DISNEYLAND!!!!!

We are on the countdown now!!! 2 days and we will be on our way! I am so excited to take Phynley to Disneyland for her first time and to be able to spend Stephen's Birthday there too. I have a fun surprise planned for him that day, and the next day we are off to ELLEN!

My mom is coming to watch Phyn while we go to Ellen and to see her first visit to Disneyland. I didn't realize how much I would have to take for Phyn! Her bag is already bigger than mine!

Anyway, In October '08 Stephen and I went to Disneyland as a fun way to spend some time together after he had been gone for 3 months to Japan. :( It was a really fun trip. I remember thinking, I can't wait to take our kids here some day. Who knew that would be so soon :) Here is a trip down memory lane...

Notice how badly he kicked my trash... yeah that was before I had glasses, and he has been trained to shoot.


Love our Mickey attire. :)


I love this wall in the animation studio in California Adventure. The other wall says... "Once Upon a Time" and then there is this one. We used this picture on our wedding invitations.






I love that it is all decorated for Halloween around October. I love to see what they change for the holiday! The characters were all dressed up in costumes and there is a trick or treat party every night for people who buy tickets to the event.




Really.. does this need a caption? I had tears I was laughing so hard. :) One of my favorite pics of him!

Easter

This was Phynley's first Easter. We didn't get her a basket or anything because we figured she was too young to understand what it was. Instead we bought her an Easter dress. I used to get 2 dresses every year that were special and usually very poofy :) One was at Easter and one at Christmas. I want to continue this tradition with Phynley. I think it is a little symbolic too if you think about it. Best dressed for the 2 holidays that celebrate Christ. Here is a picture of her in her Easter dress.

We started the day at home just relaxing. Then we went to my mom's house for Brunch/Dinner. We had Turkey, mashed potatoes, Ham, and a bunch of appetizers/sides. My sister Cindy made some really fun cupcakes

My mom gave Phynley some cute Easter Little People that she loved. Then we went up to Grandma Hauser's house to see her and my Dad. My Dad gave Phynley this cute Elephant with flexible plastic hands and feet for her to chew on. She LOVES it. Grandma Hauser gives us these cool Eggs every year that are chocolate covered. I always get the Caramel. It is AMAZINGLY good. Last year Stephen ate his AND mine before I even got a chance to taste mine. :( This year I told him I would not speak to him if he touched mine... it's still sitting on the counter. Grandma gave Phyn this cute little white stuffed lamb. sooo fun. She is quite spoiled :)

Here is a picture with Aunt Cori. She and Cori made friends again. Phynley has been going through the "I don't want anyone but Mom or Dad" phase and screams and cries when any one else tries to hold her. That day she did a TON better. She and Cori were together for most of the day. It helped a lot to have a break for a little bit.

All in all it was a very fun holiday. It felt a lot like Christmas with all the visits, but I enjoy seeing everyone.

NaNa's visit

Stephen's mom, Nadine, came to visit over their spring break. She and her boyfriend, Marty, drove from Lubbock, TX to San Diego to see his son and daughter in law. They drove from San Diego to Las Vegas then into Salt Lake. Marty lived here at one time, and was stationed up at Fort Douglas. He wanted to go up to Fort Douglas and also see the Cathedral of the Madeline. We decided to make an outing of it since the weather was decent. We also stopped by temple square while we were downtown. Neither Nadine or Marty had ever been there before. Here are some fun pictures from the day.

Inside the Assembly Hall at Temple Square

I had never seen this before in the assembly hall.. kinda fun

Phyn enjoying her Stroller ride.

Marty and Nadine at Temple Square

Phyn taking a snooze

The other cathedral just down the street from Cathedral of the Madeline. I believe it is the First Presbyterian(spelling?)

Cathedral of the Madeline

One of the windows inside the cathedral. This reminded me a lot of some of the castles and cathedrals I saw in Ireland when I was younger.

The artwork on the walls is incredible

The front doors

Looking up :)

After the Cathedrals and Temple Square we went over to the Nauvoo Cafe inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had lunch. It started to snow so we went and walked around the building for a bit. Nadine was fascinated by the Geneology area inside. The weather cleared up and we walked back to the car. We went to Fort Douglas afterward, and I didn't get any pictures because Phyn was not happy and ready to be home. We left from there and headed home. It was nice to see Nadine and meet Marty even if it was a very short visit. I have never been to Dallas or Lubbock so we may have to go there one day to visit them.

