Christmas Cards...Old and New!

Once again, I've waited until the last minute to do our Christmas cards this year.  November and December have been SO busy!!!  With five kids, our Christmas card photo shoots are always interesting.  Here's the cast of characters, and how it normally plays out when I try to get a group shot:  Will and Zach (my teenage stepsons) are not thrilled (at ALL) with getting their picture taken, especially when I get props involved (see below - the "NOEL" year was particularly bad for them - haha!!!).  I can normally get a small smile out of them, but it is NOT easy!!!

Our Very First Christmas Card Picture Together - circa 2001

Next, Lindsey and Emily - who normally have some sort of disagreement over who is sitting where, or who gets to hold the prop, etc.  In the past, there were usually tears from one or both of the girls during our shoot.  Once there was even behind the back pinching going on during the picture.  Lord help me.

This was the only one we could get where Emily would sit down!  This year was pretty stressful, too.  Circa 2004.

Alot of complaining this year.  Will and Zach did not like holding the letters!  Emily wanted to hold the "E" for Emily, but I had already taken Lindsey's picture holding it.  She wasn't thrilled.

One of the rare ones where Rodney and I are included.  So easy to snap a beach picture and be done with it!  No complaining this year!  Circa 2006.  We thought our family was complete!  Little did we know...

2008's card - this was the first year we signed the card from ALL the kids - little Carter was three months away from being born!



Finally, add in little Carter, who will only sit still for approximately 2.2 seconds, and I can pretty much FORGET about a smile from him!  He's way too busy to bother with all of that.  So, you can imagine why I've been putting this off this year!!!

I eventually got wised up, and realized that I should do a collage-style card, with individual pictures.  My go-to place for cards has always been Shutterfly.  Most, if not all, of the cards we have sent out have come from Shutterfly over the years. They always have the best card designs to choose from, super fast delivery, and great photo quality.  Gone are the days of the boring cards with the words at the bottom and only like ten cards to choose from!  Shutterfly has TONS of options.  Click here to see the amazing selection of Christmas cards.  Here are a few I have my eye on for this year:

All I have to do is find cute pictures of each of my kids, and drop them in the template!  Easy!  And no more stressful photo shoots (although I do still make them pose in front of the tree, wear Santa hats, etc. for other Christmas pictures - can't let them get off THAT easy!!!).

Shutterfly doesn't just have photo cards - check out these cute calendars, perfect for grandparents or for dad's office!

I can't believe I didn't realize that Shuttefly also has some ADORABLE birthday invitations - and you can't beat their prices!!!!  Click here to see birthday invitations.

I was so excited to find out that I could earn 50 free cards this year, just by talking about Shutterfly, a company that I already use and LOVE!  You can do the same - click here for details.

Now, just wish me luck in finding cute pictures for this year's card!!!!