It's Here! The 2013 Advent Calendar!

It's our favorite time of the year! 

We love, love, love putting out our advent calendar each year and this year is by far our favorite. This year's calendar is 25 mini prints, sized 4.25x5.5 inches printed and sent to you to use however you see fit! We love stringing ours and taking the cards down each day to reflect on Jesus as Christmas draws near. 

This year we've also included a five page downloadable guide that will be emailed to you automatically as you purchase. The guide includes scripture and some light commentary on each day, different ideas on how to use your calendar, and some fun activities that you can use to celebrate Advent in community. It was SO fun to make and we hope you love it so much! 

You can find out more about the calendar in our shop, but we wanted to throw in one extra special gift for our blog readers + online friends. If you buy your advent calendar anytime between today and Friday, November 1st, we'll automatically include a free print in your purchase! We'll include this Colossians 3 print (in 8x10 size)  in your package with your advent calendar! We can't wait to celebrate with you - get yours here! 

the cards + the calendars + the flu

Y'all. I'm not going to mince words here. 
We have got one sick household over here. 
At first it was bronchitis, then strep, then a stomach bug. 
And now - it's the big bad flu. 
With all the trimmings - the shakes, the fever, the mom and the kids standing in line in the middle of the night to lose our dinner. I'm sorry for the visual. Can you laugh with me about it for a minute? If I can't laugh, it's just too sad! 

All that being said - here is just a quick update for you all about somethings we've gotten lots of questions about in the shop lately. 

#1: Advent calendars ARE sold out (and they're all shipped and on their way!) but we've released the printable version of our advent calendar for those of you who'd like to print it at home on your own. We've had a lot of people outside the US and many military families ask about this option so that they can print their calendars in time to start advent and now they're ready! 

Within 24 hours of purchasing, you'll receive an email with 8 word documents. Those word documents contain the 28 high resolution mini prints and the SheReadsTruth Advent reading plan for you to print and decorate on your own. 

#2. Christmas Cards.
We are still selling our printable custom Christmas Cards and many people had had questions about where and how to print them. The answer is - it's up to you! Once your card is designed with your images + name, you can print them wherever you like depending on how much you want to spend/how you want them. 

Three quick easy options I'd suggest....

buy those babies at Walmart

#1) Just get them printed as matte 5x7 photos from Walmart or your local drugstore! Have them print the finished card .jpg just like a picture (matte looks better than glossy!), stick it in an envelope, and send it out! Super quick - super inexpensive! 

folded cards + postcards from Snapfish!

#2) These next two options are from Snapfish and they are having a HUGE sale right now. 55% all orders through the 29th! Via Snapfish you can print your custom card like a folded greeting card that comes with an envelope or...

#3) Through Snapfish, have your custom card printed as a postcard! We love this option because it means no envelopes and the postage for postcards is actually cheaper. We do our cards this way every year and love it! 

There are lots of other options of course - go to a professional printer and have it done on nice linen, print them at home on photo paper, etc - but these are just some of the quick and super inexpensive options that we suggest! 

If you'd like to get your Snapfish's huge 55%off deal, order your card TODAY - we'll do a 24 hour turn around on your design and you'll have your high resolution card in plenty of time to catch their deal! 

And now I'm off to wish for a very sleep-filled, sick-free night!
Praying you're somewhere sick-free with your Christmas music playing in the background. 

fifty days left.

It's November! 
Which means it is now officially not too early to discuss Christmas. 
And in light of that -- two little goodies for you. 

#1: The advent calendar is still on sale and still rocking it out in the shop! The first shipment of calendars goes out this week and we'd love for your calendar to be in that massive mailing. Hop on over and get yours ASAP. 

#2: The rest of the Naptime Diaries Christmas cards are ready in the shop! You can see the complete collection of designs and pick your favorite today. Once your card is purchased, we'll wait patiently for your family picture and customize the card for  you, then send it back for you to print as many as you like -- wherever you like. Here are some of the new ones! 

the chalkboard inspired by my super cute sis. 

the peas card -- designed in honor of Peas and Thank You 

merry & bright

the ornamental

the colorful peas

the instagram card

If you haven't already - grab your advent calendar + christmas card today! 
Because..... 

