I'm a Big Fan of FREE

Shutterfly.com is offering 50 free Christmas Card to bloggers. Thanks Heather for sharing this. 50 free that's a sweet deal for anyone! If you want to check out the deal click HERE. I use shutterfly to create photobooks which results in a beautiful keepsake. You can view my most recent project below. I loved creating this book because I didn't really have a lot of time to spend on it so instead of going the costume route I used a short cut which just took my photos and put them into a layout for me. If I didn't like the layout of that page I could just click a little button that gave me other options. I've been working on a costume photo book for Porter of his first year, it's taking a lot of time, but beautiful. I love that this site give you options. I also just have to mention they have the BEST uploader for photographs I've every used! So simple, so fast, so amazing!

Click here to view this photo book larger

The site is easy to use and has endless variety for your creativity. They have tons of designs and it isn't likely you'll get the same card from a friend.{Maybe something like this? You like?}

One day I'd like to create on of these lovely photo calendars for our home, but we'll have to see how the few weeks before New Years treats me.

Photo taken by Aaron's extremely talented sister who's still willing to take your family photo for your Christmas Cards... Check out her work here and her photography site here.

Taking a Lil' Time for Us

We have 2 credit cards: one gives us 3% cash back on fuel and the other is a travel rewards visa we use for everything else. I know you can get rewards for all kinds of things but travel fits our style! (I feel like a commercial) My husband, being the analytical man that he is, created a spreadsheet weighing the reward to payout ratio. The best payout would be to save our rewards and go on a cruise, but instead every few months we go with the 3rd best payout of a $100 travel voucher. We find a destination and the best hotel room we can find for $100 bucks and get out of dodge. Our destination for Halloween: Park City!

We picked a family friendly hotel and booked their room for around $100 dollars... we had no idea how nice our "Villa" would be! Check out this sweet room! The fact that we extended our weekend having Aaron take a Monday off instead of a Friday got us a better deal than expected.{window seats with a mountain view}

{Living area with a 30 inch flat screen and a kitchen nicer than mine}

{Dining area}

{Bedroom, massive jacuzzi tub, and 2 bathrooms.}

We got there and I seriously starting thinking about who we could call to come stay with us because the sofa in the living room was a pull-out bed. We couldn't think of a fair way to pick someone so we just chilled us 3.

We stocked the kitchen, had dinner, and walked downtown Main where we happened upon a strut your mutt Halloween parade. Wish I would have had the camera! Creativity wasn't wasted on the dog costumes. When we got back we set up for a cozy movie night, our feature choice for the night...

We pulled out the hide-a-bed, turned on the fireplace blower making it warm and toasty, and tossed all the pillows we could snuggle onto the bed with extra comfort. Porter loved it! We're so grateful he knows how to get off the bed the correct way because this kid was up and down and all over the place excited. We 2 adults couldn't keep up with him.

{We let him sport his diaper for a while before wrestling him into his PJs.}

{Not the best picture, but I love that super excited cheesy grin.}

{Cozy--Don't you love the bruise on his forehead...oh the joys of toddlerhood.}

I popped some popcorn and found a serving bowl to put it in. It's always little silly things that make me happy, having a bowl to put my microwave popcorn into is just such a thing. {While I was popping popcorn I turned around to see this. I did a double take and gave Aaron a look to which he responded, "He wanted to see the fridge so I let him." Yeah, Aaron closed the door...mean! They both were laughing their guts out, though.}

I'm usually really careful with popcorn and Porter because it seems like a big choking hazard to me. The little Ham wouldn't keep his hands out of it.

{The shear volume of that handful is a choking hazard!}

{I just put myself on high Mommy alert when I couldn't win this battle.}

{My happy boys! The popcorn was followed by Haagen-Dazs and one very upset Porter when it was all-gone.}

{After the movie was over I decided I'd like to have Toothless come live with me or to train my own Night Fury. Because he's the perfect pet!}

Porter thought the jacuzzi tub was the best thing that ever happened to bath time!

We had a hard time getting P to sleep after such an exciting evening and he was teething so it wasn't the best night's rest. Lucky for us, Aaron was able to get us a late checkout so we could have a relaxing lazy morning.

The reason we picked Park City for this get-a-way was to shop for Aaron's winter running clothes. We'd heard you could save a lot of money by purchasing these items at the outlet stores. Porter also needed a few items for his wardrobe so we spent Monday afternoon doing my not so favorite thing, shopping. However, all the scoping out for the best prices and digging resulted in a 42% savings! Exhausted from the bargain hunting we were more than happy to head home.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had by just taking a little bit of time to just be. It may not seem like much but this little getaway made me very happy and rejuvenated me. I'm so grateful for my family and all the joy those boys bring into my life!

P.S. Greg thanks so much for offering to help with my computer woes! :) Aaron just updated our O.S. that had a few bugs, combined with a fussy router and my patience was gone. Aaron just hadn't had the time to tweak it. Thank You, though!

(tardy) Happiness is...

We're having computer troubles around here. I was disappointed I didn't get to post anything Friday. It's become my gratitude journal and I'm constantly thinking of things that I could use for this post; helping me keep an attitude of gratitude. Anyways this week

Happiness is taking time to just be us.

