Collins

Where's Guam??

2011-11-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

Look it up, we're moving there at the end of January! More info to come.

Just posted 10 new posts so you'll need to click on "older posts" when you reach the end of the page if you're interested in seeing them all!

Phoenix

2011-11-17T22:59:00.000-08:00

Brent had a four day weekend on Veteran's day and planned to go backpacking. However due to massive snowfall and sub-freezing weather in the Sierra Mountains (where he had intended to go), the trip was canceled and we found our selves with four free days. We called up the Morgan family in Phoenix and invited ourselves over. We knew this would be our last chance for a trip out there before we moved and we better take it. They were gracious enough to feed, house, and entertain us for the weekend. Did I mention her two nieces were also staying with her. Angie's a saint. It was great to catch up with good friends from Optometry school and watch our kids play together. We had no big plans, but had a great time anyway.
We went to some outlet malls for a bit and there was this big sleigh there for pictures.

Then we went to this cool train park and went on the train and played on the awesome playground.

And of course we had to go hiking.
Thanks again Morgan family.
While in the Phoenix area, we also got a quick visit with the Pratts. It was fun to see their beautiful girls and catch up a bit. Sorry, no pics.

Torrey Pines

2011-11-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

We had to get out and enjoy the great late October San Diego weather so we headed to La Jolla to visit Torrey Pines. It was beautiful as usual. We hiked a mile and a half or so and enjoyed almost every minute of it. Morgan was a great hiker and Jaycee was a trooper in the chest carrier.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Halloween

2011-11-17T22:36:00.001-08:00

Carving pumpkins

This is our second carving party with my brother and his wife. Alyssa's is a cat in a boot, mine is Tinkerbell, Brent's is the werewolf, and Jarom's is some screaming skeleton or something. I am clearly the poorest carver but also put in the least amount of time so I'm over it.
Morgan really enjoyed painting hers. It had a face at first but she wanted to keep painting so the face was not longer visible.

Ready for the Ward Halloween Party
My beautiful pirate princess!
My little monkey Jaycaroo.

Trick or treating door to door in the church.

We went Trick or Treating with the Riggins on Halloween night. Their neighborhood was awesome. Many of the homes had great decorations. Like this house all decked out with their pirate stuff. It matched Morgan perfectly. There were lots of kids and families. Morgan got a ton of candy but was exhausted.

Preschool

2011-11-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

Morgan's preschool session is now over sadly. We didn't start the next one because we will only live here for the first half so it wasn't worth paying for the whole thing. Anyway, she loved it. It was not hard core learning or anything but they did tons of crafts and activities, played at the playgroud, read books and sang songs. She loved it. They had a great Halloween party for all the classes. The parents stayed and helped with the booths and snacks. Morgan got to show me all the fun things she had made. It was on display all around the room. Did I mention she loved it?

This is Morgan, Halle and Chase. They all go to nursery at church together as well so they were little buddies.

I'm very proud of my grown up Morgan girl. She is so smart and fun to have around. I'm glad she got to go to preschool for a little bit and hopefully we'll find a good preschool in Guam.

Daddy Daugter Date at the Zoo

2011-11-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

Our zoo pass expired this summer so we haven't been since. However, in October, the zoo is free for kids and Brent always gets in free with the military so they went together. They had a great time and now Morgan thinks the should leave mom and Jaycee home all the time.

They had to go see the snakes because mommy refuses to go see the snakes when she is there. Morgan was quite interested and made her daddy proud.

Green Smoothie

2011-11-17T22:13:00.001-08:00

While in St. George, (see next post)my sister told me all about green smoothies. You start with lots of green leafy things (spinach, Romain lettuce, kale, collard greens, ect) then add fruits and yogurt until it tastes good. They are a great way to get vitamins and nutrients and they taste pretty good. We've been making them since we got home, until I burned up my blender this week. I guess I know what I need to ask for for Christmas.

Morgan's a little sick of them now but she still drinks a few ounces and I figure it's better than nothing.

Hiking in St. George

2011-11-17T21:52:00.001-08:00

The second weekend in October, we visited with my sister and her family in St. George. Brent talked about this trip a little in his recent post. He talked about hiking with my brother-in-law and nephew and sky diving but didn't mention the hiking adventure we all had together. My sister's neighbor had told her about this hike and that it would be great for the kids. Maybe she didn't realize we had a baby and two three year olds. It turned out to be about 4 miles and some of the terrain was rocky and steep. We have a way of ruining hiking for other people. The kids actually did great, the scenery was good, and we enjoyed the company. It was just longer than we had anticipated. Especially me, I was in flip flops.

Haylee, Ryan, Bode, and Dylan. Lexi not pictured.

Morgan insisted on bringing her backpack to carry her treasures she found along the way. It was empty when we arrived.

A weird little critter none of us had seen the likes of before.

My sister and I chatting away.

Our little hiking family.

The was the scout cave and our destination essentially. Morgan called it the mean witch cave.

Morgan and daddy had fun exploring the cave.

Thanks for the memories!

Playground

2011-11-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

We moved to a new house with a yard and wanted a swing set, playhouse, or something to put back there for Morgan to play. So we searched Craigslist for weeks and found this playground and swing set in one and thought we could fix it up. (This is a before picture taken in the people's yard we bought it from.It looks pretty much the same only painted.)
If was a fun project for Brent and I. We spent several evenings painting and putting it back together. We replaced a lot of the wood because it was rotted and cracked. Got 90% finished, at least to where Morgan could play on it, and found out we're moving once again and the playground will not be coming. (more to come on that) So we're trying to enjoy every day we can. Luckily we live in San Diego and can still enjoy it most days even in Nov. Morgan loves it.

Don't let this picture fool you. She still won't go down this slide by herself. I have to hold her hand. Not that I blame her too much. Our yard is on a slant so it makes it a pretty steep slide so you go fast. Her friends love it.

We had to bring the kitchen stuff out and have a tea party out there at the table.

One day I knew Morgan had got up to go potty but never came back so I went looking. I found this princess climbing up to her tower. Who says princesses need to wear a dress?

More Dress Up

2011-11-17T20:35:00.000-08:00

I know, we just had a dress up post but this was too cute not to share.

Jaycee's 6 month's (almost 2 months ago)

2011-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

6 month stats
15.3lbs 26%
24 1/4 in 27%
Jaycee is a happy smiley baby you can't help but love. She smiles at everyone as long as mom is around. Otherwise, she can be a little temperamental but all around a great mannered baby. She is very active and in to everything. At 6 mo and 1 week she started crawling and standing up in her crib. Within a week, she was pulling up on everything and started climbing the stairs shortly after that. She pulls up and tries to stand on her own all the time but doesn't last too long. She recently got her two bottom teeth. She loves to pull her big sister's hair and follow Morgan where ever she goes. (Morgan tolerates it well). Here are some pic's we snapped at 6 months.

She does have crazy hair we haven't figured out how to tame but it is growing. She claps, waves sometimes and talks A LOT! We love our baby Jaycee.

Brent's fun lately

2011-11-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

I have had the opportunity to get out and do some hiking and backpacking recently. I of course brought along the camera and have enjoyed playing around with an old hobby that I have neglected for a while. To start off, I went backpacking with some friends from BYU Idaho in Mineral King in Kings Canyon National Park. It was amazing. We packed into some lakes just shy of 10,00 feet. The only sign of civilization the entire time we were there was a lone plane that I spotted silently passing over head. It was awesome to catch up with some old friends and to soak in the beauty.

We also recently had the opportunity to go to Saint George, UT and spend a 3 day weekend with Paij's sister and her family. They have a beautiful home in Snow Canyon. The girls went and saw Disney's Little Mermaid. It was an awesome production with lots of cool special effects and unique incorporation of water into the stage, which was nestled amongst the red rock amphitheater. The next day the guys got to go hiking in a slot canyon. This was our brother in law and nephews first time in a slot canyon. It was a fun slot that was challenging, yet not too technical.

The highlight of the trip was going skydiving for the first time. It was awesome and even more of an adrenaline rush than I had anticipated. My brother in law and I each made a jump. It was way worth getting turned down for a new life insurance policy (they have now agreed to give me the policy now that I have skydived without killing myself). Unfortunately, there was a freak accident at the neighboring skydiving place that happened at the same time my brother in law was making his jump and two people were killed in the fall. We were extra grateful that we were not involved. Here I am about to land.

We also recently went to the Miramar Air Show. It was a lot of fun for me, not so much fun for Morgan (who covered her ears the whole time and repeatedly asked "Is it still loud?"). My favorite part was watching the harrier jets do the vertical take off and maneuvers. I can't wrap my brain around the power required to get a jet to hover so gracefully like that. Here is one f my favorite shots from the air show (not the harrier).

