Happy Valentine's Day!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful and delicious bouquet of flowers for breakfast! Michael woke up early to make this for me. I love him so much and am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Exactly 21 years ago today, he proposed to me. This makes Valentine's Day even more special for us!

Ashlee's surgery

Ashlee had surgery on her ankle today. She has a pin in the bone to hold it in place and he stitched her shredded ligaments. The pin will dissolve on it's own in about a year. She is home and doing well, but she is in quite a bit of pain.

She has a big purple cast. Before she went into surgery, the nurse asked her what color she wanted and she said pink, but she woke up with a purple cast! I guess they forgot.

She loves the big teddy bear from grandma Nancy and Papa!

Ashlee's broken ankle

This past Friday, Ashlee broke her ankle at gymnastics. She was doing a backhandspring, backtuck on the beam and landed a little twisted. Her ankle immediately swelled up about the size of half of a tennis ball! On Saturday she had it x-rayed and splinted. Tomorrow, she has an appointment with an Orthopedist to have it casted. She will be off her ankle for about 6 weeks and then in physical therapy for a while. She is in pain, but has a positive attitude.

Ashlee unwrapped her ankle to put lotion on today and look at all the bruising she has from the break. (It's been four days)

A neighbor brought Ashlee over this scooter to borrow. It makes it easier to get around than crutches. She uses the scooter at school and at home on the main level, but she uses the crutches on the stairs and downstairs.

Ashlee, giving her friend, Erika a ride!

Tyler's first school report.

Tyler studied about penguins and then did a report on them in school. He did a great job and enjoyed learning about them. I forgot my camera yesterday when he did the report and so I brought him to school early today to have him do his report with me filming it.

Venture Crew Biathalon

Ashlee is a Venture Scout. She is one of the youth leaders of the crew. She loves it! They go rock climbing, caving, repelling, rafting and much more!

Ashlee with the other youth leaders.

Mike and I got to go and do a biathalon with them last Saturday morning (January 24th). We had a lot of fun. The biathalon was a race with cross country skiing and archery. Mike received the most archery points out of the whole group. He got 85 points out of a possible 100. He hit the bullseye almost everytime. I didn't know he was a regular Robin Hood!

Ashlee, coming in from the biathalon. She left 3rd (they left every 3 minutes), but was the first to come in!

Tyler turned 6 on January 20

Tyler had a fun birthday party at Classic. He invited six friends from our neighborhood and had five cousins come. The kids played in the jungle area, ate pizza, cake, and ice cream and then played lazer tag. They all had a lot of fun! Amber made Tyler's cake. She decorated it with planets and Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda with lightsabers! What a fun birthday!

Las Vegas

Ashlee had a gymnastics meet in Las Vegas this past Saturday. It was not her best meet, but she had a lot of fun! We had a fun visit with my brother Troy and his family. Troy has three boys and Tyler really enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Ashlee's floor routine

Ashlee and Erika at the meet.

After the meet, we went to M&M World!

Tyler thought this M&M jacket was pretty cool, but it was too expensive to buy.

Brittany, Emily, and Tyler thought the stuffed M&Ms were fun.

Mike, Emily, Brittany, and Tyler in front of New York, New York

We went back to Troy and Deedra's home and enjoyed roasted marshmallows for smores in their gas fire pit and enjoyed their hot tub. Mike, Ashlee, Erika, Emily, and Brittany all jumped off of the waterfall into the 46 degree pool Multiple times! Brave or crazy? I'd say crazy! It was soooo cold!

Ashlee, Erika

Emily and Brittany heading for the hot tub in the 46 degree water after jumping in!

Mike's splash! My camera delayed a little and I just got his splash, but I had to put the picture in to prove that he jumped too!

Troy, Austen,
Tyler, Kyler, Brittany, Collin, Emily

Troy heated the pool for us all day long on Sunday. Monday morning we had so much fun swimming. This time we all got in. It was only 58 degrees outside and the pool got up to 67 degrees. It was still quite cold, but we got used to the water pretty quickly. It was so much fun playing basketball in the pool, going under the waterfall, jumping off the cliffs, going down the slide, and being in the really warm hot tub. Troy and Deedra have a fun pool! We plan to go again sometime!

Emily, Erika, Brittany, Ashlee

The baby blessing of Chloe Aliza Jones

My niece, Chloe Aliza Jones was blessed today. We went to the blessing and then to Chris and Melanie's home for a nice lunch and visit with family.

Emma, Melissa, Katie

Chloe

Hailey

There are a lot of January birthdays in the family! Amy made cupcakes for all the kids and put a candle in the the cupcakes that were for the birthday kids. She also made a chocolate cake for the adults and put a candle in it for Mike's, Mark's and Nanny's birthdays. Mike was the only one of the three there, so he got to blow the candle out!

