Monday Funday

The title to today's post is deceiving... this is not a real fun day. Just a Monday.

I'm still undecided on the picture yall. So, I am giving myself a deadline of tomorrow to get it figured out, printed and in the mail. Thank you for the input. It's fun to hear what people think and friends on facebook helped a ton too. Thank you! Her picture will not be on the announcement like I did with the boys. This time, it will be in the envelope separate from the card. Not sure if that's my favorite way to do it, but I LOVED these cards so much and they just screamed "little girl" to me. Classic and girly.
Here it is... obviously this is from the website and is not our copy.

Hmm, what will I post about. Maybe a look at the announcement pictures I chose for the boys.
Sweet Hunter
(Hunter's card was a Boatman Gellar foldover notecard in the baby blue toile. His picture was on the front and when you opened it, the announcement was on the inside. It was beautiful.)

Precious Blake
(Blake's card was a foldover too- smaller than Hunter's. His was blue with small white polka dots and chocolate brown lettering. It was very sweet... and from the line Sweet Pea Designs.)

**I tried to look up their cards. Apparently they do not sell these styles anymore. Boo!
A great friend of mine sells these fabulous lines from home. Her website is
www.goodgifts.cc and you will be blown away from the cuteness of it all.

Help me!

I have no idea how many people really read my blog, but need some help anyway. I am trying to pick out a picture to send with Emily's announcements. The announcements turned out precious- very sweet and girly.

The wording is this:

"Ten little fingers and ten little toes,
This time it's a girl in ribbons and bows!

Big brothers Hunter and Blake
are proud to announce the arrival of
Emily Blair

July 2, 2010 at 11:39 am
7 lbs 2 oz 19 1/2 inches

Chris and Natalie Jones"

Ok, so here are the pictures. Please tell me which one you think!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

The theme is FIRSTS

FIRST day of school for Hunter was a week ago Wednesday. He loves his new teachers, being at the top of the heap this year, and basically everything that has to do with school. We took the obligatory "First Day of School" pictures in front of the fireplace. We have done this now for 3 years. He has grown so so much. He is not in the "pre-k" class so to speak, but they are working on school skills, pre-writing skills, etc. He seems to do really well at that. He has come home with "warm fuzzies" and claims that you get them for doing your best. Yay Hunter!


Emily's FIRST room is almost finished. I painted it (twice), got the stripes measured and taped and painted (whew!) and got her new bedding arranged. Now, we need a chandelier (pretty please Chris!) a rug and a new lampshade or two. Other than that, the room turned out adorable and I hope she likes her FIRST room. This picture is just looking at the front window and daybed. I will post one of the crib too soon. I need to get a crib sheet made for it.

Blake has been under the weather this week- a sore throat and fever and boy is he miserable. I hate sick weeks- we end up taking about 4 days to get well and don't get out much. He had his FIRST strep test yesterday- negative of course. So long as he has poppy and niney (his paci and blankets) he is a-ok.

Tomorrow is the FIRST WAG (Women After God) Bible Study. I am excited to dig into John MacArthur's "12 Extraordinary Women" and learn with my group.

I am smelling my FIRST attempt at making banana bread. I love banana bread and haven't ever made it because I never had a recipe that I knew would be good. My house smells so yummy right now and I hope it turned out good.

I am a list person (a little neurotic at that) and yesterday was able to check EVERYTHING off of my list for the FIRST time since Emily was born. And there was a lot on it. Of course, today's list is not getting tackled with the same gusto at all.

Emily met her newest friend, Lyles, last week for the FIRST time. We had fun visiting and taking pictures of the girls in Lyles' bed.

Last but not least, Emily at her FIRST golf tournament. (totally blown away by the excitement of it all!)

The Champion

The Champion and his entourage...

We made t-shirts the night before the championship match for Dad. The back said "JONES" and the front said "GO DAD!"

I am excited to say that I am married to the official 2010 club champ! Chris won the Golf Club Championship this weekend and it was so exciting. We are all so proud of him and know that this is something he has worked really hard for. It was an amazing thing to watch as he played yesterday. We were able to come out at 1 o'clock to see him tee off. The tournament was done in match-play format, so he "won" the first hole and was one up when we left. His parents came in town for the big day. Dana and I took the kids home for a quick rest and his dad and my dad followed in the gallery by golf cart.

By the time we returned with the kids at 2:45, they were "even" at hole 12. I quickly got the kids situated with a sitter and grabbed Hunter to get in a cart and follow. Hunter and I saw him play holes 14 and 15. It truly gave me chills to pull up to the scene- about 25 golf carts following down the path and parking near the green. Chris' cart and his opponent's cart up on the fairway to hit their shots, a camera cart and others parked along the way. It was incredible!
A look at the gallery. It was amazing to see how many people were following.


