Christmas Cards

I have a new found love for Shutterfly. I have used Snapfish for years and even used a professional to make a personal design for my announcements for Grace and Olivia. But last Christmas I decided to use Shutterfly for our Christmas cards and just loved them. They are a little more pricey then Snapfish but less money then a professional.

Some reasons I love them...

~They have SO many designs to chose from. Their designs are cute and modern, not just squares to place your pictures.

~I love to design several cards with our favorite photos and family name, save them, then I look at them for days before I can decide which are more favorites. There are so many that I love that is always hard to chose my favorite.

~It is fast and easy to load up our pictures. And once you place your pictures in one card you can chose to change your card design which saves your pictures. It makes it so much easier to play with different designs.

~The quality of the card is excellent. I love the matte finished. It makes the cards more sturdy and a little harder to bend. I also thinks it is what makes it look professional

~Once your pictures are in the card it is easy to edit the pictures, to crop them or move the picture around to better fit it's square.

This is the card I used or our birth announcements. The pink and gray is what I feel in love with. So is the different fonts that are used. You can go here to find this all the choices for announcements.

This is my Christmas Card from last year. I fell in love with it because of the Monogram letter for our last name. I love that they have categories even for their photo cards. I hate cards that say, "Happy Holidays". Christmas is all about the saviors birth so I'd like my cards to say Merry Christmas or something a little meaningful. I can pick "Merry Christmas" or "Religious Christmas Cards" and it takes out all the just holiday cards. You can go here to find the photo cards.

I have Grace's and Olivia's birthday coming up after the beginning of the year and have thought about using this card for one of them. It is so cool because even though it says "4" in the center, you can go in and change it to any age you need to. Go here to find the birthday cards.

Pictures at the lake

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week was spent at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's lake house. The girls and I went up ant spent Monday through Saturday enjoying the slow pace of the like life. Chad came up on Wednesday night. The girls LOVE it up there, they love riding bikes, riding golf carts, watching movies, swimming and hanging out with Maw Maw and Paw Paw.

The girls helping Maw Maw cook

Paw Paw and Chad

Grace missed her daddy, she didn't leave his side on Thursday.

Sweet Harper missed him too.

Grace setting the table for the feast.

Aunt Kathy and Paw Paw

Harper during dinner

We took a trip to The Ritz to see the gingerbread house and to make s'mores.

Love this picture. The girls insisted on sleeping together every night. I went to check on them as they had on the same pj's and sleeping the same way.

Harper wore her first swimsuit and took a dip in the hot tub. And she loved it.

Thanksgiving Feast

Yesterday was Thanksgiving feast at school. Both girls had their own feast at the same time. Chad and I divided and conquered!

Fun Meet

Grace just got finished taking 10 weeks of gymnastics at a extending session at her school. On Wednesday parents were invited to come watch what they have learned. She was awesome! You can tell she really enjoyed this...much better then ballet. I will be signing her back up for the January class.

With her teacher Kathleen.

Nope not me, I didn't have any chocolate.

Grace got her to fall asleep in the swing. FINALLY

Choochoo

Our slogan for Olivia the last few weeks was..Poopoo for a Choochoo. And guess who finally pooped in the potty?

Sisterly love

Weekly update

The girls survived a whole week without daddy. The funniest part of Chad being gone was before he left he asked Grace to be a big helper like daddy's are. So the second night he was gone she cried at bed time because I wouldn't let her sleep with me. She final explained to me that she was suppose to sleep with me at night "just like daddy's".

I took Harper to the doctor on Monday after five weeks on congestion. She has a sinus infection, bless her heart. So she is on her first set of antibiotics. I am sure it won't be her last this winter. Also found out that she gained two pounds in four weeks. The girl likes to eat!

Harper is doing really well with her head control. She has also found her hands and loved to suck on her fingers. She is such a mess and we are all enjoying her.
Grace still loves to color and likes writing out words. She has mastered all the girls names in the house and now ask how to spell many other words.
Olivia goes a 100 miles a minute. She is now a big girl in big girl panties. She stays dry all day and all night. Now just to figure out how to get her to poop in the potty
.

Wonder if this will ever happen again...both Olivia and Grace asleep on me at the same time. So sweet! No naps every day final catches up to you.

Harper is 3 months old

Harper turned 3 months old yesterday. She continues to bring complete joy to our house. She is even more of a joy now that we are really figuring her out. :) Harper is another good sleeper at night. She doesn't sleep through the night but wakes up once, eats for about ten minutes then goes back to bed. Last night she fell asleep at eight, gave her a bottle in her sleep at nine, she slept till four, breastfeed, and then woke up this morning at 7:45. She is still sleeping in our room at night and she asked her daddy yesterday if she can sleep with us till she is a teenager...wink, wink. She is starting to get into a routine of napping during the day. If we are home then she sleeps the best if you just go lay her down. She will fight it out for a minute or two but then goes right off to dream land. Harper still likes to be swaddled and laid on her side but somehow wiggles her way to her tummy.

Harper likes to eat and I think she has grown about two pounds in a month. She is fitting into 3-6 months clothes prefect and I'm afraid will be out of them too soon if she doesn't slow down. She eats every three - four hours. She is being breastfeed and formula feed. For some reason breastmilk only wasn't satisfying her.

She is another paci girl. Harper has been able to keep that thing in her mouth since the first few days of life. The only place it doesn't stay in her mouth is in the car. She HATES her infant seat, which makes car trips pretty interesting. I have come to believe it is because she is not with one of us. She rides much better in Chad's truck and I think it is because she is between Grace and Olivia. The big girls talk and sing to her while they rub her feet and hands. The girls continue to do awesome with her and just go with the flow. Even her screaming in the car does not bother them. (Now Chad on the other hand is a different story, he can't stand the crying)

Harper is full of smiles now and coos when her mommy talks to her and Grace. She is starting to get interested in the TV which cracks me up. She is grabbing out of things and holds on to shirts and fingers. She doesn't play for long on the floor still. And she loves to be held!

Playing with daddy

Grace loves to hold her but it makes me sad to see this pictures because Harper is slowly growing out of her lap.

Grace sings and dancing with her and she loves it.

So who does she look like?

Watching Baby Einstein for the first time!

I think she liked the tv.

Hanging out with maw maw and paw paw