a jovial june

it is O-FISH-ALLY summer.

but poor everton, i don't take him outside as much as i should due to my horrific allergies lashing out the minute i step out.  but still, summer is my favorite season.  i love the heat, the tan lines, and the swimming we try to go out and do.

at the end of may, erin came with me to bunco and the theme was the 80s.  not having grown up in the 80s i took to the web to teach me about some 80s fashion.  i found the leather jacket at DI for $10!  SCORE!

my mom, erin, and i then went to slc on the 13th of june and met up with my dad's best friend and his fam.

then the next day, friday, brett, the kid, and i, headed down to richfield, ut for a family reunion on brett's side.

it was supposed to be a camping reunion, but i opted for the "glamping" route AKA we stayed in a hotel.  hey, there were lots of other family members doing it too!

it was actually nice just hangin out outside chatting it up with brett's family, my allergies didn't act up and the weather was glorious.  and pretty sure everton's dreams were coming true, he got to play in the mud, dirt, and rocks for 2 days.

he's sort of a loner though.  he mostly played in the dirt and rocks than with the other kids.

towards the end of the reunion they flooded the little field and the kids had a heyday playing in the pseudo pond, except for everton.  he was nammy pammy about getting into the water without his shoes, which were shoes that i didn't want to get wet.  sighhh maybe i turned him into a germaphobe.  or as my nephew likes to say, "he needs his man card taken away."

one of my nephews gleefully getting dirty.

some of my cute nieces and i.  seriously LOVE these girls.

then later that saturday evening, on the way back home, we stopped by byu at "the wall" where erin and her band, ahoy, captain performed.  i seriously love watching her sing.  she blows me away with her voice.  she used to annoy me when we were younger (let's be real, she still does) but i'm just so proud of her.

here's one of their songs and yes, that is TOTALLY me screaming her name, embarrassing her with no shame.

then when the show was over we scooted back up to tooele and we were almost home when we got a phone call from travis telling us that kyla's in labor!!  holy crap, we were almost home!  well, because it was getting really late and we had been driving all day, we continued on home.  but my mom and erin were still in provo so they were at least able to shoot down to cedar city in a few hours.  alas, they missed the birth by an hour.  they got to meet this little squishy though!

baby james fox cecil

erin sent these pics to my phone.  i still have yet to meet him!!  and i'm just dying to.

and the next day was father's day.  everton and i got our favorite gentleman some new ties.  perhaps it's cliche to give ties but lately brett's ties were driving me nuts.  he needed some new pieces.

nuts for nutella.

and i just thought you'd like to see this pic super enlarged, cuz it's hilarious.

a marvelous may

what's up blog buddies?!?

may has shot right on by and this is the first blog post to show that may even existed.

it's been a whirlwind.

my parents are in town so that's another reason why i've been on a slight bloggin hiatus.  our days are filled with movies, shopping, and eating, eating, eating.  it's our favorite pastimes.

first off, i got to see iron man 3 twice in one day.  that indeed made the start of may MARVELOUS.

earlier in the month, we helped kyla and travis move into their new apt in bluffdale!  they live just an hour away instead of 5!  i'm so thrilled that they'll be closer.  kyla and i have many playdates and shopping trips in our future.

she's due in june but she was 3 weeks early with hazel so she could technically pop at any moment now!

we're on standby.

then there was mother's day.

and what a gorgeous day it was.  

temple square was covered in tulips galore.  best time in slc ever.  

something about tulips just gets my goat.  i love em.

then i got these tulips for mothers day from my darling husband of a man.

then after church we swung on down to provo for a mother's day filipino feast.

 3 generations of moms.

us jones girls with our hot mom.

just some of the filipino women in the family.

kyla's and my family with our cousin kim's fam!

my hot cuz, kim and i!

the 3 great grand kids on the filipino side so far.

landon, hazel,and everton.

they look peaceful here but in reality they are rambunctious!

a bruised eye, rosy red cheeks from playing so hard, and a wide grin make for a tiny joker.

LOVE HIM.

with my parents hanging out with us, brett and i take full advantage and go on dates as much as we can.

one saturday we went on a super date where we got massages for the first time (HOLY BLISS!  thanks amazon local!) then afterwards we went to zupa's cafe (our first time) and finished off the date by seeing star trek, into darkness, which of course was AWESOME.  it was a much needed date with brett.

and the rest of the pics are random ditties of our may adventures.

