I am so  in love with Christmas and SO in love with getting Christmas cards in the mail.  I love to see how people’s families have changed, hear what people are doing, and see what kinds of cards people go to the trouble to create.  That’s why I’m so excited to offer these beautiful press-printed cards to my clients this year!  They start at $45 for 5×7 folded cards or $30 for 5×7 flat cards and come in several paper choices including *pearl* which is my favorite because it’s *shimmery*  They were originally designed that the elements be black and white but all the swirls and curls can be any color you like!  The cards themselves are customizable as well.  If you like the front of one card, the middle of another and the back of another, I can put together just the card you want!  What you are seeing are spreads.  The first image in the spread is the front, the second two are the inside and the fourth is the back.  Click on a card for a larger view.

Email me – beth@bethdreyer.com for more information or to order your cards today!

It really has started to amaze me how much Shep is really showing his ‘boy’ characteristics already.  I know I know, what other kinds of characteristics was he supposed to start showing?  It is just really hitting me how he is making the transition from my little baby to my little boy.  

Yesterday evening I was giving him his bath and he was such a sight to see.  He had fallen down and bumped his nose earlier which caused his little nose to bleed, so he had some dried up blood under his nose.  As I was taking off his socks, I was amazed at how dirty they were.  When I grabbed his hand to take off his little shirt and he had some kind of sticky orange goop in between his dirty  fingers to which were stuck a bunch of yucky fuzzies.  I’m looking at him thinking, “Where did this come from?  How did you get this dirty?  You are such a little boy!” 

He loves to play with balls, loves to watch sports with Daddy, he already loves to watch airplanes in the sky, and immediately looks up to find one when he hears the familiar noise.  When we bring him inside from playing he almost always cries when we close the door.  If he had his way, the back door would stay open all day so he could run inside and outside at will (no matter how cold it is!)  

The other day Jake brought him in from the backyard and had blood dripping off his little fingers, though he didn’t seem to realize he had a boo-boo.  As I cleaned him off, I realized that he had little scratches all the way up one arm!  ”Have a little tangle with a rose bush there, Shep?”

Yes, my little baby is turning into a little boy.

The black and white photo was taken by Kate Brewer.

That is what I was saying yesterday morning as I spent an HOUR scrubbing about only about six feet of baseboards in my new kitchen.  Scary, toothbrush scrubbing, down on hands and knees, use sixteen different products until it’s CLEAN Beth doesn’t come out too often, but Lord have mercy she did yesterday!  Hopefully she’ll come out again this afternoon while Shep is napping so the kitchen baseboard situation can be completed.

In the mean time, I thought I’d finally show everyone some photos of our first house!  Nothing is totally finished yet, but here are some photos and detail shots of various parts of the house for your viewing pleasure - 

Here is the outside of the house.  Complete with red door – if you know me at all you know that makes me happy!

And the living room.  It’s hard to tell, but the walls are a delicious Pottery Barn kind of green.

The kitchen is nice and white and bright and cheery!

This is all you’re going to see of our room because it’s not that exciting.  I have great plans of making it wonderful and relaxing, but it’s not quite there yet.

And this is definitely all you’re going to see of our bathroom!!!  Notice the strategic background blur (the blur off to the right is a box of spiderman bandaids).  I’m still trying to figure out how to best store the ridiculous amounts of stuff we have in our bathroom, so the boxes are as yet unpacked.  But it’s nice and big and has a wonderful skylight that I loooooove.  AND the shower and tub are totally separate which means that my tub will stay nice and clean because Jake won’t be showering off all of his manly dirt in it.  We seriously have gotten in fights because our bathtub would get so gross and he was SURE that it was not because of him and I was SURE that it was.  Now comes the true test.  PS, doncha just love those pink sparkle earrings?

Well if you follow my Twitter/Facebook updates, you’ve probably gathered that I absolutely hate moving.  From the bottom of my heart.  And soul.  And mind.  And strength.

So I thought I’d take a little break from packing our closet to share a few thoughts I have about the whole moving process.

1)  This is really a question.  Why.  Why?  Why does the packing tape have to make the most ungodly loud screeching noise when you’re unrolling it?  If I want to make a box while Shep is asleep, I basically have to go into my closet and shut the door so the tape doesn’t wake him up.  This to me seems ridiculous.

