All decked out

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Mrs. Jones here! Life is back to normal and that means a more upbeat blog! Yippee! I FINALLY got our Christmas photos up. Of course, the kids all dressed in their Sunday best had to happen the Sunday after Christmas, but it worked out. The sun was shining and the weather was sweet!
Mr. Jones let me go buy myself a little sumthin sumthin and so hence my new threads as well. Thanks luvah!
We also have some photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The holiday played out as follows:
Christmas Eve consisted of Mrs. Jones dragging the family over to Grammy Laurie’s house WAAAYYYY too early due to the Christmas jitters (not to be confused with the caffeine or sugar jitters she is know to get time to time). Patiently waiting for dinner and then gifts.... A SHMORGISHBORG of holiday delights presented to us by none other than Grammy Laurie the cook of the CENTURY! I mean there was a lentil loaf to DIE for, yummy mashed potatoes (created by the sous chef Greg Haddad), sweet potatoes, home made Hawaiian rolls, salad (she is a salad connoisseur of sorts), a cheesy zucchini wonderland of a side, and sparkling cranberry delight. YUUUMMMMYYY! Now HERE is where Mrs. Jones (and the rest of the FAMILY) experienced her "sugar jitters" and she was crying laughing at every little thing, nose flairing as pointed out by her loving older sister Michelle. I was WIRED! In rare form and loving it! Not sure how much everyone ELSE was enjoying it but oh well, I can't help it, he he he...
We then proceeded to the next event of the evening, Mrs. Jones' FAVORITE thing in the whole wide world, the PRESENTS!! It was a wrapping paper rainstorm, the kids totally made out like bandits. And I, Mrs. Jones, was presented with an entire set of CHINA!! Can you believe it? Thanks Mommy ;) To follow it all up we had a white elephant gift exchange. Mr. Jones and I got some good stuff, nothing cheesy. And guess what time it was ?! We left at like 10:30pm!! Crazy!
Wake up call from Papa Mark at 7:00am on Christmas morning, on his way to Harbor house for breakfast and wanted to invite us. We passed this year and stayed in our PJs longer than normal to enjoy the Santa gift frenzy that occurred under our tree. Got dressed (Malia in a CUTE new outfit from GG Helen), then went over to Grandma Melinda's for some egg strata and coffee cake. The normal goings on over there: HOURS of gift opening, ONE AT A TIME, as to ENJOY every single gift. Making sure they each got their due attention. No sarcasm here, I REALLY love this, dragging out the fun stuff is always a plus in my book. Then watched ourselves a little Iron Man with Gabers and napped on the couch (with intermittent goody munching). Dinner continued our holiday fiesta into the night with KING CRAB legs and a stand up roast for the carnivores. Light dinner conversation for the most part, some talk of missions and missing Uncle Nick (currently in Peru). A little Missionary Christmas Serenade and then some more goody devouring to follow up the night. All in all a FANTASTIC time with family, all of whom I just LOVE so much. Malia's 1st Christmas was a success!

Yule Log greetings

Merry Christmas eve one and all! I had a few seconds this morning to post some photos from our hospital stay with Malia. I wish I had gotten a few of her in her hospital crib. It seriously looked like an animal cage. Oh well, I was too busy taking care of her to remember to snap some photos. We took these photos below on my iphone. She looked so sad, you don't even know how stoked I am that it is all over, and Santa is coming tonight, and Mr. Jones just texted me that he will be home from work soon! Life is good!

I hope you are all enjoying family and making memories today... and that you get everything you wanted from Santa! Merry Christmas!

Malia's blessing

Mr. Jones and I finally got some time this evening to sit down and type out Maila's baby blessing. Following are the words spoken by Mr. Jone's (AKA Daddy) during her blessing. We truly feel so grateful to have this sweet girl in our eternal family and in our hearts:

Heavenly Father, we a few of thy servants holding the Melchezidek Priesthood bring this child before thee to give her a name and a blessing. The name by which she shall be known here on earth and upon the records of the church is Malia Jones.

Malia, at this time we bless you to know how much you are loved by your parents, and that as you grow you will appreciate the circumstances that brought you into this family. Before you came to us, your mother and I fasted and prayed to learn that you are a special child who belongs with us and with your brother. You have been blessed with gifts that will bring joy to our family, a joy that could not come otherwise.

Malia, you have been blessed thus far with health and strength, and we bless you that you will continue to be healthy and strong.

We bless you with an aptitude for obedience and encourage you to heed the words of your mother and father. We bless you that as you do so you will be blessed with the spirit. As you feel the spirit you will gain a desire to learn of your Savior and gain a testimony of Jesus Christ. We bless you to know of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s love for you. We bless you that you will take advantage of the atonement throughout your life.

