Emily Jones

Gingerbread House Fun!

We made our gingerbread house today!

I picked up the kit at Fred Meyer the other day, along with some fun candies that I thought would work well on the house.  Joey had the seriously brilliant idea that the nerd ropes would be perfect for Christmas Lights hanging on the house!

Here are some pics from our decorating session:

 

 

Jim topped off the house with some "snow" using a sifter and some powdered sugar!

And the boys made a video to explain all about their gingerbread house!

We are so in the holiday spirit over here!  AND it just started snowing!   We can't wait for Christmas!

Happy Holidays From the Jones'!

As promised, here's our Christmas card for 2009!

If I know you in real life, or you are a family member (close or distant), you will get yours in the mail soon!

Merry Christmas!

If you are looking to make your Christmas Card quickly and easily, I made this at Scrapblog they have the best free digi scrapbooking stuff to make your own cards, announcements, and layouts!

Hugs,
Em

Change, cont.

So, here is good a time as any for an update on life!

Because of my lack of blogging, I haven't really had the opportunity to share quite a few things with you.

In July of this year, we added a new member to our family unit. You may be wondering who that teenage boy in my blog header is, (no we don't have any teenage love-children that we were hiding!) That is Dillon.  Dillon is Jim's younger brother, and he lives with us now.

Jim was 12 when his mom and step-dad had Dillon, so there is quite an age gap between the two of them.  Dillon has visited us before, and always got along wonderfully with the kids.  When he asked if he could come stay with us, we didn't hesitate to say yes.  Dillon is 17 and attending a local High School in our area.  He came to us with pretty bleak transcripts (much of the blame for his previous grades can be put on the Modesto school system which let him fall through the cracks.)  But in the almost six months that he has lived here he has made amazing improvements.  Dillon is making all A's and B's in school and has adjusted wonderfully.  He has a girlfriend who lives down the block in our neighborhood and has made some new friends.

He's a great help with the kids too, I have to say, it's been great to have a built in baby-sitter.  Dillon offers to watch the kids for us whenever we need him to.  Sometimes Jim and I will want to run to the store just the two of us (mostly because it's the only alone time we get these days!) and it's great to have a responsible 17 year old right there to stay with the kids!

Joey is pretty enamored with Dillon.  He looks up to him so much, and I think he gets to see what it's like to have a big brother for the first time.  Joey and Dillon have "talks" all the time where Joey will pick his brain about what he does at school, or other things on his mind.

I will tell you, the most challenging aspect of having a teenager overnight is the homework!  OMG!  It is amazing how quickly it comes back to you though, I took honors Algebra, Science, and English in school, so I've been enjoying the refresher course I get from Dillon's homework!  It has actually made me nostalgic for my own homework and I have been contemplating going back to school myself, but that's a whole other story!

Speaking of which, Dillon will be home soon and the homework will need to be looked at, so I'm going to sign off...here is a picture of Dillon with the kids, (the one in my blog header)

I took this picture on Thanksgiving Morning, before we left for Aunt Becky's house for the festivities.  You don't even want to know how many pictures I took before getting this one, and Lily isn't even looking at the camera!  Ha!  This picture is on our Christmas card, which I will share tomorrow...

Hugs,

Em

Season of Change...

Hi friends,

As you may have noticed, I have been having trouble keeping my blog updated.  It's not that I don't want to blog, in fact, a lot of the time I write entries in my head while in line waiting for Joey to get out of school.  But I seem to have fallen into the trap of, "well, it's been so long since I last blogged, how do I recap?" Or, "I have other things to do."  But, I am reminding myself that the reason I started this blog was for me.  For my family, for my kids. 

I don't expect a lot of people to read or comment, I don't want to HAVE to blog in order to make a living, (and kudos to anyone who has to keep up with THAT!) I just want to have a small place in the Internet world that I can call my own, somewhere my memories are written down and easily recalled.

So, I'm making an early resolution this year, well, more of a goal really.  I want to blog from the heart.  I want to tell my stories, even if it's just with pictures, and I want to share more of me.  I don't want to worry about what people think of the post, wonder if it's "okay" to post an entry without pictures or layouts.  I'm just going to do this for me.  I'm going to invite my family to read here, and let them know when it's updated.  They are my true audience, and the ones that most look forward to updates.

So, I would love it if you wanted to continue reading and being a part of my life, even if I don't know you.  My blog is most likely going to involve scrapbooking a lot less and focus on life a lot more, and if that's not your thing, no worries, my feelings aren't hurt if you don't want to read anymore.

Thanks to those people who I call my "online friends" who comment, who email me, who care about what I'm up to, I love that I get to share my world with you, and I hope you will delight in my journeys as I make changes in my life. 

Love to all,

Em

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Every year we take the kiddos to the same pumpkin patch and get our pumpkins and take pictures, this year I decided to have the kids wear their costumes!

This is Picha's Pumpkin Patch, and even though it was raining the whole time we were there, I still ended up getting some really cute pics of the kids!

Here are my crazy babes...

Joey as Harry Potter: He was soooooo into it!

This is his SERIOUS Harry Potter face, lol!

This is Joey casting a spell on his pumpkin! LOL

Here is Jake as a Rhino, this pic cracks me up!  He was not havin' the picture taking thing!

This is what the top of his costume looks like, such a cute little Rhino!

