A Day At Disney!

One of the perks of living in Southern California, besides the beach, is Disneyland! Luckily my brother works there so he can get us in for free once in a while. Yesterday he got us in and we took Emily for her first time!! I've been looking forward to taking her since before she was even born. Unfortunately, the weather was miserably hot so we got her on about three rides and gave up. We had my mom come get her and then Michael and I stayed. We met up with my friend and the guy she is dating, who we set her up with (another friends brother). Matchmaking pays off sometimes :)

Here are some of the pictures from our Disneyland and CA Adventure day!

On the tram...

In line for Dumbo...

Emily made her elephant noise and arm as a trunk when she saw Dumbo. Adorable!

On the teacups...

It's a Small World...

Emily kept pointing at things on Small World going "wow! wow! wow!"

After my mom picked up Emily for us, we got some treats in Downtown Disney and then met up with Kelli and Danny. You can tell Michael and I have been there for hours, sweating and getting too much sun and that they just got there. Fresh faces and perfect hair vs. red faces and gross hair, haha! 

We went on the Toy Story ride, California Screamin', and Tower of Terror.

Aren't they cute together?!

Lol, poor little girl.

After ToT, we went back to Disneyland to get some Pineapple Dole Whip then walked all the way back for the World Of Color show. Michael hadn't seen it before and it's been years since I've seen it. It never ceases to amaze me what they can do with just water, projectors, and music. 

It was a lot of fun to get to go do Disneyland for the day, to take Emily for a bit, and to hang out with Kelli and Danny. Good day :).

A Day At California Adventure and Disneyland!

Last Monday I was fortunate enough to get to go to Disneyland and California Adventure with my mom, one of my brothers, and my sister. It was so much fun! We took some pretty goofy pictures so of course I needed to blog about it!

I don't normally wear my sweaters like this, people. :) This is us standing in the LONG line to get into CA Adventure. I love the palm trees!

This is much more normal looking. Except my moms arm, haha!

It had been a couple years since I'd been to either park so I was excited to see Cars Land. It was cute and the ride was so fun! Racing cars, yes please!

Here we are waiting in line.

And this is me in the bottom left and my sister with her arms up behind me, haha! I was holding my hair because I totally forgot to bring a hair tie!

Another first for me was we went to see the Aladdin show. It's been there for years but I had never taken the time to go to it. It was good but not GREAT. They had some good singing and jokes. The most interesting thing to me was hearing about how they used to do a magic carpet ride where Aladdin and Jasmine "float" above the audience on a "carpet" but they don't do that anymore because one time a chord came undone and they were just hanging there screaming for help until someone could get them down. It would have been a really bad fall because it was a huge theater!

We also went on California Screamin' (that I have been on plenty of times so I knew when they were going to take a picture)...

And then we went on Tower of Terror. I legit hate heights and the falling sensation so I don't particularly enjoy this one...we are in the back row. I think my mom and brother were pretending my other brother slipped out of his seat next to them.

After CA Adventure I was already itching to get back to Emily but we did go to D-land and have some ice cream on Main Street and then go on the Buzz Lightyear ride. 

It's always so fun to go to Disneyland/CA Adventure. I have SO many memories there, including the last time I went with friends (just about a month before I got pregnant!) and, more importantly, when Michael proposed. :)

Thank you to my brother and mom for taking me!! I had such a good time!! I'm so glad Kristin got to come too!! :)

Weekend Recap

 This weekend was pretty fun! I took Emily out to lunch and shopping with my mom and grandma on Friday. We went to Toys R Us and my mom bought Emily her first doll. 

Isn't this just sooo precious?! 

Thank you, mom! 

I also bought Emily some really cute brown fuzzy boots for colder weather. She'll be walking before I know it. She has already taken a few steps here and there. 

On Friday before we headed home, we went to a friends house for her kids combined birthday party. I love giving kids gifts. They have the BEST reactions! Melts my heart!

Saturday we just hung around the house. I was supposed to go to a Pampered Chef party at my neighbors house but since Michaels been working every night, he sleeps all day and I had to miss it. It's been rough having him gone/sleeping so much but we try to stay busy most days.

One thing that keeps me busy is selling Scentsy. I love it! It's makes my job easy when the products are so cute and smell DELICIOUS. I'm obsessed with my pumpkin warmer and sugar cookie scent! 

This pumpkin warmer is 10% off in September so if you want one, get one now!!

Have any questions about what Scentsy is or how it works? Feel free to ask me!

I bought a couple of movies this weekend for Emily on Amazon. I'm trying to get some movies that she will like as she gets older and that won't make me want to put my head through a wall.

