Until last year, I had never really wanted to have photo Christmas cards. I always enjoyed receiving them from other people, but I never really found any I liked enough to purchase for myself (I'm miserly like that). Last year I took advantage of a promotion to get some free ones, and I liked them well enough when they were free, but I knew I probably wouldn't have actually paid money for them. So, of course, I didn't plan to use photo cards this year.
But.
I found cards that are actually worth buying! Shutterfly has some really sophisticated, classy design options available, and after browsing for five minutes I had already picked out at least four designs that I would consider worthy of purchasing. Then I found even MORE to be excited about.
My favorite blogger, Katie, from Marriage Confessions, posted about a promotion that Shutterfly is running for bloggers. If you blog about your Shutterfly Christmas cards, they will give you 50 for free (learn more)! Shutterfly is a company Mike and I have used frequently when making photo-themed gifts, especially photo books and calendars (which right now, by the way, are Buy one - Get one half off!). I like buying from Shutterfly because A) they have great promotions and prices, and B) their stuff makes great gifts because it's personalized and high quality. I'm thinking about ordering their adorable gift tags for this year to attach to my holiday baking. We've always been super pleased with the results and have often given these as gifts to our family members or to ourselves . So I'm excited for a chance to promote a good company in exchange for some really nice merchandise!
Using photo cards, to me, makes sense in this economy. Money is tight this year, so our Christmas cards are in a lot of ways our gifts to our friends and family. Everyone loves pictures of the baby (come on, admit it, you do), and by using these photo cards we can let everyone know that we're thinking about them and wishing them a merry Christmas, even if we can't afford to buy gifts to show it.
Maybe I just haven't looked seriously at Shutterfly's Christmas card selection in years past, but I feel like this year they're really offering some great designs. I had a hard time deciding which one to use for our family. Here are a few I really liked (please ignore the "click to edit" bits in these photos - we were taking screen shots of each card):
I really loved the brightness and cheeriness of this one.
I thought this one looked really classy, and I liked that I could use a collection of pictures. I might remove me and Mike from this one, because really, who wants to look at us when they can look at Fox instead?
I really like the simplicity of this one. The design is simple and modern and doesn't distract you from the picture.
I think this one is the winner. I love the brightness and cheeriness of the design. I love the way it frames this picture in a way that, even though it was taken in November, makes me believe that Fox must be standing there watching Christmas snow fall from the sky. This makes me feel wintery, Christmasy, warm, and fuzzy at the same time. I love it.
As you can see, I really went for the black-and-white photo with the bright, colorful card design. I think it looks so much more artistic. But color photos look great with the Shutterfly designs too!
I am really excited about these cards. I wish I could order several different designs! That's a far cry from my old, "photo cards aren't worth the money" view. I think Shutterfly has converted me AND put me in the Christmas spirit.
And now, you'll have to excuse me. I have to go decorate my house for Christmas. Two weeks before Thanksgiving.
Yes, I’ve been extremely bad about blogging this year. I have about a zillion posts in my head, but finding time to sit down at the computer to write them without Fox protesting has proved difficult. And we’ve been busy this fall!
We’ve been spending a lot of time outside.
Fox loves to play on our porch and in our little postage-stamp-sized yard. He especially likes to use the rake, and acorns are awesome. He counts them, collects them, throws them, you name it. We’re really enjoying the weather this week, since it’s been sunny and in the mid 60’s! Fabulous.
Here are a few pictures from our fall festival at church. Fox dressed up as Tigger and had fun putting candy in his bucket (thankfully he hasn’t figured out that candy is good to eat yet).
We have also been enjoying the new Discovery Place Kids museum that opened in Huntersville. If you haven’t been yet and you have kids, you MUST! We go several times a week and never, ever get bored.
Anyway, I promise to be better about posting things. I’ve missed blogging, and to my great surprise, many of my readers (yes! I have readers!) have told me they miss my blog too.
So here we go again!
Last week, we took Fox to the beach for the first time. It was so much fun! I was a bit wary about how he was going to handle the 4+ hour drive (our boy doesn't take kindly to being strapped down for long), so we decided last-minute to get on the road at 6pm on Friday instead of leaving early Saturday morning like we'd originally planned. It worked great! Fox was awake for the first two hours or so of the trip, but he was very congenial and let me entertain him with the box of toys I'd brought along (his favorite toys being things like fast food to-go cups and straws). He also enjoyed some McDonald's french fries for the first time (very nutritious dinner, I know). He conked about by around 8pm, and the rest of our trip was uneventful. He woke up of course while we were moving everything into the condo, but he went back to sleep in the pack 'n' play around midnight or so. Whew!
So, Saturday morning, we woke up at the beach. Michael's parents did such an amazing, generous thing by renting a big condo for themselves, us, Michael's brothers, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and Michael's uncle and two cousins. It was a houseful of people, that's for sure! But it was a great time for Fox to get to know this side of the family a little better. We had an incredibly busy and fun week!
As soon as we set Fox down on the sand for the first time at the beach, he started toddling straight for the ocean. He glanced down as his feet got wet, but he just kept on trucking! If we hadn't stopped him, I'm sure he would have plowed right on into the waves. Our kid has no fear!
