Dear Texas

“God bless Texas with His own Hand

Brought down angels from the promised land

Gave ‘em a place where they could dance

If you wanna see heaven brother here’s your chance

I’ve been sent to spread the message

God Blessed Texas!!”

Dear Texas-

I have lived here for 27 of my 27 years of life. I won't say I completely subscribe to the "Texas is the best place on earth" attitude- but I will say that it's been pretty awesome to call Texas home. I love Texas. I love Texas Pride, the Rangers, Football, the first cool Fall day, waiting for the first 100 degree day and wondering if it will happen in May or if we will luck out till August. I love looking up at the big sky and seeing all the stars- the wide open spaces. I love how every road trip is at least 8 hours cause the place is so darn big. I love East Texas and the Pine trees. I love seeing blue bonnets on the side of the roads in Spring time. I love Blue Bell ice cream. I love how it Snows once a year an the whole city shuts down. I love how everyone is friendly here. I love my house in River Oaks and the crazy Chapel Creek Ward. I love that my parents are 30 minutes away and seeing Mamaw every week. I love living close to the Naval Air Station and remembering how proud I was to be a Navy Wife. I love seeing all the places where Jonathan and I dated. I love the Dallas temple and how Texas was home to my first baby girl. (She's Texan- born and will forever be even if she never lives here again- I'm just sayin')

Texas was my first home, the first 6 years of my married life, 5 years of Navy life, first self employed business, first shed, second shed, my first born and family and friends. So yes... I love Texas and I am sad to leave my family, friends and all that is comfortable to me. I know that this move has been coming for 7 years now, because Jonathan told me when we were dating that we would be moving, but it doesn't make it any easier. All the details of the move, the Texas house, the Arizona house are not worked out. My heart hurts on so many levels- emotional and stressful levels. It's hard for me to leave with so much not worked out. I know that Lord loves me and will help me through all of this. But it will be hard to say goodbye, to you Texas.

Texas- I love you and all that my years spent here have brought me. I will visit as often as I can. Texas, take care of my family and stay Texas Proud!

- Lacy Lynn Williams Jones

(Texas Born- Texas Raised- Texas Proud)

Dear Arizona:

You and your darn mountains- better be worth all this!!!

-Lacy, backed by the whole state of Texas!!

A Curious George Birthday Party

Alyson l.o.v.e.s Curious George. So with the help of Me-Maw and Da, (my parents) we threw her a Curious George Theme Birthday Party. She was thrilled. Her cousins Madison and Jett came to the party as well as her BFF, Lucy.

We had one of her favorite meals- hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill- brought to us by Daddy ( Jonathan)

Mamaw even came over to the house to spend Alyson's birthday party with her. We decorated with Curious George Balloons, streamers and number 2's for her 2nd birthday

We had a Curious George Movie ( Curious George Goes to a Birthday Party) playing on TV throughout the party.

Party Games included coloring a Curious George Birthday Coloring page- which we later used to decorate the fridge.

And we played a butterfly Curious George came that was like pin the tail on the donkey- only with a Curious George theme.

Ally got new pjs and a baby doll stroller. She also was given a handmade baby doll diaper bag, baby doll bottles, baby doll blankets and a new baby doll. She discovered she fit in the doll stroller, so she booted her doll out for a while.

She was interested in opening some presents.... but I ended up opening a lot for her.

She got new dresses, shoes, pants, jacket and shirt from Great Aunts and Grandparents.

She was really blessed for all the things she got- all stuff she desperately needed. We are so grateful for wonder family and friends that came to celebrate Ally's 2nd Birthday. We love you all!

2 Year Old Pictures

So just to remind you of what she looked like at 1 years old.....

And now at 2 Years Old!!!

I ordered this one for mine and Jonathan's mom.

I got this one for me.

Ordered one of these

And since she had such a cute smile in this one, we did a close up and I ordered one of these.

She would not be still- she ran circles around each prop that we put out and wanted to touch everything, the light, the camera, the chair.... she also thought that she should get a turn to take a picture and would get all still and then run to me when it was time to take the picture. Silly kid. At least she didn't throw a fit.

