Why I love Shutterfly...

Okay, can you believe that Christmas is sneaking up on us so quickly? It was like Halloween lasted forever and I couldn't mentally move on to Christmas until Halloween was over...which for those of you know the normal me, know that is very unnormal! I like to have my Christmas shopping done and Christmas cards sealed and addressed by October 31st. I don't know what has happened to me this year. I guess I am just enjoying every minute of my sweet kiddos and I have to say, the older they get the more fun Holidays are. Thus, Halloween was so much more fun this year and I just couldn't get past it. Anyway, I digress...the point is: Christmas is right around the corner and I have NOTHING done.


This is where Shutterfly comes in. Normally I would stress out trying to make my own Christmas cards on photoshop...which I don't really know how to use and then I would have to enlist someone who does know how to use it to help me, taking up their Christmas preparation time and mine. Not this year, my friends. I am in love with Shutterfly's holiday cards and they will be taking off a little holiday stress for me.

Here are a couple of my favorites...
I love how you can put your Christmas letter right on the card if you want and I am also loving the color combinations.


Check out these links to see what other amazing and fun Christmas and Holiday cards they offer:

Christmas cards: www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmascards

Holiday cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/

You can easily upload your own photos for these cards at: www.shutterfly.com/upload-pictures

If you are a blogger and want to get a special offer, bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, click here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Okay my friends, good luck with your holiday planning and preparation!

Nine Months Old!!

This pretty lady turned 9 months old last week. How 9 months have passed since she was born, I have no idea! Here are nine fun things about Emery Jae:
1. She is little! She weighs 16 lbs, 5 1/2 oz (10th percentile) and is 27 1/4 inches tall (39th percentile)
2. She can crawl on her knees but thinks it is much more efficient to scoot on her tummy.
3. She has the most beautiful smile (with 2 of the cutest little teeth you've ever seen) and smiles at everyone. I feel like the luckiest mom alive every time she awards me with that pretty smile.
4. She is getting a new tooth on top...one of her incisors. I am thinking she is going to look like a little vampire pretty quick here.
5. Emery loves her brother and loves it when he plays with her.
6. She loves to pull all of the books off of Davis' shelves while we read before bed or naptime and her favorite place to play is in the pantry-she pulls everything she can reach out and enjoys herself immensely in there. It keeps her occupied while I am cooking.
7. Emery is a super happy baby. Everyone comments on how content she is and how she is always happy. As long as she is rested and fed, she really is the best girl. She really has a calm, happy disposition.
8. Emery is an amazing sleeper and I just love it! She loves bath time and gets so excited when you take her in the bathroom and turn the water on in the tub.
9. Emery has made our family and home feel more complete and just full of joy. I truly cannot get enough of her and we all just adore her. She is the most amazing little girl and I am so glad that she is ours!

Happy Halloween

I am slow in posting our Halloween pictures...my internet has been down all week. But, I am back in business, thank goodness! We had a good Halloween, except Davis got pretty sick and didn't even want to trick or treat (after about 15 minutes he was crying and Steve either had to carry him or I pushed him in the stroller). Sad! Oh, and Emery face planted on the porch while I was trying to take these pictures and was super unhappy and looked like she got beat up! Other than that, it was great!

It is so hard to get a good picture of both of the kids-and Davis is making some goofy faces these days every time I try to take his picture! Anyway, these two were the cutest pirates ever! I think Emery looked more like a biker chick and could have used a Harley to complete her outfit!

The traditional pre-trick or treating cousin picture. What a bunch of cuties!

Davis' class had a fun Halloween party. Steve had just flown in from a business trip and we were both able to go to the party. Davis loved that his Dad was there.

Davis and Mallory (also one his friends from church).

Eva loves Ms. Emery!

Our ward trunk or treat was at a member's farm this year. We got to go on hayrides and had a great time with our ward. Josh and Davis make pretty cute pirates I have to say.

Davis' preschool pumpkin patch

For Davis' preschool we went on a field trip to Ms. Martha's pumpkin patch. The kids loved the hay ride....

..Feeding the horse...

..Climbing the hay bale...

..picking their very own pumpkin..
..and playing with their teacher Ms. Kim and the kids in their class

Indianapolis Half Marthon

Jenny and I met up with her good friends (and now my good friends!), Amy and Linsee up in Indianapolis two weekends ago and ran the Indianapolis half marathon. It was the first race I have run since we have moved out here and it was nice to get back into it! I had a great race (super beautiful course through a state park with amazing fall colors) and it was such a great weekend to just hang out with the girls and get away. This was Jenny's first race ever (she probably hates me for talking her into doing it), and I was so proud of her!


We wore these awesome sparkle skirts...not my usual kind of thing (you know I don't even like dressing up for halloween!) but I was a good sport and it was actually really fun-everyone commented on them and yelled lots of encouragement to the 'sparkle girls' while we were running...I ended up running the last half by myself and then I have to say I was a little more self concious about the whole skirt thing, but it is good not to take yourself too seriously, right?!

The worst thing that happened was right as the race was starting I went to turn on my ipod and it must have been turned on in my purse and was completely dead. So, 13.1 miles with no music. I was so sad! After finishing this race, I think I am ready to train for a full marathon. Hopefully I can run one in the spring. There is nothing like running. I just love it!

Mammoth Caves

The day before my Dad left, we decided to go to Mammoth Caves. I have been wanting to go for awhile and this was the perfect excuse. Well, all because I decided that my bathrooms had to be cleaned before we left, we ended up missing the tour that we wanted to go on and ended up having an hour and a half to kill before the next one...which all turned out to be a blessing because Davis pooped while we were waiting (in the potty, thank you) and well, you all know about our poop struggles around here and really we would have been in big trouble if he had needed to poop while we were down in the depths of some cave. So, to make a long story long, that is why the majority of these pictures are actually outside of the cave (it was really beautiful there by the way). We had a great time and Davis really like the cave and really liked riding the bus to get to the cave. Good times.

Huber Farm

While Grandpa and Grandma were here, we went to Huber Farm to pick apples {yum}. I took a million pictures and had a hard time picking just a few, so there are a lot! Enjoy...

Oh, and funny story...we bought some amazing apple dumplings from Hubers and that night Steve and I each had one and couldn't stop talking about how good they were (there were 6 in the package). So the next morning and I am getting breakfast for Davis and I don't see the package of apple dumplings, so I am thinking 'wow, my Dad must have really enjoyed those dumplings, I can't believe he ate all of them'-and am super disappointed because they were really that good and I was really looking forward to having another. So later that day I said something to my Dad about them and turns out he hadn't eaten any of them-he thought we had eaten all of them and we thought he had eaten all of them. We looked everywhere and couldn't find any evidence of the dumplings. I finally found them about 3 weeks later in a toy shopping cart in our storage room. Turns out Davis was the culprit. Such a waste....if you go up to Hubers anytime soon, I highly recommend them!