It's a Boy....

Well, we found out yesterday that #2 has boy-parts... as depicted from the bottom-up shot above...

Christmas Time!

Here's the Christmas Update - (formerly sent in the mail)

We hope this Christmas season finds you and your family doing well. It has been an eventful year in the Jones’ household(s), here’s the highlight-reel version (cue the ESPN theme music).

Avery passed the 1-year-old mark in July and is growing every day. We recently went through pictures of 2008, and hardly recognize our little girl back in January. She’s now mastered the skills of the “high-speed-out-of-control-walk-not-yet-run,” “drink-from-big-cup-and-spill-half-down-neck,” and “feed-Rudy-over-side-of-high-chair.” Her favorite words [with pronunciation] are currently “All Done” ["ahhh-dunn"], “Hot, Hot, Hot.” ["ha, ha, ha" - with hand raised towards a fireplace or anything lit up], "Mom" ["ma, ma" -- usually said to Justice whenever she means to say Dad], "Rudy" ["ru, ru" -- anytime she sees any dog], "Peek-a-Boo" ["haboo, haboo" -- with face partially hidden behind her hands], and the infamous“Uh-Oh” [perfectly pronounced hundreds of times a day]. Just last week, Justice taught Avery the finer points in blowing bubbles underwater in the bathtub. She'll be slurping Jello through a straw before her 2nd birthday!

January
December

Avery has also learned the belly slide down the stairs, a necessity in a two-story home. We moved from San Miguel to Auberry in October, a result of Justice transferring to Central Division in Fresno. Justice is still doing pretty much the same thing as in SLO, just in a different, bigger, and busier location. We’re about 30 minutes east of Fresno, at an elevation just under 2,500' (above the fog and smog, below the snow). Life on a dirt road in the foothills is much different from what we were used to. It has been a blessing living so close to family (Ashley’s folks and Hayley/Stephen are very near). Did I mention free babysitting? One of the many benefits of life on the hill.

We celebrated our fifth anniversary with a cruise to Alaska in September. We had a great time and saw some amazing sights. Avery spent the ten days with Hayley and Stephen. We had tons of great food and desserts, and did lots of fun stuff at the places we stopped. We visited Ketchikan, AK, where we did a float-plane trip; and Juneau, where we took a helicopter tour and were able to walk on a glacier. It was awesome… looking straight down into a thousand feet of the deepest blue ice we’ve ever seen. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get on all-fours and drink water directly from a glacier! We took tons of pictures, none of which came close to what it looks like in person. We also stopped in Haines, AK, and Victoria, BC, on the way home.

Well, the only other BIG news to share would be Ashley’s pregnancy. Yes, #2, (#3 if you count Rudy), should be arriving in the last week of May. Subtract nine months from that day, and you’ll probably find us somewhere off the coast of Alaska ☺. We hope to find out the gender around New Years, after that we’ll start the beloved “name game.”

We’d like to close by wishing your family a truly Merry Christmas. Especially in these turbulent and uncertain times, it is our hope and continued prayer that you know the peace and joy that comes from belief in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.







We did get a little snow/hail a few days ago --- nothing like playing in the snow in your jammies.

Fall, Fall, Fall.

Fall is here, and it seems like we're all ready for bed by 7PM with the sun going down so early. Avery is talking more and more, and has finally stopped calling everybody Mom (especially Dad). She was a flower for Halloween, and even did a little trick-or-treating past her bedtime. Rudy had his first visit to the vet up here, got some shots, and had some sort of allergic reaction and got all swollen in the face again. A little Benadryl and some sleep fixed that little problem.

Avery's favorite words are currently "Up" and "Hot." We hear "Up, Up, Up" anytime she wants to climb up on something (or someone). And we hear the "Hot, Hot, Hot" anytime she sees a fireplace, oven, or barbecue. She hasn't burned herself yet, and we're trying to avoid that "lesson" if we can.

Well, aside from our utter dissatisfaction with the electoral results, and the disappointment that comes when we open the 401k statement, things are going pretty darned good for us. These days are truly an opportunity for us to rest on Romans 13...

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!

Today Ashley and I went to the little Dr.'s office and confirmed that we have another little one on the way! Kind of hard to tell if it's a boy or girl at this point (I'm guessing GIRL), since the little one is only about an inch long at 10 weeks along, but you could see the little heart working away on the ultrasound screen. So if you do the math, you'll find that this blessed little child was likely conceived somewhere in international waters between Alaska and California. Some say it's the "motion of the ocean," personally, I think it's the Love Boat re-runs that they show on the cruise. Either way, your prayers are appreciated. Ashley has been feeling pretty icky in the mornings (I know this because I awoke this weekend to the sound of my bride munching saltines in bed at 7AM). Yummy.

