Super Cute

This is a post of all the super cute pictures I have accumulated lately. Enjoy. :)

 Tripp was having a party with his stuffed animals:

 The boys with their Uncle Colin. Colin and Macey take them overnight once a week while I work and the boys love it!

 Aunt Macey and Chantz:

 My Mommy/Chantz date this week at Chik-Fil-A: We shared a chicken biscuit and played in the playplace. Then Chantz needed to kick up his feet and relax for a while. :)

 Precious!



It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I can't stress enough that I LOVE the holiday season! We have had such a good one this year! Thanksgiving was at our house, and I think it was one of my favorite Thanksgivings of all time. Bryant really worked hard and made it so much fun and such a success. He cooked two turkeys-one smoked, one brined and baked, made the  mashed potatoes and gravy, and rigged up this massive table that fit all of us! I think there were 17 people total. I was able to make a roasted root vegetable stuffing and help with the decorations. I also attempted to make a bourbon pecan pie, and without going into too many details, the middle came out raw and I took a bite and the pie went directly into the garbage. New recipe next year please? Yes thank you. We were blessed to have all my parents and siblings come, along with Grandma Gibbons, Steve and Denise, and Morgan and John. We also saw Kevin and Pat and Jasper and Polina later that night. I feel so blessed to have a husband who loves me enough to put on a thanksgiving for 17 of my family members. I am one lucky lady! Maybe next year we can do it for his family. :)

 The Christmas spirit has been strong in the Jones household! There has been lots of baking, present wrapping, and watching of late night, cheesy Christmas movies. My mom, gandma and I took the boys to the Festival of Trees and we all had a great time:

 The boys showing me their favorite "knome themed" tree:

 This is my kids' idea of how a tree should be decorated (serious blackmail pic of Tripp):

 This is my idea of how a tree should be decorated:

 I bought this train from Trudy's shop this Labor Day weekend, and put it on my piano. I put gold tuelle and white lights under it and it is MAGICAL. Seriously. I feel like Martha Stewart every time I look at it. I also added gold tuelle to the tree and it looks fabulous as well. I may be bragging a little bit.

 I was able to attend Pat's annual ladies' Christmas brunch. We made wreaths in the shape of the first initial of our last name. It was so fun to see everyone!

The time is growing short-Christmas is a few days away. The advent calander candy is almost gone, Tripp's preschool class sung Christmas carols to the parents today, Bryant has had the Christmas lights on the house for a month already, Santa's cookies are baked, presents are purchased and wrapped, and the puppy has been purchased! That's right, we are getting a baby black lab for Christmas! I will post pics after Christmas. Bryant is also making the boys a bunk bed with built in dressers and I cannot wait to see it. We still have three more Christmas parties to attend as well!

I feel that our family has been so blessed this holiday season and I am grateful. I am thankful for our Savior and that we can celebrate his birth and what his life and Atomement mean to our family. Because of him, our family can be together forever. This is a great time of year to reflect on those blessings and to cherish those we love.

Family Pictures 2012

My amazing best friend Stacy took our family pictures for us this year. Despite the kids not wanting to behave, they turned out amazing and I just had to share some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Can you say spoiled??

My oldest sweetheart turned five this month! Can you believe it? He had a few specifications on the refreshments for his family party. He wanted cake. That cake had to be Lego Star Wars. That Lego Star Wars cake had to be eggnog flavored-the frosting and the cake. So what did he get? A custom made, blue Lego Star Wars eggnog cake! I cannot take credit for it, but the amazing cake lady we used did a wonderful job! Do you see the little fondant characters? I loved loved Yoda! And as you can see, the boys were intrigued. I actually had to cut into the back and let them try it early so they would leave it alone! 

 Unfortunately I can't find a lot of the pictures I took of Tripp during his party, but take my word for it when I say he was spoiled rotten. Grandpa Bret and Grandma Julia, their granddaughter Lexi, Grandma Gibbons, my parents and some of my siblings were able to make it. Tripp also had gifts delivered from Grandma Trudy, Jake and Britanie, and Allen and Sarah. He received plenty of legos, two remote control cars, and from us-and Easy Bake Oven! He has wanted one for months. So far we have baked a cake, attempted s'more treats, and made cookies. It is fun but takes probably an hour and is harder than it looks!

 His end creations: He was proud, don't let the face fool you.

 Daddy helped him make the lego cabin Macey and Colin gave him. I love this lego set!!

 Now that Tripp is five, he can climb to the top of the wall! Grandma Teresa took Tripp and Chantz to a play place last week and they had a blast. This was Tripp's favorite part:

 Here is my handsome, loving, kind, smart five year old.

I am so grateful to have Tripp in my life. He is a blast to be around and shows me over and over again what it means to love. I have never seen a more caring big brother. He loves Chantz and always shares with him and is conscious of him. He comforts him when he's hurt and truly wants to be around him. Tripp loves to have "Mommy/Tripp time" where we cuddle on the couch at night or play board games together. He helps me cook, he goes shooting with Daddy, and I truly feel that he surpasses me in brains. We're all in trouble now if that's true. I am so blessed to be his Mommy and I love him so much!!

Backtracking to Halloween

I got ahead of myself and completely skipped blogging Halloween!

This year Tripp wanted to be a pirate. And a ninja. So for trunk or treat he was a pirate, and for preschool and trick-or-treating he was a ninja. Lucky for me my parents have a whole box full of costumes to choose from! These kids got so much candy this year it isn't even funny. My ward decided to skip the trunk-or-treat (I know, right??), so we snuck into another ward's. We just waited until their little dinner was over, then pulled up and parked our car alongside all their cars, opened the trunk, and started handing out candy. My kids got loads and loads of candy. Then we still had the actual trick-or-treating, which was interesting because Chantz refused to wear a costume but still wanted the candy. I carted him around in the stroller and people would try to comment on what a great costume he had, then kind of stutter and look away... haha! They still gave him candy for being cute though lucky for him. Tripp had a blast and especially liked going to the houses that were decorated. Chantz still shouts "tick or teet!" when anyone rings our doorbell!

Here's the pirate Tripp Jones:

 Here's the, um, well Chantz.

 Meanwhile, back in Provo, the big kids played dress up too. See if you can spot Brice and Chase. Disturbing is what it is.

 Here's our "scary face" pumpkin. I actually carved that! I'm an artist!

 Dad, Tripp and Chantz getting the house decorated:

 After trick-or-treating, we let the boys stay up and answer the door to hand out candy. I think they enjoyed that the most out of anything they did that night.

 I had to take a picture of one of my dad's pumpkins. I was joking when I mentioned I was an artist. He is truly the all time best pumpkin artist!

I have to say this Halloween was very fun-filled and seemed to last like two weeks with all the activities. Too bad the candy didn't last nearly that long. I have the worst sweet tooth ever and it went fast...