Grateful for our Blessings

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives.  Here are the top five things that we are extremely grateful for:

1. The gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Without the gospel in our lives, we would have no meaning to life or direction.  We truly are grateful that we know without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves us and that we are His children.  We are so very grateful that Jesus Christ is our loving brother who died for us because He loves us so much and that through Him and the Atonement we can return to live with them again.  Also, we are grateful for the Holy Ghost and the prompts that we receive when we live n sync with the gospel.

2. Our Marriage.  Who could ask for a greater blessing than to be married to your best friend? Especially when that marriage was done in the temple and you know that it will last for time and all eternity.  What a comfort it is to know that we have the rest of our lives to grow together and then after that... well the rest of forever. 

3. Connor Cordell Jones :)  He is the most precious, adorable, fun, loving, and amazing baby ever. I might just be a little biased given the circumstances. But for real, we just love him with all of our hearts and then some.  Being a parent is one of the most wonderful blessings.  You think that you understand but you really can't until the day that you become a parent. The moment that we held Connor we knew that we were given a great gift and our lives for forever changed for the better.

4. Our families.  Who can really say that they have great in-laws? Well, we both can.  Adam and I love our families so much. We have a lot of fun when we see them and we love spending time together.  We can't wait until that day comes when we can hopefully move closer to home.  We are so grateful for the fact that we live only 45 mins from one another.  Whats cooler than loving your in-laws... the fact that both of our families get along great! Our siblings are all friends and our families hang out when we are states away in Idaho. Not many people have all that!

5. Jobs.  We are so grateful that we both have jobs.  In today's economy that is a huge thing to be thankful for in and of itself.  How taken care of we are that I was able to get a job using my degree as soon as I graduated, and that it works perfectly into Adam's class schedule (and Adam working the early morning security shift) that Connor doesn't need to go to a sitters. With Adam graduating in April we are grateful for faith and the comfort that it gives us that he will find a job.
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Once again this year we had Thanksgiving in Rexburg.  We learned from last year that buying a turkey was just way to much meat for two people, so this year we bought a turkey breast and it was just the perfect size (with lots of leftovers still!).  This morning I woke up and made pies, homemade pies that is.  I absolutely LOVE pumpkin pie and thinks that it makes or breaks a Thanksgiving but my dear love doesn't feel the same way.  I made him an apple pie. 

Here are Adam and I on our second Thanksgiving together married :) (oh, and yes I colored my hair. I have been debating on it for awhile, lets just say that it ended up about 4 shades darker than I thought. My hairdresser was none other than my hubby.. However I only slightly freaked out about the color).

 Our delicious feast! The only thing that didn't turn out perfectly was the mashed potatoes. Go figure I mess up something I've made a million times.  Oh well Adam was a good husband and didn't complain and even ate them :)

 

 We decided to just let Connor have the fun of feeding himself, well mostly.  He feed himself the turkey and stuffing and I fed him mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. I tried giving him some cranberry sauce and he just made disgusted faces the entire time.  It was hard feeding him because he was literally taking handfuls of food and shoving them into his mouth! He LOVES turkey and LOVES LOVES LOVES stuffing! He knew how to eat on thanksgiving! We even let him drink so apple cider in his sippy cup!

We had a wonderful day with lots of good food and quality time together.  Now off to make sure we have all of our black Friday plans figured out. Wish us luck shopping with a bunch of crazies and a baby!

My Birthday.., oh no! one more year closer to 25!

I really wanted a Wii for my birthday this year and the man reason is because I wanted the just dance game! We were watching the black friday adds like crazy so that we could get an amazing deal. Of course they didn't go on sale ( well, the sale price at Target and Best Buy are the normal price @ walmart) but the good thing is that we were able to get it on the Monday before my birthday.  We absolutely LOVE it! Just dance 2 is SOOO much fun.. it is pretty hard to get Adam to play with me but we play a lot of Mario together so its ok.

 

 So the morning of my birthday Adam decorated the apartment with balloons. Connor loved them! He was having so much fun chasing them around all day! He was such a happy good little boy the entire day! He gave his mommy lots of slobbery, love filled kisses and he even went down for his nap with out fighting it!