We bless you that you will be a light to others with whom you come in contact with, and that as they get to know you they will want to have the same spirit that they see in you.

As Gabriel has been blessed with a special appreciation for the Book of Mormon, we bless you also that the Book of Mormon will be important to you and that you will cling to its teachings. We bless you also with a love for the Bible and all of the scriptures.

We bless you with all these things and any other blessing our Heavenly Father sees fit to bestow upon you and do so in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

On the road to good health

It is official, we are ALL home and doing well! Maila is 100% better, back to her old self, or as we call her, "the PINK monster". Mike is also feeling much better and Gabe and I are good to go. Looks like Christmas will be a good one this year! Thanks to EVERYONE who was praying and offering to help, boy do we feel LOVED! Merry Christmas to all of you, we hope you are all enjoying the spirit of the season. I am ready to get back to it!

Malia

Malia is doing really well this morning. Unfortunatley, Mr. Jones is not :( He started feeling sick and called me to come releive him at the hospital this morning around 3:30am. He is now home and miserable so please keep him in your prayers. We are crossing our fingers that they let us leave today but we will see. Right now I am down to a one man show so please pray that I stay healthy. My family needs me to take care of them right now. I have already taken it in to my own hand to obsessivley compulsivly clean the hospital room. We will most likley be staying away from our house until Mike is better since this is so contageous. Forgive the typos, I am writing this from my iPhone.

The latest

I am home right now to visit with Gabe for a little bit. Malia is doing as well as can be expected. They confirmed she does have rotavirus and she is still on fluids. Still major diarrhea and not too much to drink on her own. She is just not that interested. Her spirits were up when I left tonight. Daddy will be sleeping there with her and I will go back in the early morning. They are now saying we will be there until at least Monday afternoon. Thank you again for all of your prayers. We are praying she gets all better before Christmas and that no one else in our family catches this virus.

Latest on Malia...

I came home from the hospital to clean up and rest for a little bit, (Mike came and relieved me) and am now on my way back. I thought I would sit down really quick to update all of you on Malia's status.
We took her to the hospital last night, she suddenly became VERY sick looking and showed major signs of dehydration. When we got to the emergency room they tested her and her CO2 levels were very very low (Would be admitted if she was at a 15 and she was at a 9). So, they checked her in to the children's hospital, which is where she is now.
They had her on a IV drip all night last night and through out the day today. She has been sleeping a lot and just looking so miserable. She did get some gatorade down this morning without it coming back up so that is a good sign. Her tests today show she is at a 19, and 20 or above is what they are looking for so she is close to being out of "dehydration mode". She will be in the hospital until at lest tomorrow afternoon. We are still not sure what it is that she has, but will be keeping her there until she is all better and able to keep things down and coming out normally through the right end of her little body. Thanks to all of you who have shown your compassion and concern. It is so hard to see your little one like this and I have a new found appreciation for those in the medical field and for living in a place where help is so redily available. Also, an appreciation for any parent who has to see their child go through an illness, I can't imagine if it were more severe, how hard that would be for a parent to cary on their sholders ( I did not get the nurse genes that is for sure! This is way too emotionally draining for me). I am greatful that, for the most part, my children are normally healthy and happy. Thank you all for your prayers and offers for help. We have wonderful people bringing us dinner both tonight and tomorrow night. We will keep you updated as we find out more.

Malia's baby blessing

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This may come as a surprise to some of you as we had planned on doing Malia's baby blessing at church on a Sunday, but we had her blessing this past Tuesday. We were having a hard time coordinating with family to have a church blessing, so we decided to make it an intimate affair and do it at home. Luckily Grandma Melinda graciously let us use her home for the event. Mr. and Mrs. Jones (aka Mommy and Daddy) supplied a yummy dinner from Guicho's and it was just such a wonderful evening. Mike did a great job with the blessing (as he always does), and it was so nice to have so much family celebrate this event in our lives.
Surprisingly, most of the family that attended were from the Roberts crew (Mrs. Jones side of the family). The majority of them are not Mormon, in fact, only one of them is (Becky's Mom).

When I (Mrs. Jones) arrived home that evening, I realized how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. I think it is rare to have family members that are so supportive. And to have as many as I have (all of them!) is truly amazing to me and such a huge cause of joy in my life. To think that most of the people that attended Malia's blessing did not share in our same faith, yet they attended and made the time to be there solely because they knew how important it was to us. How did I get so lucky to have a family like this? To have parents that have ALWAYS supported me in my decisions. I have come to realize as I have grown older, that most people are not so accepting when their children choose to follow a path in life that might be very different than what their parents envisioned for them. My parents are able to look beyond what THEY might choose, and accept my choices, whatever they may be, as long as they see they have brought me joy and happiness. And if that is not enough, they then continue to support me through their actions, ALL of my family does, in all that I hold dear. They are there by my side to share in my joy and new traditions, no matter if they believe the same as me or not. I really believe that it is so important that I show my family that I love them and support them by being there for them. My family makes the time to show that, if something is important to me, then it is important to them, and I hope they feel the same about how I treat them and the the things they hold dear. I appreciate that my family is so close and accepting of everyone, I feel so lucky to have been raised by and with such loving people. I love that I have so many of them still in my everyday life. Thanks to all of you that attended! I love you...