On Sunday we went to church and that's pretty much it!

Back To The Classics

Sometimes the only thing that stops Emily from fussing is turning on some music. I searched on YouTube for some Disney song because she likes watching too. Then, I came across these videos and just had to share them!  They are both awesome in different ways. I hope you like them too!

A Pretty Awesome Day

I feel so out of the blogging groove now that I don't have a job! I'm on Michaels weird schedule now of staying up really late and sleeping in really late...which means no motivation to hop on the computer to update when there is nothing to say!! But things have been pretty crazy lately so now I have something to write about!

This past weekend I had three friends visiting from out of town and they used our very newly finished guest bedroom! I was so glad I got it all done in time for them to come! They came down for Kaitlins 21st birthday and we all went to disneyland to celebrate!

With only getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before, we woke up bright and early to make it to Disneyland by 8:30 a.m. They wanted to get the most out of their tickets (I say "they" because I know someone who got me in for free) and by golly we sure did! We were at Disneyland / CA Adventure from 8:30 am until after 1:00 am. Yes, they close at 12:00 am. We got split up and managed not to have cell phones on us and had to search all over Main St. to find each other. It was a looooong day. But aside from feeling like my back was going to split, my feet were going to fall off, my boobs were going to tear away from my chest, and my eyelids not wanting to stay open, it was A LOT of fun!

No, seriously! You know those friends that make you laugh so hard your stomach and cheeks hurt? These are those girls. I love spending time with them! Keep in mind we were all sleep deprived. By about 9:00 pm we were slap-happy...which is when you laugh so uncontrollably for long periods of time at something that really isn't that funny and even though you are laughing you also feel like crying. Hahaha!

We managed to ride on tons of rides (even some that I have never been on, which is weird since I used to go all the time when I had a pass) and I saw the World of Color show at CA Adventure and that was AMAZING!! I loved it so much! They show video and audio clips of different disney movies and it's so crazy that it's all done with water, lights, and fire. They even incorporate a couple of the rides with their lights into it, if that makes sense. If you have a chance, definitely get tickets and go see the show when you go there!!

Here are some fun pictures to document that day!

I miss them already!

That Time I Nodded "Yes"

This is my first time participating in Kelly's Korner but I saw a bunch of people writing their proposal stories and I don't recall if I ever wrote ours. It works perfectly since I was just talking about how our 3 years of dating was just a few days ago and wrote about that! Here it goes!

Let me start off by saying that Michael and I fell for each other really quickly! He told me he loved me after only a couple of weeks and it took me a little while longer to say it back to him! We were crazy about each other and just enjoyed our time together so much! We spent every moment we could with each other and when we weren't with each other we were on the phone talking or texting each other. Michael and I drove 12 hours to Utah to visit some friends and go to General Conference (which we didn't make it to...) and then 12 hours back and the whole time we were with each other, we knew this is what it would be like to be married. We loved it! 12 hour car rides can be torture...but it wasn't at all. We drove through the strip in Vegas on the way home since I had never seen it or been there. I still haven't actually. As we were driving around we kept seeing little Chaples and it was definitely really tempting to elope! We already knew what we wanted.

Fast forward a little bit (the same month-October), and we were spending the day together going to Ikea (since I had never been- actually I STILL haven't been!) but the Ikea wasn't there anymore so then we decided to go to Disneyland. He had bought me an annual pass for my birthday that year (July 21, btw) and so it was something we did often. One of our favorite things to do was get Pineapple Dole Whip from the tiki hut. Mmm!

{image from google}

We were walking around casually going on some rides...

And we were talking about when we might actually get engaged. He said it will be a little while until he can get a ring for me. I understood. That's okay. We can wait a little while. I mean, we have only been together for 4 months now! No need to rush it, right?

I started to get really irritated with the crowds. I hate the crowds! I started asking if we should leave, and he kept putting it off and taking us on more and more rides. Then we were walking around and we were near the wishing well by the castle...

...and it was really funny because some people were hiding in there, popping out and scaring people as they walked by. Quite entertaining! But then Michael was urging us to move on... he was acting really strange. I was getting grumpy. (No pun intended.) I pleaded with him to let us leave now. He finally agreed and we started making our way down Main Street to leave the park. As we were walking down the street to leave, the announcement came on that the fireworks were about to start.

He stopped us and said something like, "Shelley, I think we should stay and watch the fireworks. We never see them and I know you are stressed with the crowds but it would be nice to watch them and relax before we go, don't you think?"

"Okay..."

