standing L to R: Chad, Ashley, Leah, Brek, Rob, Camille, Nolan holding Tenley, Vanessa, Natalie, Weston, Elise
sitting in chairs: Craig, grandma Jones, grandpa Jones, Kelli holding Brynlyn, Bethany
sitting on the ground: Scott, Rachelle, Zach holding Sydney, Heather holding Sawyer, Mallory holding a doll, Jessica, Justin holding Camryn

Craig & Kelli’s Christmas Newsletter 2011

Hello! It’s Happy Holiday Time again! We hope you are all enjoying the 2011 Christmas season with your families. Here is a very short update on all of our kids and family happenings the past year:
Kelsey Family: Zach, Heather, Sydney, Mallory and Sawyer. Our only grandson, Sawyer, turned 1 in September! He is growing up to be a handsome young guy to match his 2 gorgeous sisters! The Kelsey’s live in Twin Falls, Idaho where they work(Bank-Zach, hospital-Heather), play and go to school! Sydney is in 2nd grade and Mallory is in Kinder.
Chad & Ashley Jones Family added a beautiful new baby daughter to their family in November of this year! Her name is Presley Kay and she is a joy—she gets lots of baby kisses from all of the rest of us! She is our 7th granddaughter! The Joneses live, work at Verizon (Chad) and at the Gila Valley Hospital(Ashley) and play with baby Presley in Thatcher, AZ.
Pollard Family: Jessica, Justin, Brynlyn and Camryn. Camryn turns 1 on Dec. 14th! She and Bryn keep mom and dad busy with learning to walk (Cam) and broken elbows(Bryn)! Justin works for San Tan Collision as an estimator and Jessica works at home! The Pollards moved from San Tan Valley back to civilization in good ol’ Mesa, AZ.
Hurd Family: Rachelle, Scott, Tenley and Elliotte. The Hurd’s moved from Twin Falls to Salt Lake City, Utah this past summer for Scott’s job selling real estate. They and the Kelsey’s miss each other as they used to live a mile apart. Their 2 darling daughters keep Rachelle running at home along with her 2 or 3 home businesses she has!
Bethany lives with us in St. David but works 2 jobs in Sierra Vista. She works at Fort Huachuca in their hair salon and at Hastings, which is a music,video, book store. She hardly has time to do anything else, so she must enjoy what she does! We are working on the words “boyfriend & marriage” with her but she claims she is too busy!
Haymores: Leah and Brek. Leah keeps busy being a P.E. Teacher, Middle and High School volleyball, softball and basketball Coach and Middle School Athletic Director for St. David schools and Brek keeps busy, but safe, working for the US Border Patrol—he helps keep us safe too! They live in Sierra Vista, AZ, but are rarely there!
Hatch’s: Vanessa and Nolan moved from Tucson to Sierra Vista for a better job for Nolan at Dish Network. Vanessa is taking a break as a massage therapist and working at a bank until their firstborn child arrives in early May!! We are so excited even though we unofficially know it has to be a girl as the Jones family rule is “you must have 2 girls before you can have a boy”!! They will find out for sure on Dec. 22.
Bryants: Camille and Rob live, work and go to pharmacy school in Glendale, AZ. Camille works at a optometry office while Rob attends pharmacy school—he recently got his “white lab coat” promotion! Yea Rob! They live close to where the Phoenix LDS Temple is being built!
Elise is living and working in Thatcher and going to Eastern Arizona College. She will finish up her associates degree this spring and hopes to go on a mission for our church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She works at Home Depot in the wee early morning hours before her classes start! From her facebook page, we can tell she is having a great time at college!
Natalie is a senior in high school living with us in St. David. She is student body president as well as active in more clubs besides taking 3 online college classes and filling out scholarship applications! She won a trip to Washington D.C last summer and really enjoyed that trip. The St. David girls softball team came in 2nd in state last year in 1A with Natalie as starting pitcher—WootWoot!
Weston is a sophomore in high school and lives at home with us in St. David. He is playing varsity basketball this year with his sister Leah as his assistant coach! Weston loves all things electronic, but occasionally takes time to ride his skateboards and play his guitar. He thinks our 2 bigger dogs exist to pull him down the street on his skateboard! He calls them his “mush dogs”!
Kelli is still the special education preschool teacher in her 9th year at St. David school. She is glad the job is only ½ time because working with 3 to 5 year olds tires her out! She enjoys genealogy and family history on the side as well as taking care of the 3 family dogs (all females!! Noelle, Cocoa and Daisy). She loves going shopping for the 7 granddaughters and 1 grandson!
Craig continues to work at Open Text in Tucson AND be bishop of the St. David ward. He is rarely at home and when he is, he is working on one of his many “projects”(self-imposed—not honey-do!) Currently he is putting together a playhouse, a jungle gym and a basketball court for all of our grandkids when they come down on Christmas eve! Let’s hope he finishes it in time!
The family picture above is one that was taken at Grandma Jones 80th birthday party this summer at G & G Jones home in Canoga Park, Ca. It is current except for little Presley Kay, so we are also attaching her picture with her mommy and daddy. We are so grateful for all our blessings this past year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas. We are thankful for our Savior’s birth, life, and atonement that He made on our behalf so that we could live with Him again.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Chad, Ashley and Presley Jones

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!