Have you ever?

Its pretty late.  I've been working on the computer for awhile now and can hear a little bug named Kaden hiding behind me.  He's snuck out of his bed again, but instead of turning around to put him back in bed I've been doing just about everything I can to pretend he's not there to avoid having to put him back in bed.

He just sneezed.

I should probably go be a mom now.

A Day in the Life

The kids both had a cold a couple weeks ago which turned into a nice cough.  They're pretty much better now, but for a week or two we were quarantined to the apartment.  The kids were starting to get a little stir crazy, but to be honest I think they handled it better than I did.  I hate staying inside all day.  Even a trip to the grocery store was the best release.

It was fun to see how they both spent their days.  Jo would sit down and "read" books or color just about all day, and Kaden, well he was a little more rambunctious.  Having a cold and a slight fever didn't slow him down for a second.  He was playing tag, doing flips, and on a rare moment "pretend" to rest.  Thinking about it makes me tired...but happy.  Where does the energy come from?

Painting Pumpkins

I forgot to include these pics of painting pumpkins.  I thought it'd be a great idea to paint this year because Kaden would be able to participate more.  I totally blanked on the mess and that Jo would want to eat the paint.  It was a wild, but fun hour or so.  Next year we'll go back to carving I think.

Happy Anniversary, Birthday, & Halloween...Yikes!

I guess its been a little too long since I updated my blog. If we're going chronalogically I should probably start with mine and Kimball's anniversary. Six years! I read online that the traditional six year anniversary gift is something made out of wood or metal. What am I supposed to do with that...widdle a birdhouse?! Instead we opted to take the kids for a sleepover at Alvin and Amber's then headed to Tucano's restaurant. Its a Brazilian place like Rodizios. I'm a big fan of both so I don't think I could pick a favorite. We had a great time, plus we got to sleep in the next morning. That's what I call a perfect anniversary present. Thanks Alvin and Amber for making it possible!

Next on the list is Kaden's birthday. Can you believe he's 4 years-old already? This year was a lot of fun getting ready for it all. He actually cared about what his cake looked like and the fun things we did. I think I got a little carried away with all the birthday fun. We went with the pirate theme. Complete with swords, hats, treasure hunts, and a million other things. We got lucky Halloween was coming up because all the pirate stuff was ridiculously on sale. I wish I could say I'm just brilliant, but it never occurred to me until I was buying all the stuff what great timing it was. I thought it was a great party, though I'm pretty sure Kaden would have loved it just as much minus about half of my preparations. Oh well...what we do for our kids.

After that we've got Halloween. The kids were so cute. We borrowed a tiger costume from Kimball's sister for Kaden and Jo went as the most adorable butterfly/pixie thing. First we went trick-or-treating with Alvin down the Provo mainstreet, then went up to Heather's for a little Halloween party. It was great.

The day before my Aunt threw a Party for everyone on the Patterson side. Kaden loved being dressed up twice for Halloween and he got lots of play time with the cousins so I'd call this Halloween a success.

Ashley Jones Photography

All right everybody, from the title of my post you probably already guessed what this is about...I'm starting my own photography business! I've been practicing and figured that with the extra flexibility Kimball and I have right now, its as good a time to try as I may get.

I'm not sure what my expectations are with it. I don't plan to make a terrible amount of money, but I'm working hard to see what happens. So far its been a lot of fun. After the kids go to bed I've been up late editing photos or working to get things rolling. I started a blog to start with its ashleyjonesphotography.blogspot.com, I'm hoping you'll take a look and of course love what you see and refer me to everyone you know. No pressure, right?

So far my family has been really supportive. Kimball's been great watching the kids a little extra when I've been off taking pictures and my parents have been amazing letting me come over almost every night to use the computer, and no way could I do this without my dad's camera. A big thanks for that one Dad!

Along with all of this I've decided to make my blog private. Since I'm purposely opening up a whole part of my life to total strangers I think some extra precautions would be good. So if you don't mind just leave a comment with your email so that I can invite you when I make the switch.

