Traditions

Is it just me or does everyone feel like they need to establish traditions when you have kids? Maybe it's just me but since having Wes in our family I feel this need to have our own family traditions even though he is still so young. Ry and I have traditions but mostly ones that kids might not love like going to a Bed & Breakfast every New Year's Eve. So, when Ryan was little they went and cut down their Christmas tree each year and I LOVE THIS...so this is our new Christmas Tradition. We started this year! We found a tree farm in Farr West (yes, that is actually the name of a town that is not near Far Far Away in a Shrek movie :) ). We loved it!

Here is Wes all bundled up for the drive there...

Wes got to hitch a ride in his back pack. He seemed to be happy. His little nose and cheeks were bright RED but he always had a smile on his face.
After looking and looking we found one we loved. It took this tree 8-10 years to finally fulfill it's Christmas Destiny!
We each took a turn sawing. Ryan took a much longer turn than I did. :)

A man and his tree!

Happy as ever!

Me and my little guy!

Unthawing on the way back home!

The finished product! It was a lot bigger in our house than it looked outside so we had to trim it on the top and sides quite a bit to make it fit. It is still pretty huge but it's fun to have a huge tree we picked and cut down ourselves. Also, it's not perfect like trees we've had in the past that we've gotten from tree lots this one has personality!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Give Thanks...

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. And since I was the host and wanted to enjoy my holiday instead of do dishes all day we had a paper & plastic Thanksgiving. But, just because it's paper & plastic doesn't mean it can't be classy, right! :) So, with my scrap booking paper place mats to the place cards I loved it!

On each plate was a card that said, "I am thankful for..." and everyone had to write what they were thankful for and put it in a container then after dinner we read them and tried to guess who wrote what. It was kind of fun, the kids loved it.

Wes for thankful for the following items (they were stated on his shirt :))

1. mom & dad

2. yummy turkey (which he had by the way--he is just growing up too fast)

3. football :)

(Sweet hair huh? it gets this awesome curl if it's not combed right after his bath :))

Oh, and he was thankful for a Thanksgiving nap! :)

I'm always thankful for Thanksgiving; good food, good company, but always thankful when it's over! :)

Wes also did something else this past week. He learned this:

Documentation attempt #1: one week ago (11-19-10)

Documentation attempt #2: today (11-26-10)

And YES, his biggest insentives are my phone and the remote! What is with this generation and technology? What next an ipad for Christmas?

Now, I'm off to finish cleaning up the mess...

Blessed...

Blessed: 11/14/10 (it was planned for the day after the sealing but Wes was sick so it was postponed till the next week).

My favorite part was when Ryan blessed Wes to have an understanding of adoption. I thought that was so cool. We pray so hard that he will grow up to understand it and be grateful for what his birth-mother did for him.

Blessed by my dad!
Blessed to have such a great Grandpa and Uncles to be apart of the blessing.
Blessed to have such a great kid in our lives!

Blessed to have a good buddy!

Wes is starting to find his way to Chase and mess with him, pretty funny to watch.

Blessed to have such great dad!

Blessed with funny expressions! :) and slobber!

Blessed to be growing! :)

Blessed with yummy food!

Blessed to have Wes apart of our family!

Side Note:

Ryan was so nice this year and helped me set up a little but of Christmas before Thanksgiving. We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year and thought it would be fun to be a little festive. So, after much pleading and butt kissing the outside lights are up and so is our Christmas Village (which is one of our favorite things about Christmas). By the end of the day even Ryan loved it and was happy to be enjoying it so early. :) (Yes, this village is getting bigger every year and will soon take over the entire room!)

Like a BUG in a RUG!

WARNING...PICTURE OVERLOAD!!! BUT IT"S WORTH IT! :)

I have been taking pictures of Wes sleeping since September because it is HILARIOUS!!! He has some of the funniest positions, it kills me! Anyway, here they are, September to November:

He's got his binki that's all that matters at bed time! boo

He laid like this on me this while watching Back to the Future for about 45 minutes before falling asleep. Oh, how I love to cuddle with this kid!

Bum in the air, classic!

Dog on head...I promise we did not stage this!

Dog upside down...

Dog right side up...

After being in bed for over 45 minutes I went in to check on him and this is how I found him...Not making a peep just wide awake playing and stuck up against the side! Too funny!

I peeked over the crib and I was met with this grin...

Last but not least, this was tonight! I had to post all these pictures just for this one. Normally all these monkeys are in the corner of the crib and he was put in the crib with his head on the other side.

