Back to School

It's back to school time, here are our first day pictures.

Jones Family Reunion

We were able to go to East Texas for Memorial Day, Gilmer to be exact, and have an extended Jones Family reunion. It was really fun and was hard work trying to remember everyone. I haven't seen a lot of my cousins since we were Carter's and Jacob's ages so we all looked very different. It was great to be reunited though. The kids had a great time. We were at my Dad's cousins house, Joe. He had rented some golf carts for the kids to run around his property on and that was a lot of fun for them. It gave Jenna and her cousin Braeden who is her age a lot of freedom since they could drive around by themselves. We have lots of pictures to remember our fun times by and the kids keep asking to go back...

Author's Tea

This is Jacob's Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Abraham. She has had all 3 of the older kids now and I think she's amazing. They have this little party called "Author's Tea" and the kids each get to read one of their pieces of work for the parents. It's a lot of fun to see the kids in the teachers chair and in charge. They are each very proud of their work. Jacob's of course was the best. :)

Cameron's Wolf Badge

This is Cameron getting his Wolf badge. He had to howl like a wolf on all fours with fake teeth in his mouth. He had a great time and he thought he was the coolest thing ever. It was pretty amazing that he got his wolf badge so early. His den leader was really proud of him, as we were also.

San Antonio Zoo

It's been a while since my last post but this was our trip to the zoo over spring break. We had a great time. It was pretty hot and crowded but it was worth it. The animals were fun and playful. We even got to see the lions playing in the water and the monkeys making faces at us.

Cameron's Crazy Hair Day

A couple of weeks ago during spring break we had the chance to go to dinner at the Cafe where some of Cowan's students had artwork displayed. Cameron was one of those students and his artwork was called "Crazy Hair Day". Their art teacher is pretty intense about making sure that each art piece has a title and making sure that they always do their very best work. Most definitely a step up from when I was in elementary. Only 50 kids in the whole school were chosen by the art teacher to display their work at a local resturaunt for a couple of months and when we went by and took his picture the waiter said that Cameron's piece always got the most compliments. He said that the patrons really liked looking at all of the kids work because it was fun but that Cameron's was the most interesting and showed the most imagination. Cameron was pretty excited about that. Either way, we were pretty proud that Cameron had this opportunity.

Our little snow day

Austin never gets much snow at all but every once in a while we get a little tease. This year we actually got flakes, BIG ones, that lasted all day long! Well, they were on and off all day long. The kids still went to school and we could still drive in it since, as you can tell, it didn't really stick to the streets. It was still beautiful. Jenna did no work all day long because she was too distracted and she and Carter built a sad little snowman with a nose bigger than his body. It was still snowing when the boys got home from school and they were able to go outside and play in it also. Cameron and Jenna spent the most time out there and had blast. I have to say that as pretty as it was, it was so messy! The snow mixing with mud made a HUGE mess in the house and it was so cold. While we had lots of fun that one day, we don't want to live somewhere it snows for months at a time, it would certainly lose it's wow factor.

Jacob's 6th birthday

Jacob had his 6th birthday on Thursday on today we had his birthday party. He decided he wanted he would like to celebrate Easter a little bit early so we had an easter egg hunt and dyed easter eggs. We also played musical chairs. We made fun bunny cupcakes that weren't such a huge hit because they had coconut on them but I like coconut so I'm not complaining too much:)
Jacob has declared that this is the best birthday party ever, which is my judge on whether I've done a good job or not. I don't care about the adults or even the other kids too much, as long as the birthday child was happy and was satisfied with the celebration, I've accomplished what I've set out to do.
There are many birthday parties we've been to that are a little "rich" for my blood. I prefer simple. My kids pick the theme and most of the activities. Sometimes they need a little prompting and I'm happy to give suggestions but I always give many suggestions so they feel it's THEIR party not mine. I've also found that it's much cheaper. I feel the need to feed everyone and make sure everyone has this and that, my kids just want to have fun and it is much easier, stress-free, and cheaper to go their way.
We had a great time, so did the adults, and the other kids. Of course, we always only invite family and my best friend and her kids, which we consider family anyway:)

the WORST four weeks EVER

The past four weeks have been absolutely horrible and I am going to complain about them, I feel I have earned the right. It all started with Jacob, he got a really bad cold and with his asthma we decided we needed to take him in to the doctor to get checked out. He just needed some steroids and some more regular asthma treatments which we've been through before. No big deal, right? Well, we didn't think so either. We had to go back in for a follow up and found out that even with steroids he developed a walking pneumonia. That was scary. I kinda freaked out about that one. We got some medicine and moved along. Then, about 3 days later, Carter woke up with a really bad cough and Cameron said his eye hurt really bad. When I looked at Cameron, I just laughed. I thought, well, no wonder your eye hurts you have some pretty nasty pink eye going on in there. So we went back to the doctor. Carter was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and Cameron with, no surprise, pink eye. Much of a surprise to me, pneumonia is actually contagious to people with respiritory problems like asthma, I had no clue. It was originally explained to me that pneumonia was a secondary condition and only the first virus was contagious. Anyhoo, after the doctor, we went back home and decided it was going to be a rough week with Carter sick but as long as we got medicine in Cam he could go to school. During this time, Kendall and I developed some kind of cold/flu that was pretty much kicking our behinds. We were pretty tired and were having a hard time putting one foot in front of the other much less taking care of sick kids. Then to make everything all better, on Tuesday morning at 3 am Cameron woke up throwing up with the most violent stomach flu we've had in about 5 years. It was bad. Not only did Cameron get it, it went through the ENTIRE family.
I am tired. I am sick of sick people and if someone else gets sick or tells me they feel bad I may jump out a window. I am a little dramatic sometimes. I sometimes act like my world will end because of what's going on, but I will tell you that the last four weeks was awful. I do not want to experience that again.
I hope beyond all hope it is over. Maybe our illness will be done for the season. With any luck......