There's only FIFTY days till Christmas! 

It looks like Christmas up in here.

It's that time again, y'all. 
True story - if you think I'm jumping the gun, I actually started getting emails about Naptime Diaries Christmas Cards in August! When would they be ready? Were we going to do them? Etc. Etc. Etc. 

So today, on October 4th, we're releasing our first six customizable photocards! 
Your photo, your family, your message - we design & deliver a high resolution .jpg to you - you print as many as you like, wherever you like! 

This year we're doing something a little bit different too. 
We're only doing ONE HUNDRED Christmas cards. After that, we're calling it Christmas for ourselves so we don't get too too bogged down in orders too close to the holidays. 

Know you want a customizable card but aren't ready with pictures just yet? Want to hold out and see the other 8 designs? We thought about that:) 
You can order any card today and we'll save your order till you pick the exact card for you and are ready with your Christmas pictures. All card designs will be ready for viewing before the end of October! 

Without further ado.... here are the first six designs! 

the JOY card

the PLAID christmas card

All is Calm, All is Bright

the Yellow Chevron card

Happiness, Joy, & Peace card

the Simple Stripes card

 So how does it work? 
1. Order your card. 
2. We'll send you a questionnaire with all the info we need from you within 24 hours of your purchase. 
3. When you're ready, tell us your final design choice, send us your family picture and all the information you need on your card. 
4. Within 3 business days, we'll return your high resolution .jpg ready for you to print wherever you like - however many you like! 

So hop on it today, early birds!

special, special thanks to Megan at Project 54:5 Photography for our family photos.

and to my girls Raechel and Kacia for letting me show of their sweet fams. 

advent, advent!

Hey guys!

I am so excited to share something with 

ya'll today that has been a serious undertaking 

and I hope it will be as fun for you as it is for me. 

I'll preface it with: 
we're big on the Advent around here. I'll talk more about how we celebrate as it gets closer - but in a nutshell, we go big the 24 days leading up to Christmas and do a lot of fun things and a lot of sweet things that basically help our family build tradition and really pump our kids up about the blessing that is Jesus being born. Some days we do biblically centered things, somedays we do just silly fun things, but each day during the month of December - we try to set aside some sort of time to focus on celebrating the gift we have in Him. 


Sooooo.... last year I made an advent calendar! 
It was a huge labor of love but it was such a blessing for our family. I have no really good pictures of it, but it was essentially a banner with a small mini-print for each day of advent. On the back of it, I wrote a fun activity/bible reading/project/craft/outing and each day - the kids got to take down the corresponding print for the day and find out what fun thing we had in store! And it was pretty! And it blessed our home!

And thus. I want to share it with ya'll. I present: 

The 2011 Naptime Diaries Advent Calendar! 

There are 25 mini prints (3x4.2) all decorated in eclectic styles & colors. There is something for EVERY style here. Whether you like formal, traditional, modern, whimsical - there is something for everyone! And you can do WHATEVER you want with them. 


I'll be hanging mine as a banner again, 
but you could could get creative!
Here are some ideas: 
- Tie them on your Christmas tree as ornaments
- Put one in an envelope each day for your family to open
- Write a different person to pray for on each day's card.
- Hide them around the house and let the kids find them each day! 
- Do whatever you want! 

Either way - it is my JOY to share them with you. 
You can get them in two forms: 
- I can professionally print them for you and trim them and send them to your door in plenty of time for December 1st if you purchase them here. 
- OR I can email you five high resolution word documents (containing 5 prints each) for you to print yourself at home,  you purchase them here. 
It's totally up to you!


I hope these are a blessing to you! 
Enjoy! 

it's friday so I'll be brief

Have you used coupon code NOVEMBER for 30% off in my shop yet? Why not? 

And while you're there? Maybe you need a Christmas card? Uh, huh. 

I hope ya'll have had a sweet week. 

love love. 

that's right, I'm talking CHRISTMAS.

I've noticed lately that I'm anticipating a little heavily. 
I will be positive that it's Thursday on Tuesday. I'm always thinking about December's schedule when it's not yet November. 