2)  No matter how hard you plan, there is just no way to get it all right the first time.  Our strategy for this move has been to pack up the room/items we will be moving that day only, move them, semi unpack them and then call it a day.  This seemed like it would be easy.  I don’t know that it is.  Partially because using the word easy in application to the moving process is impossible.  But the other part is because spreading the moving process out over a five day period means that you can’t pack everything from whatever room you’re moving that day, because you need to use 50% of the items in it on a daily basis.  So you move about half the stuff (ok maybe more than half but you get the idea) and come home to a room that is now just strewn with the leftovers and is in no way empty.

3)  My husband has about a zillion pairs of jeans.  Really.  More than could every be called appropriate or normal.  I’m working on the closet this morning and just as I thought I’d thrown all of his jeans into the box, I get up to the top shelf and find four more pairs.  He’s always trying to tell me that he only has X number of jeans and that he’s gotten rid of the ones he doesn’t wear.  Those last four pairs were definitely the torn up beat up kind that you don’t really wear anymore.  So he probably thinks of them as ‘work jeans.’  I ask you, who really needs FOUR pairs of work jeans?  Ok I’m done ranting about my husbands jean obsession.   Love you baby!

4) I need to get back to it.  I’m making a dent in the closet (seriously we both just got rid of tons of clothes, why does it seem so full).  A very dear friend is coming over to help me out this afternoon, yaaaaay!

This is Shep trying to file his toenails.  I don’t even know how he knows what a file is!  Such a genius.

This is the kitchen in the new house, which we got mostly unpacked and set up yesterday.

This week, we are moving to our first house!

I know things haven’t been very exciting here on the blog lately, but stay tuned!!!  Kate and I are going to WPPI in Las Vegas here in the next couple of weeks and we will be documenting all of our adventures (on video too!)  and I will be sharing them with you here on my blog!

Here are some shots of the apartment as we’re packing it up.  Ugh!  Packing and moving stress me out like nothing else!

Well we are moving!  Again!  Last night we signed a lease on a house – yaaaay a house finally!  We have been married almost but not quite 3 years and this will be our fourth move since we’ve been married!  Apparently we’re gluttons for punishment…

This time we will have a back yard for Shep to play in, an extra bedroom, more space for my office, a nice big living room and will no longer be sharing walls with people who do unusual things at unusual times of day and night…

The people we are leasing the house from are friends from church.  Ironically, she was the one who suggested the place we ended up picking for our wedding reception and now they are providing a house for us to live in.  It’s funny how God does stuff like that!

I’ll post some before and afters once we’re moved in in a few weeks-

I haven’t been a very good little blogger the past couple of weeks have I?  Please forgive me!  Here are some things that have happened recently.

First there was my 24th birthday which was tons of fun!  For those of you who don’t know, I don’t mess around when it comes to birthdays.  It’s birthday week at my house!

I really think that waiters should receive basic photography instruction.  They always take the worst pictures!

Yesterday, Shep decided he needed to wear his cowboy boots around the house in his pajamas.

Today, Shep went under the bed, pulled out Scene It and somehow got the lid off.  When I put it away, he went and got it again and actually carried it to me in the living room.  So we played Scene It.  He would roll the dice, tap the little piece around the board and then look at the tv.  He’s a perceptive little guy.  Yes, that’s our Christmas tree still up in the background, don’t judge.

Wednesday was my 24th birthday, and it has been a great birthday week!  There will be more pictures to follow, as well as my 101 in 1001 list which I’m trying to finish writing!  For now it’s the middle of the afternoon and Jake and I are about to go out and enjoy the amazing day with Shep at the park.

We had a great Christmas, I can’t believe it’s already  Shep’s second!  They’re not kidding when they say it goes fast.  He’s just so much fun!  I’m so grateful that Jesus came to earth so He could live and die for me, and I’m so grateful for my family.  We are so blessed.  Every day with Shep is better than the last.  When he gives me goodnight kisses from my crib, I melt every time!  It is the cutest thing ever!

Here are my favorite shots from our Christmas.  Did I take any at all while Shep was opening his presents?  No of course not.  Do we all look SUPER pale in all of these?  Yes.

Well you saw our real Christmas card picture, but I must confess, had this photo been taken early enough for it to have been made into Christmas cards I may have used it instead.  Taken by Madison Adams at her Ugly Christmas Sweater party the other night, how could we possibly top this picture?  The sweaters, the antlers, the scarf, the expressions, the candy canes –  it’s a masterpiece!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!