"How to" Speech

Today Kelly gave her "How to" speech at school. Her topic was "How to Braid Hair", and I got to be her model. She was very nervous about the entire thing, but after a lot of practice she felt ready. She did a great job.


Here she is giving her introduction.


Beginning the braid...


Continuing the braid...


Almost finished...


All done!!!

A Great Ministry

This morning at church we had a guest speaker, Wes Bentley, from Far Reaching Ministries. They are an outreach ministry who train chaplains to serve as pastors in the Sudan. They also minister to women and children in northern Uganda who have been victimized by an extreme group called the "Lord's Resistance Army", or LRA. You can read more about the ministry at www.farreachingministries.org.

During the message we watched two short movies about the things going on in Africa. I was very touched, especially by the one about the children. It was moving to see these little ones and to hear about the brutal things the LRA does to these innocent people. For example, they kidnap young children and force them to kill their parents to save their own lives.

This ministry is amazing. We are going to start supporting them on a monthly basis. I encourage you to check out their website to get a picture of the things going on in these areas we will probably never see. Please pray for the ministry and the people they help.

Brannan Look-alike Meter

I found this cool website from my sister-in-law, JaNel's blog. It was loads of fun. Let me know if you agree with the heritage meter.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genelogy - Family tree diagram

Brannan Look-alike Meter #2

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

A New Hobby

What started as a few times shooting the "little bow" in the backyard has turned into a budding interest in archery. Yes, Kelly really enjoys shooting the bow and now she even has her own. Tom bought her one on a recent visit to the archery store. Here she is practicing on Saturday at the indoor range.

First Day of School

Today was Kelly's first day of workshops at Coastal Academy. Workshops are days when the kids are in a classroom setting with their teachers. Kelly attends workshops on Wednesdays and Fridays. The other three days are homeschool days.


Here she is right before we loaded into the car. We went shopping yesterday with Kristin and her girls. Mom Mom bought her this cute dress.


Kristin's daughter, Maddie now attends the Classical Academy High School in Escondido. Kelly loves her, and she's a great "big sis".


Here are Kelly's other pals, Emma (left) and Annie (right). They're growing up so fast!!!


Kelly is now a 2nd grader. Here she is in her classroom.


Here we are in the hallway before I left her.

More Fun with Cousins

Kelly spent time cousins, Christion, Eben and Sam. Her Aunt Julie sent these pictures to share.

Kelly loves animals so it's no surprise that she's feeding the goat.


The man working there asked Kelly to hold the lead rope of one of the horses. I'm not sure if it's a mini horse or a pony.


This is Buzz, the blind horse. Buzz has a friend who wears a bell so he can follow him around.

Here's Kelly with her cousins when they went on a hike. Christion (the one to her left) is about 5 months older than Kelly. Eben just turned 4 and Sam is 2.

Kelly went raspberry picking with her Meme, aunts and cousins. From what I heard, they ate more than they put in their containers!

The kids made a chocolate chip cookie cake and decorated it with the raspberries they picked. Cousin Emily (the tallest one) put a "K" on the cake in honor of Kelly.

The girls had a spa day and cousin Tommy had to get in on the action. Yes, he really is rubbing lotion onto her feet.

Our Friends are Moving....

...to Fallbrook, that is. It's only about 12 miles from our house, so it's not too much further. They're not living there yet, but were able to get the keys beforehand so they could get a jump on moving. On Saturday we went over to unload some boxes and have a bit of fun as well.


The men had a blast shooting their pellet guns, crossbow and bows. Annie wanted to get in on the action as well.



My friend, Kristin and I played what else, but Scrabble while the men did their thing. Her daughter, Maddie played too.

Only Three Days to Go

It's Saturday, and there's only 3 days left until Kelly comes home to CA! Tom and I can't wait to see her, as it's been way too long. Today we went the our favorite place to eat (for the third week in a row!) and for the third time they asked about Kelly. I'm anxious to see if she's changed at all in her looks. I know being back will be an adjustment for her, with the time change and the fact that she starts school on the 18th! Where has summer gone??!!

More Fun in PA

Kelly had more fun at her cousins' house last week. Here are some pics her Aunt Kelly sent.


Aunt Kelly says that Kelly's become quite the driver. Here she is driving her aunt, cousin Leia, cousin Tommy and cousin Annie.



Fun on the playground


Look at these two amigos!

More Horse Pictures

Another Baby!

A week ago on Sunday the other mini horse, Lightning had her baby. It was a boy, but I don't know its name.


Here's Kelly with her mini horse, Sierra.


This is Sierra's baby, Pinky.

Fun with Cousins

Kelly spent the night with her cousins and had lots of fun. They played American Girls, swam and stayed up really late.


Kelly loves to swim, so it's no surprise seeing her in the pool at Uncle Mike and Aunt Kelly's.


Here they are, from left to right, we have Leia, Emily, Tommy, Christion, Annie, Luke, Uncle Jonathan (rear) and our Kelly.


Kelly loves Leia.


Here are the girls in their pjs. I hope Kelly didn't keep them up too late!

Kelly's in Pennsylvania!

Yes, it's true, our little girl is visiting our family in PA-all thanks to her Daddy! Tom worked very hard to find a "hop" to the east coast and praise God, they managed to get a flight. On Friday they left from March Air Reserve Base and flew to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

Kelly is having a blast. She finally got to see her baby horse, Pinky, and Mom-Mom's new puppy. Swimming in Mom-Mom and Pop Pop's pool has been one of the many highlights of her trip. Here she is swimming with cousin, Asher. More pics will come once I can get my mom to email me some.

Kelly's Vegetable Garden

About a month ago when Kelly's grandmom, uncle and cousin were visiting they planted some vegetables. They planted watermelon, dill, basil, squash, tomato, cantaloupe and honeydew. Kelly has been faithful watering them every day, and her work has paid off. Here are a few of the plants that have made progress.


This is one of the first veggies to grow-the zucchini squash. Look how big it is! We'll be picking it very soon.


Here is our other squash plant. I think it is yellow squash.


The plant in front is basil. It has really filled out and grown up. The plant in back is banana pepper. We added this one later.

More Baby Horse Pictures

So my Mom sent more pictures of the baby horse today. Thought I'd share them since they're so cute.





Kelly's miniature horse, Sierra finally had her baby! Introducing Sierra Pink Lady (I think that's the name Kelly chose). It looks like she's all head, but isn't she adorable??!!!

Today we took Kelly to the movie theater, something we hardly ever do. We saw Kit Kittredge, an American Girl Movie. It was a great family movie, and I definitely recommend taking your kids to see it.

Swim Lessons

The last two weeks Kelly has been taking swim lessons at the base pool. Just two years ago she wouldn't put her head under the water. Now she loves to jump in the pool, go down the slide and jump off the diving board.


Here she is practicing her freestyle.


Kelly jumped off the diving board more times than I could count.



Another fun part of swim lessons was going down the slide.


Here is Kelly with her swim teacher, Rachel.