Spring is officially here.

That means hours of relaxing in the warm sunshine during baseball practices...


Washington didn't get the memo.

Instead of basking in the sun's rays the twins and I spend practice speed walking around the basketball court trying to keep the frostbite at bay. It's cold. Raining. And the wind blows bone-chilling gusts of sleet through to...well...your bones. :)

Jason is the only one to stay moderately warm. Of course, I'm either holding him or he is cocooned inside of his carseat and stroller. His snowsuit doesn't hurt either.I'm tempted to wear mine next week.


On a lighter note...I can't seem to get U2's song, "Lemon" out of my head. I haven't the slightest clue why that is!

Psst. I have a confession. I secretly like getting up in the middle of the night with little Jason. (Don't tell Rob.) Sure, I'm tired. Exhausted, actually. And the actual feeding/burping/changing/feeding/burping part isn't the most exciting thing to do when you are half asleep. However, there is a magical moment, when the lights are low and the house is silent, and you find yourself looking down onto the face of your sleeping child. When his breathing is heavy and rhythmic and his body is a heartbeat from yours, fairy dust sprinkles over you both and time slows down.It is during these twilight moments that I fall entranced, tracing over sweet Jason's face with my eyes, trying to memorize every detail. I find myself smiling as he dreams; his face never completely at rest as he slowly practices all of the facial movements that he's learned so far. A smile. A raised eyebrow. A pout. And somehow, with this surprise extra chance at motherhood, I find myself not only holding onto Jason, but all three of my older babies as well. I feel Ethan's solid little body under my hands, finally still after his very active waking hours. I see Austin's peaceful, slumbering face; round cheeks smushed up against my chest. And there is Alaina's cheeky little smile, finally showing up in her sleep, after we worked all day to get it. One by one I see them in a time that was so busy and yet so much less complicated. A time when we didn't have to rush to school, baseball practice, piano, or scouts. A time where we never heard slamming doors or floods of 'that's-not-fair' tears. A time where our greatest adventure for the day was bath-time. A time where I was waking up exhausted in the middle of the night, in the hush of twilight, covered in fairy dust.

So, yes, I secretly love to wake up in the middle of the night and once I get that child to sleep, it is so very difficult for me to put him back down again. Sometimes I think that I better get back to sleep so that I can grab as much rest as possible; then I remember how fleeting this time is and I settle back down and pull Jason in a little tighter. Time is finally on my side, and I intend to make the best of it.

We were very lucky to have Mom & Dad Jones here for such a good visit. The weather kept us mostly indoors which wasn't a terrible thing, since all we mostly wanted to do was stare at the baby. The kids had life as usual at school and they got used to having Grandma and Grandpa there whenever they got home. I was getting pretty darn spoiled as well. It was such a relief not to have to throw Jason into the car every time we had to shuttle the kids around. Especially since he tends to fall asleep for a nap about 10 minutes before I have to wake him up to leave. We managed to take a million pictures and now you get to see them all. Lucky!

Dad helped Ethan pass a ton of achievements for Cub Scouts. We were amazed since Ethan has put up such a fight to do any of the scout achievements with Rob. I guess Dad has some Grandpa magic that he uses. (have any to spare?)

And while the boys worked. Mom and I spent our time doing the important stuff. Like giving Jason a bath...
Playing games...
And rocking a baby to sleep. Aww. Such a sweetie.

Mom even got him to smile.

The kids had mix-up day at school and the twins got themselves ready for the day. (With Grandma's help, I believe.) Ethan didn't do much, but if you notice on Austin's feet...he's wearing two different shoes...well, Ethan was wearing the leftover shoes. So I guess he was a little mixed up too.


A few of the days the rain let up for a little while and Dad went out and played a little ball with the boys.

Mom and I stayed inside where it was warm. :)

We did all venture out one evening for a little walk. The silly kids thought that a day in the 40's was warm enough to go out without jackets. While in pajamas. I think they are getting used to the cold weather here.

A few days later we had full-on snow.

Ethan was out in it before we even got dressed. I think Bella is a little wary of the little snowman.

He tried to entice us to join him, but only Austin thought a snow-ball fight sounded fun.
Mom and Alaina did a more sensible activity...like painting nails.
We even all got dressed up a couple of times. What a good looking bunch.

