Best night ever.

Well, almost.

Okay, maybe not even close. But you must admit it's pretty darn cool when you plug in your husband's camera and find a treasure of goodies. Like pictures from the night he proposed, our honeymoon, and our first apartment that I didn't even remember we took.

A couple of things:

1) Um, also because of these pictures I decided the short-hair look just isn't for me. Sorry, husband, I'm growing it out.

2) And Mom - you never thought you'd hear this from me but you're absolutely right. Now that I've got straight hair, I actually miss my curly hair. Is there a way to get it back that doesn't involve pregnancy? (Pregnancy made my hair stick straight - no joke - but I'm not ready for that phase again, just to see if it would go back curly. I'm not a crazy person!) Help me.

K, mates. Now that we've got that settled, anyone want to meet pre-baby, pre-wedding/newlywed Alie & Tyler? {In my own words, "Aww. Look how cute I am!" Can we just rewind two years and give me back my youth? I know I'm not old by any means (I'm twenty-two) but just look at us!! And my hair. Just look at my hair. Gah.}

That's a fat marshmallow in my mouth. Date night roasting marshmallows on the BYU belltower lights. Kind of successful and very buggy.

I remember knowing something was up that night because Tyler insisted on taking a picture at Cold Stone. Hmm...

And then he proposed to me an hour later. :)

One of many BYU football games.

Cold Stone. Again. (Can you tell Tyler spent a lot of time outside that summer?)

Ugh, would ya look at that red hair. One of the many mishaps before our wedding where I tried to (professionally, might I add) get the red out of my hair, unsuccessfully.

Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert, still with red hair.

Fast forward to our honeymoon! I think we're sitting in a jazz lounge on the cruise ship?

"Formal Night" on the cruise ship.

We picked snorkeling for our excursion. We had a blast! (I still remember we tried to fix Tyler's crooked sunglasses several times this trip...)

I think this was in Ensenada but I'm not sure.

I wasn't going near that thing.

But Tyler got pretty cozy with it.

It was pretty chilly our entire cruise, hence the jacket. (It was December, after all.) We decided this rastafarian singer was the best part of the entire cruise. We made sure to tell him that. :)

I think this was before a show.

And I have no freaking idea why we would have taken a picture with this crazy lady. Maybe because it was ridiculous that she was part of the kid show?!

Tyler always picked the best restaurants on our trip.

Nothing really to comment about this one except that apparently neither of us looks good in sunglasses.

We loved the molten lava cake so much that our waiter snuck us the (secret) recipe. Go Icky! 

This was our first apartment's kitchen. No countertops and only one usable cupboard. I'll never complain about a kitchen again!

... which kind-of-sort-of-doesn't-really-but-we'll-go-with-it brings us to where we are today:

We look really different. I don't even really recognize me!

 But we are so happy. :)

Celebrations!

Sorry for that last post. And I'm mostly apologizing to the four or five people who actually came up to me and told me they fell for it. Sorry to disappoint you, friends.

I may not be posting a ton this week because poor Jack is sick with his first real cold. He is sniffly in all sorts of places and keeps snarfing. (Our favorite Tina Fey says snarfing is sneezing and farting at the same time.) We've got his room all humidified with vick's and he's drinking apple juice to stay hydrated. Lucky for me even when he's sick he still sleeps from 10pm to 7am!

We had an entire weekend filled with celebrations!

Me, Jack (5 months), Kamie, and Ari (7.5 months)

First, our dear friends the Zamoras were sealed as a family in the temple on Saturday. We celebrated with dinner at Johnny Carinos.

Second, the Zamoras blessed sweet baby Ari yesterday in church. Baby blessings always make me emotional.

Third, Jack learned how to hold his own bottle! Just the little four ounce bottles, and I don't trust him with milk yet. But he loves watered-down apple juice! (He is sick with a very bad cold and cough, and we're trying to keep him hydrated as best we can! Poor guy!)

Last but not least, the kid rolled over last night! I put him to bed, and minutes later there was a loud scream. Not his usual shrieks of boredom or silliness, but a Momma knows when something is up. So I ran into his room, and found him face down in the crib (on his belly) with one of his legs stuck in-between the bars. I wish I would have gotten a picture but instead I yelled for Tyler and we both stood there laughing at him and his precarious situation. Oh, Jack ... how we love you. He also rolled over twice this morning, letting out the same cry of "help!" when he was stuck. Silly boy.

(drumroll, please)

We are excited to finally announce ... 

we're having a baby!

Just kidding. Really, guys ... you thought I could handle pregnancy again so soon? Shame on you. (But kudos to anyone who does have kids so close. You are part of the elite rockstar momma group.)

The real news is that we won't have to wait until September to move out of Provo. Bahaha. Did I trick anyone? (Eh, probably not, but I got a good chuckle out of myself with that one.) Tyler's official KPMG start date is in the beginning of July so we'll be heading out of p-town in less than three months!! (If only you could hear the excitement in my voice, but double exclamation points will have to do for now.)

