Diapers.com and Soap.com

I never use to buy things online... well rarely anyway... But nowadays it seems like that's the only place I buy things! Especially since having children. I can't remember how I heard about diapers.com... but I tell you what it is the greatest thing ever!!!

First off... if you haven't tried diapers.com you really should.
My Share the Savings Code:  LAUR4061
And if you haven't tried it you should use my code and you'll get free stuff!!! Or at least you'll get 15% off your first order! Your ENTIRE ORDER!! That's only if you haven't bought from them before...
I hate buying diapers... but the fact that I can just jump online... if my order is $49 or more (which is not hard to do when buying diapers and wipes.....) it ships FREE. And straight to my doorstep, usually within 2 days! I mean I just ordered some yesterday... and they were already here today. How awesome is that? I didnt' have to worry about them taking up too much space in my shopping cart. I didnt have to lug them around the store and then in the house from my car. I really like the pampers sensitive swaddlers and some stores don't even carry them... so no worries about that either. You can also find specialty items like sunscreen and toys. I just bought Ceej's 1st bday present!!!

Now I know what you're thinking.......... I don't have kids in diapers anymore.... or I don't have kids at all. Well you still need toilet paper.... and paper towels... how about shampoo and mascara?! That's why its so cool that they just partnered with soap.com. Seriously I was a little skeptical at first. But they lured me in with $15 off my first order for just trying them. And they even have free shipping after $25. So yea... once again... if you haven't tried either diapers.com or soap.com you should. Its free shipping..... and NO TAX!!! So its awesome. And most of the time they have specials going... and I know for a fact JDub just bought kleenex at the store... ok not Kleenex but Puffs Plus with lotion and it would have been cheaper to buy them on soap.com. So now I know!! Once again My Share the Savings Code: LAUR4061 its the same code for Soap.com and Diapers.com

You have the same sign in for both accounts. You can get stuff from diapers.com and soap.com all in the same order.... the same shopping cart.. so its awesome. I love it!!! The only downside is they don't have a lot of customer reviews for their products... but you can always go on amazon and find reviews...... Anywho, I really like it cause they have stuff I usually forget I need at the store. And I have to buy diapers just once a month... and then I can get those items I forget like dish detergent as well!

Oh wait there's more!

Oh wait I forgot to tell you one of the other things that totally sucks right now....... I CAN'T TASTE MY FOOD!!!

I could be eating dog crap and I wouldn't know b/c I can't smell or taste anything right now. Been like that since Saturday. Had spaghetti that night. Didn't matter if it was good... couldn't taste any of it. Sure not being able to smell can come in handy... like when changing a dirty diaper, or if your husband has gas. But it also sucks when you want to smell fresh laundry, a candle you just lit, or if you can't figure out why your babe is crying... oh wait you have a dirty diaper... how long has that been like that?!

I am hungry, but eating anything is depressing b/c I think ooo this sounds good! Oh wait... why even bother cooking when I can't enjoy it! Talk about going on a diet.... they need to create a pill that makes you not tatse and then you'll lose weight... but then you'll be more depressed than ever. I love food. I love eating. Oreos... eh why eat the calories if I can't even enjoy the sweet taste in my mouth! This better go away soon so I can enjoy my food again....

Ugh... ok really I think I'm done now....

Sick of being sick

WARNING: If you don't want to hear a lot of complaining and moaning then stop reading this entry now.... I don't blame you if stop reading now :)

I can't decide what's worse.... having sick kids... or being sick.... OH WAIT I KNOW!!! Being sick AND having sick kids at the same time!!! Yep that's pretty bad... Not only are you having to take care of your sick lil guys, but you also feel like absolute crap. Every time you have to wipe their little noses they're kicking and screaming and shoving you away. Like your head doesn't hurt already from the ridiculous head cold you have. Like you enjoy having to hold down your baby and get that green aspirator and suck an unimaginably huge amounts of snot from his nose and then have him cry more, creating even more snot to have to suck out again.

Here's a recap of the last couple weeks in our house...

