It's a GIRL!!!

Yes, it has been well over a week since I have blogged and I have the BEST reason…too busy staring at our new baby girl.

Welcome to the world Piper Marie Jones!  She was 9 lbs, 7 oz, 21 1/14 inches long and just perfect!!!

I can't believe she is 9 days old!  I have a lot of catching up to do as she is changing everyday!

Ice Storm 2013

Yep, it was 83 degrees last Wednesday and the ice storm hit Thursday night.  Cooper came in our room ecstatic on Friday morning because there was snow outside his window.  Nope, that's not snow buddy, pure ice!  This city/state shuts down in weather like this…schools, businesses, our trash service, you name it.  Seriously, it was crazy!  We didn't leave the house until Sunday night for dinner and grocery shopping.  What did we do all those hours together in the house?  Well, glad you asked...

 Nineey the Elf brought a gingerbread house!  

 I am not a licensed gingerbread house builder.  Of course it doesn't help when you have 2 kids asking if you are done every 2 minutes and a 2 year old that won't stop eating the candy.  Adam intervened here and re-assembled the home…I had given up.

 The finished product, they loved it!

There was lots of coloring…more on their current coloring phases later.  I am in love with their artwork.

Here's what it looked like out our backdoor, a couple inches of ice.

You know you live in Texas when…you have to use socks as gloves for your daughter because you don't own any of the actual things!

 Here's where fun Dad comes into play.  There was no way I was taking the kids out to play!  If you know me, you know this is 110% true, I don't do cold weather.  

 The dog had to be forced outside on a leash to go to the bathroom, otherwise she was just going in the house.  Adam was thrilled by this :).

 It was so cold, in the 20's!  Laney didn't last long, lack of gloves was probably a main reason.  Cheers to a fun Dad that got those kids some fresh air each day!

Shockingly Cooper lasted quite a while!  He is like me in the temperature department, doesn't do cold.  Here's another way you know you live in Texas, you use a recycling lid to sled down the sidewalk and driveway.  Click here to see video of Cooper in action.

 Another day, another Pinterest project.  I had to keep these kids occupied without watching TV and not going crazy playing pretend myself ;).  

 They loved building these marshmallow snowmen!  They turned out really cute, wish I had a final picture to share.

 Lots of basketball and dance parties…not sure which was happening here.

 Because when it's below freezing outside, who doesn't love a little naked Christmas book reading?

 She read to Mickey and Minnie for almost an hour!  She wouldn't let any of us in her room, kept her door closed.  It was just about the cutest thing ever!

 There was lots of dress up and pretend play.

In her hour of story time, she pulled every.single.book. we own into her room.

 We finally escaped the house Sunday night!  The temps had went above freezing on Sunday and we were just about out of food to eat!  These 2 live for the free grocery store cookies and my shopping sanity does as well.

 They were cuh-razy kids in the store, they had clearly been locked up for days.

 This is what most of the shelves looked like!  There were no bananas, strawberries, ground beef, eggs…basically everything I needed.

 Monday came and Adam attempted to go to work.  After an hour and a half in traffic and not being 1/2 way to work he turned around.  Keep in mind he travels a busy, busy highway…this was 4 days post ice!  There were insane stories of people being stuck in traffic on Interstate 35 for 10-12 hours!!!!

Thank goodness for Pinterest!

We had lots of dance parties.  Here Cooper declared himself Pitbull and Laney was Kesha as they rocked out to Timber.  So inappropriate but oh so funny!

Are you still with me?  Believe it or not, I had more pictures to share!  Today is Tuesday and all the schools were cancelled again…what?  This weather is basically unheard of down here and no one has the right resources to react.  It finally went above freezing most of today and the majority of the ice on the roads has melted.  

Adios Ice!

Last 80 degree day of 2013

This post seems surreal considering we have been iced in since last Thursday, yes you read that right…last Thursday!  Now you know why I am so on top of blogging the last 5 days ;).  More on our iced in days tomorrow.  For now, let's all bask in the glory that was last Wednesday!

