First Grade!!!

                                              She's just growing up right before my eyes!!

 We started school again, yesterday.  We're using My Father's World again this year, and are loving it so far! Macie has been so excited to do her work the past two mornings, and was sad when I reminded her that we don't do school on Saturdays!

I made this board for our daily calendar, math, and bible memory time.  I also added a clock, weather chart, and our address and phone number for memorization.  I think this is her favorite part so far!

Today, we made clay pots like the ones that scrolls would have been stored in.  Our curriculum is covering Bible history this year, and we're learning about how the Bible (and all other writings) were written on scrolls.  She'll be making an alphabet scroll to start out this year.

Both girls really liked playing with the clay.  We used the simple salt dough recipe provided in our teachers manual.  Our clay pots are waiting now to dry, and then we'll paint them, just for fun!

Salt Dough 

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup salt

3/4 cup flour

slowly add in 1/2 cup * of water until clay is easily kneaded without being too tacky

you can also add food coloring for an earthy color

*I needed to add a little more than that to get mine to stay together....just add it slowly, as needed.

traditions

Our family has a few fun traditions...Bobby and I like to keep our individual family traditions going, and have worked hard to add our own into the mix, too.  One of our very favorite ones started sort of by accident.  The summer after we got married (May, 2003) we went to the beach with Bobby's family.  In Garden City, SC.  There is an old arcade that has a photobooth.....a real, black and white, 4 pictures in a row, photobooth.  We had our pictures made as a fun memory, without a second thought!

Fast forward to 2007, we were able to go to Garden City again....this time with an 8 month old Macie Quinn in tow!  Her first beach trip will always be one of my favorite memories!  Since we were staying in the same place, we thought it would be fun to have our pictures taken in the photobooth again.....that's when our favorite family tradition was born!

We have been blessed to go back 3 more times since then.  Our next trip was the summer that Emery Pearl (2010) was born...she was just a tiny 12 weeks old in her debut photostrip!  Macie was so into this shoot, too! 

The following summer, we had a fun and hilarious 4 year old, Macie and a very sleepy 1 year old, Emery!

This summer, both girls really got into it!  We had some super silly and funny faces!  Macie is 5 and a half (that "and a half" is important!) and Emery is 2!

These photo strips stay on our refrigerator, in a spot that I can look and smile at them several times a day.  I love being able to look back at our family, and at how it's grown from two very young newly weds to a photobooth full of my most favorite silly faces ever.

In an even sweeter "accidental" addition to this tradition, the summer that Emery was born, my brother in law proposed to my sister in "our" photobooth.  I know that Lindsey and Brandon treasure those two strips of photos as much as we do ours!

What are some traditions that your family keeps?  Which are the most important to you?

Welcome to the world, Isla Rae!

Our very first niece/cousin was born on June the 4th, and this little family couldn't be happier!!  My sister in law, Cassie went through 36 hours of labor to bring this cutie into the world!  21 of that unmedicated.....she is my birthing hero (and that says a lot!)

Isla Rae Bradbury is going to be drowning in love from her auntie, uncle, and cousins!  Congrats, again, Joel and Cassie!! 

Color!

Yesterday, during school, we talked about colors and the beauty that God has given us in Creation.  Macie and I looked at some black and white pictures compared to some color ones and talked about what it would be like if life really looked like the black and white pictures.  I asked her if she would like it if all of her clothes were grey, and if you know her at all, you know that her answer was an emphatic "NO!"  hahaha!

We did a neat little experiment that I had seen on Pinterest, next....I thought it would be a perfect thing to go along with our color talks!  I put some baking soda in a casserole dish and filled some little dishes with vinegar and food coloring.  The girls had a great time choosing, mixing, and dripping colors into the dish......and were super excited about the fizzing that came along with it!

The girls were a little under the weather yesterday (super tired from Macie's dance recital the night before and Macie had a little fever) so this was a perfect, low key (relatively low mess) experiment for the day.  Somehow, though, all of my droppers were gone, so we improvised.  I think I'll try and round up a couple, so that the next time we do something like this, it'll be a little easier for them. 

We're planning to get outside today and enjoy the beautiful world that God has blessed us with....I think I'll have Macie do a little color collecting, just to reinforce our talking about it.  Thankfully, it's going to be a gorgeous day to do it!

Tooth fairy!!

Macie reached a HUGE milestone yesterday.....she lost her first tooth!  It's been loose for a long time (since she was about 4.5!) and it finally decided to let go yesterday after church!  Daddy helped it along a little, though!

She is so very proud of that new little hole in her mouth, and really enjoys sticking her tongue through it!  I'm blown away by how something as tiny as that little tooth has changed her appearance!  Maybe it's more about her being old enough that her baby teeth are falling out. 

