We Are Family...

We are family...I got all my sisters and me...

Boy, that's an old song! :) Well, yesterday I got together with some of my family so that everyone could see my cousin Stephanie's new baby. He was due last July but was born early, in March. They live in Hawaii so none of the family had been able to see him up close and personal. But since they came over to visit for Christmas we got to see them! It was a fun day, although after seeing the pictures I really wish I hadn't worn my hair up... Oh well!! :)

My sisters and I -- Me, Brooke, and Brianna (with a little bit of Ellee in the front)


Me, Brooke, Brianna, and my Mom, with all of Ellee up front. :)


The Jones Grandkids - Ellee, Jensen, Jorden, Jayden, Jillen, and Britt.


The man, or baby, of the hour! Stephanie, Ethan, Ellee, and Brooke.

Oh yeah, I forgot, I was going to post a picture of the drawing I did for my parents for Christmas. I'm a little slow... :P

It's their house. :)

Choppin' Broccoli

Every time I chop up broccoli I think of this song! Yesterday as I made Broccoli and Cheese Sauce for Christmas dinner I started singing it and then thought that I should share it with eveyrone! I'm not sure what the beginning of the video is but the skit is so great!! Phil Hartman makes me crack up!! He was so funny!! I hope you enjoy some good old Saturday Night Live, the way I grew up having it! :)

Favorite #13...

Okay, so Brooke is getting a little impatient with me because I haven't done much updating lately. I know, I'm lazy... :) So I thought I would start up again on my favorite things!

So, it's time for Lucky 13, or maybe in this case it should be Lovely 13... :D Either way, it works! It's no secret, I love Roswell. I'm not ashamed to admit it! And I can honestly say I think it has just about gained equal standing with ALIAS. I know, I never thought I would say that, but it's true. And one big part of why I love it so much can be summed up in two simple words -- Jason Behr. Now you might think that since I'm married I am not allowed to crush on other boys, but I think I have already proven that to not be true since one of my other big time crushes has already made an apperance on my favorites list. (Remember a certain Mr. Michael Vartan??? Love him!!) Anywho, I know that Tim has a crush on Jewel, and that if she ever came knocking on the door I'd have to wave good-bye and wish then a nice life together, so I figure turn about is fair play. :)

Jason Behr played Max on Roswell and he has gone on to do lots of smaller, or independent type movies since then. He did do a big one, The Grudge, but it's too scary so even though he's in it I doubt I will ever see it. He is married to a lovely girl, KaDee Strickland, who stars on the tv show Private Practice, which makes him all the more appealing. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that he is dedicated and happy. He is just a cool guy all the way around!! And even though I am not a motorcycle fan, I must admit he looks really good riding on his! :D

Now, let's all take a few minutes to enjoy the wonder that is Jason Behr... :)

My favorite picture of him...I just love his hair!! It reminds me of a quote from My So-Called Life -- "And, you know, with your hair like that? It hurts to look at you." So true, so true...

Another cute picture of his longer hair...

Him and Shiri Appleby in a cute Roswell scene...

Him and Shiri in a season 1 promo picture for Roswell...

Him on his motorcycle in the movie Skinwalkers. Is it just me or is it getting a little harder to breathe...

Him and his lovely wife, KaDee Strickland, so sweet!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my newest entry in the Favorite's List!! I know I will be checking the page a lot more often!! :D

(Hope you're a little happier now Brooke! :P )

Alien for Christmas

A cute little Roswell themed Christmas video from YouTube!!

December 12 of 12

(Sorry about the spacing between pictures! It's really late and I have been fighting with this thing for over an hour. AAAAAHHH!!!)

So, it's December 12th and time for 12 of 12! I've had a lot of fun doing this the last couple of months so here it is again. Here's some background info on it -- It's the idea of Chad Darnell, and if you want to check out his 12 of 12 you can go here --> http://chaddarnell.typepad.com/runchadrun2/12_of_12/index.html. People all over the world are doing it, it's a really great idea he had. The deal is that you take 12 pictures of your day on the 12th day of the month, and then you blog it.

Well, here we go!!
7:45am -- When I woke up to get the kids off to school this is what I saw. We have had rain for the past 4 days but today was bright, sunny, and clear, yet still wet. I was glad to see the sun but I was still kinda wishing it was raining...


















8:00am -- When I took the kids to school I drove past the junior high's swimming pool and saw the mist coming off of the water. It was so cool looking!!













