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365--week 41

seriously, who am i kidding? i'm sure you all know by now not to count on me posting regularly. ideally i'd like to post on fridays but i'm not promising anything. i just can't ever seem to catch up with this life of mine! i appreciate those of you who are hanging in there with me though, love you guys!

so i got 2 steps ahead posting while i was in colorado and i get back home and now i'm 2 steps behind...and them some. this post is from last week (october 8-14th) and from here on out i'll just continue to play catch up.

here ya go:)

day 281
 
coop going for the touch down at his football game! woo-hoo! (i liked this picture despite the blurriness.)

day 282
 
porter waiting nicely for his brothers to finish with their haircuts. i love this because it's so typical of porter these last 2 years. he loves dressing up! when he was 3 i think he wore a costume everywhere we went all the time but now it's just occasionally. of course he took his mask off right before i snapped this!  he's so funny, he acts like he doesn't even have a costume on, it's just not a big deal:) i will definitely be sad when wearing costumes gets old.

day 283 
 
on 10.10.10 i took a sunday afternoon nap after i dropped cooper off at a birthday party. jeremy picked him up so i could continue napping--that was nice! what is it about sunday afternoon naps? they are incredible! ah who am i kidding...a nap any day, whenever i can get one is amazing!

day 284
 
i couldn't resist. i ordered an assortment of mustaches that i thought would be fun to use in our upcoming family pictures we are having done. i won't let the boys touch them until after our pictures and then i'm pretty sure they'll be showing up here and there as they are quite funny. (i thought the stach made him look a lot older and like tom selleck--ha ha)

day 285
 
these temporary tattoos (or stamptoos as porter calls them) from mcdonalds have been on his arm going on 3 weeks now! temporary shmemporary i say! LOL

day 286
 
just the start of finding pretty leaves. i love fall!

day 287
 
it's a sleep-over kind of night. no school on thursday or friday of this week so it was the perfect time. these guys have been buds since they were babies:)

thanks again friends for stopping by, until next time...
xo

365--weeks 27 & 28

yes, you read that right...i am back tracking today. since i am currently in colorado i figured this would be a good time to post a couple of the weeks i missed in the summer.

week 27 (july 2-8)

day 183

a fun evening swim at our friends' neighborhood pool. 

day 184

this is our 4th of july tradition that my mom passed on to my sister and i....making watermelon cookies. of course i had planned on a separate post for this, oh well--maybe next year! 

day 185

we took the boys to a fire work tent off the highway to let them buy some for their very first time. as a kid i used to ride my bike to the firework tent that was always by my house with my money that i scrounged up. every kid has to experience that at least once!

day 186

i was in the kitchen and looked out back to notice easton just chillin' laying on the court. i don't remember where his brothers were but he was out there by himself just having a moment i guess:)

day 187

oh boy, this was the start of the 'club penguin' phase this summer! our little neighbor boy brought over these cards and they would sit at the table under the swing set for hours playing this game. this led to playing 'club penguin' online and to collecting 'puffles' which will show up in future pictures. documenting another phase...

day 188

sweet cooper lovin' on sinbad. 

day 189

my favorite summer salad, i ate this salad everyday for a week and a half (no kidding) and brought it whenever we were invited to a friend's house. 

 

week 28 (july 9-15)

day 190

porter got to spend the whole day with my mom. since we were going to be traveling on his birthday she wanted to have a special day with him and that it was for sure! he got to pick out his presents (one being the knight costume he's wearing) and eat at mcdonalds and lots of other fun stuff. now the other 2 boys are anxiously awaiting their special birthday day with grandma. i believe a tradition has been started, thanks mom:)

day 191

summer evening family walk. 

day 192

sunday lunch at my parent's house after church, the boys went outside after they ate while we continued to sit and visit with my parents. we eventually got up to see what they were doing and found them all sliding in the standing water that was in the yard from the rain we had...in their church clothes mind you! all i could do is get my camera. a photo collage definitely needs to be made from this silliness!

day 193

as of this summer i have a front seat rider...sigh. i think adjusting the seat,rolling the window up and down and messing with the radio are finally starting to get old, or it could be that i threatened if he couldn't stop pressing buttons his short lived front seat days were over:) there were a few things that happened this summer that really opened my eyes to the fact that he is growing up and this was one of them.

day 194

gladiolas transplanted from my parent's yard a few years ago. so pretty! we always seem to be going out of town right when they are getting ready to bloom though:(

day 195

this picture is documenting my husband's space...the garage. this is the one area of our house that i have absolutely no control over and i have learned to be okay with that. (i was also short on ideas today! ha) 

day 196

july 15th, porter's 5th b-day and a repeat picture since i did a separate post about this day.

