thankful for....

lets be honest, there really was no chance i would update my blog daily so here is my thankful list for the past week.

november 2

my husband! i remember thinking while we were dating and when he was on his mission how lucky i would be if i could marry trae jones, not really thinking it would happen, but hoping it would.  then it did, and it's true, i am lucky.  we certainly have our disagreements and differences, just like most couples, but i love what that brings to our marriage and how close we have grown together because we've had to work for a successful, happy marriage.  most days he is my better half.  i am so thankful that we were sealed for eternity 5 short years ago, thankful that he has given me 2 beautiful daughters, and thankful that he is mine!

november 3

my rocking chair!  i am a little embarrassed about how many hours i have spent in this chair over the last month.  miss jane and i have become very acquainted with it lately and i love it.  my parents gave it to us a few years ago and it is bar-none my favorite piece of furniture i own.  i am thankful for it when i am up in the middle of the night feeding jane or rocking avery and reading her countless books each day.  it is comfy and perfect.  before you have kids, get yourself one, you will be so thankful you did.

november 4

the holy ghost!  i rely on this companionship daily as a mother and wife.  it provides me with the guidance and comfort that i need on this earthly journey, especially on days that i don't feel worthy of it.  how awesome is it that we can receive personal revelation and promptings from the holy ghost to help us achieve what we came to earth to do, and all we have to do is listen and then act.  pretty cool. and i am so thankful for it.

november 5

good books! i never was much of a reader growing up and i regret it.  there are so many good books out there and so much we can learn from them.   i rarely read a book i don't love, mostly because i only read books that come with strong recommendations.  i love so many books, but i am most thankful for this book.  it's my favorite, but thats probably another thankful post in itself.

november 6

seasons! it is so cold today, not something i am particularly thankful for, but after living in another country  where there is no variation during the year i am so grateful for changing seasons.  each season brings something so beautiful and new and needed.  my most favorite season is fall.  

november 7

sports/exercise!  i start playing city league volleyball tonight.  i am so far from being in shape but i'm thankful for the opportunities i have been given to play and be active. sports have always been such a big and important part of my life.  i have so many good memories of playing sports, and a few not so pleasant ones.  i feel that through sports my dad taught me how to work hard, and that has blessed me in so many other areas of my life.  i am not a faithful exerciser but enjoy the chances that i have to be active and stay healthy and somewhat in-shape.

fall festivities

trae's mom has been in town visiting for the past few weeks. she left today to head back to brazil.  it was kinda strange having her come back to her own house and be the visitor there but we loved having her here.  she was so much help with the cooking, cleaning, playing with avery, and snuggling jane.  we are glad we gave her the excuse to make a trip to the US.  her trip went fast and she crammed it full of so many things, but they'll be back in a few months for the next visit.  while she was here we took a little trip to the pumpkin patch.

i stole a few of these from macey's blog.. thanks mace!

missing trae and jane, it was a cold day so they stayed in the car.

later in the week we carved our chosen pumpkins.  

 what a goof.

this sweet thing was happy to watch from the sidelines.  look how those cheeks are chunking up.  there are so many things i am remembering and loving all over again with newborn babies. goodness, i am so in love.

 and now it's November, which could quite possibly be my favorite month of the year. i am going to try and focus on things that i am grateful for everyday this month, instead of waiting until thanksgiving day to ramble off my list of blessings. so for day one of the 'month of thanksgiving'  i am grateful for two healthy and happy girls.  they bring me so much happiness and our lives would not be complete or half as enjoyable without them.  they make everyday worth waking up for and full of adventures.  they make being a mom the greatest and most fulfilling job.   What are you thankful for?

a baby story

ready for a story. fabulous.

