Christmas Cards at Shutterfly

For special events, like the kids' birthday parties, I like to send out photo invitations. Mainly because we have a lot of family that lives so far away, I think it is nice to include a recent picture of the children as they grow. Christmas cards are no exception and is one time of year where I can send a card with a picture of both kids together! Of course getting the perfect shot of a 2 year old and a newborn is easier said than done.

This year Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday cards to bloggers who write about their products. Pretty awesome, if you ask me! If you are a blogger and want to participate, here is how: Shutterfly Free Holiday Cards

I have used Shutterfly for creating photo books, and really enjoy their quality. So if you are in the market for photo books this year, take a look at Shutterfly and see what they have to offer! I have never used Shutterfly for photo cards so I am really excited to pick out our Christmas cards this year! I have had bad luck with holiday cards in the past (NOT with Shutterfly!!!) so I am looking forward to giving this company a try. They have a huge selection of Holiday Cards in addition to their Christmas cards. Oh, which one to pick!?!

If you are not in the market for seasonal cards, they have tons of great and unique gift ideas. I personally, love the photo mugs. Even though I am not a coffee or tea drinker, so many family members are, and who doesn't love starting their day off with a picture of those they love the most?

One Hot Mess Contest

A friend of mine over at Happiness With A Side of Havoc, Please is having a HOT MESS contest. With a toddler and a newborn (which I guess I need to blog about soon !), I can give one single thing my undivided attention for a mere 5 minutes and my house becomes a HOT MESS.

Not that I'm proud my house looks like this, but without a clone whose sole job it is to follow my 2.5 year old around, cleaning up after her and yelling at Lee to "PUT THINGS BACK WHERE THEY GO!", this is what you get for now. And hey, it might even win me some free swag!

Here ya go, Linds. I'm right there with you, girl.

Actually, this is somewhat clean for the office (a.k.a. Lee's domain.)

Update

As much as I had wished to be in labor by now, it just hasn't happened yet. So we are still playing the waiting game to see when this little guy picks his birthday. I am beyond ready: all the baby clothes are washed, the sheets, liners to things like the baby swing, pack n play, bouncy seat, etc. have all been cleaned, our hospital bags are packed, and the car has a full tank of gas. Now we just need some contractions!!

As excited as we are (and some of you are too!) we have decided not to let others know when I do go into labor, and we hope you will understand why... When Reese was born we informed everyone when labor began and the result was a bombardment of phone calls and people at the hospital. Believe us, we know everyone meant well. Everyone was just as excited as we were. Unfortunately, involvement from others quickly became a hindrance and labor stalled. While we do not think that involvement from others was the sole cause of the problems, we are certain that it was a contributing factor. It was pretty amazing how my contractions picked back up once the nurses asked everyone to leave and we turned off our cell phones.

So, in effort to achieve the VBAC we desire, we are doing as much as we can to not have the same birth outcome that we did the 1st time around. Please understand that this is not personal. I have come to learn that I am extremely affected when I think others are worried about me. I, in turn, worry about them worrying about me, and labor is just not a time for that to be a positive character trait. Rest assured we will let everyone know when the little guy arrives and we hope you will be just as excited for us at that point.

Thanks for understanding,

Sarah & Lee

Touch A Truck

I took Reese to Touch A Truck at the local library this week. It was super hot, but she had a good time. She was a little intimidated when the big firemen and dump truck drivers tried to talk to her or show her how to honk a horn so they just let her sit in the different trucks.

Reese in a big blue tractor.

"Driving" the trac ho.

Reese in the Ditch Witch

Crafts were being done inside, so we headed into the A/C to let me cool down and Reese make a truck. She was so proud after making this.

Not too impressed with the fire truck. She said she really wanted to see an ambulance.

Reese in her hard hat and fireman's sticker. She refused to put the hat on when we were actually looking at the trucks, but as soon as we got home she wore it around the house and even had to take it to Mammy & General's house to show it off.

It's A BOY!!!

Can you believe it?! We're having a little boy! His name is Jackson Lee and we will be calling him Jack. We are super excited! Reese said she is excited to pick out his clothes. :-)

Here he is in all his glory. He even pointed it out to us to make sure we knew he was a boy. Notice the fingers just to the left of his boy parts?

"There's no mistaking that!" was my 1st response when this picture flashed up on the screen.

Reese is TWO!!!

Wow! We can't believe she is already 2 years old. It really does seem like yesterday we were bringing her home for the 1st time. Her Birthday party isn't until Saturday, but we still managed to make her 'real' birthday a special one.

Wake up Birthday Girl!!!

I had made banana nut muffins the night before, so that was her special birthday breakfast (included with a candle of course!) We ran errands most of the morning and then met up with some friends for an impromptu pizza lunch at their restaurant. Reese enjoyed playing with the other kids her age and 'playing' some arcade games.

Reese has become quite a ham for the camera. She flashes a big fake smile and often says "That was a good one!" after the picture is taken.

After quiet/nap time, we Skyped with Gamma & Poppy so they could wish Reese a Happy Birthday and see her open a few presents. Reese is all set for the lake this summer and now has a luggage collection to start traveling the world. Of course, Reese had to wear her football jersey for the gift opening.

Her favorite gift was the "credit card" (aka Toys R Us gift card) from Aunt Anne. She immediately shouted "Ooooo, credit card, go shopping, yeah!" Lee instinctively reached for his wallet and made sure everything was right where it should be. We are a little concerned for what the teenage years have in store for us.

We met Mammy, The General, Sheppy & Kimbo in town for Reese's Birthday supper, complete with a piece of chocolate cake (which everyone shared.)

