We heart Tiny Prints.

Last year we loved Shutterfly. This year we're big fans of Tiny Prints ;) Not only did they do a Zulily special discount purchase, they have a faaabulous selection of Christmas cards. Here are a couple favorites. Pair these with their frequent discount codes and free shipping offers, you're sure to send lots of [adorable] holiday cheer to your loved ones.

Each of these is a favorite for two reasons: the awesome color palette and the multiple picture options. Now that a little one is involved it's hard to get one decent picture of the 3.5 of us and so much happens throughout the year that loved ones want to see. With multiple picture options you can share a little bit about your year and manage to get one decent smiling photo of the family.

Check out more great designs here, and be sure to take advantage of their filters on the lefthand side in order to narrow down your search!http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm

Apple Extravaganza

This weekend our house has smelled absolutely delicious. Apples everywhere. In the crock pot, jars, pies, crisps...it was delightful :) With each season Billy and I usually get on a kick of a particular fruit or veggie to can so we can enjoy it's fresh goodness all year long. No but really...all year. Earlier this year it started with blackberries, then on to tomatoes and we finished up the summer with peaches. I love that when I'm making soups and stews this winter I am still using this summer's tomatoes, when I need a quick side or fruit I'm able to pull out a jar of 100% peaches WITHOUT the added preservatives (and sugar), when we're looking for an easy warm breakfast I've got a plethora of fresh jams and jellies to spread on fresh made biscuits or toast and last but not least - the pie filling makes an oh so easy dessert option that I can whip up for guests in the form of a crisp, pie or even served warm with vanilla ice cream. But back to my apple kick. This Saturday it was apples. Luke and I headed on over to the Farmer's Market while Billy was building our deck and we scored a whopping 40 pounds of apples for $24! You might be wondering how many apples = 40 pounds. Well, I didn't count, but I can tell you that after 13 half pints of apple butter, 4 quarts of apple cider (which, by the way you just use all your scraps from slicing and peeling apples, stick it in the crock pot with water and seasonings and voila! Apple cider!), 6 quarts of apple pie filling and 4 jars of apple jam we still have about 25 apples leftover.

You're probably wondering what on earth I'm going to do with all of these jars. We will keep some of the jam, butter, cider & pie filling on the shelves with our canned tomatoes, peach slices, blackberry jam & peach jam. Then we will be giving the rest away - along with our other summer goodies - as Christmas gifts. Don't worry brothers and sisters, these are just for friends and extended family... you will have a wrapped gift under the tree ;)

Blame it on my urge to nest right now or my love of all things Christmas, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. My feet are a bit tired but I just love knowing that we'll get to share something tasty with ones we love that they can eat right away or save for a quick dessert on a cold winter's night. Once they're tagged and recipe'd (made that one up) I'll be sure to post pictures.

Here are a few of my favorite looks... minus the newlywed names and replace it with favorite recipes:

I love the simplicity of these...just a little twine (which I have an abundance of) and a sweet card full of delicious suggestions. IE: Apple butter pork tenderloin, apple crisp, apple pie, homemade biscuits with peach jam, etc. Can you tell I'm 29 weeks preggers??

I'm generally not a fan of the fabric toppers - they're a bit too old fashioned for my taste. HOWEVER - I love these. Again..simple and sweet. Literally.

I LOVE these but I'm not sure I'm going to have the time (or energy) to mess with making labels along with the packaging, mailing, delivering...oh and making the boy's blankets, finishing the boy's shared bedroom and finishing up Everett's cradle bedding. But still, super cute.

And off to the next project I go while my little man is sleeping... some custom curtains and towels for the ever so fun Moms Sew Sassy :)

Redemption.

Wednesdays are pretty predictable in the Grimme house, and usually a favorite day for all. It's trash day which means every Wednesday morning I get about 20 minutes of -quiet (key word here)- reading time while Luke stands at the front window watching every garbage and recycling truck come through the neighborhood. And to top it off, the bus stop is right outside our house so that adds another minute or two of sheer bliss for my truck lover, Luke. Then, something wonderful happens at Eva Perry Library. Mother Goose story time. It's not the story time Luke is in love with, it's Miss Martha. Or, "Mish Marph," rather. Luke talks about it all week, retells what he did at the library in his own way, recounts the songs and nursery rhymes we've song and watches intently for 15 minutes every week as Miss Martha leads the way. After library time the day is pretty much a shoe in - run a couple errands, have some lunch, play outside and voila, it's 1:15 and the boy is ready for nap.

