D-land, Take 4

We had a very special day at Disneyland about a week ago. We got to go with DADDY, Grandma Melinda, Grandpa Mike, and cousins Katie and Brandon. It was extra special because it was Katie and Brandon's first time! I always love that because it makes it feel like your first time all over again. It was so fun watching them get nervous, amazed, and so stoked throughout the day.
They re-opened small world so Malia got to go on it for the first time. She LOVED it! Mr. Jones and I were talking about how different the Disneyland experience is with kids. It is so much fun to just go for them, and watch their excitement. It is one of life's pure enjoyments to see your kids get so excited. I am grateful to live so close to the happiest place on earth, and it was so fun to enjoy Katie and Brandon experience it for the first time.
Click the link below to see photos from the day. Also, watch this fun video of Katie just LOVING the little parade we watched at the end of the day.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS

HAVE SIPPI CUP... WILL TRAVEL

A self portrait... my life as a Mommy. It is busy, fun, tiring, rewarding, stressful at times, overwhelming at times, and has made my heart grow 3 times larger.... and did I say FUN! ?

Well, I was thinking like I normally do, about a million things at once. Here is how I got to the point I wanted to mention: Watching the last episode of the bachelor (if you don't watch this show you wont get the rest of this thought process until the end, sorry) and then the after the rose ceremony... What the! Are you kidding me!! Ok wait, maybe this is the right thing for this guy, Molly did seem like she was more ready to be a Mother, like Mr. Jones pointed out, Melissa seemed to act more like a babysitter to Ty and Molly more like a mother. Mother.... man I am soooo lucky to be a mother! Especially to two such wonderful little spirits... man my kids are smart! And I can say that because their genetic make up as nothing to do with me. How did I get so lucky?! Well, I can take credit for some of their characturistics... I am raising them. And dang it I work SO hard to be a good Mom, to be the best Mom I can be. It really takes a lot of sacrafice to be a good Mom, lots of dedication. Integrity... yeah Jason did have integrity in this situation I guess..... it takes integrity to be a good parent. It also takes physical work, tons of Christ like love, sticking to your guns and not giving in, lots of your time and patience. How do I know what to do? How do I make desisions on how to raise my kids? It's thanks to all of the amazing Mothers that I know, I think about what makes each of them an amazing Mom (I think every Mom's way is unique and special, especially the amazing Moms) and I try to find out why they are amazing in different aspects of Mother hood.
Like my Mom- She is amazing at teaching self reliance- how does she do it? She teaches "how to" insead of "I'll just do it because it is easier". She teaches me to teach my children. To give them responsibility and to not jump out of my chair at every little thing, but to let them see if they can help themselves first.
And my mother-in-law Melinda- she is amazing at showing children her love for them. How does she do it? She is an open book of feelings. She tells them and shares with them and is so open with them. She is not afraid to get emotional. She helps teach me to tell my kids often how greatful I am for them, how wonderful they are, and how much I love them.
And my sister Michelle- she is amazing at having patience with children. And getting them to calm down and guide them to the better decision. How does she do it? She's witty and fun and keeps her voice really soft and uses a more reasoning approach with them. She helps teach me to take a breath, calm down, and talk with my kids, help them get over their frustration, redirect their attention. She teaches me to not let them get away with things, but to discipline with love.
And my sis-in-law Chelsea- She is a great example of dedication and selflessness. How does she do it? She really has her world revolve around her children. It seems every decision she makes is for them first. She helps teach me to not get too wrapped up in myself.

So, I can say, if I end up being half the mother as all the amazing Mothers I use as examples, all the credit can go to them. Yes, I have natural instincts in many aspects of motherhood, but much of who I am as a mother comes from other mother's examples.
SO, I guess that is my approach to motherhood. Follow the examples of all the other wonderful women in my life. I think it is working pretty well for me so far, but being a good Mommy is always a work in progress in my mind. It is the dedication I am sure of, I am 100% dedicated to my children, my life is lived to raise them up and help them become the best selves they can be. I am luck to have so much to work with with these two. They really are amazing children and I am blessed to be their Mommy.

Why I love TJ's

I found this you tube video on my friend Jackie's blog. SO awesome. But... if you don't have a Trader Joe's by you (I feel bad for your first off...) then you probably wont get it. If you do and don't go there, same, you might go, "huh?" that was a waste of 3 minutes of my life. BUT, and just BUT... if you are like me and LOVE TJ's, you will giggle and laugh and feel all warm and fuzzy inside from this video. ENJOY!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO

All Hail!!

That is right, HAIL. We had a freaky morning. It was as if the heavens opened, just over our "bungalow".
The sun was out, looked like a wonderful morning. Then, without warning, a single cloud moved in and UNLOADED> Full blown hail, and lots of it! Then POURING rain for about 5 minutes. Then, the cloud left and the sun was out shining down on us for the rest of the day! Pretty weird huh? You don't see weather like that around these parts too often.

A window into our day

Nearly everyday, you can find Mrs. Jones, the skater dude, and the pink monster (another of our many names for the hip-hop princess) playing in the front yard for hours on end. Malia has become very comfortable there and is now our neighborhood greeter for all the passers by on our street.
Lately she has become quite the little flirty flirt. I wanted to get a visual for you all so I had my camera charged and ready, waiting for a little foot traffic.
Malia's normal roosting spot- our front porch.
Here she is:


Off the bottle and on to the sippi cup.... and none of those baby sippi cups for this girl, she needs the big cups just like her big bro.
Anyway, here she is eying her target. A nice lady walking her dog...


















