Christmas 2010

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Make a statement with personalized Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Emma's Self-Portraits

As promised...pictures of Emma. Taken by Emma.

These are just a few of the MANY that I've discovered on the camera. They've been taken when she's SUPPOSED to be in her room RESTING if not napping....

I've had to delete SO MANY random pictures of her room and toys and tv shows that she's taken just so we can have room to take "necessary" pictures.

Maybe she needs a kid camera for Christmas?

Hi!



Wasnt ready for that one!



Chocolate face ... "Am I caught?"

This one cracks me up everytime I see it!

You lookin' at me?!

My Favorite Holiday Cards

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Hello All!



For the last couple of years, I send out very few Christmas cards. But it's only because I spend several hours making and personalizing them for my parents and grandparents, (ie emma's grandparents and great-grandparents.)



I make them out of the foam sticker kits and I have such a BLAST making them! Partly because the only mess that’s made is the sticker backs. And Emma can make some at the same time.


I bought a big bucket of winter foam stickers that a lot of different shapes like penguins, snowmen - which you can actually dress up with scarves and hats and mittens...so cute! The kit also comes with five different colors of 5x7 sized foam backgrounds - red, blue, black, yellow and white. It also included the same five colors of letters. There was even a sheet of white dots to look like snowflakes!


Each set of grandparents and great-grandparents got their own personalized card with an updated family picture. And if they were especially lucky and I felt adventurous, there was also a family newsletter included.


This year, since I’ve depleted my foam sticker supply, I’m hoping to use Shutterfly to not only send Christmas/Holiday cards for the family, but to also show off our new addition to the family that should be making his arrival soon! 

Here are a few of my favorite things I found while browsing the site:
-- Christmas cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
-- Canvas art http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art
-- Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Home Stretch

About a month left to go and I'm SO TIRED!

My house is a complete disaster.  

My checklist just keeps growing.

I've been going through old toys and clothes and trying to find where I "stored" all the other baby stuff in my house. (It's been more like Hide and Seek...and I think the game is pretty much tied!)

But the start of my projects for COMPLETE organization is on hold until this Saturday afternoon when a piano will finally be gone from my house... and  I can get some furniture rearranged. I'm a little frustrated with that. I'm feeling the urge to nest and organize but have no room or supplies to get it done correctly the first time...! Luckily some of that can be put on hold a little longer until the Queen of Organization ... AKA MY MOM! ... can get here and help with the insanity!

I am grateful though, especially for such sweet generous friends who were giving clothes away and thought to ask me if I wanted anything!

We are still trying to get Emma's big girl room put together and have fallen severely behind schedule of that as well. Add more frustration.

I have gotten a few things done like getting the pack and play out, set up and ready to go. We got a little dresser that will double as a changing table and both are set up in a little corner of our room. While doing that and hunting for all the pieces of everything, I stumbled upon a box that had about 4 packs of newborn sized diapers left over from Emma! It was like Christmas! I was certain that I had given all of those packs away as baby shower gifts over the years. Now we can stock up on larger sizes instead of figuring out how many packs we'd need of newborn diapers.

More of my sweet friends hosted a baby shower for me in early October and I got some amazingly thoughtful and HOMEMADE gifts! I also continued a "tradition" with a journal.
--When I was pregnant with Emma, a friend of mine got a journal and had all the guests write down their advice for me in it -- I thought that since this time I REALLY feel like I don't know what I'm doing, I wanted to get advice, whether it be about sibling rivalry, the difference between boys and girls or both. I wanted as much help and advice as I could get!

Our camera has pulled a couple of disappearing acts since July and I just refound it, so I'll be posting the pictures of the great outfits and gifts that I got from the shower. I'm telling you there are some CUTE things! I know I probably shouldn't have "favorite" gifts, but I think I do. :)

I'll also be going through and hopefully posting something soon about our budding photographer Emma! Her self portraits are HILARIOUS!

Emma was Tinkerbell again this year for Halloween. I was SO happy to hear that was what she wanted to be. That meant that I didn't have to put much, if any, thought into a costume for her. (that sounds awful, I know, but remember...I'm SO TIRED!)

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we had our trick or treat days the day before. Our church hosted a Trunk-or-Treat and chili cook-off around lunch time. And then that evening we went to the mall and did some more trick-or-treating there.

Sunday, the Primary had their presentation and it was Emma's first one. She had a line and needed minimal help! I was SO proud of her!

She's very excited to see her "broder" and asks everytime I say "Ouch!" if her "broder Liam" is hurting me. She's even tried to tell him to stop a few times! Very funny.

