9 months of wonder

Piper is now 9 months old and continues to light up our lives! We recently had her 9 month check up and even though she is definitely showing a stubborn streak she is in perfect health and growing more every day.

Her current stats are: Weight: 17.7 pounds (27th percentile)

Height: 25.5 inches (3rd percentile) yes, she is a shorty like her parents:)

These numbers make her look really small but her height to weight ratio puts her in the 89th percentile.

She has her 2 bottom teeth and the tops ones are working on coming in. She loves rolling all over the house and even manages to crawl around the room and over things. She is letting us know that her favorite color is blue and enjoys putting everything possible in her mouth.

When given a choice between something that is blue and any other color she always chooses the blue one. We were Christmas shopping the other day and I found a cute baby doll, one pink the other blue. I held both of the in front of her to choose and she went for the blue one. Then when shopping with Wes she did the same thing, we held a coat in front of her one blue and one pink again she wanted the blue one.

She also thoroughly enjoyed ripping off wrapping paper. She was able to open the majority of her gifts ripping off one piece at a time.

Happy Holidays from the Jones'

Okay so I tried to get a family update done before the holidays. Now here it is the 3rd of January, I go back to work in 2 days and I am trying again to get it done. We hope you all had a fabulous and memorable Holiday, I know we did.

This year has been one of firsts for this Jones Family.

January: we started teaching a new group of 12 year old kids in Sunday School. Our first time out side of the mission to teach the Gospel Fundamentals. I started working at the Technical college two nights a week. Interpreting for a deaf student taking Speech and Government.

February: we took our first birthing class and got a tour of Mountain View Hospital.

March: we welcomed our beautiful little girl to our family. This is when all the real fun began. I took the rest of the school year off for maternity leave, all though I only took 2 weeks from the college. In doing this Wes was left home alone with a two week old baby for 3 hours at a time.

Piper Ashtyn Jones born March 24, 2008 at 2:29 pm. Weigh 6.2 pounds Height 19 inches

April: I asked Wes if he had gottne a bonus or pay raise after one particular pay period. Wes called from work the next day to tell me he had been promoted to Member Service Representative Manager. Piper was blessed on April 13, and enjoyed her first bath in the bath tub that same morning.

May: We took our first family photos. Piper started teething.

June: I went to work interpreting 2 afternoons a week at the local technical college taking Piper to a friends house for the 3 hour class.

July: Piper slept through the night for the first time.

(That was a fluke that only lasted a few nights.)

August: Piper finally took a bottle after 4 grulling weeks of trying everything we could think of. Then 2 daqys later she took a pacifier. We took Piper camping for the first time at a family reunion where she slept through the night! I went back to work full time at the school district and to school as a part time pre-grad student. Piper officailly started day care.

September: Piper started sitting up on her own.

October:We celebrated our first of many Halloweens as a family of three.

November:Piper cut her first tooth and the second followed a week later. She also started crawling on the 24th. We hired someone to come in and tape/texture the bathroom and one bedroom in the basement.

December: The third bathroom is finished and fully functioning. We are celebrating our First Christmas with Piper.

our long lasting project

We have been working for the last month trying to get the bathroom and one bedroom finished. We worked over summer and fall and also last Christmas day hanging the drywall. After the last bedroom we decided to save up and hire someone else to come in to tape, mud, and texture the walls. The week after Thanksgiving we found a guy to come in and do the work for us. His work looks great and it only took 4 days to do it!

Then we had the plumber and the electricain come in to install the fixtures and put electricity into the bathroom. We had a finctioning bathroom with one small problem...

We did not have a door. That was just installed last night by Wes and I after Piper went to bed.

It took a bit longer to get the bedroom finished on account of size of the room getting it primed and painted. Although we did learn a trick to shorten the process a bit. We were told that if you primer the ceiling there is no need to paint it if you plan on leaving it white.

We had carpet put in last week and now are enoying some extra space for a guest bedroom and Pipers play room.

Now the goal is to get the family room and other bedroom done by next Christmas. We plan to put in a fireplace and install speaker wire for the suround sound system. Then on to hanging drywall and starting the whole process again.

Apples to Apples

Wes' mother and Mike have three very large trees in their back yard. When the apples ripened we got a phone call asking if we would like to pick them. We ofcourse knowing how much Piper loves anything apple we jumped on the chance for free home grown apples. We went over one day and picked 3 big baskets/totes full. Then my mother and younger siblings came up a week later to help finish cleaning off the trees. We estimated picking in total about 16 bushels of apples.

We do not have any pictures of the picking process but we did get some of our little doodle bug helping with the sorting. She of course wanted to eat every apples she picked up.

When I was pregnant I found the coolest thing to prevent babies from choking on their food. It is a mesh holder that attaches to a handle. It is designed to put any kind of solid food in it but I have heard not to put bananas in it due to the fact of how hard it is to get the mesh clean. So when ever Piper sees this contraption she gets very excited and chews of her apples until there is nearly nothing left of it. Then when I try to get it from her to put in another slice she screams until I hand it back.

