Christmas Card time!

One of my favorite parts of Christmas: getting Christmas cards in the mail.

One of my least favorite parts of Christmas: making our Christmas card.

I like to send a card with pictures of the kiddos. But getting a good picture, deciding on a card, ordering it in time, and getting them mailed at a decent time is very difficult for me!

Well, this year I have decided to be smart about it.

I decided to leave the picture taking to someone else and we had Katie Betts from Betwixt and Between Photography take some family pictures. I warned her that Jacob is allergic to the camera and she had her work cut out for her. Well, once he saw her beautiful face he totally cheesed it up! He did wonderfully and had a big smile on his face the whole time! And she got some amazing pictures. I just may have to post some of them on here soon...

I haven’t gotten around to choosing a card, but I do know that I will be ordering them from shutterfly! Every year I spend so much time looking at a million websites, comparing designs and prices, and asking everyone I know their opinions. Last year I used shutterfly and I am never going back. I really like how easy it is to design the card on their website. And the quality of the cards is great. I enjoyed my experience so much that I used them to make a photo book for Jason for Father’s Day this year. The prices are very comparable to other places, but the quality is far better.

Here are a few cards I have considered:

Choice #1- Holly Frame

I really like cards that aren't busy and focus on the picture (especially a picture of 2 precious angels like mine!).

 

Choice #2- Scrapbook Style Sage

I really like the colors on this card, I think it would compliment our fall family pictures really well.

Choice #3- Love 2010

This card is really cool because you can list fun happenings from your year on the side.

Decisions....decisions....

PS- If you have a blog, click here for an awesome deal with shutterfly. 50 free cards! Woohoo!

Quote of the Week

Sometimes I am amazed at the things Jacob says. I tend to underestimate how much he understands and how his imagination can twist things. The other day he said the cutest thing.
We have a picture on our mantle of Reece wearing my old bonnet. I saw him staring at it and he asked, "What happened to Reece?" I told him nothing and asked why. He said, "She getting mawwied?" (We went to a wedding recently and he noticed that the bride wears a veil). So I said, "No honey, she's not getting married. Well, I guess she will one day. And so will you!" And he said:

"No. I no wanna get mawwied. I wanna be pwesident."

I'm not quite sure why he thinks you can't be married and be president. Actually, I don't even know how he knows about the president period! Good stuff.

Go Tigers Go!

Recently we took the kids to their very first Tigers game. Despite a sudden windstorm, severe drop in temperature, and terrible defense by the home team, we had a great time! Here are some pictures:

Noone can make this girl laugh like her Dada!

Reece in her Tigers gear...Dada representing both favorites! :)

Walking from the tailgate to the game with one of our favorite families/zoo pals, the Fullers! I'm pretty sure that is Stephen on the right taking one girl away and telling Jacob, "one at a time".

When we walked into the stands the kids were mezmerized! I guess they are destined to be U of M students someday!

(Take note of the wind!)

Hopefully we can post some pictures of our first Tigers basketball game soon!

*Pictures courtesy of Katrina's iPhone!

Flashback Friday: Jacob's first birthday

The night before Jacob turned one, Jason and I looked at each other and said, "Holy crap...we have a one year old!" The year had flown by, but at the same time, I felt like Jacob had been in our lives for so long. I think it's because so much happens in the first year. By the time we got used to one way of doing things, it was time to adjust his schedule, feedings, car seat, etc. When I looked at Jacob when he was born, I couldn't believe that what I was holding only took 9 months to create. Don't get me wrong, 9 months of pregnancy seems like an eternity when you're the one that's pregnant! But if you really think about all that takes place in those 9 months....it is simply amazing. I felt the same way looking at my one year old baby. I couldn't believe that what I was looking at only took one year (or technically one year and nine months) to happen.

For Jacob's first birthday party, we invited our family to our house to celebrate. When the time came to sing "Happy Birthday," we all gathered around the table with our cameras and Jacob watched us all like he was in a state of shock. Jacob has always been scared of loud, abrupt noises. So when the song was over and everyone clapped and yelled "yay" he got a big frown on his face and started crying! It was so sad!