She threw down the sippi cup right before I got this shot. She usually does this and stands. Everyone knows you must be standing up to flirt properly, or maybe she just wants to show off her skills... either way, she knows she looks cuter standing up.



















This move needs to go, and soon. She has starting lifting up her shirt, a little too immodest if you ask me. I flash forward sometimes, thinking of the possible arguments regarding belly shirts and booty shorts... then I think, no way, my little angel is going to be perfect and do and wear exactly what I tell her to!

















Then the wave, you can't get the full picture without seeing it in person, but it is VERY girly. She has the wrist snap down. Very girly finger movment, really, we could take lessons. I call it the flirty wave.


Her saving grace.... she flirts with all (not just the boys). She just LOVES people and LOVES making them smile, which I take as a positive.... so I say, keep on flirting Malia... keep on flirting.

A winters day at the beach

A few weeks ago I got a nice little phone call on an early Saturday morning from my "BFF/sis-n-law" Whitney, questioning if I might be interested in a little beach cruiser ride down on the beach path by our house. DUH! Of COURSE I said yes! Gabe HAD to go too, so Whit rode her townie over with a friend and we cruised down to the beach (my breaks squeeking all the way!).
The photos do no justice to what a BEAUTIFUL winters day it was down there. I really LOVE the beach in the winter time. You get that reflective "glassy" look on the water from the low lying clouds and it is so quiet and peaceful... We had such a great time just taking it slow and enjoying the beautiful day.
We also stopped at a little coffee shop for some fresh fruit and a smoothie. It was one of those days that was just SO fun and even more fun because it was not planned and was so unexpected. I LOVE randomness, it makes life so much better in my book. Thanks for the "randomness" Whit. That is something I can always count on you for!

The JONES CREW

Out for an Evening of Velvety frozen yogurt. "It's all right cuz it's FRIDAY night, so Mr. Funk master pump the Bee Gees..." Hope you all have a fun evening!!

A late valentine story... Shivelry is not dead!

Ahhh!! Blog posts today : 4~!! Sorry all, I had to add just one more!
Non-prompted background story: We were going to the park today and noticed Gracie forgot to bring a jacket. As I went into Malia's room to see if I had an extra for her in her "extra stuff" bag, I hear Gabe in the hall way. (the non-prompted part) "You can borrow one of my jackets Gracie", and Gracie, " Thanks Gabe!" Then Gracie walks into Malia's room with Gabe's jacket on asking for help zipping it up. Oh, I was melting!

Prompted part : I wanted to get a photo (had blogging on the brain) so I asked Gabe to go pick a flower and give it to Gracie for a photo opp.
Non-prompted part: Gabe picked a flower and handed it to Gracie saying, "here you go Gracie", and Gracie, " Thank you Gabe! (SOOO excited)" and Gabe, " Your welcome!"
Non-prompted part, once more: An then they gave eachother a hug!! So cute!!

Another prompted part: I asked them to say cheese for a "final photo" and this is the result. You can see how stoked Gracie was about her flower in this photo. As we walked over the car she asked me if she could bring her flower to the park. Ohhh... seriously MElTiNg!

Out of place

Ok, so if you read the below two posts you will see that I had planned on only posting 2 posts a day, but I could not resist on this one. Also, if you read my blog regularly, you will know that I recently announced that Gabe is now riding his skateboard like a real pro, he will be 3 years old at the end of March.
This is "out of place" because this is from last weekend and I have stuff backed up from LAST MONTH that I still need to post, but I had to show off my little boy. Needless to say, he is now wearing a helmet WHENEVER he skates now. You will see why! Enjoy!

Backyard Barbershop

I hurt my wrist, and also have realized that watching 3 kids 3 days a week has taken a tole on my attempt to blog regularly. So, I am in desperate need of catching up! (as some of you have pointed out~!) I don't want to over whelm (you or my wrist) so I will only post 2 a day until I have covered everything.
To start you off we will begin with a little surprise I woke up to one Saturday morning. Mike must of woke up and gotten right to it! He had already gone surfing and begun this by the time I realized it was even Saturday! Luckily I know Gabe's hair grows SO fast so I don't mind the curls being gone for a few weeks to keep his little afro under check. Mike had decided he needed a cut and went right to it!
I thought it was so cute how he set him up outside so I had to capture. This guy is good I am telling you! He had Malia all set up in the swing and Gabe was so excited to get a "big boy hair cut". He got to go to Daddy's backyard barbershop! Thanks Daddio!

Zoo Days

One of our recent holidays (remember Mr. Jones is a banker and gets them ALL off so I can't ever remember which one is which) we had the special treat of going to the zoo with Grandpa Mike. Well, not really the zoo but the San Diego wild animal park. Grandpa came complete with his Grandpa hat and was ready to cruise the park! The WAP is quite the walk, but I love it because you can really just cruise and it feels like you are really hiking around looking at animals in the wild. I also LOVE their lion exhibit, it gives you such a great view of the lions. Here are some pics of my favorite sightings of the day:
Another crazy animal sighting- Malia feeding her face and jumping around in her stroller like a crazy person! She loves strolling as long as she can stand up the WHOLE TIME. Luckily we have a "roll bar" in front of here so she wont fall out.Here is Gabe, taming a wild deer. He has a natural "deer whispering" tallentI asked Gabe to show me his stuff for this picture, he leaned against the wall, crossed his legs, hand on hip and flashed his pearly whites. So handsome!
And my isn't this a rare sighting indeed! Two men LOOKING AT A MAP!


Tune in tomorrow for 2 more fun and exciting posts!!

Friend's son

This is a friend of a friend's son after going to the dentist. I had to post it, just too funny to pass up sharing!!