So at the age of 23 I was basically like a little kid.  The moment Adam got home from class I was ready to open up my presents.  He got me this lovely vest, this is the one present that i actually knew I was getting because I picked it out haha.

  Yes, Adam used Christmas paper to wrap some of my presents.  It made perfect sense seeing how we had it at home and you just throw it away anyways. Don't be confused and think I put up the wrong pictures :)

The PERFECT gift! A heated blanket. Some people believe to think that Adam gets cold.. that is the biggest myth! I'm usually freezing and while he is complaining it is too hot, as you see this is a perfect idea to solve that problem! It is even twin size so it just fits on my side of the bed!

 

 

Adam also got me a set of hot rollers! I have been wanting these lately since my hair style has basically been pulled back into a pony tail or bun. It is hard because Connor is scared of the blow dryer and whenever I use a straightener or curling iron he gets bored and wants to pull the cord down.  This is an AMAZING way to actually look nice with using less than 10 mins of time.  The second that Adam left for class I had to try it out and I absolutely LOVE it!

  I had to work on my birthday but it wasn't bad at all.  I only had to go in for 3.5 hours and it was a pretty easy day, no major problem with the kids :) After I got off work we decided to go to dinner.  Making the drive to IF was so not worth it so we decided to stay in Rexburg and we ate at Wingers.  I was a little nervous because Connor was so fussy for Adam while I was at work. He was an absolute angel during all of dinner.  He loved watching the family that sat beside us at dinner.  Every time that we gave Connor fries he had so much fun smashing them all over the table and pulling them to a million pieces.   

 We came and had cake! Ha Connor was trying to grab the candles the whole time.  It was cute because Adam sang me Happy Birthday all by himself.  I have such an amazing husband.  Not many guys who don't like singing would do that for their wife!  After we had cake we watched the K irate Kid and just relaxed at home when Connor went to sleep.

It was a GREAT birthday.   

Halloween

This year for Halloween we took Connor to a Trunk or Treat that was going on at World gym.  It worked well into our schedule and was reasonable weather. Connor was dressed up as a little monkey and let me just say the costume was perfect for his personality!  It allowed us to get some cute pictures! Connor seemed pretty clueless as to what was going on but at that age it is expected. 

We bought a Pumpkin towards the middle of the month.  The ride home from the store I had to hold the pumpkin so Connor could play with it. He was so excited to hit and touch that big, bright orange thing. After we got home he spent a good while just playing with the pumpkin and trying to eat it.  We tried to carve it later on and that ended badly, of course that was not our fault.  For some reason the pumpkin was really mushy in the inside and extremely stringy. It was pretty disappointing but oh well. 

 Outside of Broulims, one of the grocery stores, they had a stray maze set up for the kids to go through. It was just the perfect spot to take a few pictures of Connor. He was pretty interested in touching the hay and trying to eat it.

 I just think that these pictures are absolutely adorable! I love how huge his smile is in the second pic.  He was crawling after the camera. Man our little guy is always on the go! He'll be walking in no time, he has mastered walking around furniture and is really fast at it! He's not quite 9 months yet either.

 We gave Connor some M&Ms for his first experience with candy. He LOVES them! I didn't realize that the colors would end up running down his face. Look at that huge smile though, he loves chocolate just as much as his mommy!

 For work we had to dress up for our Halloween party.  Seeing how I didn't want to blow $40 on a costume I just made the things in my closet work.  I was some sort of fairy, haha.  It was fun and my classroom and kiddos won for the best decorated room!

We went to the ward Halloween party, well to be honest we didn't have a choice seeing how we are on the committee. We helped to set up and prepare the food.  Adam had to work that night so we basically had time to eat and leave. I wish we would have remembered to take a family photo but oh well. Overall it was a pretty fun time... now on to the better holidays! I have already been listening to Christmas music non-stop!

Yellowstone and... O-H-I-O!

