First day of school 2011

Yesterday was the first day of school. Kate is now in the 3rd grade, Joshua in 5th, and Braeden is in 8th grade. The kids look happy in these pictures and yes, it was a good first day, but lets be honest.....we are already counting down the days until next summer. Only 173 days to go!

he cracks me up

me: Did you know that watching 1 hour of tv shortens your life by 22 minutes?

Josh: wow.....Seriously? I'm going to have a short life.

contract pending

This is a contract Braeden presented to me the other day.....it made me laugh

Contract I of the Jones Household

This contract is deemed to be between Kelly Jones with Cary Jones and Braeden Jones.

This contract was born due to the rising demand of one person per bedroom. Therefore, Braeden Jones has decided to put forth this proposal to the counsel of Kelly Jones with Cary Jones. The proposal is:

If Braeden Jones proceeds to maintain straight "A's" all year long, he will be granted the currently known as Guest Room. However, there will be many terms and conditions coming from both sides.

Terms and Conditions from Kelly Jones and Cary Jones

• Straight A's will be maintained ALL year long
• When there are guests the bedroom will be given up
• Any changes made will have to be approved under counsel of Kelly Jones and Cary Jones

Terms and Conditions from Braeden Jones

• If all work is turned in but grade is still high "B" (88-89) room will still be granted.

Signature:_________________________Date__/__/2011

Signature:_________________________Date__/__/2011

Signature:_________________________Date__/__/2011

***Contract valid through 2011-2012 school year***

No decisions have been made concerning this contract. Braeden is still hopeful...

OUCH!

Kate got into a fight....

with the swimming pool...

and unfortunately, the pool won.

back tracking

Braeden and I along with some of our friends were among all the other nerdy Harry Potter fans that just had to see the movie at midnight on opening day. It was well worth the waiting and all the craziness.

Josue, Jasmine, and Braeden

Me and some of my favorites....Emily, Marisa, and Joana

***yep, that's a golden snitch.....if you couldn't tell...:)

Scout Camp 2011

Braeden left at 4am yesterday morning to head off to scout camp. He LOVES camping and loves being with these goofy boys. They are going to have tons of fun!



**the crummy picture is due to the fact that it was 4am and I was lucky to even get one...:)

MO 2011

We made a very quick trip to Missouri this past weekend to see my Dad before he leaves to Kuwait again. It was too short so the kids and I are hoping to make another trip before school starts.

Owen and Braeden

One of Joshua's favorite spots in Grandma Martin's flower bed...under the Japanese Oak tree

Kate and Izzy

Me and Owen

Braeden and Grandma

Sisters

Peyton

Mom, Dad, me, and Becka

This was so fun! My dad rented a HUGE van so that we could all fit to ride around Joplin. It was hilarious.

Hope for Joplin

While in Joplin we were able to see all the devastation that the recent tornado did. It is absolutely unbelievable and hard to put in words what it really looks like. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. The pictures really do not do it justice.

We saw so many trees stripped of their bark and just completely uprooted.

We saw lots of homes with just the center most room left standing and so, so many that were just completely wiped off their foundation.

Tons of cars that were twisted and mangled

This is Joplin High School, home of the Eagles. Someone has temporarily renamed it Hope High school and there have been eagles carved out of some of the trees that were ripped up by the tornado.
This is in the parking lot of the church that my family went to. The empty lot is where the church building stood just across from Joplin High school.


As many times as we have been to Joplin it was hard to recognize were we were. There is miles and miles of nothing where there use to be houses and businesses. It is so sad to see, yet Joplin is pulling together and the rebuilding has already begun. After rolling through town on Friday night and just seeing the little that we did, Joshua made this Saturday morning.....

I'm his mom

Last week I had to take the van in for an oil change and inspection. For the record, I really dislike doing those things but on this day the compliment I received may have altered my stance on that chore.

So, my van was done being worked on and I was at the register ready to pay when the lady said to me, "Is he (meaning Braeden) your son?" I, of course, told her yes. She then said to me, "I thought he was your brother or boyfriend or something. You look way to young for him to be your son." Thank you lady...but boyfriend is going a little too far. :) Maybe she wanted a tip or something???

