the hafens

Christmas 2011

2012-01-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

I love Christmas! Everything about it! I love the lights, the music, the time with family, the food, everything. And having a fun little toddler to share it with makes it even better.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents having our traditional Christmas Eve feast. We were lucky to have my uncle Gary join us this year. We then opened presents since everyone was going to be running around like crazy on Christmas Day. Ella loved her presents and we were ridiculously spoiled!

We then headed up to open our Christmas Eve jammies. Ella had to examine her polar bear toes. And of course she's got Minnie with her.

Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree. All Christmas season Ella loved playing with the presents. She didn't try to open them but she loved to carry the light ones around the house and use the others and chairs and climbing blocks.

Christmas morning! Santa came! We were busy getting the first reaction on the video camera so I didn't get too many pictures. It was great though. Ella came around the corner and saw all of these new toys, let out a little yell of delight, dropped her Minnie and sippy cup and run to check out the goods.

She loves her new Mickey Mouse couch.

Opening some of her other presents from mom and dad. Ella loves kicking balls and is actually really good so Danny got her her first real soccer ball. World cup here we come.

She also got some new babies with a stroller, high chair and crib. She is so cute with her babies. She loves them so much. She pushes them around the house in the stroller, puts them in the high chair and feeds them (while making the sound effects), lays them in there bed and covers them (face and all) with blankets.

After our fun Christmas morning as a family, we went to the Hafen's for breakfast and more presents. So fun. We then went to church with them which was a nice break to the day. It was nice to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

After church we went to my Grandma's house in Provo for her big Christmas day dinner. Then back up to Layton to see Danny's grandma. (See I told you we ran around like crazy all day.) It was fun and we love spending time with our families and seeing everyone!

december 2011

2012-01-10T14:37:00.001-07:00

We had a great time celebrating the holidays last month.

Ella absolutely loved having the Christmas decorations set up. She quickly learned who Santa was and would walk up to her Santa ornament or Santa Christmas stocking and say "ho, ho, ho" in a really deep voice. She also loved having the lights on on the tree and mantle. When she'd wake up she'd walk over to each and point at them so I'd turn them on.

We decided to take Ella to see Santa. As you can see she wasn't quite as big of a fan of him in person. She prefers the inanimate object version of the big guy.

We also took the traditional trip to Temple Square to see the lights. This year we went with my family as part of my mom's birthday celebration.

I bundled Ella up with as many layers as I possibly could. The poor girl could barely move but I think she stayed fairly warm.

The whole Spiers clan.

My little family.

I give myself about a "C-" on taking pictures the rest of December (well except for Christmas day which will be a separate post). Ella does so many funny things each day that I really need to be better at getting pictures of.

One of her favorite things is to go into the pantry and pull out the cans. I have a picture of me at her age doing the exact thing.

She is SO observant at this age. She sees us doing something just once and she imitates us. I had a cold for a couple of days and was constantly blowing my nose. So Ella would get a tissue, hold it up to her face, blow through her mouth and then throw the tissue in the garbage.

The next couple of pics are some randoms from my phone.

We hung out with some friends and took the kids to Boondocks. Ella had a blast. She loved running up to all the games and just pushing the green button. We could have gotten away without even buying any tickets!

This was taken after Christmas sitting in her new favorite spot...her Mickey Mouse couch. She is enjoying licking the frosting spoon and watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse...bedhead and all!

Another post Christmas pic. Her Grandma and Grandpa Hafen gave her a Cozy Coupe for Christmas. Here's her first car crash. Danny came upon the scene first and thought to grab the camera before rescuing poor Ella.

And finally a picture that would make Grandpa Spiers proud. Ella was "helping" me make her lunch and got excited about the peanut butter. She decided to not wait for the sandwich and just stick her face in for a taste. (I just noticed that in all of these pictures she is in her jammies with crazy hair - I promise I do get her dressed and comb her hair daily.)

A couple of other things that I just love and want to document:

She is great at folding her arms for prayer. We read scriptures together as a family at breakfast and then have a family prayer before Danny leaves for work. Without fail, as soon as we're done reading Ella automatically folds her arms. And then at the end she says her cute version of "amen." Love it.
She loves singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and attempts to do the little motions.
She loves her babies and is a good little mommy. She gives them their binkies and bottles and smothers them in blankets. Sometimes thought, she wants to be the baby and will put in a fake binky or suck on the toy bottle and walk around and do a pretend cry.
She's getting good at animal sounds and can identify and make the noises of dogs, cats, horses, elephants and anything that roars.
She still loves to "decide" by saying "ummm" while tapping her chin.
She's a little tease and absolutely loves to make people laugh. There are times when we'll be sitting together and I'll give her a little look and we'll catch each other's eye and she'll just bust out laughing. This is one of my favorite things. She's my little buddy.
She gives great hugs. Sometime if I'm sitting on the ground she'll come up behind me, put her arms around my back and hug tight and then start rubbing my back.
She's our little neat freak. She really doesn't like things to be messy (just like me) and is really good about putting her toys away in the right bins when we're done playing. In fact, in sacrament meeting she'll sometimes go to other families and pick up the toys off the floor and hand them to the moms. Just keeping things neat.

We're having a great time with our little toddler. She keeps us on our toes and laughing every day. I love being a mom and spending my days with her. It's not always easy and some days are exhausting but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

november 2011

2011-12-03T15:07:00.002-07:00

Another month has flown by. I seriously can't believe we are already into December!

Ella is as cute as ever. She's in full blown toddler mode. She has such a huge personality in such a tiny little body. We had her 15 month check up and she is still at the bottom (under 5%) in weight but she shot up in height and is now in the 80%! I thought it seemed like she could suddenly reach a lot more.

I was a total slacker in taking pictures this month. Ella does so many cute things every day and has so many funny little mannerisms that I really need to be catching. She literally makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis.

Ella has discovered a new love in life. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves it! I know I mentioned it last month but the last few weeks she has become obsessed. As soon as the song comes on she dances around the house and points and laughs. I know she shouldn't be watching TV but she does. Don't judge.

So naturally her other love is Minnie Mouse. She loves Minnie. This doll was supposed to be a Christmas present but we couldn't wait to give it to her. She loves to carry Minnie around, share her sippy with her, feed her and hug kiss her. And by the way, according to Ella, Minnie eats through her nose.

Then when we were at Danny's parents she found Jill's old Minnie doll so now she likes to carry around two Minnies. What a lucky girl.

Another one of her favorite things is babies. I'm having so much fun with this age and her interest in all of the fun little girly toys. She loves playing with this dollhouse and her favorite is the tiny baby. She puts her in the stroller and pushes it around and in the little high chair and then makes eating noises for her. It's so fun.

She also has fun riding in this little car. We usually take at least one ride in it a day to the mailbox. She loves holding on to the steering wheel and waving at the cars as they pass.

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my Grandma Cook's house. I have many little cousins and Ella has never really been around that many kids at once. We put her at the kid table and she sat wide-eyed and watched the chaos around her.

She has become an extremely picky eater. She usually picks one thing at each meal that she'll eat. I think on Thanksgiving that lucky thing was peas. Not rolls, not potatoes and gravy, just peas. She does this every time we eat. Another example is I made a cheesy spinach pasta and she would only pick out and eat the spinach. Not the cheese or pasta. Strange child.

After dinner her and Grandpa Spiers (my dad) went outside to play a little soccer. Ella absolutely loves kicking and throwing balls.

A few more things:

Ella loves to go through the pantry to decide what to eat. She puts her pointer finger up to her mouth and says "ummm" while looking at her choices.
She is learning more and more words. She currently says "mom" "dad" "hi" "hot" "gross" and "baby." You can tell she's my daughter since "gross" is one of her first words. And she knows what it means. She walks around the house picking up little specks of crumbs, says "gross" and then throws them in the garbage.
She still loves to clean. If I need to keep her busy while I make dinner or something, I just give her a wet washcloth and she goes crazy. She'll wipe down the floor, the cabinets, the couches, her toys, basically anything that is holding still. I love it.
She loves to talk on the phone and will pretend anything is a phone. Once she gets one she walks around the house holding the phone with her shoulder and waving her arms, jabbering away, pausing for a minute and then laughing. I wonder where she learned that from.
She also loves to give kisses. She kisses us, her toys, babies and anything else she sees that she thinks needs a kiss. She has even started making the "mwah" noise when she gives one.

She is such a fun girl to be around. We love her so much and are so happy she is in our little family.

halloween 2011

2011-11-04T14:35:00.000-06:00

I can't believe we are already celebrating holidays for the second time with Ella. We had so much fun with Ella last year and this year was even better experiencing all the festivities through her eyes.

Our adorable little duckie...

blowing kisses...

waving to her adoring fans...

We wanted to do something fun and Halloweenish but not too scary so a few days before Halloween we went up to the Treehouse Museum Spooky Woods that was for kids 1-5. Ella had fun strutting her stuff as a duck with her squeaky boots and seeing all the other kids in costumes.

It was hilarious watching her walk in her costume. The big duck bum would waddle as she walked around.

On Halloween day we all got dressed up. Ella wasn't too sure about my whiskers. When I first drew them on she backed away from me and hid behind the door. Then every once in a while she'd look up at me and get a worried look on her face. Even now when she sees this picture of us she sort of whines and then looks at me to make sure I don't look like that now.

Danny got dressed as a cowboy about 30 seconds before we walked out the door. He had a hat from his mission so he threw it on and called it a day. Next year I'm thinking I'll take a little more time on mom and dad's costumes.

Ella was a pro trick or treater in no time. We would walk up with her to the door and then knock and wait. When someone would answer and show her the bowl of candy she'd take her time deciding which one and then pick it out and put it in her bucket and wave good bye. It was adorable I really wish I had thought to bring a video camera.

We only went to a handful of houses and one of the last ones Ella decided she had enough and sat down on their porch and started to go through her bucket.

After trick or treating we went to our friend's house down the street for a little get together with some of our neighborhood friends with yummy food and fun games. Ella got to stay up way past her bedtime and loved every minute of it. I think it was all of the sugar in her system. She has never really been exposed to candy yet somehow she automatically knew that what was in those wrappers she wanted so she got to enjoy a packet of m&m's and a whole piece of licorce.

It was a fun holiday and we're looking forward to all of the others that are coming up! What a fun time of year!

october at the hafen's

2011-11-02T14:55:00.001-06:00

October was a fun month at our house. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Fall is such a beautiful time of year and we have tried to take full advantage of enjoying being able to go outside before winter sets in.

Of course we also spend plenty of time hanging out at home. Ella definitely keeps me on my toes and literally makes me laugh out loud every day. She is such a little person now. I see so many of my mannerisms and actions coming through in her.

She still hangs out with me in the bathroom while I get ready for the day. Apparently she has been paying attention to what I do and now knows what an eyelash curler is and how to use it...

Although letting her hang out in the bathroom while I get ready comes at a very high price. The following was done in approximately 10 minutes while I was in the shower.

...shoes and hair products everywhere. And she learned how to unscrew lids in that time and had opened some hair products and rubbed them on herself. Time for drawer locks in the bathroom.

She has also started to really love babies. She is so cute caring for them. Anytime she sees a baby or picture of a baby she runs and gives them a kiss. She carries her dolls around and rocks them and loves them. I think I'm going to tell Santa that somebody would loves some new babies.

Sharing her string cheese...

Her hair has gotten so long on top! It's fun that it can go into a ponytail or pigtails. She's pretty good about letting me do her hair as long as I'm quick. But these new hair do's give her some crazy bed head in the mornings. So funny.

She still loves shoes. This picture is from the beginning of the month when she was still fairly new at walking and wearing her new shoes. She still absolutely loves clothes and shoes and will bring them to me to put them on her all throughout the day.

And she has started to wear mine as well. I caught her over in the entryway wearing my shoes and she was so proud of herself.

We decided that in order for us both to survive the cold months we needed to have something fun we could go do. We loved Cherry Hill in the summer so we decided to get a membership to the Treehouse Museum. I'm so glad we did. She absolutely loves it there! She gets the biggest smile on her face the entire time and almost can't contain herself as she runs to the different exhibits because she is so excited.

We did a quick photo shoot for her late 1 year photos. It was nearly impossible to get a picture of her because she just wanted to run around and explore everywhere. But we managed to get some of good ones of our little bug. Here are a couple of my favorites.

I threw this one in because it shows her little personality. I always do the "come here" hand signal to her when she's running away and she knows what it means. Now when she's on the go, she turns back and does the sign to me so I'll come with her. This includes doing it at church while I'm sitting in my seat trying to get her to come back to me.

We had fun this October spending time at her Great Grandpa Day's pumpkin patch.

Picking out the perfect pumpkin...

Playing in the hay and going on hayrides...

Out in the pumpkin patch...

A couple of other little "ellaisms" that I don't want to forget...

One of her favorite things to do is to stand in front of the open fridge or pantry and say "ummm" while she taps her chin. Big decisions trying to figure out what to eat.
She LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I know she shouldn't even know what it is yet but when she's unhappy I can turn it on and she is immediately smiling and dancing. In fact, if I even start singing the theme song to her she gets happy.
She not only walks now she runs and laughs everywhere she goes.
She is really good at going to bed now and FINALLY sleeps through the night! Once she made the switch to whole milk she turned a new page.
She loves to say "hi" to everyone we see at church, the store, pretty much everywhere we go. She is such a social little girl.
She understands basic commands. When she's getting undressed we say "hands up" and she knows to put her hands up to take off her shirt. Or when we're getting ready to leave I tell her to go get her shoes and she gets them and sits down to have them put on.
Something that is so tiny but so cute, when she has something in her hands when we are putting her in her car seat or getting her dressed, she pauses to switch hands. I don't know why but Danny and I both get a kick out of that.

I say it every month but I mean it - we love our little Ella bug and feel so lucky to be her parents. She is such a funny, happy, sweet little girl.

september

2011-09-20T13:52:00.000-06:00

Our monthly "photo shoots" were getting to be a little too tricky with such a mobile little girl so we decided that ending them at 12 months was a good stopping point. I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate having to sit by a sign that posted her height and weight when she's 16 anyway.

However, the monthly recap works well for me to remember to sit down and upload the pictures from our camera and record the happenings of our little family.

So here's what we've been up to for the last month or so.

We checked out the Davis County Fair. It was a bazillion degrees that day so we didn't stay too long but Ella really enjoyed looking at the animals.

Checking out the bunnies... (This is her classic "O" face that she makes all the time. I love it.)

chickens...

and saying "hi" to the ponies. Too bad she was too little to take advantage of a free ride.

We also had a little pool party in the backyard with her buddies Ben and Maura. I love getting together with my friends and I'm loving that the babies are starting to interact more and can grow up to be good friends as well.

I also introduced Ella to the joy of stickers. She had fun with them for about 3 minutes and then was off to the next thing. Pretty typical of our time together.

Witney and I spent an entire day making and canning salsa. The girls had fun playing together. I wish this picture captured it better but Ella automatically took on the role of little mommy. She was leaning into Maura's face and "talking" to her in a high voice, rocking her seat and making faces at her. It was hilarious.

Here they are with the babies. Ella's brown hair and brown eyes and Maura's blonde and blue eyes. So cute.

Ella has also enjoyed being introduced to lots of new foods.

Here's she's loving some Spaghetti O's.

Her own box of cheerios. She loved reaching into her little box.

And some corn on the cob that she stole from me. She also loves mac & cheese and peanut butter & jelly. Every day when I'm making her lunch I can't believe I have a kid old enough to be eating these things.

She has also become a master mess maker. It is impossible for me to keep on top of the messes that she makes on a daily basis. She's a very curious little girl.

She absolutely loves to go into her room and go through her drawers. I have completely given up on folding and organizing her clothes. We just clean up by putting pants in the bottom and shirts in the middle. Good enough I say.

She also finds it fascinating to crumble her food, unload whatever cupboard she can open, spread shoes throughout the house, etc.

With all the mess making we felt it was important to teach her how to clean.

When I vacuum she keeps a watchful eye on it while keeping a safe distance. She'll poke her head around the corner and then run away. But when I turned it off and it was quiet. She kept walking up to it and trying to give it toys.

She also loves to mop the floor. I can keep her busy by giving her a dishtowel and she'll happily go along wiping the floor. One day I was wiping down the cabinets and I gave her her own rag and she wiped along beside me. I love having a little helper.

The biggest accomplishment of the past month is that Ella is a walker. It's so cute to watch her tiny little frame toddle around and she is so proud of herself!

She loves to walk all around the house holding various things. She also loves her shoes. I need to get a picture of her in them. She'll go find them and bring them to me to put them on her.

12 months!

2011-08-17T11:05:00.003-06:00

My baby is a year old! I've said it a million times but I seriously cannot believe how quickly time flies. She's a little person full of opinions and personality.

Now on to the pictures.

First up is a little trip to Gateway I took with Witney and Audree and their babies. We had to get a picture of all the kids lined up in the back of the car. Ella looks completely confused.

Next up is further proof of Ella's love for her daddy giving kisses through the door. The good news is she will now give me a kiss whenever I ask, they aren't limited to just daddy. This has greatly improved my self esteem.

She LOVES to drink our drinks. No matter what it is or if she has the exact same thing in her sippy she always wants what we have. She is pro at drinking through a straw and loves to lug around this giant hospital mug of water.

Daddy's girl. They are glued to the TV watching a golf tournament. Danny is lucky someone else in the house is willing to watch this with him because I am not at all interested in watching golf.