I should have known today would go a little differently. I had time to get dressed this morning, and eat breakfast before throwing up a couple of times (yes, I am 18 1/2 weeks and still throwing up - do not tempt me with another, "Oh maybe this will be the week it ends!"), and even managed to have a very peaceful devotional time with both fellas in which Luke joyfully recited half of Genesis 1:1. He even sent dad off with a very "happy heart" as we call it without one tear and enjoyed every garbage truck as usual. And then it happened. We got to the library. And he walked in, dropped off his books and the whining and crying began. Tearing books off the shelves followed, by a very impatient little boy who did no feel like waiting for Mish Marph any longer. Finally, she appeared and I thought, "ok...back to normal." Well. Miss Marph. If you sing a song about a horse every week for a month, then take it out of your story time, the one 18 month old in the room that actually remembers every song you've ever sung will likely have a meltdown. Insert Luke here. Thankfully she redeemed herself and said a new rhyme involving a flannel horse on the board, which commenced the meltdown for the time being. In all my naive - this is going to turn around attitude - kind of way, we head over to the tables where they have a lovely spontaneous craft that involves coloring. Coloring is Luke's happy place. Until my child refuses to go color. Instead, proceeds to have yet another meltdown about the fact that there are no cozy pillows on the couches in the libraries. We finally make it to the coloring table - note to self, don't force your child to do an optional craft that he isn't interested in doing. About 5 minutes into coloring, I turn around to snag a cute board book off the shelf (mind you, I'm still sitting right next to him) and just in time for me to turn my head back around every last crayon of about 400 have been launched onto the floor by none other than ... Luke. So, me being so patient and pregnant thinking, "well, just another teaching moment I suppose," Luke and I proceed to talk about all the crayons on the floor and pick up every last one. There's a little redemption here - he did help put them all back in. Ahhh, now on to the check out counter. I'll spare you our adventure to the car.

In an effort to redeem our morning and avoid going home with a whiney child for the next 3 hours - sidenote: I probably should have gone home with a whiney child for the next 3 hours - I decided to see if a friend and her son wanted to meet for lunch somewhere and let the boys play their little hearts out. Selfishly I was thinking: contained area, boys play, mommies talk, get caffeine. So first we squeeze in one more errand - huge mistake resulting in yet another meltdown about getting in the shopping cart and completely soaked pants for Luke. Did I mention I forgot my diaper bag? But hey, Chik Fil A is always a win so this morning WILL TURN AROUND. We make it through 3 chicken nuggets and almost all fries and my boy is happy and ready to play. The boys head off to go play, I'm ready to take my first uninterrupted bite of chicken salad and then it happens. Somehow, in some way, Luke gets traumatized and does NOT want to play in there. Screaming from the inside of a tunnel I make my way in to get him and so ends uninterrupted lunch and mommy time. A few minutes later he changes his mind. He goes in on his own, I'm thinking this is a good sign. Until the 7 and 9 year old boys barge in pretending they are characters from Lord of the Rings and scare my child to a million pieces. Ahhhh...time to refill my cherry coke that I splurged my extra calories on today..... So. Library: fail. Joanns: Fail. Chikfila: Epic fail.

Moral of the story: Fathers, do not exasperate your children. I should have listened to my son. I shouldn't have pushed him past what I knew his tiny mind and heart were capable of for today. I know him, I know this is not normal, but I wanted what I wanted which was a guaranteed long nap for he and myself. So I confess, I am selfish. And thankful for the God who forgives me of that and then He alone redeems my day. And gives me patience for the next 2 1/2 hours of time with my son before daddy comes home.

Nap time is over folks :)

Baby #2!!!

We are so thrilled to have seen our sweet little BOY number two today!!! I really feel like the Lord has been telling me to pray for an Abigail before we even got pregnant but today I woke up and thought - Abigail is for later whether our adopted daughter or biological. But today I will wear blue for boy. And I was right!

Everything about this pregnancy (minus the morning sickness) has been so different emotionally. I feel like now that we know how precious life is and how precious parenting is, we are so much more drawn and excited to this pregnancy. Not that we weren't before, we were of course thrilled with Luke. But this time we know how beautiful it is on this side of things and to get to see our precious boy in my belly today was absolutely wonderful. We came home with a CD full of 3D and what is it - 2D? images for free and our ultrasound tech's excitement was so awesome the entire time. With every toe, finger and heart beat that we saw she talked to our baby as if it were her own. Very sweet.

This time around my weight has been a huge issue (as in, don't gain 55 pounds please) but after seeing that we're having another boy and he's already measuring ahead despite my low weight gain we are confident that Billy & Lily Grimme make long babies :) Here are a few pictures to date - we will have another ultrasound at 28 weeks and 38 weeks to make sure there are no surprises upon delivery and to decide how to move forward with delivery. After today we decided induction is not on the table so we will either have a miraculous natural delivery before 39 weeks or a C-Section at 39 weeks.

Here are a few pictures of our precious son number 2!

Luke at 18 Months

I started writing this post while Luke was sleeping about a month ago. He woke up. Shocker :)

Little man is officially 18 months old and boy what a whirlwind the past few months have been. Active is an understatement. We hit the ground running around 7 am every day and don't slow down until it's time for bed. He takes a good two hour nap (although today we're pushing 3...) every day which is a nice break for one tired mama! He dropped from an uncharted height (greater than 110% they stop charting) to back in the 97% where he has stayed most of his life, in the 75% for weight and is talking. up. a. storm. Very rare for an 18 month old boy to talk as much as he does.

