Cali Drinking Soda

If you haven't voted for my video, please feel free to vote for it. If you have voted, you can vote once each day.

Here is Cali drinking some soda. She drank a lot before I took this video, and she loved it. Then Staci refilled the cup, and it was a little too strong.

Holiday projects

I spent a ton of time this holiday season making the gifts for people. I felt it was so much more meaningful to do it and it was a lot of fun. Next year I think I will start a lot earlier than right after Thanksgiving.

Pink Christams

This year was my first year participating in Pink Christmas. Not only is it a fundraiser for a family in need, but it is also fun to connect with a fellow blogger that you otherwise never would have met. If you like to find out what it is, click here.I had so much fun and look forward to doing it again next year.

For my secret "Pink Christmas" friend, I made an apron, sent some caramel chocolate candies, and some homemade cards.


I received a package from my "Pink Christmas" friend about a week and a half before Christmas and was too excited to let it sit there. I am glad I opened it early because we were able to start a new tradition with our girls.


"The Elf on the Shelf" is such a cute book and I loved reading it too the girls and the enclosed elf is so adorable. Even though the girls don't receive presents from Santa, I still think it is so cute and will continue reading it to the girls every year.

Computer Nightmare

I sold my car the other day so I could buy a new computer. I decided that I could make a better living by working on my own business from home, and so I decided to quit my job, effective immediately. Since I no longer had a car, my friend had to drive me to buy this new computer. It's icy out there...That is the premise for the movie I made a couple weeks ago. I made it to enter it into a contest online. There are not that many other movies, and the best 9 movies will be chosen from the top 20 as the winners. Judging by my competition, I think I have a pretty good shot. Here is the video, watch it, sign up for an account, and vote on my video. There is a good privacy policy, so you don't have to worry about them selling your information.



Mozy is the company that is sponsoring this contest. I use the company for my online backup. They provide 2 GB of free backup for anyone on their home computer. It is automated, so you tell it what folders or files you want backed up, and it will upload them to the backup servers every night. I like that because I have all my work and grad school files backed up, and then I don't have to worry about losing them. If my hard drive fails, I won't lose all those documents. Here is a referral link, click on the free 2 GB link on the right side of the page, and you will get 256 MB free on top of your 2 GB.

In Honor of our 500th Post

Here is a video of Cali being wicked cute.

Playtime with Grandma and Grandpa

The girls absolutely love it when my parents come into town. They love playing with them and having my parents read to them. Katya always cries and gets mad when they leave our house. I'm so glad that the girls love playing with their grandparents and that my parents love to visit.

Too much cold and sun

We have been getting a lot of sunny days to melt the snow on the roof and freezing cold at night which forms giant icicles on the side of the house. They're pretty cool.

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Jethro is still on break!!!!
2. My family is here.
3. Date with Jethro to the movies.
4. Play with my new toy (Cricut machine!!!).
5. Sleep in.
6. Spend lots of time with Jethro.
7. Visit friends in Provo.
8. 2009
9. Cali is almost walking without help.
   

I love watching the girls draw. They look so cute and have so much fun. They were drawing thank you cards the day after Christmas. Katya enjoys eating the crayons more than drawing I think.

Christmas

Jethro already posted video last week, but I need to add the pics or I will forget everything. We had a nice quiet Christmas morning and enjoyed the company of family and friends later in the afternoon. We played games after dinner and just had a good time.

Christmas Eve

Matt and Rebekah were kind enough to invite to invite us over to participate in a fabulous Christmas Eve tradition. We met over there for hot chocolate and cookies and to watch The Polar Express in our pajamas. It was so much fun and the girl's really enjoyed seeing all their cousins and having fun.

The Girls Love Grandma

Diana and Ralph are here tonight and the girls just love playing with them. They are never so happy as when they are with their grandparents. Diana kept singing a song and bouncing the girls and they were loving it. It is so cute.

Here are two videos. Enjoy.

Eating it up

Katya and Cali are very funny when they eat food. Katya was hamming it up for the camera, and Cali was acting how she usually does. They sure are funny. They already had eaten about two pieces of spiral-cut ham each, so they weren't still starving to death.

