Surprise- Tess is 11 !!!

Tess with her 3rd grade classmates
Tess and her 12 year old brother
Tess with her classmates and teacher.

Well- that's the thing with international adoptions...you just never know. We have been suspecting that Tess was older for quite some time. We finally repeated her bone-age scan of her hand and wrist and guess what??? She is 11 and not 9 !! I was actually relieved to have this confirmed since it is what I knew to be true in my heart. She was just out of place with younger kids we thought were her age. The problem now is that she is in 3rd grade and we need to bump her up. We will be putting together a plan for the year to be able to move her to 5th next year. We had a bone age scan done when she came and it confirmed her age- that just shows what happens after 2 years of good nutrition!! She has just grown off the charts! She outweighs her 12 year old brother!!

She has taken the news well even though it was a bit confusing at first...it's just the beginning! I'll keep you posted.

SOOO Busy!!

Wow! have not had a minute to update! Such a busy month...in a nutshell...Cameron turned 12 and is loving Middle School! He is such a Junior High kid and loves his new cell phone (we finally gave in!). Christine is happy in Dallas-loving being a junior and very busy with classes and Mylo!!...Bennett is being recruited by several colleges for lacrosse and we are busy traveling to the various campuses to make our decision...Tess is loving 3rd grade and soccer and it Bennett's biggest cheerleader at all his football games!!

Jeff and I are hanging on tight during this wild ride that is our life!!!

first day of school

This is a big school year in the Jonas house...we have one in college, one in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school!! and one tired mom and dad!

Cameron is very excited to be in junior high!! We went to school last weekend to practice opening his locker-which is tricky! He carpools with his 2 best friends so it will be a fantastic year for him. Tess is in the same school and has her 2 best friends in her class-how lucky!! Bennett is full steam at SC high and CHristine is loving SMU! We said our prayers for a great year full of learning and fun!!...here we go...

Are you ready for some football??

The tough guys with their little sisters!!
Cousin Jason with Cams and Jake
The quarterback with his best runningback!!
Dad and Bennett at his first game...they won 25-0 !! Go tritons!
Bennett and his friend Quinn
At the Hawaii game...

Bennett and Cameron have been back at football since August 1st. This week we finally had our first games. Cameron is the quarterback for his team as well as free safety. Bennett is a starting cornerback on his Varsity high school football team. Both boys started the season with a win!! They both have practice everyday...friday night lights for Bennett's team and Cameron plays on Saturdays. Tess loves to play with the little sisters at all the games. She has had her first soccer practice-finally!! She has been watching her brothers go off to play for a month!

Love fall with all the sports! GO TRITONS!!

reaping what we sow...

Our little veggie garden is thriving!! We harvested 8 huge cucumbers and 60 potatoes today. Cameron and Tess really helped out washing and cutting up the french fries for dinner...tomorrow we pick the spinach and squash...

Jonas family community service...

Tess and Dorothy getting all the supplies ready to stuff backpacks...

Cameron loads backpacks after they are filled with supplies
Christine helps load filled backpacks in the car...
the kids and I organizing supplies to load into the backpacks

The kids and I helped Dorothy stuff backpacks for needy kids. This is our first chance to volunteer for Joshua Ministries- Jeff and I are now on the board of Joshua ministries and so happy to begin with this backpack drive!! The backpack project has grown over the last 5 years and we now do 500 backpacks each year at back to school time. Joshua Ministries received requests for 387 backpacks so far this year. We contacted our friend Perry and once again he so generously donated 100 backpacks to our project. I love that Tess, Christine and Cameron were able to serve and spend a day helping others!

bloopers...from our CHRISTMAS CARD PHOTO

...tried to get our Christmas photo before CHristine leaves for college...very challenging to get 4 kids to all smile on cue!!! We may have to try again before she leaves next week!!