Looks like mid-May for the expected arrival date, they'll be scheduling this one ahead of time since Avery was a Cesarean birth. We WILL be finding out what we're having sometime in January. Until then, the name game has been suspended like a World Series game. :)

Country Livin'

Well, we've been off the grid for a while now, so hang onto your seat for the quick ketchup!

We got back from our cruise and had a whole week to get ready to move. We had a BLAST on our cruise, Avery didn't even realize we were gone. Time flew, and before we knew it the moving truck was outside and we were saying goodbye to San Miguel. We're blessed to have the Rusco's renting our house from us (especially in this crummy real estate market). Neat, but still strange seeing their family pics in our old house :)

Avery got her first 'shiner' during the moving process, a little fall against a planter and bada-bing, the next morning it's purple, by Sunday it's black. Ouch!

So the first week at church here and we show up with a 14 month old sportin' a black eye. So much for first impressions. That's OK, the next week she busted her lip, so last week the church had us meet with a social worker (not really, but wouldn't blame them if they had).

So here's the latest. We're living in Auberry, which is about 25 miles east of Fresno, in the foothills. If you've ever gone to Sierra Summit to ski/snowboard, you've driven right past our place. Life on a dirt road takes some getting used to. First, there's, well, DIRT everywhere. Every nook and cranny. That will last until it rains, then we'll have mud everywhere. Oh well, praise God. We're above the smog and fog, below the snow. It's a great house that belongs to Ashley's folks -- they live in a new house on the other 5 acres (about 300 yards away), there are plenty of projects around to keep me busy. It's been a blessing. Work is also going well, I have about the same distance drive that I had to SLO, and work with a great group of people.

Everybody asks how Rudy is adjusting (not once has someone asked how Avery was doing BEFORE asking about Rudy!). He's good, a city boy at heart. We had quite a scare one afternoon when he turned up "missing" while we scoured the property and surroundings for the little guy. He showed up about 20 minutes later, when I decided to look in Trish's car (he jumped in the car when she showed up, nobody noticed). Uh!

Church life is a lot different, we're attending the Well, at a "satellite" campus hosted at an elementary school. There's live worship music, then they pipe in the speaker on the big screen. Different, but the preaching is solid. There are a number of satellite campuses, the ideology being that it's better to have multiple small church locations instead of one mega-gargantualic-sized church. It's nice, and different, and there are a LOT of folks in our "stage" of life - young kids at home ... Contrary to popular belief about Fresno, not everybody is barefoot and pregnant (some are wearing shoes).

I must say that living so close to Hayley and Steve has been a blessing. Avery thinks so as well. Some think I'm crazy to move this far for free babysitting (though we do miss our PRBC sitters!), but it is a nice benefit.

We'll try to keep you a little better up-to-date from here on out now that we're semi-settled. We miss you all, and we know that you miss Rudy and my meat slicer. Ha ha.

Ketchikan, Alaska

We set sail, so to speak (as there are no sails on a cruise ship), from San Francisco on Thursday on our way to Alaska. The first afternoon and last two days have been spent at sea... and basically entailed much eating, sleeping, and more eating. It's nice to see Ashley catch up on some naps that she has missed since Avery came along (Avery is spending time with Auntie Hayley and Family while we are away--- God Bless them this week!). Ashley only cried for twenty minutes when we left, and now only for a minute or so whenever someone asks if we have any children.

The seas were a bit choppy for the first day, and while we weren't sick, there were many long-time cruisers that complained that it was worse than they had experienced before. Wasn't too bad, though. We have gone to a bunch of the shows they have onboard here, and are trying foods that we normally wouldn't order elsewhere ... Ashley had Crawfish the other night (remember Sebastian from The Little Mermaid? mmm... tastes like shrimp.) The only eerie thing was the little eyes looking up at her. I had veal last night, again, something I wouldn't ordinarily order. The food is clearly why folks love this cruise stuff.

This morning we docked in Ketchikan, our first stop, and were greeted by unusually clear skies (they get some 30 feet of rain here annually). So where's Ketchikan, you ask... it's the place that they were going to build the "Bridge to Nowhere." Turns out, it actually would have gone to an airport, but not a very big one. So we wandered off the boat in search of some sightseeing deals (Mr. Wisner advised us to get our tours off-boat... turned out to be a money saver, thanks!). So we jumped on a float plane and flew to the Misty Fjords and saw some of the amazing Creation that the Lord has fashioned. We saw mountain goats on top of a huge peak, and landed on a glassy-smooth lake where we took this shot. Very cool.

