What we were up to last year

It is fun every once in awhile to look back and see how things have changed both in how kids have grown and the different activities from year to year. Here we our first snowfall last year on October 6- the kids were so excited they had to go out immediately. The snow was earlier than this year which came on Oct 28. Neither snow stayed long as kids were out playing again on the 16th.

Miriam was soo excited to push Rachel on the swing. I love having a "Jones pumpkin patch" ie all matching pumpkin shirts. I was definitely glad winter wasn't here to stay.

On October 8 we went to a cousins birthday party. He always has a party and this year he did a Halloween dress up one. Miriam was Snow White, 3 pics above of her twirling. Daddy and Mommy went Hawaiian as you see Eric on bottom left holding tiger Rachel. This may have been the only time we put her in a costume otherwise it was typical Halloween clothes. Aaron was the snow leopard as you see him on bottom right next to some haunted pillars, Aunt Nicole always goes way out on decorating the parties. We even have Grandpa dressed up as a cowboy of sorts. Another cousin was Hermione, we had some way cute costumes there. On top right you see Miriam, Aaron, and another cousin peering through the window at the swimming pool longingly- they do that every time we go there. Other pictures are the birthday boy with his cake and one of the games they played.

On October 7 weekend we went up to Logan to see Eric's friend Nate York. We went up after work Friday, stayed the night and then Saturday the guys went hiking. This picture is the kids eating french toast. Poor Aaron squashed smack in the middle of 4 girls. Zayda on the right is only 8 days older than Miriam. Then Kelcie is like 6 months younger than Aaron. We did Joy School together and hung out till the guys made it home from a cold hike (encountered snow). We went to dinner at Chuck-a-Rama including my cousin JJ and wife then headed home.

We made our monthly (or so) trip to Delta on October 14. One of the first things they always have to do upon arrival is go down to the toy room to plan, and often its to have a tea party. Miriam loves tea parties though this one is more unusual to have some dollies as guests. I loved seeing Aaron "cutting the bread".  Poor Aaron got stuck in a slightly feminine ghosty shirt to match Miriam, but he doesn't mind. Somehow we don't usually get a lot of pictures in Delta.

It has become a tradition to go down to the Red Barn in Santaquin to go the hay ride and pick a pumpkin from the patch. Every year they seem to add more attractions. We gathered up the cousins for an outing on October 13, 2011.

It was Rachel's first time and Miriam took good care of her. Middle top is Miriam and Aaron on the hay ride over. On the right they are picking their pumpkins- Grandma has a rule that you have to be able to carry your own pumpkin. Bottom corners are Liz helping the kids through the maze of old storage containers. Sure glad the big kids help out! Middle left is an own tractor they added this year for kids to "drive" on.

I'm not sure if she was dressing up on October 18 or just getting ready to be a missionary. The hat is from her Strawberry Shortcake costume, and the dress is from her dress up trunk. I love that she still wants to carry around her Book of Mormon. 

 

February Wrap up

Favorite pass time- hanging out with Daddy looking at the computer! It is interesting to compare the 3 of them here on Feb 3, Miriam is 2 months shy of 4, Aaron is 2 1/2, and Rachel is 8 mon.

Grandma Delta went a little crazy for Christmas and made all 12 grand kids matching clothes, 5 dresses and 7 ties. Being blue with snowflakes I thought they were still very much appropriate to wear in February. After church on Feb 26 I attempted pictures. Aaron was cranky and didn't want to do anything so I have lots of the girls. By the time I talked him into doing a nice picture Rachel had had it. Aaron is wearing a too small shirt and looks like a gangster.

Speaking of gangster, I cracked up when I saw Miriam in this get up on Feb 17. We have a couple other poses too. Something about the beanie and the leopard print jacket.

Where is Aaron? On February 9 when I looked over to see this position I couldn't believe it. How does one fall asleep on ones head with feet up in the air? I guess he was so tired that in the middle of playing with the bumbo he crashed. I don't remember why he was hiding out on top of the toilet on Feb 13, but somehow the two pictures go together.

