The horse ride

I have never really been around horses. My dad always thought horses were pretty useless to have around because he had tractors to do the work that they used to do and you had to pay to feed them. Anyway, I did learn about them when I went on my first date with Nate. We went to his grandparents house in Liberty the day his cousin got home from his mission, that's right so I met the WHOLE family, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. on our first date. Thank goodness I already knew Nate's immediate family so I at least felt comfortable with them. Anyway, we went to his grandparents and went to the family BBQ and then went horseback riding. I remember Nate telling me a lot about the horse and how to saddle it and such, but don't really remember any of the details of what he said. I guess I was hearing him and not really listening. I had a fun time with him.

So we knew the cows would be getting too big for us to have in our pasture for the summer (they tend to push the fence and get out all the time) so Nate's dad came and got them to take up to his place and brought back, "BOB, the horse" for us to have in our pasture. Bob is so lucky he can just eat to his heart's desire. Kace and Ty were so excited to have a horse and were even more excited that they would be able to ride Bob. So last Monday night Nate saddled up good old "bob the horse" and took the boys on a ride. They loved it!

Of course we had to have a bunny ear picture. What do bunny ears mean anyway?

Easter at our house

I really wanted to make Easter more about Christ this year. I thought about this mostly because when I asked Kace why we have Easter he gave me some worldly answer. I felt so bad, I thought we had taught him and looking back on it, we have had him tell us (before he finds his Easter basket) why we have Easter every year. Obviously he doesn't remember that part, just the candy, hunts and bunny. So we colored eggs on Thursday night. It was so much fun. They really got into it. Okay Nate did NOT get into it, he smashed his finger with a sledge hammer (he is getting rid of the rock in front of our house so we can get new rock! YEA!), so anyway he was out of commission.

I don't know anybody else who takes a picture giving THEMSELVES bunny ears.



Nate and his poor finger. He has to get it better because he has "valley tournament" games this week. That was his biggest concern. Speaking of the "valley" (that is where Nate grew up....in Huntsville), I still think of Sweet Valley High when I say it! :) I just loved those books when I was a tween!





Coloring eggs is not complete without a spill or two.



Here is Ty right after he spilled. He knew he shouldn't have knocked it over and tends to pout everytime he gets a "talking to."



Every year while growing up we had a few BYU eggs. I can't help but carry on the tradition and Kace is very happy to oblige!



Friday night Nate pulled Kace's front tooth out. Now he has a snaggle tooth (the other front one is loose, but not quite ready). He was very excited to put it under his pillow. Don't worry the tooth fairy found the tooth this time!

So on Thursday we colored eggs and on Friday night the Easter Bunny came. The Easter bunny didn't want to bring very much candy because she/he knew that the big egg hunt was coming up at Grandma Jones'. So Kace got some "chapter books" and a portable soccer goal.



Ty got a couple of books (a tractor one that was a huge hit!) and a tricycle. He really needed a bike for himself because Kace totally trashed his tricycle (it is in about 5 pieces) so Ty got a nicer one, hopefully it will last. He LOVED IT! Unfortunately for him, Kace loved it too and it has been the cause of a few disagreements. I wish it were a little bit smaller as Ty has a hard time reaching the pedals, but he will grow into it in no time.



On Sunday I after church we had a discussion on the real meaning/reason for Easter. My friend Kylene sent me the story of Easter done through eggs, so we did it with the boys. We looked up lots of scriptures and I think Ty was more interested in jumping on the eggs to crush them, but hopefully Kace understood a little bit! I think we will do this every year!

Kace made lots of hunts up for Ty and hid things in the eggs. He was so excited and it was cute to see. Thankfully, Ty got excited too and loved it!

Fun in the sun.....that means we left Utah!

Most of you know that Nate had to go to Florida a couple of weeks ago. He got very very bored all by himself, so when he found out he had to go to Arizona he really wanted me to come with him. He didn't have to beg too hard. It was only going to be three days, Kace didn't have school the first two days and it is blasted cold here and I wanted to leave. So thanks to our parents and Caitlin (THANKS FOR WATCHING THE BOYS!), we were able to go on this little adventure! Oh, in the first picture we have our jackets on because we are at the airport waiting to go home. I didn't have a picture of us at all, so I made Nate pose by the catcus. He looks thrilled doesn't he!

We first flew into Tucson Monday morning. After we got checked into our hotel (and changed into shorts!) we drove up to Queen Creek to visit my old roommate Jamie. It was so much fun! She was my roommate when I met and started dating Nate so she knows him well. I hadn't seen her in such a long time and hadn't seen any of her kids. She now has three!! This was one of the times I really wish the boys had come. They would have had a blast playing with her boys.