 

yay--2 weeks down out of the 10 that i'm behind! a little progress but progress none-the-less:)

i have a big day tomorrow here in colorado. for starters we are getting up early and heading to the horseshoe craft and flea market. i can't wait to see what that is like and all the treasures that i might find! then in the evening i am taking my cousin's bridal portraits. that is the real reason i am here. my sweet cousin flew me out here to take her and her husband's pictures. i was/am very nervous because i have never done that before. thankfully i have very encouraging family members and friends so i'm gonna give it a good try. i also have comfort in the fact that one of my photographer friends that lives here is going to shoot with me. needless to say, tomorrow is going to be a very busy and interesting day!

i'm starting to feel like i say the same things over and over but i'm so happy that you've taken the time to stop by. thank you, thank you. have an amazing weekend!
xo  

365--week 38

sshh...i know i'm late at posting this but i'm dating it like i wasn't--hee hee. i guess i can do that huh?!

this will probably be my quickest 365 post as of yet. i'm getting ready to go out of town to colorado all by myself! more details later as i am in my usual before-any-trip-stress-freak-out-mode. i need to travel more to get over that!

enjoy the week.

day 260
 
friday evening on our way to arkansas. no picture of the day yet, hmmm what can i do? oh yeah, i'll stick my head out the window while we're driving down the highway! (good thing a bug didn't fly in my big ole mouth!) of course this reminded the boys of the last time we went to my brother's house and i was yelling out the window so they insisted i do it again for them. what a good excuse to stick your head out of the window and scream and yell like a crazy woman---an inconspicuous stress reliever while thoroughly entertaining my boys!

day 261
 
this is my youngest niece, madelyn. ughh, she is so sweet and petite! very girly but yet likes to play with frogs and is a bit ornery too, definitely my brother's daughter!

day 262
 
out of the blue coop decided he wanted to make a basketball book so we printed some pictures of famous basketball players that he chose from the internet. he put together a sweet little book and then went outside to shoot some hoops with dad. some of the things he wrote go like this "basketball is my favorite sport", " i hope i can dunk on my dad some day", "i hope some day that i can beat michael jordan", "basketball is really fun, you should play some day".

day 263
 
jeremy was able to have some extra time at home while the older boys were in school which meant some good one-on-one time with porter. hulk smash--arghh!!

day 264
 
the only reason these two are sitting with me watching cooper's football practice is because i brought chips!

day 265
 
after school reading time. easton passed down the wimpy kid series to cooper and he's just about done:) ...the cheese touch--ewww!

day 266
 
happy 1st day of fall! the best smelling candle called 'leaves' from bath and body works and the easiest pumpkin bundt cake ever! my friend, candi, gave me the recipe a couple years ago and it quickly became a favorite. it only has 3 ingredients! easy peasy. (1 box betty crocker spice cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1 bag nestle cinnamon chips--oh yes, there is such a thing..mmm! mix together, pour into greased bundt pan, bake @ 350 for 40 minutes. that's it. seriously.)

that's all folks! thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. colorado here i come!
xo

365--week 36

holy crap! i had no idea i was 10 weeks behind in my 365 project! what in the world--that was not a good idea to let that slide this summer! now i'm determined to get caught up. this really is week 36 but my last 365 post was week 26--sheesh! i thought i would do the current week along with week 27 where i left off but after i got on here i realized i had some serious picture organizing to do! i've already spent way too much time trying to straighten out the mess instead of working on this post so now i'm just gonna give you this current week. i'm just happy to actually get a friday post up!

