I'm a terrible blogger

I take a lot of pictures (almost 8000 in 2010 that I kept) I just don't ever post them.  Maybe I would be better at having a Shutterfly share site and just post pictures there.

Lets start with some cute pictures from November...

Playing with Playdoh that she got from Halloween

















Gavin trying on his workshop glasses

















Leila, of course, had to do the same.

















Gavin - 16 Months

And my little copycat :)

Checking out the snow

Trying on Daddys hat

How I found Leilas pizza when I was cleaning up.  Apparently she likes peppers on her pizza.

Racing!

Such a good little Mommy

Playing tug-o-war with the toy Leila picked out for Brittanys birthday

All tucked out

Cute little Santa

Eating snow

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

In the past I have used Walmart and seehere.com for my for my Christmas photo cards.  They are ok but not great.  They don't have a lot of designs to choose from and the quality is just not there. 

I found Shutterfly a few years back after trying a lot of different photo printing site.  I love Shutterfly.  I love the print quality, speed of delivery, prices and offers.  Heck, I love everything about Shutterfly.  I store all my pictures on Shutterfly and I like doing huge amounts of prints and once and I get great deals with all the promotions, offers, discounts that Shutterfly offers. Shutterfly even offers a share site so I can share photos with friends/family and they can download them!  Give Shutterfly a try...you will love them!

My Christmas card will come from Shutterfly this year.  I have been browsing the huge selection of prints and I think I am going with this one.













or maybe this one.

















It's such a hard decision!  Maybe you should just see all the Shutterfly Christmas Design Choices for yourself!  Or you can pick a Holiday Card.  And if you can decided on a picture or 3 for you holiday card you could always make a photo calendar and view your pictures all year long!

Bloggers - want to get free 50 Holiday cards from Shutterfly???  Follow this link to sign up.  You will receive an e-mail with the details for your blog post and then you too will receive 50 free Holiday cards!  Blog entrys must be received by Dec 15th.

Santa Pictures

Forever Floral always has Santa the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  I have been talking about it with Leila for weeks now.  Last year she was afraid of him but didn't cry so I was hoping to get her into it.  I told her she was going to sit on Santas lap and he was going to ask her what she wanted for Christmas.  I gave her some ideas of what she might want since she kept saying she wanted hamburger, hot dog, chicken nuggets, grapes...

So, Saturday we was the day.  She was so excited.  We got to Forever Floral around 3pm.  We went over to peek at Santa so they could get a look at him before picture time.  They had nobody waiting so we took off coats and Leila let Santa put her on his lap!  The first thing out of her mouth was I want new colors.  Gavin sat on Santas other knee and both kids kept staring at him.

We tried getting them both to look at the camera but it was one or the other and then Gavin decided he did not like this guy.

So, Leila sat with Santa and they talked about her pretty dress and she had to show him her bow.  Santa especially liked the fuzz on her sleeves because it was just like his.  Leila even ended her visit with a hug!

 

















The cousins showed up too so we tried to get a good cousin picture.  Gavin wanted nothing to do with it but we ended up with a pretty good one.  Nobody looks like they are crying and I can see everybodies eyes!

Xander Aaron

Xander Aaron was born last night at 2:31am.  He was 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 3/4 inches.  Welcome to the world, Xander!

Operation Paci Removal

Leila has been attached to her paci since the day she was born.  Up until she was 6 months old if she didn't have a paci in her mouth she would scream.  I wanted to remove them this summer but we ran out of weekends where we were home and it just didn't happen.  Plus, it's the last "baby" thing...she is potty trained, she sleeps in a big bed, she rides forward facing in the car...so I didn't really want to take it from her.

I was off of work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so I decided it was a good time to maybe lose some sleep over this.  We talked about how Tuesday night would be her last night with the paci. 












Wednesday morning Leila woke up at 7:30.  I told her she could get up if she was ready to throw her pacis away.  She grabbed them and walked to the bathroom garbage and in they went.

We ended up going to my brothers all day Wednesday so we skipped Leilas first nap without a paci.  We left my brothers around 5:30.  Leila asked for her paci a few times and we talked about how she threw them away because they were icky and she was a big girl.  She was sleeping 5 minutes after we left my brothers.  She woke up about 2 minutes before we got home and cried for her paci.  When we got home Chad came out to get her and she just wanted to go to bed.  We thought maybe she would nap a little so Chad put a diaper on her a put her to bed in her clothes.  She cried for 20 minutes for her paci and was sleeping by 7.  She did not wake up until 5am and was upset that she couldn't find her paci.  Chad brought her in bed with me when he left for work at 6.  She wanted water, then said she was wet and want to go to sleep in her bed. I put a new diaper and jammies on her, read her a book and put her in her bed.  She slept from 7-9!  Napping was ok.  It took her a while to fall asleep but she napped 2.5 hours.  The following days were just about the same.  Cried a little when put down for nap/bed but slept her normal amount of hours.  I did have to tell her a few mornings that we don't get up until it's light out and she went back to sleep. 

I'm very proud of my big girl!  As a reward for no paci we went shopping and she got a horse (ok Gavin got one too but I told Leila it's for when Gavin gets rid of his pacis).

Costumes

Last Saturday I dug out the costumes my mom bought for the kids last year after Halloween.  Leila is a "scary" witch.

The cape did not come with the costume but my mom said she made it when she was in 1st grade and thought it would look good with the costume.  The hat is a little big so Chads mom found one at Goodwill that fits her much better.  Leila loves being a scary witch.

My mom bought Gavin a Buzz Lightyear costume in size 12 months.  The booties were a little tight but the costume fits.  Too bad its too small to fit clothes underneath to actually go outside and trick or treat.















 

So, Chads mom found a really cute bat costume and a really cute puppy costume at Goodwill.  I debated which one she should get since a bat would go really good with Leilas witch costume but Gavin really loves puppies right now. 

\

I think we chose the right one!

Halloween Flashback

2009

Gavin ~ My Little Pumpkin

Leila ~ My Little Red Riding Hood

Kiddos

2008

Leila ~ My Little Pumpkin