A couple weeks ago I heard a new sound coming from outside. I walked out to discover a flock of parrots flying around and perching in the trees on our cul de sac. They have repeated this routine every night shortly before sunset for the last couple weeks. Their beauty is a stark contrast to their calls to each other.

I am grateful for the beauty created all around us and to live in a part of the country where I have access to so much of it. We have really enjoyed San Diego. Looking forward to experiencing the new beauty that is in store for our family....

Dress Up

2011-09-12T12:42:00.001-07:00

Daddy was gone and we were playing dress up. I decided to snap some shots and I'm glad I did.

Scroll down for several new posts. I've almost caught up!

Preschool

2011-09-12T12:30:00.001-07:00

Morgan started preschool on Sept. 8th. It's just one day a week for a few hours at the rec dept. So far she loves it. She was such a big girl and had no problem letting me leave.

I think it will be good for her to have more time with other kids and without me.

I'm 29!

2011-09-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

I'm sure in a few years, I won't be so willing to broadcast my age but everyone over 29 still claims it so I might as well enjoy it while I can.
Brent was going to be out of town for my birthday so we celebrated early. Saturday, we went to dinner then out to ice cream. We brought Jaycee with us but she slept in the car seat the whole time! We had a nice evening but I didn't take any pictures.
On Monday (labor day) we pretty much just shopped for me (yeah!) Brent made a nice dinner and great cake. Jarom an Alyssa came over to celebrate.
Look at that gooey chocolate deliciousness!

That's a lot of smoke.

Brent got me lots of painting supplies in case I decide to become a painter:) We'll see how it goes.

Jarom and Alyssa got me an Avocado Tree in case I decide to become a gardener:) I don't especially like avocados but I've been loving guacamole lately. I'm excited for the avocados to hopefully start growing next year if I can keep it alive that long.

On my actual birthday, there was a massive power outage in the whole region. We had cold cereal for dinner and since I was alone with no power, I went to bed around 9:15. Exciting, I know. I'm glad we celebrated early. Power was back on in about 12hours. No harm done.

Our Friend Jerry

2011-09-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Our Friend Jerry, back from Southaven, MS came out to visit for a few days. We sure fit a lot in. He brought a friend with him and we had a great time. Here are some of the highlights.

Visiting Sunset Cliffs

Outside the Mormon Battalion.

Sail Boat here for the festival of the sail. It's a big boat. Those are men tying up the sail.

USS Midway Museum

San Diego Temple.

Kayaking in the Ocean

Sailing in the Bay.
Have I convinced you to come visit yet? Thanks for coming Jerry. You're welcome back anytime.

Random pictures

2011-09-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little Jaycee.

At the Japanese Flower Garden at Balboa Park

Day at the beach.

My girls in matching dresses. I know I'm obsessed.

You always have to have an eating picture. I know this isn't a great pic but Morgan took it while I was feeding Jaycee and I think it shows that she likes to eat.

Of course she always tries to grab the spoon. She is a good eater though and I'm grateful.

Hunter Family Time

2011-09-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

For my brother's wedding, most of my family was able to come down and spend a couple days in San Diego. While they were here, besides wedding stuff, we went to the beach, went bowling, mini golfing, swam in my pool and just hung out. It's always fun to have family together.

Nice action shot of Cypress

Lexi and Dylan congratulating Bode on getting a strike.

Grandma and Morgan making a sand castle.
Everyone left Sunday after the wedding and I took the girls and drove up to my parents for the week before the reception that Saturday.

The kids enjoyed sitting on, not riding, grandpa's new miniature horses.

Brent flew up the day of the reception and the girls were happy to see their daddy.

Jarom and Alyssa's Wedding

2011-09-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

Since we lived in San Diego, my little brother Jarom has lived with us. He finally married Alyssa Danner after 6 years of dating on Aug. 12th. They got married in Balboa park and it was beautiful! The ceremony was really nice and Morgan got to be one of the darling flower girls. The reception was gorgeous in the Prado. Dinner was fabulous and all the adults had a great time dancing and chatting without the kiddos.

The wedding rehearsal followed by a great Italian dinner.

Morgan and Jaycee with their girl cousins on my side.

My favorite people!

She forgot to drop the petals but looked darn cute carrying the basket.

The head table.

The next week we went up to Gridley and had a reception up there that was also gorgeous but I don't have the pictures for those. Hopefully I'll post them later.

Disneyland

2011-08-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot going on here and I haven't blogged in months. I figured I would start with something fun and easy. Brent was able to get a good deal through the military to go to Disneyland for 3 days. So while his brother John and family were here from Africa, we went together. They have an 8yr old girl, 4yr old girl, and an 11mo. old son. Three days was plenty long but we had a great time.
Here is the gang at California Adventure.

We enjoyed the rides and parade. Morgan was very brave and went on anything she was tall enough for. We especially enjoyed the new little mermaid ride.

We swapped out babysitting with Brent's brother so we were able to have a late evening out together going on the big kid rides. Thank goodness we had fast passes or we would have only been able to go on one ride instead of four. We loved the Tower of Terror.

Jaycee was mostly happy as can be strapped into her car seat or chest carrier. She got to go on a few family rides but not many. We love our happy little baby.

And of course with three little girls, we spent a lot of time with the princesses. We danced, did story time and waited in line several times to see the different princess. But they were great and beautiful as always.
Once again, it was great but we don't plan on going back until 2013 and NOT in the summer.
Thanks John, Megan and kids!

Catching Up

2011-07-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

So I haven't blogged in like 6 weeks so I'm going to make an effort to share a little of what we have been doing. We moved 2 weeks ago and much time was spent preparing for that, then moving, and now trying to get settled. So the oldest stuff is at the bottom of this post if you want to start at the bottom.

Fire Pit
For Brent's birthday, he got a fire pit and has been so excited to have a little fire on our back porch. Last night, we finally did. We just roasted some marshmallows and had a nice time. Morgan loves marshmallows anyway so thought this was pretty cool.

Love that gooey goodness.
Our New Home
So many more pictures are to come but even though we're settled, we're still getting the decorating done. We still live in San Diego. We're now in a suburb called La Mesa. We really wanted a house with a yard and although our new yard is small, we have a community pool and love our new neighborhood. When moving, there are always things that work in your new home and some things you need to buy. Our kitchen was crying for a hutch so we searched craigslist and found this beauty. I'm not sure what it is about it but I love it and thought it could represent our new home.
TIMBER!
Friday night, we had our first overnight guest in our new home (Bryan Allred) and headed to bed about 11:45. At midnight we hear something terribly loud, a crash, and the house shook a little. We come running out of our room and so does Bryan. This is what we found.

There were no recent rains, no strong winds, earthquakes or tornados but that tree just snapped right off and landed on our patio table and roof. Brent cut most of the limbs down but a tree service is coming out to cut the whole tree down tomorrow. We're glad we're just renting.
4th of July
My sister in law, got the girls these darling 4th outfits. The tutu's have red and white stars on them.

We went to some friends for a bbq and swim party. Then came home and relaxed in the afternoon. This is our porch.
In the evening, we went to my brother's new house in Ocean Beach and had dinner, and played games. Then we walked the two blocks to the beach and watched about 5 sets of fireworks. Morgan hid under the blanket the whole time and Jaycee watched intently. Immediately following the fireworks, the whole beach busts out their marshmallows for a war. If you are on the beach, you are fair game. I even got pegged a few times sitting on my blanket holding Jaycee. It was rather fun. I didn't take any pictures though. Then we went back to my brother's, made smores in his fire pit and played games to miss the traffic. We had a great 4th!
This is at Jarom's house.

Jaycee.
My beautiful, smiling and rolling baby. She is so much fun and growing so fast.

This is what happens when daddy gets her pj's on with Morgan. Everything is a game and we all have a good laugh.

I've been trying to get a movie of Jaycee rolling but she will not cooperate on camera. I thought this was evidence enough. We laid her on the blanket, went upstairs to hang a picture, and came back to find her like this.
Brent's 31st birthday
I know, he's getting old. I guess we all are. He had PRK surgery (like Lasik) the day before his birthday so if his eyes look a little tired and glossy in these pictures, that's why. We were also moving the same week, so his birthday didn't get much attention. I did try and make my first fondant cake. Nothing exciting but it was a good start and I think I'll try it again, maybe with something a little more complex.
Jaycee's crib
Since we've moved into the new house, Jaycee has been in the crib and sharing a room with Morgan. I was so afraid she was going to wake up Morgan all night but in two weeks, she hasn't woke her up once. Dad is proud to have daughter #2 in his crib.

