Ending the year

Well today is going to be a loooooooooong 9 hour shift. I am so ready for my vacation! I'm going to be on vacation for almost 2 weeks -- its 10 days altogether. I am so ready to get my house back, spend some time with the kids, and decorate my living room. I'm ready to see Tamara again (whom I haven't hung out with in a while because we're both so busy) and I'm ready to just kick back and chill some.

When I get home tonight, I have to pack for our trip to Florida. Starting at 5:30 or 6:00 tomorrow morning, we'll be making the 8 hour haul to FL to spend new years with Brent's family. We do this every year and I am so excited to do it again!


This is our family last year at New Years. How little the children look!!

The kids are getting soooo big!!




Adorable, aren't they? And so grown up and big!


I snapped this of Brent and Judah last night -- they were so precious I couldn't help myself :-)


OMG guys! I've been blogging for over a year and I JUST REALIZED that you can click the "compose" tab in the top right corner of yor posting box and SEE THE PICS and the text all together!! I've been editing the HTML for all this time, clicking "preview" to see what order my pics uploaded in! I feel so silly! And somehow, writing in this tab feels wrong... Idk what to say over here. Ok I'm clicking back to HTML (lol)

Well, I have alot to do tonight. We have to locate the gift we have for Kenneth. We picked out something AWESOME for him but Brent hasn't looked for it (he knows where it is, he just hasn't physically laid hands on it, you know?). And I need to wrap that and the stepping stone we are making for Nana's garden for Judah. A few years ago - right before we got pregnant with Raziel - all the grandchildren made a stepping stone for Nana's garden. Brent and I made one together, it had a ladybug and a spider on it. Alina "made" one as well - it was pink and sparkly and had her handprint and name on it. We also made one with Raziel the following year, and this year we need to make one for Juju. Its kinda fun to paint them all detailed and stuff, but I'm just going to masking-tape and spray-paint this sucker and get it done. I'm going to trace Juju's hand onto paper, cut it out, and lay it on the stone so we get the absence of paint for his handprint. I thought that was creative. I finally got all the shopping done for the harder relatives a week or two ago. And all of that has been wrapped for a while now, in a box where Raziel can't open it ahead of time :-)

But tonight, I have alot of work to do. I need to locate (wash and dry if needed) nice clothing for our trip, pack all clothes and toiletries as well as presents and toys and food for the 8 hour (per way) car trip we're taking. I also need to vacuum out the car and move the stroller and the other odds and ends out of the car to make as much room as possible for the items we will need to bring back home. I was hoping our station wagon would be ready to go... let me call that guy.... yeah, headgasket... itll be a few weeks... *sigh* and several hundred dollars. OK, its not so bad though. We've replaced (counting this) every expensive thing in this car so we should be okay for a while. LOL. Its important to us to have a big car, and it'll be cheaper to have this rebuilt then to go buy one.

Anyway. I haven't even kind of started on all that I need to do for this trip. I've been working late nights (thanks holiday extended hours) and sleeping as much as possible to try and alleviate the stress of said late nights. I haven't really got food in the house, I don't know where the floor of my bedroom has dissapeered to, and my children's room and playroom has become a lost cause. I need to get a few big boxes of their toys out to the shed for storage to pull out later, but I haven't had time/energy/motivation to do that either.

*sigh* I so need this vacation. And I feel a little bad for taking this big long vacation and not traveling to see my family in Charleston, but #1) I can't afford it and #2) I need time for my own little mini-family and my home. There's all sorts of things I haven't had time to do and I'm ready to get on that list and get em done!

Christmas Festivities

Christmas morning, the kids woke up before it was light out, but they didn't think it was christmas yet because the sun wasn't up therefore it wasn't Christmas yet (whoohoo! lets hope that trend stays for a few years). Brent went in there with the kids and watched some TV with them for an hour or so and then he told Alina that it was Christmas and she should go wake me up. She told him it wasn't Christmas because it was still dark and he actually had to talk her into waking me! LOL

Anyways, when we finally got up and moved into the living room and we settled in.