One question...Where's Waldo? :)

Also, if you would have asked me a month again if Wes NEEDED a binki I would have said, "NO". He only used it at bed time and I never thought it was a big deal...I WAS SO WRONG!!! At his 6 month appointment the Dr. said we could start to take the binki away I said, "No big deal he doesn't even really use it that much." I spoke too soon! That night we tried our first night sleeping without the binki...NIGHTMARE! I had no idea how attached he was to it. He usually goes to sleep within a couple of minutes of being laid down, that night was the first night of crying for an hour in bed before going to sleep. It broke my heart. We tried it a few nights after that but he didn't sleep well at all and would wake up crying, which is SO NOT normal for him. Anyway, I'm a sucker for this kid and needless to say he continues to sleep with a binki.

I guess we'll attack this one at a later date! :)

ETERNAL

Yes, that is one way you could describe our family!!!! 11/6/10 is the day we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple as an eternal family!! :) It couldn't have been a better day! I got the red carpet treatment...I got to wear a beautiful dress (like the one you get to wear on your wedding day), I got to get ready in the brides room, and then we waited in the Celestial Room until the ceremony began. It was actually really funny...I imagined it would be emotional (not actually knowing what it would be like) but instead I was just so happy and couldn't stop smiling. Although, it may have been less emotional and more funny since everyone was treating us like we were getting married. I thought it was super funny how all the temple workers who spoke to me leaned in and said, "you look beautiful today". As if I had done something so different on "my special day" and then before Wes was brought to the Sealing Room the Sealer who was conducting, bless his heart, gave a marriage speech. Giving us marriage advice and talking about being true and faithful in our marriage. I leaned over to my mom and said, "I think he thinks we are getting married!" Every once in awhile he would glance down as his paper and throw in a statement like, "and with this precious child..." then I was assured that we were in the right room and that we were not just getting ready to "renew our vows". :)

Wes was, of course, amazing in his little white outfit and just kept looking back and forth between his mom and dad. It was just an amazing experience. I was so happy to have our close friends and family there with us to witness such an amazing event in our lives.

The Temple is such a special place. A place that takes family members who are not biologically related and binds them together as if they were, for eternity! It takes my breath away!

Ryan's dad was there to help document our day forever...

After the Temple we went back to our house for lunch.

Wes had a bottle and the rest of us had...

These... So freakin yummy!

There is something about a mini cupcake that makes me feel like it is ok to eat about 12! :)

There is also this thing inside me that makes me want to do things the hard way like make cupcakes with 3 different colors of frosting...

Why I do things like this to myself I may never know.

Ryan's dad is a great photographer and every time we are in Indiana or he is Utah I make him take family pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites...

Wes smiled for most of them and Chase just happened to participate in the same ones...it worked out! :)

The one on the bridge is hanging on our house, we just cropped out the left side of the bridge and the sign in the back ground.

Finally a family picture I really like.

October 29, 2010

A very important date in the life of the Jones'. This is the day Wes LEGALLY became Wes Ryan Jones! :)

We finalized the adoption Friday morning. It was a new experience since neither of us have ever been to court before. It was very official. The only thing missing was the Law & Order "Ding Dong".

After we were all sworn in our Lawyer asked our case worker questions, then Ryan, then me. It was actually all pretty cool. I did get teary eyed at one point when the Lawyer asked Ryan what life has been like having Wes in our family. Just hearing him talk about Wes being in our family and having felt the joy he described made me choke up a bit (but no tears!). Then it was my turn to answer the questions and it was over. The Judge was AWESOME!!!

He gave tribute to Rachel as a birth mother and said how amazing she is for carrying Wes full term "when we live in an abortion world". I can't agree more. I tell Rachel all the time how awesome she if for what she did for Wes and us. We would not have the family we do without her. She is such a special person to us. Sometimes I wish we could adopt her too. :) Adoption is an amazing thing and it has truly changed my life in more ways than I can count.

Enough of the blabber...here are the pictures

This was Wes's court attire (just like Great Grampy! :)). The Judge said, "a hat fit for court". We thought so...

Kim (our case worker), the FAM, Judge Davis, Todd Wahlquist (our Lawyer)

(Say "I" if you think I need to lose about 50 lbs... "I" ...didn't I do that once upon a time?

Why does it always take a piture to make you REALLY see it?)

Judge Davis and Wes (He got down off the stand and put his robe on Wes and let him hold his gavel...it was pretty funny)

Pictures of breakfast at Jim's afterwards...

Look at those eyes, they kill me...

THIS IS WES, HE'S OUR SON! :)