Thursday: Bubba wakes up with runny nose. Constantly having to wipe and/or have him blow it. He's only 2 but does know how to blow his nose. He just chooses to run around wiping it on his sleeve, your shirt, the blanket on the couch, whatever he feels like pretty much. I am having to wash my hands constantly as well to try to not get sick myself, causing my knuckles to crack open and bleed periodically b/c of the cold/dry weather.

Saturday/Sunday: Am awoken to Ceej crying like a banshee in his room. I make JDub deal with it... cause well its the weekend and I need a night off every once in a while myself.. after a while of course he brings babe into our room and I am jolted awake by the sound of him struggling to breathe... I nurse him to calm him down... but he is still struggling to inhale. I burst into tears and say I don't know what's going on but we are going to the hospital... After recruiting my mom at 1:00 in the morning to come over (apparently even in your 50's as a mom you still don't get a good night's sleep....... sorry) and stay with Bubba, JDub and I head to the hospital. Only to have Ceej sound way better b/c turns out he has the croup... pretty much just a viral thing you can't do anything for. They did however give him a shot of a steroid to help the inflammation so he could breathe.

Wed/Thursday: Once again woken by Ceej crying at the top of his lungs. This time at least being able to breathe.. but still even nursing him would not console him. Thought I saw him pulling at this ears, and had been forewarned that croup can then turn into ear infections....

Thursday: Lugged both sick boys into the freezing car to the doctor's office we went... Only to find out $25 copay later his ears are just fine... nothing to do... That night MY nose starts running....

Friday: Wake up feeling like death... kind of wishing I were actually dead... Have to somehow pull myself together and take care of these children...... Thank goodness (I know its mean...) JDub comes home early around 1:00 pm he's sick as well... only not feeling as much like death as I do so I am able to take a nap for a few hours.

Saturday: Its my sister's baby shower... which I am hosting.. and all though my other sister was suppose to be there to help poor thing got the stomach flu and couldn't make it (I know her pain b/c all of us had that over Christmas). So yea had to get up and shower and look presentable, and thanks to some ibuprofen I made it. Later that night start to feel fluid in my ears and pain.....

Sunday: Needless to say we didn't make it to church... Ceej was still hacking and well I headed to urgent care to find out yep... I have a double ear infection. After leaving and going to Walgreens to pick up my prescription... oh wait... its only 9:15 am and the pharmacy doesn't open til 10:00.... GRAND!! I come back home and again wallow in my own self-pity. JDub was nice enough to head back out to pick up my meds.

Monday: Bubba is still coughing... and blowing nose a few times a day... But much better over all. Carter is still hacking away, the mornings are the worst... JDub is now feeling like death... but still has to go to work, just like the rest of us.

Tuesday: I think Ceej woke up in the middle of the night... and I thought.. ok.. I'll wait 3 minutes... and then whoops I hear JDub's alarm going off. So either I just fell asleep while he cried or he actually soothed himself... or I dreamt the whole thing. Its really hard to tell these days with all the sleep deprivation. So initially thought it would be a good day.. til I pull Ceej into bed and he proceeds to hack uncontrollably and then puke up all the milk he just drank.. on my bed...

So this is today so far... Tuesday... about 6 boxes of Kleenex........ 2 bottles of Robitussin......2 boxes of dayquil......and a bottle of NyQuil later......... we are still sick...... I am currently on amoxicillon so hopefully that will heal me up quick. Ceej does have a 9 month check up on Thursday so at least he DR will see him then.... and well JDub can take care of himself... at least he's not sick, taking care of sick kids, and unable to take the GOOD DRUGS b/c he's breastfeeding still!!

That is by far the worse... b/c Robitussin can only do so much (which feels like nothing!) and I'd much rather be taking NyQuil to just pass out at night too....

Ok I'm done now.... and I do feel a lil better...........

Brand Names

I find it funny how brand names really tend to stick with me. I'm not sure if its the catchy jingles that sometimes come along with them.... or just because. But here are some examples....

