Keeping Up With the Joneses

Mason really believes he is a chef. He takes it very seriously. For his birthday his grandma gave him a whole bunch of Easy Bake Oven mixes and one was for cookie pizzas. At church on Sunday he took orders from people for pizza they wanted and then after church made them and delivered them in his chef costume along with a hand-written menu with his phone number in case they wanted to order more. I'm afraid to say the "pizzas" were the nastiest thing I've ever seen, so I'm hoping no one actually ate them. But he does make a cute chef!

On Saturday we had a little informal family birthday party for Mason and his cousin Megan. We had most of the Jones cousins here and the kids had a blast playing. They all love each other so much! I love these pictures of Mason and Megan. They are such good friends. Megan is one of the sweetest girls I know. She is always being a little mother to the cousins and they all adore her.

Can you believe my baby is 6! It seems like yesterday he was 1 and had a Thomas party. And 2 and had a Thomas party. And 4 and had a Thomas Party. AND 6 AND HAD A THOMAS PARTY! That's right! He insisted on his 4 th Thomas Party (and in there Myles has had one too!). The good thing was we had all the supplies . The hard thing was coming up with new ideas. But. . .we did. For the invitations, Mason dressed up as Thomas and we printed invitations inviting 10 friends to the Island of Sodor for Thomas' Birthday Party. This was the picture from the invitation. When the kids arrived at the party we sat down for an after-school snack of fruit, goldfish, and sandwiches cut up in train shapes. Then for the party games we had a Thomas scavenger hunt. Everyone got assigned a train to be (and I had the train's pictures laminated to hang around them) and they moved from station to station in a train line with Thomas at the front. The clues instructions from Sir Toppam Hat on the bac...

I can't get over Myles' memory. He learned this at preschool. Might I remind you that he is 3.

On Friday we went to Marshall's parents in Delta for the weekend. We used to go down there quite a bit, but realized we haven't been since last summer! But I got released from the Primary Presidency last week and so we felt better about missing church in Provo and decided to head down. As always, the kids had a BLAST! From the moment they got there until the moment they left, grandma and grandpa spoiled them rotten. Their cousin William was down there and their eyes rarely left the ds , wii , tv , or computer screen. Grandma bought little Max new "big boy shoes" and he loves them more than any toy he's had. He asks for them first thing upon waking from naps or bed and doesn't let us take them off for anything else. Here is Max happy to be relaxing in the kid's recliner. I always say that a Delta is the best vacation spot because a day in Delta feels like a week. It is just so different than Provo! I watched 3 movies, worked on a craft project (two certain ...

Here are some pictures from our morning. When Max saw his V-Day Gorilla he laughed and started hugging and kissing it. This started out as a semi-healthy breakfast of heart waffles and strawberries. However after the kids got done with the whipped cream and candy it wasn't so healthy. Sorry it is rotated, but this is Mason's Valentine's Box for school that he made with Grandma Goates. And finally the kids with their Valentine treats and new Chip-And -Dale presents. They were absolutely thrilled when they saw their presents and both said "mommy and daddy, thank you SO MUCH" and offered us chocolates and kisses. We have the best kids!

Mason's room has 2 beds. There are 6 beds in our house. But he chooses to sleep on the floor outside of his room. He has been doing this for almost a week now and refuses to sleep in his bed. He says it is so we don't sneak downstairs and eat breakfast without him.

Last weekend I took Mason and Myles to the BYU play "Babe the Sheep Pig". They enjoyed it but I was very glad I didn't take Myles to "Peter Pan" the week before because I don't think he could have sat through it. Myles favorite part was seeing a life-size pig. He is still obsessed with pigs and wolves.

On Friday night we went to my cousin Chris' wedding. We had a fun time spending time with grandma and grandpa and some cousins. The best part of the evening though was the dance. Who knew my kids were so into dancing. It was by far the funniest thing I've seen in years. They were so into it! Mason kept dancing with a girl and after the song was over he would pat her back and say thank you. You have to check out these videos. Hilarious! We are so happy for Chris and Kelci!

Like most mothers, after the birth of each kid I go through a period of being worried about handling all the kids in a store, but I've adjusted pretty well. I like the chance to get out, and because I work 2-3 days a week, usually I end up having to take my kids shopping with me. We've developed a system for every store we go to. I know the stores with the car-carts, the ones with the big carts, the best toy sections, what snacks to bring, best times to go, etc. So last thursday I decided we needed to make a Target run after Mason got home from school. My plan for Target is Mason and Myles sit in the cart part (letting them walk leads to disaster), Max sits in the top part, and they get the choice of either LOOKING at toys (usually no buying) or sharing a bag of popcorn. Thursday they chose popcorn so I got a medium popcorn split into three bags (to eliminate fighting over the bag) and I figured I had a good 30 minutes of peaceful shopping time. Now, Max LOVES popcorn. He start...