Family Time

For our 9th Anniversary this year, I bought myself a family membership to Thanksgiving Point. (Yes, I bought myself an anniversary gift... Jonesy bought himself a gift too.. it's all good). Thanksgiving Point has so many fun things to do.  A dinosaur museum, gardens, children's gardens, barnyard/petting zoo and a TON of activities for families.  We get in free to all of this now!  Tonight, we had an hour to kill before bedtime so we decided to go explore the gardens.  We probably didn't even get through HALF of them before we left.  Here's a few pics from our adventures this evening.

We're looking forward to all the many, many other hours we will be spending here this summer. :)

Ruth's Baptism

Baptism of Ruth Ellen Jones

May 5, 2012

Ruth chose to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was a beautiful day.  It was great to see all the support from people who love her.  Here are only a few of the many, many pictures we took:

Before her baptism:

 After the Baptism:

We are so proud of Ruth for the choices she is making in her life.  She is such a kind and loving person.  We love you, Ruth!

What we've been up to..

Since I've been absent from the blog lately, I thought I'd do a Picture Post of things that we've been up to for the past couple months.  Have fun!

The biggest thing (for me, at least) is that I finished up my second semester of school with WGU.  This fall I will be doing my Pre-Clinical work (visiting classrooms and doing various assignments), next fall I will be doing my Student Teaching, and I should be graduated by December 2013! (Assuming all goes according to plan).  After that, I will be applying to Graduate School for a MLS Degree (Master of Library Science).  Hooray!

Another big thing was Ruth's debut on stage as a 'real' actress!  She played the part of Hiccup the viking in the play Rapunzel. She delivered her lines PERFECTLY! (and I'm not just being biased).  She even made the audience laugh. :)  My phone died during the performance so I didn't get any good pics.  My dad has some so I'll post them here when I get them from him.

Ronan is learning to write letters!  I did the "R" on the far right, he did the rest.  I know, I know...balloons aren't the best way to learn how to write... but we use what we can.

Ruth told me the bathroom was haunted... this is what I found.

We got a Thanksgiving Point Membership!  Now we can be awesome.

The boys really enjoy playing around the house...

...and making messes.

This was the first Jones Kids Tent in our new home.

Our hallway is perfect for train-track-building.

This is a new favorite book around here. Thanks Grandma Jones!

Jonesy and I went Geocaching during our Anniversary Getaway.  We had lots of fun.

My dad made a pretty awesome contraption for viewing the annular solar eclipse.

This is what we saw. It was way cool.

Jonesy turned 34!  This was his cake.

Ruth made him a super hero badge to wear.

Would you like some cake with those candles?

Purple inside the cake.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

Ruth turned 8 in April!  We are so amazed at how quickly she's growing. Our little girl is becoming so responsible.  She is now the proud owner of her own room.  She does a great job of taking care of it and keeping it clean and organized.  Ruth's favorite thing to do is read! (We are so proud!)  She wakes up way too early and she's not allowed to come out of her room until 7:30AM so she spends who-knows-how-long reading each morning.  She's currently reading the fourth book of the Harry Potter series.  She's frustrated that we are making her wait until she's a little bit older to read the rest.  Ruth hasn't got a single spelling word wrong on all of her spelling tests this year. She also enjoys math.  She got 100% on her end-of-year math test. Yay Ruth!  Moving didn't really slow her down in the making friends department.  She's still very social and loves talking.  Her favorite food is still Sushi.  We're so proud of the way she treats her brothers (most of the time).  She loves to read to them and play with them.  She's also developed an interest in helping me in the kitchen... which is nice....mostly. :)

For her birthday this year, she wanted to have a luau party.  We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Capel's house eating Hawaiian Haystacks, hula-hooping, eating cake and opening presents.  

Ronan kept saying "It's raining!"  He thought the little umbrellas were pretty neat.

Ruth and Ember are pretty amazing at hula-hooping.

Instead of candles, we did a sparkler in the shape of the number 8.  She was worried it would catch her on fire so she backed up... it was cute.

An impromptu conga line.  It was cute.

We're looking forward to our year with an 8-year-old!  She's so fun to have around.  In the fall she will be starting 3rd grade!  (I still can't believe how fast she's growing up!)