Neighbors to love

Some new neighbors have started construction, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

We are getting a brand spankin' new QT like a block away! How do I know that this is going to be a QuickTrip? Because I am that good of a customer and they called me and asked where I would like a new store to go up. No, I seriously do have an in with them. You see I have a patient that works for QT in development and locations, or something like that, where he basically finds new places for stores and gets all the permits and junk. So when I told him how big of a fan I am, and that we are SERIOUSLY good customers, he asked my crossroads, and ta-da! New store. Just like that. I asked him if when he comes in every six months for his cleanings if I can just put in a new request...we'll see how that goes.

. Who would have thought that a dental hygienist could be sooo connected?

Life in a Condo

Our downstairs neighbors are having a contest to see who can be more awesome.

Contestant 1:

Contestant 2: Neither of them are winning. Lucky us.

Shouting hooray...

...because he has a birthday today!

Happy birthday to my old old 27 year old brother Kev!

A couple things you may not know about him...

He LOVES the cold, and likes to be cold. And his wife is hot.

He loves places that are prettier than Arizona. He'll often call me and say, "I found you guys a house." And I've learned to immediately ask, "In Arizona?" To which he replies something along the lines of, "No, but Indiana is so pretty!" He sits like a small Filipino child like 95% of the time.

So the other night I found these pictures at my mom's, which I had been looking for forever since they are my favorite pictures of us growing up!

Um, we played in the dirt. A lot. And when I was like 14 I found toy cars buried in the back planter where we used to play.

These were horsey rides growing up. And we were awesome kids. And I'm sure that my mom requests that you not be too jealous of our amazing drapes and couch and rug on the wall(?).

Happy birthday to my wannabe twin!

Speaking of old pictures,

Okay, so last week for mutual (our church youth midweek activity) they had a 'Get to know your leaders' night, and Philip was asked to supply a picture of me as a child.

Enter Melissa in First grade.

The girls had to match the picture to the leader, and they no idea who this darling child was, and then they all laughed and laughed and laughed when they found out it was me.

I think my sister, Sara, put it best when she once said, "When she was little, she went through a harsh ugly duckling stage."

The best part about this all is that this is NOT the worst of my growing up pictures. Someday soon you will get to see Kindergarten, which is truly the epitome of ugly duckling. You'll see.

In the meantime, happy birthday Kev!

Christmas post for real this time.

Remember when it took me almost three full weeks AFTER Christmas to get my post finished? Yeah, me neither. Awesome.

Our Christmas season was fantastic, can't you tell? It seems like we had parties and festivities every day, some of which will be documented here. We'll start with the Annual Jones Cousin Christmas party. It should basically be named, "You Wish You Were a Jones Cousin," because it rocks hard.

A few things you should know about Joneses:

we like sharks,

and weird finds from Reid's pantry,

things from Walgreen's,

and things from our childhood playing at our Grandma Jones's house,

references to trashy tv shows,

awkward pictures in a fancy album,

awkward and really smutty romance novels, with teaser phrases such as, "He took her virginity for revenge!",

LARGE underwear,

and costumes, which unfortunately didn't fit me (or Chad, who indeed tried it on but didn't let us see), but fit Annie like a glove.

You

are

welcome.

And again, you're welcome for this gem of Tanner.

Then a few days before Christmas we had my family's big dinner and Nativity and hang out, which was delightful. The kids were adorable, and Aly made all new costumes this year, which were seriously professional. Check them out. What angel doesn't wear a white feather boa? That might have been some flair that Noelle added herself.

Brynn, a very cute shepherd, ready for pictures, with Liz as Joseph and Amy as Mary this year.

Oakley, a wise man, Amy as precious Mary, and Kev as the donkey (if the shoe fits).

Marissa & Caleb both in their fancy shmancy wise men costumes, and Riss totally rocking those trashy boots that came out of the costume box. I'm sure all wise men had old fake leather biker boots, right?

Oh this picture probably should have been first, it is Mary and Joseph and our favorite donkey. Poor Kev seriously has to be the donkey like every year.

If Amy knows there is a camera pointing at her, she will pull out what she thinks is adorable, which usually looks really cheesy, but here it totally worked

In the meantime of this lovely production, Philip and I stole Nate, who is kind of my favorite baby right now. He is kind of naughty and ornery, and I can always make him laugh which I thrive on. Anyways, he likes Philip, and that makes me smile constantly.

And then we turn him into a thug.

. . Then on Christmas Eve morning, we had our 3rd annual family bowling extravaganza, at which I took a million pictures, go figure.

. . . My mom got a strike, and I struck out trying to get a picture of her with the screen saying STRIKE and the cartoon explosion of pins behind her.

Reesey Piecey can do the splits and it makes him laugh every time. We were also remembering that at this time last year, both babies were still in the hospital, and like 4 lbs each, and we then counted our blessings that they are such big boys now.

Nate and Philip being buddies again.

The Palmer family doesn't mess around when bowling, and I love how every bowling picture produces a crazy foot in the air. The future pro getting help from his mom,

and dad. Both of which I thought were precious.

Melvie tearing it up. He follows the game more closely than any of us every year.

Lizzie was actually really good for being just six. I told Aly that they seriously need to consider putting her on a bowling league where she can really shine.

My favorite gangly 11 year old, Marissa.

Us being in love in a bowling alley. So classy, yes?

And get ready for me to obsess over Soph, because I'm kind of an addict when it comes to her. How could you not love that little dancy pants?

It was too cute for comfort...

...every single time.

