Big Jones Family Picture

Here is our big Jones family. Hooray, we actually had everybody together all at once! (at the company grand opening for the new office.) Left to right: Courney, Madison, Whitney, his wife Paige, Logan, Rychen, Annalise. Bottom: Andy, Carol, Rychen Parker.

Rychen P. sat very well for this photo shoot. Our camera "woof"s every time a photo is taken, so he kept giggling every time. Fun, fun!

Mink & Mable

A couple weeks ago, we made a new friend, Shaedra, who lives outside of town. She has the best home! A small, modest house on a couple acres. And just for fun, they have chickens, a goose, and recently purchased a mom & baby goat. We loved feeding and petting the goats, and getting some fresh milk of course. We even saw the baby nurse from the mom! It's so cool to see these things in nature. Anyway, the baby is actually the equivalent of a toddler, so we called it the "bubba goat." Rychen P. had a blast...

Check this out. The kid, Mable, can climb trees! (and she trots around just like a toddler, and when she falls and gets hurt she runs to her mama to nurse!)

So today we had a date with Shaedra to pick peaches - Yum!! Fresh, ripe peaches are soooo different from store-bought. Rychen P. was so excited that he caried his basket around all morning until it was time to go, and wouldn't stop saying, "I want go pick peaches!" But once we got there, apparently it was a mistake to tell him that we'd visit the goats afterward because he wasn't excited about peaches anymore, and he wouldn't let me pick either! He just kept saying, "I want go see mama goat and bubba goat!" so over and over, finally we left (with 32 lbs. of peaches--that will last a few days) to go to Shaedra's house. I looooove it there! We definitely must buy a house with land. And get pets that are useful, not just licking machines. (Yes, Fenway, that's you.)

Vrroom Vroom! Pigeon at the wheel!

One day Rychen P. starts saying, "I want fries." -- What?? Fries?? I was confused (and terrified) until we realized he was saying I want to drive. Phew.

So he plays in the car. It's the best discovery yet! We park in the garage, turn the light on and close the garage door. Roll down the windows, turn everything off, plop toddler in the driver's seat, leave the house door open so we can hear him, and FREE TIME!! We're talking like an hour here. Perfect!

Except lately he wants to drive every time we go anywhere. That gets old fast... The other day he and I went to eat out (to wait out traffic coming back from Portland) and afterward, he wanted to drive. Okay, no big deal, we have all the time in the world... So I told him he could drive "for five minutes while I take a picture of the temple." (We were a couple miles away, but you can see the spires through the trees--so beautiful!) Anyway after a few minutes, I came back and said time to go. He said, "No mommy, Go take more pictures of the temple." Ha! That is a huge sentence for him. I was so impressed that I let him drive longer!

p.s. If you don't recognize my title reference, it's from the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Which is so hilarious to hear Rychen P. read. (He has memorized several books and says the lines in such a funny voice!)

Playground

We play at either a school playground or park almost every day. Rychen Parker has "playground shoes," and one day we went to put them on, and he said, "No! I want park shoes!" So I got his other shoes and henceforth these have been called his park shoes. Pretty soon he'll need store shoes, library shoes, travel shoes, who knows what else. He definitely is a Jones! :)

Jock in training

Besides basketball, which Rychen Parker has been playing for more than a year, he has recently gotten interested in baseball and tennis. We took him to the park once to play baseball, and he told me, "No, want play tennis." - Whoa! Where did that come from? We don't talk about tennis very much, and he's only seen us play a couple times. Oh well, so we called Grandma and got a junior size racket for him to dink around with. Rychen got serious and started teaching him "drop and hit."

Here's Emily, Madison and her friend Katie.

Now here's Rychen P. playing Tee Ball in the living room. We have a great video of him hitting a "home-run" and running to the "bases" and sliding. It's so hilarous! I don't know how to post it, but I could e-mail it to you if you ask. In the meantime, check out these awesome action shots...

I got this Tee-ball set for him at Wal-mart. He's been wanting one--actually, we had been using a make-shift tee ball thing out of a pipe and a toy for support! So I was glad to see this at Wal-mart, but then Rychen P. wouldn't let me buy it! He tells me to put it back on the shelf, and then he cried all through the store as I went to pay for it. Weird kid, he did want it, but he has some weird OCD quirk about taking things off the shelf (he's done it before). Like at church, he throws a fit everytime we sing because we pick up the hymn book, and he wants it left in the holder. OCD!!

Roadkill Cantaloupe

Yesterday and today, Rychen P. kept asking for cantaloupe. Then I started having cravings for watermelon! So we called Dad (who had to car) and asked him to please buy us one of each and bring them home to us... These cravings were so bad that we even compromised on some standards, i.e. paying a high price for melon. Oh well.

So we cut the watermelon first and sat down on our front porch to eat it, at Rychen Parker's request. Meanwhile, he was holding his little cantaloupe like a special ball. And then...

The cantoloupe slips!

Let me remind you what our front yard looks like.

We watched, captivated, as the cantaloupe dropped down each step, (with each landing, we'd wait to see if it was going to stay...) rolled down the pathway, hit a rock (stay? no), rolled the other direction, down more stairs, down the hill, and finally into the STREET! Our little cantaloupe survived the fall! But, wait! Just then--before it even had a chance to roll back into the yard, a truck drives by and - SMACK! - Slices it into 3 peices.

I just cracked up laughing. Rychen P . was dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, more cars drove by, and 3 peices turned into seven or eight...

My first thought was, "Darn it, and it was an expensive cantaloupe!" But you know what? I may not like paying that much for melon, but I'll pay a few bucks for a good laugh any day!

Pitchin' Skills!

A while ago, we noticed that Rychen P. would voluntarily belly flop on the ground with his arms reached out. Rychen noticed that the action resembles a slide in baseball, and that this behavior began after watching baseball on TV with Daddo. So we think that's what he's trying to do! It's so funny.

Then after going to a baseball game in person, Rychen Parker's game of catch evolved a bit. Now when he throws the ball, he winds up first, lifts up his front leg, and then runs a few steps! It's an exact procedure, and he does it every single time! I took a video of him and was just cracking up in the background. Here's a photo...

First Tithing

Rychen Parker had his birthday recently and received some birthday money, so we thought it would be an excellent time to have FHE on tithing and ask if he'd like to pay 10% of his birthday money to Jesus (I didn't want to just do it for him, it had to be his choice). So we told him how paying tithing helps to build more churches and temples, pass the sacrament, buy things for nursery, etc. and showed him how we fill out the form and put it in the "special envelope for Jesus." Then I asked if he'd like to put his 70 cents in, and he did it willingly. It was a great learning time for him. So on Sunday I will make sure he gets to give his special envelope to the bishop.