Baby #5 ~ It's A GIRL!!!

It's been a pretty crazy year with a lot of ups and downs but we are excited to announce that Jones Baby #5 is on the way and it's a GIRL!!!  Mom and baby are doing good.  We had a little scare this weekend and thought she might make an early presentation, but thanks to modern medicine and many answered prayers and blessings she is still inside my tummy where she needs to be for at least another 14 weeks. :-)

Getting Ready for Halloween

Crazy that we're already wrapping up the year 2013.  I still feel like we just celebrated New Year's Day!  But it seems like once Oct. hits the months just fly by until another New Year's Day.  So to get ready for Halloween we set up our Jack O' Lantern man one night for FHE and the kids always look forward to stuffing his arms with newspaper and seeing people's reactions when they see him.  He is missing his hat in these pictures and at night his face lights up.  :-)

Labor Day Fun!

Since the kiddos and Tyler had the day off from school and work we decided to make the most of our Labor Day and headed over to the Phoenix Science Center.  I bought a summer pass on Groupon the kids loved going during the summer, but Tyler hadn't been in years so it was fun to go all together.  I also love going placed where the kids can run free and touch whatever they want because everything is there for them! :-)  It was a fun day!

Tyler on the bed of nails.  I went on it too but he forgot to take a picture of me.

Since it was Labor Day they had all this extra stuff going on and so at one point they had music and dancing on a stage for the kids.  Clara was the first one up there shaking it!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

One Friday in August we were getting ready to eat dinner when suddenly we heard the pounding of drops on our roof.  When we went outside we couldn't believe the amount of water that was falling from the sky.  Hello Arizona Monsoon!  Cooper was at a friend's house, but the girls asked if they could play in the rain.  Tyler and I said of course!  And the rest is told in the pictures...

I love how you can see the light reflecting off the raindrops from the camera's flash.

 After about 30 min. passed Tyler and Ella walked down to the greenbelt by our house and found that it had become a lake!  So where there's a lake there is wakeboarding and kneeboarding!  At this point we all went and put on our swimsuits, the kids rounded up some of the neighbors and we spent the rest of the evening in the park.  I wish I had pictures but Tyler pulled out our motorcycle and with a ski rope attached to the back I pulled him around the "lake" on his wakeboard.  It was so awesome and I seriously felt like we were teenagers again! :-)

Cute girl!

Addi and the neighbor boy

3 Cakes - 3 Celebrations - 1 Special Guy

When you are extra special you deserve extra special treatment and that's exactly what Tyler got for his birthday this year.  Who says turning 32 can't be great!?  And yep, I made all three cakes and I was pretty proud of myself for how they all turned out. :-)

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We love you!!!

Party #1 with the Wagners

Cake #1 - Texas Sheet cake

Party #2 with the Jones' the Sunday before his real birthday

Cake #2 - Lemon cake

                                        

                                        

                                        

Party #3 with the family on his actual birthday

Cake #3 - Cheesecake

Good morning Birthday Boy!

Breakfast and the paper at 6:45 a.m.

The day before I blew up dozens of balloons and then during the night while Tyler was sleeping I put them all over the lawn.  Then the primary presidency added their birthday sign to the decor.  It was great!

What's a birthday without a big sign on your garage door!?  And if you look closely you can see his "Birthday Boy" pin that is on the strap of his man-bag.

And of course it's even better when your car is full of balloons too! :-)

And to make Tyler's birthday super special I surprised him with a weekend trip to Prescott.  (I even emailed his boss to get the PTO approved.)  There is a super cute Motor Lodge that Tyler's been wanting to stay at and so I made reservations and my parents flew out to watch the kids.  We went shopping Friday in Anthem and then headed up to Prescott.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the motel had beach cruisers that you could borrow to go around town.  So we rode bikes to all of our meals and also to tour downtown.

We went to a super yummy restaurant the first night - El Gato Azul (The blue cat)  It was fun to hear a local band perform while we ate and the weather was amazing.

This is city hall and they had a live performing and people were dancing.  It looked like it could have been out of a movie.

We overheard this couple talking about where they wanted to eat and heard them say the name of a local cafe so we thought we'd try it out for breakfast.  We were not disappointed one bit.  The portions were HUGE and the food was amazing!

granola pancake