Emily Jones

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

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

Busy, Busy!

Things have been so crazy the last couple weeks!

On the moving front, we are officially out of the old house and into the new!  We have about 60% of the boxes unpacked, but because of the schedule this last week and this week, it may take us until july to get all the way unpacked!

The birthday party for the boys on Sunday was so fun!  Unfortunately it wasn't hot enough to go swimming in the lake, but the kids all ran crazy on the playground!  There were about twelve kids total and their parents, we had a big cook out with burgers and dogs, and played pin the tail on the donkey and did a pinata.  Overall it was a big ole fun BBQ!
The boys made out like bandits in the gift department for sure!  Remote control cars, hot wheels galore, books, cute summer outfits, movies, a scooter for Joey and a talking construction hat for Jake, super soakers, and the biggest gift of all, the wii!  I think part of the lack of unpacking may be due in part to the wii!  LOL!  We've been playing like crazy!  The boys got a Ben1o game and a Bolt game, and of course it comes with the 5 sports games, so they've had plenty to play with! 
Joey picked up on how to use the controllers within minutes and is already on level three of Ben10 which is a 10+ game!  Jake LOVES the bolt game and likes to play with mommy.  I will hold the controller and he holds the nunchuck so we work as a  team!
After the kids go to bed J and I have been battling it out with the Wii sports!  I rock at bowling and boxing, he's better at golf and baseball...we're pretty evenly matched at tennis though...so funny...after playing for hours one night I woke up the next morning and my shoulder was sooooo sore!  It's the tennis game!  You slam the controller like a tennis racket, and J says my shoulder hurts because my "technique is lacking" HA!  I beat him a lot on tennis, so my technique can't be THAT lacking!  LOL!  We have now coined my sore shoulder as my "Wiinjury" hahaha!

Yesterday I hopped down to Ikea to pick up another expedit because the one I currently have for my scrap stuff won't fit up the stairs!  We are too afraid to take it apart because of how hard it was (and totally drilled incorrectly IKEA!) to get to fit together, so we just bought a new one to put together upstairs in the loft which is where my new scrap space is going to be.  That's on the to-do list for this weekend!

Oh, and tonight is election night at James' local!  He is nonminated for Vice-President!  Wish him luck and cross everything!  We will find out tonight at the meeting if he was elected!  I'm heading down there at about five tonight and will update tomorrow with the news!

This weekend we are going to our friend Michelle and Jorge's house for their kids bday parties...Isaac is turninig 9 and Bella is turning 5!  Hopefully Michelle and I can get in some scrapping time this weekend because we both have MLS projects to work on!

Okay, I'm off to get Lily dressed!  She is being such a stinker lately!  She is definitely a toddler these days, randomly undressing and running around in her diaper, tantrums galore when I won't let her have a drink of my diet coke or coffe (I know, I'm such a MEAN mommy! LOL!) and talking up a storm!  She has so many words these days!   Some new ones include:

Up!
Banana (not just nana, she now says bananananananana!)
Pew!!! (said while smelling her toes! LOL!
Mommy, Daddy (not just mama and dada, she now said Mommmmyyy and Daddddyy!)
Bo-Bo (her nickname for Joey, he loves it)
Kuh (what she calls Jake, I think she's making the K osund at the end of his name)
Car
Vroom!
All Done!
Mine! (this one we're not too excited about! ha!)
Puppy
Baby (this girl loves her some babies!)
Yum Yum!

And those are just a few!  She's quite the chatterbox!

Anyway, I'm gonna go get her dressed, go grab some coffe and maybe unpack a little before Joey heads off to school!  I'm gonna try to find my usb cord for my camera so I can take pics of the house and upload soon!

Hugs!
E

Update

Hey!  I've fallen off the face of the earth!  Sorry!

My laptop is once again (DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT AGAIN) is in the shop.  Possibly from me throwing it off a 14 story building.  Okay, so maybe only in my fantasies. hehee...I hate that thing!
I am writing from J's computer, which is hard to get onto between him and the boys fighting over it! 