I don't call them tissues... on the contrary I call them Kleenex. I know they aren't really called kleenexes... but I just can't help myself. Its always "Can you pass me a kleenex please...." The funny thing is I don't even like Kleenex brand! I prefer Puffs Plus with lotion... but you don't hear me saying "Pass a Puffs please!" I fear I have passed this on to Bubba. He gets runny noses frequently... and you'll hear him yelling "KLEENEX" whenever he needs one.

Honestly I don't even know what you call Pepto-Bismal... except for calling it Pepto-Bismal! I buy the off brand sometimes but I still call it Pepto. I haven't seen those commercials lately either... where they are doing the Upset Stomach... Diarrhea... Heartburn... Indegestion DANCE. Oh man the first time I saw that I was laughing pretty hard. Can you imagine being an actor trying out for one of those commercials? Too funny!

I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand cause germs don't stick on me! I mean who seriously says "Do you have any adhesive bandages?" No one I know. It's "I need a Band-Aid please!" I kind of miss those commercials with the little kids falling and crying and lo and behold the next scene they're smiling and singing the Band-Aid song showing off their new band-aid on their finger/arm/knee...

Neosporin is one of those things too... what is it again? A topical antibiotic? Nope.. its known as Neosporin to me... brand name or not!

Do you call products by their brand names too?

New house

So I like our house... I do... but with any house there comes lots of issues and something that always needs to be fixed! Back when JDub and I were first looking for a house I did not like our house at all! I can't really remember why... I think I was one of those people that looks at all the decor, instead of the house itself. I mean this place was hideous! It's definitely better now. We have done sooo much to this place.. We've almost painted every room, refinished the hard-wood floors (professionally of course, if you need a number let me know cause that guy was amazing!!!), JDub installed new interior doors (9 doors upstairs alone!) and new trim in most of the house. As far as the outside goes, it doesn't seem like we did a lot of work but we really have. Maybe I'll post some photos of that later.... We'll stay inside for now.

Here are some before and after photos, most before photos are on the left and the after are on the right!

The hard wood floors... they had horrible stains... I never thought they'd look good but we still get compliments years later on how nice they look. We had to remove all the baseboards throughout the house and closets. It was a pain but well worth it :)

The hallway.......

Our basement. It was partially finished... but had concrete floors. We had to rip down some ugly borders here and there... and take down a ton of shelving.... we carpeted, but later had to rip some of that out b/c little Mango decided to pee on it!!





 

 We painted of course... and used the same baseboards down here. Its amazing what a little bit of paint can do to a room!

Here's our living room upstairs..... The pale blue paint was shiny and gross! And don't even get me started on vertical blinds......

I love love LOVE our paint in the living room now. JDub still claims he doesn't like it... and sometimes people think its a bit much. But I don't care. It's my favorite room of the house!

I'll spare you every room... but here's the bathroom we just finished up! Well... not completely finished up... I really want to paint that hideous window white... and we still need to do the trim. By "we" I mean JDub!! I know I've said this before... but he is VERY handy!! Its great having a husband who knows how to use his power tools :)

Now you would think with this being such a small bathroom it wouldn't take that long to re-do it... Well when people don't use the right kind of paint for a high-moisture area... you have to scrape all the paint off. Not just pieces already chipping. And then when you scrape off all the paint, you're also scraping off all the texture!

So not only did it take FOREVER to strip the wall of all the paint, we had to re texture the walls after, and then paint..... All I can say is Ke$ha on my mp3 player got me through this project.....No doubt!



This is partially scraped off paint... the left is off and the
white is what we still needed to scrape off. And there's also
a nice glimpse of the old light fixture!



 

I am very pleased with the way it turned out. We have a nice double hook by the shower to hang our towels just when we need them after showering. The double towel rack above the toilet should work well too. What do you think?!

Side Note:

Now I hate to want to move into a new house since I'm just now liking the one I have now.... but man I want my own bathroom! Every woman who is outnumbered in her home should really have her own bathroom.. When we were looking for a house I said it needed to have 2 toilets... and JDub said a 2-stall garage... well our next one needs to have a Master Bath... Sharing a bathroom with 3 boys is a scary thought!

