Christmas 2010

Sage Snowflakes Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

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FREE CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!!!
Does anybody else LOVE Christmas cards? And, while the e-mail versions are good, appropriate, and cost effective, I still love getting actual cards, in my hand, to read and to hang up. I have a ton of Christmas stamps left over from last year since we decided to hold off until Miss A was born and just send out announcements instead(which we should have gotten from Shutterfly too!)...so I can send mine out this year without a budget crunch!

And so, in the realm of cost...I found this GREAT deal!

50 Free Christmas Cards to Bloggers from Shutterfly.

Anybody else love Shutterfly? I do! :) I haven't perused the options yet, but I will soon and then, come Christmas, you'll be seeing great Christmas cards from yours truly!


I haven't actually used Shutterfly before for my Christmas Cards. Usually I get them printed at JC Penney when we do our yearly family photo shoot...but believe you me, I've always wanted to. So cute. So simple. So many choices and variations that mine is bound to be unique--(not to mention it's MY own pictures)!


You can check out their options HERE!


In the past, and currently, I use Shutterfly for books and photo collages. We made a book of Miss A's first few months earlier this year. It's totally cute! Ask me about it sometime - I would love to show it to you! I think I'll have to make one of their desk calendars in the future - ADORABLE!

Yes, I know that I sound like an infomercial...but check out how you can get this same deal by clicking HERE.

Go BYU!
Miss A loves supporting Daddy's team!

Summer Synopsis:

A summer in pictures - since we have been so busy... :-)

Miss A has been up to so much this summer - it started out with learning how to sit up in May/June. So much fun!

We also re-built the bay window in May - this is the before picture - from a couple of years ago(it looked a lot better then) - then Hurricane Ike came...and showed us all the rotten wood that had been painted over. You could literally stick a screwdriver through most of the bay window trim.

Here is the bay window after the re-build with hardi-board and treated lumber...and the first coat of paint.

This is the completed bay window...so much better!

We spent the 4th of July with Laura's family - watching the fireworks over the bay from her parents' front yard.

Miss A loves riding on Daddy's shoulders(and licking his hair!).



Miss A also loved her swimming lessons! We did a parent and tot class for two weeks in July and it was confirmed...Miss A is definitely a water baby! Brian even got to do a couple of the lessons with her on his days off...AWESOME Daddy/daughter bonding time.

Miss A is not only sitting up by July, but she scoots forward too.

She also enjoys rolling around the house...she started out at her boppy in the background of the photo.

We got the opportunity to visit some dear friends in Oregon at the end of July. Their daughter was getting baptized. Brian's mom was able to meet us there as well - we had a blast! Due to a whole bunch of crazy events, we ended up spending the night in a hotel in Denver...so Miss A got to have her very first bath in a big bathtub...she was in Heaven!

This is the view from our room - our friends live on the side of a mountain...so beautiful!

We visited historic Taylorsville and took a trolley ride.


Miss A got to try a bunch of new foods while we were there...can you tell she likes spinach?


We visited Lithia Park too - and got the chance to go wading in the stream.


Miss A. loved swinging for the very first time!

Let's just say that the cold water was not a deterrent - Miss A. LOVED wading!

...as you can tell!


August was marked with several milestones - pulling up...cruising around the sofas and her toys...

Trips to the splash park with new friends...


And...learning how to crawl at the end of August!

In between all this, we managed to work, play and do some more projects around the house. No wonder we're exhausted! What a great summer!

Rice Cereal, Applesauce and Watermelon...Oh My!

Trying food for the first time!

FIVE MONTHS!!!


Miss A turned 5 months old last week...we can't believe how big she is getting!

Here are Miss A's 4 month checkup stats from her appointment last month: 12 lbs, 10 ounces...24 inches long...25th percentile for height, 25th percentile for weight and over 90th percentile for head size.

At Miss A's four month check-up, she was diagnosed with anterior polar cataracts - she was born with them. They look like tiny little white dots in the center of her pupils. We took her to a specialist and she is going to be fine. The specialist said that if you are going to have cataracts, these are the kind you want. As long as they don't grow, they won't hurt her vision at all. We will be keeping an eye on them with checkups every 6 months for the next few years.

Miss A still loves her bath time, so here are some photos from this week.

Miss A is so much fun right now. She is curious about everything. She loves to roll over, eat her toes and grab anything she can - to put it in her mouth of course! Here's a photo last week - we were folding laundry - she has her Daddy's work socks on her feet. Miss A thought they made great handles for pulling her feet up. She kept giggling and laughing...laundry-time has never been so much fun!

