Christmas Cards & Gifts

I am so happy to say that I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping!  Most of it was finished and wrapped before Thanksgiving.  However, I do need to get all of the items I've bought in the last two weeks out of my car :)

Every year I take time to prepare Christmas photo cards for our family and friends.  I started this the year we were pregnant with Vince.  I love sharing these and also keeping the photo cards we receive each year.  I always use Shutterfly for our Photo Christmas Cards.

Two years ago I began also making photo calendars to give as gifts.  They have beautiful wall and desk calendars that are easy to make and you can also add in special dates/birthdays for your family members.  I do this for my Mammaw & Pappaw and have also started for Gran'ts Nan and our parents.  I am in the process of making those now and I love that Shuttefly lets you save your projects so I can work on them whenever I get a free moment.

If you're looking for a special gift or for photo Christmas cards I highly recommend that you check out Shutterfly.  (Here's a link to their special offers page)


*This post is sponsored by Shutterfly but all opinions are my own.

Sending Love to the Turners

I was so shocked and saddened for Julee when I heard of the loss of her husband, Matt.  I have never met Julee but I have followed her blog for a couple years now.  I am lifting them up in prayer as they deal with this devastating heartbreak.  I can't imagine what she is going through.  I know that her faith in God and her family and friends will help her through this time.  Please join me in remembering them.

Living Room Redo

I've been wanting to lighten our living room up recently.  When I saw there was a home sale going on at Target and there were just the right color blue accents I went for it!  Our rug has the rust color of our sofa and also some blue in it as well.  I wanted to pull that blue out so we got two curtain panels and three new pillows and I love the new look.




Brittany

Mother's Day at the Plantation House

This year my father-in-law, Billy, treated us to lunch at the Plantation House for a wonderful buffet dinner.  The home is gorgeous and the food was really great, too.  We had time to pose for some pictures after our lunch.

 Here's our whole group!

 

This little guy keeps everyone laughing!  Nan was probably trying to get his belly.  

Our family on my second Mother's Day.  Can you tell that this little guy keeps us on our toes?

Ice Cream

Sometimes when you're feeling bad all you need is a little ice cream.

This is Good!

I AM looking at you.

I know... I really am the cutest thing ever!

DIY School Yearbooks

I was so happy when Shutterfly contacted me* about a new product they are offering.  They now have Photo Yearbooks available on their website.  I absolutely love creating Shuttefly photo books and using their website to create our Christmas cards.  They have the best quality and using their website to create photo books is so easy.  I love that the designs are customizable all the way down to the font and size of the font.  I hate when the default font is tiny! 

As I was looking on the website I was so excited to see a colorful, graphic yearbook option.  It seems like the local school's yearbooks are always drab and inlclude more black and white than color photos.  And I never see any cool graphics.  The examples also showed where children's artwork had been uploaded and published.  That's revolutionary!  I think this is such a neat idea for a parent or teacher to do.  I can definitely see myself doing this for Vince.  I may start now since he loves to color!  If not now then it would be great to start even for Pre-K. 

I may put this idea into action for his baby book.  I have several pieces of newspaper articles and a first haircut certificate.  Those things are sweet and sentimental but I'd rather not store them from now on.  I could take a picture or scan them and then upload it to a photo book.  I LOVE this idea!  Thank you, Shutterfly.  You are always inspring!

How would you use a Shutterfly year book?  Have you ever put children's artwork or newspaper clippings into a photo book? 

You can follow Shutterfly and get lots of inspiration from them here:

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shutterfly

 · Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Shutterfly
 · Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/shutterfly/

*This is a sponsored post. I was contacted by Shutterfly to promote their yearbooks. I have used Shutterfly for years and have always loved their products.

Meal Plan Monday 03.05.2012

Hi everybody!  I'm linking up today with I'm an Organizing Junkie for Meal Plan Monday.  Here's what our week looks like:

I start two new classes this week.  My schedule will be Monday and Thursday nights for this bi-term.  I used to grocery shop on Monday afternoons but that won't be possible with this schedule.  I'll need to get home ASAP to get supper started.  I may push back to Tuesday afternoons when we don't have a 6:30 deadline for me to be focused on class.  I will see how it works.  I usually try and avoid going on the weekends because it seems like I am much quicker when I go after work and have a deadline to get home and get cooking!

