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!}

A Weekend Affair

Now that I am feeling more like myself after yesterday's events I thought I would share some of our weekend with you. Hubby and I had our first 3 night weekend away since having our first little one. The first night was filled with me talking about our fabulous children and me soon realizing that I need to get more educated elsewhere, because really that is all I know now. The first night we stopped in Montgomery, Al and stayed at a hotel that once was an old bank downtown, gorgeous. We walked, talked, and laughed and I actually stayed up to atleast eleven, ha! This is me as my all natural self...

The next morning we made our way down to Mobile, Al. The downtown is filled with old southern history and architecture. The bay housed many ships that really took my breath away... I mean really how do they float?

One evening we took a little drive to Fairhope, Al to have dinner, but first we did a mini photo shoot...

The whole weekend we spent way too much money on food, stayed up late for me, and I just enjoyed my husband. Oh, and he even took me to see Julie & Julia and it too was superb. We have decided to make an annual mini vacation for just the two of us as a part of our lifestyle. Just so we can invest in our marriage a bit. And this is the man I am in love with...

**I have a special thank you to Gracie of Gracie Bella Butterfly for my blog lovin award, it's been great watching her wedding process from the very beginning**

Shopping Hiatus + Vacation

I really can not believe I am at the 10 week mark of the shopping hiatus. This past week I really thought I would have faltered and shopped since I was close to an amazing outlet mall while on vacation to Rosemary Beach, but I did not. Well, I did buy one pair of shorts and a light weight cardigan, but that's all. Hubby even gave me permission to shop like mad, but I really did not want to. Amazing, right? We did buy a few things for the kiddos at Crewcuts, but at 40% off already reduced prices put all the pieces under 10 bucks. Who really could pass that up?

Okay on to the family vacation...

Way too long I know, but my fav list is way too long also. If you want to see more go to my hubby's site, Kellenjacob.com.

One last tidbit of information... If your son happens to throw your phone into a pot of water then dry it off quickly and then stick it in the fridge for a day or so and it may work like new. I mean only if something like that would ever happen.

Update: Just realized its been 11 weeks not 10, woo-hoo!

At the Beach...

Well, almost at the beach. We head down to Rosemary Beach this weekend and will be staying a whole week! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. My hubby has been insanely busy at work so some quality time with me and the kiddos is in much need. We are blessed enough to have some friends that own a fabulous house there and they are kind enough to let us use it. Next week I have a line up of my favorite beach everything. I hope to visit you all too, but my computer is table top so I may be scarce. I will have hubby's laptop, but as I said we need the quality time so I will just have to see how it goes.

This is from our vacation there last year. Those are my little man's feet basking in the sun. Hubby winning 1st runner up in the Coastal Living amateur photo contest sealed the deal of us starting the photography way of life. Oh, and did I happen to mention that I am so meant to live at the beach. Now that would be the life!

*Outfit to Room will be back next week, I've been much too busy getting ready for the beach and next week's line up!

hello

Oh, how I love to be on vacation! We normally try to have two a year, but with my husbands busy schedule I was afraid we would not get the second. This year we were blessed enough to have both at Rosemary Beach. One day this week I hope to post pics of the amazing home we get to stay in. We arrived really late Sunday night, so we could start fresh the next day. I love the beach in the fall and early spring. I love the feeling of having the neighborhood to ourselves.

This photo was taken this spring on our last vacation by my husband. It then made it on the cover of 'The Rosemary Tymes'. The local newspaper for Rosemary. I wish we had the newspaper already scanned, but atleast you can get the idea.

This summer I had my husband enter into Coastal Living's amateur photography contest a few months back. We entered this photo of KJ's feet from that same spring vacation. We never thought it would actually make it anywhere, not that I don't think my husband's amazing, but we knew thousands would enter. Low and behold, he got 2nd runner up! The photo ran in the September issue so you may have actually seen my boys feet already.