Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a wonderful day in the Jones household. The boys had an absolute blast and were thrilled to see that Santa thought they had been very good boys this year. The day was filled with lots of laughter, eating and napping :) Three of my favorite things! 

But someone very, very special to us couldn't be with us today - although she was in our hearts all day :) Here are a few pictures from today, and we'll have another special Christmas with you in a couple weeks!  

Tyler showing Jake how the radio works.

I'm getting in the driver's seat!

A Lightsaber?!?!?!

It's the biggest Monster Truck in the world! 

Powdered doughnuts!

Getting the rules of the road from Daddy.

Off we go!

A birthday in urgent care

Thursday was Scott's birthday. Instead of celebrating with the roasted turkey, stuffing and au gratin potatoes I had planned, we celebrated in Urgent Care together. That's right...we both got sick at the same time. It was awful! Imagine feeling like you've been hit by a truck, then add a fever to the mix. Scott and I were both feeling pretty run down that morning, but went to work anyway. Scott got sent home immediately after he got there, and I followed closely after that. We met each other at the Urgent Care and after an hour of being poked and prodded, we were told it was "just a virus." Good news was - it wasn't the flu or strep, so we most likely had something the kids (who miraculously bounce back from everything) had just had.

But, you know what the beautiful thing was? I made one tearful phone call to my sister, and the troops were mobilized. My dad - dispatched to pick the boys up from school. My mom-  to pick up the necessities from the store. The boys were going over to their house to stay for the night - no arguments. And they didn't get any from us. Scott and I made like vegetables for 24 hours - and when the fevers finally broke - felt like new people!

It's an amazing thing to know you have support. You don't like to be in situations where you have to use it - but knowing that it's there, is very cool.

We did finally get to celebrate Scott's birthday tonight at Ted's Montana Grill. Yum!

Our happy baby!

We should open a barber shop

All of the men in my life were getting a little shaggy on top, so we held a mass haircut session at the Jones household. We've never taken the boys anywhere to get their haircut and I usually cut Scott's hair. But all 3 at once? It was quite a show, believe me. Here are a few pictures from the finished product!













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The next chapter...

A large part of my blog silence in the last several months has been due to the fact that I couldn't write about something that has been dominating much of my mental free time - the fact that I accepted a new job a few weeks ago and started yesterday as a senior marketing writer with Clarkston Consulting!




The past 2 months have been filled with amazing interviews, hard conversations and occasional tears. It was challenging, emotionally exhausting and exciting all at once. I had been at HSRC for 7 years and was quite comfortable in everything I was doing. And I think that comfort is what drove me to make the change. I am extremely excited about this next chapter in my career, and can envision a gazillion different paths I might take from this point on. I'll plan to check back in the next few month to update on which one I started with!

The other amazing thing was how supportive and wonderful my hubby has been in this process! This change has altered our routine just a bit but he is going with the flow and encouraging me every step of the way! Thanks babe!



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Happy Halloween!

We had such a blast tonight for Halloween! Jake and I were dressed as Daphne and Scooby Doo and Tyler as the great Spider Man, or "Peter Partner" as Tyler likes to say ;) Here's a few pictures from the wonderful evening!





















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Homework...I love it!

Once Tyler moved up to the next classroom at school, his teacher sent home a note that said the kids would start getting homework once a week. Each week they review a different letter and then have to complete a series of tracing/coloring sheets by the end of the week.

Homework for 4-year-olds, you might say. HOMEWORK?!?! That's right, and I LOVE it! Scott and I take turns sitting down with him after dinner to go through the homework. It's really great one-on-one time and he's definitely learning every week. Here he is tracing numbers this weekend. 

It's an amazing thing to watch your child learn something new.

A few recent photos

Just posting a few recent pics of the boys. We had a fabulous weekend with lots of playing, eating and resting!















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I did it!

OK, so I'm a little late getting this post up, but I wanted to share...Last weekend, I finished the half marathon!!!! It was an amazing, inspiring, exhausting experience that I would do all over again in a heartbeat! My original personal goal was to simply finish the race. As I started training and running longer distances, I started putting more pressure on myself. (you do know me, right? :) ) I wanted to run the entire time and finish under 2:30. Well, I did it. I ran the entire time - even though the definition of running could be challenged on some of those hills - and came in at 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Here's a finish line photo courtesy of my wonderful photog bestie JS.

Wow, I look tired in that photo.

Here's a glimpse into my thought process throughout the race...

At the start line: Wow, this is the first all-women half marathon in NC?!?! Cool. Damn it's cold, let's get this thing started!

Mile 0.2: Look, there's Scott, Tyler, Jake and my mom! HI!!! Oh crap, don't trip waving at them.

Mile 3: Feeling good! Only 10 miles to go.

Mile 5: Wow, they put a lot of hills at the beginning of this course. The rest HAS to be pretty flat.

Mile 7: Getting a little run down and I just ran out of water in my bottle. I'm going to take one of these GU things.

Mile 7.1: Damn, that GU stuff is nasty!!! Yuck!!!

Mile 8: Oooh! I'll take a picture of the mile-marker and send it to Scott.

Mile 8.2: Ahhhh, he texted me back. "Go girl go!"