Ella's new thing is to crawl inside her basket to play with her toys. She has gotten really good at getting in and out.

During the past month we got to go on our annual Flaming Gorge trip with all of my extended family on my mom's side. Ella was a big helper when we were trying to get packed. I would put a little pile of stuff next to the suitcase and she would crawl over and start stuffing everything inside. She then decided to crawl up into the case herself so we snapped a quick pic.

We had fun but I'm not sure how much fun Ella had. The poor girl is used to a quiet house for naps so having so much going on all around made it nearly impossible to get a nap so she was so tired the whole time we were up there. The other challenging thing this year was that the water was so high that the entire beach where we usually play was underwater so our "beach" was mostly weeds.

Ella spent most of the time hanging out on her blanket playing with Grandpa while Danny and I enjoyed a little break and played on the four wheelers, jet skis and boat.

We took a little family paddle boat ride that was fun.

Ella is such a little tease and loves to make people smile and laugh. She loves to wear sunglasses and hams it up when she puts them on.

And finally here she is the night of her party enjoying her new toy from Grandma and Grandpa Hafen. She was laughing so hard as she was walking around with her new toy. I think she is quite proud of her ability.

A few other fun things about Ella at a year:

She LOVES to share. Seriously I have never seen anything like it. Whenever she has anything she is always trying to offer it to someone else. This includes her goldfish with other kids at the pool, her toys with whoever else is in the room, her food with Danny and I, etc.
Her favorite book is "Goodnight Moon." We read it every night before bed and sometimes even at naps because she reaches for it and opens it up. She loves to point to the different things in the room especially the fire in the fireplace. On every page she has to rub her finger on the fire and then take my hand and help me touch the fire as well.
She is a little singer. She always sings along if I sing to her or during church during the hymns.
She loves to find her belly button and will point to it if you ask her "where's your button".
She is a little tease. She will watch you out of the corner of her eye until she knows you are watching before she does something (i.e. take off down the hall, turn on the bathtub faucet, pull out all of my shoes) then do it and throw back her head and laugh.
She already has seven teeth and (4 on top and 3 on bottom) and judging by the last couple of nights, I'm pretty sure she's working on another.
Speaking of nights, she still doesn't sleep through the night. Ever. She is always up once around 2 for a snack and then goes back to sleep. This means it has been over a year since I've slept through the night as well. That could explain the bags under my eyes.
We are trying to transition her to whole milk through a sippy cup. She's not thrilled by this idea but hopefully we can move to the next stage without too much heartache.
We have been teaching her baby signs and she has caught on so quick. It's adorable to watch her do her little sign language to tell us what she wants. It's amazing that I can ask her what she wants and she can sign it to me. We avoid a lot of unnecessary tears this way.
She is getting so close to walking. She can walk behind her cart or walker and along furniture and walls really well. She can stand for a little bit all on her own as well.
She loves playing with balls. She holds them in her hand and then moves her hands up and down like she's throwing it up in the air. She also loves to chase them around the house.
She is also all girl and loves shoes. She loves to go in my closet and pull out my shoes and try to put them on her feet. Of course her favorites are a pair of red high heels.
She says "mom" and "da"

We love Ella so much. We love the little person she is becoming and the sweet personality I can already see coming through. She is one of the happiest, sweetest babies I've ever seen. She is a delight to be around and can cheer up anyone around her. I feel very lucky to be her mom.

Look "Whoo's" One!

2011-08-16T11:40:00.000-06:00

Someone special around here had a birthday and we celebrated by having a fun little owl-themed birthday. We kept the guest list small - just our immediate family which was about 14 people. It worked out well since it was everyone who Ella knows best and wasn't too overwhelming for her.

Of course I had to dress the house up a bit. As I was putting the decorations up that afternoon Ella was getting so excited. And true to form, she was growling at the owls that I hung on the window behind her chair.

I printed out all of the monthly pictures I've taken over the past year and created a banner using clothespins and twine. It was fun to look at the pictures all together to see how much she's changed. Notice I say changed and not grown. She's stayed pretty tiny.

The loot.

The cute banner that my sister helped me make using her Cricut.

The owl cupcake treats. As you can see when I pick a theme I like to stick with it. Danny and I made these about 30 minutes before the party started.

Ella's special cake.

Of course the first thing we did once everyone got there was to dive right into the presents while the food finished cooking. Ella was so stinking cute opening her presents. I didn't take too many pictures because I was busy capturing it on video. She unwrapped the presents one tiny piece of paper at a time and then selected someone in the group who got to keep that little scrap. And if you tried to take one when it wasn't your turn she'd pull it back in toward her and wait until the right person reached for it.

She loved her gifts! She gave the best reactions as she opened things. Thanks to everyone who came for spoiling her.

(Of course her party outfit fits in with party.)

After presents we had our barbecue complete with burgers, fresh corn and fruit, salads and topped off with cupcakes and homemade ice cream.

As soon as everyone was finished eating I passed out these cards for everyone to fill out:

I love that everyone took the time to do this for Ella. I think they are something she'll treasure forever. And I must say I was very impressed with the thoughts that everyone shared. Even Danny's brothers said the cutest things to her. I won't embarrass anyone by posting what they wrote but I was very pleased.

Then of course it was time for cake. Our dainty little Ella decided not to dive into the cake. Even after her dad tried to get her started. Instead she opted to eat it one tiny sprinkle at a time and then got tired and gave up. A little anti climatic but definitely fitting of her personality.

We ended the party by coming inside and watching a video I had put together of pictures and home movies of Ella's first year. Even though I've seen it fifty million times while I was making it I still got a little choked up watching how much my baby has grown and how fast the time has gone. (I tried uploading it but couldn't get it to work. If I can figure it out I'll put it on.)

It was a fun party and I'm so happy our families could be there to celebrate Ella's special day.

You know it was a good party if it looks like this afterward:

We had a pendant light casualty, Danny tried to smack a fly off it and it broke so now I'm on the hunt for replacements.

11 months!

2011-07-14T10:33:00.000-06:00

We're approaching the big year mark over here. Ella is 11 months old! Yikes! And according to my measurements (which include trying to get her to hold still long enough to sit on a scale and to hold a yardstick up next to her so you know they aren't too accurate) she weighs a whopping 16.4 pounds and is 28 inches tall. Tiny.

This past month we've spent a lot of time enjoying the summer by spending tons of time at the pool. My neighbor friend invited us up to her parent's pool which was so fun. They have a blocked off shallow end that the babies could all just float around in. Little bumper boats. These cute little girls are all within 6 months of each other - actually Ella and the cutie next to her in the blue tube have the exact same birthday! They are starting to interact more and more and we're looking forward to them growing up to be great friends.

Ella loves the water and was very chill floating around in her tube.

We've also spent a TON of time at Cherry Hill. We're definitely getting our money's worth out of our season passes. I love that we can pop over there for an hour or so in the afternoon. We have friends who also have passes so it's so fun to get together.

Ella is a little fish and is absolutely fearless in the water. She crawls around in Pirate's Cove a million miles an hour and will even randomly dip her face in the water. She comes up smiling and thinking it's so fun. It's little nerve racking for me but she doesn't seem to mind. Her other favorite activity is crawling over to one of the drains and picking out whatever disgusting thing she can find. This means her mom then has to touch the stray bandaid/clump of hair/wrapper in order to pull it out of her hands. Lovely.

The cursed drain the background. And in case you haven't been there these drains are all around the cove spaced about 3 feet apart so I can't just move to another location.

Modeling her shades. These lasted about 3.2 seconds before she ripped them off. And don't mind the nudity. We learned that swim diapers don't hold everything in so we get her changed into her suit poolside once we get there.

Our crazy baby. This may look like torture but she loves it! She squeals and laughs when she gets splashed. We've also taken her down the blue slides and she laughs the whole way down. She is a little thrill seeker.

When we're not swimming Ella has discovered the joys of exploring our house. She absolutely loves getting into the pantry. If she sees the door open she run-crawls as fast as she can over there to play with all of her treasures. Unfortunately I don't let her do this anymore because we had two run ins with soup cans tipping over and smashing her little fingers.

She has also discovered the fun of the toilet paper roll. And about 5 seconds after this photo was taken she had pulled the rest off and shredded it into tiny bits. She's lucky she's so cute. In other news I have completely given up on having a clean house.

She LOVES her daddy. She gets so excited when he gets home from work. I caught this picture of her anxiously waiting for him to come back inside to play. She sat here and watched him mow the entire back yard while yelling at him and smacking the glass to try to get his attention.

She also loves her cardboard playhouse that Grandpa Spiers made her. It's just her size to crawl in and stand up and look out the window.

It's getting more and more difficult to capture pictures of her in the moment because the second I pull out the camera she goes from playing nicely like this...

to this because her mean mom won't let her play with the camera.

Another one of her "things" is to lay her head down on anything soft and then we all say "awww" and she sits up and face plants again, we say "awww" and this repeats over and over. This particular day there weren't any blankets or pillows on the floor so she tipped over our blanket basket for her little rest. You can see in her face how proud she is of herself.

She still loves to empty her toy basket and one day while doing so she found a binky. She never really did take one so she's not very familiar with them. I guess she's seen them enough to know the basic concept but she didn't get the execution quite right. Since then she has been loving playing with it and every time puts it in like this and giggles then tries to put it in my mouth. Silly girl.

Now for a few other things about our little Ella Lu:

She has learned to give kisses which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. When you ask her for a kiss she leans in her head and gives you kiss. Sometimes her mouth is closed, sometimes it's wide open and sometimes it's full of food. The sad thing for me is that she will always give Danny a kiss but with me it's about 50/50 of whether she feels like it or not.
She loves animals. Every single time she sees any sort of animal or bird she growls. I have no idea where she learned this since we didn't teach her to do it but it's so funny. She sits in her high chair by the window and every time a bird comes into the yard she starts growling. And she has a really good eye because I'll glance out the window to see them and it usually takes me a minute to spot it hidden in a tree or bush.
She also loves other kids and babies. She gets so excited when she sees another kid. She squeals and waves and if that kid smiles back or talks to her she gets so happy.
She is starting to learn to share. When she's eating she likes to offer me some of whatever it is. She's a little more generous with her peas than she is with her peaches but she loves to put food in my mouth. She'll also hand me toys when we're on the floor playing. There have even been a few times when she's handed me my cell phone or the TV remote which is a big deal since those are her favorites.
She's getting really good at pulling herself up to standing and cruising along the furniture. I don't think it will be too long before she's walking. Yikes!

We love Ella and are having so much fun being her parents. She is such a joy to have in our family.

4th of July

2011-07-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful 4th this year! Have I mentioned before how much more fun holidays are with a child? It's like you get to relive all the fun stuff through them. I love it. And the 4th has always been one of our favorite holidays. What's not to love? Sun, parades, bbq, family, fireworks.

We started the day by attending the one and only Kaysville parade. I love how the whole community comes out. It's nuts. We were lucky that my sister just built a house right by main street so we could park in her drive way and then walk over the spot they'd reserved for us. (By going out Saturday at 12:01 am when the city allows you to set out your stuff.)

Ella in her very own pink parade chair. She looks so grown up. Crazy that last year at the parade I was still pregnant!

Our family at the parade decked out in our red, white and blue.

Ella's favorite part of the parade was the otter pops that her daddy kept giving her. She was pretty much in heaven.

And then there was the taffy that was being thrown. She got her hands on some and tried to bite into it through the wrapper before her mean mom took it away.

And then there is her new love. A stuffed buffalo puppet that her dad caught (they throw out all sorts of stuff at the parade...Danny also caught a tie). She crawls around with it in her hand all day and is always giving it hugs.

Later that day we went over to Danny's parents house for a fun barbecue. Her sweet uncle Spencer helped her play a little soccer with the rest of kids. She loved "running" and kicking the ball.

We finished the day by staying up way past her bedtime and going to see the Layton city fireworks. She glanced up at the fireworks a few times but was mainly interested in crawling around and emptying her diaper bag.

It was a fun day and we had lots of fun spending time with family and enjoying summer!

10 months!

2011-06-17T11:35:00.003-06:00

Wow! Our little Ella Lu is 10 months! After my last post we went to her nine month appointment and found that she is in the 65% for height but in the "under 5%" for weight. We've got ourselves a little string bean!

She is a little fireball full of energy and personality. She keeps me laughing and on my toes all day. That opening monthly photo of her is a little deceiving. She rarely is sitting still...the following is a better example of how this photo shoot went. I'm sure 11 and 12 will be even more exciting.

She is absolutely loving her new found freedom that comes from crawling! She is now able to crawl to her toy basket, pull herself up and choose what she would like to play with. Each selection lasts approximately 3.5 seconds before she moves on to the next so our family room is pretty much always a disaster. But honestly? I love it. It's lived in and fun and I love the evidence of Ella's playing after she's gone to bed.

She has also made some friends with the adorable neighbor girls. It cracks me up to watch her with them. You can tell she feels so big and special to have these girls paying attention to her. They are so sweet to come over and visit when they see her on her blanket in the back yard.

We are taking full advantage of the nice weather and summer. We were all feeling some major cabin fever over the winter so now we spend a lot of time outside. One evening after Danny got home from work we took her up to Castle Park where they have fun baby swings. She was in heaven!

We then moved on to the slide. She is a daredevil. We took turns taking her down and when we'd get to the top she'd try and push off herself and then she'd squeal and laugh the whole way down. Fun times.

Here is a fun shot of her crawling. I don't want her to learn to walk because she is such a cute little crawler. She loves to crawl around a corner and then we ask "where's Ella" and she pops her head around the corner and laughs. She's so tricky.

We took a family trip to the zoo last weekend and had so much fun checking out the animals and enjoying some sunshine.

Ella's favorites (judging by her arms flaps) were the giraffes and a little squirrel. I think next time we'll save ourselves the $20 and just go to a pet store. =]

Ella deciding which animals she'd like to go see next.

Another fun thing we've doing this summer is going to Danny's softball games on Monday nights. Ella loves when Danny runs by and waves at her and we love that there are lots of other moms and babies to hang out with.

And finally I wanted to capture a couple of pictures of her with her favorite little doll. She loves to hug her really tight and then she'll usually bury her face in it. These were taken before church so she's also modeling the adorable dress that my sister made her! I love it!

This post is already ridiculously long so here are just a couple of other little things about little girl:

She's getting to be a pretty good eater. She eats a wide variety of food, pretty much everything we do. A few of her favorites are berries, ravioli, french toast and yogurt.
At ten months she has still never in her life thrown up or spit up anything. She's also not a drooler. I'm counting my blessings on this one since I'm pretty sure future babies won't be this way.
Her two top teeth popped out this past month so she now has four teeth. I love her toothy little grin.
She absolutely loves running errands with me. I think she thinks that every person at the store is there to see her. She talks to people, waves, smiles and flirts. And believe me, she gets plenty of attention back. And if by someone is crazy enough to not dote over her she really turns it on until they do. It's so funny to watch.
She unfortunately has reached the age where she no longer likes to wear her headbands. She'll leave them on for a little bit but then she reaches up and pulls them off. Her hair is at an awkward length so I'm never quite sure what to do with it. Oh well, she's still adorable.

We are so in love with our little Ella. She makes life so much fun as we are able to rediscover all the simple things of life her. It's amazing how she gets me to slow down and just sit and look out the window at the birds in the backyard. It really puts things into perspective. I love being a mom and she's made it easy on me by being such a fun, happy baby.

9 months!

2011-05-20T16:08:00.000-06:00

Ella is a whopping 9 months old! She's been in our lives as long as she was in my tummy. Crazy how nine months of pregnancy lasts an eternity and the nine months that we've had Ella have absolutely flown by! We haven't gone to her official nine month appointment yet so I don't know her percentages but I'll update this next week after her appointment. I think it's safe to say that she's cute and tiny.

I feel like she's changed and grown up the most during this past month than any other. Her eighth month was a big one!

One of the big things that happened this month was that she got 3 teeth! Her two bottom teeth came in within a day of each other and then about a week later she got a top tooth. She's putting them to good use. It's fun to watch her take little bites of graham crackers.

Ella still loves to read books. I have a couple of board books that sit on her nightstand and every time we sit in her chair to get ready for bed she stands up and reaches over to grab one of her books. She loves to look at the pictures and turn the pages.

We had Danny's siblings over for a BBQ while his parents were out of town. This was Ella's first time sitting around a fire. We're getting her prepped for camping this summer. She was mesmerized by the flames.

We had family photos taken by my wonderful friend Audree. I'm really excited with how they turned out and will post more soon. Ella's sweet little smile brightens my day!

We took full advantage of the two whole nice days we had and are anxiously waiting for the weather to improve so we can spend more time outside!

Danny bought Ella some bubbles and went in the backyard and blew them for her while I was making dinner. I was watching through the window and saw how much fun she was having so I snuck out and took a few pics.

She usually doesn't like to sit on the grass but I guess it was worth it to play with the bubbles!

Another accomplishment this month is that she is able to pick up finger foods and get them into her own mouth! She's been able to use her pinchers for a long time now but wasn't able to quite get things from point A to point B until now. She is loving this new found independence! I spread some cheerios or bread bits on her tray and she goes to town.

And the biggest accomplishment this month?

