I ♥ Shutterfly

So you hung with me when I shamelessly promoted the blog and Shutterfly to help get my holiday cards. Well I have to tell you a few things:

1) My Christmas cards are ordered and I am excited. There were way too many choices and I may have over-photoed but I am excited all the same. I would love to give you a sneak-peek but I don't want to spoil the surprise.
2) Shutterfly is so absolutely awesome that over this past week they sent me a coupon for some free photos and on top of that they sent all sorts of other "deals" this week. I successfully knocked out a few gifts and projects.

I feel so accomplished I just don't know what to do with myself. I tried sharing my joy with Rick but his nose is stuck in a book and the boys are busy transforming the living room in to monster-train-track playground. So thanks for bearing with me as I shout my excitement about my recent experience on Shutterfly. I guess I will sit back and drink some wine and think about what to do next.

Thanksgiving

We are all nestled in front of the TV while listening to the boys argue over how the blankets are arranged on their makeshift bed that is on the floor in our bedroom. Our Thanksgiving was quiet and delicious; the two best things you can ask for on a Thanksgiving. (And just as a side note: yes, we art sticking to our no cable experiment but AT&T is trying to suck us back in by giving us all the channels for free for this week.)

I didn't take any photos of our day but I am including one of a recent school project the boys worked on. Their school is having Diversity Day next week and each child was asked to create a family tree and then draw a person in traditional dress for a nationality (or is it ethnicity) in their family tree. They will have a parade through the school with their "doll."

JT selected Creek Indian, which is from Rick's maternal great-grandmother and Zachy picked Polish because it is from Grandpa Pete.

This picture doesn't do their artwork justice especially since you can't see the awesome glitter shoes that Zach created.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving.

Gearing up for the holidays

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I feel woefully behind. Rick's family will be in town to help us celebrate and we will partake in what is quickly becoming our own Thanksgiving traditions - long walks with the dog, a family trip to the big Half Price Books, and a trip to one of the art museums. I think we are trying the Blanton again this year because they have an Impressionist exhibit right now.

While I don't love Thanksgiving the way Rick does there are a few things that I do love - the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, having permission from Rick to start listening to Christmas music, and it is typically the weekend that I embark on one of my all-time favorite Christmas traditions: the Christmas card.

For those that know me well, they know that I absolutely love giving and getting Christmas cards. While social media has made it easier to stay in touch with friends that are far away it doesn't replace the intimacy and joy of receiving a photo card or a hand written greeting no matter how short. Imagine my surprise then when I learned that Shutterfly was offering this fabulous deal to bloggers (not to worry, you can sign up too - just visit http://bit.ly/sfly2010). I used to use Shutterfly all the time but then life got busy and I got lazy and I just started keeping all my photos on my computer and posting some of my favorites here on the blog. So now I am back on Shutterfly and I am looking forward to some Christmas card making and perhaps a few Christmas gifts!

There are a ton of cute options at Shutterfly.

I love this little girl but the card is cute too!


I like the design of this card and I could plug the blog with a note on the inside.


And this photo card is cute because it incorporates the letter.


It looks like I am going to be busy this Thanksgiving weekend trying to decide which card I want to use this year but despite the stress of it all, I am excited to get my cards together. I beg everyone to break away from facebook and order some cards. And if you aren't already, send me an email and I will be more than happy to add you to my growing Christmas card list.

Rickwood Field

I am gearing up for some Christmas gifts that involve me gathering photos, which involved me admitting that I never finished going through my 800 photos from our summer vacation. And it means that I missed posting about what was one of the neatest parts of our trip, Rickwood Field.

Here is a brief overview (you can click on the link above to see the official website):

Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. Though the Barons have moved their home games to the suburbs, Rickwood Field has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a "working museum" where baseball's history can be experienced. Rickwood Field is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


Here are a few of my shots from that (very hot) day.

Fall Tourney

JT was asked to play in a fall tournament with some other kids from a Hutto team. It was an intense weekend of 6 games. The team managed to put together a stellar effort and went undefeated for the entire weekend. Even better was instead of adding another trophy to the already growing collect, each player was given a t-shirt.