I love that Miriam and Aaron are good friends, they occasionally have altercations, but for the most part they play and play together. Sharing a book on Feb 13, nice and cozy as Miriam would say. They both can sit for a long time looking at or being read stories. They have a good attention span. One time they got read to for and hour and a half straight and would have been content to keep going. Eric thinks its because we don't watch a lot of TV though they watch a movie daily.

New Beds

Generally we have our babies in our room with us until around 6-8 months. I'm very careful not to make anybody feel like their beds are taken away from them. So we had the crib down for awhile and had purchased bunk beds for that coming day. It took us awhile to find twin mattresses but found a good deal over Presidents day sales. The big day turned out to be February 21.

Here is the before pictures.Miriam and Aaron each had a toddler bed and the toys divided between their rooms. Somehow Aaron never really slept in his toddler bed. In fact when I would go to put him down when he fell asleep elsewhere he would instantly wake up. We had Miriam sleeping pretty good in her toddler bed at different times, even falling asleep by herself in it, but somehow Aaron never took to it. Rocking chair goes with the babies for rocking them to sleep, a necessary tool.

Daddy had lots of helpers to put the beds together! He was able to distract them for a little while by letting them play in the crib. Rachel loved being in the middle of everything.

The kids have been looking forward to bunk beds ever since we got them on a sale a couple of months previously. I'm hoping not to have to buy any more mattresses for awhile- they're expensive!I didn't want to put the bunk beds up, the beds can be used individually, but Eric talked me into it. Aaron has slept better on the bed and it was nice to have another bed I could sleep on. Somehow I don't fit on toddler beds very well. I needed one when both kids ended up in my bed and squished me out and a bed I could lay beside them and help them go to sleep on.

Here are the after pictures. I had the grand idea of just having beds in one room and toys/clothes in the other room. We put all the beds in an effort to help all kids get used to their own beds. I had in mind a sort of rotating schedule; put Rachel asleep in her bed first then fall asleep with Aaron. Then when Rachel woke up hungry to put Aaron in his toddler bed and finish the night with Rachel. Daddy slept on top with Miriam once we could convince her. Unfortunately it didn't really work out that way. Plus they hardly ever played in the strawberry room because it was always a big mess that you could hardly walk in. We have since changed again, but that is another post.

Rachel 9 month checkup

We went in for her check up on March 22. As usual they were pleased with her progress. Rachel measured 29 in tall putting her in the 93%. She grew 2.5 inches in 3 months (more than the last time) . She weighed 18 lbs 10 oz putting her in the 59%, gaining 1 lb. Her head circumference is 17 inches putting her in the 32% growing 1/2 in (twice as much as before).
Her sizes haven't really changed much- 6/9 mon clothes. Though bigger with a size 4 diaper and size 3 shoe.

Rachel 6-9 mon

 

I finally finished Rachel's last post and thought that I ought to keep going with the momentum. I have tried to keep taking pictures at the same rate as Miriam, but overall I think I'm taking less pictures and it doesn't help my smaller camera went missing months ago.

Cute picture on Feb 22 her 8 mon mark, I think we were setting up the beds. In January she went south for the first time when we went over to Las Vegas for the weekend (see other post) and while there got really good at crawling and started pulling herself up to stand. She first stood on her own, helping her up when we took her in for her 6 mon pictures at Target, but was pretty wobbly. I like getting them acquainted with the stairs sooner than later because then I don't have to worry about them falling down the stairs. So we started practicing climbing stairs on Feb 2 (37 wks)- I have video but no still pictures. If I lifted her leg she would take it the rest of the way and pull herself up to the next step. She was very steady standing by Feb, but as she always wanted to see what was going on she wasn't satisfied. She would get so upset that she wasn't going anywhere that she would stand up and cry. She stood completely unsupported for 5 sec on Feb 9 (38 wks). Rachel also has a lot to say, babbling all the time and starting to say mama and dada. We thought she would do the talking thing more like her sister, but at 15 mon she still isn't saying much that is recognizable. The funniest thing about her is how much she loves peek-a-boo that at 7 mon she initiated playing it. At church she pulled her dress up over her face then brought it down giggling all the while. After Feb I didn't take as good a notes on her doings because she wasn't nursing that often (still snacking throughout the night).