Not much to share today, lots of stuff going on at Joey's school, a couple projects and oh yea!  Joey's teacher finally got him tested for the gifted program and surprised us all by placing out of Kindergarten and into Second Grade!  How cool is that?!  He is such a smart cookie and we are so proud of him.  He is going to get some special work in the classroom and more one on one time with his teacher until the end of the school year and then next year will be a part of the gifted program that starts in first grade.  We made a decision a couple years back when we realized that he was very smart that we wouldn't want him to skip a grade.  I have known and heard people say that it did more damage than good to their child emotionally and socially to have them skip.  Do you have any experience in this?

What else have we been up to?  Hmmmm....well Sunday we went to the zoo with our friends John, Jana and baby Burton and had a great time!  Then Monday I babysat little Burton for John while he worked.  It was so fun (and exhausting!) to have another little baby in the house!  It was like a glimpse of what life would be like if Lily had been a twin!  Burton was great though, and ended up really clicking with Jake!  It was so cute, he kept climbing on Jake's back and hugging him.  At one point they snuggled up together under Jake's blankey and Burton almost fell asleep!  So cute!

Oh!  I also forgot to share that I got two layouts picked up for Scrapbook Trends!  One is for the September Issue and the other is for their Holiday Idea Book!  I'm so psyched! 

So, Monday is my birthday, the big 25!  LOL!  We are planning on celebrating on Friday at weekly poker night with my friend Jana, who's birthday is the day before mine, so we'll have a double celebration....then Sunday we're heading over to my parents house for my bday dinner.  I feel old this year.  LOL....I always feel older than my birthday though.  I feel like this year should be 35 not 25!  I think it's just because a lot has happened in the last 7 years! 

So that's what's up with me!  I am knee deep in my May projects for My Little Shoebox, and they are turning out CUTE!  I can't wait to share them! 

Oh!  And I hope you are voting for my boyfriend on American Idol!  He's gonna win!! I just know it!

Have a great day!
-Em

Today Is Not Thanksgiving...

Well, okay, it is..

BUT, that's not what we're celebrating today!

Today my little princess is ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

One year ago today at this moment I was laboring...and still harboring all kinds of fears about what having a daughter would actually mean....I still have a lot of fears, but I can say that this past year has been so overwhelming and amazing.  Nothing, NOTHING prepared me for the joy of having a little girl....a princess, my Tinkerbell as I call her...or Stinkerbell when she's being naughty, or when she's actually Stinky, :-)

Having boys is fantastic...they are rough and tough and sweet and snugly, and dirty and messy and all around wonderful...I love getting dirt covered kisses and being chased around the house with worms on a shovel (well, not REALLY..lol)
But having a girl...

Oh my.

It's amazing.  Lily is sweet, and snugly, and BEAUTIFUL, and already I can see such a different demeanor...nothing I could describe would accurately represent her personality and how wonderful she is.  We get asked all the time:  "Is she always this happy??!!!" the answer is YES.  Always.  She is sunshine incarnate.  She is patient beyond belief.  She lets her big brothers poke at her, cover her in kisses, and balance toys on her head..and she thinks they are HILARIOUS.  She lets the dog sniff at her, and lick her face and eat the scraps from under her highchair...and she giggles...or at most swats the dog in the face.  She rarely cries, usually only when exhausted..but she keeps me sane by falling asleep almost the instant she hits the sheets. 

She sleeps y'all.  Like A LOT.  Like gets up at 8am, naps from 12:15-2 and bed at 7pm...and she doesn't make a peep at night.  THAT, my friends, is perfection.

Plus, she is a walking and talking maniac!  MANIAC I tell you!!!  Thanks to our over-zealous boys, our baby gates have ripped out of the staircase they were bolted into...so, Sunday, I turn around for five seconds and Lily has scaled the staircase and is in the bathroom at the top of the stairs!  CRAZINESS!  She is also walking across rooms now, without hesitation, just full tilt toddler...it's so cool to see her come into to her own and feel confident, but at the same time, I can see the hints of baby starting to disappear.  She is getting SO big.

