Christmas is Coming...

And it's coming faster than you think! 60 days people! 60! How is that even possible? I just stopped writing 2010 on my checks. When Christmas comes that means it's time for Christmas cards. Since I never got around to sending out change of address cards after we moved this year I need to get on the ball and mail our cards at Thanksgiving. Creating the cards has been on my "To Do" list for a couple weeks so I was super excited to get an email this week that Shutterfly would be running their Christmas Card special for bloggers again this year. Not only do I get 50 free cards again, but I get a little something for my readers. (Keep reading to find out how you can win!)

Last year I wrote about the joys of finding a good Christmas picture. We are blessed to have amazing pictures to use from the incomparable Julie Paisley again this year. The only problem is choosing which pictures to use!

Maybe I should use this picture... It really captures our personalities!

I have the same issue with Shutterfly this season as well! They have so many cute designs that are new for the holidays. Their photo Christmas cards are always the best choice for us - usually a collage design so that not everyone has to look great in each picture! They have cards for every occasion, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year's and Valentine's Day. (And Valentine's isn't quite sneaking up on us too quickly yet!) If you aren't quite on the ball to send cards before the holidays, you can always print Thank You cards for your kids to send to all the wonderful gift-givers in their lives.

Be on the look out for our card this year. And in the meantime, if you want to try out some Shutterfly cards be sure and leave me a comment. They've given me 3 codes for 25 free cards for my readers. I'll randomly select 3 winners from the comments that are left before November 5th.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Time for the annual Christmas card picture. I really don't know how our parents did it. How did you know that you'd gotten a decent picture when you just had to trust that it was somewhere on that roll of film?! Just one more reason I'm thankful to live in the digital age! Thankfully this year we already have our family picture from a professional after Caroline was born. Now I just have to get them designed, addressed and in the mail!

I have always used Shutterfly to make our family Christmas card. Their site is always easy to use and has fantastic designs. Plus, I love that any photos I upload to their site are stored there for me. (So when our computer crashed a few years ago and we lost EVERY SINGLE PICTURE on it I still had all my Shutterfly uploads!) This year they have made the deal even sweeter! Bloggers can get 50 free Holiday cards just for blogging about their experience with Shutterfly. All you have to do is sign up here.

If you haven't checked out their new designs you should. They are very well done and you can order everything from simple photo cards to folded stationary cards. And don't forget about all the gift items like calendars, mugs, wall art and photo books. We made a photo book of our trips to Disney World last year to give our grandparents for Christmas. It was a huge hit and way to help them experience a trip they couldn't be a part of.

Do you send Christmas cards? Have you started thinking about them? There's only 37 days until Christmas, you know?

Ignore the Thanksgiving decorations in the background and the fact that my children refuse to look directly at the camera!

Maybe if Mom would stop being goofy Luke would look at the camera and smile...

Now it's Dad's turn to look goofy...

As you can see... it's not easy to get a good shot around here. I'm sure adding one more baby will only make things that much easier!

I've been busy...

It's no excuse, but life has been crazy around here. And there's so much that I can't write about with Tim's job that I haven't been in much of a blogging mood. Forgive me.

But Mark and I did just get back from a great Disney trip with our friends Katie and Hailey. Look for posts on that trip in the next couple of days. And if you've really been missing me (as if!) you can always read my writing on Tuesdays at Today's Housewife. This week I blogged about how quickly the boys are growing up.

I'm still alive...

...and I'm even writing blog posts. Just not here. Sorry about that. I promise I will finish updating very soon and get all caught up. (Just in time for our next trip to Texas!)

Tim had stand down last week and we were enjoying some much needed family time and this week we've been doing Vacation Bible School every night. Needless to say, it's been crazy! But if you are missing me, and who wouldn't be? ☺ You can read some posts I've done on our wedding, our honeymoon and our early days of marriage at Today's Housewife.

A Little of This and That...

This week at Today's Housewife we are writing "15 Things" about ourselves. You can read all about me here.

One more thing you may not know about me is that I love "reality television." I know, it's not really "real" but I still love watching it. I've written about The Bachelor before, but I'd like to take just a moment to publicly say last night might have been the most painful 3 hours of television I've ever seen. I can't believe anyone with a soul would break up with their fiancee on national tv and that any producer or television executive with a conscience would air it. Nice job ABC. Very classy. I hope I never run into Jason Mesnick on the street. I just might go "crazy submarine lady" on him...

On a completely unrelated note we took Luke back to the allergist yesterday. We tested him for chocolate and tomatoes. He had an allergic reaction to something when we were home in January and I thought I'd narrowed it down to one of those two things. But thankfully he was negative for both. That means he must have reacted to one of his other known allergens and I just didn't know he'd come into contact with one them. (Milk, eggs, peanuts and cashews.) We did not test his levels on any of his other allergens but will do that when we go back in June. Hopefully he will start outgrowing them soon. We also are going to start him on Zyrtec to try and control his environmental allergies. He is allergic to dogs but we are hoping to control it enough to be able to keep Lonestar and not have to replace the carpet with other flooring. Please remember to pray for his safety with these foods and for an improvement in his environmental allergies.

Sweets for My Sweetie...

My friend Sandra hosted a "Sweets for My Sweetie" party last year for Valentine's Day. It works like a cookie exchange. Every guest brings a dessert to share and a container to take home goodies. After some great fellowship, everyone shares their sweets with each other take home a sampling to their own sweetie. How fun!

We are doing a virtual Sweet Swap at Today's Housewife this week. We are sharing our best recipes for sweets in plenty of time for you to make one (or more) for your sweetie this Valentine's Day. Check out Tim's favorite cookie at Today's Housewife and come back on Friday to link up your own favorite recipe for your sweetie. That's when I'll be sharing my own favorite, "Heavenly Chocolate Trifle."

Thanks Simple Mom!

I won a great giveaway today from Simple Mom! If you've never checked out her site it's full of great tips for saving money, maintaining sanity and living a simple life with kids. Plus, it's a great week to check her out because she's giving away tons of fantastic stuff and it's not too late for YOU to win too! This is what I won, but you should go and check it all out yourself. Thanks again Simple Mom!

Elsewhere in Cyberspace...

Read about my two hours of sanity a day at the gym and how I plan on taking the eggnog lattes off my hips at Today's Housewife...

I'm so excited about Mark's choice in his future bride. Meghan is the sweetest girl and we have so much fun together. She entered their story in a contest and you can read it here...