Bless the Baby!

We had a wonderful weekend. Marissa was blessed by her father on Sunday. My parents and brother Ben came, as well as Ryan's parents and Lindsey and Jordan, and Danielle and her kids. She wore the same beautiful dress that Maylan wore when she was blessed. My talented mom made it. It is definitely an heirloom, especially since she has now embroidered Maylan and Marissa's names and birthdates on the slip. I tried to get a picture of that, but it didn't work out. I didn't do well with pictures at all this weekend, actually. We didn't take a single one on Sunday. I wanted some nice family pictures of us all dressed up for church, and some of Marissa and her grandparents, but life got too busy and it just didn't happen. So today, I put her back in the dress to take a few pictures:

As you can see, there's a lot to the dress. Getting her in and out of it was quite hard, especially when I was trying to do it myself. I know it was mean of me to leave her tangled and screaming in her dress to take a picture, but I thought it was funny.
And this is the cake I made!! I loved how it turned out. I used fondant for the first time (not for the whole cake, just the decorations). The fondant was easier than I thought it would be and next time, I'll try to cover the whole cake with it. I love the look of it.
While my parents were in town, we tried to do a few fun things with them. Our first stop on Monday was Ikea. They had never been and my brother is leaving for college in a few weeks and needed a bunch of stuff so we thought it would be fun for them. Ikea's always entertaining. After that, we met up with Ryan and went down to the beach. I know many of you will be shocked, but we DID NOT go to Huntington! We went to Little Corona and I remembered why I like that beach so much. It's not too big, there's free parking, and along with the sand, there are rocks and tide pools. The kids loved finding hermit crabs and sea anenomes. My dad, Ben and Ryan had a great time in the water catching some waves. It was a fun day for everyone.
And now for the best news: my parent left this morning for St. George and sitting in the back seat of their car was Maylan and Brandon!!! Woo hoo! My parents are planning on taking them to their ranch for a few days and then a few days of playing around St. George and I will go get them next Monday. I'm excited for an easy week with just me and the baby. The bad news, though, is Ryan is leaving early tomorrow morning for a Young Men camping trip and he won't be back until Saturday night. That's a lot of time by myself. I need some projects or something. Anyway, thanks mom and dad. I'm sure the kids will have a great time!