The day at Davis

Today, we got to spend the day with Eddie at the Davis Training Facility in Granada Hills. This was a treat since neither the kids or myself had been to this academy. Riley was brave - he and I rode on the wet EVOC track where they teach the recruits not to SPIN OUT! The instructor who took us out wanted the car to spin out so Riley could see what it feels like. It was a little scary, but a lot of fun. We felt totally safe even though we were spinning in a circle! =) The kids did one of the situational simulators, we saw all the ranges, the mock town where the recruits have their paintball shootouts - and we ended with lunch - which we never ever get to have with Eddie =) (unless he's home of course). It was a great day for all of us.

My sweatshirt

Riley picked out this sweatshirt for me for Christmas. I'll give you one guess why he chose it? =) Look closely at the fur...that's right, it looks like a squirrel of course! =)

Christmas Day

After celebrating with the 4 of us (5 of us counting our student) on Christmas morning in La Verne, we drove to Oxnard to see Papa Don, Grandma Maggie, Wayne, Mona and family! It was such a beautiful day. It was windy and a bit CHILLY, but so nice to be together. Riley said the prayer for Christmas dinner - it was to the point and to the heart of Christmas and he thanked God for the "best present of all - Jesus!"

The hamsters

We sent the kids on a treasure hunt for their very last Christmas present. To their surprise, their gift was ALIVE! =) They were so happy. These little guys were living in our closet for a week before Christmas morning. They have bigger and better cages now. I thought these would be good, all metal, very durable, but evidentally they weren't "fun enough" so we now have cages with tubes and viewing platforms that are 10 times harder to clean =)

Riley's hamster Memphis


Brenna's hamster Lilly

The squirrel

The long awaited Christmas present. It's a taxidermied squirrel that my parents won on e-bay for Riley. He's been obsessed with squirrels for awhile now and he absolutely LOVED this gift. It's hanging on the side of his dresser next to his bed. The video of him opening this is CLASSIC and I'm going to try to get it on You-Tube if I can. Do you know anyone else who would want a dead squirrel for Christmas? I didn't think so!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at Grammie and Grandpa's

Friends II

December 22 - We had such a great time visiting with Robin Ann and Edwin at their new home in LA! The kids played, we ate, we exchanged gifts...a great way to begin our Christmas celebrations.

Chorus Christmas

Brenna's elective this year is chorus. They held their annual Christmas concert at Church of the Brethren, downtown La Verne. The music was beautiful and some of the songs were about Christ, which is surprising in a public school setting. They had a song with sign language, a song in a different language, and a song with sunglasses and dance moves - so cute!

Brenna and Olivia

Deck the halls

Every year we look forward to going to Stats in Pasadena. Eddie was our hero and found another Fuddruckers (we've been in mourning ever since the Pasadena one closed) - It was in ONTARIO - so it was quite a drive from Stats, but worth it! =)

What ride was this?

The ride home! Every year we go to Knott's Berry Farm at Christmas time because they let officers and firemen in for free =) This was the very first time that Grammie and Grandpa came with us. I made a special point to take my camera. We got inside, Brenna wanted a picture in front of the waterfall with woodstock - I said "just a minute honey, let me get my camera..." only to find out that I had left it in the truck! Thankfully my mom took some great pictures and will give me copies. So when we got back in the truck, at the end of the day, I couldn't resist taking this pic!

Friends

I love this picture. Edwin did this for us. Here's Emma and Brenna when they were itty bitty, and Emma and Brenna now. What's so fun is that Robin and I have pictures from when we were really little and friends and we're still lifelong friends today! We hope the same for our two girls.

So progressive...

Last night, we had a progressive dinner with our small group from church. In true Dix, Ballard, Turner, Tasjian, Ginter fashion - we had a BLAST! Appetizers were here at our house, then we all piled into an RV to get to Kelly and Viken's for salad. Next was the Dix's for the main course, the Turner's house for white elephant gift exchange and finally the Ballards house for dessert and coffee. The food was delicious, the homes were beautiful and all readied for Christmas - we laughed until we cried in the RV. Eddie and I received the best white elephant gift I've ever seen in my life - a fish clock covered in multi-colored sea shells. We're still getting a good laugh about it. We are thankful God placed this particular group of friends in our life - they are there for us - to laugh, to cry, to pray and give praise. What a blessing.

