It's beginning to look a lot like...

...it's time to prepare for Christmas!

Around the time P was born, I was really into designing photo cards. I'd upload photos to my computer and create backgrounds for cards for friends and family for just about any holiday. It seemed natural, then, that I would create a photo Christmas card for our family to send out. I did, and then I uploaded the picture to print and be mailed to our house. Then I addressed and sent out cards. That's been my MO ever since.

This year, though, I decided that since we have so much going on, it might be really nice to choose a favorite photo, upload it, and let someone else do the work to turn it into a card. I looked into Shutterfly first for a couple of reasons:

1. When P was born, we created a website with a company called Baby Jelly Beans. Once we had uploaded photos to the site, friends and family could order prints. They came in the mail a few days later from Shutterfly. Everyone who ordered prints from our website was pleased with the timely delivery and the quality of the pictures.

2. I have had positive experiences with Shutterfly's photo calendars. You can look at their full selection of calendars here.

Given my positive experiences, having Shutterfly do our Christmas cards this year seemed like a no brainer. Easy peasy lemon squeezy - I'll just choose and upload a photo, select a card, and be all set!

While I was doing my Christmas card research, I was very excited to find out that bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… you can learn more here.

All that's left for me to do? Choose our card, wait for a stack of them to arrive in the mail, and then address and send them! Shutterfly will do that for you, too, if you are interested. Here are my top choices for our card (sans pictures of our family at the moment, of course!).

Holly Frame

Gorgeous White Ribbon


Merry Xmas 2010

Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me which card you think I should choose (or let me know if you see one that you like even better than these!).

Ketchup Day

Today's post will help you catch up on some of our day to day activities. (Now that you've read the first sentence, my post title seems clever, doesn't it? Fine, fine... just smile and nod, okay?)

Since P and I won't be here next week for his class Thanksgiving party, I sent some yummy goodness to school in the form of a turkey cake on Monday. (Just to be clear, it was a yellow cake with chocolate icing that was shaped like a turkey, not a cake actually made of turkey.) I realized Monday night that I didn't take any pictures of the cake for you guys to see, so I snapped one of the turkey's face, because we hadn't eaten that yet. (It is gone now - only a few feathers are left - but we've been munching on it since P brought the leftovers home from school on Monday.)


Monday P was also introduced to his new teacher's aide, Ms. Tamra. Miss Tiffany was asked to move to the four year old class downstairs. P's really enjoying his new teacher, and he still loves school.

A few weeks ago, we made a change in C's room. We converted his crib into a double bed!


I haven't taken tons of pictures of the whole room yet, because it's definitely a work in progress right now. C will probably be getting some bedding for Christmas or his birthday.

The first few days he did really well at bedtime, but spent several of his naps sleeping on the floor. Just in the last few days, he's needed, ahem, some encouragement to sleep in his bed. He gets out of bed after we tuck him in. He knocks on the door. We go to the closed door and say, "Get back in your bed, C," in a very calm voice, and hear him get back in bed... for about five minutes. This cycle continues for up to an hour, but it was the shortest it's been since it started last night, so hopefully he'll be back to his champion sleeping self soon!

I tried to get C to pose sleeping in his "big boy" bed so you could see it, but he was sure I was actually trying to make him go to bed in the middle of the evening, so I gave up on that. I did take pictures of both boys in his bed though (they love to play in each others' beds together!).

The boys read some books.

C was more than happy to have a picture taken while he was awake!

Daddy A did succeed in getting him to lay down with his eyes open.

Good night!

Dollywood

Thursday of our Tennessee trip we headed over to Dollywood. It was already decorated for Christmas, which went nicely with the theme of our trip.



P asked me to pose with him so he could "act like Santa".






From there we pushed C over to Santa's workshop.




The boys had another chance to visit with Santa, and I got a picture to display. I really enjoy seeing how the boys change from year to year when I display all of the Santa pictures at Christmastime.

