Hee Hee Hee...

I don't know if this is a testament to my son's good humor or proof that he watches too much television...Probably the latter.

I was helping Garrett wash his face the other day (for the third time) and getting off some pretty good crusties (those with weak stomachs stop reading now), when one really big green crusty was stuck in his nose. I was trying to distract him by talking while I removed it and said; "Oh no, the booger is stuck! What should we do?" and without a pause to think about it or missing a beat he said; "Call Handy Manny!"

I can imagine Handy Manny coming to save the day with his chest full of talking tools! WHEW! Thanks Manny!

FUUUUNNNY!

Sugar Cookies!

Holidays always remind me of sugar cookies. The nice big thick soft ones with plenty of frosting and sprinkles.

There are cookie cutters for any kind of holiday-or any type of occasion. They are fun to make, they are fun to eat, and just about everyone enjoys them. Yep, sugar cookies are the staple of holidays.

It's Christmas!!!

Ahhh, the joy of Christmas morning and the best toy you ever got! Makes me smile just to look at him!

The tree after Santa visited.


Dallin's happy face.


The gang-Garrett, Dallin, Kevin, and Katie

This is what Arizonans do after opening all the presents on Christmas day...na na na na na na to all you in the freezing north!

We miss you! Hope you had a great holiday!

YAHOOOOO!

The best Christmas present ever! Adam was sooo sneaky and with the help of some great neighbors I had NO idea!



They even wrapped it with a bow and everything!


I had to go drive it around the block and show it off to our friends the Woolfs. We need to plan a road-trip...and soon!


Soooo here are the details. While I was gone to SLC visiting my family Adam had to drive 'my' car. It's had so many problems that we have just been putting up with it until we could afford a new one. Well, I guess Adam decided we could afford a new one while he was sitting broken down on the side of the freeway in the middle of the night. He did all the searching himself and did a mighty fine job! It's not new-new, just new to us. 2004 Toyota Sienna a certified pre-owned car which means it has a 7 year warranty!! LOVE THAT! I just hope it fits in my garage as well as the other car did! GRIN If not, we'll have to get a new house.....

Day/Night at the Museum

We spent a fun Saturday with our adventurous boys visiting the Mesa Southwest Museum. They had a great time! It was fun to see them enjoy the displays and their excitement and awe at each exhibit.

Dinosaur fossils were the most exciting.

Panning for gold was the second favorite-we each brought home some of the 'gold' we panned!


THEN we went and saw the movie Night at the Museum! It was great! Dallin was a little scared at first, but loved it. Garrett was sooo cute! He watched almost the entire movie (he fell asleep the last 5 minutes) and most of it with his hands over his mouth or his eyes... He didn't want to leave, he just wanted his hands ready in case....


"Rexie" the dinosaur that came to life! After the movie Dallin wanted to go back to the museum to see if the other dinosaur would come to life! It was a great movie. Our kids LOVED it!

We made a long trip longer...

by stopping at Hoover Dam on our way home from SLC. We took the 'long' route through Vegas so I could stop over-night with a friend in Mesquite. It was soooo good to see them! (dang, no pix).

Every time we go over Hoover dam I think it would be fun to stop-so we did! We got out and walked around and looked over the edge. Dallin was the expert photographer for these two pix and did a great job!

The dam was fun to see, but quite expensive! You have to pay to park ($7) then if you want to see any of the displays about how it was built etc and go into any of the buildings you have to take a tour! The tour takes about an hour and costs $11/person! The only thing that was free was walking across the top of the dam. So, that's what we did. Glad we stopped, but probably won't do it again for a long time!

Brrrrrrrr...

All dressed up for the cold and the snow-thanks to some cousins for loaning us the winter necessities! Halle, Dallin, Reese, and Garrett.


Such a cute house with a fun front porch!


We arrived on Friday the 15th to find brown grass and cold weather but no snow. Dallin was very disappointed. Saturday morning we had a small skiff of snow (see pix above), but on Sunday morning we woke to a winter wonderland! Poor cold Arizona truck...


The first thing Dallin wanted to do on Sunday morning was get on some clothes and play in the snow. He had a blast!

