handsome and gretel

judging by this blog lately, you would think we have forgotten about miss avery. wrong.  she has been keeping us so super busy i'm lucky to squeeze in an hour of cuddle time with little jane.  avery is in ballet and had her big performance this week, hansel and gretel, (however, she thinks its called handsome and gretel and i'm not about to make her think otherwise.)  it was a crazy, hectic week with so many hours of dress rehearsals, plus 3 real performances.  a bit much for a two year old i think.  i'm still debating if it was all worth it, but we signed up for it.  avery was the cutest little lollipop, albeit a rather difficult one.  she has been so sick all week, refused to wear costume makeup, screamed every time i took her backstage to get dressed and ready to perform, and did not want to go on stage to dance. but once she got out there she was adorable and did so well. she is the youngest in her class and looked so tiny up on that big stage.   i love my little lollipop.

other than ballet, avery has been loving her new little sister.  she almost always calls her Janers and thinks being a big sis is a pretty big deal.  she rarely gets jealous and tries to be a big helper most of the time, sometimes too much.  i love watching her interact with jane when she thinks i'm not around.  she makes up songs for her and sings 'i am a child of God' whenever she cries and pulls out books and reads her stories all the time.  i'm amazed at how naturally those motherly instincts come out of little girls.

she said she wanted to make sure jane had lots of friends so she wouldn't be sad.

we have to keep an eye on her though, she is known to pull jane right off the top of our bed.

she is good at making sure jane has plenty of blankets

mostly she just loves to sit on my rocking chair and hold jane.

11-11-11

 yep. we love this little girl.  

and here is what was going on at our house on 11-11-11 @ 11:11am. up close and personal with Winnie the Pooh.  What were you doing?

perfect.

trae is at school, my parents just took avery with them to a basketball game, jane is sleeping, my house is clean and it's only six thirty.  i thought about taking a lovely evening nap but then i'd be mad at myself later when i couldn't fall asleep around midnight. so instead of blog stalking/pinteresting, two things i am very good at, i decided i could do a little updating around here.

jane is a month old today. i'm a little bit mad about it, it all goes way too fast.  i've said it before but there is nothing on this earth quite like a newborn baby.  all i have to do is look at her and my heart tightens up and tears start to swell.  i've been thinking lately how i am such an imperfect person, yet Heavenly Father created this little perfect being, from me, for me to teach and raise and love and learn from.  what an amazing miracle that is. every time i hold her, i am holding this little perfect piece of me and part of God. maybe he wants to remind us that one day we can be perfect just like Him and just like little children.  we have that potential in us,  it is just buried deep beneath imperfections.

(picture taken by my sis, Mckell)

there are so many things that i love about new babies.  i love Jane's funny little squeaks and grunts.  i love her perfect nose and her head of dark brown hair.  i love her long skinny toes and fingers, and how her fingers curl right around mine every time she eats.  i love her little newborn stretches, especially right out of her car seat.  i love her little sleepy grins and her real live smiles i get every now and then.  i love her funny facial expressions when she is trying to wake up or during a good dream.  even her sad little cry is adorable. i love that as her mom, i am responsible for feeding and teaching and caring for her.  and i can do that for her better than anyone else can.  there are so many things that i don't want to forget about this stage but somehow seem to over time.

i need to find a good picture of avery at this stage.  i keep telling myself that they don't look that much alike but every time i take a picture of Jane i am proven wrong.  she is filling out so nicely and i love it.  last night she only woke up once and a chorus of angels sang from heaven, and i actually accomplished something during the day because i woke feeling well rested and rejuvenated, rather than exhausted and lazy. she really is so sweet. but now she is ready to eat, and letting me know it, so i better go.

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