She talks like crazy too...I always joke that she speaks Portuguese and we just don't understand what she's saying because she is very confident in what she says.  She will look at you and say llkdjfieigiieithhdgh!!!!  alkdfdk!!!  Like you are supposed to know exactly what she is saying.  Hehehe..of course, she says Mama, Dada, Nono!, and Dodo (Jojo for Joey) and Dog, and MMMMMMMMM whenever you put food in front of her, or she sees food, or even the plastic play food...MMMM!  She tells Daddy all the time, Nono Dada!  Nono Dada!  Whenever he crawls at her with the tickle monster fingers...she laughs her sweet laugh all the time, and when she has done something exciting like walk she will stop and clap and say "Yaaaaayyy!"  (That's what she was doing in the picture above.  She had taken her first steps and we were all clapping and saying "YAYYY!!  And she decided to join in!)

I could go on and on and on...she is that great. 

I love you my sweet Lily Anne.  This last year has been magical, incredible and everything and more I dreamed it would be.  You have made me a better mommy, and you have completed the circle of our family.  You couldn't have two parents who loved you more, or big brothers who loved you more.  You are so special, and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!  Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Okay, you are probably tired of me gushing about her..hehehe, but it doesn't get old! 

I will leave you with a mini album I made for Moxxie using their "Blessed" line, that celebrates Lily's first year.  I used a picture from each month of her first 12 (the 12th will be added from her party!) and then I journaled all about her milestones from the corresponding month.

 

 

 

  

Lily's party in this Saturday, so I will have a ton of pictures to share soon! 

Her party is bunny themed, because she is freakishly attached to her stuffed bunny we call "Bunny Friend."

I did this layout about Bunny Friend for Moxxie using the "Just A Girl" line...

 

I have some super cute Bunny themed decorations that I have made and I will share pics from the big birthday bash soon!

-E

Photoshop Fun!

So the other day, I FINALLY learned how to do this!!

I have been wanting to know how to keep objects in color in a black and white photograph forever!  Who knew it was so freaking easy?!  Now I'm just going buck wild doing this to like every pic I have!! LOL!

Isn't this so fun?!

Cuteness Overload!

So Lily had her first official portraits taken last month, and even thought they were RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, I couldn't resist them!  My munchkin is just such a cutie pie!!!

I am SOOOO in love with the feet one, I ordered it in a 10x13 and it's going to be framed for the nursery!

Anyway, just thought I'd share these! 

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommies!!!

Say Wha???!!!

Lily sat up today!!!  Yay!!

James came up to my scraproom to chat, and sat Lily on the floor, and he let go, and she was sitting!!! I was on the phone with my mom, and we were all so excited!  I made James go get the camera, so here is a video of Lily sitting:

I'm so glad I got this on video!  I wish we had had a camera when Joey and Jake were little, it would be so cute to see my monkey's again as babies.  It just makes me realize how special these fleeting moments are, they really do grow up too fast.  Before I know it, Lily is going to be heading off to Kindergarten like her big brother!!

Two Months later....

Well, Lily had her two month checkup yesterday!  She is getting soooo big!

She is 11.06 pounds and 23.5 inches!

That is a whopping three pounds, and three and a half inches since birth!  Way to go big girl!  This means she is in the 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight!

The only thing not so great, Lily has been sort of grunting, and almost has a tiny little wheeze since birth.  At first we figured she was just a grunty baby, and then at her one month checkup, the doctor thought she might have croup, so he put her on a medicine to clear up croup.  Well, the medicine he gave her was supposed to clear it up in two doses, but it didn't work, and it ended us up in the ER for 5 days!!!  So, long story short, she is still very grunty.  The doctor will see her again at four months old, and if she is still grunting we might have to start her on a home nebulizer.  :-(

Anyway, she is a great girl, and last night she slept through the NIGHT, in her CRIB!!!!!!   The night before last she slept from 12:15 to 4:15, and then last night, we put her down at 11:15, and she slept until 4:15!!!!  That's five whole hours of uninterrupted sleep!!!  (BTW, 5 hours of continuous sleep is considered sleeping through the night)  I of course, did not sleep through the night!  I was up constantly, checking on Lily, placing my hand on her chest, making sure she was still breathing!  LOL!  There really is nothing as scary as the first night your baby sleeps through the night!  I remember the first time Joey slept through the night, I didn't wake up til morning, and I RAN into his room, of course expecting something was horribly wrong, and there he was smiling like an angel!!! LOL!