Ella is a crawler! She started by just going a few feet at a time but it didn't take long for her to figure it out and take off! She now books it all over the house. If I turn by back for a second she's in a different room! She thinks it's the greatest thing ever. She teases me and goes around a corner and then when I come get her she squeals and tries to escape. I'm pretty sure there is nothing cuter than a baby crawling. I don't want to her to walk anytime soon because I love watching her crawl.

She also loves to be able to crawl to her toy basket, pick out something to play with and then scatter things around the house. She also loves to go into my closet and pull down all of my shoes. We have a total girl on our hands! And despite my OCD personality of liking a clean house, it makes me smile to walk around after she's gone to bed and see little traces of what we did all day.

We've had a fun month. And like always here's a little list of a few other things I want to remember about my little Ella Lu:

She is an entertainer! She'll do something just to get a reaction from us. For example, she'll bang the side of her high chair tray, look up to see if I'm laughing and if I am, then she'll do it again and laugh. She has also mastered the fake laugh and does it all the time to get others to laugh. Danny and I will often hear her practicing it in the backseat of the car while we drive. It's pretty dang adorable.
She is still so happy. She has a smile for everyone she sees and seems to be able to brighten the day of whoever she comes across. I think this is a great trait to have.
She's a "talker" she says "ma ma ma" and "da da da" - (for the record "ma ma ma" was first). I wish I knew if she knew what she was saying. She does seem to say "ma ma ma" when she is reaching for me. Does that mean she's said her first word? I have no idea but it sure is cute to hear.
She LOVES when Danny gets home from work. She knows the sound of the garage door opening and stops what she is doing, sits up and looks toward the door. Then when Danny comes around the corner she flaps her arms, squeals and takes off to go get him.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things so I'll add to this list as a remember but to sum it up this last month has been a blast. I think it's probably my favorite age so far. She's still my little baby with a big personality. I love hanging out with her all day. She definitely keeps me busy and entertained!

8 months!

2011-04-20T21:15:00.001-06:00

Yikes! My baby girl is already eight months old! I think I say this every month but I love this age. I want her to stop growing. Well I guess she has - she is staying absolutely tiny. Our highly scientific weigh in on our bathroom scale put her at 15 pounds even. She is so bitty. Danny stayed little when he was a baby so I'm not worried. She's happy and active and healthy so I'm happy. Plus it's way easier to carry a little baby around than a big one, right?

Her little personality at this age cracks me up. I wish I could capture every single facial expression and movement in a picture. I seriously need to have a video camera on her all day. I find myself laughing out loud at her all the time.

This month especially she has learned so much. She plays peek a boo which is the cutest thing in the world. She pulls the blanket over her face then waits and surprises us by pulling it off. She gets the most pleased look on her face for being able to trick us like that. The best is when she only gets her eyes covered so we can see her little closed smile waiting to shock us. I never knew I could love peek a boo so much. Her other new tricks are waving and getting so close to crawling.

Just checking to make sure I had her stats right.

I wish I could capture how truly amazing this girl's eyelashes are. That is the number one comment I get from people when they see her. The best was from a guy who said "wow, my wife pays a lot of money to have eyelashes like those."

Ella loves to watch the fountains at Gateway. We went with some friends to dinner and then much to their delight to sit on the steps and watch the water.

On the first (and pretty much last) warm day we had this year Ella came out and enjoyed some time sitting in the sun while I weeded the flower beds. I love the smell of sunscreen on sweet baby skin. It made me really excited for more sun and time outside this summer.

It was the cutest thing when I'd look over and she'd be laying down kicking her legs looking at the grass or just talking to herself. She has always loved being outside so I'm sure she was in heaven.

She is getting SO close to crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees, rocks and then sort of dive bombs forward. Time to start baby proofing! (I've already eliminated the computer cords you can see in the picture.)

Each month our house gets more and more devoted to all things baby. Her new thing is to have a bunch of toys spread out all over the floor and then she just scoots to them and plays with one thing for awhile and then moves on to the next. I love watching her little mind work as she moves to each new thing and figures things out.

Another one of her new things is waving. It's the cutest thing ever. She waves "hi" and "bye" with her whole arm and if you're lucky, both arms. Here she is mid-wave.

But all of the waving and playing can get exhausting so it's important to take little rests in between.

Like I said earlier, she loves being outside. Everyday when Danny gets home from work he takes her on a walk through the yard to look at the blossoms. She loves pinching them and examining them. Here they are checking out the peach tree.

Another big and exciting first this month was that she now sits in the front of the shopping cart with no car seat! I love it! It's so much easier to shop now. I couldn't ever really see over the car seat and it was such a pain to take in and out. Ella likes it much better too. She loves going to the store. She smiles and interacts with everyone and she eats up the attention.

Here she is sitting up the first time. She's a little stunned because her brilliant mom chose to take a picture in the TV section at Costco. No distractions there.

And this last shot is courtesy of Danny. Ever since she was tiny, he would put her in his sock drawer while he changed his clothes after work. She getting a little too big to do that anymore so he took a picture to remember his little sock drawer buddy.

This post is already pretty lengthy so just a few more little things I want to remember about little Ella Lu:

She's always liked to do things her own way. (i.e. no bottle or binky) so I should have figured eating would be no different. She never really took to the pureed baby foods. She was okay with sweet potatoes and apples but that's pretty much it. We have found, however, that she loves regular food. She eats cottage cheese, greek yogurt, string cheese, whole wheat toast, steamed veggies, diced peaches, graham crackers and bits of whatever we're eating for dinner. She also LOVES asparagus. She takes the whole spear in her hand and sucks out the middle part.
When she is finished eating or is not interested in what you are offering her, she squints her eyes shut, scrunches up her nose and turns away. I guess she figures if she can't see it she doesn't have to eat it.
She loves to tease and play games. The other night at a ward activity she was patting the guy sitting next to us on the shoulder and when he'd look over she'd bury her head in my chest or look up at the ceiling. Then when he'd look away she'd do it again. I was absolutely dieing. It was the cutest thing.
She loves to "sing" - which is sometimes a high pitched squeal and sometimes more of a monotone yell. She especially loves to do it with a giant smile on her face while we're walking through the grocery store.

Have I mentioned how much I love being Ella's mom. She is such a breath of fresh air and a joy to have in our home. Her giggle is contagious and her sweet personality makes me want to be a better person. We love her and are so excited to watch her continue to grow.

7 months!

2011-03-23T19:06:00.001-06:00

Ella has reached the seven month mark. She is becoming more and more of a little person with a big personality and opinion on things. A perfect example was our attempt to capture our monthly picture on her chair.

First she was bored and apparently not at all amused at the voices/faces I was making at her. (In her defense, I'm pretty sure she's teething and the day after we took these she woke up with a terrible cold. Poor little girl wasn't feeling well.)

"Are we finished yet?"

"I'm outta here."

Up and over the chair. Almost.

Seriously, how do I have a baby who can move like that!? It seems like just barely when we had a little helpless bundle I could set down anywhere. She's not quite crawling but she's close. She rolls clear across the room and pushes herself up onto her hands and knees and scoots backwards. Things are going to get a lot more interesting around here. Anyone have any baby proofing advice?

In other news, she still loves clothes and one of her favorite things is to sit in the laundry basket with the clean clothes while I fold them. I felt like a genius when I figured out to put her in there. Keeps us both happy while I'm able to get something done.

Again. This time with her favorite little doll. The pigtails are perfect for a little nibble.

She can sit up by herself now (actually she's been able to since she was about six months old). But she doesn't do it very often. She's too busy trying to move around or straighten out to try to stand up. One word that could describe Ella is BUSY!

Catching up on the news. She likes to stay informed.

Here she is enjoying a teddy bear that I used to play with at my great grandma's house. I'm happy she loves him as much as I used to.

During the month, Danny took a little guys trip to Vegas to watch some BYU basketball. While he was gone Ella and I had a sweet potato party. She's always trying to grab the spoon when I'm feeding her so I decided to strip her down and let her go for it.

She loved it! Well worth the mess.

She's my little buddy while I get ready for the day. She sits in her bumbo and watches me get ready while I hand her pretty much anything I can find that is somewhat baby proof to keep her entertained. I think in this picture she is enjoying some Colgate wisps, a necklace, a hair clip, a big yellow spoon and of course my cell phone.

We had to resurrect her baby tub. She was getting way too squirmy in the tub, constantly rolling to her tummy and purposely drinking the bathwater. Even if we held her on her back she'd twist her head to the side for a sip. (Yet she still won't take a bottle or formula. Bathwater? Yes. Milk? Not so much.) So we had to put a stop to all that excitement and put her back into something where we maintained some control.

Fortunately, it didn't ruin her fun. She still loves playing and splashing in the water.

A few other things I want to remember about this little munchkin at 7 months:

I may have mentioned this before but she is a busy body! She cannot sit still. She's constantly standing and looking around.
She's still figuring out the whole eating solids thing. She's not a fan of the purees. But she likes little pieces of food. I've given her bits of bread and of course her puffies. I'm sort of at a loss with her in this area. She really only likes to nurse. I think I have a picky eater on my hands.
She has a gorgeous big smile and she flashes it at everyone. When I'm shopping with her she always wins the other shoppers and cashiers over. I've had requests to always use a particular line so the cashier could see her regularly and offers from many to "take her home." She grins and eats up the attention.
She's still not a great sleeper. Okay but not great. She goes to bed between 7 and 8 and is usually up once a night to eat before she's up for the day again between 7 and 8. She takes two naps a day that are usually about an hour each. She seems happy and rested most of the time so I'm done worrying about it and am just letting her do what is natural to her even though I would like her to have longer naps in the day.
She has the best laugh! It's loud and comes from her belly. It's the sound of pure joy.
She LOVES when Danny gets home from work. No matter what we're doing she gets excited and kicks her arms and legs and gets a huge grin. He usually plays a little game of peek a boo with her before picking her up which just increases the anticipation. It's great. Then they play together while I make dinner.

She's at a really fun age and I'm loving get to know her little personality better. She really does bring so much happiness to Danny and me. When life is rough and I'm having a bad day I can usually count on her belly laugh to cheer me up. Even first thing in the morning after a long night which is really saying something.

time for solids!

2011-02-21T14:20:00.002-07:00

When Ella turned 6 months old we decided it was time to give her some "real" food. We're hippies so we decided to make it ourselves. It was super easy and I like knowing exactly what she's eating. We made squash, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots and applesauce.

Here she is before we started. Clean, happy and ready to go.

Getting tired of waiting for mom and dad to take pictures. Trying to just get the bowl herself.

After a couple of bites (Danny was videoing so there was no one left to take a pictures of the first taste).

"This is fun."

Another taste...

"Wait a minute. I'm not so sure about this stuff anymore."

"This is weird."

"Okay I'll try a little more just let me help this time."

"Yuck."

"Forget squash, I think I'll just study this weird thing around my neck."

As you can see. She had mixed feelings about squash. She seemed to like it at first but only wanted a couple of tastes and then was done. Since then we've tried other foods and by far her favorite is apples. We can shovel the spoon in her mouth fast enough when she's eating those. Her next choice is sweet potatoes those she'll at least finish. Everything else is still hit and miss.

6 months

2011-02-20T15:27:00.002-07:00

Our little peanut is 6 months old! A half a year! She is such a little turkey with a fun little personality. She loves to laugh and joke. She thinks it's so funny when she sees her dad or me putting her binky backward in our mouth or when we make funny faces or noises. I love her laugh!

We had her 6 month appointment and she weighed in at 14 lbs 2 oz (15%), measured 25 inches long (23%) and had a head circumference of 16.5 inches (34%). She's still a little bean but we wouldn't want her any other way.

I've been holding on to these baby legs waiting for her to grow into them...they are still a little big on her tiny legs but we had her wear them anyway.

She's always trying to grab my jewelry (which is why I rarely wear any anymore) so she was surprised to have me put a necklace around her neck.

She immediately began studying it.

And then started laughing because it was so hilarious to have it around her neck!

Here are a few other random picture from the past month:

I think Ella is destined to be a Pilates instructor. This little girl is constantly doing "the hundred" position. You can tell she's working really hard here - her little tongue proves it.

She's also got another one of her favorites in this picture - she LOVES paper and tags. Her pillow pet has a wonderful, large tag and she is in heaven playing with it.

Danny was in Ella's room putting her down for a nap. It had been awhile so I went in to check on them and I found this. I'm not sure who wore who out first. You can definitely tell they are father and daughter in this picture.

Lately, Ella has been loving "drinking" (more like lapping) our drinks. She doesn't actually get anything but she feels like such a big girl holding the glass up to her face just like us. Whenever I have a drink she grabs for it and holds on tight to have a sip. Now I just know that if I'm having a drink of water to that I need to take turns with Ella. I try not to notice the drool on my cup.

"Hey I'm trying to drink here."

We have also discovered that Ella loves clothes! Every morning when I'm getting her dressed I let her stand up by her bottom drawer and look at her clothes. She squeals and kicks as she picks up and looks at her clothes.

They've also had some cute outfits at Costco lately so when we're there shopping I like to check out the new baby clothes. I hold up the clothes for her to look at she kicks and laughs. If we're getting one I let her hold it while we shop and she keeps a tight grip on it.

And finally, she no longer sleeps on her back. When we put her down she wiggles around until she's found a comfortable position for herself which is now usually on her back or side. (Don't mind the pillow in there we took it out right after the picture before we left her. Don't call CPS.)

A few more fun things about Ella at six months:

Her favorite toys are paper, my cell phone and the TV remote.
She loves to eat "puffies." She hold her mouth open like a little bird waiting for us to feed them to her.
She still loves to be sung to.
She's gotten really good at rolling and rolls across the room to get to where she wants.
She's still really social and smiles at anyone who will look at her. She loves attention.
She really likes going outside. When we had those few days of nice weather we took her on a walk every day and she was in heaven. She sat there talking to herself, looking around and kicking her feet as we strolled through the neighborhood.
She sleeps at night from about 7 to 7 getting up once in between to eat (on good nights we still have some not so good nights too). She's also getting pretty regular with her naps which is nice.
A few weeks ago she decided she was no longer interested in bottles no matter if it was pumped milk or formula. So we had to resort to putting a little apple juice in with the formula to bribe her into drinking it. Mommy needs to be able to leave once in awhile.
She's all of the sudden developed a fear of loud noises. So vacuuming, blow drying my hair and using the blender are a bit of challenge.

We love our little Ella girl! She's so much fun to have in our family.

5 months

2011-01-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Another month has gone by and Little Miss Ella is 5 months old! She's still a tiny little thing and I love it! She is turning into a curious little girl and has figured out how to reach and grab very well. She gets the funniest facial expressions whenever she is studying her latest find. It is very serious stuff to be examining the button on a throw pillow.

She also LOVES taking baths. We no longer use the baby tub and just let her lay in the big tub with a little water. She concentrates really hard on kicking her arms and legs to create big splashes. Then she'll take a break to catch her breath and give us a big grin before splashing again. Even with only a couple inches of water she is able to splash water clear out of the tub. Impressive.

In her nightgown first thing in the morning.

This is how she prefers to take her naps. I lay her down (usually on the couch) and she pulls her blanket up over her face. I have to wait until she is asleep to rearrange it so she doesn't smother herself. She cannot fall asleep without it.

One of the things my parents got her for Christmas was a Rainforest Jumperoo and she loves it! Only problem is that since she's such a tiny thing her feet don't touch the ground! We put a pillow underneath to try to help but I think she'll enjoy it much more when she grows another inch.

A few more tidbits about Ella at five months:

She loves paper and books. She loves to crinkle paper and turn the pages of books. One of her favorite pass times is to thumb through catalogs. Especially Pottery Barn - takes after her mom.
She is getting ready to start eating solids. She watches intently whenever somebody is eating or drinking in front of her.
She is a blow out queen. I'm sure she won't appreciate me saying that when she's older but this girl has a powerful system. We pretty much have at least one blowout a day. There are always clothes soaking in OxyClean in the sink.
She loves to rough house with her daddy. She laughs hysterically when she is put upside down and tickled.
She is squirmy! Ella does not like to sit still or cuddle. She likes to be standing and looking around all. the. time. She does not want to miss a single thing that is going on around her.
She has started to reach for people when she wants them. Makes you feel like a million bucks when she does it to you.
She has gotten on a pretty consistent nap schedule during the day - two naps a day that are usually over an hour each. And her nights are getting better - usually up twice between 8 pm and 8 am. We like to sleep in around here sometimes she'll even push it to 9. Those days are my favorite.

She is so much fun to have around. She provides constant entertainment to Danny and I as we watch her grow and discover the world around her. We love her.

ella's first christmas!

2011-01-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Ella had a wonderful first Christmas (at least I think so)! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day bouncing between our families and extended families. It made for some long days but it was worth it to be able to see everyone!

Christmas Eve we spent the day with just our little family and opened our first presents - Christmas jammies. And due to Ella's sleep schedule we opened them, put them on and took the picture at about 4 in the afternoon!

We then headed over to my parents for my dad's traditional prime rib dinner. Delish! We played games and hung out there for a little bit and then were on our way to Danny's parents to talk to Carl who is on his mission in Korea. We stayed there for a little bit and then went home read the Christmas story out of the Bible together and put little Ella to bed.

I was SO excited for Christmas morning! Santa came and brought loads of presents! Even as a sleep deprived new mom I was out of bed early to begin the day.

Ella was so funny opening presents. She was interested in the ripping of paper...more so than whatever was inside. We have video of her squealing in delight about everything (I really wish I could figure out how to load video from our camera).

Here she is examining her new firefly. Notice her cute little reindeer feet. I love it!

