Young at Play

Today was Aidan's first basketball game and it was hilarious. Trying to get 10 4 and 5 year-olds to dribble and remember where to shoot the ball at is great! But Aidan showed some real gumption. He was aggressive with the ball, loves to shoot it, and an all around ball hog. It really surprised us. When he played soccer last year, he was content to stay out the outsides and get the ball if he needed to. Not with basketball. He was stripping it from the other team, and wrestling in the floor for it. It was great. His future girlfriend and wife will love when I show this video, and I darn well plan on it! AJ and I think we've found his sport, so hopefully he'll grow, or learn to handle the ball great so he can be a point-guard. But I'm so proud of him! Future NBA here we come!

Gavin's Hearing

The day after Christmas, Gavin had tubes put in his ears. We are no novice to surgery since at 11 months he had his tongue clipped, but it still doesn't stop you from worrying. The surgery was at Walnut Lawn in Springfield. And we had to be there EARLY. I was so glad that there was a TV in the waiting room so he had something to occupy his mind instead of wanting milk. The doctor and nurse came to get him about 8 am and at 8:20 we were back in recovery with him. He was so groggy, but didn't want to lie down. He downed his first cup of water and then another. The best thing about it was that the baby down from us was crying and Gavin was complaining that the sound hurt his ears. It was wonderful! When we finally were released, we walked outside and Gavin had a shocked expression and his mouth was wide and looking around. He was looking for the sound of the traffic. He heard it for the first time. Little things that we often take for granted and grumble about, he was hearing for the first time. Now time will tell about how quickly his speech improves. It's already going leaps and bounds. He's stopped the baby jargin and is using words. He's starting to say love you, which will melt your heart.

Christmas Jones Style

We had a wonderful Christmas time. And multiple days of it.
December 23 we got together with Toni and her crew, Jason and Josh included, Grandmom, mom, dad, and the 4 of us. Jason and Josh were with us, and mom and dad almost didn't make it due to the wonderful weather in Arkansas and people forgetting how to drive on ice and snow. But it was a fun night. Jason helped unclogged the sink stopper and all the kids had a great time opening presents. When you have 4 kids under the age of 5 plus 2 bigger kids (sorry Jason) there's a lot of paper.

Christmas Eve, AJ, Aidan and Gavin went to Grandma and Grandpa's in Norwood, MO for the Jones Christmas. Becky, Layne, and Lauryn with Rachel, Kent, Rio and Dre' were there. Grandma and Grandpa got their grandchildren's picture and I sure hope they love it as much as we did. I didn't get to make that one, but I had a chance to go home, clean up and wrap all the presents that I'd been putting off. Plus mom and I got to be together. And I made it to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was very nice. The boys got home in time to open up their Christmas Eve pj's and go to bed to wait for Santa!

Christmas morning, Gavin woke us up, and then we had to go wake Aidan up. For some reason I see this as a every year tradition! The boys had fun opeining up their presents and playing with them while waiting on Nana and Papa.

Grandmom came over for Christmas lunch and more present opening!
It was great to have family around for the Christmas season. And it's truly wonderful to know that the boys understand the true meaning of Christmas. It's Jesus birthday. He was born in a manger and the sheperds and wisemen came to see Him and bring Him gifts. Without His birth there would be no Easter and no hope for our world. Christmas Love. Christ Was Love.