First we opened stockings. Raziel wouldn't hold still long enough to take a good picture, but this is him showing us his candy.



Raziel and Alina LOVE this little power wheels jeep. Raziel sits in the jeep and rolls his little cars around in the seat of it.


This is mid-morning, we had to stop and pick up some of the wreckage before we could get through the other half (yes, I said half!) of the presents. (Sorry its blurry)


This is Alina and Raziel playing on their powerwheel and trike, while Brent hovers to make sure no one hits anyone else's car. -- they thought it would be fun to play bumper cars :-)

Judah hung out in his little thingy and was happy playing with toys and eating cherrios.



Then we went over to Nene's and opened presents with the in-laws. I got a few cute pics of Raziel with Nene but not anything good of the other two.




Altogether we had a very nice Christmas. Brent did very well for me this year - How I met your Mother (season 1), Blue Ray copies of a few good movies, a Twiglight ornament, a heated blanket (WHOOHOOO!), a new body pillow, the host (by stephanie myer), Evermore (another of that kind of book, its REALLY good), something else (can't remember right now) and a Custom version of loveopoly. That last one was very sweet because I made him a copy of Monopoly when we were still dating - called Buetifulopoly -- custom locations, customized board, etc. He basically did the same sort of thing. Instead of "go to jail" its "go to therapy" (LOL). Theres wedding photos of us on the board, all of the various locations are special to us as a couple. It made me cry. I was so happy :-)

Its such a happy happy day

White Christmas

I have a TON of pictures so I'm gonna break it up into snow pics and another blog for Christmas. Christmas morning we woke up and we were enjoying the morning opening presents and so on, Brent and Alina go into her bedroom to move some toys and they look out the window- and its snowing!! We got a total of 5 inches - it snowed ALL DAY. Enough snow that we ran around and played, then went over to Nene's and when we came back our footprints were covered up! It was AWESOME. That's the first time I've had a White Christmas, also the kids' first and Brent's first! News people said it was the first white Christmas we'd had in 40 years here.

Brent and I were so happy, it was the best day ever.



The kids and Brent and Jessie were all walking around making footprints. (Yes, she's wearing shorts, leggings, a robe and slippers.) It was the best temperature for snow -- it stayed right at freezing all day so it didn't melt, but there wasn't a wind chill or anything so it was actually really nice to stay outside and play in it.


Judah loved the snow - he thought it was awesome. I remember it snowed once when Alina was a baby, and another time when Raziel was a baby... maybe its because Judah is older than they were or maybe he's just tougher because he's chubbier (lol) idk, but he thought it was great. He was angry when we tried to leave him inside. He wanted to be out there with us too.


This is Brent throwing a snowball at me. We had a bunch of snowball fights, we had a blast!



This is Judah looking out the window, laughing at Brent pelting the door with snowballs


This is Alina


And this is Raziel

Aren't they so cute bundled up?

We still have a ton of snow today


I thought this was really cool -- the house is warm so the underside of the snow melts and starts to drip, but then it re-freezes as it moves away from the house and voila -- icecicles.


I had to take a picture of this -- anytime I see pictures of snow, its piled up on some kind of evergreen bush or tree. So when we got enough snow for it to pile up on my bush, I thought it was AWESOME and had to take a photo to share.



Well, I enjoyed this snow so much that I can't describe it all in one post, but that was my best shot at it.

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!!

When I was a kid I would wish you a Merry Christmas eve's eve's eve (and so on) all the way up to like a week before Christmas. I was always SO thrilled to say Merry Christmas Eve when today finally got here.

The last few years I have been only relatively excited in light of Christmas. idk, its just not the same for adults. This year, with the HUGE pile under the kids' tree and several excitingly shaped boxes under our tree (including one big one for me that doesn't fit under the tree.... a down comfoter perhaps?) I am very very very excited!