Sitting with some of her loot from Santa. Spoiled much? Danny told me to re-wrap some of her stuff and give it to her on first birthday because she got so much and some of it she won't really be able to play with until she is a little older. I may have a gone a little overboard.

After our little family had finished celebrating Christmas morning we went over to Danny's parents. Ella and Grandpa Hafen. Apparently whatever he is telling her is very interesting.

Then it was off to my parents (see I told you we were bouncing around!). Ella was in a very good mood and delighted by all of the attention and presents. She got spoiled!

She loves her pillow pet from Aunt Ashley!

From there we went straight to my grandparents house for lunch and then to Danny's grandparents later for snacks.

Super exhausting day but so fun. I loved spending Christmas with my little bug. It is fun to experience the magic of Christmas with a little one and it'll only get to be more fun as she gets a little older and starts to understand.

christmas pictures

2011-01-13T12:10:00.001-07:00

Ella and I had a little photo shoot in our kitchen before Christmas.

Here are some of my favorites. I love her.

(No she is not sitting up unassisted yet...thank you Photoshop.)

4 months

2010-12-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

Our little Ella is 4 months old! I say it every month, but I can't believe how fast the time flies! Four months of pregnancy is an eternity, but the four months we've had Ella in our family have flown by! She is an absolute delight and just gets more and more fun. She is such a happy little girl and smiles and laughs at anyone and everyone who gives her attention. Lucky for her, she is usually the center of attention wherever she goes. In fact, today at church, she was squealing and talking to everyone around us. Not very reverent but very cute.

Her stats at four months are:

Height - 24 inches (37%)
Weight - 12 lbs 2 ozs (16%)
Head - 16 inches (39%)

She's a petite little thing.

I decided to have a little photo shoot with her one day because I thought she looked so cute in her outfit. I propped her up on a pillow and she struck a pose...

but then she took it to the next level and decided to show some skin. We'll have to have a lesson on modesty...

This picture was taken right after she had just rolled over. She was a little surprised to suddenly be on her tummy.

One of my very most favorite things to do in the world is to cuddle up with Ella and take a nap. It is so peaceful listening to her breath and holding her close. I love her.

Our little polar bear.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun with Ella. We went to Danny's grandma's earlier in the day and that evening had dinner at my parents. My mom didn't want Ella to feel left out so she got to enjoy dinner sitting in her Bumbo as the centerpiece.

We also had our ward Christmas party and lucky for us, Santa came so Ella got a picture with him. I'm a slacker and never took her to the mall for an official Santa picture so this one will have to do. Maybe next year...

This month Ella has mastered some new tricks. She is now able to grab things that she wants and then put them in her mouth for a little taste. As I mentioned earlier, she has also learned to roll over! She has also found her voice and loves to "talk" and squeal. She also loves to sing and will sing along when we sing to her. It's an adorable, single note little tune.

During the past month she also encountered her first cold which was not fun at all. It was heartbreaking listening to her try to eat with a stuffy nose and not being able to breathe. Luckily it didn't turn into anything more serious. Hopefully we'll be able to all stay healthy the next few months.

I love being a mom and getting to hang out with my little buddy all day. It's so fun looking at the world through her eyes and watching her experience new things. I want time to slow down so she can stay my little baby.

3 months

2010-12-02T21:45:00.001-07:00

Holy cow. My baby is already 3 months old! All of the sudden this past month she has become a baby instead of an newborn. I love watching her sweet personality develop. She is so quick to smile at everyone and has the cutest little grin. When someone smiles at her she gives them a huge cheesy smile and then quickly turns her head and buries her face into whoever is holding her. I love it.

She LOVES to chew on her fists. She has the unique talent of being able to fit her whole fist into her mouth. Her dad and I are very proud. Apparently fists are much better than binkies.

Her cute little "piggies." Danny's sister Jill painted them while they were tending. I was surprised to see cute pink toes when I changed her into her jammies that night!

She has only accepted a binky a handful of times so I had to capture the rare occasion on film. She looks so snuggly in her Polar Bear suit.

She absolutely loves sitting in her bumbo. This little girl does not like laying down so being able to sit up by herself to play with toys is the best! She has gotten really good at being able to reach and grab the toy she wants and then bring it up to her mouth for a little taste.

Some other fun things about little Miss Ella at 3 months:

She has many nicknames - Lu Lu, Luberry, Ella bell...to name a few.
Like I said before she doesn't like to lay down. When we're holding her, she prefers to stand up and look around. Danny and I love how her little neck pokes around as she checks out the world.
She is a big time people person! If I lay her down alone to play she only lasts a few minutes until she is yelling (not crying just yelling) for someone to come play with her. Then as soon as someone comes by and gives her attention she is all smiles and coos and laughs. She's lucky she has so many people around who love her and are willing to play with her nonstop!
She has become a good little sleeper, usually only waking up once at night. There are some nights where she wakes up more often but for the most part she's really good. This makes for one happy mommy.
Her favorite way to be put to sleep is by me holding her and bouncing on a yoga ball. She also really enjoys being sung to (she's too young to know what an awful singer her mom is). I love seeing her smile and look up at me while she drifts off to sleep.
She loves to giggle and laugh. And I love to hear her. She has a ticklish tummy and we can get some loud, belly laughs by kissing and blowing on her tummy.
She loves to look at books and be read to. If she's squirmy or fussy I can open up one of her favorite board books and she becomes enthralled with listening to my funny voices and looking at the pictures. I'm really hoping she's going to be a bookworm like her mom.

Watching her grow up is bittersweet. I love watching her grow and learn new things but it is sad to leave each phase behind. I procrastinated putting her newborn clothes into storage because it makes me sad that she has already outgrown that stage. But I am more in love with her than ever and am looking forward to all the fun times ahead! She is an absolute delight in our lives and I feel very lucky to have her.

ella's first halloween

2010-11-02T15:37:00.000-06:00

Can I just say that holidays are so much more fun when you have a baby? This Halloween was one of my favorites.

We started the night by going over to the ward Trunk or Treat for dinner and to see all of the cute neighbor's costumes. We then took Ella over to Danny's family's house where she was a big hit and ended the night at my parents. I have no idea why I even bothered buying Halloween candy since we were hardly home and didn't have a single trick or treater.

I had a blast picking out Ella's costume and dressing her up. Danny and I couldn't stop laughing when we'd look at her and she apparently thought it was pretty hysterical as well. I think she just might be the cutest little lamb ever.

ella's blessing

2010-11-01T15:18:00.000-06:00

We blessed our little Ella on October 10th (10/10/10). It was such a wonderful day. The weather was perfect and we had tons of family and friends there to support us. I was a little worried about how she'd do since our sacrament meeting is right during nap time but she did fabulous. She didn't make a peep during the blessing and she was super smiley afterward as everyone was passing her around. Danny gave her an amazing blessing. I jotted down a few of the things he mentioned for her baby book and to share with her when she gets a little older. She's definitely a special and well loved little girl.

She wore the same dress that I was blessed in 26 years ago and I think it looked adorable on her. The blanket was a special gift from my parents, it is handmade and they purchased it from some locals while they were in Bethlehem for us to use when we bless our babies.

Of course had fabulous food at our house afterward and the best part - I didn't have to make a single thing! Thanks to the contributions of our moms and aunts we had a wonderful spread of delicious food.
We were very lucky that the weather turned out to be nice that day because there was no way everyone who came would have been able to fit in our house. Even with people sitting on the back patio, it was packed.

Unfortunately, I waited to take pictures of Ella until the end of the day after everyone had left so she was a little over the whole thing and ready for a nap so she's not super happy in the pictures. But, of course she still looks cute...at least I think so.
"Seriously Mom, get that camera out of my face."
It was a great day. I still feel like I'm living in a dream. I can't believe I have a little baby of my own. Growing up when I'd be at a blessing and the mom would get up to give her testimony I'd always imagine what I'd say or how I'd feel when I'd bless my own and now I've experienced it. It's a wonderful feeling. I feel very blessed to have little Ella in our lives.

ella at two months

2010-10-31T15:13:00.004-06:00

My little baby is already 2 months old! Once again I am late in posting this but here is a little info about little miss Ella at 2 months.

She had her 2 month appointment and weighed 10 lbs 4 oz (30%) and was 21.5 inches tall (18% - looks like she's going to take after me). She also had to get her shots which was not fun for anyone. Danny took the morning off work to go with us. I'm glad he did. It was hard and both Ella and I cried. I'm not looking forward to doing that again in December! Fortunately she did really well afterward and ended up sleeping most of the rest of the day.

Ella is at a very fun age. I absolutely love that she is able to smile at us. Danny and I are constantly making fools of ourselves in an effort to get her to crack a smile. There is no shortage of singing, making weird faces, dancing etc. at our house. We have no shame.

She is still in love with the adorable baby in the mirror.
And has found a new love...her rain forest play gym. She is in heaven when we put her under it. She talks, kicks, and squeals. It's the best. I have video of her so once I figure out how to post that I will.

During this month I also got a lot more comfortable taking her out so we took some trips to the store and went to some play dates at the park with others from the neighborhood. (Although I think those were more for me to get out than for Ella...).

She also started to get into somewhat of a schedule. We started having her have an 8:00 bedtime which works great. She expects it and usually goes down fairly easily and it gives Danny and I some time together. Around 6 weeks she started sleeping from 8:00 to about 2:30 or 3:00 and then again to about 7:00 or 7:30. This was and has been heaven! I feel so rested only having to get up once at night! She's even surprised me a handful of times and has slept from 8:00 until 6:00!

Some other facts about our little Ella at 2 months:

She has NEVER, not once spit up since she was born.
She is not at all interested in a binky.
She is extremely alert and loves to look around and be in the middle of the action. This makes taking naps a challenge and she fights going to sleep.
She really enjoys getting her diaper changed and will smile and talk to you while you do so.

I absolutely love having Ella in our family. She definitely keeps us busy and our life has changed dramatically but it is all for the best. I wouldn't trade her for anything. She has taught both of us about unconditional love and has definitely made me realize my priorities and what really matters in life.

two years

2010-09-27T13:22:00.003-06:00

Sunday was Danny and my 2 year anniversary! The past two years have flown by, but looking back I can't believe how much has happened: living in Denver, building a house, putting in a yard, nine months of pregnancy, having a baby...

We celebrated on Saturday by leaving Ella with her grandparents and going to Boondocks and then out to dinner. It was fun to take a break from reality and just go have fun. (I'll admit by the end of the day I really missed my baby - it's probably a good thing we vetoed the bed & breakfast idea.)

I am so grateful I married such great guy. Danny is a wonderful husband and an amazing dad to Ella. I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else.

one month

2010-09-19T11:01:00.008-06:00

Our little Ella is already one month old!

We attempted to get her measurements, I'm pretty sure they aren't completely accurate, but according to us she is 9 lbs 4 ozs and 21 inches long. She definitely feels bigger and her cute little cheeks are filling in. She is getting stronger and is able to hold her head up really well. She is looking more and more like a baby instead of a newborn.

We're loving this age - she's learned to smile at us and it makes all of the sleepless nights worth it when I see her cute toothless grin. She loves when we sing songs to her and tickle her face.

She's still sleeping in about 3 hour stretches. There have been a few times when she's gone longer but those nights are more of the exception than the rule. My body is adjusting though so I don't feel quite as exhausted as I did in the beginning. But I'm still very tired. One thing that is helping is that she has started to accept a bottle, so on weekends, Danny takes over the 2:00 am feeding so I can sleep a full 6 hours stretch.

Danny went on an all boy camping trip over Labor Day and while he was away, Ella and I went up to my parents to stay. Ella did great on her very first sleepover. And I did even better - my parents very generously offered to give her bottle all night and let me sleep from 10 - 7 for three nights in a row! It was a very needed rejuvenating weekend! We also went on Ella's first shopping trip to the mall. One thing I did learn that weekend, however, was that Fiber One bars and breastfeeding don't mix - we had a very gassy baby for a few days.

We love our little Ella.

updated nursery

2010-09-19T10:47:00.001-06:00

We put the finishing touches on Ella's nursery.

Since we finally decided on a name, we put it above her crib.

We also put pictures in all of the empty frames. Ella loves looking at the big pictures while we're changing her diaper.

And here is the spot where I spend my nights rocking and feeding.

two weeks old

2010-09-01T12:25:00.006-06:00

I'm a week late in posting this, Ella is actually three weeks old today! Time is flying by.

But we had her two week doctor appointment last week and here are her stats:

Height: 20.5 inches - 59%
Weight: 7 lbs 14 oz - 35%
Head: 14.25 inches - 56%

We're loving having her in our home. She is obviously eating like a champ and gaining weight. In fact, when she eats, she gulps the milk down so fast it is like she thinks only has 30 seconds to eat. Problem is that eating this way gives the poor things gas. No fun.

She's also getting her sleep schedule down. Last week she was sleeping in three hour stretches at night and would wake up like clock work at 11, 1, 4 and 7 and my body slowly adjusted to this new schedule. The last three nights though, she's cut out the 1 am feeding so I've been able to sleep from 11 to 4. This feels like heaven! Then after she's done eating at 7 am, I bring her back into bed with me and we snuggle and nap until about 10 so I'm slowly starting to feel more rested. There was a night the first week she was home that she up every. single. hour. it was killer (and of course we had family picture the next day so I'm sure we all look just lovely in them).

This week she has started to be much more alert during the day and enjoys looking at her black and white animal book and into the mirror. It's fun to watch her study the cute baby in the mirror - she's fascinated by her.

Other highlights from her first three weeks:

She loves her daddy is instantly calmed by him.
She enjoys going on walks with her grandma and grandpa Spiers on the Lagoon trail. She seems to really enjoy being outside.
She does not like a binky and will not take one.
She's started taking a bottle and seems to be doing well. I'm loving this because it has given me a little freedom. Yesterday, I was even able go to Target by myself!
She is extremely well loved and maybe even a little spoiled by everyone in our families. It pays off to be the first grandchild on both sides!
She makes the funniest facial expressions. They happen so quickly that I haven't caught them on camera but some of them make me laugh out loud. I love it! One of my favorites is a little half smile with a nose crinkle. It'd so adorable.
She really rarely cries. She sort of grunt/squeaks when she's hungry and if I feed her when she starts showing her hunger singles she's good to go.

She's a great baby and we love her to death. This week, Danny and I have both mentioned that we feel like we're starting to get the hang of things and our life doesn't feel quite so chaotic as it did the first week.

And now the fun part, a few pics from the last few weeks. I have many more on my camera that I haven't uploaded yet.

Sleeping in her swing, 4 days old.
Taking a nap with Daddy.
Sweet dreams at 10 days old.
First (sponge) bath at home.
Sweet baby on one week birthday.
Resting on Daddy's lap at 4 days old.

ella's birth story

2010-08-21T18:17:00.003-06:00

This may be long and boring but I wanted to jot down Ella's birth story while it's still fresh on my mind (and while the little Miss is sleeping and I have a spare minute).

At my 40 week appointment, I still hadn't made any progress. Despite having many strong contractions I was still "closed." My doctor is not a fan of inducing first time moms because it can increase the risk of having a c-section. From the beginning he said that he'd let me go up to a week past my due date before scheduling an induction. Fortunately for me, he was going on vacation and wanted me to be delivered before he left (and I did too - I don't think the delivery room is the ideal place to be meeting a new doctor).

So, we scheduled an appointment for me to go into the hospital Tuesday night (August 10th - my official due date) to do an overnight "cervical ripening" to prepare my body for the pitocin.

Here I am right after we'd checked in. 40 weeks and 1 day. My belly was giant, but I still can't believe there was a whole person in there!

I had a total of three doses and the the third dose, given at 3:30 am put me into full blown labor. The contractions were coming strong and fast and I was given an epidural at about 6:00 am. And for all of you pregnant girls reading this, getting the IV was much worse than getting the epidural (could be that they had to dig for a vein and then switch arms...). I was always nervous about the epidural but it was seriously no big deal. I was anxious for the relief from the contractions so I was excited to get it.

My doctor came to the hospital at 8:00 to check on me and break my water. At this point I was dilated to a 2.

Unfortunately, the majority of my labor was in my back, which the anesthesiologist informed me they were unable to do anything about. The epidural also didn't numb all of the necessary areas so I could feel my catheter in addition to the baby pressing against my spine on her way down. So I was in a lot of pain during that time. My mom and Danny were in the room with me trying to comfort me and feeding me ice chips.

The nurse was estimating that I'd be ready to deliver between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. At about noon I had an intense urge to push and I told my mom. She let me know that that usually means I'm ready so she got the nurse to check on me again. (She had been checking me throughout the morning and I was dilating fairly quickly.) She came in and checked and I was fully dilated. She had called the doctor and he was on his way but not yet to the hospital. I told her I had to push and I was going to whether she said I could or not. The epidural was obviously wearing off for me to be able to feel that urge so strongly. The nurse recommended I not renew it because if I could feel the urge it would make the delivery go much more quickly.

My mom left the room and the nurse let me start pushing a little and the baby was already crowning when the doctor came into the room. It was just after 12:00 so he was surprised at how quickly things had progressed. I pushed for a little while and Ella was born at 12:44. The actual delivery was not bad. Even though my epidural was wearing off, the pain wasn't bad and it felt good to get her out! It was actually very helpful to be able to feel the contractions because I knew exactly when and how to push.