The weekend that school got out we headed to Yellowstone national park with Ash and Karleia. We left on a friday when I got off work at 6. It was a rough start because Karleia had to still take a final and needed to finish packing. Ash drove with us and that took some rearranging so there would be room for her in our car. Ha on the way to our campsite we saw a buffalo running beside this tour bus on the opposite side of the street and it was so funny hearing Ash flip out! She liked screamed.."OH MY COW!" and then was like wait I should have said buffalo! Poor Connor was done with the car ride by the time that we entered the park and cried the hr and a half it took to get to the campsite. By the time we got there he was absolutely hysterical. We stayed at Grant village. When we checked in the worker told us that there is a grizzly bear that comes through the campsite every 2-3 days! That really freaked me out seeing how we were sleeping in a tent! We got the tent up and a fire going as the sun was going down. Fire roasted hot dogs never tasted so good! I was pretty worried for Karleia since she was driving by herself, in the dark, no service and wild animals everywhere! She didn't get there until almost 1 am! but luckily had no problems, she didn't even see any animals the whole way.

We did a lot of site seeing on sat. we got up had breakfast and then went to see old faithful. While we were waiting we decided to hike along the paths and we really had a lot of fun. We forgot the stroller at the campsite so I had to carry Connor and let me tell you he gets heavy fast! He was chewing on the carrier so the straps were soaking wet and that was against my chest all day.. pretty nasty. We took some pretty cool pictures while it was shooting off. We also went to the visitors center that was by Madison and the stopped at some picnic tables for lunch. After we went and looked at the geysers. Its crazy how colorful and pretty they are and at the same time how bad they reek! That night we made hobo dinners and then stumbled across a bear safety class that was taught by one of the rangers. It was actually really cool! We learned the hot spots to see them and how to tell the difference between grizzly and black bears.. it's all about the hump vs the rump!

Sunday morning we woke up at 545 to drive up to Hayden Valley to see some bears. We waited and waited and didn't see a thing. A few people said they spotted a mama and cub bear but by time we looked they were long gone. We were so disappointed and tired! We decided to check out the upper falls before it became to crowded. It was really pretty! We took more pictures! Ash and I had on matching shirts and hats that we bought the day before so random people when they passed us would say, "look there is a set of twins". We checked out a few more gift shops as we were heading north. Later we hiked the stairs that took us to see the grand canyon of Yellowstone. As we were coming back from the trail we noticed a few people were looking across the street. I figured they were just looking at a buffalo or a deer but no! BAM! It was a bear!! We finally saw one! It was only a cub but still it made the entire trip! Some of the people were not very smart getting like 10 feet from it to take some pictures. I stayed a lot farther back than Adam, Ash and Karleia but I had Connor and honestly, i was scared to get any closer! We then got ice cream and headed back to camp. Everyone but me took a nap and then we went to the visitors center for grant village, it wasn't very cool but it taught me a lot about the wildfire! We just spent the rest of the night hanging out.

Monday morning we had to leave pretty early because I had to be at work by 130. We thought that by taking the south exit would save us time. Boy, were we wrong. We were off roading it on windy dirt roads in two little cars for 57 (or so) miles! These roads were so tiny that a few times we were almost rammed into by on coming traffic (HUGE trucks and a whole boy scouts troop)! It sucked more for Karleia who was following us because she was eating our dirt the entire way. Luckily Connor slept most of the trip! It was a great weekend and we all had a ton of fun!

