Shutterfly - 50 Free holiday cards

Did you hear that Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards if you blog about their great products?? My friend Emily A. put it on her blog and I decided to jump on that bandwagon. I love Shutterfly!

Every year I create a memory book on their website with my best pictures from the year. I also order their Christmas cards every year as well. So imagine my excitement when I found out that with only a little selling out on my blog I could get 50 Christmas cards. Free.

Last year I used Season Chic Noir  I combined the birth announcement of Jack with my Christmas card for the ultimate holiday card.

It's so hard to decide which card I will use this year! (Because you see it is free, making it super awesome!)

I really like Believe, Family Frame and these cards below as well.  How is one to choose??

  

If you want to check out the Shutterfly Blog giveaway click on the link below.

Share on Twitter or Facebook: Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Ye Olde Lace

Things have not been working out with my technology. My printer wont work (it needs ink, but I still like to blame the printer for its failure), my scanner wont work (I think the CD needs to be installed, again I blame the scanner). I cannot print out anything I need nor can I scan in another adorable Halloween picture. I also received Lilly's school pictures, they are beautiful. I cannot share any of this with you because my devices have failed me.

In the midst of my tech failures I turned to my knitting and crocheting. I am attempting to crochet lace. It is very civil war era of me. It also makes me want to punch someone in the head. I wonder if that is how the ladies of the civil war felt? Blasted small cotton thread and needle, you have failed me too.

As you can see I can easily create a scapegoat in any situation whethere it be computer issues or lace issues.

I had better get on with my gratitude to help my outlook.

Nov. 14
1. PJ Day, all day
2. Knitting all day
3. Together at home with my sick kids and husband all day enjoying nothing together.

Nov. 15
1. Guitar for music class
2. Grocery store
3. Family home evening (Ok that is not true at all. our family home evening together was a disaster, but I feel like if I write it, it will make it better)

More gratitude give me

Nov. 10
1. Practical strangers flying across the country to fix my basement.
2. Tina for more painting
3. Cheyenne for babysitting

Nov. 11
1. Debbie for tiling my floor and more. (Don't know Debbie? neither did I. She is Britten's mom who came across the country to share her skills)
2. Britten for cutting tile and everything else she did.
3. Ron for plumbing my bathroom. (Don't know Ron? neither did I. He is Britten's dad who came across the country to share his skills.)
4. Cheyenne for babysitting ALL day and making delicious dinner.
5. Tina for taking over many of my responsibilities.

Nov. 12
1. Debbie for making my basement an awesome work in progress
2. The community center for closing early, thus eliminating my shift.
3. Crochet cotton for making cute book marks.
4. Britten and her dad for working hard in my basement.

Nov. 13
1. Britten, Debbie, and Dan for working in my basement on a Saturday morning.
2. Tina for hauling trash on a saturday.
3. Jim for working on the ceiling.

Gradtitude

Nov. 7
1. 103 balloons for Jack's birthday.
2. Spinning top that plays lovely chords as it spins.
3. My dad making me a cake

Nov. 8
1. Jeanette the zumba teacher for being super awesome and motivating.
2. Britten for driving her van to Lowes and spending two hours picking up necessary items for my basement project with me.
3. Lowes picking up and returning tile!!! Carpet is on its way.

Nov. 9
1. Tina and Britten for taking huge parts of their day to paint with me.
2. Visiting teachers to brighten my day.
3. Freshly painted shelves that used to be a horrible red.

More Gratitude

Nov. 5
1. Nap time solitude
2. Phone calls
3. Kindness of strangers at work

Nov. 6
1. Jim, who came with me and happily participated in my music class.
2. A wonderfully successful music class, due to the participation of members and happy children.
3. The childrens place outlet, where I can always find a great deal and yet still over spend.
4. Jeans for my skinny Lilly with adjustable waist tabs.(seriously why don't all kids pants have adjustable waist tabs??)

One more Halloween round-up

1.  Church trunk or treat party

2. Pumpkin patch field trip. Hay ride that lasted FOREVER.  Note the exhaustion on the faces of my children.

3 & 4.  Halloween Parade

5.  Lilly on the parade float for her preschool

Giving thanks in the season of Thanksgiving

This November, in the grand tradition of my friend Heather, I present the gratitude challenge. List three things each day that you are grateful for during the month of November.


Here are some thoughts I had on gratitude earlier in the season.

It's 7am.  
I have the front door open and i can feel a slight breeze from the cool morning air.  The leaves are starting to turn red and i can hear the squirrels searching for food. Everyone is asleep in my house. It is quiet other than the sounds of the animals outside and thie faint noise of traffic.  The babies are sleeping, but soon they will wake up and the quiet will be replaced with the noise of our life.  Making breakfast, packing lunch, getting dressed and out the door for our day.

Lilly is now old enough for preschool and Jack is old enough to crawl around and get into everything. Our house is a little chaotic, the dishes are never quite done and the laundry is a never-ending daunting task.  Wouldn't it be lonely if there were no children to wake up and demand food and love?  Wouldn't it be so very lonely to have a clean house but no family to share it with.  I have to remember that the mess and chaos happens because we live our life.  There is life here.  The whinings of a child, the laugter of a baby happens here in my home.

Nov. 1
1. Wonderful pre-school teacher
2. Candy
3. Zumba

Nov. 2
1. Friends to knit with
2. Knitting group
3. Knitted Christmas stockings

Nov. 3
1. Baby tylenol
2. Bottles
3. Cuddling sick Jack

Nov. 4
1. PJ Day
2. Lilly in dance class
3. Dinner of cracker sandwiches on the counter