(p.s. Tyler took the above photo on his internship last summer and sent it to me because I was pregnant. It's from the San Diego Jack-in-the-Box corporate office. Their hallways were lined with all sorts of funny Jack photos.)

(And I know you were thinking it. At least one of you was thinking we might have named our baby after the aforementioned fast food restaurant. No matter how tasty their 2-for-99-cents tacos are, I could never live with myself knowing our son was named after a burger joint, a pirate, a serial killer, or a beer.

Let's get real here. He was named after Jack Black, duh.)

(um, just kidding. again. He really wasn't named after anyone at all.)

family pictures

We're kind of lame and haven't done any formal family pictures yet. In fact, Tyler and I haven't had formal pictures since our wedding 2 1/2 years ago. 

Here's the best we can come up with (for now):

...and just for kicks here is Tyler, playing Cheezit Scrabble at work today:

photo via facebook / spencer bean

Family Home Evening (Printable Chart)

As Mormons we are instructed to hold what we call Family Home Evening once a week. This typically falls on Monday night. It doesn't necessarily have to be anything formal and structured, but we are encouraged to spend time together as a family during FHE. 

As single college students, you are split into FHE groups and do fun activities together each week. But once you get married you're pretty much on your own, and sometimes it's hard to remember. I decided one of my goals this month (March) is to be diligent about FHE every Monday night. I made a chart for our family, and you can print one out if you'd like too. 

Below is the chart. Print out the first picture on cardstock. You can laminate it, or I have framed it in an 8x10 picture frame. Print out the second set and fill in family member names. Laminate those names and rotate them around the board each week. 

When Pigs Fly

A few years back my dad started getting really into professional barbecuing. As in he travels to and attends competitions where they barbecue all weekend. Crazy, right? 

 Here are my parents a few years ago (2008).

 Floydd is a pig statue that lives in my mom's living room. He used to come along for every competition and we'd securely strap him in to make sure nothing happened to him!

Fortunately my husband Tyler loves my dad's hobby. How many meat-loving husbands can claim that their father-in-law professionally barbecues? Tyler has started to pick up the art of barbecuing as well, although we don't do it on a big smoker. Last week Tyler made some absolutely to-die-for grilled chicken. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I was gobbling those wings up!

Here is my Dad's chicken a few years back:

Pulled pork:

Beef Brisket:

My dad is opening up a little "to-go"/catering restaurant in his Chevron station. I revamped and updated his logo and here is what it looks like:

What do you think? Is the pink bright enough? Do you love the font? (It's Museo Slab 500. I love that it came with a ligature glyph for the "fl"!)

It's also my dad's birthday today. Happy birthday, Dad! 

My favorite thing about Dad is his "bathroom jokes". There are several joke books in our downstairs guest bathroom and the rule is when you come out you've got to share a joke with everybody! I think only Dad and I follow this tradition though. He always tells the best ones! (He's even called me up once or twice to share these jokes and I love it.) Love you, Dad!

Oskar.

Everyone, meet Oskar, the newest member of the Jones family!

We decided to change the name of the car because Sonata just doesn't have that special ring to it. Nope, it doesn't do it for me. And how fun will it be for Jack when he gets bigger to call our car Oscar?

Oscar/Oskar is a replacement for our 1996 Ford Explorer and 1994 GMC Sonoma truck. Seriously. Think we were overdue for car replacements?! Oscar is sleek and shiny and new compared to our truck and explorer. 

We posted our explorer on the classifieds today and within 5 minutes we got a phone call and within 3 hours it was sold. Just like that. I admit I am very disappointed though in the people we sold it to. Usually you are worried about the seller of the car, not the buyer, but these guys were ... well, interesting to say the least. Looking back on it we wish we would have given the car a better home.

But what's done is done. R.I.P., Explorer.

..............

Here's Oscar, up-close and personal:

We love our new sonata! Here's why:

• It is so incredibly quiet. When you turn it on and let it idle, you can't even hear it. No more turning up the music to compensate for the engine! 
• We love the MP3 player/AUX input with the screen. We can control our ipod right from the built-in radio and charge it at the same time.
• The heater AND the air work wonderfully! I bet Tyler will even let me keep the AC on while driving through the desert to California. Usually we have to turn it off to make sure the car doesn't overheat. And then my eyebrows sweat and Tyler makes fun of me for it.
• The trunk is HUGE! It also comes with a rubber mat that is waterproof, so when we put a muddy stroller in the trunk we don't have to worry. We'll just rinse off the mat when we get home!
• The tinted windows are really nice. Now we won't have to have one of those silly baby shades in our back window.
• Low miles. 60k bumper-to-bumper warranty.
• The salesman was wonderful! We couldn't have asked for a better experience. If anyone in the area is buying a car, we cannot recommend Murdock Hyundai enough! Lance was our salesman and we loved his quirky personality. He reminded us of ... well, us. :)
• It handles really well. I drove in newly powdered snow this morning and it was fine. The ride is very quiet and smooth.
• It heats up pretty quickly. No more bitter cold mornings.

