Little Miss F.G.P.R 2010

On March 19, Carley was crowned "Little Miss F.G.P.R 2010" at the annual Florida Gateway Pro Rodeo in Lake City. She was one happy little girl and of course, Mama & Daddy were very proud of her! More pictures to come soon.

Another Jones Baby On The Way

Due on or around July 28, 2010, yet another Jones Baby is on his way. Yes, I said "His". A little boy to even up the numbers on both sides of the family. Now, both the Jones and Nelson families will have 3 girls and 3 boys...aren't their grandparents lucky! Jakob & Carley are both very excited about the idea of having a baby brother coming into our lives. Here are a few very early pictures that we wanted to share with everybody.

Summer 2009

Wow - where did the time go? It seems like summer just started and now here we are, back from vacations, back to school and getting ready for fall. It went by way too fast but it was great while it lasted.

Mimi & Dude came to visit us for a week. While they were here we went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming - we also spent a few days in Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. We had a great time...we had wonderful weather and saw lots of animals in the part. Deer, elk, brown and black bears along with some cubs, antelope, chipmunks and lots of bison are just some of the sights that we saw. Of course, there was no better way to end the trip than the adventure across the Beartooth Pass (entertaining, to say the least!). After their week in the Northwest was up, Mimi & Dude were brave and took both of the kids back to Florida with them to spend a few weeks catching up with the rest of the family. Aside from missing Mama & Daddy, they had a blast and definitely packed some fun into three weeks. They did everything from a day at Wild Waters, a day of fishing and scalloping in the Gulf, a few days spent at the river with Aunt Lacy's family and Grandma Susie, a few days of fun and spoiling at Aunt Lucy's, a day at the beach and several trips to the movies. They can't wait to go back and see everbody again!

So, now that vacation is over it's time to get back to reality. Jake started back to school this week. We officially have a 2nd grader...oh my, that's hard to believe! He has a new teacher, Ms. Stephenson, and so far, so good.

Well that's about all for now. Until next time - we send love to our friends and family across the miles...We miss you all and can't wait until we can see you all again.
~David, Casey, Jakob and Carley

Summer Time Means Sports Time

Well, the kids are out of school and to keep busy they are playing on the local ball team. Unfortunately, there weren't enough boys that are Jake's age to make up a full baseball team, so they took the three boys and combined them with the girls to make a co-ed softball team. Works for me because now I only have one practice and game schedule to keep up with instead of two. And, of course it's Carley's first time playing so having Bubba there to coach her along is a big help to her...and me! When our team is playing the field, Carley would rather play in the dugout. At this point she's only interested when it's her turn to bat. Naturally, at their first game she did the typical bat then run the wrong way. She ran straight to third base. Then, as the coach was yelling at her "Other Way", she ran diagonally from third straight to first base...almost took out the pitcher on her way through! It was cute and gave everybody a good laugh! Jakob is the catcher and he's really enjoying that. He loves being in a position that is constant play and not having to wait for the ball to come to him. I have been given the job of taking individual and team pictures for the softball team. We are all excited and all in all, it's going good.

Jake's Spring Concert

Well, I'm kicking myself in the butt today for speaking too soon in my last blog about Spring being here and the winter gone. You would think that after living in Montana for four years before I would know better. After a rainy night all night, I woke up this morning to raining slush...within five minutes that slush had turned to big white flakes! By about 10:00 this morning everything was white. And yes, for the record, I really am writing this on May 13th! It's about 4:15 in the afternoon now and it's all melted. Let's hope it stays that way.

Anyway - The Elementary Spring Concert was held today at Hysham School. Jakob's class sang "Five Kites", "Little Liza Jane" and "May". At the end of the program all elementary kids (K-6) sang together "One Nation". It was a fun little program and the kids all did great! I wanted to post a few pictures so everybody could get an idea of Jake's class/school size. The first picture is of just his class. The second picture is all kids K-6 grade...yep, all 44 of them!

Photos by Jake

This past weekend, Jake spent a morning with Grandma. They went on a little adventure down by the Yellowstone River. At some point he confiscated the camera and took some really neat pictures. Here are two that we all thought turned out really good. So, do we have a little photographer in the making?