Our very favorite Christmas Gift!

Maura-seven weeks old!

Then comes the fun part!

more fun...


Even more fun!

Katie and Kevin surprised us early this morning to join in the fun!

Merry Christmas!!

Santa found us! He ate his cookies and left fun things in stockings! Garrett confirmed it at 12:30 am...then again at 3am...again at 5am...then finally the rest of us joined him around 6am.

I guess it's pay-back time for when I was a kid!


They must have been really good this year!


Hee Hee Hee


Thanks Auntie Joy!


The aftermath!

Haircut

Before

After


I chopped 5 inches and got some highlights...I guess with the shock of bleach and the lack of weight my hair went really curly! I didn't get a perm, but it feels like it.

It's a lot easier to deal with (not getting baby spit in it all the time) but it's a strange adjustment!

Ah-Hah!

The batteries in my camera don't seem to last very long. I was complaining to Adam just the other day about how fast they seem to die and I don't take many pictures.

Today I was uploading some pix from my camera and found several UNEXPECTED ones! Now I know why my batteries die so quickly...I think I need a better hiding place for my camera.

Garrett is quite the photographer. Here are just a FEW of the pictures I found...

Self portrait,


Again, of himself,



and of his brother.

Maybe fore Christmas Santa will bring him his very own camera!

Six weeks old today!

Happy six weeks to you, happy six weeks to you, happy six weeks dear Maura....She has grown soooo much!

We can tell when she is REALLY asleep because her hands float in the air...fuuuuuny! We try to push them down and the float back up.



On Sunday Adam tried to catch her smiling...she's been doing that a lot this past week! So cute! The head-squeezer thingy makes her ears look dopey, they aren't usually so obviously 'Jones' ears!


Note the spit stain on the cute dress...that's just part of her ensemble-a constant one!

I'm not really big on head-squeezers, but if I don't put one on her I get the "What's his name?" question, so she gets her head squeezed...I need more of these things-where do you get ones that are cute and not gigantic flowery things???? I still haven't figured out the shopping for girls thing!

Maura at 5 weeks

Getting bigger and cuter and more particular. She is a GIRL! Must have things her way and if it doesn't work out, the world will know!

We caught her at a content time. She lasted in the little bouncer thingy for about 5 min before she demanded to do something different.


She sure is cute though...I guess we'll keep her.

Yesterday was our first day back to church. It's going to be a trick to figure out how to get everyone ready and happy on Sunday mornings. Luckily, our church time changes to 11am in a month!! That will give us more time.

I'm afraid I'm going to see much of the halls and the mother's lounge in the coming months.

TRADITION!

Yep, we did the gingerbread house thing...the kind in the pre-made package all you have to do is stick it together.


Lots of fun, but it tastes nasty! The frosting is more like glue (well, duh) and the candy is really hard and tasteless. That didn't stop the boys from chowing down!

Two little Monkeys Jumping on the bed...

One was pushed off and smacked his head on the corner of the desk!


Cool! You can see all the way to the bone!


We couldn't find any butterfly bandages, but our really-cool-and-always-knows-how-to-handle-a-crisis friend Leslie had super glue!


So, we glued it! I guess that's what they do in emergency rooms now...just regular old super glue!


Yep, worked like a charm!

Dallin was a little shaky so we wrapped him in a blanket and had him lie on the couch, but he was tough through the whole thing! Kaisa came over to check it out-it was pretty cool!

Christmas Decorations

I finally got most of the boxes unpacked and the Christmas things put up. It took a while this year! Our lovely tree in the front room...


A cute nativity Jennifer talked me into buying-I love it!


The tree in the family room the boys helped to decorate!


In my boxes I found these soldier ornaments my mom and I (and my sisters) made when I was a little girl.

I remember my mom making TONS of ornaments, beaded angels, teddy bear angels, soldiers, drums...she was always busy making fun ornaments for her tree at Christmas time. She always had a nice looking tree and my dad always wanted a "Charlie Brown" tree. Usually we had two, a nice one for company with matching ornaments and the not so perfect one for us to mess with. Looks like I inherited that tradition!