Passage to Full Adulthood using Shutterfly

This year Nate and I decided it was finally time to send out Christmas cards! The timing just seemed right and to us Christmas cards seems like a right of passage to full adulthood - a little scary I might add. When did we get so old that now we have a family of our own and are sending out Christmas cards? We still feel young.

Anyways, trying to be frugal I decided I would design the cards myself, find a place to print them, and save money in the long run. So, I started poking around on a few sites I know and trust for great design ideas - namely Shutterfly. I have ordered photobooks for my digital scrapbooking in the past from them and have loved how they turned out and the quality. The colors are always exactly how they appeared on screen - which sometimes isn't always the case. Since I am on Shutterfly's email list I have been receiving emails regarding their new Christmas photo cards for 2010. Shutterfly has so many different designs and styles using traditional Christmas colors to more playful ones and also more traditional designs that I started getting really excited. They have amazing designers working for them.

The longer I searched through the numerous designs, the more excited I got and started dropping in my pictures  - just to see how the cards would really look once they were personalized. I fell in love! The program was so easy to use and it's awesome how you can personalize each card to really make it your own. I really wanted to use Shutterfly but thought it would be too expensive. Then, I heard about a great promotion Shutterfly had to receive 50 free cards. Hmm. Would it be worth it? As I started pricing out the options (Trust me that I know how to use excel and did create a spreadsheet. Would you expect anything less from Nate and me?) I realized with the free cards Shutterfly would be no more expensive than my other options, and did I mention envelopes are included in the price? That was the clincher for me. Plus, the quality is better than anything I could have done on my own. So, you may just be getting one of these Christmas cards from the DeFries family this year. We have a few favorites and are having a hard time narrowing it down.

On another note - I just received an email from Shutterfly promoting photo calendars. Isn't that the perfect gift for family? Shutterfly may just have won more loyalty from me.

Hats off to Shutterfly!

No More Bed Head

Tonight we took Preston's hair from wild and unruly to tamed! He got his first haircut. It's bittersweet. He looks so much older now and I miss my little wild looking child but it will be better for him to not have his hair in his eyes. Our little boy is growing up!



Before



During (Thanks Erin!)





After

Officially Official CPA License

As an early Christmas gift I had Nate's CPA license framed. He's been wanting to have it done for a few months. I think it turned out great considering we had never discussed how he envisioned it being framed.

And He's Off...

We have a little walker. In the past few days Preston has gone from wanting to walk everywhere while holding onto our hands to doing it himself. It's amazing how much progress he has made in just three days. Now he prefers to walk until he loses his balance and then he'll crawl the rest of the way. (Sorry Jessica for missing your phone call.)

All Dressed Up

Saturday morning Nate and I decided we wanted to dress up for the Trunk or Treat that night, so we threw together costumes Saturday afternoon. We were excited to find out part of the stake activity was a photo booth. Lucky for us! Can you tell our theme?

Happy Halloween!

Over the weekend we spent some time picking out the perfect pumpkin, playing in the corn box, going to the Stake Trunk or Treat, and giving out candy to our first trick or treaters! We had a blast! Hope everyone else did too.

Way More Fun than the Laundry Basket!

Yesterday afternoon Preston was enamored with the new found freedom his diaper box allowed him to have. It slipped across the carpet easier than the laundry basket and once he figured out how to keep his feet underneath him he couldn't stop - until he hit the wall. However, even that didn't stop him for long. This video was taken after he had been playing for awhile and he was starting to get frustrated every time he got stuck.