I wish I had a video...

Tonight I took Baylor to Karate. It is a 45 minute class so I dropped him off, ran to pick up a few things at a store down the street and came back to watch for the rest of the class. Eliza has not been in the karate studio much so I am not sure she knew why we were there. We had been there about 15 minutes when (as she was sitting on my hip) she straightened real tall pointed her little finger out and yelled "AY-YAR" (or somthing to that affect that was completely understandable to me)and then she started waving like crazy. It took me about 2 seconds to catch on after the shock of her yelling out. She had just caught sight of her oldest brother and was trying to get his attention by yelling his name and waving at him... PRECIOUS, I tell you, PRECIOUS. If you could have seen my smile. That was the first time she said something other than "MAMA" or "DADA" at a family member and she absolutely knew her brother's name.
AND THEN... I get home and I am putting her PJ's on for bed. Her changing pad is on the long vanity in her bathroom so she has a mirror to look into. I said "where's Eliza" she looked over in the mirror and said (CLEAR AS DAY) "Yi-Ya" pointing at herself.

I AM LOVIN' IT!

Uneventful Week

As I sit here tonight, I do not have much to talk about. It was a "get back in the swing of things" kind of week. Bay started back to school on Monday. Callan and Silas started back to Mom's Day Out on Tuesday and Eliza and I had some girl time to get some stuff done.

Brent left town today to go on a once in a lifetime (please let it be once in a lifetime) hunting trip in Mississippi with one of his best friends. He is fired up and has been preparing for weeks mentally and physically. I hope he has a good time and returns home safely in a few days.

Me... I had a little storm freak out today with the bad weather. Yanked a sleeping baby out of bed and freaked out the 2 younger boys sending them to the basement, all while freaking out on the phone with Brent, mom, my friend and carpooler, S . But all turned out well. I have been trying to "finish out the year" by completing a few little projects that I am excited about. First, I turned my blog into a book ( only June through the end of December). It was not that bad. Of course I could have made it fancier, but I wanted to see how it all came together first. I am really happy with it and glad that I have my blog in print for the kids to read someday. I have always wanted to journal but never enjoyed the pen and paper kind of thing. Then, because I got so fired up about my blog book... I began to think of other things to turn into a book. So, I took all of the information we got from our agency during our adoption (pictures, Dr. reports, surprise visits) and turned it into a book as well. I had been feeling the pressure of scrapbooking it all and having it all in one place, but the pictures were e-mail format so they are not the best quality and not all the pictures are good. And there were over 260 pictures!!!! But, I was able to put them all in the book just fine. I have not fine tuned it (spell checked) so it is not published yet, but it should be on the way soon. If I figure out a way to post it I will.

Anyway... I leave you with my attempt at a picture of the kiddos this past Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Help with HOPE

I do not know this mom... but I understand her heart. Click HERE and it will take you to her site. She adopted 12 years ago from China... she also just found a child on the waiting child list that she felt that God led her to just days before Christmas. For this to all work out ( with a deadline of Jan 31st) and for her to bring her daughter home, she needs to raise a lot of money. Go check out her site and her handiwork. You might be so inclined to help her bring her daughter home, or you just might have to have a dress, just because. I did... I got the Flower Power one.

Tell me what's on your iPod

My BIL gave me a hefty gift card to iTunes for Christmas. I have unloaded the cards onto iTune.s and am ready to load up my i.Pod. But I need some help. I love music... love singing. My problem... I never know who sings what... I just sing along. So I am having trouble finding what I like. I have some classic 80's, some college days 90's, my current faves and more. I love Christian and Country to listen to, but that is not really good to work out to. ( unless it is Shackles or Next Time He Cheats)

SO... what is on your iPod... don't be scared or embarassed. I will admit the firt things I put on were Bon Jovi, Salt-n-Peppa, and Prince. So, now that the ice is broken... give me some ideas.

Memo

To other mall shoppers and retail employees:

First of all I am not a circus side show so you can stop staring. Yes I have 4 kids and I know that one of them does not look like the others...after all she is the only girl. Staring as we pass and talking and commenting makes us all feel like we are purple and have one eye. And yes, it was bad enough that my 7 year old left the mall terribly self conscious today about our family, and walked several steps behind us and commented on all the people who starred at us.

Secondly, retail employees just because you are afraid of us coming does not give you the right to hide. We are not invisible, so when I am standing in the men's section trying to put together an outfit for my hubby... ask if you can help me. And when you see that 3 customers have jumped in line in front of me because I have to stand so far back with my tandem stroller, please tell them that I have been waiting patiently.

I hope you have fun reorganizing your lip gloss and gift cards that I let my kids rummage through and play with only because you were rude to me and when you asked who was helping me today, I meant it when I said NO ONE.


***Edited to add... it really does baffle me that we evidently look so strange walking down the mall. I make my kids behave and all of them were minding their p's and q's today. Really THEY were great. It was everyone else that stressed me out. I know that 4 kids is a lot to some people, but in my circle of friends and church family it is more the norm than not. It blows my mind that people go out of their way to comment or gawk or even stop in their tracks to watch us pass.

Who am I kidding, maybe they were just all staring at me and my powder blue fake UGGS.

The Princess Chair

I have had it. My little monkey (which I have called her since her Foster Mom dressed her in a monkey outfit I sent down) climbs all over everything. If we leave a chair even barely pulled out, she climbs it and even proceeds to climb on top of the table. I have never had a climber like her. You would think from all the times I have stopped her, pulled her down, and told her no... or all of the times she has fallen she would be less interested. NOPE... Sunday night she climbed right up and proceeded to fall and get a big knot on her head. I have had enough and thought maybe her own little chair would stop her from climbing so I ran out to Walgree.ns and grabbed a chair I saw the other day when I was in there. I wanted to get her this big plush chair from Tar.get but it was huge and expensive (and gone when it went on sale) So, the foam princess chair will have to do... in a pinch. She loves it... and is very possessive of it. She growls if anyone else is in it or near it (and Silas happens to be A LOT... so now I am on a mission to find another one for him)
Here she is enjoying the chair...



Also... we got a teeny bit excited to see this snow fall. It was pretty but only lasted about 10 minutes and melted away almost instantly.

Some New Year Fun

We have not been up to much here at the Jones Casa. We have played a lot of Wii and played a lot with our Christmas stuff. We also enjoyed having Daddy home on Monday and Tuesday. He and Baylor went hunting Monday morning and then we played all day. Here is some of the fun we had with Callan's gift from Uncle Jeff (the newlywed).

The Target... ( it shoots out disc in the air and you have to hit them)


The shooters...




And finally...
THE RETRIEVER (all completely on her own... it cracked me up)