Fenn is THREE Years Old!

It is still hard to believe that we had our first little baby three years ago today.  Everyone says it goes by fast, and I believe it.  Fenn is THREE years old today.  Happy Birthday to our little man!  Mommy, Daddy, and Boone love you very much!

He really is a very sweet little boy.  No, he's not always a perfect angel.  But I got the sweetest compliment the other night from Heather, the assistant director at his school.  She came over to babysit on Wednesday night while Dan and I went to his office Christmas party.  When we got home, we were talking about the kids and she said that Fenn is such an even-tempered and sweet little boy and really hardly ever gets in trouble at school.  As a parent, it is nice to hear those things about your kids because you don't really know how they act when they're away from you.

I took these photos right before Fenn left for school this morning.  Dan called after dropping him off and told me he walked into Ms. Robin's office and announced, "It's my birthday!".  Then he went into his classroom and said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

His party is tomorrow morning at Pump It Up and he is so excited about it.  He keeps naming his friends that are coming.

Merry Christmas from the Pipers!

This is our 2010 Christmas card.  I'm posting this because I'll get a $25 gift certificate from Shutterfly for doing so.  Pretty sweet, huh? 

Elegant Floral Black Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shutterfly has classic, elegant Christmas invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Tree, Cookies, and our Elf on the Shelf

Yesterday, we planned to go and cut down a Christmas tree.  Since we usually travel for Thanksgiving, we're always about a week later than we'd like to be in starting to decorate for Christmas.  We checked the forecast and it was calling for a 100% chance of rain at exactly the time we were planning to go.  But we decided to go ahead anyway because you never know what the weather is going to do in December.  It seems like it always ends up raining on the day we want to get a tree and we postpone it.  Then we end up trying to finish decorating a week before Christmas.

The boys were little troopers and didn't seem to mind the rain and the cold.  Dan cut down the tree pretty quickly and then once we finally got the thing tied to the top of the car, we were on our way.  We sang Christmas carols on the way home.  The boys loved that, and like last year, Fenn already knows some of the words to a few songs (like Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, and Jingle Bell Rock).

Later than afternoon, while putting lights on the tree, Dan baked some cookies with the boys.  They had lots of fun.  And by the time it was over, there were little beads and sprinkles everywhere!  Oh, and Fenn, Boone, and daddy were all covered in flour.

Boone liked using the cookie cutters.

We also got our Elf on the Shelf yesterday.  Santa sent him to stay with us throughout the holidays.  He'll watch the kids during the day and then report back to Santa Claus each night.  Santa said we should give him a name, so Fenn named him 'Jet Pilot'.  Our guess is that over the years that will get shortened to either 'Jet' or 'JP'.

Today (December 5, 2010) is the 7th anniversary of mine and Dan's first date at Basil Leaf Restaurant in LaGrange, GA.  Happy Anniversary sweetie!

Time to work on Christmas Cards!

I had hoped to have this done by now, but as usual, I'm running behind on everything.  Including ordering Christmas cards.  Last year, I used Shutterfly for my cards and they turned out really cute.  I didn't have a lot of time to spend on them, and decided to do a collage of photos from throughout the year.  It is super easy to do and you get them fast.

Shutterfly offers all kinds of photo products.  Of course, there are the Christmas cards.  I particularly like the 5x7 folded cards with multiple photos... because I can NEVER narrow it down to just one photo.  Check them out here.  Hopefully, I'll be selecting one of these great designs this year for my cards... just need to get busy picking one.  At least I have some great photos to use.  Shhh.... it's a surprise.  You'll see if you're on my Christmas card list.

I also like their calendars (click here) and hard bound photo books (click here).  I need to do some of these.  If only I could find the time.  Maybe next year!  I really like having a calendar for the kitchen with photos of my boys from the previous year.

Oh, and I just discovered they do wall decals.  Hmmm... maybe a fun idea for the playroom downstairs or the boys' rooms.  Check those out here.

So, if you're wondering why I'm doing this post, it is because I'm getting 50 free photo cards from Shutterfly for doing it.  That's right... 50!  That sure does help the Christmas budget.  Especially since I want the 5x7 folded cards, as opposed to the flat card I did last year.  So hopefully I can afford them since I'll be getting 50 for free.

If you'd like to get 50 free photo cards, you can get all the information here.

