Less than 2 weeks!

Well, we thought we would put another post up before life gets crazy here in the next weeks. I am now 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and Travis predicts the baby will come before Halloween. We shall see:) Travis got home Monday from work and will have a few weeks off for baby to come. We are so excited. Now just walking a lot, trying to tell this baby it's time, haha. No signs yet though of baby coming, so I guess he'll just come when he comes. But we are growing impatient:) 

We got a few pics for ya this week...

A few weeks ago our little pet friend came to visit us again:)

 She loves the tiny little tree right next to our deck.

My pregnant lady swollen feet. Sad sad looking ankles. At least I have pretty toes, right?! haha

Baby's room is finally pretty much ready to go. It's not anything too fancy and all pretty mis-match, but we love it and we're pretty sure baby will love it too(like he cares, haha). Our friend who threw the baby shower for us made the cute triangle banners that we hung up.

I had fun making some curtains to match his pack-n-play.

His cute little bed:)

 He will love seeing mom and dad's baby faces each morning:)

Well, that's all for now folks. Next time will most likely be a post with pics of our cute little baby boy!! So so happy. (and maybe he will even have red hair) :)

Love,

The Jones

What does the fox say?

When Travis' parents came and visited we saw for the first time our new pet outside our apartment. He has come around a few others times since.

Some pics from the cute baby shower that was thrown from me here:)

 

This is about the extent of the fall colors that we got this year. I took these photos not long ago, and good thing I did because by the time Trav flew home from work all the leaves were basically gone due to a really big wind storm.

It's so interesting to see those yellow colors right next to the evergreens.

When I was 14 and my mom was pregnant, I thought it was so strange that she could use her belly as a table...well, looks like I'm following in her footsteps:)

 Baby bump at 36 weeks!!! So crazy, time has seriously flown. 

Baby J is doing well and we are so excited to meet him!! He has a bed ready to go for him in his room, and today we put together our hospital bags and put the carseat in the car:) He will be here before we know it. Baby J's kicks and punches are very strong and often painful, haha, especially when he hits a nerve just right with his head and sends shooting pain down my leg:) We love him and are so grateful he is healthy and well. Overall, mommy and baby are doing well. Just getting even more plump(notice the swelling round face in the photo above, I swear my glasses don't even fit my new face anymore, haha). We are happy to be parents soon to a cute little boy(maybe he will even have some red hair?)

We love you all!

The Jones

Let it snow, let it snow:)

Just sitting here in our living room, looking out the window, enjoying the colors of the leaves, to the sound of Trav watching some saturday football in the background. Gotta love fall:) OR, should I say winter?! Seriously, who knows what season it is right now here. It snowed just a few days ago! Check out these pics:)

I mean it's not like a foot of snow or anything, but snow in September?! Pretty crazy. Trav's parents were up here with us this past week, and they were able to experience the pretty little white snow flurries also. It hasn't snowed since, but it probably won't be long. Up where Trav works on the slope there is already at least a foot of packed down snow that's not gonna melt or leave anytime soon.

One of Trav and I's favorite things to do is take walks (nice SLOW walks, haha) on the trail and around the lake behind our house. We have talked alot about it but I realized we have never really posted pics of it. So this is what it looked like a few weeks ago when the leaves were just barely starting to change.

It starts off with this bridge just right behind our complex

 Here is the little creek that flows just under the bridge

After the bridge it opens up to this beautiful view of the lake and trees. There is a trail that circles all around the lake that we like to walk on.

And some little ducks:)

Also realized that we have never really posted any pics of what the outside of our apt looks like, so here you go. I took these pics on a gorgeous Thursday afternoon, just before picking Trav up from the airport, my most favorite days:)

This is the front of our complex. Our apt is the very bottom left corner one.

Our little deck

Just outside our deck looking down the street that leads to the main road

These are what the apt buildings look like that fill most of our neighborhood

Well, I think that is all the pics for this week. Things are going well and we are happy. 

As I said, Trav's parents were up here this past week and that was a lot of fun. We enjoy having visitors, even though we may not be the most exciting people, haha. I'll tell ya I'm starting to get pretty lazy with this pregnancy and all, ha. 

Trav is enjoying his job. He got to go to LA just a week or so ago, and he is very happy that Anchorage is not that busy. It has a smaller town feel and we love that. Things are starting to get busier as the birth of baby comes closer and closer. Trav leaves tomorrow to spend about a week and a half in Houston, and then after that the weeks are just gonna fly by I am sure. I am over 34 weeks now, and it's crazy to think that I only have about 5-6 more weeks to go before pushing this baby out. haha, crazy stuff. Baby is doing well though. Doc said that he has a big head and big belly and just overall looks like he is gonna be a big baby. Watch out! haha. We are very excited:) Fun times and great memories ahead:)

We love you all!

The Jones

Here comes Fall

Hello all! Thought it about time to make another small blog update to let you know what's goin' on up here in the last frontier:)

As I now type, Travis is in the kitchen making omelets for us for breakfast, yum! My husband is awesome:)

So I think it is pretty safe to say that we here in Alaska have seen the last of our summer:(  BUT....that also means the beginning of fall! My favorite. With the colder weather I couldn't but help myself, last week I had to go out and buy a yummy fall smelling candle and got a few fall decorations for our guest bathroom. Fun!

So Travis was up on the slope again this past week, and it's already been in the low 30's up there lately. And, it snowed on August 29th there!! Pretty crazy. They got about 1 inch.

A week or so ago, I cooked fish for like my first time ever! We used Aunt Jenelle's recipe for tilapia. It was very good and we served it with a little tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad.

