Free Photo cards!!!

Well, I am taking a little break from my photo series to share with you this AMAZING deal!  I was blog hopping and stumbled upon a blog post about a deal that Shutterfly is doing (50 free photo Christmas cards for bloggers!!!!)…. it was too good of a deal to pass up, so here I am blogging about it. :o)  I went to look at their selection (Holiday Cards and Christmas Photo Cards) and was amazed by the wonderful selection this year!  I am inspired and am already planning our outfits and looking for a place to take our 2010 family pic. I have one family pic but, as baby was only a couple weeks old when it was taken, I hope to get a more recent photo. Last year I forgot to order photo cards until it was too late, this year, thanks to the promo, that should not be a problem! I looked through the options and can’t choose a favorite, as there are too many great options, but here are 3 that I really liked! Wouldn’t this one be great with a family pic or a picture of each of the kids?  or what about this one or this one with both individual pics of the kids and a family picture? I am so excited!!!  I have had an account with Shutterfly for years and I love the quality of their  products. One item that I have ordered, and is hugely popular with it’s recipients, is their Calenders. I have done these for several years and, when I was unable to do them last year, there was quite the complaining! 

  If you want to get in on the fun too, click here!

B

    As promised, here is B’s post…..

She is my song bird

My artistic child

My cuddle bug

My princess

She is a girl of extremes, she is passionate, loving, and a fascinating combination of opposites.  She has a tender, compassionate heart, she is graceful and athletic. She loves all things “bling” and girly. She loves to help and to cuddle. She tends to be a very matter of fact, black and white, sort of girl. She loves her stuffed animals and looks forward to being a proficient reader.  Her way of viewing life and God is beautiful.  She too is a priceless jewel and I thank God for choosing me to be her Mom. God has used her to teach me much about His love and grace and to stretch me in more ways than I would have though possible!

J

 

I have decided to post a series of pictures of each of my sweet children.  I will, of course, start with my eldest. So, this post is dedicated to J.

She is my first born, 

 My sweet ray of sunshine,

 My cheerful helper,

 My little mother hen,

 

   She has provided us with 7 1/2 years of joy and I thank God for granting me the privilege of being her Mommy. She is loving, sweet, compassionate, has a great sense of humor, and an amazingly contagious laugh. She loves all things girly, prefers dresses to pants, wants to mother everything and everyone, loves to watch Anne of Green Gables and Sound of Music, but she also loves to help her Daddy butcher, and can’t wait to hunt. She is developing a love for reading and her favorite book is her Bible. Her love for God is inspiring. She is a priceless jewel.   

Photography and an apology

  Well, where did the time go?  My goal to put pics up for my Mom fell through…. She is now home and I didn’t get them up. *Sigh*  Sorry Mom!   Life has just been so crazy busy……. Now that you are home to babysit maybe I can get it done! lol  ;o)

  On another very different subject. Typing while holding a baby is not easy! lol  Actually what I was going to say was that those of you who have known me since youth should be very glad that my scanner/printer isn’t speaking with my computer right now!  In cleaning up a mess I stumbled upon my box of old photos…… Old polaroids, and old pics from my first little point and shoot that used, *gasp*, film!  ;o)  I have been unable to look through all of them as I have always had a love for photography and this resulted in a very large collection of pics.  The pics are soooo funny!  At least I can see some progress in my photography skills!  I am going to sort through them and toss a lot of them. I have entire rolls of film that were processed without 1 pic being in focus!!! These were some of my first attempts at macro photography with a camera that did not have macro capabilities.  So funny to look at and maybe funnier yet that I kept them. I am such a pack rat! Working on that character weakness though.  If I can ever get my scanner to work I may have to share some of them.  :o)  We all need a good laugh sometimes……

So, does anyone else go through photography phases? Sometimes I do so good and get lots of kids pics and then I go for too long without. I looked through my pics to get the photo posts up for Mom and found that I have hardly taken any pics of the older 3 the last few months. The last really good picture taking spree was in June and has been very sporadic since then.  Now I have missed the best weather and am not very good at indoor pics. Oh well, I will just have to keep pressing forward.

Inspired by this post, I am going to try and blog more often. No promises though, I often have good intentions that get lost in the craziness of life! 

Well, enough rambling for today…..

Just for grins………

  Although this is not as recent as I would like (it was taken about a month ago) it is our most recent family photo so I thought I would post it.  :o)

 

 

  I promised my Mom that I would *TRY* to post pics more often while she is on vacation. I would hate to have her suffer too badly from grandchild withdrawal while she is cruising! ;o)  I am sure she was hoping for more recent pics, but this will have to do for tonight! 

More Milestones…..

