Magical Memories in the Making ... A Pre-TR! TR LINK UP!

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Hey Shannon! I'm sorry I missed your last few updates. I'm all caught up now, though!

I LOVE your 101 list. As a list lover, I think this is a great idea. I should do this, too! I see some things on your list that I would have on mine as well - especially about the not eating out so much. I love going to restaurants, so it's hard! The goal I've had for myself for a while is to cook at least 4 nights a week and limit eating out to 3, which still is too much! For the budgeting, have you heard of mint.com? If not you should definitely check it out. I started it almost 2 months ago and it is amazing! It makes keeping up with your spending so easy!

Love all the new pictures of James! I hope you'll be sharing lots of your daily pictures with us! I'm excited to see your new decorating photos, too!

I'm sad to hear that Candi's parents are longer coming along.

I agree with Candi, an extra day at Disney after the cruise sounds like a great idea!

 

[ariel1025]

Hey Shannon! I'm sorry I missed your last few updates. I'm all caught up now, though!

I LOVE your 101 list. As a list lover, I think this is a great idea. I should do this, too! I see some things on your list that I would have on mine as well - especially about the not eating out so much. I love going to restaurants, so it's hard! The goal I've had for myself for a while is to cook at least 4 nights a week and limit eating out to 3, which still is too much! For the budgeting, have you heard of mint.com? If not you should definitely check it out. I started it almost 2 months ago and it is amazing! It makes keeping up with your spending so easy!

Love all the new pictures of James! I hope you'll be sharing lots of your daily pictures with us! I'm excited to see your new decorating photos, too!

I'm sad to hear that Candi's parents are longer coming along.

I agree with Candi, an extra day at Disney after the cruise sounds like a great idea!

It's ok ... clearly I've gone MIA as well

I hear ya about loving restaurants - we will find any excuse to go out to eat

Thanks so much for the information on mint.com; I'm definitely checking it out after I update

 

[ariel1025]

YIKES ... has it really been over a month since I last updated I honestly have no idea where the time has gone ... I swear I blinked and we were in September!

So, this will be a random update best followed in bullet points, I think

* Sadly, Disney planning has mostly gone to the wayside temporarily but in the midst of my absence I have worked on a few things:
- Started making my parent's Dining Packet (will post pics when complete)
- Have started working on our master packing list that will go in their vacation Christmas box (will also post pics when complete)
- Found a really great deal on travel games (yay Target coupons!) that I bought to add to their "bear necessities" package (I may or may not have also gotten free travel items thanks to coupons as well )

* James is approaching 8 months this month which means he will be ONE YEAR in less than 5 months ... SAY WHAAAATT?????

* We enrolled in Gymboree and are love, love, loving it (and we found a Disney lover in class which is just a bonus )

* Finished landscaping our front yard (will post pics when I find the cord to my camera)

* Read my first book for my 101 in 1001 which was "Disney on a Dime." Not too sure what I think ... I agree with the fact that the tips will save money but many of them I think would take away from what I love so much about getting lost in the Disney magic (staying off property, making all your own meals etc). Not discouraging anybody from reading the book by any means. I just feel I will personally only take advantage of one or two items that I read about

* Found some awesome Disney clothes for my little guy on clearance at K-Mart by accident (it was the closest store when I was in desperate need of a phone charger one day). Got an entire bag of clothes and didn't pay more than $3.99 for any individual item. Also got him an awesome Cars themed walker ... which he hates

* In the midst of (finally) getting everything set-up for James' baptism. Long story, but we were waiting on my BIL to get confirmed so he could be his Godfather and in the end we had to say we were moving on. Looks like everything will be taking place in November. I feel so guilty that James will be almost a year old before this happens and am feeling a great sense of peace that it is finally scheduled and in action.

* Went to the Def Leppard concert and it was AWESOME!! (go ahead and make fun of me if ya want Going to Journey at the end of this month too ... I'm a nerd and proud of it )

* My parents and Sister will be here in less than 3 weeks!!!!!!!

Ok, I think that sums up the highlights of our lives over here. I promise to get back on soon and do updates on the trip and post pictures.

How has everyone else been? Experiencing any early signs of fall weather where you are at? We are and I am LOVING it!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Yay! So glad to see an update! Can't wait to see the pictures of your newly landscaped yard. I wish I could do that to ours, but my dog has ruined any yard beautifying that I've done so far!

I've never read Disney on a Dime, but it sounds like we have the same philosophy about spending money at Disney. I am all about cutting costs, but only if they don't take me out of my "Disney bubble". I would honestly rather not go than stay offsite or cook all of my own meals. Those are two things that I love about going to Disney.

 

[wild.zinnia]

Love your 101 list. I wish I was half as organized. Also, I have to agree with you about cutting costs at WDW. I love staying on property, the themes of the hotels, the transportation options. And part of the fun of any vacation for me is not having to cook.

