Three's a Charm!!!! Allie

It was a lot of fun putting on a baby shower for Allie Chapman a few days ago. Crystal Pearce and Jenny Speers helped pull it all together. The Chapman's are expecting baby number three, thus the theme 3's a charm!!! We are anxious for baby Elle to join the San Pasqual Ward family. There is no one more ready than Allie. We had a fun hot chocolate bar with all sorts of fun add in’s and yummy fruit and quiche. We did fun games and of course the best was gabbing away with good friends. Baby Elle will be the cutest dressed baby girl in Escondido for sure!!!

Bishop Butler turns "50"

It was pretty difficult keeping this b-day party a secret. Primary leaders were telling fibs about how and where the children would be performing....the bishop thought he was attending a ward talent show. To his surprise...family and friends were here to greet him with a big 50th party. All the auxillaries....with Sister Ottley at the head of the project...all prepared skits. The priest did an underwater ballet skit. Way funny. Blake had awesome expressions and took it pretty serious. We are wondering if he wants to join the olympic team??? Brinley and her buddies performed a cute pinata song, and Bailey and the beehives were fanning the bishop as he sat in his fansy chair and was fanned by the princesses. The mia maids performed a great dance. Brooke and few others were pertending that the bishop and his counselors were going to chaperone the next stake dance and show their dance moves. They had the bishopbrics faces attatched to theirs as they did the high kicks and modern dance moves. We were amazed and President Mc Beth. He was the mc dressed up as a clown. Everyone did a great job, and the bishop was really surprised.

Bailey in the North County Times

With Bryan Hendrick on the camera, producer Bailey Farrow, right, holds a marker as Noelle Graves, left, and Brittany Logan stand by to shoot a segment in the television studio at Bear Valley Middle School in Escondido on Monday. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer)

While some schools still rely on bulletin boards for campus announcements, Bear Valley Middle School students tune in each morning to Channel B on their classroom television sets to learn what clubs are seeking members, when try-outs will be held for sports teams and if the weather will be nice over the weekend.

But the show is more than just a series of announcements read out loud. Each announcement features music culled from a library of 4,000 songs and a picture selected by a team of students. Pieces sometimes are delivered by guests and regular contributors often do skits. There's also a weekly lesson in sign language.

It's all done by two classes of students who make producing, video editing and acting look easy, despite a daily deadline.

"OK, ready on the set," producer Maddy Mangione said as fellow eighth-grader Luke Nazaroff manned the camera. "Roll tape."

The students were in a small room barely large enough for the desk, camera and four stage lights Monday morning to tape the opening and closing segments of the next day's show. Teacher Dale Barney said Channel B, which stands for Bear Valley, may be the county's only daily show produced by students in middle and junior high school.

While one team filmed in a studio, students back in Barney's classroom were busy searching for photos, music and even film clips to integrate into their broadcast. Other students were busy over-dubbing vocals and using Final Cut Pro to edit their digital production in a small back room.

"These kids are very creative and very intelligent," said Barney, who took over Channel B three years ago when it was a live broadcast.

Rather than having students simply read announcements behind a desk, Barney created a delayed show that features cutaways to images, music, remote shots and special features.

He introduced the weekly "What's Your Sign" segment to teach sign language so students could learn to communicate with the nine hearing-impaired children on campus. A "shout out" segment highlights talents of specific students, including one who is a whiz with a Rubik's Cube, Barney said.

In his first year with the program, Channel B won an Innovative Video in Education award from the County Office of Education for a document students made about how their news program is created.

Students must apply for the 20 open spaces available only for seventh- and eighth-graders. Last year 70 students applied for the class.

Jonathan Hitzhusen, 14, learned to edit video when he was 10 while assisting his father, a missionary who filmed his trips abroad.

"I took classes from the Apple store and learned a lot by messing around with it," he said.

"Jon and Taylor (Uva) are scary smart," Barney said about two students who handle editing. "They'll teach us. Digital is their second language. Jon's constantly downloading different apps to the computer that we didn't even know existed."

Eighth-grader Catelyn Goodwin said she applied for the program because she always liked entertaining, but now enjoys being behind the camera more.

"I've always been bossy," she said. "I've always liked getting things done."

Catelyn said she was very nervous when she first was behind the camera, but now cannot remember how many shows she has done.

The class produces 185 shows a year, Barney said.

We had fun on our last day with Brit and Scott at the beach. We love our family and seeing them be so silly together. We saved you from having to view the GQ poses of Scott and Blake....but the kids had fun playing catch and throwing each other around on the sand. We are so lucky to be close to the ocean.

Tournament of Roses Parade 2010

We got up super early, and decided we came this far....we would leave without breakfast!!! We boarded the metro and learned how to take all the lines to Colorado and Allen Streets in Pasadena. Fun to be among the crowds of people. We scoped out a spot of unmarked sidewalk and we could see really well. They are all so amazing!!!! I recommend that everyone needs to see the parade live at least once in their life time.

New Years Eve...Hollywood Style

The whole gang was up for a New Years Eve adventure. Since our Christmas was relaxing....we decided to jazz our holidays up a bit. We took Scott to Hollywood and stayed up in L.A. We learned how to take the metro from our hotel to Citywalk, just outside of Universal Studios. We were starving and to keep the troops from getting angry we decided to feed them. Bucca de Beppo was calling our name. Oh...yummy bread, pasta and salad....a carb watchers nightmare, but oh...so mighty good! We were a different bunch after our family style dinner dwindled down to bread crumbs on the table.

We proceeded to window shop. Our dad never shops, so Scott got a taste of what it is to shop with Dad. He is asking everyone if they want this or that. Way funny. We could have seriously gotten into more debt. The funnest story was when we went into this Bath and Body type store and the girls were very content for about 45 minutes learning about all their natural products. Every girl got to figure out a new beauty regimin with samples. They guys could hardly stand a foot in the place without gagging of the smell. Oh...well, they could have shopped somewhere else. Haha!!!!

There was a 80's band that was planning to play at the City Walk and we decided to hang around. Before we knew it Kevin was up on stage in front of 1500 or so people. We had no idea what they had asked for...but he raised his hand. That's our dad!!!! So he gets up there and then they say it is a talent contest. The only talent he has is his wife and kids. He proceeds to tell them he has 6 kids, and the host says, well this is family show sir, can you please think of another talent. He decided to do a weird whistling sound he does. With his nervousness he could not perform. He ended up stripping off his coats...and we will just leave it that. He ended up winning a t shirt and hat. Who says we never win anything???? We had lots of laughs and embarrassed teenagers. We headed back early, and watched fireworks from the hotel. We had to get to sleep so that we could go to the Rose Parade the next morning.