Spring

I love this time of year.  Everything is starting to bloom, the weather is warm, and we are rarely indoors!
Funny,....I started this entry this morning and only finished two sentences before the kids woke up.  Now, 15 hours later, I am miserable with itchy eyes, runny nose, and on allergy medication.  I do love Spring time in the South!!
Spring is also full of birthdays in our family.  Isaac turned two a few weeks ago and now Kai and Julia are starting the countdown until their birthday in May.  They have been talking about their big day since November (when Auntie Janell celebrated her b-day in Washington), so we are hoping that we can make it even half as exciting as they are hoping for!
We celebrated Isaac's birthday with a few friends at our house.  Isaac loved the Dinosaur cake and the "dinosaur egg hunt."

It always felt strange telling people that Isaac was one years old when he looked and acted like a 2-3 year old.  He is learning to say, "Two!" instead of, "Wont."  He may also be my easiest child to potty train by far.  He started going potty a month ago, as long as I get him to the bathroom on time.  We're not getting rid of pull-ups yet, but it's a start!  On a down-side of being physically advanced, he also has learned how to climb out of his crib.  Thankfully he wears himself out so much during the day, that after a few escapes, he happily goes back to his crib for nap and bedtime.

I am sad that my twins are turning four soon, but also thankful that I am seeing more "mature behavior" as that day nears.  There are still days full of power-struggles, but they are getting fewer and fewer! (Once again, I wrote this in the morning and now and am exhausted from a day full of "correction" for my little girl!)  

Hugs after the preschool music performance

Julia is starting up with dance classes again since her former dance instructor and their family are moving to Africa for missions.  We found a small class that meets in the community center once a week.  Julia is very dramatic and secretly loves being the center of attention.  She also loves to make her bed and make it "pretty" along with all of her stuffed animals.  This must be something that she got from her Daddy.  Not the "pretty" part, but the joy of organizing!  She continues to love going to school.  Although some mornings she decides that she doesn't want to go and says that she is sick.  When asked what is the matter, she replies, "My heart....it's..it's beating!"

Kai has started attending the public school's afternoon preschool for children with developmental delays.  I was torn for months knowing that he could receive beneficial therapy for his speech and physical delays at the public preschool, but not wanting him to be separated from Julia (and the rest of the family) every afternoon.  I was sure that he would have a hard time going somewhere by himself.  Although after a few days into the program, I was driving Kai to school and Julia said that she wanted to go to school with Kai also.  Kai chimed in though and said, "NO! Not Jujah (Julia), only Kai!"  Apparently he enjoys having his own "thing."  I was also terrified of Kai taking the bus home, although it comes equipped with car seats and an aide to walk him to my door.   We decided to have him ride it on the way home since Isaac is napping at that time.  The bus ride home has become the highlight of Kai's day!  I look forward to seeing that huge grin every time he walks off the bus!

I am including a bunch of pictures from Easter egg hunts, a trip to the Arbuckle Wildlife preserve in Oklahoma, and a short fishing trip with Daddy.  Enjoy!

Kai mocking Julia's princess smile

All three in the same photo....if only they would all look up at the same time!

Isaac hiding from Easter bunny!

Daddy making faces with the donkeys!

Kai riding safari-style!

Isaac feeding the camel

practicing

Mommy practicing

Kai was the most patient fisherman!

Isaac playing with the worms

My princess with her worm!

Preschool Easter egg hunts

Family friends joined us for Easter lunch and another egg hunt!

We have good news and bad news.  The good news is that Jared will be gainfully employed by next week!  The bad news is that daddy will not be home all day.  The kids are already saying that they miss daddy and that they are going to give him "big hugs" when he gets home from work each day :)
 Jared accepted a job as a senior drilling engineer with PetroMax, a small company in Garland, TX.  We were praying for a good career opportunity with good people....and this company exceeded our expectations!  The company has been around for 20 + years and has had a lot of success.  They are looking for someone to come in and help the owner out with technical skills and eventually take the company further along with a core group of other young co-workers.  Jared was surprised to spend time having spiritual conversations during his first interview and the owner saying that he is more concerned about "kingdom purposes" than making money (although he has had a lot of financial success).  The company has started a non-for-profit mission agency, which supports missionaries all around the world.  They also invited the whole family to join them for lunch for a second interview, which we decided to find a sitter to make it a bit less crazy!
The negative part of the job is that it is a good 50 minutes away without any traffic, which could easily make it a 3 hour round trip commute with traffic.  Jared plans on leaving early to beat the traffic each day and see how it goes.  We may have to consider selling our house and moving closer to Garland.
We did have hopes (or at least I did!) that God would open up opportunities in Colorado, which would be closer to our families or even back to Tulsa, which will always be close to our hearts.  Jared did have interviews and leads that continued to come his way the past few weeks, but PetroMax wanted an answer by March 1st.  After much prayer, we knew that God had answered so many details in our prayers about the PetroMax job and that we would follow Him there.  It has taken me a while to adjust to living in Dallas, but we are so blessed by good friends, great church, amazing doctors and therapists for Kai, and warm weather :)  It would have been very hard to leave our friends here also.