But ya'll, we can't ignore the facts. 
Christmas is coming. 


As Connollys, we try to do the holydays up big. I'm not talking Martha Stewart tablescapes and perfectly wrapped kraft paper presents, but just taking the time to use holidays to get quiet and real with our kiddos and CELEBRATE the gospel. One way we do that is our advent calendar and hopefully next week, I'll be able to share that with ya'll, but here is a sneak peek in the meantime: 

But if you're like me, and you're already doing some anticipating:
A. Let's take a few breaths and try to enjoy November. Er, I mean October. and...
B. Maybe let's go ahead and pick out a Christmas card, just to do some productive anticipation:). 


I'm offering photo cards in my shop that make the Christmas card process super simple and super fun. Pick a design that you love, purchase it, send me your picture, I'll put it in and customize your names, email you the high res photo, and your print it however and whenever you like. 
Easy. Easy. Peasy. 
Here are a few of my faves: 

the "ellen". Inspired by & designed for Ellen from Handmade Recess

the "casey". Inspired by & designed for Casey Wiegand. 

vintage inspired Joy to the World!

loving some John 10:10 right now! 

Today I'm going to try to enjoy TODAY.

But in the quiet moments, I might work on the advent calendar a little more 

and get excited about what's ahead:) 

Happy Friday friends! 

Connolly Family Christmas!

I won't apologize for the length of this post or the inane amount of pictures. 

Don't ask me too. 

But I'm sorry ok, I don't scrapbook so this will just have to do! 

(on that note: if you're one of the future Connolly generations and the internet still exists and you're here to see what your ancestors were like - 

Welcome! We've been praying for you!)

..............................................................

Here are the stats. 

3 days, 13 hours in the car, 2 states, 3 kids, about 6 stops for discipline, toooo many presents, three family gatherings, more money spent on gas than we budgeted for, one blessed family. 

Our Christmas extravaganza started on Thursday with a quick trip to Charlotte to take Pop & Kiki their car as they were arriving from Germany! I have no pictures of this trip because we were psychotically late to get them, kept hitting little glitches, and our kids were utterly melting down for about two hours straight. After meeting up with Pop and Kiki, we tried to redeem the trip with a quick Starbucks trip on our way back to Columbia. We all got out, shared a cookie, and then the kids slept the rest of the way home. Except for Benja, who has decided that while he's comfortable sleeping ALL DAY LONG at home, he'd rather always stay awake in the car. Which is way more funny than annoying, because he says hilarious things to us. 

Ok. On to Friday!

We were in a mad dash to get back in the car Friday morning and book it to Charleston to celebrate with the Hopper/Walters family! And you know what that means! Lots of Asher snuggle time! 

this is me showing Asher to Elias. Shortly after this, Ruby stole him back from me and said, "seriously - I want to hold him". If she wasn't so pretty (and his mom), I would have fought her for him.

speaking of pretty, have you ever seen seven such beautiful kids?! Never. And yes, Rubes had a baby a week ago and looks like a super model. It's much easier if you skip jealousy altogether and move to appreciation:) 

This picture makes me feel really overwhelmingly blessed. 

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy! 

We went to an awesome Christmas Eve service at Seacoast and vowed that every year Nick isn't preaching on Christmas Eve, we'll try to be there. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It was also Elias' first time going to a Christmas Eve service and he was hooked. They had an ipad band AND a candlelight portion at the end, so he was basically in heaven. This picture is totally unrelated - Glory having a holy cow meltdown in the car. I would say she spent eight out of the thirteen hours in the car screaming at the top of her lungs. That is NOT an exaggeration. 

Saturday morning was present time and our kids were so sweetly blessed by their gifts. For kids who had no possessions a month ago, it's been beautiful to see their reaction to "stuff". This is Glor playing with her pots and pans - which are honestly so nice, I'd like to borrow them. Especially the strainer.

We had a few hours of toy time and then it was off to see the Connolly's in Waxhaw! Here is one of my fave car pics. We've been working with Elias on being Benja's "big buddy" - holding his hand when we're out in public, helping feed him at meals, even getting him dressed. He's been so awesome at it and is such a great big brother. Here he is applying chapstick to Benj. love. 

