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Good Times

New Videos Uploaded

2 Comments 23 August 2009

Check them out here:

Britton and Her Jumperoo Naps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkh0SrNIj58

Baby Boot Camp – Five Happy Babies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD7Z5uZKE-0

Lila and Ryan – Morning Sweetness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0g_vuKdV0

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Good Times

Baby Dedication This Sunday…(after our mini-vacation to Six Flags)!!!

2 Comments 13 August 2009

Alright, the original three are headed south again for another mini-vacation. Casey, Little Miss Sunshine, and I are headed to San Antonio in about one hour to begin our trip!! We are headed to the Riverwalk tonight for some good mexican food, a couple margaritas, and a good amount of sweating in the August heat. Tomorrow, Six Flags Fiesta Texas is the destination for some roller-coaster riding, water parking, and more sweating in that danged ol’ August heat!!! We come back Saturday to a house full of babies, volunteers, and grandmas and grandpas (and hopefully escape that crazy Texas heat)!! Thank you to Tricia and the Harrison family along with all of the incredible “helpers” (that’s what Eliot calls the baby volunteers) who are making this trip possible!!!!

And then the big event, the moment we’ve been waiting for since it was scheduled in early June – the babies’ dedication to the church happens this Sunday! I cannot begin to express how excited we are about this day!! Not only will it be our first real venture out into public with the entire family, it will be the Fab Five’s first appearance at Riverbend Church which has been such a strong supporter of our family during this incredible time. We will all be up onstage for both services, 9:45 and 11:15, along with our superstar volunteer, Tricia Harrison, to introduce the family. The service will also include a couple of cool little extras prepared by the Riverbend staff…very exciting!!!!!

I feel a little bit out of place (in other words, a little girly) commenting on this next aspect of the day, but I have to mention what the babies will be wearing for the big show. A high school friend of Granda Bill’s, Beth Lewallen, made dresses for the girls and a suit for Jack out of Casey’s wedding dress…seriously, that is really cool!! The dresses are absolutely adoreable, Jack will be looking totally dapper, and I am pumped because I no longer have to lug that silly dress around every time we move!! Ok, really, what a great idea! On top of that, she included a monogrammed handkerchief for all of the babies – and one for Eliot, too – to be worn in their own weddings…like 40 years from now! And then on top of that she also made a pillow out of the gown’s bodice to be used to by the ring bearers in each of their weddings…which will all happen at least a year or two after I am dead and gone!! Huge, GINORMOUS thank yous to Beth for doing this for us!!!!!

So come on out for a wonderful, happy time in celebration of these five little miracles as we dedicate them to the care of the church and as we dedicate ourselves to raising them up in a Christian home! We loved the experience of doing this for Eliot when she was a baby and really value the symbolism and importance that this event will hold in our lives as a family!!

God Bless,
Ethan
http://www.joneslife.net/

Good Times

The Original 3 Head South

Comments Off on The Original 3 Head South 12 July 2009

Here are a few pics from our mini-vacation July 2nd and 3rd. We had a blast playing in the sand and the surf (though I think Eliot preferred the hotel pool) then cooled off later taking in Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 3d. It was great to get a small taste of what our life used to be like before diving head first back into reality on the 4th!!

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

Good Times

The Ride has Arrived

4 Comments 16 March 2009

Add this to the list of new experiences – actually two new entries for the list – buying a vehicle site-unseen and having a vehicle delivered to your home…nice!! Kind of crazy buying anything without putting your eyes on it, but our choices were extremely limited. In other words, unless we wanted a cargo van, a Ford Expedition EL was the only option for our family. And having it delivered? That happened because the dealer was kind enough to sympathize with how busy our lives are now and offered to bring it out to us to save us some time! It may take a giant shoe horn and several volunteers to make it happen, but believe it or not, our entire family, car seats and all, will fit into the new ride. So, when we happen to wake up at six am on a Sunday morning, we’ll actually get to go to church as a family…yeah!!!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Good Times

Eliot’s “Slipper Party” and a Night Out With My Lady

3 Comments 24 February 2009

My birthday was last Saturday and we just put the wraps on one of the best birthday weekends I’ve ever had! It started out on Friday night with Eliot’s “Slipper Party” which was a slumber party that we threw for her to celebrate her big sister status. Somehow, “slumber” got translated into 4-year-old speak as “slipper” – it was actually a pretty cute and fitting name so we let it stick.

