Jones Family Christmas Party

My picture today is from the annual Jones Family Christmas Party. Every year Santa makes an appearance. This year Brady got to sit on Santa's lap. Unfortunately, he was holding Eme.

Drip, drip, drip

Today's picture is of our bathroom faucet and fixtures in the middle of Eric trying to fix our drippy faucet. He worked on this all day (mainly because he had no idea what he was doing and he made 3 trips to Home Depot before he ended up at the Tower of Plumbing for some good advice and then he made several more trips back to the Tower of Plumbing.) He did a great job and not only is the leak fixed but he also bought new knobs that are so shiny and not moldy and calcified like our old ones! He can totally count this as a Christmas gift to me! Thanks babe!

A post a day...

My new advent calendar was inspired by a patient who said that one of their traditions is to take a picture every day until Christmas and then at the end of the month she makes a book of remembrance with all the pictures and each year they look at the years past! I loved that idea and decided to start this tradition but digitally so starting yesterday, December 10th my picture is this spider. Eric killed it in our doorway and then said "Jenny come check this out." I took a picture originally because I wondered if it was a hobo spider but come to find out it is probably just a common house spider, albeit a big one! Hopefully no more of these for the rest of the month!

Gwyneth eating a whole banana like a carnivorous beast!

Two months of Gwyneth

I've really let my blog go and so I'm now going to do a quick recap of Gwyneth's last two months...
Caught red-handed! I guess it was around the end of September to beginning of October that Gwyneth really started to figure out how to get around. She was always getting into everything she could within reach. This unfortunately includes our Wii remotes which are still a favorite thing of hers.
With a dad like Eric, Gwyneth was destined to end up with a Hot Dog on a Stick "future hotdogger" tattoo on her leg by the time she was 6 months old.
And then Halloween rolled around... and we had a ladybug on our hands! Pictured here with an "antique" nurse (Grandma Ann). The "antique" joke is a reference to a commetn made by a co-worker when Ann worse this costume to work. Someone said, "Where did you get an antique nurses hat?" To which Ann replied, "This was my hat in college!" I like to call this picture new meets old! :)
She's a little mischievious!
I think this was the first time she discovered the garbage can and she loved it. She started trying to eat it, or kiss herself... who knows?
Then suddenly, she grew a full head of hair! Or she fell victim to Grandma Ann's infamous wig stash.

She been eating solids since about 5 1/2 months and she loves them! She eats everything we've fed her with great enjoyment. Except for beets. She threw them up and ever since then she's been completely disgusted with them. She coughs and spits and makes the saddest faces known to man. All in all though, this girl can't seem to get enough! Where does she put it all?

In November we made the journey down to St. George so Gwyneth could meet Grandpa Taylor and Grandma Faye for the first time. They sure did love her. Faye kept saying how babies "bring their love with them." Grandpa claimed he never heard her cry the whole time we were visiting but I can assure you this was more a matter of his hearing than her being a miracle no-cry baby. Neither of them could believe how good she ate either. She had her first Ritz cracker given to her by Grandma Faye and she ate the whole thing within a couple of minutes!
This was the night we got home from St. George and Gigi decided to recommence her favorite activity - getting into the dog food & water. So I relocated the dishes to a safe place behind the kitchen table and the next day...
Gwyneth found them with no trouble however she hasn't figured out how to crawl around the chairs yet so for now I have a great barrier to the dog food as long as the chairs are properly placed! It was hilarious though to see her make it this far and then just stare longingly at the dog food dishes and squeal in anger at her inability to reach them. So close, yet so far away!
This was on her 7-month birthday- November 27th and it was also the first time she pulled herself up to stand! She also prefers her pants above her waist but with her build its just not gonna happen.
Same day, just a different angle. This one showcases how she found her tongue and has started sticking it out all the time.
And now we've made it to December! Happy Holidays to all! Gwyneth loves the tree and is actually not as bad as I thought she'd be with getting ornaments. There's only a few that are hung on the very bottom that were strategically placed because they were the ones she could play with. Genius parents! (said in a sing-song voice) :)
Our best buddies are apparently each other's best buddies as well! What a sad time I'd be having on the couch without these guys.
Gwyneth loves our new washer as much as I do but for different reasons. I do love that its a new toy to entertain her on top of the fact that its so much better than our old one and its HE!
Dad has too much fun when he's changing her. At least she's having fun too!
First time meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus. Not so sure about this guy.... but she didn't cry.
And here's a picture of the video I posted above. I've always mashed bananas up for her in the past but she was throwing a fit so I just stuck it in her mouth whole to see what her reaction would be and she just went to town. She loved it! I'm so glad my little girl is such a fantastic eater.

