More On Early Spring

These are photos of the girls playing in the sprinkler on March 23rd! We had unusual 80 degree weather and they begged me to have some fun outside in their swimsuits. Such weird weather! Our March 20th anniversary is always the first official day of spring. In our 13 years of marriage we have never had such warm weather!





I also wanted to post a photo of how my March Art Class projects turned out. I was teaching on sculpture and form. My class made clay birds nests, painted them brown, added some Easter grass, and then we made little birds for the nests out of plastic Easter eggs. They turned out pretty cute. Next month, I am teaching on perspective and space. I'm excited about it because I have gotten confident enough in my teaching to scrap last years lesson plans and come up with an entire month of fresh ideas.

Home Improvement

Nate and I have the bug to move to a different house in Rochester and so we have been spending our weekends lately working on our home and going to open houses. Here is our most recent improvement! We hired a part time contractor from our church to install our new front door. Here are before and after photos:





New Door!




Do you like my new Bunny and Carrot yard decorations I just got?

Early Spring

This fall my mother-in-law helped me plant tulip bulbs on my birthday. I've always wanted some tulips growing in our yard and this early spring has been exciting watching them come up.

What have the Jones' been up to in 2012 so far...

It has been a busy year so far. However, I decided (for some reason) to try to make jewelry. I have always wanted earrings to match two of my favorite necklaces and now I do! I still could use some tips and need some practice, but it is fun! I know what I'm doing for Christmas presents next year!





I've still be very busy working on lesson plans and prepping for classes. It's funny that when my mother-in-law heard about my job, she commented that it's the job for me and that I can probably even make things out of toilet paper rolls. Well, indeed, I have planned two lesson plans with toilet paper rolls. Here is my Frenchman for this coming Wednesday's class on France.


This week, we had parent teacher conferences for the girls. They went great and Elyana showed us that she could fit into her locker.


It has been an unusual winter with about 2 snowstorms. We finally were able to build snowmen. This was the biggest one I have ever made. We had to use a sled to push the head to the top because it was so heavy.




Recently, the girls and I went into our video store. They were having a Just Dance 3 contest. Your children could dance off your late fees or earn you a free rental. Mikayla had no hesitation and quickly earned us a free rental. Unfortunately the rental was a Barbie movie...but she earned it!


This week at school, the girls had spirit week. Monday was wear red and black (school colors). Wednesday was to have crazy hair day. Friday was pj day.


Towards the end of January was the mid year American Heritage Girl (AHG) awards ceremony. Our video camera wasn't charged up so we missed some cute footage.


Here is Mikayla doing her skit for the ceremony.


Nate and I are starting to do some home improvements. We would love to eventually put our home on the market... We got an excellent deal on a new front door. I can't wait till spring to get it installed.

Christmas and the New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas. My dad came up for a few days before Christmas weekend. He helped me staple some carpet onto the incredible balance beam that my father-in-law built for the girls for Christmas. The nice thing about it is that it can fold and secure in half for storage. The interesting thing about it is that it is built from pieces of our old deck and even the outdoor carpet we had covering our old deck. How is that for recycling! The girls love it! Thanks Grandpas!



My mom came up for Christmas this year. Nate was doing the sound board for all 4 (or 5?) of our church services so it was wonderful to have another pair of hands on deck to make Christmas extra special.








This photo I love! Mikayla wanted fake glasses for Christmas. So, here is a photo of her in her fake glasses eating chocolate that she found in her stocking from Santa. Love those wild excited eyes!


For Christmas we received and purchased quite a few Wii games. Here is Elyana at a playdate here today doing Nickelodeon Dance with her Kindergarten friend, Haley.


And to top off Christmas at the Jones household, we had an extra surprise...There was a recall type thing on Nate's 14 year old Toyota Tacoma. Toyota offered to buy it from us at 150% blue book value. We accepted and while we debated and searched they let us drive a free 2012 Camry rental. A few days after the New Year (which we spent in the cities with our friends the Stiles!) we came home with a 2006 Rav4. The Toyota here in Rochester is even holding our check until we receive our check from the corporate Toyota dealership.

December Happenings! (Warning, this is a long post!)

First of all, I want to congratulate Scott and Jen Elder on the birth of their second child, Jackson. I was trying to crochet a blanket for him, but it wasn't turning out right and family life and work life crept in on my progress. Here is a sign I made for his room though:


The girls began this Christmas season by decorating their own little trees they keep in their room. Notice Elyana's tree--all the ornaments are on one branch towards the bottom. : )






Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with Nate's family. We made our traditional popcorn balls, made Doobas (a Swiss tradition), and read about the first Swiss settlers (which always brings tears to our eyes each year).




This week my sister and I surprised my mom with a different kind of Christmas gift, tickets to Les Miserable! I accompanied her to the Twin Cities on Thursday and she was simply thrilled.

Friday, Elyana had a special day at Kindergarten. She had been looking forward to for a long time-Gingerbread House day. They've been reading Gingerbread man books, eating gingerbread people snacks, coloring and writing about it. Each child had a parent come in to help them with the project. It seems like yesterday that I was there helping Mikayla with hers! They have such a neat way of going about the construction of it. They use empty milk cartons. You put some frosting on all four sides and then place the graham crackers on. It stays up perfectly that way. I had to laugh at miss Elyana and her creativity. She wanted to make a house for an Ariel Gingerbread girl. So, you will notice in the below photo the "hair" she put on top. Such a silly girl.




Ariel Gingerbread and an Animal Cracker cow in the pasture


On Saturday, Elyana had her first ballet recital. It was so sweet to watch her! She looked so much more like a girl than my little preschooler last year! Our family doctor has confirmed last week that she has moved into the 11th from the 4th percentile in height! She couldn't get over how much Mikayla has grown either!

Look Forward to Our Christmas Cards in a Few Weeks...

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.