He is most definitely an introvert like his father at this point. At home he is WILD. By wild I mean running around the house "so fast", chasing Wyatt, trying to ride Wyatt, standing on his train and truck instead of riding his train and truck, climbing and jumping off of EVERYTHING, spinning in circles until he cannot hold himself up - then repeating all of that about 10 times everyday. The minute we get with friends or other children he observes. It takes him about an hour to really warm up and let loose. He beats to his own little drum (which is fine by me!) and is in no way interested in following others.

We started potty training about two weeks ago and it's going really well. I would say he's 75% there with accidents only occurring out in public when I can't get him to a potty in time. He also moved on up to a toddler bed..I won't lie, the first couple of nights I climbed in with him since he looked too big for my liking. I can't believe my baby isn't in a crib anymore!!! He thinks he's big stuff. It started out great until he figured out child-proof door knobs. We had to go back to the drawing board and thankfully after introducing him to Billy's old monkey from when he was a child, he's back to staying in bed for the night and sleeping well for the most part.

Favorite Foods:

Hot diggity dogs. And that's what he calls them. Pickles - favorite is an understatement. Chocolate ice cream. Broccoli. Peaches. Any kind of melon. Blueberries. Mandarin oranges.

Favorite Activity:

Anything OUTSIDE. And this mama is not so interested in the hot and bothered business so I feel kind of bad for how little time we've actually spent outside recently. 90's-100's isn't really my thing. He's also a huge fan of coloring/writing. A lot of people ask how he knows so much (colors, alphabet, numbers, etc) and I really think it's because he will sit and color for a solid 45 minutes multiple times a day and all he wants you to do is write letters and numbers or draw things for him while he talks all about it. It's really very fascinating.

Favorite Person:

DADDY - of course! He loves to do anything like his daddy, say anything like his daddy (hence the hot diggity dog phrase), be anything like his daddy. They are two peas in a pod and twins with 28 years in between.

And here's a few favorites of our Little BIG Boy! It's sad how few pictures we've taken this month. Maybe I'll take a some today just for fun.

Big Boy Thomas Pants

Happiest boy ever. 5 Minutes later telling him we're going inside, not so much.

Like I said, twins. Helping me can tomatoes.

San Fran 2011

It's very peaceful in our home right now, and rare is the day that I'm actually awake to enjoy it. Short rest, quiet snack, bills paid, pictures uploaded, and what's that? Even a blog post!

Billy and I had the awesome opportunity to go on a vacation to San Francisco just the two of us...what a breath of fresh air!! Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but getting to sleep in and eat on my own schedule was such a treat. It was a very relaxing, laid back, do what we want-when we want kind of trip full of uninterrupted meals and conversation. To that I say YES! And did I mention it was a cool, breezy, overcast 62 degrees while we were there? Hello jeans, sweaters and clam chowder :)

The first day we spent driving through the mountains visiting various beaches and forests - truly amazing how there are such vast differences in landscape so close to each other. We also ventured to Sausalito, a very quaint town with a few fun shops and delicious cafes. The next day we spent drove around some more looking at lots of beautiful (and oh so expensive) neighborhoods filled with lambhorginis, porsches, ya know the usual... We also went over to Palo Alto for dinner and dessert, another fun town with a little shopping. My favorite day was just staying in the city and making our way through Fisherman's Wharf and Fort Point, sipping on mochas and eating a giant bowl of clam chowder on the water. A cool breeze, cozy sweater and hot bowl of soup brings my heart much joy amidst the 104 degrees we've been experiencing here in NC. It was so nice to just spend time enjoying my awesome man of a husband. I love that 3 years and a baby and a half later we are still the same "us." Luke has changed us for the better but he hasn't taken over our marriage which was a huge fear of mine. It was a great escape for the two of us and when we came home we were able to love our sweet little man even better. Shout out to Nana and Papa who kept our boy happy and full while we were away :)

Here's a few from our trip:

Jesus Wins

As a little girl I grew up with many Easter traditions: Easter Egg hunts, dying the eggs, picking out an Easter Dress, an Easter family photo on the morning of, and heading to church for a worshipful service celebrating the Resurrection. And now I get to be on the "mommy" end of things...and I love it :) I love teaching Luke about Jesus and beginning new traditions with him and spending time worshipping together as a family. Despite our great plans for how we would celebrate this Easter, things went much differently than I had desired. On Sunday Billy and I lost our second child due to an early miscarriage.

At first I was ashamed and embarrassed. I felt like I failed in some way. I wanted to seclude myself and sleep all afternoon. I was not interested in spending time with my family or friends. It was a lot about me, my plans being ruined, my hopes and excitement being crushed. And then it hit me. Today is the day we celebrate that Christ has risen. Regardless of what happens here on earth, he has RISEN! And what a day to celebrate!! He has Risen so that I may have life and life abundantly. And what a beautiful day to be reminded that because He is Lord and He WON over darkness, I can have hope in Him in the dark and sad times. And so this Easter, although we lost our little one, we declare VICTORY in Christ the Risen King. It is because of Him, His resurrection and His empty tomb that we can cling to Hope in our Savior. Just as I shared with the 3 year olds in our Sunday School Class, the tomb is EMPTY. Jesus has CONQUERED the grave. Jesus won!! And it's true, that despite our heavy and burdened hearts, Jesus wins...Jesus wins.