Done for another year

We had a great Christmas! We had a Christmas Eve miracle when Robert got off work at about 4:30 instead of 8:00 like he was originally supposed to. :) So that was nice. We spent Christmas Eve at my brother and sister-in-laws house just hanging out. The kids played Chutes and Ladders and we watched Christmas Vacation. Grandma and Grandpa got the kids the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" along with a Grinch and Max stuffed animal. Emily became weirdly obsessed with the Grinch this year so it was a fun surprise for her.

Once we got home Emily was super excited to open her jammies from Robert's parents. She was so willing to open Chase's as well. They looked super cute! Then it was time to put out the milk and cookies for Santa and get to bed.

Chase got fruit snacks in his stocking and pretty much didn't care about anything else.









How cute is this boy?! I just love him.

All of our various families came over throughout the day.


Emily got a Sleeping Beauty dress from Santa. When she opened it she said, "It's just what I wanted!" She was never very consistent with what she wanted from Santa. On Christmas Eve I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her and she said a snowglobe. Huh?

Emily loved her easel.

Chase loved the boxes.


The day after Christmas we had a fun family dinner with Robert's family. We opened presents, read our letters from Robert's dad, and played the candy bar game. Cottrell family tradition! And of course we had to get a picture with all the cousins in their Christmas jammies!




We had a great Christmas but I would be lying if I said I was sad to see it go. I could not WAIT to take the tree down. I'm surprised it even made it to Christmas Day. The kids would just not leave it alone. It drove me crazy on a daily basis. :) I guess we'll see how next year goes. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas From the Family

Have you ever heard the song "Merry Christmas From the Family"? I heard it for the first time probably five years ago when Robert heard it and said, "This is so your family!" I think there's probably a line in it that every family can relate to. Other than the drinking, I think everything applies to my family but the best one is "Fred and Rita drove from Harlingen, I can't remember how I'm kin to them." On one particular side of my family (love them!) at every family function there is bound to be someone that everyone is just thinking "Who the heck is that?" It makes me laugh. And the part about all the kids from different wives......yeah.

So anyway, Merry Christmas From the Family! We hope you all have a great holiday! We are so grateful for all of our friends and family that have blessed our lives. We are grateful for the gift of our Savior and the blessings that the gospel brings to our lives. We love you all!

Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk at our Christmas party
We were drinking champagne punch and homemade eggnog
Little sister brought her new boyfriend
He was a Mexican
We didn't know what to think of him until he sang
Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad

Brother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kay
Who talks all about AA
Chain smoking while the stereo plays Noel, Noel
The First Noel

Carve the Turkey
Turn the ball game on
It's margaritas when the eggnog's gone
Send somebody to the Quickpak Store
We need some ice and an extension cord
A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites
A box of Pampers, Marlboro Lights
Halelluja everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the family

Fred and Rita drove from Harlingen
I can't remember how I'm kin to them
But when they tried to plug their motor home in
They blew our Christmas lights
Cousin David knew just what went wrong
So we all waited out on our front lawn
He threw the breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night, Silent Night, Oh Holy Night

Carve the turkey turn the ball game on
It's Bloody Marys
Cause We All Want One!
Send somebody to the Stop 'N Go
We need some celery and a can of fake snow
A bag of lemons and some Diet Sprite
A box of Tampons, some Salem Lights
Halelluja, everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the Family

Feliz Navidad!

I wanted to post the video but it's got some scantily clad women randomly dancing so I decided not to. You can watch it here.

Proof

So I took the kids to Gardner Village last week. We were looking at the little elf displays (which were a little creepy and scared my kids) and came across this one. Santa's little helper checking the naughty and nice list.

Let's look a little closer at the naughty list.

What does that say? Right there near the top?

I knew it!

I just noticed as I was posting this that my mom's name is also on the naughty list. Is there something you need to tell us mom?

Festival of Trees

The whole fam (minus Robert of course, and Derek) went to Festival of Trees. My sister-in-law Kaybi helped decorate a tree so we all went to check it out. The tree was in memory of her friend Lisa's husband who passed away I think in 2007. He was in the Guard so it was a military themed tree with helicopters. They did such a great job! The picture doesn't do it justice.


There were so many amazing trees. I loved this cute little Mickey tree.

And of course Emily's favorite.

We took the kids to sit on Santa's lap while we were there. I was excited to get to cross that off my Christmas to-do list! They actually did really well. Emily was shy and wouldn't talk to him but she didn't cry. Chase was so tired that he really didn't care. And yes, I took a picture of the picture instead of walking into the next room to actually scan it. I am that lazy.

It was a super fun family activity! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Visitors

Who knew Barbie was at the birth of our Savior.

"Swag"

I have been trying to get this video posted for my mom for well over a month. Hopefully it is finally working. So the video is a little old. Oh well.

A few months ago we discovered that Emily had learned something at preschool that was a little surprising. It's not really anything unusual we just had no idea that she knew it. I had to get it on video immediately. Before she learned how to properly pronounce the words!

Look who's on top of things!

