which Thanksgiving onesie?

October Reads

Amy's oct-10 book montage

Amy's favorite books »

How do you say Merry Christmas?

Growing up my family always sent cards, I remember helping my mom lick envelopes or write addresses and I continued that tradition as an adult. I love having a big display of cards in my home from friends and family. I read the newsletters and love getting pictures of people I haven't seen in years. I almost always send out a picture card to show people what is going on in our lives and this year is no exception! We had a wonderful addition to our family and can't wait to show her off some more. How will we do it? One of Shutterfly's cards for sure.
The front runner...

I love the clean lines, the colors, and the cute way of documenting the year we had in a quick way! The Top Ten Moments Card.

I love the colors and cute fonts of this Peppermint Pink card as well--perfect for a family shot and a closeup of Elle
Belle!

And this What a Year card with space for a story or timeline is a great way to showcase our year--how to choose? Leave me a comment, which do I use--do I use more than 1, did you find a better one?
Check out the many Christmas cards here or the full line of photo cards here!
And your cards wouldn't be complete without address labels right? Check them out here!

Do you love Shutterfly's cards as much as I do? Apply to do a blog post and earn 50 free cards here!

More Halloween Crafts: A card

Some basic digital scrapping and a cutie girl!
Halloween kits and custom cutie from GGDigitalDesigns!

A worthy cause

I have a project for my students up on DonorsChoose, a website that allows you to give to teacher's requests and the money and supplies come directly to classrooms. If you have any desire to donate, my project is listed here. My students and I thank you!

More Halloween Crafts!

A little canvas, a little paint, some glitter, a paint pen, some ribbon and a willing hand printer and I made this ghost sign for our front door!

Some Halloween Fun

Some images from our weekend: a mummy surprise I left for my hubby and our visit to the pumpkin patch!

::Stone Throwing Thursdays::A little reflection

This week my stone has been reflection. This is the last week of my maternity leave. The 10 weeks I have not been at school have flown by and I can't believe my sweet pea is 3 months old. The other night my husband told me that I am a good mom and I burst into tears because I really needed to hear that. Motherhood has awakened this huge insecurity monster inside my head--all of a sudden I doubt a lot of the stuff I do. My husband was shocked. He was wondering how I could feel that way when she is happy and smiling and talking and growing, that I know what her cries mean and how patient I can be in getting her to nap. I couldn't explain it. So I started focusing on being really present this week and reflecting on what I know about myself and my baby. I even started writing a little piece to give to the day care on Monday--funnily enough its like a sub plan that I would write for my classroom. Not sure if I will ever fully slay the doubt monster but I have really enjoyed this week and plan to make the most of my time with Elle Belle.

Share your story and link up here

Sights and Sounds of my day

My maternity leave is winding down, so I spent today lounging around with Elle Belle.
And here is what I saw, felt, and heard...
Smiles and Baby Stretches as she woke up from a nap.


Baby Babble as we laid around, she tells quite a story.


The cooing and deep breathing as she fell asleep on my shoulder, the rubbing of her face against my shoulder as she fought sleep and her hair tickling my nose.


This cute shorts and shirt outfit as summer winds down here in Western CO.


The rattles on the gym rattling from her baby kicks.



One sockless foot as she works of any pair of baby socks I manage to get on her.

3 months and a Baptism

2 pages I made to celebrate Elle's 3 month birthday and her baptism!
Our families came out for the celebration and we had a packed weekend full of fun!


And a shot of me and my girl!


And my mom, sister, Elle, and I

Starting Digital Scrapbooking

Some pages I have started so far

Stone Throwing Thursdays

My friend Shelley of SingleStoneStudios--whose lovely products decorate my house wrote a beautiful post about faith and stretching yourself. I encouraged her to make it a McLinky so others could post their stories in longer versions than comments so here is mine.

9 years ago I picked up and moved from CA to Denver, CO. I didn't know a soul. I was starting a new career. I had never driven in snow. But I just packed up and did it. Practically it was because I was offered a job in CO and couldn't even get a teaching interview in CA. But deeper than that I wanted to try something new, something different. Moving helped me really discover who I was and what strengths I had. It helped me make good friends who taught me to accept help when it was offered. It gave me the strength to lose the 60 extra pounds I was carrying around. It gave me the time and space to forge new and stronger relationships with my family. And it gave me the opportunity to open myself up and meet the man who would eventually become my husband. Major stone thrown.

These days its smaller ones. Learning to be a mom(OK that might be a big one). And on a smaller scale trying digital scrapbooking and stretching my creativity almost daily.

What stones have you thrown recently? Write yours and post back to Shelley's blog here