Happy Easter

We had a very nice Easter with Nana and Papa visiting. The boys even got to dye eggs on Saturday night which we haven't done in a few years.

The Easter bunny brought lots of goodies of course and hid eggs all over the house.

After church, the boys took turns hiding the eggs outside for each other. Papa made one "treasure" egg each time with a dollar hidden inside. I think by the end, everyone had found at least one treasure egg.

We are grateful for a wonderful Easter weekend. It was nice to have the chance to go to church together and to focus more on the Savior. Not only at Easter but I hope throughout the year, we can all remember the true blessings that come from the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Spring Break

We had a fun week of Spring Break. We would have all loved going to the beach like we used to do but Dustin was tied up with ballgames throughout the week. We did lots of fun things though and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. First on our list was, of course, a trip to the Zoo. It was perfect weather for walking around the zoo. We made sure to get all of our favorite things in: spending time in the Herpatarium (snake house), visiting the polar bears during feeding time, eating a tropical snow, and taking pictures with all of the statues :) (every statue Kannon sees he stands by it and says take my picture).

The boys enjoyed watching the reticulated Python - one of Corey's favorites.

After we left the zoo, we went to the Civil Rights Museum. It is free on Mondays after 3:00 p.m. So we were there at 3:00 p.m. along with a lot of other people who like "free" things. Tanner has been reading a lot of biographies about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges so he was very interested in the museum. The museum is at the actual motel where Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Part of the tour takes you through the hotel room where he stayed. Also, during one part you go on this bus and listen to a reenactment of the Rosa Parks story. She was the one who would not give up her seat on the bus which led to the big bus strike. Kindof cool stuff. After the museum, we headed back to Jonesboro for Dustin's baseball game.

This is outside of the Motel/Museum. Martin Luther King was standing out on the balcony when he was shot.

Tuesday, was bowling day. The boys had brought some free passes home from school so off we went. Tanner was the winner with a high score of 113. He even beat me! We were going to stay and play video games but they made the announcement that the Tornado Sirens were going off in town so we decided to head home instead.

Since we didn't get to play video games at the bowling alley we went to Chuck-e-Cheese the next day and played games.

On our list of things to do during Spring Break was to go camping but with all of the rain and storms we decided not to. I had already gotten all of the supplies for s'mores so Thursday we made a fire in the backyard and pretended that we were camping. We all got to eat s'mores and sleep in our own beds. That is my kind of camping :)

Nothing is better than a campfire s'more. YUM!

On Friday, Nana and Papa arrived for the weekend. They were coming to watch Dustin play baseball and also to spend Easter with us. The boys were excited for them to arrive. We had a busy weekend with ballgames, working in the concession stand two nights and then getting ready for Easter. Spring Break went by too quickly but everyone had fun. Now we will be looking forward to summer break!!

Preschool Fun

March has been a fun month in Preschool. We made leprechauns for St. Patrick's Day and listened to stories about them too. On U Day, we read stories under an umbrealla. For V Day, we shared pictures of favorite vacations and all tried some Vegetables at snacktime. Also, the weather has been nice so the kids look forward to recess at the end of the morning. The boys all run to the basketball goal and the girls to the swingset. This is sure a fun bunch of 4 and 5 year olds.

Happy March!

Room Construction

We have been doing a little remodeling at our house the past few weeks. Kannon's room has been in an open space off of the Master Bedroom. I guess it was met for an office or a sitting room. At one time it was a separate bedroom so we decided to put it back that way. We closed up the opening in the Master bedroom and then opened up the opposite wall for a door. A friend from church brought a few guys in and they knocked it out pretty quickly.

Then Barry finished up the painting and trim work. He passed up a day at the Zoo just to paint (He hates the zoo) so I don't think that he minded too much.

Kannon and Tanner now share a room. We got rid of the old bunkbed and got new beds. They love it! Nana and Papa came to visit this past weekend and they were our first visitors to try out the new guest room.

And Corey now has his own bedroom - he really loves that! We are still working on his room so I will post a picture of that later. Barry is redoing a dresser and nightstand to put in his room along with Kannon's bed and bookshelf. We even fit his keyboard in there. I love having 4 bedrooms!

Baseball Season

Baseball season has officially started at the Jones house and will continue on up to August. That is a lot of ballgames to look forward to! Dustin opened up his High School season on February 19th - it was freezing. They have already played eight games - winning seven of those. His team is really going to be good! There are three players on the team that have already signed to play college baseball. Dustin should have a fun season. He plays short stop, pitches, and is the lead off batter.

