Family picture

While in Idaho visiting our family during our Epic Road Trip 2014 we had a family picture taken.  It was an amazing trip and so many wonderful memories to share from it that we are posting videos from each day on Jonpa's YouTube channel.  Let's just say that we had so much fun that we weren't able to get the videos posted as quickly as we wanted.  We (i mean jonpa) are still editing them as we can. You can check them out here
Meanwhile we are continuing to enjoy the remainder of our summer at home.

School's out for Summer

Another school year in the books. Jongr was promoted to 6th grade, Jontu promoted to 3rd grade and Jonev get to go to 1st grade next year.

Jongr is leaving the elementary level and moves to the middle school. New friends, new teachers, new classes all on the other side of the street (the schools are all close to each other and close enough to walk from our house). There was a special 5th grade awards ceremony we attended.

 Mama got a little carried away with the celebration (really Jongr was being a stinker before and so it was my turn). This one went on Instagram (@paulscrazylife).

Now there is a proud father and a happy young Jedi.

Before school let out, Mama and Jonli went to the Blue Bell Factory and got some ice cream. It always tastes better when you are there.

We had to alter our normal celebration because of the no school "ice day" extension. We stopped for snow cones on the way home from swim practice. Another Instagram classic.

While getting snow cones we realized that most of use had on our Crocs or Crocs branded flip flops. One lone Jedi dared to where his cowboy boots. He has some Crocs but he decided to be himself. Stay unique little man!

 

The next day Mama and Dad went on a date (yes, even the most talented Jedi trainers need time off). They enjoyed a bowl of Orangeleaf frozen yogurt. The flavor of the month is Blackberry Greek yogurt. It was quite tasty and comes highly recommended. This picture was tweeted with a mention of @myorangeleaf and they retweeted. Sweet! (another food picture, aww I love this man - Jonsu aka Mama)

Springtime fun, swimming, biking, Skylanders and YouTube!

Swim Team! Go Blue Dolphins! All four Jedi's are swimming as part of the team, but only two are competing. Here is Jontu after one of his races.  

Jonev and Jonli enjoying smoothies and YouTube.

Skylander hunting. Jonev did not want to be part of the picture, thats the do I really have to do this face.

Bike ride at the father's and sons campout.  All the boys enjoyed riding the trails.

Spring piano recital for Jongr and Jontu, the boys are improving, but not always willing to practice.

New clothes from Aunt Laura, Jonli loves showing them off.

Jonpa enjoys taking pictures of the delicious things that he enjoys for lunch while at work.  I am not sure if he just wants to remember or make me jealous, :). 

Jonpa selfie in the backyard afterwork.  

October in a nutshell and Jontu's Baptism

Jontu turned 8 in October and wanted to have a skylander cake, a portal and some sheep.  We had some mishap with the green food coloring, but other than that it turned out well.  He was really happy.  I can tell that I don't decorate cakes very often though. 

 Here's the birthday boy with a few of his presents. 

 The boys thinking about what Jongr should be for Halloween, he ended up with 2 costumes, ASU fan worn to the trunk or treat and "random guy" worn on halloween.  It consisted of clothes worn to school adding sunglasses and a jedi robe. 

 Jontu and Jonli at the ward Trunk or Treat, a knight and snow white. 

 Jonev really wanted to be a shark this year for halloween, he then got a face painting of a mustache while at the party.  

 Jonpa, Jontu and I before his baptism the first weekend in November.  

 Classic picture with Dad beforehand.  When we were looking at these photos tonight he said " I want to get baptized again".  It was a really special day for him and he felt so good about his decision to be baptized.  We love this little man.  

 We are so grateful for all of those who were able to join us for Jontu's big day, it was a great weekend spent with members of both sides of our family.  We feel truly blessed to be part of such a big supportive family.  Thank you everyone!! 