monday morning i had a doctors appointment.  i was dilated to a 3.  nothing big.  i figured i would go at least until my due date the next wednesday.  i went to firth and spent the day with meag.  i was having a little back pain but never once thought that it might be labor pains, still don't know if it was or not.  at about 2 am that night, tuesday morning, my water broke.  not a gushing flow but enough for me to think, 'hey, this is a little bit weird feeling.' shortly after that i started having contractions.  they weren't anything too painful and about 10 minutes apart so i didn't do anything about it, but knew this baby was coming that day.  i couldn't really sleep so i got up to do some laundry and walked through the occasional painful contraction.  i finally got a little sleep from about 5-7, but was having to get up and walk around during contractions every 10 minutes or so.  my dad came and got ave at 7:30.  i got in the shower and started getting ready knowing that we probably needed to go to the hospital fairly soon since my water had broke a while ago.  the contractions started coming every 3-4 minutes at this point but still weren't super painful.  all along i knew i wanted to labor at home as long as i could with out being stupid and waiting too long.   we finally made it to the hospital at 10:30 am. i got hooked up to the monitors and was dilated to a 6 at this point.  i opted not to get an epidural yet because i still wasn't dying.  i asked if i could just walk around until i was ready for pain meds.  i got unhooked for the monitors at about 11:30 and at 11:45 they started getting a little hard to handle so i knew it was time to start walking.  trae got off the phone with his mom at 12:00 and we hit the halls.  we had to be back in the room at 12:30 to be checked again. only a half hour, right.  the first contraction i felt while walking made me squeeze trae's hand pretty tight.  they were getting close and the next few had me bent over trying to breathe through it.  they were coming every 2 1/2 minutes at this point.  i made trae figure out how many more i had to endure before 12:30, because at this point i pretty much thought i would get an epidural when i went back to my room.  i remember him saying i only had to tough it out through 4 more contractions then we would go back to get checked, but really i think he was ready to go back then but knew i wasn't.  the next contraction came and i told trae that it felt like i needed to push.  weird feeling and crazy painful.  i probably should have headed to the room then but kept thinking i only had 3 more contractions, i could do it, not thinking the baby was really coming already, i mean, i was just dilated to a six.  the next contraction came and i told trae that i could feel the babies head coming, and i couldn't help but push.  i honestly didn't know if i could make it back to the room before the baby came. freaked trae out, and pretty sure he would have done anything to get me back to the room at this point.  we made it back to the room at 12:25.  i think i freaked my awesome nurse out next, and had her thinking she was going to have to deliver the baby because my doctor was in surgery.  luckily my doctor made it just in time.  i layed down, got hooked up to monitors, and baby was here at 12:35.   it was seriously hard and painful but so amazing to be that control of my body.  it took a good hour or so for everything to set in.  it all happened so fast that i didn't really have time to think about what i had just done and that a baby was really here, but boy was i glad she was and glad i made it to my bed to have her.

everything is still going by really fast.  hard to believe miss jane has been in our family for almost a whole week now.  we are loving everything about her and adjusting well as a family of 4.  ave has handled it a little differently that i had expected. she gives jane about 10-15 minutes of her day and then goes on with life like she is used to.   i'm okay with it and figure she could be dealing with this change way worse.  trae is a total natural at this dad thing.  he is amazing with his two girls and i fall in love with him all over again when i watch him interact with them. it melts my heart.  i can't stop thinking about how blessed i really am to be the mom to these two girls.  its amazing how much love our hearts have to give.  there really is nothing in this world like holding a newborn baby for the first time and witnessing the miracle of life.  i am overwhelmed most of the time wondering how i got so lucky.  being a mother really is the greatest thing.

1. spending some quality time with ave a few days before jane was born.
2. our house is full of pink now.
3. in all my pregnancy glory, right before we went to the hospital.

4. just minutes after she was born.

5. loving life as a new mom

6. avery holding her baby sister for the first time.

7. enjoying every second of snuggling.
8. adorable, thats all really.
9. my new favorite picture. EVER.

10. our first un-complete family picture
11. tired little thing.
12. finally, all of us together. our happy family.

we love our jane.  life just keeps getting better.

Jane Caroline Jones

she's here. and she's perfect.  caught us a little off guard coming when she did but we are so happy to have her safely here.  we love our little jane! we are all doing great, happy to be home, and trying to figure things out all over again.  details and more pictures to come soon i'm sure.