Bake Sale for Backpacks

My sister Brooke and I have the AWESOME privilege of teaching our church's high school girls Sunday School class.  These girls have such a heart for Jesus, each other, their fellow students, and their community.  They put their faith into action last Saturday as they donated $912 to our 4-H backpack program.  Five of the girls even took the "Penguin Plunge" on a freezing cold day.  The money they collected during their bake sale will be given for students in our community to take home a backpack of food each weekend.  Each student's backpack costs $100 for the year.  So they collected enough for 9 kids!  How amazing. 

Smell the Flowers

I received the sweetest bouquet of flowers yesterday!

Meal Plan Monday 02.27.2012

I'm linking up with I'm an Organizing Junkie for this week's menu planning. 

And just like I promised, here is my custom grocery list. 

Every week I go through and write down my meal plan in the top form.  I list everything we could possibly eat or need for each meal.  So even though it  seems silly to write down cereal every single day, it helps me assess what I need to be buying.  This week I actually did my meal plan on a notepad and did shopping that way.  So my above computer version only left the roast in my "to buy" section.  I am a vegetarian and hubby won't let me buy the meat.  I am somewhat unsure in that department :)

After I've made my plan I fill in my grocery list and cross the item off my "to buy" section.  I've arranged the list in the same format as my local Kroger store.  I assume it is probably pretty close for most stores.  This keeps me from overlooking items because I am following my list and going through the store in the same way.  I hope this gives you a good idea of how I menu plan and make my grocery list.  I'm still perfecting my method, but I am so much more efficient and effective compared to two months ago!  Let me know if you have any questions or if you'd be interested in me sending you a copy of my list. 

Come back next week and I'll tell you how I grocery shop!

Just like Daddy

Vince is growing up into quite a little boy. He loves to wear a "tucky" shirt and athletic pants. Whenever I got these Nike pants out to put on him he said, "Daddy!". I said, "Yes, Daddy is really going to like your pants!". I had to snap a pic the other day when Vince climbed into his chair and sat like a man. He's going to be a good man one day!

Meal Plan Monday

Join in with I'm an Organizing Junkie for this week's menu plan Monday!  Here's my menu for the week below.  Also look for my menu next week when I'll discuss how I use my planner and I'll show you my customized grocery list that makes sure I don't miss a thing on my list!



So many things

There are so many things I'd like to blog about.  I absolutely love blogging and the way it brings lives together and shows us glimpses of how others live.  I'd love to be blogging about my baby boy, my amazing husband, my great family, my awesome job and coworkers, my Sunday school girls, my church in general, etc. etc. etc.  However, I haven't been!  I could blame it on my current graduate program or just being a mom or just being busy.  But  I'll just say I haven't done it and I'm sorry.  I really want to start blogging again regularly since I haven't done it in about 3 years!  My posts since then have been pretty sporadic at best.  So here I am starting back, just a little at a time :)

Some of my current passions and things I may look to blog about soon:
Vince
Grant
Family life in general
School - My master's degree program
Church
Youth Ministry
High School Girls SS Class
Friends
My Favorite Things
Vince's Favorite Things
Project 365
Organizing
Meal Planning
Cooking

So, what do you think?  Have you been blogging regularly?  I read every day (okay....multiple times a day) but I want to make sure I'm checking in and posting regularly as well.  Help keep me accountable, okay?

Our Christmas Card 2011

Be Jolly Christmas Card

Create personalized Christmas card designs at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Merry Christmas!  This year we decided to have Brandy take some pictures for us in November.  We absolutely love them!  We did a few outside and then went into a friend's setup garage studio.  These turned out so great and I am so happy we went inside.  Vince would not sit still to get a  family picture outside.  There was too much to explore.  I ordered cards from Shutterfly and Tiny Prints this year.  I can never decide so I just choose two designs :)  I did front and back photos and just switched them between the two cards. 



Tiny Prints

Are you working in your Christmas planner yet?  I have yet to formalize mine but with so many ideas swirling I know I need to get it put into one spot quickly.  I also need to drag out my old laptop to get my Christmas card list off it.  I organizede them last year but since Santa brought a new computer I haven't switched my list over.  Speaking of cards, have you seen the Tiny Prints cards yet this year?  Here's my favorite.  I spotted it a few weeks ago and then looking back this week it was still my favorite.  I love the different patterns of letters and the cheerful yet homemade look to it.  I know I've posted some other cards from Shutterfly already this year but I love to get a few different card designs.  I can't pick just one! 