Last night was hopefully just ONE of the many nights she sleeps peacefully all the way through!!

Checkout Cheer Up(date)

So I went back to Walgreens (for more pics of course) and this time I had only Lily with me, as James was at home with the boys.  I walked back towards the photo counter, and who was there?  The sweet brunette from two days before!  As I reached the counter she said"

"It's the Good Mom!" 

This time I laughed, and I let her know I had told everyone about what she had said, and had even blogged about it!  I told her how it had touched me so much, and how she had made me FEEL like a good mom.  She was so nice, and we began chatting...She ended up telling me she is dating someone with a son, and wants a daughter as well, and that she hopes she can be a mom just like me. 

It's so funny that all it took was one sentence from a stranger to change my whole life.  Since that first day I saw her, I HAVE been a good mom.  I've been patient, more attentive, and I have trying to keep my temper in check.  I have a lot of guilt around my children (but really, what mom doesn't?) and it mostly stems from my impatience and temper.  While I was pregnant with Lily, the boys would catch the brunt of it, they were home with me, (whilemydearhusbandwhoknockedmeupwasatworktheluckybastard) and my hormones were  a'ragin'.  I know I was mean.  I know I was wrong, and I can't fix it.  I can't go back to those last few months when I was so freaking uncomfortable, and bloated, and swollen, and achy, that everything pissed me off.  The only thing I can do is change, and do better NOW.  And I'm committed to doing that.

I also have a lot of guilt around my second son, Jake.  It's something I don't like to talk about, but I suffered a pretty severe post-partem depression for about the first year of his life.  I have almost no memories from his first year, and not very many pictures.  I always loved him, and cared for him, I didn't have the type of post-partem depression where I would imagine bad things happening to my baby, like Brooke Shields talks about in her book...I had the type where I would imagine bad things happening to myself...or just running away....escaping.  I was overwhelmed and I didn't know why.  I didn't want to admit that I was in trouble, or that I had PPD, because I felt like admitting that would be admitting that I didn't love my baby, which obviously is neither true, nor what having PPD means.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and what triggered it was looking through pictures of Jake as a baby.  I was at my moms, and she was burning pictures onto a CD for me, and she had a bunch of pictures of Jake, more than I have for sure, and I kept staring at them wondering why I don't remember any of these moments, why I don't recognize this tiny boy, why I don't remember him looking like this.  It scared me, it made me sad, and I felt awful.  How sad that instead of admitting I needed help, I struggled for a year, on a medicine that was too low of a dose.  Not asking for help, not asking for a break.  I was stubborn that this was my life, and I had asked for this baby, so why would I need a break?

I'm smarter than that now.  I'm stronger than that now.  Strong enough to say HELP!  If  I am sinking into the abyss and I need a life preserver.  Strong enough to say, can you take my kids for the weekend so I can have a mental health day?  Which is exactly what I'm doing this weekend.  I am sending the kids off to Auntie Sarah's and Nana and Papa's, and James and I will have our first weekend with just Lily.  We will relax, enjoy each other, make goofy faces at the baby, and smile from ear to ear when she babbles...We have a date with another couple for game night and karaoke, and I am very much looking forward to it.

But the best part of the weekend is when we go pick up the kids, and we've all had a break, and they run into my arms and say: "Mommy!!! I missed  you!"  Sometimes a weekend away is just the thing a mommy needs to appreciate all she is blessed with.

Mommy and Jake 2006

Mommy and Jake Halloween 2007

(Mommy 9 months pregnant and huge, lol)