Thank you so much to Mike and Ellen for the wonderful apples. We also made pie filling, apple sauce, and apple juice with many of them.

Preparing for the the Army???

Piper has grown so much in the last few months, and we are learning that she has her own style of doing things. One such example of this is how Piper has learned to crawl. She gets around pretty well, for such a little one. She hasn't mastered getting up on her knees, so when she crawls, she gets up on her hands, and pushes with her feet. So she crawls/slides around on her stomach. If she keeps this up, we will have recruiters calling her before she starts school. We shot a video of her getting around the family room today. Enjoy!!

Food

Piper has decided that she loves food. Her first experience with it was at the Waters reunion in Aug. She loved the sauce from baked beans and the whipping cream from a very delicious strawberry shortcake. Since that time she has enjoyed a few different flavors and seems to like most of them. The squash was the main food she refuses to eat, that was not really pushed since I do not like squash either. She loves apple sauce, eats it almost daily. She also enjoys knawing on a slice of apple. We found a cool little gadget that is made of mesh and had a child proof handle, I put in the peeled apple slice tighten the child proof cap and away she goes. She also likes carrots, is getting used to rice cereal, tried green beans, potatoes, and any other soft sauce from my dinner plate. She has devoured pudding and insisted that Daddy share his airhead with her. We thought you might enjoy some of the photos of her.

Piper has also got her first tooth. She has been teething since she was three months old with that darn tooth coming up and going back down. She has been sick off and on all month of Oct and in the midst of the virus, rash, fever, and cough that tooth finally made its semi permanent appearance. I say semi because as we all know she will lose it in a few years.

Privacy

So, we have been noticing that family and friends are going private. With this it has caused me to think about my own blog. For security purposes we will be going private as well. Thanks by the way to giving me the idea. If you desire to continue peeking in on our lives please leave a comment with your email address so that I can give you permission to join our family. We appreciate your comments and also enjoy looking into your family lives so please let us continue with our wonderful blogging relationship. We will most likely be going private by Thankgiving to feel free to let us know before this date for a smooth transition.

Getting ready for Halloween

Last night we went shopping to find Piper's first Halloween costume. We had bought one last thanksgiving before she was born, but it is way to big for her. We found a little puppy costume complete with little paw gloves and a tail. She looks so cute in it! Grandpa and Grandma Jones also mailed her a orange halloween onesie and flashing bat socks. It's hard to belive how quickly time has passed since we brought Piper home for the first time. Next thing we know, it will be Piper's first Christmas.

Name Game

So I saw this on a friends blog and thought I might join in the fun.
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current car) Stripes Honda
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Americone Oreo
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) A Jon
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Turtle
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Jann Jerome
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Joneas
7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Green Rootbeer
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Merthan Delbert or vice versa Delbert Merthan
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) Love Spell Brownie
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names) Ellis Duane
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Dalrymple Dallas
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Summer Blue Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Mango Jammiesie
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Poppyseed Maple
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: ("The" + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The reading sunny tour

Now you all try it and see what names you come up with :)

I've been tagged

okay so a friend tagged me and said I am supposed to open the 4th folder and blog about the 4th picture in that folder. I opened the 4th folder and found all the 8 week pictures we took of Piper. This is the 4th picture, we had just gotten home from church and were trying to get pictures of her smiling. She is sitting in her bouncer and we were pulling faces at her to get a response. She was laughing and having a grand time. That day we got some really good pictures and had fun making memories.

6 months

We had our first snow of the season Saturday night. This is what we woke up to Sunday morning, about 3-4 inches of snow. I am thinking it is a little to early for that but here it is, ready or not.






We found it rather funny when we got London and Taylor to take pictures with Piper. London and Piper are wearing the same outfit just different colors and Piper has sleeves. I guess you could say our taste in clothes have not changed since last year. I remember 6 months ago when Taylor and London were bigger than Piper. She now is certainly taller, weighs more, and can sit up better:)









Piper is now 6 months old. At her last doctors appointment she was weighing 15 pounds 3 ounces. Piper is a short little girl, she gets that from both of us, at the 10% with 24 inches tall. This picture was taken after church Oct 12. She is just so cute!

Grandma and Grandpa Jones

We had a wonderful surprise visit from Wes' parents over Labor Day weekend. They made a week trip out from Nebraska to look at a building to purchase. While they were here we had a good time and they enjoyed (I hope) spending time with Piper. She was a very happy little girl who entertained all of us and helped around the house as much as she could.

We also had the privledge of their help in our kitchen. We spent our 4th of July weekend tiling a backsplash, I then spent the next week trying to get it grouted between tending to a fussy baby at the time. I always said I hated our stainless steal sink, so on our trip to Home Depot one night to get a lawn mower we picked up a cast iron sink to install some day. Well that some day came. I am so very thankful to Papa Joe and Bonnie for their willingness to use their time here helping us with home improvement projects. I love my new sink and it looks so good surrounded by the back splash. What do you think. How does my "new" kitchen look?

