another acorn is growing on our family tree!

Most people already know this (and it's beginning to be pretty obvious, anyway!), but Baby Jones #3 is on the way!  I'm 16 weeks (well, I will be tomorrow), and feeling good!  The girls have started to notice my belly changing, and Macie thinks it's hysterical.  She came into my room friday while I was getting dressed after my shower and could not stop giggling. 

This one came as a surprise to us, which was a new experience for us....after all of our struggles (PCOS, infertility, miscarriages) a surprise pregnancy has never been on our radar.  We had even gotten to the point of having the "we're done" conversation.  The girls are at awesome ages (as they fuss in the playroom, ha!) and the stress of "trying" for us tends to be consuming and exhausting.  God, however, had a different plan for our family, and we couldn't be happier about it!

We're still adjusting, and I'm not sure the reality of a third baby actually joining our family has completely sunk in yet, but it's coming either way!  We have our "big" ultrasound in a few weeks, and I have a feeling it will be more real for us then, and then the name picking and baby planning can begin!!

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!

on saying "no"

As we approach the holidays, it seems that we're all in a constant state of "busy". I strive to not be "busy". Like that, anyway. I stay super busy here at home....keeping the girls occupied, keeping the house up, and keeping us all fed......all while trying to stay sane! I do my best, though, to stay home.....

Who would have ever thought that I would turn out to be a homebody.....I guess Bobby has rubbed off on me. I still need my occasional outing, but for the most part, there's just not much to be done that is worth the effort of getting both girls and myself out the door, and going. We can have all the fun in the world here in our own 4 walls! I guess, more than anything, I embrace my role as a stay at home mama, as just that.....a mama that stays home with my girlies. Especially now that we've started school with Macie, I've found that my priorities have shifted yet again as to what I want to accomplish here in my home. I'm not afraid to say no....or maybe, and seriously weigh whether or not committing to something will be helpful to my sanity, the girls, or to our day in general.

I try not to get caught up in all the "activities" that are out there for kids to get into. Don't get me wrong.....we have the occasional playdate with friends, and Macie has church and dance class, but I have exactly zero desire to be out of my house every day of the week!!

I think that time spent with my girls instead of time trying to get them involved is time better spent for our family. Not to mention the fact that I struggle with my day to day tasks and time management anyway! I'd hate to think what it would look like around here if I wasn't here half the time!

frumpy? me?

ha! I think I totally take advantage of being a stay at home mom. I never get dressed unless I have to. Now, normally, I'm not hanging around in actual pajamas (though, that has been known to happen) but in sweats and a t shirt. presentable enough to open the door if need be, but for sure not appropriate for leaving my house! Sometimes, if I'm feeling froggy, I'll get dressed (as in jeans and a bra!) before bobby gets home. That totally needs to end. My family deserves a mama who cares enough about herself to not look like some disheveled slob. Plus, how embarrassed would I be if someone other than the mailman came to the door?!? This is where Sarah Mae comes in (again.....i'll hop back on the 31 days to clean wagon again if I can ever get the iBook up and running again). She's hosting a Get Dressed! Challenge. Who says that all of my cute clothes are useless to me now that I stay at home? I should get some use out of them right? So as of Monday, my shoes and clothes (and perhaps even my hairbrush) will get some much needed exposure to light! Join in the fun over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee!!

Ergo giveaway!!

Make-Baby-Stuff

is hosting a giveaway for the best baby carrier ever!!! hop on over there and enter!! you won't regret it!!

also, be sure to look around...she's got some super tutorials for all kinds of stuff!

catching up!

My good intentions were sort of derailed this week! We had an impromptu visit from my mother in law this week, so instead of cleaning, I spent time shopping and enjoying her company! Oh well. Today gets to be a cleaning day anyway, since we have small group here on sunday, so I'll tackle my Martha challenges today! I need to get my Mission Statement on paper, and focus on my Mary challenges, too. I really want to keep up with this challenge, as I can really see myself in this book, and can see the challenges being super helpful to me! I think I'll spend part of my quiet time/girls' naptime catching up on my reading, and really focus on the Mary challenges!!

Day 1!