Jaycee's 2 month stats

2011-05-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is mostly just so I'll have this written down some where since I didn't do it with Morgan.

11lbs. 2oz 84%
22 1/4 in 68%
34 cm (I think) 81%

Morgan was never over 50% in anything and usually like 10% in weight. I love my little chubby baby.

Morgan's 3rd birthday party

2011-05-24T21:47:00.001-07:00

This was Morgan's first friend party. She had four other little girls come all dressed up as princess and we had a great time. They decorated hats with tulle tassels, had tulle wands, had a "juice party" with a princess tea set and cupcakes, played pin the lips on the frog, freeze dance to princess songs, blew bubbles, and played with bouncy balloons. I think a great time was had by all.

After the party was over, Morgan was not happy. She had put on her new sleeping beauty dress that a friend had given her so I tried to take a picture with her hat and wand. She was not really cooperating, as you can tell, but you get the idea.

Morgan's Pre-Birthday Party

2011-05-24T21:24:00.001-07:00

Morgan turned 3 on Sunday. I can't believe it. Brent had 24 hour duty on her birthday of course, so we had a family party Saturday night. We just opened presents and had cake but she loved every minute. She is very into the Disney princesses and Dora the Explorer so of course she got hooked up.
She loves her Cinderella jewelry,

And her princess music pop-up book,

And of course her new princess barbies.

She also had to have a blue castle cake because blue is her new favorite color. It matches her eyes and daddy's eyes.

A little about our three year old princess:
She is very strong willed but also very sweet. She is quick to say, "Thank you for making this dinner mom," or "Thank you for saying that good prayer", or "Good driving mom!" She loves to sing but mostly just talk about anything and everything. She doesn't really eat anything consistently. I feel like I have to bribe her to eat anything except strawberries and gogurt. She hasn't napped for almost a year and usually gets up much earlier than I would like but she does way better on little sleep than I do. She is mostly a scaredy cat. She will only go down a slide after much coaxing and often only if you're holding her hand but she loves to swing. She says the wind makes her happy. She makes us very happy and we are so grateful to have her in our family, stubbornness and all. We love you Morgan, Happy Birthday!

2011-05-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Jaycee
Paij

Morgan
I think it's pretty clear which one of my children take after me.

Jaycee's Baby Blessing

2011-05-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Brent's brother Dave got married in Yuba City. We took the opportunity to head up to Nor Cal and bless Jaycee with most of our family present.

Here is Judy with the girls at the wedding reception.

We did the blessing and Brent's sister's house since between our two families, they attend 6 different wards and it's hard to get everyone to the same ward. We had 62 people in attendance and only 5 weren't family. Brent said a beautiful blessing and it was so great to be able to share this with our family and have so many men stand in on the blessing.
Grandma and Grandpa Hunter

Grandma and Papa CollinsOur family of four

I made Jaycee's dress. I would have had her wear Morgan's but it was too big for Jaycee since she was 4months old when we blessed her. I enjoyed making it and am happy with how it turned out. You can't see much of the detail, but there wasn't much detail so it's okay. I think she looked beautiful in it. I'm glad I did it even if it set a precedence that I will have to make all my children their own blessing outfit.
The next day Brent went hiking with his dad and nephew. They went to "our" waterfall (where he proposed,) and up the canyon a little to enjoy some nature.
I stayed a couple extra days and enjoyed spending time with my mom and sister. We shopped and took the kids to a couple different parks. A great time was had by all.

Thank you to our families for making our time in Nor Cal wonderful and memorable.

Easter

2011-04-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our Easter was pretty low key this year. We dyed eggs on Thursday, the Easter bunny came on Saturday, and we went to an egg hunt at a family's home in our ward, then we had a nice Easter dinner on Sunday.
Morgan mostly just enjoyed putting stickers all over the eggs and herself.

Jaycee was totally into it.

Our finished products. The missile was Jarom's.

We practiced hiding and finding eggs Friday morning.

Finding her Easter basket Saturday Morning.

At the Easter Egg hunt. There were plenty more eggs but once her bucket was full, she was ready to go home.

My beautiful girls on Easter morning. (Sorry about the little pics, they are from my phone.)

Time for an update

2011-04-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Jaycee is a month old and I haven't posted at all. I look back at when Morgan was first born and am sad I didn't write more. At Jaycee's two week visit, she was 8lbs 2 oz. Almost a whole pound over her birth weight. Which was great because that meant I didn't have to wake her up for feedings in the night any more. She now goes 5-7 hours between feedings at night. She isn't really asleep that whole time so neither am I but but I'm still getting good stretches of sleep between feedings.
She is a pretty good baby. She has her fussy times when she just wants to be held but still sleeps a lot and I can't complain.
Morgan is so good with her. She is an awesome helper and loves to just look at Jaycee. She kisses her on her head and likes to hold her hand but by no means smothers her. She rarely shows signs of jealousy and has kept her normal routine very well. I feel so blessed to be the steward over these two beautiful girls. They bring so much joy to my life.
April 8th (2 weeks old)
April 17th ( 3 weeks old)

This was her second Sunday at church. Jaycee spit up all over her dress in the first 20 min on her first Sunday of church so we didn't get any pictures. I made these matching dresses for them and although you can't see them very well, they are pretty cute. And yes, Jaycee has totally lost the hair from the top of her head. Sad I know.

Jaycee Elise Collins!

2011-03-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

Born Friday March 25th at 2:29pm, weighing in at 7lbs 4oz, 20.5 inches long. She surprised us with her beautiful brown hair.
Paij was induced Thursday night. Paij had a c-section with Morgan due to failure to progress in her labor. It was important for Paij to try to not have a c-section this time around. Almost one week after her due date(the 18th) she was induced. She was started on pitocin at about 10:30 on Thursday night. She labored through the night as they gradually increased the dosage of the pitocin. Paij failed to progress for the first 12 hours of her labor. It was discouraging and looking more like we were headed for another c-section. Then all of a sudden something changed. Paij jumped to 6cm in dilation, and within 45 minutes was to a 10. Paij pushed for an hour and our little beauty was here.

I am so proud of Paij for the courage she showed in choosing to deliver VBAC and the strength she showed throughout the labor and delivery. My gratitude for her and the charity she has shown towards this new life through the entire pregnancy has made me admire her all the more.

Paij is recovering well and we could not ask for a more beautiful and healthy daughter. We are filled with gratitude. We are excited to share pictures of our newest little princess with our friends and family. We hope you enjoy them as we are not able to be with each of you during this special time.

We couldn't let Jaycee get all of the attention. Morgan has been great with Jaycee and is adjusting to being a big sister much better than we had expected. It is sweet to see a bond forming between them already.

39 weeks and counting

2011-03-11T18:22:00.001-08:00

I haven't taken many maternity pics this time around so I thought I would at least make one post. Brent's work threw us a baby shower at a restaurant today, so I actually got dressed. Poor Brent, keeps coming home to me in his tee-shirts. I've been having lots of contractions and hope this baby will come soon. I'm planning on doing VBAC so no induction for me. We're just playing the waiting game but we'll keep you updated :)

Our Bouquets

2011-02-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

Our Valentine's celebrating is pretty low key this year. I guess it usually is but especially this year. We had a ward party Friday night, Brent had a contact lens symposium Saturday and Sunday, and he has 24hour duty today. We did get to have lunch together today though, so that was nice. Anyway, he got me a bouquet of flowers Saturday and Morgan and I made him a candy bouquet to take to him at work today. She had a great time picking out the candy and was so excited to give it to daddy. It was pretty cute.
I am so grateful for the love of my life and for all the joy he brings to me. I am so blessed!

Sewing

2011-02-14T17:12:00.001-08:00

I was buying material to make the new baby a blanket and felt bad that I wasn't making anything for Morgan. So I bought this material and made her a little dress. I rarely sew from a pattern so each time it's a challenge but I usually enjoy it. As I did with this. For some reason she thinks it's a princess dress and has to put it on to have a tea party with her Belle doll. I love that she loves to wear it and asks me to put it on fairly regularly.

This is a baby Kimono I saw in a craft book my friend gave me and I loved it. I had to make a few changes to make it work but I'm happy with how it turned out. As you can see, it has an envelope at the bottom and at the hands if I want.

The back of the quilt.

Closeup

Finally, my little quilt. I made one for Morgan 2 days before she was born with help from a friend and decided this new little one needs a quilt made by mom too. I got the idea from the Marta Stewart Magazine and kind of made it my own with many suggestions from my husband and brother. I'm happy with how it turned out as well.

