Too early to think about Christmas? I don't think so... especially when it comes to your holiday cards.

It's the second week of October, and I'm already listening to Christmas music. There's just something to be said for savoring the fun of festive music before all the hustle and bustle of the holidays actually arrives.

With that being said, it's getting to be that time of year when everybody starts having family pictures taken to be sent out in their Christmas cards. A few years ago, I started designing our Holiday Cards online through Shutterfly. You can upload your high resolution pictures, pick a fantastic design and add the text of your choice. Then, they ship your order to you at lightning fast speed (just kidding- but really it's within a week or less).

I've always been very impressed with the quality of Shutterfly's work. I get the matte finish (versus the shiny photo paper cards), and they always turn out beautiful. It also helps when you have a good photographer. Most photographers will provide you with a CD of the photo files, and you can use those to make your cards. If you take your own, I recommend using photos that have a natural or outdoor background, and make sure there aren't any cars or extra junk in the pictures. Also be sure to take the photos at a high resolution so they won't turn out blurry.

Shutterfly has several cool retro styles this year.  I like this one. 

Keep your eye out on Shutterfly's facebook page and the special offers page on their website for promotions. They almost always have free shipping with orders over $30, and you can often get an extra 20% off of greeting card orders.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. They are going to give me a super awesome promo code for sharing this post with you all. But really, everything I wrote was true. Shutterfly produces quality products, and I highly recommend them!

Life as a NICU Mommy- blog post recaps

Over the years, I have written quite a bit about our experience with prematurity. For those who are interested, here are some links to some of my prior blog posts:

Joseph with Austin in the delivery room after my c-section.

How a Creme Pie Helped me Remember- My most recent recollections of those difficult days in September 2006.

29 Weeks- A day by day rundown of my experience with preeclampsia and preterm delivery at 29 weeks gestation.

Here is a post I wrote about life once we brought our preemie home after his 72 day visit in the hospital.

Austin's Birthday- 6 years old- Pictures from Conquer Chiari Walk

Austin had a birthday a few weeks ago. He is six years old! We celebrated with family and friends by participating in the Conquer Chiari Walk in Louisville. After our walk along the riverfront, we shared cupcakes and let the kids climb on a statue of Abraham Lincoln. It was a fun day.

Austin's 6th Birthday

Conquer Chiari Walk- There were 25 of us who participated, including kids.

Joseph's parents, along with my mom and sister, were able to celebrate with us.

David waiting for a cupcake.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial. 

Austin and his friends. 

To blog or not to blog.... and do I really have anything interesting to share?

For those who read this blog, what are the kinds of posts that you tend to enjoy most? I'm going to try to write some more in the near future, but I don't want to waste time and mental energy (both of which are limited these days) on posts that people aren't interested in.

Here are some of the series that I have written about in the past. Let me know if any of them are of particular interest to you:

- Public School
- Learning to Read or books in general
- Life as a NICU Mommy- prematurity
- Funny stories about the kids (I tend to just post these as short quips on facebook these days.)
- pictures of the kids (again, on Facebook)
-Melancholy
- Couponing (I'm actually taking a break from deal-seeking, although my checkbook is screaming that I need to start clipping coupons again soon!)
-Stuff to do in Louisville
- spiritual stuff

So, what do you think? What kind of blogs do you check regularly, and which posts do you tend to actually read all the way through?

Life as a NICU Mommy and the Issue of Germs

Joseph is a germaphobe. He doesn't like it when I take the boys swimming in lakes or public pools or when they climb in the tunnels at McDonalds. If a food so much as touches the counter, even if it was just washed, the food goes in the garbage.

I'm health conscious as well. But I don't get scared about a little bit of dirt.  As far as I am concerned, there are bad germs and there are good germs. I make sure my kids wash their hands when they've been playing with something nasty and before meals, but I don't stress out about whether we are going to pick up a germ at the grocery store.

Most people fall into one of the categories above (excepting that gross minority who don't even bother to wash their hands after using the toilet- eww).

And then there are NICU Mommies and Daddies....

I can still remember the first time I was able to leave my hospital room to go see my tiny preemie son. I had only gotten a short glimpse of him in the operating room, and then they had whisked him away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with me confined to my hospital bed. I didn't get to see him for a whole day after he was born. Family, friends and co-workers all got to visit my baby before I even really laid eyes on him. Thankfully I don't remember much of that day, which is a good thing because I must have been very sad.

Anyway, about the first time I left my room to see my baby--- I remember Joseph told me I needed to wash my hands really well. (He had been in the NICU room many times already, so he knew the protocol.) Well, I learned how to wash my hands very thoroughly in my high school medical electives, so I thought I was good. Nope, Joseph wasn't satisfied. He said I had to wash for like 30 seconds all the way up to my elbows and scrub harder. That was my initiation into the world of a NICU Mommy.

The parents of NICU babies are very concerned about germs--- and for good reason. Preemies are not as hardy as full term babies. A little bit of dirt really will hurt them, and the tiniest germ can wreak complete havoc on the system of a preemie. If you so much as scratch your nose or touch your mouth, you need to wash your hands for fear of spreading sickness to your baby.

I remember worrying so much about germs. We would make sure our visitors weren't sick, and we didn't even want healthy people to visit if they had even been around someone who was sick. The NICU is a very sterile place, and it should be that way.

Once you take your baby home, however, keeping your baby healthy becomes more tricky. Therefore, the safest place to be is at home. Austin came home from the NICU in December. We didn't take him anywhere but the doctor's office until the end of March. He was six months old before we even took him to church. I guess if it had been summer, we wouldn't have worried so much, but we were terrified that he would catch RSV and end up back in the hospital. (Thankfully, he didn't get sick at all that winter.)

Fast forward to 2010 when David was born, and we were like totally different parents. Our full term baby was more hardy and able to fight off sickness without fear of hospitalization. It's amazing what another two months in the womb will do for a kid.

All that being said, if you are going to be around a premature baby, please be conscious of germs, and don't visit if you are sick or if your kids are sick!