in which i try to get free Christmas cards and end up crying

I have great memories of photo Christmas cards…. as in I don’t have a memory of a Christmas where we didn’t make and send them! It started out with just me and my sisters…. I think we got mom and dad in the picture a couple years. Now there are 10 of us in the picture for this year!

There was always the dilemma of where to take the picture, what we should wear, how we should fix our hair (I can remember one year in particular where my hair was particularly bad!!), etc. But in the end THE picture was taken and mailed out to family and friends every year.

Looking back our Christmas card pictures great stories about our family. There’s one where you can’t tell it from the picture but we all know that Bethany was being bribed with Cheerios to stay still. There’s the one where my hair was a nightmare… and those glasses…. Yikes!! We took many Christmas card pictures on the steps… the inside steps… the outside steps…. Almost every other year there we were on the steps. There’s a picture (or maybe two…) where we’re under the arbor that Dad built at the old house. There were Christmas cards with pictures from each of our weddings. I think my favorite card is the one where we’re all sitting on a swing at the park, it was the first time we were all together and Jon and I had the chance to tell Rebekah, Bethany and Javier that we were expecting Lydda Grace!

Last year we started doing our own photo Christmas cards, in addition to the one that Mom and Dad still do. And it’s fun for me to think that Lydda Grace and Wade will be able to look back on them someday and have memories like I have around something that is so seemingly small.

All of this to say that I actually am blogging this post because Shutterfly.com is offering an amazing promotion for bloggers to get 50 free photo cards for blogging about their holiday card collection... Shutterfly's card collection... not mine.

So I set out to do my obligatory blog post to get my 50 free cards and in the process got all teary! What was supposed to be a mere 150 word post is now closer to 400 words! And I haven’t even written yet about what I’m supposed to say for Shutterfly!!

In a nutshell, Shutterfly.com has great holiday photo cards… seriously… I’m not just saying it to get the 50 free. I think my favorite card so far is this “Joy and Love” one. I love that it has room for lots of pictures, and narrowing it down to one photo is never an easy task. But I also really appreciate it’s simple message.

I’ve included some photos of other cards that I like. But there are tons (and when I say tons, I mean close to 200) to choose from.

You can go HERE to check out their Christmas Photo Cards.

Or HERE to see Holiday Cards in general.

Or lastly if you are a little belated in sending out your cards they have a great New Years selection HERE.

So thanks to Shutterfly for this great deal thus causing me to write this blog post and have a sweet little time of reflection. And thanks to all our readers for putting up with my ramblings so we can get free Christmas cards. I promise the next post will have pictures of Lydda Grace and Wade (which I know is the only reason you come to this blog in the first place!) instead of these other random children and families (however cute they may be).

what we've been up to

Our sweet little man.
Had friends and our adopted students over for lunch Sunday. Lydda Grace was ready to jump into the game of Killer Bunnies.
Wade is crawling everywhere now... fast! The other day I set him down and before I knew it he was down the hall in LG's room eating her Little People!

Lydda Grace's new thing is "don't take a picture!!!" every time I pull out the camera. So this is a rare shot of her actually looking at the camera, usually I get the back of her head these days!

Wade truly encountering grass for the first time. Not sure what to think about it!

my sweet guys

Our church had their 25th anniversary celebration this past Sunday and Carson was taking pictures at the event and captured this one of Jon and Wade. I love the picture in general but am actually really excited to have one of Wade sucking his thumb! He has his thumb in his mouth all the time but I can't seem to get a good picture of it. I'm trying to not even think how hard it is going to be to break him of that habit.... right now it's just so cute!

well check-ups

Today Lydda Grace and Wade had their 2 year and 6 month check-ups. They both did great, handled their shots like champs (though all afternoon LG said, "I didn't like the shots" over and over....), and were found to be in great health! We praise the Lord for our healthy kids!

Here are their stats:
Lydda Grace- 28.5 lbs (50%), 36 in. tall (75%)
Wade- 19 lbs (75%), 27 5/8 in. tall (90%)

sewing

I was sewing earlier and Lydda Grace wanted to sew too so we got out her animal sewing cards.

halloween

This year Lydda Grace was going to be Little Bo Peep, but then we realized that since she actually had a sheep to carry and Bo Peep's sheep are supposed to be lost we thought maybe she was Mary Had a Little Lamb instead..... either way she was super cute :)

We trick-or-treated at a few houses, which was a nice way to meet some of our new neighbors and then she enjoyed a little candy afterwards!

this is our Wade

These pictures really capture what Wade is up to these days! He is on the move anywhere and everywhere. It's kind of funny, he can't sit up on his own yet, but he can get wherever he wants to go, and quickly!