I have failed!

How much of our children come the way they are and how much do we mold and teach? Something I am very interested in asking Heavenly Father on the other side. Miriam has always been a poor sleeper. She can not fall asleep on her own and pretty much every day she ends up in bed with us. Aaron is a little better but he also doesn't fall asleep on his own either. Lately he has been trying to escape the crib, but gets hung up which really scares me and I don't know what to do. How did we miss giving (or knowing how to give) the best gift of knowing how to sleep?! Oh Miriam lately likes playing night night and says often in the morning I sleep all night in my bed to which I say no you didn't. She also loves tucking in her dollies and animals under blankets. She tells Aaron to go night night and sweet dreams as she tucks blankets over them both, but the real deal not even close. I'm grateful that we progressed to me turning on a lullaby Cd for her to listen while I finish getting ready for bed. Hopefully with the next child we will be a little smarter and remember the hard choices are really better in the long run (like not letting them sleep with me).
Parenthood is tough and I feel inadequate a lot of the time, hopefully they will make it in spite of myself!

Happy 4th of July!

Now I've heard of doing Christmas in July but I'm not sure about Independence day at Christmas! Oh well here are some cute pictures anyway! As usual we dress up in the grand red, white and blue for about a week. Aaron getting passed down some of Miriam's clothes as evidenced by the born in 2008 onesie that after he wore it I decided it was too girly. We had a couple of things that said 'Mommy's Little Firecracker' which they certainly are!

I love this picture on our front porch! The onesies they are wearing are compliments of Aunt Heather, thanks! I love dressing all of us in matching clothes and feel it much easier to spot in the crowd. Thank goodness they really are good friends. In fact this morning (12/22) when Aaron first saw Miriam awake he pointed at her excitedly and gave her lots of big hugs.

For the 4th of July we spent it in Delta. The day started off with a boom from a cannon and we went over to main st to watch the parade. Eric, Aaron and Grandpa were sitting back on the sidewalk but Miriam couldn't see so she and I went up farther on the street. There is nothing like a small town parade, though I wouldn't mind seeing the candy throwing tradition go by the wayside. It really is quite dangerous.

Miriam loved the parade and here is a cute video of her dancing to the marching band.

Afterward they have entertainment and fair booths set up in the park so we wandered around checking things out, talking to people we know. We were going to let Miriam actually do something that cost money but when we saw how happy and content she was on the playground equipment we decided to fore go another year.

After that we went back to Grandma's for lunch and naps- those boring kind of things. Also their TV had died but Russ wanted to savage the wood case so he and Eric were taking that apart and there old organ boy was Aaron entranced! As mentioned before Aaron has discovered tools! He was closely watching the whole thing then taking off with Grandpa's tools.

He then preceded to wander around 'fixing' things with the screwdriver. Such as the vacuum. That night we went over to the hospital lawn to take in the fireworks. No pictures this year. Though it seems all of us had a touch of a bug. Overall a great weekend!

Aaron's June doings

Aaron is busy and going, going now that he is starting to walk! He loves play with his sister and eat! After he crawled up unto our little sandbox / picnic table we got real sand and they loved playing in it. Here he is convincing me to go outside. I love his big grin!

"Daddy did you say you needed help? Look this is how you do." Like all kids he is fascinated with Daddy's computer and wants to touch it and play with it, often if he sees it and its closed he goes and tries to open it.

Aaron overall is pretty mellow and helpful. He loves to do what everyone else is doing as seen playing with mommy's feather duster. I do have a big and little duster so one of them can "help me dust". He is every bit the climber Miriam was though I think he has a slightly different technique.

How dirty can one little boy get? Pretty dirty if this picture is any indication and that doesn't even cover eating! And yes as his shirt says he is a really big deal.

Aaron has also discovered tools and was instantly in love. Daddy was doing some project and Aaron swiped the drill looking very pleased with himself. Perhaps he will need some of his own tools for his birthday!

Aquarium

Time for our next family adventure- the Aquarium in Sandy! We went June 21 in the morning hoping to not be very crowded and it wasn't too bad. We opted for the umbrella stroller for Aaron since the building isn't very big and knew Miriam would enjoy walking more. Here she is pushing Aaron across the parking lot, what a good helper!

Inside the entrance there is a neat railing that have penguin and other images in it. Here is Miriam modeling by a penguin.Inside the aquarium they have dived in basically 4 sections. Off to the right is the Utah habitats that includes the frog statue (favorite to play on), the marsh/lake habitat complete with a "boat" to drive around on it, and some really cool maps that I liked.
Next is the ocean area featuring an octopus, all the critters from "finding Nemo, and an open area where you can touch sting rays. The kids loved playing in the water and watching them glide by. We couldn't get them to leave for a looong time. That was probably their favorite part.The third area in between is interactive where they have story time. There is all this cool coral the kids can climb around and go through. There is also a replica boat with puzzles in for them to do.The last area that I never see well because kids are always tired by then is the rain forest with creepy bugs and snakes. One the way into the rain forest was a new exhibit of Faulkner Island and penguins. Every time we see penguins I expect Miriam to like it more than she does. Here the kids are posing by the type of penguin they matched best in height. We then finished our day by going to Chuck-Rama and going to a Dr appointment for me. I'm really enjoying our little adventures getting out, being together as a family, and being backyard tourists!

