I Want Spring...Now!

Oh man I am craving spring sooooo bad. I can't wait for sunny days, warm weather, and flowers! I sure wish Winters in Utah weren't so DANG long. I was at home depot today with my 2 little one's and we browsed the flower section. I hate to buy anything yet with this cold weather. Actually as we were going out to our car it started SNOWING, so I am really glad I didn't give in and buy anything! Come on mother nature it's almost April!!!

Last week for FHE we did some major spring cleaning in the basement. We organized the playroom/rec-room, the kids rooms, and the kids closets. The girls were not overly thrilled with my plan for family night, but it HAD to be done. It has been so nice the past week to have it so organized down there. I feel like it makes it SOOOO much easier to stay on top of the daily clean up when everything is organized.

Today I am painting our kitchen chairs, WAHOO! I hope that I can finally get this project completed. I painted our table as well but I've decided to sell it in our next garage sale. It only seats 6, so with 5 of us it's hard to have anyone over. I found a great table at Ikea that seats up to 10 and is an affordable price, so HOPEFULLY I will be able to get it in the next few weeks (come on tax return, where are you:). Since chairs are SO expensive I am going to keep the 6 we have and then get 2 upholstered chairs to go on each end of the table. I found some red leather one's that I really like at Pier 1, now I just have to get Court to like them too! If I can't get him to agree on those then I might go with a rattan chairs? We'll see, any suggestions?

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night Court took our 8 year old daughter to the Jazz game for a special daddy daughter date! She sure had a blast and loved getting to go with her dad all by herself!!! I guess she didn't stop taking or asking questions the entire game. The guy sitting next to them was getting quite a kick out of her (at least he wasn't bugged). I love that my hubby does special things with each one of our children. I know that they will cherish these memories in the future as will he.

I stayed home with the little one's, watched movies, and painted my 5 years old's toes and finger nails. We were waiting for little man to fall asleep so that we could have some one on one girl time but since he got a nap yesterday he was NOT tired AT ALL. Dang those naps, he still needs them so bad, but then he WON'T go to sleep at night. Her and I will have to go on a special date of our own!

I am just about 18 weeks pregnant now. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. It helps that I am so busy with school that it keeps my mind off of it. I am still pretty nauseous and still have to take my medication every night to control the nausea. It is so weird that I have been so sick this time, I was NEVER sick with the girls and only got a little sick for about 6 weeks with my little man. My heart burn as kicked into full swing, man that stuff is not fun! I pretty much get it every night right before bed. Thank goodness for MAALOX. This coming Friday we go in for my ultra sound, we are very excited to see if baby #4 is a boy or a girl!!!

Gonzaga... "You got Jimmered"

WaHOOO, BYU is on a winning streak and my hubby could not be happier! I usually dislike March Madness time, but I have to admit it is much more fun when your team is winning!!! I hope the streak continues so that I can keep my happy husband and because it would be AWESOME to see the Cougs go far this year! I am a little scared for if/when they loose, it will be a SAD day around our house. My hubby has done a very good job in turning all three of our kids into die hard BYU fans and they would be almost as disappointed as their daddy to see their team out of the tournament.

Keep up the good work BYU, the Jones family sure is routin' for ya!

Saw a great Jimmer Fredette sign on a car today, it said... "Fredette About It", I thought that was a funny one!

With this being my 1st BYU post I couldn't resist busting out a few great old pictures of my hubby! I sure like to give him a hard time about his BYU "cheering" days! Hehehe, he is so manly that sometimes I just giggle thinking about him being a cheerleader. To his defense though and he proudly admits it, he did it for the scholarship money and to hang out with all the CUTE GIRLS! What college age kid wouldn't want to spend time with all the cheerleaders and get to see all the games from the field or court?

(He's on the top row, 4th in from the right side)

(Bottom row, 3rd in from the right side)


I LOVE YOU BABE, you were one HOT Yell Leader!!!

1st Photo Shoot...

