The Jones Girls

Last night I dressed the girls in matching Christmas pajamas that I had purchased from JCPenney’s in November during their Door Buster Sale.   They all looked so cute.

Unfortunately, Amanda and Savannah got sick in the middle of the night.  They had a stomach bug.  So I had to change their cute Christmas pajamas.  Maryssa was sick a couple of nights ago and was throwing up through the night.  They must have caught it from her.   Anyway, the girls are fine now so all is good!1

Last night Cliff put together the triplets Mermaid Tricycles.  They have a cute bubble and music machine.    The girls went crazy for them this morning.  These were supposed to be the triplets birthday present back in August, but Cliff was in Arkansas working for 6 weeks and was not here during their Birthday party to put them together, so I just hung onto them for Christmas.

The triplets got digital cameras by Discovery Kids.  I had scored big time on these cameras at Bed Bath & Beyond.   The cameras were on sale for $30 and I had coupons and saved $30 so I spent $60 for all 3 cameras…woo hoo!!  I also got Savannah a real video camera and got it cheap for $25.

Savannah got a neat VTech Pocket handheld video game package.     It is a little advanced for her but she will grow into it.

All of girls got Leap Frog Learn To Read Books.  

They had a great Christmas.

Dad and Fran came this afternoon.   We went for a nice walk.   They enjoyed interacting with the girls.    I made  a nice lunch – homemade tomato & rice soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

We had a nice dinner together.  I baked chicken.     We watched the movie Julie and Julia tonight.

Today we just enjoyed hanging out at home.    We ordered in for Lascari’s which is a real treat for us.   It was a nice cozy day for us.

Lately the girls have been showing a lot of interest and enjoy playaing network computer games on Toontown on Disney.com    They play on one computer so it has been very challenging giving each girl a turn.

Cliff and I suprised the girls today.    Cliff had a side job and for payment he received 4 used laptops for the girls.    We bought 2 long narrow tables and Cliff shortened the legs to make it perfect for their height and we got them cute little chairs with monkeys on them.   We surprised the girls and presented them with their own laptops and computer station. 

The girls are computerized and they play very well together.  Savannah helps them if they get stuck.   We are going to get Amanda a new wheel mouse so she can use her right lucky thumb to use the mouse with a rolling wheel.    There is no doubt that our computerized children are Cliff’s little girls!! LOL!!

Today we went to Cliff’s Christmas party at Numatic Engineering in Sun Valley.  It is about a 1-1/2 drive from our house.

The girls wore the Christmas dresses that they wore for the ballet recital.   Cliff had requested that they wear these dresses today.  They all looked so pretty and Cliff was so proud of his beautiful family.

I baked 45 banana nut breads for all of the employees at Numatic Engineering. This is my annual tradition that I have been doing for them for 12 years now.   Wow that is a long time!!  They all look forward to it every year, especially the owner, Steve Leach.

They had a fun raffle and both Cliff and I won prizes.  We won a $25 Gift certificate to Home Depot which we used to buy new vertical blinds for our den and we also won a gift certificate for Best Buy which we will use to buy Amanda’s computer mouse which has a ball on it to help give her therapy for her thumb.    Cliff received a gift certificate to Fry’s Electronics – that is Cliff’s favorite store and he can spend hours in there and thousands of dollars if I let him…LOL!!

They had a nice luncheon of croissant sandwiches with chips and salsa and cake for dessert.   It was very nice and cozy.

I planned and organized a fun day for the La Habra Moms Club at  the Montebello Barnyard.   It is located adjacent to a park.  I picked up a pizza at Little Ceasars Pizza for the girls to eat for lunch in the park after we visited the Montebello Barnyard.

The girls each got to take a long pony ride.  They really had a great time.  The ponies actually walked on a path and had a team leader guiding the ponies.    I was so impressed!!

Then we got to have a fun train ride and get a tour of the property and see all of the beautiful animals.

Afterwards we all got to meet, greet and pet all of the animals.  There was even a bull there!!   They had huge pens for peacocks and even had a white albino peacock!!     They had a bunny pen and the girls just loved looking at the bunnies.

