East Texas...Here we come!

This Wednesday Heath and I are headed to Gilmer for the annual Yamboree. I am so excited! The yamboree is a fair attending/parade-watching/beauty pageant-seeing/animal-showing/barn dance-dancing/4 days of fun! I have never been because each year I was in school, but this year it's finally going to happen! It is going to be like nothing I have ever seen before! The most exciting part: The YAM Queen Pageant!!!!! Here is the winner from 2008.....oh yes. This is going to be TEXAS big!

Harrison at the Fair

Heath and I took big H to the fair last weekend. It was so much fun! 

This is what we got to do:

Rode a real pony with Uncle Heath.

Rode the helicopters with Aunt Lizzy.

Took pictures on an excavator, tractor, skid-steer and bulldozer.

Ate a blue snow cone or as H says (blue pineapple pine cone). 

Watched a country band.

Saw all the farm animals.

He did a great job there! We enjoyed being with him so much. Then we went back to our house, watched some spiderman, colored sharks, worked on spelling our names, played with basketbal with Uncle Heath and had some pizza and a smoothie. What a great day! We can't wait to spend more time with you Harrison! We love you so much. 

(pictures taken on Annie's camera, sorry I have nothing to post now)

Congrats Jess!

Congratulations to Jess and Adam! They just had their first baby last night, a cute and beautiful baby boy. Gavin Merrill Gerber. I am so happy for you both. What an exciting time for you. I cannot wait to see you both with him; I know you are going to make amazing parents!

Happy Anniversary!

Heath and I have been married for 3 years! I can't believe how fast it goes! Today he bought me flowers, a movie, took me to dinner and even let me get dessert! Pumpkin cheesecake is fantastic. Thanks babe, I love you.

Sleeping Beauty (Omis Minni)

I watched Claire the other day and we had a blast! We colored, painted our toe nails, danced, ate lunch, and watched Sleeping Beauty. (Claire says it like "Omis Minni") Emily would probably spell that better than I just did, but that is what is sounded like to me. Claire is so cute when she watches it. She know all the words to all the songs, and she laughs when Maleficent comes on! I caught her during the part where the good fairies are changing Rose's dress from blue to pink!

Time for the Jones' to catch up on some blogging

Okay. I don't blog very much. . . sorry. But here are a few things that Heath and I have been doing for the past couple of months. Except for my wonderful Oregon trip. I forgot my camera! I had a blast there...it was crazy- 11 adults, 1 four year old, 4 two year olds, and 2 babies. We rode bikes, tractors, fork-lifts, had a wedding at the house, wake- boarded, 4th of july parade, s'more cook-offs, music by the fire, go-cart racing, baseball, and fireworks. Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful time. 

Yesterday, Anne, Jordan, Harrison, Heath, me and my cousin Kodie went to Park City. We shopped around, bought treats, went to dinner, and rode the slide thing.....Harrison kept saying "this is a skateboard. I ride a skateboard." He did so well on the ski lift to the top! I get a little nervous with heights and H handled it better than me! 

Here is Harrison and his dad at the end, and Heath getting off. Harrison laughed the whole way down, I laughed and screamed....When Harrison got off he cried because he wanted to go again! It was so much fun. 

Harrison drove the excavator and rode the carousel with me. He kept saying "It's like Mary Poppins." He was so cute and fun.

 

Friday I made bread in my new Kitchen Aid. I didn't use Mom's recipe so it wasn't the best tasting. Little lumpy and short, but it makes good toast! HAHAHA.

A couple weeks ago Stephani and Noah came to stay at our house for a couple of days. Isn't Noah such a cutie in this Picture?
He loved wrestling with uncle Heath. Heath absolutely loved playing with him. We miss you Steph!
In June Heath and I went with his family to South Padre in Texas. A lot of my pictures didn't turn out because the lens fogged up from the (wonderful) humidity.  This is a beautiful sunrise that I caught.
We played mini-golf, or as Heath says: putt-putt golf together. Brooklyn was REALLY good!

