Rollin',rollin',rollin'

We have made it through another week here at the Jones' house. School is going well, clubs are being attended, soccer practice is hot and humid, life is rolling along. Mackenzie received her flute this week and will actually begin to learn to play it next week. I am hoping it is not as painful to listen to as the violin was last year! Speaking of which, she should be starting her violin lessons in the next week or two also, we are just trying to get our schedules figured out.Savannah has started band and will be playing the drums. Much to her chagrin I will not be purchasing a drum set in the near future. Her practice pad will have to do for now. I mean, there is only so much one mom can take, right!

DJ sailed through his dilatation yesterday and after next weeks treatment we will be able to switch our schedule to just once every two weeks. Hurray! Our hope is that by the beginning of the new year we will know if they have to do more invasive surgery to remove the bulges in his esophagus or if we can just keep doing the dilatations and the bulges will shrink on their own. He has school pictures today, which he is very excited about, but not completely willing to let me clean his face for the occasion. He cried for awhile and squirmed alot, but eventually I was able to make him look like a little boy again and not some sort of dirt monster. What is it with boys and the enjoyment they get out of being filthy?

We are getting settled into our new ward. Dallas and I have been called as Nursery leaders, so we won't be getting to know a whole lot of the adults any time soon, but we are having fun being able to spend some time together at church. We ran into some people from our ward in Colorado Springs here. The Weavers are in our ward for a little while at least. He has been stationed here for over three years, so should be getting orders and moving his family soon, but it has been nice to get reacquainted with them. Well, I have to go and be a mom again for awhile and take care of business.TTFN

Back to School

All of my babies are in school again. Mackenzie is in the eighth grade,Savannah is in the fifth, and DJ is in Pre-K. They all seem to like their new schools, and the teachers that I have met all seem great. Both of the girls are doing band this year with private violin lessons for Kenzie since they don't have orchestra here. Savannah starts soccer on Monday. The team here is more competive than most of the teams she has been on before. It is also coed, which she hasn't played in a couple of years. We shall see how it all works out.

July Fourth

We celebrated the Fourth of July with our family in Utah. the girls dance in the Centerville parade with my mom's dance studio, then we went to mom's for lunch. Afterwards we headed to Bill and Nena's for dinner and fireworks. The cousins got to play the day away and enjoy eachother one last time before we left for Alabama.

Pictures,pictures, and, oh yeah, pictures!

Well, as most of you know, we moved this summer. We are now located in the wonderful state of Alabama, and we are enjoying it. Our trek here was very eventful since we decided to take the opportunity to make it a vacation. Our first stop was on July 5th at the Arches National park. Dallas decided to kill us all by hiking up a mountain in 100+ degree heat with no shade to view one of the arches. We did lose Mackenzie along the way, but thankfully she was found by a group of college girls, and they had a lovely conversation about Twilight while her family was in panic mode. When we had finally found her again, we headed down to the Grand Canyon where we set up camp for the night. It was beautiful, the night was cool, and we were thoroughly exhausted, so we slept very well. The next morning we walked one of the rim trails at the canyon then loaded up and went on our way. The next stop was the Petrified Forest, and then we stopped in Roswell so the kids could see the aliens. We went through the museum there and then moved on to Carlsbad Caverns. We watched the bats fly out of the cave in the evening and went through the caves the next morning. We went down through the natural entrance and really grew a respect for the people who used to be sent down in a barrel through a pulley system. I don't think I would have ever had done that. We then moved on to Texas, where we stayed a few days with my best friend from high school, Jenni. She had just had surgery so we didn't do too much partying, but the conversation was always good, and the rest was much needed. We did hit up the Dallas zoo while we were there, because DJ wanted to go to his very own zoo.:) After a couple of days we got back in the car and stopped in Burnet for a quick visit with Larry and Angie, then of to Fredericksburg for a couple of nights to visit with Grandma and show the kids where mommy and daddy met and where mommy grew up. They weren't that impressed. Oh well. Then off to San Antonio for a week where we went down to the Riverwalk, visited Shamu at Sea World, and spent a day at Schlitterbahn. Finally, back on the road to our new home here in Alabama. We were put into a house immediately and had our furniture and home goods within a couple of days. The kids are back in school, and DJ is on a regular schedule of weekly dilitations. Life is moving along at its usual break neck speed, and we are for the most part enjoying the ride. We miss all of our friends and family and hope to hear from you and see you soon!