Catching Up

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

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

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

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!

Jaycee
Paij

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

Jaycee's Baby Blessing

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

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.)