Christmas

I guess my trend lately has been to do a once-a-month recap.  Basically, the holidays are busy for us (like everyone).  We had a fantastic December full of concerts, lights, baking, snow, traditions old and new, and all things Christmas-y.  It is so fun now that Miriam and Abbie remember what Christmas was like before and eagerly anticipate all of the things we do to celebrate.  Some of our favorite traditions are decorating the tree together, baking cookies, driving to see Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies, baking a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and opening one present on Christmas Eve.  We always celebrate Christmas with our families after the actual day because Matt works up until Christmas Day.  We have come to enjoy that because we get to celebrate as "just us" before the busier celebrations with our family (even though we always love those, too!).  So, here's a snapshot of our December...mostly around Christmas.

three beauties on Easter (and my birthday!) morning

pictures!

Much of my blogging issues as of late rested on the fact that I like to include pictures with my posts.  Well, Matt moved all of our pictures onto our downstairs computer leaving me with none on this computer...and I didn't really have time or the desire to sit at the basement computer and blog.  The laptop is far easier.  Probably a lame excuse, but it's what I have for now.  Anyway, I now have some pictures back on this computer again and will share some of the latest.  For those wanting a Baby3 update: I had the flu this week thinking that might put me into labor again (it did with Abbie), but it did not.  We're still waiting!

I love our girls! 

Happy Easter!

One of the things I love about having two girls is getting them matching clothes.  So, of course, I had to find matching Easter dresses for them.  Unfortunately, taking pictures of their matching Easter dresses didn't go quite as well as I hoped.  But they still looked beautiful!

new year thoughts and Christmas recap

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but we were away for Christmas and I am just now starting to feel the routine of normal life again.  We've also all been fighting sickness, so much of my "break" was spent lounging and resting (as much as possible with a 3-year-old and 9-month-old).  With that, I'm going to start my first post of 2011 with a list of highlights/events from Christmas and also some thoughts going into this new year.

Christmastime for our family included:

~five church services

~five days at my parents' house

~four Christmas celebrations

~three Christmas dinners (one being pizza)

~three presents for each of our daughters (because Jesus received three gifts)

~one wonderful afternoon/evening spent with some of my favorite Minnesota people

~one visit with two great high school friends

~many days to have my beloved husband around (something I missed throughout December)

~one morning spent singing and playing instruments at a nursing home

~many lovely memories of one of my favorite times of year

We really did enjoy a bit of a break from the busy December we had.  We spent a few days at my parents' house and then a few days at our house catching up on things, relaxing and trying to get well again (and still working on that last one).  

And now for the new year...I never have been much with making goals as a new year rolls around.  Sometimes I think about a few things I'd like to do or change about myself, but nothing really concrete.  I always enter the new year wanting to grow more in my faith and continue to be the wife and mom God wants me to be, so I guess that's my main "goal" for this year.  I pray that I would fall more in love with my Savior first and foremost and then continue to become more selfless in my relationship with my husband and more patient in my role as a mom.  I have so far to go, but am so thankful I am loved and accepted by God in my imperfect ways.

This year, our church is also being challenged to read through the entire Bible.  I would love to say that on December 31, 2011, I accomplished just that.  I have tried in years past to complete the whole Bible in a year, but usually get behind by the middle of the year and don't seem to catch up.  Please pray with me that I stick with my daily reading and that God would use his Word to teach me and show me Himself in new ways.

Happy 2011!

a Goulet Christmas

If you knew my hubby in his college years, you probably know why these pictures are fantastic.  If not, Matt and Robert Goulet wish you a Merry Christmas!

it's your typical church Sunday school Christmas program

I love watching Sunday school Christmas programs.  It's so fun to see kids retell the Christmas story and sing the classic carols.  This year, I was so thrilled to watch Miriam be a part of the program as she sang with her class for two songs.  She went to a rehearsal the day before and had been belting "Away in a Manger" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" for the past several weeks around our house.  She was definitely ready.  I wasn't sure how she would do at the actual program, but I brought my camera so my family members who couldn't make it could still see her.  It also always seems like there's that one child who forgets what they're doing on stage or simply decides to sit through the entire program while everyone else stands and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of those moments.  And, in case you didn't figure out that it was our dear Miriam I'm referring to, she is in the front row with a green and red dress and black top.   

