Shutterfly Christmas Cards

So every year I am a little slow getting our Christmas cards out. I don’t know why I let it sneak up on me, I should be used to the idea by now and plan ahead, but I don’t. So, as I started to look into some of the photo cards out there on the web, I was very impressed with Shutterfly. So many great Christmas cards! They have a wide selection so we won’t end up sending the same cards as every other family. I love that they have so many different layouts—some with just one picture, and some with spots for a few pics in case I can’t just pick one shot. Also, they offer a lot of folded cards, which I think are great. They seem like the more traditional card, but with a modern twist. Anyway, here are a couple of my favorites:

As you can see, I might have a hard time choosing! You can check out lots more of their Christmas Photo Cards. And, the coordinating address labels—so cool. Shutterfly also has great gift ideas for Christmas, and many of them are on sale!
So not only am I loving their cards, I’m loving the fact that I can get some for FREE! They are running a promotion for bloggers to get 50 free cards and I am so excited. You can do it too, by clicking here, but the cutoff is today so you have to be quick!

Thanks Shutterfly!

Hard to impress

Colby started preschool in August. The first time was a little rough since he is so shy, but since then he has been loving it! He gets to do all kinds of fun things there that I never let him do at home, like painting, play-dough, and tracing in a pile of shaving cream. Ms. Robyn is so great. Colby is always so proud of the projects he brings home. He is a total perfectionist, so he takes his time with his coloring and everything. Sometimes when I go to pick him up the other kids are playing, and he is still sitting at the table, carefully finishing his work.

There is one little girl in his class that is just so cute. Always so nice and polite. Her mom told me that she likes Colby and keeps talking about him all the time. We had talked about getting them together for a play date sometime. Later I was asking Colby about her.

Me: Colby, are you friends with Allie?

C: Yeah.

Me: Do you play with her a lot?

C: Sometimes.

Me: She says you're her best friend.

C: ((little grin))

Me: She's really nice, right?

C: Yeah, well....well....um....sometimes....she scribbles.

Sorry Allie, this kid has standards. You're going to have to clean up your act if you want to impress him.

Nice Hair

Most days, I try to keep Sadie's hair from looking like this:

She's not quite to the ponytail length yet, so we use clips. Clips that she loves to pull out and leave everywhere. We go through them pretty quickly, so I went to Target last week and stocked up, buying 3 packages. When she found them the next morning, she was so excited, she wanted to wear them all.

At the same time.

Oh yes, much nicer.

Where we are

We have been having a great and busy summer so far. Swimming, reading, playing, camping, working....It has been fun. I thought maybe I could take a little break to blog, since I have really been neglecting this poor thing.

I love having Ethan home. He is growing up too fast and I love that during the summer we get to take a little break and spend a lot of time together. He is such a great older brother. He spends hours helping to entertain the other two, who think he is just the greatest. Sadie loves to bring him books to read, and he sometimes ends up reading the same ones over and over before he finally tells her to take it to me. Every morning Colby asks Ethan, "so, what are we playing today?" He knows that Ethan can always come up with something. There have been many times where Ethan has to help his very shy brother by holding his hand or sticking by him in crowded places, and he is always willing. He loves to teach Colby about anything and everything. He has become quite the expert on some things now that he is done with first grade, and luckily for the rest of us, he is always sharing his knowledge. The other day he asked if he could plan the family home evening lesson. He did great, finding a scripture story and one from the friend and tying them together with a little visual aid he had. I was impressed. I know his Primary teacher always prepares great lessons and I think she has rubbed off on him. I am so proud of the boy he is.

Colby has grown up a lot over the last little while. He will be starting preschool in August and I am really excited to see how he adjusts to that. He has always been really shy, but when he is willing to let his personality out, it is so fun. He loves to laugh, and will make up jokes for hours. He also has a great imagination and comes up with lots of "what if's". He is my little helper, and I often find that he has done jobs around the house without even being asked. I love it. He also loves to help Sadie with anything, from getting her a toy to getting her out of her crib (which is a pretty impressive feat). When I am trying to be positive, I describe him as persistent, but it could also be described as down right stubborn. It is near impossible to get him to eat, wear, or do anything that he does not choose on his own. He loves to be a big boy most the time, but sometimes he still wants to be comforted or snuggled, and I am perfectly fine with that.

Sadie is quickly turning from a baby into a toddler. She is running all over the place and is starting to understand so much. She loves her brothers immensely and follows them everywhere they go. She spends her days playing with cars and dinosaurs and superheros, but usually does it with some fancy necklaces on and a baby doll right next to her. She has become the little princess and even her brothers have learned that she is going to win most every disagreement because none of us like to see her upset. She is almost always happy, and loves to show her cute dimpled smile to whoever she sees. Although she is still wary of getting too close to most people, she has picked a few that she has decided are her buddies, and she loves to interact with them. I never knew I would love having a daughter so much. It is so fun. I also love seeing how her dad treats her. She definitely won him over. I just can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is almost 17 months already! We are excited to see more of who she is as she grows up, but we are happy just enjoying this baby girl stage while it lasts.

Zak and I just celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Crazy. I does not feel like it's been that long! But it is fun to look back at all the things we have been through together. When we first got married, I don't think we realized all the adventures that would lie ahead. It has been fun to experience so much together, and to look forward to what is to come. I sure love him. He has been more busy than usual this summer, so he has missed out on a lot of playing, and we have missed having him around.

More summer fun is in the works, and our schedules continue to get busier, so this blog might still be feeling neglected for awhile....

She's One!

You can have a party in you dream's tonight...It's Pajama Time

We love Christmas Eve pajamas!

And the cute kids wearing them!

Christmas Pictures

As usual, we were such slackers getting our family pictures taken this year. As we got ready for church one Sunday, I figured we were all looking as good as we would any other time, so we better get some shots. This is how most of them turned out:

Not so cute. We were able to get a couple that would work, but I really think we are due for some professional help!

It's not too hard to get a shot of Sadie looking cute. It was so fun to see her enjoying everything Christmas--even if she did eat everything she could get her hands on!