After seeing him win those two holes, I drove up to the clubhouse to get Dana and we watched the last 2 holes. Chris won on the 18th hole and it was such a thrill to get to hug the champ. He has worked so hard to get there and dreamed of this.
The boys at the trophy table- Hunter was so excited that no matter what, Dad would get his name on a trophy. The only thing better would be if we got to actually bring it home. These stay at the club.

The boys in front of the leaderboard.

THE MATCH- Go JONES!!!

Emily and I before heading out to the course.

The first drive. We were so happy to send him off!

A good luck hug.

Family picture with the 5 of us in front of the 18th hole. (This is bizarre... I cannot get this to rotate the right way. Everytime I think I have it right, it posts like this again!) Oh well.

Family Picture with Chris' parents

Home again... here is the champion.





Congrats babe! You deserve this more than anyone I know!

2 Months Old!

Yesterday was Emily's 2 month birthday. We spent the morning at the pediatrician and I have her new stats to share:
Weight: 10 lbs 3 oz (30%)
Height: 22 1/2 inches (50%)

All is well in her growth and development. She did great with her 4 shots. She cried of course but was easy to console. She spent the rest of the day napping and was in good spirits. I was expecting her to be fussier and possibly feverish, but she really did just fine.

I am happy to report that as of today (9 weeks old) she is still sleeping through the night. That is 2 weeks straight with only 2 nights mixed in where she woke up to be fed. Not bad Emily!

I did a whole comparison post a couple of days ago of each child at 2 months. It amazes me that at 2 months Blake was 3 pounds heavier and Hunter was 2 1/2 pounds heavier. I knew Emily was smaller, but wow! There is quite a difference in a couple of pounds at this stage. I should have known- she can still wear all of the newborn clothes and while they are getting a little snug, she is certainly not busting out yet. Dr. Fitch assured me that she is growing just as she should. :-)

On another note, we have been working on Emily's room. I picked up all of her bedding on Wednesday. Angie did a great job. I love it all. I finally found the right paint color- had to paint the room twice! Now, we are working on finding a rug and also need to paint the white stripes on the wall. As you can see in the pictures the blue paint tape is still up around the windows for me to do the stripes.

2 posts in one day... wow!!

Yesterday was so fun! We met a friend I have known since birth, her mom (who happens to be one of my mom's best friends), my mom, my sister along with our kids for lunch. We both have brand new little ones that I hope and pray will be great friends like their moms have been. Blake and Morgan are only a couple of weeks apart in age and now Emily and Savannah are about 5 weeks apart. We had fun sharing stories and bonding over lost sleep, grungy clothes, wild toddlers and the trials of motherhood. The babies did great- they slept through the excitement. The toddlers were great too and we had fun capturing them on camera giving kisses and hugs. May I say that Blake was an eager beaver when it came to giving Morgan a kiss. Oh dear!

The lady that lunches. Miss Emily in her new outfit. She looked so cute!

The girls... Savannah on the left is 3 weeks old and Emily is 8 1/2 weeks old

Morgan (22 months) and Savannah (3 weeks) and Emily (8 1/2 wks) and Blake (21 months)

Uh oh... he is starting young!

Finally.... breaking bread!

Before Emily was born, if you had asked, I would have said that my biggest concern was how Blake was going to handle not being the baby anymore. Blake is my pop-pop lover, must have his two night-night lovies with him at ALL times, loves to cuddle and is generally more of a "baby" at a year and a half than Hunter was.

Boy how wrong I was. Neither boy has shown any hostility, frustration or jealousy over having Emily at home. They are both gentle, loving and very affectionate towards her. What I had not bargained for was the total disgust that Hunter was going to have towards his former playmate. He and Blake were at odds most of the month of July. Blake was apparently "boring" to Hunter, he wasn't "any fun at all" and basically made Hunter want to jump out of his skin. I worried about it, but heeded the advice of the pediatrician who said not to make a big deal out of it. Sure enough, in the last couple of weeks, the boys have rediscovered each other and have had a blast together. Of course, that means that they are now double trouble!

This morning, I had a french baguette left over from our dinner last night and the boys wanted to split it and eat off their halves. Why not? Love this one of Blake smiling.


Last night, we had my parents, brother and sister and grandmother over for dinner in honor of my parents return from their Greek cruise. We had a great time visiting and seeing their pictures.
My dad and Blake

Uncle Blake and Blake

My grandmother Mimi and Emily