 In other news, this little girl had a much better day yesterday.

faces

{picture credit}

I had a rough day with this little girl today.  She's not feeling well in what seems like a million different ways, but I can't seem to pinpoint exactly what it is.  So there was definitely a lot of holding, cuddling, consoling, and fighting through frustration today.  But then I see these faces and am reminded of the beautiful girl that I love no matter how hard my day is with her.  Tomorrow is a new day and I pray that I can continue to have patience when I feel like all my patience is gone and unconditional love when I am so frustrated.  Yes, tomorrow is a new day.  

how diet coke, google and blogging saved me $161.26

Yesterday we got a disc of all the pictures from our photo shoot (I'll show a few more on here soon) and I decided that I best start putting together our holiday cards in order that we get them out relatively close to Christmas (give or take a few days).  I also thought it would be fun that while I was at it, to make up a photo book with a lot of the pictures from our photo shoot in it.  And here's how I went about it and saved a ton of money...

First, Shutterfly offered 50 free holiday cards this year to bloggers and I went to their site and put together our card:

Didn't it turn out great?  I loved having one that could include so many pictures on it.  Then I added it to my cart, entered the promo code they gave me for the 50 free cards and presto!... my total of $119.50 went down to $8.43 (shipping).  Wow!  I couldn't believe how much I saved!  I also tried to enter another code to zero out that shipping cost, but to no avail.  Sometimes sites will allow multiple codes and sometimes not (and sometimes codes can't be combined).  Ah, well.  I still figured my 50 cards for $8.43 wasn't too shabby.

So then next, I thought I should browse through our "my coke rewards" account to see what kind of picture rewards they had to offer (and look for my picture book I was hoping to get).  We started entering in their codes a few years back seeing as I consume massive quantities of diet coke every day.  It's surprising the things you can get from sometimes not too many points!  We have managed to get free 12 packs, photo calendars, free photo prints, restaurant gift cards and much more.  Anyway, as I was browsing through their picture rewards (and they use Snapfish on their site), I saw they were offering 50 prints free for no points at all!  Score!  I was able to print up all the pictures from our photo shoot with that!  Then, I was able to use 300 or so points (which would amount to about 30 12-packs of coke) to create a photo book that is normally $24.99.  Then, I decided to google "snapfish free shipping code" and found the code SHIP30 which cancelled my entire shipping cost altogether!  So, that's how I saved the other $41.76.  Not too bad, huh?  

snow day!

Right now, I'm supposed to be making my debut playing French horn with the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra.  But, a blizzard has blown through the midwest and has shut down pretty much everything within a one-hundred mile radius.  And my parents made the trek over from southern Minnesota to watch me play in my concert tonight.  Alas.

Despite our change of plans for the evening, we truly have enjoyed our snow day.  It's one of those blizzards that you wished for every winter as a kid, but never got.  There's just something about an epic snowstorm that brings you back to your childhood wishing and hoping school just maybe would be closed for the day.  Maybe that's just me?  Either way, it's just been fun watching piles and piles of snow adorn our sidewalks and driveways (and watch Matt and my dad shovel and snowblow four separate times throughout the day).  We've also been able to bake cookies, listen to Christmas music and spend time together.  It's been wonderful!

And, on an unrelated note... we were blessed to have someone gift us with a Christmas photo shoot for our family and I got three of the pictures in my email today (a mom of triplets from our church did the shoot--check out her blog and photo blog).  There should be more coming soon.  The girls did pretty well for the whole shoot and I'm just so excited to have some great pictures to choose from for our Christmas card now!