Other Random Pictures

2011-02-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

At Balboa Park. She has been obsessed with sitting on animals lately.

San Diego Zoo

Natural History Museum. I'm not sure you were supposed to sit on this one but that didn't stop dad from encouraging her since mom thought it was disgusting.

Safari Park (Wild Animal Park)

Play time with dad.

Sunset Cliffs

My brother Jarom's 25th b-day.

Random Christmas

2011-02-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

I was a terrible picture taker this Christmas and therefore was not too excited about posting. (Which is why it has taken me two months to do it.)I figured I should post something for my own memories sake so here are some random pics from before during and after Christmas.
The first picture is our living room before we took all the presents to our parents. I left on Dec. 11th and didn't really have anyone over before then so at least I'll post my decorations on here so someone can see them.

We made Gingerbread houses from a box this year and it was pretty fun.

Morgan in her cute Christmas dress.

Making Gingerbread cookies with Grandma Hunter.

Christmas morning and day.

All the Hunter grand-kids.
Hunter family Christmas picture.

Hotel Del Coronado. Brent and I had a little date before Christmas and walked around and through this beautiful hotel on Coronado Island.

Bucket List

2011-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Everyone has their lists of places to see and things to do before they call it quits. This past weekend I got to check one of those places off of my list. 'The Wave' is located on the Utah/Arizona border and is a photographers paradise. We were lucky to get permits the same day we wanted to do the hike. Only 20 people are allowed to enter the region each day. Paij's brother Jarom and I ventured out and enjoyed this unique sight and its surrounding beauty.

When I feel like I need my batteries recharged I can always count on nature to get me revitalized. I didn't think nature could be improved upon. I have discovered that I feel a deeper level of connection with nature when I get to share it with Morgan. It is so fulfilling to see her enjoying the outdoors with all its curiosities and wonders.

These pictures were taken in Jenny Canyon at Snow Canyon State Park. This was a great little hike for the kids. It was also a great little hike for Dad because it got him out of having to clean up the house and packing up our suitcase for the trip back home.

Jarom, Paij's brother, and her nephew Dylan and I were able to enjoy some "guy time." We attempted to hike Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. We were unable to make it all the way to the top due to ice along the narrow path along the cliffs. We were still able to enjoy some great views and actually witnessed a small avalanche while eating our lunch up on a ridge.
In addition to Zion we spent some time scrambling and bouldering on the red cliffs above Saint George.

Here we are squeezing through one of the deep cracks in the rock formations. It was a lot of fun exploring and looking for little hidden areas to maneuver into.

Overall the trip was AWESOME. Thank you Haylee for making the trip down and letting us stay in your beautiful home. It was great to hang out with your kids and get to all visit. We hope to do it again sooner than later.

Christmas with Santa

2010-12-30T13:37:00.001-08:00

And Santa

And Santa

And Santa
Each time Morgan saw Santa this year, it was a little better. She never cried or screamed but was just a little nervous. She always asked for a Doll House and was glad she did because he delivered.

San Francisco

2010-12-30T12:59:00.001-08:00

This year for Christmas, my mom decided to take the "married" girls on a little trip. I say "married" because my brother's fiance, Alyssa, came even though they aren't married yet. We went to San Francisco and had a fabulous time. We drove up in the afternoon and headed straight to Union Square to eat at the Cheescake Factory on the 8th floor of Macys. It was gorgeous all decorated for Christmas.

However, the three hour wait on a Tuesday night deterred us and we went to Joe's Crab Shack at Fisherman's Wharf instead.

Then we went to our great hotel and enjoyed some room service dessert. Breakfast was wonderful in the indoor gardens and it had a beautiful view.

After leaving our hotel, we went and saw some of the sights, including Lomard Street (the most crooked street in the world), the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and more at Fisherman's Wharf. We ate lunch at Tommy's Joynt and headed for home.

While stuck in some pretty bad traffic, we enjoyed this beautiful rainbow and it helped the time go by much more pleasantly.

Thanks mom for a great trip full of fun times and wonderful memories.

Anchors away

2010-11-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to go out on an air craft carrier for a week to provide eye exams. I flew out to the ship on a Monday and rode the ship back into San Diego. This was my first time being on a ship. Up until now I had only sat in a clinic doing eye exams. This experience helped me develop a sense of being part of the Navy, rather than just working for the Navy.

I stayed very busy doing eye exams. I found out that sailors out on ships don't work the nice comfortable 8 hour shifts most are used to. I worked from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm with breaks for lunch and dinner. I thought I was working hard but quickly realized that I had one of the easiest schedules on the ship. My respect for our sailors has significantly increased. On my lunch and dinner breaks I tried to make it out to watch the air operations. To me this was like being a kid on Christmas morning all over. There is something about all that power harnessed into a machine that really gets the adrenaline going. As you can tell from the pictures, I really enjoyed watching the jets take off and land.

The Carnival cruise ship got stranded while I was out on the carrier. We responded and provided relief to the ship. The picture below is of one of the helicopters that transported supplies to the stranded ship.

Morgan's Photo Shoot

2010-11-12T14:09:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to take family pictures for a Christmas card before I get too huge. Since I'm not sure that's going to happen, I decided to take some pictures of Morgan to possibly use. Brent would probably be embarrassed of me posting some of these but he's not here so he can't have an opinion. I have no clue how to edit pictures either so I was just playing with color a little in Windows Photo Gallery. Again, I'm sure Brent would be embarrassed but I had fun.

These are for those of you who don't live close and miss out on Morgan's many facial expressions. That girl always has us laughing at the faces she makes. Keep in mind, these were completely unsolicited. She was just done taking pictures.

Let me know if you have a favorite out of the ones above.

Enjoying the outdoors

2010-11-12T12:02:00.001-08:00

We knew Brent was going to be going out to sea for a week so we wanted to do something fun together as a family. We headed up to Torrey Pines near La Jolla to do some hiking. It was beautiful and Morgan had a great time. We did a 3.25 mile loop and Morgan walked for probably 2 miles of it. We hiked down to the beach, had lunch, played and then hiked back. It was a great day.

Halloween, way late

2010-11-12T11:41:00.001-08:00

We started off by going to a neighborhood parade. Morgan wasn't terribly interested and we left early. I have to admit, I wasn't terribly interested either. It was kind of boring.

But she did wear her Lion costume for a few minutes and was a big hit.

This is her ferocious growl.

Saturday morning, we carved pumpkins with Jarom and Alyssa. The boys took forever.

From the left, Jarom, Brent, Paij, Alyssa

We went to our ward trunk or treat that night but didn't stay very long or take any pictures.
We drew on some whiskers for Halloween and didn't get them off before bed. We thought it was pretty cute.

Morgan the Explorer

2010-11-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

Morgan is totally obsessed with Dora the Explorer. She would watch it all day if we let her. We try to limit her to three episodes a day. Anyway, Brent decided he would take Morgan exploring in our backyard. We have 1/2 an acre but it's not exactly a place to play since it's on a huge hill. She was very excited. If you haven't seen the show, this will mean little to you but they started out drawing a map so they would know where to go. They put the map in her Dora backpack that I made and headed out the door.

After the mystery fruit tree, they had to check the map and see where to go next.
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Then they went to the pink flower plant and picked some flowers for mommy.

After that they went to the big rocks but I couldn't get a picture from the house. She came back with all sorts of treasures in her backpack that she had found. I think this will become a new Sunday afternoon tradition for Morgan the Explorer and her friend, Dad.

Sea World

2010-10-12T14:01:00.001-07:00

Sea World gives all active duty military and their families a free day at their park. You pick the day and just go. We picked yesterday since Brent had the day off for Columbus Day and most of the schools didn't. It was a great time to go. Not too crowded but the weather was fabulous. The shows were awesome. It made our whale watching trip of last week seem a little sad but there is something special and different about seeing these animals in the wild. Shamu was of course our favorite. These animals are so huge yet graceful.

Morgan really enjoyed watching the animals and it was fun pointing them out to her. She only went on one ride but didn't seem too disappointed about it.

Brent loved this picture of her and the Beluga. It swam right over to her and it was like they were just checking each other out.

The new Blue Horizons show was really neat. There were a lot more people involved in the show doing high platform diving and trapeze type stuff but it was cool. The Dolphins are always fun to watch. I think we appreciate them more now that we have been able to see them pretty up close in the ocean lately while at the beach.

I'm glad we got to go but I don't think we'll need to go again for a while. Thanks Sea World!

MHS 10 years class reunion

2010-10-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sadly the pictures I took turned out really poorly but I felt I needed to share a little anyway. For memories sake.
Megan and Melissa

The cheerleaders

Tiffany

One of my best friends had a baby two days before the reunion so I got to see her and her new baby while I was in Manteca. The timing turned out great and he was beautiful. Congrats Melissa and Sean!

