Category » familyJones Design Company

Apr

17

my baby sister is having a baby

My big sister and I hosted a shower for our little sister last night. She is due with her second little girl in just a few weeks, so it was fun to celebrate with a few of her dearest friends.

While laying in bed fighting off a breast infection a few weeks ago, the theme for the shower came to me:

A P R I L S H O W E R S B R I N G M A Y F L O W E R S

We wanted everything to be really flowery and springy with a yummy salad, crusty bread, special sweets and time to honor the mommy-to-be.

{invitations}

{flower pin favors}

{garland}

{gifts}

{fresh flowers}

{the food}

{me, my sis, mom, and little girl}

And just because I think they are some of the cutest maternity photos, here are a few that were taken last week of my sissy, her husband and the most darling soon-to-be big sister {hope you don’t mind, sis!}

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Posted by emily | 1 comments

Apr

05

egg hunts, easter finery and great-grandparents

I like Easter. I like celebrating the resurrection of my Savior, but also the spring weather, the blooming flowers, the emergence of color. I have great memories of our family Easter celebrations. My mom {a talented seamstress} made my sisters and me fancy dresses, but never finished until the night before. I remember waking up on Easter morning to find our dresses hanging finished right outside our bedroom door. Very exciting for three little girls who loved dresses. My dad hid our easter baskets and wrote elaborate clues for each of us girls to find them. We ate baked blueberry french toast and listened to Second Chapter of Acts before heading off to church, then to some enormous family gathering where all my cousins would be wearing equally fancy pastel clothes. We did egg hunts and ate peeps and smiled a lot. Easter is a good day.

This year, we had two egg hunts to go to. The first was at our neighborhood park.

There are A LOT of kids in our neighborhood, so it is a mad dash to grab the not so subtly hidden eggs.

It’s a little sad to see all the kids in their winter coats and hats on Easter weekend … it was so cold!

After our neighborhood hunt, we were off to the fire department’s annual celebration. Again, lots of kids {still in winter coats} and more candy than we had from trick-or-treating.

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In my mom’s honor, the night before Easter, I made some little embellishments for the kids’ outfits.

I wanted them to all coordinate, so I made some sweet little flowers for boutonnieres, shoes & a headband.

Before I was pregnant, and certainly before I knew I would have a girl, I made this little linen dress. It was my first attempt at making a dress, and is pretty amaturely sewn, but it really looked sweet on my Audrey-girl and I was so glad she could wear it.

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I love that our kids have lots of grandmas & grandpas. My husband’s grandparents came up from California for the holiday and we were so happy to introduce Audrey to them. They adore the boys and are just the kindest, wisest, hard-working people you could meet.

How special to have the oldest patriarch with the newest little one.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

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Posted by emily | 1 comments

Mar

20

It’s a sunny day

My mom taught a song to the boys:

“It’s a sunny day, it’s a sunny day, it’s sunny outside so we can go out a play. All the little children say ‘hip-hip-hooray!’ It’s a sunny, sunny day {boom boom}”

Most days when it is unexpectedly sunny {quite frequently, I’m afraid}, we all break out in song. Today was one of those day.

GORGEOUS.

So we headed outdoors.

I realized that since having our little girl, I really haven’t photographed my first three loves. So I grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots of our beautiful day.

We met up with my mom and her wonderful husband for a lakeside lunch.

Then ventured to another park to meet up with cousins. {Note: it was only 68, which is really a nice spring day, but certainly not warm enough to be shirtless – unless you are 5 and you really don’t care}.

My silly six year old found posing for the camera quite entertaining. He had some awesome poses.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. We loved today.

Unfortunately, I think we’ll be singing the “It’s a rainy day” version of the song tomorrow.

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Posted by emily | 0 comments

Mar

16

sick day

It’s a sick day around here. It started on Saturday in the middle of the night and continued through until late last night. I think we’re over the hump, but we’re laying low today, just in case. My husband’s first day back to work since our little girl’s arrival was Sunday {conveniently, also the day I got sick. Fortunately, we had spent the night at his parent’s house and they took care of the boys while I spent the day resting}. He’s back at work today and I was a little nervous about having three boys with the flu and one baby who likes to eat a lot. But it’s been good today.

Sometimes sick days are just what I need. Mellow kids. Lots of movies. Coloring. Comfort foods like applesauce and graham crackers.

And hot chocolate {its a proven sore throat remedy, right?}

Time for reading {Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl}

Catching up on my bible study {Walking By Faith by Jennifer Rothschild}

Making flower headbands for a few special new babies.

And taking photos of my Audrey-girl.

I had a few minutes while the boys were napping to play around with photo editing. I’m fascinated by what you can do with photos and eager to learn how to do it correctly. This is just me messing around with some color, cropping and photo effects.

audrey sleeping

Here is the before :

audrey awake 60s

And another before:

Kind of fun to play around and see the difference.

Time to get back to my book …

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Posted by emily | 0 comments

Mar

05

my house plant woes

When my husband and I were first married and moved into our first home, I bought a maidenhair fern. I’ve always loved their frilly leaves and I figured a home is more homey when plants are present.

plants 6

The fern didn’t live too long. I learned quickly that 1. maidenhair ferns are quite temperamental and 2. I am not very good at keeping plants alive.

See exhibit a:

my nearly dead topiary. This is my third one {the first two met a similar ‘oops, I went out of town and forgot to water you’ fate.}

And exhibit b:

The bay leaf topiary that my sweet husband bought for me for Mother’s Day last year. I have tried SO hard to keep this one alive and I think it is time I just admit defeat. The leaves are all dried out and I’m pretty sure they are not going to perk up no matter how much water I give them.

Last spring I found a perfect maidenhair fern at Pottery Barn.

One that I can never kill as it is made of plastic.

I’m not really a fan of fake plants, but sometimes you just have to go with it.

I love the way a room looks with some fresh greenery in it.

plants 5 plants 2 plants 4

Which is why while walking through the grocery store the other day, I decided to give it another shot.

It is nearly spring and I’m just needing some green in my life. Plus, for $7.49, I can afford to replace miss azalea when she meets her inevitable fate.

If you have any tips on keeping houseplants alive, feel free to send them my way. Clearly, I could use all the help I can get.