There was a little meconium in the amnionic fluid so as soon as she was born the doctor had to quickly cut the cord and pass her off to a respiratory therapist before she took her first breath so she wouldn't get any of the fluid in her lungs. Fortunately, they were able to do so and there were no complications. Danny watched as they weighed and measured her and then they brought her to me.

It was amazing looking into the face of the little person who had been growing inside of me. She really didn't cry and was very alert to all of the things going on around her. When they placed her on my chest, she looked up at me with big wide eyes and just stared at me. We spent the next half an hour or so bonding as a little family and trying to feed her. It was amazing how fast and how strong you can love a new baby.

In the mean time, our families were in the waiting area anxiously waiting for news that she was here. I had told the nurse to let them know that she was here and we were both doing fine and that I just wanted to try to feed her right away. But I guess the nurse got distracted and didn't tell them. My mom overheard crying from our room when she went to the nurse station so she was nervous when they didn't come get them right away and was worried that something went wrong with me or the baby.

After we'd been with her and had attempted to nurse we invited our immediate families into the room to see her. Everyone was very excited to meet the first little grand baby and be reassured that everything had gone smoothly for both of us.

I had been really nervous beforehand about the actual process of having a baby, but honestly, with an epidural (even one that isn't fully effective) it really isn't that bad. Nothing like they make it look in the movies. And the end result is completely worth it.

Our first picture as a family of three.

head over heels in love

2010-08-13T18:53:00.004-06:00

with this little one.

Introducing...

Ella Lu Hafen

7 pounds 3 ounces
19 inches
born August 11th at 12:44 pm

More pictures and info to come!

Here's a few more that were taken by the hospital.

it's time to go

2010-08-10T11:28:00.003-06:00

According to our baby countdown on the right, it's time to go! Apparently baby girl didn't get the memo.

But...

we're checking into the hospital this evening and I'm going to be induced tomorrow morning! I absolutely cannot believe that we are having a baby tomorrow! I'm so excited and nervous and full of emotions. I'm taking care of the last minute details today and watching the clock tick closer and closer to 6:00 when we check into the hopsital.

Any last words of advice?

Here we go, this is really happening! Stay tuned for pictures of the Little Miss!

showered!

2010-08-07T16:27:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned, I was spoiled by those around me with some fabulous showers to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl.

The first was an incredible family shower that had everyone from mine and Danny's family. It was a full house and a ton of fun.

My wonderful Aunt Lisa and cousin Jessica planned the shower and had everything perfect down to the smallest detail.

The decorations:
Diaper cake:

The loot! We were definitely spoiled with tons of cute baby gear!

Then I had a work shower. Here I am at about 35 weeks pregnant in front of a cute sign one of the ladies I work with made. It was very fun and our little one will be one well dressed baby as a result.

Finally, the sweet girls in my ward threw me a shower. I was touched by how many people came and showed their support for us and again, I got some super adorable baby gear. I am loving all things baby!

Here I am at 38 weeks:

The adorable decorations and spread.

Cute, huh?

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make these showers happen and to those who came and showed their support for our little family.

the nursery reveal

2010-08-05T19:46:00.006-06:00

As promised, here are pictures of the nursery.

My wonderful husband painted the walls a lovely shade of blue gray. He was skeptical about painting our baby girl's room blue at first but we both love how it turned out. It's a very calming color.

Danny and my dad hung the chandelier and Danny installed a dimmer switch to control it. I think I'll really appreciate not having blinding, bright lights in the middle of night.

I had a hard time finding bedding that I liked so I went to the fabric store and fell in the love with this print. My talented mom made the bumper and I made the skirt and throw pillow.

The wall above the crib is waiting for her name. I have the letters in red to spell out our top three names. Once we've decided we'll get them hung.
The frames are ready for pictures of our little one. There are also empty frames on the bookshelf for our soon to be taken family pictures.

Here are some close ups of some of the details in the room.

I made these balls out of fabric and chinese lanterns. I really like how they look but they took forever to make. A much bigger project than I bargained for.
The cute knobs on the dresser. I replaced the ones that came with it with letters A through G.
So there you have it. It's definitely not perfect, but we're happy with it. I can't wait to welcome our little one to her room.

I'm Back!

2010-08-02T09:58:00.003-06:00

It has obviously been awhile since my last post. I think I'll play the pregnancy card to explain my absence. I feel like Danny and I have been going a million miles an hour getting ready for our little girl to come into our family and unfortunately, blogging fell to the bottom of my list.

I'm kicking myself now though because I wish I would have been better at documenting my pregnancy. I have started a scrapbook so that makes me feel a little bit better but I'm going to put together a weak attempt at a catch up post so that when the little miss finally decides to make an appearance I will be able to start fresh from there.

So in quick bullet point fashion the last few months we:

Went on a babymoon/work trip with Danny's company to Cancun, Mexico back in April. It was a blast but I didn't take many pictures because I wasn't a fan of the whole pregnant in a swimming suit look. Now that I have probably doubled in size, I'm realizing I probably didn't look that bad (but definitely not cute like all of the other girls laying by the pool, oh well, everyone needs to be humbled now and then, right?). It was a unique trip because my pregnancy forced us to slow down and have a laid back vacation instead of our typical activity packed ones. It was nice but I'm looking forward to future trips of actually being allowed to do things. Zip lines, here we come!
Finished our little one's nursery. I am in love with how it turned out and will posting all of the details and pictures this week.
Finished our landscaping. This is more Danny than me because in case I haven't mentioned it enough, I'm pregnant. I did try to help where possible but my studly husband with the help of his fabulous family did most of the work. I think it looks great and am very excited to enjoy spending time playing in the backyard with our baby girl.
Have enjoyed several fun family bbq's, holidays, the annual Kaysville parade and all other things summer. I love summer time.
Have had several baby showers and have loaded up on all things baby girl. I am so grateful to everyone who put forth so much effort to put together fun parties to celebrate our upcoming arrival and to everyone who came to support us. Our little family feels well loved. I'll post pictures from the showers later this week as well. The decorations and efforts that went into them are far too fabulous not to have a post of their own.
Continued to watch our little miss grow and develop. It's such an amazing experience to have a baby growing inside and even though she often makes me hot, tired and uncomfortable, I am grateful to be a part of this miracle and wouldn't trade it for the world.

I think that about sums up the last little bit. I'm sure I'm leaving some things out but whatever. Now we're onto the final countdown...just 8 days until my due date so baby girl can come anytime now. I'm full of emotions: nervous, excited, anxious...you name it. I can't believe Danny and I are going to be someone's parents in about a week!

Vegas!

2010-05-25T15:32:00.004-06:00

(We took pictures of our trip, but I look like I ate the Marshmallow Man in all of them so I am going to avoid posting them.)

This year for my birthday (way back in April) Danny surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas to go see the Broadway production of The Lion King! I was so excited because I love going to shows and was bummed to hear that Lion King was going to be in Utah in August - and we're pretty much booked that month.

When I got home from work on Thursday, Danny was in our bedroom packing overnight bags. He had intended to just pack mine and then surprise me in the morning - but he got stuck on the shoes. He did a pretty good job with everything else, but I'm a chronic over-packer and I like to have my stuff so I was happy to pick up where he left off.

He then let me know that we were (surprise!) spending the weekend in Vegas! He had already made arrangements with my boss for me to miss work on Friday and had taken care of everything around our house so it was fun to just pick up and go.

We spent our time in Vegas lounging by the awesome pool at our hotel, MGM Grand, shopping, and eating. I loved spending time just relaxing and hanging out with Danny. It seems like life always gets so crazy busy so it was fun to sit back and relax. We even enjoyed the car ride and had fun talking about life and our upcoming addition.

The show was amazing. Danny scored us awesome seats near the front and it was incredible to see the costumes up close.

It was a great birthday and nice celebration of my last birthday before becoming a Mom!

it's offical...

2010-03-17T11:58:00.004-06:00

We just got back from our "big" ultrasound appointment and we are definitely having a baby...

girl!

I'm so excited!

It was so fun to see her sucking her thumb and stretching her legs. I can't wait to meet her in 5 months!

book worms

2010-03-04T14:40:00.005-07:00

Have you read this?

If not, I highly recommend doing so. Danny and I loved it. A big thanks to my lovely sister, Ashley for telling me about it and lending us her copy.

I started reading it Sunday afternoon and after a few chapters I could tell that not only was I going to really enjoy it, but Danny would really like it as well. I gave him a synopsis of what the book was about and he seemed intrigued. When he came in later for an update I told him he really should read the book himself. He started reading that evening (keep in mind we only had one copy so he picked it up when I took a break) and couldn't put it down. I very generously decided to let him keep reading until he caught up with me. I was on page 200.

He read until 1:00 in the morning, leaving me in the dust.

We were both hooked.

Danny kindly offered to just hurry and finish it so that I could read it. Yeah right. It was obvious that neither one of us wanted to wait for the other, so after I caught up to him, we sat, side by side and read it together until we finished. Not out loud though because that would slow us down. And when I had to take a bathroom break (have I mentioned I'm pregnant?) I took the book with me so he wouldn't sneak ahead.

So yeah, we're big nerds. But the book is really that good.

I have to admit, I loved having Danny right there with me through the book. There were a couple of times we'd pause and ask the other a question or react together when something surprising or tense happened and it made the story that much more fun.

I just picked up the second book of the trilogy, Catching Fire, (I didn't put the link to that book because the two sentence synopsis gives away the ending to the first book so do not read it until you've finished the first book!) today at lunch. I only got one copy.

So, if you're looking for a good book to read, add this to your list. And maybe recruit your husband/significant other to join you.

we're having a...

2010-03-02T15:34:00.003-07:00

How has it been 3 weeks since my last post? I guess time is flying by without me realizing it because I can tell you from my pregnant perspective it feels like time is moving very slowly.

Of course it could be partially due to the week I spent suffering the ravages of The Cold from Hell. I can honestly say I have never been so sick in my entire life. On top of all of my lovely cold symptoms (sore throat, cough, congestion, ear congestion...), I also had the pleasure of dealing with morning (all day) sickness and pink eye! Seriously pink eye!?! And of course, since I'm pregnant my choice of medicines was very limited. Much to my dismay, I was not able to chug a bottle of Nyquil and sleep. But I am glad to say that I am now back to the land of the living and doing much better.

Moving on...

We had our highly anticipated 16 week appointment to find out the gender of our bundle of joy but unfortunately the baby was curled into a tight little ball sleeping during the entire ultrasound (even though I did drink a glass of juice before the appointment to be sure it'd be up and active). So the doctor took a guess of what he thinks it is and as far as he could tell, we're having a...

girl!

We were both shocked because all along we (and pretty much everyone else we know) have assumed we were having a boy. So now I've been trying to switch gears and think of girl names, girl nursery decorations and girl everything. But at the same time I'm holding off on getting too excited for all things pink and frilly because the doctor wasn't really sure. We go back on March 17th for our "big" ultrasound appointment so hopefully we'll know for sure then.

14 weeks!

2010-02-08T14:48:00.003-07:00

Danny and I had our 14 weeks appointment today. Unfortunately, there was no ultrasound but we did get to hear his/her heartbeat. The little guy (or girl) was very active, flipping and moving around so it was a little difficult for the doctor to keep up with the location of the heartbeat. Looks like we have an active baby on our hands, just like his/her dad!

We go back in 2 weeks to find out the gender! I absolutely can't wait! Danny is thinking it's a boy based off of a bizarre dream he had the other night (basically our infant child had enough of us and took off walking down the street to find some milk from someone else...). My mom also thinks it is going to be a boy. I honestly have no motherly instincts and have no idea what I think it's going to be. Do you have any guesses?

In other news, I am really enjoying the 2nd trimester so far. I don't want to jinx myself, but the nausea has decreased a lot and I'm feeling more and more human each day. I actually have a trace of energy back and it feels great. I'm hoping I can enjoy the next few months and start working on preparations for our upcoming addition.

I've Been Busy

2010-01-22T15:18:00.007-07:00

I have a good excuse for my lack of blogging lately...

I've been busy growing this:
It's a lot of work creating organs and limbs!

This ultrasound was actually taken about 2 weeks ago so I'm just about 12 weeks along, due August 10th. Danny and I couldn't be more excited! As soon as the double lines appeared I couldn't stop laughing and smiling. We had both sort of sensed that I might be pregnant before I actually took the test so the night we found out Danny was prepared with this adorable gift.
We announced to both of our families on Christmas by giving our moms the "Grandma" Willow Tree figurine (are you seeing a theme? I love those things!) since this will be the first grandbaby on both sides. Seeing everyone's reactions was by far the best part of Christmas. Everyone is thrilled!

Unfortunately pregnancy and I don't get along very well. I've been sick and tired pretty much nonstop since about 6 weeks. You know it's bad when you have a designated bathroom at your house that is to be used for the sole purpose of throwing up. Not fun but everyone keeps reassuring me that it's all worth it. And now that we've been able to see the little bean swimming around and hear its heartbeat, I couldn't agree more. Danny has been great to take care of everything around the house: cleaning, shopping, cooking, laundry, waiting on me, you name it. The thought of even approaching the garbage can, opening the fridge or standing within 2 feet of the kitchen sink send me running to the (designated) bathroom. I'm hoping that as I approach the second trimester I'll start to feel better and not be such a slug.

So now starts the countdown! August 10th can't get here soon enough!

halloween

2009-11-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's a little late but I thought I'd post a little something about Halloween. We were super big slackers and didn't dress up this year. I had grand plans, however, life got busy and before we knew it, it was too late.

Oh well, maybe next year.

Anyway, we did at least get around to carving pumpkins:

Our masterpieces:

For Halloween we stayed home and passed out candy until about 8:00. I love seeing all of the cute kids in their costumes and everyone in my primary class was so excited to show off! I loved it!

Then at 8:00, we turned off our lights and headed over to Danny's parents house where all of his little cousins were to see their costumes and have pizza with them. It was so fun to see them empty their bags and begin the sorting and trading process. I loved doing that as a kid! And can I just say that kids are so spoiled now - when I was little if I got just one full sized candy bar I thought I'd totally scored! Apparently that's more of the norm now! Wow, I sound old.

jazz game - opening night

2009-11-05T14:59:00.003-07:00

*I'm still going to be going private soon so if you haven't already, please leave a comment on this post (comment moderation is on so you comment with your info won't show). I've had a few wonderful surprises of people who have found me and are reading so I'm hoping everyone will comment. It makes me sad to think of missing the opportunity to stay in touch with someone!*

It is basketball season once again, and the Jazz had their opening home game Friday night. I loved it!

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang the National Anthem and it was amazing. I got goosebumps listening to them.

They then introduced the team with fireworks, Maori warrior dancers and a bunch of other theatrics that I can't remember. It was awesome!

One of my favorite parts was the costume contest at half time. The winner got a pair of season tickets! There were some amazing costumes. Some of my favorites were Homer and Marge Simpson, Mario, Lego Men and a super creepy Grim Reaper on stilts.

And of course, a game wouldn't be complete without Danny or I catching some sort of XL shirt. Friday night was no exception:

hello, cupcake

2009-11-03T13:54:00.006-07:00

*I'm still going to be going private soon so if you haven't already, please leave a comment on this post (comment moderation is on so you comment with your info won't show). I've had a few wonderful surprises of people who have found me and are reading so I'm hoping everyone will comment. It makes me sad to think of missing the opportunity to stay in touch with someone!*

For Jill's (Danny's little sister) 13th birthday we got her the book, "hello, cupcake" since she loves shows like Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes. This book has easy, adorable cupcake decorating ideas. As part of her present, we invited her over to our house to make the cupcakes of her choice.

She went for some adorable owls.

I made some chocolate cupcakes and Danny frosted them while Jill separated the Oreos for the eyes and I cut the cookie side in half for the ears.

Jill took care of separating the banana runts out for the beaks.
Then we put them together. An Oreo with a Jr. Mint in the center for the eyes, a banana runt for a nose and the other half of the Oreo for the ears. The tricky part was creating the feathers out of chocolate frosting but I think we got the hang of it.

The final product (I apologize for the crappy pictures, I had a photo shoot scheduled for immediately after we were done making these so I didn't want to pull out my camera and have to switch out memory cards for cupcake pictures.):

Cute Jill with her cupcakes.
Danny "testing" our work.
I took a few of the owls to my primary class the following day and they loved them!

the dreaded post

2009-10-28T12:46:00.004-06:00

I absolutely HATE when I'm happily blog stalking someone and then they post the dreaded post, you know what I'm talking about...

But it's time. I'm going private.

It has just started to weird me out to know that people can read this without me knowing that they are or even who they are. There are even a few people who I'd really rather not have reading my blog who I know do (don't worry it's not you...they would know who they are so don't be worried that I wouldn't invite you...)

So you know the drill. Email me at ddhafen{at}gmail{dot}com or leave a comment on this post with your email and I'll get you added (I've turned on comment moderation so your info will not show up for the world to see). And seriously, even if you are a blog stalker and I haven't seen or talked to you in 13 years, shoot me an email and I'll send you an invite! I'm guilty of the same thing!

I know this is a gigantic pain but once I know who is reading I'll feel a lot more comfortable posting and I'll do so more frequently. And that's a promise.

Oh and I'll probably be locking things down in about a week so if you want in, let me know soon!

our anniversary

2009-09-27T15:40:00.005-06:00

We had a lovely anniversary celebration.

I started the day with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Danny.