Some Miriamisms

She is getting to be a big girl and can be really sweet to her brother like get a drink of water for him or a real stinker. Same goes for the rest of us. For instance yesterday after church I was hungry and needed to eat but just wanted to lie down so I told Miriam to go get me some food not expecting anything when she goes off and comes back with a yogurt and a spoon. What a sweetheart! Yet for the last week she has refused to give daddy a hug and hasn't even wanted to go get the mail with him which is usually one of her favorite things to do!
Another thing she has been saying a lot is "I neeed it!" to just about everything she wants. She also has gotten on a kick about "pretty dresses". If she had her way she would wear her blue Easter dress every Sunday. She calls her white church shoes her princess shoes. Even though she likes "pincess" she is a "tuff" girl. I asked her to carry something once and told her was tough, now when a little extra strength is needed she says I tuff. No change in the potty training adventure, I don't know what to do. She will happily sit on the potty, but doesn't get the 'got to go feeling' yet and in over a year of working on it (mind you not very hard) she has only manged to go in the potty a handful of times. She is expert at taking her diaper off, luckily only when its time to get dressed. She told us the other night before her bath there was a hole in the toilet and at first was sticking her head in to see under the rim.Miriam recognizes at least the letter m and is getting consistent with counting to 10. Colors are still pretty inconsistent though she says all of the names. The thing helping the most with that is her new favorite book "Go, Dog! Go" which she wants read all the time. Though every time she says the title there gets to be more go's. I don't know if its the influence of the book but we've been asking what various people are: boy or girl (the answer always varies so far). This morning when asked which she was she said she was a doggy. She is also "reading" books, as she has incredible memory she can recite her favorites. I especially love to hear her read Aaron "Twinkle Little Star", illustrated version of the song.

Happy Father's Day!

We had a low key Father's Day this year. It never ceases to amaze me to think we really are parents after so long of being in between. It seems like we did waffles for lunch or Saturday because of 9:00 church and then a nice dinner. The kids don't really understand giving yet so I just found a pancake spatula for him as he is our pancake master around here. Plus our spatulas are all looking hashed. To me the gift symbolizes one of the things I love about the father of our home- willing to help out and cook!Here is Miriam's tribute to her daddy: happy day!Eric is always willing to take the kids and play with them. He is an awesome father and we're glad to have him! The kids are always so excited to have him come home and sad to see him leave each morning.

Car Wash

After we got home from camping, Eric decided to give his truck a bath, something he doesn't usually do (he's pampering this truck more than any other vehicle). As we gathered the cleaning tools and such I decided to give the car a bath which might be the first time to have a complete cleaning. The kids enjoyed the water and didn't know quite what was going because they had never seen such things before. I put Aaron in his swim trunks and they really had a good time with the hose and washing the driveway.

Here's to clean vehicles and who knows when we'll do it again!

Diamond Fork Camping

We love to go camping and have invested quite a bit of money to have good equipment. We were looking forward to camping quite a bit this year as I wasn't pregnant like last year somehow we didn't make it out as often as we hoped. I also realized that as much as we like to camp we have never gone just our little family even before kids Eric and I hadn't ever camped by ourselves so we tried it out. On June 18 we got everything together and went up Diamond Fork Canyon. We got a much later start than we wanted and then Eric had a hard time finding the place he had in mind so it was mostly full by the time we got there. We eventually found a little fire pit off the road behind this great big log and got started with the fire and unloading. We have started a tradition since I like the Christmas tree up for so long is gets past the time the garbage folks will haul it so we will save for camping. They make awesome large flames. As you can tell Miriam couldn't keep her eyes off it.

Our camping site. We thought the log would make a great bench but then we saw it crawling with bugs and didn't want to risk getting any ticks. I'm glad our tent is so easy to put up and down that Eric can pretty much do it himself.

Of course it was quite dark by the time the tinfoil dinners were finished cooking. We discovered another use for the railing on the truck besides a natural divider for the camping supplies- a baby gate! To keep Aaron out of the dirt and fire we let him play up in the truck. Miriam enjoyed using the cooler as her table to eat her dinner. It was still quite cold in the night and we all ended up together but at least everyone started in their own beds. The morning it was really chilly so while we waited for the fire to get going the kids and I warmed up in the truck. We discovered a great trick. Our kids are always starving first thing in the morning and we were doing potatoes, eggs, and bacon in the dutch oven so it took awhile. Meanwhile we also had sausage so we got out the roasters and cooked the sausage over the fire like a marshmallow. It kept the kids satisfied till the rest of breakfast was done. I also decided on this trip you always need hot chocolate for camping and added it to the master camp list.

After breakfast we went for a little walk. I like this picture because it makes me think of an impressionistic painting.

