Garden Grow Birth Announcement

Design your birth announcements with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

the little lord jesus asleep on the hay

jordyn was drawing baby jesus today
i suggested she put a "halo" on his head.
her response, "he's got hay all around him mom, not just by his head."
i love her.

I have become not such a big fan of sending cards in the mail - honestly, the addressing, stamping, etc. process is overwhelming to me in the midst of the season of all the gifts, parties, etc. To simplify, we give cards to the people are giving gifts to, this kind of two in ones the process for me... if you are important enough that you get a gift, then you get a card too. this lets me feel a little bit better about spending a bit more for a higher quality folded card like this one:

Charming Gift Wrap Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

theres also a lot of great deals out there right now on photocards if you look for coupon codes and free shipping codes! here's some other ones shutterfly has:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

i also love that you can personalize it inside with family photos from the year... no need to stick in the tradional christmas letter, but you can type in a few highlights or i think some of them even have templates for a longer letter right there in it.

in intrest of full disclosure, I do get 50 cards from shutterfly for sharing this with you, if you have a blog and would like to get in on the fun, go here: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

I love free things!

If you know me you know that I love.love, love a good deal- and I especially love free things! I've spent a few hours this week raking in great deals on free photo gifts courtesy of shutterfly and photoworks... thanks to two of my favorite websites:
slickdeals.net
and a new fav:
freebies4mom.blogspot.com

so here's a new freebie for those of you young mama's like me:
Free Beech Nut baby food starter kit
Sign up for the Beech-Nut eNewsletter and you'll receive a FREE Starter Kit in the mail! Allow 3-5 weeks for delivery. Plus, their monthly eNewsletter is filled with helpful advice and money-saving coupons!

http://www.beechnut.com/solidfood/index.asp?sourceID=84

hope you enjoy! Mine should get here right in time for Paige to turn 6 months which is when I think she'll be ready to start eating solids being that she was a month early...

Today the girls and I did a little photo shoot...
its amazing how much better pictures turn out once you edit them, and its amazing how hard it is to get two happy cooperative kids at once! Any tips anyone? besides photo-shopping? :)



Here are some of the outtakes from today too...

one screaming, the other one picking her nose... we only took about 80 pictures to get 10 good ones. :)

Happy in the kitchen - and even more when it's not me

There is something so satisfying about sitting down to a home cooked meal - something that didn't just come out of a box in the freezer and not simply picked up from a drive through window (although there are nights that is satisfying too...) however, there is also something super overwhelming about getting this done everyday...

the other week when both of my girls had colds, I posted this on facebook:

Lindsay Reskey has a sick three year old who can't seem to fall asleep and a two month old who can't keep a pacifier on her mouth. I think I've purellified myself fifteen times in the past hour.

September 16 at 10:57pm via Facebook for iPhone

bright and early the next morning (well not too early, because that would be another story) I had a girlfriend and her little girl standing on our doorstep with a hot cooked breakfast. "I saw on your facebook that the girls were sick. I thought it was the least I could do to help."

It was such a simple action but completely brightened a dreary day where you can't do anything besides care for sick kiddos. It really touched me. And made me want to do something like that for someone else...

And reminded me that I think I like meals other people make even more than I like my own!

Another couple of girlfriends and I have been brainstorming about how to eat more homecooked meals and still have time to spend with our babies, husbands and on ourselves... Soulution - meal swap. Each of us triple the recipe we are cooking one night a week and go pick up a hot homecooked meal two nights a week... So say Monday I cook three batches of Chicken enchiladas, my girlfriend cooks on wednesday three batches of lasagna and friday my other girlfriend cooks a roasted chicken and potatoes. I am so excited about this potential to be in the kitchen a little less and having my family eating homecooked meals more...

QUESTION: What are some of your favorite healthy meals to cook?

How to get hot pink nail polish off your 3 year old's clothes

Ahh, Jordyn...

I love my adventuresome little three year old girl. She funny, creative, compassionate and zany... but sometimes, just occasionally she decides to do really super naughty things...

Like the time she drew all over herself in sharpie
Or covered her whole room with baby powder because, "tinkerbell had a diaper rash."

or the day she covered herself with waterproof mascara...

Well, today she found a new adventure... nail polish... on her fingernails, her hands, her arms and (drumroll please...) her brand new dress she wore for the first time today. Fabulous.



So, a internet search later I find a few things that are suggested (besides the obvious nail polish remover, which doesn't seem to actually remove nail polish very well when it comes to clothes.)

- Hairspray or bug spray and a spoon. i don't know why the spoon, maybe its like a wash board, but we tried this all first... and it definately started to work, not fabulous, but after a few minutes of scrubbing we got it a bit lighter... looked more like a fruit punch stain than hot pink nail polish all over the dress!

And so I went to my old standby for stains, and I swear they aren't paying me... but I took out my giant tub of OxiClean and let the dress soak in it for an hour, rubbed more oxiclean in and left it while we went out to church, a birthday party and dinner... just got home and.... tada!!! the dress looks good as new!
ps- for those of you who are wondering about the sharpie removal, anything with alcohol takes it right off skin... I used an old bottle of perfume on jordyn the day she colored her whole self sharpie black, and in ran right off of her body... no such luck with the fabric that go around...