So, I'm jumping in with both feet to this 31 Days to Clean challenge hosted by Joyful Mothering. Sarah Mae's book takes small bites into learning new habits while focusing on the joy of being a homemaker, too. That's just what I need......tiny housecleaning nibbles. Ha! I love the Mary Challenge for today. To write a mission statement for what you want your home to be. That's huge for me, and I'm hoping it will be a big motivator for me to keep going. I plan to post it somewhere prominent, so that it doesn't slip from my focus!

31 Days to Clean!

Sara Mae over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee has this new eBook out! I'm not wired to be a natural "cleaner"...it takes real effort for me to keep my house up. I'm looking forward to this challenge as a way to not only feed my spirit, but to clean my house! Bobby will be pleased, too!

I love reading her blog, so I'm sure that I'll love the book, too! Here's to a clean house, and a richer spirit!

hop on over here to get the book!!

Rescuing Baby Robins

Bobby found a robin's nest that had fallen from it's branch while he was mowing this evening. Only one of the three eggs survived the fall. The ants had already gotten to the other two. Poor baby birdies. We put the nest and eggs into a shoebox until I would wield my mighty Google powers to see what we could do to save the one remaining egg.

Google (in all of it's incredible wisdom) told me to put the nest back in the tree and hope that the mama would come back. I stuck it back in a crook of branches as securely as I could without breaking the nest, and now we're just praying that the mama comes back to take care of her last baby.


Macie and I will be checking on the baby tomorrow to see if the nest survives tonight's storms. Hopefully we'll be seeing a baby robin soon!!


We've got another nest in the backyard that I haven't identified yet, but we'll be watching that one for hatchlings, too!!

Ha! Macie looks so sweet, while Emery looks oh so miserable!

i keep saying i'm going to keep up with this silly blog, but i am so uninspired.....it should be easy, though. i have a camera, i have beautiful babies, i have pretty weather. i am blog lazy, ha! maybe i should just challenge myself to one or two posts a week for a bit. in all seriousness, I do want this to be a place for my friends and family to keep up with us. so, i guess it's just a matter of me making a real commitment to it. so here it is, folks. i'm going to do it! someone out there badger me if there isn't a new post in a few days!!

where does the time go?

I can't believe we've come to another Christmas season! This is an exciting one for us.....a new baby girl to share it with, a soon to be 4 year old that makes everything seem new again, and our first "official" Christmas at home with our little family. We always travel for the holidays, and since Macie is getting older and Emery is here now, we've decided to start some of our own family Christmas traditions. It's exciting for me to know that we'll get to see Christmas morning through Macie's eyes in her own house, under our own tree. Bobby and I are just as excited as she is! We'll start our advent calendars tonight when he's home from work, and now that she really is old enough, really enforce what Christmas is all about.

This is our busiest time of year...between Thanksgiving and Macie's birthday on January 2, we hardly stop running! I've got an enormous list of things to do.......get pictures of the girlies for Christmas cards, finish up our gifts, finalize our travel plans for after Christmas, plan Macie's birthday party, etc, etc. I'm tired just typing it all out!

Miss Emery Pearl will be 6 months old in just a couple of weeks......hard to believe! I promise (to the 2 of you that read, ha!) that I'll come back with a good update on our sweet girl!

Free Herbs and Breastfeeding eBook!

We love EarthMamaAngelBaby here in our house! Their Angel Baby Bottom Balm is the best.thing.ever! We use it as a general first aid ointment. I've also used their breastfeeding teas, the postpartum recovery tea, herbs for healing sore bottoms after birth, and their nipple creams. I have loved every single product that I've used. Definitely a thumbs up from me!

Our newest tiny acorn!

I know I'm a little late (almost 8 weeks!) but my life is very full right now! We are so blessed, and are happily settling into life as a family of four! This includes, but is not limited to, selling a car and getting a van, being nervous to leave my house with the 2 of them by myself, and a whole slew of other adventures!

My birth was such an amazing and beautiful experience. I was blessed to be able to labor and deliver at our new, local birth center, The Carolina Community Maternity Center with an amazing team of midwives! After several weeks of on again, off again "labor" I was beginning to think that I really was going to be pregnant forever!! It was hard, but I just tried to remember that God knew Emery's perfect birth date and time, and I just needed to rest in that fact! That day ended up being 5 days after my due date!