8:30am -- Because of all the rain we have had, and the clear sky this morning, we had fog!! We don't get it very often but I love it when we do!! This is the view down one of the streets. You can usually see for miles, but not today!!











10:00am -- I had to go help with the kids school classes (grading papers, fun huh? I actually kinda like it! That was always my favorite part of playing school when I was little!) so before I went I had my breakfast. Yummy huh? I really do like these little shakes, they fill me up and I don't get hungry, plus they are super easy and quick, which is just what I need. Obviously I don't drink them for the weight-loss part...If so, it doesn't seem to be working! :)
Aaah, a breakfast of champions!!!


















10:30am -- On my way to the kids school I went Fog Finding and stopped by a local Riparian Park to see what it looked like. They have these little lakes and you could see the steam rising off of the water. It was so pretty and quiet. It's hard to imagine that there is a place like that in the middle of the city!













10:35am -- As I continued on to the kids school I got into some good fog and was able to take this picture of the sun through the fog. It's a strange thing when you are able to actually look at the sun in the middle of the day in Arizona! And not have your eyes burn to a crisp! :)


















11:00 -- When I got to the school I had to drop off this little Christmas Tree that Jillen was supposed to make for her class. It was supposed to be turned in last Monday, needless to say, I've had a crazy couple of weeks and didn't get to it until yesterday. It's covered in all of her favorite things -- High School Musical 1 & 2, Zac Efron, Hairspray, and Roswell. (I've got her trained!!) Plus it has some family pictures and one of her on her first Christmas. She is pretty excited about it!! But I think she wishes it was hanging up in her bedroom rather than her classroom! But she'll get it back next week...


















1:00pm -- After getting home and eating lunch I decided to read for a little bit before I started the hard core studying for my Final Exam that I had tonight. I was able to finish my Roswell High book #7, The Vanished, so now it's on to #8, The Rebel. Boy, I love these books!! They are pretty different from the TV series, but I still really like them!! But if I'm going to read the last several in the series then I had better start saving my money -- the last one is currently going for about $200. :o
And that's a used copy!!













3:00pm -- Time to STUDY!!! I had the final exam for my Business Procedures class tonight. Luckily this time I knew that all of the questions come from past quizzes, so I just printed them out and studied away!! It worked out pretty well, I got a solid B on the test, which is better than the D I got on the Mid Term... Boy this has been a rough semester!


















8:00pm -- When I got home I was greeted by our Christmas Lights, some of the only ones in the neighborhood. I sure am glad Tim has the Christmas Spirit, because if it were up to me there would be nothing up! My poor kids!! Good thing they have a festive dad to help brighten up their childhood memories!









10:00pm -- Just when I thought I was done with the Business Procedures class, I find out I have to watch a Guest Speaker and comment on him to my teacher. Well, at least Accountant Bob was interesting. Okay, NOW I'm done!! :)













11:00pm -- Well, it dawned on me that I forgot to get my End of the Semester celebration pie. What was I thinking?? Obviously I wasn't, so since I had to go take some dvd's back, I thought I'd stop by Sonic and get a milkshake. Yum!!



















Bonus Picture!!! The Bonus word for the month is BELIEVE.

I love the fog. I get the whole creepy factor, how it's used around Halloween and in things like The Headless Horseman and that stuff, but to me it's just so beautiful. It's almost magical, mystical, mysterious. It's so strange to know that something is there, but not be able to see it. I guess it kind of reminds me of life. Sometimes I know there is more to it than what I can see at the moment, so I just have to BELIEVE!! And the same goes for what's beyond this life. I can't see it, but I BELIEVE in it!!















Hope my December 12th wasn't too boring for you. Maybe you should make a New Years Resolution to join me in this next year!! It's super fun!!! :P

The 12th Is Almost Here...

Well, the 12th of December is almost here and you know what that means!! 12 of 12!!! I know some of you have thought about doing it in the past few months and if you still think you might then December is a great time to start!! So many picture taking opportunities! It's sure fun... Come on!! You know you want to!!

The bonus word for this month is -- BELIEVE. That should be a fun one!

In case you don't remember, you take 12 pictures of your day, on the 12th of the month, and then post them in you blog. You need to put the time that each picture was taken and a brief description of what it is or what's happening in it. You can put your bonus picture at the end, if you decide to do one. It's really not too hard to find 12 things to take pictures of. Plus it's kind of fun to carry your camera around and ask people if they mind you photographing them. They look at you a little strange but usually once you explain what it's for they think it's kinda cool. :D

I look forward to seeing your pictures!!! :)

Happy Birthday Granny!!!