There was a gigantic wall picture and some crayons available. P added some artistic touches.

P really enjoyed the rides at Dollywood, especially the Veggie Tales rollercoaster and the Scrambler.

All six of us took a ride on the Dollywood Express. We took advantage of a family photo op. (P was enjoying the park more than it looks like he was here... I promise!)

We saw a show and a Christmas parade, and the boys drove cars like this one near the end of the night. P said it was his favorite ride, and C definitely enjoyed it, too!

We're looking forward to another visit to Dollywood, and hoping that this will become a yearly tradition!

Dolly's Dixie Stampede

While we were in Pigeon Forge, we went to dinner and a show at Dixie Stampede.


Before we went inside, the boys checked out the horses. During the pre show, they had a great time with the "hillbilly tinsel".

P tried to roll all of the "tinsel" back up. He was able to take a few "taller" pieces back to the hotel with him.

Daddy A reminded me that the entire meal consists of finger foods and drinkable liquids. I packed silverware for the boys, but they didn't need it.

Both boys enjoyed petting the horses after the show, and P was full of questions for the riders. I was quite impressed with the things he wanted to know! The boys made stuffed animals - Santa Claus for C, and a beaver for P. P named his beaver Flap and both boys cuddled with their new friends as they fell asleep Wednesday night.

The Inn at Christmas Place

We arrived in Tennessee Wednesday night, and headed to our hotel. It was really neat! There were multiple Christmas trees in our suite, and we loved the holiday decor and the black bears throughout the rooms.


Santa was in the hotel in the mornings. After breakfast on Thursday, the boys met up with the big guy and chatted for a bit. P asked for a Follow Me Thomas toy and two matchbox cars for Christmas.

We were able to capture him looking at the camera after he had a few minutes to talk to Mr. Claus.

P watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Wednesday night in the hotel, and was enthralled with him after he "turns nice" and "gives them back their party". While we were shopping at The Incredible Christmas Place, Daddy A snapped a picture of him in front of "the Grinch tree".

We also took a photo of the boys posing with this train, since trains are quite popular in our house.

As far as our family is concerned, The Incredible Christmas Place definitely lived up to its name!

at home with Poppa Fred and Grandma Paige

We kicked off the Christmas celebrations a little early at our house this year - Grandma Paige and Poppa Fred came to visit and took us to The Inn at Christmas Place. They also spent a few days at our house.

The boys enjoyed having special bedtime stories

and playing in the backyard.

The boys loved showing off their new skills - fixing cars and sliding in particular. We'll see Grandma Paige and Poppa Fred soon, and the boys are excited about it!

Kirkin o' the Tartan

The first Sunday in November was the Kirkin o' the Tartan service at our church. We were all decked out in Scottish attire. Daddy A and the boys wore their kilts. (It was a bit chilly, so I put the boys in pants under their kilts.)


I wore a sash, but my kilt wearing men still let me be in a photo with them!

After the church service, there was a mini-Highland Games outside for the kids.

Mr. Coley helped P with the caber toss, since the caber was taller than P was!

Pastor Michael helped get his son Charlie and C very excited about the games.

C got in on the action during the javelin throw.

We all enjoyed celebrating our Scottish heritage. The boys especially had a blast!

Mr. Turkey

C the elephant

If you read often, you may remember that the boys both had strep at the beginning of October. P also had croup, and C had some sort of upper respiratory infection. The good news is that the strep is gone and P is all better. C kept a slight cough for a few weeks and then it flared up again. Over the weekend he started coughing so much that he couldn't sleep at naptime or bedtime. When this went on for a couple of days, we decided to take him to the pediatrician even though he was happy and had no other symptoms of sickness. The verdict? C couldn't shake his cough and was wheezing, so they determined that he doesn't have anything contagious but decided to start him on nebulizer treatments at bedtime and as needed every four hours. The first night he had a couple of treatments, and he was having them before nap for a couple of days, but now he is MUCH better. Last night he had a treatment before bed and was able to sleep through the night, and he didn't even need a treatment before his nap today! (He is sleeping as I type this.)


