A Few More Family Pics....

My good friend Emily VanDyke took our Hanson family photos this year.  She did a few of our little family, Sienna was totally melting down, so we didn't spend too much time on our family pictures.  This was taken up near my parents home in Woodland Hills.  The lighting was perfect....now if only I had lost those 20 lbs before the pictures!!!  Someday......

Sienna's first easter egg hunt!

Dixon cousins easter egg hunt--Claire, Taylor, Cassie, Ella, Sienna 

(Clockwise from top left)

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I tried to do less candy in the easter basket, since I knew she'd have plenty from the easter egg hunt. She loved this super bubbles pack and her princess keys. 

Despite having pictures of just Sienna, we did actually spend time with both of our families and had a great time. I really need to do better at taking pictures of the rest of the fam at family get-togethers.

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'll have to write more and post more pics when I have time, but just wanted to say thanks to everyone for making my birthday so great. I really got spoiled this year. Who knew that 32 would be such a great birthday!? Lunch, brunch, dinners, Jack Johnson tickets, the bench I've been droiling over, a new camera lens, fun accessories, gift cards,and a surprise party!  I got ridiculously spoiled. I'm so grateful for such amazing friends and family who shared the love.  It was a great day, actually more like a great couple of weeks, it was definitely a birthday that kept on giving!

December 2009 Sneakpeak...

I don't have much time to add text right now, but here are some highlights from December 2009. I'll do the journaling later...
Sienna has discovered the joy of hats. She looks super cute, but of course it doesn't last long! And she never leaves on the ones I want her to wear and then ends up looking like a rug rat. What can you do?!

(Like this one!)

Zoo lights with Bagozzi's & friends...

Christmas morning!

The discovery of a candy cane...

This is the newest member of our family, Boo. You may have seen her in Monster's Inc...

Jazz game with Hanson Fam


Happy New year!

Happy birthday, Mama Hanson!

We went to my parents house on Sunday to have a little birthday dinner for my mom. Her birthday was on Thursday, Oct. 22nd. My dad was out of town on her birthday, so he reminded her several times that her "real" birthday was on Sunday, and that she couldn't think about it before then. She was actually sick on her "real" (don't tell Dad I said that) birthday so it ended up working out to celebrate on Sunday.

For dinner, I made a White Bean & Sausage Soup, with homemade bread sticks & a really good salad. I'd never made the soup or the salad, but they were both keepers. Janelle made a pumpkin sheet cake, which was super tasty. My mom told us some neat stories about growing up (from a autobiography her sister Pat wrote). It was cool to hear the stories and to reminisce about the times we had growing up.

Happy birthday to the best mom & grandma in the world!

My mom is amazing.
A few things about my mom...
She is always thinking of things she can do for others.
Both she and my dad are such great examples of selflessness and compassion.
She is a great cook and homemaker.
She always puts others needs before her own, particularly her family's.
My mom is an amazing teacher.
She is a bookaholic and loves to learn.
She loves the Utah Jazz.
She loves playing games (even though my dad hates them!)
She is the ultimate friend.
I am grateful for the example and strength she is in my life. I rely so much on her support and advice and she never leads me astray. I love being to live so close to her now and spend so much more time with her. Sienna is so lucky to be able to have such an amazing grandma (who spoils and loves her to death!). Love your guts, mom! You're the best!


The Girls--Janelle, mom & me (miss you, Carolyn!)

Rob feeling left out

Brad, Grandma & me

Dan & Rob gaming it up (looking ever-so competitive). This is serious gaming going on.

My dad and Sienna. She really loves spending time with my parents.

Sienna was fascinated by Uncle Brad's scooby-doo shirt (pointing out the dog and saying "ruff, ruff...". Somehow it never gets old!)

Sienna is finally standing and just starting to take a few steps. Come on, she's 14 1/2 months! It's about time, don't you think? It's not like I'm in a rush, but I think I'd rather have her walking. It's not like she's not getting into things when she crawls, and her clothes are nasty and she is constantly finding things to put in her mouth. Maybe walking will slow her down a little.

....and she's down!

I'm married to an old man!

Happy late birthday to you, Mr. Dixon! (Daniel Vilas Dixon, that is!) Dan's (34th!) birthday was on September 14th. We had a few days of celebrating--a dinner party with my family, picnic/dutch-oven cobbler American Fork canyon night with his fam, and then a low-key date night with just the two of us. We went to PF Chang's, had an amazing dinner, then had an even-more-amazing dessert, the great wall of chocolate. Seriously, the thing is ginormous. We felt like we were eating forever, and hardly made a dent in it. We also saw 500 Days of Summer. Good flick. Happy birthday to the best husband, father and friend! Love your guts, Dan! I have a few more pics I need to steal from Dan's mom's camera, so I'll post those later.

For the Hanson family birthday dinner, we had one of my favorite meals--a pasta bar. I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before, so I'll just recap. You take your favorite cooked pasta and add all of your favorite pasta toppings. Toss it in a pan with a little olive oil and garlic and heat through, then top with your favorite sauce. It's fun because everyone can make it just how they like it. Then we had pizookie's for dessert. Dan got his own little one, then we made a giant one for everyone else to share. There's nothing better than a ginormous warm chocolately, gooey chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla bean icecream. Yummmmmm!

I made Dan pose for this one. :)

Happy 1st Birthday to my baby girl!

How crazy is that!? Sienna turned one on August 12th, 2009. I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. Sienna has been such a fun baby. She's been an amazing sleeper, she has such a sweet personality & loves to giggle. She is very sweet-natured and has really gone easy on us, so I'm worried about what kind of toddler she will be! :)

She's not much of a cuddler, but makes up for it in spunk and personality. She is such a busy girl, I swear she never sits still. Sienna has brought such incredible joy into our lives. It's definitely been a whirlwind and a crash-course in parenting, but I am so grateful for the things I have learned in the process.

On Sienna's actual birthday we took one of my patient's to a Bee's game for our "Make-A-Wish" program. It was a great game and she was a trooper. The Bee's won and the firework show was one of the best I've seen.

Sienna is turning into such a daddy's girl. She can't get enough of him.

Watching her first fireworks. I love the look on her face.

The Saturday after her birthday we had a little party with mostly family (and a few close friends). It was suppose to be a Summer Splash Bday party, but the weather didn't really cooperate. It rained all morning, but then the sun came out just before the party. We BBQ'd and had cupcakes for dessert.

We of course had to have a few token pictures of Sienna going to town on her birthday "cake" (I took the easy road and just gave her a cupcake). She didn't really know what to do with it at first, but as you can see she soon figured it out and loved it. We had to hose her down afterward, so she kind of looks like a rugrat in the rest of the pictures. (I wasn't smart enough to think of opening gifts before devouring the cupcake!)




Thanks to everyone who came and for spoiling my little girl! She got hooked up with such great giftsLove those eyelashes!
This micky mouse ride-a-long toy is from her Grandma and Grandpa Hanson. She can't get enough of it and can't wait until she can ride on it all by herself! Of course she was just as happy with the packaging as she was the gifts! She also had plenty of friends to "help" her open her presents! (Espcially her cousin Cassie!)
Get after it, girl! (Sorry to whoever left with bitemarks in their flipflops!) Her Uncle Rob gave her Grover and she's definitely a fan!

Sad that this is the only picture I got of Dan!