Happy Birthday To You!!

Happy Birthday To You!!

Happy Birthday Dear Granny!!

Happy Birthday To You!!

We hope you have a wonderful day!! We Love You!!

Me and My Momma!! :)

Jorden and Granny --

Jillen and Granny --

Jayden and Granny & Grandpa--

Jensen and Granny --

Have a wonderful

fan-tab-u-lous day!!!

A Christmas Survey and ABC Trivia Tag!

Boy oh boy!! Just what you wanted, more info about me! :P Oh well, too late now, you may as well keep reading. ;)


Here is one from Brianna's Blog -- The Christmas Survey!!


1. Eggnog or Cocoa? Cocoa, I've tried Eggnog and it's not bad but liquid chocolate? Who could pass on that!!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? He just leaves them under the tree. Do you KNOW how many houses he has to get to in just one night? He puts a name tag on them but he's in much too much of a hurry to waste time wrapping!

3. Colored lights or white? I prefer white because I like how they sparkle, but I live with a hubby who thinks colored lights are awesome so we usually have a mix of both.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Not for the last few years. But then we never seem to need an excuse to do what you do under the mistletoe... :)

5. When do you put decorations up? When I HAVE to... Honestly, if it was up to me there would be no decorations up in the house. I used to love to get them out the first week of December and get the place all fancy but now days I realize that I have to monitor the decorations the whole time they are out and then put them all away, and I got way too much other stuff going on to worry about that! I'd be perfectly happy with nothing up, although I think everyone else in my house would riot!

6. What holiday food do you most look forward to? I usually make ham and mashed potatoes (that is one of only a few days in the year that I actually make mashed potatoes from real potatoes! :P ) and I like all the goodies like peanut brittle, cookies, cinnamon rolls, etc.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?? I remember when I was about 4, Santa came to my house. I think it was my grandpa because it seems like my uncle drove him over... I thought that was pretty cool. Plus I remember staying up late with my brothers and trying to guess what Santa was bringing us. I don't think we ever guessed right! :P And I remember my dad had a window sign that we would put up in the window by our door that said "Bah-Humbug!" Man, I need to get one of those signs...

8. What do you want for Christmas? Dream gift would be the ALIAS box set, but what I am getting is the My So Called Life dvd set. Other than that, maybe a new tv or washing machine. Fun stuff huh?

9. Do you open one gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes, if the kids are getting pajamas, then they can open them on Christmas Eve, but other than that NO!! We wait until Christmas morning. And even then, whent he kids get up before Tim and I, they are allowed to play with whatever Santa brought, and to look in their stockings, but if they get into the gifts then they don't get any of them! They have to wait until Tim and I wake up. I'm so mean, I know!! :D

10. Snow, love it or hate it? I love to look at it, from inside a nice, warm house. But I hate being in it in any way, shape, or form. I guess that's why I live in the desert!

11. Can you ice skate? Nope. I went one time and made my way around the edge of the rink twice. That was it for me. I have always wished I could, I love watching Michelle Kwan skate, she is really wonderful, but me and balance do not seem to go together. I can't roller skate either!

12. What's your favorite holiday tradition? I don't know that I really have one certain thing. I just love seeing family and spending time with them.

13. What's on top of your tree? Usually a star, but our last star broke so I think last year we had an angel. I need to get a really pretty star one of these days...

14. What was your most memorable Christmas? Oh gee, I don't know. Each of my kids first Christmas' have been really fun, seeing them be so excited about things. And my childhood Christmas' were always fun, even though I was always last in the line up to walk into the living room in the morning. It seemed like my brothers and sisters walked so slow, and I could hear them talking about the gifts, but I couldn't see them. It felt like forever before I got in there!!

15. It's just not Christmas unless you watch...? A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, and tons more!! I do love a good Christmas movie!!



How about you? What are your answers?


And now that ABC Trivia Tag Game, thanks to Brooke --

A- Attached or Single? Attached, or married as I usually call it.

B- Best Friend? Tim, or Melissa and Laura, or my sisters and mom.

C- Cake or Pie? Pie!!!

D- Day of Choice? Monday or Friday, because those are the days I don't have school right now so I don't have to get all dressed up, I can just lay around and do stuff at home.

E- Essential Item? My Roswell dvd's...I love them!!!

F- Favorite Color? Green

G- Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms? Worms, it seems like they last longer.

H- Hometown? Snowflake, Arizona

I- Favorite Indulgence? Vanilla Coke, because they don't make Vanilla Pepsi anymore.