We moved her to her own crib right at 8 mon though it was a slow transition. Often we would put her to sleep and lay her in the crib then whenever she woke up she would stay the rest of the night in bed with me. She was taking 2 naps pretty good in the day (much easier than Miriam to get to sleep). Top left picture was when we were putting the crib back up for Rachel on Feb 21 (8 mon old). Top right picture is Rachel in the dress Grandma Delta made her for Christmas on Feb 26 after church. Somehow a lot of our pictures are in dress clothes after church. I loved the look on her face in the bottom left picture taken on Feb 23. It reminded me a little bit of her 6 mon Target pictures. Rachel loves being with her brother and sister doing whatever they are doing. The picture center bottom shows them all looking at a book on Feb 2. Rachel was a little slower than the other two to get into books, but has more than made up for it now. Bottom right picture is Miriam and Rachel playing peek-a-boo behind the couch on Feb 2.

She like any kid loves to help with the dishwasher although even now she is more helpful unloading than anything else. I have enough problems getting the dishes in it that it is very frustrating to see it unloaded about as fast as I load, not to much dragged off for parts unknown. Rachel is a master at redistributing things at our house- always carrying something somewhere else. This picture on Feb 27 shows how well she was standing also.

 This girl can eat and by early age was always scavenging. We've had this little card table up for awhile so Miriam and Aaron will make less a mess when eating. We decided on this when Aaron refused to sit in the high chair anymore, but the big table was too big. Anything left on it Rachel manages to get into spilling leftovers all over the place. She also was interested in drinking from a regular cup very early on, just had a hard time judging amount of water thus spilling a lot. This picture was after dinner on Feb 21, so pleased with herself.

Top left picture is some backyard fun on March 10, I couldn't believe the snow was already gone and getting warm enough to play outside. Somehow when my family came down for Miriam's birthday we got some great pictures of Rachel with my mom (Grandma Nicee) and dad (Baca) and not as many with the others. Center is Grandma and Rachel wearing an outfit Grandma bought for her (mom has great fun buying clothes for the grand kids and we appreciate her contributions!) on March 24. Top right with Grandma and Baca trying on Baca's hat on March 23. Bottom left she's checking Baca out on March 24 sporting St Patty pjs. She gets to play with Baca while everyone else is finishing sleeping. Bottom right picture is me and the kids after church on March 11, with all of us going Hawaiian (bringing a little sun to early spring). Rachel got her first tooth, one of the front bottom ones, on March 23.

Rachel's first haircut on February 23. As usual Grandma had the honors. She really didn't seem to know what to make of the whole situation. Now it seems like she's constantly got hair in her eyes and every time we see mom she needs a trim. Her hair grows incredibly fast, I think she has more than Miriam did at this age. Unfortunately it has the same texture that gets really snarly and feels like straw.

Rachel is definitely growing up and getting into everything, one might even call her a mini tornado. She sure loves her siblings and wants to do everything with them. Top left was taken March 28, "should we mail you?" Middle was taken also on the 28th and she still will gleefully pull all the Kleenex out of the box. My brother moved back from Texas around this time frame and he had a trampoline, but no where to put it so he is letting us use it. The kids have loved it even Rachel as seen in the top right picture taken on March 31. Now she can climb up by herself, I love when her hair sticks straight up from the static. I never thought much of the nets going around them, but that's the only way I let Rachel on at this point. Bottom left is Rachel on the deck looking out at what everyone else is doing on March 30. She also likes climbing up on the little picnic table and look out over the yard. Finally, bottom right is Daddy putting to sleep his two girls on March 31 though its rare he's still awake. One of his best putting to sleep methods still involve falling asleep himself. Looking back I can't quite believe how much she has grown over the last 7 months!

