Saying Goodbye to Grandpa Jones

On Saturday September 20th my Grandpa, LaGrand Jones, passed away at the age of 85. Although he had been sick for quite some time and his condition had been deteriorating quickly it still came suddenly for me. We were fortunate to be able to make it to Idaho Falls to say goodbye to him before he passed. This week has been full of family time, I think 90% of his family was able to attend the funeral and those who weren't were greatly missed. We all learned a lot about this man as we read his life history, looked through photos and family history sheets, and all shared memories of him with each other.

He served in the Navy for three years during WWII, worked hard for his family, enjoyed his hobbies of hunting and horseback riding, raised 5 amazing kids, has 48 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren. After someone passes away you hear a lot of things about them, here are some of the things I heard to describe this man: humble, funny, easy to love, a hard worker, kind, loving, easy to please, even though his body was worn out and he had to be in immense pain-he never complained, he was a good man.

I love my Grandpa Jones very much and am going to miss his quiet demeanor, his sly smile and his twinkling blue eyes. I'm grateful to be a part of his legacy.

Grant is One!

It's official, as of Monday September 22nd our baby is one! He truly is an amazing kid. He has such an easy going personality which makes it easy for me to take him to work. I wanted to document a few of the things he does/has/says at the ripe old age of one.

He has 4 teeth, which he bit me with tonight 3 times and laughed and laughed and laughed.

He says, "hi" (especially while grocery shopping to all the other shoppers), "mommy" (he used to call me Bobba thanks to Jake and Allen), "daddy", "Ella", "Paislee", and "Thank You".

He loves animals, which include his sisters.

He's crawling like a champ and pulling himself up to a standing position (I'm not encouraging walking for as long as possible).

And can this kid eat. For breakfast he eats a bowl of oatmeal (an entire micro-wavable package) and then an entire banana. When we get to work 30 minutes later he has a snack before going down for a nap. For lunch he consumes an entire toddler meal and then snacks for 15 minutes afterwards on whatever you put in front of him. There's a snack again when we get home from work. For dinner he usually has a helping of whatever we're eating and sometimes seconds. He weighs in at 22.6 pounds and I'm curious what percentile he'll come in at for height and weight.

He likes the camera and knows he needs to smile.
Opening presents, he thought it was more fun to eat the wrapping paper and tissue than play with his toys, he's finally figured out the toys are the better part.
Here's his cake. I wanted to be a bit more elaborate but was not finding the creative juices.

Obviously my lack of creativity did not bother him in the least, he enjoyed every crumb that made its way into his mouth. Happy 1st Birthday sweet boy!

Gunfighter Skies!

On September 13th our family hopped in Papa and Grammy's mini-van and road-tripped over to Mountain Home Air Force Base to watch the airshow. There are a lot of pictures of the back of Jake's head as he watched the airshow with the kids.
Grant didn't seem to mind the loud noises or just hanging out with the family.
Once again, the back of Jake's head! (This plane is a C-17, it was a big one, they called her Dumbo, but she is a tricky one, landed and came to a full stop in a very small distance).
The Thunderbirds flew in to do their surveillance for their performances the next day, this is the only shot we got with all six flying in formation.
Everyone watching the skydivers jumping from the C-17 and free falling thousands of feet at break neck speeds before opening their shutes and landing right on the x they were supposed to.

Hair...

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Let's Do This!

"Let's Do This" were the words out of Paislee's mouth as we started to help her ride her bicycle today. Obviously she wasn't feeling as positive at this point of the learning experience.
So we switched teachers and she started to do a little bit better and was riding by herself before Jake had her for too long.
Ella really wanted to keep up with her sister and kept asking for a turn, that fearless red head gene is going to get her in a lot of trouble and give Jake and I ulcers.
Grant hung out with the neighbor boy happily in the yard while Paislee and Ella rode up and down the street.
It became quite the event, it almost looks like they are getting to take off on a race here.