2010 Christmas Card

I wanted to share my Christmas card with you all!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!!

And while I was in my Shutterfly account I realized that I never shared Trey's announcement with you all. Here it is!!

I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's Christmas and posting all about ours too!

SWAGG FUN & The Best Gift You Ever Gave

SWAGG is a free mobile app (download here) that lets you shop smarter using your mobile phone. Buy, send or swap SWAGG GIFTS and organize your old school plastic gift cards.

For every download of the app between now and Dec. 31, 2010, SWAGG will donate $1 to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) , up to $125,000.

Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG are sending a pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival! Download the SWAGG app and then visit the Ultimate SWAGG Getaway Sweepstakes site to enter to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival. Entry deadline is January 3, 2011, 11:59pm, PST.

The Best Gift I Ever Gave

Do you remember the best gift you ever gave someone? If you had to think less than 5 seconds then I bet it wasn't a "thing" that you gave them.

If someone asks me what the best Christmas gift I ever gave was I don't even have to think about it. I know exactly what the best gift ever was. My son.

Last year the hubs and I found out that we were expecting on Thanksgiving Eve, and since it was still early we had to keep hush during the entire holiday season leading up to Christmas day. It was SO hard. We both almost slipped up a million times.

You see, it was the first grandbaby on both sides of the family and really the first baby in either family in over 15 years.

We waited until everyone was gathered round as my husband said the blessing and included *something* (I was SO nervous, as was he that we still don't recall exactly what he said) to the effect of the new baby we will have at the holidays next Christmas.

Immediately there was lots and lots of screaming, hugging and crying. Our moms could not have been more excited. And at the end of the day we were SO tired but we did it all again - but this time with a bunch of friends where we *toasted* (I had lots of delicious sparkling cider) to the new baby on the way!

He was so loved before we even knew he was a he!

Well that Christmas-time is here now and we have an amazing 4 month old ball of love & fun. And the whole family is enjoying every single minute of it!! They cannot get enough of him and neither can I.

What is the best gift you ever gave?

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Oh Christmas Tree

So let's talk about Christmas for a moment here and how I am a complete contradiction...

I started listening to Christmas music on November 1st.

I had my entire outside decorated with lights, trees, garland, wreathes, bows the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving.

But going to get a Christmas tree... yea that didn't happen until today! And thank goodness the rain held out or it may have been days before we were able to go.

Now I just need to go find our lights for it...

Where ya goin'?

That's what we have to ask Trey every 5 seconds!

Poor kid turned 4 months last Saturday and has been trying his hardest for weeks now to crawl. He gets SO upset when he realizes he can't do it!














All which turns into this....



When did your babies start crawling? Any tips to help him figure it out?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cheeseball...

Trey's most recent nickname because he is constantly "cheesing" it up!













And yes, those are Christmas jammies! The holiday season is in full force around here!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Holiday Party Time!

Starting today through next Friday I am hosting an "online party" with the fabulous A Touch of Whimsy Designs! Just enter the code "BABYTREY10" for a 10% discount on any purchase!

*Online Party - Basically like a pampered chef, jewelry, tupperware, etc. type party but you don't have to drive to my house, pretend to like the wine I picked out, deal with crazy pressure to buy overpriced things you don't need (you can shop in your jammies with your own wine, her things are adorable, super reasonably priced and you actually need them with the holidays coming) AND you get a discount! Pretty cool, right?

Here are some A Touch of Whimsy holiday items that I am just loving!


I think these Preppy Holiday Presents are so cute! ($10 for a set of 12!)


I love gift enclosures - and these are so chic! ($12 for a set of 30)


I think these preppy recipe cards would be such a fun gift for a friend that loves to cook/bake! (A perfect price point, a set of 18 for $13)


And anything with a monogram/initial is fabulous in my book - I'm definitely going to pick up some of these return address labels for my Christmas cards & thank you cards! (And talk about a steal - these are $3.50 for 30!)

I could go on and on!

The 10% off code "BABYTREY10" is good until next Friday, November 26th. Let me know if you have any questions at all!

Learning

Back before Trey was born we purchased a Canon Rebel T2i and I have been having a hard time sitting down and figuring it out, well the other day I FINALLY feel like I got some good shots with it!

Those of you that have DSLR cameras - how did you learn? Books? Classes?

I want to make sure I'm capturing all of Trey's firsts the best way possible!





p.s. I NEVER thought I'd dress Trey in all of the little Carter's outfits with Critters & such on them... HA! Boy was I wrong! This one has a turkey on the butt!

Ten Things

Using every effort to get back in the blogging routine I stole borrowed this Ten On Tuesday um... Thursday from the sweet Ashley of Ashley's Antics.

Ten on Tuesday

1. What is your favorite breakfast pastry?
Pumpkin Scones - LOVE them!!

2. Were you ever in a Thanksgiving or Christmas play?
Oh yes, I was a very dramatic child and HAD to be in the Christmas plays! So fun!