So is it a small world? We would say so. Ashley had planned on looking up a past player from Cuesta that was from here (Ketchikan), but didn't remember her last name or know even if she was still around. She went into the first little store to ask for a phone book to look for her, and the first cashier didn't have one. That cashier asked another woman who was standing behind another counter, and needless to say, she didn't need to look for the phonebook since SHE was the gal that used to play at Cuesta. Marissa was her name, and Ashley and her had a short chat. We went outside to wait for our tour and told the guy who sold us our tour about what a small world it was. Well, he asked where we were from, and before you know it, his brother and sister-in-law go to our church in Paso. Huh. Cool.

Some would call it coincidence... not us.

Please pray for us on this vacation, and especially for the Fergusons as they care for our two most prized possessions... Avery and Rudy.

Next stop, Juneau.

Reading to Rudy...

Reading to Rudy turns into driving him crazy. Rudy says, "Just leave my bone alone!"

Rudy is sooo patient with Avery. I think all the mealtime rewards make the torment bearable.

Daddy's Girl!!!

Like father, like daughter:) This is what happens when I try to do the laundry.

This girl could live outside...too bad it's hot!

Avery has been fascinated by Rudy's dog door for quite some time now. Unfortunately, the other day she discovered that she too can fit through and can escape with her partner in crime.

Avery loves sitting in the corner "reading" her books.

G.G. Lucille

I had to go back and post this sleepy eyed picture of Avery with her Great Grandma Lucille. On August 16th, Justice had the privilege of officiating the wedding of his cousin Nicole as she married Gerald. This picture was taken two hours past bedtime and after a full day of running around. Avery was a trooper!

Catching Up!

I can't believe it's already the end of August. I'll try to catch up all our friends and family on our growing little girl.

Avery with her cousins Cole and Kinley at our house this past weekend.

Playing in Rudy's toy basket.

Avery with her cousins at her birthday party on July 26th.

Avery and Kinley. Avery can't wait until Kinley can run with her.

Drinking milk with dad.

Running from mom!!!

Clapping!

Giving herself kisses in the mirror. That full length mirror provided Avery with lots of entertainment at the hotel we stayed at recently.

Already a Year Old...

This is Avery's first attempt at a cupcake... doesn't look like she needs too much instruction (probably got that from Dad's genes). See if you can figure out just when the sugar starts to kick in (tip: look for the boisterous head-banging around the :50 second mark).




Been slacking a little on keeping our blog up to date, but here's what's going on:

Avery is now walking like a maniac. She still tends to fall head-first into anything hard, blunt, or immovable... it's amazing to see a little one go from 0-60 in a day. One day, whe has no idea what's going on, the next, she's walking everywhere and wouldn't even think of crawling.

We're Moving... Oh yeah, did we mention that? Justice is starting in Central Division (Fresno) on October 1st, so the commute will be a little long from San Miguel. Don't worry, neighbors, we found a great family to fill in. More on that to come.

We're going on a cruise for our 5 yr Anniversary... The hardest part will be being away from Rudy (and Avery...) for 10 days. We're going to Alaska, and we'll take a picture or two of our trip to post. Avery will be staying with Auntie Hayley and family, our prayers will certainly be with them while she attempts to keep up with 3 infant/toddlers. Fortunately, Avery's now off the boobie, so at least Hayley won't have to deal with THAT. ;)

Crazy Avery vs. Crazy Rudy

Folks always ask how Avery gets along with Rudy.  You decide.  All he wants to do is watch the end of the baseball game in peace...

Fun Times!

This is what happens when Justice takes a day off from work. As I cleaned and organized Avery's closet, he got every single one of Avery's stuffed animals out and "organized" them in her crib. He then proceeded to put Rudy in the midst of the animals for a perfect photo opp. This is one of the pictures. The best one will be revealed in our 2009 Rudy calendar. By the end of our fun family day, we decided Justice had to return to work on Friday:)




We have a water baby on our hands... The other day we played in a little pool with some neighbor friends down the street. The 3 year old and 1 year old were instructed by their mom to "not splash and play easy" when Avery was in the pool because she was a first timer. Needless to say, Avery was the crazy one. She splashed like crazy. Her most enjoyable part was leaning over anytime she wanted to slurp up some water.

Today after church we were cruising through Target and couldn't pass up the $7.99 pool for our backyard enjoyment. And boy did Avery have a good time keeping cool this afternoon. I'm sure we will spend many hours keeping this water baby cool this summer.

It's that time of Year...

Well, doesn't seem like it's been two years already, but we're very proud to say that Alexandria graduated from Cuesta College last Friday.  She is going to take some more classes there at Cuesta then ... who knows?!?

Here's Mom, Moe, Alex, Stevie (Our Niece), and Justice.

