#5 Granddaughter Arrives March 29

Little Elliotte Joy Hurd made her arrival into this world on Monday March 29th! We are so excited to meet her when the Hurd family comes down for Vanessa's wedding at the end of April. Speaking of the wedding, Nolan Hatch will join our family when he and Vanessa are married on April 29th. 2 additions to our family with 1 month--that's awesome!! We are excited to see all of our family as all the Jones and Hansen kids are expected to come for the wondrous occasion! Even Grama and Grampa Jones are flying in from CA!!
We are dilligently trying to fix up our back yard for the reception but the weeds are trying to take over! Maybe the guests won't notice the weeds with all the sparkly lights and pretty wedding decorations! Our next post will include some family reunion & wedding pictures.
Happy April to everyone!

We Have Grass!

After 2 backbreaking days of hard labor, our backyard finally has grass (no, you can't hide your weed in there!!)! Thursday 2/4 night at 8:30 our sod arrived from the Phoenix valley. We were supposed to get it the week before, but we'd had so much rain that it was too wet to harvest---so we had to wait a week. Craig took off work Friday and Natalie volunteered to skip school so those 2 and Kelli worked on putting the sod down until it was too dark to see anymore. On Saturday, Craig and Kelli finished up the job as all 3 kids had "prior comittments" and couldn't help. It's being watered 3 times a day for a total of 45 minutes and it had BETTER stay GREEN since it is winter grass overplanted on summer grass! WE ARE EXCITED!! The dogs love it too!

It's 2010!!

Happy 2010!!
The week after Christmas we traveled to So. Cali to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Canoga Park. It was a very fun visit especially for Elise who hadn't seen her G & G or her Cali friends in over 6 months. As usual, Grandma Jones had some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup ready for us when we arrived at their house at about 7 pm on Sat. Dec. 26th! YUMMY!
On Sunday we went to church with G & G and Elise connected with a few of her church friends and Natalie and Weston got to meet them. Later that evening we got to visit with Warren and Lynn, Brad, Lindsay and Sam when they came over to have dinner with us.
Monday we took a drive through Topanga Canyon to the ocean. Elise wanted to take some senior pictures in a natural setting, so we brought the camera. It was wonderful to smell the ocean breezes again. I decided that I need a yearly vacation to the ocean/beach to get rejuvinated! Here are some pictures from the beach.






Elise and the beautiful pacific ocean.

Natalie enjoying the sand and surf!

3 Joneseys lovin' life. Who is the tallest now??!!

Kelli wasn't feeling her best, but she enjoyed being at the beach from the car!

On Tuesday we went to California Adventure and spent a whole day there. The first ride we went on was the whitewater rafting one and we all got wet, but Kelli and Elise got the wettest--yuck! It took us all day to totally dry out! Later that night, Natalie and Kelli even rode the Tower of Terror and lived!! (yes, they thought they were gonna die and were surprised when they didn't!!) Weston, Elise and Craig went on the fast roller coaster that shoots the riders out at 5o mph. They said it was "no big deal"! Weston and Elise rode the Maliboomer and came back with green around the gills but they wouldn't admit it!! All in all we had lots of fun and don't need to go back for another 5 years!

Wednesday found us helping G & G get their Christmas decorations down and put away. While we were doing that, Elise and Natalie went with Elise's friends Raul and Jason to "hang." It was a rainy day but they went to a park and hiked a hill to see the view from the top anyway. Both girls came home with muddy shoes and pants and lots of fun stories to tell!

New Years Eve was spent playing card games with Brad, Vicky, and Sam. Elise and Natty went to a dance in Arcadia with some Young Women friends and had a blast. We all stayed up till midnight and then listened to all the gunshots going off in SoCali! We didn't dare venture outside, but enjoyed the "festivities" from grandma and grandpa's warm, cozy home!

Friday, we drove back t AZ to get ready for the groundbreaking of the new St. David chapel and then work and school--the vacation's over!!

Phall Phun

PHALL PHUN 2009

OK, I've been promising a picture of Craig and Kelli's Halloween costumes (for which we won Best Adult Costume, I might add) so here it is! We went originally as hippies, but we got named as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin! I'm not sure Janis had dred locks, but that's what Kelli wore! We had a lot of fun at our community "trunk or treat" helping with a game of "ghost bowling" and handing out/eating the treats! Peace Out everyone. See you at Woodstock 2010!

Kelli turns the Big 5 0 !!

See how much fun Kelli is having as she turns 1/2 a century old!!!

Kelli isn't very happy. . .

but she will be after she opens all her presents

(with Bryn's help!)

Whose toes are these?

Here's a hint---they aren't from 1 person!

"Every Orifice Except the Eyes"
Our Budding Genius, Weston
Aren't We Proud of Him!!

Hope you are having a Phun Phall and are enjoying 80 degree temps that we are in Tucson!!!

Our Family Is Growing!

Our Family Is Growing!

We just heard within the past 2 weeks that 2 new grandbabies are "in the oven"!!! The Hurds and the Pollards will add to their families in early April and early June respectively! We know that a few more of our married children are planning to add to their families in 2010 as well, so our family might be growing more than we presently know ! How exciting! There may even be couple of wedding in 2010 for all we know! (Update as of 10/21/09 The Pollard family is going through some medical problems and a miscarriage :-( We are sad and our thoughts and prayers and support are with them. They are doing fine and understand that this is nature's way of dealing with problems sometimes. They are happy to have their sweet Brynlyn and hope to add to their family at some time in the future.)
During Fall break last week, we worked really hard on our back yard. We got the windmill water pipes unplugged with the help of 4 huge rigs and lots of sophisticated equipment, Craig got the solar panel tower welded and put up, the kids pulled weeds till their hands bled, and Kelli sneezed from all the dust and weed stuff in the air till her eyes swelled almost shut!! No pictures of any of this yet, but are forthcoming (minus the swelled eyes!)
Happy Halloween Everyone!

Still Feels Like Summer!

We haven't taken any pictures since we've been home from our RV vacation, so I thought I'd share a few more of those! We should be adding to our picture library real soon as fall is my favorite time of year and fall pictures show all the pretty colors that Arizona offers.
This pic to the right shows Weston holding an indian ruin in his hand! Well, at least it looks that way from this side of the camera!

The picture below shows 4 tired,sweaty, smelly hikers who just got to the Mesa Verde ruins. They don't know just how hot, tired, sweaty and stinky they will be after they have climbed UP the mile high trail!

A cute family picture below taken at the Riordan Mansion in flagstaff. We are all smiling

except for Weston!

Elise and Natty enjoying the scenery at the Painted Desert.

Grama & Grampa walking down the train tracks with the Brynnie grandgirlie! Good thing there was no train coming!!

Wow! September already?!

Just some more pictures to add to our blog!

Happy September

Fall is almost here! Wierd Weston playing Frankenstein with a few of his buds.

Four Generation picture of Brynnie, Jess, Beth, Kelli, Grama & Grampa Hansen taken this summer in Monticello, Utah

An Awesome pic Kelli took of a hummingbird in mid-flight in Alpine, AZ

Craig's latest weekend "hobby"--fixing all our broken down cars!!

Greasemonkey! (It was worse than it looks--you shoulda seen the back of his pants and shirt from laying on the garage floor!)

Another picture as evidence of what happens when a parent leave his camera unattended with 2 teenage girls in the house. Not sure what they ate---probably something GROSS!!