Reese had such a good birthday, she woke up this morning and asked for it to be her birthday again. We can't wait to see how she reacts for her party this weekend!

It's been a while.... SURPRISE!!

A blog post has been on my to-do list for quite a while now, but with all the holiday preparations, hosting Lee's parent's for a week (plus a few extra days while they were snowed out of Pennsylvania), and doing my best to deal with morning sickness and the sheer exhaustion that comes with growing a baby and taking care of an almost 2 year old..... I just never got around to it.

There is so much to catch up on. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year, but, by far, the most exciting change in our lives has been discovering that Reese is going to have a little brother or sister!!! The due date is August 5th.... give or take 2 weeks of course. I think it would be neat to go a few days "late" so the baby's birthday will be 8/9/10. Not much I can (or am willing) to do to see that happen though. :-)

Here's to a healthy pregnancy!

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Party for Katelyn

Today is cousin Katelyn's 1st birthday. We enjoyed celebrating at her birthday party. Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Reese and Mammy in their party hats.

Katelyn & her cake. Reese kept saying "Mess" over and over while Katelyn was eating. We actually let Reese have a piece of cake (without the icing), and what do you think the 1st thing she asked for upon waking from her nap was? "Cake!" Has a monster been created?

Sewing update:

I made Reese a Halloween skirt. Since she loves spiders, I picked out a silly spider pattern.... and it's reversible to black with white polka dots. I had a little trouble with the waist band, so I'll have to work on that.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Reese to a local farm to pick pumpkins and enjoy the other fall activities. She had a great time running through all the pumpkins!

Reese's 1st ride on a tractor.

We went on a hay ride. It was pretty chilly!

Reese's 8 second ride. She's got pretty good form!

She loved the chickens, goats and turkey..... but could have cared less about the lamas.

Catching a ride with the pumpkins.

Happy Birthday Sheppard!!!

Happy birthday baby bro! Since you are celebrating it in Afghanistan I figured I'd try my hand at posting a video. Hope you have a good birthday. We'll see you next month!

Sesame Street Live!!!

Lee and I took Reese to her very 1st show..... a Sesame Street Live performance called Elmo's Green Thumb. Reese absolutely LOVES Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Zoe, but I was a little afraid of how she was going to react at an event like this. Would she like it? Would it scare her? Would she stay in one place for so long?

Thankfully, she had a blast!!! She was dancing while shouting "Elmo Melmo" and "Abby Dabby" over and over again.

Daddy picked out a Zoe doll (which you can see sitting in her lap) as a souvenir from Reese's 1st show. She hasn't let go of this thing since we left the arena.

These are the $8 Elmo balloons that were selling like hot cakes. They brought them out during intermission and people swarmed to them. I couldn't believe how fast people were buying these up. Reese was deprived when it came to these balloons. She was almost successful at taking the one from the little girl sitting behind us though.

We had good seats too. If this were a hockey game we would have been sitting right behind the glass mid-ice. We had no trouble seeing the stage and Telly Monster even walked right past us. Reese reached out her arms like she wanted him to pick her up!

Even Lee and I enjoyed it. We hope to do it again sometime!

Pizza.... a family tradition

Lee's family has been in the pizza business for a long time. He spent much of his youth working at the family owned pizza place in Philadelphia, so he knows a thing or two about how to make a good pie. Last night we started what we think will become one of our own family traditions... family Pizza night.

Reese helping Daddy put on the pizza toppings.

She kept stealing the toppings and eating them.

The 1st pizza getting ready to go into the oven. It's a white (no sauce) spinach and tomato pie. We also made a plain cheese pizza.

Reese & Georgia cleaning up (aka eating) the mess on the chair. "Mmmmmmmmmm!" was Reese's favorite saying for the night.

Reese eating her yummy pizza.

Bow Holder, Climber, Mom-mom

Here's what I made over the weekend..... a bow holder. Reese has tons of bows and we needed a place to put them all. Cute... huh?

Reese loves to climb. She climbs on everything she can. Georgia. The sofa. The coffee table. Her crib. You get the point. She's a climbing maniac.

We went and visited Mom-mom who is Reese's great grandmother. Mom-mom and Reese had fun playing with Ernie (a stuffed Sesame Street character), sticks, leaves, and grass. Reese was able to get a few smiles out of Mom-mom!

Smith Mountain Lake

We're back!

Reese in the knit hat from Bumba.... who Reese now calls Gamma

We just spent a week at a house on Smith Mountain Lake (in Virginia) with Lee's parents, his sister and her family, and his cousin and her family. With 4 children under the age of 3, we had quite a fun trip!

The 1st 2 days we hung out on our own private beach and swam. The next day we rented a boat and had a great time exploring the lake and tubing. Lee even took Reese out for her 1st tubing experience. Then we had a wine tasting at a local winery.... yum! The next day Lee & I rented jet skis and explored the lake on our own while Lee's parents looked after Reese. We made sure to take Reese out for her 1st wave runner experience though. She LOVED it and had a huge smile on her face! (Lee's dad has the pictures of that on his camera, so hopefully I can get copies of those soon!) The last day we went to the beach area at the Smith Mountain Lake state park. It wasn't crowded at all so we had plenty of room to enjoy ourselves.

Such a great trip!

Reese driving the boat!

Reese's 1st tubing adventure.

Corey, Angelina, Reese & Billy in the bath

Reese & Mama swimming.

Reese loves the water. Whenever she could see the lake she would point and say "swim lake." We would put her floaties on, put her in a tube and let her go. She would kick her little legs to get where she wanted to go. Adorable!

Reese on the beach