day 246
on our way to kentucky with my parents as i mentioned in my last post. i sat in the back with the boys and had flash-backs of the excitement and anticipation i had as a kid as we traveled in our old van to my grandparent's house. i loved seeing that excitement shine through in them as we crossed many bridges, saw the st. louis arch and traveled through state after state as we made it to our final destination.

day 247

this incredibly amazing woman, my grandmother, was the main reason for our visit. one of the strongest women i know, she's a fighter i tell you. she has been through so much over the last couple of years. she is struggling with cancer yet again and is currently undergoing chemo treatments. i believe i've mentioned her before in a post months ago. this woman has taught me so much. i love you grandma.

day 248
it was very hard to choose a picture from this day. too much i want to say, too many stories. i really hope i can make myself sit down and write about loosing my other grandma this summer and my thoughts about these two wonderful people and all of the feelings and emotions i've had the last 2 months. the love that these two have for each other and how my grandpa takes care of her is the sweetest thing ever. (i have to stop there...no time for tears now)

day 249
these 2 had a special little thing going on this weekend. grandpa teasing porter and porter teasing grandpa...so funny, made my heart happy. i think my grandpa has a soft spot for porter being the 3rd boy because he was the 5th boy in his family (2 more followed him as well--yikes!) and he knows what it's like. i have a feeling he kind of relates to porter's mischievous nature too--lol!

day 250
porter's first day of preschool...his last first day of preschool.

day 251
love it when they get out old toys that they haven't played with in forever! i'll never get rid of our wooden blocks, such a timeless toy. the remote control tank was near by, i'm sure you can guess what happened next!

day 252
what a lovely picture to end with! sorry about that but i couldn't help myself. i have found him doing his business like this time after time so i finally had to capture it. silly boy.

thank you to all my friends and family who stop by my little blog to see what i've been up to. i'm sorry i'm not consistent and don't really know what i'm doing but i love that you still check on me. you can count on my fridays to be back and hopefully all the things in my head will eventually find their way out. hope everyone has enjoyed this shorter work week and have fun times planned for the weekend. love you all.

xo xo

365--week 20

whoa, i can't believe this is the twentieth week of my project 365! that means i'm almost half way through which means half a year has almost just flown by...craziness i say...craziness! now if only i could find a way to make time slow down some because my boys are growing up too fast and i kind of don't like it!

this was porter's first week of "summer break" since he finished preschool last week. it's been nice to have more time with him. next week his brothers will be done and our summer will be officially starting. bring it on baby!

i hope you enjoy our week of pics:)

day 134
walked into the kitchen to find an arsenal of weapons nicely laid out on the table. don't ya love the hand made swords! this was done by porter of course:)

day 135
it was just me and these two on saturday night. jeremy was working and easton spent the night at a friend's house.  i almost wrote an entire post about the spending the night situation and now i wish i had but i was too drained at the end of that night. in short, most of easton's friends are from church and the few times he has spent the night anywhere it's been with those people whom i know very well. i've done a good job avoiding the whole issue of spending the night at someone's house from school who i do not know until we had a face to face encounter and i couldn't avoid it. basically, i dropped him off and cried while i prayed for him the whole way home. i know i sound like a silly over protective mom and you know what...i guess i am but i felt like i did a little bit of letting go that night and it was hard. okay, i should've wrote a post about this because there's so much more to it but he survived and had a great time. (i'd still like to do some background checks though--LOL)

day 136
havin' fun on the trampoline as usual. i tell you what, that trampoline has been the best thing we've ever bought them! we got it when easton was 4 and it has never gotten old. they love it:)

day 137
it never fails...he always ends up painting on himself! he was actually making hand prints after painting his hand although his version of making hand prints is to smack his painted hand down on the paper as hard as he can to see if he can make any paint splatter. laugh, giggle, repeat:)

day 138 my awesome batman dude riding with me to get the brothers. i really should count how many costume/wardrobe changes that kid goes through in a day! he said to me one day this week while we were driving, "i love you mom. you're the best mom and dad's the best dad and God's the best God!". so sweet:)

day 139
we have had rain, rain, and more rain for over a week now. gloomy, gray, rainy days. good thing we don't live somewhere like seattle because i am positive i'd have to be medicated! it's amazing how much having no sun affects me.