We walked back toward the castle and we were standing pretty close to it, in the middle. Great spots! How did that happen? Anyway, so we were watching the fireworks and it was nice. He was standing behind me with his arms wrapped around me. Toward the end of the fireworks I felt him let go of me and get down to tie his shoe. I briefly thought, "Wait...is he going to propose...!? No...he doesn't have the ring. Right. But still...maybe...?"

The fireworks ended and I was wondering what he was doing so I turned around to see and there he was, down on one knee. He opened the ring box and as he did, a light from the box shined on the ring so I could see it. It was beautiful and shined so bright! It was the only light around since the fireworks just ended and it was dark and people were still all around us.

He asked me the question.

It's all kind of a blur. All I remember is nodding yes, crying, and hugging him.

He said I said yes but I can't remember! Crazy! It felt like we were in our own little world and everything was fuzzy. He said people were clapping and congratulating us but I don't remember any of that! All I remember are the tears of joy and shock and emotion! We found a bench and called my parents and friends and sat there for a while doing that.

Apparently he had the ring in the box in his SOCK the WHOLE day! It was strapped down with his brothers' girlfriends (Sarah's) hair tie!

On the tram back to the car, people were looking at us with knowing smiles and saying their congrats.

On the drive home I was on top of the world and wanted to roll down the window and yell out "I'm ENGAGED!!" and flaunt my ring to everyone!!

We went back to his house and his brother Tyler and Sarah were there to congratulate us. Everyone else was already in bed, lol.

And that's our engagement story!

We got married a month and a half later on December 7th, 2007!

March Madness

Shoot! I can not believe it has already been 3 months since my last post. I recently read a blog titled something along the lines of "I know, non picture posts are so boring!" *cough* wendy *cough* And I realized that I hardly ever put pictures on here. Mostly because the only way I can is through my camera phone. But here are some things we have been up to..with some pictures added for fun. :-)

The picture above is a bouquet of flowers that michael got me for valentines day. He had to work the day of so he got this for me a little early along with a season of 24 (we love 24!). It was our 2nd valentines day together married. Weird!



This picture was taken on the drive home from Arizona. My parents, my sister, and I went out to a memorial service for my grandpa who passed away a couple of months ago.


This picture is the only one I have on my phone of the production my family and I are in called Savior of the World. Please come! You will not regret it. You can purchase tickets at http://www.anaheimproductions.com/.

Our friend Todd (who we know from Michaels academy) got free tickets to Disneyland and California Adventures and invited us to come. Michael had work so I brought my friend Kelli. We had a lot of fun on our favorite rides and I showed them the exact spot where Michael proposed to me.


I just wanted to post this ADORABLE picture of my niece, Aubrey. So cute! We love having her and her parents, Tiffany and Jarom, live so close now. We love you guys!

The story behind this picture is this: I was trying to save money on getting my hair touched up and bought the box hair dye. And then I asked my friend who has never done hair before, to do it for me. I thought it would be simple because it was about the same color as my highlights and it was all over color. I have done darker before on other people so I knew how to do the actual process. However, it turned out BAD. She had accidentally missed spots so I had dark spots on the sides of my head. AND my roots were orange. For the record, I was trying to save money and I don't blame Kelli. The next morning I made an emergency appointment with the lady who usually does my hair and she fixed it for me. Yay!

Now for the more serious things going on in our life! Sorry no pictures are included in this part but hopefully I lured you in and you keep reading!

We placed an offer on a short sale house in Corona a couple of weeks ago. They said we should hear back about it in about a month. That is actually really fast for a short sale but it is dated to go into foreclosure on May 8 and they don't want that so they are trying to rush it, which is good for us. However, we do know that three other people placed offers and we don't get to know how much they offered. It's a waiting game as well as a blind bid. It's kind of driving us crazy.

If our offer is not accepted, we are going to move out into a one bedroom apartment until we find the right home for us. In a way it kind of stinks to do that instead of getting a huge home of our own, but on the other hand I don't even know if this home is what I want. Michael loves it but I'm not sure what I want right now. We already have our chunk of money to go towards the down payment and closing costs and all that so we are ready financially to get a home. However, with the housing markey the way it is, we don't know how much longer it will take for us to move out. We can live in an apartment and not touch our savings, slowly save a little more, but look for the right home while living on our own.

We are still waiting to hear back if Michael is going to be in the next academy which starts in May.

We are trying not to stress about all of the "maybe's" hanging over us, but it's a lot to handle!

Anyways, that's what we have been up to. We love you all and hope everything is going well with you!

Love,

Michael and Shelley