He enjoyed the beach for the most part, but he was usually ready to come in after about 20 minutes or so. He sometimes enjoyed floating in the lazy river and swimming in the pool, but his favorite thing, by far, was the condo's balcony. We were on the 12th floor, so it was a little intimidating (for me, not him!), but once I assured myself that he was perfectly safe, I let him spend much of his time out there on the balcony (supervised, of course). He would carry his giant stuffed Elmo out there and sit and look at the ocean. Every few minutes, a plane would fly by, and he would stretch out his hand toward it and say, "ehhhhhh?" (which translates to, "give me this, please?"). He absolutely LOVED watching those plans.
Some other highlights of the trip were Fox's visit to Ripley's Aquarium with his Grandma and Grandpa, our family trip to Kirk's Ice Cream Parlor, a vanilla milkshake at Johnny Rockets, a visit to a local neighborhood park, and a past-Fox's-bedtime dinner at Broadway at the Beach. Michael was also wonderful enough to babysit one evening so I could go see Eclipse (!!!) with my mother-in-law. Other than those things, our time was mainly spent lazing around the condo being beach bums. Here are some pictures:
I also had a certain song stuck in my head THE WHOLE TRIP, thanks to our newfound love for Gordo's Mexican Cheese Dip. Just for kicks, I'd love to get the song stuck in your head, too. So have a listen!
World Cup Fever? We've got it. Big time. Anyone who has known me for any amount of time probably knows that I'm not a sports fan. I played basketball as a kindergartner, and I was a terrible dribbler, so they didn't play me much. I also played softball as an 8th grader, which I did not enjoy. I cried before every game and was the world's worst right fielder (I've been told that it's helpful to open your eyes when you're trying to catch a ball - go figure). As a non-athlete, I wasn't big on watching games either (mostly because I found them difficult to understand - especially football - I still have no idea what a down is). Then I went to college, when Wake Forest was doing exceptionally well, and before I knew it I had become a basketball fan (which curiously ended as soon as I graduated). Fast forward 5 sports-less years later, and here we are: I find myself tearing my hair out, watching the USA vs. Algeria (via video-streaming on slow internet, no less) in a high-stakes battle to advance into the next round. What an amazing game! I sprouted at least 8 gray hairs during the match.
Michael, of course, needs no encouraging from me to watch the World Cup unfold. He's actually the one who infected me with World Cup Fever, and I suspect he's trying to win Fox over too. Fox isn't too keen on sitting still for an entire match, but with a couple of strategically timed snacks and one awesome blanket fort, we're able to all sit around and enjoy the Saturday and Sunday broadcast games. Now that the USA is advancing to the final 16, I have no doubt it will be some time before we are cured of World Cup Fever.
Our pool opened this weekend, so Fox had his first pool experience. He loved it! It was a little overcast and breezy, so he didn't stay in too long. I'm so excited about swimming this summer with my little man!
So, Fox is teething (yes....still). My poor kid still only has one tooth that has erupted, but I can see the one above it trying very hard to push through the gum. This, of course, results in a grumpy baby. I've been giving him teething tablets every day, and that seems to do fairly well. But this week he's been waking up insanely early (between 4:30 and 5:30), and Mike and I thought that maybe a dose of acetaminophen might help him be more comfortable and therefore help him sleep longer. Since pretty much every infant Tylenol product has been recalled, I had picked up some Target-brand infant drops to have on hand in case Fox started running a fever. He's never had them before, but I assumed they'd be pretty comparable (in taste and effectiveness) to Tylenol. Not so. Apparently, the dye-free cherry flavor Up & Up infants' pain relief drops taste like death. Fox took one taste of the dropper and proceeded to throw up everything (or so I thought) that he'd had for supper. We cleaned him up and calmed him down, and I sat down to give him his bedtime bottle. He took about half of it, leaned forward, and threw up again. And again. And again. It was scary to see how much stuff came out of my little boy's belly. Poor baby! We cleaned him up and calmed him down again, called the doctor, and talked with a triage nurse who gave us protocol for what to do if he continued throwing up (which would indicate a virus). Thankfully, he didn't throw up again. He slept soundly through the night, and he has felt fine ever since.
Here's hoping next Friday night will be easier on all of us.
Dear Blog,
I have not forgotten you. No, I actually think about you nearly every day. But I can't seem to make myself sit down to post anything. I have a very busy schedule, you know, particularly when you consider that I must log several iPod Touch hours of Facebook-stalking people I rarely talk to and reading the blogs of people I don't even know personally. These things are, of course, in addition to the seemingly endless demands of my annoyingly adorable, two-foot-tall employer who is trying to work me into an early grave. On top of all these daily responsibilities of mine, I'm also getting frequent headaches that require me to lie down and close my eyes (my employer is not happy about this). You'd be amazed by how difficult it is to blog when you're lying down with your eyes closed. And, I know what you're thinking, but I'm fairly sure that there's no way my headaches could be caused by the multiple hours of staring at my iPod.
So anyway, before you write me off (no pun intended) (no, really, no pun intended), just remember the many demands that are laid out before me each day, and ask where, how, and if you fit in.
Affectionately,
Me
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