My baby is ONE!

On January 11, 2011 Libby turned 1! It was a special birthday because she was 1 on 1/11/11. We had a fun day with Libby on her birthday. Because of the special date, our favorite yogurt place offered a small yogurt for only $1. After school we took Grammy with us and Libby got her very own yogurt! She loved it and ate almost all of it. For dinner we went to Tio’s for Taco Tuesday.

We had Libby’s birthday party on January 15 and she was just adorable at it. She could tell she was the center of attention and felt very special. She took a nice long nap before the party so she was in a great mood. Here are her invites…

Grammy gave made yummy cupcakes and a special mini cake for Libby to eat herself.

Libby was very lady-like when she ate her cake but eventually she went nuts on it and dug in!

She had a nice bath in the sink with both Grandmas helping wash her.

Libby had a great birthday party with our immediate families there to celebrate with us. I actually have a lot more pictures I’ll post later that Chris’ sister Kirsten’s boyfriend took.

A couple of days later Libby had her 1 year check up and she is in great health. She was 29” long and 21 lbs. Both in the 50th percentile. She did not like getting her shots though. For some reason the older they get the harder it becomes.

Libby just loves the mirror at the doctors office.

As my baby turned a year it was bittersweet. Yes it has been fun to see her grow and change and start to discover the world but now that she is a year I am saying goodbye to my baby days. I’ve said this several times before on my blog but unless there are any surprises down the road, we have decided Libby is our last baby. So each month as she grows, I get a little sad thinking that I’ll never experience these baby stages again. One thing thing that was hard for me was stopping nursing. I stopped nursing shortly after her birthday and she was completely fine with it which made me a little more sad. There is something about being able to provide that comfort for your baby and to not have that anymore is a little hard for me. I just have to find other ways to cuddle and get close with her. Some things that Libby is doing right now…

-She crawls very fast and gets around very comfortably. Not interested in walking anytime soon. (I’m okay with that.)

-She says everything and is quite the chatterbox. She loves to say Daddy, Momma, Ma Ma (for maddie), Caa (for Carter), Doyer (Sawyer), Ball, Dog (she even makes barking noises), baby (for her baby doll), baba (for her bottle), and says “Hi” when she sees people, and many more words.

-She loves to pull herself up and cruise around furniture.

-She interacts with the kids and loves to play and laugh all the time.

-She eats everything and is not very picky which I love! She loves tomatoes even!

Talent Show 2011

So if you know our family well, you know that the Talent show at the kids school has become quite a tradition.  Maddie has participated every year since Kindergarten and she is now in fourth grade.  Well this year was especially fun because we had 2 children participate!  Carter who is in first grade, decided he’d like to give it a try and did a great job!

Maddie sang “Popular” from Wicked, and Carter did a comedy act.  It was really fun to see the kids get up there.  Carter was a little scared right before but shook it off and ended up stealing the show!

Here are their performances…

More Christmas fun!

On Christmas morning the kids got up a lot later than I thought, not until 7:30!  I finally had to wake them up.  I was anxious to get going because I had a big breakfast to make.  Our tradition is that the kids get to see their Santa gifts when they wake up and then open their gifts under the tree after breakfast, that way it kind of drags out the gifts a little longer. 

Sawyer was very happy that Santa brought him everything Toy Story!  He loves figurines  and got a huge set from Toy story.  He also got a Toy Story Geo Trax train. 

Santa brought Libby her very own stroller to help her learn to walk, with a baby doll that she loves!

Carter got a huge Lego castle set and was very excited to start putting it together.  It only took him a couple of days.  Luckily its still up! 

Santa brought Maddie her very own Keyboard and a Lego set as well as a DS game.  She can’t wait to start piano lessons once dance is over.

After we had a wonderful breakfast with my family, we opened our gifts together. 

Libby could tell something exciting was going on.  She loved playing with all the wrapping paper and ribbon.

Later that day we went to Chris’ sister, Kirsten’s home and had a yummy ham dinner with the Nielsen’s.  Its always a great time with some good laughs when the Nielsen’s get together. 

Here is Libby with her cousin Halli, they share the same birthday!

While we were all visiting after dinner the boys thought it would be funny to dress up in Zoe’s dress ups.  Silly Boys!

The kids all put on a show for us and danced, sang and told jokes.  Kelli, Kirsten and I even got up and did an old DHS cheer for everyone.  It was a great time! 

Universal Studios

Chris had been given tickets to Universal Studios at work and they expired at the end of the year so we decided we’d use them while the kids were out of school and on Christmas break.  Chris took the day off and the weather finally cleared up (after raining for almost an entire week without letting up!) It was December 23, or Christmas eve eve (as the kids would say)  and it was very busy!  I hadn’t been to Universal Studios since I was a teenager and I was amazed at how much has changed!  I wasn’t expecting much but I ended up really enjoying it.  The kids loved it a lot too!  Here’s some fun pictures of our day…

The kids loved the Donkey character, he was pretty funny.

What a gorgeous day it was, and look at that view!

We loved the studio tour, it was so much fun and I thought  a lot of things had changed since I’d been on it before.  I loved the King Kong experience, it was really cool and I actually got scared.  While we were on the tour there was a cute family behind us.  When we toured the Desperate housewives set I started taking pictures and the mom behind us said, “Are you a fan of the show?”  I told her I used to be (which is true I stopped watching it) and then she pointed to her daughter and said, “She is on the show”.  Funny huh?  She is one of Eva Longoria’s daughters on the show.  It was really cool seeing the houses where they film the show.