Just for Fun

I'm so proud that she is learning church songs. Nursery has really helped her to learn and grow. I have seen a big change in her since 18 months. Now... if we can work through the new found talent of throwing fits- we might just make it to 3 years old.

Happy Halloween

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We had so much fun at the Fall Carnival and Trunk or Treating. Thanks to all those that put it together!

The Bee Movie

Ally is going to be a Bumble Bee for Halloween. Thinking that she wouldn't wear something that was actually a store costume, I made something that would fit her like normal clothes. The costume isn't totally complete, but she had fun trying it on. So here's the video. Hopefully she's cute enough to rock the 6.00 dollar costume her uncrafty mom made her.

The one where their up all night

Yes... it was an all nighter... and no.. not in a fun way. My family is conspiring against me. Seriously. Bed by 10 last night, so freakin tired. Jonathan starts to snore. He is not a person that snores, therefore it has been determined that he chooses to snore. So being the wonderful person I am, I wake him to tell him to make better choices and not to snore. There is not physical reason for him to snore- he sleeps horrible when he snores and I am up all night because of it too. So anyway, he takes up snoring last night so by midnight, I am still awake and yep- you guessed it- Ally decides to wake up to- screaming.her.head.off. (She must have heard the snoring). Well there is no reason for her to be awake as far as I can tell- but she flips out when I put her back to bed. So the monstrous snoring sounds must have freaked her out. By 3 I break the no kid in bed rule- send Jonathan to sleep in the guest bedroom away from me and I get the joy of sleeping next to a 2 year old... who kicks... and flings her arms about. And who still decides, after all that non sleeping we just went through to wake up at 6:30. WHO DOES THAT!!! Evil pure evil. And to top it all off- I can't nap during the day- it's like impossible unless I'm sick because I just lay there thinking about how I shouldn't be sleeping in the middle of the day with a billion things to do. So I just get to be tired... ALL DAY LONG.

The Pumpkin Patch

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Rollin with the Homies

"What??? Daddy is going to show me how to make home made cinnamon rolls for FHE??"

I was told it was a secret family recipe, so no pictures were allowed during the making of these cinnamon rolls. But here are the final shots. Now, wipe the drool from your mouth. We ate a few and then took them to his Home Teaching families. I put a note on it that said "rollin with the homies- from your home teacher."

FYI- for those that don't know. the "Rollin with the homies" is a clueless thing. You know.. Clueless the movie? whatever? As if? greatness.

Ally ate... and ate... and ate.... and ate! 4 whole cinnamon rolls. This is why they are only made once a year. So good!!!!!

Road Trip- OKC part 2

Saturday, per Jonathan's request, we went to The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. It was during Alyson's naptime, so she slept through most of it in the stroller, which probably worked out for the best since it was a not Alyson friendly in most of the exhibit halls.

The museum was huge, and there were beautiful gardens that you walked through to get to some of the different buildings to see their exhibits.

There was an exhibit that featured all the big names in Westerns. John Wayne, Gene Autry, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, etc. The stars there on the ground had the performers names, like a Hollywood Walk of fame.

There was a rodeo section, this is a statue of a cowboy on a bucking bronco, Ally woke up about this time, because as you walk through you hear cows mooing and sounds of horses. She liked to hear the animal noises and see what to her, where "real" animals.

There was another section of the museum that had civil war items, and there was another section that was all about guns. You weren't allowed to take pictures in some parts of the museum and the gun hall was one of them, so I don't have pictures of those, but Jonathan enjoyed them!

I don't remember the name of the statue, so we will just call it "Cowboy rides again"

We had alot of fun. We really enjoyed the grown up museum, since the last road trip featured a children's museum it balanced out nicely. Look at us! Being all cultured!

After the museum, we headed back to Peggy's house to chill. We played Wii for the first time. I know!! How have we never played Wii??? We just aren't video gamers, but we did have a lot of fun playing. Jonathan then cooked us a nice steak dinner, which had Peggy and I working really hard in the kitchen to heat up rolls and toss a salad... man, the things we do to have a nice dinner!! :) We hung out more, watched Ally play with the puppies Bear and well... PJ was there too but at a safe distance. I didn't get pictures of that- camera wasn't charged. We headed back and I even made it to church on time to teach Sharing Time in Primary.

