Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I promised to be back with our Christmas Cards this year and I aim to deliver, even if it is a couple days after Christmas!

I’ve been using Shutterfly for about 4 years now. I like the quality of their photos, photo books and photo cards, as well as their prompt delivery of said products.

After Caveboy was born I was very insistent on having a family photo each year and would force my guys to comply and the photos always looked like they had been forced, but over the past couple of years I stopped trying to force the photo shoot horror on them and have attempted to just get a few decent photos of Caveboy.

Front – Christmas Card 2013

This year, with my crazy school schedule, work and just normal life stuff, Caveman gave me the best Christmas gift a few months eary – a family photo shoot. Oddly enough even though my guys were cooperating, Caveboy looked like he could cry or was completely bored in most of the photos or they just turned out too blurry or dark.

This cover photo is the very first photo we took and it is completely us right now! Caveman has never been that relaxed in front of the camera so he looks to be more at attention, Caveboy currently sings/rhymes/talks all.the.time. these days and I’m smiling praying everyone else is too! This is what happens when you use the self timer to get family photos, but again this photo is completely us at this stage in our lives.

Back – Christmas Card 2013

I decided to use our Halloween costume photo on the back because it was really cute and turned out remarkably well for an inpromptu family photo. If you’ll recall I wasn’t able to make the dress I had planned for the day of Halloween but the weekend after Halloween I quickly finished it in time for the postponed party at our church where we were able to attend as one of the Duck Dynasty families!! The pink & olive green camo pattern mini dress was a hit along with Caveboy’s fleece beard and Caveman’s attire. It was a great memory and a great photo to include in our Christmas greeting this year!

The individual photos of Caveboy were included because everyone loves to see how much he’s grown. On the cover that photo was taken after we had returned home, in our front yard. The photo on the back was taken during the photo shoot earlier in the day. It was the least dark and actually in focus of the bunch. So I guess you could say this Christmas card is filled with planned and unplanned photos and that makes it all the more special to me.

Shutterfly makes creating cards easy, just upload your digital photo and place in the card. Shutterfly makes picking out a card extremely hard because there are just too many great card templates to choose from!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a very blessed and Happy New Year! See you in 2014!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Shutterfly. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. I did not receive anything from Shutterfly to endorse them, I just like passing along info on a good company when I can.

Amazing Amazon.com Christmas Deals!

Yes, it would seem I’m breaking my radio silence to bring you some amazing deals from Amazon just in time for Christmas!

This year I told Caveman I really wanted a bracelete for Christmas. So I found a few great examples on Pinterest, showed them to him and asked if he would visit a local jewelry shop to purchase them. He decided he didn’t want to make any purchases without my approval so we visited the jewelry shop together this weekend, with a sicker-than-we-thought Caveboy intow. At the shop the prices were REALLY high and Caveboy was definitely sicker-than-we-thought! So….when we got home and I looked up some braceletes on Amazon and found this beauty.

This year has been really hard picking out the special something for Caveboy! He went around telling everyone he was getting an iPad until I finally got him to understand that iPad’s are just a little too much for a 4-year old! He loves dinosaurs but lately he’s also been getting interested in matchbox cars. I decided to search for matchbox racetracks at Amazon.com and what do you think I came across? This amazing (doesn’t require batteries, got great reviews from other customers, & doesn’t make any additional sounds) dino-matchbox-racetrack! He’s gonna love it! I threw in some other dinosaur related books, stamps and temporary dino tatoos for fun and I’m calling it done!

Caveman asked specifically for one of these babies, way back in the summer so how could I refuse?!

We’ve gotten free shipping on most all the orders and some amazing deals are going on right now. If you are still needing a last minute gift but can’t get out to the stores, head on over to Amazon.com now. Here’s the ordering cutoffs as of 12/16!

I’ll be back later this week with a few reveiws and our Christmas Card this year!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links. All opinions are my own!

Happy Halloween 2013!

1st up we have my Caveman as a Cowboy! 2nd up, Caveboy as a lumberjack/Duck Dynasty cast member!

Please forgive the quality of these photos, but it was the end of the day and we were attempting to beat the rain that was threatening in order to get a few photos. Also I thought it would be beautiful to take our photos in front of this burning bush, but my poor cell phone camera couldn’t quite handle the vibrant reds.

I used this tutorial to make Caveboy’s beard! I love Ashley‘s blog, she has the best tutorials and check out her kids Halloween costumes! They are amazing. This little beard took me about 30 minutes to make the other night, with Caveboy jumping up and down, crying to wear his beard the whole time!! LOL Patience, he has yet to master!

My Halloween outfit and Caveboy and I

Fall has exploded with some beautiful colors this week and hotter than normal temps!

If you follow me over on Instagram you will see a few other fall photos I’ve taken on my daily walk to school. Not much has been happening other than work, school, family – repeat! I’ve survived 3 exams thus far this semester. Just wanted to drop in quickly today with a little update! I’m looking forward to the holidays just to I can slow down some!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween and Fall so far!!