Our plan was to do sealings at the Salt Lake Temple and then go dinner. Unfortunately, we didn't take into account that the temple would be closed due to the Relief Society broadcast. Fortunately I checked the schedule before we left so we knew before we got down there.

Instead, we walked around temple square and downtown.

And then had dinner at the Melting Pot. Dinner there is served in courses with a break in between to heat the fondue so our dinner lasted over two hours. I'd only ever had dessert there so it was a fun new experience. The food was delicious and there was A LOT of it.

It was a good day.

one year ago today...

2009-09-26T15:20:00.005-06:00

I married my best friend. I feel so lucky to have found someone who "gets" me, who is so unbelievably patient with me and who, for some reason, loves me despite all of my shortcomings.

I don't want to get too sappy or braggy on a blog but it's our anniversary and I really feel lucky to have Danny for a husband. He works so hard all the time to make sure I am happy and taken care of - when he's not at work, he's usually working on something in the yard or on one of the million projects I've dreamed up to do inside. He spoils me rotten, like making me a big breakfast (i.e. eggs, toast, fresh cut fruit) every single morning before work or surprising me with flowers for no reason. He's a wonderful example to me of integrity, compassion and faith. And to top it all off, he's so much fun to be with and makes me laugh daily.

We've both commented on how it feels like we've been married so much longer than just one year. I think it's because we've done so much in such a short amount of time: moved from Denver, built a house, experienced heartache, had some fun times and grew together as a couple.

Danny's a great man and I'm happy I get to go through all of life's ups and downs with him. I honestly can't imagine my life without him.

I love you, babe. Thanks for an awesome first year!

girls weekend!

2009-09-09T16:42:00.003-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, my friends and I decided it was time for a little girls get away. We headed up to the beautiful Hotel Park City where we stayed in one of the cabins.

After checking in Friday afternoon, we went to dinner at Baja Cantina and then drove around Park City's Main Street. I love that city, it is gorgeous and even though it's not far from home, you feel like you're getting away.

Our room had a private hot tub out on the deck, so after dinner we got in the hot tub and spent the rest of the night talking. When we'd all had enough, we each put on a fluffy white robe and took the conversation inside.

Saturday morning, we woke up and had breakfast out on the balcony and spent the next couple of hours relaxing and talking. It's crazy how much fun sitting around and talking with your best girlfriends can be - that was seriously the highlight of my trip!

We finally decided to head out to get some lunch and spend the rest of the day shopping! We hit the outlets and then on our way home stopped at Nordstrom Rack. It was so nice to be able to wander in and out of stores with no worry about the time. It seems that the majority of the time I have a big long list of errands to run so I'm just running in and out stores. Being able to casually look around and spend my time was heaven.

It was such a fun weekend and I'm so glad we decided to go! It definitely needs to be (at least) an annual thing!

are you missing a chicken?

2009-08-21T11:00:00.006-06:00

Last night I was home alone because Danny was on a business trip. (He's home today so crazy stalkers need not come over.) I had a little to do list I was working my way through...yoga? check. organize linen closet? check. edit some pictures? check. catch up on Army Wives? check.

Then I came to the final item on my list...sweep the front porch and wipe down the bench and railings. They were all gross from a recent storm.

So I flipped on the light and stepped outside. And I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

I looked over and saw this:

A TURKEY! No wait it's a CHICKEN! It FREAKED me out! I ran back in the house, slammed the door and locked it. I realized then that I am scared of chickens. I could just see that thing swarming me, flapping its wings in my face and pecking out my eyes.

After standing inside the door for a second I got up the guts and peeked my head outside again. The chicken just sat there blinking its eyes and looking at me.

By the looks of things, this was not the first night the chicken has slept there. There are poop and feathers all over the window sill! Gross!

I spent the night thinking I could hear the chicken in the house and feeling things tickle me. It was not pleasant. I also laid in bed trying to decide what exactly to do with a chicken. I considered making "FOUND: Black Chicken" signs and hanging them around the neighborhood. I also thought about somehow (I couldn't figure out the details) taking it to a farm. Then I started to feel bad for the dumb thing and thought about bringing it out some food. I didn't though. The thought of more poop deterred me.

This morning when I woke up, I peeked out the window to see if it was still there and it was gone. But there was the neighbor's cat pacing around the porch...

new york!

2009-08-16T21:56:00.004-06:00

Can I just say I love New York? Last week I was able to go spend some time there with the fabulous Anne!

Last year when I went we packed a TON into a small amount of time. This year we kept up tradition and stayed busy and on our feet from the time we woke up until we fell exhausted into bed.

But I have to back up a little. My flight there was an eventful journey to say the least. Not only did I get asked out by a 15(!?!) year old who almost didn't believe me when I said I was 25 and married I was also approached by a woman in the ladies room at the Chicago airport about being in a movie she and her husband are producing, it's going to be called "Frisky's Bar" - I can only guess what that movie will be like. I was caught completely off guard by that because she was talking to me while we were waiting in line to use the facilities and it was super loud so I couldn't really hear her so was just doing my standard smile and nod routine. Suddenly she stopped talking, looked me in the eye and said in I'm not playing around voice, "No. I'm serious." I realized at this point that I had NO clue what we were talking about and was panicking wondering what the heck I'd been smiling and nodding along to. I tried to cover and scramble to figure it out. Then she presented me her card. Yikes! Fortunately it was my turn so I took her card and said I'd be in touch. It was nuts! (Oh and for the record, I have absolutely no intention of ever calling this woman or ever having anything to do with a movie titled "Frisky's Bar")

Anyway, now on to my actual trip.

The first day I was there we both completely forgot to take any pictures! But we had a lot of fun. We went to the wonderful Canal Street which was SO hot and crowded I thought I'd die. I didn't end up buying too much because we were both so uncomfortable. I did however, witness one of the vendors be taken down by police (like literally his face to cement) about 3 feet from where I was standing. It completely freaked me out. I wanted to run away. Anne, on the other hand, took it in a stride. I guess she's now an authentic New Yorker and stuff like that just doesn't phase her! We did purchase some DVD's which we later found out were filmed by someone in a theater so they are complete with random coughs, people walking in front of the camera, arms stretching up, you name it. I had no idea people actually did that!

While we were waiting for the subway on Canal Street we saw Spiderman! This guy was decked out head to toe! He even had some sort of sticky web thing that came shooting out of his wrist that he'd walk around shooting out onto walls. It was funny and a little creepy. He was dead serious about staying in character. I'm pretty sure he was the real deal.

We also went to SoHo and did a bunch more shopping. It was a little disappointing though because since we're in between seasons there wasn't a lot of selection. There was a lot of summer clothes on clearance to make way for new fall stuff. But looking on the bright side, I was able to get some killer deals on the things I did find.

And of course in between all that shopping we managed to find some fabulous places to eat.

Day two we decided would be a good day to take it easy since our feet were killing from all of the shopping and walking. So we got tickets to Mama Mia.

We started by going to brunch at a cute placed called Alice's Tea Cup. I loved it. The food was great and the place was adorable.

After brunch we went to the famous Dylan's Candy Bar to load up on treats for the show. That place is a candy lover's heaven. Fortunately I was still full from brunch or it could have been dangerous.

Then we went to see the show. I'd sort of seen the movie except I think I fell asleep while watching it because I don't really remember it. But I LOVED the show. The actors were great and the music was really fun.

After the show we met up with Anne's husband for dinner at a great little Mexican restaurant in Hell's Kitchen.

On my third and final day (not counting all of the dang travel time)we decided to do some more shopping and attempt to get ticktes to Jimmy Falon. Unfortunately we weren't able to get tickets which was a pretty big disappointment but we still had fun.

We went shopping and out to lunch. We were going to go to Serendipity again but the wait for lunch was over an hour and we were starving so instead we went to California Pizza Kitchen...really unique I know! We then went and got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. I can see what all the hype is about - they were delicious!

We then ventured out, on one of the hottest most humid days of the year, to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was awesome and it was fun to look over and see the Statue of Liberty and Empire State building while crossing.

After our walk we went to dinner at Max Brenner's Chocolate Restaurant. That is such a fun restaurant with tons of good food and desserts!

It was such a fun trip and a much needed break.

While I was away Danny went fishing with his dad, brothers and uncles in Alaska. I think I'm going to have him write his first ever blog post to document it.

july in a nutshell

2009-08-06T08:45:00.001-06:00

Hello?

*crickets*

Does anyone even stop by here anymore? I've become a pretty big blog slacker lately. I'm going to try to get better though since my original plan was to make a blog book once a year for a little keepsake since I don't scrapbook. So here we go - this could be a long one.

I can't believe July is over. How is this summer going by so fast!?! Danny and I have been super busy around the house. He poured cement to extend our patio and to create a sidewalk that connects the front yard to the back.

We painted! Wahoo! I'm sure you can imagine my excitement. My wonderful DIY husband, insisted on doing all of these projects himself. I am one who can get easily overwhelmed and really just wanted to hire it out but he assured me he could do it and it wouldn't be too bad. And? He was right. For the most part. It was a lot of work (for Danny) but the finished project looks great! The paint job looks much better than the original one done by the "professionals" (I use the word lightly). Danny is a big time perfectionist so when I would try to help, he'd just chase me away because apparently I suck at painting. Who knew? I LOVE the new color and how it looks with everything else. I am so happy we did it!
We also found some time to do some nonhouse related things family barbeques, time spent with friends, firworks, typical July type activities.

The highlight of the month for Danny was probably getting LASIK done on his eyes. He's been wanting it done for awhile so he doesn't have to deal with contacts when he goes camping and when he plays sports so he was thrilled. I took him to the appointment and watched the procedure on the screen in the waiting room. I would not recommend doing that if you are at all squeamish. It was nasty! There were other people in the waiting room who were waiting for their turn to have it done and I don't know how, after watching it, they could possibly want to go through with it! But it was amazingly fast. From the time we got out of our car in the parking lot to the time we were back in our car on the way home was about 45 minutes. The actual laser procedure was probably less than a minute. My favorite part though, was that Danny had to wear these plastic bug-eye shields on his eyes for the first 24 hours and then to sleep for a week. Since he hated the way the tape felt and the sticky residue it left, he used one of my headbands and some nice pink string and rigged this together:

Very lovely, don't ya think? The procedure was a success and he now has 20/15 vision in both eyes. He loves driving down the road and reading signs at a distance and checking to see if he can see things better than I can.

We spent the last weekend of the month camping in Idaho at my annual family reunion. I loved getting away from all of the home improvement projects and real life for a weekend. Danny loved fishing...even though he didn't catch a single fish...while I enjoyed reading and we both enjoyed relaxing and spending time with the fam. This family reunion was my grandma's side (her brothers and sisters and their families - it's a pretty big group) and it was fun to see them. Her sister Carol reminds me a lot of her and it was bittersweet to be around her because her mannerisms and expressions made me think a lot about my grandma. It was a fun little trip in a beautiful spot and very refreshing to get away.

Oh and I bought a mirror...a very large mirror. I was at IKEA and I saw this gigantic mirror that I thought was so cute and would be perfect for above our stairs and it was only $100! I was excited because big mirrors like that at Pottery Barn are over $500. So I of course bought it! But then when I had the 16 year old IKEA worker take it out to the car I realized there was a problem - I was in Danny's car and not an SUV. I thought I'd just be able to put the seat down and it'd be fine. Um, not so much. The 16 year old IKEA worker suggested that I just strap it on the roof. I thought that was a fabulous idea and told him to go for it after he assured me that it would not fall off on the freeway and kill anyone. Because everyone knows that a 16 year old IKEA worker knows his stuff and one should always believe everything he says. He pulled out some straps and wrapped them around the mirror and then through the windows of the car to hold it down on the roof. As I was pullling he away he said, "I don't think that'll fall off but if it does, I'm sorry!"

So feeling very reassured I started my 45 minute drive home. I was horrified the entire drive home. People were giving me the weirdest looks as I drove along and all of the cars were giving me plenty of room. I had car leprosy. There'd be a bunch of traffic, a large gap, me, a large gap, and then another bunch of traffic. I had to call my friend Brittany because I was so embarassed and it's easier to go through something humiliating with someone there (or on the phone) than alone, right?

But, the mirror and I both made it home in one piece. When Danny came out in the garage to see the large mirror I'd told him about, he was in shock that I'd actually strap something to the roof of his car...something about scratching the paint? Fortunatly for me no damage was done and all was well.

Anyway, at the request of Brittany here is the picture of how I looked driving down the road! But it was worth it because the mirror is cute and it was cheap.

Now the next chore will be figuring out how to hang it here:

Because I'm sure I've forgotten 83% of what we actually did in July, I'll hopefully be a little better about the updates in August. We both have some fun things coming up that I'm sure we'll be posting.

one year ago today...

2009-07-04T14:18:00.004-06:00

the man of my dreams got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

I'm so glad I said yes.

(If you haven't read our proposal story, you should. It's a classic.)

my first bridal session

2009-06-06T22:16:00.005-06:00

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot my first bridal session! I loved it.

I loved how the pictures turned out (check out my website to see a few more from our session). It definitely helped that I had an absolutely gorgeous couple to work with.

I'm very excited to shoot their wedding!

may recap (that's right - it's been almost a whole month!)

2009-05-29T14:35:00.002-06:00

So apparently when you don't blog for awhile, too much happens in between, you get overwhelmed and then don't blog anything thus allowing even more to happen and allowing the whole cycle to continue.

We have been insanely busy since we moved into our house! We've been unpacking, hanging pictures (Danny), sewing curtains and throw pillows(me), making millions of trips to Target/Pottery Barn/Wal-Mart/Tai Pan/Costco for various essentials and now we're working on our yard!

We spent Memorial Day weekend slaving away tilling, raking and shoveling all of the rocks in our entire yard. Apparently, since we had the last lot in the nieghborhood, our yard was the rock dumping ground for everyone else. Nice. Danny's parents were SO awesome and called us up Saturday morning and offered to come help. We got a ton done and I'm really looking forward to getting everything in and having a big old BBQ in the backyard to celebrate! We are having two big loads of topsoil delivered today to mound up our beds and we're pouring some cement to extend our patio and add a sidewalk from the front yard to the back this week. Next comes installing the sprinkler system and then we're ready for grass! I can't wait!

Also since my last post Danny had his birthday! And since I'm pretty much the worst wife ever I didn't even mention it on here. He is getting a new BBQ as soon as he can finally decide which one he wants. I was just going to surprise him with one but changed my mind and just let him know that's his gift and he can pick out "the one" -which has proven to be quite a big decision. Must be a guy thing. He also was able to take a break from the house/yard work and go golfing at Talon's Cove with his brothers (even though he also goes golfing every Tuesday evening) and then we had dinner at Famous Dave's. It was a good day and he definitely deserved it. He's been working his tail off getting us settled into our house and does so much for me every single day. I really lucked out when I got him.

We also celebrated Mother's Day and even though I'm not a mother quite yet, Danny surprised me with a "Future Mother's Day" present...a trip to New York in August to visit one of my most favorite people, Anne. I seriously can't wait! Last year was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again!

The last big event in May was that Danny's youngest brother entered the MTC where he will spend 12 weeks before flying across the world to serve in South Korea! I'm really excited for him.

And finally, because many of you asked, here are some pictures of our house now that we've unpacked. These aren't exactly "after" pictures because there's still a ton to do so think of them as "middle" pictures.

Here's our kitchen. You can kind of see the cafe curtains I made. They're definitely not perfect but considering the fact that I was pretty much just winging it, I'm quite proud of myself.

Here's a shot of part of the living room/great room/whatever you call it. I made the striped pillow but the ivory ones and the curtains are courtesy of Pottery Barn - thank goodness for gift cards!

This is the part where I need your help:

I'm thinking I want to paint he mantel white. That was always my intention and we didn't pay the extra $400 to have the mantel stained and glazed but the builder forgot and they ended up doing it anyway, free of charge. But now that it's done it makes it a little more difficult to want to paint over it. But I'm thinking I want to anyway. What's your opinion?
Does anyone have some creative ideas of cute things to hang on the wall above the mantel?

moving day

2009-05-07T10:16:00.003-06:00

We closed on our house last week! We closed on Thursday, April 30th and picked up the keys on Friday, May 1st.

Our initial plan was to load up all of my stuff that has been stored in my grandma's basement for the last few years, drive it to Kaysville and then unload it Saturday morning. Danny and I left work early on Friday, drove down to Orem to get the truck and with the help of a few guys from my grandma's greenhouse we loaded everything in. It went much quicker than I thought it would so Danny made a few phone calls and had his brothers meet us at our house that evening to unload.

Danny did a great job of driving the big truck. He loved it and said that he wouldn't mind driving one all the time. (He also says that he wants a gigantic tractor every time we drive by one...there may be some farm life in my future...)

We repeated that process at both my parent's house and Danny's parent's house. That's what we get for having our stuff stored all across the Wasatch Front. Finally we had everything in our house.

Home sweet home.

We are obviously still getting settled in. Fortunately, it looks a little bit better now that we've been there a few days. We've unpacked pretty much all of the boxes, set up and arranged the furniture, bought and hung some mirrors in the bathrooms and even had shutters installed on the windows. It starting to feel more and more like home. After 7 months of being married I'm loving finally having a place of our own with both of us living in the same state!

senior photo shoot

2009-04-28T22:04:00.000-06:00

To see more of this gorgeous senior, check out my photography blog.

Enjoy.

P.S. Brittany, her eye makeup looked great!

GO JAZZ GO!

