Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Disney on Ice

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This past weekend we took Everly to her second time seeing Disney on Ice. This show was called Rockin' Ever After and was all about Disney Princesses. At every Disney on Ice Show Mickey and his buddies come out for a little bit so it was fun to see them too. Everly pretty much loved it. The four Disney movies they featured were The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Brave, and Tangled. Everly is not too familiar with Tangled but she absolutely loves the other 3 movies so it was a lot of fun. My mom got us the tickets for Christmas and then she also gave Everly money to get a toy. Everly got a Mrs. Pots (from Beauty and the Beast) piggy bank and loves it as she has recently become obsessed with coins. I can't wait till we can take her again (which could be as early as April)!

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Ariel did some crazy Cirque du Soleil-ish acrobat routine that was crazy!

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Her teapot piggy bank
 

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Some of the props were really neat like this chandelier
from Beauty and the Beast and the lanterns from Tangled.

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Monday, January 13, 2014

Shamrock Farms Tour


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Back in December we took a holiday tour of Shamrock Farms right before Christmas. If you live in Phoenix, I highly recommend it. It is past Maricopa, so for us it took about and hour and 15 minutes to get there but if you live in the east valley it probably isn't nearly as bad. Kids or no kids, it was really cool. It is so fascinating to see how massive a production it is and how much milk they produce on a daily basis. This tour was a special Christmas tour so they had Santa there and some other fun games and Christmas crafts, but the actual 45 minute tour is always the same. You ride out on a little cart and make several trips along the tour. It can be cold when you are on the cart and it is moving so dress appropriately. Since it was a special Christmas tour they had some snow to play in outside when you arrived.

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As much as I love to pretend this was all my idea, obviously it was my sister's idea. We tagged along on her trip and my mom came too. My sister had previously taken her students on this tour as a field trip so she knew how much fun it would be.


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My nephews are the cutest, right?






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The first stop was a little playground outside of the building where we later got to view the milking process.
 


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I don't think that this picture conveys just how insanely huge and beastly these cows are. It is so crazy to see such a big animal so close (obviously I did not grow up on a farm).

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We got back on the cart and rode around the farm and through where the cows eat. There are sooo many cows. They showed us where the "organic" cows are kept as well as all of the different stages the cows go through on the farm from being a baby to having a baby and to "retiring". We also got to stop and feed some baby cows. They were a little jumpy.


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We ended up having to rush out of their at the end because I had to make it to my soccer game but it was really fun and I can't wait to go back again (also, you get chocolate milk when you finish the tour, so that's awesome)!


Friday, January 10, 2014

Shutterfly Photo Books: Norris Family Reunion and Disneyland

Two of our big trips for 2013 were a trip to New York in June for a family reunion with my mom's family and a trip to Disneyland in October for Everly's second birthday. It is no secret that I love making Shutterfly photo books to preserve our memories and do something with the hundred's of pictures I always end up taking.

Here is our photo book from the family reunion:



 



With the Disney photo book I used their new pocket feature so that I would have a place for all of our saved tickets and fast passes. I really like this feature.

Here is the Disney photo book:

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Everly's Two Year Photos

I am not going to go back through the past year and post everything I missed, but I am going to put up a few more recent things. Back in September we had pictures taken by Lexy Popa Photography (who I used to play club soccer with when I was in High School) for Everly turning two and also for family pictures. They turned out amazing, especially considering we were working with a two-year old who doesn't want her picture taken. We took the pictures at The Grove Church in Chandler, which was far, but definitely worth it. We loved them and used them on our Christmas cards!

Here are some of my favorites:

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I'm Back


So I haven't blogged in the past year, but I am going to try to start up again. When I made Everly's "One-Year" photo album, having this blog to look back at was awesome and so I don't want to lose that. I had some trouble with hosting my photos and then I got busy, but I think I fixed that issue now so I am going to try and blog again...so here goes!

Weekend in Review

Summer is basically here and we are already in full on pool season. On Friday I had the day off so I spent some time with Aspen and took he...