You can tell I like my new camera

Here is another video of the girls. They are drawing Thank You cards to their mom for their wonderful gifts. If you want to see this one in HD, you need to watch it here, since it won't embed in HD.


Sharing from Jethro Jones on Vimeo.

The Cheese

Cali is super cute, and sometimes she just does something super silly. This morning, she was drinking during breakfast, and she did a super cheesy grin. She does this a lot, but we don't always get it on film. 

Katya Loves Books

Whenever we take Katya back to change her diaper, or get her ready, or do anything, she wants to read a book. Let me make sure you understand, she wants to read a book. She doesn't want us to read to her anymore, she wants to do it all by herself. If we try to read a book to her, she jumps off our lap, and does it on her own. We had to move her bookshelf out of her room (because she sat on it) and she would only read and not sleep if we left it in there. Anyway, tonight we thought it would be good to let her sit back by her bookshelf and let her read her books. She did that, for about half an hour. The thing that made it so cute was that she took all the books off the shelf, and would look at one page and then throw it to the side.

By the way, the Flip Mino HD is an awesome camcorder for this kind of stuff, and way better than our Panasonic (Shoot! Flip should start paying me for this promotion). If you don't get the HQ version below (the upload to HD didn't work, even though the source file was in HD), here is the YouTube link:

Flip Mino HD Footage

Here is some YouTube HD footage of Cali dancing with the present Grandma and Grandpa Hawks got her. She loves dancing, and it is so cute.

The video was taken with my new Flip Mino HD camcorder.

FYI, to embed HD YouTube videos, you need to add &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 to the end of the HTML code, right after the last letter in the url in the embed. It looks like this: "http://www.youtube.com/v/Vwn1kP8-deE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" The part that is bold is the code that you need to add. Feel free to copy and paste, if you need to. The HD video might not turn out very well if you don't have a good internet connection.



This is the normal YouTube quality:

Merry Christmas

We got some sweet gifts this year, and you can share in our joy of opening them. The girls were very cute, and Cali started dancing to one of her toys. This was a particularly good Christmas because Staci and I did a very good job of staying in our budget. We weren't perfect, but we knew how much we had to spend and didn't go over, unless it was OK. We budgeted $100 for each person and $10 for each person's stockings. We told each other what we wanted, and since our gifts were more than our allotted $100, we paid for the rest with blow money, that we had been saving up for something we each wanted. Staci was actually saving up for her Cricut machine, and I have wanted a Flip Video Mino HD for quite some time. Staci turned on the Flip and started recording so that when I opened it, it recorded my reaction.

Staci also made the girls some blankets and dolls, which I am sure she will blog about some time in the future. She is amazing.

Here is a time-lapse video of us opening gifts.

The song in the video is "Sleigh Ride" from the Octapella Christmas Album - go buy it.

Cute Little Cali

A few weeks ago, about the same time as Katya, Cali started walking short distances. We have been trying to film her, but she decided that it was not worth her time to let us record her, and she would just scream. Well, Saturday, she let us film her, and it was so stinkin' cute. In the first video, she walks to the table and then chatters, and in the second video, she is walking with Katya. They both frequently walk all the way across the short part of the living room. 

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Jethro is officially done with his Master's!!!
2. Christmas vacation for Jethro!
3. My family will be in town!
4. Christmas ham.
5. Hopefully snow.
6. Girls walk more and more each day.
7. Cali is learning to sign.
8. Katya has no appointments this week.
9. Christmas Eve movie with cookies and cocoa.
10. Things will get done around the house.
11. Christmas music.

Who the heck are you?

Yes, my kids don't know who Santa is and think of him as a weird guy in a red suit. Hopefully they won't be traumatized from their experience with the man in the red suit. They visited Santa at the UDSF Breakfast with Santa last Saturday.

"I don't know who this is, but I think you should come get me."

"My mom told me not to talk to strangers."

Snowballin!

On Tuesday it snowed a ton and I was so excited. I saw something very interesting.


