Holiday Traditions

Today I am linking up with Neely and Amber for day 2 of the
FABULOUS HOLIDAY BLOG CHALLENGE!

Today's topic is: Favorite Holiday Tradition New or Old

I LOVE the holidays and tradition…so this is fun for me! Blake and Olivia are so young that we have really not developed many traditions YET….but I am really looking forward to starting some with them :)

For the first time this year we are doing Elf on a Shelf! I think that the concept is so fun…and Blake is starting to catch on!! We have a tradition of putting the Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Blake was a big help this year! I have gotten the kids an ornament for each year….I write their name and the year on it. I think that it will be fun to look back at them all each year. So far Blake only has 3 and Livi 2….but in years to come there will be lots :)!!This is our tree from last year....it seems to have WAY more stuff on it this year!

On Christmas Eve we celebrate with Ryan’s family. His mom is Christmas Crazy so there is lots of chaos and presents….it is fun!Blake opening present at Sander's on Christmas Eve 2010

After spending time with Ryan’s family we go to my parents’ house and spend the night there, so we can wake up there on Christmas morning and spend the day with them! My sister is coming home, so we are really looking forward to that! We always have lots of great food and fun. Mary with little 9 day old Olivia on Christmas Eve 2010

Blake got a "hot rod" from papa last year!!

Playing outside on Christmas day
My parents live on a lake so we can skate and ice fish!

All of these holiday traditions will just get more and more fun as the kids get older (not that I am wishing away the years...just something to look forward to!)

Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

I couldn’t believe it when I got an e-mail from Shutterfly in regards to their 2011 Christmas Card selection…..CHRISTMAS??....already?? And then I realized that yep, the holidays are JUST around the corner and it is indeed time to think about ordering our Christmas Cards!

I am a frequent Shutterfly customer. I have ordered prints, greeting cards, invites, and calendars. The service and turnaround has always been great!!
I used Shutterfly for our Christmas cards last year and I was very pleased with the selection, service and quality.

This is the card (or similar to the card) that we chose last year:

They have a HUGE selection of Christmas cards to choose from this year.

These are a few of my favorites that I am deciding from this year!

If you haven’t checked out the selection that Shutterfly has to offer, be sure to do so soon!

December is a BUSY month in our household with the holidays and BOTH kids’ birthdays. This year will be BIG as we celebrate Livi’s 1st birthday and Blake’s 3rd birthday! I plan on getting party invites using Shutterfly as well.

Shutterfly is also a good stop for Christmas gifts. You cant go wrong with a personalized calendar for the grandparents!! Cute pics of the kids every single month!

They have cute thank-you cards too that will definitley come in handy!

OK....There is my Shutterfly promo for the season :)

Dicken's Christmas Parade

Our downtown has an annual Dicken's Christmas Festival with a lighten Christmas Parade. On Saturday night we bundled up and headed downtown for the festivities. It was COLD, but we had a good time. Blake REALLY enjoyed the parade, lights, and noise. It was so fun to watch his little face light up as the parade passed by. He waved the whole time. I didn't get many good pictures...but I snapped a few....here they are:

We saw Santa from a distance, but didn't wait in line to sit on his lap. I really don't think that Blake will be into it this year. He is really shy around strangers, so I can just imagine what he would think about sitting on a strange old mans lap! ha....maybe we will try next year :)

Christmas Angel

I have been SO bad at taking pictures lately. I promise to get better this week!! I did snap one (bad) picture of my little Christmas Angel in front of the tree this past weekend!!



I can't believe that in ONE WEEK he will be 2!! Fastest 2 years of my life!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go....

Now if it would just get cold and snow :)
It doesnt FEEL like Christmas yet!!

Pictures pictures....

and MORE pictures....

I feel like we have had SO many opportunities to get pictures taken lately. I really do not know what to do with them all....I am a member of our local Jaycee's and we had a holiday fundraiser....selling photo sessions! SO, of course I had to purchase a session. We used it for family holiday pictures...and they are nothing spectacular...but they turned out OK. Here is a sample:

I am not usually one to get into the whole belly picture thing....but there is no hiding this thing now, so might as well embrace it, huh?!?

B wanted to ride this little thing right home...haha!

Our last family picture before we become a family of 4!!

I am using these for holiday cards as well...so some of you will see these again :)

Shutterfly for the Holidays :)

I order all of my prints from Shutterfly. I have always been impressed by their quick turnaround time and high quality of products!!

I am starting to think about holiday cards for this upcoming season, and will again be ordering from Shutterfly! They have SO many to choose from. I of course always incorporate pictures of Blake, so will need to narrow down what pictures I want to include and chose a design from there!

These are a few of my favorite designs:

In addition to ordering my holiday cards from Shutterfly I also order greeting cards, birthday party invitations (Blake’s 2nd birthday is just around the corner), birth announcements (baby girls birth is just around the corner), calendars (make great Christmas gifts), and have recently ordered a photo book for Blake. He LOVES to look at pictures of himself and family members…so I thought that a personalized book would be great. The quality is great, and I will definitely be ordering more photo books in the future!

**Attention fellow bloggers-Shutterfly is running a promotion right now where bloggers get 50 free cards, find out how by clicking here…