We love road trips!!!

and Aunt Peggy too!

Road Trip- OKC part 1

Jonathan was given an unexpected Friday off last weekend making it a 3 day weekend!! What to do.. what to do.... mmm... how about another Family Road Trip. um. OKAY! So we called my Aunt Peggy who lives in Piedmont Oklahoma, which is near OKC, and asked if we could take her up on her long standing invitation to come visit. She of course said yes, and we headed up there on Friday. We timed it so that we got there just after she got home from subbing for the high school. Ally did good too on the 3 1/2 hour drive. She's beginning to understand this road trip thing! Either that or SHE's finally trained US right.

That Friday night Peggy took us to Bricktown, where we ate at Zio's Italian Restaurant.

The food was really good and Jonathan said he liked the atmosphere of the restaurant. Cause he's fancy like that...

Anyway, Bricktown is really a nice date spot to hit. It has a mini river walk, complete with boat taxi to carry you down the canal. We didn't do the boat since we had Alyson and didn't think she would behave enough to ride it.

Shot of the over pass that lets you know you are in Bricktown.

Bricktown is also home to the At&T Bricktown Ballpark where the Oklahoma City RedHawks play. They are the AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers. There wasn't a game that weekend. They weren't playing until the following Tuesday, so we didn't get to go to a game, but it was still cool.

Excuse me, your personality is showing.

I love her!!

I told her to get her shoes so I could put them on so we could leave. She ran and got her sunglasses, bracelet and necklace. Apparently, I did not accessorize her enough for the day. When I saw her, I could almost hear her say "Don't worry, mom. We'll make you look pretty too." I'm afraid, my daughter is going to be more fashionable than me. I better start working on that.

I swear, she she would permanently attach herself to her dad if she could! They actually walked around the house with her stuffed inside his overralls for longer than I thought they could. Silly kids.

She was so proud of herself for climbing up there too!

Stupid tonsils

I HATE strep throat!! Yes, that's right the strep throat fairy visited our house last Friday, once again. Ally gets it every and I mean e..v.e..r..y... two months. We have done tests and know that she is a carrier and never seems to be contagious. No one ever seems to get it from her and it happens out of the blue every time. We plan to have the tonsils removed, but atlas, she is too small. Dr. Shori, her pediatrician, said that we are looking at 3 at the earliest to have them removed. And that is only if they are big enough, if she weighs enough etc. At least she is a good sick patient. She has atypical symptoms and is back to mostly normal within 24 hours of medication, so I can't really complain too much. I just hate that she has to be sick.

Family Road Trip to Waco

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We decided to plan a family trip to Waco, where we met up with Christie and Lucy and went to the Mayborn Children's Discovery Museum. We had so much fun! There are tons of different themed rooms to discover things. Jonathan was off and drove with us- he had a pretty good time exploring with us. Enjoy the slide show- there were so many pictures I couldn't post individually!

All Ally- All Day

I've been having so much fun with Ally these past two weeks. We are communicating better, I actually understand most of what comes out of her mouth- expect when she goes all chipmuck on me and then heaven only knows what that kid is saying.

She's discovered the joy of ponytails and piggy tails. We've been bow people for so long, that it's nice to branch out. She even asks for me to fix her hair. I put her on my dresser so she can look in the mirror while I fix it. They never stay in her hair all day, but when I'm done, she tells her reflection " You, good" which I think is translated into You look good, which is what I tell her every morning after I get her ready for the day.

we love to write, draw and color. All papers are for daddy.

I love this face! I snuck up on her playing in her car seat.

We've entered the awkward smile phase. I said say "Cheese" and this is the face I get.

Tax Free Weekend Drama

Why? Why did I go shopping today? Oh... it's tax free weekend. And for some reason, I think that saving a measly 8.25% sales tax is an amazing opportunity that I can't possibly miss. Let me tell you... it was worth missing. For me anyway. Maybe not for the families that have more than one kid or that have kids actually old enough for school. But for me and little Ally Jones, it was not worth it. To top it all off- it's still like 100 degrees outside. Again... not worth it.

