Jones Family Pictures

We recently took pictures at the beginning of November. A co-worker of David's took the pictures. Please feel free to visit her website HERE.

** Don't mind my belly. I promise it's a baby in there and not too many tamales or scoops of ice cream. :) **

We don't need no stinking pixie dust! Daddy makes Benji fly all on his own! :)

One of my favorite pictures of me with our 7 year olds!

I LOVE how this picture turned out! Valerie looks so pretty!

Nicholas is adorable! I'll take credit for that! :)

Benjamin stole the show in his own way. He's just to stinkin' cute not to, right? :)

Daddy + Benji + Mommy = ADORABLE



One of the family pictures we could get Benjamin to cooperate for.



LOVE! All 3 of my kiddos.



Best Buddies! No really, when they are no with each other, they really do miss the other.



Baby Boy Jones Ultrasound

We had our mid-pregnancy ultrasound today! I'm officially 21 weeks 3 days, and the baby is measuring right on track! We got some really cute pictures that I'd love to share!

Bird's Eye View - Baby Boy Jones Lips and Nose with hand by his face.

Bird's Eye View - Face (Chin, mouth (slightly open), nose, eyes, forehead) & hands by his chin.

Profile View - Baby Boy Jones head, face, and arm by his face

Forearm and hand

Looking Up - Upper legs and... well... boy parts! They gotta check em'! It's part of the process. :)



Lower leg & foot

All 5 little piggies in place! His toes look adorable already!

3D picture of his face

3D picture of his legs and feet. Crossed just like Mommy and Papa would do all the time! :)



A Bitter Mistake!

As you know, I am pregnant. And because I'm pregnant I like to take the time to treat myself every now and again. This morning I decided to stop at Starbucks because they have the most DIVINE Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa. I'm telling you, it's delicious! Not only did I stop to order my lovely hot cocoa, but I order a venti... the largest one they have. YUM!! It's not often that I spend $4+ on a drink, but this morning was perfect for it. A brisk chill in the air, traffic was sounding good on the radio, my baby and hubby woke me up in a wonderful way. It was a WONDERFUL morning.

As I pull through the drive-thru I can't wait to get my drink. I'm so excited that I pay, the gentleman in the window hands my drink to me, and I drive off. I figure I'm going to wait to drink to my hot cocoa when I'm on the freeway. That way, I can just relax during my morning drive and drink my super yummy $4 drink.

Finally, I get on the freeway. My drink it still hot and I can't wait to take a sip. So I did. But to my surprise it was COFFEE! Now, as many of you don't know, used to be a coffee addict! Yes, I could attend a Coffee Anonymous meeting and say, "I am Amanda, and I am addicted to coffee." But for nearly the last 5 years I have been able to avoid the stuff almost entirely, and for good reason too. I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Whether your LDS or not you probably know  we do not drink coffee. So, I gave up my favorite coffee ice cream with heath bar mixed in, my icy blended drinks, my cup of creamy delight in the afternoon. I gave it all up! Then this morning, as I take a sip, it was like giving alcohol to a recovering alcoholic... you just DON'T do that!! I was reminded of the lovely roasted, almost floral, creamy, sweet start, slightly bitter finish that coffee has. I couldn't believe my statebuds! Surely this was not what I orderd, but it is what I drove away with. I checked the sticker thinking maybe they gave me the wrong cup. No, it was right order... just the wrong drink (I even have the pictures to prove it). I took another sip to be sure. Again the lovely taste of coffee filled my mouth. After only 2 sips I began to notice that I couldn't wait for the next. Now, I knew I was in trouble! The whole drive to work I let the coffee sit in the cup holder. Repeating to myself over and over, "Don't drink it, focus on the road, listen to the radio, do anything but think about that drink!!"

Eventually I made it to work. I was nearly in crazy pregnant lady "don't mess with my hot cocoa" tears! That's when I decided to blog about it. Now hopefully, I'll be able to get on with my day. I'll go grab the generic hot cocoa out of the break room and make myself a cup. I hope that will hold me over until I get home. Until then, the Starbucks from this morning will remain at the bottom of my trash can, kept company by the starbursts I had this morning too. :)

Jam-Packed Fall Break

As you know, we kicked off fall break by getting a new puppy. He's cute, he's cuddly, he's a lot of fun! He really likes to eat laying down, but no matter how much we fill up his bowl... he finishes it EVERY time! What a little fatty!

