Randomness From May

Here's some pictures from May that didn't end up in our other posts: 

All dressed up before church... gosh we have cute kids. 

Kayla loves to pretend to be a kitty. She walks around on all fours, eats without her hands, and answers all of the questions we ask her with "meow". This was her pretending to be a kitty that wanted its belly scratched. 

Caden still loves books. He has a lot of them memorized and can "read" by himself. This is Caden reading one of his favorite Elmo books. This is the part where Elmo waves goodbye.

Makayla loves to pretend to be a baby and wanted to be in Caden's crib. They wanted to read books while in the crib. I don't think Caden loved Makayla invading his space, but he is so good to tolerate her.

Caden and Daddy have had a lot of naps together lately. I love my boys!

Tyler was in charge of making our salad for dinner that night... he's very creative.

This is one of my favorite things to see. It means that summer is here. I love watching the kids play, and seeing Tyler hard at work (because he doesn't work hard enough at work... just kidding!)

I'm one of those people that gets really excited about their flowers, but seriously, check out our rose bush trees.

Yep, summer is officially here!

Who Loves the King Size Bed?

I think our kids love our new bed more than we do. One of the reasons we wanted to get a bigger bed is because one of the kids usually ends up in our bed at night. And now that it is getting lighter at night, it is getting harder to get the kids to go to sleep, so we bribe them by telling them they can fall asleep in our bed. This usually works and we get some really cute pictures of our kids

It's a good thing the bed is so big because the kids end up in some pretty interesting positions.

Oh, and I think it's safe to say that Tyler loves our new bed too (or he just likes snuggling with Cader-tot).

25 Years at The Land

This September will mark 25 years since Terry and Craig bought The Land. They had everyone up for Memorial Day weekend, and since we may not have everyone up there on Labor Day, Craig wanted to take some pictures now. 

25 years ago Craig took a picture of the four kids and he has taken this same picture every five years. I guess you could say this pose is what started it all...

 The family has obviously grown in the last 25 years. Now all of the kids have families of their own.

 Who knows, maybe in 25 years we will take a picture of all of the kids in this same pose.

 We had to document the grandparents with their grandkids

 Terry and Craig with their five grandkids (soon to be six)

 Baby Kenzee and Camden are just three months apart. I don't think you could find two prouder grandmas around!

We did other things at The Land besides stage photos. Terry and Craig invited all their friends up this weekend, and they had over 30 people there. The kids made some new friends, like Cale 

And Alyssa

The kids got to ride the pony. At first the kids were terrified

but once they got more comfortable with the horse, they had a great time.

Old Man Camden got to have his very first ride on the pony.

All three Jones boys fit on the horse at once. I'm sure that will be the one and only time that will happen.

Carson and Colton made a Kay-bugs sandwich.

We did have a scary moment at The Land. There were two horses that were in the pasture and when we tried giving the kids a ride the brown horse kept bugging the white horse, but it was making things scary for the kids because the white horse kept trying to get away from the brown horse. Craig put the brown horse behind the fence, and we started giving the kids their rides. The brown horse started going crazy, and before anyone could do anything the brown horse jumped the fence. The horse didn't quite clear the fence and cut up its leg pretty good. It was bleeding so bad, and we feared it was an artery. Craig called the owner, but in the meantime the horse was limping around, but at least it was walking. The owner came over and took the horse to the vet. Turns out the horse just needed stitches, and it will be fine, but it was a scary moment for everyone.

This little cheese ball was so funny. He was eating his lunch (yep, we give our kids cereal for almost every meal) and he said to me, "mom, take picture of me"

and "watch this, mom!"

We had some hangball tournaments.

Tyler and Bruce took first place

And Deena, Tracy, and Carson took 2nd place

I think the kids' favorite part was throwing rocks in the river.

And for enjoyment, here's some other random pictures of our cuties posing. 

I just love these two kids, and the fact that summer now officially here!

5 Month Preggo pic

So I have been really bad at posting preggo pictures with this little one. It's not that this pregnancy isn't exciting, it's just that I don't feel that "pregnancy glow"... I just feel fat.