P has been our "big helper" with C's treatments. He holds the tubing "very carefully" across his lap and sits next to us on the couch while C has a treatment, and he turns the machine on to start the "machine medicine" and off when we tell him the treatment is done. He's a very loving big brother!


P told C that he looked like he had an "elephant nose" when he was doing treatments. C did well with the first couple, but now he doesn't like them very much at all! He does take them, though, and we are so grateful they are working as quickly as they are - hopefully C will be completely better soon!

Halloween night

What with all the Halloween parties and fall festivals I've already blogged about, you may be tired of seeing the boys in their costumes. If so, feel free to skip this post. If, on the other hand, you're like me and can't get enough of these guys, read on!

Before we left to go trick or treating, I tried again for a Halloween shot on the porch. P asked me where my costume was, and I said, "Oh, I'm wearing this hairbow with candy corn on it! See?" I must have had just the right amount of enthusiasm in my voice, because he accepted that answer.


I never did get a "perfect" shot, but I was plenty happy with these. They're sort of almost practically looking in the same direction, and these pictures will be great reminders of the days when they were one and three when they are full grown always very attentive 21 and 23 year olds. Or something like that.


We visited a few neighbors' houses and made a short stop at the Baptist Church where P goes to preschool for their Great Pumpkin Party, but our main event was the trunk or treat at our church. This was the first year we've done one, and it went well. I think it will happen again.

P was pleased as punch to catch up with his buddy Colby, who was dressed as Pablo from The Backyardigans.


The boys are allowed to choose one piece of candy for dessert after lunch and dinner (provided they eat most of their "healthy food" first). We will have dessert covered around here for months! Normally I would think that so much candy can't be a good thing, but the incentive has P actually eating meals, which is a rare occurrence in our house.

I hope your Halloween was a happy one!

UNC football game

Some of our friends from church gave us their tickets to the UNC football game the day before Halloween. They were going to be out of town, and they offered us the tickets since UNC was playing William and Mary. To all of my fellow W&M friends, I apologize for wearing "Carolina blue," but I REFUSED to actually wear any UNC gear, especially the "Beat W&M" button that Daddy A insisted on wearing!

William and Mary played REALLY well, and led for most of the game... alas, UNC pulled off a touchdown in the fourth quarter and won the game. We had a great time - it was a long day, but I think it was worth it!

Since C didn't need a ticket, we took our friend Patrick with us to use the fourth ticket. He's eight years old, and P now calls him his "church frien' for me to see". He begged to sit beside Patrick at church Sunday and can't wait to see him again! Patrick is very patient with P.

We kicked 0ff the day in Tarheel Town. All three boys had a good time on the inflatables.


P's jersey looks a little big. That's because it used to be mine. He didn't want to wear it when we left the house, but once he saw the football players he didn't want to take it off! He's been wearing it to bed every time it's clean (because I wash it during the day, and it's afternoon or evening when he sees it clean and dry), and often asks for his "football shirt". He's hoping to get some more "football shirts" for Christmas.

Then the boys got their faces painted.



The boys and I lined up to watch the team run through Tarheel Town.


C had a blast watching them run by!


The boys all had their "game faces" on!


P kept that Tarheel tattoo on his face until Wednesday morning! C still has his, but I used baby oil to get P's off before school pictures Wednesday.


I wonder if it was Patrick's cheering that led the Tarheels to victory. (Maybe I should have cheered for W&M a bit more loudly...)


C and P stayed in good spirits all day, even without naps. I was so proud of them!


Patrick stayed in good spirits, too, but I expected that from him. He's past that napping stage. :)


It was after 11:00pm when we got home - it's a good thing the boys were able to sleep some in the car!