Then it was time to clean up, take the tent down, pack up and go home. I thought we had a pretty good time. It was nice that it only took 20 min to get home. I found myself reflecting on the ride home how much effort goes into packing and then cleaning up. It took about as much time to get ready as we were actually gone from home! Was it worth it? I guess so since we keep going. Though I think we should go on at least one camp out a year where we stay longer than one night to make it worthwhile. Also we need to develop some camping activities beside eating, cleaning and sleeping. Any ideas?

Family Pictures

Prepare for major picture overload!! Background: last year we went to a neighborhood carnival fundraiser and won several things in a raffle. Among them was a 1 hour photo session free. I thought we could do our Christmas family photos with Jennifer Smith but things didn't work out so we ended up doing them June 5 for Aaron's 9 mon pictures. This is our first and only professional pictures of our family with both kids and unfortunately we haven't printed any of them yet. She gave us a CD of all the pictures she took with the copyrights to do whatever we wanted, yah! We went over to Canyon something park (where they have the festival of lights here in Spanish Fork) in the morning and met her. Unfortunately, there was a ton of people there due to free fishing day. The other trouble was the grass was really wet so all the clothes got a bit muddy in particular Miriam's tights. I took a long time to decide what color theme to go with. I finally concluded that my purple shirt was a good match for Miriam's really nice purple dress and we were able to find the guys matching purple ties. I 'm sure this will be one of my mom's favorite family pictures of us!

As anyone with kids knows the hardest battle was to get both kids looking the same direction and smiling at the same time. There are some funny faces as we worked to that end.

I mostly wanted to do family pictures and Aaron's 9 month pictures but we got in a variety of shots including just us!

Does it look like engagement pictures? Pretty good for being married 6.5 years!

I really wasn't super keen to do a lot of Miriam because we had just done her 2 year pictures 2 months before, but she sure looks adorable! I also enjoy having her with the rest of us one on one.

I love the kissing pictures and the joy on her face!

They truly are great friends and I love having pictures of them together!

Here is the star of the show!

In his woolen church pants that Grandma Delta gave him for Christmas he looks a little English lad to me. I'm flying!

Jones Family 2010

Miriam's excellant June adventures

Miriam had a couple of first experiences in June and as usual I can't quite remember all the unique little things she was doing. I've been meaning to do a Miriamism page for an up to date detailing of the things she says and does.

Her first experience with foam curlers, though it didn't last through the night- her hair is still too short. The occasion of June 4 was in preparation for our family pictures we took the next day which I'll have to put some up. Curlers are an integral part of my growing up and I still use them when I want ringlets that stay.

Hey! I thought you were a big girl not a baby to sit in the bouncer seat?! June 12 means she was almost 27 mon old- much too old for the bouncer.
Miriam has been getting a hold of the camera. For some reason she loves just looking through it with it on though she still taken random pictures and videos. Here is one of her pictures of her feet. Keep practicing girl!

Miriam is one of the biggest copy cats I know. Here on June 17 she had to stand and eat her breakfast the same way as Daddy (we have a better picture but it was too dark). If somebody has or does something she usually has to follow even Aaron. I tell you what it is scary to hear the things I say come out of her mouth, really makes me pause and reevaluate how I react to different things.

Miriam is also a big help. She usually will do what we ask for which we are grateful and hope it remains that way. In this picture on June 28 she spilled or found water on the floor and quickly got the mop to clean up. Of course she has ornery moments and seem to happen most often with me but overall she is a wonderful daughter.
One of Miriam's favorite games for awhile- Ring Around the Roses. I can only guess they play it at nursery. I love hearing her sing.

Where is the best place to sleep?

Aaron has been transiting from 2 naps to 1 nap for a long time and its hard to know what to do. Do I fight him to get to sleep in the morning or just try and get the 2 of them on the same sleeping schedule? In any case he and Miriam have been wondering just where is the best place to sleep?

In the high chair? If Aaron doesn't get his morning nap or we wait too long for lunch this is become the optimal place! Even Miriam has fallen asleep over her food once or twice lately.

Whether he slumps forward or to the side and then I get to decide if he will permanently wake up if I move him or to just let him sleep in his chair. As he has also been in the transition of not easy to move without waking up. He has been sleeping in the car and in his stroller a lot while he gets used to it, luckily its getting a bit easier to move him now that cold weather is starting to kick in.
How about the bike trailer?! It is built for 2 and a sure way of putting them to sleep! We enjoyed riding bikes a lot more this summer. Twice we biked up the canyon to the Little Acorn drive through for dinner. Miriam in particular loved going for a bike ride. I even managed to the the trailer on properly more often than not!

Or how about the most common place for a sleeping child- the stroller! Miriam has always been difficult to get to sleep so most every afternoon we head out for a walk or a car ride. This was taken end of July at a cousins wedding.
The place mama loves best for sleeping is in their own beds! (Miriam has liked playing sleeping and making little beds here and there for her and her dollies lately) Nightie Night!