Spring Fling

Well, Brandon got asked to Spring Fling on his 16th birthday!  How fun!  No sense in wasting time, eh?  A friend of Brandon's gave him a note.  This is what the note said...

 

"Are you "puzzled about who's going to ask you to Spring fling?  More pieces to this "puzzle" will come soon!"

 

 

Then a couple of days later, a whole bunch of balloons were delivered to our house.  Sadly I didn't get a picture of them before Brandon popped them all.  :(   Inside each balloon was a puzzle piece and a kit kat!

 



 

 

When you put the puzzle together, this is the name that it said.  Berkley Blackburn.  She lives in our stake and is such a cute girl!

 



 

 

This is the real puzzle (on the right side).  Brandon LOVES Batman!

 



Oh, and here are the kit kats.  I don't think they lasted long...

 



The dance was only like 2 weeks away and we didn't know how to answer her in a cute way, so finally, we came up with this.  (my idea? putting papers inside the noodles.  Todd's part?  He made up the poem!)

 



 

"To answer your question, you might think us frugal,

But I first tried to find fun ideas on Google.

I skipped past pennies and pizza and strudel,

I thought about playing a tune on my bugle. 

My internet searches proved to be futile,

I had to discard the whole kit and caboodle.

I decided against a herd of toy poodles,

And settled instead on a bowl full of noodles.

Now don't eat this pasta--that would be brutal--

Just find the clues inside every noodle.

This cheesy poem must end now--it's crucial,

I hope my reply meets with your approval."

 

 

 

 So cute and creative, huh?  Those Jones boys are pretty poetic!

 

And here's a picture of Blakely and Brandon just before the dance.  So cute, eh?  Do you notice the temple picture in the background?  Just sayin...ha!

 

They had tons of fun and this was Brandon's first date!  Since neither of them could drive yet, her parents took them to dinner and dropped them off (Olive Garden), then her mom picked them up after dinner and took them to Cottonwood.  And after the dance, her dad picked them up and brought him home.  (I so wish I could have been a fly in the car!)  :)

 

And now...onto more dating, I suppose!  How fun!

 

Happy sweet 16 Brandon!

 

Happy Birthday Brandon!  I can't believe you are 16 years old!  Look at you, all grown up (mostly)...And now are you telling me that you get to drive and date?  (but not necessarily at the same time, right?)  UGH!  :)

 

Brandon had a great day!

 

 

These are the only pictures I could get of him.  Brandon's friends gave he and 2 other friends a surprise birthday party the weekend following Brandon's birthday.  Even though it was supposed to be a "surprise," Brandon knew all about it...funny kid!

 



 

 

Here's his present from us...a hand-full of cash!  (well, a little hand-full of cash)

 



 

This is just a sample of all the gifts he got from friends.  One of Brandon's friends gave him the Batman Trilogy, which included Dark Knight, which he has never seen...and I'm not sure I want him watching it....

 



Either way, I hope Brandon had a wonderful day.  We love you, son!  Way to be an awesome example to your brothers!

The ducks are back! It must be Spring!

I just love it when the ducks come each Spring!  They are so fun to watch. 

 

 

Here is the daddy duck!  Very handsome...

 

The mommy duck was really hungry this day.  But she knows she will get fed at our house.  Cute little duck!

 



It must be Spring!

Oh happy day!  :)



Eric got his mission call!

Eric's mission call came in a week and a half!  We were so excited.  It came on a Wednesday, and of course, Eric was still at school in Ephraim, so we had to wait 2 DAYS until we could open it!  I seriously considered steaming it open and then re-sealing it, but I didn't do it. 

 

We got the grandparents together and all our family on Friday night and waited in suspense.

 

Eric was so excited!

 



 

Eric was called to serve in the Roseville, California mission.  And his date of departure said June 12th (exactly 2 short months away from that day).  That freaked mom out a little, especially since Eric isn't going to be home from school until May 4th. 

 

But we are thrilled with the news.  Eric was like a little boy on Christmas, opening up that envelope.  It was all very exciting! 

 



 

And where's Roseville, California?  Well, it's near Sacramento.

 



We are so happy that Eric has made the decision to serve the Lord.  He's going to be an awesome missionary.  Way to go Eric!  We are so proud of you!  (Now, c'mon, we've got a lot to do)!  :)

 



The cone of shame for Ziggy...

Ziggy wasn't feeling well a few weeks ago.  We noticed he wasn't able to completely empty his bladder when he went outside.  So, Todd took him into the vet.  The news wasn't great.  Ziggy had developed bladder stones and some of them had settled in his Urethra, blocking his flow of urine.  So the vet flushed him out (ouch) and then we scheduled surgery for the following Monday. 

 

 

 This is going to sound terrible, but I wasn't sure if we should put the money into our dog...I mean, what if he keeps getting them?  So, Todd and I discussed it and decided we would do surgery this time, but if he kept having problems, we'd probably put him down. 

 

There were five stones removed and the surgery went well.  I don't know if you remember the first cone-wearing incident with Ziggy, but just incase you forgot, I'll remind you.  When he got fixed, he hated his cone so much that he kept getting them off in the night and then chewing them up.  I swear we went through 4 cones...so frustrating (and expensive). 

 



 

But I'm happy to report that Ziggy did very well this time.  Apparently puppies really are harder than adult dogs!  Ziggy was very calm the first night.  We had a family party that night, and he didn't even get up to try and bite someone's leg off when he heard the doorbell.  He did, however, growl in place!  Crazy dog!  I was hoping this surgery would somehow change his demeanor, but sadly, it didn't.  He returned to "Psycho-Ziggy" in only a couple of days. 

  

Ziggy is totally back to normal now ($600 later), and life is happy again for him.  I hope he doesn't get these again...they weren't so fun (and it wasn't cheap to have them removed!).  UGH!