I owe you....

I hate owing people money.... And I try my best not to owe people money... but if cash needs to be involved I rarely have that... and that's usually when I need to borrow some. I just feel bad! I'd like to say I'm fairly good about remembering when I've borrowed money and making sure its returned to the rightful owner in a timely manner. I guess some people might beg to differ, but I hope they'll agree with me.

Now what's even worse than owing people money... is when people owe you money but they haven't paid up! I try to be nice and give them the time they need to get their hands on the cash... but most of the time I think people just forget! I mean I get it... I forget sometimes too. The same thing goes with borrowing items from people. I've borrowed books, clothes, kitchen utensils... you name it, I've probably borrowed it. But I try again to do my best to return them to the rightful owners! Unless of course they tell me to just keep it or something...

There's nothing worse than having to ask repeatedly for something from someone... only to have them be like "What? I owe you what?.... Are you sure.... I'm pretty sure I paid you... No I gave that back..." Ugh I hate that! Its just so awkward.

Honestly though, if I owe you something and I have forgotten... just please ask. I don't mind. It really doesn't make it awkward for me. I'll give it back or pay you! I'd feel much better knowing its a done deal, and hopefully make it less weird for you as well :)

Mom moments

I love reading and hearing stories about other women who have those "special" Mom moments.... I say special b/c mostly they are the annoying/funny/ridiculous stories you can hardly believe you made it through it! You mom's out there should know what I'm talking about.. Like when you're running late (which I swear is anytime I need to go anywhere...) you have all the kids dressed and ready to go, you have your coat on and the car warming up outside... and bam... Bubba falls flat on his face while walking to the car. He's bleeding.. so you have to stop the car and get your keys and get an ice pack... all while poor lil Ceej is freezing his butt off in the car-seat on the ground beside you...

Here's a nice one we had at Hy-Vee yesterday....... Ceej is now big enough to ride in the cart!! But since I have 2 I like going to Hy-Vee b/c they have the double deluxe carts :) Where 2 kids can ride in the front part right beside each other....

Anyway....

Bubba: "That guy has no hair Mommy"

Me: "Yes honey.... you're right he doesn't..."

Bubba: "Why does he not have hair Mommy?!..... Is he sick?"

Me: "No sweetie... shhh..... its ok he shaves his head like that....."

Bubba: "But Mommy he has no hair? IS  HE SICK?!"

I still don't know if the man heard him... I'm still kind of lucky b/c Bubba can be hard to understand at times... so maybe the man had no idea what he was saying... but man... kids say the darnedest things!

M.I.A.

Well I've been M.I.A. (missing in action) for the last couple weeks.... and here's why...

Bubba came down with the flu (vomiting and diarrhea.... yay) Wednesday before Christmas. Which then meant we couldn't go to our family Christmas' in town....... Ceej came down with it shortly after.... and then Christmas Eve JDub and I had it..... Waking up Christmas morning was hard... considering JDub was in the basement bathroom... while I ran into our bathroom upstairs. Simultaneous puking is not very fun..... I couldn't handle Bubba for the day...... NO WAY. I had to call in reinforcements! Thank goodness we have family in town. Our first Christmas with Ceej was not exactly how I pictured it... but whatever I'm just thankful we are all alive and well (Now anyway.......).

In the midst of this... JDub decided we should finally fix up our bathroom upstairs.... Due to the idiocy of the previous owners of this house... paint was chipping everywhere in the bathroom. We had to hand scrape all of the paint off.... patch parts of the drywall that came off in the process... and spray texture on the walls... Not an easy feat when you have 2 little ones to attend to. Today is our day of rest............ sort of... we have to wait for the texture to fully dry before painting tomorrow! I am exhausted....... whether its still from the flu... or just needing to work out.... I am ready for bed every night by 9:00 pm....... sad I know! with it being New Year's Eve I doubt I'll be able to stay awake to see the ball drop!