out of the seven baseball games we should've had by now only one hasn't been rained out. anyway, the boys had fun playing out in the rain and hunting for worms. sometimes you just gotta let them out of the house even if it's raining!

day 140
okay is that not cool or what?! having boys must be rubbing off on me a bit because i think that is freaking cool...mind you, i think it's cool to look at. i still don't want to touch it! easton helped get the skin off and then we watched as dexter ate it! how can you say that is not cool?! LOL

jeremy and the boys left today after school for a little trip to jeremy's home town. his life long best buddy asked him to come and speak to their youth group. they are the youth pastor's at their church. so he's gonna go do that and the boys are spending the night with his mom. they've been wanting to go to their mimi's house so this will be a nice quick fix since our crazy summer is about to start and we won't get down there again until August probably. but mainly my point is...i am by myself!! even if it is only for a day and a half...i am by myself! i did however spend most of the night cleaning but i get to have lunch tomorrow with my bestie and then hopefully have some time to continue working on my "pile-o-crap" or whatever else i want:) as i was standing in the driveway watching them back out, jeremy had the window down and we were all waving to each other and i hear porter yell "you're the best mom ever!" that put a huge smile on my face and warmed my heart and then i proceeded to do my happy dance once the van disappeared--LOL!

happy weekend to you all. thanks for taking the time to visit my blog:)
xo xo




 

365--week 19

hello there! since i talked your ear off in the last post i don't really have much to say this week....hey--i heard that sigh of relief! LOL!

here ya go...

day 127
porter dressed himself for soccer. the do-rag was totally his idea too!

day 128
easton doing some reading outside (although you can't tell what he's doing from this angle). he's on the 4th book in the Percy Jackson serious. i'm really proud of the way he's been reading and so happy to have found a series he's enjoyed.

day 129
the not-so-great but only picture for the day. happy mother's day! i can't believe i didn't even get one with me and my boys! guess i was too busy sleeping and not doing anything:)

day 130
this is a portrait of me by porter that he so lovingly surprised me with on the fridge:) i don't think he used enough tape though! all of the magnets that were available apparently weren't good enough. and yes, it's still there:)

day 131
this was "one of those days" with the porter boy. i don't know what his deal was but i felt like he was 3 again and i couldn't turn my back for a second. just making huge messes and breaking stuff left and right and then ruining things in his room when he was in time out. mama's patience was about gone by the time daddy got home. well, after dinner jeremy made porter go to his room due to some other incidents and awhile later i went up there to find him in bed and asleep. of course my heart melted and the guilt set in. i just sat there and stared at him for awhile, they are so precious when asleep:) i replayed the day and wondered if i over reacted and was too hard on him, after all he is only 4.5 yrs old but man he can sure test you! i just have to continue to pray that the Lord will give me patience on a daily basis.

day 132
hiding from the rain under the swing set, then quickly running inside...well, i did at least! all 3 baseball games we were supposed to have this week were canceled due to rain. i have to admit i was a bit relieved:)

day 133
dinosaur dissection. what can i say...boys.

thanks for stopping by. have a wonderful weekend!
xo xo


 

project three.six.five

365--week 18

(warning...very long rambling post--you may need to take a potty break!)

my track record hasn't been very good the last few weeks and i apologize for that. the last couple nights when i've finally gotten to sit down at the computer i've literally had the falling-asleep-nodding-head thing going on. so today on mother's day, after church and lunch with my parents, i got to take a 2 hour nap!! yep, you read that right! two hours! it was a glorious thing, the kind of nap where you fall asleep the second your head hits the pillow and you don't move at all! okay, enough about my awesome nap, here is another glimpse of another week in the jones household.

day 120

part of my dinner, i love a good salad. 

