Keeping Up with the Jones'

It’s 2016- YAY! My family and I were tremendously blessed in 2015 and are looking forward to an amazing year! Here are a few key things about 2015: ·          Claire Elise Jones was born. Albeit – her birth was far from boring! Read her birth story here: http://niksmommyadventures.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html  Short version is that she was born on the side of the road. We didn’t make it to the hospital. But, everything worked out just great. She’s just perfect! ·          My hubby purchased an AllState Agency  and opened in February 2015. He had an amazing year and hit the ground running right out of the gate. He was recognized in Hilton Head, South Carolina in June for hitting his performance targets. As if he was not busy enough, Alvin also passed both the Series 6 and Series 63 exams! ·          Camille continued to grow and blossom to the super fun little girl that she is! She loves all things girly, pink, and loves to wear “pretty dresses.” ·          In ad

Claire is 3 months - 14 1/2 weeks to be exact. All I can say is she is just an angel. She's so super sweet and happy. I call her "happy baby" and "Claire Bear." She's such a sweet baby - maybe I'm a bit biased:-) The last 3 months have been wonderful with Claire. Quite a few things have happened, so let me try to break things down into chunks:-) Month 1 May - June Of course we had lots of company to meet our bundle of joy. Everyone was blown away by Claire and those beautiful gray eyes. I'm still blown away by them. We stayed close to home month 1 and pretty much ran errands on a "need to go" basis. Thank God for "Amazon Prime Now."  I was so thankful that Claire latched on perfectly - no issues at all breastfeeding. I was back on my feet so quick compared to Camille. I was told it was because I didn't take any meds during Claire's birth (of course that wasn't by choice - LOL)  For the first 1 -2 weeks after C

Well - we were in for the shock of our lives on Tuesday night! Claire Elise Jones took the world by storm and made a very dramatic entrance. She was born ~ 2:18 am on Wednesday May 6....and we didn't make it to the hospital. Here's how it all went down... Tuesday was a very normal day for me...no contractions and no signs that labor was approaching. I had just gone to the doctor and she confirmed that I hadn't dilated or effaced any. She even mentioned that we discuss possible inducing labor on my next appointment which would have been at 39 weeks/ 5 days. So - Tuesday night around 10:30 pm I started experiencing contractions which felt a LOT like the Braxton Hicks contractions that I experienced a few weeks prior so I didn't pay them a lot of attention. They were pretty sporadic at 7 - 15 minutes apart and then got a bit closer together. Again --- same story as a few weeks ago when I "thought" I was in labor....I really felt like this was a repeat. So these

Darn Braxton Hicks! Thursday was a very eventful day for me. My colleagues threw me a baby shower. It was supposed to be a surprise, although I suspected something (it’s hard to get one over on me). It was extremely thoughtful and much appreciated. See a few pictures below. Then – that evening around 9 pm I started having contractions. I downloaded the “contraction app” and started logging them. I was up most of Thursday night timing them, they were very sporadic but coming on stronger. It made me SO nervous because I hadn’t done a thing! I hadn’t packed my hospital bag nor had we installed the car seat. So, between contractions I’m scurrying around like a mad woman trying to pack a bag just in case. The next day – we go to the dr. and she checked my cervix and confirmed “NO DILATION” – I was just about crushed. She did tell me that the baby “dropped” a couple of inches but that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Dilation & Effacement are the most important things….and neithe

We had a really great Easter Weekend! Camille's grandfather was in town for the weekend. Camille had an Easter party at her school on Good Friday. I took the day off and spent the afternoon at her school for the party. Camille was so happy that I was there. The Easter Egg Hunt was absolutely hilarious! So - Camille figured out that her classmates were dropping eggs as they were "hunting" so she literally ran behind them to pick up the "dropped" eggs. I have to admit - it was kind of funny. I made her give a few to her classmates....but then she started crying....and you can guess the rest! We attended church on Sunday and the service was great. I made Camille a very small "Minnie Mouse" Easter Basket since she loves MM. She was excited when she saw the basket. I found the Minnie Mouse basket at Hobby Lobby and then filled it with: a Minnie Mouse cup, t-shirt, sticker/ coloring book. I put a little bit of candy but not much. Here are a

Wow - this time is really winding down! It's so hard to believe that sometime in the next ~8 weeks or so that our precious baby will be here. I am SO excited. I can't wait to meet her. I'm so loving the fact that Camille will have a little sister, someone to grow up with, teach things to, and be best friends with! I really wanted that growing up --- but instead I got Valerie LOLOL! Seriously - wouldn't trade her for anything. We have an 8 year gap in age, so it was challenging when we were younger but we're the best of friends now.  I went ahead and purchased newborn diapers over the weekend. It's my first "REAL" baby purchase. I plan to stock up and start buying diapers in various sizes  over the next few weeks. The diapers really came in handy with Camille --- I don't think we had to actually buy diapers for her until she was around 6 months or so....which was a huge blessing.  As for Mama - I've been feeling ok. I have a really bad cold