Gwyneth laughing!

This video was taken back in October but I haven't been the best at blogging so I'm just getting to posting it now! She still laughs when I kiss her tummy or blow on it but not quite as hard as this! I apologize for the bad video footage, I was busy kissing her tummy, not watching the camera!

5 months old and growing

Here's a little update on our little ray of sunshine. Gigi just turned 5 months old on Sunday. She has gone from eating rice cereal, to not pooping for 5 days, back to breastfeeding alone. She seems to be getting longer and skinnier. At her 4 month check-up she weighed 11.8 lbs. and was 24 inches long. She has learned to roll every which way, army crawl, sit up unassisted (for a record of about 30 seconds), remove and replace her own pacifier, and grab everything she can get her hands on! She has had two colds. One of them was only a minor case of the sniffles but it still interfered with her ability to sleep well. :( She went to a movie theater for the first time to see Julie & Julia and slept through most of it but was, luckily, a perfect little angel through all of it! All in all, its just fun to watch her grow and learn. Now here's the pictures.

Wait, what is that under her crib?
Frankie! He has found a new favorite place to sleep.

I just tried to put these shoes on her 2 days ago and they are too small now! This pic was taken two weeks ago!

Her first pedicure! This took a lot of work though!

I just loved how she was hanging on to this while she slept. She doesn't usually do that.

Dad's way of taking care of baby!

Little girl learning how to use the remote.

Of course this was posed but she had to get some use out of the sunglasses, they're just too cute!

Another picture of her sleeping but look at her hands! She just has to have a hold on something.

I walked into her room in the morning to get her out of bed and this is what I found- Gigi, happily talking and playing but look closely at her nose. Yucky snot!

Information travels faster in our modern age

There’s probably some really great quote out there about how when a person is informed they are empowered. Well, that is my quote for the day. Today I realized how very uninformed I have been for the past 2 years on our family’s cell phone billing. First of all, for the past 2 years my husband and I have been paying $107 a month for our 2 cell phones. A seemingly “normal” cost these days but still unbelievable for what we are actually using.

So, about a month ago my dear hubby says to me, he says, “you’re probably going to be mad at me.”

“Why?” says I, knowing that I am usually mad at him in his ignorance so this must be really bad if he is aware of the problem.

“Because today I signed up for the employee discount with Verizon that I have been eligible for since I’ve worked with the state” says Eric.

“Wow! (incredulous) You have got to be kidding me? What is the discount?” says I.

“It cuts our bill by about $20” says Eric.

(pause to gather yourself, Jenny)

“Well, that’s good that you did that. I just can’t believe that you knew about it and you didn’t do it sooner” says I, trying to be supportive.

So let’s tally up $20 a month for about 24 months = $480. But wait there’s more…

TODAY I go online because my mom brought to my attention that my cell phone emits too much radiation and so, since I will be eligible for a new free/discounted phone in a couple of weeks, I must research which phones have the lowest SAR values. (Feel free to laugh at this, I won’t mind, just wait until you get cancer and your ear falls off because of over-radiation and then we’ll see who’s laughing.) So I start looking at some other things on the Verizon Wireless website and discover, quite unexpectedly, that Eric and I aren’t even on a family plan that would save us an additional $20 per month!!
Let’s see, 2 years, $40 a month we could have been saving with the exact same service we have now comes to a total of $960 that has gone into some Verizon corporate big wig’s pocket to help pay for his or her daily golf and spa package. Meanwhile, I have been slaving away to improve the oral health of people that don’t even care enough to floss! So the point is, BE INFORMED. That should be added to President Hinckley’s “Be’s”. Oh, and by the way, if you are INFORMED about your oral health you will definitely floss or at least use some kind of interdental cleaning device daily.