We had a great visit and Nate's favorite pizza and drove back. Thanks to Travis for drawing an awesome map, we made it back in no time! This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I loved seeing her and visiting her. It was like we hadn't missed a beat! This means that there were lots of laughs!!

The next day Nate had to go to work for the day, but there was another wife (and her kids) that was there with her husband so we hung out and went to a desert museum. It sounds boring, but it was really fun and interesting. It was nice to have someone to hang out and talk with.

We had a great trip and a nice break from the normalities (google doesn't like thsi word for some reason!) of life. The last day I called to see how the boys were and my mom told me it was snowing. So we changed back out of the shorts to get on the airplane and come home to coldville.

Oh, on Monday I called Caitlin to see how the boys were and she said that she had to tell me a funny story to tell me. She said she put herself and Ty down for a nap (and a show on for Kace) and a couple of hours later she heard someone upstairs banging around in the kitchen. So she went upstairs to see what he was doing. She asked and he told her that he was, "doing a surprise." Then he told her that he was, "cleaning up the WHOLE house to surprise Grandma when she got home from work!" I was so impressed. She said that he lined up all the shoes, cleaned up the stuff from their bags. I thought it was so cute! I hope I didn't mess up the story too bad :)

I married a CHAMPION!!

So last night we went to Nate's championship basketball game. He has had a great time this year playing with his brother and cousins. There were also the Pugsley brothers on the team. They only lost one game this season so we were excited to see the rematch in the championship game. Now I am pretty used to playing in championship games myself, but these guys came out a little sluggish. Luckily, after a pep talk at half-time they came out with a little bit of fire and won the game.

We got a picture with Grandma and Grandpa Shaw because as Mark says, "We wouldn't even be alive without you two." It was fun having them there. It is funny because Ty always remembers Grandpa even if he hasn't seen him for awhile. Nate is by far the oldest one, but that doesn't slow him down too much!

Lucky us we now have this stinking big trophy at our house. Kace and Ty love it so much they are fighting over it. Now where to put it.....

Jesus wants me for a SUN-BEAM!

I have been wondering what to blog about for a little while now, then I remembered that late in January we got Ty singing his favorite sunbeam song, it is so FUNNY! When he started singing it (sorry it is during dinner and you get to see it!) I have been trying to get him to do it other times, but he just doesn't do it as good. Sorry about the shakes :)

A new cousin

Nate's brother Isaac and his wife Mary just had a new baby a couple weeks ago. We went to see them while they were in the hospital because Kace was SO excited to see his new cousin. I couldn't remember for sure the ages that they would let kids in or not, but I figured we could take the baby out and show him. Well, he was too young and they would just let us hold him up through the glass to show Kace. SO we went to visit again this past week and Kace finally got to hold him.

His name is Lincoln Clark Jones. He sure is a little cutie, has very long fingers and feet. His cry is just like a little whine. He had a little gas while we were there so he was a little bit squirmy, but he is a good baby.

At Christmas time the entire JONES family was together, this doesn't happen very often because Mel and Jon live in Hershey, PA and Rainee and Doug live in Reno, NV. So when we are together we need to take a group shot. It was quite the experience. There wasn't one where everybody was looking, no eyes were closed, etc. (thank goodness for photoshop) But we had some laughs and a great time .

Kace seemed to think it would be funny to make a face in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE!
Seriously, I had a lot to choose from and he made some sort of weird face in all of them!

sledding festivities

2 weekends ago Kami and Erik came up and my parents wanted to do something fun together. So it was decided that we would go sledding up the GREAT TRENTON HILL! WAHOO :)

Please ignore my double chin :)

We all had a great time. The snow was SUPER HARD and crusty. Cortney brought a "friend" Julie to meet us and they decided to take the first run. Honestly, the rest of us were probably a little bit scared because it looked so steep and there was a jump at the end. So by the time Cort and Julie got to the end where the jump was they totally biffed. It looked really funny, but Julie got all cut up from the snow, so not as funny after that. So after that we decided to move over a little bit where there wasn't as much of a jump. Glad they were the guinea pigs. Kami and Heidi also crashed (2 separate incidents) and got their faces scratched up too! The picture is so light you can't really see their cut marks, but they were there I PROMISE!

We decided that we would just bring the 4-wheelers up with us and they could help with the trek back up the hill. Ty and Kace LOVED it. I think dad spent more time on the 4-wheeler than he did going down. It was a workout to get back up though.

It was fun that my kids got to go do something fun that I liked to do when I was a kid. Although when I was little I don't remember when it started being hard to climb back up the hill.

We finished the day off playing apples to apples and a nice clam chowder meal. It was a great family day! I hope we didn't scare Julie off, we can be pretty interesting sometimes :)