Alina is beyond excited. Brent told her yesterday (teasing) that he thought she had too many presents and so he should take some back. Poor little thing started picking up presents and saying "no daddy!" She was trying to save all her presents -- I wish I had seen it. Brent laughed for ages, and Alina (once she realised he was kidding) had a good laugh too.

She got a little haircut last night - its almost a bob. There will be pictures up soon whenever I get stuff up for Christmas morning. It curves so nicely around her face, but I layered it a bit and it is a bit longer in the back so we can still put it up if we need to. Raz got a trim too -- he giggled and kept scrunching his neck up so its a bit rough around his ears but it looks good. I should've trimmed Judah's too around the ears but didnt get to it before I needed to lay them down for bedtime.

We were REALLY busy at work for a while -- I started this blog at 10 am and now (4:15pm) is when I'm finishing it. I sold 7 phones and Bob sold one and then its 4 and we don't even have bill payers or repairs. Its nice to be slow like this so we can get outta here and go home to celebrate Christmas.

Brent and I are having Christmas tonight. He asked if I wanted to wait till 12:01am and I said no -- I want to sleep tonight so when the kids get up at 5am and start screaming about the power wheels in the living room, I can get up too. He said that was probably true so we opted to do our Christmas immediately after bedtime (around 7pm).

Well its 4:30 already and I gotta get the store closed down before 5 so ttyl guys! Merry Christmas!!!

I'm dreeeaaaaming of a whiiiiiiiite Christmas

juuuuust like the one's I never knew!!!!! Where the churchbells are ringing and children singing and no one has ever seeen snooooooooooow.

Well, 2 days left til Christmas. I am practically beating Brent off from the presents with a stick - he's been saying its Christmas Eve since yesterday (lol) because he wants to open more presents. I am excited too, but I really enjoy sitting down and opening them all at once on Christmas and just loving it.

Lisa came over last night with yet ANOTHER load of toys... this load included a play yard (not a playpen, a little fenced in thingy that you set on the floor...), a dora jeep
and a john deer tractor thingy that looks alot like this;


That in addition to baby doll high chair and carseats, 2 bags of stuffed animals, 3 toy boxes full of random stuff, etc etc etc etc etc

I thought I was done wrapping. HAH.

Mommy is going shopping for some BIG toy bins that seal up real well and a few days after Christmas, I'm taking a bunch of the toys they aren't as excited about and putting them back for once they break a bunch of the new ones they got. (it's inevitable, may as well plan for it)

Theres several really cute little dump trucks for Raz, theres a few play seat things for Judah, theres gobs of baby doll stuff for Alina.... although I anticipate the biggest things brought last night will be the hits of the day - power wheels? Are you kidding? Of course she's gonna be excited!!!!!

So I'm pretty glad Brent has to work tonight because he hates wrapping presents and I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing it, so I can do it while he's working tonight and tomorrow night.

Looks like I'll have to take another picture of my living room when I'm all done wrapping because I'm pretty sure I WONT have any more living room left!

3 days til Christmas

Today has been busy at work. Today I am sleepy, laid back, and ready for my vacation (December 31st to January 10th). Today, I am ready to be done with all the silly little needs of the silly little people who come in today for phone issues instead of spending time with their families. I just want to be at home with mine.

This morning, I was a tad late to work - but it was nice. I laid in bed nursing and snuggling with Judah, then got up and dressed Alina and Raziel, spending our ritualistic 10 minutes hidden in the hall bathroom with the heater going. I had started this little routine a few weeks ago and really am enjoying it. I lock Alina and Raziel in the little bathroom with me, and we all get dressed and brush our teeth together, brush hair, etc. Its really pretty nice because first thing like that they are both in a good mood, tickled pink to be spending quality time with their mommy.

