Camarie's 30th Birthday!!! AAAHHHHH!!

It has been a long time since I have posted to the ol' blog. I have discovered facebook and forgotten to update our blog. so here is the first of many blogs to be posted today. So for my birthday, I wanted to relive childhood. I just wanted to have fun, so we went bowling!! It was Brenden's first time and he loved it, and was very sad that we only did one game, he even cried! Bowling has gotten way too expensive, I don't know how all those rednecks can afford to play. After all of our fun, I got to open my presents and eat some delicious chocolate cake that a friend had made fo rme. It was a really fun day. Hooray for being 30. The next day we had a super bowl party with some of our friends, it made for a great weekend.

Christmas at the Jones' 2008

Well Christmas is finally over!!! It was a lot easier than I expected, having eight extra bodies in our home was a scary thought. We had no disagreements, and everyone worked well together. I didn't even have to do a job chart, things just got done, it was magical.

We had extremely weird weather. The week started out at -2 degrees with an ice storm. We were expecting a white Christmas but it didn't happen. Then on the 27th it was 67 degrees, we didn't even wear coats to the mall! On the 28th we went to the store again and it was cold but not bad, but by the time we were done with our shopping it had started freezing rain, and and we were cold!!! The next morning I was making breakfast when I heard a weird noise, and then realized that the sirens were going off I quickly realized that they weren't testing them so I ran and turned on the television to discover that we were in a tornado warning!! No joking one had touched down in the city just east of us. I got Matt out of the shower, ashliegh and dawn out of bed, Josh off the x-box, and the boys were mad because I wouldn't let them play in the toy room anymore!! We then spent the next half our sitting on the floor of the laundry room and spilled out into the hallway. Needless to say the weather was crazy!!

I was able to recreate my mothers homemade chocolates (raspberry, orange, and vanilla), I made her famous Christmas Eve Gumbo, Turkey dinner for Christmas, and a ham for one other dinner. There were lots of leftovers, but they were happily eaten. Alicia made wonderful fudge (just as creamy as moms), and Ashliegh made rolls (they were better than any I have attempted to make over the years).

Calvin and Brenden were successful at dumping every toy in the house out on the toy room floor and sometimes they were dragged into the TV room, just to help with the clutter there. They spent their first day together screaming and running around the entire house, Matt was not looking forward to the rest of the week if they were to continue that noise. Fortunately, it was just the first day jitters (and Calvin had been in a van for 8 hours that day too). Amazingly there were very few spats over toys and not sharing, they were awesome at sharing. It helps that they had the same toys and the ones that were most popular we had duplicates on hand.

Jonas never quite got acclimated to being at our house. He threw up all over his bed one morning and another evening he threw up all over Josh (as pictured in the slide show).

Ashliegh's flight was delayed and delayed and she switched flights at least three times before she settled on a straight through that was to arrive at 8:30pm, which was then delayed even more. She eventually got in at about 11:30pm and we subsequently got home around 1 or 2am, I can't remember. Josh rode with me to pick her up. She spent her week sleeping in and being the master guitarist at Rock Band. She was the last guest to leave and it was hard to let her go (mainly because we had to leave the house at 5am to get her to the airport in time for her flight).

Alicia arrived on the 22nd and Josh went to pick her up as well but this time had Ashliegh to accompany her. They were an exit away from the airport when the came upon a car that was in their lane, perpendicular to traffic. Josh very carefully approached and turned on his hazards, they got out and comforted the freaked out girl and let her call her mom from their phone. They were late in picking Alicia up but it all worked out. I tried staying up for them but fell asleep on the couch and woke up when they arrived because we had locked them out of the house!! OOPS. Cricket immediately remembered Alicia and wanted to sleep with her but Ali didn't want to wake up at 6am to let her out to pee. The boys were so happy to see her as well, when she woke up in the morning she chased them around for about an hour until they were all tickled out and she was out of breath. She was great at getting them tired!! I think she used it as her exercise for the week. Alicia was the lead singer for our rock band. She has some great vocals and especially loves Journey (if I ever hear another Journey song, it will be too soon.