Why you ask?

Allow me to tell the tale....

Genius that I am, I decide that Kohls had a great sale for the tax free weekend. First mistake.... it's Kohls, they always have sales, and knowing that store, they will probably have an even better sale next week, when you can't save the tax, but whatever. So I load Ally up thinking we will have a nice mother daughter shopping trip, stop for lunch and head home for a nap. Second mistake.... my daughter isn't even 2- why do I try to bond with her over shopping??? What is wrong with me???

So we get to kohls and the parking lot wasn't that crowded, so I thought we would be okay. But there are no shopping carts to put my curious monkey in. There are always carts at my kohls, but not today. So we attempt the hand holding. Apparently what cars were in the parking lot, all came full because there were tons of people and their kids at the store. Not so many that I turn around and leave, but enough. Well Ally is excited because she sees kids. Now, I'm not a bad parent. I pay attention to my child. But that little rascal managed to walk away with other kids 3 times while I was trying to pick out some clothes for her. She was never gone for long, I always caught up with her, but she did try to runaway 3 times. So much for bonding with her mother....

Long story short, I got 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and a dress for 30.00 bucks. I saved 62. I got an extra 15% off everything in my cart and I only lost my kid 3 times. Still wasn't worth it.

Road Trip Adventure

Christie's family moved from Dallas to Hewitt Texas for a new teaching job, so we set off to visit them. Ally and I made our first day trip/ mini road trip to visit our very best friends Christie and her daughter Lucy. The drive should only take an hour and a half. Plus it is straight freeway and a pretty relaxing drive.

As long as you don't have to stop for gas... or in my case diesel.

I get in the car to leave Wednesday morning and the car states I have 115 miles before my next fill up. I think to myself "Self, let's just get on the road and then we can stop after we have left the city. Easy on, easy off the freeway. Life is good"

So, I don't make a liar out of myself, I head on my way. Now we make it all the way to Hillsboro, before I decide to pull over.. or rather Alyson does because she decides that I'm taking too long to get her to Lucy and starts to scream. So we stop at a gas station in hillsboro, except there is only one diesel pump and the screen for the credit card machine is broken and I can't enter information to pay. So, no biggie I think. There is another gas station across the street. I drive over there. And there is one diesel pump.... and 15 (no lie) trucks waiting in line.

Well, the kid is still crying and I still have 50 miles until fill up according to the car, so I decide that we will not wait in line, we will just drive ahead some.

So we drive ahead. A few exits down we try again. Only one diesel pump and it's broken. We head back for the freeway. A few exits down, only one diesel pump and they are out of diesel. No signs on the pump of course, I have to try it first then go inside and look dumb. So back to the freeway. We try a few more exits down. They only have diesel pumps for 18 wheelers and try as I might, the nossel of the pump won't fit into a car gas tank. By now, the car is lovingly telling me we have 10 miles before we run out of gas. I offer up a prayer that I won't be stranded with Ally on the side of the road- who is still crying in the backseat because each time I stop, she thinks we are getting out. So the next stop is the winner and with 8 miles until empty, I pull into an Exxon.

It has a normal pump, it has a screen that I can read, it takes my debit card. There is diesel. Score! I stand there pumping. The handle is broken, so I have to hold it instead of using the nifty pump itself feature. That's fine, I talk to Ally through the window. THEN- I feel something crawl across my foot. I look down. The ground is covered in black beetles. And the gas side of the pump is trickling gas down to the ground. And the bugs are crawling in the gas and on my foot( I was wearing sandals) . And if I move I will crush them and then I will have dead bugs on my shoes. So I stand there, pumping the diesel I have to have or be stranded, while bugs are crawling on me and ....I'm... dying!! I finish pumping, run for the driver's side of the car, manage to knock off all the bugs and then grab the wipes to clean my feet and shoes, because they smell like gas and have bug germs.

I recovered. It took a few minutes. But I recovered. I drove the rest of the way. Ally seemed to sense that I had just be attacked by bugs and stopped crying. And we had a great time with Christie and Lucy, when we finally got there 2 hours after we had left, because of all the gas stopping!!

