I've done it!!

And.... before December is here!!  May only be a mere 1 hour and 45 minutes left of November but I accomplished my Christmas Card!  It helped that I earned 50 free ones just blogging about them! Have I mentioned I love FREE! And making things!!

I wish I had more time, but I seem to be far behind the 8 ball this year! I can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that Christmas is only 26...almost 25 days away! I am normally so on top of these things! I would be the first person to suggest to the family to put up decorations before Thanksgiving, but I just don't know when it will get done this year!

Well, here is to checking things off the long list! Ahhhhh, it feels good!

Have you done your Christmas cards yet? Did you know that for a price Shutterfly will even address and send out your cards for you... I haven't gone there yet!

With Love Blue Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Leaves, Leaves and more Leaves!

Wow!!  So, we bought this house in this lovely place because of the trees and the backyard!!

It's one thing to view a property when the snow is melting, the grass is green and the trees are blooming... to envision the future and all the wondrous things we could do with unlimited funds! Then, reality sets in and it's quite another thing to understand the up keep of such a wonderful yard!

                                                  So here is our trusty rake... that we have NOT used!













And here are some of the wonderful people that we hired to help us out!! Amazing what you can do with blowers... I think if I tried it they would be all over the place, not in a neat pile!



Scary thing is we have this many
leaves every week!!!















And...we still have plenty more to look forward too!!


It's amazing what you find under the leaves....




















Here are some great pictures of the kids enjoying all these leaves!!

I love this... it actually looks like he is laying on them when in reality he is about 3-4 feet off the ground!

Annie enjoys having the kids to run around with!

Luckily, the guys doing the clean up didn't see the kids jumping in these huge piles!!

Final product: a nice cleaned up yard... well worth the $$!!  
Don't you think?? 

Free!! A lovely Early Christmas Present - to ME!

This is very exciting stuff!!

I love photography, I love scrapbooking, I love making gifts!!  What I don't love is that I don't have the time to accomplish all of this!

Each year about this time, I start to think about my Christmas card lists.  The list gets longer and longer each year, which is a good thing right? In the past, I have planned and spent hours making a unique design with papers and embellishments to accompany our family Christmas picture.  With my life so crazy busy and my card list growing, I need to channel my creative juices toward the digital product!  I'm excited to try something new this year!
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

I'm in between two designs... both have the cool monogram and I think I like the mix of color with B&W photos.  I am leaning more towards the Blue and Brown pictured above!

I recently saw a fellow blogger post about the incredible offer from Shutterfly for bloggers to receive 50 free Christmas cards!! 

This is going to make my life so much easier this season!

The last 5 or so years I have made Shutterfly Calendars for a select few!
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

They are so fun to make and even more enjoyable through out the year!  It is a very user friendly website and lots of options to really personalize each page, or calendar depending on how in depth you want to make it!


I love how I can even add family and friends birthdays or other significant events right onto the printed calendar... AND Shutterfly saves this info for me for the next year when I want to make a calendar again!


I will also be looking into some other gift ideas like stationery...
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
My daughter loves writing letters and what a great way to encourage her with her own personal stationery!!

I love photography, I love scrapbooking,  I love making gifts and I LOVE having it in all one location!

$$$ Moving, Life $$$

You would think money is liquid the way it pours out of us! It's hard to believe we have been in Virginia for 31/2 years now... we have lived in two houses and will make it a nice odd 3 soon! Yes, our lease will end in July and it is time to find another dwelling place. 

When we first came house hunting, I had certain things I was hoping for... a colonial style home, hardwood floors, lots of space around the house with a nice sized yard. We drew a circle on a map with the number of miles we would live from Michael's work, so that he wasn't commuting for hours a day.  We found a house that had all my wants and it was gorgeous! We had great neighbors, kids to play with, 5 bedrooms, great study for homeschooling 2 of the 4 kids that year, 3rd floor room and bath for mom... perfect for all our needs!We traded Michael's truck and bought a Prius to save money on the commute and all was good.