2009-04-24T10:31:00.004-06:00

As most of you know, Danny is a HUGE Jazz fan! And his love and excitement for the team have worn off on me! (Who'd have guessed?) We have season tickets that we share with two others so we are able to go to about a third of the games (unless Danny decides to sell them).

We went the other night to the Clippers game. It was fun, mainly because I caught one of the parachutes and got a free 2XL Taco Bell Jazz Shirt! Too bad I didn't keep my Bees shirt, I would have a nice collection!

But the true excitement came last night at the first home playoff game against the Lakers! My wonderful boss gave Danny and I the company tickets so we had awesome seats! It worked out nicely because then Danny's two brothers could use their season tickets so we all could go. The game was SO intense! I was on my feet for the majority of the game screaming, jumping and cheering. I thought I was going to have a heart attack during the final 2 minutes but as you probably know the Jazz pulled it off and won!

I have to post at least one of us in our matching D Will shirts even though my hair looks awful in this picture! I'm going to blame it on the jumping and sweating.

we're still alive

2009-04-21T14:27:00.005-06:00

Okay the whole painting thing wasn't that dramatic. It definitely didn't deserve to be the top post for over a week causing everyone to think that it's the absolute end of the world. I'll admit when I first saw it, it was right up there with life or death. But now that a little time has passed, we've decided to concentrate on getting moved in first before we do anything drastic. If I still don't like it once there's furniture in we'll get it painted.

Anyway, believe it or not we do have some more interesting stuff going on than just paint.

I celebrated my birthday a little over a week ago (April 11th). I had mixed feelings about turning 25. For some reason that just sounds so much older than 24. I'm out of my early 20's and quickly approaching 30. I'm pretty sure it's all downhill from here. (I'm sure I'll read that sentence in 5 or 10 years and want to smack myself.)

The morning of my birthday, Danny woke me bright and early (like 7:00 am on a Saturday!) singing Happy Birthday with a cake complete with many burning candles. I was still half asleep and couldn't really open my eyes because the candles were so bright. He then brought me in breakfast in bed with a sweet card that played music when I opened it. Every time I opened it he did a little jig. It was pretty funny.

He gave me some play tickets that I had mentioned I wanted and the open invitation to go to Gateway that afternoon for some much needed shopping followed by dinner - and the best part was that he was going to happily accompany me which was a huge deal since he hates shopping.

Unfortunately we had a change of plans because the weather wasn't cooperating. Instead we ran a few other errands, mainly house stuff and then went out to dinner. I postponed my Gateway trip until the following Saturday because it's so much more fun when it's sunny. We ended up going last Saturday and after going through all of the stores I only found 2 shirts! Don't you hate it when you actually have money and are wanting to buy something and you can't find anything? That always happens to me. We then had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen where I ordered a pear pizza (it was actually really good - you should try it).

In other news, we had the final walk through on our house this morning. Everything looks good and we're going to be closing next week, probably on the 30th and moving in on May 2nd. I can't wait!

painting drama

2009-04-09T09:34:00.004-06:00

The other night Danny and I made our traditional stop by the house on the way home. The past few days not much as been happening so we weren't expecting any huge changes. When we stepped inside we saw that they'd carpeted.

And my stomach dropped.

I love the color of the carpet. I love the color of the walls. But together? Not so much. I stood there trying to 1) not throw up and 2) not burst into tears.

Remember how when they painted we had the discussion of warmer and cooler with the wall color? And remember how I was like "oh I wish they were a little cooler" - well I'm taking that back now. The walls are way too cool for the carpet. The wall color is making the carpet look too gold and the carpet color is making the walls look like they have mauve. It's not a pretty sight.

Yesterday while at work I couldn't stop thinking about it so I took the company car (since Danny and I had driven together) and drove home to see it again. I had my mom meet me there to see what she thought. At first she was thinking that once I get furniture in there it'd be okay but the more she looked at it the more she agreed with me. We had to repaint the entire house.

When I told Danny what I wanted to do he was not excited but since I have the Best. Husband. Ever. he agreed to do it since it was obvious I wasn't going to be happy with how it was. I was beating myself up about it yesterday because I'm the one who chose the colors while Danny was in Denver and I'm the one who wanted to spend the extra money on three tone paint that we are now going to just be painting over anyway. It makes me sick to even think about.

We called around and since there's no prep work needed and we don't need to paint the baseboard or the ceiling it won't cost as much as I was thinking. For the areas we need to do it'll most likely be under $1000 which was a huge relief. I'm just going to leave the rooms that don't have carpet alone since the color looks good with the tile. We're also not going to paint the front bedrooms because we'll likely be painting those a color anyway when we turn them into nurseries and such.

I should post pictures of the colors but I don't even want to. I told Danny I don't even really want people to see our house until it's fixed because I feel like it looks so horrible.

fyi

2009-04-07T10:12:00.004-06:00

FYI, The Phantom and The Phantom of the Opera are two completely different shows. Maybe everyone out there is a lot smarter than I am, but this was a surprise to me.

On Friday night Danny and I had tickets to see The Phantom. I went and saw the Broadway production a few years ago when it was at Capitol Theater and was stoked to see it again. All day long I had the music playing in my head...Angel of Music...Think of Me... Masquerade... you get the idea.

After work Danny and I went to our favorite restaurant, Cafe Trio in Salt Lake City. Then excitedly went to see the show. The first song of the show I didn't recognize but I just figured that it was one of the more obscure songs that I didn't know. Danny leaned over and asked me when the familiar songs were going to be. I assured him they were coming and just to be patient. By the time intermission came I realized something was up. I swallowed my pride and asked another person in the theater if there were different versions of the show. Apparently there are and although the storyline was basically the same the music was definitely not.

We enjoyed the show, the performers were amazing and had incredible voices but doesn't everyone go see The Phantom (of the Opera) for the well-known music? Oh well. But now you have a fair warning so when you're getting tickets to see the show, make sure you know what version you're going to see. Fortunately the tickets were free from my work so we weren't out anything and we really did have a fun date night.

my first attempt at snowboarding

2009-04-01T18:42:00.000-06:00

Remember way back at Christmas when I got a snowboard and I was so excited to learn? Well Danny and I finally found time to go up to Wolf Creek on Monday after work.

I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I'm pretty hit and miss on all things that take any sort of skill. I usually either catch on on my very first try (i.e. wakeboarding - got up the first time) or I fail miserably and end up looking like an idiot (i.e. pretty much all sports). I was hoping that snowboarding would be one of those catch on right away things.

When we got up to the resort, Danny's parents, brother and sister were already there. I was secretly hoping that Danny and I were going to be able to go alone so that I wouldn't have an audience to watch me fail. But oh well.

We started by getting all of our gear on. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story - very puffy and awkward. I stepped into my snowboard and was having a difficult time balancing. Then came getting onto the chair lift. For some reason I was twisted around the wrong way and Danny had to pretty much pull me on. Nice way to start.

We talked about what to do on the way up and I started to feel pretty good about things. I was super nervous about getting off the lift but it was easy and I fortunately didn't fall. We strapped on our bindings, Danny gave me some more instruction and I went for it.

And guess what - it came to me like wakeboarding! I was thrilled! Of course I wasn't a pro but I made it down the mountain without really falling and was able to slow down and stop and sort of steer (apparently that's the tricky part).

The next time down the hill Danny felt that I was ready to learn to go "toe side" and go down the mountain backward. This was a lot more difficult than what I had been doing. My first try, Danny was kneeling behind me about 10 feet away watching. I was bent in half with my bum straight up in the air going backward. I managed to aim directly for Danny who got my bum covered in snow right in his face. I thought it was hilarious. On my next attempt I "caught an edge" with my snowboard which made me fall flat on my back and hit my head. Hard.

I got up and tried again but my head was killing me and I was over thinking things so I wasn't doing as well. I made it to the bottom and we decided to go up the lift again. On the way up Danny was asking me about my head and then he started thinking about Natasha Richardson and had pretty much determined I was dying by the time we made it to the top. It was actually pretty cute how concerned he was. I convinced him I was fine and we went down the mountain again. Danny has already informed me that I'm not allowed to go again until I get a helmet.

Overall snowboarding was really fun and I'm excited to do it again. But I'll have to wait a little bit because I'm still hurting from that fall. My neck hurts too much to turn my head and I feel like someone hit me in the back with a baseball bat. See, doesn't that sound fun?

fun photo shoot

2009-03-27T21:16:00.004-06:00

I had the opportunity to work with this adorable mother and daughter last weekend.

I loved it!

If you want to see more check out my photo blog.

wanna see more house pictures?

2009-03-25T15:33:00.006-06:00

Okay, here you go.

This is the railing that I'm absolutely in love with. When you brush off the inch of dust it looks fabulous. You can also see the slightly "warmish" paint color in the background.

Next is the fireplace with the tile surround. I agonized over what tile to put around it but I'm happy I ultimately ended up going with a dark tile.

And here we have the kitchen tile. Just try to look past the grout residue (he'd just barely finished when we stopped by) and the many footprints. We did the big 20" tiles on a diagonal and the guy who laid it said it was one of the hardest jobs he's done because the tiles were too big for his saw. I felt bad but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I really wanted to put the same hardwood as is in the entry in the kitchen but we decided against it because 1) it was dang expensive and 2) tile is a little more durable with kids.

I don't think I ever posted a picture of the back of the house so here it is. I'm excited about the covered patio but we have to figure something else out for the steps. Since our house sits up so high they had to put a landing and four steps coming out the back that take up too much room on the patio. I'm thinking of having the steps just go straight out from the house instead of to the side. What do you think? We've talked to the builder and they're just waiting to here from us on what to do.

And finally here's another picture of the front (they still have to paint the garage and front door). The color is a little bit better but it's still hard to see because it's in the shade.

Finally, in other news, my car hit 100,000 miles the other day! And yes, I took a picture (don't worry you can see here I was stopped but apparently not wearing my seat belt, don't tell Danny). It's been a great car so far and I'm planning on driving it another 100,000!

more of the same

2009-03-19T10:25:00.003-06:00

I've been waiting to update until something super EXCITING happened, but it appears it may be an extended wait so here I am with more of the same.

We're still anxiously watching our house go up. They've painted, stained the railing and installed the lights. Our final walk through has been scheduled for April 21st. One month from Saturday. I cannot wait! I seriously daydream about having one place to store all of my things, my own kitchen, more than 10 square feet of space... Okay, I'm back.

I do think, however, that this is the most stressful stretch of the home building process. Danny and I are extremely picky, perfectionist type people so with each step of finish work we're in there examining the workmanship and calling in our concerns. I'm sure our sales rep is absolutely sick of us.

Our new tradition is to stop by the house every day on our way home from work (we've been carpooling most days). The other day when we saw that they'd painted the walls I wasn't 100% in love with the color. I wanted them to be slightly "cooler." I tried explaining this to Danny.

Me: I like the color but I wish it was just a little cooler.

Him: Oh so you want them to be browner?

Me: No, cooler.

Him: Oh darker?

Me: No, cooler.

Him: That's what I said, darker.

Me: No, cooler. Like as in not warm.

Him: {blinks} Whatever, I like the color.

According to my dad, it's a hopeless cause to try to teach men about color.

I searched online for the color to post here but I can't find it. It's Kwal "Keratin." We went back a day later and I decided I really do like the color so we're good. Potential crisis averted.

We're also in the process of getting our mortgage loan. It's all over the media how tight lending is right now. We're not having any problems finding people who want to lend to us but they are requiring a ton more documention and paperwork. It's been a fun process trying to explain that we sort of didn't have an address for the past 6 months and yes, I was working in Utah and Danny in Colorado.

Oh and finally the BIG change around here is that I colored my hair DARK. No more highlights for me. It'll take some getting used to, but I really like it and fortunately, so does Danny. Now I just need to work on getting a tan so I don't look like Snow White.

Well that could quite possibly be the world's most boring blog post but I felt like I needed to post something.

a few things i've noticed

2009-03-12T10:15:00.005-06:00

A few observations I've made over the past week or so:

It's not a good idea to try to run on the treadmill while watching The Soup. You will end up laughing too hard and almost kill yourself.

I really like open, honest and friendly people.

I also really like open, honest blogs. I'm getting sick of the whole "my life is better than yours" thing. No one's life is as perfect as they make it seem on their blog.
I've found it's impossible to wash my face without getting water everywhere.

Closing costs are the pits. (We haven't closed yet but we're starting to work on the mortgage process.)

I shouldn't be so quick to judge others. Case in point: Last night at Relief Society we were in line for a buffet style dinner and a lady behind behind me kept reaching up and dishing up the food before me so it was creating awkward moments in line. I was annoyed. But then after sitting by her and talking I realized that she is having a lot of personal problems right now. I felt so bad for getting bugged over nothing and promised myself that I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt from now on.

Don't count your eggs before they hatch (or is it chickens?). Anyway, there have been several instances the last month or so where Danny and I have assumed we've had something lined up only to have it fall through. In order to avoid future disappointments, I'm going with the mantra, "I'll believe it when I see it."

Carefully proof read your emails before sending them to "All Staff" to make sure they are clear and can't be taken the wrong way. I learned this one the hard way - I'm in HR and I sent an email to everyone in the company that asked them to describe "why their job exists." Can you guess how that was taken? Everyone was in a panic that they were losing their jobs when really all I'm doing is updating job descriptions. The sad thing is that I didn't know everyone was freaking out for 2 days because they were to nervous to say anything! I felt horrible. Dang economy for making people so jumpy. If I'd sent that last year no one would have thought twice.

Springing forward is the worst form of torture ever.

I am addicted to FreeCell. Admiting the problem is the first step.

When going to visit your house that is getting built don't go directly from work while still wearing high heels. They will end up covered in mud. If you do so anyway don't get home, take them off and forget about them. If you do so anyway, don't put them on and wear them to work and track mud around the office. It's not the best image.

my first newborn photo shoot

2009-03-05T20:31:00.007-07:00

Wanna see more of this cute little guy?

Check out my photography blog.

This was my first newborn photo shoot and I absolutely loved it. I was wishing Danny was there with me though because I'm pretty sure I could have convinced him we need to have one sooner than later because that little baby was so cute.

(And yes, I realize that it seems like all I post about lately is my house and photo shoots but that's pretty reflective of what's that's going on in my life right now.)

another house update

2009-03-03T10:08:00.004-07:00

Our house is going up incredibly fast, it's like Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Except for there's no Ty bouncing around.

Since I last posted they've almost finished with the brick and stucco.

This pictures makes the colors look a little off. The brick is actually a blended brick so there are different colors of brick mixed in, the stucco is more brown and the shingles are dark brown as well.

I debated about posting this pictures because it makes things look pretty blah. I really like how it came together though, which is a HUGE relief because I've been very worried about the exterior colors. It's so hard to pick them out when you're working with tiny little swatches.

They have also almost finished with the sheet rocking. We went by on Sunday (directly after church - Sunday clothes and all) and they had already taped and mudded it.

View looking from family room toward kitchen:
Master bedroom looking into bathroom:

View from front door:

{h} family photo shoot

2009-02-27T22:17:00.005-07:00

Okay, enough with the woe is me talk. Let's move onto something more pleasant like cute babies with bright blue eyes and squishy cheeks!

I loved working with this adorable family! Krista, I hope you enjoy - there are many more on their way to you.

To see a few more from this photo shoot go to my photography blog.

is it seriously monday already?

2009-02-23T13:46:00.010-07:00

Whew! Where did the weekend go? Danny and I were running around like CRAZY all weekend!

Saturday we both woke up early - which goes against everything I stand for since I literally start counting down the days until I can sleep in again Monday morning.

I went to Bukoos with Danny's mom and sister (you probably haven't ever heard of Bukoos but it's a crazy discount store that has all sorts of random stuff for SUPER good deals - remember those Frye shoes? That's where we got them!). They put out their new inventory Saturday mornings so we decided to go see if there was anything good. I got there 5 minutes before they opened and the line to get was already over 200 people long. Crazy! I'm a HORRIBLE shopper at those kind of stores. I get all disoriented and end up wandering around like I'm lost and just looking at what is in other people's baskets. People around me were bumping into me with their carts FULL of stuff and I was empty handed. I felt like a failure because I was missing out on stuff but I couldn't for the life of me find anything I wanted. Eventually I found a really cute venetian bronze soap dispenser for $6 and this Cuisinart Food Processor for $20. Not bad but not nearly as good as what others were leaving with (furniture, electronics, etc.), oh well.

Then I decided to be a good wife and go visit Danny who was busy putting up insulation in our garage. We had our four way walk through and the guy (I'm sure he has a name and a title but I don't remember either) told us that although it's not required and doesn't come standard with the house he recommends putting insulation in the garage. So Danny went to good old Home Depot, purchased insulation and him, his dad and uncle spent about 5 hours on Saturday putting it in. Tomorrow night he is going to be putting in speaker wire for a future (very much in the future) home theater system because they are going to be sheet rocking on Wednesday! I'm so glad that Danny is willing and able to do these things for our house because if it were up to me it would never be done.

But apparently I'm not that great of a wife though because Danny's mom thought to bring them all lunch. I only thought to stop by, say "hi" and take a few pictures.

Danny putting in the finishing touches:

The men admiring their hard work:

From there I went straight to Ogden to meet with Krista and her adorable family for a photo shoot. I'll be posting images from that later this week. I barely had time to upload them to my computer but I can say that what I saw looked awesome! I'm excited to show them to you Krista - despite what you say you are all very photogenic!