Mile 10: Wow, was I wrong about the rest of this course being flat. What!?!?! There's another hill!?!

Mile 12: OK, please don't stop working (me talking to my legs)

Mile 12.5: Reading one of the signs from supporters "If this was easy, everyone would do it!" . 

Mile 13: O-M-G!!!! I am actually going to do this! Cue my "finish" song. Don't Stop Believing, by Journey, performed by the cast of GLEE. :)

Mile 13.2: DONE!!!

Sorry blog, running kicked you out

So, it's been awhile - over a month - since I last posted anything here. I have missed you blog. But, it's been for a good reason, a slightly healthier reason. As I gear up for the half marathon next month, my short runs in the evening have been getting longer and I find myself with less and less "free" time in the evening. I am getting very excited - and quite nervous - about the race coming up. I got a little glimpse this past weekend when I ran in my first 10K, a race called Mebane on the Move.

It has been quite some time since I ran in a race, and it was really exciting! As the gun singled the start of the race, I took off - WAY faster than I should have. I felt really good for the first several miles and then I started the second half of the course. The runners doing the 5K went to the right and the rest of us went to the left. And then the route went from slightly elevated to what I would deem as mountainous for Mebane standards. Why would they place all of these hills on the last half of the course ?!?!? It was insane, but so challenging in a great way. I was determined to run the entire race and I did. I wanted to stop so many times, but I just kept telling myself, "You can do this!" What drove me on was the thought of my boys waiting at the finish line for their mom. I cam up to the end of the race and all of the volunteers started clapping and cheering! It was incredibly inspiring and supportive. I crossed the finish line at just over an hour.

As I ran back to find the boys, Tyler ran up to me and said, "Mommy!!!! That was a great run! Did you win?" I told him, "No, I didn't win the race, but I did win for me."

My baby turned 4!

I just can't believe it. Where did the time go? I don't know a single parent who doesn't say that at some point. Tyler celebrated the big 4 today and did so with great pride and stature! He has become such a wonderful, sweet little boy and I am incredibly proud to be his momma!

Check out our Tyler over the years!

Wordless Wednesday - WV Edition

 

Jake's first steps (and Tyler's directing debut)

Things continue to be quite hectic here in the Jones household. With Jake 100% mobile, there are a new set of fun challenges presented for this mom. Tyler can no longer have a snack on the coffee table, because Jake will dive on in for himself. Everything under 2 feet in our house that isn't bolted down has been moved - usually by Jake first, and then me once I realize he can reach it now. He's started to pull up, move from one thing to another, and then stand on his own for a few seconds. My first experience with Tyler tells me that official walking could happen any day now! We managed to get some of Jake's first steps here with the Flip.



Once I realized that I really should use both of my hands to catch Jake - and I didn't have a third to hold the Flip video - we trained Tyler to hold it. As you can see, it took a minute for him to get the concept, but now he's running around the house, taking 4 second clips of everything from Mattie to his monster trucks!

Ummm, yeah...Probably

Tyler came home this evening and announced, "I went to timeout today."

Scott asked him, "Well, why did you have to go to timeout?"

"I went to my cubbie," replied Tyler.

Thinking this was a strange reason to go to timeout, I asked, "Well, Tyler, were you supposed to be doing something else when you went to your cubbie?"

To which Tyler replied, "Ummm, yeah...Probably."

Gotta love the honesty of a 3-year-old.

Happy 4th!!!

We've had a fabulous, relaxing weekend! Since I want to get back to it ASAP, I'm just posting a few recent pictures of the fun!

Who are you and where is my 3-year-old?

So, everyone told me, don't worry about the terrible twos, it's the threes you have to worry about. And for the most part, that's been true :) Tyler is an amazing kid, but he certainly has his fair share of meltdowns and hissy fits.

So, one day this week, I picked him (and Jake) up from school and needed to run to Walmart to pick up a few things we needed. I planned ahead and had a snack for both the boys that they could eat on the way to the store. As we pulled into the parking lot of Walmart, Tyler said, "Mommy, I finish my snack before we go in."

Normally, this would not have been a big deal, but on this particular day, the heavens were about to open up in the form of a thunderstorm and I wanted to get in and out really quick. I pleaded with Tyler, "Why don't we keep your snack in the car and we can finish it when we get back in the car?"

I braced myself for the whining and protesting.

Then he said,

"OK Mommy, it doesn't matter."

I paused.

"What did you say?"

He repeated it again.

"It doesn't matter."

He went happily in the store and finished his snack when we got back in the car. I feel like we have reached the end of the 3s. At least for now! 

How far we've come...

I blogged a few weeks ago about how Tyler has gotten a lot more comfortable in and around water since last summer. Well, as you can tell from the photos in the last post, this did not change last week during our trip to the beach. He's has turned into quite the little fish, with a lot of help from his dad and Papa. Here are a few videos from the trip.

Beach bums

We've been relaxing this week at Ocean Isle Beach, thanks to a week-long trip Scott's dad put together. We have had the best time, just lounging around, playing in the pool and generally just being bums! Here are a few of my favorite pics from the week. Check out our little man surfing!!!