The tooth fairy made her inaugural Jones house visit last night, too.  She left a very generous gift, too.....a little pillow pouch with a pocket for future teeth, and 6 quarters!  Macie bounded down the stairs screaming about her gifts at 7 o'clock this morning!

I'm not sure I'm prepared for the rest of her sweet teeth to follow suit, but I don't guess I can stop this from happening!!  Though, in a way, i look forward to her snaggletoothed grin as the rest of them start to go, too!

worth a thousand words...

We have been blessed since Emery's birth to know a wonderful local photographer, Davina Fear.  We hooked up with her through the birth center, and her desire to branch into birth photography.  We were initially a little unsure when Lisa (our midwife) approached us about this opportunity.  Bobby and I view birth as a very intimate moment, and want it to be as private and as focused on us and our baby as possible.  We just didn't know how to feel about inviting someone we didn't know to come in and not just be there, but photograph the event.  After some prayer and talking, we decided to do it!  It was honestly the best decision ever.  Prior to meeting Davina, I had no experience with professional photographers.....she is just wonderful, and I've got the bug for sure!  I just can't look at photos the same way after I've seen just what they can be!

Davina blended perfectly into our birth experience, and captured little tiny moments that would have been forgotten and lost forever.  She allowed Bobby and I to be totally focused on us, and not have to worry about whether or not we were getting enough pictures.  She was such an important part of my birth experience, yet I hardly remember her being there at all!

After Emery was born, Davina came to our home to do a little family session with all of us together, since Macie wasn't at Emery's birth.  Those images are so special to me.  I look at them, and not only see how my tiny baby has changed, but just how grown up my big girl became in just the changing of one day.  Macie settled right into her new role as big sister.  After spending just one night (a big one!) with us, I felt like Davina was just another member of the family!

This past fall we had another opportunity to work with Davina, for a road trip shoot.  She and I put our heads together and worked on that shoot for weeks!  Circumstances kept delaying it, but oh, was it worth the wait!  Finding the perfect car and weather were challenges, but the day that we ended up doing the shoot couldn't have been better.  All of the little elements that we worked on came together perfectly and couldn't have been more "us"! 

She recently added more of the pictures from that shoot to her facebook page, and I just can't stop looking at them!  She has an amazing talent for freezing real life in one photo.  There is just something so different about them......not a posed photo that doesn't show anyone's personalities, but a split second glimpse of what her subject is really like.  The smiles, laughs, and affection are all real, not coached or forced. 

If you've never had the opportunity to have someone like Davina spend time with your family and take pictures, I'd encourage you to do so.  There is just nothing like looking at your family through the eyes (and lense!) of a talented photographer!  Thank you Davina, for being a friend, surrogate family member, and for providing us the opportunity to work with you!

You can see some of our sessions on her blog here, here, and here.

we love yarn around here

I am a yarn lover......I wish that I had more time (and speedier hands) to accomplish more knitting than I do, but when I get to sit and work a few stitches, I just love it.  Macie has wanted to knit for as long as she's been able to realize what I was doing.  This past Christmas, when I was handing out gift suggestions for the girls, I suggested a corker for Macie.  My sister ran with that idea, and put together a little knitting basket for her.  She got the corker, a book of patterns, and some pretty rainbow yarn all in a pretty basket.  You can see it here behind her and her new holiday Barbie.

 Today, we finally got it out, and I read the instructions and set it up for her.  I knit a few rounds on it so that I was comfortable showing her how to do it.  I showed her twice, and she was off!  She was so excited to be making her own knitted stuff!! 

 Her concentration was so intense!  Except for a couple of dropped stitches (that I got back on her loops easily with the little needle that came with it) she was perfect!

She completed her first little knitted tube, and is trying to decide what we should turn it in to.....bracelet? necklace for a doll? wooly worm? snake?  We'll see!! 

I'm super excited to have another little knitter in the family!  I foresee lots of cozy knitting and hot chocolate dates in our future!

5?? Where does the time go?

There's this crazy thing that happens when you become a parent.  You blink, and this...

 turns into this...

What an amazing blessing the last five years have been!  Being Macie's mama has been everything (and more) that I imagined it to be!  She is a joy and a challenge every day......but what is life without a few challenges?  She pushes me to be better each and every day.  I am forever thankful that I am her mother, and I look forward to watching her grow.

Yesterday was her big day, and she was so excited all day long!  We woke up at Mamaw and Papaw's house to a birthday pancake, then headed home.  We stopped for lunch where she was treated with an ice cream sundae, and then to the dollar store to buy a special balloon (with some dollars from Mamaw)....then, the big surprise.  We took her to Pet Smart to pick our her very own fish!  She's standing with the newest member of the Jones family~Flynn Rider Eugene Jones....she loves him!  We came home to finish out the night with a supper of her choosing (hotdogs, mac and cheese and broccoli with an orange crush for a treat).  What a big day for a big girl!!  Happy birthday, my sweet girl!