We had multiple motives for throwing the party. The first was to thank all of the families who helped out so much with Eliot’s care while Casey was pregnant and I was going crazy trying to juggle everything. The second motive was to reward Eliot for being so easy-going with all of the schedule changes and uncertainty that each day brought her as we shuffled her from house to house in order to give Casey the rest she needed and me the time I needed to keep my head in the game. We figured a night off for all of the parents and a night of giggles, movies, cookies, and cream would just about do the trick!!

Eliot had five little girls come over for the evening with four of them staying the night. We got them off to a quick start with a pizza party followed up by freshly baked cookies, ice cream sundaes, and a movie on the big screen! After they were good and sugared up, I worked as much energy out of them with lots of wrestling on the couch, games of tag and hide-n-seek, and lots and lots and LOTS of giggles…it was GREAT FUN!!! When it was time to settle down for the night, we put them all in sleeping bags in the gameroom and left them alone with Cinderella for the remainder of the evening. Believe it or not, the girls actually got some sleep, though probably not as much as they are used to on a normal night.

In the morning, the girls got in a good round of cartoons, Lucky Charms, and playing house before their parents came to get their tired little angels. There was no rest for the weary Joneses, however, as we had to run out the door to get Eliot to a princess party thrown for one of her friends’ birthdays. She had a blast, of course, dressing up like a princess and playing with all of the other little girls!

After a trip to the NICU and a little bit of rest time, Casey and I got to go out on our first real date in who knows how long. Casey’s mom and brother came to town (Uncle Kyle’s first visit to see the babies!) and they entertained Eliot for the night while Casey and I did some shopping and fine dining at The Domain in Austin. What a night we had! Good wine, good food, and good conversation about what was, what is, and what’s to come in this oh so boring life of ours!!! This was without a doubt one of my best birthday’s ever!

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

Good Times

There’s a New Superhero in Town…

4 Comments 01 February 2009

Fair warning to the ladies reading this blog: DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING BLOG!!! I’m serious about this, don’t read it. If you love Casey and want to continue loving her, stop reading, close your webserver, and walk away. I promise reading the update below will definitely change the way you feel about her so please, please do not continue reading past this point!!

Now that we’ve gotten the fair warning out of the way, here goes. We’ve apparently got a new superhero in town and her name is Casey the Elasti-Girl. She can stretch her body to amazing lengths and pack on pounds like an NFL lineman in the off season all while nurturing five babies to good health inside her womb! Now that the babies have been born, we’ve discovered her new talents: snapping her skin back to its pre-pregnancy condition and dropping pounds like a beauty queen before the pageant!!

Ok, seriously, she weighed herself this morning and discovered that she had already lost 64 pounds. 64 pounds gone in just two weeks! For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 64 pounds gone out of the 72 that she gained while pregnant!!! I know, I know…it’s disgusting (unless you happen to be her husband!) and if you ignored my warnings you are probably plotting her demise at this very moment. You should have heeded my advice and just walked away, but you had to keep reading, didn’t you? Please, don’t hate her…!!

P.S. In all seriousness, part of the reason she lost the weight so quickly is that she lost a lot of muscle while she was on bedrest. We didn’t discover this until all of the swelling had subsided, but it is clear that her arms and legs are not near as muscular as they were before she got pregnant. She was actually in the best shape of her life when the pregnancy began. She is excited to get back in shape as soon as she is able…Go Elasti-Girl, GO!!

God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

New Videos Uploaded

Baby Dedication This Sunday…(after our mini-vacation to Six Flags)!!!

The Original 3 Head South

The Ride has Arrived

Eliot’s “Slipper Party” and a Night Out With My Lady

There’s a New Superhero in Town…

Photos on flickr

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