Tonight I stayed EXTRA late at school to do hair for a photoshoot. Being there from 8:30am to 9:30pm made for a loooong day, but it sure was fun! I loved seeing how the entire shoot came together from the photographers set up, to the make-up artists, to the hairstylists (me:). I would love to get into editorial work someday. I am not 100% happy with how the hair turned out for my model (I didn't really have the option to do whatever I wanted, it was the Make-up artists shoot so I had to go with what she wanted), but it was a great learning experience. Looking forward hopefully doing MANY more in the future!

*Hopefully I will get a few copies of the pictures so that I can post one or two :)

Food for Thought

I love this one from Dr. Suess...

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

I am dying to do a Dr. Suess themed playroom for my kids! Wouldn't that be so much fun!!! I want it to be colorful, fun, and FILLED with books. Hopefully I will get around to it someday. But first I need to re-paint/decorate the kitchen and family room, paint the kids rooms and hang up all of their decorations, and get the nursery ready. Not to mention graduate from school, finish unpacking the house, AND get the house organized. Well I guess the play room will just have to wait ;).

These are all pictures of Dr. Suess themed bedrooms, but I think it would be such a fun theme for a pLaY rOoM!

Soooooo Excited!

This might sound really silly, but ever since we moved from Kansas City I have been searching for a store in Utah that carries a line of children's furniture called Young America by Stanley. When we moved we sold my oldest daughters bedroom furniture so that we could buy her a set that matched her little sisters (so they could share a room). WELL, much to my disappointment all of the stores that carry this line in Utah are CrAzY expensive. They were all charging at least $300 more then what I paid for the EXACT SAME BED. Yesterday I called a store called Oopsie Daisy in South Jordan to see what they charged, it is a boutique type store, so I really didn't have my hopes up. MUCH to my surprise they carry the exact bed I am looking for AND they are the same price as what I originally paid.

I am so excited for them to FINALLY have matching beds!!! I was literally trying to scheme up a way to make a trip out to Kansas City to visit friends and buy a second bed. Now I would REALLY love to go visit all of my KC friends, but at least when I do I won't have to find a way to bring a whole bed back with me.

Can't WAIT to order the 2nd bed!!! This furniture line is extremely durable (but a little on the pricey side) and I have loved my younger daughters set. I plan on keeping this set for A VERY LONG TIME, I am hoping they can become heirloom pieces that even my grandchildren can sleep on someday!

Now if only their room could be this HUGE too ;)

We LOVE family home evenings!

Yesterday for FHE we took the kids to the dollar movie to see Tangled. We had actually seen it already over Christmas but we thought it was so good we saw it again! Monday nights are .75 cent night at the discount theater across town, so for all 5 of us it was only $3.75, SCORE!!!

After the movie we headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was YUMMY!!! Their rolls and honey butter are sooooo good! Lucky for us our kids aren't big eaters so we get away with ordering 2 adult meals and all of us splitting it (I wonder how long we can make that last).

The kids were really good and it was a very fun family night. The kids did get to bed later than usual but OH WELL!!! The girls were great sports about getting their homework done in the car which made me happy.

Yesterday morning I had a doctors appointment. Because I have been so sick I still haven't gained any weight, at least there is one perk to being sick! Little man came with me to the appointment. I still can't believe he isn't going to be my baby anymore!!! It took the Doctor much longer than usual to find the heart beat which was starting to freak me out, so so so glad she eventually found it! Even my little man was so excited when we finally heard it, not that he really had any idea WHAT he was hearing. I am about 16 weeks now and I will have my ultrasound on April 1st to find out what we are having, I CAN'T WAIT. Court thinks it is a girl, the kids think it is a boy, and I'm really not sure. It will be exciting either way.

Quotes of the week...

I am not really doing so great at changing my header quotes every week, or even every month. But I do want to record the one's I have had up there because they remind me of the attitude I am striving to have and the kind of person I want to be!

So here is the one I just took down...

"Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow." ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros

Phew...

Holy smokes the weeks just seem to be FLYING by lately!!! I feel like I blink and another week has come and gone.

We had another eventful week in the life of the Jones family...

