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'Tis the season for awesome Christmas sweaters, torturing of cats, cheesy poses, and huge smiles. That is right. It is time for all of you to expect our Christmas Card! If you don't know what I am talking about, check out these from the past 2 Christmas's.

2008
(Please notice the handmade fireplace in the background)


2009
(This fireplace is real)

We have gotten our "outfits" for our card this year. I am lacking creativity in my pregnant brain at this stage, but don't worry. We will think of an amazing idea. And you won't be disappointed.

A friend posted this on her blog and I am SOOO excited. Check it out. Shutterfly is giving away 50 free cards to bloggers who write about their cards. I love this idea. Even though I have access to a free and very talented designer in my own home, the cost of printing them and figuring out what type of paper or way to send them out is way too difficult. So this is perfect.

These are a few of my favorites:
(This one makes me excited to have a boy)

And this one. I love the design of this one.


And get your own free cards here:
http://http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/


All I can say is I am excited! Oh and Merry Christmas! I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!
We have been asked quite a few times how we told my family about us being pregnant. So I thought I would share that story here with all of you.

This is the first grandchild on my side and even the first great-grandchild on my Mom's side, so you can imagine how happy and excited my family is that we are having a baby! We were so excited when we found out that we couldn't hold it in. So we decided to make a very short trip to Colorado the weekend after we found out. We told my family the reason we were coming out was to celebrate my Mom's birthday which was still two weeks away, but we couldn't make it out in the next two weekends, so we had to come out that weekend to celebrate. Hence, the post a few weeks ago about going to Colorado.

We drove all night after I got off work on Thursday and arrived at my parents' house around 1 am. But everyone was working or was busy with something the whole weekend! So we pretty much hung out by ourselves all day Friday and Saturday. I was having a hard time keeping the news in!

We went skydiving for our anniversary and got videos of our dive, so we decided to tell them by having them watch our skydiving video with a little surprise at the end! Right when I am about to jump out of the plane, the whole screen goes black. Then music starts playing (You're Having My Baby by Finn on Glee) and pictures start popping up of us holding the positive pregnancy tests. Then it ends with an ultrasound that says, "Due May 2011."

We made plans to go to dinner on Saturday night. It was VERY difficult to get them all together. We had a very certain way, as stated above, that we wanted to tell them and it wouldn't work to tell them at dinner, so we had to organize it to get them all at my parents' house at once. The family was very confused why I was being so persistent that we drive to the restaurant together. I told them I wanted them to watch our skydiving video and that was our only chance to watch it all together. So they reluctantly agreed to watch it.

Here is the proof. I love it!
1. Recording of the families reaction to the video! (The part that they all get confused is when the whole screen went black. They thought they did something to the TV or sat on the remote or something! Then the pictures and song come up and they slowly got it!)



2. Shortened version of the video we showed them.
Since I am carrying a lot of extra "cargo" lately, I can't exactly work at Disney World right now. I could handle wearing a dress all day and just standing there, but I don't think my growing belly would look good in that tight dress. And I can't exactly trek around with 50 pounds of fur, being inside a sweat cave (aka a fake animals head) while playing Pluto. And I have to work by the end of January in order to keep my position as a seasonal cast member. So it is time for me to admit, that after 4 years, I will no longer be an employee of Disney at the end of the year. It is sad to say, but it is time to move on!

Ok, now with that off my shoulders! We decided to take advantage of the GREAT discount employees get during the holidays season, as well as the free tickets in to the park. This is our last chance! We called up our good friends Mark and Kaylinn Morrell to see if they were up for a spontaneous weekend trip to Disney the FOLLOWING weekend. They agreed. We booked a very cheap hotel room at Super 8 and were off!

We had a great time. The Morrell's share our love for Disney and know so many tricks and secrets that excite me all the more! We all haven't been since May (I know what some of you are thinking. May is not that long ago. Well for us when we are used to going 5 times a year and the Morrell's who used to work there and go everyday, May is a very long time). I think I aged 20 years since we went in May because man, I was dying! My feet hurt, especially my heels, my back hurt, my neck hurt, I had a constant headache, my shins hurt, my calves hurt, and the list goes on and on. I had the hardest time standing for that long. I don't know how women who are in their 8th or 9th month do it. I was beat! But we took lots of breaks which was wonderful.

There were many rides I couldn't go on, but there are many things that I NEVER do when we go there because I would rather do all of the big rides (that have long lines). So it was fun to do new things for once. Oh and Kaylinn decided to join me most of the time, so it was more like a man date and a girl date. We all loved it. Here are pictures of the event.

**DISCLAIMER: I love looking at all my pregnant friends' blogs to check out their growing bellies. But they all don't take lots of pictures because they say they don't like any of the pctures of them. I thought that was crazy until now. I look hideous in these pictures. I didn't want to post them, but I decided that maybe a little bit of sympathy at this stage would be nice:)

Mark and Kaylinn

The little kids choo-choo train.


Kaylinn and I went on tours of some of the factories there. They weren't really tours. They were like rooms with read to yourself signs. But still very fascinating. At the Mission Tortilla Factory they gave me a package of free tortillas for my birthday!

We met Rapunzel from the new movie Tangled. I CANNOT WAIT to see that one.
We watched Bugs Life. And had to take a picture of us with our bug eyes on.
We rode Toy Story twice! Waited 75 minutes but it was WAY worth it. It was pretty much the only ride I could go on, so it was even better.


YAY!! I knew I loved Disney, but now I love them even more because they love Christmas as much as I do! They put up all their Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving just like we did!
We met Santa! I think his makeup artist needed to work on bringing his mustache to life a little bit more.


We got to meet aka stare at Santa's reindeer!

We rode the Disneyland railroad a few times:)

They brought back the Captain EO show. I never saw it before, and I would be fine if I never saw it again:)
While I waited for everyone to ride Indiana Jones, I went and met Jasmine and Aladdin.

We splurged and ate at the Blue Bayou. This is the restaurant that is inside the ride Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so delicious. And they have the best atmosphere and ambiance ever. Just love it.


I got a dessert for my birthday!

The gang at Blue Bayou. Too bad you can't tell that is where we are at!

We also got to watch the World of Colors. This is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. And leave it to me to cry during pretty much the entire thing. I love Disney.

The pictures don't do it justice, but they play videos off of the water and bright lights to tell the stories of each movie.




Well that is about it. Thanks to the Morrells for going with us!

So I have been thinking this year that Christmas time is by far my favorite time of the year. Everything about the holiday makes me happy. I am in such a good mood the entire month of December (even despite the awful weather!). And having the tree up for a month is just way too short! You don't get to fully enjoy the holiday season. So... my birthday is in a week, so I told Brandon that what I wanted for my birthday is to set up Christmas decorations early. He agreed! Last night we had hot chocolate, homemade pizza, and Christmas music playing as we put out all the Christmas decorations. It was pure bliss.

So happy birthday to me! I LOVE YOU BRANDON!!!!