California Dreamin'

How does that song go?
all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey I've been for a walk on a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. California Dreamin' on such a winter day

Soon that "Dreamin'" will be a reality for us!

I LOVE Ellen Degeneres. I love to watch her show and wait all day to see what she will have on her show. We Tivo it as well. Phynley and I watch every day, and when Stephen is home he watches with us as well. It's kind of a relaxing family time for us. If you have never watched her show you should!! She is so funny and dances in the audience. Anyway,.... I started requesting tickets months ago, every day. I just figured we would be able to save enough money if we EVER got tickets. Well we got a call a few weeks ago that WE GOT TICKETS!!!! Ironically, it is for April 14th. Stephen's 35th birthday is on the 13th. :) So we decided to make a trip out of it for his birthday. We weren't expecting to be going so soon, but things kind of fell into place...
Have you seen these commercials? We heard about the Give a day, Get a Disney Day promotion a while ago. As a family (my whole family) we had talked about going to Disneyland last year around December of 2010. Phyn will be a year old then and able to enjoy Disneyland a lot more. Well for Christmas my mom gave us all Disney gift cards.... a LOT of Disney gift cards. So we figured when we could we would sign up for the Give, Get promo. We found an organization called Karing for Utah Kids. www.utahkids.org. They ask for donations for blankets, bears, and time. We made 5 fleece blankets between me, Stephen,my mom, and Melanie (my cousin). They take the bankets and donate them to kids who need them OR whatever is left over they sell at different events and take the money to send kids with Diabetes to Diabetes Camp. We donated our blankets to them and each of us got a FREE pass for disney for a day!!! It is a fun organization and one that helps with something close to our hearts (Tyson my 6 yr old nephew has type I diabetes). We had planned on using our free pass towards a Park hopper pass in November when we all went as a family. The cool thing is now we can use it to go for Stephen's birthday in April! So our trip is going to be driving to Cali, go to Disneyland, go to Ellen, drive home. We won't have to pay much except for our hotel and food. Thank goodness for AWESOME christmas gifts and volunteering!! My mom is coming with us to watch Phyn while we are at Ellen. It will be fun to take Phyn to Disneyland for her first time. I know she is a little young, but I think the lights and songs in some of the rides will interest her. She loves things like Snow White and Sesame Street, so I am sure she will dig it :) I am counting down the days until we can go and I am getting WAY too excited. Our family has had a tradition of going to Disneyland ever since I was little. It is always great to be back and remember all those trips that we have taken!
I will post some pics after we get back!!

FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!

I am trying to teach Phyn sign language. I have started just using simple signs like milk, cereal, food, sleep, mommy, daddy, etc. Pretty much the only one she really reciprocates of course is... MILK! She is becoming quite the "boob snob." She will rarely take a bottle anymore, especially if it is me giving it to her. She would spend the whole day with mom in her mouth if she could I think. She will only fall asleep from nursing now, unless she is totally exhausted. I need to break her of this, but I guess I am a big softy and enjoy the closeness sometimes. She won't be like that forever. She has completely given up the binky. I can rarely get her to take it. Usually it is in the car. We have started introducing cereal and sweet potatoes. She LOVES sweet potatoes, cereal... eh not as much. It is fun to see her start to eat more things than just mommy milk. She loves food so much she tries to eat it off the bib while I refill the spoon. Here are some pictures and a video.







The original cereal video is 9 minutes long, so until I edit it I will just put this shorter sweet potato video on instead.
sorry you get to hear my conversation with my brother on the phone.. Also the second video is her signing milk to me. She is teething as well so you will see her chewing her lip and signing. enjoy!

"Mr." Flower

So Phyn has a very fun, little toy that she got before she was born. It is a fun rattle with crinkly petals shaped like a daisy. I don't know why we started calling it Mr Flower, but as you can see... it is not a "Mr" but more of a "Mrs" lol. We kept the name since it's kind of an inside joke now. Here is a picture and video of how much she loves "him"