They had a really nice water hold for turtles and fish.  It was so clean and crystal clear.   This place really kept the animals quarters clean and tidy.  

It was so much fun!!

We ventured over to the adjacent park and playground where we had our pizza and I also brought Christmas cookies and candy canes as a surprise for the girls.   They played on the playground for a long time.

It was so much fun!!

One of the most beautiful and festive things to go do during Christmas time is go to Disneyland. 

I took the girls to Disneyland this afternoon.   It was a little chilly and we were all bundled up warm sweaters and it felt like something out of Norman Rockwell.

We started off at California Adventure and we saw Mickey Mouse Club House Live!  Afterwards we had some lunch that I had brought with us and then we ventured over to see Crush which is an interactive Nemo show.  Then we saw the Pixar Parade and the girls went crazy over all of their favorite cartoon characters such as Nemo, Buzz Light Year and Woody, etc.  

We left California Adventure and went into Disneyland Park.   We saw the beautiful Christmas Parade.  It was so beautiful!!      We all ate marshmallows and drank Hot Chocolate that I had brought with us.    It was lovely.  We took a stroll through the crowds and saw the beautifully decorated It’s a Small World.   It was a 2+ hour wait so we decided not to go on the ride.  We had something else more important to see!!  We will go back and see it after Christmas when the crowds are shorter.

After the parade, we went back to California Adventure, bought some Gingerbread Cookies and enjoyed them with hot chocolate and sat down to watch the Electric Light Parade.    This is the most magical parade ever!!     They don’t have this parade often, only during limited engagements so we were delighted to watch it.

It was so crowded that day that I parked on the very last lane of the uppermost level of the parking structure.  We had arrived at about 1:00pm.   Shortly after we arrived, they said Disneyland was sold out and the parking lot was full.  They were not accepting anymore patrons. We got there just in time.    Thankfully when we got on the tram it wasn’t too busy because pretty much everyone was already in the park.     Even though it was a little crowded at Disneyland park, California Adventure was only half as crowded so I am glad we spent a lot of our time there. 

This day really got all of us excited for Christmas!!  Yippee!!

Today was the girls Christmas Holiday Ballet Recital.   They wore their pretty Christmas dresses that I got for them for our Family Holiday Portraits.   They all looked so pretty.

I baked and decorated 4 dozen Christmas cupcakes.  I also brought dip with crackers and a tin of different flavored popcorns.  When we arrived in the auditorium, I was so surprised to see so many people. The ballet teacher mentioned there would be about 48 people…I would say there was about 150 people!!  There were 5 tables full of all kinds of food and lots of hungry people since it was noon lunch time.     There was not enough food to feed everyone.

Anyway, the recital was beautiful.    Miranda didn’t listen to the teacher and wandered off…the little stinker.  This is exactly why I have her in ballet lessons…to listen to instructions from a teach!!   Savannah did really well and Maryssa and Amanda followed the dance pretty well too.

I am so proud of my little princesses!!

We had our La Habra Moms Children’s Christmas party at Oeste Park.    We were a bit worried that the weather would be unpredictable, but we lucked out and it was 70 degrees – a beautiful day!!

Valentina’s husband, Morris, was Santa Claus.  He made the PERECT Santa.    All of us moms brought wrapped presents for our kids.   I brought the girls Mickey Mouse back pack purses for their present from Santa.   Inside the back pack was playing cards.     Each child got to sit on Santa’s lap and receive their present and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  We got some great pictures of the kids with Santa!

We also had pizza, I brought rice crispy treats and Angie brought the most delicious 7 layer dip.     I also brought candy canes with an attached story about the candy cane.  It read:

Many years ago a candy maker
wanted to make a candy that would
symbolize the true meaning of
Christmas-Jesus.   

The hard candy was shaped like a “J”
to represent that Jesus 
is our rock of all ages.  

The candy was made of white
to stand for the pureness of Jesus. 
The red stripe represents the blood
that Jesus shed to save us from our sins.

So the next time you see a candy cane
take a minute to remember
the real meaning of Christmas.