Po' Roscoe

I'm sure we all know that dogs eat crazy things from time to time. For instance, my friend Ashly's shih tzu has been known to enjoy a frozen poop, or a "poopsicle", from his porch in the wintertime. I personally have witnessed my dogs feasting on Gwyneth's spit up (its very convenient sometimes because she spits up on the tile and then, boom, its gone!) Of course, they also will eat their own vomit most of the time as well. Most of these things are pretty harmless in modest doses and the dogs go about their day as usual. Well, today is not one of those days because today Roscoe actually ate Gigi's poopy diaper. Yes, he ripped apart the diaper and consumed about 80% of the inner absorbtion material leaving only the outer shell and the liner left to be discovered. I was very worried about him, naturally, so I called my brother who manages a veterinary clinic. He says, "You should make him throw up by forcing hydrogen peroxide down his throat and then shaking his belly like a volcano." Eric also called his co-worker, Teresa who is a dog officianado. She called our vet, Dr. Dan Goode for us. Dr. Dan says, "Just wait and see if it passes and he'll have severe diaherria for a couple of days. If he gets depressed and drools a lot, then he probably needs surgery." Well, after careful contemplation, we decided to get as much of the pain over with now by forcing him to vomit. So we took an unused bulb syringe and repeatedly filled it up and squirted it down his throat. Within 5 minutes about a cup of diaper material, hydrogen peroxide and dog food was spewed onto the lawn. Then the vomiting continued for about 10 minutes. Now, po' Roscoe is just laying on Eric's leg were he hasn't moved for the last hour.

We love you Roscoe! We're all pulling for a speedy recovery and can't wait to see you back to your usual neurotic-yet-playful self.

Gigi loves to dance!

Quick Update

This is probably the most recent picture on the whole post, but all the picture are totally out of order and I didn't have time to organize so enjoy the chaos!
Gwyneth loves sucking on the rag during bathtime. Now that she's discovered it, she's constantly trying to get it in her mouth!
Just a perfect little sweetheart!

What are you doing dad?

A couple of weeks ago we went on a tour of the Mountain Meadows Massacre sites. It was a fantastic learning experience. Gwyneth was about a 6/10 on the scale of not fussing during the tour but she was a 10/10 on the scale of being cute on the tour.

Uh oh! Live action puking.

Brice was hiding her face from the camera and Ashton posed like this. He's so funny!

Cute nephews! Cooper, the one year old, downed a whole package of Hot Tamales. This kid'll eat anything!

Gwyneth really loved her participation in the race. Mainly because she got to sleep through most of it.

Ashton was so cute running with Kent and he did such a good job of not letting anyone behind him pass for awhile. Finally, when someone did pass him he started to get really depressed and then when Eric and I passed him, he cried. It was a little sad, but I guess you gotta learn to deal with disappointment at some time in your life. Better 4 than 20!

This year the Jones Family Reunion was "Fiesta" themed. Gwyneth didn't particularly love her stay this year because she was too little to play with all the kids that kept her awake way past her bedtime. Maybe next year will be better? I'll tell you one thing though, she looked the cutest in her Jones tee shirt.

The annual moose sighting. Can you spot the big brown spot in the middle of the photo?

It's sad how closely she resembles Eric in this picture.

These pictures are totally out of order, this is Gwyneth on the way to Island Park.

Frankie and Roscoe spooning.

They're just best buddies! I promise, no funny business!

This picture makes me long for summer to be back in full swing again. This was a pre-movie backyard baseball game on a "bad movie Thursday with the Jones'".

Just a dang cute and funny picture I found of Gwyneth on my parent's computer. She's just 12 hours old!

And this is just 3 months old and cute as ever! Thank heavens her eyes aren't crossed still!

Funny pregnancy picture... it seems like so long ago now! Really, it was only March!

