On being famous.

One more thing to cross off my bucket list: have an enormous color picture of me in the newspaper.

As some of you may have seen, I was in the Arizona Republic this past Saturday. I didn't know that this was running in the paper until Wednesday, and when I went to QT on Saturday to buy a paper, I searched through the Republic to find myself first. For some reason, it took me a ridiculously long time to locate this section, and then BAM! There I am. On the entire page. I laughed out loud and held it up next to my face and showed the QT employee and said, "Hey look, it's me!"

And it didn't end there, open it up and there is more of my house.

Where did this all start? Well, as we all know, Erica decorated my family room and kitchen. Did you all know that she is incredibly connected? She has been featured in the Republic before and did free lance writing for them for a while. Anyway, when she posted pictures of my family room on her blog, they contacted her and asked if they could feature my living room in an article in AZ Magazine (the Republic's magazine) on budget friendly ways to remake a room. She asked me if I was interested, and I immediately said, "YES!" Why the heck not? So we scheduled a photo shoot, I cleaned and mopped and wiped base boards and basically stressed myself to death. This all took place in June, and then in the September issue of the magazine, BAM. There I was. They even used my picture as the table of contents picture!

As far as the pictures of me on the chaise go, please ignore the shlumpy looking sweater shirt. I was wearing something different that I had planned and ironed, and when they went to do my photos, they asked me to go change into something solid and bright. Cue panic attack as I tried to think of what in my closet isn't grey, white or striped. So out came the sweater that looks fine when standing, but not when posing to look as if I'm casually reading on the chaise.

Also, you would not believe how awkward it is to have your picture taken for these things. Especially since Erica and I thought it would be a picture of the two of us, and that was not so. The funny thing was that Erica had said afterwards in regards to me being super awkward, "Don't worry, even if it's ugly, nobody really reads the magazine anyway." Then, after it came out, three separate people told me they saw me in it, and I just kept thinking, "Dang it, Erica said nobody reads that!"

The article itself was lovely though. I thought it was a lovely representation of the room. They did manage to use the one description of mine that was absolutely idiotic though when I described the temple picture as "the picture of the building with a tree" and then they used that in the article. I realize now this could have been my grand missionary moment where I could have properly titled it as the temple picture, and then we would have gotten into a lengthy discussion about how temples bless our lives...but I'm not so quick on my feet, and it will forever be printed as the building with the tree. Because I'm a champ.

Anway, that in a nutshell is how I ended up in the paper this weekend. Like I had mentioned, they emailed Erica on Wednesday to tell her that they'd be running the same article, but I never would have guessed it would have been quite so, well HUGE!

Thank you again Erica, in case I haven't said it enough!

Changes.

My parents are moving to Utah. I go in phases of being okay with it and crying like a baby.

Today I wasn't okay. I went over to my parent's house this afternoon to see them off as they go up there for the next three weeks to buy a house and for my dad to start his new job. They'll be back in November for a couple weeks and then in December to hopefully move the bulk of their things up there, so this isn't a final goodbye, but it was the beginning of the end.

I gave them both hugs, my mom cried with me and my dad told me to get the pouty look off my face (tough love), and then I cried the entire drive home. What do I do without my parents?

I realize now how lucky I have been to have my parents so close to me my entire life. Ever since I've been married, I've been able to go over to their house any time I need to borrow something, need something to eat, just want to hang out, need a lesson on lawn care, sewing something, or any church subject, or just need someone to listen to me talk. They are the epitome of selfless love, and I'm going to miss them like crazy.

I know it is selfish of me to whine about it, but even though I'm 26 and married and fairly independent, I'm still their baby. And now I just want to go have a good cry and take a nap.

My favorite time of year.

This past weekend I went with my mom and sisters to the General Relief Society Broadcast. Not even joking, I look forward to this night every year. Not only is it so great to hear from Pres. Uchtdorf, that dashing man, but spending time with my favorite people...PRICELESS.

Before we went to dinner after the meeting, we stopped at my parent's and the boys also wanted to eat, so my dad, Kev and Owen came too! However, Owen fell asleep and didn't make it into the picture.

So for your sake, I'll include a picture of him, because oh my word, that child couldn't be more adorable. See his new trick of sucking his bottom lip in? He is positively edible.

Then after that lovely meeting, we have General Conference this weekend (which we'll be spending in Utah!), Halloween, my birthday, Thanksgiving, then Christmas! I feel like the Women's conference is the kick off to fall/holiday season, you know? I love this time of year. :)

Ze Baffroooom.

Is anyone bored with my house updates yet? I kinda am. So this will be kinda simple and to the point. The bathroom didn't get too much time or effort or money. Before we moved in, it matched the rest of the house, green walls that matched the kitchen cabinets, and yellow floral shower curtain that looked very curtain-y. And the after...