Tagged, Ashley's It

4 Jobs I've Had:

Waitress (Mono Wind)

Assistant Volleyball Coach (Cuesta)

Substitute Teacher (Paso)

Wife/Mom (my favorite job)

4 Places I've Lived:

Auberry, CA

San Luis Obispo, CA 

Paso Robles, CA

San Miguel, CA

4 Shows I Watch on T.V.:

Dave Ramsey Show (Fox Business)

Angels Baseball

Biggest Loser

Sport Shows/Any sports

4 Blogs I Read:

Fergusons

Grindys

Wisners

Hartrufts

4 Favorite Foods:

Tri-Tip w/ Yoshidas

Tacos

In-N-Out (no onion or tomatoes)

Costco w/ Justice

4 Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:

With my Lord and Savior

Pillow talking with my husband

Enjoying the day with family or friends

Engaged in a good conversation while on a walk

4 Things I Look Forward to this Year:

Celebrating Avery's 1st Birthday (7/26)

Celebrating 5 years of marriage (10/4)

Memorizing a whole chapter of scripture (Romans 12)

The unknown

Parenting Lessons

All too often, Dad runs off to work and Mom is left at home with the little one. Though both know that the other person is busy throughout the day, they don't know exactly what the other person is going through.  For us, when I get home, we sit down at the dinner table and have the typical "How was your day?" ... "Fine, how was yours?" ... "It was good."  We're both exhausted, but Avery still has two hours left in her tank.  By the time the baby goes down (which is an early 7:30 - but I'm not complaining) we're both ready for bed.  And that's where wife wants to talk about the day and husband wants to sleep (or NOT sleep, but NOT talk...).

The reason I bring this up is 1) So that you will pray for us - since this is HARD to do - and we both want to get better at communicating, and 2) To share the reason for the video below.  If we would have had a more in-depth discussion about our day, say, at the dinner table, I would have heard how many times my patient wife had to tell our daughter to stay out of dog's water bowl.  So, in filming what turns out to be quite a funny video (you need to watch it to the end), I inadvertently un-did the effort that Ashley put in to teaching our daughter.  Argh.  Like everything else in the Christian walk, easy to say - hard to do.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this.  In the event that you don't want to watch it, I will be showing it at Avery's wedding someday (sometime after she turns 40).

Toofers, Dedication, Food, and catching up...

Already Flirting?  And in Church!?!

Avery was dedicated at PRBC back in the end of January, and we're hoping the video clip below isn't a preview of her teenage years to come!   Dad had to take some quick action, but very cute...

Some more pictures of the last few weeks/months (click to enlarge):

Head hits the pillow, thumb hits the mouth.

Hanging out with Auntie Alex.

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Sneezin' or Squeezin', you decide.

Yeah, always happy on the tummy.

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Food goes in, food goes out, food goes back in, and ends up in the diaper.

The first tooth makes an appearance in late January.

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If I don't keep squeezing Dad's head, it won't fit in that funny looking hat.

"Not much gets by us" --  (at friend Rob's Graduation in Dec).

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No bath is complete without a rubber ducky.

Future so bright, she's gotta wear shades (also pink... so as not to confuse anyone).

January in Review

Wow, January flew by. The highlight of the month had to be the addition of our niece, Kinley Kate, on the 18th. We enjoyed spending time with Stephen, Hayley, Cole and Baby Kinley. It was precious to witness the confusion that Cole went through trying to understand where this new baby came from and that she was his sister forever. Quite a few times he called her "Baby Avery" and told us "no sister, no sister." He is adjusting well now and will be a great big brother. Avery is excited that she will have a cousin so close in age.

Avery is doing great. She turned 6 months old on the 26th. This month has brought many new changes to our little girl. Here are a few: started eating solid food, got her first tooth, and rolls all over the living room. Some of her favorite things: bath-time, jumping in her jumperoo, laughing at Rudy as he ferociously shakes his toys, and going on walks. Avery's favorite toy in the bathtub is the washcloth. With a number of toys to choose from she prefers to chew on the washcloth. Her other favorite includes shaking the blinds as I change her diaper on the changing table. She continues to be such a happy, outgoing baby. She is such a blessing to Justice and I.

Another highlight was having Avery dedicated at the baby dedication at church on the 27th. With 3 other babies and their parents, Pastor Dave prayed for us as we parents dedicated ourselves to raising our child in "the training and admonition of the Lord."

Justice is enjoying work. He is also enjoying getting out and reffing a few high school soccer games every week. He is looking forward to a weekend with the high schoolers up at Hume Lake in February.

I am enjoying spending time with my little girl. We do fun stuff everyday: play on the floor, read books, take walks, clean, make dinner, and sing songs. The highlights of our week are Tuesday morning bible study, Wednesday night youth group, and running errands. I never thought I'd enjoy grocery shopping so much. I am playing in a women's volleyball league on Monday nights in Paso with some ladies I used to teach with. It is so nice to be able to get out and get some exercise/alone time.

We hope you are all doing well. Keep in touch.