Tuesday night I watched the weather and it was showing the 80's for Wednesday and then predicting a big ice storm for Thursday night with temps not rebounding like they usually do here in the south.  Combine that and my 38 week visit to doc making me realize I have limited free days left (no nursing, postpartum stuff, etc) with my older 2 and I knew we had to do something fun and outdoors.  The zoo it was and the kids were ecstatic when they woke up and I told them where we were going.

 We rarely catch a glimpse of the cheetahs so this was fun!  

 Laney wasn't sure what to think in the gorilla exhibit.

 You think pushing these 2 uphill around the zoo would get this baby moving…not so much.

 They LOVE to ride the train and I do too because it takes us back to the entrance meaning I don't have to walk back ;).  Notice Laney's awesome crocs that she demanded wearing that day ;).

 Could you not just eat her up!?

 I asked her to show me how excited she was to ride the train.  This is also the same reaction we get when we ask her how excited she is to meet our new baby!

 A real smile!  He is looking more and more grown up to me everyday.

 Waiting on the train, we sent this to Dad to tell him we missed him.

Happy kids, happy morning at the zoo.  We drove thru Chick-Fil-A on the way home and Cooper asked if we could have a picnic in the driveway.  Done.  The minute they woke up from naps we went back outside to soak up a bit more time before the cold front hit.

Baby Thoughts by Cooper and Laney

I am 39 weeks tomorrow and feeling (and looking) every bit of it :).

Here are a couple thoughts from the kids about this baby that I don't want to forget…

-At lunch last week, Cooper asked me what the baby was doing.  "So Mom, is the baby kicking you right now, is it sleeping, what's it doing?"  A couple minutes later, "Do you think it has blood on its head?"  He was very concerned about the blood in Henley's hair right after she was born.

-Just the other day I said to him, are you going to miss this big belly of mine to snuggle up to?  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "no way, I am just so excited to meet this baby!  I don't care about your big belly."

-In the car he randomly says, "So is Dad going to sleep on the couch in the hospital with you?" and started laughing.  I said, "Yes, why and how do you know that??"  He said, "Because that's where Rusty slept when Alli had her baby."  Obviously Henley's birth was quite the learning experience for him!

-He is convinced we are naming the baby Wyatt if it's a boy…we are not.  Apparently that's a name on one of the cartoons he likes, maybe Octonauts??

-Obviously Laney doesn't have a 4 year old vocabulary so I don't have as many conversations to share but this is all I need...

She just started this last week and it's always the same response when you ask her if it's a boy or girl.

Family Time - part 2

More pics from Thanksgiving weekend...

 These 2 were playing a game on the iPad and just dying of laughter, it was so cute.

 These 3 girls loved the toy ottoman.

 Love the imagination of these 3 boys!

 Adam has never been one of Hadley's favorite people, but she warmed up to him a bit this trip.

 I was in the shower during this dance party but the music was easy to hear.  "What does the fox say?" was on repeat to keep the little girls happy.

 They have a blast together but that doesn't mean they get along 100% of the time.  Here they are hugging it out for 5 minutes after not talking nice to one another…it was pretty funny.

 We snuck out to Billy Bob's for the the Florida Georgia Line concert.  

Adam's picture is blurry because he never stopped dancing.  Hope Baby Jones enjoyed the show, it was quite active.  My drive home was very entertaining, my car was the one with the most fun (let's call them that:)) boys of the group.  

Again, so thankful that all of the Jones' made the trip down to celebrate the holiday in Texas with us.  We so enjoyed it!!!

Family Time, part 1

I have lots of pics to share from Thanksgiving week but no real organization to them, so here we go...

 These 3 girls were often in the crayons.

 Love this!  

 A nearly impossible group to photog but so, so cute and they make us so, so happy!

Here's what was happening on the other side of the camera to get those kids smiling!

 Funny face picture with Mamaw and Papaw

Crazy to think there will be one more Jones' grandkid so soon!

 All of us big girls snuck out to Mi Cocina for lunch on Saturday, leaving the boys and baby girls at home.

The bracelet loom (is that what it's called?) was in full effect all weekend.  Ava and Em were busy bracelet makers!  Laney Faith was very intrigued and wanted in on all the action.

Part 2 coming soon :)