This is Jake's impression of a scary Rhino face!  HA!

And Jakey finding his "perfect pumpkin"

 

Here is my little Cinderella!  She was so cute!  She is the perfect little princess!

She kept shivering so bad, so we ended up putting on her raincoat, isn't this a cute coat?  Goodwill find for $7!

 

And here is my lovely family, Jake was still not into getting his pic taken, he was kinda pissed, lol...
 

Jake ended up wandering out of the frame, so here is a smiley one of Joey and Lily with Daddy.

We are carving our pumpkins tonight!

We can't wait to trick or treat tomorrow!

And maybe, just maybe I will be in costume too!

Happy Friday!

Em

I started an etsy store!

If you are interested in buying premade layouts, cards or mins made by moi, then check out my etsy store!

Tiger Lily Design 

Here are a sample of some of the items I've sold and are selling:

 

 

I am also taking custom orders, so if you are interested shoot me an email or convo me on etsy! 

I would love to see your etsy page if you have one, link me in the comments section!

Hugs,

Em

what do you think?

I changed it up a bit, added my fave happy yellow color....does it look boring? 

Be back in a bit with a longer post...also...how cute were the Emmy's last night?  NPH did an awesome job hosting, I <3 him so much!

and just for fun, here's a layout I never posted...this one I did a while back, probably in may??

journaling:

Jake, you love to take photos!  You steal mommy's camera whenever you can and I find your pictures on my memory card when I upload to my computer!  Sometimes you ask mommy to pose for you, and if I don't say cheese, you say "Mommmm!  You fo'got to say chhhhhhheeeeeeeeseee!"  I love that you are interested in photography!  My hope for you is that you will find a hobby that you love and stick with it into adulthood, it's so important to have a creative outlet!

If you get a chance, take a peek on Page 48. of Scrapbook Trends September 2009 issue!  My layout is in there!!!

Happy Monday!

-E

Under Construction!

So, my blog is under much needed construction!

I am trying to make it look extra purdy so bear with me while it looks funky for the next few days!

I will be back with an epic length post about my crazy summer and all the changes around Casa Jones!

Happy Friday!
-Em

My Little Shoebox CHA Projects!

Hey Guys!

CHA is upon us again, and My Little Shoebox has some seriously cute stuff for you to see!  I got a chance to work with the line "Robot's Unplugged" here is what it looks like:

Here's what I made!

My 3 Little Nuts:

A layout about my feelings and anxiety about having three kiddos...

4th Of July Kisses!

Love how this line is totally perfect for Fourth of July layouts too!

Hi! card

Oh The Places We Go:
places we love to visit in '09

This mini was so fun to make!  I used the dividers to showcase the different places we visit, and inside each envelope is a little poem I wrote about each special place...

Check out the My Little Shoebox blog for other projects with the new lines!

-Em

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

Happy Monday Y'all!

Yesterday we took the kiddos and the grandparents to a Tacoma Rainiers game!  It was so fun!  Minor league games are great because it's not such a big scale...you know,  we love to see the Mariners, but Safeco Field is so huge and you have to have expensive seats to see well, but luckily we live about 20 minutes from Cheney Stadium, home to the Rainiers, and there really isn't a bad seat in the place!

The game was awesome, we won 14-9!   The only hiccup in the game though, during the 6th? inning, one of the Las Vegas 51's hit a ball straight into pitcher Steven Shell's face.  It was so scary!  He went down hard and laid there for about 10 minutes until the strecher was brought in...he lifted a weary hand as he was wheeled out with a towel over his face.  The stadium gave him a Standing Ovation...it was just so sad!  Poor guy, I hope he's recovering comfortably, I can't imagnie how much that must have hurt!

It was a great day though, it was about 90 degrees yesterday, can you believe it?!  What was nice though, as we sat in the blistering heat, the breeze off the water swirled around us in the stadium all day long, which made it completely comfortable to be sitting without the shade.

Here are some pics I took...

Joey staring out into the field:

Jake watching the action...

Lily LOVED the game, she clapped her hands every time there was a cheer in the crowd and shouted "Go! Go!" to the players! LOL!

Joey with his autograph from player 22, Pitcher Andy Baldwin...who was super cute!  LOL!

My mom and Dad at the game, love the look on my mom's face, she is way hardcore into baseball, specifically the Mariners, she has Mariners liscense plates even!  LOL!  Papa was trying to get Lily to wear her hat all day, she finally put it on toward the end of the day...

Jake kept stealing all our hats and wearing all of them at once!  LOL! 

Here's Lily doing some sort of dance, haha, either that or she has ants in her pants!

Here's me and J!  Love this pic of us, I always get good pics of us by holding out the camera, my mom swears all her favorite pics I take of her and me or me and J are all the ones I take just holding out the camera..haha!

Here are the Rainiers high fiving each other, the 51's just ran off the field after they lost, but whatev, the Rainers formed two lines and high fived each other anyway.

After the game kids got to line up and run the bases, so J took the boys down to the field!  You can spot J in his orange shirt!So funny, both boys had to hold up their shorts as they ran, my little skinny minnies!

Hope your weekend was a great one too!  I will be back later with a layout update, and then I'm taking off on wednesday with J for a little R&R, while my mom takes the kids for two days!

Hugs!
Em