Halloween Fun

We had a fabulous Halloween week this year! I love celebrating, and it is so much more fun with a child that loves celebrating, too! Because of backwards pictures, we have our week in reverse!

Halloween night was spent at the end of our cul-de-sac with all the neighborhood kids. We had a pot luck dinner, games, treats, and a fire. We LOVE our neighborhood and all of the great people who live here.

Nolan and his glow sword

Nolan and the pinata

Buzz Lightyear and Addison the flower

Some of our neighborhood kids
Ready for Trick or Treating

Buzz Lightyear

Halloween morning we went to our local farmer's market to pick out the perfect pumpkin. It was the first sunny day in over a week!

Carving the pumpkin with Daddy

I want this one!

The family (I'm 6 months pregnant)

Kirkwood Farmer's Market

With the aforementioned horrible weather, Nolan and I got pretty bored being stuck in the house. We made Halloween crafts!

Coloring

Nolan's Jack-O-Lanterns

Playdough pumkins

Cute!

Earlier in the week, we went to my great friend Kresta's house for a Halloween party. Nolan did wear his costume, but it only lasted 5 minutes and I didn't get a picture in time. I was surprised that Halloween night he didn't want to take it off after over 2 hours!

The popular red car

Eating the pretzels we made

Scary story time

Doughnuts on a string

All the big kids

We had a wonderful Halloween!

Keepin' On

I have finally gotten some new batteries for my camera, so now I can be back in the blogging world. We have been busy, as always, with everyday life and living. For our first big news, Nolan will be having a new BABY BROTHER!!! It's another boy! We are so excited for the crazy wrestling, running, screaming, and all things boy to happen to our household. Ted always wanted a little brother, and being the oldest with 3 younger sisters, is very excited for Nolan. As for the pregnancy, I am almost 22 weeks along and still throwing up nearly every day. Let me just tell you-so not fun. But seeing that he is growing well and moving all over the place, it will be worth it someday. (Right??? I am pretty sure...)

In other news, Nolan is still growing like crazy and doing tons of fun new stuff. He sings the entire ABCs all day long, can count to 20. (Except 14 and 15. They must be really hard ones.) And is such a fun little guy to be around. Papa and Grammy in Minnesota found a beautiful wooden bunk bed at a garage sale in northern Minnesota. Papa took it home, sanded it down, and refinished it. We didn't have a bed for Nolan, so voila, we got Papa's bed! It is gorgeous.

Nolan all snuggled in

Nolan's "boy bed"
Fall happens to be a favorite around here. Yesterday we went to the apple orchard with some great friends and had a blast enjoying the beautiful fall day.

Eating in the orchard

Addie, Kresta, Jackson, Nolan, and me
Driving the tractor

Playing Golf

(Of course-such a sports boy)

Fort Eckert

I also realized I never put any pictures from Minnesota up here. The most important part of the trip was time spent with family. Nolan still talks about his cousins and can list all of them when we talk about who "lives" in Minnesota. (Sorry Howells, but it's too confusing to explain.)

All the cousins (except Emma) at the

movie/popcorn/juicebox party

watching ET

Ben, Nolan, Grace and Emma

Papa and Nolan feeding the birds

One last request-boy name suggestions! We are having a hard time thinking up boy names for our new little guy. Any thoughts????

Take a Guess

Is it another boy? Will we get a girl this time? What will Nolan's new sibling be? We are having our ultrasound on September 15, so you have until then to cast your vote. We can't wait to find out!

Updates

We have been having a fun, busy summer. The weather has really been quite wonderful. It hasn't even seemed like we are in St. Louis!

I went to Girl's Camp for church as a Stake Leader during the week before the 4th of July. It was an amazing experience, and Ted got to be a stay-at-home-Daddy to Nolan!

Other interesting things in the Jones family:

Cardinal's Game

All Dressed up and ready to play

A trip to the Sculpture Gardens

Watching the clouds

VERY beginning of potty training

There has actually been a couple of small successes!

Swimming!

Grant's Farm with some great friends.

Playing baseball from morning till night

Tomorrow Nolan and I are heading up north to Minnesota for a 3 week vacation to visit my family. We are so excited to see everyone. We will miss you Daddy!

Last, but definitely NOT least, I may have an excuse for not posting for awhile. WE'RE PREGNANT!!!! The baby is due February 12, 2010. I have felt pretty miserable for most of the pregnancy so far. Hopefully it will improve in the next couple of weeks. We are very excited and eager for Nolan to become a big brother!

18 Months Old

Did you hear the news???

"What?"

Nolan is 18 months old today!

"Who, me?"

Yep, you!

