making wrapping paper

yep, she likes the camera...and we are making cheap wrapping paper today. hopefully she wont rip it all.

our card this year

Love 2010 Christmas Card

Personalize your Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutter(fly)bug

So, we are joining the many who are blogging about their christmas cards this year.  Shutterfly is a great resource for ordering not only christmas cards, but also other gifts, like calendars and magnets and personalized gifts.  We've used shutterfly over the years for all of our cards, calendars and magnets, and are excited to have them make this year's as well.  Several years ago, we used our dog, Parker, dressed as an elf, on one of their photo cards, some of you may remember that card….he was not happy!

There are so many different styles and these are a few of my favorite this year:

I love that Shutterfly has such a wide selection.  You can make a very simple, classic card, or you can be all modern or even go with a retro style.  And the colors on their cards are great!  When they are printed they always look better than when you ordered them.

And, last year, when Arabelle joined us, we made a calendar for the first time....it turned out great!  Our relatives were very happy to receive one.  And, it was so easy to make!

We already have our holiday photo card picked out, so you will have to wait to see which one we picked.  But because of their great selection it was hard to decide.  We can't wait to send ours out!  And, we’ve also made another calendar this year.  How could you not!  It’s a nice gift to give, especially since we live so far away from relatives.  I have also always wanted to make one of the photo books they offer.   It seems very easy to make and it would be a great way to archive pictures.  It's on my to do list!

Hope you are enjoying this holiday season!  If you haven’t picked out your cards yet, Shutterfly is a great company to use….and you still have time to get those cards out!

Francisco...

....that's fun to say!

So with the holiday season here, I figured it would be a good time to update this piece of cyber world I claim to own.  

We moved to Boston in late August, moved into our apartment in September, and since then have been inundated with new friends, new work, new things to do ALL of the time, and new pictures! I will post a bunch just in case you forgot what we looked like.

tea, party of 3

So most of you know by now, we are moving to Boston!  John was offered and accepted a great position at a company that is relatively new, but has a very promising future.  Apparently they make diesel fuel using sunlight, CO2, and micro organisms.  They have a patent on the technology they developed and the company is hoping to start selling real diesel fuel in the next few years...that is if John can figure out why the little micro organisms wont spit it out....that's my version of what he's going to be doing...his is much more complicated.

Anyway, it's a great job for him and we are very excited about living in Boston.  I will be able to stay at home with Arabelle, maybe teach community college if the mood strikes.  He is already there, found a place for us to live, and starting work on Monday.  Arabelle and I will be flying up next week...pretty much a sucky situation, but it had to be done this way...it worked out for the best.  And, thanks for Micah and Marianna, John has a place to stay for a few nights before our new lease starts on Sept. 1st.

It's been a HOT, crazy summer for us in Atlanta, and to be honest, we are glad to be leaving the humidity.  Any of you hot folks want a vacation to some 70 degree weather let us know...give us a few weeks to get settled first!

Once I unload pictures from my camera I will post a bunch...but here's a few from our adventures this summer.

master's

Last weekend John graduated!!!  He will tell you that I made him participate in the graduation ceremony, but I think deep down he wanted to.  It was a nice graduation, short and sweet....although there were a lot of graduate graduates...make sense?  It was a ceremony just for the graduate student at UConn...undergrad graduation was separate.  Arabelle cheered for her daddy and we got some good pictures.  Im super proud of John...he basically did all of the work for this thesis this year...and it was a lot...on top of being a TA and taking classes.  But, he is done and we will be making some big decisions as far as finding a job and moving in the very near future.  He has had a few interviews...all promising...and we are waiting for the companies to make their decisions.  The good news is that he can continue working at UConn as a lab tech if none of the other positions work out.  So we have a plan B until he does find something permanent.

flower girl

About a month ago we were in Atlanta for Crystal & Andy's wedding...and Arabelle was a little flower girl.  John's cousin's daughter, Ellah, was the other flower girl and we had fun dressing them up in pretty dresses for a little while.  Arabelle did a great job... I carried her down the aisle while Kit, John's cousin, carried Ellah down the aisle...it was super cute! I had to take her out of the ceremony early...she decided to start talking, but other than that she was a great flower girl.  She even smiled during pictures!