Malia Update

For those of you that did not read my previous blog, Malia has been sick. She has been throwing up and having really bad diarrhea for about 5 days now. We had her in the hospital the day before yesterday where they gave her fluids through an IV and confirmed that she was dehydrated. When she kept down a bottle of pedialite, they let us take her home.
She was doing better yesterday, with some anti-nausea medication. We took her back to the doctor today where he confirmed she has the rotovirus. This is a virus that causes really bad yellow water like diarrhea (sorry to be so detailed, I know this is not for the timid!), fever, and vomiting. Since she is so young, she is at risk for kidney faliure because she had not been urinating.
The current status is that we are marking down what she eats, and how often we are changing her diaper. Our doctor said she will most likley need to be emited to the hospital tomorrow and will be calling us in the morning to see if that will in fact be necisary. She is really lathargic and just so sad looking, it is a hard thing to see as a Mother. Please keep her in your prayers and we will keep you all updated.

I am a child of God

Gabe has a favorite song for me to sing him each night after we tuck him in his sheets and say our prayers. The song is called " I am a child of God". If you are Mormon, you know this song well. If not, the first part goes, " I am a child of God, and he has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do to live with Him someday. "
That is usually where I stop and give Gabe a kiss and say nigh night. A few times I have sung the second, even the 3 verse to him, but VERY rarely. Tonight as I finished up the "church song" (that is what he calls it), he said to me, " the too late part Mommy". I thought for a second and realized that this phrase was in another part of the song. I continued, " I am a child of God, and so my needs are great. Help me to (Gabe joined me in this last part, word for word) understand his words before it grows to late." And then went into the melody. He gave me a big smile as if satisfied that I had done what he had asked of me.
This experience made me think. How blessed I am to have these little children in my life. That God would entrust me to raise them and teach them and guide them down the right paths through their journey here. Even at the age of 2, Gabe remembers that very important part of the song, and of our responsibility as parents. To teach my children of Heavenly Father, to teach them of Jesus Christ and to do so through his holy scriptures. And then the most important part, "before it grows too late." Any parent knows how quickly, as if in a blink of an eye, your baby grows up to be a "big boy". Time is precious, I don't have all the time in the world to teach my children. Soon enough they will be all grown up and on their own. I guess I realized how extremely important it is to teach my children now. That soon, it will be too late, and that they are NEVER too young to learn. I mean really, my two year old was singing along word for word! I like to think he really is getting so much of the meaning behind this song, they really are smarter than we give them credit for. So, I am working on it, and see now that I want to work just a little bit harder. To read the scriptures to my babies and to teach them of the "bigger picture" and help them to know of another Father in their lives, one that entrusted Mommy and Daddy to raise such amazing children. I love learning from these sweet babies.

Sick Baby Girl...

Gabe has NEVER had the flu, so this is my first experience. Gabe also was NEVER sick in his first year, so there is another first. And can I tell you, IT IS SOOO SAD! I hate seeing my baby feeling so bad. I have just been holding her and rubbing her forehead as she looks up at me like.. ugghhhh!!
She was not keeping anything down yesterday, but today has eaten so that is a good thing. She is still really tired and laying around, but Gabe is taking good care of her. I have never seen her so still, she is usually all over the place. I am hoping she is better by the evening. And get this.... She is the ONLY one in our house that GOT a flu shot! Those things don't work, I knew it!

SWEEEET threads and a Merry Christmas to you!!

We did not have many holiday parties to attend this year, but we did have ONE last night. Friends Dave and Steph and Jon and Jill threw a little "Ugly sweater/funny mug"
holiday shindig (I had a hard time finding an ugly sweater, but I was wearing some nice red and white striped tights!). Anyway, we look festive right?! Those mugs are some classic thrift store finds courdousy of Whitney Jones (Sorry about the dinosur Whit).
It was fun to see everyone dressed in their "creative" clothes and visit with friends while sipping yummy hot cocoa. We hope you have some fun times this holiday, we look forward to some other Holiday plans with the kids over the coming weekend. Stay tuned to the Jones blog to see what is up next! Ahhhh... Christmas is just over a week away, can't wait!!