Matt worked until the 23rd and fell asleep early every night, he says it was because he was helping Brenden to go down but I think he was really tired. When is he not really tired?! He did stay up on Christmas eve and play rock band and had fun with everyone doing that. He was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly the week went and how comfortable the house felt with all the extra people. He took lots of naps throughout the days and was very relaxed.

Josh was the real trooper!! He stayed up late every night and was the first adult up every morning taking care of all three boys while the rest of us slept in. I don't think I slept in too long because I felt bad as the hostess, but I did take advantage of him being up. He also was the one that was puked on, and cleaned up a lot of messes. He rocked out on all the different instruments and was the male vocalist for our rock band.

Dawn did a lot of sleeping in and going to bed early. Don't think she had it all great, she was the one waking up at all hours of the night to nurse Jonas, she deserved to sleep in. She got the girls to do yoga one morning, and helped out in the kitchen when she could. She also helped me with the boys, cleaning up the toy room, taking them potty, and entertaining them. She played whatever instrument that was open when she could.

Matt suggested at the beginning of the week that we go and buy the game Rock Band 2 because he thought it would be the perfect game for this crowd. And was he ever right!! It took a couple of days before we got sick of the music and finally broke down and got the cheat code to open all the music. Once that was done, they created their band. We settled on the name Pojo Puke (Poulton Jones Puke [due to Jonas' outbursts]) We had some favorite songs that were done, over, and over, and over. Josh, Matt, and Ashliegh decided to personalize their characters while the rest of us went to the store. Lets just say that there was a lot of hair, and makeup. Long live Pojo Puke!!!

I added our pictures to the slide show in my previous post. But here are some videos of our holiday.

Christmas Preparations

Here are some fun photos of us getting ready for the Christmas holidays. We went and cut down our own tree, that was really fun. The only problem was that the trees seemed so small out in the open!! Once we got the tree home, we had the height right but neglected to focus on the width, we have to maneuver around the tree to get to the foyer and stairs. We could always walk through the toy room instead but that is just too many steps. :) There are also some pics of Matt hanging the lights on the house. Take note that he is hugging the house with all his might while trying to hang the lights. Our ladder just wasn't tall enough to get to the eaves. I took two steps out onto the roof and decided to wait for Matt to come home. :)

For Thanksgiving Cricket was given a turkey bone that was probably 2/3 the length of her little body. I don't know if we will give her one while our Christmas guests are here because she became very territorial and there were bone shards all over the house, I don't think that would be good for little Jonas.

Brenden wouldn't look at the camera while sitting on Santa's lap until we told him not to smile and not to look at mommy!! What a stinker! Thank Heaven for reverse psychology.

We had a wonderful week and especially enjoyed having Matt home! We can't wait for Christmas when he has time off again.

13th month

So today Brenden was asking me when everyone's birthdays were. He told me his was in April, then I told him daddy's was December, then mine was in January. He then asked me when Cricket's birthday was and I told him it was in November. He repeated November and then said "Yes-vember." Who knew there was a whole other month in the year!! I had to laugh.

Halloween was a day of fun!!! We started it out by joining our friends Brin and Tommy and going downtown to trick-or-treat the stores. While there we met up with our friend Porter, and the party began. We were even able to take Cricket into the stores with us and some of them had treats for her too! After filling Brenden's Elmo bucket, we headed home for some dinner and the trick-or-treators that were coming to our house. Brenden would have gone out and done our neighborhood with daddy but Matt came home sick and went straight to bed. So to make up for it, I let him pass the candy out and some kids were given generous amounts of candy and others just got a piece or two. All-in-all, I think it was a very successful night. Brenden seemed very happy with the candy he received. Here are some photos and videos of the days events. Enjoy!!

