My New Years goal... (Brian)

Well, Cheryl and I went out and bought new iPhone4's this week...  It was a pretty good deal as well, they are normally $199 each, but Radio Shack had a deal for $51 off saving us $102.  Not a bad deal at all, especially since I knew I could sell our old 3G's for $200 a piece.  So, when all was said and done we were paid $100 to upgrade out 2 and a half year old phones.

I'll post my review of the iPhones some time in the future, but for now, my goal is to take a picture every day of 2011.  It might be of Connor, vacations, food, golf, camping, new toys, my truck, school, whatever I feel like taking a picture of...  Who knows, I will probably forget after a week, but if I do remember, it could be pretty cool in the end...

Happy to announce...

Whoo hoo! Brian and I just found out that we were selected to become a part of the new Purex Insiders - a group of Bloggers who will be able to try and then share our thoughts on new products and  work with the Purex Brand Team by offering tips and opinions...something we really are good at! :)


We do lots of laundry around our house and Purex is one of our go to brands - especially with our oh so sensitive skin -  so this is a really exciting opportunity for us! Check back for the latest news from Purex!

Dear Santa...a letter from the grown ups...

Well, it's Christmas time once again, and we are almost ready for Christmas here at the Pudney House.
We thought that since Connor is getting ready to write a letter to Santa, we would like to write a letter as well....one from "us" for our wishes... just in case the big guy reads our blog. 

Dear Santa, 

   We hope that you are doing well and staying warm up in the North Pole. We have tried very hard this year to be good in all areas - as parents, as spouses, and as teachers. As always during the Christmas Season, we hope for prosperity, good health, joy and happiness for our family and friends, but just in case you have a little extra room in your sleigh, we thought you might like to know what is on our wish list this year:

1. A new bathroom. This really would be quite spectacular, considering it would benefit our whole family! We don't want anything fancy, just a new floor(since ours has water damage and needs to be replaced) and a new tub, since we are pretty sure that is the cause of the water damage. Perhaps you have a few elves who are tradesman and can do quick work?  We only have the one tub, you know, and we kind of need it on a daily basis! We'd even be happy to help with the painting and such, we just don't have the skills(or tools) to do the heavy repair work needed...so, yeah, that's our biggest wish! 

Image courtesy of Google Images

2. Thrift Store Treasures....As you know, we love to refurbish new to us, thrift store treasures, especially dressers! We think it's a frugal, green way to cozy up the house in a way that represents us. We had our first true find just this past fall, and it now lives in our kitchen. Our living room really would benefit from a dresser as well - we have the perfect spot! So we are hoping that you could bring us some "Thrifty Luck" - with our holiday vacation coming up, it's going to be the perfect time to do a little furniture makeover...we just need the piece! 

Image via Thenester.com

3. Obedience Lessons for The Dog. Yes, our dog. Oh, he's a crazy boy, that Dunkin. At 6 months old, we think we are pretty lucky that he seems to have stopped growing...for now. He's a big boy. And gentle, too...just lacking the social graces that we would like him to have. So some obedience classes really are needed...just have to find the ones that fit our schedule.

The Dunk. December 2010.

4. For Cheryl...a new Vera Bradley Bag....specifically, this one:

The Squared Away Tote www.verabradley.com

 

 

 

It's The Squared Away Tote from Vera Bradley in Baroque. Love it! It would hold all of my necessities, plus all of the junk I tote for Connor(and Brian, too!) I am a HUGE fan of Vera bags - I've carried one for the last 6 years consecutively. They look great, are roomy, comfy to carry, and best of all - washable! I still pull out my older styles and patterns to carry, depending on my mood, and even after being washed several times, they still look brand new! 

5. For Brian...new Tires for the Tacoma...specifically, these:

Image from www.goodyeartires.com

The Goodyear Duratracs...the Tacoma is our baby - we love that truck.  But the tires are getting a little worn after the miles we've logged in the last 18 months on it, and its time for an upgrade. Most of our miles are on the highway, but when the situation arises, we need to be able to (and quite honestly, get a thrill out of) go offroad. Camping trips and our weekend day trips to the Adirondack Mountains (home to numerous off roading spots) really are much more fun when we have the traction needed! Plus, they look great, too!

So Santa, those are our wishes for this year. We are looking forward to your arrival this coming Christmas Eve, and will be sure to leave your usual homemade cookies and beer, along with some carrots for the reindeer(organic, naturally!) We wish you safe travels and good weather for your trip! Merry Christmas! 

Love, 

Brian and Cheryl

Christmas Card 2010

Holiday To Do List: Wrapping Center

One of my favorite parts of Christmas preparations is setting up my Wrapping Center! We started doing this when we moved in to our house and had space to actually utilize it. For the first few years, we used our guest bedroom....and then Connor was at an age where he realized what we were doing and my mom moved into the guest room, so now we have it set up in our basement. It works just as well, if not better, because all of the gifts we buy come from the car, to the basement and get wrapped and stored in Rubbermaid Totes until the Big Guy comes. No sneaky peekys!

So, what do we have in our wrapping center?  Well, it starts with a 6' long banquet table that we purchased for our family gatherings several years ago at BJ's. Then, we have all of our wrapping paper stored standing up in a storage container purchased at Target a few years ago. It looks like a garbage can with a tall lid which is great for keeping the paper dust free and from rolling all over!  (I will admit to having a penchant for the wrapping paper, especially Hallmark wrapping paper, so we have a lot of it!) After that, we have separate boxes of bows, tags, pens and scissors, adhesive runners and tape lined up on a nearby shelf so that we have everything we need to wrap at our fingertips. Gift bags and larger shirt boxes are stored in a Rubbermaid Tote standing up on the floor - we just flip through to find what we need.

