Precious Ella

Our friends recently had an emergency c-section and had a precious baby girl named Ella Louise. She was born with a major issue in her heart and they need prayer for a miracle. They have already witnessed many 'small victories' but still need a miracle for her heart to heal. Please look at their blog and pray...

http://ellalouisedordal.blogspot.com

Julie

Thankful

It's 11:15pm and I really am so tired but the house is so peaceful right now and I am thoroughly enjoying the quiet. As I was sitting here I started thinking about how thankful I am. I feel so blessed to be where we are. We have great friends and great family and I love Brad and I love our girls. Life is busy and chaotic but I really wouldn't change it even if I could.

Olivia just turned 4 last month (pictures coming soon) and is such a sweet kid. She has always been sensitive and that sensitivity is starting to turn into a beautiful sweetness. She loves art and could sit for hours doing a project if we let her. She is a great big sister and it is so fun to watch the way she loves Isabelle and Emi.

Belle is full of energy right now and definitely keeps things exciting. She is so much fun to go to the park with and one of my favorite things is to listen to her sweet voice when she sings in the car. She loves music, loves to have fun, and absolutely loves Emi. The second Emi starts crying, she stops what she is doing and says 'I'll take care of her mom' and then lays next to her and tries to get her to stop crying by talking with her or handing her a toy and then says 'mommy, I think Emi is hungry'. She is so sweet.

Emi has continued to be the best baby. I love her and she has made me love the baby stage. She is smiling and laughing and LOVES her big sisters. They can make her laugh more than anyone. She is usually a very content, happy, mellow baby and I love her.

Brad is an amazing husband and dad. The girls ADORE him. When they hear the door open after work they run over and are so excited to see him and hug him. I love it. He works so hard between work and finishing up his MBA (only one year left!) and still manages to make us all his first priority. I am so thankful for a supportive husband who loves his family so well. We have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. And even when I happen to drive our car with our new (used) rocket box on top into my parents garage and get it stuck, he doesn't get mad, he is just glad that we are okay and then maybe teases me relentlessly for a bit (rightfully so and I'm pretty sure that is one of those things I may not hear the end of for a while.)

Anyways, I love my family and thought I would share it with you all (if anyone still reads this). I will hopefully add some pictures soon.

Goodnight!

Tired

I love my family. Three girls at almost 4, 2 and 1/2, and 11 weeks are a ton of fun. I am so thankful for our life. But I just have to say I am tired right now.

PICTURES!!!

Brad and I don't normally do Valentine's Day gifts but this year I decided to surprise him with some pictures of the girls. My friend Whitney Tampien started her own photography company and she is amazing! Click here to see her blog. If you need ANY pictures done, use her. She is so great and so fun to work with and has unique and original ideas for pictures.

If you have followed our blog at all, you have seen that Belle definitely has a 'picture smile' that isn't exactly a natural smile and her eyes are usually closed. I was sure there was no way to get a good picture Belle and Liv at the same time. Not only did Whitney get some great pictures of both or them, but of Emi too! We are so happy with the pictures. I hope you enjoy them too!

So, I know Valentine's day is this Sunday but I got too excited and gave Brad all the pictures last weekend and he LOVED them. Here are some of the favorites. She took about 130 so there are more than what's here. I posted a ton of them so sorry for the long post!

So like I said, if you need any pictures done, call Whitney!

Rounding the corner

Well, I think we have finally rounded the sickness corner. After my last post I thought we were in the clear and were going to be done with sickness. Then late Tuesday night, Emi started sneezing and coughing and then as the day progressed on Wed, she got more and more hoarse and then started not breathing well. So I took her in and yes, RSV for Emi. For someone over 6 months, thats not really that big of a deal but for 8 week olds, it can often mean the hospital. Thankfully, we caught it really early and our pediatrician, whom we LOVE, gave her some medicine which helped her breathing almost immediately. She still was super hoarse, coughed a lot (and caused herself to throw up quite often because of it), and was really congested, but she could breath and we were able to stay out of the hospital. She had the most sad cry but is now almost over it and is getting back to her normal self. She continues to be the sweetest baby I know. We love her so much.

I feel like we have officially rounded the corner and pretty soon we won't be banned from seeing friends because of the fear of passing on all the sicknesses we have had over the past 3 weeks!

I have some really fun pictures to post as soon as I can pick which ones to post so stay tuned...

Christmas, snow, and Halloween?

Life at the Jones house has been a bit crazy lately. I'm quickly realizing that with three kids, there really isn't any downtime. January has been a bit rough. I was just telling my friend at the end of December that we haven't really been sick this winter and then January hit. 3 weekends ago Belle had the flu. Then Liv got it the next weekend. Then Brad got it. Meanwhile they also had a head and chest cold that wouldn't go away which if you know our sweet little Belle, you know that is not a great thing for her. Every time she gets a cold she has to do breathing treatments and if it gets bad, she has to take some steroids to open up her bronchial tubes. Needless to say this cold took us to the ER this weekend and then an overnight stay in the hospital. She is back now and sitting on my lap right now and breathing much better but I have to say I hate watching her struggle. It is so sad and she is such a trooper every time. She didn't even flinch when they put the IV in. I think she is much tougher than me. We are planning on much better weekends in February!

And here are some pictures from the past few months...

So here is our first whole family shot!...Emi is about 4 days old, Belle is 2 years and 4 months and Liv is 3 years and 9 months.

I just love how much Belle loves this mouse she got for Christmas...

Liv found a fun activity in her Highlights magazine, showed it to me, and then told me how to do the three steps to make chocolate covered pretzels. So we of course had to give it a try...

The final product...

By the way, that was actually a really fun and easy 'cooking' activity with the girls that took about 15 min. and they loved it! (so if anyone else out there is looking for indoor activities, give this one a try).

Belle LOVES Emi and LOVES to kiss her ALL DAY!

At the end of December KJ and Krista bravely invited the 5 of us to a cabin they were staying at for the night. It was a lot of fun...especially the pool table (and Uncle KJ).

Sisters...

SNOW!!!!

Our first (and hopefully the only snow we get) snowman of the year!

CHRISTMAS...

Christmas was a ton of fun this year. The girls were at such a fun age and they had so much fun. And it was so great to have Emi here...our whole family!

The princess sleeping bags were quite the hit. (I'm pretty sure at one point I said I would never allow princess character stuff in our house but of course the girls love princess stuff so who am I to rob them of their childhood dream of being a princess)

This is a classic Liv picture. She loves projects. My parents and Brad's mom got the girls a dollhouse and Olivia sat next to my dad and 'helped' him from start to finish without budging as he was putting it together.

Meanwhile, Belle was sitting with Dad reading, enjoying her new books. And I'm sure Emi was with me eating or something.

We are definitely a game family and Christmas just isn't Christmas without a game of Settlers with my parents. And I love that both of their eyes are closed....

Belle and Papa Dave...

Always having fun. I love how much the girls love their daddy and how much he loves them. They are total daddy's girls.

Me and the girls making Jesus' birthday cake.

So totally out of order but we went to polka dot pottery to make ornaments for the grandparents. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast. The finished products were very colorful and beautiful to say the least!

Okay, I know this is ridiculously late but I never posted Halloween pictures so here you go...

Liv is a Koala and Belle is a dog.

Oh how Belle loves 'colored goldfish' (the rainbow colored ones...I'm pretty sure they taste exactly the same but look way cooler!)

coloring the pumpkins they picked at Greenbluff...

Getting ready to carve with Daddy...

I have some more really fun pictures to post in just a bit.