Andy & Crystal had a great wedding...it was a sweet ceremony...in a beautiful church that looked like a log cabin...perfect for their style...and the reception was a rockin good time....that lasted a loooong time, especially with the after party!

While we were in Atlanta, we were limited on time because of the wedding, but we did celebrate my birthday and it was nice to be in the mountains again.  It was a good trip....and we flew this time...which went way better than I expected...Arabelle slept on all of our flights and was a champ and making friends on the flights so no one could really get mad at us because she is super cute.

first ER visit

So we have been quite busy lately, and in another post I will elaborate...but yesterday, Arabelle had her first ER visit.  Turned out to be nothing major, just a little scary.

We went see one of my kids from church in his first T-ball game, and it was nice outside; we took a blanket, a few toys, the camera, some sunscreen and were ready to watch a little baseball.  Well Arabelle doesnt really like playing where we put her...she has her own agenda most of the time...so we let her crawl on and around the blanket, exploring the grass and dirt...normal baby stuff.  After about 45 minutes of being outside, I decided she didnt need too much sun, even though I had applied sunscreen, so we decided to pack up and leave.  We got in the car, headed to lunch, and once we parked again and got her out of the carseat, her face was covered in hives and one of her eyes was just about swollen shut, and her nose was running.  So, John and I both having terrible allergies to lots of things, knew this was some kind of allergic reaction, go buy benadryl, and by that time, she looked horrible, and was very upset to say the least.  So instead of giving her the benadryl (I wasnt totally sure of the dose) and because of how quickly the hives were spreading, we decided to head to the children's hospital.  Just so you know, if you show up with a baby at a hospital, and say allergic reaction, there is no waiting involved.  They checked out her breathing and heart rate and all that good stuff, and thankfully she was breathing fine.  We saw a couple of doctors and waited for a couple of hours to make sure the reaction wasnt getting worse and then they sent us on our way.  And, by the time we left the only sign of a reaction was her little swollen eye...the hives had all but disappeared.

They werent able to determine what exactly caused the reaction, it could have been a number of things, but because john has a severe grass allergy, and allergies can be hereditary, we were thinking that's what did it.  I put the sunscreen in more places than just her face, so it probably wasnt that.  So, needless to say, we wont be rolling around on the grass again any time soon.

Here are some pictures from the before the hives started.  In the last one, you can see the beginning of hives...just barely on her forehead.

spring

This past weekend we celebrated being outside, and we celebrated Easter. On Saturday we took Arabelle to the park for the first time, and she loved sliding and swinging...I see a lot of park days ahead of us this summer. On Sunday we celebrated Easter at church and then stayed for a brunch afterwards. Arabelle met the easter bunny and there was no screaming...it was fun to see her reaction. Tomorrow morning we are flying to Atlanta for Andy & Crystal's wedding. It should be fun! Arabelle has changed so much it will be fun to see her play with people now. And, she's crawling...nonstop crawling. We have a few videos of it, I might get around to posting them soon.

quack quack

so the other day we were playing with arabelle's stuffed animals and she had quite the giggle with her dad. Just one of a few videos we have of her doing some interesting things lately, but, not crawling yet....maybe soon!

in other news, we are having quite a few storms up here this week...rain sleet and snow. Arabelle and I will be glad when spring is here so we can go on walks and enjoy some sunshine. That's about it for us!

Snow day lull

So today we are officially taking a snow day. We are expecting a blizzard here so John stayed home, I canceled my Wednesday church activities, and we are basically taking a day to get stuff done. The past month has been crazy. We were in Atlanta for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years, then when we got home, I suffered a severe back injury. Never have thrown out my back before, and it wasn't one of those I moved a certain way and something popped injuries. We went to the doctor and she decided that my pregnancy messed up my lower back and my hips and my body is still adjusting. So, after being in the bed for a week, with John pulling mommy and daddy duty, he got the flu! So then it was a week on the sofa for him. All the while, laundry and dishes piled up everywhere and we just recently got back on track with our schedules. So other than cold weather, school and work, not much else is happening. And with that, here are some fun pictures of miss Arabelle....who is growing quite quickly these days.