Free Christmas Cards Again?? Yes Please!!

Christmas cards are one of my favorite parts of the season!!!  I love to check the mail every day to see what cards have come---other times of the year we go a few days with out checking it sometimes.  Every year in mid-late October I begin to think about our Christmas card for the year.  Sometimes I even I obsess over them.  We try to get a good family picture (this year it didn't work out so well though) as well as a few of the boys.  I especially love photo cards because I love seeing pictures of my friends and family. I love to see how their kids have grown. I love to see their cute animals, vacation pictures, kids by the tree- ALL OF IT.

This year will be mine and Cory's 6th Christmas together and every year we have sent a card.  I just love sending Christmas Cards!! 

2006-Engagement Pictures

2007-? This is the only year that I can not remember...maybe because I was pregnant!!

2008-First Family Picture as a family of 3 at the farm

2009-Just Colton looking cute...again I was pregnant and did not want a picture of myself on a card.  :)

2010-First Family Picture as a family of 4

This year I am in love with so many cards I have found on Tiny Prints. I love to just scroll through all of the pictures. The site is jam packed with super cute things!! I have used them before for shower invitations, stationary and this year I will be getting some if not all of our cards from them. There are SO MANY wonderful options to choose from that I am thinking I might need to send a variety of cards this year.  It is so hard to choose just one!!

Here are a few of my favorites:

I just can't choose--they are all so cute!!!  Head over to their website and check them out. There are always great deals to be had on super cute items. As you are reading this they are having their 3 day cyber sale.  So hurry over and start creating your perfect card.  I will be choosing mine soon!!!

Love,

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's Back to Work I Go...

Yes you read that correctly….I am returning to work!  I will be teaching 5^th grade Reading/Language/Social Studies at Stanley Elementary (about 3 minutes from our house) next year.

Here are the questions I have gotten from the few people I have told….

I thought you weren’t going back until both boys went to Elementary?  Have you been thinking about this for a long time?  I didn't even know you were thinking about going back?  When did you decide to do this?     

To answer them all….it all began on Sunday July 24^th.  I had not been thinking about returning to work this soon until that afternoon.  I had been looking at teaching blogs all weekend for some odd reason and decided to email a few people I knew to find out about openings in the district.  After finding out that they were bringing back 200 positions that were taken away last year and interviewing good candidates I decided that this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.  Cory and I decided if I got a job then it was fine and if not that was fine too.  I turned in my application Monday night and had two interviews set up by the end of the day Tuesday.  1.  Stanley @ Noon on Thursday 2. Woodcreek @ 11:30 on Friday.  I interviewed with The Principal, 2 APs, Kinder, 1^st and 2^nd grade teachers.  I left feeling very confident but also a little nervous because it was over in 20 minutes.  The boys and I ran a few errands and then came home for naps.  At 4:30 they called to see if I would be open to a 5^th grade position and if so could I come up and meet the team leader.  I headed up to the school (with the boys in tow since Cory was out of town) to meet her and left there with a strong feeling I would be getting an offer.  I finally got the call and it is now official!!!

It's hard to explain the way I feel, because my thoughts contradict themselves all the time...I LOVE my boys and will miss them TREMENDOUSLY (and have shed a few tears here and there about not being with them 24/7) but I truly love teaching also and have missed it.  My number one request when we had Colton and Blake was that I stay home until the boys weren’t “babies” anymore.  Now that Blake is mobile and a toddler I feel very comfortable taking him to daycare.  I actually think he will do much better with more structure.  J  Colton loves going to Mothers Day Out and asks to go to “school” every day so I think he will really enjoy it as well.  I have put them in Kids R Kids Daycare at this time.  We are going to re-evaluate and look at The British Private Prep Preschool in December when Blake is a little older…he has to be 18 months in order to attend so he can’t start right now and I want them both at the same school.

I know that it is going to be hard some days but I feel that everything just fell into place and happened for a reason.  

Love,

Motley Crue/Poison Concert

Wednesday night Shannon came down around 9pm to hang out for a bit and mentioned that Groupon had Motley Crue/Poison tickets and Wayne wanted to know if we would be interested in going.  I was pretty sure I knew Cory's answer but I called him anyways and it was an astounding YES.  So we spent the next hour trying to decide if we should go the cheap route and buy the Groupon tickets for $64/couple in the nosebleeds or if we should spend $100/person to be closer and in the 100 section.  Shannon and I convinced the guys we would be just fine in the nosebleeds so we made the purchase and secured a sitter (and Nana) for Blake (Colton was going to be in Galveston with Mimi and Pop for the weekend).

We headed down to the Toyota Center around 4:30 so we could get our tickets before the box office closed.  When Shannon and I got back to the car we noticed that our tickets said section 116....that's not the 400 nosebleeds we paid for.  We couldn't believe it but didn't question it and went on to have a few drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings before the concert.  We were nervous they would tell us there was a mistake when we got back but nope....we headed down to section 116 to find our seats.  There wasn't anyone in the nosebleeds so we are guessing it didn't sell out so they moved everyone down.  SCORE for us....we paid $64/couple for $100/person seats!!!!

The concert was wonderful and we had a great time with Shannon and Wayne!!  Thank you Nana for keeping Blake on such short notice while we went to see your man.  :)

 Shannon and Wayne at Buffalo Wild Wings.

 Shannon and I at Buffalo Wild Wings.

 The hubby and I at Buffalo Wild Wings.

 Shannon and Wayne at the Concert.

 Shannon and I at the concert (Wayne was rocking out behind us. :))

 POISON!!!!!

 Oh goodness...

We didn't take many pictures of Motley Crue....Shannon and I are bigger fans of Poison.  We did video Tommy going in a circle on his drums...I will try and get that uploaded later.

Love,

My boys

Are we sure these boys are even related???  They sure are both handsome though!!

Love,

I'm back!!!

Ok after a 6 month hiatus I am going to get back to blogging.  I have gotten so far behind that I am a little overwhelmed but stay tuned for new updates as well as updates from the past 6 months.

Love,

Christmas Morning

This year Santa brought each boy 3 gifts (looks like more because a few stocking stuffers wouldn't fit in the stockings).  The original plan was to get up with Colton (since he is our early riser) and check out his Santa gifts before waking Blake.  However, the next morning at 6:30 Blake woke us up before Colton.  We were so excited for him to see what Santa brought that we decided to go ahead and wake him up.  At first he kept saying "Why did you wake me up?"...since we have NEVER had to wake him up because he is always the first one up in our house (usually around 6).  He was super groggy but was very excited to see Blake in his room and he just kept hugging on him.  When we told him Santa came he said "He's in our house?".  He stayed pretty confused until he got to the top of the stairs and saw the presents.  At that point he said "SANTA CAME!!!"  

Blake's Santa Gifts

Colton's Santa Gifts

Checking out his Santa gifts.

Checking it out with Daddy.

Blake didn't need our help...he went right to playing.

Colton came over to show him how his train works.  He wasn't too sure about Blake having a train but he was super sweet with him and just "helped him".

Checking out the stockings.

Present time...

Again Blake didn't need our help...

I can do this all on my own Mommy!

Colton came to "help him" again.

We had a wonderful morning hanging out and playing with our sweet boys!!

Love,