Thursday, November 18, 2010

2010 Christmas Card

Family Wall Red Christmas Card
Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.
View the entire collection of cards.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Christmas Cards from SHUTTERFLY

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Now is the time to start working on Christmas cards! There are a lot of different ways to go about doing this, but for mama's like me, Shutterfly is the perfect way to go! They make it easy and affordable to send our loved ones Christmas cards that are personal, eye catching, and creative! We've even used them in the past for cute birth announcements! They're the best!

My personal favorite option this year is their designs that allow for multiple pictures to be inserted! This is such a cool way to include photos from throughout the past year, photos of each child separately, etc.! The card that I'm designing with Shutterfly for this year will actually include a picture of each of our four little boys, a picture of our entire family from our big vacation, AND a sonogram picture of our newest addition! I am totally thrilled to get to order and send these out!

Click on the following links to check out some of my favorite products from Shutterfly:
  • Photo Christmas Cards - This is where you'll find all those fun options to include your multiple pictures!
  • Calendars - These are a great gift idea for family, friends, and yourself! Enjoy your family photos all year long!
  • Story Cards - This is a neat way to incorporate the tradition of writing Christmas letters with updates on each member of the family!

Shutterfly is having a fun promotion right now! You can actually click on this link to get information on how bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly!

Thanks, Shutterfly, for giving mama's like myself this opportunity to share what we can do with your help! Happy Christmas card designing!!!


Friday, October 29, 2010

26 Week Belly Pics - Thanks to Mom & Sis!

My mom and sister were planning on taking her (my sister's) maternity pictures yesterday, and they invited me to join in too! So I went over to Tanya's house and got some fun pictures of my baby bump at 26 weeks! Tanya did all of the planning work for the photo shoot. She collected pose ideas and props, and was kind enough to share with me! We had a really great time doing it!

This first one is one of my favorites!


I love this one with his name printed on the little gift tag!


Here you can see my baby bump and my sister's baby bump - close to each other (as I'm sure the two new little guys will spend lots of their time in the years to come).


I am so grateful to have been able to capture this precious time that I want to treasure forever!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hillbilly Bone?

Last night Ollie and I were sitting at the computer watching his favorite music video: "Hillbilly Bone." He had been asking for it all day yesterday ... he calls it "Be-be bo-bo."

Well we had been playing it over and over again, singing and dancing along, when Dylan comes home from playing outside. He walked up behind us and listened for a while. Then he very seriously asked, "MOM? WHERE IS THE HILLBILLY BONE?"

He completely expected it to be an actual location on our bodies! :)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Baby Number Five and Mama's Size

Here's a new look at baby number five - at 16 weeks. We had an opportunity to see our newest little baby in another sonogram this week. He looks so cute! It's amazing how fast they grow in there! He was moving his little hands and feet all around! How precious is that?!?!


Since I haven't posted any belly pictures yet, I need to play catch-up. Here's the belly at 10 weeks ...


... and here is the current belly at 16 weeks.

I guess the "normal" guidelines for when you're supposed to get however big no longer apply after you've had a certain number of babies. I'm not worried ... they're 100% worth it!

Monday, August 16, 2010

I know I need to blog but ...

... I have nothing interesting to show for my time lately!

Are there other Mama's out there like me? I have such a strong desire to be the super-amazing wife and mama, but I can never seem to get it all done! As soon as I accomplish one thing, the last thing I finished is already undone or needing to be done again. Blah!

Guess I need to get off the computer and at least try ... any tips would be greatly appreciated! :)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Love Like Crazy

I absolutely love this new song! It's by Lee Brice and it's called, "Love Like Crazy." Read the incredible lyrics below:

"They called him crazy when they started out. Said seventeen's too young to know what loves about. They've been together fifty-eight years now ... that’s crazy.

He brought home sixty-seven bucks a week. He bought a little 2 bedroom house on Maple Street. Where she blessed him with six more mouths to feed ... yeah that’s crazy.

Just ask him how he did it; he'll say pull up a seat. It'll only take a minute, to tell you everything.

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse "I love you." Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense. Never let your prayin' knees get lazy, and love like crazy.

They called him crazy when he quit his job. Said them home computers, boy they'll never take off. He sold his one man shop to Microsoft ... they paid like crazy.

Just ask him how he made it. He'll tell you faith and sweat, and the heart of a faithful woman, who never let him forget.

