Just a Couple Edits

This is a follow up to the SOOC post, because my mystery anonymous photographer does a great job in the post processing. Here are a couple of my favorites!

And a couple jewels from a different day with

Princess Pea Pod and "MAP."

Christmas Card Conundrum: Tiny Prints

If you've read my blog for long... at least a Christmas season... you'll know that I have been getting my Christmas cards from the same place for a few years now and have consistently been pleased. This year I ran across Tiny Prints and decided to give them a try. I'm looking forward to getting my Christmas cards... but first I have to make a decision, and one thing about Tiny Prints that has totally impressed me is their selection. So I'm going to throw out some I like, and maybe finally make a decision in the process!

I'm a traditionalist when it comes to my Christmas cards. I lean toward designs like the Stamped Damask and Mirror of Merriness.

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/31677/christmas_cards_stamped_damask.html

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/27787/christmas_cards_mirror_of_merriness.html

But Tiny Prints has these really cool cards that practically display themselves. Give them a little bit of mantel space and they decorate for you! Seriously, Damask Darling... be still my heart!

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/20701/die_cut_christmas_cards_damask_darling.html

But, speaking of displaying themselves... check THESE out! It's a Christmas card... it's an ornament... its adorable!

Royal Ornament speaks to traditionalist me, while catering to

"IT DISPLAYS ITSELF!" me.

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/28050/ornament_cards_royal.html

But Booming Blossoms is bright and fun.

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/29695/ornament_cards_booming_blossoms.html

And I love, love, love hymns, so Angelic Wish sings to me.

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/31680/christmas_cards_angelic_wish.html

Here's the back of it, which I just might actually

like more than the front.

One other thing I've really liked about Tiny Prints is that they offer more flexibility than many of the other card companies I've seen. They have DIY cards that give you the freedom to do your own. This is just one of those options:

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/30359/diy_cards_7x5_holiday_card.html

And I really appreciate that just about any of their cards can be edited so that the "Happy Holidays" card with the adorable design, which coordinates perfectly with the picture I want to use, can quickly and easily become the "Merry Christmas" card I'm going to use.

You can check out their great designs at http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm

SOOC

This afternoon we met up with a super talented photog friend for family pictures. I love-love-love her work, and once again she totally blew me away! Can you believe these are sooc (straight out of the camera?!?) I'm always antsy to see what she does with them, but this time around is extra special because Hot Daddy really got into it and we had a great time!

Princess Pea Pod has a grasshopper fixation these days.

Seriously... those two are planning something...

Not to get too emotional, but this one reminds me
that she is watching us to learn what love is.
I hope we always give her the right picture.

It's LIKE stopping to smell the roses... or to shove them up the nose...

What?!? You want me to kiss you in front of the camera TWICE?!?

That, Ladies & Gentlemen, is our girl!

Singing Lessons... or, A Lesson on Singing for the Cat

Bradley doesn't like it when I sing "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" at the top of my lungs. It disturbs his nap.

"Who disturbs my slumber... slumber... slumber... slumber..."

See the similarities? You would, if I was singing at the top of my lungs!

Walking by Faith - an update

Back in March I posted about our experiences with infertility, and how God is using these experiences to prune me. You can read about it here, if you missed it the first time. I enjoy reading it - not because I wrote it and I have some ego complex, but because I love to be reminded of the work He is doing here. He is so awesome!

So here's a little update. After the surgery in December '09, I knew that He was telling me to give it up. Not my hope for another baby, but my fight against His plan. To make things perfectly clear, I do not regret all the doctor visits and the poking and the pain. They were no picnic, but they were part of a powerful learning experience. They brought me closer to the Lord, but they also brought me closer to my husband at a time when I didn't think we could get any closer. Some couples turn on each other, some couples turn to each other. We grew together. I told him that I truly believed we needed to step back for a while, and that the Lord would let us know when it was time to pursue pregnancy again. And he supported my decision - because he's super-fantastic like that. We learned to focus on each other, to focus on our precious daughter, to enjoy all that He has planned for this stage of life. The beginning of each cycle was another reminder of what "wasn't happening," but I got to the point where it didn't own me. We didn't quit trying, but we quit letting it lord over us. Every night Princess Pea Pod prays "... and thank you, God, for a baby..." My thoughts went from "How can I tell her that's just not going to happen?" to "In your time, Lord, and according to your plan."

