Sneaky Santa

Several times during December, I had mentioned to Jake that I wanted to take Jett to see Santa. That's just a Christmas given that kids go see Santa...we can't be bad parents and neglect him of such joy! Plus, I enjoy seeing my own childhood Santa pictures and want Jett to have a similar collection to look back on. My only requirement this year was that we not repeat South Towne's Santa that we visited last year so we have a variety...bless his Merry heart. As the month went on, we just seemed to be too busy or too sick (curse you, cold and flu season!) and before I knew it, it was Christmas Eve. No Santa. I was bummed. But as fate would have it, I got my wish afterall on Christmas morning thanks to a thoughtful hubby. My precious present from Jett was a white frame with the cutest picture ever of him on Santa's lap! Jake had been sneaky and was able to take him sometime during the month while I was working and managed to get the priceless picture. Look at that candy-cane red striped chair! Jett looking all dapper in his little sweater and little jeans! His finger in his mouth!! Kill me now, it's THE most precious picture.

This made my Christmas. ♥

Good Tidings We Bring

Merry Christmas from The Jones Family! This year's Christmas card...

Our message on the back:

"Hello friends and family! This is where we're supposed to mention exciting things we did during 2014 like exotic vacations or winning the lottery, but for us, our year was pretty ordinary. Our highlights consist of raising the most adorable 15-month-old bundle of joy (Jett) and 11-year-old boy (Gage), while maintaining full-time employment, good health, and our sanity. Trips to Disneyland were replaced with trips to Costco for diapers, and a treat for us is having both kids in bed by 9 p.m...only for us to fall asleep shortly after. We appreciate and love our friends and family we spent time with this year, and look forward to the new year!"

Popcornopolis

If you haven't tried Popcornopolis' Zebra popcorn, hurry your buns to the nearest grocery store to buy some! And then buy two. It's caramel (or maybe toffee?) popcorn drizzled with milk chocolate and white chocolate. Oh...my...I....can't...even. It's purely addicting...and this coming from someone who does NOT eat popcorn unless it's at a movie theater and I'm starving. So that's saying something! For friend and neighbor Christmas gifts this year, I bought Zebra popcorn cones to give out, perhaps eating 2 cones along the way and having to replenish them because it's that delicious, if you haven't gotten the hint already. To top off my addiction during this time, I was lucky enough to win a 3.5 gallon tub of this yumminess from Popcornopolis themself! They had a giveaway contest on Twitter and liked my quirky submission on which flavor was my favorite (which I've only tried the one kind), and declared me a winner and sent this baby my way...the popcorn tub, adorable baby in fleece footie-jammies was already included. I let Jett open it so that there was a size comparison on how big the container was, while he enjoyed holding the lid and putting it back on only to take it off over and over. Win-win!

Blustery Stroll

We took Jett for a stroll down our chilly street, and he was so cute bundled up like a marshmallow that I took some pics that have turned out to be some of my favorites ever of him. His new raccoon hat and mittens just add to the adorableness. Look at that precious face! My baby. ♥ Despite being so cold, the blue sky with clouds was beautiful. I really love the picture above of our crooked, lonely street sign in the tall grass with such a pretty sky. Representing Cutler Crossing!

 

Cry Baby

Jett's daycare is adorable. They had picture day in November, and even though we did not plan for him to get pictures (knowing that would be an impossible task for the lucky cameraman), they took pictures anyway of all the children and then sent home the photos for us to see to decide if we wanted to pay for them or not. Jett's were priceless! This is the result we got. Poor, traumatized child that even a stuffed rainbow unicorn could not calm. And his crying continues into their group photo where he is wailing away while shoving the well-behaved, darling girl next to him whom the unicorn clearly worked for. Sigh...young love. Needless to say, we gave in and purchased the group photo because it was too cute. It will be a fun memory to look back on and of course, pull out to show his future girlfriends. 

 

Utes vs. Ducks

Someone had a VERY happy birthday, and that person was Jake. For his birthday (November 13th), all he wanted was tickets to the University of Utah football game against the Oregon Ducks. He even banned me from buying any gifts so that all money for presents could go towards tickets since they would be more pricey because of it being a coveted, sold-out game. Well, I'm an antsy person and want to buy things ahead of time, so it was frustrating sitting around waiting for ticket prices to drop on KSL. I don't like last-minute plans! But, I was forced to like last-minute plans because it wasn't until the DAY OF the game that we found the right tickets for the right price. Thank you, rich person in Riverton selling their season tickets! 

And did we luck out! We ended up ROW 4 on about the 10-yard line!! Jake was beaming with glee, and I was feeling the excitement too being so up close with crazed season-ticket-holder fans all around us. The screaming and cheering was unreal! As Jake phrased it, "You can actually hear the action this close!"...referring to helmets slamming together when there's contact. I guess he thinks being able to hear the violence makes for a better experience. Of course, I was focused a lot on the dance team and cheerleaders throughout the night, wishing I was back in my spandex pants alongside them.

