Keeping Up With The Joneses: WHAT?!?!? Another Post From The Joneses?!?!

You'd think someone is having a birthday!

Twenty-four years ago today, Jessica was born by scheduled c-section. Jessica joined our family consisting of 2 1/2 year old Amy, 6 1/2 year old Shelly, 9 year old Scott, and some guy with black hair.

Jessica was shockingly scrawny at 6 lbs 11 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Up to that point, our babies had ranged from 8 1/2 lbs to 10 1/2 lbs. Jessica, in comparison, looked positively puny.

Scott, age 9, and positively puny Jessica, age 2 weeks

Jessica was walking well by the time she was 10 months old.

When Jessica's hair finally grew in it was quite curly.

Jessica, age 2

Jessica always looks so sweet and feminine. That look is so misleading. It's hard to believe now, but Jessica was firmly in terrible two stage from birth through age 6. We used to call her "The Child From Heck", and that was on her good days. As a child Jess was especially fond of telling me how much she hated me. It warped me for life. But Jessica overcame that little quirk and today it's nearly impossible to believe she was ever so difficult.

Jessica, age 4

Jessica was baptized by her big brother Scott.

Jessica, age 8, Scott age 17

I can't tell--do you think Jessica is having fun?

Jessica, age 10, with cousin Spencer 15, and Megan, age 3

Before there was Jimmer, there was Jesser. When Jesser started playing basketball in elementary, she was so much shorter than everyone that she quickly learned to shoot from 3 point range where her shots wouldn't be blocked by tall girls. It wasn't unusual for her to shoot (and make it) from half court. She frequently was the high scorer for her games.

Jessica, age 11

By the time Jessica got to high school, she had a ~~ridiculously~~ ~~enormous~~ crush on LeBron James. She was sure she was going to meet him, convert him to Mormonism, and marry him in the temple.

Thank you, Jorden, for saving Jessica from herself.

Jessica, age 17

Jessica also played softball as a high schooler. One day I got a call asking me to pick her up from practice. Seems she'd run into a fence while looking skyward and running full speed in an effort to catch a pop-up ball. I rushed to the school, fearing the worst, and there was blood.
Lots and lots of blood.
Her teammates were screaming, but Jessica was laughing. She was left with a black eye, a cut lip, a bloody nose, and the imprint of chain link on her face.
The coach loved her. Thought she was tough. She is!

Jess, age 15

Jessica had a ridiculous fondness for our yappy mutt, Mikki. I was sure she was going to wear her lips out from kissing that wad of fur. I always told her no boy would kiss her if she kept kissing that dog.
Yeah, I was wrong. Even when I told Jessie's boyfriends she was cheating on them with the dog, they didn't seem to care...

Jessica, age 15

Jessica was a joy as a teenager--she went through her teenage angst as a toddler and got it over with.

Jessica, age 17 with Dad

This is a picture of the infamous "Pancake Incident". Ashley and Jessica thought they needed to get into a "who can eat the most" pancake competition one Saturday morning. They both ended up eating so much I thought I'd have to take them to the emergency room to have their stomachs pumped. After they couldn't eat another bite, both of them spent the rest of the day laying on the couch and groaning before finally falling into comas.
It was pretty pitiful. We don't allow them to eat pancakes unsupervised anymore.