More Monkey-isms and Happy New Year!

I have to record these adorable conversations somewhere, and where better than my blog where I can foist them on an unsuspecting public?? Right?

So the other day, we had just dropped Duke off at work when Hannah piped up from the back of the van.
"Mom, you know who I miss?"
"Who do you miss?"
"I miss Jacob."
"Yeah. I miss Jacob, too."
"When he gets home I'm going to hug him and hug him and hug him and hug him and hug him and hug him and hug him and tell him I love you, Jacob."
"Me, too, kiddo."

I wasn't sure if she was going to move past the hugging idea for a while. :) Poor Jake gets ambushed when he gets back from visits to Alaska. We all miss him terribly.

Also, a quick Spencer story. He got a hat from my parents for Christmas- it is SO awesome... I can't find a picture of it online, but it's a grey beanie with a Jack Skellington face on the front and these awesome felt dreadlocks sprouting from the top. Seriously, no description will do it justice. It's just too... AWESOME. Anyway- he went out with Duke today to pick up his name-draw gift for Jake for our Christmas Part Deux, and they went to Duke's store while they were out. When they got back I asked Spence if anyone had liked his hat. He said, "Oh yeah. Someone really liked it." When I asked him who he shrugged and said "Someone I don't know." Maybe that's only funny to me... I don't know. That kid has the funniest mannerisms, though. I love him.


I hope everyone had a good New Years Eve! We had a pretty good time at my mom's house. I made my Chicken Bacon Croissant Braid (a recipe which I *kinda* came up with on my own) and we had all our traditional snackage, including little Smokies, Chex Party Mix and Martinelli's. We even had poppers. Sad story though- we almost slept through the Ball Drop! lol After a bit the kids started getting a little wired (as expected), so we took them downstairs to put them to sleep (again, as we had planned). What we didn't plan on though, was falling asleep with them! :) I woke up about a quarter past 11 and made it back upstairs for some of the party, but I wasn't sure Duke was going to make it at all. Sure enough, four minutes to 12 he came staggering up the stairs just in time to count down and give me a New Years kiss, just in the *TA-DA* nick of time. What a guy!

I'm STILL wondering where the time went, but I'm looking forward to 2009 with high hopes. Instead of looking back at 2008, here's a look at the playbill for '09.

Coming soon, to a Jones Family near you: (drumroll please...)

*January: My first semester in college
*February: Aspen's 7th birthday
*May: Our 6th wedding anniversary and
Spencer's 5th birthday
*July: Hannah's 4th birthday
*August: Spencer's first day of Kindergarten and
My (gasp) 28th birthday
*September: The 3rd anniversary of our sealing
Duke's 29th birthday (hehehehe... one more year 'til the headstone comes out of retirement)
*October: Jacob's 10th birthday (can you believe it?!?!)
And about a million other things that I'm sure will be newsworthy enough for me to post about.

I figuratively raise my glass of sparkling cider to each one of you, and wish you all the best that 2009 has to bring you. Hope you have a GREAT year.