We've also been busy with work and the house, but I've been having a lot of fun cooking again - and Brian is super happy about this too! :-) I've been baking bread again - we used to only use our bread maker, but my friend introduced me to the most amazing whole wheat bread recipe...it uses hard white wheat, and it is as light and fluffy as white bread...and super delicious! The recipe uses instant yeast and so it makes it easy to bake a couple of loaves once a week...Brian has really been enjoying having fresh baked bread for his sandwiches at work. :-)


On Sunday, I just tried my sister-in-law's roasted chicken recipe from her blog - AMAZING!

Wow! Time sure does fly by when you're having fun! Miss A is three months old now and she is such a joy! She is still sleeping through the night (since 4 weeks) and we have recently moved her bedtime to 8 PM. She gets up around 6-7 AM now, but it's worth it - we now have our evenings! Miss A loves her play gym - she reaches out and grabs the toys. In fact, this morning she managed to do a 360 degree scoot while playing - she wanted to have better access to the toys on the other side! :-) Miss A is learning to roll over - she can roll from her back to her tummy, but then she gets upset because she can't roll back. :-)

Brian loves to make Miss A laugh - she learned to chuckle about two weeks ago. We keep trying to catch it on film, but so far, no good.

We had a wonderful, spirit-filled Easter weekend - it is so great to be able to watch conference in our own home! The Easter Bunny came on Sunday morning - Miss A really isn't interested in candy yet, so he brought her some Dr. Seuss books - and the stuffed whale from the If I Ran The Circus book! We were able to catch one of her big grins too!



Easter can be exhausting! This is what Miss A looked like during most of conference - and somehow the whale swam over to hang with her(thanks Brian!). :-)

We went for our first family photo shoot over Easter weekend. It was a lot of fun, and Miss A did really well despite the fact that she was rather grumpy about being awake during her nap time. Here are some pics!









We've also been really busy with the house. The master bathroom is well on its way to being done...the shower rebuild and new tile is completed...the walls have been painted...the new vanity and plumbing have been installed. Brian's Mom was kind enough to spend her time preparing the shower for sealing the grout while she was here, and as soon as Laura's Dad retrofits the new shower fixtures - we'll finally be up and running!

All the baseboards have finally been painted - a big thanks to all of our ward friends who came over for the painting party! We also had the exterior of the bay window re-built and re-painted last week - Hurricane Ike was kind enough to show us all the rotten wood that the previous owners had painted over, and it's been getting worse over the last year. The new gutters will be installed over that area this week - we'll make sure we get some before and after pics posted soon!

Brian was assigned a new area at work - and he likes it much better. He loves being able to work Monday through Friday! We knew he was under a lot of stress before, so it is wonderful seeing him be able to relax when he is home in the evenings.

I am still working part-time, we just hired on two additional employees, so I will be able to concentrate on my real job, which is doing the marketing for our company. When we lost our admin and staging coordinator last year, I took over both jobs - and with the baby I don't want to work full-time any more, so I am relieved that we are getting the additional help!

We loved spending time with the family during Miss A's blessing a few weeks ago, and we get to see some of our awesome nieces and nephews this coming week, so we'll keep you posted!

Well, that's all for now...we promise to post more soon - now it's your turn!!!

Six Week Update
So...we figure it's time for an update on Miss A! What a wonderful intro to parenthood! Miss A will be officially six weeks old on Saturday - where has the time gone?! She has a wonderful temperament - very easy-going and calm. She loves to look around at everything! Brian taught me the "family hold" which allows me to carry her around the house in a way that lets her look at everything - she loves it! She has been sleeping from 12:30 - 7:30 AM for a week now - and last night she went down at 11:30! Yea for sleep! During the day, her favorite place to sleep is on her boppy pillow - check her out in all her sleepy cuteness!


Miss A already has a friend! Her name is Kate and they are a week a part. We went on a play date to Kate's house and when we put them down on the play gym mat, they just stared and stared at each other...I can't wait until they really begin playing together.
On Sunday, we went to church for the very first time as a family - here's a pic of Brian and Miss A - who is definitely pretty in pink! Doesn't Brian look handsome?


Miss A is finally able to take real baths - instead of sponge baths...and boy does she love the water! She gurgles and coos her way through bath time - and she loves to try to suck on the washcloth whenever it gets near her...check her out in the cute bath towel Grandma made for her!We'll keep the updates coming - she is growing and changing everyday!