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.

Disney Trip - Day 3 - Disneyland/California Adventure

I forgot to post these with the last post. On our way out we saw the Fairy Godmother. Emily loved her! They talked for a long time about all the princesses she likes. It was cute.



Okay, back to day 3. We got to wake up at 5:00am once again. Thanks to Chase. But luckily Disneyland opened at 8:00am. When we first walked in we stopped to see these guys. Emily was a little scared of the Queen of Hearts I think.

Then we stopped to say hi to Minnie Mouse. She gave Emily a kiss on the cheek. Emily later told me "I wiped off Minnie's kiss."


We went straight to the princess area once again with hopes of seeing different princesses. We ended up being first in line. Score. While we were waiting for it to open we let Chase walk around. Tethered to a leash of course. We felt a little cruel but it definitely keeps him from getting too far away. He wasn't a fan.

Since we were first in line and we had to wait a little bit for the employees to figure out which ways to weave the line (hilarious!) we actually saw the princesses walk in. I was excited. There was one princess in particular we were really hoping to see....

Belle

Belle really took a lot of time with Emily. I don't know if they could tell that she's REALLY into princesses or if its because she's so young but all of them really took a lot of time and were really great with her. I hope they get paid well because they did a really good job.


Belle held Emily's hand and walked with her to the next princess. When they were walking Ariel said Emily was a little Belle. Emily thought that was the coolest thing.


Ariel
She spent A LOT of time with Emily as well. There were two groups of people waiting behind us because she spent so much time. It was cool.




Tiana


After finishing there we stopped at the princess store to let Emily pick something. She wanted a Snow White doll that turns into the Evil Queen. It's really pretty cool. But then she really wanted to show it to Snow White. Because they're BFF's now.

Everyone went for a ride on the train while I stayed to try to get Chase to sleep. He screamed the whole time they were gone so that was pretty fun. But then we watched the Royal Coronation ceremony thing they do. They have all the kids come down on the floor and teach them to curtsy and bow and then they get to dance with the princesses.

Emily was so excited when they came out! At one point they come down off the stage to do a ribbon pole dance thing. Emily was so upset because Cinderella came down and danced with her and not Snow White. She REALLY wanted to show Snow White her doll. She was very sad!


I love this picture.

I think Emily's favorite thing at Disneyland (besides the princesses) was the Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough. I think we went through there 12 times.

Chase's favorite thing to do.


After naps and dinner we went to California Adventure to watch the Pixar Parade, ride some rides, and get ear hats.



Chase was thrilled.