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse "I love you." Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense. Never let your prayin knees get lazy, and love like crazy.

Always treat your woman like a lady. Never get too old to call her baby. Never let your prayin knees get lazy, and love like crazy.

They called him crazy when they started out. They've been together fifty-eight years now. Ain't that crazy?"

Click here if you want to watch the music video. The song will be worth your while! ;)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A moment from the big white car ...

A few nights ago, we were heading home from an amazing wedding! The boys were all buckled in their seats, talking about what to do when we got home. The idea of ice cream for dessert came up, then Cal (8) asked if we had any Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Sadly the answer was no. Cal got dramatic and pitiful (as kids often do) and started whining, "We NEVER get Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough anymore!" Well that went over really well! Daddy had to tease back, "Oh, we NEVER get it? Ever? That was the last kind we bought before this time! We ALWAYS get that kind!"

Here's when the cute part happened! From the third row back seat we heard a whisper from Dylan (7), "Don't worry, Cal. I'll take care of this." Then he calls up to us in the front, "DADDY, next time we go to the store, can we buy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream?"

Well of course our answer was, "Yes!" Since he handled that for his brother without fit throwing, but instead calmly asking ... absolutely!

What a good boy to take care of his brother at a time when he knew his emotions had gotten the best of him!

Monday, July 5, 2010

The First Picture of Our Newest Little One


Here he or she is! Look at it's tiny little arms and legs! This was our first sonogram for this baby, taken a week ago. The baby is now 9 weeks already! Due date for #5 is February 5, 2011 (kind-of fun ... the fifth baby due on the fifth)!

What makes this extra fun is that my sister Tanya and my friend Laura are both pregnant now too! Tanya is having her first baby. We prayed for a long time for their little one! Laura is expecting her fifth like me. Prayers for all three healthy babies would be very much appreciated! Click on their names to check out each of their blogs!

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! We had a perfect evening! First dinner with family at the pool, then everyone gathered for exciting fireworks after dark!


Good Night,

Thursday, July 1, 2010

AAA-TA-DU-DUDEY (ap-ple-juice-juicey)!

My littlest one woke up the other day, and asked for (demanded) some "aaa-ta-du-dudey" (that's how he says ap-ple-juice-juicey). I thought I'd hand him a cup of milk (to be healthy). Well I sure didn't fool him! He took one sip and handed it back to me with a friendly, "thank you!"

We went back and forth with that sippy cup! I kept handing it to him telling him to drink his milk first, and he kept handing it right back to me!

I finally explained to him with a smile, "Make your milk all gone, then I'll give you apple juice." So ... my brilliant baby boy walked that cup of milk over to the trash can to throw it away! He didn't even look like he was trying to do anything bad. He was innocently just making it all gone like mommy said to do.

Sweetie-pie! I gave him his apple juice! :)

Sorry I haven't blogged in a long time! Maybe a clue as to why - is because in the time I've typed this very short story, Oliver found my crackers I've been snacking on to avoid morning sickness - and has dumped them all over the floor. Oh yea, then he stomped on them. Oh blah! Clean up time!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Finished Products From "Color Me Mine"

Previously I mentioned a day that we took the boys to a pottery painting studio for a family fun day. Well I'd finally like to show you the proud artists with their finished products!

First, here is Dylan. He made a gnome for our garden. What a lovely addition to the front of our house!


Next is Cal. He painted a cool airplane!

Last, but not least - Korbin. He chose a bowl that comes with chopsticks and little places for the chopsticks to rest on the top of the bowl. He did something very creative. He had the ladies working at the place look up how to write his name in Chineese, and painted his Chineese name onto the sides of the bowl!


They all had SO much fun creating these works of art that day! We can hardly wait to go back and make more fun things!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

My Sister's Birthday - Super Girly Fun!

Woo-hoo!!!!!!!! Today is my sister, Tanya's birthday! Tonight Tanya, Mom and I get to go out for super girly fun ... and I can hardly wait!

We are going to the nail salon for pedicures and then having dinner at Outback (yummmy)!

Stay tuned for pictures ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TANYA!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE THE BEST SISTER AND FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!

Girly Thursday Nights

My girlfriend, Brandi, decided when we met last year, that I needed to make time to get out of the house from time to time. So we started making almost every Thursday night our girls night out, and it has been so much fun!