This week (and month as a whole) there are ALOT of my friends that are having babies. Jennifer (Miolen) is in labor right now with Colin. According to FB she was at 5cm about an hour ago. Jennifer (Birtwistle) is having Caleb via c-section tomorrow (he's breech). Tosha is due any day now, Connie is at 36 weeks, Helen Joy is due soon, Katie Beth in a few weeks, Veronica any day now----- you get the idea. Anyway, I think this is the first time I have been happy that I'm not having one right now too. I am so content with my little Juju and Alina and Razzy. I am so glad to have my kids at their 3 diverse stages and I just am happy.

Judah is in one of my favorite stages. (Funny you have to say "one of my favorite" when you have multiple kids lol) He's snuggly. He wants his mommy (ALWAYS). He is in the nursing stage that he nurses for comfort and to be close to mommy (not just for nutrition.) He is scooching and eats things with his hands. He sits up and loves playing with toys. The only frusterating thing is when I have to get things done, he wants to stay with me and HE'S HEAVY!

Raziel is also precious; He is starting to talk more persistently, though you have to listen closely for it. Idk if he's just still learning to talk or if he's gonna have a cute little accent and lisp, but he talks none-the-less. Things like "because I said so" and "good job" and "careful buddy." Things we say to him all the time. He's becoming a better share-er. He is becoming obediant - he does what he's told. "Raziel, give Alina that toy back." He does it. He is rough and tumble. He loves food. He loves milk. He loves any toy his sister has. He is excited about Christmas -- he is starting to realize what's going on with this big tree and all the presents underneath it. He wants to be JUST LIKE Alina. As soon as she's done with something - like her new bike for instance - he's on it, trying to do what she did. Its adorable.

Alina is getting soooo big. She's talking coherently, in full structured sentances. She carries on conversations. She is so smart too! She schemes -- for instance "Daddy, Razy climbed over the baby gate, so he doesn't get candy, right?" "Yes honey." "Daddy, can we open a little present?" "sure." (its candy) "Daddy, Razy can't have any so I don't have to share, right?" LOL She is such a mommy too. She tells me if they hurt themselves, she wants to help me make dinner, she wants to drink coffee (no, she's not allowed.) and she says she's big enough now to do (practically everything) because she's 4.

Well. I guess I just wanted to say I love my kids.

And I can't wait for Christmas with them. Its gonna rock. This year will be a little different than normal. We usually have Christmas Eve with Steve and Becca and Jessie but this year we're waiting til the 28th so we can have it with Clint (Brent's older brother). And, since Christmas is SO big for the kids this year, Brent and I are having our couply christmas on Christmas Eve. So this year, we are having Christmas on Christmas Eve for me and Brent, then Christmas Morning with the kids. Once they're all finished, we head across the street as usual to Nene's to have Christmas with Pam and the girls. The 28th we will have Christmas at my house with Clint and Steve and the girls (again), and then the 31st we'll head to Florida to have Christmas with Nana and Poppa Huggins and all the extended relatives on Pam's side. We stay there usually just 2 days but we might stay a 3rd day this year. We will see.

I'm excited. Very very excited.

Alina's Party

So I have pictures from Alina's party. She was so excited about her little bike :-)

Isn't it adorable? This is the little $29 one that I got on Black Friday at Walmart.

Judah got a hold of a pig-in-a-blanket. He liked it alot - he didn't like it when I took the hotdog part away. He was doing fine with it but hot dogs are a top choking hazard and it made me nervous.

She got a few cute little presents. This one is a monkey that has velcro on his hands.

She also recieved a little outfit, tinkerbell pajamas, some socks, a dora sippy cup and a dora blanket and doll. Thanks nene and paw!!

Raziel LOVED the cake we had. So did Juju. Alina wasn't so interested because she wanted to open presents.




These photos are from Christmas cookie decorating on Thursday. Raziel was given his own plate of icing after dipping that brush in the icing paint and licking and going back for more. It was adorable :-).



