Brother comes to visit

My brother, Joey (who now goes by Joe..and I can't seem to call him that for the life of me), and family came to California for a visit. We met up with them (on April 25th) at Old Town. It was really fun. Scott had never been before and I have not been for a really long, long time.

Joey bought Mexican candy for everyone to try. It brought me back to the days in the mission field. They were hard mango candies covered with chili powder. I was surprised that Scott shared it with me. The inside is so good! Yum! After Old Town we all headed to Seaport Village.




Then we all went to church with my parents on Sunday, followed by a family dinner. With a 2 1/2 hour drive back home we had to leave the festivities a bit early. But really enjoyed our weekend.

These two pictures are Joey with Scott and Jacen at Old Town and Richelle, Joey's wife, with Brycen at my parents house. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the kids.
(Richelle did you get any??)







While at my parents house, Jacen had a little incident including stairs, a porcelain dish, and his hand. Well, how to start this story... Jacen really enjoys my brother, Chuck's dogs. He was walking this porcelain water dish up the stairs to the dogs on the patio. He would try to force them to drink it. If they didn't he would just pour it out and go get more. I told him not to get wet...and well he was 100% dry, so I let him continue (BAD IDEA). After about a half hour of him doing this (us watching from inside) he screams. I find him on the last stair arms out in front of him, the dish shattered...and blood all over one of his hands. Thankfully Scott knew just what to do. The family was all at the Street Fair when it happened and well lets just say we never made it(as we were planning to meet up with them after I nursed the baby). This is a picture of Jacen's hand 5 days after the incident.

Jacen's 2 year Pictures

Finally I am posting the pictures I promised from February. Here are Jacen's TWO year Pictures. I love the personality the pictures captured.

Jacen wanted to play with the balls at the studio rather than get his picture taken. Dad and the photographer had to have major energy to keep up with him and get him to look at the camera.

2 Months

Bycen had his 2 mo. check up on Tuesday.

When they told me he weighed 13 pounds it about blew my mind. I knew he was big but not that big!! My response was something like "for real??" (he weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces when he was born.) So he is in the 90 percentile for weight. He is 23 1/2 inches long, which is the 75 percentile for length.

Brycen also smiled for his first time on Easter Sunday. This is the best pictures we were able to capture.

Brycen's Blessing, Easter, and Family

We blessed Brycen on Easter Sunday.

Me, Brycen and Scott

Thanks to Scott's parents for the cute blessing outfit!!

All the men that stood in the circle :)

Family who came for the blesing :)

(we took the pictures right after sacrament meeting, since not everyone was sticking around. The kids were already in class.)

A huge thank you to Scott who gathered everyone up, and made sure no one left before I got these pictures! He knew how much they meant to me :) (even though I was in the library making copies for Relief Society)

And a huge thanks to everyone (all 35 of you) who came and also for bringing something to contribute to our Easter meal. I could not have done it on my own. Everything was so yummy!!

Jacen coloring on an egg :)

Jacen threw his first egg into a color. Thankfully there was already an egg in it, or it would have made a major mess. He even called it a ball. I talked with him about it being an egg. I thought I did a good job explaining how eggs break and we have to be careful....until he threw it again...oh well there is always next year :)

Some cousins and Aunt Crystal working on their eggs.

Happy Easter! Thanks again to everyone who came over for Easter. It was so much fun having you!

Off to the Zoo

On Tuesday, April 7th, we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was Brycen's, Jacen's, Scott's and Scott's parents first time to the San Diego Zoo. (would that have been easier if I said I was the only one that had been before??) We really enjoyed seeing all the animals. Jacen kept wanting to see "more animals", it was really cute.

Family portrait on the Hippo Statue. Jacen wasn't so sure about sitting on the big Hippo.

I love this pictue of Scott's parents. This is what I got when I asked for a picture :)

The Tigers

This monkey was right up to the glass looking at all his fans.

Jacen and the Elephants

Jacen has really enjoyed wearing Scott's hats. When we go to buy him one of his own he never seems interested.

Brycen and Mommy. Brycen's thoughts would be something along the lines of...Why does mommy request pictures when I am so hungry??

The cute sleeping Koala.

And a tribute to the item that made the trip more enjoyable...THE DOUBLE STROLLER. Thanks mom and dad :)

What we have been up to...

On Tuesday, March 24th my sister, Blythe, and her kids came up to meet Brycen. It was a fun time. Jacen loved having his cousins over to play and we loved showing off our new little one.





We headed down to Encinitas Friday, March 27th, after Scott's play rehearsal. We went to Sea World on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera.



On March 29th we celebrated my Dad (and Blythe's) birthday(s). We had "Grandma Anderson's Easter Egg Hunt" I showed Jacen how there was candy inside. (He wanted to watch the boys play ball rather than collect eggs.)



Jacen's steps to finding an egg: 1) walk around the backyard with "Money" (aka Mommy) and look for eggs. 2) When an egg is seen walk over and pick it up. 3) Open it up. 4) Put each piece of candy in the bag, one at a time. 5) Put plastic egg in bag. 6) start over again :)




Scott's Spring Break started after play rehearsals Friday, April 3rd. We went to our friends "the Yucca Valley Palmers" for Saturday morning Conference.

That evening Scott's parents came in town.

2 1/2 Weeks already?!

I can hardly believe that Brycen is two and a half weeks old already!! Lets see, these past weeks have been filled...

-Scott is the Girls Varsity Soccer Coach, and they made it to the Playoffs. Would you believe their game was the Thursday I had the baby?? Since we had the baby at 8:01am he was able to make it to the school by 12:30pm to catch the bus and head to the soccer game. He was excited to share our good news and photos of Brycen.
-Scott took Thursday and Friday off work so he could stay at the hospital with me.
-My Parents came up on Thursday afternoon. We had my moms help for a week :) Thanks mom!!
-Jacen went potty on the toilet once a day for 4 days. Who thought you would have a baby on Thursday and be potty training your toddler Sunday. Lets just say he really wanted a Hershey Kiss.
-Brycen got his first sponge bath at home :)
-Jacen got his hair cut.
-We got Jacen's two year old pictures taken at JC Penney's. Can't wait to share them with you, they are so dang cute!!








-Scott and I took Jacen to the park. Brycen had time with Grandma at home.
-Scott and I got to go out to eat. We wnt to a Japenese Resturant that Scott has been wanting to go to for awhile now. It didn't sound good while I was pregnant. Thanks mom for letting us have a night out :)
-I got released as the Activity Day Leader on Sunday March 1st. I am still the Relief Society Secretary.
-Scott took Monday and Tuesday (March 2nd and 3rd) off from work. And just in time too. Jacen woke up at 2am with a 101.2 temp. He took care of Jacen while I took care of Brycen, those two nights.
-Then Wednesday he went back to work. I woke up to feed the baby at 4am to find that Scott was in the guest room with Jacen. Come to find out they were in there basically the whole night. What a great husband.
-We have taken many photos...here are a couple :)














-Jacen is getting over his sickness...unfortunately I got it on Thursday!! I didn't have much of a voice Friday and Saturday, and spent most of the day speachless or wispering.
-Jacen loves sports. He is always wanting to play basketball, baseball, football, or soccer. Here is a film of our great basketball player. Enjoy!!