Emma loves Pre-K and always has stories about who had the snack bag and who was the helper and what she did that day.

Matt is still working nights at the hospital as security, but recently applied to work for the city in the animal welfare division. We're hoping we hear something soon.

Until next time...

WE'RE HAVING ...

A BOY!!!!!!!


There was a high five done in the ultrasound room.


I am SO excited to have a little boy in the house! (Is it true that little boys are easier? Or is it like everything else with children...it just depends on the child?)


I grew up with 5 younger sisters and NO brothers. That was ALOT of estrogen...


People always asked my mom and dad if, because they had all girls, they saved a bunch on groceries. My mom would chuckle and say that whatever they didn't get in groceries, they'd make up for in makeup, hair stuff, and feminine products.


I tended to think that sometimes, we could almost out eat boys....! Hey, there were six of us...We would get hungry too! :o)


I knew that when I had kids I would want all boys...I didn't want any more estrogen than what I could bring to the table...That didn't happen. But I do have a very sweet (when she wants to be) little girl who is slowly getting used to the idea of having a sibling.


Matt is pretty stoked about having an "even playing field" - as he put it - in the house.


We may be done...one of each is a good combo, however, I have lots of cute girl stuff that I'd like to use again at least once. And I'm pretty sure there will be lots of cute boy stuff that I'll want to use again too. I don't know...we'll see.


We have five names picked out. (In no particular order...)
1. Nicholas Evan
2. Liam Edward
3. Oliver Dean
4. Ethan Mark
5. Ian Matthew


What do you think?

FINALLY!

There will be an early Christmas present at the Corless house this year....

Baby #2 is on the way! We just passed the 12 week mark and are excited to share the news! It's been a very nerve-wracking first trimester for me. Last year's miscarriage really messed with my head.

Now no one can ask/say "When's the next one going to be here?" or "Aren't you going to have more?" or "You know she needs a sibling!"
What are your suggestions for names?

Hurricanes, Blizzards and Rollercoasters

2010 is here and hopefully more blogs will be here too!

The last few months have been quite the rollercoaster...I feel like I've been through a hurricane, blizzard and on a rollercoaster all at once. A little overwhelming to say the least.

The Hurricane: EMMA. Need I say anything else? She has graduated from Nursery and is now a full-fledged SUNBEAM! And every day I am shocked and amazed to hear her say and do new things that she's learned, like taking pictures with the digital camera....That post to come soon!

The Blizzard: Christmas Eve, literally! Well, it was a blizzard by Oklahoma standards...I'd say it would just be classified as a severe snow storm in Colorado/Wyoming/ Utah/ Idaho...but I'm not a meteorologist, so I could be wrong....just my opinion.)

Anyway, I'd been hearing on the news that we'd get something like 5 inches of snow for Christmas, and I kept thinking..."Yeah right! I'll believe it when I see it! We don't get snow here in Oklahoma, we get ICE."

Well, sure enough, we got ice, but MAN! We got about a foot of snow! People were having to leave their cars stranded in the middle of the road because it was coming down so fast. And I have to admit that Matt, Emma and I were among the few crazies that went out and and to Wal-Mart for a few last minute snack items...But we went out in a four-wheel-drive truck. It made it a little easier. 

Luckily enough for us, our power stayed on through the whole storm and the two weeks of negative (with wind chill factors) degree weather and very high winds. (A side note: the weather here for the next week: high fifties to mid-sixties!!! Crazy Oklahoma weather!)

The Rollercoaster: November 1 we found out we were pregnant...about 6 or 7 weeks later, on December 15th,  found out we had miscarried. Ten days before Christmas. That wasn't plesant. December 16th was my surgery to "take care of it" (sounds so horrible and evil maffia-ish).

The next few weeks were, obviously, a trial. Trying to figure out how to make it through the day, trying to figure out how to get out of bed and trying to "be strong" because I had a child that needed her mama and needed to be taken care of too. And the hardest part of all, trying not to be insanely jealous and downright irritated and mad at alot of women around me that are pregnant. It's nothing personal...it's just the situation.  It's just how my irrational grief is playing out for now.

I NEVER want to go through a miscarriage again...EVER.

I read another blogger's story recently and it helped.  I really liked the first few paragraphs of her blog...  

"There are some words in our Englis language that I would like to delete; some are just ignorant and some are hurtful and some just don't seem to be adequate for the definition they've been assigned.
One of those words is "Miscarriage."
It seems to imply that there is a party at fault; a finger of blame as though one has been careless in what they were "carrying"."
 
I recommend this if you know someone who's been through this, or you've been through this yourself...

Until next time...!