Colorado trip 2008

So our trip to Colorado was awesome!!! Matt went up the Tuesday before for a conference in Denver, on Friday night, after the baby was picked up by her dad, Brenden, Cricket, and I jumped into the car and started driving. We spent the night at the worst Motel 6 EVER!!!! I don't think they knew what a vacuum was and the shower was a joke, there wasn't even a tub!! I barely slept because, well I was too grossed out to. I had us all out the door by 6:30am with no showers. We arrived in Castle Rock at about 2:30 and were very glad to be there. I let Brenden go wild while I took a shower and got myself prettied up. I left Brenden at his cousins for the night and I went to Denver to take advantage of a free hotel room, and a night on the town. After a wonderful dinner at PF Changs, we took a nice walk and returned to the hotel for a well deserved sleep. That was my very first night away from Brenden, and I slept like a baby. I had no one waking me up to let them out to pee or take them potty. It was reminiscent of the life I once knew, where sleep was my own. As fun as that life was, I still love the one I currently have way better. Saturday morning Matt was off to his last day of the conference and I was left to my own devices till noon. My phone had died and there was no way to contact me, it was weird. I did find a Verizon store where I bought a new battery and was having it updated. As I left the store trying to figure out what to do with myself for the next 45 minutes while they had my phone, I turned right and started walking. At the corner I noticed the shadow of a man following me, I decided to cross before the little walk light lit up and the man stayed in step with me. As I adjusted my purse, realizing that I had no phone, and no keys (to stab with) I decided to look for a store or the map to the outdoor mall, once I spotted the map I tried a sly look over my shoulder to see if this guy was following me and then discovered it was Matt!!!! Apparently he had walked out of the hotel at the exact same moment I left the store (the doors to both were directly across from each other), realizing that I hadn't seen him, he decided to follow me and see how long it would take for me to notice. Once I realized it was him, I punched him in the shoulder as hard as I could, my heart was racing!!! All he did was laugh. Once we were done with our errands in Denver, we returned to Castle Rock to enjoy our vacation. When we pulled up we found Marlin out front with the two little boys (Brenden and Dawson) and Cricket. When Brenden saw us coming he broke down and freaked out, screaming that he didn't want to go home and that we needed to go away. It took him several minutes of hysterical crying before I could convince him that we were all staying and sleeping there for more nights. Once the melt down was over we were then able to enjoy our vacation. While there, we were able to see Brynn in a volleyball tournament, which her team won, hung out with the kids, watched movies every night until 1am (older kids included), and the pinnacle was going shooting. We drove up a beautiful mountain and there was this range full of shell casings and shattered beer bottles, old printers, cell phones, computers, basically anything you have ever wanted to shoot or destroy was there. We brought along some pumpkins, eggs, and jugs of water and milk. Once all the targets were set up (we used some of the leftover junk too) I was the first one to take the gun and start shooting. We shot with about four different weapons, starting with a Glock, then the AR-15, then the 22 rifle. In the photo's you will notice I got down on my knees and was resting one elbow on my other knee, this is because I inherited the Poulton shake (thanks dad). I was being laughed at because I couldn't steady the rifle. I tell you that scope/sight was going all over the place. I am pretty sure the military would not take me for a sharp shooter, maybe not even to cover anyone, I would end up hitting them instead!! All-in-all I had a lot of fun. I think everyone else did too. Matt was so happy that the next day, I finally lost the battle (after nearly 9 years) of no guns in the house. I don't mind though, I always knew that it was a battle that I would eventually lose (thanks Obama for making it happen a lot sooner than it would have). Anyways, after several nights of "gonna get you" in his Halloween costume, Brenden was ready to go. We left on Thursday, after getting their first snow of the season, and were able to enjoy a couple of nights at home before Matt was back to the grind. We had a great time!! Thanks Steph and family!!

Farm Festival

So went to the University Farm Festival and learned all about farming in columbia. We painted pumpkins, planted grass, and saw all the bugs indegenous to Missouri. Our High Counsilman is the Entamologist for the University and had plates of flavored mealworms to eat. We did not eat any bugs! Brenden said it was gross and we very much agreed. He actually tried to pet the animals on this trip.

Funny story, after we had been to several stalls of horses Brenden said that we were looking at "Aligators." We kept correcting him that they were horses and as we got to the last stall we discovered that the horse's name was "Gator!" Dude our kid is a freaking genius!!!! (I'm sure he overheard someone say the horse's name, but still that is pretty amazing)!

It was a fun adventure, Matt even joined us after being On Call for the 34 hours with no sleep! What a dad! He didn't want to miss out on the pumpkin fun.