We really love it and are so blessed to have it!

The Many Smiling Faces of Jack

laughing with Daddy

Grandma Tammy with Ethan, 6 weeks, and Jack, 11 weeks (she was confident she could handle both at once - and get both to sleep - because my mom's first two were twins.)

Though Jack has always been a talker (since day one), lately has also become quite the smiler. My favorite is when I lean over his crib to pick him up. He gets this big grin on his face and just starts giggling because he's so excited I'm there! Little things like that make being a mom all worth it. :)

Fun facts about Jack, eleven weeks old:

• His usual sleep schedule is from 10pm to 7 or 7:30am.  9 hours isn't bad at all! He usually goes down "for the night" around 7pm, but I wake him up around 10 for another feeding, which he hates. I wonder if he'd still make it through the night if I didn't wake him up?
• His laugh sounds a lot deeper than his "talking" does. It's like a "huhhhhh huhhhhhhh huhhhhhhhhhhh" sort of noise when he gets all excited.
• He is a little squealer! We call him "squeaker" as a nickname. I've never heard another baby make high-pitched, ear-splitting noises like he does.
• His cheeks keep growing and growing! He's like a little chipmunk.
• His hair also keeps growing and growing. He really needs a haircut but I'd feel bad giving him one already! It sort of parts in the middle, which is pretty awkward, and he has too many cowlicks that I don't know what to do with. His hair is naturally curly like mine and I've just been keeping it that way lately. Today I put some cream-gel in it to keep the fuzziness down.
• He's not an ambi-turner. (Name that movie!) He has torticollis, which is a condition where he has trouble turning his head to the left. It's not that he can't turn left, it's just that he prefers not to. So it turns out we have a little Zoolander baby after all! :) We are going to physical therapy with him right now to correct this and he's made a lot of improvement! Dr. Ben is very patient with him and we do exercises at home with him everyday. They think it was caused by him turning in the womb too early. His head was in my pelvis for the last two months, and therefore his neck probably wasn't straight and didn't strengthen as much on the left side.
• He has tasted tiny bits of both tomato and sour cream, and doesn't care for either so far. Mommy thinks he's holding out for the real stuff - chocolate. ;)
• He hates tummy time, but the funny thing is that he only turns to the left when he's on his tummy. So unfortunately this is a great exercise for him! He has also learned to roll over onto his back from his tummy when he gets ticked off. Unfortunately then I have to "rescue" him because he gets "stuck" in the boppy pillow!
• Jack picks up on jokes. Whenever Tyler or I tell a joke to one another (not even acknowledging Jack), he giggles and smiles really big. Do you think he knows what we're saying??
• He loves college basketball and sportscenter on ESPN. Daddy is really excited to teach him math through sports. Maybe it's not the best thing that our 2 1/2 month old loves tv already, but it sure does help us with this neck exercises.
• He is just now starting to fit into his 3-6 month clothes. He is still a tall and skinny baby. He fits best into Gap, Old Navy, and The Children's Place clothes.
• He loves "jogging" with Daddy in his stroller. He is such a good sport - Tyler and I exercise 5 days a week now and he seems to love it too!
• He just recently graduated from the slow bottle nipple to the medium bottle nipple. (Funny story: My parents were in town this weekend for my sister's baby blessing, and we went to Walmart with my dad. Tyler was looking at the bottle nipples and was hesitant to get the brown ones - they didn't have the medium flow clear ones like we are used to. Tyler just said the brown ones looked weird. Then my dad chimed in and said something like, "Well, Tyler, have you ever seen a clear nipple on a woman?")
• Jack loves his swing now. He has taken a nap in it several times, which is nice because it allowed me to get chores done around the house.

Fun facts about Tyler and Alie:

• Tyler graduates with his masters degree in April. We are so excited!!
• Alie is finished with school, but doesn't know if she wants to walk or not for graduation.
• We have made a commitment to exercise 5 days a week. It's going well so far and we love it!
• Alie is making travel posters to decorate the family room. They look really cool so far and we're excited to hang them up and bring some more color into the room.
• Alie ate a piece of shrimp for the first time yesterday. She didn't die, but she won't do it again.
• Tyler made Alie breakfast in bed this morning. She loves him so much for this. :)
• Alie made two batches of cookies Thursday afternoon. Tyler woke up on Friday morning and told her he had a dream about them. (Must have been some dang good cookies!)
• Alie just finished reading I am Number Four on her Kindle and loved it! She can't wait for the sequel to come out.