I am looking forward to the New Year.... I hate resolutions... but I really want to try and work out 3 days a week... I think I can manage that. I also need to work on my temper..... I have had a short fuse these past couple weeks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Hope you all party tonight... cause I'll prolly be sleeping once 2011 hits :)

Why are commercials so loud?

Ok I'll admit I like TV... especially on these cold winter months when there is really nothing to do but be inside with the kids. Sometimes you can only do so much coloring, reading, playing... whatever.... and then you need a little break. And I especially like to watch a little TV when Bubba is down for a nap and Ceej is still awake. He's too young to know what I'm watching so it doesn't matter if its inappropriate for children. So I'll be sitting there... nursing Ceej and he'll almost be asleep... when BAM! One of those annoying, LOUD commercials comes on?! I mean what the crap right? It is beyond annoying. I can't tell you how many times he'll be out of it and then he'll wake up and be alert because of the loud interruption.. It has forced me to put my TV on mute and have the Closed Captioning on too. I may not be deaf but I have used that plenty of times!

And then I came across this article.... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/15/politics/main5982822.shtml

Its basically saying someone came up with a Bill to end loud TV ads! I know there are probably more pressing items out there... but I would think this would please alot of people... and I know I'm excited about it! I'd vote for the person that came up with it!!

Now if they could just do that in movies as well.... I swear JDub had a TV that would adjust the volume... but maybe I was just dreaming that one. I know at certain times its good to be a little louder... for suspense or whatever, but I'd rather not have to turn the volume up and down and up and down all the time...... You'd think they'd be able to control that with all the technology out there! Not to mention I know my Mom wishes her TV on the porch would have done this... she might not have busted her lip and hurt her knee back in the day :) (that's a VERY funny story if you haven't heard it you should ask me sometime)

World's strongest babe...

So the other day I'm upstairs doing something... can't quite remember what but I'm sure it was cleaning or picking up... b/c well that's ALL it seems like I do! JDub was downstairs with the boys. All of a sudden... Ceej starts crying. And its not that, I'm fussy cry, its the something awful happened, not normal cry.... So I rush downstairs and I'm like "What is going on down here?!"

Apparently he had crawled over to my 3 lb weight, picked it up, rolled on his back and then dropped it on his head.... Now I can't get too mad at JDub b/c yesterday I left Ceej alone in the living room and he apparently got poked in the eye with something.. what I'm still not sure... but yea Ceej is freakishly strong... And the funny thing is I try to warn people how strong he is... Just because I want to be nice. But its like they think I'm bragging or something. The don't believe me... its like that friend that you have that over-exaggerates everything! So you never know how serious something is you just assume they're over-shooting it. But really I'm not... Ok I know the title of this entry was a bit much... but that was just to be funny. But he is really strong.. For example I have a nice chunk of hair that is just now growing back b/c he ripped it out of my head... not just one little hair... it was a nice handful. He's ripped out Bubba's, and Mangos... you think oh cute he's grabbing my hair and then next thing you know you're in pain and he's putting the stray hairs into his mouth!

So just another warning... If you happen to hold Ceej and he grabs on to your hair... get it out of his hand as soon as possible or you will lose it....

Coupons

Coupons are great right?! Well sometimes they are.... I thought coupons were suppose to be nice incentives to buy a product! But then there's the fine print..... you have to spend $25 before you can use this coupon.... you can't use it on sale or clearance items....

I mean is it really worth the headache to cut them out, then remember them at the checkout... sometimes I wonder! So my mom and I went shopping at Gordman's the other week. It happened to be one of those days where you got the chance to scratch off and see if you won $10, $20, or $30 on your next purchase of course... Its NEVER for what you're buying right then. Its always nope, sorry! You must pay full price for everything you're buying now... and then come back and spend more money just to use this coupon! Oh and the fine print on these puppies?.... You can't use your "free" $10 on shoes.... which is totally what I wanted to buy!

