Shutterfly's Fabulous Holiday Cards

I love Shutterfly. I've used them to print the Bear's pictures from when he was born. Unfortunately, those are about the only pictures I've ever had printed of him. Welcome to the digital age. I've also used Shutterfly to make Father's Day photobooks. They were a big hit. The grandpa's loved having a little brag book. I've been pleased with the quality of Shutterfly's products. But...oh. my. goulashes. Their holiday cards are uh-dorable.







They are classic contemporary. Classic without being stuffy and too frilly. Contemporary colors and graphics. I've really thought about using a card that has places for multiple pictures on it so that I can put pictures of the Bear throughout the year on it. He has changed so much over the year that I'd thought our Christmas card would be a good place to reflect that. I haven't decided for sure whether I'll do multiple pictures or just one or two. I'll have to really decide which card style is my favorite: simple or lots to look at. Click here to pick your faves.

I'd bet that grandmas and grandpas would love a calendar for the fridge at home or desk at work. Or a coffee mug to boast the pics of the grandyoung'uns.

But as beautiful as their holiday cards are you've also gotta love that Shutterfly is giving you 50 free cards just for blogging about your favorites.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Get over to Shutterfly and click around for a while. Prepare to be inspired.

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Embrace the Camera: December 2

It's time for another fun-filled edition of...

These are from the Bear's first Thanksgiving. My sister took these and I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out. Thanks KK! I normally only put up one, but they were so cute I couldn't decide.

And our first Thanksgiving as a family...

Thanks for playing along!

Lamar and Jerrica's Maternity Pictures

Our sweet friends are expecting their first baby. Tomorrow. Actually, her due date was almost two weeks ago but she's still pregnant. So she's going to the hospital tonight to start being induced.

When I told her I wanted to do some maternity pics for her, I think she was a little hesitant. But she told me that if I could talk her husband into it then she'd go for it. He (surprisingly) agreed. I had taken their Christmas card pictures a couple of times, but this was new territory. She'd only be pregnant with this baby once and if I messed up I would feel terrible. I had also never done maternity pictures before. I know how difficult it is to feel pretty when you're pregnant so I really wanted her to look back later and see how beautiful she is during this time. And she is a gorgeous pregnant gal. Take a look for yourself...

They are keeping the baby's name a secret. Which is driving everyone (ME) crazy! I'm dying to know! My imagination has gone wild with all the names they could name this baby. Cledus? Adolf? Jack Daniels? King? Trust me, I work in healthcare. I've seen it all. And all of these names are coming back to me now. The anticipation is killing me.

Thank you so much, Lamar and Jerrica for humoring me and letting me get some more practice under my belt. Thank you for being such good friends to us. We have found family in you guys. I look forward to many years of calling each other to fill the other in on our boy's (meaning children, not husbands) latest antics. The Bear can't wait to meet his BFF!

At 10 months...

I can't believe you're already 10 months old. You've been in this world as a whole person longer than you were in my belly. It amazes me all the time how much you've grown and the new things you're doing all the time. I enjoyed your first Thanksgiving so much and can't wait to watch you experience your first Christmas. You are such a funny little Bear. Your personality develops more and more all the time.

At 10 months you...
-crawl on all fours
-crawl really fast! You're in a different room (and doing something you shouldn't) faster than I can catch you
-pull up to stand on any and everything. This means coffee and end tables have to be cleaned off.
-cruise the furniture
-love Morty the Moose. You carry him everywhere you go.
-have gotten tubes in your ears
-cry when Mommy and Daddy leave you
-don't love a bath like you used to. I don't think the ear plugs help with that.
-look for an item when I take it from you and hide it. You don't fall for the bait and switch anymore.
-cry when you want something
-bite. You think its funny when Mommy tells you no.
-do your "silly laugh." It sounds kind of goat-like. You do it a lot when you're being a stinker.
-have four teeth. Two on top, two on bottom. And a fifth peeking through.
-still hate to get dressed. Especially your shirt over your head.
-don't like to have your face or nose wiped. You cry and get mad.
-could care less about a sippy cup. You bang it around and chew on the spout and bottom of the cup.
-don't care anything about juice either.
-not only reach/lean for who you want to go to, but lean away when you don't want to go to someone else.

And this is what you look like at 10 months...


You're always standing!


A close up of those toothies...


And the sweet face your Mama and Daddy love...


The hours drag sometimes, but the days fly right by me. I find myself worrying about the wrong things...dishes, laundry, the dust you could write your name in. I have to remind myself all the time that this sweet face will not always look for me to play with him. I try to keep the word intentional at the forefront of my thoughts. I find myself saying "I meant to..." a lot. And I do mean to do things, but time always gets away from me. I have to be intentional about what I do everyday otherwise the days when he climbs up my leg while I do dishes or does his "silly laugh" and crawls faster to get to something he wants while I chase him...these times will be gone. He will be grown and moved away without me having done so many things that "I meant" to do. Like take him to the park...another thing "I meant to do" before it got too cold.

I have so many sweet pictures to share of Thanksgiving. Check back soon, I'll get them up ASAP.

Edit: I have changed the settings so that you can comment without having a special ID. From what I understand you previously had to have a Google ID to be able to leave comments. I think I now have it set up so that you don't have to do that. Comment away!