Brigham City Temple Open House

I was very anxious to take the kids to the temple open house, but didn't act soon enough to get tickets (planning things can get complicated). I was about to resort to just showing up and hoping for the best when our former Bishop in Springville posted on face book he had extra tickets, yes! We were set to go September 11 at 2:00. Eric took the day off and we got off to a later start then we wanted, still don't know why it takes us sooo long to get out of the house!

When we go there we had enough time for lunch. So we hit up an old fashioned drive through where they either served in car or had some picnic benches to eat at, including this little one just the right size for the kids. I think the girls look soo cute in their dresses.

The temple is on a small plot of ground with only underground parking which they were using for the visitor reception area. So they had you park in bigger areas then bussed you down to the temple. The kids have always been enamoured with buses and were thrilled to ride these ones, if only for 10 min topsOnce we got there we watched the welcome video then went through the temple. These days they do silent tours with signs explaining each of the rooms. I tried to explain things quietly to the kids and let them see themselves in the eternity mirrors. I so wanted them to understand a little more about where mommy and daddy go when we're at the temple and what we do. Though with this size who knows how much they caught. Once through the tour maze they created we had a cookie and got a bottle of water. Aaron was thrilled with the pamphlet on the temple they were handing out and clutched it tightly. Finally, we walked around the perimeter of the temple and took some pictures to mark the occasion. Above was by the front doors, and it was exciting to try and get all three in decent position. Rachel kept wanting to walk away and Miriam had the other two in a strangle hold.

This one was to commemorate when built and dedicated. Of course the finally sealing of this cornerstone was during the dedication. They cancelled regular meetings throughout Utah and broadcasted the dedication in three sessions. It was awesome dedication.

Also in front is a fountain that drew every kid around to play in it. The tabernacle is across the street so we detoured to go through it as I never had. The inside is the same basic floor plan as the Logan tabernacle. They also said they tried to reflect some of the architectural details over to the temple. The kids of course had to go walking around in the balcony, not taking regular stairs of course but up through the front podium. They really didn't want to leave.

I'm getting more conscience of taking individual pictures and family pictures. It was crazy trying to get Rachel to stay put long enough for a picture. One of the songs I always sing to my kids at night is "I Love to See the Temple". It is one of my favorite primary songs and contains a message that I hope burns into their hearts. One of my greatest desires for my children is that they know their Savior and love His work, His house.

Missing

This time my long absence is not due to laziness! We have been having severe computer issues. First, we upgraded but didn't know the the power supply was kaput which fried everything else and ate some important files. Then windows went haywire not allowing me to even bring up the blog! Talk about frustration! So many things have happened like Rachel's first birthday and Aaron's third birthday. I suppose the biggest surprise is finding out we're expecting number four!

In April when I went to Idaho I wasn't feeling great. I hoped the lack of menstruation was due to thyroid,  but the signs became too obvious to ignore. Sure enough we have another little one joining our family in December around the 14th. I had hoped to avoid the month of December but no such luck. I keep telling myself that its an early Christmas present. In July we had our ultrasound and found out it was a boy! This ultrasound experience was not near as good as the last one particularly because they gave me no pictures:(. The kids seem to be excited for our new baby. Miriam says Rachel is her baby and this one is Aaron's baby. Aaron seems really excited to get a brother. The picture was taken on July 22 when I was 19 weeks. My goals for this pregnancy are similar to last- no back labor, no tearing and get the kids all sleeping in their own beds at night. This time most goals center around Aaron that he will be potty trained (maybe some day I'll potty train when I'm not pregnant!) and to be more independent- dressing and buckling in the car, etc.

Hopefully we got all the computer bugs worked out and I will be able to get a lot posted.