"I don't think I like where this is going...."

"Yep! Too Loud!"

Luckily he was not too traumatized to have some cake. He hated having stuff on his hands (he got that from me!) and after poking at the cake a few times realized that it was too messy to touch. So he decided to just cut out the middle man and dive in face first!

"Hmmm....How am I going to manage this?"

"Lady. I need a napkin. Pronto."

"That's better!"

I could seriously talk your ear off about how amazed I am with how God works. I've always felt this way. But experiencing pregnancy, giving birth, and watching a baby grow has made me appreciate it so much more. Having kids has been by far the best thing I have ever done. And getting to that first birthday with hair left in my head is by far the biggest thing I have ever accomplished! I get so sad thinking about how fast they are growing, but I'm excited to see all that God has in store for us in years to come. I'm just happy that with each year that comes, they grow a little slower!

Reece is 1!

I cannot believe our baby girl is 1 year old! I know it sounds cliche, but time sure has flown by and she has grown so fast! Reece's first year has gone by so much faster than Jacob's. With Jacob, we had time to sit and savor every moment. With Reece it's different because she has a big brother to keep up with! 

For Reece's party, we had a flower theme. I tried to tie in some cheesy expression about how she's "blossomed" or "bloomed" into one-dom....but I was already overdoing it with everything I had planned.

My wonderful and creative friend Jenny helped me make a banner. THANK YOU JENNY!

We also made flowers with pictures of Reece showing how she's grown each month.

The kids got fun party favors: watering cans, pot/seed/soil kits, and pinwheels. 

I had to take a picture of Reece's party hat because she sure didn't wear it long!

Reece had a ladybug cake and everyone else had "dirt cake."

We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and close friends. We did, however, have to keep with the Sells family tradition of making cake time traumatic for the one-year-old (I'll have a Flashback Friday to tell the story of Jacob's first birthday). Here is the sad tale of what happened to Reece:

We strapped her into a booster seat at the table, put on her party hat, lit the candle, and proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday." After the song I pushed the cake a little closer to her and reached over to bring Jacob to the table so he could help her blow out the candle. As I was bringing Jacob over, Reece decided she'd waited long enough and reached over and PUT THE CANDLE OUT WITH HER BARE HAND! There was a loud gasp from the audience, a few moments of silence, then a scream from the poor birthday girl....

Yep, that's right, Mom of the year right here! I was extremely upset, but happy to see no burn or mark on her hand. So Reece didn't have the typical cake experience that most one-year-olds do...she was too scared to touch it! Bless her heart! So Dada stepped in and fed some to her.

Happy Birthday Sissy! We love you!

Flashback Friday - How it all began

Today is our 5 year anniversary. We were saying last night that it feels like it's been A LOT longer than five years....but in a good way! So much has happened in the five years we've been married: buying our first house and welcoming Jacob and Reece into our family just to name a few. It's hard to believe that we even made it to the altar, considering what it took to get us there! Growing up I always wanted a cute story to share with my kids about how my husband and I met, little did I know.....!

We both went to Bolton High School where we knew of each other, had mutual friends, and even met once (Angela remembers, Jason doesn't!). Then as fate would have it, in September of 2001, Jenny Stanford wanted to go to the Sigma Phi Epsilon house for the cookout they were having for Alpha Gamma Delta. So I went with her. After talking with Jason for a few minutes she introduced us and we did the whole "Yeah, I know Jason/Angela" deal. A couple of weeks later, some of my sorority sisters and I went to a Sig Ep intramural football game, and as I walked in all of the Sig Ep girlfriends started acting really giddy saying "Angela, I'm soooo glad you're here"! They knew something I didn't, Jason Sells wanted to ask me to their formal.

Our first date was at Sig Ep formal in October 2001. After meeting him that night, my mom said that he was the guy I needed to marry (this is the reason why I say Mom's always know best!). When he dropped me off that night he asked if he could call me sometime. I said yes, but was ok when he didn't call, because I felt like we'd be better as friends.

