Joining the Crew: Jon Hudson meets his Brother and Sister!

Jackson and Josie were so very excited to finally meet their new baby brother, Jon Hudson Wade Jones. He was born on September 21 at 9:12 pm, weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and measuring 19 1/8 inches long. Holly did such an amazing job giving birth to our sweet baby, I am more than proud of her and honored to have the privilege of being her husband. Both mom and baby are healthy and doing well. We are all so thrilled to have our little "Huddy Buddy" join our raucous crew. We love you Jon Hudson!

Happy Birthday Jackson

Jackson and Josie celebrated their birthdays together a few weeks ago at a party at our home.  This party also hosted the congratulations of Jonathan's graduation!  We had a great time celebrating with our Dallas family friends.  

 The spiderman theme was requested for months prior to his 4th birthday...so we treated him right.  He loves his suit and had a blast showing off with his friends.

 She had a great time also just playing with friends...gotta love that sweet face :).

 Now to the present....Mamma Z is here visiting awaiting the arrival of Jon Hudson.  She has been a huge blessing as I have needed a break!  The kids have been grateful, obviously, for the competent playmate :).  Guess I've been out of commission for a few months now.  The kids are adorned is some most precious capes that a good friend of ours made for them....sooooo cute!  They love that sword fighting!

Hope the next blog will contain a birth story and some birthday pictures of our third...due any day now...

Happy Birthday Josie!

Josie turned 2 yesterday....my sweet precious baby girl.  She is a true joy to live and breathe with each day.  She greets me each morning with a smile and a darling "hi."  We are so blessed by the Lord to have her in our family. 

Obviously she is fun and vibrant and keeps up well with the boys in the family....along with picking out a bow for her hair each morning.  Her favorite gift (one which she is having trouble sharing already) is a new stroller which she strolls her baby doll around the entire house.  She finds that her most favorite activity is sunbathing in the kiddy pool in our backyard :).  Happy Birthday sweetie.  We love you.

Here's to You, Jonathan!!

Jonathan and I moved to Dallas, TX 5 years ago for J to start a masters program at Dallas Theological Seminary.  He and I were both excited and nervous about the new turn in our journey together, but confident that it was where God was directing our paths.  To say that these past 5 years have been difficult would be an understatement.  I don't believe we ever had a clue of the challenges that were before us....if we had, we might never have chosen to come.  To say it has been a joy would be a complete  understatement as well.....our first two children were born here with another waiting to make his appearance.  As I write, Jonathan is engaged in his last class...his VERY LAST.  He will finish up loose ends tomorrow on campus and he will be done.  I can't even type without welling up with emotion.  There were times that I really wondered if we would ever finish this chapter in our lives.  Now it is here. It is really here!!!!  To say I am proud cannot begin to describe the enormity of passion I feel behind the words.  Not only has he attained a Masters of Theology (120 hour program including 5 classes of Greek and Hebrew!), but he has steadfastly loved me as a husband and encouraged our marriage to grow stronger, become the most wonderful, devoted father to 2 (really 3) amazing children, and grown in fellowship with others deepening relationships to higher levels.  Growth really has been his theme in all areas of his life.  And growth is something we will never finish.  Please join me in praising our awesome Father in heaven for sustaining him through these years.  Please join me in praying for our future as we enter into a search to find a place for him to pour his passions for Christ into the lives around us.  There is no other place I'd rather be than by your side, Jonathan.  Congratulations.  I love you.

Last few BUSY months...

I'm not entirely sure where to even begin....these past few months have been so full, so joyful, stressful at times, and mostly just busy.  Two children put new meaning to busy, but they are the ones that add the joyful part to that :).  March through May brought many changes into this family.  Jonathan finished his last full semester at DTS (whoooohoooooo), he got to participate in the graduation ceremonies (more to come on that celebration later), we had lots of wonderful family visits during that time, we enjoyed the best weather Dallas has to offer for several months before the triple digits, AND we moved into a new home.  Gone are the days of the itty bitty apartment, elevator rides and one block walks to the car.  We now have a very spacious home complete with a huge playroom, 3 bedrooms, and a true backyard!!!  God has given us a beautiful gift in this home and I am thankful every morning we wake up.  

These are some moments from a trip to the Arboretum this spring.  Jackson was willing to wear the dressy clothes for a few pictures then it was a favorite Cars T shirt for the rest of the day...

Spiderman face painting

She is a true animal lover.

Early morning backyard time at our now home.

She was a little excited about the Oreo cookies we had for dessert that night.

Another precious reason to be thankful to the Lord for our newly acquired backyard...Jackson and Josie both have a fascination with roly polies.  I love that they can just step outside anytime they want.

February Updates 2011 and a Surprise!

Time really has a way of getting away from me as the kids get older!  They are busy as bees which means I am as well.  Jackson update:  Knows how to count past 30, does some small addition, pretends not to like watching Signing Times (sign language videos) with Josie, but he really does :), sneaks into bed with Josie to read to her at night, still loves books and puzzles, and is elated anytime a friend comes over to play.  We are working on being polite,  not inviting ourselves over to the home of every friend we see, and not pushing Josie.

Josie update:  She learned to walk this month....I think she waited until she had it down as she rarely falls.  Perfectionist!  MMMM wonder where she gets that from? Ha Ha  She can feed herself with a spoon (favorites are yogurt and oatmeal), learns new words every day to sign, and delights in yelling "DADDY" whenever he walks through the door.  She loves to stare at herself in the bathroom mirror and pull snacks out of the cabinets all by herself.  In sheer girliness, she drops her chin to her shoulder and grins and flirts often!

Today the latest sweet time we had was watching them both dancing and jamming to the most recent Tenth Avenue North CD in the backseat of the car.  Jackson just nods his head up and down and Josie waves her arms and shrieks!  

Sweet times eating a Friday night pizza with friends, Emmet and Cara.

                                    

We are excited to announce the addition of number 3!  This new little one just had a great sonogram update today with a healthy heartbeat of 163 and measures on time at 8 weeks.  He/She has 2 arms and 2 legs and gave us a little wiggle for the camera.  Might be a showoff!  Our due date is October 2nd.  Please join us in praying for a healthy pregnancy and no queasiness for Mommy....this one has been much easier so far :).

Dallas Snow

After 3 days of ice and temperatures in the teens and twenties, we finally received some significant snow....more than 6 inches!!!  We had a blast playing this morning and I'm still watching some of those magical flakes fall :).