Happy Halloween from the Jones Six Pack!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Thank you, Kelly, for putting that video together of the Fab Five...hilarious!! Hope everyone has a safe and happy 
Halloween from Tinkerbell, Casper, and the Four Plumpkins!!


God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Five Healthy Babies and The Fab Five's First Park Trip...oh yeah!!

Here's a quick update on the Fab Five from their nine month visit to the pedi last week...

- Brooklyn Faith:  16 pounds, 4 ounces, 30%; 27 inches, 75%
- Britton Grace:  13 pounds, 8 ounces, 3%; 24 inches, 3%...I told you she was tiny!!
- Jack William:  19 pounds, 8 ounces, 45%; 27 inches, 25%, and oh yeah, 90th percentile for head circumference...he still has some balancing out to do!
- Lila Addison:  16 pounds, 8 ounces, 45%; 26 inches, 25%
- Ryan Elizabeth:  16 pounds, 9 ounces, 45%; 26.5 inches, 50%

All of the babies are as healthy as can be and are developing as well as most full term, 9-month-olds.  The only developmental skill they were lacking was in the ability to pick things up with their fingers, every other milestone was checked off the list!  Thank you all for your prayers that helped to make this a reality!!!

The picture above is a sneak peek of the photos we got from our photo session yesterday at Mayfield Park, close to downtown Austin.  The babies had a great time at the park while completely ignoring the utter chaos swirling around them as we tried to get the perfect picture of the less than blissful moment!  Between me, Casey, Eliot, the photographer and a friend of hers, and our go-to helper, Tricia, I think we managed to make it happen.  Everyone was completely wiped out after an hour and a half of whooping, squeaking, jumping jacks, songs, smiles, and any other trick we could think of to get five 9 month-olds to look at the nice lady with the camera, but it was FUN, and you guessed it, CRAZY!!!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Meet Mr. Giggles

Jack William, aka Big Bad Jack, aka Laid Back Jack, aka Mr. Happy now has a new nickname...Mr. Giggles!  Too dang cute!!

Email Address for Letters to the Troops

If you would like to join me in writing a letter of thanks to the troops, you can email it to:  sigridwgilbert@yahoo.com.  Thank you!!!

Thank You to Our Troops!

A friend of mine asked me to write a short letter of thanks to our troops in support of a letter-writing campaign he was helping with.  Though I've thought of the men and women serving our country often and once had the occasion to thank a service member personally, I have never written them to say thank you.  It was surprisingly difficult to write!  I had a difficult time finding words that could adequately express thanks to a group of men and women whom I will likely never meet, yet have sacrificed so much in their own lives so that you and I may continue to enjoy the freedoms to which we have become accustomed.  Sometimes words just don't do sentiments the justice they deserve, nonetheless, here is my attempt at doing so...

To the Men and Women Serving Our Country,

Because the fights are always “over there,” it is difficult to fully comprehend what you guys do day in and day out in defense of our Constitution and our liberties.  To be certain, your efforts do not receive the attention that they deserve.  However, know that there are many Americans who think of you daily, pray for you continually, and hope without ceasing for your safety, success, and quick return from the battlefield.  Your sacrifice to country and in service to the lives of millions of Americans as well as hundreds of millions of the world’s citizens are a shining example of the finest of that which is found only within the human spirit.

God Bless,

Ethan Jones

Austin, Texas, USA

If you have ever considered writing a letter to the troops, I encourage you to do so.  I can't even begin to imagine what they experience on a daily basis and how difficult their sacrifice has become.  One of the best things we can do to give back is to simply say thank you.

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net 

A Special Bond

A friend of ours did this side-by-side comparison after Casey posted some new pics of the babies on Facebook and I had to share.  The picture on the left is Eliot when she was somewhere between 6 and 9 months old.  The picture on the left is Lila on her 9 month birthday.  The similarities are striking!  Not only is it cool to see the two girls look so similar, it's also adds another piece to the Eliot/Lila bond that began before the babies were born.  Here's a run-down of some of the events that have us very excited to watch how the relationship between the two girls develops over the years:

- When Casey was pregnant, one of the babies always got up underneath her ribs on her right side and caused her considerable pain.  Every time this happened, Eliot said that it was Lila who was being the trouble-maker.

- When I took Eliot up to the NICU to see the babies for the first time, we had not assigned any of their names yet.  At that time, they were just babies A, B, C, D, and E.  As I was holding Eliot in my arms and walking around to each of their cribs she didn't have much to say, seemingly overwhelmed by the experience and trying to reconcile the images in her head of a newborn baby with these heavily wired, hooded, sunglass wearing little alien creatures that she was now being told were her new sisters and brother.  When we got to Baby D, she immediately pointed to her and said, "This one is Lila!"  We had no idea at the time how we were going to assign the names we had picked out, but clearly this one had to be Lila!

- To date, Eliot has given one baby a nickname and she gave it to Lila the day she came home from the hospital, christening her "Lila Bear" the moment she saw her that day.

- Both Eliot and Lila were born with umbilical hernias that went away on their own after about six months.  None of the other babies had one of these.