One last thing, I left a link to the blog in my sidebar in case you ever want to check it out as time goes. Thanks everyone!

Welcome home Kimball!

I'm happy to say three weeks late that Kimball is back from OCS. He did great, and today was commissioned an officer! We still are waiting for more training, but don't know yet when that will be. Me and the kids should be able to be with him for the rest of it though.

I'm so proud of him, and am definitely grateful to have him back. I love you Kimball, Congratulations!

Party!!

We just got home from such a fun party tonight! My Aunt (1st cousin once removed, or something like that, if you want to get technical) Vicki always has the best get togethers and tonight was no disappointment. It was kind of a reunion/birthday party which meant tons of family, food and of course cake.

Kaden had a blast! He got to sing into the microphone, followed by ten minutes of crying when he forgot the words. He also loved dancing with all of his cousins.

Jocilyn had a great time too. She pretty much just walked around and ate the whole night. If I wasn't ready with something she'd go find someone who was, and if no one was handy she'd find some forgotten plate of food and fend for herself. I promise I do feed my daughter at home too. She's just bottomless!

It was really a fun way to spend the night. I am so lucky to have so much family close by right now. It is always great getting together.

Project-Take 2

Some people were asking questions about my calendar so I thought I'd clarify a couple of things. The fabric is the white part you can see through the glass. Its hard to tell in the picture, but it has white polka-dots on it. I wanted something neutral with a little pattern, but not enough to distract from the writing. I just used a hot glue gun around the edges on the other side to get it to stick.

As for the days of the week since all the permanent parts are on the inside of the glass I did have to write them backwards, but it wasn't as hard as you think. First I wrote down all the words on some paper (actually I traced it off the computer screen, that's the Bradley font). Made it dark enough so that I could turn the paper over and still see the letters. Then I just put the paper under the glass and traced it. Just make sure you give them plenty of time to dry and then get the glass as clean as possible before putting it in the frame.

This explains why I don't have one of those crafty blogs. I'm not very good at giving directions. Hope you can make sense of this. Good luck!

A Project

One of the few benefits of not having Kimball around is I have been getting a lot more creative with what to do with my time.

Today I finished a dry erase calendar board. I saw this on a blog a while ago and loved it. It was really easy. I bought a frame at a yard sale for 5 bucks, then painted it and covered the back with fabric. The lines and days of the week I drew on the inside of the glass and used a paint pen, but the blog I saw it on used a permanent marker so I bet that would work too.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. It is really big 28x22 inches, but I love the space it gives me. And in case you're wondering, I'm not really that big of an orange fan; that's just my attempt at being festive for the fall season.

Baby Jo

This post is mostly for Kimball. Jocilyn had just decided to start walking before he left and I wanted him to see how great she is at it. Sorry if it bores the rest of you. Love you and miss you Hun!

Summer Fun

This has been such a busy summer by my standards. Partly by my doing to fill the void when Kimball's been gone and partly because so many great opportunities came up. Why would I say no?

I already posted about a lot of our adventures, but here's a few I neglected. So be prepared for lots of pictures ahead.

Thanks to my sister Monica we got free passes to some great things all over the valley! I took the kids to the Dino Museum, Farm Country, and the Gardens over at Thanksgiving Point. It was great, my cousins came with all their kids so we really brought some energy and chaos in with us wherever we went.



Hey look a cat! Jo's vocab is getting bigger, but for a while there if you weren't a puppy you were a cat.




We went to the Oquirrh Lake with Grandma. I loved it! We went to the little beach and within 5 minutes Kaden was jumping off the dock with the bigger kids. The water was only a couple feet deep, but I was still out there catching him. If Kimball was home that is so one of the things I would have made him do. That water was cold!



A few more "cats".



We also had a great time up in the mountains with Alvin and Amber. Amber's sister works at a ropes course so she made a bunch of swings and stuff for the kids to play on while we were there. Loved it!

Patterson Campout

Nothing could motivate me to post more often then a comment from Kimball. So knowing he can look at the blog and see what we're up to every now and then has pushed me to finally put a few new things up.