Lesson learned: Make sure you have a full tank before you head off for the day or you will be attacked by beetles.

Consider yourself warned.

Work

There was an article written in the Washington Post title "What do Stay at Home Moms do all day". I have to admit, I thought about that a lot when I was younger and pre-parent stage of my life. I figured, hey I work full time, go to school full time, support my husband and church calling and manage to knock out all the household stuff too. How hard would it be if I just replaced work with raising a kid? After I read the article, which was amusing as it was in response to the title question... I thought about how I would answer it if I was asked. So here is what it feels like I do all day:

7:00 Ally wakes up. Constant demand of my attention

7:01- 11:59- Constant demand of my attention, mixed in with fighting, and saving her life at least twice.

12:00- 2:00- Nap. Which means workout for me, shower and scramble to clean up a little of the mess she made from that morning's activities and oh yeah... lunch if I can get all that in before I hear....

2:01- Mommy! Constant demand of my attention

4:30-7:30- Daddy comes home. Constant demand of my attention- split between both of the lovely darlings.

7:31- Bedtime- Finally get to clean up the rest of the mess made that day and on to any chores I didn't get done with my happy helper during the day.

Also, there is the whole language development, life skills, religious teachings and whatnot that all accompany the job of being a mother. Most of the time- it's great, but some days I feel she is out to get me! And yes, sometimes I think about those days when I worked and there were adults to talk with and everyone told me how awesome I was every day.... but then I didn't get Ally hugs at work so it all balances out.

But back to days when she is out to get me.... I got a call from the Realtor last Saturday. Someone wanted to see the house in 2 hours, and was I cool with that..... I said yes and hung up. Turned around.... and saw this in the kitchen:

and that was just the kitchen.... I still had the living room, my room, her room and the office that she had managed to "decorate" as well. Not to mention the scrubbing of bathrooms, countertops and all the other deep cleaning you would do for a house showing. I sent someone off to bed and went to work. It was spotless two hours later. Guess I can get stuff done when I need to.... well.... I didn't get to shower but the house was clean, the girl was feed and the showing... went on.

Really?

So will there ever be a time in my life that I am not bothered when I enter into the confines of the bathroom?? Think about it...

As a young child I was constantly checked on by adults to make sure I okay. Growing up with seven people and one bathroom meant a lot of people banging on the door asking you to hurry. Then enter into marriage and you get the" husband talks to you through the bathroom door" even though you talked about never allowing that from day one of your marriage, but whatever. And now I've got a child who believes that when I close the door to the bathroom I forget her very existence, and therefore needs to remind me by banging on the door and screaming "now, mom" which is her version of "hurry up in there".

I'm thinking that will eventually evolve into her growing up and doing the whole "oh mom's in the bathroom, she's trapped, now I can ask for things" stage. Then when the kids are all grown and gone there will still be the husband to hurry you along and then I will get to the "so old that people check on you to make sure you haven't died in there" stage.

Do you think there might be some golden point in my life where I won't be bothered?? Maybe I should time my bathroom breaks to correspond with sleeping children and husbands. We have to get creative here, people!

You might think this is a weird thing to blog about- but you know you are sitting there thinking... hmmm when is the last time I got any bathroom peace....

It's that time of year again folks!

Life is good.

My surprise present for Jonathan

Reminder of the happiest moment of his life

Treats and eats

My happy helper. One of the best things that has come out of these last six years.

From the beginning, we have been following along with the traditional gifts for wedding anniversaries.... paper, cotton, leather, flowers, and wood, so far. So the traditional gift for the 6th wedding anniversary is candy. Lucky for us, we like candy! Jonathan's present to me was arranging for us to go to the temple last Saturday and then lunch as Chili's afterward. Thanks to my parents and grandmother for watching Ally while we went and for providing the anniversary money to pay for our outing. We appreciate it!! So since he did Saturday, I planned for the actual anniversary day- today! I got root beer and ice cream for root bear floats and then picked out our favorite candy. Now that Ally is off to bed- we are off to celebrate. Celebrate good times- come on!!

So if anyone wants to celebrate us- go pick up your favorite candy bar and make an excuse to be happy!