 While Travis was up on the slope I went to the Alaska State Fair with a friend and her two boys in the ward. There were a lot of animals there, and I had to post a pic of the reindeer cause I have never seen one in person before. (FYI: Did you know that a reindeer and a caribou are the exact same animal? They just call it a caribou when in the wild, and reindeer once it has been domesticated. Someone just told me that this week)

Here is a picture of baby bump from last week, at 30 weeks.

And here is baby bump at 31 weeks. And in the words of Travis, "Kash, You're huge!!" hahaha. So funny, I just laughed:) 

Baby J seems to be getting lots bigger. His kicks and pokes are much stronger, and he seems to have the hiccups all the time, haha. We finished up our birthing class. It was really good and very informative. And Monday we have our 32 week ultrasound...so excited!!

Well that's all for now folks, until next time:)

With love,

The Jones

Gone Fishin!

We took a fun trip this weekend to Seward, Alaska. It is about a 2 hour drive southeast of Anchorage. It is a pretty small town, only took us 10 minutes to walk from our hotel to the boat harbor. We drove through the town in probably 5 minutes:) It rained the whole way down and all that evening, but it was still beautiful. I ordered reindeer sausage at the restaurant cause I hadn't had it before, it was good and pretty much tastes like sausage. Travis got a tasty salmon sandwich:)

Here is the boat harbor in Seward

Not quite a moose or bear, but we saw some cute bunnies walking around the town

We woke up very early Friday morning and headed to the dock for some halibut fishin! It was very foggy on the boat ride out, but the rest of the day turned out just beautiful! It was perfect for a day for fishing. We traveled about 3 hours out in the water before anchoring the boat and getting out the fishing poles.

Our first catch ended up being a lingcod! Which ended up being a bonus cause usually on halibut charters you catch your 2 halibut per person and are done. I hooked it. Here I am holding the pole for a while. I am struggling to reel it in, haha, it was heavy.

So I had Travis take over and reel the fish in the rest of the way

  It was a 39 inch lingcod. Yay! You can keep one lingcod per person per day. Cod most often is used to make fish and chips, but they say that lingcod is a lot nicer.

Travis with his halibut

 We are lookin good!

 The boats haul for the day:) This included cod, a few rockfish, silver salmon, and halibut, two of which were over 100 lbs.

We ended up taking home 23 pounds of filleted cod and halibut. Yum!

 On our drive home Saturday morning we stopped to take a few pictures. It was a really beautiful day. Sunshine and a nice cool breeze:)

Check out the baby bump, great for baby but not for fishing, haha. Almost 30 weeks along now, pretty crazy.

We now have a freezer full of fish, enough to last us for a while. Sooo...everyone should come visit us and have some fish:)

Goodbye summer?? :(

Hello family and friends!

 

We wanted to send another blog installment your way. As we speak this very moment, Trav is at the ward building meeting with the bishop (most likely getting a call we believe), so, when he comes home we shall give you a little update on that. (Just got word that he will be a Ward Missionary). I have not gotten a calling in our ward yet, but that's ok:) There will soon be some ward boundary changes around here, so I think they are trying to see what's gonna happen with that. We really pray we stay in the ward, it is a wonderful one:)

 

Anyways, got some pictures coming your way...

 

About a week ago I went with some friends in our ward to witness some good ol' Alaskan dipnetting. I was not able to do so myself (I don't have a fishing liscense yet) but it was fun to see how it is done. Basically you drive to the mouth of the river, grab a huge net with a long pole on it, get out in the water and face yourself against the current, and salmon will come swimming into your net. When you feel one, run up to shore and smack your fish around a little bit to make sure he doesn't get away, and then go back in the water for more. People can get tons of fish this way around these parts, but when we went it was around the end of the season, so we only got 2. But they tasted great! As Alaskan residents you are allowed to get, and don't quote me on this, 25 salmon for the head of household, and 10 salmon for each of your dependents, in one year through dipnetting. Pretty cool huh?! We should do this next summer and we could get 45 salmon. YUM!!

 

Not a great pic, but maybe you can pick out the little rainbow we saw on the drive down to the river. We drove about 3 hours south of Anchorage. It was a beautiful drive, and these pics do not give it justice:)



 

 

Lovin' all the green

 

 

Tried to get a picture of the beautiful colored water while driving by.

 

 

The scenery quickly changed from mountains to this green plain with pines in the distance.

 

The shore and some people standing in the water dipnetting.

 

 

 

 

 

A really really good-looking picture of me (HAHA)

 

 

We made a goal to find some bikes and go biking together. It's been a little rainy lately, but nothing that can't stop us! We gotta get some good bike riding in before the snow comes:) Not only are we getting some exercise but we see some great scenery on the way. (Maybe we will see a moose or bear sometime?!)

 

 

 

Baby update: This is me at 27 weeks. I have my 28 week appt with my doc this Friday. I am gaining weight and getting very plump very fast:)

 

 

Supposedly this is what happens to my fingers when pregnant-they look like sausages. Might I also add that the ring I am wearing is one I have that is already 3 sizes bigger than my wedding ring, and even it is getting too small now. Wow, sad, haha.

 

 

Baby J continues to grow and kick around in there. Other than feeling plump and bloated, things are going great. I have to go to the bathroom every 30 min, but it's worth it:) Can't wait to see cute little baby J! As time goes on things just become slightly more real to me that this baby has got to come out, one way or another, haha. Kinda scary reality check, but exciting too.

 

Trav continues to enjoy work up on the slope. We also love the weeks he is home and we can be lazy and watch movies, haha. This next work week Travis will be doing a week of night shift, and then sleep during the day. We shall see how it goes. Needless to say our daily phone calls will probably be shortenend dramatically, ha. 

Well, that's all for this installment.

Love yall!
Travis and Acacia