I can only give you a small preview of the rest of this post, sorry. Hopefully our desktop will be more reliable here shortly.

{Yes, this is exactly what you think it is. This isn't our fridge, however, it was in our hotel room.}

Halloween

Warning picture overload!

I'm just going to write about the pictures because they pretty much capture our Halloween. There's more to our weekend but I think the rest will have to wait for another post because I'm going to be tired after protecting all these photos. I hope you all had a fun Halloween as well!!!

Our celebration actually got started Friday night. My Mom had called me early in the week to let me know she wanted to see Porter in his costume so we were able to go visit them Friday night. We also got to see Heather, Steve, and Pirate Jackson that night. I also just have to mention the Chicken Noodle Soup... SO GOOD!!! Anyway, Mom had a bag of goodies for each of her grandchildren, this one is Porter's. Grandma Nec said this little ghost was a cute as Porter. Porter was given the bag and I was promptly told to sit down and stay out of the way so Grandma could have her fun. Grandma's fun is captured in the next 4 photos.

{Porter's first candy!}

{It's one of those candy bracelets with a heart. He put it in his mouth and there it stayed, he was terrified I was going to come take it away. Guess he and my Mom know me well, because part of me wanted to.}

{When Dad & Grandma decided he'd had enough and took it away. "HEY!" I was a little worried there might be tears, he cries when the ice cream is gone.}

{On the contrary, he was just happy he'd gotten it at all! Yes, I'm awesome and got the onesie white again!}

{Saturday we got up early to beat the crowd and get a parking spot for Boo at the Zoo! LOVE our Zoo membership! This is Porter trick or treating.}

{He'd only hold his bag 50% of the time.}

{It was a little funny the animals were completely being overlooked with all the candy around; they were still P's favorite part!}

{The tiger cubs were being very playful and Porter enjoyed watching the animals that inspired his costume.}

{When he's deep in thought his tongue sticks out, just like his Dad. Porter's so cute! There's a nose to his costume but we had to tuck it under so he'd keep his hood on and stay warm... it looks a little funny.}

{After the zoo we headed home so I could get started on preparations for an evening with friends. I really enjoy making bread so I took pictures. Roll dough before it rises.}

{Roll dough after it rises. They were tasty! Go ahead call me a nerd for including these pictures.}

{Our treat this year. It was a hit}

{Pumpkin Carving-- We weren't sure if Porter would like this because he doesn't like being dirty or sticky. HE LOVED IT!!!}

{He pulled the guts from his little pumpkin and kept playing with them in this bowl.}

{I don't like being cold when I carve pumpkins so we decided to spread out a tarp and watch Ice Age 3 while we worked.}

{Before we knew it-- it was time to go Trick or Treating... in heavy rain. We went with Friends so we grabbed our umbrellas and braved the water. Lucky for us our kids are still young and we only had to go to 4 houses. We spent the rest of the evening eating, chatting, and playing games.}

Our fun didn't stop here but that is the end of our Halloween celebrations, more to come on our weekend! Hope you had a great time too!

Happiness is...

forgiveness

• asking for it

• receiving it
• giving it
• learning how to forgive myself

{My newest read.}


Other tidbits that make me happy:

While enjoying my morning cuddles with Porter boy Sibling wiggled more than ever making me think he or she is ready to join morning cuddle time. I'm so excited for more frequent baby wiggles, it makes the whole thing more real for me.

Daddy Story Time.

This picture makes me happy. We got soaked at the USU football game and we had just made it back to our car in this picture. Don't you love the Aggie t-shirt? Thanks uncle Couper!

Big bites from Daddy's double bacon cheese burger. Honestly, what 1 year old does this? Too funny

"Nnooo"

I forgot to document this last night so I need to take care of that quickly.

Last night I was trying to get dinner ready, Aaron was using the last ten minutes of daylight to try to winterize the sprinkler system, Porter was in his high chair and hungry. I was trying to hold him over with Cherrios and he had just finished his last hand full. I started to get more for him and I could tell he wasn't very pleased so I started to act really excited, "Yay Cherrios!" As I put the next bunch on his tray he pointed at them and said, "Nnooo!" I just started giggling, what a clever boy! We've really enjoyed him only responding "Yeah" to our questions, but I guess he had to eventually figure out how useful "No" is.

Halloween Carnival

We went to Porter's early intervention carnival tonight! There were games and treats EVERYWHERE! Our little guy got over-stimulated pretty quickly, but here are a few things we were able to do before he became too overwhelmed. {Ring toss}

{This was by far his favorite. Sorry he's blurry he was bouncing.}

{P's recipe for witches brew, bite a monster's hand off.}

They had rootbeer and donuts. We decided to let P try the rootbeer, his first taste of carbonation (that we know of... grandma?). I turned around to witness Aaron giving Porter his first sip, he tasted it and said, "YEAH!!!" He's a fan. That doesn't mean he's allowed!

*Just a reminder to grandparents, aunt and uncles only on occasion where Mom and Dad say it's okay.*