pretty walk

down rancho sante fe road. have i mentioned yet that we love our new area? we are in the la costa area of carlsbad that borders encinitas ranch/colony of olivenhain. it is so beautiful and i love all the wild flowers/plants that line the streets.

this is what we saw on our walk today.

i love laguna beach

my first job out of college was in laguna beach. i was new to orange county, living in huntington beach, and i remember the driving along pch to laguna for my job interview thinking...wow... this is gorgeous. i would be so happy driving here and back everyday. and i was. i worked at fuse interactive, a boutique interactive ad agency in the heart of laguna beach, for three years. i took advantage of lunch breaks almost everyday. it was just a couple blocks from the beach and all the downtown shops and restaurants. (plus, it was a fun small agency and they had two beach cruisers in the lobby for anyone to use at anytime.) we were next door to the pageant of the masters and the sawdust festival, so the summers were extra fun watching and living in the buzz. and thanks to a company credit card from a liberal ad agency spending budget, i was able to enjoy many many of the local restaurants. there is just something so charming about this town. i fell in love with it.

I took this picture back in the day during my lunch breaks, and did some post-editing to make it look like "miniature faking"

So yesterday spending the afternoon there was a delight. I hadn't been there in a couple years and it was pretty cool pushing around a stroller with my little honey bee in it there for the first time. It brought back so many memories driving through all of the crazy side streets.



I had been dying to go to a little boutique called, La La, after seeing Me Oh My Mama's blog post: Textile Crush. I love all the mix of colorful prints, and i love mix-match stuff. Needless to say, I loved being in the boutique and seeing the prints in person, and touching the soft fabric. I loved the napkins, table cloths, bed linens. I couldn't help but pick up two king size pillow cases from the sale section. I would love to pick out some sheets and shams for our bed sometime in the future, because I've had plain white bedding for the majority of my adult life, and I'm ready to shake it up!


look at all these stacks of goodness!!


aren't these color combos lovely?

I hadn't had a La Sirena Grill burrito in YEARS!! so i was savoring every bite of my succulent carnitas burrito with chuncky guacamole. Pearce was eyeing it too!


It was quite the day trip up to Orange County. Because after Laguna Beach, we stopped by my office in Costa Mesa to say "hi"... and had a quick "chat" with HR...still tyring to figure out about going back to work. I was hoping to be able to work majority from home, but i don't think they will let. The future is still unwritten.

And then... IKEA... to pick up a frame for the baby shower present for Lindsey Ha, my cute friend from our HB ward. And then...final destination...the baby shower in HB at my friend Michelle's house. I'm glad I got there early to hang out with the girls who were setting up, because once the party started, Pearce was totally over her mama's crazy, too many places to go, day. Plus it was her bed time. I dont think I'll be partying with Pearce at night again. We left 30 minutes after party started. but still glad i got to go and see my friends. and oh my goodness, these girls are so crazy creative and talented. i took some quick photos on my iphone before jetting. the theme was Dr. Seuss and the details were darling. you can see more pics on my friend Jen Scott's blog.

three months

Pearce is three months today. the sweetest sweetie pie there is. we did some fun stuff today (exploring our new area) that i will post about soon.

and a happy 1st fathers day to my one and only

i love you i love you i love you
you are the best you are the best you are the best

Fiesta Island

Fiesta Island (in San Diego) is a great place to go jetskiing, because the wakes are calm and it is jet-ski only, so no big boats crashing around. i personally do not ski, but i do hang out on the beach. the Briscoes drove down from HB and we had a super fun day just chillen in the sun.



Taylor was great with Pearce. She played with her or wanted to hold her whenever she wasnt sleeping.



pearce is such a sweetie pie


jeremy makin a splash


the camp






family photo time!!


pearce slept like a log. thought it was cute that she slept hanging on to her giraffe.


great day, but hate being sunburned. :(

junkyard heaven

Lemme just tell ya, i've always wanted to see a junkyard. i've only see them in movies, and we all know reality is soooo much better than cinema. i've yapped about wanting to go to a junkyard to jeremy for as long as i've known him. so my romantic husband invited me to the junkyard this morning to meet up with his biz partner, tom. We were up, baby fed, diaper bag packed and ready to go by 8:30 a.m. And drove all the way to the U.S./Mexican border (U.S. side).

anyways, back to the story at hand...Greetings from the junk yard!

Seriously...my expectations were blown away. there were miles and miles of junkyards. Truly a junk yard heaven.  There are multiple different yards-- some with ford parts, or foreign parts, or windshields only, or bumpers only, etc. I was soooo bummed I didn't bring a camera to take in all of this goodness, but the iphone cam worked just fine.

there were some funny signs...
"tic tac tow" -- how clever.