Christmas Eve night tradition is the Nativity at Lindbloms, and then the sibling gift exchange. This being the second Christmas that Philip's parents have been on a mission, the boy (Philip) got to take the responsibility of the man (Phil). And I loved it, but am excited for Phil to be back next year.

Oh how I love these kids! Here we have Jocelyn, Grant, Jennifer, Jolie, Rock and Janet, being very very adorable.

Kate and Griffin were the perfect little Mary and Joseph this year.

The lot of them singing the last song. And of course Nancie in the background who directed the whole lovely production.

And now the whole group together, including Aniston holding Sam on the right side of the picture, both of which were darling angels.

Jennifer looks like she's not sure why I am taking pictures here.

And this picture of Kate is seriously the most precious thing I've ever seen.

Then on to the gift exchange! Popcorn and entertainment was apparently the theme this year...

I love Jolie's face.

Todd, Wendi and Garrison with their popcorn-er, kind of like the corn baller, but it's legal.

Julia was thrilled with her present, obviously.

And Michelle's family spoiled us with 30Rock (which we've already watched once, and I'm now watching it a second time with Stacie), and SNL dvds. And thank you again Michelle for returning the "V" original series. :)

CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!

.

We accidentally had themes this year too, Philip had a very XBOX Christmas, and he can tell you why his new one is WAY cooler than his old one.

And new and exciting games that he was sooo surprised about/picked out.

As for me and my nasty-A hair...

I had a very Tiffany's Christmas, which was my first and likely my last.

Philip stole my old bracelet and ring and took them to be refurbished and get all sparkly and whatnot, and it's amazing how pretty they looked again!

Then came the surprise, a ring I've been lusting over for a solid 8 months. This is my "oh my goodness, are you serious, I love it so much!" face.

It's like the mesh one but it has a row, or I suppose column since it is vertical, of little diamonds on it. It makes me happy.

We then headed over to hang out with family, and were once again spoiled, this time by Kev & Nicole. Philip loves his new sunglasses, and promises to not let them get stolen like his last ones.

I L.O.V.E. this book, and they got me a fancy hard back with pretty pages. It will go in our pretty library someday.

Phlip was thrilled with the Microsoft points for his XBOX, and has used them already.

And look at fancy pants me with a third pair of jeans! I haven't had more than two pairs of jeans since high school! Kev and Nicole are the greatest!

Most of us kids helped my parents ease their way into the 21st century (only 10ish years too late) by going in on these gifts:

A new tv and dvd/vcr (because yes they still have plenty of vhs tapes) player! They were finally able to get rid of the Quazar! They seemed to like it, which thrilled us to pieces.

Sophie was kinda the greatest on Christmas morning, when opening presents, she would untie the bow and get to this point... and then not know what to do.

So Beth intervened and helped. And yes Sophie's hair is super awesome.

It was a kitty! And seriously, how cute is this picture?! And when Beth asked her what it's name was, she promptly replied, "Jordan." As if she was waiting to name it. The family presents from yours truly.

Chris freaking out because Bethy was opening hers before he was ready because he takes SO. DANG. LONG. to open any presents. And they liked them! They were a little tricky to shop for because they needed to fit presents in their luggage home, so my original idea of a two-person horse costume was out of the picture. We also wanted to introduce them to the greatness that is, "How I Met Your Mother." And what two year old doesn't want/NEED band-aids?

And she promptly found owies that needed to be treated.

Nicole was the official passer-outer of the presents from my parents, and have I mentioned that my parents are the greatest? Because they are. And bless Nicole's heart, Kev was working in Indiana on Christmas, so she had to fly solo.

The Nielson family opening their present from Chris and Beth...

...and Noelle's expression says it all. Band Hero rocks!

Then my parents had the grandkids open their presents, and my mom made all of the kids towels with their initials on them, and decorated to fit their personalities, which turned out so stinkin' cute.

And my dad made them all marshmallow guns, which resulted in all of us getting pelted once or twice with wet (spitty) marshmallows.

And it was a Christmas Miracle! Jake was on call in Tucson at his residency, but one of his friends took his pager for the day so he could come up to Mesa! So here are Jones kids opening presents and looking precious.

Amy's towel being modeled so splendidly by Jake above, and Parker loving his too.

Sara and Jason were both so excited for new toys for the babies, and forced them to play with them.

Oakley loved his guitar from Jake and Nat's fam,

and later took a little time to strum a little diddy.

Big Melvin & Little Reese Melvin, who kinda look like twinners, yes?

Okay, so a couple nights later we were hanging out and I showed the kids the SURPRISED KITTY, have you seen it? If not, google it, because you are one of the seven people on the planet that haven't. Anyways, the kiddos loved it.

See?

And then Philip and Sophie played Peggle on his iTouch and were very very precious.

And hooray, all of Philip's sisters were in town at the same time, so we had a very lovely and delicious (no surprise there) dinner, and laughed really hard for like three hours straight. And lastly, our last morning before Chris & Beth left, aren't they the cutest little family on the planet? And, how cute are these twinners?

And then us sibs went to QT and tried to talk Chris into moving here, which only time will tell if it worked. And we're done! Can you believe how many pictures there are? The entire time I've been working on this, Philip keeps asking questions like,

. "How many pictures are there?" .

. "No seriously, have you counted the pictures?" .

. "Do you think people stop caring when there are so many pictures?" .

. "No really, do you think there are more than 50?" .

. "There are way too many, you should delete them." .

. That last one wasn't a question, but yes, it falls under the same category. So there you go, lots of pictures of Christmas and whatnot that only family might or might not appreciate. The first person to count and give me a total number of pictures gets a high five.