i'm realizing as i've been feeling kind of in a rut with this project that i've been taking less pictures and have been taking pictures of "things" a lot instead of the loves in my life. i don't know if it's part of trying to be creative or lack of creativity. yes, i do want to remember some of the "things" in our life etc...and when you look at these pictures together as a whole it does add interest but i think in the future i'm going to have rather seen a picture of my boys than the salad i ate. (of course this was the only picture i took this day so i had no choice). just some of the constant things that are rollin' around in my head:)

day 121

porter saved the day for me today! i only took one picture and it didn't turn out but i found this on the little camera i keep in my purse. he loves to get that out and take pictures of anything and everything. it's hilarious when i look at all the pictures he's taken, let's just say i do a lot of deleting but every now and then there's a keeper such as the one above:)

day 122

our sunday school party turned out great. i was wishing i still had that fish eye lens for this shot! out of the 83 that signed up we had a total of 68 people, not too bad! with the weather we have been having i was praying that the rain would hold off because there's no way we could have all those people in our house at once. thankfully it did, just minutes after everyone left it started to rain. thank you Lord!

day 123

when i picked up cooper from school and asked how his day was he said it was good then he paused and said "but just one part was bad...i got a hole in my shorts". of course that's nothing new and i didn't look right then as i'm in after school traffic but when we got home and he got out of the van this is what i saw. seriously...just a little hole?! LOL! my first thought was, "you were walking around at school like that?!" then my second thought was, "crap--another piece of clothing that i can't hand down!" in the trash they went.

day 124

i volunteered at porter's preschool for their annual "big wheel day". i never got to do this with easton or cooper so am glad i can do it for porter. it's just a fun filled day with lots of different stations and a track to ride their bikes on. this was at the "chalk" station. (i purposely opted for the shot of porter instead of the shot i got of all the cute decorated bikes lined up in a row to go along with what i was talking about above)

my facebook status read on this day, "porter in the van this afternoon, there's a lot of boogers on this side mom (pointing to one nostril). me: oh, do you need a kleenex? porter: no, it can just be my snack! ughh! where have i gone wrong?! so gross! he thinks it's hilarious at how grossed out i get...maybe that's why he does it??? Lord help me!"  sorry had to share another nasty boy story. maybe i need to put a warning at the top of my blog--ha ha!

day 125

this was precious. after preschool it's just porter and i at home until it's time to get his brothers so he went outside to play. i was upstairs folding laundry or something and peeked out the window to find him under the trampoline just playing and rolling around with sinbad. i shot some pictures through the window upstairs but then went down for some too. he played out there with him almost the whole time until we had to go pick up easton and cooper. i thought it was so sweet! 

day 126

i didn't realize it at the time but this was my last thursday for the school year. thursdays are "my" day, porter has an extended day at preschool so i have 5 hours to myself. to say i love thursdays would be an understatement! i chose to just go home and enjoy my quiet house while trying to widdle away at my ever growing "pile-o-crap". emails, cards, thank you's, summer schedules, bills etc... are just a few things i worked on. when i picked porter up and went through his papers there was a note saying this was the last extended day. WHAT?! that's kind of big news when you thought you had one more week! i think that note should have come home last week, oh well i did enjoy the day:)  

my nice quiet time at home was quickly forgotten with an afternoon and evening filled with loud bickering boys who were not being very nice to each other. at bedtime i made them go around and say something nice about each other. after a few tries here's how it went:

cooper to porter: you're cool
cooper to easton: you're wicked awesome
porter to cooper: thanks for helping me clean my room and i'm glad you get to go on a field trip tomorrow, i wish i could go.
porter to easton: i hope you have a good day at school tomorrow.
easton to cooper: you're good at math
easton to porter: you're good at sports

i need to do that way more often!

some other tid-bits about my week: (i think i'm loosing my mind)

* i have to admit that even though i'm 35 i have some miley cyrus on my ipod (thanks to my sister!). it hardly ever comes up on shuffle though but this week the song "time of our lives" came on and i don't think i had ever heard it before but i loved it and so it became my song for the week. it totally made me think of my sister and friends cruising around with the windows down, it made me miss mexico and my sister a lot. maybe i'm just in need of a fun night out?? it goes like this "let's have the time of our lives, like there's no one else around, just throw your hands up high, even when they try to take us down we'll have the time of our lives, until the lights burn out, let's laugh until we cry, life is only what you make it now, let's have the time of our lives!" my husband would totally make fun of me for that but whatever--i love it!

*sinbad had a grooming/shots appointment that i completely spaced even though i saw it on the calendar the night before! seriously?!