Maury & Colleen

Well, I think it's official-these two crazy kids done got hitched! After our fun weekend they eloped... I think. Is it eloping if you tell a few people and invite a few others to the ceremony?? Well, anyway, the deed is done! They were married in Jackson by a friend (and bishop) in-of all places-the wildlife exhibit with a few friends and about 1,000 elk as witnesses. Crazy Ol' Maurice!

It was so fun to spend a little time getting to know Collen. We didn't get to do the real 'girl party' but sometime in the near future it will happen.

Colleen had a long trip and was so tired when we got to meet her, but she took it all in stride wiping kids noses, getting coats on them, and carrying them around the temple grounds while we looked at the lights. The grand kids latched onto her from the minute she walked in the door. We can't wait to spend more time with her.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great trip to SLC to visit family for a long weekend. Just myself and the boys drove the 10 hours to my sister's house for all the fun. Boy did we have fun! The hit of the weekend was the game "Balloon Lagoon".














Jen and Kyle live in the cutest house in Eagle Mountain (west of Lehi). In their booming little community you can count 7 churches as you drive into the valley and they live withing walking distance of both their ward building and the local elementary school.


















This was pretty typical of our visit...crazy kids! (Especially the two holding hands on the couch).














Jude and Blythe had a great time with their new game. Gina and Jennifer spent most of the weekend cooking-I gained like 5 lbs!

The Edwin Jones Family Reunion 2006

In July of 2006 all of the decendants of Edwin and Ethna Jones got together for a fun weekend! There was a great time for all! Mountain climbing, horseback riding, boating, swimming (in tents) and to top it all off a night of talents. The Maury Jones family vows not to let the Mark Harrington company show us up next time!

(Cue music) One boy, boy for sale.
He's goin' cheap, only seven gineas.

How much is a ginea?? Cuz' he could go cheaper I think... maybe seven pennies....

Okay so here's the scoop. I wrapped some presents yesterday and put them under the tree. The boys helped and they were very excited about them. This morning while I was in the shower Garrett decided to unwrap the presents and then HIDE them around the house.

When I came out of the shower and discovered some wrapping paper and got angry and asked him where the presents were he just smiled. I calmed down and asked nicely "Where are the presents?" He grinned and said "Hide da Seet" (hide and seek). He was toying with me!!! He hid the presents for me to find (after unwraping them of course). He is such a little mischevious one! I tried to be stern and get him to tell me, but he just laughed and thought it was funny! Little skunk! Katie and I spent a good hour looking for them.

Finally we found them all-one in the refrigerator and another in our basket of DVDs along with various others. The whole time he thought it was so funny! AARRRGGHHH!

So, any takers? Only seven pennies...

It's Finally Christmas!

It never feels like the Holiday season until I get my tree up... finally! We did it for FHE on Sunday evening. It was FUN!

This year the boys and I made some ornaments. We hadn't done that for a few years so it was fun. we made Gingerbread men (wooden), and strung popcorn and cranberries.

We also made some of these thingies with cinnamon scented pine cones and cinnamon sticks. MMMM love that smell! Garrett loves the candy canes!


Kevin and Katie decorated a gingerbread tree and house.

On of their many 'dates' they plan. They are so creative!

Gingerbread Houses...

The Christmas craft of the day was making gingerbread houses with some cute girlies! Garrett's preschool teacher was sick today, so Amber and her kids came over and we had a great time. Kids played, we chatted (that's the best part), and we made a great gingerbread house!

Isn't it cute? They did a great job!


They sure do enjoy being silly together.


The best part of making the house is eating the candy...I think some of it made it onto the house!

Popcorn and Cranberries

The project of the day to help us get in the holiday spirit is stringing cranberries and popcorn for our tree. We still haven't been able to set it up, we were sick for the weekend and haven't been able to do it yet-hopefully Sunday will be the day!

Do you have an 'outie' or an 'innie'?

What makes it an 'outie' or an 'innie' ? Is it genetic? Is it something the doctor can influence when you are born? Does it in any way indicate intelligence?? Just wondering...

Count for our family: Adam-innie, Bekki-innie, Dallin-both (half in half out), Garrett-outie

SOOOO what does that say about us?

