Thumb Sucker

Little Elizabeth is already a thumb sucker...or is her daddy the sucker? When Lizzy is upset John calms her right down by holding her facing outward with her arms and legs straddling his arm and his thumb stuck in her mouth. She stays content for quite a while that way and he still has an extra hand for homework. You'd think with all the stress of medical school he'd be ready to pass her off to someone else, but John loves holding his baby. He even loves it when she sucks so long and hard that he gets blisters. He's an amazing dad, and you can tell that Lizzy thinks so too.

Toast in the Shower

First of all, thanks everyone for all your kind comments. John, Lizzy, and I feel so loved! Things up to this point have gone smoothly, mostly thanks to my wonderful mom. She spent the last week and a half doing all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, etc. around here while I spent about 20 hours out of every 24 trying to figure out how to feed our new, ravenous, little bundle of hunger. When my mom left yesterday morning I quickly realized that two hands just don't cut it. Welcome to the real world! While John was at church I desperately tried to get Miss Elizabeth Dawn to eat a big lunch and go down for a nap so I could get ready and catch the next ward's sacrament meeting. Instead she wanted to snack every 45 minutes with 10 minute naps in between. Sabotage! Well, thanks to a little miracle and a quick breakfast of toast in the shower, I made it! I imagine we'll be seeing a few more of those mornings in the near future, but I'm excited to be making it...one slice of toast at a time.

To my mom

I’ve often heard that you don’t really understand how much your parents love you until you become a parent yourself. I believe it. Not only because I feel that deep love for Elizabeth, but because in becoming a mother I, once again, find myself in the helpless position of being completely dependent on my mom. When I don’t know what I’m doing (which seems to be always) she picks up the pieces. When I was younger she did everything for me, but I didn’t always notice. Mom, now I notice. Thank you for your completely selfless love, for the way you quietly go about taking care of everyone around you without need for praise or recognition. You are a truly amazing woman. I love you.

Lizzy!

Elizabeth Jones is here! Emily started having contractions on Wednesday night around 10:45pm. She woke me up at 2am and we came into the hospital at 4am. Emily did an incredible job and only had to push about a half hour before beautiful Lizzy popped on out. She is adorable. She has lots of crazy light brown, swirly hair. And she has what they call a "stork's bite" - a splotchy check mark shaped spot right on the middle of her forehead. It looks like a nike swoosh almost:) They say it should fade but will show up in the first couple of years when she cries or gets worked up. She weighed 7lbs13oz, 20 3/4 inches long, and was born at 4:05 pm. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

Only 5 Weeks To Go!!!!

It's been months since I last took a picture of the belly, but John keeps assuring everyone that I really am getting "huge!" Well, here it is...proof that John wasn't just trying to make me feel good about myself. Since we don't have a full length mirror I honestly wasn't sure how big I was. I just knew I'd given up on seeing anything below my bellybutton weeks ago. So today, at 35 weeks, I finally put my camera on a tripod and started taking pictures. I don't know how much bigger I'll get, but if everything goes as planned little Elizabeth will be here in just 5 short weeks! She's already about 5 1/2 lbs. Really, how much bigger can she get in 5 weeks? No one answer that...I don't think I want to know. Anyway, John and I are SO excited! In fact, I (the girl who never thought anything was worth ironing in her life) spent yesterday morning picking out my favorite baby outfits, ironing them all, and placing them neatly on hangers in Lizzy's closet. You don't have to tell me...I know I have way too much time on my hands. I'm ready for her to be here, but I'm sure this little one is worth the wait!

Finally Settling In

Thanks to a lot of help from my parents and Rachel Milar, John and I are pretty much moved into our new apartment, and we love it! We miss Utah A LOT and all our family out there, but Charlottesville is growing on us. John thinks he's really going to like med school (especially once he doesn't have to worry about selling security systems in the evenings). He's already up late studying every night he isn't selling, and he saw the results yesterday when he got 100% on his first quiz! I'm not much of a fan of the staying up late part and I can't say I like the formaldehyde smell John brings home from the cadaver lab, but I'm really proud of him for doing what he's always wanted to do. It seems silly, but I wonder if this is what a mom feels like when she sends her first child off to school for the first time...anxiously excited and praying that things will go well. John has the crazy schedule, but I've been keeping busy too. This week I made our apartment feel like home, met some new friends in the ward (which we LOVE), found a new doctor, and started to apply for jobs with photographers in the area. Work is slow around here, so most photographers go at it alone. But I've already had 2 interviews (although, I'm only really interested in one of them). The position I want is a full time Photoshop technician. Sounds fun, huh!?!? We'll see if it works out. Everyday I ask myself what in the world I’m getting into. Six weeks before my due date isn't exactly the ideal time to start a new career, but little Lizzy has promised to be an exceptionally good baby to help us make ends meet. Now we’ll just pray that we can find as understanding of an employer. Well, that’s about all that’s new with us. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support!

Baby Bash and Movin' On

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but lots of fun stuff is going on in the Jones household. Mary and Jen threw a rockin' baby shower for me...the best I've ever been to. We had great food and played some really fun games, and I loved having my mom there to join in on the fun. In one game (pictured below) everyone had to rip off the length of toilette paper that they guessed would wrap around my belly once. Apparently I look even bigger than I really am because Chandi's piece wrapped around me twice. Thanks Chandi. =)

Unfortunately our summer at the beach has come to an end. John started medical school at the University of Virginia on Monday. He wondered how well he'd fit in, especially after his first encounter with other students in his entering class. The others instantly bonded as they discussed the best bars in town and decided to go get drinks together after class. Of course John didn't have much to say on that topic. And when the other guys found out that he was married they were shocked and asked in amazement, "Is being married really as bad as they say it is?" So.... we're definitely not in Provo anymore! But we're excited to be out of our comfort zone and grow a little.