It's That Time of Year

It's the holiday season where you are getting ready for family get togethers, decorating for the holidays, gathering at the table for a nice meal, shopping for gifts for loved ones, and creating your Christmas card to go out to your friends and family.

You want to pick a card that represents who you are, the past year milestones, and show what you have been up to.  The card has to reflect all of this in one to a couple of pictures.  This past year Russ and I went to New York, Las Vegas, and Chicago, adopted a puppy, attended multiple football games, visited friends and family, and did lots of work around the house.  That is a lot to shove onto one Christmas card, we may just decide to take a random photo with Willie and include that, oh the possibilities...

Picking the pictures might be the easy part then you have to pick a design and decide what to write on the card.  Thankfully Shutterfly has a lot of great options for the holidays, they have green, red, brown, and lots of other colors along with one picture, two picture, or lots of pictures.  It can be 4 x 6 or 5 x5, it can be horizontal or vertical.  Tons of options for you, so you can make your unique card that fits you and your family.

You don't even have to wait for the holidays to make a card.  After Russ and I got married we made a card to thank people for coming to the wedding and included a wedding picture on it.  For our first Christmas card we made it into a moving card to let people know about our new address.  Last year was the first true Christmas card we went out.  We got dressed up on Thanksgiving and Kara took our picture at multiple places around my parents house.  

I can't wait to make our Christmas card this year! Better yet, I can't wait to see yours!

Christmas Ornaments Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Photo Book Addiction

I have a love for shutterfly products, especially photo books. I tried to scrapbook and I had a hard time cutting my photos and deciding how to arrange them on the page.  I found shutterfly and it is the perfect tool for me to do digital scrapbooking.  You upload all your pictures then  you can play around with page formats, colors, themes, quotes, and much more.  The first book I did was for our first anniversary.  I am one for tradition so I stuck with the first year is something paper so what better gift then a scrapbook of our first year together.  I started the book from the car pulling away from the reception to our first Christmas.  The book turned out great, it now sits on our end table in our living room for others to see.  I am in the process of making book two and soon can begin book three.

I have also found that shutterfly books make great gifts.  My best girlfriends from college made a pack that the first weekend in June (or sometime around then) we would do a girls trip.  The second and third year worked out as we had Bachelorette parties to celebrate.  They are always such fun events and I thought shutterfly books would be a good way for them to have those memories.  I made Melinda and Sheryl books for their birthdays.  I can't wait to make a book from our girls trip this past year, Vegas!

Each year I do my Christmas card with shutterfly.  Last year, I made all the grandparents in our family calendars, they were a hit.  I am addicted to shutterfly, but not ashamed at all!

Here is the first photo book I made with shutterfly:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Hello Friend!

Hello Friend!  That's usually how I answer my phone when Rachel calls me.  For some reason, that phrase always reminds me of her.  If it has been a while, I will write on her facebook wall with Hello Friend! as well.  Rachel has updated her blog today as well as I got to talk to her today and I promised her a blog update!

Well, it has been 6 months since I last updated my blog.  I know, I know, no excuses but I really do have some good ones.  The whole summer I spent traveling and visiting our friends and family.  We actually were able to visit ALL of our family and friends, so a successful summer.  Next thing I know, fall was here.  As all of you know, our falls are always jammed packed with football games, law school stuff, mission work, yard work, and real work.  Thankfully this fall it did not consist of any type of surgery and I have been able to work in my yard!

I know it has been a while since I last updated and I have a lot to update about.  I am not even sure where to begin.  I will do a post on our summer trips and events later.  I will focus on a basic update on our lives.

Willie:
Our little boy turned a year old last week!  We celebrated by going to the local City Dog Market and buying him a Tennessee Dog Cookie for his birthday treat.  Russ and I also picked out a new toy for him, a deer antler.  Boy, does Willie love that.  He is constantly chewing on it and just in the past week, he has chewed it halfway down.  Since Willie's birthday is on Halloween we were able to get some cute pictures (I know I am now a crazy dog lady) with him and the pumpkins.  We didn't dress him up besides putting on his Tennessee Shirt. 

Willie has grown a ton since we adopted him.  He started at 8 pounds and now up to 24 pounds.  He continues to have tons of energy but loves play dates.  When we go to football games in Knoxville, we are able to take him with us and he plays with Bill and Kat's dog.  He has also made lots of friends around the neighborhood, especially Brooks and Shelby our neighbors dogs.  Willie also continues to get into trouble, he has chewed off the knobs to our bay window and chewed some of the wall under the window.  At the end of the day, he looks at you with that puppy face and I give in and let him snuggle with me on the couch.

Russ and Willie with his Birthday treat

Willie on one of our pumpkins (1 year old)

Russ: 
Russ continues to be swamped with law school.  If he isn't in class, he is working on a brief, doing GRA work, participating on a club, or something other law related.  He has a regional moot court competition this week.  He passed the Patent Bar in August, so that is one less thing to worry about.  Russ has to take the MPRE (ethics exam) this past Saturday.  He continues to look for a full time job, so if you know anyone looking for lawyer let us know.  If you have seen Russ lately it is probably as much as I have as well.  Thankfully we were able to have a real date night last night.  Dinner and a show at the Fox is always a nice date night together!

Russ also just celebrated a birthday.  He was able to put the books down for an evening and I took him to Dante's for dinner.  I went to Dante's for my Bachelorette party for dinner and he really wanted to go.  A tradition Russ' Mom started years ago was making a angel food cake with cream cheese icing for Russ.  Since Russ lives in Atlanta now, and Jill is in Tennessee, I have picked up the tradition.  So I completed his birthday with a homemade birthday cake then gave him an iphone 4.  He can now be connected with the world!

Russ' Annual Birthday Cake

Russ at his birthday dinner

Brittany:
Finally, an update about me!  Nothing really excited about me.  I have worked a ton lately due to the transaction between The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises.  Instead of boring you all to death with the details, I will skip that part of my life which is all my life has been for the past month.  Though, I have had a change to go to a lot of football games.  We were able to get season tickets again with Bill and Kat and that has allowed us to meet up with all our friends.  We did our traditional annual Beta/Zeta Tailgate, the tailgate is more fun than the game!  I was able to get tickets for all of my family to come to the Bama/Tennessee game so it was fun tailgating with Mom, Dad, Kara, and friends.  I have given two baby showers in the past month and more to come.  You all know me though and know that I am in heaven planning parties and get togethers.  Other than that its just been a typical life of Brittany, work, homeowner duties, trips to Knoxville, and other odd and end things.  The exciting news is that we are getting our patio installed this week along with a fire pit, I am VERY excited.  We are getting ready for the hectic holiday season.

Hope this post didn't bore you too much.  I will post about the summer and our fall trips soon.  For now, this will have to hold you over!

Kara and I at the UT/Bama game

Willie and I on the front porch

Centerpiece for Nez's Baby Shower