The oldest Jones baby

Yesterday marks the day that Noah turned 17 months! And he holds the unique title of being the only 17 month old in our house hold who did not become an elder sibling that day (or the day before.) We're enjoying our kiddos and catching our breath. We celebrated last night by setting free our four butterflies that we grew from caterpillars in our butterfly garden kit. Piper and Zoe coaxed them out by shouting "Arriba, arriba, arriba!" That comes from our discovery that our internet/postal mail movie service streams Dora episodes. A few more pictures:

Noah at 17 months

Applying lipstick is harder than it looks

Three happy children

Well. Now I know what a kidney stone feels like. And it honestly is similar to child labor. But gentlemen, with all due respect, child labor one ups you just a bit. Imagine feeling all of that pain and then insert a 20 pound sack, hanging from your rib cage and hips, of muscle, fluid, and baby kicking you while you are in pain. That's kind of the difference. Well, and delivery. I haven't yet delivered the unwelcome invader, however from what I hear there will be no tearing or need for stitches. But, yes the intensity of pain is brutally similar. Anyway, I've been knocked down by one of these monsters and that's giving me time to update the blog!Our house is getting more and more beautiful. We've got the yard fenced, sodded, and scr

eened in the porch. The inside is now painted save the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. It is amazing, the difference. I'm still working on organizing the before and after photos, but we are enjoying this place.

Piper is now four, Zoe is 2 and a half, and Noah is one. We are very very very busy with them. Feeding, educating, bathing, and playing, take up about all of the day. Piper is learning to read, and is taking gymnastics. Zoe and Noah are singing their ABC's and Zoe is learning to count. None of us is ready to potty train yet, so little Z is still in diapers. Maybe next month.

The girls were flower girls in a wedding recently. These are the most recent pictures I have of everyone.

Hmm. Pretend the order of photos isn't backward. That's it. More to come another time.

Trick or Treating

We were inspired by our new home in the One Acre Wood.

Our new next door neighbors, Dixie and Gene. They've lived in their home for 46 years. We have been enthusiastically welcomed by them with sandwiches, and two batches of chocolate chip cookies.

Zoe had a great time. She opened 20 (we counted) lollipops, and gave each one a single swipe before tearing off the next paper.

Piper sampled all of the candies that come in packs. Both girls exhibited good strategies in tackling more candy than their tender minds could conceive. Alas, their inexperience with refined sugar bested them and they left this pile uneaten, to fall straight asleep.

Meanwhile, Noah had a Celebratory Bottle of Milk.

And was severely cute.

We bought this crazy house

Then we sold ours and moved. I'm serious. That's why I haven't posted.

We are in the process of remodeling - kind of a major remodel. We gutted the master bath, leaving only the tub. We've been in the house a month and still have no master bath or bedroom. We have our bed in there, but can't spend any time in there because of the construction and things that make it difficult to let 3 children 3 and under in a bedroom. Did I

mention I'm trying to raise 3 tiny kids too? I've been so busy unpacking and cleaning and planning that I haven't thought much about the results of the renovation and that I will have a beautiful new room and bathroom. I think it will be like a surprise. "Hey, you've lived here for six weeks, and you've never even been in these fabulous rooms! Come on in and put your stuff

away." (that's the narrator speaking to me).

I've been in boxes for about 6 weeks too. Its driving me a little crazy. I can't find my flat iron or

jewelry. I feel like I'm camping a lot. I mean, I dress like I'm camping a lot. This week so far, the cabinetry has been painted. So, a lot has changed. I've got pictures. Somewhere.

(looking for pictures...)

Boo. I can't find a before picture just yet. Maybe its still on a flash card somewhere. Here's a shot of the bathroom during demolition. You can see the bathtub in the first picture. All of the yellow tile and closet framing came out after these photos were taken.

The doorway in the above picture was closed in. The plumbers came and fixed things, electricians, new windows were ordered, it was reframed and sheetrocked, and the cabinets have now been built and painted. And that's just the bathroom.

We also had the air conditioning completely redone (new furnace, new return air, new ducts, new grills, los todos). The girls room has two of five new windows installed. Its been painted a LOT, now has a ceiling fan, and new carpet. It was the room with the door that got closed off and we pulled out a giant built-in bookcase, so it also had sheetrocking, and texturing work done. Noah's room has been completely painted. I do have pictures somewhere. I'll post them in my next post - before and afters shots.

All that to say we've been busy. Lots of stories to remember. On a night when I can type more.

Here's a cute little girl story though, to end the post.

Every night we tell Piper one story that we make up on the spot for her and lately she's been helping decide what happens in the story. Tonight the story started like this:

Ari: Once upon a time...
Piper: No, not that one.
Ari (laughing): Okay which one would you like?
Piper: The one about a princess named Me.
Ari (still laughing): Okay, there was a princess named Me.
Piper: No, no. A princess named Piper.
Ari: Oh, okay, there was a princess named Piper...

and we were off. She directed the rest of the story as well. It was about a royal family getting new ladybug boots. Just because I know you were wondering.

according to Piper

You sing it like this:

A B C Ds K F G

H I J K ewhoawhoawhoa P

Q R S T U V

Number U X Y and Z

now I sang my ABCs,

next time won't you sing with me.

Z

Zoe is our caretaker. Often, if she can't find Noah or Piper and there is some situation that she feels like might put them in danger, she frantically alerts me.

Once I was bringing groceries in, so I set Noah in his infant carrier, on the garage floor so that he could watch me walk back and forth from the car to the house. Zoe thought that I'd forgotten him, and on one of my trips to the back door starting crying, and tugging at the handle of the car seat yelling "baby! baby!!!"

Today Piper was asleep in my bed and Zoe was up. There was a bit of thunder for a few minutes and Zoe again was trying to locate Piper to make sure she was safe. I was able to keep her from storming my bedroom and waking Piper.

Then tonight (I was in a meeting), Brandon told me that as he was giving Noah a bottle, Zoe came over and wanted Noah's burp cloth. She walked over to a spot on the floor and began cleaning. Brandon put Noah down to check out what Zoe was doing (much to Noah's dismay) and discovered that Zoe's diaper leaked and that she was cleaning her own pee off of the floor. He got her diaper off of her and she took herself to the potty and sat.

It is a lot of fun watching these little ones grow.

"Sesame Street has been brought to you by"

We watch Sesame Street. Over Here we do.

So that means that the "Letter of the Day" and the "Number of the Day" are practically people. They are celebrities. So imagine the surprise and delight for Piper, sitting right in the middle of the bench seat behind me in the car, when we turned the corner of the parking lot and came across...the Letter O!

She greeted The Letter O very cheerfully and then said "Mommy, where is the Letter D? Let's see The Letter D next!" We apparently had entered into a Letter Safari.

Letters Later:

And my Zoe takes her shaving cream straight across her back and then through her hair in one smooth wipe. That move produces this look. She's got something there I think...

Piper dreaming about summer.