Then the owners of the home (military folks like us), came back somewhat unexpected and we needed to find a new home. Of course staying in the same schools was the goal along with the criteria I had wanted to begin with... well, the house God led us to... and I mean this because it truly was the ONLY house that would accommodate a family our size with a price we were willing to spend, in the same high school district...wasn't exactly what I wanted.  I have spent the last 2 1/2 years, mumbling under my breathe, I hate this house... I don't really... it just isn't my style. Don't get me wrong, I am truly thankful that God has provided for us! The market was crazy at that time and there were so few rentals unlike now. It is a contemporary style house from the early 70's, no hardwood in the house, we walk in circles looking for each other, no yard to speak of... and now for the positives...We are across the street from the high school, very cool for Shaun and when there are events.  It is very close to the metro, so easy for Michael to get to work. It only has 4 bedrooms but we have managed with a large basement that could accommodate teenage boys, with weight set, ping pong table etc. 

So here we are almost at the end of the 3 year lease and have to make some decisions! Kyle has moved back to Cali, Shaun will be a senior this fall and is looking at schools here in Virginia to possibly play football... I love watching him play football, I can't even imagine being far away and not being at the games... whether or not he plays or is on the bench... I want to be there! 

Mom is still living with us and it is great to be close to my sisters. We all have really enjoyed being able to visit and spend time together, living 3000 miles away is hard... as Michael now knows since we are away from his family! Jacob will be going into 6th and final grade of elementary school and Rachel will be a 3rd grader. Jacob had to change schools when we moved to this house and if we move again I feel pretty confident he could stay at his current elementary school to finish out 6th grade.  We have been looking at houses to buy for the last couple of weeks... very stressful! 

Goals are still the same, and we are willing to make a couple of sacrifices if the property is right! Which brings me to today... we put an offer on a property... the house is cute, the land is GREAT! The house isn't quite big enough... YET! It has porch, it's a colonial, it has almost 3/4 of an acre, it has a beautiful deck with a hot tub, it's a neighborhood that has a nice feel to it... you drive down and say "I could live here".  One down side: we aren't in the same elementary school district again... still don't think it is a problem for Jacob, but what to do with Rachel? I believe God is preparing just the right home for us and will work it all out! It may be this house or if not it is my prayer he quickly redirects us! Here are a couple of pictures of the potential new home...

The down sides... 

3 bedrooms, yes that's right we went from 5bedrooms to 4 bedrooms to 3!  (Only lost 1 kid)

1 car garage

The up sides to our down sides...

Easily can be made bigger...just need more money!!

There is ample space next to the one car garage for a 2 car garage, we are thinking this is the first thing to do and change the 1 car into more living space inside the house.

Eventually we would like to put an addition over the 1 car and possible push out the back a little. Then we would have lots of room, hopefully by then all the kids won't be grown and gone! HA! We have no idea how long we will be on this side of the world but it is something we can live with now. I'm always shocked when I see these older neighborhoods with little cute cape cod homes lining the streets how these families had lots of kids and 1 bathroom!! We can make this work!

What do you think of my potential new home??

Michael's Birthday!

Today is my darling husbands birthday!!

I have made cute little favor boxes with truffles inside to take to Outback Steakhouse tonight along with my homemade Chocolate Marbled Almond Cheesecake!! Mine won't look this pretty but it will taste yummy! This recipe is out of one of my favorite and well loved cookbooks Land -O- Lakes cookbook... you know it isn't going to be low anything with Land O Lakes in the name! Look I found a link...
http://www.recipezaar.com/chocolate-marbled-almond-cheesecake-394354

 and successfully put it in my blog! Wow!

Guess my creative juices are flowing again! Thank goodness.  I feel like I have been in a funk for quite awhile not wanting to do anything! I think Valentine's Day was a surprise for me when I didn't do a thing. No cards, nothing for the kids or my husband for that matter. I am usually so with it when it comes to these things! Luckily I have an awesome husband who stepped up and had presents for the kids and of course me! 

So I made a an effort... although notice I am not cooking dinner tonight... didn't want to go too far! Thanks to my mom it was her wonderful idea to go to Outback! Good thing Michael doesn't read my blog... he might have learned of our plans before tonight!