Happy Birthday Brent!

2010-10-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, his birthday was in June but for his birthday present, he got a whale watching trip. We finally went in Monterey last week and had a great time. The whales got pretty close to the boat and there were at least 20 in the water in viewing distance. These were Humpback whales. Enjoy!

After we went whale watching, we headed over to the Charlie Brown Park to let Morgan burn off some energy. She had a great time with dad because I was still getting over my sea sickness. The seas were a little rough.

2010-10-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed up to Manteca to go to my 10 year class reunion. We decided to make a trip out of it. We headed up to LA after work on Thursday and after way too long in the car due to traffic, we made it to the Griffith Observatory. It's right by Hollywood and the view was fantastic.

Friday morning we headed up the coast to Big Sur. We stopped at a few places along the way and checked out the views, saw the elephant seals, and took some pictures. It truly is a beautiful place.

We drove up to Monterey and stayed at the Naval Postgraduate School. The Gateway Inn was beautiful. The building was very ornate with these great gardens right out our balcony. We look forward to going back and staying there again.

More posts on our Whale watching trip and the reunion to come.

Big Girl Bed

2010-10-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

We put Morgan in a big girl bed about two weeks ago but she's still not consistently sleeping in it. We start out there every nap and night but she only sleeps in it about half the time. We still like to have the crib in there as a threat but I guess we'll have to take it out eventually.

Bay Cruise and USS Mercy

2010-10-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

One of Brent's friends from elementary school and his family came over from LA for the day. Brian Allred was also in town so we went on a by cruise and to the USS Mercy. We had a great time. Morgan loved pushing all the buttons.

My Birthday

2010-10-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so this was like a month ago but I never posted about it so here goes. Brent decorated the house and made me a darling cake. He went to the store and bought special pans, frosting tips, and even a cake leveler. You can even see the different colors in the cake.

Disneyland

2010-10-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

My parents, sisters, and their families all came down for a few days and went to Disneyland and hung out at my place. We had a fabulous time.

Morgan went on several rides with Grandma and they had a great time.

Brent had to work so Morgan and I went on Thursday then brought my dad and the other two year olds home with us while everyone else went on Friday as well. It was so fun to see the little cousins interacting and playing together and to spend some relaxing time with my dad. On Saturday, we went to the beach and kayaked with the sharks but unfortunately didn't get any pictures. They all left Sunday morning and it was way too soon.

Bath Time

2010-09-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

I just thought these were cute and thought I would share.

Practicing

2010-09-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

Turn up your volume, it's kind of quiet.
She is singing I am a child of God if you couldn't tell. It's easier to understand when you know what she is singing because there is no tune, she just says the words. And yes, she said I am a child of Frog.
I will find Morgan sitting there just holding her baby dolls and sometimes singing to them; although this was obviously staged. She has been asking specifically to play with her babies and loves feeding and changing them. She is just practicing for her new baby brother or sister who is due on March 18th 2011. Yeah!!

Legoland

2010-08-15T18:37:00.001-07:00

My brother had free tickets to Legoland so we went while he was here. Morgan couldn't ride most of the rides but we did find a few things that she could enjoy. We had a good time and are glad we could go.

What we've been up to

2010-08-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

We moved to San Diego in hopes of seeing more family and they seem willing to oblige. We've had six different families come visit over the last four weeks, leaving only two days with no one here. It's been busy to say the least but great also. Unfortunately it hasn't left much time for posting. I also haven't taken many pictures. We spent a lot of time at the beach, playing games and just hanging out. We're glad everyone was able to come.
Here are some pictures of our little family lately.

Morgan at the San Diego Zoo.
Morgan and Brent on the bay in one of the Kayaks we bought. They have been a lot of fun and we look forward to using them more.

Morgan's nice goose egg and bruise. She must have done it in her sleep because she woke up with it and we don't know where she got it.

This is the Cabrillo Monument at Point Loma. It was beautiful and we had a great time. Especially Morgan throwing rocks into that little hole. She could have done it for hours.

Knotts Berry Farm

2010-07-09T17:21:00.001-07:00

On our Monday off after the 4th, we took a trip up to LA to go to Knotts Berry Farm. We were a little nervous about how Morgan would do and were pleasantly surprised. She really enjoyed it and we did as well. It's not Disneyland but it still had great rides and a lot of fun things for Morgan to do. She went on at least 7 rides. We look forward to taking her to more amusement parks but also to go to another one without her.
She was a little nervous to go on this ride by herself but really enjoyed it by the end.

We even went on some big kid rides as well. We just waited in line and passed Morgan off in between.

Toy Story 3

2010-07-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

We bought Toy Story 1 and 2 blu-ray/DVD combo packs and got free tickets to Toy Story 3. Since it would only cost us $1, we thought this would be a good time to see how Morgan did at the theater. She did great and really liked the movie. We liked it too but I totally cried. Morgan kept saying "Hoodie"(Woody) and making other comments through out. There were a lot of other children in the theater as well though so it was fine. I'm glad we did it but we probably won't do it again for a while.

Family Reunion

2010-07-09T15:52:00.001-07:00

I am way behind at blogging and have to start catching up somewhere. I went to a family reunion with the Hunter side over Father's Day weekend. We do it every year and it is so nice to get together with cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and siblings. Unfortunately a lot of my family couldn't make it this year including my mother and several siblings but I'm glad I could go and spend time with others who could go. I was terrible about taking pictures but here are a few. Morgan had a great time exploring and playing with her cousins.

It was in the Sequoia National Forest so we did the small hike through the trail of 100 giants. Those trees are HUGE.

EARTHQUAKE!!

2010-06-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

We had our first earthquake experience last night around 9:30pm. It was a 5.7 and the epicenter was about 65 miles east of us. No damage has been reported but it shook the house with two good rumbles and I was a little unnerved by it. We'll keep you posted. (Obviously a Google image and not a picture I took.)

In other earth shattering news...

Morgan is potty trained. Yeah! She still wears a pull-up during naps and a diaper at night but she's been doing great. We started last Tuesday and she took to it right away. She went several times a few months back but then I decided to drop it until after the move. I'm glad I did because she was totally ready this time around. We've been to the park, the post office and target all with no accidents. I'm so proud.

And...

We bought a car. Another Yeah! After about three weeks with only one car, we bought a 2005 Toyota Highlander this weekend. We're happy with it so far and look forward to using the extra cargo space on our trips up to nor-cal.

Just as a side note, we love the beach.

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me

2010-06-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Morgan has started to sing many of the songs we sing to her. As you can see, she is pretty proud of herself(mom and dad are too). Turn up your speaker, she starts out pretty quiet.

It's offical

2010-05-27T09:28:00.001-07:00

Well there are lots of things that are official.
1. Brent graduated and is now a Doctor and a Lieutenant in the Navy
2. Florida is beautiful
3. Grandparents are great
4. Morgan turned 2
5. We moved across the country and arrived in San Diego

See more info below on each. Sorry this is long but it's been a while.

Brent graduated and is now a Doctor and a Lieutenant in the Navy. After four long years of painful lectures and difficult patients, Brent finally finished optometry school. He says he's not a multi-tasker, and I usually agree but he managed juggling school, being an awesome father, a great husband, and a scout leader amazingly well these last several years while also dealing with and helping me complete my schooling. I am so proud of him and am grateful for all his efforts and sacrifice on our family's behalf.

The commencement speaker at his graduation was an admiral in the Navy. He is the highest ranking optometrist in the Navy. Brent was lucky enough to have him do his promotion ceremony. After graduation, he was promoted from an ENS to a Lieutenant and retook his oath. It is a pretty big deal. Thank you to the family and friends who attended.

Florida is Beautiful
After Brent's graduation and before mine, we took a trip back to Pensacola FL. Both Brent's parents and mine were able to come out for the graduations and so we gave them this trip to FL for their Christmas present. This was our third time to Pensacola and we love it. This time we stayed in the Portofino Resort and it was awesome. If anyone is planning on heading down there, let us know and we'll give you the info.

Grandparents are great
Seeing how we lived in Mississippi and Morgan's grandparents live in California, they didn't get to see each other very often. This trip made up for it. She loved spending time with her grandparents and if I can take the liberty to say it, they loved spending time with her. When the Collins have 30+ grand-kids and the Hunters have 11, it is rare to get one on one time with the grandparents, especially a whole week.