Jenna's first Temple trip

Jenna had her first Temple trip this month. She had a really great time. Of course, she and her friends had a hard time keeping reverent but that's 12 year olds for you. There was an older couple that came with us and the wife was able to baptize her mother and that was really special. It was a really great thing for the girls to be able to see the reaction of how spiritual it can be when you love someone and you want them so much to have the gospel in their lives. It can only touch your heart to see the girls touched by that baptism.

Mr. Smarty Pants

Jacob has decided that he HATES school and he is not going. It's as simple as that, his decision has been made and there was nothing you could do to persuade him otherwise. I have been sick and in bed and he never reacts well to that, he also has been waking up at 5:00, yes, a.m. So we assumed it was that and forced him to go to school. He has had a few small anxiety things like Jenna but not enough for us to show concern and we certainly aren't going to hop on that train too quick again. Anyway, his teacher asked what she could do to make school more fun for him so that he would come without crying. He put his hands on his hips, looked her straight in the eye, and said word for word, "give me harder work". He's been telling me that school was too easy and I knew that he was bored but I didn't think it was that bad. What kid actually wants more work? Jacob. That's who. Jacob is such a smarty pants that he is too smart for Kindergarten, not that it's that hard to do. Luckily, Miss Abraham also likes extra work and doesn't mind working a little more with Jacob so he isn't so bored and is a bit more challenged. Thank goodness for great teachers!

Beautiful, yes. Innocent, who knows...

I have one of the most beautiful girls alive, I also have to claim that she is one of the most dramatic little twits also. She is a good girl, mostly, and I think she tries hard to do good but, wow, she can drive me bonkers! This picture was taken last year at her 11 year old birthday party. Now, I'm lucky she hasn't started to "develop" so the older boys don't take TOO much notice of her. We have a pretty good relationship and she's always thought it was fun that she was my only daughter but I do wonder what will happen as she becomes more of a teenager and less of a tween. She is now so much of an attitude striving eye-roller that I'm not even sure how to react to her half of the time. Part of me wants to slap her silly, part of me wants to laugh at her, and part of me wants to say something so sarcastic it would probably get me into trouble. Who knows how to raise a girl? If there is any advice out there, I'm all game for hearing it!

Cameron's new badge

Cameron has been a cub scout for all of 5 weeks and has already earned his bobcat badge. What does that mean you ask? I truly have no clue because I've been involved in cub scouts as long as Cam has. I know he's worked really hard and had tons of fun. He's made some really cool art things, gone to Austin Recycle to learn more about recycling, he went to Brown Santa, and he talked to his family about the importance of keeping the earth clean. Today, he talked about bike safety and went on a one mile bike ride. He's had a pretty great time and looks forward to scouts every week. It is great that Kendall is Cub Master and that Cameron's Den Leader is pretty amazing also. We are looking forward to his next badge!

Jenna's New Year's Eve Party

A 12 year old's new years eve party isn't the greatest way I've spent ringing in the new year but I have to be honest and say that I had a pretty good time. Jenna and her cute little friends were pretty funny. Here they are toasting midnight with sparkling grape juice feeling very silly and grown up. Of course, they ran right outside and started throwing those popping things at each other making a bunch of squeaky noises. Kendall had no clue what I was thinking asking all those girls over but I figured they were going to want to do something, I'd much rather they all be here having fun. Kendall, Spencer, and I played games with them while they sang, danced, and squeaked the night away. Happy 2010 everyone.

Cameron's Baptism

On January 2, 2010, Cameron Michael Holt was baptized. It was a pretty proud moment for Kendall and I. Of course, he is still doing things because we tell him to and that's the way things are done, he is also realizing that he has a choice and he can choose to do bad things. He did make the choice to be baptized and for that we are proud of him. His Uncle Spencer, Kendall's brother, told him to always remember that day because people would always ask him questions about it. But most importantly he needed to remember that day because he was making a choice that Heavenly Father wanted him to make, a choice that was taking him closer to his Heavenly Father, one that took him closer on the road to returning to his Heavenly Father. He is an amazing little boy who makes Kendall and I so proud in so many ways, this day was just one in many.

We are going to try again

For a while I was doing a shutterfly account that I could add pictures to and I could update everyone on how we were doing easily that way. Recently, I've had a really hard time uploading pictures to my shutterfly account so I guess I'm going to have to learn how to become a blogger. It has taken me a really long time tonight to figure this out but I am trying. I think the hardest part is going to be finding the time to keep up with it. I have no idea how these Mom's do it. I suppose it's just a matter of desire, maybe I prefer to sit on my behind after my kids go to bed, maybe other people's kids actually take naps. Who knows? I am going to try. I do know that the Grandparents at least want to see the pictures. Wish me luck.....