J- January or July? July, like I siad before, I don't like the cold, plus I get to go home to Snowflake and see my family.

K- Kids? Technically 4, but I also have a hubby who acts like a kid half the time and a dog who thinks she IS a kid!!

L- Life isn't complete without? My family and friends. And Roswell music videos on YouTube... ;)

M- Marriage Date? October 16, 1993. Wow, that seems like a long time ago!

N- Number of Brothers and Sisters? 3 Brothers, 2 Sisters

O- Oranges or Apples? Apples, although I like them both.

P- Phobias or Fears? Deep water and heights. Eeekk!!

Q- Quote? A scripture - "For behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." (2Nephi 2:24) I just gives me peace of mind and lets me know that things will always work out the way they are supposed to.

R- Reason to Smile? School is almost done and my brain will have a whole month to recover and regrow all the brain cells I have fried in the last few weeks!

S- Season of Choice? Fall, because I love Halloween and it is also finally starting to cool off after the hot summer.

T- Tag three friends (if you read this and your name is here then you have to do it!) Melissa, Tami, and Kelly.

U- Unknown Fact About Me? My thumbs are double jointed. It's a little gross...

V- Vegetable? Broccoli!!!!!

W- Worst Habit? Do we really need to ask this one about me? Obviously, it's being late. :)

X- X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound, I think I've had more of those.

Y- Your Favorite Food? Mexican Food, Sub Sandwiches, Strawberry Pie, and Broccoli with Cheese Sauce.

Z- Zodiac Sign? Gemini

There you go!! Now it's your turn! Any maybe your comptuer will like you more than mine likes me today... :(

Melissa's Powder Room

Yippee!! My final Kitchen and Bath project is done!! Who knows what grade I will get in the class but I know my project today was the best in the class. Of course, my friend Brittani who usually does AWESOME work is in Hawaii this week so she wasn't there to present her project, but I still think mine would have been almost as good as hers! :) Anyhow, it's late and I am sleep deprived so here are the pictures! We had to choose an inspiration picture and then base our design off of that. The one I chose is shown on the boards and is super colorful! Since it's a powder room it had to be fancy and not very practical, hence the glass sink that is sunken into the counter, green onyx underlit countertop (when the light is on the counter and sink will glow), the glass tile back splash, and the multi colored glass flowers on the wall that coordinate with the sink and have LED lights in them so they will shine and sparkle. I guess it is kind of fun designing things that are not very practical for normal people. Or people with kids... :P

The Presentation Boards --

All the technical stuff: floor plan, elevation of the custom countertop/sink area, and dimensions.

The fun stuff: all the materials that would be used in the room. I love the sink and wall flowers!! The backsplash would be in the pattern shown (3/4" tiles) but in the colors of the bigger pieces. And I LOVE the green onyx!!! I want that so badly in my house someday!!! Luckily I know where to get it... :)

And the cool thing: the 2 point perspective of the sink and counter area. It turned out pretty good, even though I still had a little tweaking to do on it before I handed it into my Color Rendering teacher. Not enough value change, needed to punch some colors darker, and color glow!! Man, I feel like I still have TONS to learn!! Maybe I should take this class again...

A Busy November...And It's Almost Gone!

Wow!! November has gone by fast! I can't believe Christmas is less than a month away! We had a fun Thanksgiving with my family. It's always so fun to see everyone, even if we only get to see them once or twice a year. :( I was so excited that all of my brothers and sisters were here this year, that made it even more fun! And of course we made our annual Day After Thanksgiving trip to the mall! It's always a good time, and this year didn't disappoint us! Here are some fun family pictures from Thanksgiving Day!

L to R -
Me, Beau, Jorden, Brett, Granny (my mom), Jillen, Ellee, Brooke, Elliott, Jensen, Brianna, Britt, Jayden, Justin, Blake, and Laurissa. (Tim and my dad weren't there)


The Jones Kids -- L to R-
Blake, Me, Brooke, Brianna, Beau, and Brett

And here is Jillen's hair-do for the day. It is modeled after a style that we saw in an episode of Roswell, but I can't find any pictures of it so you'll just have to trust me! :P It was really cute though and she sure did love it!!



Ahhh, a face only a mother could love...