My first real "shoot"

So, most of you know that I love to take pictures. I would love to be able to quit my job one day and supplement our income by doing portraits. That's many years away, if ever. But in the meantime, I have great friends that don't mind me practicing on them. And their kids. I've done a few Christmas cards for friends and that's always fun. But this was the first time I did a "shoot" involving kids. (I use the term shoot loosely, in no way am I professional enough for that yet!)

I work with Tracie and over the past year and a half, we've become good friends. She is wonderful...compassionate, thoughtful, and a great mom to three beautiful kids. I asked her if I could do some pics of them because I thought it would be good practice for me. She humored me (bless her heart) and she was sweet enough to let me share them here with you!

Just a note...they held hands all on their own. No prompting from me or Tracie...isn't that sweet! The kids were troopers. I'm still very slow at getting everything set up right and it takes me a while to decide what and how I want to do things. The kids did great in spite of me! I think the lure of Halloween costumes and candy when we got done helped. Here's one of all of them in their cute costumes.

It was Halloween when we took these and Tracie was already thinking about her Christmas card. Hence the red and plaid shirts. She's so organized! I hope we got one you're proud to use!

Thank you, Tracie, for letting me spend some time with you and your sweet kids. They're a lot of fun and it was a great way for me to get some practice!

Embrace the Camera: November 11

Happy Thursday! Danny is out of town fishing so Little Bear and I are holding down the fort. Should be an interesting night since Daddy isn't here to help.

It's time to Embrace the Camera!

This is what I look like when I say "tickle, tickle" to get him to smile. There were better ones of me, but this was the funniest one of him. He almost looks crazy he's smiling so big! Gotta love that "church hair!"

Oh, my boys! The Bear thinks it's hilarious when I fake sneeze. Gets him to smile for the camera everytime. Can you see those top two teeth? They're there!

Thanks for playing along!

A Manly Man

I was at work today, talking with a co-worker. The subject of our conversation led me to think to myself, "Thank God I married a man." When I say this I don't mean I'm glad I married a man instead of a woman. I mean I'm glad I married a MAN instead of a man. Allow me to illustrate my point.

When faced with a large bug or small rodent, Danny doesn't hop onto the chair with me and shriek. He squashes it and rolls his eyes at my hysterics. While maybe chuckling a bit.

He can tend to our dog's health issues. He has nursed our pups back to good health after run-ins with vicious animals and other events that left them with angry looking wounds. Heck, he helped deliver Becky's puppies by c-section. Yes, dogs need c-sections too sometimes. I think he should've gone to vet school. I know what you're thinking..."If he's such a good doc then why do y'all spend so much time and money at the vet's?" And the answer is this: he doesn't have any meds, silly. No, you can't just buy them online. We thought about that.

When there is a problem with our vehicles, he doesn't take it directly to a repair shop so that they can charge us $600 to replace the brake harness. (Which even I know doesn't exist. It's a WIRING harness for your brakes when you tow something.) But some men aren't mechanically inclined and don't know this.

He can hunt and fish. (I feel like I should grunt and beat my chest here.) He can put meat up in our freezer to feed our family. And then (this is the good part) he can cook that meat. I don't know how to cook quail. He does.

When there is a problem with our garbage disposal (like this week), he doesn't hesitate to stick his hand into the black, unknown abyss to dig out the shards of the broken glass baby food jar. I know that deep down that's the last thing he wants to do but he knows that they aren't going to jump out on their own. Although I don't know why they don't jump out on their own...that's how the baby food jar got in there in the first place. Yes, that really happened.

He knows about firearms and how to work them. Not in a crazy, militia radical way, but in a way that he can protect his family and property. This makes me feel safe.

When the lid will not come off the jelly, he does not meekly grunt and groan while making feeble attempts to get it off. He gets in there and shows that lid who's boss. It may sound like a little thing, but those jelly jars are hostile.

If we were stranded with a broken down plane he could fix it. No questions, he's a good aircraft mechanic. If we were stranded like Lost we'd be pretty screwed. But he could take care of us while out there in the wild sci-fi jungle. He'd find a shelter, food to feed us, and ways to protect us. So maybe we wouldn't be that screwed.

When things break around the house, he fixes them. We don't do without an item while it's at the repair shop, he gets the parts and tools out and he fixes what's broken.

He can build stuff. He knows how to use hand tools and power tools to construct what needs buildin'. He can demolish stuff. He's tearing down our little patio fence now.

He knows about sports. Maybe I should say college football. Thank goodness he doesn't watch all of them and quote stats from 1947's world series game or insist on hanging women's field hockey memorabilia in the living room or scratch himself and belch every night of the week while watching "the Game." Thank goodness. I don't know that I could live with that. But he knows about and loves college football. That's plenty manly.

Danny is just the right amount of man. He isn't a macho, knuckle-dragging, poker night every week, cigars in the living room, womanizing asshole. Thank God. He doesn't insist on doing things that are outside the realm of his knowledge, capabilities, or what he is equipped to do. He knows when to call the professionals.

He is a self reliant and self sufficient kind of man. He doesn't depend on others to provide or maintain his family. His responsibilities are HIS responsibilities.

He is my kind of guy. Now I'm going to fix his meat and potatoes.