Morgan turned 2
I know it's hard to believe for me too. Morgan flew home with my parents after the graduations so we could pack and drive the moving truck across country and I'm soooo glad they did. After we got unloaded in SD, we drove back up to my parents and stayed for over a week visiting family on both sides. While we were there Morgan turned 2 and we had a little cousin party. My parents have a little farm with cows, a goat, lots of puppies, and a big red barn. Morgan was in heaven and wanted to go see the cows and puppies all the time. We even had two baby cows come while we were there. So we had a barnyard party. We played with bubbles, did the chicken dance, ring around the rosie, had cake and opened presents. We all had a great time.

She got a little princess castle and a darling frilly outfit. So she is in her castle with the outfit on. In case you were wondering about this picture.

We're back in CA
We made the drive in pretty good time. It took about 30 hours and that was in a moving truck pulling a car. We are just now getting fully moved in. Here is a picture of the outside. I'll post inside pictures when I get it decorated. We're in Spring Valley. It's about 15 min East of Downtown San Diego. The weather has been wonderful so far. We do expect visitors.

Easter Eve Fun

2010-04-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Easter was beautiful and we decided to take advantage.We went to Dixon Garden and Galleria in Memphis (it's free Saturday's from 10-12) and then to a little park to play. Morgan has already learned to avoid daddy when he has the camera so that is why she is not looking in most of these pictures. I picked out the flower pictures, not Brent, so he may not be happy with the ones I've chosen, but they are the ones I liked. It was a great day and I'm glad we got to spend the time together as a family. We didn't take a single picture Easter Sunday. I'll tell you the Easter Bunny came and Morgan got a bubble flower, a swim suit, play doe, and a new robe. She loves hunting for Easter eggs in the house and the yard. She's actually pretty good at finding them. We enjoyed conference and had a yummy Easter lunch with some friends. I went a little picture happy.

Pre-Easter

2010-04-07T18:44:00.001-07:00

Since Easter was conference weekend, we had to dress up for church the week before. Morgan and I wore matching outfits. It was kind of fun.

The traditional bunny cakes. It's hardly Easter with out them.

I couldn't have done them however, without the help from my friend Brien. She chose to make a purple one. I thought it turned out great.

Morgan was not super impressed with the egg dying process. I think she was just overly tired. We put hers in this whisk so we didn't have to worry about her dropping it. But she didn't want to put it in the water, she just wanted to shake it. Finally we just gave her an egg and let her put stickers on it.

Here's the finished product in all their glory. Yeah, we're not very artistic.

Projects

2010-04-07T18:10:00.001-07:00

These are some projects I've been working on the last while and just haven't posted. Most are made from left over material with some embellishments. I was going to wait until Morgan wore all the things I'd made and I had pictures but I gave up and will post those later.

I made this shirt out of left over material from the apron I made for a friend. I saw the idea for the little ruffles on someone else's blog and I loved it.

I obviously did not make this shirt but I did the headband. I made this for my sister-in-law for her 13th bday. I thought it was cute and plan to make myself one with different ribbon.

I saw that you could make your pillowcase dress ties out of material instead of ribbon so I decided to try it with some left over material. I thought it worked out well. These dresses are so fun and easy.

My sister-in-law gave Morgan some PJ pants for Christmas and right away I thought I could make those. This is material left over from Morgan's shopping Cart cover.

This is a skirt I made from left over material my mom gave me after making our aprons. Morgan has worn it several times to church. This is obviously an old picture since we still have our old floors. Glad those are gone.

Total cost of all projects above: about $3.50. I love using extra material. It's like free clothes.

Ever have one of those days?

2010-04-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Morgan had one today.

After close to two hours of talking, laughing and screaming in her crib when she was supposed to be napping, I went in her room and found her like this. Needless to say, that was the end of our napping effort for today.

Our weekend in Chattanooga

2010-03-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to see our friends the Kents in Chattanooga, TN. I (Brent) took a day off from the clinic on Friday to make it a 3 day weekend. On Friday we went to Fall Creek Falls, Burgess Falls, and Rock Island State Parks. Each of these parks has beautiful waterfalls. The weather was fantastic and we went on several short hikes. Morgan was a little trooper and made dad so proud as it looks like he may have a little hiking buddy in the making. Morgan is fascinated with stairs and fortunately there were lots of stairs carved into the trails we hiked. Here we are trying to get Morgan to pose for a family picture at Rock Island State Park.

We drove to Chattanooga Friday evening and spent the rest of the weekend with the Kents. We got to see their new home. It is always great to see old friends, but it is even better when you get to see all the good things happening for them. Their house is beautiful and their kids are a blast. We had a great time catching up, playing games(even if Brent got destroyed after talking tons of trash), going sightseeing, roasting marshmallows, and eating great food. The Kents were amazing hosts. Here is a picture at Rock City, a pretty area on Lookout Mountain with walking trails, overlooks, and lots of pretty scenery.

On the way home we stopped by the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It was amazing to see how massive the space shuttles and rockets are that mankind has launched into space. I could not get over the size of the rockets and the seemingly impossible raw power necessary to launch something that large into space. It was nice icing on the cake for our 3 day trip. Thanks again Joe and Nicki for the great weekend and for your ongoing friendship. Here is a slide show several more pictures from our trip.

Spring Break in Dallas

2010-03-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

Though we have spent a couple nights in Dallas due to flight delays/cancellations, we had never actually explored Dallas. With our time in this part of the country winding down we took Spring break as an opportunity to check it out. We went with the Sullengers and had a great time. Some of the highlights included the Bodies Exhibit, Phantom of the Opera, the new Cowboys stadium, the Dallas Arboretum, the Stockyards in Fort Worth, and great shopping and eating.

Yeah, this is a real cow.

This picture is for Morgan's cowboy grandpa.

Morgan running to her Daddy. It's pretty cute as you can see.

This is Brent's panoramic that he is pretty proud of. You have to click on it to really appreciate how enormous this place is. We're not huge football fans but this place was amazing.
There is also a new slide show on the side with more pictures if you're interested.

Maple Leaf

2010-02-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Since we painted our master bedroom, we wanted to do something new with our bedding. However, when we move, we are hoping to get a King size bed so didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a new queen size bedspread. So Cara loaned us their white duvet cover and saw this maple leaf idea on a blog. We didn't have time to order the pattern so we just faked it and I am very happy with how it turned out. Especially since it was a one day project.

For those of you who have seen my room, notice the chair rail and door frame are now white instead of black and the wall color is green instead of gray.

Chilren's Museum

2010-02-25T13:05:00.001-08:00

So this has been a while but I'm a little behind on my blogging. A sweet friend took us to the museum and Morgan and I had a great time. I think it's a must do if you have kids while you're in Memphis. They have a lot of fun a different activities for the kids. I was not a very good picture taker while I was there but here are a couple.

The shopping trip to Kroger was my favorite part I think. The kids get to not only shop but then they check out as well. They get to scan their items and get a receipt. Morgan thought it was pretty cool too. She was a little young to get into some of the stuff but I'm sure would be getting really into it in the next several months.

The Navy has spoken...

2010-02-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

And we like what they have to say!

San Diego, CA here we come. This is what we had hoped for all along (well at least I had hoped for) and are so excited that it has worked out. We don't know when exactly we will have to be there but it looks like the end of May. Lots of changes are on our horizon. At least our horizon will include the beach. Woohoo! I'm happy, can you tell? Oh, did I mention it's 71 degrees there right now?

Ice storm

2010-01-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

Home for Sale

2010-01-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

We just put our home on the market and are selling For Sale by Owner. We figure we need as much help as we can get with publicity so I'm starting here. We have actually started a blog with lots of pictures and all the house information. I would love it if you guys would check it out and make any suggestions to the house or the blog. Make suggestions here instead of on the other blog since that's what potential buyers will see. There will be a permanent link on the right side of our blog that will direct you to the house blog should you want to get back to it at a later date or tell someone about it. The web address is our home address:

www.5570alexandria.blogspot.com

Thanks for your help.

Christmas Trip

2010-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

These are just a few of the highlights in no particular order.

Saying goodbye to Brent's next oldest brother John, who will be moving out of the country in a few months for possibly several years with his wife and two kids.

Morgan ready for Collins family dodge ball. It was rather brutal but a good time was had by all.

Celebrating my little brother's 24th birthday.

Hanging out with Brent's old friends from high school. He was kind of a ladies man as you can imagine.

Morgan with her cousin Bailey who made the darling tutu and head band she is wearing.

Loving on one of her twin cousins.

Christmas morning when Morgan got her very own lap top from Santa.
My cousin Sarah and her 9 month old Douglas coming to visit.

Playing "Would you rather?" with Brent's family. She had to identify 3 smells blind folded. They were ruthless.

Liberty Ward Christmas Party hanging out with cousin Kasen and Grandma.

