this year's christmas card

Our cards should all have been received by now, so I won't be ruining anyone's surprise.

But to all my digi-friends . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!



From the whole family - we wish you all a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. We hope you all take time to soak up this magical time with friends and family.

o christmas tree

We got our tree up this week. We do the REAL tree thing. It's so fun! A mess? Sure. Pricey? Yep! A pain to water. You bet. But, who cares!? Nothing beats a real Christmas tree.

We got our tree at Home Depot this year. Josh had an extra $25 leftover on a Gift Card so it made our tree pretty cheap!!





We picked the most gorgeous tree (its not the one Scarlett and I are standing in front of in that photo above).



But by the time we got our tree home and fed the baby dinner, there wasn't time to decorate, so the decorations had to wait til the next day.

But I did get all the lights on that night, after the baby went to bed. Putting the lights on the tree is definitely the most boring/tedious part of trimming the tree. But one of the most important. I use 6 strands! 1200 lights. Boom baby. Mama likes a lotta lights!!!!



Decorating together as a family the next night was really fun. It's so special to do these things together as a family for the first time.




Seeing Scarlett's eyes light up at each ornament we show her is seriously the best. And she did NOT want to be left out for second. We had to put her in the Snugli so she could be right in the middle of the action.

Here's a little video I took on my phone that shows how excited she was. I don't think she ever stopped kicking her little legs for more than a couple seconds.



(We listened to a lot of Christmas music as we decorated, but during that video you could hear the David Archuleta Christmas album. I highly recommend it.)



And last, but not least, my fave photo of the night . . .



I haven't taken photos of the finished tree yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to share.

santa, meet scarlett

We took Scarlett to meet Santa Claus last week. We didn't know how it would go. I braced myself for tears and screams. I'm not quite sure why, she really isn't the kind of gal who makes a scene.

While she was a teensy bit nervous, she did really great. We were so proud of her.




And Santa was INCREDIBLE. SOOOOOO cute.




And the best part - it was all FREE!! I got to take my OWN photo. No workers to forbid the use of our own cameras, or phones. No one rushing you through. It was lovely. Anyone in the Utah Country area - go see Santa at The Shops at Riverwoods in Provo. Santa is there everyday Mon-Sat from 6-9pm. Be warned, even though you can't tell because of the cute set up they have, it is outdoors! So dress warm. We saw several people whip off their kids' coats for a quick pic. No harm in that! You'll notice we unwrapped Scarlett down to her sweater for the photos, and then promptly bundled her back up.



Plus the Shops at Riverwoods has an amazing display of Christmas lights!! There are also free carriage rides Mon, Fri, & Sat 6-9pm. It's worth making a trip down to see it all.

Haha! I didn't mean for this to be a Shops at Riverwoods testimonial! It's just, I did my research beforehand to find a place we could meet Santa that would let me take my own photos. And I was so pleased with our experience, I thought I'd share the good find.

Anyway - we had a wonderful Christmas-y evening together as a family. It's such a wonderful time of year!!!!

bring on the presents!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, its my birthday today. I'm 31. And I thought it would be fun to celebrate my birthday with all my digi-scrap friends and throw myself a little party. haha!

So, to start things off, even though its not Friday, I have a new birthday kit to release today. Can you believe in the 4 years I've been designing I've NEVER MADE A BIRTHDAY KIT!? I couldn't either. So here is my very first birthday themed kit!!

"Cake & Ice Cream"



And as MY birthday gift to all of you . . .



Take 31% off (since I'm 31 years old today) your purchase!!
One time use!! Expires Saturday 12/17 (at midnight).
Exclues bundles, but INCLUDES the new kit!! What a steal.

Here's the page I scrapped with "Cake & Ice Cream"! My brother's birthday party a few months ago.



and more pages from the Britt Girls:


Hope everyone has a VERY happy day. I actually have no idea what we're doing to celebrate my birthday. I suppose Josh has something planned. Right, honey? :) *UPDATE* I've been informed that we have reservations at a very swanky restaurant tonight. Good job, babe. I'm excited!!

Oh! Also, this is my last new release of the year. I'm taking the rest of the season off to focus on my family and the holidays!! LOTS to do to get ready, enjoy, and make memories. I'll be back with new products in 2012. But as of now, I'm officially OFF! (I'm sure I'll be blogging a bit here and there, so its not like you won't hear from me for weeks on end!)

Have a lovely wintery week. ta ta!

show offs and slideshows and alphas OH MY!

This week I've just got one new alpha in the shop . . .

"Winterrful Alpha"



I LOVE houndstooth. And as I was thinking of what to create for this week, I accidentally quick masked a houndstooth pattern to my alpha and inspiration struck!

Ok . . . let's get to this week's Show Offs slideshow.

And you guessed it, all the Show Offs are getting my new alpha as their gift!

(What's a Show Off? How do you join in the fun? Read all about it here!)

*IMPORTANT NOTE*
This has been our last round of Show Offs for 2011. We'll pick it up again starting on January 6, 2012. If you want to send in 1 Show Off between now and January 6th, that'd be great! But just send 1. We don't want 1,000 layouts to sort through when we get back to it.

So no more Show Offs until January 6. Mark your calendars!

Have a WONDERFUL WINTERY WEEKEND.

Joovy Winner!

A BIG congratulations to Sarah Bennett! The winner of my Joovy Stroller giveaway!! She was the lucky randomly selected winner.



Sarah's expecting a baby! How perfect. Sarah gets to choose between the Kooper or the Groove in her choice of color.

Thanks to everyone who entered! It was so much fun. I hope to have more baby gear giveaways and reviews in the future.

a banner day

Hi everyone! Happy Friday.

All of my grab bag goodies are now revealed and in the shop!! You can buy each piece individually or you can get it in the collection:

"Holiday Magic Collection"



Also new today . . .

"Build-A-Banner"



Some of you may have picked this up at my Speed Scrap last weekend, but for those of you who missed it, its available in the shop now!

Here's the page I created with it:


And from the Britt Girls:


Aren't they fun? I'm definitely going to be using these over and over again!!

Hope you all have a fun weekend. Only three more weekends and then its CHRISTMAS! Crazy, right?

Ta ta!