Then finally, we finished the day by going to the Jazz game! It was a great game, the Jazz won the Hornets 102-88. It was also neat because they did a tribute to Larry H. Miller. Unfortunately, we were about 2 minutes too late to see the video but we did see all sorts of people giving his family flowers, the players wearing his name on their jerseys and Deron Williams giving Larry's wife the game ball. It was really touching. You could feel a different mood in the arena that night.

Denver Photo Shoot

2009-02-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

While I was in Denver, I had the opportunity to take pictures of these two good looking kids. It was so much fun exploring downtown Denver and Mel did an awesome job at picking out their outfits. To see more of the photo shoot go to my photography blog.

House Getting Framed

2009-02-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Our house is coming along and is actually starting to look like a house!

I took these a couple of weeks ago before I went back to Denver.

Then Danny and I went over to our house the day after we got back and took these.

They've done a lot!

I didn't post many pictures of the inside because it's nearly impossible to tell what anything is in the pictures. But they also have the plumbing roughed in and some electrical work done! It's so fun to see it start to take shape!

We're Back!

2009-02-14T12:02:00.003-07:00

Our time in Denver is now officially over and we're back in Utah.

Danny's company gave him Thursday and Friday off to move so our plan was to pack and get ready to go on Thursday and then start driving Friday morning. Thursday morning we slept in, lounged around, watched Desperate Housewives and decided to check the weather. It's a good thing we did. The forecast showed snow all along our route for the entire day on Friday. We really didn't want to get stuck on the side of the road (especially since the night before we read Elder Cook's conference talk about him and his sons being stranded) so we made the last minute decision to leave that afternoon.

Obviously with the change of plans came a lot of frantic packing. Our apartment was pretty bare bones. We knew it was temporary so we made a concious effort to not accumulate things because everything we wanted to take back had to fit in Danny's car. However, I was still amazed at how much stuff we had. We got everything packed, loaded in the car and the place scrubbed down in about four hours.

The fact that we were able to get everything in our car is an absolute miracle. I had to take a couple of pictures becaue I was very impressed with Danny's loading ability.

(Yes, that is the mini fridge in the backseat! Danny wants to put it in his office so we stuffed it with miscellaneous items and loaded it in the car!)

We waited until 5:00 to leave so we could get our deposit from the apartment. Unfortunately when the guy got home he was in "too big of hurry" to give it to us so we gave him our address and he'll mail us a check. I'm not crossing my fingers.

The drive was smooth and uneventful until we got to Wyoming. Going through the mountains we encountered a blizzard. The wind was blowing the snow everywhere and you couldn't see where you were going. It was tense. We had decided beforehand that if we got too tired or if the roads got bad that we'd just get a hotel room for the night and finish in the morning. We started watching the signs for lodging. Turns out we were in the middle of nowhere and the nearest town was still 60 miles away. We were praying we'd make it.

Luckily when we came out of the mountains the snow eased up and the roads became decent. Since the conditions had improved we decided to just push on.

The rest of the drive went well. We listened to my iPod with Danny only complaining a couple of times about the volume of my singing. We ate treats - I think the rule of road trips is that you have to eat at least as many calories as the miles you drive. We talked. We laughed. We got a little slap happy around midnight. We got freaked out while stopped on the side of road in the middle of nowhere for Danny's "bathroom break." Overall, it was a fun trip.

We got to his parent's house at about 2:30 in the morning. I was dead tired. We carried a few things in and then collapsed into bed.

I'm glad that we're back to living in the same state as each other. No more nightmare airport experiences!

Valentine's Day Dilemma

2009-02-08T10:50:00.003-07:00

I have a dilemma - I cannot for the life of me think of anything to get Danny's for Valentine's Day. I've had this discussion with a couple of my friends and we've determined that Valentine's Day is a girl's holiday and we should be off the hook.

With that being said, I'd still feel bad if I didn't get Danny something. He knows that I'm having a difficult time with the whole thing and has told me not to worry about it.

Last night we had the following conversation:

{on our way to dinner}

Me: Just tell me five things that you want and then I'll pick one of them and give it to you. That way you'll end up with something that you like and it will sort of still be a surprise.

Danny: Let me think about if for a minute.

{at the restaurant after we'd ordered}

Me: Okay did you think of anything?

Danny: No, I can't think of anything.

Me: SEE! That is why I'm having such a hard time getting you a Valentine's Day present, you don't want anything!

Danny: Well sorry I don't go around wanting things all day.

So can you see why this is so difficult? If you have a fabulous idea let me know! Danny is now a regular reader of our blog so if you have a suggestion shoot me an email.

Bachelor Night

2009-02-04T09:12:00.001-07:00

I think I've mentioned a time or two before that I am obsessed with watching The Bachelor. Fortunately, my friends share this obsesssion so the past few weeks we've started a tradition of getting together on Monday nights to watch, laugh, scream, get choked up, feel embarassed for, get nervous, make fun of and enjoy The Bachelor together. I love it and as soon as it's over, I can't wait until the next time!

This last Monday, we met up at Audree's cute house. She is the greatest and had set the table up with roses for each of us (no one had to worry about not getting a rose)! I loved it!

Of course we all come in our pajamas and bring munchies so we can stuff our faces while criticizing the girls.

And since I'm going to be in Denver next week and I have the best friends ever, we made a pact that no one will watch it this Monday and then the following Monday when I'm back we're going to have a marathon night and watch two episodes. Thanks girls - it's just not the same watching it without you!

Friends & Family Photo Deal

2009-01-24T20:10:00.009-07:00

Remember my #1 New Year's Resolution? That little thing about going for it with photography?

Well I've taken my first step and I've created a photography blog! You can see the button for it over on the right. My goal is to get a real website up and going but I'm taking things one step at a time.

I also want to add to my portfolio, so I'm offering great friends and family pricing (if you're reading this then you fall into one of those categories). If you're interested in getting some photos done of you, your family or your kids, contact me at ddhafen@gmail.com. I can come to your house or you can come to mine (my parent's) or we can go on location. I'll also give you a copyright released, full resolution CD of all of your photos so you can make however many prints your heart desires.

How good of a deal you'll get depends on how much I like you. I kid. Sort of.

What is a Nugget Anyway?

2009-01-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

(Danny calls this shirt my "puffy shirt" like from Seinfeld. And now looking at a picture of me wearing it, I realize it does make me look rather puffy.)

Last weekend, Danny and I along with my cousin Melanie and her husband, Pete went to a Denver Nuggets game. Danny's company has a suite and we were able to score four tickets to the game! We invited Pete and Mel because 1) they're so dang fun to hang out with and 2) we figured we owed them for all of the times we've stayed at their house and gone over there for dinner. They've definitely taken us under their wing in Denver!

Danny was very adamant about the fact that he was NOT cheering for the Nuggets but I could tell he still had a fun time watching and talking sports with Pete. Mel and I did more chatting (not about sports) than watching, so good times were had by all.

Foundation? Check.

2009-01-21T21:21:00.002-07:00

We have a foundation!

The pictures aren't fabulous because I was just using my little point and shoot camera that I always have in my purse but you get the idea.

I seriously can't wait for our house to be finished! I've forgotten what it feels like to live in one place for more than a week or two.

My New Found Love

2009-01-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have found a new love...the Apple store at the Gateway. Yes it has all sorts of fun toys (iPods, Macs and software) but the reason I'd consider giving it my first born is the Genius Bar. Love it.

About a week ago I made a fatal error on my MacBook Pro. I won't go into detail because I hardly understand it and I know I wouldn't be able to explain it. Basically I tried to change a setting that I had no business changing and erased EVERYTHING. When I restarted the computer it looked exactly the way it did when it came out of the box. Pictures - gone. Documents - gone. Music - gone. I was completely devastated and immediately burst into tears. My dad is a computer nerd so I thought he'd be able to fix it but unfortunately he works with PC's and had no idea what I'd done.

I'd seen the Genius Bar at the Apple store before and decided I'd give it a try. I'll be honest, I wasn't overly hopeful because, really it was in a mall, how much could they know? Wow, was I wrong.

I took my computer in the next day and explained my problem to the guy. He started working away and somehow found my files hidden in an unknown vortex of space. He loaded them onto an external hard drive at the store and then completely reloaded everything onto my computer. I wanted to jump across the counter and kiss him! Everything was there and looked exactly the way it did before! And the best part - it was completely free!

Fast forward a week and I am trying to upload pictures into iPhoto. For some reason iPhoto isn't working (more than likely something I'd done) so I thought, "Okay I'm not going to panic. I'm going to the Genius Bar." When I showed the guy the problem with iPhoto (I had the '06 version) and he told me he knew what was wrong but if I wanted he'd just give me iLife '08 (normally an $80 upgrade) for free and that would fix everything! Hallelujah! I'd been thinking about upgrading anyway so I again was thrilled! And again I wanted to jump across the counter and kiss him, but again, I refrained. I can't ruin my reputation there just in case I mess something up again and have to go back. And again the best part - it was completely free!

Have I mentioned I love my Mac and I love the Genius Bar!

Tag From Kristy!

2009-01-20T10:49:00.003-07:00

8 Shows I Love to Watch:

Desperate Housewives
Army Wives
The Bachelor
The Office
Oprah
Ellen
Grey's Anatomy
American Idol

8 Restaurants I Enjoy:

Cafe Rio
Cafe Trio
Tepanyaki
Chef's Table
Illegal Pete's
Chipolte (hardly a restaurant but I love it!)
The DoDo
PF Changs

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

Went to the dentist (No cavities! Wahoo!)
Visited our house. It's coming along! More on that later.
Read this for the 17th time.
Played with Photoshop.
Played with my camera.
Unpacked.
Did my elliptical while watching The Bachelor.
Talked to Danny on the phone 17 times. (Including while watching The Bachelor because I had to talk to someone because seriously, could you believe some of those girls!?!)

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:

Danny being based out of Salt Lake so we don't have to travel back and forth all the time.
Our house being finished so we can finally feel settled.
Another episode of The Bachelor. I'm hooked!
Summer.
Having a baby one day.
Adding this to my collection. Too bad our funds are going elsewhere at the moment.
Going on a vacation.
Delving more into photography.

I'm not going to tag any one specific. But please, play if you feel so inclined and leave a comment so I can go read yours!

What Not to Wear - Airport Edition

2009-01-10T10:20:00.006-07:00

I think I've made it pretty clear that I am really not cut out for traveling and my experience yesterday just proves this point further.

Last night I flew from Salt Lake to Denver. I got to the airport with plenty of time to avoid any dashing through the airport. The lines for security were short. My plane was on time. I thought I was in for a pretty uneventful trip. Wrong.

I was wearing my knee high zip up boots. I knew this wasn't going to be a convenient shoe choice but I wanted to have them in Denver and there wasn't room in my suitcase so I had to wear them to the airport. That proved to be my fatal error.

While in line for security I reached down to unzip them so that I could slip them off easily when I got to the counter. Much to my horror the zipper stuck! It had zipped over the fabric and I couldn't for the life of me get it unjammed. I was the only one in line for the x-ray machine and there were others open so I was hoping people would just choose a different line. No such luck. A guy, probably in his forties, came up behind me and asked me if I wanted his help. Really? I'd love to have a strange man trying to help me unzip my boots. I told him that I'd get it and to go ahead and go around me. He said, "No that's okay I can wait." Seriously? But he did just that. Stood there and watched me. The whole time.

By this time I was terribly embarrassed. My face I'm sure was bright red and I was starting to sweat. Then a TSA worker came over and told me to sit up on the counter where you put your bags to go through the x-ray because maybe that'd help. I was desperate at this point so I did what she said. So I was sitting up on the counter still struggling to get the zipper unstuck on my boots. I felt like a complete spectacle - I had an audience of all the TSA workers and my friend the forty year old fellow passenger.

As I was still fiddling with the zipper another TSA worker came over and said "let me try." So I stuck out my leg to her and she fiddled around for a minute and she got it! I was so relieved. I went through the rest of security with comments from all of the TSA workers along the way followed by the man who felt he needed to wait for me.

The flight went smoothly and I landed on time. I had checked a bag so I headed over to baggage claim and much to my horror guess who was waiting for his bag at the same carousel? The man from security! He looked at me and said, "hey boots!" He then came over and tried to have a full on conversation beginning with "I know why you wear those boots, they look good on you." Gag. Thankfully, my bag came quickly and I grabbed it and did the run/walk out to meet Danny.

Seriously, just don't let me loose in public.

New Year's Eve

2009-01-05T15:21:00.005-07:00

This year for New Year's Eve we got together with a couple of my best friends: Witney and her husband Kory and Audree and her husband Jens for dinner and games.

We went to Wingers for dinner. We were the ONLY ones in the restaurant. I felt bad for our waiter because I'm sure he was extremely anxious for us to hurry and leave so he could go out. Fortunately for him, we ate fairly quickly and left.

Afterwards we went to Witney and Kory's cute new house in Ogden. Once we were there we sat around and visited for a litte bit and then broke out the games. That's when the fun started!

We played Catch Phrase, boys against girls. Let's just say that we did not make girls look very smart! There were some serious blonde moments.

Quotes from the night:

Witney: You run in a ...

Me: CIRCLE!!

(Not quite. Marathon, maybe?)

* * *

Audree: This is a ...
Us: {Silence}
(The answer was "Joke" - she really thought we'd get it from just that!)

* * *

Witney: Another word for rare...
Us in unison: SCARCE!
Witney: No another word...
Us in unison again: SCARCITY!

* * *

While playing Scum...
Audree: "Um, I have a question. How do you tell the difference between a 6 and 9?"

(She'd actually been sitting there studying the card - front and back - trying to figure it out. I love you Audree!)

It was a fun night. We want to start getting together for regular game nights but I think the girls need to get together and practice a little first.

Day Family Party

2008-12-31T11:17:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday night was the Day (Danny's mom's side) family party. We went to Snowbasin to ride the gondola up to the lodge for dinner.

The ride up to Snowbasin was little tense thanks to me. The roads were bad and due to poor planning, we were driving up in my little car. I was also feeling very stressed about all that I had to do to get ready for the funeral. I thought about not going but we'd already paid for the ticket and I didn't want to do that to Danny since he's been so supportive of me the last couple of weeks with my grandma.

Once we got to the resort I started to relax a little. It was cold but beautiful. The gondola ride up was fun. Inside was warm and cozy and they even gave us blankets to use. It was dark and windy outside so that added to the whole atmosphere.

The lodge was absolutely gorgeous. Dinner was buffet style with "nice" foods. I absolutely loved the halibut covered with crushed pineapple. I'm pretty sure Danny loved everything - especially the dessert table. Here he is with an entire dinner plate filled with different desserts. I'm sure the people who work there were thinking that we don't get out much.

It was a fun night and I'm glad that we were able to spend some time with Danny's family. I'm really happy that I decided to go. It was really good for me to get out and have some fun and relax a little.

Our First Christmas

2008-12-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. My dad made a delicious prime rib dinner and then we watched Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation.

Danny and I exchanged our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve. I think we were both pleasantly surprised with our gifts to each other. I got Danny a GPS for his car and Danny spoiled me with Maui Jim sunglasses and told me that I'd have to wait to open the others until Christmas morning.

Afterward we went to Danny's parent's house where we read a Christmas book and sat around and talked until two in the morning. When it was finally time to go to sleep Jill, Danny's 12 year old sister decided to sleep on the floor in our bedroom to "make things more festive."

Christmas morning Jill woke up early and was excited to open presents. Unfortunately, her brothers were not as excited. She spent an hour trying to get everyone out of bed. When everyone was finally awake they decided they wanted to have breakfast first. Poor Jill was dying of excitement waiting for everyone to be ready.

We finally started opening presents at 10:30. Danny's parent's completely surprised me with a snowboard! My other presents from Danny were gloves, boots and bindings. It looks like I'm going to be learning a new sport! I've wanted to learn how to for years but never had the equipment. I'm so excited!

We then traveled to Provo to spend time with my mom's side of the family. There's only one word to describe the festivities there: chaos. My grandma prepared a huge Christmas meal and we ate, opened presents and hung out. It's fun to see all of my little cousins get so excited about everything.

Then we traveled back north to Danny's grandparents house where there was more food, chaos, family and fun.

By the end of the day we were tired, stuffed and happy.

It was a good day. We're excited to be in our house next year and to start some of our own traditions.

Sub for Santa

2008-12-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

I almost didn't post about this because I didn't want to be like "hey, wow look at how generous and amazing I am!" (especially after reading about it on TAMN's blog) but then I decided to anyway because I wanted to give a big shout out to Brittany and I wanted to post about something a little less heavy than my past couple of posts.

My dear friend Brittany heard about a family who was in desperate need. Their father passed away last December so they didn't have a Christmas last year and it wasn't looking like they were going to have one again this year. The mom talked to her bishop but the ward was already overwhelmed with requests. The children were very understanding and had accepted the fact that this year was going to be just like the last. (How's that for less heavy? Geez.)

After hearing about this, Brittany went into action. She gathered a list of the children's needs and then sent an email out to see if anyone would be able to help. She then scheduled a time for us to all get together to go shop for the sweet boys. None of us are exactly rich but with all of us chipping in a little and scouring the stores for sales we were able to put together a very nice Christmas for a little boy (the other little boy was taken care of by others).

It was nice thing for me to do to get into the true Christmas spirit. This holiday season has been very different and I haven't been feeling very "Christmasy."