Day out with Dad

This is what happens when you spend the day fishing with Dad. These boys were more than tired after a 5am wake up call to go fishing with Cary. They spent the day at Ray Roberts and then came home at about 2pm and slept. I woke them up at 7pm and then they went back to sleep at 9pm and slept all night long. They were exhausted!

Month of May....and some of June

May was extremely busy with the end of school. We had field days, and water days, assemblies of more than one kind, soccer and baseball tournaments, and a piano recital.

Field day

Wacky Water day

Braeden was inducted in to the National Jr. Honor Society

Braeden's jr. high soccer team went to the playoffs and then won the championship. The final two games were super intense that went in to over time and then ended in shoot outs. The Lobos came out on top!!

Joshua's baseball team went 16-0 for the regular season and then lost one game in the final tournament for the championship to come in 2nd. They were so disappointed, but still played hard til the very end.
Braeden with his piano teacher, Emily Blair. Braeden played Canon in D and Bella's Lullaby from the Twilight soundtrack.
End of the year awards assemblies......Joshua got A/B honor roll and commended on his Reading and Math TAKS test. Josh with his 4th grade teacher Mrs. Sutphin.
Kate got A honor roll for the whole entire year. We are so proud of her. Kate with her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Bustos.

Kate

"I'm not good at being girly"- Kate, June 4, 2011

Schools Out

180 days

36 weeks

1,350 hours

81,000 minutes

4,860,000 seconds

30 classes

590 students

6,638 gallons of milk

15,900 pencils

477,900 miles of writing

52,801,736 words read

78 days until we do it all over again!

Happy Summer, Ya'll!!

Randoms

Joshua has a new obsession. It's Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". He will listen to this song on his mp3 player over and over and over and over again. No exaggeration. It is so funny to hear him with his ear phones in and singing at the top of his lungs. Love it!

Speaking of "Living on a Prayer"...yesterday on the way to church Joshua once again was listening to this song. I told him that that kind of music probably wasn't the most appropriate kind of music to be listening to on the way to church. Braeden, of course, in on the conversation and trying to be funny says, "Why not? After all they are singing about prayer." Not helping, Braeden.

Kate told me a new joke yesterday. Q: Why does a pirate wear camouflage underwear? A: To hide his booty. I thought it was pretty funny.

Only 3 more weeks of school...not that we are counting or anything. :) We are all tired and ready for a long, lazy summer sitting by the pool. But until then we have to get through a jam packed calendar.

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch

Kate and I went to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch yesterday for her 2nd grade field trip. This was one of the best field trips I have been on, and Kate was in absolute heaven. This place was made just for her.

They have tons of lemurs. We learned that despite what they say in the movie Madagascar, it is really a Queen that leads the tribe not a King....and the position of Queen can rotate among the group. They somehow decide amongst themselves who and for however long has this position. It could be for 6 months or 6 years.

Kate and Harmony on the safari

On the safari there are buckets of food attached to the tram that the animals will run along side and eat. They also make stops along the way for everyone to pet the different animals. They had several Clydesdale horses. This was Kate's favorite.

This part of the safari was a "no petting" zone. They threw the food our around the tram so the animals would come up close so that we could see them better and take pictures. The kids loved this pot belly pig.

I thought this was an odd grouping: a deer, a pig, a goat, an alpaca (he got cut from the picture), and something else...not sure what that big white one is...

This is Thristy the camel. They had tons of camels. We learned that if camels are happy they don't spit and these camels at the Sharkarosa Ranch were super happy which we were grateful for...there was no spitting.

This baby camel had his debut yesterday and was around people for the first time. He was literally crying for his mama. Kate was so concerned for this little guy. At one point I think she was on the verge of tears herself because she felt so bad for him.

This baby zebra is 5 weeks old and has super soft fur. Kate wants this pictured framed for her bedroom.
Sharkarosa Ranch also has lots of kangaroos. Most of them are albinos. They take them in because these kangaroos would not be able to survive in the wild. This baby kangaroo in particular was not an albino. He was super cute all cuddled up in his "faux pouch".
Kate did want her picture taken in front of this sign. I thought it was funny so I bribed her by going into the gift shop. :)
Want more info on Sharkarosa Ranch? Just click here.