Things that go GREAT together!

YAY! We got our family pictures done by my super talented friend Susie. We met her at Heritage Park in Kirkland this afternoon. What a beautiful neighborhood! I told her we were looking for kind of a "school" theme, since Mike & I are both teachers, and she suggested this place. Apparently this was the site of the old Kirkland Jr. High. The building came down many years ago and all that still stands is the doorway, now covered in ivy! Hearing this, I was SUPER STOKED immediately!

Here is a sneak peak of our shoot:

Oh how I love Susie! She is a genius! I just can't say it enough. Funny thing is-when we met I was stunned to meet an "Allison" that I wasn't related to! Never in my life has that happened before. It's not like it is a common last name, considering I've never met someone with my last name for the past 29 years....so to me-it meant we were DESTINED to meet! And I am so grateful we did. She's  one heck of a talented lady-fabulous teacher, superior writer and an exceptional photographer. You should read her blog-she's a HOOT!

Which brings me to this point. What do you do with super great pictures such as these???? Duh-order Christmas Cards with them! But it gets even better, because I do my card shopping in a few minutes flat though Shutterfly.com (like many of us do for ordering things like this). Holy cow-they have so many designs I love this year, I don't know what I'm going to pick! The prices are comparable to other places, but when you add on the typical deals they are running-you just can't beat it! Here's a few of my favorites:

there's the ultimate 5x5 style-SO CUTE!....

 and the ever popular flat 5x7 photo cards....

 Ok-if you haven't caught on yet-I am TOTALLY into the monogram thing! lol

 However-I think this folded card is my favorite! You can even customize the inside to be like a little "xmas newsletter" with small pictures & all! How great is that? They have some genius stationary designers at that place! Who would've thought....card/newletter combo? LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

To top things off, I was perusing some of my favorite blogs the other day and came across a whopper of a deal offered by none other than...shutterfly:

50 FREE HOLIDAY CARDS from SHUTTERFLY.COM!!!

I am so excited. We started using Shutterfly the year Mike & I got married. We were looking for a way to compile our wedding memories for my dad who couldn't be at our wedding. Our list of priorities included: price, quality, and design. Shutterfly exceeded all our expectations! While we were on the website, we decided to do a little "surfing" and saw some cute designs for Holiday cards too and thought-what the heck, let's give it a shot! Turns out-those cards are our favorite xmas card to date. So each year, when we need things such as photo cards, photo gifts, or photo books-we don't even bother to look elsewhere, shutterfly is where it's at!

Here we are 6 years later and now we have a tradition to order photo books for all the grandparents each christmas. We compile favorite photo memories of our family from the past year (December-November) and create a book in about 5 minutes from start to finish! It is amazing and a great grandparent gift if I do say so myself! I mean, come on-what the heck do you get people who have everything? That is always the trouble with grandparent gifts and it used to stress me out in a major way! Now, I worry no more. Thank you Shutterfly! 

Over the years, I've suggested these books to friends who don't have the ambition to scrapbook but want their photos in a book without the time & hassle it takes to create something cute. It just doesn't get any easier, they do it all for you and the price is right. Funny thing is, I've received a few shutterfly birthday invites, birth announcements & holiday cards from these same friends who I sent to the site for books! I guess they fell in love as they "perused" their website too! So here's your chance to do the same. Check it out at:

50 FREE HOLIDAY CARD OFFER TO BLOGGERS

I WAS FEATURED ON BAKERELLA!

Yay! Bryce's beloved Mike Wizowski Monster's Inc Cake Pops are now featured on Bakerella.com under the "Pop Stars" section! How exciting!!! Check it out.
http://www.bakerella.com/pop-star-kristi-in-washington/

A TWIST on a classic

This is my mixer-she's about 10 years old and I adore her. However, she needed a little spice to her life-so VIOLA! Man do I LOVE LOVE LOVE vinyl! How cute did she turn out? Emma has asked for her very own mixer for xmas-guess I should see about making some vinyl for it too :) She'll be tickled.

Is it Christmas YET? No-well, I'm just dipping my toe in.....this project was too cute to resist. Happy Holidays everyone!

Pearly Whites

Em went with Dadda to her very first dentist visit today. Mike is such a great dad-he even asked me if I wanted him to take the camera! Awwww.....OF COURSE! :) so kudos to Mike for all the picts of this milestone.

EmmaLee is the kid that we have to explain things to before they happen-you know, give her a little preparation for the upcoming event. In the past she has always been on board with EVERYTHING we tell her about, as long as she's prepared. So I quickly explained that she gets to take a special trip with Dadda in the morning to a place called the dentist. They are going to brush Dadda's teeth and Emma's teeth and if Emma does an awesome job-they will give her prizes! 

She was so excited, she threw herself in my arms and gave me a HUGE hug. (I felt kinda bad at that point....poor kid-she has no idea I HATE the dentist.)

I had to wake her up this morning and she jumped out of bed, eyes half shut-and she was so happy to be going out with dadda. ha ha ha
Apparently she had no problem showing them her pearly whites! She let them polish, floss, flouride and rinse-but most shockingly-she loved every minute! Sounds like me when I was a kid.....and then I grew up. ha ha ha

Just keeping my fingers crossed that she  doesn't get her first cavity until 18 either.

Ummmm-ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Look who was found making a ruckus in the lavatory today.....
We caught them giving each other make-overs. Sadly-Bryce was ALL ABOUT IT! Em even went as far as to start washing her brothers feet with wet wipes AND I even saw her use tweezers to take care of a problem hangnail he had on one of his big toes! It's like she was giving him a pedicure. These kids never cease to amaze me. Beauties aren't they?

I have to say-it did warm my heart that they weren't fighting, they were having the time of their lives and were more than happy to be taking care of one another. (sniffle, sniffle-tear)

Ugh

Bryce has been itching to get a "tool kitchen" for quite some time now, and recently Little Tikes came out with a SUPER cute one made to match "dadda's" real Sears Craftsman tools. How cute is this?
So I got on the computer to buy it for him for xmas and it says.....SOLD OUT FOR THE REST OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON!

Are you freaking kidding me? It's the 2nd week of November and you are sold out of a toy? Isn't this the busiest time of year for the toy companies? You'd think they'd have overstock at this point! Come on-it's not even the biggest shopping day of the year yet! Just had to get that off my chest. Mike thinks it's funny and the whole thing reminds him of the movie Jingle All The Way-however, there are no hopes of finding a "Turbo-Man" in this case because the item is a littletikes.com exclusive-if they don't have it-no one has it! Bummer. I guess B will be waiting till the end of January for his christmas gift?

A Bunch of Boys on Lake Nunnally

Thanksgiving Scrapbooking

Another scrapbook night success! One more to go. I promised Em I'd make her a kit for next time too. She was SO excited to sit with the ladies and eat the yummies that everyone brought-it was a little sad that she had no project to complete like we all did. Next time baby girl. Next time.

My friends make the yummiest snacks. Mike had a fire blazing so we couldn't keep the cheesecake out. It started to melt in 3.2 seconds!

And finally-the end product...