SO Aug 7-15 we were in OHIO! We drove to Utah on the 6th and Connor cried the entire trip. I thought that was bad until we tried putting him to bed that night. It was his first night ever sleeping without a bassinet or crib. He woke up every 30-60 mins screaming hysterically. It took every bit of strength and energy that adam and I had to rock, and comfort him. The next day at the airport was rough because we were all on about maybe 3 hours of sleep. Connor did EXTREMELY well on the plane! He loved the lady beside him on the first flight (the aisle separated adam and i). He slept during take off on the second flight and then we just kept him playing and distracted by the little tvs. My parents picked us up at the Akron airport. We just handed Connor over to Mom and he was a little scared until she started talking. All of my siblings adored him and he got a ton of attention! Shannon refused to be called aunt Shannon because she said she was not old (she's only 4) and i felt so bad for Larry because he had mono.
Sunday we went to church with my family and it was good seeing people in the ward. One of the nicest things was I was able to stay in all the meetings because my grandma, mom and sisters were holding Connor! After church we went home and ate, then we headed to the grandparents. We visited Grandma K first and by time we got there Connor was asleep. It worked out though because we had time to visit and the when he woke up she had time with him. My dad had Connor laughing pretty hard while we were there and it was funny because Connor was chewing on dad's dress shirt. Later we went to my Grandpa and grandma's house and hung out there. Connor ate some baby food and I think that his uncle benny took about 50 pictures of it!
Monday was a pretty relaxed day. My parents wanted a picture of all of there grand kids so we did that. They turned out pretty cute. Later we went swimming at home and let me just say, Connor LOVES the water. He was splashing and kicking! It was really cute but wore him out quickly! That night I started out watching a movie with Ash, Adam and Larry but i fell asleep a few mins in and just gave up and went to bed.
Tues, I got a new phone! After later realizing it was cheaper at wal-mart and having worked a few things out it was only 97 cents! We then went home and after lunch we went swimming again. That night we had my parents 25 Anniversary party. There was a lot of people over and it was too much for Connor. He was really fussy and was only ok if he was with me or Adam. The party went really smoothly and my parents enjoyed it so thats all that matters! Wed was the day that we went to Adam's house. They came and picked us up at my house. We then went and up graded his phone and he got the same one as me. Then we had lunch and hung out at his house. It was nice because his siblings got to play with Connor. Thurs we went out to lunch at Golden Corral with Adam's family and then to fun and stuff. We all had a lot of fun! We rode the go-carts, played a game of laser tag (at one point I almost hit ken in the face with my gun bc he scared me coming around the corner) and played a game of mini golf. That night Adam and I went to see the movie Inception. It was a good movie and was our last date night without Connor until my sisters come back to Idaho! Friday morning Adam went shooting with his dad, Ken and Josh. We hung around the house and then later meet with my family to see Shrek the Final Chapter or whatever it was called. Connor was really cranky during it so I was out with him and then my mother in law took him so i could watch the rest of the movie! I appricated that! We all went out to dinner at Hometown buffet. Our siblings get along so well, it makes it nice. We went down to massillon on sat for the fun fest. Everyone had a good time. Adam, Ken and Larry stayed home and played video games. After we went swimming and had pizza. Then we headed back to Stow. The Swingles came over to see Connor. It was good seeing them. Adam and I were in bed by like 10. We had to get up at 4am. Our flight left at 6 and Connor slept most of the 2 1/2 hr flight to Denver. We had little time in between flights and made it just in time to board the plane. He slept all but the last 15 mins of that flight! I was so worried the weeks leading to our trip about flying with him and he was such a perfect angel! We made it back to Rexburg by 230 and it felt nice to be home! We had a GREAT time visiting our families and for our brothers and sisters to meet their little nephew!

4th of July!

This year for the forth of July we went to the parade here in Rexburg! It was a little slow starting and there was a lot of long gaps in the parade line but overall we had a ton of fun! Believe it or not it was both Connor and Adams first parade ever! It was cool that they got to have that "first" together!  Connor didn't really notice much of what was going on in the parade, he was too busy watching the people beside us.  He did really well and the loud noises didn't really phase him.

After we got back from the parade it was def nap time for Connor! He was pretty tired.  My friend Charity and her husband Neil were in town so they stopped by to visit for awhile.  It was good getting to catch up with them!  We had fun talking and such.  Connor did really well w/ them too, usually he gets really shy and just stares at adam and me, but this time he looked at her and smiled and babbled.  Once they left Adam and I took like a 2 hour nap! it was SO nice and Connor actually let us sleep for that long.  We grabbed dinner at DQ and then headed to the fireworks with my sister Ash and her friend from home Laura.  We just went to the show here in Rexburg since Adam had work the next morning and we knew it would take awhile to get home from IF with all of the traffic.   We watched the show at the nature park and it was really nice bc there wasn't alot of people there!  there was plenty of space to stretch out and see the show. We played a game of phase 10 while we waited (or a little more than half a game bc Connor was getting fussy).  He fell asleep while Adam and I took him on a walk.  It was so crazy bc he slept thru the entire show! He laid in his stroller and the loud bangs of the fireworks didn't even disturb him! The show was alright, def not the best and nowhere close to the fireworks back home! But we did enjoy ourselves and that is all that counts.