Attempting to see Santa. I was excited, Morgan was not.

Some activities not pictured:
Going to a couple school Christmas shows for nieces and nephews
Temple trip to do almost 300 ordinances for family members
Family Nativity
Progressive Dinner
Grinch gift swap
Making Gingerbread Houses
Paint balling
Christmas Eve Feast
New Years Rockin' Party
Going to Avatar 3D
Lots of eating, shopping, and lots of playing games

We hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours. Nothing beats spending time with family.

Apron Time

2010-01-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

My mom made me a darling apron for Christmas and I thought Morgan just had to have one. She gave me her scrap material, not with the apron in mind but just because I have time to sew, and I was able to make it work. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Our Fourth Anniversary

2010-01-08T13:03:00.001-08:00

Well sort of...
Our anniversary is on Dec. 17th. However, due to the inconvenient date, we have never really celebrated. Until this year. We just did it a little late on Dec. 29th. My mother graciously agreed to keep Morgan for the night so we headed to Sacramento. We ate at this nice Chinese restaurant called Fat's in downtown.

We loved the presentation of the food. And it tasted great too.

When we asked our waiter to take a picture, we told him it was our anniversary so he didn't think we were lame for wanting a picture. So then he brought us out complimentary slices of their banana cream pie. It was yummy.

Then we went to our hotel, Embassy Suites (made possible by the help of a friend who works for Hilton.) This is our view of the lobby from the 6th floor. Sorry the picture's a little blurry but you get the idea. We had a riverside view on the other side of our room. They had a manager's reception in the evening and a wonderful breakfast in the morning. There was also an indoor pool and spa we enjoyed.

The next day we went to Ikea and the Roseville Galleria. We got to meet up with a friend of mine from college and had a very enjoyable and memorable time. Thanks again mom.

A cold day at the park

2010-01-08T12:17:00.001-08:00

New Years Eve in Chico, CA. We wanted to do something outdoors as a family so we found this cool park. Well Brent and my family knew where it was but it was new to me.

Riding the Teeter Totter with Grandma.

Going to get a drink with Aunt Rachel (my little sister)

Climbing through the Dragon's mouth.

Everyone going on a stroll around the park. It was actually quite nice. Morgan and Kasen enjoyed their rides in the stroller.

She did it!!!!!!!

2009-12-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

A little over two years ago two key hallmarks began for Paij and I. The first was Paij decided to go back to school to get her masters. Shortly after that, we found out we were pregnant with Morgan. After a lot of thought and prayer it was decided that Paij would continue with the program she had just been accepted to at the University of Memphis. Paij was able to complete one semester before Morgan was born. I remember the first time Paij went to class after Morgan was born. Even though Morgan was home with Dad, Paij still struggled to hold back the tears as she sat in class. It has been a challenge to juggle two full-time graduate students in the home while caring for Morgan and attending to the many other responsibilities of life and church. I have always been amazed with Paij and how bright and capable she is. My love for Paij has grown tremendously over the last two years. It has been humbling to see how she has cared for Morgan, multi-tasked on a level I will never come close to, and accomplish things in 45 minutes that would take me hours to do. The experience has been a blessing, as the opportunity to pursue an education always is. The experience has also been a blessing in our relationship that has helped us draw closer to each other. Paij finished her masters degree yesterday. Congratulations Paij. I love you.

The stockings were hung

2009-11-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

I've been looking for new stockings since I was pregnant, so this is the third Christmas. I had thought about just buying some but couldn't find any that I liked in my price range. So then I thought about making some but I still didn't know what I wanted. After looking at 30 Google image pages, I had an idea. I drug Brent into Hancock and he picked out what he wanted. Here is the result.

I thought it turned out pretty good so I started on number two and just changed the colors around a bit.

On to Morgan's. I knew I didn't want to use the same fringe or cording because I didn't know what would be available when I had my next child. So I kept with the theme but used different stuff.

I happy with the way they turned out.

Morgan lately

2009-11-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

So I have been a total slacker when it comes to blogging. I have been taking random pictures now and then so I thought I would post some. Morgan is so much fun and a blast to hang out with, most of the time. She has about 25 words she uses consistently and picks up new words all the time. Some times it's tricky figuring out what she is trying to say but it's so fun when you understand.

She has been getting better at using a fork or spoon to eat with. She wants to do everything herself. However, on this night, her fork was not getting the food in fast enough; she dug in with her hands and it shows. I rarely put a bib on her anymore but I'm sure glad I did this night.

She was pretty proud of herself for eating all her dinner.

We had a fall festival at the elementary school I work at so I took Morgan. She was a little young for the activities but enjoyed watching all the kids and sitting on the fire truck.

The other day I was trying to see if I could interest her in playing in the leaves in the front yard. She wasn't too impressed. When she realized she couldn't eat them, she decided they were worthless and tried to go back inside.

Last Sunday was Morgan's first week in Nursery. Yup, she's 18months. I went to drop her off and she said, "Bye Bye Mommy." After holding back the tears, I went to enjoy a peaceful, uninterrupted Sunday School. She did wonderfully. They said she played, ate her snack, and did the hand movements to the songs. I was so proud. I was trying to get her to hold the picture she drew but she just kept putting it down. So here she is and the picture is on the table behind her.

On to Thanksgiving. Here we are at the Sullengers where we enjoyed a wonderful meal and great company. Cara had it decorated so cute and we had a great time. Thanks guys.

Morgan of course was into everything. Here she got caught trying to pull out more toys.

Kash and Brent were wonderful and did all the clean up. The ladies and Travis, got to watch football and the kiddo's. Travis didn't really help, he just pretended in this picture.

On Friday, we went down to our favorite dive in Holly Springs, Phillip's Grocery. While waiting of others to arrive, we took a little walk. We thought we would catch some shots of little miss independent. We're lucky if she'll hold our hands for 10 seconds. And of course she can hold her drink by herself.

Wizard of Oz

2009-11-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

I hadn't been to a ballet in years and I heard this advertised on the radio. It sounded fun so I asked a couple of girls and we went to the Orpheum for the Wizard of Oz ballet. It was fantastic. The ballet was beautiful and the company was great. Thanks girls!

So I know Cara already posted this picture but I forgot my camera so we're sharing pic's.

2009-11-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

We have neglected the blog the last few weeks, so it is time for some catch up. Paij had her national certified counseling exam 2 weeks ago. She feels like she did well on the exam(which means she probably missed 2 questions out of the 200 total). She has been pretty busy with her internships and studying for her exam. Morgan loves to be close to her Mommy, and I thought this moment was too cute to pass up on as Paij was studying for her exam.

As hard as Daddy tries, he can't compete with Mommy in Morgan's eyes. I have really enjoyed the last couple months getting to spend more time with Morgan. She is at such a fun stage, and in Daddy's opinion there couldn't be a more cute and fun girl to hang out with. This is a snapshot of Morgan having a good time with Dad.

One of the fun things Morgan has started doing lately is hiding. She has gotten rather good at it too(most of the time). She often gives herself away by whispering "hide" to herself as she is tucked away in a corner somewhere. It is a fun game that can go on and on.

And to keep up with all the other Halloween posts here are some pictures of Morgan, along with a shot of her and her friend Caroline, and of course, Mommy. Contrary to what many complimented, Morgan did not dress up as an elephant for Halloween. Her friend Caroline had this awesome robot costume as you can see.

And to wrap things up, here is a video of our little pride and joy. She can say over 20 words now(most of which are only discernible to Mom and Dad). In addition she is fluent in jibberish, which really has us intrigued when she gets on a role. Sorry that the video is a little dark. Morgan and Daddy were playing in a homemade tent and Daddy shot the video from inside the tent. Enjoy.

Camping

2009-10-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

While driving home from a fair for high school students at the University of Memphis Saturday afternoon, Brent called and said "So, do you want to go camping tonight?" It was already 2:30pm mind you. Being the loving and accommodating wife that I am, I said sure. We got down to Wall Doxie State Park by about 5pm. We set up camp, went for a nice walk, made dinner, had a fire, and then tried to sleep.

Morgan wasn't the most cooperative but she didn't do too bad. It started raining around 5am and didn't stop, so our morning plans were cut short. We packed up and made it home by 9am. We had a nice breakfast, showered, and watched conference. It was great to be able to spend some time together without life's other distractions. I doubt we'll be camping again any time soon, but I'm glad we went.

Teton Trek

2009-10-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

We visited the Memphis Zoo this weekend for the member's only preview of the Teton Trek. We met some friends there at 8am to beat the crowd. We are glad we went early because the lines were really bad when we left at 10:00am. It was really cool. They have three baby grizzlies. They were so cute and playful with each other. They didn't even seem to notice all the spectators.