"Sweet!"

What a fun-filled 18 months we've had in this household! Nolan is getting very big, and we love all the new things he can do. It is great that he has really become Daddy's little buddy lately. The two are almost inseparable.

Nolan has been working on talking for a long time, and we recently have crossed that two-word bridge. Last night, unsolicited, he said, "Love you Mama." I will proudly admit that he brought me to tears. (Ok-that may not be too surprising.) He says bye-bye to everyone and thing. We are working on "Miss you" for Grandma and Papa in Minnesota. Aside from that, he has over 100 words. He is doing great and we love every word.

Physically, he has been improving his utensil usage. He has mastered eating Cheerios with milk for breakfast. And by mastering, I mean he still gets a nice pile on his tray, but most end up in his mouth. He loves to "run," throw and kick all balls, and try to catch about 3 seconds after the ball has been thrown. He drives his trucks all over the neighborhood, and tries to go downstairs to play with his trains first thing every morning.

The newest fun we have is swimming outside. We go to our buddies' "Memma" (Emma), "Yi-yee" (Lily), and "Beebee" (Phoebe) house to play in their little pool. Or we just fill up some bowls and splash around our front yard. As long as we are wet, we are cool!

We go to the doctor next week for his well-child visit, so we will update size then.

Here are a couple pictures from today.

Phoebe and Nolan

Hey bud, 18 months NOT 18 years!

Happy 18 months Nolan. Mom and Dad love you so much!

Creativity

When my sister Melissa visited in April, she helped me with a couple of cute, easy, creative decoration ideas. I am not good at starting projects, but somehow, finishing them seems to be even more difficult for the ADHD ridden Kristina. (Can I really use that as an excuse?)

The first project is super cute, and super easy! I saw some prints I wanted for our new basement, but they were $225. Not in our budget. Melissa showed me a super cool site (Just a Girl) with tons of great, really cheap decorating ideas. She suggested I try this great "canvas" idea!

It was so simple! All you need is: 12"x 12" scrapbook paper, a 12" x 36" in styrofoab sheet, black cardstock, and a glue gun. Cut the styrofoam in thirds, glue on your paper, trim the cardstock to fit on the edges, glue on, and voila! Designer beauty! I am really loving it, and it makes the basement so much more homey.

The next project is St. Louis style cherry blossoms.

Melissa and I went on a stick hunt in my neighborhood. We just got random, nicely angled sticks off the ground. Take pink and white (or light pink) tissue paper. Cut out 5 petal flowers (does NOT need to be perfect! The best part!) out of both together. Grab the center and twist into a flower. It was suggested to put floral wire around to hold it, but that was a big pain. Hot glue worked fabulously. Then apply to sticks. Another great project!

As I mentioned before, I have a hard time finishing projects. This week, I went crazy! Melissa was here for Easter and we started both these projects together. I finished the cherry blossoms last week and just hung the pictures today. Huge slacker, I know. Also, when my parents were here and they painted my house, they left a TINY spot for me to put a second coat on. Well, They came the first week in March and I finally painted Monday. Sheesh. So embarassing. I am hoping that fessing up to blogland, I may improve this weakness. Probably not, though.

Now I am just waiting for a sister or parent visit so I can start my next project.

Graduation

The day has finally arrived...TED GRADUATED!!! After 4 years (5, if you count St. Lawrence University right out of high school) of hard work, perserverance, determination, and a lot of sacrifice, he has earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Urban Affairs/Public Policy from St. Louis University. We are so proud of him, and are happy for him to be finished.

We have been lucky to do quite a bit of celebrating so far. Yesterday, Ted's work gave him a nice luncheon to celebrate, and they invited Nolan and I to participate as well. He is a lucky man to have such a great job filled with caring and supportive co-workers.

Last night we went to dinner with his parents, little sister Jody and his grandmother. It was delicious and nice to be together for celebrating.

Today, we had a fun-filled afternoon down at the SLU campus.

Lunch at a campus hot spot
The really old church where the ceremony was held
Nolan trying to find his daddy

Proof

More proof

Daddy and Nolan

Us

Nana, Nolan and Wada

Cute group

The handsome graduate

So, what next, you ask? We have been married for 4 years, 2 months and Ted has been a student for all but the first 4 months of this time. We aren't even going to know what to do with all this extra family time. I guess that now we can tackle those yard projects, organizing our house, camping, hiking, biking... I think we'll find some great things to keep us occupied.

Thank you so much to those of you who sent cards, phone calls, or kept us in your thoughts today and over the past 4 years. It has meant a lot to Ted and me. I am married to a college graduate! Yipee!