*i planned our whole after school time and dinner time around the fact that cooper had his first baseball game that night. showed up at the ball fields with him decked out in his uniform to a couple teams practicing and looking at us a little weird. oops! mommy's bad...again! i can't tell you how many times i stared at his schedule and the date "may 12th" never changed. somehow it just never registered with me that it wasn't may 12th!

*easton's baseball pictures came in the mail this week and wouldn't you know it, on every single picture his name was spelled wrong! "Easten Jones". i was convincing myself that i'm pretty sure i've never spelled any of my kid's names wrong but i definitely wouldn't rule it out considering the way the week was going. especially if you remember this post  ...anything's possible. i'll never know though if it was me or not since the order form i filled out wasn't included with his pictures. they did fix it no questions asked though so it turned out good. 

*my driver's license expired on my birthday almost a month ago and to stick with the theme i've got going on here...i forgot! one of the reasons i haven't got it renewed yet is simply because i never take a shower in the morning and i've hated my driver's license picture for the last 10 years so i am going to take a shower and be ready for this next picture! as crazy as that sounds it's true! i just need to remember and make myself do it and since this is porter's last week of preschool i have got to do it before i get pulled over...knock on wood!

jeremy's schedule has been extra crazy the past 2 weeks due to this class he's had to take for the technical rescue team he's on through the fire station. one morning before he left in an attempt to make it easier on me since i had failed to plan ahead i asked him to just tell me something he wanted for dinner. he quickly replied, chicken ritz casserole, on his way out the door. okay good. just a quick trip to the store at some point in the day. well, this happened on my precious thursday and i was selfish and didn't want to give up my quiet time at home to go to the store, after all it's just a few things i need, the boys can go with me after i pick them up. i did cook the chicken during my alone home time though. big mistake. what should have been a short trip to the store turned into a long nightmare at the store which in turn 3 boys went straight to their rooms and had to stay there until i got dinner in the oven. i'm behind schedule already, expecting jeremy home soon. of course i forgot one stinking thing i needed at the store and had to load the boys up to run to the nearest place (dollar general) to get it. i let the boys loose in the backyard so i could finish dinner when we got back. dinner cooks 40 minutes, i get the kitchen cleaned up and the other side items prepared, still no jeremy. i've tried to call many times to only get his voice mail. getting slightly irritated. dinner is now done. no jeremy. called again. boys playing wonderfully outside so i wait a little bit longer. i cut up a bunch of veggies and fruit for a salad that i hadn't planned on in the mean time. okay, now i'm pissed. i call the boys in and say that we're going to eat without daddy because i can't get a hold of him. it's 7:30, we pray, as we're eating i kind of mumble to myself "where in the world is he??" and cooper looks at me and says..."isn't he at the fire station?" i think you all know what the answer to that is going to be---umm, yes. why yes he is! on the plus side, since we waited until 7:30 to eat i had no complaining what so ever from the boys and they all had seconds! that never happens! i'm thinking i should do that more often:) i have to say in my defense though, i did know that jeremy was at the fire station that day but it threw me off that he told me something for dinner instead of saying he wouldn't be there. he told me he wasn't really thinking either as it was early and he's leaving for work...oh well. still needless to say, my brain apparently took a vacation this week!

porter offered to pray for our dinner the other night when it was just the boys and i. it went like this:

"dear Jesus,
i hope dad has a good time at the fire station. i hope he doesn't get burned up so he doesn't get in a fire and pee in his pants.
amen"

finally, i just want to say Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing mothers out there. i am so thankful for my wonderful mom, grandmothers, and all the other beautiful women in my life. so much of who i am is because of these women. thank you.

oh a funnier note about mother's day, i was listening to one of our local radio stations this week and they were talking about how if most moms were to be honest they would totally want to be by themselves for the day but of course what mom wants to say "um, i don't want to be with you guys for mother's day". anyway, they did this contest on air and the lucky mom who won got a hotel room downtown for the day! i was totally thinking that is brilliant! (and wishing i was the winner as well!)LOL!

 wow! if you've made it this far, thanks for reading all my randomness! i hope you have a great week.
xo xo