Sweet Baby Rey

Today Bennett and I were lucky enough to hang out with the sweetest little ladies on the planet.

Last Tuesday Reylan Elise was born and I was so excited to be able to meet her when she was just a few hours old... what a sweetheart! Now that they are home and settled in a bit we invaded her and her mom, my best friend Jania, for the morning. I feel so lucky to be able to have young children at the same time that my sisters and such good friends are. Our little families are growing and I know we will look back at this time when our kids were young as such a special time...



Such a good big sister!

Even B (who can usually care less about babies) got in a short snuggle and a few kisses :)

 And when we got home we enjoyed a normal night at home with Bennett playing cars and legos with Daddy... It cracks me up to watch them play. He plays so much different with Dad than Mom. There is a lot more car sounds, crashing and building stuff really high. He sure loves his daddy!

Even More Pumpkin Fun!

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins this year. It was definitely a Daddy & Bennett project. Bennett was so excited about putting a candle in them and displaying them proudly on our front porch... Him and his daddy sure make a good team!

More Pumpkin Fun

Today we had a Jones Girl outing with the kids, Grandma and Auntie Karla! We packed all the kids up (that has become more of a chore as they grow in numbers) and headed out to the Parker Pumpkin Patch in Chehalis. The kids went crazy petting the animals and chasing each other in the pumpkin patch. It is so fun and totally crazy with us three sisters and our five (soon to be six) kids under the age of three. Thank you Karla and Grandma Ruth for a fun afternoon!

Coincidentally the pumpkin patch is directly across the street from the house that we grew up in. We lived there for about ten years until 2001. It was a house we made so many memories in as kids but sadly I haven't been out near it in years. It was so fun to be out in our old stomping grounds!

Our three oldest...

And there it is... the old house across the street!

Oh look I got in a picture... my shadow at least

Reece... such a muscle man!

The clan heading back to Karla's house

Even Baby Jack enjoyed it!

Fire Station with Grandpa!

Grandpa Jones came to our house this morning with a surprise up his sleeve. He had called our friend Greg to see if we could stop by the Centralia Fire Dept and check out the Fire Trucks!!

Bennett was so excited. He got to sit an old fire truck, and two new ones! He got this adorable fireman's hat and a junior fire fighters badge. He loved every second of it.

He hasn't taken the hat off all morning and I am pretty sure he will nap in it.

Thank you Grandpa and Greg, what a treat!!!

 He even wore his hat to go check for eggs in Grandma's chicken coop!

Pink Nursery and a Middle Name.

Since we found out our little one was a girl we both had a middle name in mind...

June is a very special name on both sides of our families. Joel's Aunt Bernice's middle name is June. She is a very strong woman that has always been a special part of Joel's family.

My Aunt Pam's middle name is also June. She is fun, warm hearted and someone the whole family looks up to. Lastly, our little girls Aunt also shares the middle name. My sister and her Aunt Katie June is a ton of fun, a great mom and someone that I know will make her giggle all the time. We love all of these amazing Aunts in our lives and are so excited about her name. Maybe someday she will be an Auntie and have an adorable neice with the same middle name :)

This week I have caved to my desires to start putting up some pink in the nursery.
Although we are still considering first names, we do have a favorite.... but for now here is a picture of half the wall art we put up, you will have to visit our little girl's nursery or wait till she arrives to see the rest :)

I have had some fabrics picked out and wanted to get started on sewing some of the nursery goodies before our family sewing weekend in a couple weeks... here is what I have started...

It was also a great day to see our little one up at Dr. Walls office. We had a full growth analysis (22 weeks) and she looks great in there. Dr Wall's visits have this magical way of melting away my worries. We always get such a good look at her and he definately knows how to make me feel a little less crazy! Everything so far is looking great for us to make it near term. We are so excited and cant believe how far we have made it and how close she is to being here!

And here is mama's little helper and future blogger... this is a toy computer that our friend Stacey got Bennett for his surgery present when he was a baby... he now calls it Bennett's computer and gets it out every time we get on our laptops and pretends to be hard at work... this kid really needs to update and get an iPad!

The Pumpkin Patch with Grandma

What a great weekend! Not only did Joel and I get a date night on Saturday night but we woke up on Sunday morning with Grandma Sandy here and we headed out to Lattin's Cider Mill to get our PUMPKINS! The rain stayed away the whole time we were there and it was a ton of fun! There were pigs, goats, cows, pumpkins and most importantly Apple Fritters.

I highly recommend anyone in the area that hasn't hit Lattin's on a weekend before noon, it is a must do! These fritters are so good, I have no idea how they make their magic. But... I don't recommend eating 3 in one day while 5 months pregnant!

Thank you Grandma Sandy for a great day! We will definitely have to do it again next year!

Grandma Jean's Cookies at 20 Weeks!

Today was a good day... not only did I get to see our baby girl again on our weekly check up with our perinatologist, but it was also the first day of the season that I made my favorite cookies of all time, Grandma Jean's Ginger Cookies. For some reason it would feel just wrong to make them in any other season than fall or winter. My Grandma Jean used to make them for all the holidays and over the last 10 years I have made them countless times and get great compliments anywhere I take them.... Sooo good! This prego mama has had like 10 since I made them this evening. You can kinda see that baby growing underneath my goofy apron...

Everything looked perfect today!

Bennett is a big fan of Grandma Jean's recipe too :)

While mama made cookies Dad and B did one of their favorite tasks, the Mail! Bennett loves junk mail like you wouldn't believe, He lets out a huge "WOW!" every one he opens, priceless!

Then they took off for their Thursday night ritual of taking the garbage down to the street on the quads. Bennett has became a pro on getting his quad ready, He will "help" daddy get the battery in. He loves that thing!

Just a fun night with my boys celebrating being officially half way through this pregnancy!