3. What is your favorite clothing accessory?
Coach diaper bag? Oh, I mean scarves!! They help hide the post-baby belly!

4. What is your favorite item of clothing?
Yoga Pants. Yep, I'm officially "that" SAHM. You know, the one who looks like she's going to the gym but really that's just my "uniform"

5. What is your favorite color and why?
Purple. It's actually my Mom's favorite and was my Nanny's favorite too!

6. What is your favorite type of Christmas cookie?
Soft sugar cookies with lots of frosting and sprinkles... YUM!!

7. What is your favorite scent (food, perfume/lotion)
Flowerbomb and the Fresh Lemon Perfume

8. What is your favorite household cleaner?
Method Cucumber multi-purpose spray

9. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up? And what did you actually grow up to be?
I always said I wanted to be a mom or a lawyer.

And I'm trying to be the best SAHM I can be these days!

10. What is the last song or album you bought?
hee hee hee I actually JUST bought the new Mariah Carey Christmas cd (it's ok... not super impressed) AND Now That's What I Call Christmas 4! LOL - it's awesome! Go get it, it's on sale at Tar-jay this week!!

Halloween Weekend

I don't like this holiday Mom, it's SCARY!

This weekend was SO MUCH FUN!!

On Saturday we hung out with some great friends of ours (hi J!) and their sweet daughter, aka Trey's girlfriend. We went to the mall and had lunch at Nordstrom cafe. Have you ever asked for the nutritional information there? Don't do it!!! TRUST ME. You don't want to know...

Then Saturday evening I met up with Whitney Caroline Designs, Stuttering Shell, In No Simple Language and Naturally Caffeinated Family! It had been exactly one year since our last girls night out and Whitney went above and beyond to make reservations, reserve a suite at a swanky hotel, and get us a table at a fun bar! We had a BLAST!!

This was my first night out since I've had Trey. I was so anxious about it, for weeks just the thought of it would make my stomach turn. The idea of leaving him to go do something "fun" was just tearing me up inside.

I knew it needed to be done, I knew he would be more than fine with the hubs and he goes to bed at 9pm sharp now so really, I wouldn't miss much of his evening.

But I still cried... twice.

Once I got there I was much better. It was so great to be with my girlfriends, to be away from the house, in non-maternity clothes, with my first glass of wine since LAST November. See, I told you... it was a big night!



I kept harassing asking the hubs for pics of Trey while I was out and he kept putting me off.

Well, right as we were leaving dinner - this came through on my phone!! How cool is this app for the iPad?! Download it now - it's called Moxier Collage.

(And yes, they went looking at the houses I entered in Mojito Maven's tacky decoration contest!)

On Halloween day we had the hub's family over for some chili and Trey-time before the trick or treaters came knocking.

Sadly the costume we had purchased for Trey (it was 3-6 months which what he wears in everything else - Mom lesson learned on sizing!) so we just had him wear his cute skeleton romper.

We had so much fun hanging out with all of our neighbors and giving out candy. It'll be awesome once Trey is able to go trick or treating!

(We had to make another collage! SO fun!)

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend too!!

Fall Ribbon Topiary How-To

Here's a re-post from my old blog that I thought was season appropriate and a super-fun craft!

Thanks to the amazing Whitney Caroline I learned how to make a Ribbon Topiary from her instructions! I loved the way that it turned out and I have already decided to make a Christmas one next week! Here are some pics from my crafty-ness:

All of my supplies ready to go!


I found that a round Styrofoam ball (5 inch) worked great inside these pots I found as the base - a lot easier than cutting floral foam to fit.


Just getting started with the ribbon - you will need A LOT of pins!!

I spray painted the pot and the dowel rod black - super easy and I LOVE playing with spray paint! I know, I'm like a 10 year old!


Finally coming along.



I used the standard Michael's moss and then spray painted it white to give it a gray "Halloween" look.

Decided it needed the orange band around the pot for some color.

This is the back - no one will see it but I wanted to finish it off kind of cute in case someone was looking.

And ta-da!! The finished project on my kitchen table!!

Let me know if any of y'all make these - I want to see pics!!

While Visions of Christmas Cards Danced in My Head

I have been behind all year. Behind on blogs, cards, gifts, announcements. You name it - I'm behind - still! I guess that's what having a newborn does to you!

Well one thing I am DETERMINED not to be behind on is Christmas cards! Every year it's this mad dash to get pictures, order them, look out the window at the UPS man like a lost puppy, rush to address them and finally get around to putting stamps on them and put them in the mailbox.

I know I can't be the only one who does this!!

So I'm starting the process early this year. We're having pictures taken in a few weeks and in the mean time, I will be looking for a card I love.

Each year I order my Christmas cards from Shutterfly.com - the prices are so reasonable, I love the holiday photo cards best and the quality is awesome!

Here are my Shutterfly Christmas cards from the past 3 years ~

2007


2008

2009

So now here's the hard part - which Shutterfly Christmas card do I use this year for Trey's first Christmas?!


I think this one is super fun and would be great with a silly picture of Trey.



I love the retro feel of this one and would put a picture of the whole family on it.

I really love this one because I could put a bunch of pictures from throughout the year.

Such a hard decision! What do you think? Which option do you all like best?



**I was not paid for this review, but I was compensated with free Holiday cards in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wordless Wednesday