This has saved us SO. MUCH. TIME when we have a last minute gift to wrap, or a quick 5 minute block of time(especially while waiting for laundry to finish!)...and especially when Brian needs to wrap gifts! So, I guess I'd better get to setting that up this weekend because the presents are piling up and we need to get wrapping!

Holiday To Do List: Advent Calendar

So, I mentioned yesterday that I love me some Holiday Traditions...today I wanted to share another tradition we have started for Connor - our Advent Calendar.  When we were kids, Brian and I had the chocolate Advent Calendars - the kind where you open up a little cardboard door and pop out the cheapy chocolate?!  Well, we've upped the ante with our version.

We started our Advent Calendar three years ago, when Connor was old enough to start counting down to Christmas. Our calendar is a a simple Primitive style fabric tree, that hangs on our kitchen pantry door. It has 25 small pockets. The first year, we used simple things to fill the pocket each day -  a small piece of chocolate, some stickers, a matchbox car...then last year, we found the Lego Advent Calendar and we used that....attaching the day's Lego Toy to the pocket with a clip each day. Connor LOVED it!

Lego City 2009 Advent Calendar Photo via Amazon.com

This year we are doing the Playmobile Advent Calendar:

Playmobile Advent Calendar Image via Amazon.com

We chose this one because while Connor (and us!) LOVES Legos, he also has started a collection of Playmobile sets, and we wanted to add to that collection. This Advent Calendar is a nice collection of Woodland Creatures, which will be right up his alley! We purchased it at our local Wegman's, but it is available online at retailers like Amazon.com for right around $20.00. We plan on clipping each day's piece to its pocket like we did last year, and setting up the backdrop on Connor's dresser in his room.  I know he is really looking forward to it!

I've seen lots of cute tutorials on the blogs I read lately for making new Advent Calendars. I think I am going to look into this, since our pockets are a little too small. So, is there an Advent Calendar in your house? What do you put in it?

Holiday To Do List: Order Those Christmas Cards!

Falalala! It's the most wonderful time of the year in our house! We are gearing up for a meaningful yet simple, family centered holiday season. With a five year old, we are truly at a GREAT age for Christmas - Connor is a big believer in all of the magic that goes a long with the holidays and Brian and I love every single second of his joy! Traditions at the Christmas Holidays are big in my family - special foods, special Christmas Eve rituals, and along with those, we have added some of our own special traditions since we've been married. One of the most anticipated Christmas Traditions since Connor was born has been our Christmas Card photo. We spend several weeks in the fall thinking about what we will do for the photo, what he will wear, and what kind of card we want to send. When Connor was a baby, I made all of the Holiday Cards by hand and enclosed a photo of him. Then, I got busy, and I bought premade cards to attach a photo to. Easy, but not quite what I had in mind. It was when Connor was three that we found the solution!

Shutterfly.  With GORGEOUS card designs, a simple to use interface, and great prices, we figured that we would give it a try. When the cards showed up, we were stunned. The paper was thick and luxurious, the quality of the printed image was phenomenal and the colors were just so vivid!  It's been such an easy process for us for the last two years that I am so excited about ordering from them again this year - especially when I saw their Holiday 2010 designs. We are anxiously awaiting just a light snowfall this weekend to take our photos (we have a great idea in mind for this year's photo...so excited!) so that we can get our order in.  So...what will we choose???

With so many great designs, it's been difficult to decide, but right now we have it narrowed down to the following card designs...


We just love the cool, wintry blue of this one combined with the Vintage typeface.  It's called Vintage Noel Christmas.

Image from Shutterfly.com

Image from Shutterfly.com

This card is called the Red Revamped Christmas Card. We love the traditional red and green used on this card in combination with the black and white photo option. The square card reminds us of our wedding invitations and we think it's a nice twist on a Holiday card. It would be great with the family photo we have in mind.

Our last contender for Christmas Card 2010 is this one....Sending Holiday Cheer.
We could totally see a photo of Connor and Dunkin the Dog on it...

Image from Shutterfly.com

This one made our list because of the bright green and red color combo, the fun text box and the fact that we could be a little sillier with our photo on this card. Sooo, which one will we choose? We will let you know!

Image and Text from Shutterfly.com

The fabulous thing about Shutterfly is that they aren't just for holiday cards...we've also ordered thank you cards, photo mugs and photo mouse pads as gifts from them as well. My favorite gift ever, though, was the photo book I ordered last year for Brian, showcasing photos of our family from each month throughout the year.  It was a big hit! We have it displayed in our family room, it gets a lot of views, and its glossy, hard cover still looks brand new. Definitely keep them in mind for a unique gift for those hard to buy for grandparents!  It was super easy to put together, I simply uploaded the photos that I wanted to use, added text and basically dragged and dropped into one of my choice of templates. I could have added as many photos and pages as I wanted to. I just couldn't get over how easy it was!


In addition to all of the great products that Shutterfly offers, they are offering a great promo for bloggers! We wouldn't even mention this if it wasn't a company that we truly adore, but we feel that this is such a great product from a great company that we had to share it with you. Don't miss the chance to get your holiday cards!  Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010.  

Sooo, have you sent out your Christmas Cards yet??  If so, what do you do? Are you the traditional boxed cards family, photo cards, lengthy Christmas letter?  Tell us in the comments!