So anyway, JDub and I end up going back and getting some more little Christmas stuff and a new sweater dress for me! Mom ended up giving me her $20 that she won so I had $30! Now of course... could I use both of them together on the same order? NO!!! And then the lady at the check-out tells me she's not suppose to let the same family use 2 coupons. What are you?! The coupon police? I could easily make up a name and address and write it on your stupid coupon... not to mention I could leave and come back to a different line with a different cashier and you woudln't know! I tried to hand JDub some cash to pay and she freaked! So he had to spend $5 on his credit card... ridiculous......

I mean I love the items they have at Gordmans... but honestly their coupons SUCK!

I use to be a member of the Dairy Queen Blizzard club or whatever too... They'd send you coupons for buy one get one blizzard every once in a while and then a free one for your birthday too! But any time I'd try to use them at the DQ's around here... they'd tell me they don't participate in that promotion! Well how come when I signed up they specifically asked me what DQ I would be going to and your store was an option?! Can you tell me that?!

Ok so I rarely go to Panera... just because its not that close to where I live and its not that convenient to have to get out of my car and go in with kids... But they had those punch card things... ya know you buy so many specialty drinks or bagels and you get some free! Or at least they use to... of course I've been saving this card up for years.... and when I finally get it full and want my free drink they deny me and say "Oh we got rid of those a few months ago...." Seriously?! Can a girl get a break... apparently not!

I know... I should just learn to pay full price for things... its just sooo annoying though! Why even have the option of coupons if you're going to make it practically impossible to use them hassle-free?!

cloth diapers update

Ok so when Bubba was younger I decided I wanted to be green and get cloth diapers... I even posted about it waaaaay back in Aug '09. I was super excited and ended up going with gDiapers. Ya know in genereal they worked really well... But Bubba complained about them... he hated wearing them, and well I got lazy so I stopped. And he's potty-trained now anyway!

Then came Ceej... Now I'm sorry but newborns go to the bathroom ALOT! And well, breastfed babies seem to poop alot more too. It seems like every hour you're changing a disposable diaper... So the thought of doing cloth (which you pretty much have to change every 2 hours...) when he was just a teeny lil babe did NOT interest me at all. But once he got a little bit bigger (and was sleeping better so that meant Mommy was sleeping better and a little less lazy!) I thought I should get them back out.

I was disappointed. It seems that the gDiapers liners have broken down over time, or from being washed alot... I dunno. I'm sure they'd blame me on the type of detergent I was washing them with too (apparently 'free and clear' is not really free and clear of everything...) But anyway. Instead of just having to change out the cloth insert, I was not only having him soak through the liner and diaper, but his clothes and pants were getting wet too! No thanks... That's way too much laundry for me. So I thought about giving up on the cloth all together.

But then I found econobum cloth diaper covers :)  These are great! No worrying about snaping liners in and out... its all one piece. Another nice thing is its a one-size diaper. With gDiapers they have small, medium, and large.. but with econobum they have one diaper with several snaps that you can adjust to size your babe just right!

I was a little hesitant about the snaps. But they are working very nicely. I like it even better than the velcro. When I need to wash them I don't have to worry about the velcro getting attached to everything else in the wash! OMG I hate it when I'm switching the laundry over and velcro from bibs and the gdiapers would be attached to a shirt or blanket and just shred it to pieces!

Now I know this might sound a little gross... but I dont even have to wash these every day! I can use these 2 diaper covers all day long. I start with the green, then switch to the blue and let the green one air dry. By the time Ceej needs a new diaper the green one is ready to use. And while I didn't have much luck with the gDiapers... the gCloth inserts work great with these econobum covers! So I didn't have to go out and purchase a bunch of cloth inserts.I still use disposable at night. And usually when I'm out and about... But I'm able to use them during the day while we're at home! So while I'm not fully green... at least I'm doing a small part :)

"I need to Pray Mommy"

Bubba has tried every stalling technique in the world when its nap time or bed time... "I need to go potty"... or he needs a special animal to sleep with. "Cover me up again... I need to kiss Ceej or Daddy or Mommy or Mango"... "I need a kleenex"... and the list goes on and on. Its a little ridiculous... I mean its sad at 2 he already knows how to do that! But my favorite stalling technique of all... "Mommy I need to pray" he says!

