Hello to a new granddaughter and Goodbye to an old car!

The most exciting news of the past couple of months has been the birth of Miss Camryn Brooke Pollard! Born to Jessica and Justin Pollard on December 14, 2010 weighing in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. She is a darling baby and her older sister Brynlyn adores her! Here is a picture of both of them about a week after Camryn was born.

The other good news, but not near as exciting as a new baby is that Craig FINALLY sold the MR2!!! It took several months on Craigslist (pun not intended!) but he finally found a buyer! As part of the selling deal, Craig got an old 1996 Ford 150 as part of the payment! We don't have a picture of it, but we do have one of the sale of the MR2 and the buyer!

Here are some other fun pictures of Brynlyn when she and Jessica were down visiting in November:

Jumping on the Trampoline

and climbing on the bunkbed!!! What a Monkey!!

We Have A Wonderful Family!!!

Happy Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays 2010

Here we are at another year's end about to write another Holiday newsletter! Wow! That went by fast! The biggest family news of this year is 1st--the marriage of our #6 daughter Vanessa to Mr. Nolan Hatch, 2nd--the birth of our #1 grandSON Sawyer Robert to Heather and Zach Kelsey and 3rd--the impending birth of our #6 granddaughter Camryn Brooke to Jessica and Justin Pollard. What could be more fun than adding family members to your posterity?!! We have 7 of our 11 children married with 4 to go. We have 6 beautiful and sweet grandchildren with one on arrival any day now. As you can see from this family picture taken at the Provo, UT temple in October that our family is down to 2 kids at home. Actually, Bethany moved back home as of Dec. 1st due to the tough economy and the need to get back on her feet. We don't mind because she keeps us from looking too "frumpy" with her beautician skills although she claims to only be a beautician, NOT a magician! (Sassy girl!) You will be able to read about all our other children through their blogs (hopefully) so we will only update you on the 2 in the picture and us (the parents!). Natalie is a junior in high school and smart as a whip. She studied her brains out to win an all expense paid trip to Washington DC set for June 2011! Awesome!!She enjoys reading and flirting with the boys in her high school classes! Weston is a high school freshman who grew 7 inches this past summer and is now almost 6 feet tall. One more inch or so and he'll be taller than his dad and brother! He can play basketball more easily now if only his legs would quit aching due to shin splints or knee problems from growing so fast! He has also taken up skateboarding and can do several cool tricks with coordination and balance! Kelli continues to work at the school teaching preschool. With 33 students split into 2 classes, she only works "part-time" (ha, ha, ha). In her spare time she works with the kids in our ward and also enjoys knitting (yep--she's old!), crafting and organizing. Craig is in his 8th year at Open Text killing computer bugs and in his 4th year as bishop of our ward. This time of year is very busy for him, so guess who is writing this?!!! He doesn't have any spare time, but when he thinks he does, he likes to work on old junker cars that should be painted yellow!!

We are thankful for our friends and family. We are especially grateful for our Savior who came to this earth to show us how to love as we celebrate this Christmas season. We Love You!!

A Fall Trip to Utah and Idaho

The 4 of us(Craig, Kelli, Natalie & Weston) decided to travel (by car) to Twin Falls via Queen Creek, Cedar City,Provo, Salt Lake City & Bountiful to visit the Kelsey and Hurd families. We left Friday 10/8 in the afternoon and visited with the Pollard family in Queen Creek. We had fun teaching Bryn the phrase "Who ya gonna call?. . .Ghostbusters!!" Saturday we drove as far as Cedar City, Utah and spent the night. Sunday took us to Provo where we walked around the BYU Campus and drove through all Craig and Kelli's old haunts when they were students there anciently! We then went up to Bountiful where we stayed with Uncle Tom & Aunt Jan Jones and enjoyed their company and lots of fun Halloween decorations! Monday we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and played "tourist"!! Here we are at the top of the Conference Center looking down at the temple and grounds. The 2nd picture is us in front of the huge skylights on the top indoor floor of the CC. They were beautiful!

