Christmas cards

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well, actually, it’s not (Damian went to work in shorts and a t-shirt and I think it hit 80 degrees yesterday!), but we’re getting into the Christmas sprit anyway. We’re even being super daring and we’re putting up a Christmas tree on Thursday – we’ll see which kiddo strips it of ornaments and/or knocks it over first! There are lots of things that I’m looking forward to (seeing our UK family, taking the kids to look at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music on the radio, etc.), but one of my favorite things about this time of year is finding little treasures in our mailbox every day…not gifts (although we love those too, of course), but Christmas cards! I love them! I love seeing pictures of family members and friends whom we haven’t seen in ages. I love posting them throughout the house and pulling out Christmas cards from years past. Just love it!

This year, I found out about a fantastic deal (thanks mydfwmommy.com and Hillary!) – Shutterfly is giving bloggers 50 free Christmas cards! You just have to sign up at http://bit.ly/sfly2010. The hardest part is deciding which card to order – there are so many fantastic designs to choose from! Luckily, you can narrow down the options by size, color, designer, etc. You can also save your card and come back to it later – handy when your hubby won’t sit still long enough to look through all of the options! Now I can just show him the 10 (yes, 10!) cards that I’ve designed and hopefully between the two of us, we’ll decide on one. I love being able to show more than one picture: http://www.shutterfly.com/ssc/viewPreview.sfly?fid=e3a62285696cf858328a6b68bbcad23c5625c431369d420afd12f45bbad520eada27fa73774b895d587981ff14e26afc. But then again, I love the simplicity of having just one photo: http://www.shutterfly.com/ssc/viewPreview.sfly?fid=4ae2a182b683c578328a6b68bbcad23c5625c431369d420afd12f45bbad520eada27fa73774b895d7386f5d652e9b5f7 Even if we can decide on how many pictures to use, we still have over 100 fabulous designs to choose from: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery. At this rate, maybe we should start looking at Valentine’s Day cards instead!

Happy Halloween!

The Wizard of Oz characters never looked so cute…

Dorothy demonstrating how to knock on the door before saying “trick-or-treat” (she was REALLY exciting!).

Charlie actually hated his costume (I can’t really blame him – it was way too hot for the beautiful 80 degree weather that we enjoyed today), but we tortured him just long enough to take some pictures and then go trick-or-treating to one house.  Then we packed up the kids and took them to our church’s big Halloween festival.  Charlie lucked out and got to wear Baron’s  much more comfortable scarecrow costume (Baron was already asleep for the night)!  Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our camera to the church, so we didn’t get a picture of Dorothy and the Scarecrow with Jackson was the Tinman; but trust me – they were adorable!

Since we were volunteering at the festival, we decided to be good sports and dress up – I don’t think I’ve worn a real costume since high school!  It was worth it to hear a little boy scream “IT’S SUPERMAN!” as soon as we walked in.  Oh, and for this classic: we ran the duck pond game (kids picked a ducky out of the pond and if it had a red spot on the bottom, they got candy – it was clearly designed for the youngest visitors) and when Damian’s first “customer” found a red spot, she requested a KitKat.  Unfortunately, Superman couldn’t get the bag open.  The sweet little girl asked if he needed help.  Ha!

  It’s hard to believe how much our sweet babies have changed in that just one year:

And how much Ellie has changed in two years:

Frankenstein Baby

Charlie still isn't walking, but he's practicing more and more (on his own terms, of course). I just can't get enough of his Frankenstein-like waddle!

Amazingly, Damian got a first on video -- Charlie standing up on his own:

Pardon our dust

I'm having serious problems with my blog layout/background, so excuse the mess!

Labor Day

We spent Labor Day weekend (yes, Labor Day…the holiday back in September!) at Natalie’s dad’s ranch and we had the most amazing time!  We don’t get to spend nearly enough time with the Greco Family, so it was such a treat to spend a few lazy days with them.  Ellie absolutely adores “Baby Molly” – for weeks afterward, every time we got in the car, she would ask if we were going to Baby Molly’s house.  And the ranch was unbelievable – so, so fun!  The first day, we went swimming – how amazing is this view?

Charlie got right into the swing of things:

Love these guys!

We also fed the fish at the pond…twice.

I love this picture of Damian and Ellie

The girls spent most of the time trying to get in the water:

Natalie was particularly thrilled to see this picture when we got back to the house (she stayed home with a napping Charlie):

The kids were "going” constantly…until we turned on the TV and then Baby Molly and Ellie cuddled up for some down time.

A rare, rare photo of the four of us:

And the four Grecos (yes, there is a little Greco in that belly):

Damian was so intrigued by the cacti – luckily these did not have thorns:

Trying to feed the armadillo:

There was one slightly…uhm…terrifying aspect of the trip.  The most enormous spiders EVER!  Apparently, they’re friendly (or at least not deadly), but it was hard to remember that when we saw one swinging just inches from Ellie’s head.  As a point of reference, that’s Damian’s big hand:

      The kiddos had fun eating meals…and a crazy amount of watermelon…together.

 We plopped the kids in a baby pool several times a day just to de-stickify them.  Charlie’s expression in this picture cracks me up – I’m pretty sure he had just gotten a face full of water!

I found Damian and the girls snuggling in the hammock – they just loved it…until Charlie arrived and then Ellie bailed.

Thank you so, so much for treating us to such a wonderful weekend, Greco Family!  It was such a nice treat to get out of the city and enjoy some relaxing family time – we certainly returned to Dallas refreshed and recharged.      

What a treat!

Damian and I are both really bad about taking pictures of ourselves with the kids, so I was so thrilled when I came across these on the camera (I had completely forgotten taking them):

See? She really was here!

We were so lucky to have Grandma Sue with us for two weeks in September.  Unfortunately, we did an absolutely HORRIBLE job of taking pictures, so here’s the underwhelming photographic evidence of her visit:

We just had so much fun with Sue – I loved having the companionship during the day and the kids loved having the time to bond with Grandma Sue.  Ellie talks about Grandma Sue flying back to England every time she sees an airplane and then usually follows it up with a comment about all of us going to the UK for Christmas – she’s very excited!

Anyway, we’re all missing Grandma Sue and the rest of our British family – can’t wait to see everyone in a couple of months!