Kai dancing w/ Rapunzel (Julia is constantly tying belts, boas, etc to her hair!)

Silly boy

A few more moves

Baby Isaac

Camera shy

Princess Jules

    While Jared has been busy working on house projects the past month (remodeled master bathroom, replaced damaged siding, patio,....), I have not gotten as much done as I would have liked.  The following pictures speak for themselves!

Naps?  Who needs a nap?!

Yes that is hand soap in their hair.  One hour after I finished bathing them :(

I'll finish with a couple of funny stories.  A few weeks ago I took Kai to see his neurosurgeon downtown for a follow up visit.  As we were walking in the parking lot a lady passed us and winked at Kai and said, "Hey handsome boy!"  Kai kept looking back at her and gigglying.  He then said, "Mom, she like me!"  Then after a radiologist was taking x-rays of his head/shunt, she kept calling Kai, "Baby" as a term of endearment.  Kai finally got tired of it and said, "I'm not Baby!  I Ty (Kai)!"
Julia is continuing to have adult conversations with us and surprises us with the things that she remembers and says.  Lately she is very concerned about Mommy and Daddy going to jail because she thinks we are driving too fast.  While she is constantly pretending to be a princess, she still needs some lessons on manners.  When our friends from church come over on Sundays for our home group meeting and talk to her she gets goofy and makes crazy faces at them and sticks out her tongue.  Jared claims that she learned that from me, but it's not true!
Isaac has been daddy's little helper at home.  He has even gone to the grocery store and to bed with daddy's leather work gloves on.  I think he will suffer the most once Daddy goes back to work!  He loves to push Kai and Julia's buttons.  When they get mad at him and end up yelling or hitting him, he immediately puckers up and holds his hands out for a hug since he knows mom will make them give him a hug and kiss after apologizing (and getting disciplined).  What a guy does for a little bit of affection!

Job Hunt!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

-Proverbs 3:5-6

I don't think I really understood the truth that these verses held when we we picked them as our wedding scripture almost 10 years ago.  There have been many times when I've wondered why things happened and what God's purpose was in it.  Often, when time passes and I look back at certain times/seasons of life, I see God's hand in even unpleasant circumstances and how he used them in ways that we couldn't have imagined.

We are currently in a position where we don't know what the future holds.  The start-up company that hired Jared last year has made poor business decisions and led to them shutting down the projects that Jared (and others) were hired to do.  Although this past year has been challenging, the experience was great for Jared to learn about how to run (and not to run) a business and to decide what is the right career move for the season of life that our young family is in.

So, with all of that said, Jared is on a job hunt!  This is overwhelming and sudden for us, but also kind of exciting.  We would be sad to leave friends that we have made here in the Dallas area, but also know that there may be great opportunites somewhere else.  Jared has applied for jobs in Dallas, Denver, OKC, Tulsa, Houston, and even Calgary.  I have my personal preferences for sure, but I pray that God would help me be willing to go anywhere He leads.

Enough of that, here are some updates on the kiddos!

Kai is doing well and continues to be my tender-hearted child.  He knows how to melt mommy with those big brown eyes and sweet spirit!  He also knows how to wake us up bright and early with his hearty laughs after he slips into Julia's room and starts having fun at 6 am!  He just finished additional testing with the physical, occupational and speech therapists at the local grade school. It looks like he will qualify for the developmentally delayed preschool with his expressive speech delay and motor delays.  His scores for cognition, receptive language, and fine motor skills looked great.  I was against the idea of having him separated from Julia (at the church preschool), but I am realizing that he might really benefit from a language-rich environment and additional speech and physical therapy during the day.  It will only be 2 1/2 hours, so I will still have plenty of time with him home.

Googly eyes

This boy LOVES the snow!