  

the next event we're waiting for is kyla popping that baby out!!  

seriously, we're getting anxious and ecstatic.

double birthday deluxe weekend

everton and i are birthday buddies fo life.

we technically have separate birthdays, but the fact that he was born 30 mins after midnight when it still felt like my birthday those 2 years ago, i like to think we share the same birthday.  i can't think about my birthday anymore without thinking about my water breaking at the mall and i was in labor for 10 hours.

i feel like i have an even bigger bond with my son.

and this past weekend, it was our birthdays.  mine was on friday and everton's was on saturday.  couldn't do too much on friday while brett was at work but i took advantage of it being my birthday for all it's worth and did everything i wanted to do.  except sleep in, everton could care less that it was my birthday.  maybe i should've slept in on his birthday!  

i got to play around with my birthday gift from brett and i'm still in love with this palette.  i can attest that it is truly amazing.

my awesome friend jill threw a little surprise birthday party for her sister and i during the day.  it was really great getting to hang out with friends while gorging on mint chocolate cake pops.  thanks jill!!

then that evening all i wanted after dinner was to get some coldstone ice cream, which is something we do, like once a year.  seriously, that stuff be pricey!  but it was my birthday and i needed it.

sharing the goods with everton.  i'm just that great of a mom.  (and i ain't payin to get him his own!)

then the next day, it being everton's day of arrival to this earth, we went to the sketchy looking stockton miner's cafe and had a super delicious birthday breakfast.  and we didn't have to pay for everton's and my breakfast because it was our birthday!

i think everton enjoyed his breakfast.

for everton's birthday this year we didn't get to throw him a party and right now i'm sure he could care less about a party.  we're still recuperating from our vacation, shoo i just now unpacked the last suitcase.  so i thought that it would be more enjoyable and less stressful for all of us if we took everton to the zoo for his first time.  we went to the hogle zoo in slc and met up with some of our really good friends.

(most of the zoo pics were taken by my girl charlene, thanks girlfriend!) 

for the most part everton had a lot of fun.  but we went a little late in the day when he is prone to get cranky. he's really into animal noises right now (still not into talking a lot yet) and he imitated a lot of the animals he saw.  the monkeys mesmerized him and he didn't want to go onto the next animal exhibit.  now the elephants, they're my ultimate favorite animal.

left-right: matt & elise, us, mitch, jenny, & baby charley, and adam & charlene.

thanks again for coming out guys!

i think i have the greatest friends in the world and i feel so blessed to have most of my friends living right here in utah.  Christy, you need to come out here!!

and adam and charlene got me everton an awesome set of marvel figures.  he really appreciated it, you can see it in his face.

i can't believe this child of mine is 2 years old.  or the fact that i'm 25!  

everton is my treasure.

even though he's still not very chatty, he's really into sound effects.  what a boyyyy.  he's utterly and completely OBSESSED with trains.  and lucky us, we live near one!  (hint:sarcasm)  he can hear the train going by anytime during the day and rushes to the couch, peeks through the blinds and just watches it go by. and screams, "CHOO CHOOOOOO!" the entire time.  he also loves the thomas the train show, which i thought was so boring when i was younger.  his other fav shows/movies AKA ones i can tolerate are curious george, mickey mouse clubhouse, sid the science kid, sesame street, and toy story plus most pixar movies.  i also throw in an x-men/avengers cartoon every once in a while to keep him cool.  like i said earlier, he's also pretty good at doing animal sounds.  so as of right now, i try not to get too worried about him not talking as much when he gibbers like crazy.  but rest assured he still loves to say, "ashes" and can also say, "peas" for please, and "cheeeeese" when he sees you taking a pic of him.  he's coming along.  he's pretty much in love with fruit snacks and chicken nuggets, but heaven help him if i try to feed him anything green and healthy.

and i'm sure you'd like to know my latest obsessions in my 25th year of life.  i am in love with the vampire diaries, downton abbey, sherlock, and revolution, instagram, and i'm still obsessed with the titanic and LOTR.  i'm so freakin excited for the movies coming out this year i.e. iron man 3, start trek 2, man of steel, THE WOLVERINE, and THOR 2.  ughhhhhh i can't wait.

and that concludes our birthday weekend.

keeping up with the jones-of family, mud, and food

hallelujah.

we are home and alive after flying with a toddler.

everton did pretty well actually, it's just not on my list of favorite things to do.

we are exhausted and still on east coast time.

we were only there for a week yet did SO much.

  let's recap our east side vaycay.

SATURDAY-4.13

it's been 3 1/2 years since i've been home and flying back felt so weird.  maybe it's b/c this time i had a kid with me.

like i said, everton did pretty well on the plane.  i like that he's more aware of things now and can be easily entertained.  he is now fascinated by planes and kept saying "wow" as we took off.  but he would start getting antsy and restless towards the end of the flight and that's when he would drive me crazy. oh yeah, he peed on me too whilst on the plane.  it was AWESOME.

SUNDAY-4.14

we went to church and holy crap was it trippy being back.  i loved seeing old friends and it weirded me out seeing kids that i thought were in primary but were going on/getting back from missions.  i didn't think i was gone THAT long.

then after church we headed down to harrisonburg, va to see my dad's side of the fam.  everton got to meet most of them and he was loving playing outside with the cousins.

this is the playhouse my uncle built, everton and hazel had a heyday.