Jane Caroline Jones

October 11, 2011

6 lbs. 8 oz.- 19 inches 

sweet and sassy

this little girl is the perfect combination of sweet and sassy.

she wakes up in the morning, asks for her chocolate milk, throws a little fit if she doesn't get it, but is so happy when she does. never fail she will beg to cuddle in the rocking chair to get warm after her drink and bowl of oatmeal.   we usually sit and read books together for a good hour before we really start our day.  she might give me a little attitude when it's time to clean up the books or other toys through-out the day but it doesn't take too long until we're happily straightening things up.  it's possible she throws a tantrum when she doesn't get to play with my phone or watch multiple movies a day, but goodness she can make me smile when she plays make believe with her dolls for hours on end, and wants me to play along.  and it's almost a guarantee she'll put up a fight when its bed time, but she sucks me right in when she begs for more lullabies and kisses and hugs.

somedays there is a little more sweet, other days there is a touch too much sass.  there will probably always those moments when i want to rip out both my hair and hers, but i am so lucky that  i have her.  i am so happy that as independent as some little kids are, there are still so many things that she depends on me for.  i love that i am learning right along with her how to do this mother-daughter thing, and that the process is so forgiving of our mistakes and gives us both so much wiggle room to learn and grow.  we're both gonna be just fine even with our frequent off days.  i love my avery!

party

Gracie turned 3 last week and we got to go to her fun little party and 'party hardy.' it's a fun little bounce house with lots of additional play rooms.  i loved it and thought ave would be going crazy with all the fun blown up tramps and slides, but no, she would have rather played with the one bouncy ball and her little minnie and daisy figurines for 2 hours.  i have a slight anti-social on my hands.   she plays so well by herself and can keep herself entertained for hours.  most days it's quite nice, but there are some days i just want her to be a social butterfly.  one day i'm sure... she is only 2.  meag and preston were in town so they came along and preston loved it.  it sure is nice being back where we get to see eachother often.  meag is having a baby girl a few months after our little girl.  i am soooo excited that girl #2 will have a friend close in age in the family... trae's side of the family isn't really pulling through on the 'give our kids some cousins' part yet... (they need to get on it). anyways. i can't wait.

here's some party hardy action. 

notice avery's tackle-like birthday hug.  no messing around there.  thanks for having a birthday grace and letting us come celebrate with you!

being a little domestic

i've been busy being a little bit domestic lately.  last week i froze 65 bags of corn. made lots of raspberry and raspberry-peach jam, and canned salsa.  i've always been a little intimidated by the whole canning process. i've only done it on my own a time or two, but once i actually got the courage/my mom told me it was time i learn, then it really wasn't that bad.  i love the feeling of knowing that my storage supply is building up with all of these fresh foods, saved up for a rainy day.  

the corn process wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it was.  we picked sooooo much corn out on our farm and husked it the night before, and then trae and i got up super early and had it all done by 11 am.  it was so good to have trae help, seriously would have taken me 15 hours without his help.  we are still enjoying fresh corn on the cob but can't wait to dig in our freezer and enjoy it the rest of the year.

(ave sneaking a piece of pre-cooked corn)

(bits of the process)

(she was a serious champ while being neglected for a few hours)

next were the raspberries.  i wish i could explain the awesomeness of these berries.  our farm has 18 rows, each about 75+ yards long, full of the most amazing raspberries.  meag went out and picked yesterday and got 2 gallon buckets full on one row.  it takes forever to pick but i am so in love with raspberries it's always worth it.  i have enough jam to keep me happy this next year, enough frozen in my freezer for smoothies and desserts and will probably keep picking until i am sick of seeing raspberries or until they stop growing, which ever comes first.  they are seriously the size of small strawberries.   these were my pickings last week. 

i didn't document salsa making, but i dont think i'm done yet.  trae's grandparents bring up bags of tomatoes to us daily.  i think i might try marinara sauce or something else with the rest.  hopefully peaches are next and last, and i hope i can get them done before baby girl makes her debut.  oh man, i can't wait for peaches!

here are a few just for fun.

as for baby girl news, she is still growing, and so am i.  i'm the girl who hopes this baby stays put until at least my due date, if not past.  i think i'm getting a little nervous and want her to stay put for as long as possible.  i'm kinda having the same problem as my first pregnancy and continually measuring a few weeks behind. i had a ultrasound a few days ago just to make sure everything is still okay.  i'm a little low on amniotic fluid again, but not yet to the point where they are super worried.  i'm crossing my fingers that i dont have to get started early.  she's a little bit small but looks healthy! can't wait to meet her, well i can wait a little bit longer, but i am getting super excited!

i really do hate pregnant pictures of myself but because i was just searching my blog/computer for a picture of me pregnant with avery and couldn't find one except for right before delivery i decided to take one. i'm about 35 weeks here but this was in the morning and by night i think i about double in size.