I have seen hail, but this was definitely not hail. It was little snowballs that were soft. They were so cute! The cool thing about them was that they held their shape. When Jethro cleaned the driveway that night, it looked like millions of little snowballs flying through the air. I would love for it to snow like that all the time.

Early Christmas

Jo Anne cam into town for the big family Christmas party and gave the girls a Christmas present, which they were happy to open early. She made these super cute doll quilts that match a blanket that she made a couple of years ago. They are adorable and will go great with the dolls I'm making the girls for Christmas (shhh, they don't know yet).

A little behind...

I've been trying to finish up the girl's Christmas presents so I am a little behind on blogging. On the 12th we had a fabulous Girl's Night and were lucky enough to get enough tickets to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was so wonderful. We met at Lonestar for dinner first and then caught the train to downtown. Boy am I glad we didn't drive because it was so packed downtown. The concert was so fabulous and we enjoyed walking around and taking pictures and browsing Deseret Book afterward. It was so fun I almost wanted to stay out longer.

At the end. If you ever get a chance to go, it is worth it to try and get tickets.

All the girls.

Rebekah (sister-in-law), me, Jo Anne (mother-in-law)

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Despite what the countdown said, Jethro's last day of class is Tuesday and then he graduates! Yeah!!!!!
2. My dad is in town and stopping by for a visit.
3. Got two Christmas projects done and only have a few more to go.
   
4. Jethro starts Christmas Break on Friday!
5. Snow!
6. Ward Christmas Party
7. Las Vegas Bowl
8. Homemade Bread
9. Katya starting to walk a lot!
10. Cali is starting to walk!
11. Christmas Lights.

Finally, Some Progress

We talk to a lot of people about Katya and Cali. We like to brag, and what can I say, we have plenty to brag about. One of the common threads of discussion goes like this:

Them: So, does Katya walk? 

Us: No, not yet, but we can't wait until she does.

Them: Oh, really? I wish my kids still couldn't walk. 

Us: Yeah, well, we hope they do soon. They are both so close and we are excited for them to walk for real.

Them: Oh, no! You will not like it when they walk, it will be awful!

This is very frustrating to me. I see walking as a sign that my children are growing up and becoming independent, which is what I want them to be. Staci always says that those people just don't understand what it is like to not know if your child will ever be able to walk. With PK's weak muscles and slow development, it is a possibility. We keep hoping that one day she will take a few steps or at least bend her knees!

One thing that I have come to realize is that not only are we incredibly blessed to have had so few problems with Katya, we are also very fortunate to be able to see every little milestone as a big deal. When Katya started pushing the Pooh car around the house, it was a big deal. We feel the same way about Cali, too. Whenever she does something we are just as happy for her (she just does everything so fast, it is almost strange). 

So, with great fatherly pride, I show you the following video. In the first scene, I had the screen facing her and I was looking through the viewfinder to make sure I could capture her cute expressions, and after she got to me, she was trying to look into my eyes, which were hidden by the camera. It is a fun little game we play. In the second one, I was backing up and sat on a toy that plays music. Whenever Katya hears music, she has to stop what she is doing and dance. This was no exception. 

The tongue-sticking out she gets from both her mom and her dad. And that banging at the end of the video is Staci banging away on some chicken for the yummy spinach-parmesan-chicken with ham we had for dinner. Yum!

Needless to say, I am so proud of my little girl. 

What I love about the holidays...

I love when my girls are dressed in cute matching dresses. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Ready for snow

When is it going to snow? I'm ready, are you?

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Jethro only has 2 class sessions left!
2. Christmas projects
3. Play and Learn
4. Jethro's Family Christmas Party
5. Christmas Music
6. Girls Night Out
7. Snow
8. Fresh Bread

Cali's 1 year stats

Weight: 24 lbs. 6 oz. (90-95 percentile)
Height: 28 1/2 in. (70-80 percentile)

Cali officially weighs more than Katya by about 11 ounces. It's crazy that they are the same size. On another note, Cali loves things that are soft. She has a lamb that she received when she was born that she really loves. Anytime I give it to her, she snuggles into it and loves having it for her naps and at night. She is so cute about it.