* The girls had parent teacher conferences this week. I was a little nervous about how these would go since they are still pretty new and we are all adjusting to the new school. I was so happy to hear that BOTH my girls are doing great in school, behaving wonderfully, and transitioning well to the new school. MUSIC to a mothers ears!!! I really love the girls new school and I have been very happy with their teachers.
*I started my State Board review class on Wednesday night. I have to go every Wednesday night for the next 6 weeks, which TOTALLY stinks. BUT this means I am that much closer to graduating!!! I will take my written and practical state boards mid-April, wahooooo! I have never been so excited to take tests in my entire life :).

*Between me having to go to class Wednesday night and my hubby having all of the kiddos and needing to get our 8 year old to Activity Days (fun program our church has for girls 8-12 years old) I was so incredibly grateful to the Relief Society in my ward for arranging dinner for us that night. They had no idea how crazy that day was going to be for us, but they did know how busy our family is right now and how I have been VERY sick with this pregnancy and just wanted to help out. I am so grateful to belong to a Church that has people who will look out for you and will do sweet acts of kindness like this for you when your life is just NUTS!

*Thursday this kids were out of school early and our babysitter happened to be out of town. So Court stayed home the first half of the day and I did a half day at school so that I could be home with the kids the rest of the day. It was really warm outside so we got the bikes and scooters out and the kids had a blast!!! I sure love living in a cul-de-sac and having our side street be a dead end. The kids have so much room to ride around without me having to worry about any cars! While the kids played I worked on painting our kitchen chairs. Our table is SO UGLY, so I have been painting the table and chairs, but it has become a bit of a drawn out process considering I don't have much time to work on it. Court had to work late so the kids and I grabbed KFC and headed to the park for dinner. KFC isn't exactly the healthiest meal, not to mention pricey for fast food, so I don't think we will be doing that again. The wind REALLY picked up once we got to the park which made for a chilly picnic, but the kids still had fun and loved playing after we ate. I sure loved being home most of the day with the kiddos, I LOVE being a mom, and REALLY miss being home full time!!!

*Yesterday I woke up to my hubby bringing me breakfast in bed! WOW I am a lucky girl!!! He is QUITE the guy! Not to mention he had feed all of the kids and we were babysitting my neice Madison over night, so he had 4 kids to take care of. He made yummy waffels:). After church we went to Courts parents house for dinner. It is always great to eat a nice meal without having to go to all the work :). Courts parents will be moving to Logan in a few months, so we are trying to squeeze in as much grandma and grandpa time as we can before they move.
{Courts cute parents with ALL of the Jones grandchildren}



~Brittany

Just another ***Manic*** Monday...

WOW, it's Monday again already! Seems like the weeks are just flying by lately. Which in someways is good because that means the end of May should be here in no time and I will be DONE with school!!!

I wanted to take a few minutes to jot down a few highlights of last week before I forget...


The girls started a group piano class and LOVED it! I am really hoping that taking a fun class like this will make it so that piano lessons are enjoyable for them and that it will be something they WANT to do. After piano Court took our 5 year old to the Jazz game. It was a pretty late game, but since the girls didn't have school on Friday we figured it was ok. She LOVED going on a one on one date with her daddy. She especially loved watching the Jazz Dancers! She asked my husband why so many of the basketball players had stamps(tattoos) on them, hahaha, I thought that "stamps" was a great way to put it.


Friday I had school like usual. I decided to go pick up my Grandma (my moms mom) from her care center and bring her back the salon for some pampering. When I got there she was eating lunch. I told her my idea for her to come back to school with me and asked her what she thought about it. She was sooooo funny. She was in the middle of eating lunch, set her fork down on the table, hit the green light on her Jazzy wheel chair and said... "well what are you waiting for, let's get outta here". HAHAHAHA!!! She is so darn funny. She had me laughing the whole afternoon! First we couldn't find her portable wheel chair so she wanted to just "borrow" some one's from the hall. Then we are looking for her glasses and she was missing one lens. I asked her what her friends name's were that she was eating lunch with and she told me, "I don't bother with names, I just say, hey YOU". Oh man she is a crack up, I guess at her age what does it really matter anymore anyway :). She really enjoyed getting her hair washed and styled and loved her manicure. She bopped her head to the music the whole time she was at the salon and told me many times what a great beat it was. This is something I will definitely will be doing again, SHE made my whole day with her upbeat, cute attitude! It definitely was a challenge with her being in a wheel chair, but well worth it!!! She told me that when someone comes to get her and they say GO, she goes! I am so grateful to have my grandmother in my life and to have had a close relationship with her. My grandmother converted to the GOSPEL (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) after she married my grandfather. I am so grateful to her for this and forever changing our family. It is because of her choice that I have the knowledge I have today and the incredible blessing of being a member of the Church!