Then, during fall break Nicholas got his tonsils and his adenoids taken out. He was super brave the whole time. His surgery went well and we spent A LOT of time watching movies, eating ice cream, popsicles, sherbet, doughnuts, basically anything soft. I know, I know, we could have added a few veggies in there, but what's the fun in that?! After surgery people deserve to be spoiled!! So that's exactly what we did!

This is Nicholas right as he entered recovery. Still sleepy, still groggy, but doing great!

 After about an hour he was telling knock-knock jokes and playing angry birds on my phone. He was obviously doing great so we got to go home.

Later that evening the kids got to see our yard get flood irrigated for the first time. I was astonished how easily they were entertained by watching water trickle across our yard.

This a picture of our back pasture just as the water started. Doesn't look very amazing to me, but they were so interested to see what would happen.

Best buddies chillin' on the back porch.

The kids wanted me to make a bridge for the ants. :) Even though I knew it would be washed away within a matter of minutes, I humored them and they get a kick out of it!

Finally, just last night we got 20 (1,2,3.... TWENTY) baby chicks. Yet another thing the kids were amazed to see. The older ones both got to pick out quite a few and we named them by color:

Orange and Yellow ones - Chick-fil-a

Brown ones - Carneceria (spelling anyone?)

Black ones - BBQ

Ones with a Mohawk - Little Smokies

The kids wanted to name them something funny so we put our brains together and that's what we came up with. :) Maybe it's morbid... but we think it's HILARIOUS!

And just because I thought the next picture is too cute to pass up, I added it! Benji has been really picking up on EVERYTHING we do lately. Sometimes it's cute, other times it helps us realize we need to be better examples. This however, was a time that it was adorable! Like father, like son- relaxing watching a movie together. :)

And for fun, here's my prego belly at 19 weeks. 

... I think it's time to break out the maternity clothes... 

Puppies and play time

Recently I've been taking the kids on more and more outings when school is out and the weather is nice. This particular day I was craving ice cream... again! So, I asked Nicholas if he wanted to go to Dairy Queen with me. (Silly question, right?) He of course said yes and away we went to DQ. Right outside the DQ at San Tan Mall are a couple different play areas for kids. After we were done with our ice cream I let the boys run off some of that sugar they just devoured. Here are some of the pictures from our trip:

Nicholas and Benjamin excited for their ice cream. Nicholas LOVES to play with Ben and make him laugh.

One of the cutest pictures of Benjamin ever!

Benji in the play area.

 Inside the bars ended up being his favorite "toy" in the area. He loved to squeeze in and squeeze out!

  

Finally, he are some pictures of our new puppy! The picture below is Benjamin sharing his spoon with the puppy. Gross, I know. But, thank goodness he was done eating with it!

 Meet Duke! We named him Duke because was already have a Daisy. Daisy Duke... get it??? :)

Duke sleeping on my lap right after bringing him home. 

Let them eat ice cream... and more!

This picture is from when Benji had to go to the hospital for a fever. So sad, I know. But, he's all better now and I've got pictures to prove it! :)

This is an ultrasound photo of Baby Boy Jones due 3/10/12. If you can't tell he's a boy just by looking at the photo then you need to get your eyes checked. And for those of you with quick whitted comments... No, that is NOT the umbilical cord! We triple checked!

These pictures are of Benji playing in our irrigation water at our new house! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we have a house where the kids can have lots of different experiences, get dirty, and have fun without ever leaving our backyard!

This is a little late, but this is a picture of Benji right after his 1st official hair cut!  Believe it or not, he didn't mind at all. Maybe it's because he got to play with his favorite  toy... a squirt bottle (squirt bottle comes into play again below).

Benji and I went out for ice cream after the ultrasound. I was brave and let him eat a cone all on his own. I made sure to take his shirt off though so I had something to dress him in after cleaning him in the bathroom. :)

Benji INSISTED on sitting on Nicholas' lap while squirting them both with the squirt bottle. If you look closely you can see the front of Benji is completely soaked! And I must say, he loves his big brother  to pieces! Nicco loves him too. It's really cute watching them bond so well together.

*** Disclaimer: Most of the photos of are of Benji because the older kiddos are starting to get "too cool" to pose for pictures. I'll snap some good ones of them soon though! ***