Tuesday morning we drove up to Twin Falls just in time for Mallory's 4th Birthday party! We got acquainted with all 5 of our grandchildren who live there and got to meet our newest grandson, Sawyer. Tuesday through Friday were spent playing with grandkids, eating Heather and Rachelle's yummy creations, going Bowling and to "Hop to It" and to a corn maze, playing pool on the back porch, playing softball in the backyard, going swimming, and just generally "hangin' out" and enjoying each other's company! Here is Rachelle and Ellie just chillin' One night we made caramel apples! Here is Sydney with her creation! Delicious!

Ellie and Mallory enjoy a swing!
Grandpa naps with Ellie on the giant beanbag!

Ready, Set, . . . . .GO!! Last one through the corn maze is a rotten scarecrow!

"I hear monkeys!!" Mal kept saying!!

On Friday we took a sightseeing trip to the Twin Falls on the Snake River and enjoyed seeing them even though they weren't running very high. Rumor has it that at certain times of the year, the runoff is so high that a person standing where we were in this picture could feel the mist of the waterfalls! Cool!! (Weston just ate a fly!)

Grandpa Jones gets to know his first grandson, Sawyer Robert Kelsey

We all had so much fun! Thanks Kelseys and Hurds for the fun times and great memories!
Saturday we drove as far as Las Vegas, spent the night and then Sunday 10/17, we drove home to St. David where our dogs Cocoa and Noelle were anxiously awaiting our arrival! We fell into our own beds greatful for the experiences we had just had.

Our First GrandSon!!

We Have A New GrandSon

{The count now is 5 granddaughters (with 1 due in Dec.) and 1 grandson}

Welcome to Sawyer Robert Kelsey!!

born 9-15-10

by C-section because he was breech!

weighing in at 7 lbs.

21 inches long

The New Family

Big Sis Sydney

Big Sis Mallory

Here He Is!!

Isn't he cute! We think he looks like a combination of his two older sisters! We can't wait to meet him in person!

Man Stuff

OK, take a good look at this photo cause this baby is going to get painted--finally!!! (And yes, it is going to be painted lemon yellow in honor of it's status as a LEMON!)

This month's title is "Man Stuff" because Craig has been working on cars nonstop and has been up to his elbows in grease. So this month's blog is dedicated to him and his passion for mechanic work! This photo shows him BEFORE he started to work on any cars! Notice--no grease!



This is a silly picture of Craig that was taken when he was just a babe. Somehow he got that one finger up to his eyebrow with that surprised look on his face like he is thinking, "oh no, someday this photo will be posted to my blog--I know it!!"

AAAHHH...sweet bliss after a day of mechanic-ing! Gettin a shiatsu backrub on the "daddy chair"!

The long shot---snoozin' after hard workin'

Cocoa is taking a break with him!

Doesn't he look relaxed?!

Thanks for all your hard work, willingness to get greasy and for all the $$ you've saved us over the years!!! We Love Ya!

A Tribute to Teddy

9-4-96 to 8-12-10

Some of his nicknames were: Teddy Bear, Rascal, The Character, Padfoot, Bear-Bear, & Stinky

He was always the defender--on the lookout for any stranger coming into the house so he could bark and growl and make himself seem larger than he really was!

I love this profile of him--it shows how proud he could be yet sweet at the same time.
This silly puppy loved to mess up throw rugs and then make himself a little bed in the mess!
He was a good, loving companion who gave his kisses freely.
We will miss him greatly.


We Love You Teddy!

Crazy Kids!

What have we been up to this summer?? Well, here are a few pictures to satisfy your curiosity!

Here is our lil' cowboy cousin posing! Can you guess who he is?

This is one of our crazy family photos taken at Weston's 8th grade graduation and Elise's 12th grade gradution!!

Ok, so one time when Weston was a little bored this summer. . . .


If we've told them once, we've told them twice. . .

NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!!!

(Busted!!!)

Hope you are having a fun summer!

(Oh, and if you are a Jones or Hansen kid reading this--update your blog!!

Some of them are 3 months old!!!)