Merry Christmas!!

My mom got Claire this cute outfit, so I had to take a picture of it so she could see-- since she's in Florida and I picked it out!!

The snow drift---Jason thought he could make it!! Here's the story-- We were driving over to Jason's parent's on Christmas morning after we'd opened presents and ate breakfast at home. I was in my car and Jason was in his Dad's truck, we'd borrowed and were returning. I got to the drift first and stopped. Jason pulled up next to me. I told him that I didn't think we could ever make it through, He said, " oh Jenn, just back up and I'll go first" This is where he ended up. Lucky for us we live in a farming town and within 5 minutes a tractor and a backhoe were there to pull him out and plow the road so we could make it to gma's and gpa's house. Jason claims he could of made it if he had gotten a little more speed-- we'll let him think that-- the drift was like 4 feet tall!!

Karson got his very own "real rock star guitar" as he calls it!! Santa brought it to him. We are excited for him to start playing his first musical instrument. I'm more of an acoustic fan, but the guitar guy said that the electric are much easier for kids to learn on-- so here's our future rock star!!

Don't you just love your house at Christmas!! I do-- I took this picture after Santa came on Christmas eve! We had such a wonderful Christmas this year!! The kids are at such fun ages and were adorable!! I loved being in my own house and would have been perfectly content just hanging out at home all day. We did get to see lots of family though, and that's always fun too! I feel so blessed this year and I always love Christmas as a time to reflect on blessings especially the gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ---his birth, his life, and all he did for us!!

Christmas Eve!!

Cute smiles from Claire-- Jason was having tons of fun making her smile.

The kids in their Christmas jammies-- I must say, I think I have to world's cutest kids!!

More cute Claire-- we just can't get enough of her!

Karson and Claire-- He's such a wonderful brother-- he loves her so much and helps me out tons!! I am loving 5!!

We acted out the Nativity with Jason's family-- it was so much fun-- brought back childhood memories!!

Blessing

We blessed Claire on Sunday!! She is such a sweet baby-- really a little angel!! Last night she slept for 9 hours!! I haven't had a baby do that until atleast 6 months!! She brings so much joy to our family!!! I feel so totaly blessed. As you probably noticed from previous posts, I've been under a lot of stress the last few weeks, but yesterday really put things into perspective. I have the most amazing husband in the whole world and three beautiful healthy children!

Here is Claire and her cousing Gracie. Gracie is one month older than Claire.

Here is a picture of Claire's pretty dress-- she looked like such a little angel!! So Sweet!!!

She is such a cute little thing!

Jason and Karson got her ready for her big day!!!

Pictures for Grandma

Here is Kate....I was taking pictures of Claire and she felt left out so we took a picture of her with the Christmas tree. Here's our little Claire Bear-- as we love to call her. She was looking so cute in this outfit, that my firend Jodi gave me, and I just had to snap some pictures. I think she is kind of half smiling in the picture. I tried really hard to capture her smile, but of course never snapped the camera at the right time-- mostly because Kate was being oh so helpful!! I think her cheeks are starting to chub up a little and she still has all her dark hair!!

Anyway, life is good ... Crazy but good. I am still stressed about school (hopefully I'll have that all figured out by next week) and Christmas (mostly because I am ward activities director and have to plan the ward party!!) and my house (which I've decided I need to not worry about so much) and my kids (mostly the messes they make--my mom says I'll miss them someday, we'll see) but I feel so blessed!! Plus it's Christmas time-- I love Christmas!!!

Thoughts...

I decided that I need to write more on my blog-- thoughts, feelings, etc. I'm not an amazing writer and despite the fact that I never have a hard time finding something to say, I do have a hard time writing anything of length. It's been a tough past few days. Everything with graduate school is exploding in my face. My thesis advisor moved to TX and my new committee is not supporting some aspects of the research we did. I went up to ISU for a meeting on Friday and was totally attacked. I cried the whole way home, but made a resolution to myself that I could overcome this and with the help of my old thesis advisor could prove these people wrong. Well, today my new advisor wrote me suggesting that I turn my thesis into a project. It would be the easy way out, but makes me feel like a total failure and all the research and hard work I did would be in vain. It makes me want to throw-up. I just feel so abused!! I thought educators were supposed to help students-- I guess I was spoiled at Ricks and BYU!! This makes me want to teach even more. Maybe that's why I need to go through this, so I will be a more understanding teacher and be an advocate for the student and not the "rule book." Despite all of this I am so blessed-- I really do think I have the cutest kids in the world!! Here is a recent picture of Claire. She was 5 weeks yesterday!!

House Update

Our house is really comming along!! Jason and his dad have been working very hard!! I'm so excited with how it is looking!! It finally looks like a house-- yeah!! The roof is super steep and it's so far up--I was very nervous when they were putting the plywood on the roof!! We should hopefully have the roof on in a few weeks and it dried in by the end of the month!!