MONDAY-4.15

we drove to maryland to get sushi, visit my aunt, and grab ice cream at one of our fav spots, nutter's.

brett commented how crazy it was that we drove to another state for dinner and ice cream.  but that's how we roll!

TUESDAY-4.16

we went to the D.C. temple for my sister erin's endowments before she leaves on her mission.  what an amazing day and an amazing experience.  being in the temple with my entire family was so special.  it was the temple brett and i got married in so i consider it my temple.

and those tulips!  these are my favorite flowers so it just tickles me seeing so many of them.

WEDNESDAY-4.17

my mom, being the awesome lola that she is, put together a little Easter egg hunt for the grandkids.  you can say it's mainly for her enjoyment.

then it was lunch at panera bread with my best friend, Christy, and my sisters.  panera bread is one of those things you never realized you'll miss until you live in a state where it doesn't exist.

then that evening was kyla's "surprise" baby shower

we attempted it to be a surprise till someone spilled the beans just a few hours before the event.  but it was ok, i think kyla was still super excited about it.  she's having a boy so she got soo many cute outfits!

THURSDAY & FRIDAY-4.18/19

we actually spent a majority of these 2 days preparing foods for erin's mission farewell party that sunday.  thanks to Christy for spending her day off with me chopping veggies!  

thursday night was our little jones' surf n' turf feast.

we LOVE to eat.

friday night, brett and i got to get away and go on a little date while my parents gleefully watched everton.  my mom often tells us that she really just wants us to go away so she can babysit everton; i will happily give her the privilege of watching one of the cutest kids on the planet as often as i can. 

brett and i went to what i thought was a swanky theater in winchester, va where they serve you meals during the movie and watched '42.'

SATURDAY-4.20

TOUGH MUDDER DAY

my dad did tough mudder again. LAST YEAR the event was in MD, this time it was in WV.  he actually didn't finish this time around.  there were crazy hills and the weather was so chilly.  we all got to be spectators and even then we all got a good workout trying to walk to a lot of the obstacles to watch my dad get close to death.  he's so hardcore yet freakin insane.  

brett and i were enjoying the fact that we weren't army crawling through muddy water under barbed wires before going into suffocating pipes.

the top left corner pic was my favorite obstacle name, "the arctic enema," where you dive into a vat of ice water.  again, so freakin insane.

and this is my cousin terri, who went with my dad and totally rocked it till the end.

watching this event live made me think, "yeahhhhh, definitely never doing this ever ever."

 and it was totally a mistake to bring the kids.  we were outside for about 6 hrs straight and thankfully they eventually sonked out.  my mom wrapped them in the foil blankets they give out, making the babies look like little baked potatoes.

and next year my dad plans on doing tough mudder in seattle, WA.  slow down crazy, slow down.

SUNDAY-4.21
erin's mission farewell!
erin gave a really good talk and sang a beautiful rendition of, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in church.
then it was time to celebrate that erin is FINALLY leaving for 18 months!  jkjk i'll miss her so freakin much.

why so serious?  you can see poor brett's sunburned arms and face from tough mudder the day before.

and check out kyla's hot preggo bod!

everton can be a total grump face or a super cheeser.

so much work went into all this food.  i often think my mom is crazy for making ALL this food but in the end, everybody is well fed and leftovers are always a plus.  

hazel stuffin her face.

my parents had about 80 people over for the party.  yeah, they're still crazy party people.

 MONDAY-4.22

coming home felt like an all day event.  i was really sad leaving my fam and i teared up a little, which is actually silly because my parent's are driving out sometime next week!  sooo i need to suck it up.

everton fell asleep after busting his lip and nose face planting in the airport during our 3 hr layover.  the flight home was not bad.  i felt more relaxed than i did going out to DC.  also, thomas the train helped chill everton out. brett and i have become masters of changing diapers while in our seats.  i don't plan on flying on a plane with a kid anytime soon though.

TUESDAY-4.23

and here we are.  

i hope you're all still with me.

everton and i are still in our pjs, watching tv, and i've pretty much been putting together this post all morning. it's times like these i'm super grateful for freezer meals.  i don't have to cook all week!  and i really don't feel like doing anything right now. 

but today is when erin leaves for the philippines!!!  she'll actually be going straight to the manila, philippines mtc so she'll be immediately submerged in the culture.  when i last said goodbye to her we were both too tired to cry and i think we did some toddler and tiaras moves in our goodbye.  she is such an inspiration to me and she is totally going to rock being a missionary.

good luck girlfriend. 

we'll see ya in 18 months!

end of post.

thanks for hanging in there!