And here are the promised photos of the Christmas trees...
This is our tree...

and this is the kids tree... insane, isn't it. Merry Christmas to them!! If you've ever been in my living room, please note, I had to lean against the wall on the other side of the room to get all the presents! This shows that tree is taking up HALF OF MY LIVING ROOM!!! I know!! insane!! Its funny, I love my kids but I'm so glad they were adopted this year, they are going to have SUCH a big Christmas! Its gonna be sooo fun! Alina and Raziel are both REALLY excited -- Raz has finally figured out that all that wrapping paper is hiding toys and other cool stuff, and he is gonna be adorable, I'm sure! I can't wait!

7 days til Christmas!

I keep telling myself to take a photo of the 2 trees and post it for you to see... oh well, I still haven't done it. LOL.

Well, I am pleased to state that the last present I ordered for Brent came in today. It is way better than I anticipated!! Also, we both opened a present last night. :-) Brent is like a little kid in that he HATES waiting for Christmas... so we've opened 2 presents each already lol. This year Brent and I are celebrating a "couples Christmas" on Christmas Eve (since Steve and Brent's sisters and brother are celebrating with us on the 28th instead of the 24th this year). So, as a result, I haven't been so dead-set on opening them all on Christmas morning. That and the HUGE pile of things for the kids has me pretty excited and I just want to focus on them on Christmas morning... I guess this is part of being a grown up :-)

Today has been somewhat stressful. The brakes on the Suzuki quit altogether. We knew we needed new pads in them, and probably new rotors... that was a few weeks ago... and I bought the parts but we just haven't had time to put them in.... and last night the Suzuki decided it was tired of stopping and the brakes went... and so we had to replace the calipers which are $200.... so in all, Midas charged me $350 because I had the other parts we needed already. That's an expensive brake job!

And, I just got off the phone with Lynn who has my other car.... the station wagon's headgasket is blown, they think. I am somewhat frusterated because we took it in for overheating 2x now... they replaced the radiator, and then the fuel pump... and now they say its the engine. Well, headgaskets don't blow unless it was overheating and I'm irritated becasue we've had it in several times and now it's gonna be ALOT ($600) to fix it and idk why it was an issue in the first place. Then I remind myself that we only paid $800 for it in the first place, plus $100 for the radiator work and $175 for the fuel pump so if I net out at $1700 for this car I won't be doing poorly, since it will have a new engine and a fairly new transmission (rebuilt in '05 and the guy hardly drove the car).

Beside car troubles we also had a water pipe bust. Our water company did work on the neighborhood well pump a few days ago when it was 19 degrees... and when you turn off the water, it freezes in the pipes... and when it warms back up (2 days later) it busts. *sigh* Well we now have everything under the house insulated and we're buying some plywood to block off the gaps in the underpinning (thanks neighborhood doggies!). I feel like a redneck putting plywood under my house but let's face it : it is a trailer. I live in NW GA where the animals roam free and my german shepard was killed by a coyote. I might be a redneck *eesh*

Hopefully I will get to clean some tonight and tomorrow before Alina's party on Sunday. The water going again will help immensly. I was helpless in the kitchen with no water, and the bathrooms are icky (since we had to use the toilet but could not flush). But I can get that cleaned up rather quickly. I just have to will myself into moving around the house in the cold. Maybe it won't be so cold tonight... its only supposed to get down to 30 degrees so maybe I'll convince myself not to crawl in that cozy bed before I get a bunch done....

Brent got time off approved in conjunction with mine for New Years in Florida! I am so glad because we were waiting to see if he got approved and we (once again) have been allowed to take that VERY popular holiday off. I am thrilled :-) I didn't think he was gonna get to come this year.

Holiday shopping is complete for my side of the family with the exception of my Dad (who I am in the process of completion) and Brent's Mom - whom we have one or two little things for already. I am glad to be through with all that before these car repairs hit.

Alina's Turning 4!!!

I can't believe my little baby is turning 4 already!! I know its not till Sunday but I don't know how much time I'll have this week being so close to Christmas so I'm going to go ahead and post today to celebrate.