Our husbands work together, and they have been very supportive of the idea! I am grateful that Jacob makes it so easy for me to get this time out for some female interaction on a regular basis!

When it started we would just go sit on the patio at the nearest Starbuck's to drink and chat for hours. We did that for a long time, then we started expanding our nights out by doing a couple other things. One night we ordered chips and salsa at a mexican resturant, we've gotten drinks at Sonic, and most recently - we've been watching lots of new movies at the movie theater (last week was my favorite movie in a while - "Date Night" - so funny)!

Thank you, Lord, for girlfriends and giggles! Thank you for coffee drinks and sodas! Thank you for people who "get" us! Thank you for shopping and eating out! Thank you for baby stores! Thank you for all of these little things! Thank you for this beautiful life!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Family Fun Weekend

Man, I wish I had my camera with me the entire weekend! We had such a great time of family fun together, but all of my pictures below are from Sunday!

On Friday night we went to a Frisco RoughRider's game with Cal's baseball team. The weather was perfect, Tanya and Barrett came along (go to Tanya's blog for pictures), and Oliver was chosen along with 2 other babies before the game started to be in a baby game between the second and third innings! He got to go down on the field with Daddy! Very fun night!

On Saturday we took the kids to one of those pottery painting studios. What a blast! The three big kids each picked out an item to paint, and they all did a great job! I'll have to post pictures of the finished products after we get them back (we'll go back to pick them up this weekend, after they are fired and glazed)!

Sunday, again the weather was perfect, so we stayed around the neighborhood and enjoyed being outside together!

First the boys played a little golf in the back yard (don't worry about the safety of your windows, Laura ... they have little plastic golf balls).



Oliver got to go swinging at the park!


We took a walk to feed the ducks. One mama duck just had her babies recently in Laura's front yard next door, so we visited them down at the pond!




Our newest expert bike-rider, Dylan got to ride his wheels all around the neighborhood!

Daddy and Korbin shot some hoops together!


I'm thankful to have had such a beautiful weekend to relax and enjoy our little family!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Missing What We Barely Had

On the day that I started having symptoms of a possible miscarriage, I talked to my doctor on the phone right away. Then later that day in an email he wrote, "Praying for TWB." I wrote back, "TWB?" He replied, "TWB = Teenie Weenie Baby." [Side note: How many OB/GYN docs will pray for their patients??? My doctor is the best!!! Hubby and I affectionately call him "Super Doctor!"]

Anyway, over the course of that weekend of eternal waiting, I realized that Super Doctor had actually given the baby his or her first nickname! I told my sister Tanya that whatever happened, the initials TWB would always be very special to me - especially if what I was experiencing was in fact an early miscarriage!

Well look how perfect and wonderful my sister is! Here is a picture of what she gave to me! It is the most amazing thing she could have done, and I will treasure it forever! Thank you, Tanya!!!!!!!!!!!!


Then ... a couple of days later my wonderful Mom came to our front door with another special baby memorial gift! She had gone to the fabric store, picked out these brand new pink and blue fabrics, and made us this sweet baby blanket to hold onto whenever we are feeling sad! Thank you Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!



Don't I just have the greatest family support?!?!?! What a blessing!!!!!

A Cute Easter Picture of Maggie


This is our "little girl" during the Easter egg hunt! She's so pretty and tiny!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Can we please go back in time?

We just found out that the pregnancy that I recently so happily announced is now over. There's no simple way to say it - and I'm all out of explanations. I'm just wishing we could go back in time to the happy way things were last week.

Life goes on. Baby is safe and happy in Heaven! Hubby is taking wonderful loving care of me! I'll start a fresh new day tomorrow morning!

Goodnight all,

Monday, March 29, 2010

the BUMP is back

I wore this new shirt to our weekly family dinner at my Mom and Dad's house tonight! It was my way of spreading the news that we are expecting #5 in December!


Last night before bed, we told our big kids the news. We told them to sit around the table for some dessert. Daddy scooped ice cream into bowls for them ... but they each only got a tiny "baby" sized scoop. They were asking, "Really??? Is this all we get??? What's the deal, Dad???" Then Daddy told them, "I gave you each a baby scoop as a creative way of telling you that we're going to have another baby!" They were all super excited! Korbin (our oldest, 10 years old) couldn't stop crying tears of joy! It was priceless!

I feel so blessed to have these precious boys ... each one a gift from God!

