Catch Up

I meant to post Collin's birthday last week, but we didn't get the electrician in until Wednesday and a lot of things came up as well, that I'll talk about another time. But, putting that aside, here is my beautiful baby on his birthday, although not his official b-day, because it was on the 22nd, which was Thanksgiving, so we celebrated on the 21st.

Collin turns four!

The favorite birthday place for my children is Chuck E Cheeses, so since six months ago, this child has been talking about nothing else.

Of course we gave in.

Talin was really excited to be there, I don't know what's going on with him in this picture though. And I did not make a cake this year, I know, it's shocking. Instead I took Collin to WalMart and let him pick out his own cake and this is what he wanted. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cupcakes. He was happy, and needless to say I was the only adult that indulged in the cupcakes myself, I have a crazy sweet tooth, everyone else was turned off by the three inches of red and green frosting.

Okay, so I'm so ticked, because I can't get the one picture to load of him blowing out his candles. So we're skipping to the eating of the cupcakes. This is Susie, Talin and Collin chowing down. He had another friend there, but he was socially shy and a little camera shy, so I have no picks of him with the group.

That's one happy birthday boy! He had been waiting so long for this day.

Opening presents, which consisted of action figures, his favorite. I've been attacked numerous times this week by his new Wolverine who shoots out claws at you and his Batman shooting plastic weapons. Fun! I live in a world of boys!

Is it time to go home yet??

And that is not frosting on Tom's chin, I think my red-eye attacked his face and I couldn't undo the edit.

Later that night we used some coupons we had been hoarding for awhile (I know we're pathetic!), to go to Mexican food that night. It's a hole in the wall place as it is, the same one I took Mandi and JoDee to while they were here, they'll remember. Anyway, Talin blurted out to our waitress that it was Collin's birthday. So this is the result.

He loved it. Three waitresses sang to him in Spanish, brought him dessert and finished with topping his nose with whipped cream.

I think this was his favorite part of the day. Wearing the sombrero. Most kids would never wear this thing, it probably weighed five pounds, but I could hardly get Collin to take it off when it was time to leave.

It was a great day, and fun to be with my family, especially Tom all day.

The best was as Collin was going up to bed he started to argue with us that he hadn't really turned four, he had actually turned five. This says a lot about his personality, he's so stubborn, I didn't want to argue, so I let him believe he turned five. But who would argue about that? Luckily he hasn't brought it up again and has faced the fact that you don't miraculously skip a year. He's accepted four.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hope everyone enjoys eating turkey and pie!

We went around this morning and asked everyone what they were grateful for and here are the answers.
Talin: I'm grateful that my brother could have a nice day. And for my giraffe.
Collin: I'm grateful for my Tiger and camping out. (??) I'm grateful for my birthday. (birthday post to come later)
Tom: I'm grateful for Talin's nose, and Collin's toes and everything in between. (I'm snuggly sitting in between the two of them this morning watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade and typing)
Me: I'm grateful for my four boys, a warm home (it's freezing and snowed all day yesterday), and supportive family, and working cars, and peppermint ice cream and eggnog, and honey baked ham.

And this is so off the subject and has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I've found a little boy name that I love and Tom hates, and I needed to hear what everyone else thinks. Be honest. If you hate it or love it or don't care, I'd like to know.
River Chambers.

Happier Today...

We are having electricity issues lately. The lights in our computer room and in the boy's room have gone out. Switching the circuit breaker and trying other things has failed to return the lights to working order. So I'm typing on Tom's laptop while he's at work, and the boy's refuse to go upstairs and play in their room because it's dark. Which I can't blame them, but they are under the suspicion that their room is now filled with monsters and ghosts because the lights won't come on. Can't argue with that, I would have had the same line of htinking at their age. But my main frustration is to not have my computer. I wanted to upload pictures of Collin from his earlier years for his birthday post. So hopefully the landlords can get an electrician out here by tomorrow and get it fixed.
And I'm super excited to announce that Tom had his last test today and besides the fact that he does work tonight, he is off for Wednesday and Thursday and no school until Monday. Yeah!!! And tomorrow we are taking the boy's to the dreaded Chuck E Cheeses for Collin's birthday. He is so excited, we've been counting down to this for a long time now.
And Talin is super excited because tomorrow at school is his very important person day, where he get's to invite one person to go to school with him for an hour. Of course he's chosen his dad, and has been talking of nothing else.
Today Collin had his VIP day and Tom and I both got to go. It's always fun to see your child in his environment and let him show off. He's definitely the cutest little boy in the class!
And now I'm off to make one of the few meals the kids will eat. Hot dogs, yum.

The Blues of a Single Mom

Another post with a bunch of random thoughts from me, but it’s all I have lately. So bear with me.

