Whew, it’s been whirlwind end of the year for us Danks!  With our big move, my pregnancy, and Archer’s first holiday season, I feel like the last couple of months have gone by in a blur.  It’s nice to come up for air and get back in a routine.  We’ve got big plans for some major and minor renovations at the new house and some will be kicking off real soon in preparation for the new babe.

Before we get into the plans though, I wanted to share a little of our holidays here on the blog for my future self, and to share a really cute gift from Canvas on the Cheap we gave the grandparents to celebrate all the babies this year!


We kept the same traditions we’ve had for the last couple of years, just moved everything up to accommodate earlier bedtimes and wake-ups, and while the kids were clueless as to what was happening, it was more magical with them there!


I felt a little out of spirit this year because we didn’t decorate our house at all because we are still very much in the “just moved in” phase, luckily my sister volunteered to host this year.  In some ways it made the whole season less stressful, which was nice.  And, I didn’t go overboard on gifts for anyone, especially Archer, because no matter how expensive the toy is, he’ll still choose the random spatula to carry around!




As for the grandparents gift, I was approached by Canvas on the Cheap to try out one of their products and it couldn’t have been better timing because one of the Christmas surprises was a family photoshoot with all the babies!

My sister-in-law came up with the idea and we used our favorite photographer/friend who offers mini shoots during the fall/winter to get us all together.  It was a comedy of errors getting us all there, but we got some great photos of all of us!



It was close to bedtime and pretty chilly, and sometimes the babies cooperated,


And, sometimes they didn’t. HA!


We ended up making a 16”x20” canvas for my mom and step-dad which included the whole gang, and an 11'”x14” canvas for my dad with just my sister’s family and us.

My mom wasted no time in hanging theirs up and sending the photos.


All the grandparents loved them, (I mean with those baby mugs, how could you not?), but I was also impressed with the ease, time, and quality of the canvases.  They offer framing options, but one of the things I liked about the canvas was the wrapped edges, so I chose not to frame it.  Obviously, they were professional photos so the background was perfectly blurred, so that helped too.  I wished I had taken more photos of the quality, but it was the week before Christmas when I did all this, so I was a little bit preoccupied!

Overall, we had a great holiday and I’m secretly happy that I didn’t have any decorations to take down!  I’m glad we chose more meaningful gifts this year that will be admired long after all the excitement of the season dies down.

If anyone is looking for canvases to make their family photos a little more special, I’d definitely recommend Canvas on the Cheap!  They were super easy to work with, and shipped quickly and I was really happy with the quality.