The CUB

My last child to actually get to go to the Confederate Union Ball!  Bailey has always come to see Brittany, Brooke, and Blake, get all dressed up, and she was able to attend!  So fun for her and her good friends, Sam Haynie, Lexi Kunze and Jessica Breed.  They looked beautiful.  The dances they performed in my opinion were the best I remember.  I hope that I can find the other kids pics and post them along side this post.  That would be fun.

Bailey was able to wear the dress of Michele Fawcett, a good family friend of ours.  She looked beatilful!!!

The Cast Comes off!!!

 A little nervous to get it off....thank heavens a young boy before her came out of the ladies office and told her it just tickles...and then it if off!!!  I could tell it calmed her instantly.  Yahoo

Finally good!  After a long month of crying that she had an itch, and clobbering her family members who evers bed she ended in for the night. We are done!!! I have to say she is the first cast this family has ever had.  So surprised Blake has not been in a whole body cast!  Brinley's Kindergarden teacher shared with me that a boy in her class was clobbered by her on the playground and he now has a rash due to the cast abraiding his skin.  Not my little Brinley!!!!!  The teacher told the mom, that it could not possibly have happened, Brinley is just not that type.  What do you think really happened!!!!!!

San Pasqual Varsity Softball

 Brooke had a rough start with being sick at the beginning of tryouts....but now she is playing second base, and back on top.  She has a lot of work ahead of her to keep her spot.

 She hit a triple the other day and had two on base.  She really needed a hit under her buckle!

                                                       Cute uniforms...don't you agree??

Daisies

Brinley loves going to Daisey's twice a month!  She gets to wear her darling tunic.  She is hopefully going to earn her pedals as she finishes certain projects and tasks.  They are darling kindergardeners and a great bunch of moms.  Here are some cute photos of them hard at work completing a art project that shows being unique and at the same time unity.

Fun Times in Boston

Boston was a blast! We had a great 5 days touring, eating, shopping and enjoying all the history and beautiful scenery! So glad Brinley and I could visit while Britt and Scott were there!

The Top Places We Visited in Boston:

The Kendall Hotel in Cambridge! A historic restored firehouse with so much character & great service. The free breakfasts in the morning were awesome. The hotel's restaurant, The Black Sheep, was amazing as well! It is called the black sheep because the firefighters who used to live at the station were nicknamed that because it was a smaller station that didn't get a lot of work compared to the larger crews in the city. We got to try Boston cream pie...so light and fluffy and gooooood. We will definitely be staying here at the Kendall Hotel the next time we venture out to Boston!

The Trolley Tour around the city was a perfect thing to do on a cold day! We were able to sit back and relax while listening to our tour guide show us the way around!

The Boston Common & Beacon Hill! Even though it was a very cold day we explored some of the cute shops on Beacon Hill and different monuments on Boston Common! Brinley was obsessed with the snow and kept wanting to keep some to store in our hotel's little freezer! She also screamed, "I hate Boston! I want to go home!"...when the wind blew a little too hard that day! Haha. It was very cold the first day but we were lucky with sunshine the rest of the week until it rained on the last day! It was crazy weather that was always changing!

The No Name Seafood Restaurant! We got to try their famous seafood chowder and Fried Scrod fish! Pretty tasty place right on Boston's Harbor...so you knew it was really fresh stuff! Yum! It is called the No Name because they didn't have a name for the restaurant when it first opened and then it just became known as the restaurant with no name so they kept it that way! Love stories like that!

The Boston Public Library! It is nicknamed "A Palace for the People". We were so glad we went inside. It was filled with gorgeous marble all around and golden murals and statues. It was amazing!

Filene's Basement! We heard this place had some great bargains. It was fun to shop til we dropped! We were pretty much poooped from walking all day! 

Mary Poppins at the Boston Opera House! What an amazing Broadway show at a beautiful and historic venue! It reminded us of the theater from Phantom of the Opera. Brinley was so excited to see the real live Mary Poppins. She wanted to get her autograph so bad! She talked through the whole show asking us all these questions. She is quite the little jibber jabber! We got pretty good priced seats and sat all the way up in the balcony. Still a great view of the stage! I don't think there was a bad seat in the house!

The Freedom Trail! We decided to leave the freedom trail for when Scott came to meet up with us during the weekend! It was a 2.5 mile trek through some of Boston's most historic sites and landmarks. You follow this red brick line on the side walk that leads you to each site. We kept singing, "Follow the Red Brick Road!" We didn't get it all done in one day but got to see everything we had wanted to see! It really was an inspiring trek. So grateful to our forefathers! It was also fun to take the T line, Boston's subway around town. We got pretty good at navigating the city!