In June I went to Hot Daddy to tell him that I felt led to pursue another HSG. Not because it was fun, but I was feeling that it was time to find out if the tubes were still blocked. He agreed. We had been told that if they were still blocked our only options would be surgery or using medical interventions to aid conception. We didn't feel led to either option, so we knew that if my fallopian tubes were still blocked then we were still nose to nose with a brick wall. Due to timing issues and doctor shuffles, that test didn't take place until last week. Hot Daddy took me to the hospital and waited as patiently as he could.

The doctor said he has been accused of downplaying the amount of discomfort his patients would experience. Since the same doctor had downplayed the amount of discomfort I would experience during my first go-round, I didn't hesitate to confirm that for him! I explained to him that the first HSG had shown my tubes to be clear in November '09, but that both were suddenly and inexplicably soundly blocked in December '09. He was baffled (which keeps me at 100% for baffling the medical minds with this one) and said that my tubes were indeed still blocked. In the middle of explaining to me that he would not likely be able to flush them, considering how long they had been blocked, he stopped. Not the kind of sentence where you want to be left hanging! But then he said the blockages had both been flushed clear. (Kind of like my sins have been flushed by the blood of the Lamb.) Hallelujah! That's MY God! (And props to the doctor, too.)

All of a sudden things that hadn't happened in 20 months were happening again! Little cycle signs that I used to take for granted. Am I pregnant yet? No. Will we be pregnant this month? Only He knows. But if we're not then its not His time yet. I love the way Missy over at It's Almost Naptime!! says they are "waiting for Isaac." God has a very specific plan with a very specific timeline, and THAT is what I want. I've learned my lesson from Sarah's mistake. She showed us what happens when you jump the gun and trust yourself instead of God. Thanks, but no thanks, sister! His plan works for me, so for now we wait and we watch, and we trust. And I praise Him for all he brought us through to get us right here. Right where He wants us right now.

Box+Stairs+3 Kids

...with a need for speed...

= "I don't know what happened to that candle!"

Ice Cream & the Post-VBS Meltdown

We've had vacation bible school this week. I love VBS. I've loved VBS since I was a kid in a small rural church, where it meant lemonade and those (not Oreo) chocolate cream cookies. Jesus Loves Me and bead cross necklaces and panting in the humid and heat of July in the Delta. Its a little bit different as an adult, but VBS is still a major highlight of the summer. I think the biggest difference is that instead of being the tired, cranky child at the end of the night, I am now responsible for the tired, cranky child at the end of the night. Last night was the end of VBS, so we had a great program and I had 2 tired, cranky girls when it was all over.

Here they are, so tired that one couldn't keep her eyes open and the other could do nothing but shoot the death glare.

And here they are after I said we would take them to get ice cream.

Funny how effective ice cream is!

Vacation: Principessa Style

We took a little trip a couple weeks ago... for a couple weeks...

My favorite souvenir? No question about it; its my new sister-in-law! She's adorable! She's fun! She loves my brother and he loves her! (Hi, Aunt Jenn! We love you!)

So then, when I looked at my pictures for blog inspiration (that happens around here sometimes) I thought about several different options. I don't have any good pictures from the wedding. This time I decided I was going to LIVE the moment.

I decided to share a few pictures about Princess Pea Pod's various adventures. She enjoyed a few!

In Nashville, she tried on the country star persona.

She's a Jeep fan. We counted 588 in 5 states over the 2 weeks we were gone. The cross-country-Jeep-a-thon was a success. Here she is in Uncle Squirrel Bait's Jeep. 

She was psyched until we got on the interstate with the doors and back window off. 

Now she's going to have a pink Jeep someday, but she's never taking anything off.

The 3-D Bugs movie was cool. She didn't even freak out when the praying mantis ate the butterfly.