Silly me for thinking baseball was over. Sounds like there is a chnace we will be playing in another one this weekend.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book Signing

JT's reading habits have been interesting. I think I have mentioned before that his first big, complete, read-it-on-my-own read was a biography about Roberto Clemente. After that he started some other books but he struggled with finding something that kept his attention until he bought Diary of Wimpy Kid #4 (for the record Rick purchased the book because I would have never sanctioned reading a series backwards) and then consumed 3, 2, and 1 (in reverse order because for some reason he thought it was fun).

Since then he has read other books although he started AR (Advanced Reading? or maybe Accelerated Reading?) at school this year and reading suddenly lost its enjoyment and became about a competition and being frustrated about not being able to read the Warrior books (which I think I am fine with him not reading - it is a series of books written by multiple people about a some warring factions of cats). And while he could read the Warrior books he can't check them out from the library because you can only get books within your AR level.

As usual I digress because what this is all about is that Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5 is out and thanks to the Largents being in the know we found out that Jeff Kinney would be at BookPeople for a signing. I took the little boys and Lexy took the big boys.

I should ask JT to provide a guest blog post to fully capture the event. He absolutely loved going. BookPeople had games set up, they got to meet the two stars of the movie, and of course they had their books autographed by Jeff Kinney, which when Rick and I asked JT if he told the kids at school about he responded with  "only certain moms and dads and a friend like Rhys would think having a book signed is cool."

Lexy has tons of cool shots that you can see, just click here.

And for the record although I have no photos to prove it, I took Zach and Griffin to Science Night at school. The teachers set up various experiments and activities throughout the school. The hit of the evening of course is the coke explosion, which is where they put a package of mentos in a 2-liter bottle of coke and it well, explodes or rather gushers out.

I just wrote a letter to Santa!

I just wrote a letter to Santa!

For every letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000. Help make wishes come true by writing your own letter to Santa!

fall baseball

I have been storing this one up for a while and I am going to finally post some shots (sans commentary) of the boys from baseball. I can't take credit for any of these photos (thanks Lexy). I also wish I had time to put them in a collage or something fancy but instead you just get to scroll through some photos!

And now JT

This one requires some explanation. JT and Rhys are longtime Rangers fans. They both followed them religiously over the past few years and can tell you various random team facts.  The Rangers give each other the antlers when a player uses speed to make a play and they give a claw when a player used power on a play. This shot is of JT giving Rhys antlers for beating out a play at second (after JT hit the ball).

Decorating With The Fu

For anyone not familar with Zach's added touch, those are the annoying "hot item" of 2010 (or maybe 2009 but the boys just caught on) Silly Bands. They are basically rubber-bands in various shapes that you wear as bracelets.

All I Want for Christmas Are My Two Front Teeth

I had an uncooperative model this morning but as you can see someone is now toothless. This has been a long tooth loss process. Here is the basic timeline:

• Late September - JT announces front tooth is loose but opts to not mess with it because there is still a fear of pulling the tooth.
• Mid-October - While waiting for that tooth to fall magically the other one becomes loose and takes the lead for falling out first.
• Last week - JT starts making promises of a pulled tooth.
• Friday (11/5) - JT asks Mrs. Barker (his teacher) if she thinks his tooth is ready to be pulled (yes, I did apologize to her when I saw her over the weekend). Mrs. Barker's diplomatic response was something along the lines of "when it is ready, it is ready." This triggered JT's desire to pull, which apparently was a classroom production.
• Friday night/Saturday day - JT looks like a hillbilly and I deeply regret not having a photo. The original loose tooth magically migrated more towards the center and sticks out at 45 degree angle almost impeding lip closure.
• Friday night - Tooth Fairy discovers that JT has hidden the tooth too well even for her to discover without disturbing slumber. She writes a note demanding that tooth be left out in an accessible area (preferably the dresser).
• Saturday evening  - I offer to pay the babysitter extra if she can pull the hillbilly tooth.
• Saturday night around 9:45 - I get a text from the babysitter that the tooth has been pulled.
• Saturday night - Upon our return home we learn that the boys and Aubrey (our sitter) decided to try the yarn around the tooth/door trick. Having no yarn, they opted for sewing thread. They tied the tooth and attached the string to the fridge door. Zach got the honors of slamming the door. The first attempt was unsuccessful the the string fell off. The second attempt caused the tooth to loosen drastically and faced with a knot that they couldn't undo, JT pulled the tooth.

the great debate

Here are some things weighing on my mind:

1) Who gave my children white bread and should I now be concerned (after my priding myself on only feeding them the non-high fructose wheat bread) that they request white bread all the time?

