Lets train

Does it seem like my blog has become one big giveaway lately? Well I have one more up my sleeve and then I will attempt to do an actual update on life and it will likely be extra ramble-y. Just for you, dear readers.

Yes, I know we are supposed to 'respect the turkey' and Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet. But Christmas is going to be here before we know it and it's time to get those cards ordered! This year I achieved my personal dream of our entire family in matching Christmas pajamas from Hanna Andersson. Yep, even Nate. He didn't put up much of a fight, resigning himself to the fact that he married me and therefore matching pajamas were kind of in our vows at the alter. Seriously, I've wanted to do this for years and now that our family is complete it was time to make it happen! And Nate knew this would make me happy, plus I ordered them while he was gone on a four night work trip to San Diego. He really had no choice in the matter while I was caring for his children and he was in sunny California, sleeping through the night and enjoying peaceful silence in the evenings. So there, Nate. Striped leggings are a payback!

Instead of having professional family pictures taken this year, I just set up the tripod and snapped a few shots one Saturday morning. I knew a true photo shoot in a studio or outside would NOT be happening with Nate's skin-tight striped leggings, so a make shift home shoot would do just fine. I was sweating, I really need to get a remote for my camera, and it was fairly painful like most family photo shoots tend to be with three small children. I figured that even if I only got one half-way decent shot, the pajamas would be cute enough to make it Christmas card worthy. And I did get a few acceptable images that morning;)

Three kids at Christmas time!


Love them so.


A winner, right here:


#PorterTheElf


Strategic baby placement throughout these images--we knew we would not get any standing up shots of our family! ;)


LOL at Truman and Cecelia. What in the heck is going on? Why is mom running back and forth and yelling about the camera timer process?


Best we could do. Porter would not smile and I'm glistening in sweat but whatever!


I wanted one with the kids and at this point, everyone was obviously over it.


Then for the cards, I went with Pear Tree Greetings yet again. They have been awesome to work with in the past for Christmas cards, Valentines cards, Cecelia's first birthday, and Porter's birth announcement, so when they contacted me about Christmas cards it was a no-brainer. Their quality is always top notch and I love how our cards turned out this year. I chose a much simpler Christmas card this year compared to the folded card I chose last year, but I really just wanted a flat card with two images and a text box. The Moveable Cheer Vertical card was my winner this year. A picture of the kids is plastered on the front, our family picture is slightly smaller on the back (and Nate's leggings are barely visible), and I wanted to do a little update on our year, similar to how my mom would always send out Christmas letters growing up. If you are dying to know, this is what my mini-letter says:

"Merry Christmas! 2014 was a big year for the (Goolia) family. Truman turned four, Cecelia turned two, we celebrated seven years of marriage, and then Porter was born on 7.11.14. After an awesome maternity leave, Julia returned to work part-time as a PT, Nate switched clinics as a full-time PT, and Truman started Junior Kindergarten. Our first Christmas as a family of five (plus Henry dog!) will surely be memorable and full of incredible, happy noise. We hope this year has been kind to you, too. Cheers!"


The colors on our card really pop, the gold glitter polka dots make me happy, and I love the little foil logo at the bottom, too. Success!

(Spoiler alert for friends and family who will be getting these in their mailboxes shortly!)








Pear Tree Greetings is going to give one lucky reader a $50 off coupon code to use on your favorite card. Take a look around their many options for Holiday photo cards (or no photo, if that is your thing) and enter the Rafflecopter below. I will draw a winner on Saturday, November 29th and will post it on my Facebook page and in the Rafflecopter box below. Best of luck and have fun card shopping!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Before I get into the actual giveaway I want to discuss my evolving sense of style for a second---and hello, I am nowhere NEAR being a 'style blogger' or anything that cool. No. I fully admit to being pretty low maintenance with my wardrobe: it's a bonus if I wear something other than yoga pants and a hoodie on my days at home. The older I get the more I find myself dressing in modest (ie temporary-big-boob-covering) outfits, but always trying to avoid the frumpy 'haggard mom' look at the same time. It's not easy to look fashionable and put together on 4 hours of sleep, milk and poo and Lord knows what else smeared across most of my tops, while disciplining a toddler and soothing a baby. But within the past few months, as I started feeling more comfortable in my own skin again, I find myself 'dressing up' more often because if I look like I have my stuff together, maybe I will actually FEEL like I have my stuff together. I find that if I put forth that extra effort to blow dry my hair and straighten it, add a little bit of makeup, and wear something that makes me feel fancy then I get a little pep in my step. And I will take whatever I can get.

Now, have you guys heard about Shabby Apple? I feel like I've seen a lot of bloggers with the Shabby Apple button on the side of their blogs so I have looked around their site before. I definitely looked at dresses on their site when I was pregnant with Cecelia, needing a dress to wear as a bridesmaid to a friend's wedding but not finding a ton of maternity cocktail dresses out there. I didn't end up ordering a dress from them that time but I was pretty impressed with all of their vintage and modern dresses on there. And the swimming suits intrigue me because I'm really into the cool retro look of one pieces these days. I'm not totally ruling out bikinis for my future years as a mom but I forsee a few key one pieces in there, too, and cute one-pieces are not easy to find. So I was pumped when they contacted me to host a giveaway to my readers! Gotta love an online site that offers free returns as a part of their customer service---takes away the scary 'what if I don't like it in person?' feeling to purchasing online. Plus they have a fit guide and a live chat option to help make sure you get exactly what you want.

I got to choose a dress to review and I picked the Ursa sweater dress because I'm casual like that. I just don't have a lot of places to wear a fancy, DRESSY dress, if that makes sense. But a sweater dress with some leggings? Yes. All the time, please. I'm all about function. Although the green 'Animalia' dress, purple 'Arripidae' dress, and the green 'Mariposa Grove' dress were SUPER tempting for me.

I wore the dress to Christmas Eve service with black leggings, my black boots and I wanted to wear a red scarf but of course I could not find it in the attic anywhere (until weeks later when I uncovered it packed with my swimming suits. Of course). I feel like I could also wear this dress with ballet flats to make it more casual. It's really long, even for me, and it's super soft and lined. I like how the neckline is kind of different and the puckers on the front make it interesting, but it's not loud or anything too wild. Very 'me' for sure. I wanted to have a little photo shoot with me in the dress but never found the time. So my 'styling' of the dress consists of two small children as my accessories.





Okay, so here is the scoop on the giveaway: a $50 gift card is up for grabs and you can use that towards anything on their site. Here is how you can enter:

1- Comment on this post to tell us your favorite dress on the site. This part is a 'must' to be entered into the contest. Have fun, I got sucked in to looking at all of the amazing dresses for WAY too long.




Because Shabby Apple didn't want to leave anyone out, all of my readers will get 10% off a purchase for the next month (until March 4) by using this code: mylifeintransition10off

Have fun shopping!


{UPDATE: Friday, February 8. We have our winner and the giveaway is closed. See my next post for details and thanks for participating!!}