Sibling Conversations

Ruth: "Gareth! Did you know that Jesus is going to come again?!"

Gareth: "I want him to go in my spaceship with me. I have to hurry and build my spaceship!"

Ruth: "Do you know how he get's down here? He doesn't use a spaceship! He can fly!"

Gareth: "With his wings?"

Ruth: "No, he doesn't have wings. Want to know how he flies? With his white clothes!"

Garethisms

Gareth has started coming up with some great Garethisms lately. I'm being horrible and keep forgetting to write them down. Here's a couple:

Gareth's latest thing is to come up with "bad ideas." These are things that he thinks would not be good. His first was this: "I have a bad idea! I accidentally fell into Ruth's backpack and she took me to school." Some others are: "I turn into a leaf and fall off a tree" and "I drive my car into a tree and crash" There have been about 20 more but I didn't write them down and now I've forgotten.

Sometimes when we're driving Gareth will ask strange questions. One time he asked if I could please drive on the "walking street." I think he meant the sidewalk. Another time he wondered aloud what would happen if we drove in the grass (we were driving beside a big field).

Anyway... I PROMISE to do better writing these things down... he has become a very funny young man and I want to show off/share it with you all.

Gone Private

We're going to try being private for a while. I haven't done this yet mostly because I know how annoying it is when you use Google Reader or something like it that you can't get updates on blogs that are private. There is a solution!!

I have opened up a separate PUBLIC blog that you can add to your reader. When I update the private blog, I will post a link on the public blog. It will pop up on your reader and all you will have to do is click! Amazing ain't it? I'm a genius... but I didn't come up with the idea.. just borrowed it.

Here's the Public Blog: j0n3zclanupdates.blogspot.com (copy and paste it.... it's not an 'o' it's a 'zero')

Children

The only way I am able to maintain my sanity as a mother is having moments like this:

Top Ten Countdown of Christmas 2009 Memories

I've fallen pretty behind with blogging so I thought I'd make it easy and write about the last month with a top ten list.

10. We went to Temple Square to see the lights with my sister's family and Jonesy's sister. It didn't get above 24 degrees. We were cold and miserable and none of us had any fun. Hopefully we'll remember this occasion next year when I say "Hey! Let's go see the lights at Temple Square!" Luckily we've been able to laugh about it since.

9. On Christmas Eve we went sledding and roasted hot dogs around a fire at my parents house. We were glad to have snow! Hopefully this will become a yearly tradition. This the first time we've been sledding since the last incident.

8. There were many hours spent sleeping in the car this past month. With parties, Sunday dinners, Christmas celebrations, New Years celebrations and other fun activities we logged a lot of miles.

7. We had a great time with old friends at a party in Saratoga Springs a couple days before Christmas. The best part was when Ruth and Gareth randomly started dancing. They were both in sync dancing to the same rhythm. I couldn't figure out how this was happening until I noticed Brian, our drum-playing friend quietly tapping his foot and hands. Even he hadn't realized that he had been the cause of their dancing display.

6. Christmas Eve at our house was exciting. Mary and Joseph wore towels and bluejeans while Baby Jesus escaped from his manger.

5. As a family tradition, we all get new Pajamas on Christmas Eve just before going to bed. The kids were so excited, I had the hardest time getting a good picture of them. Here are my attempts:

4. We were all very happy to have Aunt Audra (Jonesy's little sister) here with us for Christmas. (you'll get a picture of her later in the countdown)

3. My sister and her husband watched our kids for us so we could go see Avatar. Unfortunately Avatar was sold out when we got to the theater and we were forced to see New Moon. :) I had fun....Jonesy did not.

2. We went to get Thai food for Christmas dinner. The whole time the kids were begging and pleading for sushi. Sorry guys, sushi is Japanese. We had a yummy lime/coconut/mushroom soup, pad thai, and duck.

1. Jacob Black came to visit on Christmas morning. Audra quickly took a liking to him and dressed him in an "I can't; I'm Mormon" t-shirt. I think Audra has a good chance of helping him get over Bella.

Christmas Letter 2009

We sent out a Christmas letter this year but since we lost a lot of our friends addresses when our computer died earlier this year I thought we should post it here as well. If you got it in the mail, you don't need to read...it's the same. Enjoy!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are happy to find ourselves at the end of another wonderful year! We still can’t believe how quickly time flies. This year has been full of exciting changes and milestones for our little family. The biggest changes both happened in June. On June 5^th we welcomed our third child (a boy!) into our family. Two weeks later we packed up all our things and made the trek from Lubbock, Texas to Salt Lake City, Utah because of an amazing work opportunity. We miss Lubbock terribly but we are happy to be living near family here in Utah. Here are some quick updates on each of us:

Jonesy loves his new job at Utah Opera. He is the Assistant Technical Director. He spends his days drafting, working on scenic pieces, loading sets, unloading sets, running errands, and running backstage crews during performances.

Havilah is keeping busy figuring out how to be a mother of three. She spends her days as a taxi driver, a referee, a judge, a maid, a chef, a barber, a secretary, an accountant, a seamstress, a therapist, a doctor, and a teddy bear.