2) Will we survive without TV? Ok more specifically without cable? We have tossed it around for a while now. It helps that we have some friends that seem to function in society without cable. It also helps that recently HGTV just disappeared from our lineup and that the World Series is over. Also helpful is that JT recently pointed out that there are no good cartoons on anymore in the morning. Why do we bother then? Now do we cancel pre or post Thanksgiving?

350

Congrats to everyone! You have successfully powered through three hundred and fifty posts about the Lucas clan. treat yourself to a latte, a beer, a glass of wine. You deserve it.

And for some light, probably tear evoking reading, check out this blog post:

http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/

I have to admit that I don't personally know this woman but I know her experience. While neither of my boys have dressed as Daphne one of our sweetest buds went through an Ariel stage and got some of the same reactions. And of course, I often get reactions from moms who believe they know better when I let Zach out in a Jedi robe, Vader cape, or whatever is preferred persona is for the day. Ugh! Why do parents have to be so mean? Why can't we just let kids be kids and explore what they want (unless it involves knives, matches, and guns - I do have to draw a line somewhere).

stealth sleeper

There are many mornings that I have woken up surprised to find that I am sharing a bed with one child, sometimes two, or that somehow two children have kicked Rick to the couch. Sometimes I worry that I don't wake up; I recall my mom always waking late at night the minute I walked back in to the house as a teenager. Will this skill come to me magically?

I guess it should come as no surprise then that the other night I had no clue the Stealth Sleeper had snuck in to our bed. Let me start by explaining that Jet has this amazing skill that I have ever seen in a dog. Instead of jumping up on furniture or a bed, he quickly glides up almost like Dracula or Bat Man. One minute he is standing behind you and then suddenly he is curled up on the bed. It is a bit freaky.  And that is exactly what happened to me last night. I set off for bed, leaving Rick to finish whatever was on TV and by the time I was ready to get myself under the covers Jet was already up on the bed and curled up on Rick's side. I left him there. I admit this isn't the best tactic but I think after seeing Ella's rapid decline we are all filled with the "life is short" attitude, which means Jet gets to be more spoiled than his predecessors. I snuggle up, I quickly fall asleep, I remember briefly waking when I heard Rick talk to Jet and I just made the assumption that he was telling Jet to get out of bed. Fast forward an hour or so later when I wake because I am freezing and I need to find a back up blanket but I hesitate because I have both cats snuggled up on one side and call me odd but I really don't want to disturb them. I stir a little, try to steal some more blankets from Rick at which point I feel something furry up by my head. I am not sure if I woke Rick or if was still awake but he quickly confirmed my suspicion that Jet was in fact still in our bed and sleeping up on my pillow with no intention of leaving. Love ruled that night and Rick shared some of his blankets with me agreeing that if I got out of bed it would disrupt the whole bed. I warmed up, fell back asleep, and when my alarm went off at 5, I and my 3 furry friends all woke and got out of bed to start our days.
As a side note, Jet got in bed last night too but he got in at the bottom on Rick's feet and I am not sure he enjoyed it as much as he was in his own bed when I got up this morning.

Happy Halloween

Halloween weekend was packed with activities including a baseball tournament, trick or treating, and dinner with friends. JT woke this morning to go to school he announced that he felt like he never really got a weekend.  Here are photos from the Halloween part. I will have some year end baseball photos soon.

Zachy got tired of waiting for me while I obsessed over every move JT made with a knife so he went for a few cuts and more marker this year.

Despite my anxiety, JT carved his own pumpkin and did a nice job.

Elmo and the White Ninja (Slade and Eli) swung by for some serious trick or treating. Hard to tell from this shot but JT was intent on spooky/scary and his costume has a gruesome feature where it looks like blood is pumping through his ribbed chest plate.

Zach has been waiting a long time to be a "wolfman" (not sure why he branched away from Star Wars)but he didn't like the shirt that came with the costume and of course opted to tell me just about an hour before it was time to head out. Luckily I managed to graft the fur to another shirt and Zach created a story for himself about being a soccer player turned Wolfman.