Christmas Card

Holly Frame Christmas 5x7 folded card

Create modern Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

An Old Tradition with a New Twist

I love all the traditions of the Christmas season. It is very important to me to have just the right tree that we cut ourselves with all the lights and ornaments in the perfect spots. Of course, now that I have children my traditions have started to change. Like, placing all the breakable ornaments at the top of the tree.

I also love to send out Christmas cards. I have always gone to the store and read through several cards until I have picked out just the right card to send from my husband and me. Again, now that I have children my Christmas card will change. I have been looking forward to sending a photo card with a picture of my children on the front to all my family and friends.

I have always loved receiving photo cards from my family and friends to see how big their children have grown throughout the year. This will be my first year sending a photo card out as a Christmas card. I dressed my children up in their Christmas outfits and my husband and I had a photo shoot in the living room with them.

I was even more excited about sending a photo card when I looked through the cards that Shutterfly has to offer. There cards are on nice card stock paper and you can add up to 6 photos on the front and more photos inside. You can also make room for a Christmas letter on the inside. Here are some cards I am considering sending:

Check out all the other Christmas cards they have: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

If you are planning on having a holiday party this year, you can use Shutterfly to make your invitations: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations. I really like this one:

Need some gift ideas, check out these coffee mugs: http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs.

*I am even more excited because for doing this special blog post about my favorite Christmas cards, Shutterfly is giving me 50 free photo cards. Yay!

Monday we went with our friends from church to the Cincinnati Zoo. It has been fun to take Dima to the zoo this year because he actually pays attention to the animals now. He started making his oh-so-cute-it-is-a-kitty-or-stuffed-animal-that-I-want-to-pet noise when he saw the bears. He probably would have tried to get to them if I was not holding him up so he could see.

They have a really nice children's area that has recently been redone. A great playground where the kids could run while we stopped to rest and eat. Next to the playground are farm animals including a petting area where the kids can go inside the fence and pet small goats and sheep. Dima loved this!!! He kept running from one animal to the next petting them and hugging them and trying to kiss them. (Mommy of course stopped him from kissing!) They even had sinks for the kids to wash their hands that looked like water troughs. So cute!

Last night, we joined our friends for the last concert in the park in Blue Ash. It was all Big Band music. It was great music and fun to watch the older people dancing. I kept trying to imagine what they looked like when they were young and dating or newly married. Dima and Anna liked the music too! Dima was mesmerized by the instruments.

Today I made homemade blue playdoh. I want to try to introduce Dima to different crafts and art stuff. He of course spent the first part of this experience trying to eat it until he finally figured out that it was fun to squish and poke. He hasn't quite got the molding part down but I had fun making different things with it.

Blue is the only color that Dima will say. Sometimes if you ask him to bring his blue car he will bring the right one. I am not sure if he really knows what blue is or if he just has the right car memorized.

Anna had a little milestone yesterday. She has learned how to get herself into a sitting position from a laying position all on her own. She does it all the time now. Sometimes of course even when she is supposed to be going to sleep. It is fun though to watch her roll around and then push herself up all on her own.

Update about the munchkins

Thought it was time for a change and to update this thing. LOL I guess life is pretty busy with two little ones in the house. I was thinking recently about how much my life has changed in the last few years. Three years ago I was working full-time, going to college part-time and after 6 years of marriage thought I was never going to have children. Now I am a stay-at-home mom of TWO children! I still can't believe it!

My munchkins are getting so big! Dima is fast becoming a two year old. He is so sweet and loving so much of the time. Giving his sister kisses and hugs as well as friends at church and his Papa and me. But then his "terrible twos" part of him comes out and he can't help biting and pushing. He is also becoming so independent, he recently learned how to climb up in his booster seat by himself and tries so hard to put his shoes on without help. He is full of energy and at times will just run around the living room in circles. He has also increased his vocabulary to include cars, cup, ball, cracker, diaper, baba (baby), Papa, Mama, more, and repeats so many more words after us. It is such a joy to watch him become a little boy!

Anya does not stop moving either! You can see she cannot wait to follow her brother around everywhere he goes. She is so close to crawling that I can see her taking off any day. She can be very tiring to hold (especially in church) because she does not stop wiggling in your arms. She is also a voracious eater. She can clear out two to three jars of baby food like any food eating contest pro. The only thing she turns up her nose at are peas!

This picture is of us at the pond by my Mom's apartment. We visited my family this past July.

Safely Landed

We arrived safely in London yesterday. All of our flights left on time and were uneventful. Dimitri was able to sleep for several hours on the plane but Father and I did not get any sleep. We felt so out of it yesterday.
I feel like I am in another country but have not decided whether I am in England or Russia. Everybody has been speaking in Russian around me since all of our time has been spent around the church so far.
We took a small walk around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon. Everything is so narrow and quaint! The people drive very fast on the tight roads.
Last night started with Dima falling asleep on his own. Unfortunately, he kept waking up, so for the first several hours of the night I only got two hours of sleep, one hour at a time. When I had finally rocked him to sleep, I was too afraid to move so I just propped myself up. Then Father and I could not sleep because of jet lag. We finally fell asleep at 3:45AM giving us about five and a half hours of sleep.
Today we are feeling much more ourselves. We are hoping to do some sightseeing this afternoon. I miss everybody from home though!

London

We are leaving today for an adventure to London. I am not sure if I will be able to blog while I am there but if I can't I will be sure to fill you all in on our trip when we get back. Keep us in your prayers!

Basil, Birthdays, and a Baptism

Somebody from church gave me this wonderful pot that has a gauge to tell me when it needs water. I figured I might not kill things with this pot so I decided to try some flowers and basil. I bought a big basil plant at Trader Joe's that has just grown and grown. There are some leaves on this plant that are now like four inches long.

On Wednesday, I decided to make my first ever batch of homemade tomato sauce. I was just getting sick of the flavor of the store bought tomato sauce that comes in a jar. I also decided that since I had this wonderful basil plant I would be able to use lots of nice fresh basil to make the flavor of the tomato sauce really good. After consulting my mom and the internet I came up with a combination I thought would be good.

This is my basil and garlic waiting to go in the pot. And here is the tomato sauce all done. It was really yummy! Even Dimitri enjoyed it! I had to blend it up for him though so it wasn't chunky. We had it for his 10 month birthday dinner.

Dimitri also got another suprise on his 10 month birthday. A new cousin! My sister had her third child, a baby girl named Selah Joy Belland on July 29. She was 5 weeks early so she weighed only 4 lbs 13 oz and was 17 inches long.

I have become a bit lethal with hot things lately. Last Sunday I had the hot iron fall down onto the top of my hand. Then while I was making the tomato sauce some of the sauce leapt out while I was stirring and left a blister/burn on the lower part of hand. I am lucky I did not burn my whole hand when I grilled out a few nights later.

Today, we had the baptism of Isaac Paul at church. I was honored to be his godmother. He did such a wonderful job during the baptism. He did not even cry when he was dunked in the water. His parents, Wally and Andrea, are very blessed with a wonderful baby boy!