Because Shutterfly's cool like that

I'm all about saving a penny. So when I heard that Shutterfly was having a special promotion and giving away 50 FREE cards if all you do is link to them in your blog, I had to share the love.

Here are a few of my favorites this year:

This one is called With Love Ribbon. I think the snowflakes are cute, with the pretty red Merry Christmas in the corner.  Sweet all around. Now if I could just get my kids to smile that cute for a family picture (at the same time) we would be in buisness.

 I love the classic look of this one with the black and white photos. If you get a card from me that is almost identical to this one, except with a "P" in the middle, you know where I got the idea from. :) Its called Family Wall Red.

 I had to go with this one, I absolutely love the colors and the overall happy feeling of it. Its called Oh What Fun. I am torn on what one to choose now. This one might be arriving in your mailbox in a few short weeks. 

We have been using shutterfly for about 5 years now, not only for Christmas cards every year, but birth announcements, their awesome photo books, and calenders. They make it so easy and efficient, with just a few clicks, and you get your beautify crafted Christmas card sent to your mailbox, complete with envelopes and everything. Talk about a time saver!

So go on over and sign up for your 50 FREE cards. All you have to do is blog about it. :)


Merry so so early Christmas!

Missing Murfreesboro

We are seriously missing:

Tennessee clouds.


The sunshine.

Minus the humidity.

This sweet, sweet family.

 Chalk and bubble days out front.

Sneaking up to the neighborhood bunny.

 Watching caaraaaazy storm fronts come in.

Our neighborhood.

Watching the kiddos play with frogs at night when its 77 degrees out.
In the pool.
In their skivies.

Watching the boys golf out front.

Our favorite park.

Our evening firefly catching adventures...

I hope my daughter will remember catching them.

 The fireflies slept on her headboard, for goodness sakes.

I think she will. But that's just a hunch.

And last but definitely not least, our sweet friends and old neighbors with their southern accents and southern hospitality; the Simmons and Kopchaks. We miss yall so much! (I threw in the 'yall' just for you!)

And Baby makes 5!

 

I wrapped this package up with the help of my daughter when my husband was out golfing on Sept. 11th. When he got home I told him that the kids and I picked him up something at the store.

Little did he know...

That two (yes I took two, who doesn't!) of these bad boys would be wrapped up inside. He initially thought that I wanted to just take the test, but then he flipped them over and saw the two happy lines. He looked up at me (teary eyed of course) and smiled and said "really?!".  "Really." I responded back, happy tears really rolling by then. "Wow!" Then some kisses and hugs and all that happy gushy stuff. :)

We are so thrilled and feel so very blessed. We can't wait to see who this little person is cooking up to be. May 17th can't come soon enough!

Feelin mighty crafty

I have a few friends who are pregnant now and I have totally got the crafty bug. I dusted off the old sewing machine and the kids and I made our way on over to the local craft warehouse. Do they have some cute fabrics out there these days or what! Its so hard for me to focus on only one project at a time sometimes.

Anyways, I found this tutorial over at Aesthetic Nest and it looked fun and super cute so I thought Id give it a good college try.

I wasnt sure how it would turn out for me, so I only snapped one picture of the sewing process.

It ended up turning out way better than I thought! I love when that happens. 

Final product:

 

My son calls his big blue blanket "silky". So its only fitting that we are calling them "little silkys" in this house.

  I used minky on one side and flannel on the other, just make sure you stitch the opening closed on the minky side like she says in the tutorial, it hides the stitching a lot better than flannel.

 

 She mentions that it is so hard to stop with just one, and she is so right. They are so cute!  I have already thought up about 10 or so different color combos. Now, if I actually get around to making that many...Ill let you know. :)

Thanks again for the tutorial Anneliese!

Happy sewing!

She's in LOVE

With ballet. 
She lives and breaths ballet. 
When she puts on that tutu she transforms into a very graceful princess/ballerina that I have never seen before. Gracefully spinning and tip toeing around the house. I'm guilty of letting her wear that tutu whenever she pleases. I can count on a ton of sweet behavior if the tutu is on. So you understand where I'm coming from.

The instructor finally let all of us curious parents in to watch our girls on the 3rd lesson (we also get to watch the last lesson) and my girl didn't even look my way. Not once. It was weird. I stared her down the whole time hoping to get even just a glance from her. I got nothin. Its like she didn't even notice all of us proud, picture taking parents in the room. I guess that's a good thing though. She is very serious about these lessons. :)

A sis-in-law birthday

We love you Erin!

A Princess Birthday

The crew eating my hubbys famous spaghetti dinner.

The loot. :)

I took this photo literally seconds before my son stuck his hand in the frosting. 

Couldn't resist that purple frosting I guess.

Singing the birthday song. 

She can barely handle this. :)

Notice purple frosting face. Little stinker.

 My personal fav.
I don't blame her.
Out wit your bad self, purple frosting face!

My big 4 year old girl. Wow. 4. Years. Old. 

Seems like just yesterday we had her 1st birthday party:

Oh to go back in time and kiss up that sweet little face of hers...