Catch Up Time

So I had a fun experience this week: I inadvertently crashed my laptop. While fixing it, I couldn't get any of the MS Office programs to behave correctly (serious problem for work), so I switched over to Linux. It's been a steep learning curve, but I'm typing this from Xubuntu now. And the best part, certain parts of my laptop, such as Bluetooth, now work better than before! So I can get my pics off the camera and onto the blog MUCH easier. Here's a Melina post:

Hide and Seek

Melina likes to play hide and seek and peek-a-boo. Not a very popular hiding place amongst my more odor-discerning children (though I'm surprised she's the first to start hiding there).

When A Sweet Tooth Goes Wrong

Tara had stashed some jellybeans in my office prior to Easter (I may have opened the bag and sneaked just a few). Melina saw Tara take a few and decided to follow suit while Tara wasn't looking. I came home to find a recreation of that scene in Sixth Sense (couldn't find a good Youtube link) where the little dead girl goes into Cole's tent and barfs all over the place. There was no barf and I laughed pretty hard.

Quintessential Kid Shot

So I was in my office working the other day and was a little hungry so I went out to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Tara had bought some flour to bake with a little earlier in the day, which must have caught Melina's eye. Don't ask me how she go into Ian's robe.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Here are a few pictures floating around on my phone that I've been meaning to put up on the blog:

Here's Melina learning to be a Jedi Baby form her siblings. I think's it's fair to say Star Wars was a great movie, but I don't know where my kids are getting this whole Star Wars kick from.

This is a picture of Kailani getting a fairy package from Grandma. She absolutely loved it. The only problem? So did Ian. We had to convince him that fairy wings don't belong on boys.

This is a picture of Melina on a recent drive back from Salt Lake. We stopped at the McDonald's in Victorville for lunch and Tara thought it would be a good idea to lure the children back into their seats with ice cream cones. Apparently, so did Melina.

Saturday Hiking

Since I've been relieved of my blogging responsibilities, I haven't been overwhelmed by the content published (sorry honey). So I figured I'd go all old-timey and throw one up just to show what I've been up to.

Last Saturday, Tara was busy with a Church function, leaving me with an unprecedented amount of responsibility - the livelihood and well-being of all four children...simultaneously. So we hopped in the van, packed bikes and a stroller, and went exploring. There's a great hike here locally that I've been meaning to check out with my family, the Sycamore Canyon hike through Mugu State Park and down to Sycamore Cove on the PCH. I hiked it *many* years ago, growing up in Simi, and figured it would be a great way to spend the morning with the kids.

Here's some pictures, all taken from my phone (can't remember the last time I actually brought a camera). We went in about a mile, most of which was paved. The kids had a blast, and with all the rain we've had, everything was very green.

This is us at the trail head, which was surprisingly dry. There were puddles, and each of the kids on bikes came home (to my utter dismay) with "butt-stripes", but at least they had a good time.

About a half mile into the hike, there's a Native American hut and fire pit. My kids thought it was fun to walk around the fire pit on the log seats.

Here's a picture of the five of us sitting on the trail with the Dos Vientos neighborhood in the background. The trailhead to this hike is literally a five minute drive from our house.

Here's my little angel posing for me in front of Mt. Boney. I told her to smile, and this is what I get. Still cute, though.

I am Back

So, I've decided it's time to take back the reins of the blog posting responsibility. Brad did an excellent job, but I just noticed his last post which was on our daughter's birthday was about an interesting article he had read with no mention of our daughter. Thank you honey, I'll take it from here.

Melina turned 1 on Nov 5. She had chocolate cupcakes (hence the face) two days in a row because I believe you should always get cake on your birthday even if you actually celebrate it at the beach the day before (see Callie's blog for a great Melina photo at the beach).

We took Melina for her one year checkup in December. We headed to Utah and visited my brother and went in to see my kids' pediatrician who I love. Melina weighs about 18 lbs and some change. 48%! This is pretty unheard of for one of my kids. I mean, look at those cheeks. But she really is a skinny minny. Of all my kids Melina has suffered through the most change-Daddy leaves for two months when she's barely 4 months old, then we move to completely new surroundings. Forget regular naptimes, we have no time for those. Maybe that is why she still clings to me. Or maybe I let her a little bit more because she's my baby. My mom says it takes a lot to get Melina to smile, but when she does it's so worth it. It's true.

General Update

For all you "How I Met Your Mother" fans who read this blog (which is probably just Tara and I), you should be saluting each other by the title of "General Update." For the rest of you, if you receive said salute, just know you're missing out on a really funny show.

So big news in the Jones household...it's almost Halloween and there's still no snow!!! I talked to my parents today and was notified that there was snow with 50 mph wind gusts in the weather forecast for Rexburg. Not sure about the rest of you, but I have a pretty good idea of what my own personal Purgatory would look like were I to opt out of the whole Plan of Salvation deal. Sorry, Rexburg.

In other news, we had parent/teacher conference two weeks ago. Turns out that both Ian and Aaron know how to read and write. The real shocker is that Ian is extremely well behaved, except for when he's talking too much. (No, I did not mix up the names of my boys.) Aaron is also well-behaved, he just likes to lolly-gag (which, I believe, is the technical and scientific term for "too much like your father"). They're both doing well and have enjoyed the first few months of school. Plenty of new friends, teachers are nice and boys even get to see each other at recess sometimes.

Everything is pretty quiet at the moment. I'm still working (and surfing), though I wish I were doing more of each (that darned learning curve). Tara has found a fun group of mommies here in Newbury Park, most of whom are in our ward. Most days are spent watching extra kids or dropping ours off. Melina's even starting to adjust to it a little. Slowly but surely we're nudging her towards that big 1-year jump-off point where we start to retain our personal space a little more. (Not much, mind you, but every little bit seems like a county mile at this point.)

Below are some pictures I took of Melina being herself, which is to say, just as crazy as the rest of my kids.