Aunts, Uncles, Cousins!

Sunday my parents had everyone over for a barbecue. The girls got to meet lots of new family - people who have been waiting for a very long time! Jeff and Leslie, Brynn and Nate, and Scotty all came over. Uncle Scott has been waiting for this day for a long time. This was his Christmas morning. All of the pictures are with Piper because Josie was beyond tired and having a level 10 meltdown most of the night. :( Poor girl.









On Monday, we paid a visit to Jer, Erika & Riley to meet them for the first time. The girls had fun playing with Riley's toys.









Conor came home from Ogden Monday and the girls finally got to meet him. He rescued Josie from a meltdown in the highchair while I was upstairs changing Piper.





And, just for fun, here is the view from the top of Suncrest at 6,200 feet on my run this morning.

Our big adventure

We are in Utah! We made it here after a marathon day of travel on Saturday. Josie and Piper's first airplane trip and first time out of North Carolina, and most importantly, first time meeting a lot of important people. It was a very long day, but the girls did great. Our first leg from New Bern to Atlanta was easy, then we had three hours in Atlanta to feed babies, give them bottles, change into jammies, and entertain them. Our flight to Atlanta to Salt Lake was LONG. We had one seat, so at least one baby was sleeping at all times, but the baby who was awake was a wiggle worm! Once we got to Utah, my dad met us and helped us with all the gear, we got into our van, and came to my parents where everything was all set up for us. The girls woke up at 4 am for their bottles, but went right back to sleep.

Some shots from the trip out here

Crafty craftiness

I got all crafty a few weeks ago and started making a rag quilt out of the girls' receiving blankets. I never used most of them and it seemed like a waste. Surprisingly, it actually turned out pretty cute.

Nine Months

Our sweet baby girls are nine months old! They had their nine-month appointment today and they are doing fabulously! We are so lucky to have such happy and healthy girls. Both are very close to being right on track for full-term nine-month old babies and are up to about the 20th percentile for height and weight. The big change this month was that Piper has actually surpassed Josie in weight! Josie still looks bigger and has been since birth, but today she was three ounces heavier. Josie is ahead with her verbal skills (lots of babbling) and Piper is a little ahead with her gross motor skills (army crawling). They are both going to be crawling any day now.

Here are their stats for 9 months:
Josie
Height: 27 inches
Weight 16 lbs 13 oz
Head: 17 3/4

Piper
Height: 27 1/4 inches
Weight: 17 lbs even
Head: 17 3/4

Here's how it compares to 6 months:
Josie
Height: 25 inches
Weight: 13 lbs 12 oz
Head: 17

Piper
Height: 25 1/4 inches
Weight: 13 lbs 5 oz
Head: 16 1/2

Grandma Bubba Visit

Grandma Bubba is here visiting and we are having a great time! It is so nice to have an extra set of hands around here. She has been up bright and early with us every morning. We have even had some fun outings. Saturday we went down to Jacksonville to do some shopping at Old Navy and get our picture framed and Monday we ventured all the way to the Smithfield outlets to take advantage of the Labor Day sales. It was crowded and pushing a double stroller through narrow aisles is a little tricky! We even sat down and had a real (sort of) dinner at Ruby Tuesday. It was the girls' first restaurant experience and first time sitting in a high chair anywhere other than home. We got some good practice for our big flight to Utah on Saturday.



My mom helped me make a photo gallery of all our new pics of the girls. It looks great!

Not much of a hurricane

Hurricane Earl has come and gone and didn't cause any problems here. The Koupals came to visit for the night and we woke up to blue skies and a perfectly clean yard. It didn't even really rain! No complaints here. My mom's flight gets in tonight and we are hoping for easy travel!

Stay away Earl...

Here we are, on the eve of yet another hurricane. The Jones family has been through it's fair share since moving east and south. First, there was Isobel in Virginia, then Ivan and Katrina in Florida and Mississippi, now Earl here. It could be a big deal, or it could be nothing. But nonetheless, we are watching it. My mom gets here Friday to visit us all and help relieve me from single parenthood. we just hope it doesn't impact her flight and force her to spend another night in Atlanta alone!

We have been busy. Here are some of the latest pics.


Emma and Kenzie came over to play today. Look at all of those pretty girls looking at the camera! And Piper is rocking her Madonna 1987 Who's That Girl World Tour onesie.


Josie's hair is now long enough to keep a clip in it! We are going to have to make Piper wear headbands because I am getting sick of the "oh a boy and a girl" comments. She's wearing pink, she's not a boy!