This afternoon when the big boys got home from school, we all took a walk down to the duck pond. Little Oliver loves to see the ducks! We also made a stop at the baby swings which was also a fun little treat! I texted hubby at work with a couple pictures of the boys playing at the swings and told him, "I love mommyhood!"

Monday, March 22, 2010

Top 2 Tuesday



Today's "Top 2 Tuesday" category is: things you can't live without!



I am going to take the example of our "Top 2 Tuesday" hostess, Taylor, and do this the light-hearted way. So this top 2 is besides things like: God, Bible, my hubby, my children, family, friends and other important things like water and food ...



Hmmm ... top TWO? Maybe top SEVEN (in no particular order):


  • Music (helps me clean when I put on my headphones)

  • Dr. Pepper

  • Salsa from LaHacienda Ranch

  • Laptop & Cell Phone

  • Notebook & Pen (lists, lists, lists)

  • Black Clothes

  • DVR



I'm sure there are lots of very important things I'm forgetting! I get pretty easily excited! :)


"DUCKMAN"


I bought this ducky raincoat for my 10-year-old, Korbin, when he was about one or two. It's a size 4T, but we just rolled the sleeves up, and it was adorable!


So a couple weeks ago, Korbin bursts in the front door after school (sweaty and stinky) saying, "Man, this thing is sweaty!!!" He had squeezed into his old raincoat and worn it to school under his regular jacket that day! He walks home from school, so by the time he got here I literally had to PEEL it off of him!


Apparrently he had told some of his friends at school about it, and he'd made his own little plan. He wanted to wear it to school under his coat, and then slowly unzip his coat and present himself as, "DUCKMAN!" I'm sure his friends were all very impressed!


It was so unbelievably rediculous ... but of course looking back, I guess it is pretty funny!



Friday, March 19, 2010

Blogger ... Where have I been???

There is NO excuse for why I haven't posted in such a long time! What in the world is my deal? Where have I been? I don't even have an answer.

I do have two quick things to share:

1) Our front porch got a cool little make-over! We had the railing extended all the way across the front with a gate. It makes a really nice place for us all to hang out outside and it contains the littlest one quite well! We can sit out front without chasing him to keep him out of the street!




2) One of my babies got a broken thumb. Cal is our little baseball man! A couple of weeks ago his team was in a tournament, and while he was playing catcher - he was hit with a bat. Ouch! So this is our very first experience with a cast in our home. Since we have four boys, we told Cal's orthopedic surgeon that we expected to see a lot of him in the future! Here's a picture of Calahan with his first cast. It was glow-in-the-dark, and covered in well-wishes and autographs from his classmates and teammates. The new one (they re-cast him last week after the swelling had gone down) is black.


So anyway ... I'm back to the blogging world now. I'll try not to stay gone so long next time!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

My brother, the film maker!


This is one of my younger brothers, Alex Craig. He is an amazing, very talented film maker! He grew up going through Prestonwood Baptist Church’s youth and I believe he will be a huge success and witness for Christ in his industry!

This morning he sent an email out to a few of our family members, and I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if some other people might decide there was something they could do to help him out a little bit! Thanks for your time and consideration!

For those of you that don't know, Alex is currently living in Grand Rapids attending film school. He has written a short film that he will be directing this month. The story is basically a modern day Cane and Able with a little twist. They will be filming in an old catholic cathedral and also a small car chase scene inside of a Hummer H1. He said he's pretty excited about that! He has a crew of 17 people and a cast of 8. Once this film is complete, he hopes to put it in some film festivals. The school has them fund their own films. Having such a large crew requires a budget to feed everyone while they are on set.

Alex thought he might as well say that if anyone would like to help fund the film in any size, big or small, it would be greatly appreciated! He will even put your name in the credits! I am adding a PayPal button at the very bottom of my blog if you'd like to donate. I'm a new blogger and don't have a ton of followers yet, so if you know of anyone else who you think might be interested, please direct them here as well. I know times are tough, so if you can't help, I totally understand. He's a student, and as of now he is funding the entire film out of pocket. 100% of your proceeds will go towards making this movie awesome!



Side note: A short film that Alex was director of photography and editor on, is now in an online film festival and is open for voting. You can click here to watch the movie and vote for it if you would like! It would be much appreciated! Oh and apparently, in order to watch the movie, you have to create an account. It only takes a minute. Have a great day everyone!