Super cute christmas cards

It’s that time of year again, when there’s a million and a half things to check off of your to-do list before Christmas! And one of those things is of course, sending out the annual Christmas card. I have to tell you that I am generally bad at remembering to send out cards and consider it a bit of a hassle, but I have discovered a site that makes this hassle a little less bothersome!

Shutterfly, is as I’m sure you are familiar with, a website that allows you to upload your photos and then turn them into various fabulous gifts! In the past couple months, I have made a photo book, and a few photo cards and been very happy with their quality! The photo cards especially have gotten rave reviews with the family and friends who received them. So I can say with confidence that if you choose to purchase your Christmas cards from Shutterfly, (as I will be doing) you will be very pleased with the results! Plus they come super fast, and if you spend $25 you will receive free standard shipping! (which is huge this time of year!)


That being said, let me show you a few of my favorite holiday designs for this year:


Christmas Folded Cards:


    

Christmas Flat Photo Cards:

   

 

And while you're there, why not pick up some super cute Gift Tags ?



So if you're slacking and still haven't made your Christmas cards (like me) than you should definitely consider Shutterfly this year!

Thank you cards

Thanks Much Blush Thank You 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Crafts!

Now that we have celebrated Thanksgiving I believe it is now appropriate to fully embrace the Christmas season!  (Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday!- Christmas is a close second)
  
So I'll let you have a look at our Christmas activities so far....
     (Please keep in mind that I am not artistic by any stretch of the imagination, so if my Christmas tree drawing looks crappy please blame it on me and not on the artistic promise of my poor offspring!) Also she has only just turned two and been granted the honor of actually holding a glue stick.

A "pretty tree" according to Emma :)

 I'm calling this craft the "Charlie Brown tree", but surprisingly she spent like 20 minutes (an eternity in two year old time) hanging the "ornaments".   So I call that a success!

Thinking very serious thoughts, I'm sure....

And yes, we always craft wearing all our fine jewelry!

 And here we have mommy's super cheap and easy muffin tin advent calendar! The little circles are magnetized and will be filled with little treats in a few days!!!

And this one is just cute... she is seriously getting to be so big!

Happy Monday Everyone!

A month later...

  Another 28 32 days has come and gone and we are once again disappointed.  I am convinced my body is playing some sort of cruel joke on me.  Before we started trying to have another baby, my period had been super predictable (like almost to the hour) for over a year.  As soon as we started trying to conceive though, all menstrual predictability disappeared.  The first two months, it was late (like 4-5 days late) so of course I got really excited, and took tests and they were negative.  Then last month, we had the very early miscarriage, and this month, as far as I can tell I was four days late getting my period again. 

  I did smarten up a little bit, and waited to take any pregnancy tests. I learned that lesson the hard way last month!  Today was going to be the day  that I tested if it still hadn't made an appearance.  And of course a few hours after I woke up this morning, it made it's unwelcome arrival.   And as much as I try not to get too excited every time, I can't help myself.  I get excited and start thinking hopeful thoughts.  Like, wouldn't it be nice to announce a pregnancy over the holidays!  But that doesn't look like it's going to happen...

  So tonight I will pour myself a glass of wine (because why not, I'm not pregnant anyways!) and snuggle up on the couch with my husband and try to be thankful for the blessings that we do have.   And who knows, maybe a positive pregnancy test will be our Christmas present!
                       and there I go again....

Stinky Daddy

    Sometimes on cold and blustery days, Emma chooses to start our morning off with a good laugh!  This morning was one of those days....

Scene:
    Daddy, Emma-Jean, and two Mr. P-doo heads (those are potato heads for those not in the know) sit at Emma's little table eating breakfast.  One of these P-doo heads was dressed as a stormtrooper but that's not really relevant to this story.

Me:  Ok, I need to get a picture of this, where is the camera?  Oh shoot, you took the batteries out to play Wii yesterday didn't you?  And then you played until they died, right?  You stink Adam!

Emma-Jean:  Emma stinks too daddy! (in an "it's ok" tone of voice)

:: cue hysterical laughter on mommy's part ::



* the above picture has nothing to do with this story, except that it is a recent picture of Emma and her daddy being a little goofy.  If my camera had batteries there would be a cute picture, but because it did not have batteries I have a cute sotry instead!

My little two year is….


...Goofy
           as evidenced by the pictures in this post


... Loving

    she has a checklist of places we have to kiss her before she can go to sleep :

         (cheek, “otha one cheek”, hair, nose and chin)

...Stubborn

      she gets this from both mommy and daddy, she is incredibly    persistent

...Frustrated

     when we won’t let her do things like watch TV all day long, or    eat cookies for breakfast

 
 

...Conversational

       she speaks in full sentences now, and is learning so many new  words a day I can't keep track of them

...Possesive

        She is not very good at sharing anything, and labels everything "Emma's" or "Mine" as in "my daddy and my       mommy" or "Emma's toys"

...Helpful

        She wants to help mommy do everything, and is often heard to say " I helping momma! I helping?"

...Imaginative:

       She tells me stories all the time now.  They usually involve      Thomas the Tank Engine and the "bad train"

... Definitely our daughter!

Peanut Turns 2!!

Our little girl officially turned two in the wee hours of Monday morning!  There was much celebrating over the weekend.  We had two parties and an impromptu pizza party yesterday night.  It was so great to see everyone and peanut got really spoiled with both attention and cool gifts!

Helping mommy get ready for the party!

                                                   

                                                           
                                                          
                                                          

The timing couldn't have been better, as the weather this week has been less than ideal... lots of wind, cold rain and even some slush!  But we've got lots of new toys to keep both Emma and mommy busy for a couple of days!
Happy Two years Emma-Jean!