fun. Everything that he picks out is chocolate, we get doughnuts and he wants chocolate with chocolate, at coldstone he wants chocolate with mini m&m's in it.

Pictures

I know that we have been slacking on posting our gratitude list. I will get to it soon. But, I finally uploaded some recent pictures of the boys. So here they are:

Gratitude

I LOVE this time of year, and just wanted to reflect this month on some of the things that our family is GRATEFUL for. Tonight in Jongr's prayer he was thankful for so many things that I didn't even know that he was still thinking about. Thanks to a good friends challenge we are going to put something up for everyday this month.

Day 1 - Safety - Jongr says is best, we are thankful that we were kept safe during the Hurricane and that we travel safely each day. It is a blessing to be safe!
Day 2 - That the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth again.
Day 3 - Family - This is a HUGE one, not just because we have a big family, but because we have been blessed with many additional adopted family members too. As if 17 (aunts and uncles just from siblings alone) isn't enough. LOL! We love you ALL!
Day 4 - Ancestors - those who have gone before us and prepared the way for us. Some we have known in this life and others we have just read about.
Day 5 - Forever Families - Knowing that we will live again and that we will be family then too! What a great plan of Happiness.
Day 6 - Employment - I think that this speaks for itself.

Testimonies

Jongr and Jontu bore their testimonies today in Fast and Testimony meeting. It was so sweet. Jongr said that he wanted to go up and of course Jontu wanted to go up too. Jongr shared his testimony of the Restoration, which he does during almost every prayer. He needed a little help to get over the nervousness of being in front of everyone, but he said it all by himself. Jontu had more of a problem, he wanted to be first and then wouldn't say it into the microphone, but did after Jongr did at the end. It was so sweet of them. Jontu said that he loves to see the temple and that he knows Jesus loves him. I love my little boys.

Tagged

Normally this blog is mostly about the little Jedi's, but today I am going to play along, since I was tagged 2x. Thanks Laura and Michelle. Here is goes:
8 shows I love to watch (I don't watch much TV really, so this is a stretch for me)
1. Ace of Cakes
2. The Office
3. Lost
4. Good Eats
5. Chuck
6. Iron Chef
7. Lilo and Stich (we dvr it so that we can watch anytime)
8. Fox News Channel (anything that is on that peaks my interest)

8 Favorite Restaurants (does my own kitchen count?)
We don't eat out much, but here is my list
1. Chipotle
2. Houston's Famous Deli
3. Cafe Rio
4. Papa John's (not really a restaurant, but we enjoy this pizza
5. Olive Garden
6. Spencer's Steak House
7. Babes Bakery
8. Taco Bell

8 things that happened yesterday
1. I cleaned my bathrooms with Grant's help
2. I did some laundry
3. I went to the craft store by MYSELF
4. I made Mexican wedding cookies
5. I made little tags with pumpkins for the Visiting teaching conference today
6. My friend came over to help
7. We ordered pizza from Papa John's and ate it for both lunch and dinner
8. I was gone more than Paul was during the day

8 things I am looking forward to
1. Thanksgiving
2. Getting my teeth cleaned at the dentists tomorrow
3. Finally getting my cracked tooth fixed after almost a year (things that a move and pregnancy do to you)
4. My brother Richard's wedding
5. Getting a new book to read from the library
6. Christmas with family
7. a good long road trip
8. a date with my hubby for our anniversary that was in October

8 Things on my wish list
1. File and organize all the papers in the computer room
2. Finding a new entertainment center and desks for the computers so that we can move them into the living room.
3. Buying a new pair of running shoes so that I can start running again.
4. a new coat for winter
5. Paying off all of our debts
6. Making it to the temple one time a month
7. finding time to scrapbook again
8. Seeing our family more than once a year

8 People I TAG (Some of you on the list below have already been tagged before, sorry)
1. Jennifer
2. Suzanne
3. Joanne
4. Melodee
5. Lisha
6. Shauna
7. Misha
8. Jeannette

It's been a while...

Life is pretty much back to normal after the Hurricane, except for many downed fences and roofs with blue tarps on them. School has resumed and we are starting to get back into the routine of things. However, we have moved Jonev into the crib which happens to share a room (right now) with the computer. It has been hard to come in and work on things while he is sleeping and so we have missed posting because if he is not sleeping life is pretty busy. The Jedi's have had a few exciting things happen.
Jontu has enjoyed the freedom that potty training brings.
Jonev started rolling over.
Jongr lost his first tooth.

It seems that things never slow down even though life throws us a few unexpected turns from time to time.

A nice surprise!

Yesterday when we came back to our house after taking care of our sweet friends who just had another baby on Thursday. We found the power on. What a nice surprise to have AC, a refrigerator. We celebrated last night by going to the store to get a gallon of milk and some frozen pizza to cook. It is weird to look in the refrigerator and see it so empty. I feel blessed to have survived with so little damage to our lives. We had to work hard to clean up our yard and make due without power for 7.5 days. It is just still weird to have been through a hurricane. Everywhere we drive we see the effects of the storm. We have learned a few things from surviving our first hurricane, things that we will do differently to prepare. We have written them down and will be better prepared for the next storm.

