Basically Brooks

I love to send out personalized cards each year at Christmastime and this year there is no exception! This year, Shutterfly has given me 50 free cards because I am a blogger, and all I have to do is to tell you about all the great deals you can find on this awesome website, so here goes! I started using Shutterfly right after Ava was born. The pictures we had taken at the hospital gave us a gift card to use with Shutterfly, and when we ordered a second batch we got another gift card as well! On top of all that, we got a third gift card from registering at Target. Add it all up and that made $30 in gift cards! I used the gift cards to create and send out Ava’s birth announcements! You can do the same by clicking on this link: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/announcements/birth-announcements?c=60401 ! There are so many unique styles to choose from! Another purchase I have made from Shutterfly in the past year was a really BIG purchase. And when I say BIG, I don’t mean pricey….

I can not believe that it is almost Christmas! It's pretty crazy to me that the year is coming to an end! It has been a crazy, exciting, and busy year! One thing that Kyle and I are planning to do is to sit down and make a list of all the big things that have happened this year. I hope we get around to do it so that we can reflect on all those memories! Perhaps we will share our list on our blog so you can get a glimpse of our lives this year! One thing that our family has committed to doing this Christmas season is to sit down as a family each night and do our Advent Family Devotion. This is a special time each night where we get together and light candles in our "Advent Wreath," (which is just a plate with five votive candles on it, next year we will do something more extravagant!), anyway, we get together, light a candle, and read scripture, a devotion, pray, and then sing a Christmas hymn. We have been faithful to complete our devotion each night, and I believe