I started praying with him a few nights and he got the hang of it. I'll tell him to start and he says "Dear God, or Dear Lord... Thank you for........." Now I'm not sure where this all came in... but everytime he prays lately it has to include all of the kitties he knows... It usually starts with my sister's cat Mr. Flakers.... I wish you could hear how cute it sounds when he says it too! Its more like Micker Fwakers... anyway. Then he moves on to Mango, Charlie, Hobson, Guillermo, Tucker, Sasha... these are all relatives of mine, whether its aunts, sisters, grandmothers' you name a cat he's met, and he will pray for it! So just FYI if your cat needs prayer let me know.... send a pic... and I'll be happy to have Bubba pray for yours as well!

snapfish vs shutterfly... and SHUTTERFLY WINS!

Everything seems to be done online these days.... which is convenient and a little annoying at times. But one really cool thing I like having online is a place to store my photos. I am not the best at taking photos.... or even remembering to bring my camera to certain events, but once you have kids taking pics is very important! You want to make sure to catch those "first" events, and other funny events along the way. Especially when you have family that might want to see them as well!

So when I first heard of shutterfly and snapfish I couldn't decide which one to go with... I'm sure you've heard of them... its an online database where you can store your photos. They also have cool gift ideas and other resources for your photos. I've used both of them to share photos with friends and family, make photo-books, mugs with photos on them for all those coffee drinkers out there, and calendars all as different gifts for different occassions. I made a photo book for JDub for our 3 year anniversary. I gave one to my dad for Father's Day. I also do my Christmas cards every year on them. JDub and I didn't do Christmas cards until there were kids in the picture. I mean who really wants to see a pic of just us? I didn't! But once we had our cute little red-headed Bubba we just had to do a photo!

Last year's Christmas Card was by far my favorite! We bought them from Shutterfly. It was a simple design that didn't take too much way from the stunning photo we had a friend take. Bubba looked like a little ceramic china doll he was sooo cute. It was super easy to upload the photo and order them. They came straight to the house, envelopes included! We got so many compliments on them too. This was last year's design stirling snowman card '09

So when thinking about Christmas cards for this year I was wondering where to turn....then I got a notice in my email the other day........ Snapfish said if I didnt make a purchase this month all of my pictures would be lost forever. What the crap right?! I was a little shocked. So that pretty much made my decision final! BUH-BYE Snapfish... HELLO SHUTTERFLY 24/7! I mean I just read on another blog how I can get 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly for being a blogger! That sounds soo much better than having all of my photos gone forever..... What do you think?!

Pyro? oh yea!!!!

Ok so JDub is really the fire pro around the house... mainly b/c I am constantly attending to a child in need (or in "want" really...) which can make it hard to attend to a fire as well. We were fortunate enough to have a very generous family at church who gave us a bunch of free firewood!! And I mean a bunch... his entire truck bed was full of the stuff... He even made a holder for the wood out of 2x4's and that thing was overflowing! So while it looks like this outside.....

It looks feels like this inside :)

Bubba is doing very well with the fires too. He knows he needs to stay away or he'll get hurt. I still find him messing with the ashes or wood when the fire is not lit... but he's learning. He is only 2 after all right?! Ceej is a rolling machine these days. He's not really crawling, but he does manage to get halfway across the room just from rolling around. He is sitting up very well which is great. Soon I think I'll be able to move him up to the next car-seat and not have to lug that heavy thing around anymore! You'd think I would have built up my arm muscles enough... but no. I am weak!

On another note... I cannot believe Christmas is almost here! I'm excited to see Bubba open his presents this year. He was still kind of out of it last year... but seeing him on his birthday was too cute. We really didn't go nuts with the presents though. He has soo much stuff already. I am almost done shopping! So that's exciting... I just need a few stocking stuffers and a couple more little presents for people and I think I'll be done. I even have most of them wrapped! Not bad for December 4th :)