A thankful Heart

I'm at this wonderful point in my life called young adulthood. I've fallen in love a time or two, traveled, studied abroad, served a mission, had my heart broken, discovered several things I'm good at-- and even more that I need to work on, been lucky enough to make a few really wonderful lifelong friends, and blessed with amazing testimony-building experiences which have made completely clear in my mind and my heart that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is 100% true. By every definition of the word I am blessed... Not to mention my fantastic forever family. Seriously, they're amazing.

In an effort to jump back into the blogging world and to continue documenting my young wonderful life, I will be posting at minimum one post a week expressing grattitude for the tender mercies the Lord bestows on me... After all, Izaak Walton said,

"God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart."

This week, I am thankful for:

Daily scripture study and the weekly opportunity to partake of the sacrament

The temple that is five minutes up the road from me

Sewing and creating beautiful things

Amazing friends like Jenn S., Bethany H., Rob B., and Aubin P. whom I get to see often

Good music on Pandora

My life experiences which give me wisdom, memories, and perspective.

What are you grateful for? Take thirty seconds and make a list... Try it, you'll like it!

"These Are A Few of My Favorite..." Pictures! *Part Two*

Where This Is: This picture was taken in Ireland at the field where Trevor played all his soccer games the summer of 2006 after I graduated from High School.
Why I Love It: My momma and I were so cute in our "matching" jackets that day... This picture reminds me that we are "two peas in a pod"-- even if we sometimes have differing opinions!


Where This Is: This photo was taken in Cooke County Jail... Just kidding!! This is Trevor's pretend mugshot taken the night before we left for Ireland, Summer of 2006.
Why I Love It: My little hooligan brother had been chased by the cops after a neighbor called them reporting some illegal firework goings on in the neighborhood. I would like to say that this event scared Trevor away from his life of crime- but when the cops were in front of our house a couple weeks ago, we sadly shook our heads and remembered this incident. Oh, the foreshadowing!

Where This Is: This was taken Fall of 2005 at my friend Serena's 18th birthday party which was at this cute little deli in Addison.
Why I Love It: These were some of my best friends in high school, and it's fun to look back and see how much we've all changed in four years- yet, how much we're the same! Left to right is Paris, Me, Marissa, Serena, Allie, and Kate Lynn. It was a really fun night, and whenever I see this picture, it takes me back to the carefree days of high school!

Where This Is: This was taken at my cousin Jared's wedding in November 2004 at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.
Why I Love It: This picture was taken by my sister, and from what I understand (and the way it looks in the picture) it was a blustery day full of wind and rain. My grandpa was being so chivalrous and holding the umbrella for my grandma-- They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is why this is my favorite photo if the two of them because it has love and commitment written all over it!

Where This Is: August of 2006 after seeing the Barnum and Bailey circus show, I spotted this little mommy/son duo. I couldn't help but snap a candid photo!
Why I Love It: A baby with a Mohawk... really?!?! Need I say more?

Where This Is: This was also August of 2006 after I had moved up to Utah for my freshman year and Cam had graduated from BYU. This was a fun family barbecue with all the family who were in Provo at that time!
Why I Love It: This is a long-standing Jones tradition. And cousin Jared, not being the exception, has his eight-month-old Mackayla carrying on the ritual! I'm pretty sure if we looked hard enough, we could find a picture of all four Jones uncles doing this with at least one of their kids... And yes, it never fails to make the mothers nervous!

Strolling Down Memory Lane...

I was going through pictures on my computer, and I realized there are so many excellent pictures with so many amazing memories attached to them. So I thought I would chronicle some of them here- a fun stroll down memory lane, if you will! :)

Where This Is: This was taken in Arizona at my cousin Tyler's wedding in July of 2003.
Why I Love It: My sister A-G-O-N-I-Z-E-D over getting her hair cut. While she was in the midst of this life-altering dilemma, I was carefree and living it up at EFY in Sherman, Texas with one Miss Bethany Malouf. The week ended on Friday, and I was leaving on Saturday with my family for Arizona When the week was over and I was back with my family, I saw my sister's cute haircut and I loved it. I had been thinking about cutting my hair for the couple of previous weeks, and so that night (while I was supposed to be cleaning my room) I took some scissors into the bathroom and went at it. My haircut in this picture was the result of that night in the bathroom. What? You say that it looks pretty much like my sister's? Yeah... she noticed that too. And even though I didn't mean to, she was convinced I purposely copied her haircut. After lots of tears, my dad being mad at me because before he really looked at it he thought I butchered my hair, and a few days of the silent treatment from Cam in Arizona-- we were finally able to stand together and take a picture. Now, its a funny family story we all like to laugh about :)

Where This Is: This picture was taken in 1967 at my mom's Uncle Ken's photography studio in Glendale, Arizona. My mom (the baby) was six, and my Uncle Jay (the oldest) was 17.
Why I Love It: The first time I saw this picture was at my grandpa's funeral, and I fell in love... We dug it out of the old storage shed- I think this is the only picture of my mom's whole entire family I have ever seen while my momma was little, and I love that everyone looks basically the same that they do now! This is a small glimpse into a whole other time!

Where This Is: This was taken in the Plano West theatre lobby my senior year, after the final performance of Little Shop of Horrors. I got to be 'pregnant' in the show... It was a fun costume!
Why I Love It: This was the last show I actually performed in at Plano West, and I had such a great time in it with all my friends! I designed this costume, and I loved the "homeless" makeup. Lots of good memories associated with this picture!