New Ornaments

I think this is the earliest we've gotten our tree. Eddie was determined to get all things Christmas up by today, the day after Thanksgiving. Each year, we give the kids a new ornament for the tree. This was a tradition started by my parents and grandparents who gave me one each year too. When I got married, I had a whole box of original ornaments to take with me =) Here is Riley's octopus, I could NOT pass that up!

Brenna's is a puppy all tangled up in Christmas lights. So her!

We got an ornament for Wen too, a silver snowflake.

So thankful

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's house. We took pictures of them, but evidentally not with my camera! (We had several cameras going that day) We went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Riley was thankful for "all his family who loves him so much". Brenna was thankful for "pretty much everything". Eddie was thankful for "family and what God is doing in our life". I was also thankful for "family and for good health - I'm reminded on those days of endless loads of laundry and dishes that I can walk over to the dryer and take the clothes out with my 2 hands because I am HEALTHY" and I don't want to take that for granted.

Here's Aunt Jan, Uncle Allen and Josh

It cracks me up when I see how little we look next to my cousin Josh. Wonder why we're in front of the USC flag? That's where he is currently attending =)

All the pretty lights

The castle and small world, all lit up!

D-land with Grammie

The kids had the week of Thanksgiving off, so we made the most of our passes and went for it. We were so happy that Grammie chose to come with us! FUN. Brenna got a pair of tinkerbell earrings from the princess shoppe and Riley got a black rubber cobra from adventure land.

Space Mountain

We're so silly. We love to make faces when it's time to take the picture on rides. Here we are riding Space Mountain. It's not very clear because we didn't actually purchase the real one, I just took a picture of it with my camera =)

Science Fair II

This was Brenna's second science fair at Oak Mesa. This year she studied the affect certain beverages have on nails. She had to decide what rusted the nails the most in 24 hours.

My kids LOVE me!

I seriously do not know what I did to deserve this. I woke up, the kids had made me such a special breakfast. Notice the fancy "lid" from paper plate and pipe cleaner - woo hoo.

Under the lid was my happy face waffle. This was made for me on a school morning no less, so they didn't even have any help from Eddie. This made my day!

Look-a-like day

Brenna and Jenna enjoyed looking alike on LOOK-A-LIKE day at Oak Mesa!

All dressed up

We had a party at my brother's house. It was a birthday/house warming/halloween party. We dressed accordingly. Eddie had this Domino's Pizza outfit from when he used to work undercover. The shorts he has on have the emblem too. We joke that I should work at Starbucks and save us some money. My outfit came together totally last minute when Eddie found he could print me up a name tag and emblem for my hat.

Brenna was none other than Hannah Montana for the parade at school.

Surf's up!

We decorated our truck for Trunk-or-Treating at the church Halloween night. The kids had so much fun. Their favorite part was "Human Bowling" which would have made me puke, but they had a great time! They were strapped into a huge bowling ball and then sent spinning down into these large bowling pins - STRIKE!

Jack-o-lanterns 2007

I've always wanted a pumpkin that was drilled out with holes, so this year Eddie did it for me. It looked really cool when it was lit!

Book Buddies

Each year, the kids at Oak Mesa walk to the Heritage Park pumpkin patch with their book buddies. Book buddies is a great program where each child is paired with a younger child, to read books, make crafts and do fun things like... the pumpkin patch, fly a kite day, etc.

Brenna's book buddy this year is Ryleigh. She is in kindergarten and her dad is a police officer here in La Verne.

It was also red ribbon week "too cool for drugs" and this is why they had their sunglasses on.

Fall Festival

We entered our Scarecrow trick-or-treating as the Tin Man into the La Verne Scarecrow contest. We won 2nd place this year.

There was a really neat car show at Heritage Park.

The pumpkin patch at Heritage.