Ruth (now 5 ½ years old) started Kindergarten this year. She loves her teacher and her new friends. She’s learning to read and LOVES to do math. Her favorite subject in school is recess because she gets to “play and be very crazy.” She is still a talking machine (she never stops!) and she’s always surprising us with the things she says. Ruth loves being a big sister and is very happy to have two brothers (mostly because it means she gets her own room). She also loves playing with her cousins. Ruth’s biggest milestone this year (besides starting Kindergarten) is that she lost her two front teeth. The tooth fairy was not ready for this big step and got a bit teary-eyed when it happened.

Gareth (now 2 ½ years old) is a very energetic kid but very shy (which is a very interesting combination). Gareth spends his days playing with his brother and sister and loves to make up stories and songs. After only a few weeks and very little stress, we are proud to announce that Gareth is fully potty trained.

Ronan Christopher Jones is our new addition. He is just over 6 months old and he’s already crawling like a champion. Ronan always has a special smile to share with anybody he sees. He adores his big sister (she can always get the biggest laughs out of him). His two front teeth popped up about the same time Ruth lost hers. With his red hair and his toothy grin everybody falls instantly in love with this little man.

We feel so blessed this Christmas season to be a family. We feel especially thankful to have all of you in our lives. We hope you all realize how much we care. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Love,

The Jones Clan

Best of 2009

2009 came and went by fast. Jonesy is asleep upstairs...I can hear his snores all the way down here so I'm going to have to guess and hope I get his right. Here's our Best of 2009 list! (I know you've been waiting ALL year to see it).

Most Memorable Moment: The birth of our third child Ronan. We can't imagine our family without him. It was so fun to be surprised on the gender of the baby. The moment he was born and we saw that he was a boy was the best moment of 2009.

Best Movie: Star Trek was VERY good. Jones got to see it on the eve of his interview with Utah Opera and then again when he took me to see it at the IMAX theatre. I think it's safe to say it was his favorite. We just saw Avatar in 3D last night...I think I'm going to have to say that was my favorite of the year. Poor Jonesy doesn't have stereoscopic vision (aka. he can only focus one eye at a time instead of both eyes) so he can't see 3D but if he wears the glasses the movie looks like a normal movie.

Best Book: I didn't find too many life-altering good reads this year but here are some great ones that are worth picking up: Pope Joan (about the legendary Pope Joan who was a woman disguised as a man that was elected pope in the mid-800's), The Graveyard Book (winner of the 2008 Newberry Award, a fun book by Neil Gaiman), The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and The Soloist (a memoir about a guy who befriends a cello playing homeless man on the streets of LA). Jones hasn't been able to think of any 'BEST' books but I will say he's read WAY more than any normal person reads in a year so we'll let it slide this year.
Best Place to Live: Our choices are between Lubbock and Salt Lake City. I miss Lubbock terribly. I miss the culture, the people, the schools, the ward, the weather (weird, I know), the apartment, my friends, the library, the community centers, the parks, just being a Texan and pretty much everything else but the job. Salt Lake City is great because it's close to family and because the job is very good. So I think I will have to say Lubbock was the best place to live in 2009 but SLC isn't too far behind it. I think Jonesy is happier here in SLC but that's probably mostly because the job is so good.
Best New TV Show: Castle wins by a mile. The show is about a famous murder mystery author (played by Nathan Fillion -fans of Firefly know him well) who teams up with a detective chick to solve crimes. If you haven't watched this one yet you are missing out!!
Best Video Game: Left 4 Dead and Borderlands. Jonesy likes these ones because he gets to play online with his BFFs (he's not going to be happy I used that term) and because they are mindless killing games. Fun? I guess.
Best Home-made Dinner: The two weeks Jonesy's mom was staying with us before Ronan's birth she made us home-made dinner every night. Those were the best two weeks of my life.

Best New Calling: I am loving my calling as the Primary Chorister much more that I thought I would. Jonesy loves his calling as physical facilities rep mostly because he only has to do anything 3 months out of the year.
Best Deal: Walmart's doorbuster 32" HD TV for $250 just fell in my lap. I couldn't resist. We can't decide how we survived all those years with a) a 21" tv and b) no HD. Crazy!
Best New Hobby: Last year our best new hobby was Geocaching. We haven't done it for a very long time so we need to pick up on that again in 2010. Other than that, we've been pretty busy..no new hobbies. I am hoping that our 'Best of 2010' post will include crocheting as my best new hobby. We'll see!

Best Place to Eat: Beto's and Maverick. We missed Beto's while we were in Arizona and Lubbock. They have the best Carne Asada burritos and very yummy Horchata. Maverick has the best hot dogs. We missed those while we were in Texas. It's nice to have them all back. (I'll add here too that I am VERY pleased to be close to a Winger's again...even though we've only been ONCE since we got here...)

All-in-all, 2009 wasn't too bad. A few unexpected things to deal with, but we're all the better for it. Bring it on 2010!!