Updated: Kate is our winner and has been emailed! Thank y’all so much for participating! :)

I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before that I have a strict moratorium on almost all things Christmas before Thanksgiving. There are two exceptions. First, I will shop for Christmas gifts early (can’t miss out on Black Friday!). And second, I always make sure our Christmas cards are ordered before Thanksgiving. And our cards always come from Minted! Want to help me choose which one we’ll send this year?

1. Charming Gingham | 2. His Wondrous Love | 3. Joy to the World the Love is Come | 4. Angels Sing | 5. Bright New Life

It’s killing me, because they are SO CUTE, but we will likely be using a photo from our upcoming session with Nancy, not our newborn photos with Graham, for our card. I’m sure the new photos will be cute, too, but BABY JUNE!! Killing me.

Speaking of killing it, Minted’s card designs are as delightful as ever. This year, I was really drawn to all the Christmas carol designs, including this one, this one, this one, and this one in addition to the ones above. The great thing is that with their sophisticated design software, you can easily adjust your photo as well as the placement of text elements, fonts, colors, and sizing. (But, a tip: if you’re taking a photo specifically for your card, try to choose a favorite design before your session, so that you can coordinate your outfits and poses accordingly!) Minted also offers the most darling envelopes, shiny foil designs, free addressing, extra-thick stock, and custom card shapes – whew.

Now for the extra-fun part: I have a $150 Minted gift certificate to give away!! To enter, just comment below with either your favorite option from our Christmas card finalists, or the Minted design you’d most like to order for your family! (Or both!) I’ll randomly choose a winner next Monday! If you’re ready to get started, you can use code CHEER for 15% off orders. (Or just take a peek at their site whenever you’re ready to order – they almost always have a discount code!)

Minted has graciously gifted us our Christmas cards, but I chose to write this post, and the opinions are my own! I have loved everything about Minted — especially their crowd-sourced designs — for many years, and I love sharing what they’re up to with y’all.

November holds so many things for which I’m grateful: a visit to meet my new nephew, a week with my family, a visit from both grandparents at once, family photos with my dear friend, Thanksgiving, the highlight of my work year, and June’s welcome into the church family through baptism. I have lots of fun plans for EFM posts this month, too, including June’s nursery, a Marvelous Money installment, my Triangle guide, and Christmas card plans! :)

P.S. I love using the PowerSheets to track my professional goals (and sometimes personal ones, too). The 2017 version just went on sale yesterday and it is awesome!

Revisiting my goals for October:
Make plans for June’s baptism celebration (Erm, not really. Need to get on this.)
Finalize our family Halloween costume (Yes!)
Host the fourth annual pumpkins and soup party
Take our Christmas card photo (or at least set a date for our session with Nancy)
Post my guide to the Triangle
Finish our will

November goals:
— Vote!
— Make reservations for June’s baptism celebration
— Buy June’s baptism gift
— Choose our outfits for family photos
— Finish our will
— Post my guide to the Triangle
— Begin crafting for June’s birthday party! (Yes. I know it’s not until January. But there are a lot of holidays in between now and then and I want to get a jump on things! :))

As a reminder, here are my 2016 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!

P.S. Any suggestions for sweet, classic baptism gifts? I would like a cross for her room that can be customized with her name and baptism date. Not too baby-ish, but still sweet. I found a few on Etsy, but would love to hear any suggestions, if you have them!

When people found out we were still going camping this year — with two under two in tow — the reaction was usually some combination of shock and awe. John and I weren’t entirely sure what we were getting into, either, but figured our general parenting strategy of keeping our expectations low would serve us well. And it did! We had the best time with the Rays and our little ladies, and can’t wait for the next trip. (We’re even considering upping our frequency to twice a year!) Here are a few thoughts from our experience camping with an eight-month-old and a 1.5 year old, along with a few photos from Nancy! (Except the ones at the end, which are obviously by me :))

— Had we not camped recently and been familiar with our gear, I think bringing the babies would have been much more overwhelming. Since we were, the only new aspect was the girls.

— We upgraded from our ultralight backpacking tent to the REI Kingdom 6 thanks to a generous Christmas present. It felt like a palace! It zips down the middle to create two separate rooms, which made coming and going while June was sleeping much easier.

— Milly’s and June’s ages both had pluses and minuses. Milly, at 1.5, could walk, so she could more easily explore the campsite, whereas June would sometimes get frustrated because she wanted to move but it was uncomfortable to crawl over the rough terrain (pinecones, stones, etc.). She was mostly confined to the big blanket we spread out.

— Milly being older, however, made sleep a little harder to come by in the Ray’s tent. She was more aware that she was IN a tent (and thought it was a bit weird), and that her parents were sleeping an arm’s length away (party!), whereas June just went down in her pack and play and had a normal night’s sleep.

— Make sure you allow even more time than you think you’ll need to set up camp and get everyone fed before the sun goes down. Previously, John and I would have set up our tent together, but since someone was on June duty the whole time this time, set-up took longer that it used to.

— We were not confident that the kiddos would nap in the tents during the day, so instead of trying to put them down, we opted to drive to a hike that was about 45 minutes away. They both slept on the way there and on the way back, so although they didn’t nap as long as they might have on a normal day at home, they did have a chance to sleep.

— Packing in big, clear, plastic Rubbermaid tubs is the best! They’re easy to stack, don’t rip like paper bags, and make it easy to see what’s stored where.

— As you’re considering campgrounds, weigh nicer bathrooms pretty heavily in the equation. The ones at Blue Bear are clean, well-appointed, and single-stall, which just makes everything much more pleasant. We also opted for one of sites closer to the bathrooms (though still half a football field away) because we knew we’d be making more frequent trips.

I hope these observations and tips encourage you to give camping a try, whether or not you have kids! I look forward to our camping weekends all year, and I imagine they’ll be even more fun as our crew gets older. I would love to answer any questions you might have or try to allay any concerns, so feel free to ask away!

P.S. Me and camping and our camping essentials.

P.P.S. I love our conversations here. Last week I added a reply button in the comments section to make it easier to respond more directly to individual contributions, so feel free to try it out!

I can take almost no credit for this playlist, but I think it’s marvelous, so I wanted to share! Last week, John convinced me to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. Initially, I was not particularly enthused. It ended up being a fun movie, but the big win for me was the soundtrack — all very danceable, sing-along-able songs from the ’70s and ’80s! We listened to it while cooking dinner over the weekend, and it was the perfect playlist for a family dance party in the kitchen. I made a few additions in the same genre to bring the length up to 45 minutes, which is just enough time to make some chili or a baja salad :)

Listen to it here on Spotify!

P.S. My cozy fall playlist and my happy spring playlist