And finally, what I have been working on at school this month. We are doing a drawing each week so I have a couple of them since I didn't post anything last week. The next drawing should be of the Powder Room I am doing for my Kitchen and Bath class, which is due next Tuesday, and then I may redo the drawing of Brooke's kitchen for my final drawing... We shall see! :D

This is a partial rendering of Brooke's Kitchen. We were supposed to choose a focal point and then render only that. I think it looks kinda cool.


A 2 Point Perspective Living Room that I did for last week. I was playing with trying to do a striped fabric on the sofa, but I don't like it too much. The rest of it is okay though.


A 2 Point Perspective Kitchen. This is probably one of my favorite things so far that I have done. I like the colors and I think it's more realistic as far as how things would actually look in the real world. I did a little adjusting to it before I turned it in (some suggestions my teacher made) so when I get it back I will have to post that picture and we can compare the before and after. :)

A Thanksgiving Skit

Here is a happy little skit to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!!

Celebrity Bric-a-Brac Theatre: The Story of Thanksgiving

Hover Craft!!

Well, Tim must be a Geek Dad, or at least that's the website where he found his newest creation! Have you ever dreamed of building your own hover craft? 'Cause let me tell you, Tim has!! And he finally found some plans that really work. The kids have been having a ball on it, and the driveway has never been cleaner!! Enjoy some pictures of the kiddies at play with Dad's latest toy! Maybe one of these days I will be able to get the videos to load on here and then you can see those too! :(

Jensen Goes!


Jayden is sure a happy little guy!


Jillen loves it! (even though Jensen is trying to hog the camera!)


Tim needs to work on his balance before hitting the road on this thing

November 12 of 12

So, it's November 12th and time for 12 of 12! I've had a lot of fun doing this the last couple of months so here it is again. Here's some background info on it -- It's the idea of Chad Darnell, and if you want to check out his 12 of 12 you can go here --> http://chaddarnell.typepad.com/runchadrun2/12_of_12/index.html. People all over the world are doing it, it's a really great idea he had. The deal is that you take 12 pictures of your day on the 12th day of the month, and then you blog it.

And we're off!!

9:30 am -- Well, today was Veteran's Day and another 12th that the kids were out of school. Needless to say, there wasn't much excitement around our house today! I got to sleep in a little bit, so that was nice. And then when I did get up I got to read a couple of chapters in one of my new Roswell books. I found them at a used bookstore last week, and I was so excited. Tim says I am a little obsessed...I'd have to day he's right! :D



10:30am -- Next it was time to get a little housework done. Hooray for child labor!! Although I think they make more mess than they ever clean up!



11:00am -- In honor of Veteran's Day I put up our flag.




11:30am -- I got to watch a dvd I rented for myself, and it was really cute. I loved it!! And the ending was pretty surprising too!! :)



3:00pm -- Well, I started my homework for my Color Rendering class. I had to ink a 2 point perspective of an interior room, so this is it. It is easier to trace my original drawing on the window because the light outside makes it easier to see the red pencil I used when I drew it the first time. Tim says I should get a light board but this is just as easy and it's free!!




4:00pm - Time to do a little color rendering! I have to do a fully rendered room and a very lighting rendered room, so luckily I did the fully rendered one last week. I was going to redo it but then I figured I would just rework it a little and it should be fine. I will do the 2 elevations tomorrow, but they are basically the same thing. And we won't mention how much all those markers cost...Super fun... :P




6:00pm --The kids have been bugging us to build what our neighbors call a "Warming Fire." Basically it is a fire in the backyard, so we decided to do it this evening. They seemed to enjoy it. Don't they look happy???




7:00pm -- We figured that if we were going to be outside with the fire, we might as well eat outside too. Hamburgers and hotdogs are always a favorite!!



8:00pm -- For dessert we decided to let the kids roast marshmallows and make Smores. I know I can't be the only person in the world who does not like Smores... Can I be??? I love all of the ingredients alone but the thought of putting them together just does not appeal to me at all! Just not my thing!!



8:15pm -- But the kids sure seemed to enjoy them, even if you can't see the excitement...



8:30pm -- I think the funnest part of the night was roasting the marshmallows!



9:00pm -- After a long day it looks like everyone is worn out and ready for bed!



The bonus word for this month is grateful. I am so grateful for all of things shown above but one more thing that I am always grateful for is a clean sink at the end of the day. I hate doing dishes but it sure does feel good to see the sink empty and clean as I head off to bed. It's a good way to end the day!




Well, the day is just about done. If my computer had been working right I would have had this posted over an hour ago and I could have been watching Roswell this whole time... Man, I guess I need some new spyware. Oh well!! Hope you had a good day!!