Friday night Court and I got to go out on a date, WAHOOOO!!! That doesn't happen very often lately. We went to Temppanyaki Japanese Steak House for dinner, it was SOOOOO yummy! One of my favorite restaurants for sure. After dinner we hit up Walmart for a few treats to sneak in my purse for our movie :). We saw the movie "Unknown", I thought it was really good and had some unexpected twists to it! I love getting to go out with my hubby, after 9 years of marriage, "he's STILL the ONE".

By the time I made it home from school on Saturday night neither Court or I felt like cooking so he ran and got us some pizza. We got the kids bathed for Sunday and to bed early!!! Then we sat down to watch a show together and I PASSED out! Poor Court, I do this to him all the time lately. Between school, the kids, and the anti-nausea medication I am on, I just can't really stay up late anymore.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had Courts parents over after Church for dinner. The KIDS adore their grandparents!!! After dinner we played spoons and basketball on our new arcade basketball hoops that Court bought (don't send men to Costco alone, they come back with some BIG items sometimes:).

So there it is, life is busy, crazy, but VERY FUN at our house!

~Brittany

This kid cracks me up!

My little man who recently turned 3 is quite the hoot. He has the best personality and is so much fun! He makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!

Yesterday was Monday, so I didn't have school (my new favorite day of the week). It was time to pick up my 5 year old from Kindergarten and I had just gotten the little man ready (hair done, shoes on, etc...). I told him, "ok hurry up it's time to pick up your sister". As he walked down the hall he stopped to notice the big mirror I had on the floor resting against the wall. He walked past the mirror, stopped, backed up and then checked himself out in the mirror. I was laughing pretty hard at this point, THEN I hear him say to himself, "well hi there, aren't you handsome". HAHAHAHA... he is such a crack up!

Tonight for dinner we had Cafe' Rio Pork Salad. I put half lettuce and half spinach greens in the salad. Even with the pork and all of the toppings mixed on the salad my little man still figured out real quick that it wasn't just lettuce. Every time he would find a piece of spinach he would pull out, set it on the table, and say, "ewww, yuck, we don't eat leaf's"! It was pretty funny. I decided it wasn't worth it to force him to eat it, he is 3 after all and WILL eat salad :).

***On a side note, for my journaling...
Yesterday for FHE we a nice family dinner. It was great to have us all home to eat together since that doesn't happen too often lately. Court has been working LOTS of nights to make up for the days he stays home with the kids while I am at school. After dinner Court read to us from the Book of Mormon and told the kids the story of Lehi and his family having to flee Jerusalem and leave behind all of their things. The girls couldn't believe that they had to leave behind almost ALL of their belongings. We finished up the night by taking the kids to the Library, we sure love living 2 minutes away!! The girls each picked out ten books so they can read them for their nightly reading homework. My 5 year old picked out every Fancy Nancy book she could find. My 8 year old LOVES to read the Junie B. Jones series. And as for the little man, he picked out all superhero books, he is 100% BOY!!!

I sure do love my family! And I love having Family Home Evening (FHE) even if my kids are bouncing off the walls!!! Can't wait to see what life is like once Jones baby #4 gets here. People keep telling me, "oh once you have 3, 4 is nothing". Now I obviously have never had 4 kids so I don't actually KNOW, but honestly I don't buy it! I think every child adds new challenges to a family. But even though I'm sure it's just going to get more crazy around here, I sure am EXCITED!