Where This Is: This is my joy school class in March of 1993. I was the only girl, and the tallest one by about a head and a half!
Why I Love It: Oddly enough, I actually remember this picture... I was five, and we had learned about doctors. After we made little doctor kits, stethoscopes, and headlights, we took this picture. I had so much fun with all these boys- mostly because they let me boss them around. Maybe that's where I got my need to be in charge?!

Where This Is: This is at the Dallas Museum of Art. I think we weren't supposed to take pictures... But we did anyways :)
Why I Love It: We always joke that Nick is like an old man, and when we saw this picture- It was like we got a glimpse into what Nick will look like in 60 years!

Where This Is: This was taken in San Diego when we were there for a LeSueur family reunion.
Why I Love It: This was the first REAL family reunion the LeSueurs had. My grandma wanted it in San Diego because that's where she and my grandpa took my dad and his two brothers when they were a young little family! This picture was taken outside the San Diego Zoo- this is me, my siblings, and all of my cousins except for three... I love this photo!

Stay tuned... More pictures to come!

Yuletide Recap (In 30 Words Or Less)

Because Christmas is three weeks past and so I can carry on with blogging about more current events... Here is my Christmas recap in pictures and 30 words or less!

Guns in the Desert

Roasted Hot dogs and Marshmallows





Little Ones

Family Pictures




Arizona Citrus




Childhood Reminiscences


Snuggling for Warmth




Christmas Lights at the Arizona Temple


Nativities




Divinity


Cousins

Fireworks

Happy 2009!

Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire

I am going to continue to count my many blessings throughout December. It was so wonderful to be able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my family; both of my grandmas flew in from Arizona to share this food and gratitude-filled holiday with us. They were also here to see me turn 21 and Cami turn 25 (on the 25th, I might add... 25 on the 25th)! It was so much fun to share these events with them because, growing up, we weren't able to be with them for this short pre-Christmas break very often.

Having the three-generation (soon to be four) thing going on over thanksgiving was really so great. My Grandma Jones was able to make her famous real cranberry salad and my Grandma LeSueur was there to make her famous Swedish salad- both of which are staples at our Thanksgiving table! My daddy fried the turkeys and my momma whipped up some amazing mashed potatoes, yam town potatoes, and some homemade whipped cream. I was in charge of the pumpkin and pecan pies, and Cam did everything else in between. We took our family Christmas card picture, as well as a TON of other good ones. We set up our Christmas tree, decorated it, drank homemade wassail with our homemade whipped cream, and read Christmas stories. We relived family memories, talked about our excitement for upcoming memories we are sure to make, and we had several family prayers together. This truly was the type of Thanksgiving pictured in Norman Rockwall picture books!


My dad, the turkey fryer- we successfully cooked two turkeys without blowing the house up!

Look at my cute brother putting the pies in the oven.

My mama, making the grahmcracker crust for the banana-cream pie.

Kevin added another skill to his list of manly things he can do- he can now do 12 things on his list!

Cam and Kevin at the dinner table with my beautiful centerpeice :)

Momma, Cami, and Baby J!

Our family picture- see how cute we can be!

Buddy LOVES scratching his back on the bottom limbs of the Christmas tree. It's his favorite part of Christmas- that, and all of the handouts he gets.

Everyone with the beautifully decorated Christmas tree :)


Now, I must make this clear, I only paint this beautiful picture to create a sort of nostalgia so I can come back and read about all these good things when my family is hurriedly rushing around during the not-so-picturesque times of the year. So, I suppose I am grateful for the opportunities we have to create some wonderful memories, so that we can cling onto them when things aren't so perfect. I love thinking back to times my whole family has been together. I think about things like my family's visit to Utah for General Conference my freshman year of college. Oh, I'm sure there were a few meltdowns that happened- but I don't remember them. I do, however, remember the warm feelings I got when I went with Cam and Kevin to pick up Mom, Dad, and Trevor from the airport. I remember having lunch between conference sessions at some restaurant across from temple square. I remember going shopping while the boys were attending priesthood session. Whenever I was homesick in the subsequent months, I would think about this wonderful time we had together, and it would lift me up!

Us, at lunch

My friend Bethany, me and Cam

The boys- we have so many pictures with Kevin's face like this... I roll my eyes every time I look at one of them...

Another favorite memory of mine is when my family went to New York City the Christmas of my freshman year in high school. I'll never forget stepping out of the subway and into times square and looking up and seeing the beautiful and angelic snow falling from the heavens. I also will never forget having to pull my over packed suitcases through that 'heavenly snow' a few blocks to our Times Square hotel. I'll always remember how alive the city was and my bubbling excitement for life. We were in Times square to usher in 2003 and watching the confetti rain down as the clock struck 12 can't be described by any other adjectives except magical. On this trip is when my 10-year-old brother unleashed his inner sumo (email me if you want to see those photos- I don't think they're appropriate for the www!), we visited the infamous soup kitchen- as made famous by Seinfeld's 'Soup Nazi' episode- where I got yelled at by no one other than 'The Soup Nazi' himself, and we took a taxi to church- which was between Central Park and Carnegie Hall, right below the temple that was under construction at that time. We did lots and lots of shopping, and I bought my notoriously famous purse called 'Big Red' from a sidewalk vendor; my mother was sure I had been ripped off. Thinking of this trip reminds me to always be excited about life- I was so excited to be in New York and it was wonderful to be there with my family!

Happy 2003!


I love this picture... This was on our way to church. Trev was so little!

So, there you have it- these are a few of my favorite memories. Take some time and jot down some thoughts about your favorite memories when you have a few minutes and think about them whenever you're blue- it works wonders! Try it... you'll like it :)