Its almost mother's day....

Well it has been awhile. It is not for a lack of trying but I can never seem to get a posted finished and since my sister has entered the blogging world I feel like I need to polish each one before I click publish. So let's catch you up on the haps these last few weeks here at the Jones house.

First, Tyler counted to ten to the other day. Seven is a little hard to understand but 1-6 are clear as a bell and same goes for nine and ten. He will only count when he wants to and that is pretty rare. I realized that I have become my mother in that regard. When we would go places (she still does this) she goes come on tell them that story or sing that song or dance my little monkey dance. All parents want to show how talented their kids are but when she made us wear the signs that said "will dance for food" I think that is when it got a little twisted.

In other Tyler news he also went potty. That is to say he went potty on the toilet as he is now two he has went potty a lot since he was born. If not he would have swelled up like a balloon by now and we most likely would have taken him to the doctor. He likes to sit there and wipe his "willy"(our slang for his little man parts) with the toilet paper and say "all done". It is pretty cute and when you visit I will make him do it for you if you would like : )

Kaitlyn is almost done with school. She will be a first grader next year. We can't believe that a year has passed. She has grown so much not just in size but in maturity. My Birthday was a couple days ago(for those who forgot it is alright I have only had 34 of them and no longer require the constant reminders of just how old that is) and she and Kristena made me breakfast and a cake and then Kaitlyn went into her room and brought me out one of her stuffed animals as my present to go along with the card she made me. She is very special and I go to bed everynight and pray that she does not decided to date until she is 40. That way I don't have to break out the meet the boyfriend outfit. The outfit is a sleeve less white t-shirt(sleeves will be ripped off), jean shorts (cut-off), ball hat around backwards and Kristena's gun on the table ready to be cleaned. I will then set the young man down as a clean her gun(Kristena will need to teach me how) and explain about curfew and how much my little mudpie means to me and how much I hate it when she gets hurt. If he doesn't go running screaming into the night he, Kaitlyn, Tyler, Kristena and I can go get some pizza and see some movies. I figure by the time she is forty I won't be intimidating enough to pull that stunt off anymore.

Well I guess I should address the subject line. This Sunday is mother's day. So if you were looking for all jokes consider this your:

"SAP ALERT"

I have been very fortunate to have had several great mom's in my life. One being my wife. She takes very good care of us all. One of the things that I realized about her early on was just how much she loved Kaitlyn. She has given her all to raising Kaitlyn and Tyler and she is terrific at it. I hope she reads this and realizes how much she means to us. As I watch Kaitlyn and Tyler grow up from babies to little adults I realize just how much her taking her time even when she is tired and worn out to read to them and play with them effects them as people. Being a stay at home mom is tougher than I would have ever imagined and she does it with such style and grace that it makes me love her even more. She is our kids and my best friend and she is building memories with them that they can have for the rest of their lives. One day they will be sitting around telling the stories of how mommy use to climb into their play school bus and pretend to drive and when mommy and I made daddy his birthday cake. She has my vote as she does every year for mom of the year! We love you honey!

The next is my mom. She raised three great kids. The greatest being probably Tom when they finally close the book on it all(actually it will probably be me who are we kidding here: )). But she did it in less than ideal circumstances and even though as she gets older she forgets our birthday's, she has no idea what time we were born or how much we weighed we love her and appreciate the sacrifices she made in order to make it all work. I have so many silly mom stories that I just thought I would share one. When I was eighteen and I had a minor incident with the authorities my mom believed in me. She never questioned my innocence and she defended me with all she had. She never let me give up and she helped me to find some humor in a very scary situation. So good job mom and remember that you are always welcome to come stay with us. Just go to our house in Canal Winchester knock on the door someone will be right there. :) We love you mom!

Then there is Grandma Hersman. She has always been the one to make sure that we had clean clothes, made sure that the lights stayed on when she did not have to, and even made sure that someone prayed for us everyday no matter what. While I did not all appreciate the worrying over me she did when I was a kid but I really appreciate that now. So Grandma you worry about whatever you want and don't apologize for it. Thanks for making sure that I had pizza money when I went back to college I never told Grandpa (oops guess I did now). We love you Grandma!

Then their is my mother in law Leslie. She is a very sweet person and we adore her she always makes sure that I can eat my weight in "PEEPS" every holiday(that's good and bad luckily the house has large door ways). Everytime I see her or talk to her she always laughs at my jokes and witty comments(even though some aren't that funny). We hope we get to see you more once everything there calms down a little. When Kristena and I got married in Las Vegas we went to dinner I got out of the lemo and she said to me "I have a son in law". I have never been quite sure what she meant by that. Was she meaning "This is great, he is a super guy and what a pick up. Good Job Kristena" or was it more like "is it to late to talk her out of it. They got married in Las Vegas this thing probably wasn't even legal. She and I will discuss how to get rid of him after we ditch him near that craps table"We love you, Les!

oops...Almost forgot someone I spent a lot of time with throughout my life and that is my Aunt Marsha. She is really not my aunt she is technically my cousin but I always thought she was my Aunt because she and my mom acted more like sister's than cousin's. The thing I remember the most about Marsha is when they lived on Grand Avenue and my mom and dad were getting divorced she always made us feel welcome. Marsha always made me feel like one of her kids that was great at snack time but not so great when we did not do what she asked us to do. She never made us feel like we were in her way or that she did not have time for us. She did not even get mad when I gashed Andrea's head open and she needed stitches. It was great during those times to know that we could go somewhere where we all could escape the drama of the divorce and the uncertainty and Marsha just gave us a hug and let us be us. Everytime I see her I can not wait to give her a hug and get that big smile that says I love you. Marsha you never know how much that meant to me. I love you aunt Marsha!

I sure there other's but I guess all of that is to say that the kids and I are very blessed to have such strong, smart and super role models to show us the way. I love each of you very much and to all the mom's, aunt's and grandma's who read this Happy Mother's Day!