 

[ariel1025]

Yay! So glad to see an update! Can't wait to see the pictures of your newly landscaped yard. I wish I could do that to ours, but my dog has ruined any yard beautifying that I've done so far!

I've never read Disney on a Dime, but it sounds like we have the same philosophy about spending money at Disney. I am all about cutting costs, but only if they don't take me out of my "Disney bubble". I would honestly rather not go than stay offsite or cook all of my own meals. Those are two things that I love about going to Disney.

I completely agree about not being willing to break the "Disney bubble." My biggest draw to Disney is that I can escape so much of reality and RELAX!!

Love your 101 list. I wish I was half as organized. Also, I have to agree with you about cutting costs at WDW. I love staying on property, the themes of the hotels, the transportation options. And part of the fun of any vacation for me is not having to cook.

Not only do I enjoy not cooking but I love planning where to eat as well

 

[ariel1025]

250 days!!!!!!

 

[ariel1025]

Ok, let's get back to this planning stuff shall we?

As I stated in my last update, a lot of the planning has gone by the wayside recently. We have just been too darn busy and we haven't had the best of luck recently. I don't want to use my happy place to whine but within the last month I had my hours cut in half at work, Candi's car broke down, my tires had to be replaced and we lost power in our house while we were gone and all the food in our fridge, freezer and deep freeze was spoiled Unfortunately, things don't really look to be heading in the right direction (still) as far as finances go with all this happening so if ya'll could please send some prayers, pixie dust, good vibes ... anything! our way we would greatly appreciate it!!

Ok, back to the planning front ... for real!

I am almost done with my parents dining packet and I really like the way it has turned out. I took a lot of the information from the Disney dining plan pamphlet and combined it with the menus (obtained from allears) of the places we would like to eat. The only thing I have left to do is make a "choices sheet" to go in it and it will be complete. Once it's all done I will post up some pictures. I think it will get my parents excited about that part of our vacation ... I know it got me excited

I've also been slowly filling their travel box (that we are giving them for Christmas). So far I have the WDW planning CD, DCL planning CD, MK customized map, and 2 travel games. I am planning on also adding lanyards, pins, Seabands, some type of filtered water bottle and then making a pamphlet for the hotel we are staying at.

I was also going to make a bear necessities kit for them but I've since decided to do that for my Mom as her Mother's day gift instead. She will much more appreciate it and I don't want to do vacation overload at Christmas when a lot of the people celebrating with us will not be going on vacation with us.

So, overall I'm happy to have made some headway on the DIY projects I have planned. I still want to make magnets for our doors on the cruise but I will do that when it gets closer.

And in non-Disney news, I took James out yesterday because it was beautiful weather here and got 2 shots that I love for his baptismal invitations.

for the front of the invitation

For the back of the invitation and underneath I wrote the verse "every good and perfect gifts is from above..." James 1:17 The rosary is the one we used at our wedding for the lasso and it was actually presented to us by the couple that is going to be James' Godparents

I'm super happy with the way the invitations turned out!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Sounds like you're making good progress on your Christmas gifts!

I adore the pictures that you are using for the baptismal invitations

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Love the pictures for the Baptism invitations! And I love how you used your lasso as well. I will have to keep that in mind for the future! I can't wait to see how the Christmas gifts turn out! They sound amazing already!

 

[ariel1025]

Sounds like you're making good progress on your Christmas gifts!

I adore the pictures that you are using for the baptismal invitations

Thank you so much I was so happy with the way they turned out, especially since he was only patient enough to let me take about a dozen shots before he was over it

Love the pictures for the Baptism invitations! And I love how you used your lasso as well. I will have to keep that in mind for the future! I can't wait to see how the Christmas gifts turn out! They sound amazing already!

Thank you, thank you I am very excited to hear about when you get to use that idea yourself

 

[ariel1025]

Alright, I have a lot of stuff to talk about but I think I will split it into several posts over the next couple of days.

First, onto the vacation stuff. Still not too much to report on the planning front. I have a feeling that it will stall out for a while since we have a baptism, Thanksgiving, Christmas and a FIRST BIRTHDAY to plan in the next 4 months!!

Holy cow, how is it even possible that it is time to start planning James' 1st Birthday Ok, for normal people it probably isn't time to start planning ... but for obsessive, over planners like myself it is definitely time to start planning But, we will get into that more in another post

For now, back to the vacation stuff. My parents will be here next week and we are all going to sit down and make a decision on where to stay before the cruise. Candi and I have gone back and forth, over and over on staying at AKL and BLT but in the end we realized this trip is more for my parents (and James who doesn't give a darn where we stay ) so we are leaving the choice up to them. We talked to them earlier this week and they said when they get here we will look over the two options and make a final decision!

As far as after the cruise, Candi and I are waiting on flight prices to be released before we make a final decision on if we are going to stay a night after the cruise or not. If we do and have points left (meaning we stay at AKL before the cruise) we will stay at Saratoga Springs. If we do not have any points left (meaning we stayed at BLT before the cruise) then we will probably be staying at a moderate resort (unless we get a super awesome pin code for the deluxes).