Old Churches & Cemeteries! Well we definitely got our fill of century old grave sites and churches. There are so many in Boston. We were amazed they are still standing. Some are even from the 1600's. Brinley would ask questions when we were in the churches like, "So where do they go for Primary?" Hehe. It was interesting to read the tomb stones as well as learn about the historic churches and who attended them. We got to see where the signers of the Declaration of Independence were buried as well like John Hancock, Ben Franklin and Sam Adams. Pretty cool!

Quincy Market! It was a fun happening place with street performers and a great food court. We got some creamy hot clam chowder that was super yummy. We also got to go inside Fanuiel Hall across the way where early colonists would go to debate British rule. Oh we also snacked on salty pretzels and hot carmeled nuts right where the Boston Massacre occurred. A little strange if you ask me...

Mike's Pastry! We went to this awesome bakery to get some super yummy cannolis. It is fun to watch how fast they wrap the iconic boxes with bakery twine! It was a just an all around fun experience and super tasty to try different flavors like lobster tail cream and chocolate mousse. Still I think the original is best! We kept joking that we were going to turn into cannolis because we ate so many sweets there!

The USS Constitution! Nicknamed "Old Ironsides", it is the worlds oldest commissioned military ship still afloat! It never lost a battle so you could say it is Boston's only undefeated team. On duty US Sailors gave us a great and informative tour through each of the decks.

Regina Pizzeria! Our last major stop was this great and famous pizza place. We got the Giambotta pizza with all the traditional toppings. We all just scarfed it down it was so fresh and yummy. The crust was perfect and not at all greasy! So worth the wait in line to get in!

So that about sums up all the great places we got to see!!!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

New Beginnings 2011 "I Believe"

I don't have any pics of my beautiful YW....but I snapped a few pictures before everyone arrived. This years church wide mutual theme is Article of Faith 13. I really love this theme, as these are all Christlike attributes that we can all strive to have.

I had the opportunity to speak and I opened up with an object lesson. I had picked oranges from the orchard...practiced and home twice, and ended up with a new object lesson on the spot. It sort of went like this:

I handed each young woman an orange and asked them to look at it very carefully. Then to pretend that if they gave back the oranges to me, would they be able to find the exact orange with its distinguishing markings. Well the moral to this story is that our Heavenly Father knows us better than anyone else. He knows are flaws, imperfections and our desires. It was a neat analogy. Then I proceeded with taking a whole orange and writing the different attributes of the Article of Faith on it. Then showing how the orange floats in water. Then I started peeling portions of the orange away and showed how the armour or protection is shed as we make the wrong choices. It worked nicely, except the bare orange was supposed to sink and it did not till the end of the talk. It really is how sin is though....it is a little bit by bit process. It all worked great. My YW leaders are awesome and did a great job with their responsibilities and talks as well.

We used black and white polka dots, because our Stakes theme is DOTS....which stands for Disciples of the Savior. It is a really neat theme that ties nicely with the church wide theme. Disciple means learner...and to be a disciple of Christ is that we are learning to become more like Christ. I love it. Every time I see a polka dot I think of the Savior! (and other times too:))

We look forward to many more opportunities to be with our young women and see them grow. How blessed I feel to be involved again with the amazing youth.

p.s. Little prego Brittany designed the adorable logo for our evening. We gave all the girls a bottle cap necklace to take home. She was able to scale it down to a once inch circle!!!!! So neat with the San Diego Temple behind it.

Officially I have an Eagle in the House!!!

Well...mission complete! Now all we have to do is plan the Court of Honor. Blake attended his Eagle board of review last night, along with his parents and Scout Master John Pryor. He was a bit nervous.....but Brother Pryor put him at ease. I think Kevin was definitely the most nervous in the bunch. We had the chance to meet the board and they were very impressed with his project and his answers. A Escondido City Council woman asked him a difficult question. She said if there were a value you would take out of the scout motto, what would it be and why? Blake responded with....."Bravery"....because if you possess all of the other standards in the motto, you will naturally have courage and become brave. Something like that!!!!

So we are told by the board to take him to Dairy queen....he laughs at that thought and we head home. Once we get home Blake proceeds to tell Brinley that he is an Eagle Scout!!!! She reacts, just like she always does with a swift shoulder shrug like she is in a street gang, and says...."well, I am a Girl Scout"! Brinley just became a Daisy scout, and is loving every minute of it. She gets to wear a darling tunic and earn daisy pedals along the way. I think it is cute how she feels very proud of the fact that she belongs to a great organization.

All and all....we are happy that he was able to complete this process. It may have been delayed...as the paper work sat for a long time, but he did a great job and learned a lot about leadership and delegation. He might not see the profound benefits of it yet, but once and Eagle, always and Eagle!!!!