"Canvas Press" Review

**Sponsored Post: This post is sponsored by Canvas Press, but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.**

Every year I love to get our family picture on a canvas to hang in our gallery wall above our sectional in the living room. I have tried several different companies and have always had a pleasant experience, but this year I used a new company called Canvas Press and they were absolutely wonderful to work with. From the exceptional quality to the extremely fast turn-around time, I was really happy with everything from start to finish.

I ordered my canvas on a Tuesday and it arrived that same week on Friday. You can't beat that fast turn-around time. The canvas was wrapped beautifully and the colors are spot on and very vibrant. It was easy to upload my photo and order the canvas on their very user-friendly website. I really can't say enough great things about this company.

They have a special right now where you can get 55% off (plus free shipping on orders of $50 or more), so now is a great time to order.



Five on Friday

Happy Friday!
Today I'm linking up with Christina, April and Natasha for Five on Friday!

One
At the beginning of January I made my annual Storybook Photography video. I've done this for the past couple years as a way to say thank you to all my clients for continuing to choose me as their family photographer. I always post it on my Storybook Photography Facebook Page, but thought I'd share it here as well. I just add 1 photo from each session I had that year and they're always so fun for me to look back on.

Two

A co-worker of mine got us all a Christmas Cactus for Christmas last year and I'm so excited to have this bloom on it, along with several other buds that are getting ready bloom soon. :-) When he gave them to us last year, they had already bloomed and there weren't any blooms left on them, so it's exciting to see these pretty little blooms on there now.

Three

Jackson had his second basketball game of these season this past Saturday. He actually got the ball got to shoot a basket, unfortunately it didn't go in, but I was so excited he got the opportunity to try!

Four

I took a few pictures the other night of Avery in the bathtub and I just love them. :-)

Five

Last weekend I put up my Valentines Day decorations and I also finally got a felt letter board. I had been seeing everyone else's on blogs and instagram and loved them, so I couldn't wait to get one for myself. I happened to find this one at Hobby Lobby for 50% off!! Such a good deal, I just couldn't pass it up. I love it so much!



Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Pre-Christmas Events

Between our neighborhood Christmas party, the kids Christmas parties at school, Avery's Christmas party at dance class and snow the Saturday before Christmas, there was a lot going on before Christmas that I didn't ever get around to sharing that I'd like to have here on the blog to look back on.

So first I'll share our neighborhood Christmas party that our neighbors across the street hosted on Dec. 9th. It was so much fun! We had 15 kids and 1 on the way and we had 13 adults (we were missing 1 as he was out of town for work).

Here are a few pictures!

Avery and her friend Ellie. 

Jackson and his friend Andy. 

Our best attempt at getting a picture of all 15 kids. Ha. 

All of the adults.

The Sunday before Christmas I dressed Avery up in her adorable new Christmas dress that our pastor's wife got for her. She looked absolutely adorable so I had to get a quick picture of her. Jackson dressed nice that day too, but wasn't as eager to get in a picture. Ha.

Later that same Sunday, we went to Six Flags again for Holiday in the Park with my Mother-in-Law. Our main reason for going was to get a picture with Santa, but we had fun writing letters to Santa, riding a few rides and seeing the Nativity Show again so that my MIL could see it. She loved it of course.

That Monday before Christmas, Avery had her Christmas party at dance class. She and I made little gifts for her teachers and she was so excited to give them their gifts. We just bought little sequence stockings in the Dollar Spot at Target and filled them each with a pair of dollar spot Christmas socks and a nail polish. I found the tag here and it says "Thanks for Always Keeping me on my Toes, Merry Christmas." The kids were able to wear Christmas colored dance attire and they each brought a treat for the class. Avery's treat was Christmas fruit snacks. :-)

 

 

Then that Wednesday before Christmas was both Jackson and Avery's last day before Winter break and they each had their Christmas parties that day. So I took the day off work and was able to go to Avery's party that morning and Jackson's party that afternoon! It was such a fun day!

Avery's Party!

 

 Avery with her friend Aubrei. They were so cute in their reindeer shirts and tutus. :-)

 

Jackson's Party!

For Jackson's party I was in charge of coming up with a craft for his class to make during the party. I found this cute ornament idea on Pinterest and the kids all had fun making one during the party.

 

 

 

 

Jackson with his teacher, Mrs. Wenz.

The Friday night before Christmas, us and our neighbors across the street drove over to Candy Cane Lane to drive through the lights and then went to have dinner at Mellow Mushroom. In all the years I've lived in St. Louis, we've never driven through Candy Cane Lane, so it was fun to see it finally. The neighbors on this street go all out on Christmas decorations and people come from all over town to see it. We actually had to wait close to an hour to get through it. It was really neat.

 

Then lastly, the Saturday before Christmas, we woke up to snow!! The kids have never been sledding so we got all bundled up and headed over to the park to do some sledding before going to our first of 4 family Christmas celebrations, (which I'll share in a separate post.)



We had so much fun at all the parties and events leading up to Christmas. It really got us all in the Christmas spirit.