Shutterfly Giveaway Winner Announced

The Shutterfly giveaway is now closed! Based on random.org, the winner is entry # 3- Renee Rice!

 

Renee- you'll get your coupon code in your email soon! Thanks everyone for entering!

Shutterfly Holiday Giveaway!

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

I love to show off my amazing husband and son with Christmas cards every year- they are too handsome to keep to myself! This year, I have several possible cards that I like from Shutterfly's new holiday card collection. If you're looking for unique photo gifts to give Grandma (or keep for yourself), they have a great selection of those too!




For 2013, Shutterfly has introduced some even better products to top last year's awesome selection!

- New card design styles for 2013 - 5x7 folded tri fold & back of card designs
- Classic: Traditional colors, iconic illustrations, aspirational sentiments, snowflakes, monogram
- Contemporary: trend forward colors, texture and layering, water color techniques, shine, glitter
- Whimsy: humor and nostalgia meet, fun sentiments
- Merry and Bright: all about color and having fun
-  Religious: metallic type treatments, incorporated story ideas
-  Photo Basics: multiple colors, vertical type, family name highlights

Now onto the contenders for the Hurley family cards:

You know I love a bright chevron!

I love that Shutterfly gives you great options to share your faith!

 

So bright and cheerful- and room for so many pictures!

This year, Shutterfly has introduced tri-fold cards, which are so pretty!

 I love how this one gives sections to update on each person in the family.

Shutterfly is giving one lucky reader $50 off total order (plus free shipping) to order your holiday cards or gifts!

Here's how you enter:

1st entry: Visit Shutterfly's Holiday Card collection and comment on this post with your favorite card.
2nd optional entry: Pin your favorite card on Pinterest with the hashtag #PhotosYouLove. Comment with a second entry on this post to let me know you pinned it.

Giveaways will end on 10/22 at midnight. Winner will be chosen by random generator and announced on 10/23.



Disclaimer: I received compensation from Shutterfly for this post, but even if I didn't, I would still share my love! :)

Maxonator is 3

For Maxon's third birthday, I took him to Picture People for little wallet pictures to give the family. He looks so old here!

 

Adventures at Adventure Island

Maxon, Matt and I hit Adventure Island before it closed for the season. I took my waterproof camera for some great memories.

 

 

Maxon really wanted to take photos of us- not too bad for a 3 year old!

Bestest Friends

One of my childhood friends moved to Colorado because her husband got a new assignment in the army. I can't wait to visit her and the family for our ski trip in 2015. Bestest friends are hard to find and I'll travel the country to see mine!

Bathtime

I got Maxon new bath toys and I think he likes them.

 

Blizzard Beach

Blizzard Beach had a special get in free day for Disney passholders, so Maxon and I headed over to have fun! Maxon loves playing in water and did not want to leave!

 

Maxon Goes to the Dentist

Maxon went to the dentist for his first check up and he did so great! He picked out his glasses (red) and sat like such a big boy in the chair. He was so happy to get a prize out of the machine at the end of his visit.

Happy Resurrection Day

 

Easter is my mom's favorite holiday so we always have a big family day. After a great service at church, we had a great Easter egg hunt with all the kids. A bin full of eggs and the kids were off!

 

 

 

Noni and the kids.

 

Justin and his new girl, Elizabeth.

 

The most magical place on earth

For Spring Break 2013, all the cousins went to Magic Kingdom. Seeing their joy in one of my favorite places just made my day awesome.

 

Maxon's 2 1/2 year photos

Ya'll know me- I love photos of my little dude. We scheduled a mini-session with Abbey Saxton with BUNNIES! Maxon was just awesome and it was great fun!

 

Happy Birthday to ME!

For my birthday, Matt & I took a date night to Disney with our passes. We went to Animal Kingdom to ride Expedition Everest and have dinner at the Rainforest Café, then went to Magic Kingdom for the night show. Its fun to go to Disney with the Maxonator, but its nice to go with no kids and ride everything together!

 

Goodbyes are hard to do

Thursday January 24 marked the end of a chapter for me. For 6 years, 2 months and 3 days, I worked with County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, District 4. While working with him, I got married, bought a house, had a baby and grew up. Thinking back on my beginnings with Al, I realize how much I've grown mentally, professionally, emotionally, etc. 

My amazing coworker, Eli, coordinated the aides of all the commissioners to take a group photo with me. Also included are awesome staff who support the BOCC and have been there my entire time at the County. 

The day was really hard. I cried several times and I felt like I was leaving my family. Al has been such a mentor and guide that sometimes I feel like he is a second father. As I move onto different challenges, I will always look back at the County and Al with great fondness.

January 22, 2013

Today I took Maxon to Magic Kingdom again. He has been begging to go to "Mickey Mouse Park" and so today we went. 

He was so happy to see Mickey Mouse as soon as we got there. 

 After months of trying to get him to wear the Mickey ears, he was so excited to get it today.

I even got his name embroidered.

We stumbled upon the Move It! Dance Party. He loved watching it but did not want to go into the road to dance. Whenever the characters he didnt know, like King Louie or Blue, would get close to him, he would back into me. When Mr. Incredible tried to high five him, he started crying and hid in his stroller.

 I bought him this Mickey keychain, which he held on to until bedtime.

He was so tired that he fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot. 

January 19, 2013

Today Matt and I decided to take Maxon to Busch Gardens. It was so fun. We went to Sesame Street where Matt chased Maxon around to get some energy out. Then we walked over to the tiger exhibit, where we saw two tigers fighting over a spot in the sun. From there we walked to the Edge of Africa, where we saw the hippo swim around and the lion sunbathing.

Maxon saw the lion and said, "Daddy, I want you to throw me to the lion." We explained that the lion would think Maxon was steak and that wasn't a good idea.

January 17, 2013

Matt thought he was going in to wake Maxon up, but this is what we found. Maxon said "I put my hand in my diaper and I put poop on my legs."
yay potty training for making him aware that something fun is in his diaper. He got time out and was lectured that poop is not for play.

January 12

Today we decided to "pick strawberries in the garden," as Maxon says. Michele, Mandi, Matt and I took all 8 kids to pick strawberries at a u-pick hydroponic farm. The strawberries are grown in the pillars with no pesticides so they are bigger and beautiful. The kids enjoyed trying to find the biggest, ugliest, reddest, etc.

Each adult had 2 kids to walk around with. These were my two.

January 11, 2013

Today, Mom, Liz and I woke up WAY TOO EARLY to run the 5K at Disney World. We grumbled the whole way there about how cold it was and how early it was and why we were so stupid to do this. Two hours later- so fun! 

It was an untimed race but we finished in just under an hour from the time we started. It began in a parking lot by Epcot, went through some back service roads, cut through in Mexico, around the World Showcase and by the ball and ended back in the parking lot. 

In Mexico, we took photos with Daisy Duck (who Mom called Minnie Mouse). Then in America, we waited to take a photo with Colonial Goofy. From there, we were worried about our time so we hustled through. 

The last little stretch, we said "TO THE OUTLET MALL!" and ran to the finish line. 

Here we are with our finisher's medals