Bowling Party

The boys were invited to a birthday party at our local bowling alley.  They were sooo excited, even though they had never been bowling before.  They did pretty good for their first time bowling - especially considering the smallest ball was about a third of their own weight!

The funniest part (to me at least) was that the balls rolled SO SLOW, since they could hardly push them, that by the time the ball actually got to the end of the lane, they had lost interest and were not even watching anymore.  We tried to get their attention and show them that their ball was about to knock some pins over...but they were usually off playing by this time.

I am pretty sure one of them will request a bowling party next year. 

Practice Makes Perfect

Conner & Cayden have really been working hard on learning to write their names.  Cayden is happy to sit down with a pen and paper and draw, write, or doodle for quite a while. Conner on the other hand lasts for maybe 30 seconds, and even then he says he doesn't want to.  I've bought all different kids of pens, crayons, slick sticks, paints, etc. to try and make it more fun for him, and keep him interested.  This attempt, I broke out the sugar and they had a blast.  They thought I had lost my mind and kept laughing at me while I was pouring the sugar into the pans.  Flour works better, but I had more sugar, and it worked just fine - and an added bonus dad showed them was that they could lick their fingers for a little sweet treat.

Conner is also working on "crossing midline" which he has made great progress on, as you can see here.  Crossing midline is something that most of us do not even think about, but until recently, Conner could not pick up something on his left with his right hand - he would pick it up with the closest hand and then switch hands to get it to the other side.  Likewise, he could not draw a figure 8 without stopping in the middle to avoid crossing the line.  If this sounds foreign to you, it did to me as well.  I never thought about it until Conner's Occupational Therapist pointed it out to me.  She also told me that crossing midline is essential to reading, writing, pedaling a bike, and many other tasks we do every day without thinking about.  Anyway, he is doing great!  Our goal for this summer is to get him on his bike. 

Lucky!

It's been a while, and things have been (and still are) a bit crazy!  Before I begin blogging, I must make a comment about Keir's last post -- I cried when I read it (several times), and I am one lucky girl to have him!  He is the best, really, he is!

The Best Wife and Mom EVER!!!

Blogs are fun to read.  I love reading the blogs that our friends and family post.  Its such a great way to keep up with people you can't see regularly.  My favorite blog to read is ours...The Jones Family.  Sorry everyone...

Most days I'm off at work or meetings for 10-12 hours, which with three awesome little kids is the better part of their day.  If I could, I'd spend all day playing with them....maybe that's why I didn't ski but only one day this whole season.  During the work week I miss so much and only get to hear the fun stories over dinner.  That is until Lindsay sits down at her computer and gets to work.  

Lindsay is the best wife and Mom three great kids and an mediocre Dad could want!!  She is diligent about posting to our blog so that our families can all keep up with the Colorado Jones'.  Over the year's she's made some unbelievable birthday cakes for the kids and has chronicled their lives in some pretty cool scrapbooks.

But what really makes Lindsay the best wife and Mom EVER is her extraordinary amount of selflessness.  What she didn't blog about this week is how sick she's been--even last night while she was blogging she said, "it feels like my head is going to burst!"  A long winter with sick kids, crazy changes in temperature--Mother Nature can't decide if its Spring or Winter--and a whole lot of other stressful things caught up to her this week and knocked her flat on her back!  She wouldn't even call someone to watch the kids, she just toughed it out as best as she could.  I did step in and got some of our friends to watch the kids so she could rest. But even when she's healthy and her head's not going to explode, she's the last to get a bath or a shower.  Meals for the kids come first.  Getting Conner to his many therapy appointments or doctor visits takes priority over a hair cut, manicures, a quick trip to the gym or even hanging out with friends for a play date.  Not to mention keeping up with and entertaining Cayden...that kid is a handful!!  And now that Allie is getting ready to walk its going to get real nutty!  Lindsay is ALL kid and family time and ZERO personal time.  There have been days when I've said, "boy, I'd sure like to just be a stay home dad...you can go to work again Lindsay."  But you know what, I couldn't do what Lindsay does.  What she does daily is amazing!

Lindsay...MOM...we know you know this, but its nice to hear it when you least expect it...

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR OUR FAMILY!!!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Climbing

I should probably be grateful it didn't happen sooner, but it happened today.  Allison discovered climbing.  She has climbed the stairs on several occasions, but today she discovered that she can climb ANYTHING.

First it was the chairs.

Then it was the table. (We'll be moving this table tonight away from the bannister!)

Then on to the train table.

Up to the couch...

And, another method to get on the couch.

The best part is that she also learned to turn around on her belly and go backwards when she is trying to get down from whatever she climbed up.

Growing Up!

Every day, my kids say the funniest things (well, I think they are funny!), and act so grown up.  I wish I was one of those moms who just remembered every little thing, but I am not.  And, usually the funny things happen as we are running out the door with no time to write them down.  Today, there were several. . . 

Conner could not find his snow boots this morning (yes, it snowed again last night!) and I went in the garage to look for them.  I found them and walked in the back door just as Conner was getting ready to come out and get in Dad's truck.  He looked very excited and then said, "Mom, you have perfect timing!"  Seriously, this sentence blew Keir and I away - especially considering he didn't speak very much at all a year ago.

While driving to Occupational & Physical Therapy this afternoon, Conner asked, "Mom? Are we going to pick up Cayden after we see Francie and Jeanine?"  I told him yes.  He then said in a very concerned voice, "Mom, you forgot to put Cayden's booster seat back in the car."  Good thing I have a 5 year old to remind me of the many things I forget to do.

Cayden said the prayer at dinner tonight, and remembered to bless the food all by himself.  He usually has a long list of things to be thankful for (toys, school, etc) and forgets to bless the food.  He also said "thank you that we get to see Jill in the morning."  Jill is Conner's speech therapist, and the kids all adore her.  I am pretty sure Jill will tear up when I tell her this.

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny came to our house, and the kids were so excited to begin searching  for hidden treasures.  The Easter Bunny even left some empty buckets to collect anything to be found.