Sickies

And of course everything was going along swimmingly and then the sickies hit our house.  Well, most of our house now.  Hoping hubby doesn't end up with it.  Cameron and I started Friday morning and Noah yesterday.  Kept Noah home from school today and attempted to keep the boys relatively calm.  Ha!  Try keeping 2 little preschoolers relatively calm after having been cooped up int he house for several days because of illness and weather.  Um, one recipe for fun, eh?  But we survived and had some fun along the way.  Praying our house is all back to "normal" tomorrow!

I did manage to get our Christmas cards done today and ordered from Shutterfly.   Can't wait to get them.  Will share with you once we get them and mail out.  :)

Shutterfly strikes again!

Once again I have to prefess my love for Shutterfly.  They have my undying love for their quality and how fast they always process my order.  Yes, I admit, I am a Shutterfly snob.  And when I found out they were giving away 50 free holiday cards I was all over that.  I mean, come on, who wouldn't be?  Especially when our Christmas card list is forever growing (which is a good thing!).

So as I was browsing all the awesome Christmas photo card designs they had to choose from I decided to enlist the help of the wee ones.  Of course the boys picked out this one.  I think it's cute too. 

I think this one fits the boys' personalities.  :)  I wonder if they have one with lumps of coal?

I love this one.



 I am starting to notice a red theme here for me.  :)

I also have to admit I LOVE this one.  Kind of reminds me of Christmas letters but I like the little twist on it.  And hey, I am breaking the red streak here too!

 And of course after I get finished up with my Christmas cards I am going to have to do our calendar.  And this year I am taking the easy way out and using Shutterfly for that one too.  They really do make the process so wasy I would be crazy not to.  Last year I did this one and I have loved looking at it all year.  Even our realtor asked me where in the world I found it when she came to visit after we moved here.  I was even able to save it as my background on my computer.  :)

And last on my list for this month to take care of is the boy's birthday invites.  Thinking they have some super cute designs over there too.  I will say one of the things I have come to love about Shutterfly is they have some super great designs all on their own or they give me the option to use my own designs.  After having gone to digital scrapping they make my life super easy.  I create, download to their site and voila...print and they send it right to my home.  Yippee!  What mom doesn't love that!  I can create at 2:00am (you know, that spare time I have). 

I still think my favoirte Shutterfly story is from this past January.  I stayed up almost the entire night and did our entire 2009 book (like 68 pages) in one night.  One night!  I still hadn't finished our 2008 book but we had our 2009 because of their awesome Simple Path they had launched then.  I am a believer!  I will more than likely be doing our 2010 book the same way this year, although I think I will forgo the staying up all night this time.  ;)

Project 365 is coming back!

I have to say I have REALLY missed doing the picture a day thing this last year.  I started off great with taking them, printing them out and even putting them in the album.  But then a few months into it everything just went downhill.  And with all the craziness these last 6-8 months, I haven't even taken a picture a week some weeks let alone one a day.  But this time of year as I am getting ready to do our book for the year and other little projects makes me realize just how much I really miss doing it.  It has been so much fun for me to look back on our pictures from the year and spend time just remembering all those happy (or sometimese not so happy) thoughts.  I will be doing this in 2011 and hopefully can at least scrounge together something for this year, although it certainly won't be titles Project 365!

So I have been pondering how to do this on the blog.  Do I do a separate blog like I did before?  Do I pick a day of the week and just kind of make a little collage and post it once a week?  I even thought of making my pages as I go along but then I was afraid I may get behind and not end up doing it.  Hmmm, must ponder some more.

Ch-ch-changes...

Ah, the changes are beginning. I am excited.  As I had mentioned before I am planning on doing some changing up of the good old blog.  So I came across a great little article over on Amanda's blog and had to do a few of the things she recommends.  I have wanted to add the little links at the botton of posts for a LONG time but just never knew how.  She makes it so easy when she explains things!  I have been a fan of her blog for a very long time now.  And her fonts are always so much fun! 

