Christmas Cards

Every year I attempt to send out Holiday Cards, and by attempt I mean I try to send them out before Christmas day. However I've been known to send them out after New Years, and sometimes, they even get spaced out to February. But at least they get sent out...right? So what if the picture on my card last year was taken of Bella when she was 4 months old, and by the time you actually got your card she was 9 months old and looked nothing like her picture...ha!

Anyway, I'm going to "attempt" this year to get them out before Christmas once again, but I'm holding no promises to that "attempt". I always have the hardest time picking out which pictures to use and then which photo card to put them on. I am terrible at making decisions which is part of the reason my cards are never out on time. The only thing I do know is that I'll be using Shutterfly to make my cards this year.

My favorites from Shutterfly are the cards that you can add multiple pictures to, even if it makes me have to pick out even more pictures to use. And every year Ben and I have a debate at whether our card should say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas". I like it to say "Happy Holidays" because I like to include the holidays that everyone celebrates. But Ben thinks it should say "Merry Christmas" because that is the holiday that WE celebrate. Either way, here are 2 top contenders for our card this year.....(click on the picture to shop other photo cards)

(or maybe we'll make it easier and just pick one picture and no "happy holidays" or "merry christmas" at all.....)

You'll just have to wait until you get your card this year....or maybe next year....to see who "wins" the debate this year:)

*If you have a blog and would like to find out how you could get some free holiday cards check out Shutterfly's blog promotion.

The Karate Kid and His Princess

The Karate Kid and the Army Guy....

The Princess and her Grandma....

The Mooing Cow, The Pumpkin, The Gangster, The Princess, and The Karate Kid....

The Princess...

....and her piggies! (Yes her hair, in the back, is just long enough to get into 2 pigtails, but she'll only keep them in for about 30 seconds....or long enough to take this photo)

Wordless Wednesday...Love

Whether it truly be "love" or best friends or more like brother and sister, we've already arranged their marriage :)....They're just too cute together!

BIG Boy Toy Too

Boy Toy

Connor has a new love in his life, and it comes in the form of a blue 4 wheeler. The first 2 weeks we had the 4 wheeler, we had to pry him off of it to come in and eat or to go to bed. Ben and I had visions of a very chubby 5 year old because of the lack of physical exercise. But after 2 weeks the excitement wore off and how he just rides it for about an hour a day....that is if he has been good during the day. We have a chart now where he earns 10 minutes of riding time for doing good things, listening to mom/dad, helping his sister out, and just being a nice boy. But then he loses those minutes everytime he doesn't listen, talks naughty, or is mean. The first day he lost all his minutes, but learned very quickly that he needed to be good, and it has worked pretty well ever since. I just have to remind him about his minutes and he usually changes his attitude. We now have something very important.....LEVERAGE! And it is an amazing tool in behavior modification!
And he loves to give EVERYBODY a ride on it too!

Wordless Wednesday....Melts My Heart!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bob! Love Always, Connor & Bella

Five

This handsome young man turned 5 years old... last month!

We celebrated by seeing the movie Despicable Me and eating popcorn and drinking juice boxes.

He opened a few presents and exclaimed, "This is the best present EVER!" as he opened each present. And continued to thank me throughout the day for his new toys, and for taking him to the movies. (So sweet)

He's becoming such a young man who appreciates the little things in life.

He loves more than anything to turn on some music and show off his newest dance moves....which oddly enough have been resembling my tap dancing abilities.

He would also love to spend his entire day playing outside....especially now that he has a new toy outside....but you'll have to wait to find out what that one is.

He started PreK again this year and looks forward to it everyday. Ask him what he learned in school or what his favorite part of the day was and he will reply, without hesitation, recess. Last year he had a girlfriend the first week of school and it lasted the entire year, however in class he only ever played with the boys. This year he tells me he doesn't want a girlfriend, but everyday he is telling me about how he played with the girls...go figure.

Just this week he decided he was too big for cartoons and only wants to watch "adult shows" and he only wants to watch discovery channel. It's pretty hard to find a show on tv that is not a cartoon and is an "adult show" that he can actually watch, so we watch a lot of animal planet now.

He is becoming such a sweet, caring, responsible young man. He is my blond hair, blue eyed, foot taller than all his classmates, karate kicking, bike riding, break dancing, country singing, sister loving, baby....err....big 5 year old boy. And I love every single ounce of him!

Happy (just a little bit late) Birthday Connor!

Busy, Lazy...Excuses

Yes I realize it has been far too long since I've been here. I can give all the excuses in the world like I've been really busy (painting Connor's room camo), or lazy (laying in bed with a sick baby girl...who is finally getting better), or not having Ben here (he's working in ND), or being completely overwhelmed with the amount of pictures I've taken (with my new camera!), or whatever it may be. But I decided that I was going to get 1 post in before the month of September was over (which is in 30 mins)...talk about procrastination!

Anyways, October's line up....catch up on the things we've done in that last month, like....

Connor's 5th Birthday
Annual Brown/Mattmiller Camping Adventure
Outings with friends to the park
A trip to the Apple Orchard
And whatever else I find pictures of on my camera's memory card

Until then a picture of my favorite kiddos, who have been playing together so well lately. Big brother wants to teach little sister everything....including how to play tennis. Who knows maybe she'll be the next tennis pro in the family like my little sister who just won #4 singles CHAMPIONSHIP! Congrats Hailey....So proud of you! :)

Fun at the park

Kids say the darndest things...2

So today we were sitting out on the deck and I saw this one huge cloud in the sky. I showed it to Connor and this is what he told me about that cloud. He said that when it is time for someone to "go up to God," the big clouds come over there house to pick them up and that's how they get up with God. He has an explanation for everything, and it's always like "duh mom" you should know that! It's amazing the things he thinks of.

Redneck WHAT? Wednesday

So last week I asked you why there was a screw in this pencil.....

Well it was to keep the pencil from falling through the cracks while spacing these boards...

To make my new favorite hang out.....

Our deck, we finally have a deck! And I believe we have sat on that deck every single day since it has been up.

So this week I ask you why there is a big piece of poly laying in our yard....but you don't have to wait long for the answer:)....

Of course it is our redneck slip and slide....That the boys slid down for 3 straight hours the other day.

And Connor has been practicing his own bengineering skills...by putting the baby slide at the top of the redneck slip and slide....

And sliding down it for a little jump start.....He has his father's creativity:)

Oh and that piece of poly serves another purpose...It is also the cover to our swimming pool.