These days it is rare to find Julia without a princess costume on.  She has at least 3 wardrobe changes a day along with her bright purple and orange high heels!  I'm not sure how long this princess stage will last, but there is no signs of it slowing down!  The funny thing is that she has only watched one Disney movie (Tangled), but thinks that she is best friends with Ariel, Cinderella, Tianna, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Pocohontas!  She loves preschool, art, and playing make believe.

dressing up w/ Cousin Izzy in Nebraska

Loving on Cousin Mabel

Isaac is our little tornado and continues to humor us and exhaust us!  He rarely slows down to eat, let along rest.  He is talking more all the time, although he prefers to belt out a scream followed by a high pitched "Pweese!" once he has our attention!  I can't believe that my baby will be two next month, although he hasn't looked or acted like a baby in a long time.

Weapons!

Sledding

Here are a few more pictures from our Christmas in Nebraksa.  We had a great time celebrating with my family, including 8 children 4 and under!  As you can see, there is never a dull moment!  Thanks to my parents for hosting us and still wanting us back again.

Uncle Zach introduces the twins to snow

Cheese!

Christmas Eve books from Papa & Grandma Jones

everyone wants to dress up!

Baby Mabel is loved by all!

The result of all three Jones girls being pregnant at the same time

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!  I'm assuming that it will be a while before I blog again, so I'll get my bases covered!  I really don't remember much from the past month, but I'll do my best.
The week before Thanksgiving we faced Jared's fears and stepped onto an airplane with all three toddlers (non-sedated!).  After the non-stop flight to Seattle we called it a success since no passengers hated us at the end of the flight!  Our first stop after greeting Nana & Papa Christianson at the airport was to meet our new neice, Mia.  She is a doll!  We then headed to Jared's grandmother's hospice to see her and wish her a happy 94th birthday.  Noni had suffered a heart attach, stroke and pnemonia the week before our trip.  We were so thankful that we were able to see her again, even though she couldn't communicate as well as we know she wanted to.  We could see the "spark" in her eyes and knew the depth of her love without her having to say a word.
That same evening we drove another four hours to Portland to stay with Jared's extended family there for a day.  We loved getting caught up with Jared's aunt, uncle and cousin, reading with Gigi and Grand Papa, and visiting with friends.  Kai's highlight was playing with two new puppies.  Those sweet dogs loved cuddling with Kai and giving kisses, but feared Isaac as he chased them and lunged for their tails.  Kai is now saying that all he wants for Christmas is a "Big Doggie!"  I hope that the stuffed variety will suffice until we get Isaac tamed!
We spent the four days in Yakima, WA with Jared's parents, brother, sister in law and baby girl.  We had a great time and made many memories.  Nana & Papa were impressed with Julia's verbal skills and now know more than they want to know about her plans for her Princess Birthday Party in six months!

The following weeks were busy with Jared traveling, doctor appointments, and Christmas preparations.  Kai and Julia are much more aware of Christmas with all of it's magic this year.  They look forward to doing our advent book each night...or at least to the chocolates that they receive!  They also love singing the Christmas carols and seeing all of the Christmas lights.  This past Sunday we had our second annual Christmas Nativity Lighting Ceremony with our home group from church.  Here are a few pictures.  Notice the last one of Julia sitting with her sweet friend.  Moments later her hair was lit on fire by her candle!  Good thing we had some quick thinkers (and blowers) around her!  Never a dull moment...!

Here are a few more pictures of Christmas fun!

Breakfast w/ Santa...Isaac is still enjoying his breakfast!

Happy Birthday Jesus Program....before Kai dis-robed out of his shepherd's costume!

Julia singing away!

making Gingerbread house....bad pic, but got all three of them in!

Random run-in to Santa on Main Street in Grapevine!

Dancing under the gazebo!

This is also the time of year for all of Kai's medical tests and doctor appointments.  We spent over 13 hours at Dallas Children's Hospital and the Scottish Rite hospital to complete Kai's MRI, nuclear medicine study on his kidneys, urodynamics (study of bowel/bladder function), and consultations with his specialists.  We are so thankful for Dr. Adams with the Spina Bifida clinic.  He spends so much time with his patients and has a genuine concern for their health and development.  What a gem!  We are waiting for results from the MRI, but the team of doctors are happy with his development, despite his speech delay.  His kidneys look excellent...praise the Lord!  The results also showed that Kai was able to have sustained contractions of his bladder, which make potty training without catheterizing a possibility.  More than we have ever hoped for. 
We are so thankful for God's protection over Kai.  Just today I learned of a family in the area who gave birth to a baby boy with Spina  Bifida who only lived for an hour.  That makes my heart grieve, but also give thanks for each burst of laughter, tackle from one of my sons, and kiss from my children.  What a gift each breath is. 
We pray for a joyful Christmas for all of our friends and family and a blessed New Year!