holiday card

I thought I would try to add a photo to get the "whole picture".  What do you think? 

 

 

 

Retro Kaleidoscope Holiday Card

Christmas cards and holiday thank you cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly

I cannot believe it is time to get our holiday cards together to share with our friends and family.  We took our picture weeks ago, and now it is time to decide on a card.  In the past, we have ordered our cards from Shutterfly and we were very happy with the end result.

 This was the card we used in the past and LOVE it!

I have always been picky about the paper and the printing a Shutterfly did an awesome job with both.  The cards were printed on premium card stock and the photos are printed with very high resolution.  We love our past cards and we received loads of compliments on the card we sent out last year. So, how do we top it for this year?

I have narrowed it down to a few of my favorites.  I prefer flat card stock cards rather than the folded cards.  So far, I am leaning towards....

 I love the simplicity of the tree, and option to add a longer message at the bottom.

 I feel like our photo would POP off the page and the red, white, and green would compliment any picture

 Such a classic message

 The lime green and the "fun" font make this a great card for FUN!

I love these holiday invitations,  (they even have them for every occasion!) wouldn't you love to get one in the mail?  I send a ton of thank you cards.  What about making them personalized with a photo.  Or what about personalized gift tags?  We did a personalized gift tag with a photo and they got rave reviews!

I loved how they were sticky and allowed our gift recipients to see who it is from with our favorite family photo.

There are so many holiday cards to choose from!  I could send a holiday card each day.  How perfect would that be?  Sending holiday cheer 365 days a year. 

Thanks, Shutterfly, for the great deal! Hey bloggers, don’t you want this deal too? Check out this website :)

Catching up....

I am doing a little "house cleaning" by getting the blog updated.  Be looking for the following posts in the next days: Shutterfly, Car Show, Halloween, Sara and Jody's wedding, Thanksgiving.  Thank you for your patience :)

Maxwell Fraklin Hunt

This past weekend, we made the trek down to Nashville, TN to meet Maxwell Franklin Hunt.  Andrew and Emily made the trip with us.  Maxwell's parent's are John and Colleen, and good friends of ours.  Korey and I both met them in College and each were in our respective Greek Organizations.  John and Colleen are great friends with hearts of gold!

This picture was taken at Zac and Gabby's wedding this fall.  Max is very tiny in this picture :)

Their little guy Max made an early arrival into the world.  As I told John and Colleen, Mr. Max has an agenda of his own, and will always be on Max time.  Max's arrival was earlier than predicted.  He made his debut on February 12th at 27 weeks, 4 days.  As Colleen has said he was their early Valentine, and that he was anxious to meet them.  Due to Max's premature age he has been spending his days relaxing by the pool, and sipping on some cool beverages.  Well, maybe that will have to wait a few years.  He is really spending his days in the NICU growing at getting stronger at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville, IN.  Shortly after Maxwell was born, Korey and I sent them a NICU "care package" to help them make the transition. 

The goodies for the new family

 

 What their care package included

My favorite inscription for new books for babies :)

We were lucky enough to meet Max and I snapped a few photos of the cutie.  I took way more than I can post here. Check out the link at the bottom for the rest. 

peaceful dreamer

I love the little toes!

"You woke me up for this?"

present time :)

 The beautiful butterflies in the lobby

John and Colleen were nice enough to leave Max in the careful hands of his nurses to enjoy some "adult" time.  The new parents took us to an amazing Mexican restaurant called Taco Mamacita.  The food was amazing and the sweet potato fries made the unique experience unforgettable.  After lunch Collen took the ladies to check out an awesome jewelry store.  Where we each got our own piece of FREE jewelery!  After some much needed time to catch-up, John and Colleen headed back to be with their lil' guy.  John and Colleen also gave us a tour of the Vanderbilt campus.  We took a stroll down fraternity and sorority row.  We witnessed some fraternity parties, and officially feel old.  We headed back to the hotel game to watch the Kansas/Northern Iowa game.  What a game!!  It made it even more exciting that a MVC (Missouri Valley Conference) team, beat Kansas. University of Evansville is in the MVC conference, and beat Northern Iowa this year.  Small world.  After the games, Max was kind enough to share his Mom and Dad again so we could share another meal with them.  We headed over to Boscos, a local brewery in Nashville.  Another great time!

