Christmas Cards

I've mentioned on various occasions my love obsession with Shutterfly. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, stop right now. Open a new tab in your browser, type in www.shutterfly.com and hit 'enter.' I believe within just a few minutes you'll come to know why I love this website/company so much. In fact, just 2 days ago I completed and ordered a photo book from them. They have such a user-friendly site, and they're constantly working to improve the quality of it. They are also known for the awesome deals they offer on a regular basis. Wonder what kind of special offers they have going on right now? Click here and you can find out!

As I told you in my last post, we are headed out on vacation tomorrow. The beaches of Florida, here we come! While we're there (with my brother and his family), we've planned to do some family photos. Why? Because Christmas is coming and these pictures would look wonderful on Christmas cards from Shutterfly!

I was just browsing their site, and this year they have...are you ready for this...610 different Christmas cards to choose from, 367 Holiday cards, and 37 Hanukkah cards! If you can't find something that will suit your tastes in all of those options, you may just have to create your own card! Let me show you just a few of my favorites...

(This was Riley's favorite)

And if you're attached to your four-legged friends, you can make one from them, as well!

So, what do you think? Have you looked at their site already, or are you planning to?! And yes, there is a bonus for me for promoting Shutterfly's new Holiday collection. Just another reason they're such a great company! Rewards for their faithful customers all around!

The time has come

How are these 4 pictures related?

The Bramlett family will be on our way to seeing these places in less than 24 hours.

That's right - it's VACATION TIME!

And oh, how we need it! The past few months have been BUSY and a bit very stressful. It is time to get away, unwind, and relax (as much as possible with 2 kiddos ages 3 and almost a year old).

I'm super excited about going to Florida, staying at the beach, and visiting Disney World and Sea World. But, what gets me even more excited is that these 3 will be with us part of the time!

My brother, Chad, sister-in-law, Jill, and nephew, C.J. are driving down from Maryland to spend part of the week with us! I hate admitting this, but we haven't seen them since (cough, cough) March 2010. The boys were 8 months (Riley) and a little over a year (CJ). So, I'm thinking their time together this next week might be a little more action-packed than it was 2.5 years ago! I can't wait to see them playing together!

We won't have internet access where we're staying (of which, I am kind of thankful!), but no worries...lots of pictures to come after our return! Here's to a fun, safe, RELAXING week!

Homecoming Date

I told Daniel a couple of weeks ago that I really wanted some alone time with Riley. I realized that since sweet Ella came on the scene, I either have both of the children, or Riley is with his daddy. I never get one-on-one time with my little man.

Last night the opportunity presented itself! We had originally planned to go to the Hughes Springs homecoming football game as a family. However, at 6:45 last night (we were planning on leaving around 7:00), when Ella was super fussy and her nose was running, we thought it might not be the best idea to get her out in the chilly night air and chance any kind of sickness right before leaving for vacation (another post about that soon). I assumed I would stay home with the little lady while the boys went to the game. But then, my awesome husband (who isn't much of a sports fan, anyway), looked at me and said, "I'll stay home with her. You take Riley." I've learned not to question those moments. Just accept them when they come and thank Jesus. :)

So, Riley and I headed for the football field!

He was ready to support the Mustangs in his Mustang football shirt :)

The team runs down the bleachers out onto the field before every game. We were sitting right beside the aisle they run down. I wish you could have seen Riley's face as the 'big' football players were heading to the field! "Awe" would be a good word to describe it!

Here they are warming up a little before the game began.

I had the most handsome date there!

The coin toss

Going into halftime the score was 48 - 0 (Hughes Springs). We felt confident heading home then.

But not before we got a picture with the mighty Mustang! This statue is in honor of a student who died about 4 years ago while practicing with the football team.

Do you see the red football in Riley's hand? That is his most prized possession today (I say today because every day it changes). We were sitting with the Superintendent of schools and his family, and at one point he disappeared for a few minutes. When he returned, he handed this football to Riley. It says, "Mustang football" on it. Riley was beyond elated!

After we got home and the cutie was tucked safely in bed, I found out on Facebook that the Mustangs won 61 - 0. Our high school team is SO good this year! I wonder if they'll still be good when Riley-man runs out on that field as a Mighty Mustang! ;)

Friday Fun

We had so much fun as a family tonight! For the first year, Naples, TX (a small town close to ours) has an "A 'maze' N Pumpkin Patch." A friend from church told us about it, so we decided to go check it out tonight. They only charge for the kiddos ($5 each) and along with entrance into the land of fun, each child gets to pick their own mini pumpkin to take home. I, of course, took lots of pictures, so we'll let the pictures tell the story...

When we first walked in, Riley only had eyes for the haystack

Some friends from church just happened to be there, too, so Riley had a good time playing with them on top of the haystack.

Our little man has become quite the brave one. I didn't think he'd be willing to go down this steep slide, but he did it!

So maybe the first time down was a bit shaky...

But he climbed back up there and did it over and over again

This nice man took Ella from me almost immediately so I could take pictures of Riley. She was okay with sitting on top of the baby slide, but when she started going down, her happiness ended! Poor girl was scared to death!

I bet he went down this slide 20 or 30 times! He'd get to the bottom and say, "I'm gonna do that again!"

And this little lady did not like the hay!

Once we finally got him off the haystack, Riley and his daddy competed in a sack race. 

Hilarious story: While Riley was on top of the haystack, our friends from church went over and did the sack race. We asked Riley if he wanted to be in the race with them and he said no. So when he was ready to get down from the haystack and go to the sack race, he said, "Daddy, do you want to go play sacrifice with me?" We've been reading about Abraham and Isaac lately (Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac), so our precious preacher's son heard "sacrifice" when we said "sack race." :)

Next was tug-of-war. Riley worked hard trying to pull his daddy!

This little girl LOVES her daddy!

Thank you, Lord, for my family!

Fun times in the corn trough

SO not happy about being placed on some more hay!

Here's the pumpkin Riley picked out!

After playing hard for over an hour, we loaded up and headed back to Hughes Springs for a yummy dinner at a local buffet. A great way to end a great evening with some of the most precious people in my life. I'm thankful to be able to celebrate this time of year with my man and the two sweeties the Lord has blessed us with! I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your weekend, too!