Christmas time is almost here!

And I am just started to plan out our holidays for this year! (That rhymed I know!) Anyway, one thing I am always on top of is getting our holiday cards out. Mr. A and I have not done an official holiday card together as a family so I am especially happy about it this year. The pressure is on to make sure they look just right. Plus now that we are married we have to send them to both sides of the family and that means I have to send them to both sides of the family! I have been looking into our options and have decided that Shutterfly is the way to go! I have used Shutterfly before to make our fabulous guest book, and I have ordered holiday cards for my boss before with them. I know they come out so cute and fun! I have decided that custom made holiday cards (made by me of course) are just out of the realm of possibility this year. We have so much going on and this website takes out all the guesswork! They have so many great options for us and we love all of their products so this is a great alternative to the time consuming project it normally is.

I am totally loving their Christmas Cards, this one is a great possibility because I can use lots of pictures from the year (including some from the wedding of course) but still have our sentiment come through.

We do have many friends and family who don't celebrate Christmas though, so maybe a more generic holiday card would work best? 

And I love that I can spend some time Christmas shopping on their site too. They have really cute photo books and calendars, which are always a big hit with the family. 

I was thinking we could put together one for each set of parents as a gift. I know they would love to get something so personal.

I am so looking forward to working on this fun project this weekend! 

Attention all bloggers: Did you know you can earn 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? If you post about their products and services on your bog you can get this free gift! It only takes a minute and the free cards are a great deal. Newlyweds budgets are tight and this is a big help this holiday season! So get started today! 

Wedding Recap - Portraits

Okay her are some more pictures from our wedding. This time I am going to brag relentlessly about our portraits, and you are going to have to deal.

 This is Mr. A and his mom, I think this picture just captured the moment so well. 

The guys looking fancy at the SFA bar before the wedding. This is just before they took shots. I am so proud of my husband... 

Me and the girls at the SFA. I love the way everyone looks in this picture. 

 Us fooling around. The photographer told us to talk. Someone thought it fitting to play the penis game while we talked. It was really funny until I saw the pictures and saw that my MIL was listening (you can see her above us in the picture, dammit!)! Oh well we are locked in now. 

My sweet niece gave me a kiss before the wedding.

 Outside of the hotel on Congress. 

We stopped traffic and ran down Congress. I love these pictures! I now will brag that this was totally my idea and I am so glad I pushed to make it happen. 

 I love this shot. I totally planned for my flowers to match the Paramount sign. Totally. 

Being romantic and such. 

 A big dip in front of the capitol. I love this shot and think this one might be my favorite of just the two of us. Totally classic. 

Taking a break and loving on each other. We were actually totally hot and sweaty and I can't believe they came out this good! 

 Us fooling around before she took a serious picture. I like this one! 

Our photographer loves this one. We ran all the way back to the hotel from taking pictures and I am sure it was really funny to watch. 

Until about two weeks after we got these pictures did I even notice this picture! I love the Photoshop! This one is one of our favorite group shots of the whole day. 

So now that I have totally overwhelmed you with my portraits please take a moment to reflect on their awesomeness! (I kid, not really, no I kid) 

Confession - Don't Judge Me

I know now that my wedding dress already does not zip and/or button all the way up. I have been married for just over 65 days. I am very sad about this. I am going back to the gym tomorrow. I am sad and now I am fat.  Weird thing is I have not really gained much weight, guess I am just out of shape already.

PS - Don't ask me how I know my wedding dress does not fit. It is not like I put it on tonight while Mr. A was out of town and danced around in my living room alone. I totally did not do anything like that. That would be super weird of me. 

PPS - I am hoping this issue is really caused by the fact I am not double jointed and putting my wedding dress alone does not really work. I have like three layers of buttons and hooks on that thing. Yea that is why it does not fit, not because I am getting fat. Dammit. 

Weekend Recap

This weekend was the first in a while that we actually had at home. We took full advantage by doing as many fun things as we could!

Friday - Movie night (of course). We ordered our usual Pei Wei and hosted our great friends Jason and Amelia and there cute puppy Izzy for the night. We watched "Get Him to the Greek" and it was really funny! I honestly did not want to watch it but I am really glad we did. God I love our movie nights.

Saturday - I met with Kelly and Ginger and we took our dogs to Town Lake bight and early. The dogs seemed to be happy about this, I on the other hand was super tired. Kelly and I grabbed a large cup of coffee and then headed to HEB to get some groceries. Then Saturday night Mr. A and some other friends piled in the car and went to Wurstfest! I had never been but man we had a great time. After a lot of wandering around we finally parked our group in one of the tents. We danced to polka music and drank German beer. What a fun and silly night!

Sunday - I woke up super early to participate in the "Race for the Cure" with Kelly and Janet. Ginger and Harry were all dressed up and ready to head out in their pink outfits. We all started our morning with mimosas and muffins. The walked the race. There were so many people there! What a fun race to do. We then headed to "Iron Cactus" for a fabulous brunch with bottomless mimosas (of course). I then headed home and passed out for about 5 hours! We ended our weekend cooking dinner together and watching a movie with our puppy.

Such a fun weekend! Hope you all had a good one too!

Message in a bottle???

Source

Or more like color from a bottle?

Mr. A and I have been trying to cut way back on finances to save for several large purchases we would like to make next year. One being a house and the other a second honeymoon to Italy with friends. In order to reach these goals we have to cut way back on everything and I mean everything. I am couponing it up at the grocery store, no new clothing for a bit and we are for sure not doing any huge Christmas gifts (we did just get everything for the wedding anyway). We are in the process of merging all of our money and looking into everything we spend and we have realized we budget an embarrassing amount of money for my hair each month. It is almost $100 a month!!!! The reason you ask? I actually have grey hair and at 27 years old it is really embarrassing and frustrating. And no it is not just one or two hairs people I am almost 70% grey. I never want anyone to see it so I am always super diligent about getting those grey hairs covered.

Well in the spirit of cutting back I am considering doing touch ups from the store bought variety. I need suggestions on good products and techniques. I want to know what works best. Am I risking a lot by attempting this? Am I being silly? I feel like this is a thrifty way to make some cut backs but I am concerned I am going to come out looking like an old lady. I will still go see my regular girl for hair cuts and a touch up every 4 or so months but this would be a good bridge between now and then. Thoughts? Recommendations?

Confession Monday

This weekend I headed to Houston to hang out with my niece and nephew for Halloween. While watching them my niece told me she did not want me to play with her several times and chose Mr. A over me. She told me to leave and would not give me hugs or kisses. She seems to hate me because I discipline her sometimes. I was so hurt by this that I had to go to my room and hide because I was so embarrassed and sad I teared up. Is it sad that a three year old can hurt my feelings?