Every time I ran into him after that he told me that he felt so stupid for not calling me, so we went on what I call our "second first date" in spring of 2002. It was a date party with his fraternity where we played miniature golf with Justin Waugh and Lindsey Gardner. That night he dropped me off at my dorm and said he would call........but didn't. Again, I was ok. No fireworks yet.

One day in the summer of 2003, shopping at Wolfchase, my mom and I walked past him. We both smiled and said "hey" to each other, and kept walking. I practically had to tackle my mom to keep her from chasing him down! He called me that afternoon and left me a message saying he wanted to get together. I called him back and left him a message. And, surprise surprise! He didn't call back.

FINALLY! Lee Williams and Jessica Kilzer were having an engagment party in fall of 2003. Jason called and invited me and I said sure, as friends. I call this our "third first date". That day I was having a change of heart and almost called to tell him that I was sick and couldn't make it. But I had been through some rough times for a few months and figured it wouldn't hurt. That night I fell in love. It finally stuck, and we were absolutely smitten with each other from that night forward.

HOWEVER! Believe it or not, he still DID NOT CALL! I guess I should've taken a hint. But no, I wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. So later in the week I called him to let him know that I lost my sunglasses and I thought they may have fallen out of my purse into his car (total lie). He went out to his car and checked. After he told me they weren't in there I nonchalantly mentioned that I was off Saturday. Then we went on our official second date!

I guess our story is proof that everything happens for a reason. I curse him now for not calling me after that first date. But we both know that God had a plan, and that just wasn't the right time for us. We got engaged May 9, 2004 and got married on June 4, 2005.

Ok, I know that was a very long blog entry! I always say that I'm hesitant to put things on our blog, because I'm sure people are rolling their eyes saying that they don't care. And I know that what y'all REALLY come here for is to see pictures of the 2 most precious children on the planet. But Jason and I are so busy and stressed right now that we promised each other that we would have a very low-key anniversary. No cards, no gifts. Just a quiet day that requires no planning or money. So I figured telling "Our Story" might be a fun way to celebrate.

Happy anniversary Jason!

I promise I will try to get some pictures of the kids on here this weekend!

Raise 'em right!

As parents, we hope and pray that our children will one day grow up to be responsible, generous, and well contributing members of society. We do our best to be good role models for them and we hope that one day they will make good (even if well-informed by us!) decisions. But sometimes as parents, you have to step in and do what's best for your children. Keeping our children's best interest at heart, we have decided that there a few issues where they do not have a choice. They will go to a Christian church, they will always cheer for the University of Memphis, and they will be Giants fans. Period. Would you let your child run out into the street if a car was coming? No. Would you allow your child to get into the car with a stranger? No. Nor would we allow our children to cheer for the Dodgers or The University of Tennessee.

April 5, 2010 was a big day at the Sells house. Giants Opening Day! We had a big party to celebrate the wonderful occasion. We all got dressed up in our Giants gear and made some homemade signs, complete with Sesame Street stickers (I guess they're Giants fans too!).

"Go Ginans!!!"

Reece-A-Roni! The San Francisco Treat! (ding!ding!)

We are happy to report that the Giants won their game! We even got to see some home runs!

GOING......... GOING.........

GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flashback Friday

July 6, 2007, we took Jacob to his very first Giants game! Since San Francisco is a bit of a drive, we decided to go to the series in St. Louis.

Jacob had a great time! But it turned out to be a bit much for him. 9 innings + loud noises + July in St. Louis = exhausting!

Ok Mom! Here's a new post!!!!!!

Ok, so apparently I was being very optimistic when I said I would update this once a week! I know all of you have been on the edge of your seat waiting for the next post.

Here are some pictures from Easter. We had our annual Easter egg hunt at Mimi and Pop's house the weekend before Easter and had so much fun!