That' s all for now, maybe I'll be able to update a little earlier next time. Gwyneth does have her first cold right now so the last two nights I've slept on the couch while she's been in her swing. Maybe tonight I'll get to sleep in my own bed, here's to hoping!

2 months old & a new haircut for mama!

So today is Gigi's 2-month birthday (I totally missed her 1-month birthday, but I was still in quite a haze at that time) so I thought I better do a little post about her today and how much we've loved her last 2 months. She went to the doctor yesterday for a check-up and immunizations (sad face). She is now 10 lbs. even and 22.25 inches long! That is the 75th% for length and 50th% for weight. She has official baby acne, the doctor thought it might be eczema but on closer inspection found little blackheads. I was told to get some Eucerin cream or Aquaphor and put it on her face to help but she comes by it naturally, sorry Gigi!
*She is making eye contact all the time, loves to give us big, dimpled grins, and makes the cutest cooing sounds.
*She loves to suck on her pacifier but if that's not around her fists are right up in her mouth immediately, even just after eating.
*She is getting very interested in the things around her. Some of her favorite things to stare at are: the blinds, our shiny silver bedroom ceiling fan, and the little bugs & bears on the mobiles in her crib and bassinet.
*She is NOT a fan of the dogs licking her.
*She sleeps regularly for usually about 5 hours at night and then wakes up to eat every 3 hours throughout the rest of the day.
*She has always taken a bottle easily since we introduced her to it at about 2 weeks.
*She is so strong & loves to move. She squirms and kicks her legs all the time when she's awake
*One of my favorite things is when she's breastfeeding, sometimes Roscoe is laying by my side and she rests her foot on his back and moves it back and forth softly in his fur.
*She cries a LOT less than she did during the first 6 weeks.
*She loves to swing. Thank heavens for automatic swings!
*She is usually really good when we're out running errands too as long as we keep things moving. Occassionally, she's gotten cranky in a check-out line, but who hasn't?
*She's brought so much joy into our lives.

Happy 2-month birthday Gigi!

This is my new haircut I just got today. I love it and hope that I will be able to do it.

Front view of new 'do. The stylist is Chelsey Pugh at Cottage Retreat Day Spa, she's the best, thanks Chelsey!

This morning Gigi fell asleep watching Ghostbusters with Eric. I love her little puckered lips!

She was being so cute and smiley a couple of days ago that I just kept taking pictures and these are my favorites. (The one above and three below)

Dimples!

Excited!

Just cute, even with acne!

Gigi, her cousin Benson and her new friend Ryder at a BBQ at my house last Friday. All three babies were born within 2 weeks of each other.

Gigi's first kiss from a non-related boy! My friend's little boy kept giving Gigi kisses. He's going in for it here and Gigi, like a proper girl knows to close her eyes when receiving a kiss. But I do need to teach her to close her mouth! No open-mouthed kisses!

It's official: Lil' girl looks like papa!

Everyone kept asking me, who's baby pictures does Gwyneth look like? Well, I knew she didn't really look like me because I had the hair of an Indian baby and was so chubby, my brothers and sisters called me "chunk" as a nickname. So I always said, I think she looks like a mixture, she must have her own look. Well, I finally got Eric to dig his baby photos out of his parents basement and it only took one look to prove the she is 100% him! Poor Eric is really saddened by this revelation. He said the sweetest thing to me when he said, "I was trying to make another you in the world. But I guess there can only be one!" I love him so much so I'm happy we made a little girl version of him. I hope she has his sense of humor too! Don't you love Eric's scrapbooking skills? I don't know how long ago he made these pages but I'm pretty sure they'd be the same if he made them today. Some of the pictures I couldn't use because he cut them into cute shapes like hearts but ended up cutting out his face, or at least the majority of it. Yes, I am making fun of you Eric, but I guess I'd be worried if you were a better scrapbooker than I. Its like that one "According to Jim" episode where she beats him at racquetball but then its revealed that she cheated and when all is said and done he says to her, "You could've married a guy who you could beat at racquetball everytime, but would you have married that guy?" To which her reply is, "I guess not." I wouldn't have married the guy who could scrapbook beautifully either!