Easter in the Jones Household

What a weekend we had! It was filled with egg dyeing, visiting with my parents, celebrating at church, egg hunting, and general fun. It's no secret that I'm striving to be more intentional this year, and that includes the way we celebrate holidays. More than anything, I want Micah to know that Easter is about more than a fictional bunny that delivers candy in the middle of the night. It's about more than new clothes and egg hunts and yummy food. It's about a risen Savior. That changes the way we approach a lot of things in our home. For one thing, the Easter bunny doesn't know our address. Micah still received a basket of small gifts, but it came from her daddy and me. We still dyed Easter eggs because we can use them as object lessons for the new life we have in Christ, and yesterday afternoon, Micah hunted plastic eggs in the yard because empty Easter eggs are a great way to convey the message of an empty tomb. We're trying to be thoughtful about the traditions we practice and honor in our home. For us, it's worth it to sacrifice the Easter bunny because it allows the cross and subsequent empty tomb to be the center of our Easter reflections.

At any rate, the way we celebrate Easter may be a little different than most American families, but it works for us. Here are some images from the weekend.

Egg dyeing with Micah was a lot of fun. She was patient and interested in the process, and she even "dyed" her own (plastic) egg while I took care of the real eggs.

Since my parents were here to visit, we had someone to take our picture yesterday afternoon after church. Yay for a family portrait!

Micah enjoyed hunting eggs for a little while, but she soon lost interest and preferred hanging out with her Nana and Grampa, who took her home with them yesterday afternoon. It's a quiet house around here without my little spitfire, but that also means that I have a little uninterrupted time to do a bit more writing and designing.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! How did you celebrate??

Until next time, grace and peace.

Adventures in Toddlerhood: 18 Months

More and more lately, I find myself realizing that I'm the mother of a little girl, not a baby. Every time I blink, it seems, more of the baby falls off of Micah. At 18.9 months old, my little girl is in full-blown toddlerhood. She loves to talk on the phone (or any rectangular shaped object that she can make into a phone), and she babbles all day long. Her favorite word is bow, but she's also very fond of plo, which can mean plate or pillow, because obviously, they're the same thing. If I tried to list all the words she says, I'm sure that I'd miss some, but she's getting really good at matching animals with the sounds they make. "Micah, what's the dog say?" is sure to draw a dog sound from her, and just yesterday, she learned that sheep say baaa.

She's a mess, that one is, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. At her 18-month checkup, the doctor was amazed at how much she's grown in the past six months, and honestly, so am I. At 12 months, Micah still wore 9-month clothes, but she's grown so quickly that she now wears a 2T in some things. She went from being too tiny to even register on the growth chart to reaching {almost} the 75th percentile in height and the 60th percentile in weight. Now that's a growth spurt, people.

She sleeps for 12 hours at night and takes one nap a day, and on Sunday, she pooped in the potty for the first time. That same night, we ditched the paci and haven't looked back. Of course, after she used the potty Sunday, she pooped in her diaper four times on Monday, so we obviously have a long way to go, but still, babies don't use the potty. Big girls do. I'm telling you people, the baby is disappearing and being replaced by a sassy little lady. And she is definitely sassy. She loves shoes {pronounced shooos}, and she knows where to find them in her room. She demands a hairbow and likes to carry her "purse" around.

At the same time, she is her father's child. She was intrigued when Dennis changed the oil last week, and she's certainly not afraid to play in the dirt. If you know Dennis at all, you know that at his core, he's a hard worker. He can make or fix anything, and Micah's following in her daddy's footsteps. At least she knows how to swing a hammer.

Like Father, Like...Daughter from Leslie Ann Jones on Vimeo.

Hope you're all doing well. I'm sure there will be more tales of Micah's hijinks in the future.

Until next time, grace and peace.

Heather's Umbrella Baby Shower

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privilege of hosting a baby shower for one of my sweet friends. Of course, I had to design the invitations and details for the shower, and I really enjoyed creating a special event for Heather. I love the simplicity of this umbrella baby shower invitation, and I'm quite taken by the swiss dots pattern. I stuck with a blue and white color palette, and I think everything was lovely, but then again, I'm biased.

Everything was sweet, simple, and lots of fun. Those white daisies are still kicking on my kitchen counter - they were totally worth the cost. For the decorations, I was inspired by the paper mobile tutorial I shared with you several weeks ago. Instead of strips, I used circles in various sizes to match the invitations, and the sewing machine handled the rest.

It was a lot of fun to plan an event for a special friend. I spend most of my days creating pretty paper for other people, so it was nice to be the one in charge for a change. Of course, the invitations are listed in the Senojal Designs etsy shop. The great thing about this suite is that it may be customized to fit any color scheme, and it's perfect for gender neutral showers. The invitations can even be used for a bridal shower. So really, the options are endless :)

Next big event to plan? Micah's second birthday party. It's only six months away, you know :) Just kidding. I won't be planning that for a while. I'm not that crazy!

Until next time, grace and peace.