Here is Jacob in action

Jacob's strategy: Put the basket down, then run and grab as many eggs as you can, put them all in the basket, take about 10 steps, repeat. (As demonstrated below. And check out Dylan tossing his egg in the basket like a pro!) And if he noticed that people were getting ahead of him, he would yell, "Hold on guys! Hoooooold oooooon!"

Reece's strategy: Make Dada run around, grab some eggs before the boys can get to them, put them in my basket, and try to break in and get some candy out while noone's looking.

Afterwards we had some riveting games of hide-and-seek. Whenever it was Mimi's turn to count, Jacob and Dylan would hide on the front door step, get to talking and forget we were even playing! I caught this shot of them while they were having a very in-depth conversation. It's been too long, I can't remember if they were talking about their ideas to fix health care or the latest episode of The Wonder Pets. It was something along those lines. 

Oh yeah! Mimi's coming!

We hope everyone had a great Easter! Coming soon......pictures from our Giants Opening Day Celebration!

I was a better Mom before I had kids

Have you ever heard of the book, I was a better Mom before I had kids? Well, I haven't read it, but I certainly feel like I could have written it! I was always the one in the restaurant or the grocery store that would roll her eyes and mumble to myself about how a parent needed to control their kid; now occasionally I'm the one with the kid screaming "No! No! No!" I also used to hate how society softened up and said to use time-out instead of spankings; now I understand the expression "This hurts me more than it hurts you"....I can't stand to do it! I used to tell Moms to NEVER bribe their kids or reward them for things they are supposed to do. But come on, who are we kidding? Even James Dobson recommends a little "incentivizing". So that's what we do! Like he says, would you work if you weren't receiving a paycheck? So we've decided "incentivizing" is acceptable while:

1.Potty training

2.Staying quiet in church

3.Staying still in a restaurant

4.Sitting nicely on Santa's lap for a good picture

Sure, that may take us out of the running for Parents of the Year, but sometimes you just do what you can to make life easier!

Anyone who has tried to take a picture of Jacob anytime in the last year knows that it is not an easy task. As soon as he sees a camera he yells "No want to!" and runs away. It is very frustrating! Enter, another ammendment to the bribing...I mean incentivizing....rule. When offered a single jelly bean, we went from this (notice the puckered lips):

to this:

.....I rest my case.

As Jacob would say...."TA DA!"

May I present, by popular request....The Adventures of Jacob and Reece!

Two of my New Years Resolutions were to take more pictures of our kids and to start a blog about them. Well now that it's March, I figured it's about time I get started! A lot of our friends have blogs about their kids, and I've thought about doing one for a long time. We have a lot of family and friends who love to get emails about Jacob and Reece, but alas, I never send any. So I thought this would be a perfect way to keep everyone up-to-date on what's going on with Jacob and Reece. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we have the 2 most precious children in the world. Nor does this have anything to do with the fact that we are very proud of them and love to show them off. We're just doing this for everyone else! :)

One reason I've put off doing this is because I'm a firm believer in sibling equality. (Mom- stop laughing!). I didn't like the fact that I would be starting this while Reece is a baby, and I never got to share any cute stories/pictures of Jacob when he was a baby. Then I remembered an idea I got from our good friend Emily Fuller (author of the infamous Twins Come in Twos- Adventures of the Fuller Five blog). Every now and then I will do a "Flashback Friday" or "Turnback Tuesday" or something and post an old picture, story, whatever. But I won't commit to either, because anyone who knows me well knows that I won't be able to stick to one specific day every week. As a matter of fact, this might be the one and only post this blog has!

Here is a recent picture of Jacob and Reece that has gotten a lot of praise. My mom had an idea to do a "Where's Waldo" type picture of the kids and send it to Jason while he was in Japan for 2 weeks. It's turned out to be one of everyone's favorite pictures. I'm even considering doing a whole book of "Where's Jacob and Reece" and do a different theme with every page! You know, once the dishwasher is unloaded, the clothes are folded, the kids graduate college, etc.

Hope y'all enjoy!