Just a couple of weeks after Kimball left my family had their annual Patterson Camp Out. We think of it as a reunion, but since everyone (including cousins)lives within a half hour of each other I don't know if it qualifies.

The place we went to was beautiful and by far my favorite location so far. It had tons of four-wheeling trails, a lake, and lots of trees for shade. We managed to go during a break in the heat wave so it was actually kind of cold, but I liked it this way; it meant no bugs.


The kids had a great time. Kaden became a "dirty dinosaur" as he puts it. One time I told him I was going to dust him off, and he said "but mom, I like being all dusted-up." Looking into that sweet dirty face I had to let him stay a mess until dinner. Jo was a born camper. She loved it and thankfully decided to start walking just days before we left so she stayed much cleaner.

At night my cousin Chad set up his surround system and projector so that we could watch movies. The first night we watched Twilight of all movies and the next night we watched a western. I can't remember the name of it, but it was fun.

A big thanks to my dad for letting me and the kids sleep in his trailer with the heater. I'm sure I would have been much more grumpy had I slept in a freezing tent with two freezing kids.

As Promised...

The Orange Monsters!

1 win, 9 losses, but lots of juice, granola bars, and a trophy so no one really minded that much.

Kaden opted to warm the bench for all but the last game; which happened to be the one they won. I'm not deluding myself though, thus far it looks like Kaden's athletic abilities came mostly from me (sorry buddy), but he's young maybe Kimball's genes are just lying dormant in there...waiting.

We'll see. It was great to watch him play that last game though, much nicer than chasing him when he would run away from us like in every other game.

All these pictures came from that last game by the way.

County Fair

Last week my mom and I went to the county fair. My dad had entered a photo in one of the competitions so we went to see how he did. 4th place! Way to go Dad!

It was a lot of fun taking the kids despite the heat. They loved all the animals. Kaden was running from one stall to the next looking at all the cows, sheep, and pigs. In my opinion one cow was pretty much like they next, but Kaden was ridiculously excited to see every one. Jo was also mooing like crazy which was pretty funny. We also got to watch the pigs getting their baths.

They also had a little petting zoo complete with a very feisty camel. Loads of fun!

Round 2

Well Kimball left for OCS, actually he left a week ago. All together he should be gone 8 weeks total which is 3 weeks shorter than basic training was. I'm hoping not having those 3 weeks will make the time fly by, but I don't know. So far I just miss him. It didn't help that the first night he was gone I had food poisoning and threw-up the whole night. Luckily my parents rescued me in the morning and took the kids while I recovered.

We stayed pretty busy while he was here though. Here's a bunch of pictures of the fun things we did:

Kimball turned 28! For his birthday we went to the movies and then to a sushi bar. I was so embarrassed because they only gave us chopsticks and I had to ask for a fork. So the waiter brought me back these pretend chopsticks they use to teach little kids. At least I was able to eat my food.


Happy 4th of July! We spent the 4th with Alvin and Amber and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the grass across from the MTC. Kaden turned out to be afraid of them and hid under a blanket the whole time, but for some reason he was still sad when they were over. Go figure.





Trip to the Zoo. They had a special military day so that our whole family got in free. Every time we go it gets more fun. Kaden was so excited to see the animals. He was trying to find all the animals from the Madigascar movie, but they didn't have a lion or hippo so we had to tread carefully around that subject. But we had a great time.



I know I look really annoyed in this picture, but it was really fun taking Kaden to all the same things I did as a kid, including drinking water out of the lions mouth.

Kaden's Best Buddies

Kaden is going through the strangest phase right now. He plays, loves, and talks to inanimate objects. I'm guessing this is normal, but who knows. For the most part I think its pretty cute he's named most of the objects with wheels in our house. The picture above has Kaden with his friends (left to right) Zarzan, Garbage Can, and Eve. Plus a phone charger named John and another stroller in the car named Wally. I'll be a little sad when this phase is over; it cracks me up when Kaden talks to the grocery carts at the store. He even gives ours a hug and a kiss sometimes. I love it!