Christmas Card

And I'm a sucker for a good address label, especially when it matches my cards, so I'll have to get a few of these:

Address Label

And to really match all my Christmas paraphanelia wouldn't it be great to have these customized gift labels?!

 

Gift Tag

Tiny Prints has cards, notebooks, calendars, and lots of fun things to look at.  One of my sorority sisters posted her new business cards that she had just ordered from Tiny Prints.  They were gorgeous, very sophisticated, but fun! 

So, do you send out multiple designs or one single Christmas card each year?

Giveaway Winners

This morning I randomly picked the three winners of the Shutterfly cards. I wrote each entry on a piece of paper.


I folded them up, scrambled them around, and blindly picked three names.



Congratulations! I'll be emailing you the code for your 25 Free Christmas cards.

Christmas Cards & a Giveaway

Christmas time is coming!  Christmas time is coming!  Christmas time is coming and I've got to order cards.  I LOVE Christmas cards.  It is so fun to look at all the different designs each year and carefully select our family card.  I've been looking at Shutterfly lately (while making my Halloween Photo Book) and trying to figure out which card to use.  I ordered from them last year and the quality of their cards is outstanding.  They are thick cardstock and great picture quality.  Theirs are so much better than the typical photo paper cards.  Last year we had lots of pictures and lots of updates on our Christmas card.  We told about Vince and changes in my job and all about Grant.  This year I want to do something different.  I think we'll just do something very colorful and happy.  We are having so much fun with Vince as he learns and discovers each day.  I want to show that happy one year old spirit off with a fun, colorful card.  Here are some of my top pics.  I don't have the photo yet, so it will probably just be a matter of plugging the final photo into each one to decide.

 {Be Jolly}

 {Dove of Peace}

 {Rainbow Greetings}

{Stripes in Color}

December is also a big birthday month in my family, so I may be also ordering some birthday invitations.  They are adorable!

Okay, so who would like 25 FREE 5x7 Christmas cards from Shutterfly? 



Shutterfly has given me the opportunity to share with 3 readers. 

To enter, just comment to this post and tell me which Shuttefly card design is your favorite. 

For additional entries:

1. Link this giveaway post to Facebook and leave a comment here letting me know you did that.

2. Tweet about this giveaway (with link) and leave a comment here letting me know you did that.

This giveaway will end Sunday, November 6 at 11:00 p.m.

31 Days of Thanks: Day 4

NOTE: Days of Thanks will continue Nov. 5 with day 5.  Thanks!

Today I'm thankful for my roots!  I have lived in Kentucky my whole life, well within a two-mile radius my entire life.  When I wasn't living in my hometown I spent four great years in Lexington at the University of Kentucky.  Here's a post I never got around to posting earlier, my accent vlog, there's no denying my roots!

Accent Vlog (9/1/11)
I loved watching some of the accent vlogs posted on Jenna's blog.  So last night I had Grant watch Jenna's husband's vlog and he agreed to do it!  So here are our accent vlogs.  Here is mine, I'll have to figure out why Gran'ts won't load correctly.  I think it's so funny to hear yourself on video, I sound kinda country I guess.  Western Kentucky accent :)

I wish the list of words to say had included huge.  Grant never pronounces the "h" in huge. I think it's the oddest thing.

So here's our my vlog.  Go back to Jenna's and watch everybody else's too!

So, what do you think?  Is this a Southern or Country accent?

31 Day of Thanks: Day 3

Thankful for all our military men and women.  And to the families who are left behind.

31 Days of Thanks:Day 2

Today, I am thankful to have my first draft for my literature review turned in!  I am currently working on my Master's degree in Elementary Education.  I'm in the Research class, which they say is the toughest one I'll have.   I'm glad this is the toughest one and that I'll be finished with it in December, yay!!! 

Today was a great day at church.  Lots of my Sunday school girls performed in the worhsip this morning.  They are such a blessing! 

This afternoon my wonderful husband worked around the house and cleaned up my car while I was busy writing.  I am definitely thankful for him!

Lastly, our fish fry at church tonight was a great time.  I love watching Vince explore new things and new people.  He's back in a "friendly" stage again where he'll go to most people.  He seems to especially like men.  I don't know if it's because they're funny, funny looking, or what! LOL

I'm glad I'm taking time to write these things down.  It's the small things in life that make up our life :)