31 Days to Pray for Your Spouse Challenge

Earlier this month, sweet lady Stacie, at Motherhood on a Dime, posted about a challenge to pray for your spouse.  I love these type of things and am always excited to join!

I have found that praying for my husband not only blesses him but it blesses me also!  It's kind of funny how sometimes we can go into something like this wanting our spouse to change but who really ends up changed is us!  Prayer is so amazing!

Life with Ashley Pichea is hosting challenge to pray for your spouse for 5 minutes each day in January.  Sign up HERE and you'll receive the prayer prompts emailed to you each day.

 

I already signed up, one of my besties joined me and I emailed my Sunday school class ladies to join in also!  Ashley's goal is to have over 5000 people praying for their spouses in January.  Check out all the info and sign up today! 

 

Learn and Grow Christmas Program

This was Konnor's first year to participate in the Christmas program and since Katie is in school now, she got to be in the play.  She was so excited to be the angel Gabriel.

Holiday Cards from Shutterfly

*This post contains my opinions and experiences.  Please see full disclosure below.*

The holidays are busy and stressful enough without having to worry about picking out Christmas cards.   I ordered our cards from Shutterfly and it was so quick and easy! 

Shutterfly offers a large selection of Christmas cards and it's easy to narrow down the choices based on how many photos you'd like to include, card size, paper type and more.

While I'd ordered photo books before, last year was the first time I'd ordered cards from Shutterfly.  It was super easy to select that I wanted a 5x7 religious card with 4+ photos.  I entered our names, plugged in our pictures and was finished!

 

Last year, I left the back blank, but this year I had a little more confidence and personalized it with a bible verse and another picture.  I think having free reign for the back of the card is one of my favorite features!

 

 

I'm not sharing the front of our card from this year because even though I was delighted to see Shutterfly's orange box in my mailbox just shortly after Thanksgiving, I've yet to get our cards in the mail.  I figure I can't be too far behind because we haven't received any cards yet either!

Speaking of mailing, if you'd prefer, Shutterfly will address your envelopes to help save you time.  If you are in even more of a time crunch, you can even have them addressed, stamped and mailed!

Right now you can get 50% off your holiday cards with the code
HOLIDAY.

Free shipping is available on order over $49 with the code
SHIP49.

Hurry! It's not too late to get your cards ordered in time for Christmas!  You'l be glad you did!

Disclosure:  I purchased my holiday cards myself.  The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experiences. 

Warm, Cozy and Christmassy

The weekend after Thanksgiving is usually when we decorate for Christmas.  It's my strict rule the we can't get started with Christmas until Thanksgiving is over.  One holiday at a time, people!

After our tree disaster last year, it was so easy to put up our prelit tree this year!  There is only a couple pieces!

Apparently the tree skirt is quite entertaining!

All the ornaments were hung.  Then later before bed, they each got their 2013 ornament.  This year, I chose for them an ornament of what they were for Halloween.

Eric got the lights up on the outside of the house the day after Thanksgiving and I am excited to have this cute sign that Yvette made me out of a piece of pallet.

Since it's been so cold here lately, we've been having lot of fires.  It makes everything feel extra cozy and Christmassy!  The kids like helping stack the wood.

Thankfully a fire in the evening helps me to slow down and take a break so I can enjoy it.  This is such a busy time of year!

Elf on the Shelf wants to know.....

What does the fox say?

Harztell came out the Sunday after Thanksgiving as usual with Kelton reading the story to Katie and Konnor.  We set him on the top of the fire place, the kids eager to see were he'd be the next morning.

They just love the song, What Does the Fox Say, so it seemed natural that Hartzell would ask Mr Fox the question, What do you say? 

Always Thankful!!

While I think Thanksgiving prompts us to really stop and reflect on everything we're thankful for, we try really hard to encourage the kids to see those blessings every day also.  For the 5th yr, we were able to donate Thanksgiving dinner to a family in town.  I never know who they are, but always enjoy thinking about them while we're cooking and eating our own meal.

First off, is it ever really a holiday without matching jammies? 
I think not!!

Always eager to help, Katie was in the kitchen every chance she got.  She helped me rip the bread for stuffing, which was fun because I remember always helping my mom rip the bread when I was little.

She also helped E get the turkey read to go in the oven.

So naturally she felt she deserved the first taste...

E always handles the turkey, I cook all the sides and since my mom was joining us, I asked her to make the gravy.  I've said it before, but I'm fairly certain her gravy could create world peace. 
I could almost drink it...

 

We ate until we were totally stuffed.

Even Remington had a little taste of turkey.

 

 Can't forget whipped cream, I mean, pumpkin pie!

 

After the dishes were done and the leftovers put away, I headed out to do some shopping with my friend, Amanda.  We got some great deals and I got home just before midnight. 

 

That was the plan because like last year, I decided that ringing the bell for the Salvation Army is the best way to spend Black Friday.  The kids came to donate some change and take turns ringing the bell.  This was after running into Santa at Lowe's!!

 

 

We ended the day at Shady Creek Sporting Clays.

Saturday, we went to the range to site in our rifles for deer hunting next weekend.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving weekend has been just as wonderful!

Turkey Trotting and Birthday Cake!

Although E's birthday was on a Thursday, because of the kid's activities, we didn't get to celebrate until Sunday.   We did surprise him by having his tool box at work covered in balloons and streamers.  I'm super thankful to one of his coworkers for helping me out with that!  I wish we'd have gotten a picture!

On Sunday, we'd all signed up for the 2 mile Turkey Trot.  What we didn't count on was that it would be 17 degrees that morning!  The kids were eager, so we bundled up and headed out!  We arrived early enough for a decent parking spot but stayed in the van until it was almost time to start!

We were thankful to have that stroller on the way back to the van because each registrant got a free turkey! 

Kids 8 and under were given a participation medal.  Katie ran the majority of the way and finished in about 28 min.  Kelton took off on his own and crossed about 20 min.

When we got home, we were afraid we'd have to delay birthday cake a second time because Konny was having an FPIES reaction (no clue on what caused it).  Thankfully, he slept after it subsided and woke up fine.  The kids were super excited to celebrate.   I tried a new recipe...pumpkin pie cake and it was a hit!  Sometimes on birthdays, we just have cake for dinner and this was one of those nights!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!