Want a great way to make your friends and family think you got your crap together? What better way then sending out Christmas cards. I like to give people the illusion that I got it together because I really, REALLY don't. :)

We have sent out photo cards nearly every year we've been married. We usually just go to Walmart or Walgreens but they're designs are a little...blah. Recently I've become addicted to Shutterfly.com. I even ordered something just a few days ago. But we won't discuss it because it may or may not be a Christmas present for someone who may or may not read this blog. Back to the point of Christmas cards. They have sooooo many to choose from. I think I've been trying to narrow it down for well over a week now. And then, just yesterday I discovered they have holiday story cards where you can write a little letter or update about your family. Now my search is starting all over again.

This is one of my favorite story cards. I don't know if I love the design or just the adorable little boy! But it's a folded card so it has room inside where you can add additional photos and text about your family.

I also like the idea of this one. Having a photo to represent each month of the year.

And this one.

And then there's the regular traditional Christmas photo cards. There's over 800. And I pretty much love them all.

They also have invitations for holiday parties. It kind of made me wish we were having a holiday party just so I could use them! Pretty right?


They also have so many gift ideas like wall calendars, mugs, photo books, etc. Great for grandparents that tell you all they want is photos of the grandkids. :) And how awesome are the calendars? You can add photos on the individual days and personalize the calendar with important dates. Much better than the calendar we have that we got from our insurance company with lovely old time paintings. Snore.

And you know what's even better about Shutterfly? They always have so many deals and coupon codes to get free shipping, free prints, or a percentage off your purchase. I'm kind of cheap so I always like that. :) They are having a sweet promotion right now for bloggers where you can get 50 free cards. Check it out, register, write a blog post like mine, and make everyone jealous of your cute Christmas cards.

Now I gotta go decide which card to use. And even more difficult, find some half-way decent photos. Eek.

Disney Trip - Day 5 - Sea World

Who's ready to be done with these trip posts? I am! I am! Last one I promise. :)

Day 5 we drove down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I am borderline obsessed with Sea World. I think I missed my calling as a marine biologist. My mom has always had a love of marine animals as well (particularly whales) and I think it must be genetic because wow, Emily REALLY loved Sea World.

Before the Shamu show started we were watching the dolphins and their trainers. The trainers were in the water and Emily was asking what they were doing. I was explaining to her that they were dolphin trainers and they teach the dolphins different things, etc. Emily said, "Mom, maybe when I get bigger I could be a dolphin trainer." Yes you can Emily! And I will live my dream through you! :) It was precious. She was so sincere.



Emily really loved the sea lions, which have always been Robert's favorite. We spent a long time there. Emily really loved feeding them and wasn't afraid to touch the nasty fish. She was a little upset though when a bird stole a fish right out of her hand.






We had a really great trip. The weather was absolute perfection. Sunny and mid 70's. We don't get to spend a ton of time together so it was nice just to be together. The kids of course had a great time as well. Now I would like another one please!

Disney Trip - Day 4 - Disneyland/California Adventure/Anniversary!

Anyone else getting sick of hearing about our trip? I thought so. But I gotta finish for our own record. :)

Day 4 was our last day at Disneyland and also Robert and my 6th wedding anniversary. :) We started with breakfast at the Carnation Cafe on Disneyland Main Street.


I love their attention to detail.

That day was the first day that they were doing their Christmas parade and opened "It's A Small World" for Christmas. I really wanted to see it because its supposedly good (even though I literally dispise that ride). After breakfast we went straight to get in line. Oh. my. gosh. I don't think I've ever seen such a long line. They even had a media entrance. Apparently its a big deal. Needless to say, we didn't do that.

We took some pictures, rode teacups and went through the castle one last time and a few other rides. The last two days we were there Disnyeland was really busy. It made for long lines which are difficult to do with two small kids. We ended up not being able to ride as many rides as we had hoped or wanted to but the kids didn't know any different so it was fine. I tend to be a go-go-go type person on vacation. I want to do and see as much as possible. I had to accept that that wasn't going to be the case. We still had a great time and can't wait to go back!



We headed back over to California Adventure to ride Toy Story Mania. The line was crazy and probably took over an hour but seriously so worth it. Best ride of the trip by far! So if you go, its worth the wait. Chase hated it because he was getting thrown all over the place (because I'm an awesome mom and sat him next to me instead of holding him so I could play the games!) but Emily absolutely loved it.


We also saw the Aladdin show which was really good and I recommend as well.

Our kids at the end of the day. Disneyland is exhausting!

After the kids had naps, grandma and grandpa were nice enough to hang out with them so Robert and I could spend some time together for our anniversary. We went to dinner at Tony Romo's :) and then made a Target run. It was really fun. We put the kids to bed and then headed back over to Disneyland to watch the Christmas fireworks show and ride some rides just the two of us.

It was pure insanity. It was the first day of all the Christmas stuff and they had a special lighting up of "It's A Small World". You could hardly move. But it sure was pretty!


It was hard to ride many rides because it was so packed but we decided to go on Autopia. It was super fun. He made me drive since he claims he drives all day every day. I think he just wanted to make me crash. And that he did. At one point I thought he was going to break the dang car because we were crashing so hard. He's always known how to make me laugh.


Sometimes I feel like we get so involved in the day to day stuff with kids and work that it was nice to have some fun together. With Robert's work schedule we don't get to spend a lot of time together. It kind of made me miss the days before we had kids! Those were the days...... It remided me how much we love spending time together and how much fun we have. He really is my best friend.