Safe and Sound

We have survived IKE. We can now say that we have been through a Hurricane. We did not have any damage to our home, we lost a fence in the backyard and some large limbs in our big trees. We have cleaned up most of the damage already and the fence will have to wait until we hear from the landlord. We didn't sleep well on Friday night and lost power at about 3:00 AM. Saturday morning when the boys woke up (they did sleep all night) the wind was still howling and that was a little bit hard for them. They were scared, especially Jongr who understands what a hurricane was. Thankfully the Lord watched over us and answered all of our prayers. We are safe.
We still do not have power at our house, so we are spending the day with our friends using their power and enjoying a hot meal and some electronics. Thanks for all of the love and prayers.

Our first Hurricane

Well...after a few close calls that ended up not hitting us, we are awaiting the arrival of Hurricane IKE. We have water and food and the windows in the back have an extra layer of protection. We are planning to have a Star Wars marathon tomorrow while we wait and make Jedi food for lunch (aka as pizza). It is everyones favorite and we are even going to have a few Jedi guests tomorrow. We will post updates here as we are able to. We expect the power to go out here for an unknown amount of time. I guess that is normal when you have a hurricane come into town. We plan to make the best of the situation. We also have faith that Heavenly Father will help to keep us safe.

Too Many Jones'

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 7,521 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Just a fun little thing that we found, thanks Reynolds family! Let's just say that Jones is much more popular than Reynolds. The little Jedi's have much less popular first names than Jonpa and I, so hopefully they won't have to answer as many questions as we do at the airport, library, and every other public place where you have to give your name.

A new Jedi transport

Well...after almost 9 years of marriage and never having bought a car together, Jonpa and I decided that it was finally time to replace one of our transports.  Here are pictures of the new transport.  

Jongr and Jontu pretending to be clones. 

Jongr starts school

Jongr had his first day of kindergarten last Monday 8/25.  It marks a new era for Jonpa and I.  We are no longer free to plan vacations or family outings at our own will, but will have to adhere to the school schedule.  It is an exciting time for us.  Pictures will be coming soon (the battery needs to be charged on the camera so that we can upload the photo).  Jontu, Jonev and I have been trying to adapt to this new way of life.  It sure is a little quieter around the house between 8AM and 3 PM.  

Jedi Summer Camp

Congratulations to Brian and Kelli!

Brian and Kelli cutting the cake at the wedding reception.  It was worth the trip, just to be there with them to celebrate their special day and to see most of the Jones and Butler families. Jongr, Jontu, and Jonev all enjoyed being with their aunts, uncles. and cousins, they keep talking about everyone that we saw and the next time that we will see them.  It is so cute!

Jontu and Jedi Master Jonpa. 

Saying goodbye to some of the other padawans that met us at the Jedi training this year. Thanks so much for making the trip to see us.   

Practicing light saber form with Aunt Jenn.  

There were many other things that we truly enjoyed at the Summer camp this year, to see more pictures of all of the fun check out our family website. If you don't see the summer camp pictures check back at a later date, they will be available soon.   

my bones are aching... storm's coming on

The first real storm is coming our way. Since tomorrow is a holiday it makes it easier for us but Tuesday is still uncertain. Work? School? Flood?

I added to the map a small red dot to represent where we live and train the Jedi's. But don't try to find us as we can easily disappear or blend in with a crowd.

Jedi Temple location

As I was preparing a photo for my other blog Jontu walked in the room and watched for a minute. Then he said, "That's the Jedi Temple." I asked what he was talking about, to which he replied pointing to the screen, "There it is."

So in this photo we see a part of the Baytown refinery where I work. Now to Jontu it looks like the system of Corusant with all the towers, stacks and buildings. I added a label so everyone can see what he was pointing at but I was just hoping to show off the place where I work. It is the largest refinery in the country and it has a chemical plant next door and a plastics plant a bit down the road. Everyday the air smells different... usually not in good way.

Good Ole light saber training

Every good Jedi needs to be able to have some light saber training.  Here is a picture of Jongr and Jontu enjoying the training in our own front yard.  This is the first time that we have been able to enjoy this at our own training facility, thanks to our big move earlier this year.  

Jontu and the bees

This week we learned that Jontu is NOT allergic to bees.  Unfortunately for Jontu he ended up with 12 bites in the process.  We were doing some community service at one of the local parks and Jontu disturbed some bees.  He got it the worst on his hands, his thumbs and forefingers were swollen.  The amazing thing is that he only cried for a few minutes. Once again he has showed us how tough he really is.  He always seems to run with the punches and this time was no different.  We made a quick run to the closest grocery store for some benedryl and some tylenol to help with the pain.  We gave him these and then came home and watched Episode 6 at his request.  We did place a call to the pediatrician just because there were so many stings.  Thankfully he did not develop any of the allergic reaction symptoms and he is fine now. We feel blessed.  

The little Jedi's

Meet Jongr, Jontu, and Jonev, I know, I know, you are thinking about how unique their Jedi names are.  Don't blame me, blame the jedi name generator.  I think that the Jedi names are fun and I like that they are all similar but different, because that truly describes these little Jedi's.  

Coming Soon

My new blog about my jedi's.  For all of you Star Wars Fans