Penguins....?

I thought this was pretty funny. One day I was asking the kids what their names are. Their full names. When I asked Cody, we needed to remind him what his middle name is. It is William and He says Wilum. Anyway, I asked Cody if he knew my name. He said Daddy Russ Jones, and I said no, it is Russell Payne Jones. So, a few days later I randomly asked Cody what his name is because I like to hear try to say William. Then I asked him what my name is and he said Russ Penguin Jones. I thought he was joking, but some how he heard penguin instead of Payne and still thinks it is penguin. I think I'll wait a few years to tell him the truth.

The Joys of Going to School in McCall

Here's some things that I never got to enjoy going to school in the good old Phoenix Valley...

1. This is how Brock looks going to school every day from about November to March.
2. They plow a monstrous snow hill on the playground for recess. They have tons of school sleds for recess equipment.
3. Brock wears his snowpants and boots all day (except for P.E.) because you have to have them on to play on the snowhill at recess.
4. He keeps his only pair of tennis shoes at school because he only wears them for P.E. (he wears his snow boots everywhere else).
5. For P.E., they go snow-shoeing.
6. They have buses from the school to the ski hills after school. Hopefully Brock can take lessons next year. He gets to go sometimes with Russ and has his own pair of skis and LOVES it! The high school has ski days occasionally where they actually take roll, load the buses and ski for the day. How come we never got "lake days" in AZ!?
7. If it's 10 degrees or less, they have to have indoor recess. Lots of indoor recess a few months of the winter. Last year taking Brock to school he looked at the degrees in our car-25 degrees. He said, knowing he could play outside for recess, "25 degrees! That's totally warm!" What?!

ARE WE CURSED?

Here's a list of some things that have recently broken in our household (Most are still broken)

• Video camera
• Camera
• Dryer
• Stereo
• Dee's cell phone
• Dee's watch
• Vacuum
• DVD player

Not life threatening...just annoying.
"And the hits just keep on comin..."

BRETT-UMS & MOM

The First Presidency and Thomas Trains...

So...Russ told me I needed to blog the cuteness of our little Cody. Before President Faust passed away, we were teaching our kids the names of the First Presidency with the pictures in a Family Home Evening. As we were talking about the names, Cody got giddy and excited that "they were named after trains!" I never thought about it before, but since Cody's life right now is based around the Thomas trains, we finally understood what he meant. As we talked about Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and James E. Faust, he got so excited they were named after his toy trains Gordon, Thomas, and James! Well, after Pres. Faust passed away and Henry B. Eyring was put in...Yes, once again total excitement to have one of them named after his train Henry! Pretty funny, but good that he totally remembers who they are. He used to just look at the picture and call them Gordon, Thomas, James, and Henry, but now he is actually putting last names with them, too. He had a little confusion when Elder Uchtdorf was put in, because there are no trains named Dieter! But, hopefully somehow he'll make it through...

Well, a lot has happened since I have last posted. I will refrain for saying that I will do better about posting because I obviously dont... I just post in large amounts all at once. So, sorry.

Anyway, we have more snow than we know what to do with. The snow was pretty and fun till about two weeks ago when it just wouldn't stop. We love it, but would love to see mother earth again and not six feet of white stuff.




The window below is about 8.5 feet off the ground... lots of snow....

You cant tell me that this is not one of the coolest things you've seen. Snow blows down my deck and into my doorway... That is cool, but not cool to shovel.

My oldest sister turned and undisclosed age (per her request) and my parents and siblings flew to her house in Seymour Indana (of which I would love to see more). Anyway, it was a blast. I have not had that much fun in a long time. This was the first time we all got togther without our families, well, since we have all had families.
We all flew in togther and rented a minivan (see below post) and drove to her house. We called her on the phone and started to sing to her. As we started to sing, we rang her doorbell and she came while we were singing. She had no idea and it was awesome. She screamed, cried, we cried....We had so much fun. Great memories.