A little paint, some new towels, and printed pictures from Costco's photo galleries were all that were added, the rest was rummaged from our random left overs from the condo decor. And the cherub in the below picture might be nakey. I didn't notice until I went to hang it. Whoopsies.

I should also mention that when we decide to hire Tino (our cabinet painter) again, we would like him to stain the awful white-wash cabinets and make them dark and sexy. Who knows when that will actually get done though. I kind of love the photos that I ended up using in this gigantor frame and liked the overall effect of the water mixed with the grey architecture and a bit of yellowish gold. And scanning through all the pictures in the online galleries on Costco.com made me want to travel to Europe in the worst possible way.

And TA-DA! A pretty place to do your business. And don't be surprised when you see pictures of the office and it has the same paint color. We might have bought too much and had to use it for both rooms. And we still have more so perhaps every room downstairs might be this color. Only time will tell.

Friday Fun Day

From the time I graduated high school, until I started hygiene school, I had a 4 day work week. It was theeee best! And the best part about it was that almost every Friday, me and my sisters would have Project Friday, where we would do anything and everything, but most importantly, just hang out. Fast forward to now; we have grown up or grown boring or something, because life usually takes place before Project Friday. So now we don't get to hang out nearly as often, but we love love love it when we do! Today a Costco trip was in order. These boys were invited.

We hadn't been together in a while, so we walked up and down every aisle, in true Jones fashion, just to make sure we didn't miss anything. And while doing so, we would let the Nate and Reese check out the toys and push all the buttons, which I'm sure was super annoying for everyone around us. :)

And we filled an entire cart to the brim and bottom, because it isn't as fun when you have to push more than one cart because you can't walk side by side without taking up an entire aisle. And best part, chatting at the food court forever afterward.

I'm not so good with the arm out photography. Poor Aly got splinched in both pictures.

It was a delightful outing, and I'm excited to do more together again as our schedules become more normal again. Those girls are seriously my favorite. I feel so so lucky to have such close relationships with all of my family and I absolutely love that my best friends are related to me.

Party at our house - Part 3!

Friends, it's time to reveal the kitchen. This was similar to the living room in that I really had to see past the paint colors. And I like color, clearly I really do, but yellow doesn't do a thing for me, and neither does floral, and the green cabinets were just a bit much. Please observe:

Also if you zoom in and look really closely, you'll see that all of the knobs and drawer pulls were the shapes of different fruits. Though I initially didn't like it, both Sara and Julia said how helpful it would be if you could instruct a small child to get something out of "the banana drawer" or "the peach cupboard." Regardless, those things didn't stay.

Of those two doors in the corner, the one on the left leads to the dining room and the one on the right is the pantry.

Remember my psycho specific list of things I wanted in a house? And how mature citrus trees was on the list? This is me freaking out about owning my very own orange trees. It is also a good view of the chandelier that was above the dining area that had small lamp shades with roosters on them. Hmm, can you guys think of anything that is LESS me?

Anyway, here are the afters. When you walk in our front door, the kitchen is straight ahead.

Oh how I love the grey. Erica, of course, picked out the new light fixtures, and accessories. The slate flooring is not my favorite. In fact, if anyone is thinking they want to install slate in your house, come walk on mine first and listen to me complain about trying to keep it looking clean. But it is what we have and I'm dealing.

We had our cabinets painted and replaced the knobs and hinges (shocking, I know). I love having the island a different color, and though it isn't what I thought it would be, I like it a lot. I'm not a fan of the butcher block counter top on the island though. Everyone that cooks well says they love it, but remember that I don't cook, so meh.

I finally got filler for this lovely little basket that Erica found, and the whole thing came from Home Goods. I am seriously a slave to that store.

Erica made the 'EAT' sign. Just whipped it up the night before she brought it over. She is amazing. She has a tutorial on her blog if you'd like.

And one more to show that we use our kitchen. I miraculously had this morning off of work, and Philip made me pancakes. He tried to teach me, since my one and only attempt like 6 years ago was disastrous, but I told him he can just be in charge of making them.

Our house is truly feeling like our own, which I love. Erica was fantastic in getting our kitchen and family room decorated within a few months, and we've slowly but surely been working on the rest on our own. We have now finished the downstairs bathroom and are almost done with the office. I'll then tackle the front living room and dining room, which I'm not going to lie, I'm dreading. But then at least all of the downstairs, aka spaces that people see, will be finished. I feel that this will forever be a work in progress, but I love making my house all homey. I still sometimes can't believe that I'm an adult and that this is all mine. Love it, love it, love it! Thank you again Erica!

Newport Beach 2011!

Last November, Sara and I talked about how much fun we had when we went to Newport Beach waaaaay back in 2007. And how we LOVE the beach. At that point, we decided that we should plan a trip for this summer! So our vacation idea baby grew for nine months finally became a reality last month! It was fantastic. Enough said.