And his presents...  they go with our family goals! Won't spoil yet but they will be used when we explore this year! We have made a list of things we want to go see and do and I am hoping his presents will be of great use! I think he will like them.

How am I doing so far on this blog thing?? It's kinda fun!

Snowcation!!

Is it really the middle of February already!? So much for this blogging thing!! I really thought I would get some good blogging time during this snow fest.  The kids have been out of school for quite awhile, tonight was supposed to be the last night of our wonderful snowcation... however, the schools will be closed again tomorrow! AND more snow on the way, God only knows when they will really return! I am amazed with the folks of northern Virginia and how quickly they turn on this weather! I am not tired of the snow, nor of my kids being home.  We have played lots of games (mostly trouble... seems to be Rachel's favorite game), watched a lot of movies, done some crafts and gone sledding.  The kids have had sleep overs, slept late and pretty much lounged.  It has been a nice reprieve of activities.

check out my cool drop of water from the icicle

                                                                                    

In some ways it has been better than our Christmas vacation, no stress of visitors, cards, shopping, wrapping etc. Probably should take note that this is what breaks and vacations should be like! Family Time!  We did enjoy a visit from my sister, she arrived before the second blizzard and we loved being snowed in with her and her little new bundle of joy...zack!

I didn't actually go sledding with the kids... just took pictures. My back isn't quite up to that. Speaking of my back, quick update: It has been 7 1/2 months since surgery, went back last month for my 6month check up and the bone graft is growing nicely. As far as pain goes... well, it goes.  I am still on the nerve medication to help with sciatic pain and numb toes, but the good new is I rarely take the pain medication. I think I worry about becoming addicted to such strong medications that I don't take them as often as I could.  I haven't been able to keep up my walking the last few weeks. Icy sidewalks and slipping just isn't what I need right now. The stiffness is starting to go away, my physical therapist told me that scar tissue actively grows for the first six months then tapers off and is the main reason for that uncomfortable stiff feeling!  Stretching and walking are the best medicine... if this snow continues might need to buy a treadmill!

Kids are all doing well... although I think they have all forgot what they were learning in school.  I think it is still wrestling season although Shaun hasn't wrestled since we went to Pennsylvania almost 3+ weeks ago. His district competition was canceled and Regionals is supposed to be Tuesday and Wednesday... unless there is more snow, which is possible. Such a crazy season!

Jacob is still taking piano privately, trumpet through school and hasn't decided which spring sport he will participate in this year, Rachel on the other hand is too involved at the moment! Piano, dance, cheer...and soccer is will start soon! I don't know what happened to my rule of one activity per child at a time! She likes it all and wants to do it all! Once wrestling season is over for Shaun, he is all about getting into the weight room and prepping for football season! We will be going for college visits this spring... I can't believe it's that time already!

I've heard of this phenomenon, that time seems to fly by faster the older you get... I was hoping it wasn't true! 

January Goals

Well, I had good intentions of starting this blog at the beginning of the year (I'm only 20 days late)! I have set some goals for this year for myself as well as the family.

I hope to keep in better contact with family and friends and I am hoping this blog will aid my effort!

I have some organizational goals... I need to be a better steward of our things, it has been far too long since we have had a good cleaning out!! (The thought of moving to a different house at the end of summer might be spurring this on too!)
I want to clean up my picture/storage/scrapbook mess too. I take so many pictures but do so little with them. I hope to get more creative with sharing them as well as improve my photography skills!

I hope to plan and follow through with more family trips, both big and small to see many of the great places around us. We did so well touring around when we first moved to Virginia, I want to reignite our spark of curiosity and excitement!

Exercise is of course on the list, I did really well last year starting in April with walking everyday to prepare for surgery. I continue to walk, although not everyday, I'm fairly faithful in my exercise regime but it is time to step it up. I have been waiting for pain to subside, which doesn't seem likely at this point so I'm going to "just do it"!

...Ok, enough goal setting! Time to start working on them!