 

The game ended up being a real downer for Utes fans by the end, but Jake enjoyed all of it because he was rooting for both teams, being that he's from Oregon. While all of us Utes fans were silent (followed by cursing) as the Ducks scored touchdown after touchdown, Jake couldn't help but hide his smile and chuckles. Oh, that Oregonian of mine!

Oregon won 51-27

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Seriously, it's half way through December already?! Well, according to this post, it will say November because I'm sneaky and posted it back in the past so that November doesn't feel left out and show zero blog posts. Let's rewind back to Halloween since it was an eventful holiday that should not be missed being spotlighted! ......zzzrrrrrwwwweeeerrrrrrrrr......(rewind sound)

Halloween!! I was extra excited for the holiday this year because of Jett. My little sweetheart was THE cutest Charlie Brown on the planet! I made his costume and found a stuffed Snoopy for him to carry around in case there were questions of what he was dressed up as. (A friend who shall-not-be-named thought he was a crayon. What?!) Jett got to go to my work trick-or-treat and was such a busy-body! Of course he didn't understand the candy part at every treat bowl we stopped at, but he did eventually learn to drop the treat into his pumpkin bag after taking one from each treat bowl. He wanted to explore everything! I think the trick-or-treat was definitely more work for me than him. Thankfully, Jake was around to help.

Once we were home, I raided Jett's candy bag and picked out a few that I thought he'd be ok to try (and of course the rest went to me...especially that lime Tootsie Roll). He sure loved it! He very much enjoyed eating his Twizzler straw and then got a mini 3 Musketeers candy bar and a Dum Dum sucker...which, as expected, made a slobbery, sticky mess. He was worn out by the time it was bedtime.  

During the week of Halloween, we were able to go to Hee Haw Farms in Pleasant Grove with our friend group. All the kids were dressed up in their costumes, so we as parents were all going snap-happy on our cameras. They were all so flippin' adorable! They got to enjoy petting farm animals (with the added bonus of Jett stepping in a combination of goat/sheep/chicken poop), going down a slide on burlap sacks (which Jake was volunteered by me to do), playing in a corn pit (except Jett didn't get to participate because he wanted to eat the rock-hard corn kernels instead), and a wagon ride at the end of the evening (the part where my buns froze). It's so fun being able to do activities with our friends so our babies can all get together. It is so enjoyable and rewarding seeing them interact. I'm excited to see what next years' costumes will be! We might even step up our game and do some neighborhood trick-or-treating...of course with myself raiding Jett's candy bucket afterwards.

Claire the owl; Winston the astronaut; Charlie Brown Jett; Superman Wesley

You're a winner, Charlie Brown! ♥

What a Hoot

I gave in and tried something new this year...foam pumpkin carving. It's so not-traditional and makes me feel like a traitor to the real pumpkins sitting in boxes in front of the grocery stores, but a $50 fake pumpkin on sale for $15 at Jo-Ann Fabric was too good to pass up. (Those savings, right?!) My main reason for wanting one this year was because I just don't have time to carve a real pumpkin with Mr. Jetty Jettson running around everywhere and having to chase after him with pumpkin guts all over my hands...especially because my typical carvings take an average of 4 hours! We moms just don't have that kind of time to block out. So, spending $15 on a no-gut pumpkin sounded like a worthy investment, and I'm happy to report it was. I can't say it really was that much easier to carve with my profesh carving set I bought a couple of years ago, but I did like how smooth my carving lines were afterwards and the one mistake I made was easily fixed with superglue instead of toothpicks. What I am most proud of is having a permanent pumpkin to display every year alongside my real pumpkins and very much like that it can be in my home lit up instead of shunned to the cold porch.

Nerd Alert!

I came across this yesterday on my brother-in-law's Facebook page and was instantly sold...NASA is accepting your boarding pass to Mars! With your boarding pass, your name will get to fly on Orion's Flight Test to Mars launching in December. Uhh, nerd awesomeness!! Of course I put my name in so I could participate in this. Boarding pass for Jennifer Jones below! In case you don't know me well, I kind of geek out about space stuff. When I was little, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up...at least until I saw the Apollo 13 movie. I sure the hell didn't want to get stuck in space! That dashed my dreams. Safety first. My inner-nerd was also confirmed when I took the "Which Pixar Movie Are You?" quiz on Buzzfeed a few months ago and ended up with the result of Wall-E. This actually made me furious because I consider it one of the worst movies ever, but then the description won me over with a line like, "As a kid, you probably dreamed of going to space camp." Eff. You win, Buzzfeed!

Anyway, I don't have a clue how this whole mission to Mars thing actually goes down...I doubt they'll be printing off the 1.1 million boarding passes they've accrued so far and stuffing them in a suitcase to shuttle on up to space, but regardless, I'm trusting that my name somehow gets there and that...is...awesome! In some small way, my childhood dream of traveling to space will be fulfilled. Over and out.

P.S. This earns me 60,000 Frequent Flyer points.

Ee-Ie-Ee-Yah-Yah

Reason #83 why my kid is cuter than yours....

Octoberfest

(Not to be confused with Oktoberfest, although that's going on too...) 