Ten things I am thankful for:

1. My husband and my two special boys.
2. The great home I live in and wonderful neighbors.
3. Terrific friends.
4. I've always had plenty (clothing, food, shelter...).
5. A rich heritage.
6. A car that runs (today...)
7. Running water.
8. Microwave cooking.
9. Nights we spend together as a family.
10. The gospel of Jesus Christ

Five things Dallin is thankful for:

1. Daddy
2. Mommy
3. Parker
4. Logan (the enormous dog we are sitting)
5. Garrett

Three things Garret is Thankful for...

1. Mom
2. The Holy Ghost
3. His teacher

It's TURKEY day!

We had turkeys for dinner! They were literally invited to share the day with us and have dinner. We had our Thanksgiving feast with my Uncle Doug and Aunt Julie and their family and various others. Caleb, their 14 yr old son is the pet lover of the family. He traded a neighbor some of his pet quail for these two turkeys.

Dallin had a blast teasing them. If he stood too close they would ruffle their feathers...

Then start to walk after him...

And then they would chase him around the yard! He had a great time! Garrett on the other hand was terrified! Hope you had a happy Turkey day!

A little about me...(thanks to Leslie)

Okay, so I stole this idea from her blog, very cute, creative, very Leslie.

1-your worst habit? Eating after 8pm.
2- your best feature? I always thought I had pretty buff arms...
3- what you like most about your spouse? When he is the life of the party.
4- if you could travel anywhere, where would it be? I can't wait to visit our friends in China.
5- what do you admire most in a dear friend you have? Leslie's creative genius and Jodi's ability to play with her children for HOURS.

It's a horse of course!

Our good friends are away for the holiday and we offered to house their dog-I mean horse-while they are away. After a rough start, Logan (the mastiff) and parker get along great!

They gave Kevin a run for his money playing tug-o-war!


Logan is sooooo big and lazy he won't even stand up to drink or eat-he lies down to do it! That's his favorite position lying on the floor, or on your feet, or in the middle of all the action. He's such a couch potato, but he doesn't want to miss anything fun!


Logan is a little taller than parker, and outweighs him by about 30 lbs. but Parker is faster and definitely the one in charge! Watch out Parker, Logan is only 7mo. old and only half grown!

Colleen Riley

A special lady I look forward to getting to know! I hear she can do just about anything including make stained glass windows and shoe horses (the latter being very high on my dad's 'gotta-have-it' list).

My dad's sweetie. Yeah, it's a little surprising to me and my siblings, but we've delt with it (over long phone conversations in which we thoroughly reprimanded my dad for not preparing us before dropping this bomb!) and are eager to meet her. She sounds like a super lady and makes my dad very happy.

She will be joining our family January 20th! But first, after all the drama, she is going to come meet us! I feel a little bad for her-we were really scary at first with all the screaming and the yelling and the crying and the "What is he thinking!?!" dialogue. Hopefully she isn't too terrified-we really are a nice family once we get past the cloak and dagger and actually talk to each other (vicious poke to my dad's ribs on that one). We are getting together in SLC December 17th to get to know each other! I'm excited!!

Only Garrett

So today Garrett is a frog...he changes from kitten to doggie to horsie or whatever he fancies for the day.

I think he's beginning to have a little identity crisis, because today he was very confused. I asked him what he was and he said "Frog-ribbet". "How cute", I replied "What color are you?". "Blue" he said (he is always blue). "Wow!" I exclaimed, "What's your name?" With resounding confidence he replied, "Donald Duck".

HEEE HEE HEEE! That's a good one!

The Return of Mrs. Garrett!

Okay, so the last time we were in Wyoming, Garrett's girl cousins dressed him up like a girl and called him Mrs. Garrett. The kid can't get it out of his head! When someone asks him his name he says "Mrs. Garrett"! It's funny to me, but Adam is a little upset by it! Well, we had almost cured him of saying "Mrs. Garrett" when one Sunday evening he decided it was time to revive her.....

Ain't he cute??!?


I expected a mess in the bathroom, but he put everything back so carefully, I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't seen his face.

Halloween Hooplah!

Scary Katie witch!



Mmmmm Punkin guts!


Katie's creation-a monster with a witch inside


Kevin's creation...a spooky spider.