We also went and saw a sea turtle release in the morning. Aren't they adorable! So tiny! They are headed to the water! Good luck guys!

Here is a turtle we saw at the rescue center. He lost one of his fins, poor guy. That was a lot of fun to go see.
We enjoyed the beach, boogie boarding, relaxing, reading, swimming, enjoying the pool at the beach house, wonderful food, and great company! Thanks Perry and Angie for the great vacation. Heath and I loved it. 

So that is what has been going on here. We are enjoying ourselves, Heath is doing well with work, and we can't wait for the next vacation. Love and miss you all!

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,

Happy Father's Day. I just wanted to share a few of my favorite memories I have of you.

{1} Remember when you taught me how to weld? You hired me to work at the shop one summer in high school. I first started with sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, sorting metal scraps, and putting pieces in the tumbler(?).... then I was promoted to: welder-that-welded-the-pieces-together-that-none-of-you-wanted, grinder, driller, oh and my fav- wired the light cups that I welded for Semi trucks. 

I never appreciated all the hard work you did until I saw you at work everyday. I saw how hard you worked all day long, how STRONG you were lifting all those heavy sheets of metal, how patient you were with me, and how smart you were in the office. I learned a lot about you and your willingness to work so hard to provide for the family you loved so much. THANK YOU.

{2} Remember how every night you would come home from work at 5:00 and sit down on the second step of the stair case, take off your steel-toes boots and your coveralls, hang and set them in the garage, look down to the kitchen and tell mom: "Mmmmm smells good" and give her a smile. Then around 5:15 you would come out of your room, showered, dressed (light grey sweats and a T-shirt, or if it was wednesday night, a shirt and tie).....you would sit on the couch that was facing the kitchen, put socks on your baby feet, and watch your wife make dinner. I loved the way you would look at her dad. I could tell you loved her, just how you would look at her. Thank you for that. Then you would walk up behind her, touch her waist and give her a kiss on the cheek and say "Everything looks great dear." We would eat, you would ask us all about our day- none of us would ask you- but you always wanted us to share everything with you. Then you would clean up. I am so grateful that you taught us how to help out those that served us. You always helped clean up when mom spent all that time making something delicious. THANK YOU.

{3} Remember DJ runs? I loved being home with you and mom at night.....Granted, I like hanging out with my friends, but I loved renting old movies from DJ's and watching them with you and mom. Especially when you and I would watch Westerns together. 

{4} Remember when I stole bubblegum from the store, and I told you what I did like two years later and we went back to the store, told the manager, and paid him back price-and-a-half? I was so scared to tell you because I thought you would yell or something.....(yeah right you never yelled, thanks for that by the way) but you didn't...you said "Thanks for telling me Lizzy. How did it make you feel when you stole the gum? How do you feel now that have told me? Let's go to the store and fix this. I am so proud of you for doing what's right." No yelling. Thank you. The manager was so grateful and told me that I would turn out to be quite a person for being honest. THANK YOU.

{5} Remember when mom would go out of town for a few days and you would try so hard to cook and clean? You did a great job. I loved pancakes, eggs, pizza, oh and of course the casserole mom froze for us. I loved how you missed her. How you couldn't wait for her to get home. THANK YOU for needing her and loving her.

{6} Remember when I got married and you told be how much you loved Heath? How you told me that you felt that he was good for me and he was a righteous man who could take care of me. He is and more. Your opinion meant so much to me. You were the perfect example of what a husband and father should be. THANK YOU. 

{7} Remember when you dropped me off at college and cried? I love you so much for that....it got me going too, but made me feel so loved. Thanks for the money you slipped me by the way. THANK YOU. 

Dad, there are so many memories I have of you- so many wonderful days of my life that I will never forget. You have given me so many things; things you bought me, things you taught me, things you showed me....your example will always mean the world to me. I hope that Heath and my relationship can be as strong as you and mom's, that my testimony can be as strong as yours, and that I can love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as you do be serving others as you have taught and shown me. THANK YOU. I love you so much. Happy Father's Day.