Side view and garage-- you can see how steep the roof is here!!

And here you can see how tall it is!! We didn't even consider the hill at the bottom of the house or the fact that we would have 15 foot truses when we were drawing our plans. I think the house is about 45 feet tall plus the hill-- so scary!

Happy Halloween!!

Batman and the flower fairy-- so cute!! We had a great Halloween. Kate was so adorable in her fairy costume-- the pictures don't do it justice. Maybe I'll have to have a little photo shoot and dress her back up-- if so, I'll post more pics. Karson was Batman again-- He sure makes a cute little super hero.

Grandpa with all three kids!! Claire was a little fairy too!!

What a cute little fairy!!

Our sweet baby Claire!!! She looked so precious!!

More Pictures!!

Here are some more pictures of Claire. My mom and I had a little photo shoot yesterday. She got some great shots!! I can't decide who she looks more like, Karson or Kate? My mom says she looks just like Claire!! Either way we think she is pretty cute.

She's Here!!!

Here she is!! Claire Marie Jones was born on Tuesday Oct. 14th at 6:41 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and is 19 inches long. This is Claire and me right after she was born.
The kids came to visit that night about 7:45-- just an hour after Clarie was born. They were so excited to hold her and love her!!
Here she is with her new baby doll-- Kate insists that she have it with her all the time-- she says that it keeps her company. We came home last night. I'll post more pictures soon.

SNOW!!

Yesterday morning we woke up in a winter wonder land and it continued to snow all day long. It stopped for a little while last night, but is snowing again this morning. It is the most snow I can remember in one day since we have been back in ID-- and it's October-- what the heck? We stayed home all day long except for Jason who went out and shoveled snow off our new house. The power went out twice. The second time Jason got out the camp stove and we made hot chocolate-- so fun. The kids had a blast playing in the snow. Jason also made the kids snow cones-- the thought of eating snow from our yard grossed me out, but the kids thought it was the greatist thing and no one got sick. That night We ordered pizza for dinner and played games like Twister! We had a nice day at home as a family-- something we haven't had for a long time-- since we've been building our house.

Not yet...

So, I haven't had my baby yet. You all probably figured that out since this post doesn't contain any baby pictures, but I thought I'd give a little update. I went to the doctor today and pretty much nothing is happening. Okay, I'm dialated a little and the baby has dropped, but I was like that forever with Kate. I'm 39 weeks today!! So crazy. I think Kate was only 2 or 5 days early-- something like that, so I guess I could go awhile longer. I am just so ready to be done!! I cried the whole way home from the doctor. Anyway, wish me luck and pray really hard that this little girl will join our family soon-- Thanks!!

Five!!

Karson's 5!!! I can't believe it. He was so cute on his birthday. The first thing he did when he woke up was come downstairs and look in the mirror. He said to me, "Mom, I think I look bigger-- look how strong I am now that I'm five!" He had a fun filled day complete with a Batman birthday party with some of his little friends. I decided that it's great to have a birthday in October because there are so many fun decorations, costumes, etc. with Halloween close!! That night we went to pizza with Grandma & Grandpa Jones-- Karson loves pizza. It's hard to belive that Karson is 5! It seems like he was just turning 2. They sure do grow up too fast!! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be his mom-- he is such a good little boy and brings so much joy to our lives!!

House Update

Jason has been working so hard on our house. He has the entire main level framed!! Now we just have the upstairs to go-- yeah!! I have loved framing it's so fun to see progress so quickly and the rooms are taking shape so I can dream of what it will eventually look like.

First day of Preschool!!

What a cute boy!! He looked so grown up all decked out in his new school clothes! I think he is really going to enjoy preschool this year.

Baby Names

We are having a super tough time coming up with just the right name for our new baby girl!! We only have 7 weeks, so I posted a little poll to see what everyone thinks-- I would really apprecicate your vote or comment!!

House update

We have the basement all framed! Yesterday we (I guess I should say Jason) finished laying the subflooring-- I pretty much just watch, hand him tools, and climb up and down the ladder taking care of the kids and everything. We should be ready to start framing the main level this week!!

Cassia County Fair and Rodeo

Our cute little cowboy and cowgirl!! They love getting all decked out in their boots and cowboy clothes!!
Karson got to sit on the rodeo clowns lap!! What fun!!
Cute little cowgirl!!

Family Reunion

My family finally got together after 2 1/2 years!! It was so good to see everyone. Di and Rick hadn't come home forever and it was so much fun to see them and their kiddos!! Di and I are both pregnant at the same time-- again!! Di is due in February, so of course I look huge compared to her! We spent 4 days together up at Tamarak resort by McCall. It is so pretty up there!! I sure do love that part of the state-- so many childhood memories!! We took the kids to the lake in McCall, went on a train ride along the Payette river, and just had a good time hanging out together!!