I finally felt the baby move a few weeks ago, and I love the feeling and reminder that a little human is growing in my belly. I feel like I am so busy during the day that I rarely feel the baby. But I love when I lie down at night and I feel the baby start to move. I start thinking about if its a boy or girl, and I get all excited just thinking about having another baby in our house.

We had the 20 week ultrasound and baby looked healthy. The baby had its hands and feet up the whole time, so it was kind of hard for the technician to get a good picture, but here's some pictures of our cute little baby at 20 weeks:

We decided to keep the gender a secret, but the technician took a picture and put it in the envelope just in case. All along I didn't really care to know what the gender is, but now that the envelope is sitting on our counter, I just want to open it. I have tried peeking multiple times, but it is sealed up good. The technician said that she figured out the gender pretty quickly, which makes me think we are having a boy, but my inclination is that we are having a girl. I guess we'll just have to wait a few more months to know for sure!

Thoughts on Motherhood on Mother's Day

Mother's day was great this year! I got to sleep in while Tyler took care of the kids and made breakfast. When I finally woke up, the kids and Tyler surprised me with my favorite perfume and flowers for our backyard. The best part, though, was the hugs. 

We had a lot of parties to hit that day. We started out at Terry and Craig's for a bar-b-q. Sadly I didn't get any pictures, but we had so much fun.

Then we headed over to Ryan's for another dinner. I think my mom had a great Mother's day with 6 of her almost 12 grandkids.

And I'm sure my mom loves her kids too... even the ones who live far away and grow Amish beards!

Later that night I realized I didn't get any "cute" pictures of me with the kids, so before bedtime we tried to snap some pictures. My little Princess was all about posing. Gosh I love this girl. She makes my life so happy and complete.

Even when we make silly faces together.

Poor Caden was having a rough night going on just a short nap that day, so he wasn't happy to sit with me and get his picture taken. Even though these two kids are so exhausting some days, I absolutely love being their mom. Kayla and Caden are the best things that ever happened in my life (well, of course marrying Tyler is right up there, too), and I love being their mom!

And of course I love this little nugget growing in my belly. Even though we don't know the gender, I love dreaming about this third baby that will complete our family. I love to feel the flutters at night when I finally lie down to go to sleep. I can't wait until my little baby is here and I can hold him/her in my arms!

Over the last few months Tyler and I have been contemplating me working. I truly love my job. I love teaching and the benefits it gives our family. I really want to work, but not full time. The last three years I have been able to work part time, which I absolutely love! It is the perfect schedule for me and the kids. This  next year working part time wasn't an option at Oquirrh Hills Middle. The principal asked if I wanted to work full time, and I knew with a third baby on the way, that was not what I wanted. I thought about finding another part time job at a different school, but didn't want to create new curriculum while on maternity leave. The option I thought, cried, stressed, and finally felt content with was staying home with my kids. I really struggled with this decision, because a part of me thought I would just be a "stay-at home mom" and that my education and years of teaching were pointless, a waste of talent and hard work. As cheesy as it is, I came across this quote by Barbara Bush that put my situation into perspective:  "At the end of you life you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, or a parent."

So while my life will consist of reading Dr. Seuss, instead of teaching classic novels, playing barbies and balls instead of planning new lessons, cleaning the house instead of grading papers, and having conversations with my kids instead of adults, I look forward to this new change in my life. I know some days will be difficult and that I may wish I was arguing with teenagers instead of a stubborn toddler, but I will look back and realize the little things we did every day together were really the big things that I will look back and remember. So for at least the next year I will pause my career to be a mother. To me, it is not a waste of talent, but the greatest opportunity for me and my kids.

Spring has Sprung!

One of my favorite times of the year is finally here! I love spring when all the flowers and trees start to blossom. The kids and I love to spend time outside playing on the swings and going for walks. Here's our cute kids in front of some of our favorite trees in our front yard. 

 I love this tree right outside of our bedroom window. Every morning I can see the flowers on it, and it just makes me feel like Spring is here!

Which means... our flip-flop summer is just around the corner!