Link to Kai's book

For my mom for Christmas I made her a scrapbook/storybook of Kai's first 18 months. I think it turned out really well, and my mom seemed to enjoy it. You can click here if you'd like to see the book.

Visiting Santa

Kai and I got dressed and ready to go bright and early this morning. We made it to the mall by 9:30 so that we could be one of the firsts in line to see Santa. After a quick trip to the pet store to visit the animals, and being stopped by one of those pesky salespeople, we made it to the Santa line. We had to wait about 20 minutes to see Santa. After telling the elves that we did not want to buy their pictures, but rather take our own, we were cleared to see Santa. You will notice that I don't have a picture of Kai with Santa. This is because he screamed and threw a large fit. Santa must have been a bit stressed even at this early hour because he wasn't helpful at all. So after a short try at trying to visit Santa, we left the Santa area. I decided to take a picture of Kai outside of the area just to show that we went. This is what I got.

Classic. He was crying even less in this picture than he was with Santa. Gotta love him!

Mad scientist

Kai found Reid's laser pointer this afternoon. Who knew that would entertain him for quite some time! Too cute! (Oh, and the orange mouth is the result of his Cheez-Its.)

Sick

What better way to fight a cold than wear ear muffs!

Almost immediately after returning from Thanksgiving, Kai got sick. He had had a runny nose, but it didn't seem bad. However, slowly but surely the nose got worse and turned into a cough as well. Granted it never got horribly bad. What concerned me the most, however, was the throwing up. It came randomly and for the life of us we couldn't figure out what was triggering it. Sometimes he would be coughing, sometimes not. We threw out a couple of gallons of milk thinking maybe that had spoiled. Still no luck. I finally took him to the doctor on Tuesday and she figures that the mucus draining into his tummy made him nauseous and that dairy products just made him feel worse (despite the fact that that was the first thing he wanted after he threw up). So we took him off of milk for a couple of days, and he took a teaspoon of Benadryl before bed for the last three days and the nose appears to have dried up. The coughing is disappearing, and he he hasn't thrown up in 2 and a half days. I'm optimistic that we might be on the upswing!

The face Kai makes when I say "smile!"

Kai's Christmas Letter

Tis the Season

Slowly but surely the Jones' home is being decorated for Christmas. We have a Christmas elf that seems to be holding up the process just a little bit, though. His name would be Kai! He absolutely loves all of the lights and ornaments and within seconds can un-do what took me quiet a bit of time to do the first time. I guess you can just say that it makes this year a bit more fun and interesting!

We had talked of upgrading our Christmas tree for several years, but had decided to postpone again this year since we are traveling for the holidays. However, when we saw this beauty on clearance we couldn't pass up the deal. So, we now introduce the Jones family Christmas tree. (Not Kai's Christmas tree as our elf would have you believe!)

Not five minutes after I took this picture, all the ornaments within reaching distance had been stripped off of the tree. It's funny to see a very clear line around the tree delineating the height of our little Christmas elf.

Lest we forget the true meaning of Christmas, Kai was given a Little People Nativity set that he absolutely loves! He enjoys the angel singing, the baby Jesus, and pointing out the Mama and Dada. This set has quickly become a favorite!
Finally, Kai has been working on his colors. With all of the colors of Christmas, what better time to practice! Here he is telling you about his favorite color.

Born a Cougar

Kristi gave Kai a new T-shirt while we were in Kansas. I think Kai looks fantastic in it and it has his favorite letters--B, Y, and U. See, I wear BYU shirts as my jammies and Kai has become quite curious with letters lately. Normally we talk about those letters every morning. Now he has one of his own. Too cute!

We're not in Kansas anymore

For Thanksgiving this year, we took a road trip to Reid's sister's house in Lawrence, Kansas. It was Kai's first big road trip and he did great! The drive is about 8 hours and we took a few little stops to make the trip 9 hours. Kai was certainly glad to get out of his carseat when we finally arrived. We enjoyed our trip very much, but I don't think anyone enjoyed it as much as Kai. I had been teaching him his cousins names in the weeks prior to the trip and he became good at saying "E" for Ethan, "Br" for Bryn, and "Owey" for Owen. He loved being with his cousins--especially Bryn!! And he loved having new toys to play with.

Thanksgiving day was nice and Kristi prepared an excellent dinner. While we were there, we also took a fun driving tour of Lawrence and were introduced to the Yellow Sub. Ymmmmm!!! Kristi also took some family pictures for us. We were way over due on pictures and she does a fantastic job. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back! Thank you Kristi, Erik, Ethan, Bryn, and "Owey"! We love you!

Kai in his carseat ready to roll!

Thanksgiving dinner

R&R--reading and relaxing--after dinner

Our "little turkey"

Playing basketball

Going to take family pictures

Playing with Bryn

The things Kai says

Kai's vocabulary grows by the day. His most recent learned phrase is "I love you". Too cute!



We also taught him to say "I am" in response to "Who's the cutest boy in the world?" and "Who's Daddy's buddy?" Yes, we're biased!