Well, more Milestones this past wk or so……  At his one month check up Smiley weighed in at 2lbs over his birth weight!!!  Seriously amazes me how fast he is growing!  He is such a doll, smiling and laughing without sound. SOOOO cute!  Sadly, he isn’t always smiley….. but I think we are getting some of that figured out. Here’s a pic of him smiling…. not the best pic but it is really hard to capture those smiles because I am so busy enjoying them and encouraging more! 

    The next milestone was our sweet B turning 6!!! Where has the time gone? My 2nd born 6? Impossible!  Our family grew in honor of her day.  For her birthday we got her a rabbit. The rabbit is a meat rabbit B named “Violet”  but, fear not, we shall not be eating her! ;o) Here is a few pics of them:

  

 

  B also went out for the annual trip to the salon and lunch date with her Grandma and Papa. Well, lunch was with both but the salon trip was not really Papa’s cup of tea, so he skipped that part. ;o)  She is now sporting a shorter hair style too which is just as cute as can be.  I *FINALLY* got pics today so here they are!

 

   It seems we have so many changes happening right now….  I suppose that is just how life is but I am having a hard time keeping track of it all! :o)  I am blaming it on sleep deprivation….. you know, it is amazing how much you can blame on that! ;o)

Milestones……

  So many posts never make it past my brain….. I somehow had forgotten how time intensive a new baby is and how tired one can get when you have one! :o)   The last 2 1/2 – 3 weeks have been full of milestones.  Celebrations….. all celebrated in very different ways.  I wanted to address each of them separately, I wanted to add pictures (but most of them are packed away in some unknown box and/or need to be scanned in and I currently can’t use my scanner/printer because *someone* lost the disc to reinstall it on her computer. That poor creature will remain nameless though. ;o) Obviously none of my big plans are happening! :oP Hopefully I will be able to get this post written and posted though. Better than nothing I guess…….  

  First off we sort of celebrated my 30th birthday….. *was going to add adorable baby pic of me here* I say sort of because I spent the majority of the day in labor :oP  I have to admit that through the months, as my birthday got closer, I went through a variety of emotions regarding this birthday.  At first I was bothered as 30 seemed old, over hill, scary, and a little depressing. Somehow changing that first # felt traumatic. Then I came to realize that I had bought into a worldy mind set on age (not anyone else’s age, just regarding mine). Our culture has an anti-biblical view of age. It worships youth and the “wisdom” of youth. Women pay copious amounts of money every year to try and maintain a youthful appearance, adults acting like teens is considered “cool”, it’s considered a compliment to say that someone doesn’t look like the mother of _ children, etc….. funny thing is this has always driven me nuts. Biblically I see the opposite….. age is respected, gray hair is an earned honor (not something to be hidden), and maturity is considered a good thing! After I thought it through I decided that I was rather excited about turning 30 and am really hoping that my 30s are WAY better than my 20s!  :o)

 

The day after my birthday we welcomed our 4th child into our home.  What blessing and joy!  A milestone and celebration in so many different ways….. We thought we were done after 3 kids but God had better plans and we are so grateful! He is such a smiley, sweet boy! When he looks into my eyes and smiles I totally melt! Truly a joy to have in our family and it is so neat to see how the kids all interact with him. The transition has been smooth and they all adore him so much!  I just can’t get over what a blessing he is! 

 

A couple weeks later we celebrated our 10th anniversary……. We celebrated with a nice dinner at a local restaurant we had never been to before. They actually had a couple different options on the menu that I could eat!!!  Thanks to my Mom we were able to go out without any kids which was fun. :o)  Our ten years together have been so amazing. We have experienced such joys and such sorrows, so many trials and triumphs.  Life has been full and, though I wouldn’t have chosen to go through most of what we have been trough, I am thankful for God’s loving hand on us at all times and the fact He gave me the most amazing man ever to go through it all with.  I would not have wanted to face life with anyone else by my side! It is fascinating to me to look back at who we were and who we have become.  

 

Then, on the 27th, we celebrated the second anniversary of Nathan’s home going. This year was quieter than last year…… We (Brian, the kids, and I) just drove to the cemetery and shared a few memories together. I was reminded of how much he loved his nieces and nephews and was saddened that he never got to hold his newest nephew….. nor will I get the congratulatory half hug, the request to take his picture with baby, or any of the other little traditions we had.  The kids still talk about him a lot and it keeps the memories fresh. I can’t believe that it has been 2 years already and that the girls remember him so well. 

 

  I hope this post isn’t too disjointed and that it makes sense…… I have only managed to get a few sentences in at a time so it has taken me over 2 wks to write this!  :oP   I may have to edit later but for now I am going to post this just to get it done! lol….  We have more changes happening which will need their own post, hopefully it won’t take as long to get it written!  ;o)