I'm pretty sure that we tired Mom and Dad out pretty good this time. That's why we are giving them a whole 2 months to rest up before the twins turn 8! Then it is time to pack on up and come back!
Really, who could resist this little face? (I have no shame using little Jason as an incentive to get you back. :)
Thanks for such a fun visit. We are already looking forward to the next one.

This year G-ma and G-pa Jones were here to help put on Ethan's Birthday Party with Friends. We had an Olympic theme and (thanks to the dollar store) filled up the house with bright balloons and banners. Mom kept the kids busy with a medal making activity while everyone arrived (thanks! What would I have done without you?!) Here they are, Austin, Laina, Alejandro, Kaden (yes...the same age as Ethan), Landan, Colin and Ethan. In the front is our little neighbor Tyler.
Six of his friends showed up and before we knew it, we had hyper boys bouncing off the walls and each other. Thank goodness we choose activities that would use up energy. We had a Strongman competition where they were timed holding up large Harry Potter books. They did the long jump and the triple jump. The did a bum race and a javelin throw (Nerf ball into a net). Unfortunately we had nothin' but rain in the forecast, so we had to keep everything inside. We also had bubble blowing contest and a bunch of other fun little races. After the games we ate Domino's Pizza and Costco cake. (They look deceptively calm in this picture. Not at all the hyper-crazy 8 & 9 year old kids that we witnessed during the entire party.) And...BLOW!
How's that for low-key? We didn't have any gift bags or take-home treats. I did make some pretty simple wrist bands to get us into the Olympic mood...but that's it. All the kids had a good time and we were all exhausted by the time we got everyone to leave. I'd call that a success!

It looks like I have a moment to myself and I've been wanting to post some pictures of the wonderful visit that we had with Mom and Dad Jones. We had so much fun with them here, that it is hard to organize all the pictures we took. I decided I'd start first with the pictures of the two main events that they came for - Jason's baby blessing and Ethan's birthday.

Although we managed to have all types of weather during their visit, one of the sunniest days happened to be the day of Jason's baby blessing at church. We were so excited to have Mom and Dad there for the event. Look how bright it is...we could hardly keep our eyes open for the picture. It still managed to be chilly but it was nice to see the sun for a couple of days.
Grandma kept Jason nice and clean while we scrambled to get everyone ready for 9 o'clock church.

And here is the big man himself.

Here he is reflecting on his many life-experiences during the past two months. Doesn't he look like he is having deep, meaningful thoughts here? What do you think they are? "When will I get more milk?" "Can you believe I'm wearing white after Labor day?! Embarrassing!" "I bet I could get them to change me in about two seconds flat."

And a smile. Tee Hee.

The sun was a little too bright for him outside and he was pretty much done with the picture thing by this time. Poor baby was ready for a nap. (me too!)
Robert gave him a very sweet blessing and Jason made it through his very first full day of church. Of course, he loved it because he was held and mooned over the entire time. Although, we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Our next big event was Ethan's ninth birthday. Can you imagine. Nine years old! He has been talking about Grandma and Grandpa coming for his birthday for months and was not disappointed when they came. His Birthday ended up being on a Monday and so right after school we got home and opened presents.

Here are the twins with the present they got him. Magic card tricks. I'm still waiting for him to sit down and figure one of them out to show me...maybe we'll get Austin to learn them and teach us all.

We got him a Lego set he's been eyeing, but the best present came from Grandma and Grandpa. They really know the way to Ethan's heart. Remote Control Cars! Just look at his face! This one was pretty cool too...spinning on one wheel? How cool is that?



The next stop of then night was Chuck E Cheese. Always the highlight of a Jones Birthday, the kids loved every minute of it.




Well, not all the kids. Poor Jason had managed to get his shots that morning and so he wasn't very happy at all. Only Grandma was able to get him calmed down.
At the end of the day we made our way back home and dug into a little 31 flavors - ice-cream cake.
After getting them sufficiently hopped up on cake and adrenaline, we shuffled them off to bed. I'm not sure when they fell asleep, but I'm pretty sure all the adults were zonked out within minutes of bed-time.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Ethan-Boy!