I've finished making the dining "brochure" for my parents but I can't figure out how to save an image to post on here. Eventually I will get around to just taking a picture of it with my camera and uploading it on here like normal. I think that we will give that to them while they are here also so we can get that squared away as well. Originally, we were going to give it to them in their Christmas box, but we can make ADRs before Christmas so that's just no longer an option

We are also going to all sit down together and make choices on cruise excursions while they are visiting. Candi and I have it narrowed down to what we would like to do (and can do with a 16 month old ) but we will go over all the options to help my parents decide. While I'm sure we will do some things together, we will also do some things separate. My parents will be celebrating my Mom's birthday and their anniversary on this cruise. And, really, who wants to spend their Anniversary with their children Plus, Candi and I want to be able to spend some quality time with just the 3 of us for James' first big vacation. Luckily, everybody involved understands this and there are not any hurt feelings over kindly "kicking each other out" of things

So, I guess to sum this big winded conversation up - I will have real plans to share after next week

 

[ariel1025]

I finally found my camera cord ... WAHOO! So, here are the pictures I promised of our newly landscaped front yard. To be fair, it was already landscaped but looked like a forest or a jungle with about 30 different bushes, shrubs, plants ... and I sooo wish I was kidding. It just did nothing for curb appeal, in our opinion, so we set to work to make it more our style. It took about 4 hours to dig up everything we didn't like, trim up what we did like, transplant a few things, lay the rock and insert those pesky little rocks but it was well worth it. We are so happy with the outcome and really proud that we did it ourselves for way less than it would have cost to hire somebody to do it

Looking towards the neighbors house

Looking between our house and the neighbor's house

Looking towards the street

Can't have pictures without popping in a few of James

Be back soon to post updates about little James ....

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Shannon, your yard looks amazing! I love looking at pictures of homes and landscaping from different parts of the county because everything looks so different. I bet all of the rocks are a lot easier to maintain that grass! And James is looking adorable as always.

I am very excited to see a picture of your dining brochure!

 

[ariel1025]

Shannon, your yard looks amazing! I love looking at pictures of homes and landscaping from different parts of the county because everything looks so different. I bet all of the rocks are a lot easier to maintain that grass! And James is looking adorable as always.

I am very excited to see a picture of your dining brochure!

Thank you! I wish I would have remembered to take a "before" picture because even though we didn't add very much, it looks completely different. The rocks are definitely easier to maintain, but I miss the green grass from growing up in the Midwest

 

[ariel1025]

Sadly, I'm back. Wait! That came out wrong ... I'm happy to be back. But, sad, because that means my family is gone and I have free time on my hands again Or, as much free time as you can have when taking care of an 8 month old

I only have time for a quick update but wanted to let you know that we made our final decisions for our restaurant choices. I gave my parents the packet (which I forgot to take a picture of before they left with it ) and we all ranked the choices. The restaurants with the highest points are the ones we will be attempting to make ADRs at NEXT MONTH

AND

YUM, I cannot wait!

Oh and the backups, just in case, are Cape May Cafe & Liberty Tree Tavern

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Your dining choices sound great! Any of those places (first choice or backup) will be great!

 

[ariel1025]

Your dining choices sound great! Any of those places (first choice or backup) will be great!

Yeah, regardless of what we get I will not be disappointed

 

[ariel1025]

I wish I could say that life was returning to normal and I had more time to update again but .... that is so not the case. But, really, what is normal anyway

Well, as promised, when my parents were here we made a lot of final (ya'll know I say that very loosely right ) decisions. I already shared with you where we are hoping to get ADRs. Well, we also talked about where our home would be for the first two nights. As you know we have been ping ponging back and forth between BLT and AKL. Well, without further ado, the winner is ....

I'm sure some of you are surprised, and, to be honest, I kinda was in the beginning as well. So, how did we come to this decision? We weighed out the pros and cons of both resorts and here is what we came up with for AKL - Jambo

Pros

* Less points per night
* Won't have to pay to purchase additional single use points
* The animals ... ya know for James ... ok, and the adults too
* Night watch animal viewing
* Zero entry into the pool for James
* Boma buffet on site
* A new area that my parents have never stayed at before (we stayed at Contemporary on our only family vacation to WDW)

Cons

* No monorail
* No boats

So, now is it a little more clear?

Not quite?

Oh, wait! I forgot to mention that we are going to use our leftover points to stay for a night (might be working on two ) after the cruise

Make sense now?

Thought so


Also, I entered a couple of photo contests for the Balloon Fiesta that ended here last week. If ya'll could send some pixie dust my way that would be super appreciated

Entered for a local contest

Entered for a contest sponsored by Nikon

And a post just doesn't seem complete without this little cutie

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

When it comes down to a choice between an extra night or not, your decision definitely makes sense! I bet James is going to love getting to see the animals.

Your pictures are amazing! Here's some pixie dust for you!