Eloise Margaret Jones

Our newest addition to our family is here! Eloise (Ellie) Margaret Jones was born on Monday, December 5 at 12:13 pm. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.5 inches long. And she was born 10 days early!! She is such a fabulous baby, and we are all so much in love with her. Here are just a bunch of pictures of her first several days.

The day before I went into labor

Biggest brother Nolan

Big brother Parker

Our 3 beautiful children

Home at last

10 days old

We are so happy to have her in our family. She fits in perfectly and is such a dreamy baby. We love you Ellie!

Nolan Turns 4

Seeing that there are some big happenings in our family, I thought I better get write a few blog updates. We'll start with Nolan's 4th birthday!

What a fabulous celebration we had! His day started off with birthday pancakes with berries and whipped cream, a birthday crown, and decorations!When you turn 4, you get a ton of really cool presents!

A marble run set

A bow and arrow

And a cool police car

At preschool, Bob the monkey got to sing Happy birthday to Nolan.

And they had a Thanksgiving "farmer" feast!

At home, Nolan had a birthday party with some really great friends.

Of course, the cupcakes were lemon with yellow frosting and yellow sprinkles. Yellow has been Nolan's favorite-favorite color since he was 17 months old!

We had such a great time celebrating, and we are so proud of our 4 year old.

April Fools!

I seem to have fallen behind a bit on my blogging! We went to Florida in March, but I forgot my camera and I am at the mercy of my sister-in-laws to use their pictures. I haven't gotten any yet (mostly my fault for not asking!). So we'll just skip on to April Fools!

Two of my friends, Kresta and Tara, decided to throw our 5 kids (a newborn doesn't count!) and April Fools day lunch! We ate hot dogs, chips, an apple, peas and carrots, mashed potatoes, drank yummy lemonade, and had a nice flower centerpiece for each kid!

Why are all you moms giggling?

The kids thought it was pretty funny when they discovered that their lunch was not quite right! The hot dogs were really bananas covered in peanut butter with strawberry jam, the chips were replaced by carrot slices, the apples were wormy (gummy worms), peas and carrots and mashed potatoes were really cupcakes, the lemonade was lemon jello, and the flowerpots had mac-n-cheese inside. We sure tricked them!

I am really dorky and love to be silly, so our April Fools day was perfect!

As a side note, Kresta had her beautiful baby boy, Harrison James Schleiffarth. Isn't he cute?

Parker's Birthday Celebration

We were unable to celebrate Parker's birthday as a family on his actual birthday, so we celebrated today. Happy Birthday Party Parker! Parker LOVES cars. And trucks. And basically all vehicles. For his cake, I made him a car. He loved it!

Vroom! Vroom!

Nolan may have been a little jealous, but was a great sport.
That was just a little too much frosting for Ted and me, so we got a piece out for Nolan and let Parker go crazy!

Do you see the fingerprints on his face?

Afterwards, we needed some serious bath time!

Love the curls

Now the exciting part, presents!




Happy birthday to Parker!

Happy Birthday Parker!

One year ago, our sweet baby Parker joined our family.We can't believe how quickly the time has passed and we can't imagine life without you.
Parker seems to be all boy. He loves vehicles and says "Errr, errr" (Vroom, vroom) whenever he sees them. He loves his Daddy and shouts "Dada" while pointing enthusiastically when he sees him. Nolan or "Nah-Nan" is his best buddy. He can say Mama, but it is usually in a sad, please do something for me, voice. He loves animals and makes the same sound for all animals, but dogs get an enthusiastic panting sound, too. He loves playing, reading books (he has to do the reading, not Mom), eating, balls, and laughing. He has started cruising tentatively around our furniture, and I am sure those first steps will be happening sooner than I can imagine.
Poor Parker actually has been pretty sick the last few days with a really high fever (almost 105) and just feeling miserable. Although he has had a few ear infections, this was his first fever. We still managed to have a little fun celebrating the day.



For breakfast today, Parker had waffles, strawberries and bananas. He was a little too sick to enjoy, but it looked yummy!He had 2 great naps today, so for dinner we decided to venture out to our new Chick-fil-A with our great friends Jackson and Addie. (Their parents came too, but seeing that Kresta is 4 weeks from delivering, she wouldn't let me get their picture.) Poor Ted had to work all day, then have class all night. He didn't even get to see Parker awake on his birthday.

Birthday Cupcake!

Our celebrating crew

My mom is a very talented woman. For each of her grandchildren's first birthday, she makes them a quilt. This is Parker's:

He has it in his crib and has honestly fallen asleep more easily and quickly since he got it. It is beautiful. Thanks Grammy!

Happy birthday dearest Parker.