The games usually start at 4:00 and go for several hours so I pack dinner most nights. The boys work on homework, eat their picnic dinner, run around and sometimes actually watch the game. They are all excited for their seasons to start which will be soon.

When the sun goes down it gets pretty chilly so everyone bundles up. The boys are usually so busying running around that they don't mind the cold. I bring blankets and everything to keep warm. I don't know which is worse - the cold in the spring or the bugs in the summer??

Snow!

I know that a few of you might have snickered at my last entry titled snow, since there really wasn't much but hey we were excited. Well, yesterday we got a REAL snow! It was suppose to start snowing Thursday night so the kids were all ready to sleep in Friday. Corey had two tests scheduled for Friday and we made him study because I knew for sure that the snow would miss us. Well, we woke up Friday morning and there was not even a drop of anything. So off to school everyone went. About 9:30 Barry called and said that school was getting out at 10:00. I was busy cleaning the house so I hadn't even noticed what was going on outside. The snow finally came! It snowed pretty much all day and toward the late afternoon it really was coming down. Dustin pulled out the snowboard and tried it out (in shorts) before going to Craighead Forest to sled with friends.

The other guys and I didn't get out into the snow until Saturday morning. It was a beautiful sunny day. The snow was melting quickly so we hurried outside and did all those snow things that you do.

Oops! We really made 6 snowmen but I didn't get Barry's in the picture.

You've got to love rubber boots! I remember when I was little my mom would put plastic bags on our feet and then we would put on our shoes. Well, you know that as soon as you get out in the snow that it got into your shoes and before long your feet were all wet. Not with boots. We have boots in every size! Well, we got that one fun snow we were hoping for - now I am ready for SPRING!

My Spring bulbs thought that spring had already come last week. I hope that they don't mind the snow too much. I can't wait to have tulips!

Our Branson Trip

We took a quick trip to Branson at the end of February. Last summer we were there and we saw a hotel that had an indoor water park. I told the kids that we would have to go there sometime during the winter. Well, they remembered that and they kept asking me when we were going. I picked a weekend when I knew basketball would be over and I thought baseball wouldn't have started yet but Dustin had baseball games on Friday and Saturday so he stayed with Barry's parents. We went to Mountain Home on Thursday night and spent the night with Nana and Papa and then got up Friday morning and headed to Branson. We went to an outlet mall for some shopping and then went to a new outdoor mall called Branson Landing. It was really nice.

Outside the Bass Pro Shop

The outdoor mall is located along Lake Taneycomo. There is a big Bass Pro Shop there along with lots of other fun stores. We rode the trolley and also had lunch there. We had told the boys that we couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00 so they kept asking, "What time is it? What time is it?" Finally is was 3:00 so we headed to the Grand Country Inn. We checked in and got right into our bathing suits and headed to the "Indoor Water Park". It really was a lot of fun. The place was pretty empty since it was a school day. That worked out great. Corey went right into the "basketball pool" - a pool with three basketball goals and lots of balls in it - and didn't come out until it was time to leave at about 6:30. He loved it. I enjoyed the river pool and the Hot Tub! Kannon and Tanner ran from one thing to the other. There were slides and water shooters and all kinds of water things. They also had a huge bucket that would fill up with water and then a horn would go off letting you know it was going to dump out and the kids would run from all over to get under it. Pretty fun!

Corey in the Basketball Pool

We left the water park around 6:30 or 7:00 and went out to eat dinner. The boys were so tired that we had to keep talking to Kannon and Tanner so they wouldn't fall asleep on the way there. We got back to the hotel and put everyone to bed. Saturday morning, we went out to IHOP for breakfast and then went to an indoor minature golf course and arcade for awhile.

We then headed back to the water park for a few hours. The place was pretty crowded. There were birthday party groups and even a church bus load of kids. The kids still had fun and we had to drag them out around 3:00. We wanted to get back to Mountain Home for dinner with Nana and Papa. After a great dinner, we headed back to Jonesboro. What a fun trip!

Blue and Gold Banquet

Corey had his Cub Scout Awards Night last week. The theme was "Chinese New Year". Corey did a nice job on his part in the program. He also received two badges - one for basketball and one for baseball.

I was in charge of the game for the night. We did "chop sticks pick-up". The boys raced to see who could pick up the most candy hearts in one minute. Some of the boys were pretty good at using chop sticks, some not so good. :) They were excited to eat the candy hearts when we finished and also to take their chop sticks home. I was also in charge of the dessert - Corey picked ice cream.

Corey is doing a great job in scouts. He is working on his Weblos Badge.