We are now working on a couple more tiling projects. We are going to tile above the surrounds in all three bathrooms from surround to ceiling and also one strip down the side.

living with the Jones'

Every time people come to our house they comment on our large bean bag. It has a cover from Love Sac but the innerds are certainly not from the same place. Being a poor college student when I made it I was only able to stuff it with 2 bags of beans and the rest is cut up foam mattresses. It is really quite comfortable but has to be re-fluffed if you get up and then want to sut down again. Except of course for a little girl that weighs less than 15 pounds.

We also had the wonderful opportunity to take care of the neighbors little boy. We has fun watching them sleep and play together. We hope they become the best of friends.

5 meses

Wow, time flies when you are having fun and keeping busy. Piper is now 5 months old and I am officially off maternity leave. I started back to work Aug 20 so that also means Piper went to her first day at the sitters. I really had a hard time leaving her knowing that when Wes went to work he would be dropping her off for the day until I could pick her up. I survived that first day and so did Piper. When I got to the house she was contentedly laying on her blanket playing with a book. She gave me a slobbery kiss and we went home.

Piper is growing so fast, she is weighing 14.2 lbs, sleeping around 6-7 hours at night. She rolls over from her back to her stomache and then get stuck trying to get onto her back again. She is also starting to sit up on her own for a few moments at a time. Each day she sit up longer then the day before. She laughs at funny faces and giggles and squirms when she sees someone coming in to tickle her.

bottles!!!

Bottles, bottles, ode to the bottles. Knowing I will be going back to work when school starts I knew Piper was one day going to have to take a bottle. The doctor told us to start giving her a bottle once every other day when she was 2 weeks old. This we did and she did fine, especially when she was taking camomile tea before each meal. She loved that little bottle. Then when she was about 7 weeks old we took a short break from the bottle. OHHHHHHH was that a mistake. We had to start all over again with teaching her to take a bottle. As you can see we tried many different kinds of bottles and nipples. This process started the first part of June and finally ended July 30.

I was so excited that she finally took the bottle I had to send out a text to Wes and a couple of friends who have agonised with us during this process. Then 2 days after taking the bottle she will now also take a pacifier. Life is grand, now if only I did not have to return to work and could stay home with Piper.

camping bath

We went camping last weekend for the Waters family reunion. We were at the Three Island Crossing State Park in Glennsferry. Piper likes to stick to her routine and lets us know if we are off. The first night we were able to use the shower and she went right to sleep. Saturday we were not so lucky. The restroom closed that morning with draining problems and they said it would be fixed by early evening. As it turned out they were still not open when we left Sunday afternoon. So instead, my sister boiled some water and we gave the babies their bath in the..... cooler. Piper of course quite enjoyed her bath even though it was in an unconventional tub. When she was done we put Carson in to see how well the 2 cousins got along in such close quarters.

Swimming

We always look forward to a good relaxing soak in a hot pool. We took Piper for her first swimming experience Friday. She was so relaxed that after swimming she slept for 2 hours. the water felt great and the company was enjoyable also. One lady thought we were crazy taking a baby to a hot springs but from the pictures as you can tell she did not seem to mind it so much.

Mark and Piper

Piper and Mark hanging out together. Leslie was trying to get them to smile or laugh, of course Mark laughed with her but Piper thought she was a little weird. We truly enjoy the time we spend with our friends.

First Friends

Its always important to have friends, no matter what your age is. We have been friends with Brett and Leslie ever since we moved into our apartment on Garfield. We even moved to the same neighborhood in Iona, and live around the corner from one another. Now even Piper has a friend that lives around the corner since Mark was born. As you can see, they have fun when they get together. When Mark is layed back, Piper is the active and talkative one. Then when Piper is quiet, Mark becomes the talkative one. They are certainly two peas in a pod. Who know's what could happen when they get older?!?

Piper's Favorite Toys

It always amazes me on how quickly Piper is learning and growing. She is now recognizing people and faces. She also is quick to flash you a little smile that makes your day brighter. One thing that she loves is her two little butterfly toys, Sassy and Bob. Sassy is her little plastic teething toy that she loves to stick in her mouth and suck on. Bob is a butterfly that is soft and colorfull. She loves just sit and hold on to him. He also makes different noises if you play with his wings. She loves him! We think that she always sleeps better when she has her little friends.

tubby time

Bath time seems to be the most anticipated time of each and every day. I of course enjoy my shower. It wakes me up and helps me start the day with a smile. Piper gets her tubby every evening. She loves splashing in the water or just laying in it with the water covering her all over except her face. If for some reason I think we can get away with out a bath because it is past her bed time she promply reminds me of her tubby. We go in lay her on the floor and start the water. Just doing that calms her so fast that she will lay there laughing, smiling, excited about what is happening next. She would stay in the water all day if we would let her. Getting her out and dressed is another experience. She hates getting dressed and turns it into a scream fest which ruins all we did to calm her in the bath.

family portraits

We went and had family pics taken. I had t-shirts made for Christmas that said "Mommy" and "Daddy" then spent the next few months looking for an outfit that said "Baby" for Piper. I finally found one 2 weeks before she was born. Piper was such a good baby during the photo shut. She would smile and laugh, she waited until after we were finished to cry. There were alot of fun poses and composites that we really liked.