"beware of dog"


details of some of the yummy junk



and hard for me to pass up a beautiful picture of perfect junk


geesh, what a fun saturday morning! And when in Rome...

pearce's first trip to disneyland

i never really appreciated disneyland until i no longer had an annual pass. my bro-in-law had two extra dland passes that he gave us when they were visiting last weekend. they expired thursday, so jeremy was a no-go, so i took a friend instead. i was nervous at first thinking - what am i gonna do with a baby at disneyland? but i figured at least i could hang out for a bit with my friend from HB that i dont get to see very often. but we ended up doing quite a bit!

first up the carousel. my first time on it as well. i always assumed there was an unwritten 'can't ride without children' rule. so i enjoyed the breeze to say the least.

my cute friend, Michelle, and her sweet baby girl Mika.

And her two-year old Maddy

I thought "It's a small world" would be a good idea. but...

i don't know if the music was too loud, or if the a/c was too full blast, or maybe just plain straight out "over stimulation" as i'm reading in "parenting" magazines... or maybe it was just a needed quick diaper change afterwards that did the trick. My little cutie pie:

We next went to Tune-town. Something i didn't know existed, so it was cool to see a new part of disneyland. We went inside Mickey's house, which was super cute. here is a picture of Pearce and Mika laying on Pluto's dog bed inside. They are just 11 days a part. i just love all of Mika's hair.

And at the end of the house tour you get to meet Mickey!! hahahah

I couldn't leave disneyland without going on Pirates, it's Jeremy's favorite ride, so I had to go in memory of. :) And I also love walking through New Orleans square, especially because I'm extremely homesick.

and my ABSOLUTE favorite part of disneyland is...

mmmmmmm mmmmmmm mmmmm. love their sundaes on main street. what a great treat.

Balboa Park

Yesterday started out great. Two of Jeremy's sisters are still in town and we all met up for lunch with Jeremy, then we were off to do some San Diego sight-seeing. (Jeremy's stayed at work.) We strolled around Balboa Park for a bit. I love all of the architecture there.  I made sure to put sunscreen on the baby this time, because Friday when we were at the Beach the baby got her first sunburn.


Me and Pearce with two of Jeremy's four sisters -- Jenny & Shannon.


Pearce chillen in front of the Plant Museum. Is that what its called? My mind is blanking but i know it is called anything but that.


More views of the pretty scenery.


Love these hanging yellow bell flower/tree. Had to get a pic of Pearce with it. :)


But then, the afternoon turned turned into a very sad and tearful day. My mom called me and told me my cousin had just died in a bad car accident while he and his wife and two children were moving across the country. Why is it that news like this doesn't seem real at first? Such a wonderful, good, kind, courageous young man is gone. I can't stop thinking about and praying for a sweet young mother who is left with two little boys who loved her husband so much and had already sacrificed so much.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my cousin Nicholas Bourgeois. He was a strong and positive leader who served whole-heartedly.


This picture breaks my heart. Just this past November he was reunited with his wife and two young boys after serving in Afghanistan. Look how happy they all look. I know they will be even happier when they reunite again in the next life.


Nick, you will be greatly missed. And thank you for living a great example to all who knew you.

I'm glad my mother shared these two quotes to me:
Even when a person relies on faith in the Lord for blessings, if it is his or her appointed time to die, there will not be restoration of health. Indeed, `death [must come] upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator.' (2 Ne. 9:6.)

President Spencer W. Kimball has written: "If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled. . . . No man would have to live by faith. . . . There would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life.' " (Faith Precedes the Miracle 1972], p. 97.)

My sister Jessica is a much better and thoughtful writer, so I'm including a link to her blog with her thoughts as well.

I know this life can be really hard at times, but having an eternal perspective and testimony of families being together forever is the only thing that can bring peace to my mind.

Pearce's blessing

We are so happy to have so much of our family in town for Pearce's blessing. It was an overwhelming feeling of love. It was many aunts and uncles first time seeing baby so it was fun sharing her with everyone who cares. We also had some good friends come as well. thank you all for making the trek!







Group shot outside church -- Olivenhain Ward



I'm so excited to see the rest of the pictures Laura took. I just have to be patient. :)



We forgot to bring the bonnet to church so we took of few with it at home afterwards.

moonlight beach

yesterday we had a fun day at the beach in encinitas. my talented sister Laura took some cute pictures of Pearce.