A Short Recap

If you follow me on twitter then I am sure you got tired of me talking about our vacation to Disney World. It was the first time for all of us and we had a blast. Although I do wish I started training for the trip in advance. I simply had no idea. Here is a short recap of our trip...

KJ's Favorite part was getting to meet Buzz Lightyear. "To infinity and beyond" has now become part of his daily speech. He really can fit it into any circumstance. It's a hoot.

Ellie's favorite part was doing the princess experience in the castle. We surprised her. They decked her out like a princess head to toe. She then got to meet a bunch of princesses and she was in high heaven.

My favorite part was getting to spend some much needed time with the Mr. Oh, and the food was amazing too. I am now in need of a detox. This friend is going to help me.

The funniest part of the trip was when Aladdin and Jasmine kept on asking Ellie if she remembered certain parts of the movie. She kept on saying no. They then asked if she ever even saw the movie. She said no, they were heartbroken. Ellie simply wanted to meet the pretty princess. ha. No worries though last night we watched the movie.

* Today I am also on Mrs. French.

Our Christmas Cards with Minted

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is sending out our Christmas cards. Last year we went with a photo with just kiddos that we adored, but this year I knew I wanted a family photo, which is much easier said than done with two small ones. While on vacation we decided to take a chance and see what we could come up with. Thankfully it went off without a hitch and we managed to capture quite a few winners.

A few tips on capturing a great family photo...

1) Dress in what you are comfortable in. You can wear complementing outfits without being too matchy matchy.
2) Keep it simple...especially when using a self timer like we did for the first image. If you try too hard it will show, and not necessarily in a good way.
3) Be yourself. Again this goes back to dressing in what you would normally wear and stay away from too many trends unless that is who you really are. People want to see the real you.
4) Have fun!!! So many people put too much pressure on having to get that perfect shot, but in the long run you will see the stress of it all on your faces. The in between moments are always our favorites anyways.
5) Using a self timer can be hard even for a photographer like my Mr. so asking a friend to help can be a life saver. It also gave us the chance to do something that comes completely natural to us...walking as a family.

Then comes the choosing of the card. We being the creative types like to be a bit different and try to choose something that not only represents our family, but our photography as well. Once we saw Minted we knew they would be the best choice for us. The quality is superb with thick paper and the designs are fresh and so very unique. We liked them so much we choose two different designs this and this one. Really it was too hard to choose just one...so we didn't!

Now to get addressing so I can have them ready to send out the week after Thanksgiving. Yes, I like to be on top of things.

Vacation + Good Eats

If you happen to follow my tweets then I am sure you quickly realized I was on our family vacation. We go to Rosemary Beach Florida a couple times a year and it has really become quite the tradition over the past 6 years or so. Although we cook most nights it never fails that we eat at the Pizza Bar in Seaside a few times. Yes, it's that good! Not only is the food divine, but so is the atmosphere...

We eat out on the beach side patio every time.

I get the focaccia bread topped with mozzarella and mushrooms.

The Mr. gets the sausage something or other...

The table always ends up looking like this...

It's pure bliss really. If you would like to see some of our favorite family photos you can see them on my Mr's site, here. They may be my favorite yet.

* Also while away I stepped back from my emails/blogging. I tried to catch up over the weekend. If you sent one and I did not reply please email me again. I may have gotten delete happy.

Getaway

My husband is one sneaky man. Friday morning he handed me an envelope with a sweet note telling me to pack a bag for the night. At the same moment my sister showed up to watch the kiddos. While riding in the car he handed me another envelope with a print out of the hotel we were staying, the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta. He say's he choose this hotel because he thought I would love the design which I did. As we neared the hotel he handed me another envelope with a good amount of money to spend on whatever I fancied. Needless to say we had a blast and I felt beyond special. I am quite smitten with my man I must say.

Oh, and what did I buy? I fabulous dress from Club Monaco and an insane amount Ribba frames for a new gallery wall we are working on. I will share both soon. I even have money left over for future desires, so fun.

Taking a Walk

I am so happy to be back! It seems I have a lot of catching up to do on your blogs and can't wait to get started. We had a wonderful trip. The weather could not have been any more perfect. Anyhoo, my dear husband and I have fallen in love with The Biggest Loser. As some of you may not know husband and I do not have cable, dish, etc. It's a life style choice we made years ago, but at the beach there is cable and we did watch a few shows. The Biggest Loser was one of them and now we are going to watch it on Hulu every week. It really made us reevaluate how we treat our bodies. For me, having a box of Cheez It's for lunch is no good so we have a plan on eating healthier and keeping active. I went from being an avid runner to basically nothing in less than a year, ouch. One activity that we did do at the beach was take long walks, when I mean long I mean a couple of hours long. Everyday the kiddos would climb into the red wagon and we would walk to here...

So the kiddos could play on this...

This is one of the views that we admired everyday, I just adore the symmetry of it all...

Then my sweet husband decided to take some lovely photos for you all, that way you can feel like you were with me, well sort of...

This puts my fire pit to shame...

Oh yes, my husband has no fear of peeping into people's courtyards. Nothing but the best for my readers I say...

He did have a problem with stealing when I asked for him to carry this home though...

I just adore the beach, sigh*...

If you actually read this whole post then I am quite impressed, way long, I know. Long walk makes for a long post, sorry.

UPDATE: we stayed in Rosemary Beach, Florida. My favorite.

{Oh, and we did arrive home with a few days of vacation left and we worked on our bedroom. Yes, I know it was only a mere 8 months ago that I re.did it the first time, but it just was not working for me. Tomorrow I will post a tutorial on how to make your own headboard, yeah!}