At about 4:30am on June 17, I woke up for my normal middle of the night bathroom trip. When I went back to bed, I had no problem going back to sleep, but kept waking up every few minutes. It took me several times to realize that I was having contractions! I finally got out of bed between 5:30 and 6 to try and see if this was the real thing or if I was having another false alarm! From the very beginning, these were different than the other contractions I'd been having. Not necessarily more painful, just different. The only way I could deal with them, even this early was to be on my hands and knees, kneeling in the floor, or squatting. They were concentrated below my belly button and between my hip bones, but were very intense! Bobby was hesitant to stay home from work since we'd done this all once before, just for labor to peter out and waste a day off. He decided to call in "late" and reevaluate once we got a little farther into the morning.

At around 11, I decided that it was time for Macie to go to Cookie's house so that the house would be quieter. I had an appointment scheduled with my midwife, Lisa, at 2 that day anyway, so our plan was to just keep the appointment and hopefully be staying at the birth center to have a baby! I labored at home until it was time to go, and we packed up and headed to the birth center. Lisa checked me, and I was a stretchy 2-3cm (hooray!! I'd had NO progress up until then!) so we decided to stay! We hung out and walked around the parking lot, and I did a lot of squatting and rocking back and forth to try and handle the contractions. They were still about 5-10 minutes apart at this time. We decided to eat some dinner at around 5 so that I could have some good energy for the labor, and I got some delicious plantains (I'd been craving them my entire pregnancy!), and had a good dinner while Lisa and Pam were running home to get their things for the night.

At about 7:30 Davina came out to start taking pictures! It started to get a little harder then, but my contractions were still not getting into a predictable pattern. At one point, Lisa gave me a dose of Blue and Black cohosh to see if that would get them going a little better. We walked laps around the building, and did some lunges and squats. At this point, we were all hoping that she would be born by about 10.

By about 9, Lisa started talking about getting the pool set up. I still wasn't sure about using the pool at this point, because with Macie, the water slowed my labor down almost to the point of stopping, so I was hesitant to have that happen again. Eventually, Lisa convinced me that my labor wasn't going to stop, and I got in the water. It was wonderful!! At this point, I really started vocalizing through my contractions, which I didn't do with Macie. Its amazing how freeing it was to labor with no one else around. I labored in the pool for a while, and at some point, Pam (the apprentice!) got me out of the water to eat some cantaloupe. I ate, and then I really started to struggle, and felt like I was nearing transition. I stripped down and got back into the water. My contractions were closer and harder to handle, but I still never felt like I got into a predictable pattern, and I wasn't feeling the urge to push. At around 11 or so, Lisa urged me to get out of the pool and try to have a contraction or 2 on the toilet.

I sat down, and, oh man, that was hard! I managed to pee, and then almost instantly felt her head moving down! I was crying at this point, saying that there was no way I could get back up and into the pool. Lisa and Bobby helped me up, though, and I did manage to get back in the water. After 1, maybe 2 contractions, I felt my bag of waters bulge...it felt like a water balloon filling up then bursting, then promptly followed by Emery crowning. All at once. It was crazy! Pam was behind me (I was kneeling in the water at this point), and said that she felt a cord, so she and Lisa started to get the cord from around her neck (it was wrapped twice). We learned afterward that there was a little urgency there, as she was losing color. After they freed the cord, then her shoulder got a little stuck, but with Lisa's help, and some good pushing, we got her out. Lisa pushed her forward in the water and between my legs....she floated right up to me where I lifted her out of the water and onto my chest! It was the most amazing and beautiful experience!

Afterward we rested in the pool to allow her cord to stop pulsing before we cut the cord. In about 20 minutes, the water was cooling off, so we decided that even though the cord was still pulsing a little, that Bobby should cut it, so that we could get out and stay warm. As Bobby was cutting the cord, I noticed a true knot about 15 inches down from her belly. We are so blessed that with all of the potential issues, she arrived safely and quickly! From the time that my water broke to her birth was only about 3 and a half minutes!

We moved to the bed for nursing, cleaning up, and delivering the placenta! Everything was so wonderful, and exactly what I wanted!

Davina was there with us through all of it, documenting everything! The sneak peeks are here!

Part 1 (labor)

Part 2 (delivery)

Part 3 (bonding)