Shutterfly Cards

Hello everyone! Today I'm writing about a site I've found, Shutterfly, and some of their amazing products! If you haven't gone yet, Shuttefly is a great site with many options for turning your photos into gifts, prints, cards, etc. They often have free gifts and deals. In fact, you get 50 free prints just for joining and I got an 8x8 hard-bound photo book completely FREE from a recent deal they were doing.

Anyway, I thought with the holiday season coming up, I would share a little about this site. They have not only a TON of great gift ideas for parents, grandparents, etc., but also great Christmas card options. You can have photo greeting cards, photo stationery cards, or the most common flat photo cards. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
A great gift idea for the holidays: a photo calendar! My mother-in-law received one of these for Christmas last year (perfect timing for a new calendar!) and she LOVED it. I love how useful it is and personalized--they can see your beautiful pictures all year long! It's easy to make them cute without having to be a master scrapbooker. http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Another great idea that will be applicable in the coming months is a photo graduation announcement. What a great idea! Make your own personalized invite with a picture built in! (no more getting the same old invite and adding a 4x6) http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/announcements/graduation-announcements

There are many other options for turning your pictures into something neat, and they are pretty affordable. Right now, I'm pretty sure they have 20-30% off almost everything and options for free shipping.

Also, if YOU have a blog and would like 50 FREE Christmas cards, you can do what I did and write a post, etc. Just go to http://bit.ly.sfly2010/. It's honestly very easy and worth it! I plan on creating fun photo cards to send out to all my friends/family, I can't wait!

Good luck with your preparations for the holidays, I hope this gave you some ideas!!

Baby Blessing, Military Ball, and Baby Smiles!

My little guy is growing up! I wanted to add a few updates and pictures.

About a week ago, Nov. 7th, we had Thomas' baby blessing. We were thrilled to have so many people able to come and support him/us! With most of both of our families and many friends, we had about 60 people! It went very well, both the blessing and the luncheon afterwards. He was so good during Sacrament meeting and looked cute in the outfit John was blessed in as a baby. Thanks to all who made an effort to come and pitched in for the yummy soup/rolls/dessert potluck! It was great! We know not all could make it, and we appreciate your love and support from all over the country. :)

Saturday night, John and I were able to attend the Military Ball on campus. (Thanks to John's little brother Dallin who missed the USU basketball game to watch little Thomas for us!) John was dressed in his "dress greens" and I (for a lack of anything else to wear that fits post-baby) wore my old choir dress. :) We got all spiffied up and enjoyed a classy date night with live bands, dancing, and people. It was fun!

Well, I mentioned in my last post that Thomas has just started to smile. This has literally benn within the last week and is still a pretty rare occurance. However, I was able to capture some pics and video while he was in a particularly smiley mood this morning. Enjoy! :)

One month later...

Hello! Well, it's a month later and we're still alive! (that's a good sign) Though there have been many sleepless nights and some days of frustration, it's been a wonderful month. Our little Thomas makes us smile every day and we STILL can't get enough kisses/snuggles!

Some things we've noticed about him: He smiles in his sleep. He also frowns and does little scowls and a soft cry. VERY cute. He also really likes to be held. I know all babies do...but he seems to even more than normal. If he falls asleep in your arms or while eating (which he usually does), he jumps at any flinch. No matter how sound asleep he was, usually he wakes up within 1-2 minutes when you put him down. Mostly now he gives me 2 or 3 hours at a time to sleep at night, though he went 5 1/2 hours once! (hallelujah!) We have also noticed that Huggies diapers are NO BUENO. At least not for him. Almost every single diaper leaks all over him, and many times the diaper itself is dry. (grrr!) We tried to work with it and tough it out, but we give up! (Several loads of baby laundry later...) We've gone several places like to my house (2 1/2 hour drive) and to the cabin (3 hour drive) and he's been very good to sleep the whole way. (We try and time it right). He also slept through all of church one week! He likes showers but not so much getting out. He makes lots of funny faces and grunts. He eats A LOT. Like A LOT. Some afternoons, I feed him all afternoon with short breaks in between. He's sure a snugglebug! A couple of days ago, he gave me his first real smile! (IE: not in his sleep) He was looking right at me and gave me a wide-open smile with those little dimples! SO cute. One of those a day and I can forgive every poopy blowout and down-my-shirt puke! Can you believe he is almost 7 weeks old??

On another note, John had an interview and got the internship he was hoping for! That means we'll be moving to Elko, NV this summer and he will be working at Newmont Gold Mine in an underground mine! It is an excellent opportunity because it will look good on his resume, give him applicable work experience, pay him great money, we like the location, and the company has promised they will hire at least 2 of their 5 interns, so it has potential afterwards. Hopefully we'll be able to find somewhere to live! :S


Yesterday was Veteran's Day and John was asked to give a speech for the school's program along with a World War II vet. His mom and brother came and we went to watch him. He did GREAT on his speech! I'm so proud of him. Later that night, we went to Texas Roadhouse with some friends to take advantage of the free military meal, it was delicious.

We thought we'd add some pictures and a video for y'all. We have posted all of our pictures on our picasa site if you want to see them all. (picasaweb.google.com)

NAKED!

Ready for church! An ADORABLE outfit...

Halloween

Daddy time!

At 4 weeks old...

Grouchy!!

Tummy time

Cuddle time with daddy