It's here! My favorite month is here!...ok, well, besides December. In lieu of the 1st of October, here is my festive collage of a few Halloween happenings proudly displayed in my home as of a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, my decorations go up in September. At least I waited until after Jett's birthday!) I should probably give a special thanks to Target, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's for continuing to steal my paychecks every holiday. Lord knows I'll be back making the rounds in a month for Christmas stuff. And to answer Jake's frequent question, yes, I do have enough stuff...but that doesn't stop me from buying more! Jake might have better luck asking the stores to stop making cute things. Anyway, as per tradition, my fab decorations were all put up whilst my beloved Hocus Pocus was on, followed by The Nightmare Before Christmas...both of which have already been watched twice so far. Now all that's left is counting down to AMC's Fearfest to boost the Halloween mood and buying some pumpkins to complete my porch. SO excited for Halloween this year and getting to dress up my little Jett! Stay tuned for costume postings...

Giddyup

I decided this was too cute to not have a post of its own. With Jett's birthday money from Grandma & Grandpa Jones, we got Jett a musical giraffe rocking horse. It...is...adorable! Jett was smiling instantly once we got it assembled and plopped him on it. He doesn't know how to do a rocking motion yet so he's been bouncing on it to get it to "go." That is also super precious. In the video, you'll see that Jett has also made sure to test the giraffe out as a climbing wall as well since climbing anything and everything is what Jett does best. Thanks G&G Jones for such a cute present!

Numero Uno!

 Happy 1st Birthday Jett!

My little Jett turned 1 year old on September 13th! I can't believe my little boy is just that...a little boy! Where did the time go? Where is my baby? I have to shop in the toddler section now? All these changes! I had his party planned for months because I was so excited to celebrate this milestone. I planned an airplane theme, because of course airplane stuff is being forced on Jett! Love it. First things first, I designed our party invites to look airmail-like and even made a simple airplane graphic from scratch. I think they turned out pretty darn cute, and they tied in perfectly with everything I had planned.

Our invites stated that a "complimentary in-flight lunch" would be served, which I had individual boxed lunches planned. Each boxed lunch included a Blimpie sandwich (mine & Jake's fave sandwich place), bag of chips, assorted fruit cup, and even a mayonnaise and mustard packet along with the wrapped up utensil. They were such a pain to put together the morning-of since we couldn't pick up our sandwiches until a couple hours before the party, but they turned out exactly how I wanted. We then had peanut and pretzel packets to munch on and a beverage bin, complete with every water bottle being wrapped in the red and blue striped airmail washi tape I used throughout the party decor.

 

 

We had a sheet cake for guests and then Jett had his own homemade cake that Jake made. His turned out awesome! For cake toppers, I searched everywhere for cheap, toy airplanes and couldn't find anything! I finally had to settle on buying some of the Disney Planes but repainted them to match our party colors. They ended up looking very cute, and I was happy they worked out. The other goodie I made for the party was chocolate airplane suckers. I didn't get a good picture of their display but you can see a peek of them in the red and white striped popcorn bucket in the picture above. I thought they'd be a fun party favor, and they sure were!

 

Jett was so cute eating his sandwich. I didn't expect him to just pick it up and eat like a big boy, but he went to town on it. Good eater. After we got lunch settled away, we decided to do cake festivities before opening presents. In true fashion, Jett was a complete mess by the end! Luckily we had taken his shirt off in advance to spare his outfit. He started off taking some tastes of the cake with his finger, then gradually went into tasting it with his whole hands, which lead into taking handfuls of delicious Funfetti cake and squishing it around. He soon figured out that the whole thing must be his and you could tell he thought it was probably the most delicious thing he's tasted. By the end, the cake was demolished and he had frosting up his arms, in his hair, and smothered all over his eyes and face. He was not a happy camper when it came to cleaning time. I was not a happy camper we didn't have a bath tub to toss him in.

 

 

 

Present time! Jett was SO spoiled. My heavens. I didn't expect so many big and great gifts. We had Jett help open presents by having him pull out the tissue paper in gift bags and tear wrapping paper pieces. Some of the gifts he ended up with were wooden blocks, ball popper school bus, jumbo John Deere dump truck, musical instrument set, some books, football jammies, and we used grandparent birthday money on a few chunky puzzles and musical rocking horse giraffe that is the cutest thing ever. Jett's presents from Jake and I were a stuffed Mickey Mouse (his favorite on TV...he waves to Mickey) and a red firetruck Cozy Coupe car. He LOVES his car! We now have it in our living room to push him around in, and he'll sit in it with his Mickey and watch TV. Drive-in movie at home! So precious. 

 

 

It was so fun to be able to celebrate Jett's birthday with our friends (oh, my parent's were on a cruise for their first grandchild's bday!!..no anger), but it was also nice to have the day come to an end. It was very busy and some things didn't go as smoothly as planned, but I'm happy all turned out well for the most part and Jett had a fun, memorable day...memorable on our part. Ha. After his party, we went back home to get some final birthday pictures before Jett was too pooped for anything else (we didn't have time to get any before the party). He was exhausted! I love all the pictures we have and just love my little Jett so much. Can't believe a year has gone by! I'm such a proud mommy.

♥ Happy 1st Birthday, my sweet boy!! ♥