Going to California

The day after Macy's blessing, Macy and I flew to California with my parents and sister. I was a little worried about the plane ride but Macy did great! She only cried when she wanted to eat which is understandable.

The first thing we did was go and visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Seymour. We had a great time visiting and spent all day together. If you notice she's wearing two different outfits (if you can call the second one an outfit). She had a blow out 15 minutes after getting there and of course I took out my extra outfit the night before and only had a onesie and socks.

My brother Kenny got his mission call that week as well. Some family in CA came over to my parents to watch him open his call over Skype since he's in Provo. He is going to the Utica, New York mission and reports June 2nd. We are all excited for him.

Since my grandparents were all there we took 4 generational pictures.

My Grandma Francis, My mom, Me, Macy

My Grandpa Seymour, My dad, Me, Macy

The whole family

Thursday we traveled again to Grandma and Grandpa Seymour's house to visit with the Olson's, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Steve, and Derek.

Macy and Erica

Thursday night at 10 p.m. there was a knock on the door and Kenny was on the doorstep! He surprised us all. A friend was driving home that weekend and Kenny hitched a ride so he could meet Macy. It was fun to talk with him about school and his mission call. One morning it was only me and him at home and Macy was asleep. I told him I was going to get in the shower and he looked at me funny. Then he said, "Oh yeah, you have a baby that's why you're telling me that." Oh Uncle Kenny. Macy liked playing peek-a-boo with him.

Friday night we went to the DeVore's house to visit Granny Dot, Papa, Nathan, Kiersten, and Henry. Henry did great for the picture but he wouldn't sit close to Macy or show her any attention. He said, "I'll wrestle her when she's a boy." Looks like they won't be wrestling.

Sunday was the Francis family's turn to meet Macy. They all came over to my parents house for dinner, well really to see Macy.

Her new Sunday Dress

Grandma Francis, Samantha, Macy

Macy liked Aunt Martha. Luke couldn't resist the bunny ears.

She did even better on the plane ride home which was a blessing because I was by myself. The flight attendant loved her and gave her a Jet Blue wing pin to stick on her outfit.

We were very lucky to visit all our relatives in California. We are also lucky to have so many relatives that want to see us! Macy is lucky to be the only grandchild because she got all the attention she could ever want. I had a great time being at home and seeing my parents play with Macy. They love her so much. This made it really hard to take Macy away with me all the way to Virginia. You gotta do what you gotta do. A lot of people did ask if I was leaving Macy with them in California though. We can't wait to go back!

Macy's Blessing Day

We decided to bless Macy on March 14th, which is also Ja's birthday. What a good birthday present right? We were lucky to have so much family there to support us and Macy.

Macy did so great during the blessing. Ja looked down at her right before giving the blessing and she was looking up at him smiling. My brother-in-law said he peeked during the blessing and Macy was still smiling. So sweet! After the blessing Ja held Macy up to show her off to the congregation and she lifted up her arm (like she always does) so it looked like she was waving to everyone. Even more cuteness!

The Grandparents (she's waving again)

The proud parents

Later that day we ate a birthday lunch for Ja. The highlight of the evening was Ja's birthday cake. Let me start with the background story. Back during our last huge snowstorm Ja was dusting the snow off his pants and his wedding ring went flying off his finger. Since there was snow all around he couldn't hear it drop, he only knew the general area where it fell. This occurred at my brother-in-laws house. Those of you who we've known for awhile may be thinking, "This sounds really familiar." And yes it does, this is the second time this exact thing has happened to Ja. Isn't it enough of a miracle that his wedding ring was found 3 months after losing it in the snow at BYU-Idaho?

Well, Ja is a lucky man because a neighbor found the ring! After the road was snow plowed and the snow had melted she saw it out of the corner of her eye in her yard while talking to a friend. Isn't that amazing!? So instead of calling him right away it was decided to give it to him on his birthday a few days later on his cake. He was so surprised his ring was around a candle. It was a great birthday present.

Meeting Aunt Jill

My parents and my sister Jill came to visit for Macy's blessing. This was Jill's first time meeting Macy and she came bearing gifts. Jill saw this hat and thought of Macy. Aren't they cute?

Macy and Jill

What?!

Grocery Smarts

My friend informed me about this website Grocery Smarts. It rates the sale prices of your local stores so you know what is the best deal and what to stock up on. It also tells you which coupons to use to get an even lower sale price. I think it's genius, the only problem is that it doesn't have stores for Virginia :( For this reason I'm passing on this invaluable info to all you who live in Utah and further west.

From this website click on your state in the upper left corner drop down menu, then click the store you want to look at. They have stores such as VONS, Kroger, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc. Then from there you can click on "Start" (upper right) then you can click everything you'd like to purchase and print that list off. So easy.

The coupons listed are from the Sunday newspaper or they have some links at the top of the page you can visit to print some of the coupons.

A 5-star sale is an amazing sale and if you can you should stock up. Have fun with it. I'm still looking for something I can use...

Macy's First Church Dress

Macy did great at church today. She looked super cute in her new dress we just had to take pictures. The tights were a little big on her so we put the bloomers on over them to help hold them up. I also put socks on her feet (which are also big) to help keep the tights on her feet.

Yeah for church!