A New Look

Some exciting things are happening at our place...

we finally took the old lady wallpaper off of the walls in the kitchen.  Well most of it is gone as I am writing this post.  Here's a sneak peek.  I think that I have picked a paint color and hope to get samples up tomorrow to pick from so I can paint it next week.  

Another new look to come to our house this week, we now have 2 children who wear glasses, Jongr got specs too.  Now Jonev and Jonli tell me that they want me to buy them glasses.  I told them that they just need to wait until they are a little older because they will probably need them too.    

Summer of Galveston Island and a return to school.

Its pretty safe to title this the "Summer of Galveston Island".  In looking over our pictures from the past few months there are a lot of them that look like the ones from our last trip of the summer that we took this past Saturday.  We could also safely title it, "Summer of Skylanders".  

 Jongr with the latest one that he earned, they earn points for completing their chores and then get to pick rewards after earning the appropriate amount of points.  This summer its been mostly skylanders.

We made a trip to the zoo on Monday to finally see the lego animals, it was amazing.  We just might have to squeeze in another trip this week before they leave our zoo. We rode our bikes in the neighborhood and at the park.  We also played all day with friends and had our last water day in the back yard on Water Wednesday.  It was a busy and fun week, I didn't even get pictures of all of it.  

 We enjoyed doughnuts before running out to get the last of the school supplies and run a few other errands on Thursday in preparation for meet the teacher.  

We made a final trip to Galveston with some good friends to celebrate a birthday of Jongr's friend. It was a really fun day and we enjoyed playing in the waves and kayaks.  

 Jontu enjoying the mud and the water with his friend. 

 We made our annual stop at Kahuna Joe's in League City on the way home from Galveston.  

 It was worth the wait and the little detour to eat these things.  Thanks to my cousin we have added this to our to do list on the way home from a day at the beach at least once a year.  It was a great way to celebrate the end of summer, the boys all start school tomorrow morning.  It's going to be a long week.  Jonev is officially a Kindergartener tomorrow.  He's so excited!  I am really going to miss the boys and all of the fun things we get to do together when they are not in school.  

Highlights from Summer 2013

It seems that summer has just flown by and that there are a lot of things that we still want to do before we have to get back to the school schedule.  It's going to be a busy week.  We start back on Monday, August 26.  

We have had a great summer it started off really busy with Jonpa leaving on a 50 mile back packing trip with the scouts from our ward.  Then Jongr and I had Day Camp and we also had our dear friends come visit from Arizona.  

 Here is Jontu at the beach with his good friend who lives in AZ now.  We went to the beach multiple times this summer and are planning to do it again this weekend.  It is definitely been a favorite thing this summer.

 We had a lot of fun playing in the backyard on Water Wednesday with various assortment of activities and friends this year.

 We celebrated Jonpa's birthday with some delicious key lime cupcakes and pizza of course.

 We had lots of fun going "Skylander Hunting" with dad. Jontu enjoyed getting this fun new shirt in the mail from Aunt Jessica and Uncle Richard's business Eye Power Kids Wear that they started this summer.  He plans to wear it the first day of school.

We spent some time at the neighborhood pool, although now that summer is coming to and end it doesn't feel like we went often enough.  We truly enjoyed our time in the water this year and it is fun to see the kids improving in their swimming skills as the summer went on.  

 Uncle Ben came for a work trip and got to stay at CASA JONES hotel, so that we could enjoy some time with him he gave up his Saturday at home to go geocaching in the hot humid Houston weather with us.  We were blessed to be able to see some more of our Houston friends who have moved back to CA this past week too, thank you Ollers!

 We made some really fun bow and arrows and have had a blast playing with them in the backyard and losing arrows in the trees and over the fences. It has been so much fun.

We have spent a lot of time at the parks riding our bikes and enjoying nature, even in the heat. Sometimes with our friends and sometimes alone.  Every time we are leaving the park Jonev will tell me "mom, I'm really melty".  I love that boy!   This picture was taken yesterday at an Eagle Scout project we helped with.  It was such a beautiful morning and location.