A Stinking Experience

(This is Cocoa and the chair she sleeps in before her skunk experience!) Now, both of them are outside!
Cocoa (our dog) had a run-in with a skunk the other night and got sprayed straight in the face!!!!! We smelled the skunk smell outside and didn’t realize it had gotten her before we let her in the house so. . . . . .THE WHOLE HOUSE SMELLS LIKE SKUNK NOW!! We didn’t realize it till the morning and she had already slept on one of the chairs in the family room all night. Once we realized the odor wasn’t going away and was coming from her, we quickly put her and the chair outside. I sprayed them down with a recipe we found on the internet for skunk odor—50/50 mix of white vinegar and water and set out a crockpot of apple cider vinegar on high for 2 days. The vinegar masked the skunk stench but made the whole house smell like we were dying Easter Eggs! The odor was still lingering so I bought some extra strength Febreze and sprayed that on the chair and gave Cocoa a bath in another internet recipe—1 quart of peroxide, ¼ cup baking soda and 2 tbsp dishsoap. She still stinks! I asked the vet what they use and they sold me a bottle of “Skunk Out” and I used that on her too—poor dumb dog. Her head still smells where she took the brunt of the spray, so I think she will just have to be an outside dog until the stench totally goes away! Good thing the weather is getting warmer so she won’t freeze at night! That is a raunchy smell—I can’t get it out of my nose!!! Weston must think the smell is coming from him because he keeps using more and more AXE body spray on himself!!!

A Snow Day In St. David???

Yep, it snowed enough in St. David for the schools to close and call it the first official SNOW DAY since we can't remember when!! Of course, it was mostly all melted by noon, but the kids sure had fun playing in it and having a snowball fight! They even had "nature-made" snowcones with syrup flavors leftover from summer on them! We also saw a few dirty, stickery snowmen around town too!

This series of pictures is of Weston and Rob. They were acting like they could touch the ceiling and I guess they did cause they cheated and started from the ottoman! 22 or 12, boys are all at the same age mentally!!!

Happy 52nd Birthday to Craig wayyyy back on January 18th of this year! This is a rather mild/calm shot of him with his birthday cake. I WAS going to put in a pic of Craig with his finger stuck up his nose, but he said he'd get even with me if I did!! I'm not that brave!

6 down, 5 to go!!

Cami and Rob got married on January 2nd in the Mesa, AZ LDS temple. It was a beautiful day and they are a darling couple. Here are a few photos from that day. Above is our family picture minus Justin cause he had to earn a living that day!

The Jones and Hansen girls give Rob a boost on his wedding day!

Camille gets one too! These are all 9 of our beautiful daughters.

Here are the "Ladies in Waiting"** Kelli was the flower holder and Natalie was the train holder and both were the dress straighteners! Craig was the photographer!

Here's the happy couple!

(It looks like Rob is gonna suck Camille's cheek right off!!)

Gettin' ready for Christmas 2008

Here is Elise modeling!

















Natalie and Weston got ahold of the camera again!!!!! Pretty scary looking!!












Natsky and her best bud posing




















A beautiful December Arizona Sky!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Here is an official engagement picture of Rob and Camille. We only have 6 weeks left to get ready for their wedding!!!!!













Our latest family news is that Sister Bethany Hansen returned from a successful mission to the Detroit, Michigan mission 6/4/07 to 11/19/08.
On the flight home, since she left out of Detroit and had a layover in Chicago and it was 28 degrees when she left, she wore lots of warm clothing AND a pair of fuzzy lined boots. When she flew into Tucson, it was 86 degrees and she began to sweat!!! We teased her that she didn't remember what AZ Novembers are like!! When she got home, she immediately got into her suitcase and changed her shirt and shoes to something a little more cooler! She is home and doing well and will be living in St. David and working in Tucson for the time being. She reports on her mission on 11/30/08 at 2 pm and all who want to come are invited!

Camille is engaged!!

This is a blurry picture of Camille and Rob, but it gives you an idea of what a cute couple they are! Of course we will be taking lots more pictures of them and will post a better one when we get it! They got engaged on October 11th in a very romantic setting (so we hear!!) They are planning a January 2, 2009 wedding date, so it looks like the Holiday Season will be extra busy this year! We are excited for them and know that they will make a happily married couple because they already are a happy couple!





Now, this next picture has nothing to do with the last one!! Just want to make that clear!! Elise and Natalie went out to light the barbeque on Sat. and I heard Nat scream and then Weston say "Go get the camera!" I didn't know why, but if Nat screamed, then it HAD to be about something dramatic!! When they opened the BBQ, they found a very fat black widow spider who had evidently sucked all the juices out of a very dead and dry grasshopper that was still wound up in it's web down on the grill! I took a picture and then we pushed the grasshopper through the grill bars and the spider decided to high-tail it out of there before we lit the grill!!
See all the exciting things that happen at the Jones house!!!

Happy Fall

A tree that looks like a poodle (actually 3 trees) A serene pastoral scene in St. David.

This is our windmill and scenes from our backyard. This is a scene from Fernan Lake in No. Idaho from our August visit,

Fall is my favorite season and time of the year! I have to force myself not to decorate the house until the official start of the autumnal equinox--this year was Sept. 22nd! October is my favorite month of fall and not for the obvious reason. I like it because the air is finally cooler here in AZ and we can open our windows at night and let the cool breezes blow through the house. I like it because the colors are changing and we do have trees here that change colors brilliantly. I like to have my camera in the car with me during fall so if I see a pretty scene, I can pull off the road and take a picture. I like fall because I love the scents of the season--apples, peaches, pumpkin pie, cinnamon and "harvest smells"! I burn lots of scented candles this time of year to add to the natural scents around our little village. I like fall because I like to dress up at Halloween with my preschool class--it gives us adults license to act like kids again!! Anyway, above are a couple of my favorite fall photos that I've taken the past couple of years

Here is Elise and Cami when they did their hair in "spouts"--and I don't think it was even Halloween!! This is a silly picture of Weston and a rubber band! He stole the camera again and was taking self-portraits of his lovely mug! He took several, and this is the "best" one, I think. When do boys actually grow up???