Sunday we went on a long walk at the nature park.  It really was the perfect day for a walk.  Connor loves being pushed in his stroller.  Adam and I decided that we wanted to set the rest of the fireworks we bought off so we were just going to do it there.  With in mins we had an audience of little kids watching us.  It is a little scary that their parents didn't care that their children were off by strangers! Connor didn't mind the noise and he seemed to like the lights.. that was until we shot off a "killer Bee" and he started screaming and clung to me.  Poor baby.. it was so sad! 

 Monday we went to Panda Express with Ash and Karleia! It was so busy! We basically had to fight to get a table that would fit the 4 of us! But the food was so worth it!  We bought Connor a seat that hooks unto the back of Adam's bike.  We were a little worried that he wouldnt like it but boy were we wrong! We took him on a ride and he just sat back their taking in the view and slobbering all over his straps that held him in!  HA the sad thing is that just going on a 15 min bike ride wore Adam and I out! Looks like we need to go more often to get back in shape!

Father's Day and such

So we have been pretty busy lately! two weeks ago adam's mom was up here for a few days visiting! it was a lot of fin getting to hang out with her and for her to see Connor.  Then that sat and sun we went down to West Jordan so that all of Adam's aunts and cousins could see him for the first time.  He was such an angel on the trip! He slept the entire 4 hrs on the way home, this meant that I was able to sit up front with Adam and we could actually talk on the way home :)

So this past weekend was father's day! we had a lot of fun celebrating Adam's first one. we went to IF on sat and went shopping (his kind of shopping, looking at guns, buying camping gear, etc).  we also went to the farmers market there and bought Connor the cutest ball cap! it is the only thing we have found that comes close to fitting his head! it seriously is the most adorable thing ever! We went out to lunch at TGIF.  It was just a fun day :) On Sunday we went to church. we actually almost stayed for the whole thing! We did need to leave about 45 mins early bc Connor was so tired that no matter what we did he just screamed.  As soon as we put him in his bed he fell asleep with in secs!  We had Ash and Karleia over for dinner.  We had steak, potatoes and broccoli. And I even made him homemade cheesecake and it turned out pretty yummy.

Lastly, we took Connor to his 4 month app and he weighs 10lbs and 13oz! He is such a skinny little man! He is 24 1/2 inches long! It is pretty crazy bc he can still wear some of his newborn clothes and all of the 0-3 month stuff is to big around his waist.  We bought him a few new onsies this weekend and he going to be in them for a while still! Which is good but he should be in 3-6 months by now lol.  He is such a good baby though! He sleeps through the night! Also, he only cries when he gets tired and hungry.  Other than that he is all smiles and laughs. He is learning how to hold his bottle and he does a pretty good job (with help still).  He also is starting to eat food. We introduced him to baby cereal about 3 weeks ago and he does pretty well with eating off the spoon.  Last week we introduced him to veggies! He likes Yams but isnt so fond of peas.  We just adore and love Connor so much, much more than we can ever express in words!

Oh yeah! Connor LOVES watching TV and playing video games with Daddy! :)

4 Months later..

Connor was born and well, life got really busy! He will be 4 months old on the 17th of this month. it is crazy how fast time goes! he's a pretty tiny little guy still and weighs less than 10lbs (which is crazy seeing how some babies weigh that much when they are born!) He loves watching tv with dad, is so alert, smiles and "talks" ALL the time. he started laughing on may 22 and he has the most adorable laugh ever. he loves standing (obviously supported). we really think he will be crawling soon. he has the arm movements down and can do little scoots but soon.

i graduated college on April 10 and it is the best feeling. i now work part time at child and family resources which is a partial care. i am a social worker with the after school group. i pretty much love my job. working with kids is fun but also stressful on certain days. other than work i spend the days doing house work (lame) and playing with that adorable son of mine.

adam is in school. boy, he is getting tired of it! i dont really blame him since he is on fast grad and goes year round. but the good thing is that after this semester he will have a 7 week break. i am so ready for that bc we get to go home to Ohio and see our family! it will be the first time that our siblings will see Connor. they are so stinking excited! i really do wish that we lived closer so that they could have seen him before he will be 6 months! but i guess there isnt much i can do..

last weekend we went to Boise for a mini vacation. it was so much fun! we loved escaping from the rexburg seen and going someplace other than Utah. there was so much to do there. we loved the atmosphere and the historical parts of the city. if we werent planning on moving back to ohio next year when adam gradates we would def consider Boise!