Shutterfly Holiday Cards

Over the past few years I've used several of Shutterfly's products and I've always been happy with the results. When Caroline was born I turned to Shutterfly to do her birth announcements. I was extremely happy with how Shutterfly handled my first order having red eye that should have been removed. Customer service was so helpful, they had me mail back one of the cards and shipped me a brand new box of corrected cards.

Way back in 2006 I did my first Shutterfly project, a calendar for the grandparents. Of course they loved having cute pictures of the girls to look at each month, plus I put all the birth dates and anniversaries of the extended family on it.

My most favorite project was a photo book that I did for the friend we bought our house from. I took pictures of the house while she still lived here and put them together in a book along with some of the sayings and scripture she had painted throughout the house. It turned out so well, and we gave it to her as a wedding gift.

Of course Shutterfly has plenty of other great projects for pictures, including photo cards for any occasion or holiday, mugs, and invitations. You can visit the following links for great ideas:

· Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
· Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
· desk calendar to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

· photo mugs to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs
· birthday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-cards-stationery

· holiday invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations
· Choose your favorite product from our Cards & Stationery page

This year I'm really excited to use Shutterfly for Christmas cards since they have a great selection of holiday cards, with so much variety to choose from. I could spend hours looking through the hundreds of great options! Now I just need to pick my favorite. We had my brother take a couple of pictures for us over Thanksgiving so hopefully we'll get cards out on time this year!

It's been a while!

I haven't updated this in a while...I guess that's what happens when three little girls keep you busy! It's hard to believe Lauren is 6 and in first grade, Madeline is 4 and in pre-school, and Caroline turns 2 this Wednesday! How does time go by so fast?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ice Cream and Burps

The other day while on a road trip, one of the kids needed to use the restroom. Pretty much every public bathroom grosses me out, and it's even worse when you have to take a kid in there. I try so hard not let them touch anything, anywhere in there.

So you can imagine my shock as I watched a decent looking lady walk from her car, into a public bathroom, with a soft-serve ice cream cone in her hand. And she was eating it. I almost couldn't make myself walk in to the restroom knowing that she had just gone in...I just didn't think I could watch her DO that!

Sure enough, she was in there, leaning up against the gross wall while waiting in line, licking her now tainted vanilla ice cream. And then, and I'm gagging as I write this, she WENT INTO A BATHROOM STALL WITH HER ICE CREAM CONE!

I just could not believe it. I tried to think that maybe she could just hold on to it while she went. But there was no way. She had shorts on with a button and zipper, so she for sure needed two hands. And in this particular bathroom, the only two surfaces are the top of the toilet paper holder (which was the round kind, so she would have to work at getting it to balance), or the FLOOR. And just think...to wash her hands, she would have to set in on the counter. In a public restroom. Gross, gross, gross. What am I thinking though, I bet she wouldn't even bother to wash her hands. Just gross.

On to a lighter note, Lauren and Madeline happen to remember Barak Obama's name, which is great because it's important to know the president's name. The way they learned you ask? By listening to my Dad burp it over and over. That's right, my Dad burps Barak Obama's name. Baaaaaaarak Obama.

The Better Half

The girls got a new kitten for their birthday, and she's a real sweetie. With all the excitement that first day, mixed in was the sisterly tendency to argue over who would hold her for how long, and we had several talks about sharing.

So while that first day was lots of fun, Chad and I were both a little drained that night and ready for the girls to go to bed, knowing that the next day we'd have to work on the sharing thing again.

Our Bible story just before bed time was about King Solomon and how wise he was. Two women came to him arguing over a baby, both claiming the baby was theirs. Solomon said something like this: "Let's just get a sword and cut the child in half so that each of you can have part of him." One woman thought it was great idea, the other was horrified and begged him not to do such a thing. After their responses, Solomon knew the horrified woman was the true mother of the child, and he gave the baby over to her.

After the story was over, I saw a light flicker in Chad's eyes. His speech to Lauren and Madeline came out something like this:

"Okay girls. If you can't stop arguing over the kitten, I'm just going to cut her in half. Would you like that? Then you could each have a part?"

Almost in unison the girls cried "No Daddy!" Then, less than a minute later, while cuddling her sweet little kitten, Lauren says "Daddy, if you did do that, could I have the part with the head?"

And just because Madeline likes to think she has the last word, she joins in, "And I want the bottom part Daddy!"

After those answers, I'm not sure which one will be the nurturing caretaker. Hmm.

My Latest Cleaning Spree

Inspired by Jennifer's awesome before and after pictures a while back when she used Jomax to clean her porch, I finally got around to it last week. I bought it when we first moved in back in August, but I didn't want to do it while I was pregnant (strong mildew cleaner plus bleach...not a good combo to take in while pregnant!). Now that Caroline takes better naps I was able to get going. Pretty amazing transformation on the gate and the front of the studio!

It was super easy. Just mix, spray, wait a few minutes and wash off. I had to use a broom under the window to lightly brush it, but it came right off when I did that. Amazing, and much easier than painting over all that!

I used it on my white rocking chairs but it didn't come completely off. That's okay...I think I'm going to paint them black so they won't just blend in on the porch of the studio. That will be a project down the road!

Daddy's Little Girls

As we were driving home from a friend's house tonight, Chad and I were just chatting and in the back I hear Madeline say "Hey Lauren, pull my finger!"

There goes my shot at having dainty little girls!

Cutting out sugar

I can't believe how cutting out sugar has affected me so much. For some reason I was inspired to give up something for Lent on February 25th when I heard it announced on the morning news. I wish I could say that my original intentions were spiritual, but honestly it was just an impulsive decision sparked more by curiosity and a desire to be challenged. Why sugar? I'm not sure...I just picked something in the food category since I figured it would be good for me, plus it seemed doable.


Lent is supposed to be a time of fasting and prayer and represents the time that Jesus spent in the desert, being tempted by Satan, before his ministry started. I can say that the first three days were certainly hard and full of temptations....I thought about wanting something sweet all the time. But after a few days, I felt so good, and I no longer craved sweets. Sure sometimes I see a dessert and may have a split second thought that it looks good, but I really have little desire for it, and since I"m feeling so great I don't want to ruin that!


After the first week I came across some blog posts from someone I've been following, and it really got me excited for what God is doing in my life with regard to food and how it affects me. It's a long read, but worth it. Make sure you start from the bottom with the November 18th post: http://www.conversiondiary.com/search/label/The%20Saint%20Diet?max-results=200


She makes some really great points about how our sleep, diet and time commitments have such a great impact on our relationship with God and with others. I'm inspired, encouraged, challenged and excited to start making changes in my life, one day at a time, that will hopefully have a daily and eternal impact!