 Lunch at Mamacita's

decor at lunch

Korey and Andrew with Elvis (Thanks for the picture Emily)

We had a fantastic weekend, and feel so lucky have met Maxwell.  Please continue to keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.  I have made Max a "button" on the right side of the page that will take you to his blog.  Max, we cannot wait to see you again!

I took a huge amount of photos, and cannot fit them all in this post.  Check all of the photos out HERE!

Shamrocks, Pots of Gold, Friends, and the Flying Toasters

What do all of those things have in common?  You are correct! These are all things that we did on St. Patrick's Day.  St. Patrick's Day is a fun holiday to celebrate.  According to my friend Lauren it is the best because....you don't have to buy gifts, you get to wear green, you get to pinch anyone who doesn't, and you get to drink green drinks.  We were able to meet up with my bffs, and their significant others ( yes I am a 12 year old girl still, and I still call them my bffs...and it makes me happy).  We were able to enjoy some fantastic conversation and yummy food at Houlihan's.  After dinner we headed over to Mo's Irish Pub.  They had a giant tent in the parking lot where the flying toasters were playing.  Korey and I have become quite fond of the band, and couldn't miss it.  We can't wait to celbrate another St. Patty's Day!  Disclaimer: excuse the poor quality from the photos they were taken with my phone. 

Shaving Cream Art

Pot of Gold and Rainbow

Charly, Lauren, and myself decked out in green!

The Flying Toasters!

Korey's Birthday Weekend

The weekend after Korey's birthday we headed down to Holland to catch up with the family.  We started the weekend by Kathy making Enchilada Strata when we arrived to Holland.  They were fantastic, and just what we needed.  Saturday was a fun filled day.  We started off the day by seeing Alice and Wonderland at the Jasper Theaters.  It has been forever since we have been to the theater.  So, we went all out....popcorn, candy, and drinks.  We all really enjoyed the movie.  It was nothing like the Disney original, but it was very well done.  We did determine that it is not a "kids" movie, it was dark and had a few scary parts.  For adults it is a must watch.  After the movie, we headed to get Kathy a new cellphone and then over to Luxey and Waylan's (Korey's 2nd cousins) Birthday Party.  Sunday we headed to Denny's with the Kahle clan for lunch.  We had great conversation and laughs, as always.  We had a great weekend, and can't wait until the next one. 

This is Fraiser's over the shoulder pose

 Jasper Theater

Korey give the movie 2 thumbs up!

Birthday kiddos enjoying their presents

Who doesn't love liking the icing off their cake?

Park Bark

This week we have had beautiful weather: sunny and in the 60s!!  We have been trying to take full advantage of the weather because you new know how long it will last.  A few years ago we joined Pierson Bark Park.  This investment has been worth it's weight in gold!  We are able to take Killian to socialize and get his "crazies" out.  I took my camera to grab a few pictures in the awesome weather!!

throwing the tennis ball

the tongue is already out

super ears!

new "friends"

pretty clouds

all tuckered out!

Happy Birthday Korey!

March is a big birthday month for both sides of our family.  However, in our household Korey's birthday is not easily forgotten. Korey turned 27 this year, and as always he was showered with love.....and goodies too!  I am going to let the pictures do the talking.  As they say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and these are priceless.  Enjoy!

Birthday gift (new jacket) from Kristen and Craig

27 candles....fire alarm? 

yummy red velvet cake from Rene's Bakery 

birthday books :)

 birthday bagel

using the new flip camera 

...and the ridiculous birthday faces...

 

and of course we cannot forget Killian

We also were able to celebrate the March birthday's at Grandma's house.  

March is her birthday month also :)

New Look!

I have been toying around with a new look.  What do you think?  Hopefully this is the start of many more new
things to come.

Snow

It seems like February is the month for snow here in the Midwest. We had a winter blast that left us with 8-10 inches of snow from 2 snow storms. Here are some of pictures of Korey and I shoveling and being silly.

at the beginning

strike a pose

cold, but done

victory over the snow!