- Everyone who sees Lila (and there have been many, many people!) has said that Lila looks just like Eliot from the very beginning.  Even people who have only seen the two girls in pictures from the blog have commented that they look exactly alike.  I guess the picture above is the final verdict!

Who knows what all of these connections mean, but Casey and I can't help but feel that there is a special bond between these two little beauties...can't wait to see what's next as the relationship grows!

Here are some other pics that were taken the day before the annual Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma.  Texas took the title once again!!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

The picture on this video isn't great, but if you like the sound of baby belly laughs then this is for you! Ryan and Brooklyn were having a blast...doing what, no one will ever know!!





Eliot and Ryan had some fun together the other day...very cute!





Y'all enjoy!!
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Surprises - The Good, The Bad, The Red

As you might imagine, there have been many surprises that have come along with life since receiving the big surprise last August when we found out that the Quint Invasion was headed our way.  Not all of the surprises have been good, not all have been bad, and certainly some that seemed one way or the other at first, turned out to be quite the opposite after the dust had settled.  The fact that I am still enrolled in Baylor's EMBA program is a huge surprise that would not have been possible without the unbelievable support we received from the Baylor community.  The excitement we felt when we heard we were the topic of conversation on 590 KLBJ's morning show a few days before the babies' birth will not be forgotten.  Nor will the punch in the gut feeling that quickly followed when we heard all of the awful things that were being said about us by both the callers and the show's DJ's...not a good surprise to say the least!  With the diaper drive held on our behalf along with their sizable gift card donation, HEB's incredible generosity clearly stands out as one of the highlights in the long list of godsends that have helped to turn our response to this adventure from overwhelmed to overjoyed...the list could go on...

But clearly the most gratifying and rewarding "surprises" that have come our way have been the individual acts of love, support, and selflessness that we have experienced from the big hearts of our volunteers and other helpers.  I put the word "surprises" in quotes above because there was a certain level of expectation of this sort of attention when we decided to go public with our story.  We knew that people would rally around us and around these babies in some form or fashion.  We believe in the goodness of people, in the strength of God's love in the hearts of the faithful, and we knew that our journey would inspire some to get involved.  But the thought, the extent, and the care to which people have gone to ensure that our babies are taken care of, to help us involve our older daughter in the amazing transition for a family of three to a family of eight, and even to give Casey and I some time to each other has been a source of constant amazement, humility, and yes, surprise.  We can never thank these folks enough for the indelible mark they have left on our family's hearts!

My primary reason for writing this blog is to recognize two of these folks, two of these surprises, two very special ladies who have not only left their mark on our family, they have become family in every sense of the word (we've managed to get past the fact that both of them are red-heads...somehow).  The two women pictured below, Tricia Harrison and Jennifer Ericson, are as much a part of this story as anything else.

Jennifer, wow, what a cool story!  She saw us on the news, found us on the web, signed up through the care calendar, and has been here at least five days of every week for the past three or four months...and we have no intention of letting her go anytime soon!  I'm not sure what compelled her to jump into the lives of complete strangers - she's a little on the shy side, though I'm certain there is a dark side lurking underneath that red hair of hers!  But now she is our total, on-call girl...Miss Go-With-The-Flow!  Casey emails her every day to let her know what time we'll need her help, depending on how much help has signed up on the care calendar, and that is when she arrives ready to love on babies!  She has even recruited her mom and one of her high school friends for the cause!  Her calm, happy, loving spirit is the perfect antidote for crazy babies and knows a thing or two about quieting an inconsolable infant...which is usually Britton :-).  She loves the Fab Five like nobody else and the Fab Five loves her back!!  Thank you, Jennifer, you are AWESOME!!

We knew Tricia and her husband, Dusten, sort of, through our church group at Riverbend.  And because of her, we are alive today...I'm only barely kidding!  Tricia jumped in red-head first from the beginning, organizing the care calendar, running background checks, cooking meals, and just generally being AWESOME!!  Then, she took it about 1000 steps forward...she started picking up shifts - day shifts, night shifts, weekend shifts, vacation day shifts, back-to-back shifts - you name it, she did it and did it with a smile (a slightly mischievous smile, but a smile nonetheless)!  During the toughest time of this experience, the time when the babies gave Casey and I less than three hours of sleep each night, Tricia was there, every other night, four nights a week, for three months straight to allow Casey and I to sleep, uninterrupted for at least six hours.  Now do you think I'm kidding when I say that we are alive today because of her??!  She even dragged her husband and two high schoolers into the fun, bringing them along to help with all of the above.  They are an amazing family!  Now that calmer nights have arrived and the focus has shifted more to the days, Tricia is still with us, arriving every day before 7:00 so that Casey and I can get ready for our day ahead, walk Eliot to school, and allow us to get other stuff done around the house.  Spirited, fun, giving, selfless, loving...thank you, Tricia, you are all of these and more!!

So we're getting used to surprises these days in whichever form they choose to present themselves.  They've come fast and furious and in the most interesting ways.  And, God willing, they'll keep coming...red-headed or not!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net