They also have four wolves who were very active as well.

They have this beautiful lodge with two floors and a big walkway that goes up and around the exhibit with a waterfall and stream. They are also going to have a place for Elk, however it isn't finished yet.

Thanks Seth and Angie for braving the early morning. It was great to spend time with you guys. We look forward to visiting the zoo again and watching the cute little grizzly cubs grow.

Walk at School

2009-10-04T17:55:00.001-07:00

One of my internships this semester is at Greenbrook Elementary School. This week, we joined "iwalk Mississippi" in a little walk around the school, and I do mean little. It was about a quarter mile and the kids did great. My poor counselor was out with the flu so this became my responsibility. Monday, I decided we needed a something to get the kids excited about the walk, and since gators are the school's mascot, I found this picture of a gator walking and thought we could make a sign out of it. We added the hat because the kids could wear hats while they walked. So the counselor assistant and myself, busted this poster out. It is about 10 feet tall. We got 550 goodie bags ready, blew up and tied balloons around the school, and organized the parents. The newspaper was there and everything. http://desototimes.com/articles/2009/10/04/news/local/doc4ac6a384a6a89513667752.txt I think it was a pretty successful event if I do say so myself.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-09-11T14:27:00.001-07:00

So I know it's a few days late but it's been a busy week. My birthday was on Tuesday and it was fabulous. I had to work but had a great day playing with the students. It was made even better by my husband bringing me these beautiful flowers to work.
Then, when I got home and had more flowers waiting for me on my porch. Thanks Jen, they're beautiful.

When I came inside, I saw this awesome sewing machine cake that my wonderfully creative husband made for me. Not only was it so sweet that he went to that effort but it also tasted great.

I then took a short nap and Brent decorated the house with balloons and streamers. It was fun and Morgan loved it. She is still enjoying the balloons. Unfortunately, we did not take a picture of that or of us out to dinner at my favorite little Mexican place called La Hacienda. We had a couple of friends over to eat cake with us and then I got to open my presents. I got spoiled.

Morgan was helping me and loved to read the cards.

Thank you so much honey for making my birthday such a special day. I love you!

Morgan's new do

2009-09-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Her hair has finally gotten long enough that I can do something with it. It's not much but she usually leaves it in and it at least looks like I tried. I don't do it very often but when I do, people usually love it.

One little pony

Or two little piggies

Fun in the Sun

2009-09-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Morgan loved the beach. She wasn't the biggest fan of the sand but she loved the water. The water was about 83 degrees and the weather was about 86 degrees. We couldn't have asked for it to be any nicer. We had a wonderful time enjoying the white sandy beaches. Enjoy the pictures.

Family Pictures

2009-08-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks Kash and Cara!

Our Trip South

2009-08-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

Last week we went on vacation with our friends the Sullengers. We had a great time and spent most of our time in Pensacola, FL. We spent one night and 2 half days in New Orleans. We spent a lot of time on the beach, but those pictures are to come. These are the other pictures from the trip.

On the way down we stopped in Mobile, AL to give Morgan a little break at the Battleship Memorial Park. She sure enjoyed the short lived freedom and was not excited to finish the last hour of the trip. She did very well considering.

While in Pensacola, we got to watch the Blue Angels practice and go to the Aerospace Museum.

We also got to climb to the top of this lighthouse. We were pretty lucky because it's only open for tours on Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons. We just ended up there at the right time by chance.

On the way to New Orleans we stopped at Dr. Wagnor's Honey Island Swamp Tours and saw ourselves some Alligators. It was actually really cool. I don't think I care to ever be that close to an alligator again but I'm glad I did it once. Captain Jack gave us a good show as he fed the alligators hot dogs and marshmallows.

Here Kash is inspecting an above ground grave at a cemetery in New Orleans. As you can see, all the graves are actually built above the ground. Each one of those vaults holds between 4 and 8 bodies. I don't know the logistics of it and I'm not sure I want to.

We also checked out French Quarters and unfortunately didn't find anyone to speak french to. We did visit the cathedral, as seen above; ate some Beignets at Cafe du Monde and got powdered sugar everywhere; checked out Bourbon street (which I don't ever care to return to, not even during the day); checked out some shops, and drove through the garden district.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip full of sunshine and memories. We're glad the Sullenger's were able to join us. We really enjoyed their company and are grateful for their friendship.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

2009-08-18T18:41:00.001-07:00

The new PBS Ken Burns documentary about US National Parks comes out on Sept. 27th!!!! I(Brent) have been looking forward to this documentary all year. It is guaranteed to have some spectacular footage. I wanted to give everyone a heads up so you can pull out your old John Denver cassette tapes to get warmed up for the series. Check out the gadget above(if you are bored) showing which national parks I have visited thus far. Visit PBS to find out more about the series.

Morgan's new throne

2009-08-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally finished a project I started about 6 months ago. Some friends of ours generously gave us this antique wood highchair(thank you Abbotts).

The chair definitely showed signs of wear and tear and was in need of some TLC. I fabricated a couple replacement parts, repaired the broken tray, and sanded down and refinished everything. I am happy with how it turned out.

It was a fun project to pick at here and there over the last several months. The sad part will be to watch it get all nasty as Morgan breaks it in. However, with cheesy smiles like this I might be able to handle it getting a little dirty.

A fun thing that adds character to this highchair is that it doubles as a potty training chair. I don't think we will be using this chair to its full potential. Something about associating eating and certain bodily functions doesn't settle well with me.

Walking?!?

2009-08-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

So most people wouldn't brag about their child starting to walk at 14 1/2 months but it's too cute not to share. She still certainly doesn't do it all the time yet but she has the ability; just not the confidence. We're working on it.

ABC's

2009-08-04T14:58:00.001-07:00

So my friend Cara saw this idea on a blog and emailed me about it. The girl on the blog had just done her daughter's name but said she was planning on doing the whole alphabet. We figured, if we were going to do them, we might as well do the whole alphabet. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Four days and countless hours later, the alphabet it complete. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun too. We painted all capital letters on one side and lowercase on the other. Hopefully these will help Morgan learn her letters.

Now I need a new project to keep me from cleaning my house. Any suggestions??

I'm a big kid now!

2009-08-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's not like she's potty trained or anything but now she's in her big girl car seat. It's taken a while to reach 20lbs. Sorry about the poor picture quality but you get the idea of the princess on her throne.

F-18 Fighter Jets

2009-07-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

We went to check out Lemoore, CA. Where is Lemoore, CA you might ask? It's about 35 miles south of Fresno, in between highway 99 and I-5. It also happens to be the location of a Naval Air Station. We're considering Lemoore as a possible option as our placement with the Navy. Unfortunately, the final decision is not in our hands. We decided to check it out while we were in CA so we could see what we were trying to get ourselves into. The experience didn't start out very well but as evidenced by the pictures below, it didn't end too bad. After wandering around the base fairly aimlessly, we finally went to talk to the optometrists stationed there. One happened to be the aerospace optometrist and got Brent all excited. After 2 hours of chatting, he asked if we wanted to check out some of the planes. There was no way I could say no after seeing Brent's whole face light up. He didn't get to go flying, but he did get to sit in the cockpit.

Families Are Forever

2009-07-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

The real reason we went to California was to be present for the sealing of Brent's younger three siblings to his parents who were recently adopted into the family. We are so grateful we got to be there for such a special occasion. It was a beautiful experience and the Sacramento Temple was beautiful as well.

Here are all the siblings and his parents who were there, including the younger three. I think they fit in nicely. There are four other siblings not in attendance.

We're so grateful for our knowledge of the gospel and the sealing ordinances available in the temple. How blessed we are to know that families truly are forever!

Quietly Celebrating

2009-07-29T18:43:00.001-07:00

I don't know if you know the country song "Where I'm From," but at the beginning of the song it says he was quietly celebrating his first class upgrade. Here Morgan and I are quietly celebrating our first class upgrade. On our flight from Dallas to Sacramento, instead of getting bumped to a later flight, they upgraded us to first class. It was so nice. We got served omelets, potatoes, fruit, and a biscuit for breakfast. Then we passed on the hot towel because we didn't know what to do with it. We're not exactly upper class people, but we definitely enjoyed the extra leg room.

On our flight home, we were not so lucky. Our flight was canceled to Memphis from Dallas due to "weather." It happened to be the only flight canceled that night. But we stayed in a nice hotel, that we had to pay for, and slept in the next morning. So instead of the usual 6-7 hours it takes to get home, it was 28hours from when we left to when we got home. The joys of living across the country from family.