These girls love each other so much! Today while they were in their highchairs, they reached over to each other and giggled and giggled. I don't know what was so funny, but they love making each other laugh. They are also getting better and better with table food and starting to drink their bottles all on their own. We are going to try out the storytime at the library on Friday.

Kimzey's shower was here on Saturday. I will upload pics from that as soon as I get them!

Swinging away

We have been walking over to the little park down the road from our house. Cooler weather is FINALLY coming. Josie smiles sort of tentatively while she swings and Piper giggles, then cries.

Some cute faces

Weekend Fun

It was a busy weekend around here. Josie and Piper have a new playroom we spent lots of time in. We also had Dwight here visiting for the weekend and a minor disaster after he ate one of Jackson's pain pills. It doesn't bode well when a four-pound dog eats a 110-pound dog's medication! Luckily, the emergency vet did his job and Dwight is a-okay. We also read some books and did more running.



Piper with a girly bow in her hair. Two bottom teeth are almost all in!


Josie with her bow. Now teeth yet, but she says "na na na na"


Reading books before bed


We have more than 600 miles together in the BOB stroller!


Playing in the new playroom!


Our weekend visitor, Dwight

Playtime & Dinnertime

We miss Josh around here, but are doing our best to stay busy. Josie and Piper love their toys! Josh bought them both a new toy before he left - perfect teething toys which are always in their mouths. They also love their food and sitting up in their high chairs is always tons of fun! Especially reaching over to play with each other.

Goodbyes

Josh left for somewhere in the middle east for 3.5 months. Goodbyes are the hardest and saying goodbye to two sweet babies is no fun! We are hoping the time goes by quickly.


Saying goodbye to Piper


Saying goodbye to Josie


Sad daddy and sweet girls


Can't forget Jacksonboy


At the squadron getting ready to leave


Daddies and babies


I love this one!!

Long overdue update

I am resurrecting this blog after four long years. A LOT has happened, so we'll just start fresh as a way of chronicling our lives with Josie and Piper!

Viva Las Vegas

After about ten years of talking about getting together for a girl's trip, we finally decided to do something about it. Holly, Mindy, Suzy and I took a long weekend in Vegas, which was so much fun. We relaxed by the pool, shopped, went to the spa, saw a show, and ate too much. We also stayed up until 2 or 3 both nights chatting.

Apparently there was a minor snafu with our planning process because half of our group showed up the day before the other half. Perhaps not the best communication!

We promised that we won't wait ten more years to do it again. Hopefully we'll stick to that!



Holly and Suzy trying on clothes at the maternity store. Holly is not quite that pregnant; it's a pillow. :)


At the Mirage before we saw the new Cirque du Soleil, LOVE

This 'n That: Fall

Here are some random pictures of things we've been up to this fall in Washington.

We did some hiking with the Koupals. We took this pic up on Mt Baker, where the fall colors were in full effect. We also found some good hiking in the Chuckanut mountains.

Josh turned 30 on October 6th! We had a small party for him with a few friends and Nate & Jessica and the kids. He left a few days later for El Centro, California and spent the rest of October flying in the dessert.

This was taken on one of our whale watching visits to San Juan Island, during which we saw zero whales. We did get to see this seal though. A little boy scared him off this rock a few minutes after we took this and he was forced to find another, less comfortable rock.

Jackson-boy hasn't made an appearance on our blog recently, so I have to put him in for good measure.

Jim & Rebecca and the Mariners

Jim and Rebecca came to visit in September without their kids. We missed Amanda, Austin, Allison, and Anna, but it was fun to spend the weekend with them. We went to a Mariners game in Seattle and took them to San Juan Island.

It was Coast Guard day at Safeco Field and Nate was holding the flag as part of the pre-game Coast Guard presentation. We all made the trek Seattle to take in the game, but mainly to enjoy the Coast Guard festivities. For some reason, we thought we had time to eat before the game, and then even when we were running late, we thought they wouldn't be exactly on time. Imagine our surprise when we missed the entire thing and showed up when the game had already started. We felt quite guilty about robbing Kleigh of the experience of watching his dad on the field! Luckily Jessica was able to make up for it with a Mariners shirt as a bribe.


Jim and Rebecca on San Juan Island


We struck out once again whale watching at Lime Kiln State Park, but got some good pics


All of us at the game. Kleigh was so excited to get a new Mariners shirt and even moreso when he saw some cute girls with the same shirt on


Here's a good shot of Seattle from Safeco Field


Hanging out at the Mariner's game