Hey, look at me actually blogging ...

So.. we have been through a lot of upheaval these past few months, to say the least..



We are now in Oceanside, California until October 31. We found out we were going to be assigned out here 2 weeks before Easter. We left the day after Easter and spent 2 nights in San Diego. Here are some pics from that:

This Pelican freaked me out.. I didn't realize it was real until it turned it's head and stared at me... I quickly took the pic then ran. I HATE birds. 

 One of our first stops was to San Diego Zoo.

 The harbor from our hotel room

 We then moved on to Oceanside, California. We were about 5 minutes away from Camp Pendleton where Stephen is working.  We have been to Disneyland now probably  30-40 times since we got here. We got Annual Passes because we are now Southern California Residents...which means we can do a monthly fee vs 500 dollars all at once :) Here are some of my favorites from there:

 My mom and sister Cindy surprised me on my birthday at Disneyland :) It was nice to have them here for a few days to visit!

 The view from innoventions

 Phyn loved having Cindy to play with too!

 Because my mom and Cindy came out we were able to use the tickets I had been selected for for the reopening of Star Tours! It was really fun, and nice to spend a little while with Stephen. Even if it was in line for 3 hours.

 This was the castle on that day... kind of weird to see no one there. They let everyone with the preview passes for Star Tours in before the park opened.

 My mom and Cindy took Phynley to see the Princesses and got her her own set of ears :)

 Waiting on the parade. Phynley LOVES the parade.

 Phyn's favorite part of the parade is the 3 caballeros... Donald is on top of the drum.

 We also were lucky enough to be there for the opening of The Little Mermaid attraction in Disney's California Adventure in June.  It is now Phyn's favorite ride other than small world. Here are some images from the ride... much better in person if you have the chance to go!

 She also liked Captain EO. Although the second time she wasn't as sure about it.

 While we have been here I have been actively participating in an app called Mouse Wait.  It is an app for Disney lovers, like me, where you can see wait times at the park, hidden secrets of Disneyland, and connect with other Disney friends. There are quite a few CM's (Cast Members) who participate on it. This is one of them that I met in person. His name is Randy.. but his username is CMBaloo. I can tell you that that is very appropriate for him. He gives the best big bear hugs :) He has worked for Disney for 16 years now. He works on main street and on Indiana Jones. He is one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met. He just radiates happiness and kindness. He spent time with Phynley talking to her and let her play with the flashlight. He also gave her an honorary citizen pin which she tried to eat, so it's now hidden. LOL

 The CM's are really responsible for all the Disneyland Magic. It makes it so much more entertaining to hear them say "hi princess" to Phynley, or just by being so upbeat and helpful. 

On to the next few photos. This is our other favorite place to rest and relax. The animation studios in DCA. They have a ton of big movie screens up in a 360 degree format. Phynley can run around and play, but usually she just loves to sit and watch the movies :)

 Overall.. this experience has been really fun for us. Phynley LOVES being at Disneyland and the beach. It makes us happy to be able to take her often. 

Princesses...

Any of you out there with little girls know that from an early age they LOVE dolls and princesses. As a kid I LOVED Disney movies. Especially these:

With that being said... we thought we would expose my sweet Princess Phynley to the movies early. She loved Finding Nemo, and would at least watch a few others. I hadn't put any of them on in a long time, so I looked at Netflix, and of course they had a whole lot of nothing from Disney on instant except for....

DI FRAGGI PRUTO!

SHE LOVED IT! I thought.. oh this is a cute movie. We can watch this every once in a while without being too annoyed. RIIIIIGHHHHTTT

EVERY DAY no joke up to 3 times a day. I have every word memorized and now we refer to it as Di Fraggi Pruto (the frog prince). I asked my mom if we could borrow a few of her Disney DVD's to see if we could change things up a bit. So far..no where near the obsession for any of them but The Princess and the Frog. 

The other night, while watching DI FRAGGI PRUTO for the 100th time she was snuggling on my lap with her cute princess and faded into sleep. I had to take a picture of the cuteness:

My mom gave her this princess set for Christmas:

 we purchased it in Disneyland when we went in December. She LOVES them. She especially loves the Cinderella doll. I see her grabbing Cinderella in one hand and one of the others in her other hand and walking around with them. If Peighton tries to touch Cinderella it is a melt down fit. 

We watched the actual Cinderella movie last night and she didn't really like it much. I think it's a little slow for her and nowhere near as much music as The Princess and the Frog. We are going to try the Little Mermaid tonight again and see if she will dig it as well. 

Anyway, the point of this post is that I DEFINITELY have a drama queen/princess in the making. Any other mom's out there with little girls who are obsessed with one movie? Any suggestions for introducing new movies??

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!

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!!