First of all, single motherhood, I’ve always thought it would be a difficult thing, to be a single mom, lately I’ve been experiencing just how difficult it is.
I miss my husband.
For those who don’t know, he got a job a little over two months ago delivering pizzas on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. He usually starts work at 4:30 and stays until 11:00. And he typically doesn’t get home until four for a quick hello and a change into uniform and out the door for work.

This past week was pretty bad.

Monday night I was trashed, fell asleep at seven, before we even put the kids to bed, and missed my one evening with my husband for the week.

Tuesday I spent the evening at the church for a Relief Society visiting teaching workshop, which was quite interesting in itself. Here is my tangent; twelve of the sisters were suppose to do something wrong with their appearance, such as funny hairstyle, wearing your shirt backwards (that was my assignment), wearing two different pairs of shoes or earrings, etc… But with my ward, figuring out what was intentional and what wasn’t with my fellow sisters was more of a dilemma than what you would think. We had to write down who we thought was doing something wrong on a piece of paper, and all I can say is, thank goodness we did not have to read the things we wrote down out loud, because I had several that were wrong. Oh, I’m sorry; wearing a vest in a bright yellow color and five sizes too big for you was intentional?? And you didn’t wear your slippers tonight because of our experiment going on? Okay… I digress…very interesting indeed.

But back to single parenthood.

Wednesday night Tom spent at the church doing his weekly scouting calling. And then the rest of the evenings that week he was at work. But the icing on the cake at the end of this week was when he had to go into school ALL day on Saturday to study, and came home only to go back out to work again.

Single motherhood, is not something I’m good at, bathing littles alone, cooking meals for little people who don’t eat them, forcing little people to eat those meals, lonely TV watching in the evening, the nightmare of doing the bedtime routine by myself.

I know I’m complaining, but I need to right now. Life just seems hard lately; I have to write that down. I feel frustrated with the school thing, and it’s so far from being over, and yet we’re in our SIXTH year, yeah, you read that correctly, sixth year! And still two and a half more to go.
And to top it all off, my neighbor creeps me out. The other week when I drove up and was waiting on our lower steps to walk up to the door, I saw out of the corner of my eye, my neighbors door open up, and he steps out to get the newspaper at his door.

But wait, is he naked???

Yeah, he’s wearing a t-shirt that only reaches his belly, and the rest of him is naked.

NAKED!!!

I thought I was going to die. I now diligently lock my doors and wonder why the single forty something year old man who never leaves his house is walking around it naked. Why did I have to witness this atrocity?

And what’s worse is the elders have been asking me about him a lot lately because I’ve expressed some interest in sharing the gospel with him. So they stop by out of the blue the other day and ask if I’ve seen my neighbor or talked to him lately. I couldn’t lie, I expressed my horror and lack of enthusiasm to be his friend after what I witnessed a couple of weeks ago. Do you know what the elder’s response was to that?

He asked me if it was a cold day when this happened.

Yeah…I have no comment!

Monday Thoughts.

So I had a few random things to talk about, so I thought I'd number them since it makes no kind of sense to make it into cohesive paragraphs.

1. On Saturday we loaded up the kids and drove to Omaha, NB to the Winter Quarters Temple. Our ward does a temple trip every quarter, and people take turns watching all the kids at the stake center in Omaha, while the adults do a session. It was soooo nice to go to the temple and escape the world for a bit. I wish we could attend more often. And it was nice to be with Tom for the two hour drive there and back, we don't get enough time to just talk. I realize how much I miss that!

2. Yesterday Tom got to sing a solo in church. I think I was more nervous than he was. The entire Elders Quorum sang "Abide With Me", and he started them off by singing the first verse alone. I thought he did great, but he was not pleased and I don't think he'll be doing another solo anytime soon. I wish he felt better about his performance, but I think he just felt out of practice, he hasn't really sung in years. I was proud of him though.

3. I was kind of shocked that only a handful of people noticed I had dyed my hair this past weekend. I expected more reactions, but no. I mean come on people, I was like California blond last week and now my hair is dark dark! Just a little surprised. But maybe I shouldn't be, cause loads of people have just now been coming up to me and saying things like, "oh my gosh, I can't believe your pregnant, and so far along!". Um hello, I didn't start taking up drinking beer, it's been a baby that has enlarged my mid-section. Maybe I blend into the background more than I thought, interesting...

4. So I think I just flashed some roofers. Yeah, full frontal flashing. You see we have a window in our bathroom on the second floor, and you can't see into it unless your standing in our backyard or on the roof of the neighbor that lives behind us. So apparently today they are re roofing and I failed to notice before stripping down and stepping in front of the window to get into the shower. I think maybe I should take more precautions and perhaps sew some curtains. Although being an exhibitionist felt kind of liberating, totally joking for anyone who is gasping right now.