Here she is just a few days after she was born :-)


Here she is at 8 or 9 months -- Judah's current age.

This is her in her terribly adorable 2's


This is her 3rd birthday party.


This is current.


I can't believe how big she's getting!!! She talks in full sentances, she knows her abcs, she knows her 123's in english and spanish. She recites stories from heart - my favorite is "Monster in the Attic" (nightmare, actually, thanks baba!) and "3 little pigs." She is loving and is such a mommy to her brothers- specifically Raziel. She takes care of them like they were her own, and she's just 4!! Her favorite things right now are Dora, Spiderman and Iron Man. She's getting a bike for her birthday and I will post pics of that because I am SOOO excited about that :-)

I LOVE YOU ALINA!!

Christmas Preperations

So I've started to get things done!!

The kids Christmas shopping (and bringing presents from Lisa's) is officially finished. I am officially finished shopping for Brent as well. I have finished a significant amount of shopping for extended relatives as of yesterday. I still need to finish up for Becca, Momma, Clint, my Dad and Alisha. Everyone else? Oh yeah, they're finished and wrapped! holla!!

The trees are up and decorated. The stockings are hung. Well 2 are. LOL. The other 3 will be up soon as I unbury them from the laundry on the couch.

Alina and Raz's room has been cleaned. The old rickity bunk bed they were progressively breaking into bits has been taken apart and removed, the new toddler bed Lisa got for us has been assmebled and put in. The dangerously rickety shelves were removed. New shelves for the closet have been purchased (not installed yet...). The playroom has been started and I'm making progress. I have brought the new shelves in there (lower and wider and therefore a lower center of gravity = less likely to be pushed/pulled over) I have alot of the toys picked up, alot of the others put in a give away box.... (If anyone wants a big box of kids toys for Christmas, I'll be happy to send them to you) I still have some work to do in that room but we're making progress.

The living room has been picked up, a significant amount of the stuff we're giving away has been hauled away (well I put it in the station wagon which promptly broke down but anyway). I still have a ton of laundry to do but its making a nice pile on the couch which I'll get to... eventually....

I got the kitchen sink unclogged and started plowing through the dishes that had piled up... and then this morning the water was off because they're doing utility work :-( I'll get there before Sunday when we have Alina's party.

I can't believe my little baby is about to be 4.... I have to make a post about that :-)

My house is a WRECK!!!

My house is SOOOOOOO MESSY right now!! I haven't had time off without guests / things to do in out in town like 3 weeks! I have so much to clean and I have got to get it done before Christmas because almost all of my family is talking about coming before/during/after Christmas holidays. Idk if anyone is actually coming but I will say that my kids play room is so messy they aren't allowed to play in there and it was that way when Grandaddy came to visit, I just kept the door shut (which doesn't actually shut because they broke it off its hinges and when I put it back in it somehow is too big now and won't actually close.......)

My bedroom is nice and neat. I swept the floor, the shelves are straightened, etc. We have a live Christmas tree in the corner, elegantly decorated with little silver balls, funky shaped bell type things, and snowflakes, along with a nice deep blue ribbon acting as a garland. The white lights light it up and make the whole thing sparkle against all that glittery silver. Its really lovely.

The remainder of the house? hah. The drain in the kitchen is clogged because someone's husband forgot to put a bowl in the sink to drain hamburger grease into and poured the drainings from 2lbs of cooked meat straight down the sink. Then when I ran the dishwasher, the water came back up the sink and eww... so the kitchen is a wreck because we keep forgetting to buy drain-o and I can't do dishes in the dishwasher or the sink. And then we have about 20 loads of laundry on the couch and living room floor... and the babys play room I can't even get into....

and their bedroom really needs to be re-vamped because they keep breaking into the playroom and getting pieces of Raziel's (now dissasembled) crib to use as ladders to get up in the top of Alina's closet. And that REALLY frusterates me because I had a box of keepsakes for her up there -- tickets from her first trip to the circus, ultrasound pics, along with other various things.... and she keeps getting into it and half the stuff has been lost/torn up. And that really upsets me.