Nick's parents gave the kids their very own ride-on toys! Our kids are in heaven! We also got to see Uncle Leland, Megan, and Haley - which was awesome, because it's been too long! I love spending time with Nick's family and we're so blessed to have them. When we get back in the car from seeing them, the conversation always goes this this: 

Jessi: "man, I love them."

Nick: "yeah, me too."

Then it was off (in the snow!) to Shelby for the massive Moss gathering. 

There are no pictures because there are like sixty three Moss's - no lie- and we had to rush in and rush out to get back on the road and get back safely (in the snow!) to Columbia. It should be noted though, that my sweet Aunt Sandy stole my dirty Santa gift at the last minute and I wanted it so bad. (tupperware and Chik-fil-a gift certificate) 

Sandy, I will never forgive you. 

(j/k - love you!)

and Sunday was a snow day! Elias woke us up at an ungodly hour to see the beautiful snow!

And we played and played and played and played. We opted out of church since the kids had been in the car for three days straight and had a lovely family day. 

After 635 meltdowns, this girl needed some time out of the carseat. 

And we may or may not have improvised & put saran-wrap on the kids feet since we didn't have snow gear. All I could think about was the 18 pairs of snow boots we have in storage in Seattle, But it didn't mater because we were in the snow for about 12 minutes before the kids wanted to come inside:) 

And that's it. 

Christmas is over. 

And it was beautiful. 

How was yours?! 

TIS THE SEASON.

I officially declare it Connolly holiday prep time. 
After months of transition & change, we're settling down for the holidays and super focusing on the gift of Jesus Christ and how He has radically given life to our family. 


My husband is using this resource to plan our Family Worship time during Advent and he's passed the area of "tradition" on to me.  Last year was our first year really exploring how we wanted the Advent season to look as a family, and I'm super super super excited to continue forming how the Connollys celebrate. My first big project of the season is going to be our Advent Calendar, that I hope hope hope to finish sometime before December 1st. We settled on going with an activity based calendar - planning around the normal and special events we have coming up. Here are my inspirations for ours. 

Those all look super-duper homemade by professional crafty mommies. 
Which I'm not. 
But we'll see where we end up. 
In the meantime, here is our list of activities! 

Connolly Fam Advent Activities
Dec 1 - make salt dough ornaments
Dec 2 - learn a christmas song
Dec 3 - go to the children's museum
Dec 4 - Go see Santa at the mall 
(sidebar: we don't do full out Santa - say he's the one who gives their gifts, but we don't ignore him either) 
Dec 5 - roast marshmallows
Dec 6 - Read Mark 1:1-8, make homemade angels
Dec 7 - make some mistletoe & hang it
(read: smooch fest) 
Dec 8 - act out nativity scene
Dec 9 - Family Dinner date 
(thursday night kids eat free at Earthfare)
Dec 10 - Put up Christmas tree
(may switch this one out for an earlier activity if we find time earlier) 
Dec 11 - Go get hot chocolate at Starbucks
Dec 12 - watch a Christmas movie
Dec 13 - mail our christmas cards
Dec 14 - make our christmas wish lists
Dec 15 - Go see lights @ saluda shoals in Columbia
Dec 16 - make luminaries
Dec 17 - make & take christmas cookies to shut-ins
Dec 18 - go to a christmas party!
Dec 19 - drive around & look at Christmas lights
Dec 20 - Deliver cinnamon rolls to friends & family
Dec 21 - Daddy/Glory date and Mommy/boys date night! 
Dec 22 - learn about St. Nick
Dec 23 - bless someone like St. Nick did
Dec 24 - open one gift and go to church! 


ok, off to advent my little heart out. 
What are YA'LL doing for Advent? 

Just a taste.

I just edited our Christmas pictures and my kids are soooo cute in them, I'm about to go wake them up just to pinch their cheeks and call them good-looking. I'll try to only do a few, but I may go nuts here.

family pic


nativity playtime with Kelly & Jason

big wheel goodness

my whole life. I see this face my whole life.

typical connolly craziness

loving her dolly

practicing clapping for brother

a special minute with dad

overjoyed.