5. I've been super super pumped about Christmas, which is very shocking considering our lack of funding for the Holidays. But I've become very innovative and realized that with a little work and extra time you can find awesome deals, and even the dollar store has opened up a new world to me. Pretty humbling.

And I think that's it for the rambling, for right now at least.

What was I thinking?

I know it's a horrid picture, but the best I can do right now.

I don't know why these intense urges to do something drastic come over me, but they do, and I always give in. So the blonde locks are gone, and I know everyone thinks I look better blonde, so I just don't want to hear that.

This is my preparation for the long Iowa winter heading my way. I hope I fair better than I did last year. Maybe my pre-spring baby will take my mind off the dark days and I won't become so depressed. So until then, I guess my hair is a reflection of the oncoming winter.

Happy Birthday T

Happy Birthday Tyler!

I seriously can not believe you are thirty-two! You always seem young to me. I'm glad you're my brother and I thought I'd take you down memory lane today on your b-day. Although I'm not even sure you read my blog, unless it's to make a dirty anonymous comment! But you wouldn't be a true older brother if you didn't take pleasure from my freak-outs!

These first two pictures amuse me, because they remind me of the two sides of you. The silly side, and the grumpy side. Both extreme, both amusing, both totally you.

What a sweet brother you are, I like to tell myself that you're comforting me in this picture. Or maybe you're the cause of my tears and trying soothe things over before I tell on you. I don't remember, but it's a sweet picture either way. I remember you were always someone I could hang out with and play cars or GI Joe's with. Most older brothers wouldn't let a little sister do that.

Aren't we cute! You made a great pirate.

I think I could still take you down. This is the phase where our form of communication was me beating the crap out of you, and you coming up with new and inventive forms to flip me off. Good times.

You've always been great with kids. Even the naked barbaric kind.

I had so many pictures of you, it was insane. I like this, because it's so who you are, trying to get a rise out of me or just make me laugh. Like the time you visited me in the hospital when I went into pre-term labor. Do you remember that? I was hooked up to all these machines and couldn't leave my bed and you left me a little treat to endure for the next few minutes. Yeah, I was pretty ticked at you, but it's quite funny looking back. I just hope the nurses didn't think the smell came from me!

I love this picture, because this is the camping trip where I didn't have my Tom with me so I was playing single mom, and Collin was a cranky, needy baby, and I was going nuts. And even though you had your own babies to take care of, you took the time to give me a break. Thanks, I think I'm going to cry right now because I'm pregnant. Blame the hormones!

You're a great dad. You take time to be with your boys, to play with them and teach them things. You've never been a father that's been scared to load up your three babies and take them out on your own. And I'm so excited you now have #4, little Ryder. You're boys are blessed to have you for a dad.

And of course you're always up for a good time, especially when it has to do with the outdoors. I'll always remember going hunting with you (pre-marriage/kids days), and you would take me with you and we would track animals and you taught me so much, and you never got too mad at me when I would step on a branch or something like that.

You've been a great brother, and I think you've turned out pretty darn well considering the four girls you grew up with. Hope you have a happy birthday and that Gina treats you well today. Ha ha, like she ever doesn't!

No Shocker Here.

Here is our latest addition to the family. We got an up close look at our baby on Tuesday. And you'll never guess what we're having!

Drum Roll....

A BOY!

Cracks me up to hear people's reaction when I tell them that we're having another boy. I usually get condolences, which make me laugh, because I'm totally excited about having another boy. I think I'd be more nervous if it were a girl. I had one person tell me that maybe it would come out and be a girl. HA HA! She obviously hasn't seen the above picture, there's no way this kid is coming out a girl!

Here is a cute picture of his legs. You can see that on the right side his legs are crossed over each other. Just like his brothers! I swear that's a Jones' trait.

I call this our freaky Halloween baby picture.

When I picked up the kids after going to the ultrasound I was really excited to tell them that they were having a little brother. I knew Collin would be happy and Talin not so happy, but I was not prepared for their reactions.

Collin upon hearing the news starting jumping up and down yelling, "Yeah, it's a boy! It's a boy!".

Talin was really quiet and sad, and when we walked out to the car to go home he burst into tears and started bawling. "I don't want a little brother, I want a little sister".

I had no idea how to comfort him. I just told him how much fun he'll have with a little brother and all the things he can teach him. He's such an emotional boy, but I didn't realize he'd take the news so hard. He's still not happy about it. When we talk about their new little brother he instantly starts to pout and proclaims he doesn't like little brothers.

Not much I can do to change it now! And I think he should start taking his complaints to his father! I'm really just the host here, it's not as though my body decided what we'd have. :)