Eric's mission farewell

Well, I survived Eric's mission farewell...barely!  No, honestly, it was totally awesome!  Eric did an amazing job on his talk in Sacrament meeting and I was so proud of him. He had a lot of support from family and friends.  After the meeting, everyone came to our house for a luncheon.  The weather was perfect...a little hot, but not windy, so it was nice.  I'm guessing we served around 70 people, maybe more.  It was a huge success and such a fun day!  We had the party in our front yard and it was GREAT!

 

Here are some pictures of the big event...(I'll name who I know, but there are some people I don't know...sorry) 

Sara Bigelow, John Duffy, Ashleigh Hand

 



 

Nic Park, Katie ?

 



Gina Nicholson, Julie (our cousin)

 



 

 

I don't really know who these people are...the second one from the left is Rachel Colby.  The second one from the right is Brianna Dahl, and her mom, Tiffany, is on the end.

 



Yeah...don't know their names except Rachel Colby...

Matt Wall (cousin), Jayme Loveland, Brooke ? and ?

 



 

 

Jasmine, McKenna, and Owen  (all cousins)

 



Grandpa Jones, Parker (cousin), Aunt Kristin, Aunt Malissa

 



 

 

The Kimball family

 

Faye, Bethany, Janelle and in the back is Matt

 



 

 

Anne (cousin)

 



 

 

Uncle Ryan, Uncle Aaron, and Dad

 



 

 

A bunch of friends...Jayde Ford is middle left in a blue denim dress.  Tim Jenkins is on the far right of the screen (black hair)

 



Aunt Shauna, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa

 



 

 

Dad and Mom

 



 

 

Zach Wall (cousin), Dallin, and Brandon

 



 

 

Sierra, Sophie, Alexis (cousins), and Sophie's friend

 



 

 

Emma Wall (cousin)

 



 

 

Riley Nicholson (cousin), Aunt Gina, and Alexis Cruz (cousin)

 



 

 

This is one of my favorite pictures.  I absolutely love it. 

 

Eric and Riley

 



 

 

This is a picture of Eric and his good friend, Kurtis.  They have been friends since Kindergarten.  Kurtis came over to change the strings on Eric's guitar on Monday (the day after the farewell).  He's a sweet kid!

 



 

 

Eric and Kurtis...pulling a face

 



It was a wonderful day!  Good job, Eric!  You're going to be an awesome missionary!!

Family pictures May 2013

We decided we needed to get family pictures taken before Eric left on his mission...so we did.  Here they are...  :)

 

The Jones Family

 

(left to right) Kyle, Dallin, Mom, Dad, Brandon, Jacob, and Eric

 

(back row, left to right)  Kyle, Brandon, Dad, Eric, Dallin

(front row)  Mom and Jacob

 



 

 

 

 

The Jones Brothers 

Mom and Dad

 

The Boys...

(left to right)  Brandon, Kyle, Eric, Jacob, and Dallin

 





 

I love this one...They all look like, "Oh yeah...make my day.  I dare you!"  Funny!

 



I'm happy with how they turned out.  I don't love getting pictures taken, but I love it when they're done!  Yeah!

 



Life Skills

 

Todd decided that Eric should know how to sew on a button before he leaves for his mission, since we got him a little sewing kit and all...why not?

 

So, he gathered the boys together last week and had a "button-sewing" session.  (I know what you're thinking....does Melissa know how to sew on a button?  Yes, I do...barely!)  But, I gotta say, I had a few tips here and there...go figure.

 

Here are all the boys with their pieces of material, string, and their buttons.  I couldn't resist getting some pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

Way to go Dad!  What's next, you ask? 

 

Shining shoes and ironing!

 



End of the year concerts

 

Here are a few pics of Kyle's and Brandon's end-of-the-year concerts.  This band concert (in elementary school) used to be my favorite concert because each year they would play Hot Cross Buns, and it never quite sounded like that....it would just melt my little heart.  I used to just cry because the kids always tried so hard to play the tune...But now, they got new teachers and the band actually sounds pretty good.  You can even tell what song they are playing.  It was still great and it still melted my little heart! 

 

Way to go Kyle...

 

 

 

Brandon's end-of-the-year cocert was great!  The school hosted a spaghetti dinner along with the concert and it was wonderful.  Brandon played in a little group during the dinner portion of the concert.

 



 



 

Then, onto the auditorium for the bigger groups...And what would a concert be without a pair of shades?

 



 

 

Brandon played in almost every song, including the orchestra pieces.  He played 3 instruments throughout the night...flute, alto saxophone, and piccalo.  Holy Cow!

 



 

Way to go Brandon!  As always, nicely done!  :)

 



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!