She's a tough chick like that!

She was cool watching the jellyfish at Discovery Place. 

Then one popped up out of nowhere

and she nearly fell off the stool!

A picture from the wedding:

Princess Pea Pod loves her Uncle Squirrel Bait.

Uncle Squirrel Bait loves Princess Pea Pod.

I love them both!!!

I didn't even know she could surf!

And don't even get me started on her alternate life at sea!

She likes beachcombing. She's freaked by jellies.

She quit washing off the shells because there might be jellyfish.

I became the shell washer!

She brought a bear family together in the Smokies.

This was definitely a highlight of the trip for Princess Pea Pod.

She climbed to the top of the rock wall at the NOC Outpost.

She rang the bell.

She rappelled down.

She was victorious!

We followed that up with a tram ride up the mountain to

Ober Gatlinburg.

Where we were then stuck to wait out a big storm.

She really liked the tram... until she found out that a little boy

um, lost his lunch, on the other one.

She got a little freaked out when that one passed over ours on the way back down the mountain!

Princess Pea Pod & Daddy-waddy have friends in cold places.

She doesn't like whole fruits, but she wants to. She loved seeing the apples on the tree.

She loves applesauce. She didn't like eating the apples.

We'll try again later!

Princess Pea Pod is a bird whisperer.

She had a great time. We all did!

Vacation Principessa style is one fun trip!

A Little Bit Beachy

I'm dreaming of the beach today. It could have something to do with the fact that I've been wide awake since 3am. (Ok, not true... I've been barely awake for the last hour.) It could also have something to do with the fact that we have everything ready to go to the beach, but we're still landlocked. Still, dreams of the beach sent me back through the pictures we took in Destin 2 years ago. I found this:

I love the sherbet on sherbet in this picture. I also love the adorable little blue eyed blonde principessa.
It's a fact.

I also found one of my very favorite family pictures:

And on that note, I'm going to go spray on a little sunblock just so it smells a little bit beachy in here!

Shortbread!

The super-awesome book club I am in has been reading Here Burns My Candle and Mine Is The Night by Liz Curtis Higgs. I love Liz Curtis Higgs! I may have mentioned that before... but its true. At our next meeting, she is even going to join us via Skype (Yay for modern conveniences!) So I thought I would make Mrs. Tudhope's shortbread from a recent newsletter that Liz sent. (Mrs. Tudhope's shortbread is credited with making a dress or too a tad snug in Mine Is The Night. Now I TOTALLY understand why!)

Then my principessa found out I was thinking about making shortbread, and I went from "thinking about making shortbread" to "making shortbread!"

You might notice that I went straight past "cleaning the kitchen" and right into "making the shortbread." Focus on the cute kid and the lovely blob o' dough! She really liked the kneading.

It was really nice to be able to say "Just lick that dough right off those hands!" No eggs means Mommy doesn't spaz when Princess Pea Pod tries to eat raw dough. Not like eating raw cookie dough ever hurt me, but I suppose we'll keep that little secret to ourselves.

Be sure to get it all...

I call this "Self Satisfaction."

She even buttered the baking dish all by herself... ish... We had a great talk about how awesome butter is. About how you should just never accept substitutes with butter. About how you can never, never, never have too much butter. About how you should consume the real deal, but in moderation so you don't have a heart attack before you finish elementary school. Then we buttered the dish a little more.

Does anyone else hear an angel chorus?

This is the part where we should have let it cool completely before cutting. This is also the part where I really wanted to get this little slice of heaven cut so I could take some to M & T to get their opinions. I would encourage you to let it cool completely before cutting. I would also encourage you to share. But I wouldn't blame you for ignoring me!

Since we were running out the door, I forgot to take a picture of Princess Pea Pod and her shortbread until after church. Then I had left my camera at home because I was going to take a picture before we left. So you get a cell phone shot of a proud principessa and her handiwork.

And her shortbread crumbs on her mouth.

I'm just going to go out on a limb and suggest that you MIGHT want to be at the Lit & Latte meeting next Monday. It's going to be yummy... um... I mean, fun!