I'm trying to figure out what to chunk and what to keep. I need to haul off this old kitchen set they tore up specifically because they're getting a new one for Christmas.... and I'm going to sort through their toys and donate a bunch to charity since they are getting a bunch of new ones. I also need to move things - like that crib - out to the storage shed so they don't break it.

I hate having to take things away so they don't get broken. But even down to books I had as a kid have been ruined because Raziel went on a book destroying streak and those were the first to go.

It makes me SO mad when I find newly ruined things. I just don't know what to do about it. I'm going to probably take some big trash bags and put Brent's collectables in them and move them to the storage shed... and the other things we don't want them getting into... I'm just frusterated. It doesn't matter how much I clean, they still manage to ruin everything.

Shutterfly Cards

This year I'm sending Christmas cards from Shutterfly!! I spent ages looking around on their site and finally opted to send this one:



I love the light wintery blue color! I know most of my family will not see snow this year because they live on the beach so maybe sending them a bit of snowy winter wonderful will lighten their season... and if not the cute pics of the kids will!!

I haven't decided if I'm going to do a big family photo or one photo each of the kids... I'm thinking the big one will be a family photo (if I can get someone to take a few pics of us) and then the little ones up top I'll do one of Alina and Juju and the other of Raziel. Alina and Juju pose well together so they're easy. I usually have to crop out photos of Raz to get something that works. We took photos FOREVER at sears before we got something that worked.



Brent wants to use this photo of the kids. I like it but Alina's face is a bit blurry and hard to see... I might try to re-duplicate the photo and take it again... and maybe include a cute pic of me and Brent.... but then I have a 3rd photo slot... so maybe not.... hmmm idk.

Anyway, while I'm on the subject of Christmas cards, if you want to do a Christmas card, Shutterfly has a really good deal on cards! Sending a card is a nice way to say Merry Christmas without having to spend alot of money! Most of the cards are 90c to $1.10 so if you have like 25 or 30 printed you've only spent $25ish! Then, you know, you pay for envelopes and stamps but that's not so bad.

So check it out here

And they also do that cool change your photo to a canvas thing which I absolutely think is an adorable way to display nice photos -- maybe a wedding portrait or a lovely family photo... They've got those here

And then I stumbled across the cutest thank you notes they make here

I thought this would be really cute to send as a baby shower thank you once baby comes! Get a newborn photo of baby and send thank yous? tooo cute! I wish I'd known about those when I had Judah!!!

Anyways - I hope you all get some Shutterfly photo cards this year because I want to get some photos of you guys!

Christmas

Today is December 2nd!
23 more days till Christmas!!

WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

And I am VERY proud to say --
I'm almost totally done with my Christmas shopping!!

Alina - DONE
Raziel - DONE
Judah - we want to get one or two little things for him, but most of it is done.
Brent - I need to get 3 more things for him :-) but the majority is done

Brent's family -- Completed; Steve. Scot. Kourtney.
Need to finish: Kenneth, Donna, Momma, Jessie and Becca (wow... more than I thought)

My family -- Completed: Mom, David, Sarah.
Need to finish: Alisha, Timothy, Dad.

OK so maybe its not nearly as finished as I thought it was... but the extended family is different. I have ideas for everyone except Aunt Donna who I drew for New Years -- that's hard because apparently she likes Nascar and cuponing but she's one of those people that already has her cupon binder with hundreds of cupons so idk what to do for her! I don't want to be lame and uncreative and Nascar stuff is EXPENSIVE!!!!

and I totally can't wait for my 50 free Shutterfly cards becuase I'm sending those to the grandparents and friends. I would normally print photos and send them but that gets expensive too so free shutterfly cards = free prints. WOOHOO!!

Are you ready for Christmas yet??