Abbey, Emma, Matt, Jack, Tyler, Hailey, Jayne, Avery

New Year's Eve!

We had a really fun New Year's Eve. We had Mikes siblings, Chris and Melanie, Amy and Corey, Brian and Kerstin and my sister Danica (Nathan had to work), and all their kids over for a fun night games and food.

Melissa, Danica, Amber

The oldest kids played games with the adults, the middle kids danced and played silly dress up, the youngest kids played the Wii the entire night. We had one Wii with about 8 kids around the age 6 playing the Wii and two remotes. They figured out their own turn taking. We never heard one argument or complaint the entire evening! Amazing!

Porter, Emma, Sydney, Brittany

Lauryn

Yeah, It's the new year!! We watched the last few minutes of the New York countdown!




Sydney, Amy, Katie, Brittany, Emily, Lauryn

A fun Christmas Day!

We had a fun Christmas morning. Everyone has had a lot of fun setting up and playing the Wii we got for Christmas! We got a fun game called back yard adventure. It is fun and quite a workout! Our family also is excited to play the Harry Potter Scene it game that we got. We all love Harry Potter.

Brittany is very excited about her ripstick. It's like a skateboard, but it only has two wheels, one in the front and one in the back. She can go in circles all over the kitchen, the rest of us can't even get onto it! Brittany also got the vest that she's wearing, Dance clothes, connect 4, some clothes, and a Miley Cyrus CD!

Ashlee got a nice luggage set and a new coat, rock climbing shoes, the first season of "That Girl" (her favorite show- it's from the 60s) and some clothes!

Amber is excited about her new guitar and about learning to play it. She hopes to take a guitar class at BYU. Amber also got some clothes, the cute apron she's wearing in the picture, and a nice coat!

Tyler and Michael are opening their matching gifts!

BYU Blankets! They are excited to watch the games together next season and keep warm!

Tyler loves the book that Amber made for him, about him! Tyler also got his favorite book with fuzzy pages, a white board for his room (that's actually blue), and a Wii game called, Carnival Games. He loves it, especially the ski ball game on it!

Emily has a new camera. She is very interested in photography and is signed up to take a camera class next year in school! Emily also got some cute clothes, a nice purse and some dance clothes!

Snow, snow and more snow!

It has been snowing so much this week. The kids have had so much fun playing in it. It's been nice because the wind hasn't been blowing and so it's not too cold. They've spent hours mounding snow on a small hill in our yard to make it a fun place to sled!

Tyler is so excited about the snow man he built!

Brittany and her friend, Danielle are building a snow fort.

We went to the mall for some last minute Christmas shopping on the 23rd and so Tyler could see Santa!

Last night was Christmas Eve and we had a fun time spending it at Dad and Nancy's home. Danica a Nathan and their boys were there too. The kids put on a nice nativity play that included Emily playing the piano while all the kids sang "Away in a Manger". Brittany played "Silent Night" at the end. All the girls are doing so well on the piano. Amber, Danica, and I also sang "Mary's Lullaby".

Jarom (wiseman), Emily (Angel), Brittany (Mary), Jarom (Joseph), Tyler (Donkey), Porter (Wiseman), Abram (Wiseman)

Amber and Ashlee enjoying the Nativity play.

Brittany and Emily with Grandma Nancy.

Amber, Ashlee, Grandma Nancy, Papa, Porter, Brittany, Emily,

Abram, James, Jarom, Tyler

After the Nativity play, we decorated cookies for Santa!

We had such a fun Christmas Eve!

Jones family Christmas party

This past weekend we had our annual Jones family Christmas party and sleepover. We still had the party at mom and dad Jones' home, but we missed having them there. They are on a mission in Boston. Amber assembled 17 gingerbread houses before the party and the kids had a lot of fun decorating them!

Emily, Brittany, Lauryn, Sydney

Avery, Jack, Jayne

Tyler excited to show off his gingerbread house with Santa in the chimney!

Ashlee, Melissa, Hailey


After decorating the gingerbread houses, the children put on a Nativity Play. Sydney directed and Michael narrated.

Lauryn (as Mary), Brittany (as Joseph), and Chloe (as baby Jesus)

Jack, Tyler and Matthew as the Three Wisemen

The whole cast!

Emily and katie as pigs!!

Katie and Emily posing with the gifts they received.

The kids all had fun sleeping together. Sleep came much later than the parents wanted, but we all had a fun time. The next morning we had waffles for breakfast, the kids all performed a fabulous talent show, and then we exchanged gifts. It was a fun time, but we really missed you, mom and dad! Merry Christmas!