We were in charge of the bikes this year since Sara and Jason took them last time, and seeing this set up the morning we left made me ridiculously happy, because doesn't it just scream, "VACATION!"?

CALIFORNIA OR BUST!

This is how Philip insists on doing road trips now. If we are ever not talking, or I am reading, then he gets to watch X-Files or a movie on the ipad. It's a really safe thing to do.

So we got there, and we rented the same beach house as last time, which we absolutely love. And then we just hung out for the next seven days. Our entire Jones family came, which was pretty much the best ever, and therefore, I now present pictures of random adorable children and siblings. Since most the time the caption of these pictures would just read, "Adorable!" I'm not going to narrate these, unless something specific comes to mind. Just know that I have the cutest nieces and nephews on the planet.

Someone thought he was quite tricky...

These boys LOVE Philip. And though this picture is crazy blurry, I love how hard they are laughing.

We roasted marshmallows every night. And Sara and Philip almost grounded me from the marshmallows because I couldn't stop eating them. Roasted marshmallows = small piece of my soul.

Just messing with my camera trying to figure out settings, but isn't my ring pretty? 6 1/2 years later I still think it is prettier than any other.

We took the ferry to Balboa Island one day, and the twins were seriously concerned about the situation. When we rolled down Nate's window he yelled, "Noooo!"

"My name is Jake, and I like to work out." Seriously, what Jones does that?

I love this picture and everything that is going on in it. A bit of castle building, Amy's head only, Kev being skinny, Beth lifting Sophie out of the waves, and most likely some merciless teasing in there.

"I weigh 44 pounds!" says Amy. "So do I!" says Natalie. Stinkin' skinny minnies.

At one point my goal was to see how many of Caleb's bones I could get in one picture. After several attempts, I think this was the winner.

One night my mom played Don't Eat Pete with the little kids, and even after Sophie would get to Pete, she would still eat the rest of the Apple Jacks as fast as she could. Maybe someone hasn't had sugared cereal before. :)

When Reese's glasses turn to sunglasses in the sun, Sara always says he looks like a blind baby. But isn't he the cutest blind baby you've ever seen?

Remember that they love him? This was about the time that Nate started calling him "Daddy Philips," which was totally awesome. I got a video of him reading to them because they thought they were really funny and cracking themselves up. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

These kids say hi to everything and everyone, and loved to just stand by the gate and wave and people watch and point.

Sara trying to help Jason with his shirt situation.

Love these next three...

Nail painting party!

Sara and Aly were such fun moms and took crafts for the kids to do and things to make. They made necklaces with bottle caps and the kids all wore them for the next two days straight.

Amy is such a little lover. She'll be a mom to anyone who needs cuddling.

Chasey is such a stinker but you can't help but TOTALLY love him.

Nielson girls being cute and crafting it up.

Bros before hos yo.

Pouting. Lol, life as a 9 year old is rough. I mean, someone took his seat, and that just wasn't cool.

BIKE RIDES!!!

Watching a 5 and 6 year old try to play smash ball is hilarious bordering on crazy frustrating.

The Tommy Bahama chairs might have been a Costco special this year and maybe everyone in our family bought a couple. We would go set up camp early so that we could stake out a spot big enough for all 95 of us.

This is the start of the greatest sand castle ever...which you'll see about a thousand more pictures of.

The boys had the brilliant idea of using that giant green tub as the base of the castle and it took all three of them to lift it, only for it to crumble almost immediately.

Brynn's buns. Now that's just cute.

Caleb's scapulas, also cute, but kind of hilarious.

This picture is going to resurface in about five years when these girls are 13 and think they are super hot.

Okay, at this point our castle is totally awesome and we built a tunnel and wanted to see the water go through it when the tide came up.

Noelle was the master of the stairs and built stairways everywhere on the castle, as well as the small roads to the surrounding suburban communities.

Jake telling Chase about how important this bedroom community is. And that track homes are the way to go.

TA-FREAKIN-DA!

So after it was finished, the goal was then to get the tide to go through the tunnel, as well as the moats on either side. We were waiting for the trifecta. We all sat and watched the tide for like 20 minutes.

And it finally happened! But unfortunately my camera was zoomed in and I didn't realize it so I missed the actual shot of all three moats being filled with water. Lame.

And then right after the trifecta, it collapsed, which was the perfect way to end our week at the beach.

We love Newport, and love our little beach house.

Maybe again in 2013 we'll get to come to our Newport home and once again have the most relaxing week of our entire year. Sighhh, who wants to go back with me?

And of course we had to make sure that the Hula Pie didn't go to waste before we left...

I can't believe that our vacation is already over and I am already trying to decide where to go next. It was such a fun week to have absolutely no plans and just be completely relaxed and spend time with my favorite people in the world! Beach, books, Joneses, my babe, Sugar Shack, and shopping, there really is nothing better!