Summer Vacation - Part 6 {Family Fun on the Beach}

We spent the majority of our last full day in Hilton Head on the beach.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.
 

And this one might be the reason my camera died later that afternoon.  Dan was standing in the water when he took this one.

These are Boone's footprints.

Goodbye Hilton Head!  We had a great time.

Summer Vacation - Part 5 {Just the 4 of us}

We spent our last couple of days hitting the beach and enjoying some family time.

We rented some bikes and that ended up being one the boys' favorite things to do.  We rode around Palmetto Dunes (looking in the waterways for alligators!) and also on the beach.  That was a first for me and tons of fun.  Boone even fell asleep while riding.

We stopped in front of the Palmetto Dunes fire station to get some pictures by the fire engine and one of the firemen came out and asked if the boys wanted to climb up inside a truck.  Fenn particularly loved that.

We went to dinner one night at a nearby mexican restaurant.  There was a guy playing guitar and singing, so the boys loved that.  They danced to the music and even put some money in his bucket.

And we bought a Toy Story 3 kite... it was the boys' first kite.  {This was the very last photo I took with my Canon Rebel Xti DSLR.  It died on me... but thankfully it was the last day of our vacation.  Although, I had planned to do one last photo session of the boys that evening because I ran out of time (and light the other night.}

Summer Vacation - Part 4 {More fun with the Shaws}

Over the next couple of days, we had more fun on the beach with the Shaws.

Gabe and Fenn building sand castles.  Gabe is 13 months older than Fenn.  They had a lot of fun together.

Here's a cute one of Kama and Addy.

On Monday night, we did a little photo session for each family.  Here are a couple of favorites.

A cute one of all 4 kids.

On Tuesday night, we went to a great restaurant called Hudson's.  My friend, Donna, had recommended it to us.  And we were not disappointed.  We'll be going there every time we go to Hilton Head from now on.  Very family friendly.  Great service.  And the food was great, too.  We loved the 'throw back' atmosphere... an old school seafood restaurant.

This one's for Donna.  Her family goes there every summer and they always make hats out of the menus.

Another family photo in front of the shrimp boats.

Kama and Jim had to head back on Wednesday and get back to work.  We had a great time with them.  We were all pleased at how well the kids played together.  And we look forward to more vacations together in the future.

Two stories about the week:

I got sick with a fever and extremely sore throat.  On Tuesday morning, I went to a walk-in clinic nearby and found out I had strep!  Thankfully, they gave me prescriptions for some great medicine that had me feeling much better by the end of the day.  Just my luck to get sick on vacation.

And a funny story about something that happened during the week.  We set up our pop-up tent on our first day on the beach.  In the evenings, we would just pull the top off so the wind wouldn't blow it away at night.  It made it much easier each morning to get our stuff set up on the beach.  We didn't think anything of it because we had always done this when going to Florida beaches.  Well, apparently Hilton Head has different rules.  On Wednesday morning, we woke up and saw our tent frame out there.  But a little later, I looked out and noticed it was gone.  I immediately got on the phone to resort security, who got me in touch with the beach patrol.  We found out the 'rules' and figured out they must have just gone by and picked up our tent.  Apparently, they had tagged it a couple of other mornings, but we just didn't notice the tag.  Anyway, they weren't very far down the beach and brought our tent back to us.  Whew!  Crisis averted!  And it's a good thing, because Dan was mad and had already said we would not be buying another tent! 

Summer Vacation - Part 3 {Hilton Head with the Shaws}

We finally made it to Hilton Head late Saturday afternoon.  Our friends, Kama and Jim, were already there with their kids, Gabe and Addy.  It was late enough when we arrived, that we didn't have time to get on the beach.  We were more focused on getting the car unpacked, the boys fed, and then down for the night.  But first thing Sunday, we all hit the beach!

Four kids under the age of 3, plus 4 adults, in a 2 bedroom condo for a week.  Should make for an interesting (& fun-filled) week!

Hitting the beach!

Boone wasn't happy the first time he got knocked down.

But it didn't take him long to get over it.  Pretty soon he was loving it!

Fenn had fun running, playing with his trucks and sand buckets, and playing with the baseball bat and balls.

Mommy and Boone.

Boone really seemed to like playing in the water.

A cute one of Fenn and Boone.

And a cute one of Fenn, Boone, and Gabe playing together.

'Sand' Pipers on the beach.