The Bates Motel was cool too.  The stuff behind it is a set for the Grinch.

Sawyer looks a little afraid of being in Jaws mouth.

A Shrek and Fiona family picture.

Being Christmastime they had some fun activities centered around the Grinch movie.  They even had real snow!

I was impressed with the authenticity of the Grinch costume.  Even his teeth were disgusting.

Sawyer had to stay off some of the rides because their height restrictions are more strict than Disneyland and he wasn’t quite tall enough.  We had fun in the gift shops looking around while the other kids went on the rides.

Libby’s Chocolate Party

The day after Christmas I was busy cleaning up and putting things away and the house was awfully quiet.  Suddenly I realized that I hadn’t heard Libby in a while and usually that is not a good thing…  I started looking for her and when I opened her door she was covered in Chocolate and the floor was a huge mess!  Maddie had gotten a little box of See’s candy from Grandma Faye for Christmas and she left it within Libby’s reach.  Libby had eaten almost every piece of chocolate and was a huge mess.  I grabbed my phone and took these pictures. 

She was happy once she got in the tub.

Here is what her room looked like.  If you look closely you can see the little box in the corner, completely empty!  The walls and door had chocolate all over them too.  Luckily it all came up and I was just thinking how lucky I am that it wasn’t poo!

A Very Jonesie Christmas

This Christmas we were very fortunate to have my entire family together!  Heather and Cisco drove in from Texas and Jeff and Janelle drove all the way from Louisiana!  We had so much fun together and found that going places with 13 kids could be quite interesting! 

The first few days were very rainy and since it was a little crazy having all the kids inside we decided to take them up to the church and play some indoor games in the cultural hall.  The kids had fun and got rowdy. 

We also took the kids to a Candy store in Ontario called Logan’s where they make Candy canes! 

If you have never seen a demonstration of how candy canes are made, I will tell you it is amazing!  I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think the adults appreciated it more than the kids!  Chris didn’t get to go so I really want to make sure we go back next Christmas.

There’s a bit of a glare here but you can see the kids all watching the Candy maker work his magic.

Even Libby was enthralled while on Grampy’s shoulders.

The Candy went from this…

to this…

to this…

to this…

  

and this…  

and finally a candy cane!  pretty neat huh?

They had a cool little contraption that would make little mint pillows that you could sample.  They were still warm and very airy and tasted delicious!

Maddie and Davis enjoyed their samples…

On Christmas eve we all go together at Mom and Dads and had a wonderful feast. It was wonderful to be all together and watch the cousins together.

The kids all dressed up and did a Nativity scene for us while Grampy read the Christmas story.  Libby was a sheep and Ava was baby Jesus.  She didn’t like having her nursing interrupted so we had to replace her with a doll.  Amanda took lots of cute pictures so I’ll have to add more later.

The next morning everyone (minus Wes and Kristy’s family since they were at their home on Christmas morning) came over to our house (our tiny house!) and had delicious aebleskivers, roasted potatoes, eggs and bacon.  I was worried about how we were going to fit everyone but we all just kind of ate in shifts and it worked out perfectly.

Grammy made pajamas for all the kids and Amanda made them t-shirts that said Jones.  They all looked so cute!

After Christmas we did lots of fun stuff together.  We spent time at the park… (once the crazy rainy weather cleared up)

I didn’t get any pictures but we had a fun evening together on my parents anniversary with all the adults in the family.  It was nice to be together without the kids and enjoy each others company.  We had dinner at BJ’s and then went to Chris and Amanda’s for some fun games.

We also rang in the New Year at our house playing games and eating my favorite… cheese ball!

On New Years day we went to the Rose Parade.  My camera died within 5 minutes of arriving at the Rose parade so sorry not many pictures there.  I may add some later from Amanda’s.

The kids always go for the Silly string.  (Note to self:  Go to the Dollar store ahead of time and stock up!)

Libby loved the parade and would stare at all the beautiful floats.

Many people over the years have asked me why we go to the parade every single year and they always want to know how early we have to get up.  The reason we go every year is because it has been a tradition in the Jones family.  All my California cousins, Aunts and Uncles go every year.  I think I’ve only missed 2 Rose parades since I was 5 years old when we moved here.  Since the Jones family has become so large and we don’t do reunions anymore, it really is the only time we see each other.  My Aunt Sharon and Uncle Bob always host a big Lunch after at their home.  It is a wonderful day and has wonderful memories.  When Chris first married me he would always try to get out of going to the parade. (but he always ended up going!) Now that we’ve been married for 10 years, it’s a tradition he enjoys too!  Its always a given, we’ll be at the parade on January 1st. 

As far as how early we get up, it actually is VERY easy!  We live about 40 minutes from the parade route so we leave our house at about 8:30 or 9.  (Usually 9) and we always seem to get there right as the first float is passing by.  We go to the end of the parade route and we stand on chairs, and stepladders in order to see over those in front of us.  If you’ve never seen the Rose Parade, it is truly an amazing sight!

 

I was really bad at taking pictures and didn’t get any more pictures during our Jones Christmas.  The night before Heather and Cisco left I did get this one.

What a wonderful Christmas we had!