Jones Family

Chase

CHASE

Two Cute Guys

Lean on me

Nate and I are chugging along in our separate ruts happy to be surrounded by the protection of dirt on either side. Actually, life is so good! Nate is working hard to be the worlds best product developer and is studying for May Actuarial exams. He is also teaching math 1010 at salt Lake Community College on Tues and Thurs mornings. He is an amazing teacher. His students call and e-mail him for math tutoring. He e-mails them notes of encouragement if they are struggling. It is his labor of love. Nate also serves on the community council for Sego Lily elementary. He helps decide where trust fund money goes and he and his committee work to improve the school in all areas. He teaches the rambunctious eight year old class in church. The kids love him. He is always devising new games and he brings a prize basket for the kids to pick from when they memorize an Article of Faith. Kids not even in his class come over after church to pass off Articles of Faith and to pick a prize. His favorite thing is to play with kids! Benjamin loves him to jump on the trampoline with him. All the neighbor kids LOVE him too. He will pitch the ball to them for hours. He also loves a good game of soccer. Recently he bought at least 100 tennis balls and added some rackets to the family collection. He takes us to the Tennis courts and pitches to me and the boys. He says it's what his dad did too. Did I mention that he plays the harmonica to Chase at night? It puts chase happily and peacefully to sleep. Aren't I lucky!

For Mel

Benjamin on the first day of school- My dear friend Melanie pointed out the poor BT has been neglected on the blog. This ones for you Mel. Benjamin is an amazing kid. He loves music, is an amazing speller, and is extremely persistant. He hates going to bed alone or upstairs for that matter. He and Bry Bry share the bottom bunk bed. He loves to be tucked in and to have me say, "I'll love you for ever I'll love you for always as long as I'm living my baby you will be" while I'm hugging him good night. I don't win the mother of the year award when it comes to sweet bed time rituals. (He also loves a story and a song). I get up at 4:46am to run or go to the gym so it's night night for mommy around 9pm. I get pretty grumpy when it's almost 10 pm and he and Bry keep running into our room or fighting because Bryant wont be quiet or he is kicking Benjamin. The big threat is that one of them will be all alone in the top bunk if they don't quit fighting and go to sleep.

Bryant makes Saturday breakfast

Bryant made pancakes for us on Saturday. Bryant will be four on Sept 27th. He spends most of his day playing with Gobby (Kaden is his real name). I think those two are connected at the hip.

Chase Samuel!

Chase is so adored by everyone in our family. Matthew commented, "when I see other babies I think that kid is pretty cute, but when I see Chase I think he is the cutest baby in the whole world!"Funny how that is. Chase loves eating cheerios, rolling around on the floor, playing in his activity chair, tearing up paper, putting his fingers in the outlet-we just got plug covers-, taking baths, and playing pat a cake. He will be 9 months old on September 14th. People say he has reddish hair. It does have some red in it but it's brown compared to the other red heads in my family. Chase was born with a plugged tear duct that causes his eye to look infected all the time. It always looked goopy and irritated until 2 weeks ago. It just cleared up! I am so grateful we did not have to do surgery like we did for Bryant. It's so fun to see a picture of Chase with healthy eyes!

The funniest kid in Utah

Matthew tried out in the Funniest Kid in Utah contest at the state fair. His acting was impromptu. I was impressed by his courage to get up in front of an audience. He shared some funny lines he has memorized from the movie Napoleon Dynamite. The contest as you can see was sponsored by The Greatest Show on Earth. Matthew was the BEST- even though the judges didn't agree. We love Matthew!

Markus day dreaming

Markus tried out an electric guitar after his piano recital at the music store. Markus is taking non-electric guitar lessons in junior high. He thought it would be fun and cool until he had to practice. His fingers hurt and he can't play like a rock star yet. Markus seems to like junior high!