And she has also been my inspiration to get on the ball and lose some weight (more to come on that in the following months).  The sad part for me was I actually did what she recommends and it works.  I lost about 13 pounds (even during the holidays last year!) and then we found out we were moving.  Guess what, I gained all of that back and then some during this move!  So now I am motivated even more because I know it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I spent today working on getting the bonus room cleaned out to turn it into a playroom for the boys.  I have struggled with this since we moved in.  Do I try and make it their playroom AND my craft room?  Just leave it as an office/craft room and turn the dining room into a playroom?  What to do, what to do?  I finally was struck that it needs to be a playroom and I will just have to move my crafty stuff into our bedroom for a while.  I wonder if anyone out there in bloggy land has done this and made it look like just part of the bedroom and not so obvious?  Must do some research!  But for now I am just moving out everything that doesn't belong there and getting their room finished.  They need it, they deserve it.  Plus I need to find somewhere for one of the couches from the living room so we can put up our tree tomorrow and still be able to walk around the place.  ;)

Magazines

I love magazines.  There is no question about it.  Now that I have kiddos I love them even more.  It's easy to flip through and read an article in a short amount of time.  It's really hard for me to read books during the day because I always have to stop every few sentences or paragraphs and that to me is not enjoyable.  So magazines it is! 

I have become a huge fan of Magazines.com  (and no, I am not getting anything by writing this post, I was just excited at the great deals I got today on their magazines and had accidentally bought a subscription for one I already had.).  I have always been pretty skeptical of random sites but I have used this one a few times and have really liked it.  The thing I think I love the most is if you accidentally buy a subscription twice (like I have been known to do) they automatically just renew it instead of sending you the magazine twice.  Woo-hoo!  Awesome for mom's like me who forget sometimes just what and when they had subscribed to.  :)

The only draw back for me on getting all these lovely magazines is they tend to pile up.  But I love to flip through old ones all the time so I kind of like keeping them around for a while.  While we were getting ready to move right before the summer I took over 200 old magazines to the local library and donated them.  They loved it and have a little table right at the front for people to pick them up on their way out.  I love that someone else will also get some use from them too.  So no more guilt on getting the magazines.  They get to go to a great new home after they are finished here and I am not filling the landfills.  Woo-hoo!  Sounds like a win-win to me.  Or am I just trying to convince myself of this so I can continue to feed my habit?  ;)

Seriously?

Come on, seriously?  One post for the month of October!!!!!!  Okay, shame on me.  I have let the good old blog fall by the wayside since we ventured into this move at the beginning of the summer.  But I will be back!!!!  I have been struck with lots of inspiration these last several weeks and am planning so many fun adventures for the new year.  Hopefully December too! 

One of my ideas was trying to figure out if I want to post a different topic each day of the week.  I know there are lots of good blogs out there (one of my favorite blogs) that do this and I think it would help me to be more focused and organized.  Hmm...any thoughts?

As we were driving along yesterday Cameron, out of the blue, said he wanted to move back to our old house in Indiana.  It just breaks my heart over and over again.  He has been talking about this a lot these days.  That and our dog, Indy.  I think this move has been much harder on him than everyone has realized.  That may be why we have been experiencing such a hard time with him these days (another reason for my bloggy absence).  I am hoping with the holidays and him getting to see his grandparents more this will help.  He is really such a sensitive little guy and these things really do more to him than I think.  Wish I knew exactly what to do to make it better!  I did suggest we send a Christmas present to our puppy back in Indiana.  I am sure the gal who has him now will not mind...she has been sweet about letting me know how he is doing thankfully.

So, hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.  We are lucky to now be within driving distance from my husband's family so we get to go and spend time with family this year...and I don't have to cook (or clean house)!  So for that I am very thankful!

I have decided I may brave the Black Friday crowds after all this year.  I am SO NOT a Black Friday kind of girl.  But there are a few things I want to pick up at such incredible prices so it may be worth it (one of them for me!).  The boys haven't gotten into video games yet but they are going to have a Leapster II for $25...I would be crazy not to get the thing!  Even if I wait a while to give them to the boys I would be silly not to get them if I can.  Maybe I'll just stay up the entire night instead of sleeping seeing as several places are actually opening up on Thanksgiving night!

One month

To the day.  Since I have blogged.  Ugh!  And here I was thinking I was getting back into the groove of things!  Well, I don't know what my groove is any more much less get back into it.  So very much has been going on these last several months.  Still trying hard to wrap my head around some and just forget about others.  Must find a happy place!