For New Year's Eve we had a picnic in the park with Chloe.  It was great to get together and play and the weather was beautiful even if it was a little cool, about 65.

Play time at the park for an impromptu New Year's Eve picnic.

Next to the helicopter, Ashton's hat from Uncle Jeremy is his favorite gift.  And I thought that the twelve pack of Scotch tape was gonna big a big hit.

Set comes complete with artist.

Yeah!  We survived Christmas.  Woo hoo!    Ashton still hasn't lost any of those loose teeth, I am starting to think that he won't loose them until after his birthday.  We are looking forward to going to a New Year's party tomorrow night at Krystle's house.  We took the kids last year but are going to leave them with Grandma this year.  

Party night without the kids.  We went with Jeremy and Krystle to CityWalk for Jason Latimer's Christmas party.  Not much for the bar scene but we can say we went to Howl at the Moon.  We also got to walk around and catch a movie.  It's also fun to laugh at drunk people.  Oh, a disclaimer, Krystle's drink is a virgin mai-tai  and when she ordered it the bartender laughed at her but gave it to her free because he said it would just be sad to charge her for it.

We went to the snow today with "grandma" Angie.  We had fun in between the freezing the off-roading.

Well, no more Scrooge this year.  We are at a loss as to what to do tonight.  My vote was go to hollywood to see if we could win the lotto to get into see Wicked with the kids, but Alayna my have an ear infection now so she really needs to sleep.

Shawn had an interview with Ventura College Police this morning and he is on his way to another one with AXA right now.  The interview this morning was only ten minutes, and to me, that doesn't sound good...but really, who knows. 

Alayna fights us like you wouldn't believe when we try to give her her eye drops for pink eye, but we only have 17 more doses to give.   OY! 

Shawn and Alayna at Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Craig's for our first Christmas this year.  We had a great time with everyone.  Alayna carries the purple bear that Aunt Amber got her everywhere.

Having a blast.  We are just missing Coty and Becky Shipe in this picture.  They are the only family members involved in Scrooge in this shot.  Ignorance, Want, Marley, Mrs. Crachit, and the two coolest street sweepers in the whole world.

Here is a picture of 'Ignorance' and 'Want' from 'A Christmas Carol.'  We are having so much fun and it is going to be sad for it to end.  Alayna couldn't be in tonight's show because she got pink-eye but tomorrow she will be back in the action tomorrow. 

While wiggling Ashton's two loose teeth last night we discovered that the other two in the front are starting to get loose too.  He just might end up with a really big hole in his mouth.

Shawn update... CSUCI got back to Shawn after his interview and said they will not hire him at this time.  He still is in the process with the Fire department for a dispatcher position, AXA advisers, and Ventura College police.  Did you ever wish that God would just let you in on the plan.  This whole "being patient" is taking forever.

No picture yet, but the kids are now both in the play at church.  Ashton is still uneasy about it but still does well.  He constantly asks me what to do and when to go on and who will help him.  Alayna just practices her expression.  They have no lines so they are basically props but Alayna is taking her first role on stage seriously.  I'll tell her "show me your sad face" and she'll get big eyes and a pouty lip and hold it until I tell her to stop.  I forgot to tell her to stop last night so she held it for a couple of minutes.  I think she was born to perform. 2 days until show time!

Alayna has taken up singing songs from Scrooge.  We have had to create a "Scrooge-free" zone.  They are now both going to be in the show, Ashton as "Ignorance" and Alayna as "Want."  It should be a lot of fun, but at this point we are counting down until it is over.

Saturday we went to kids day at the magic castle.  It was their first time going so it was great for them to finally get to go and see where daddy goes once a month.  Ashton and Alayna had a great time.  They got to make toys, got balloon animals, and had their faces painted (Alayna is a pink kitty and Ashton is Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.)  We also got to see several shows and they each got to go up on stage.   It was so much fun for all of us.

We had a fun time at a cookie exchange today.  We came home with 6 dozen cookies that we don't need.  I wish I could say that we are gonna give them away, but that would probably be a lie.  There are 6 people in the house, so that gives us two of each kind of cookie...that doesn't sound too bad.

We are trying to navigate our way through December to Christmas, so much of our time is dealing with the church musical.  Luckily we aren't buying many gifts this year so that frees up time that would be spent shopping and wrapping.  

I (Tiffany) was sick on Monday with a stomach bug but it looks as if Shawn and the kids aren't going to get it.

Shawn had an interview on Monday and another one on Tuesday and they both seemed to go well.  He has testing for Ventura college police on Friday.  I know that God has a plan for us and there are many possibilities.  

We are home now from a glorious weekend away.  Our friends went out of town so we stayed at their place to take care of their animals.  Boy the kids went nuts.  They have a black lab and two cats (one is a kitten.)  The kids were going non-stop and so hyper I can't even begin to describe it.  So today we get to decorate the house.  The kids and I are working on getting rid of some toys, not an easy task.   

                                                                            Yo Ho!
 

Last night we discovered that Ashton has not one, but two loose teeth.  He is beside himself with excitement.  His dentist said that he would start loosing them around December.  He is really looking forward to singing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  He has a wiggler on the top and one on the bottom and he is having a hard time leaving them alone.

Our Latest trip to Disneyland.  We managed to go on all the rides except for four (we aren't really sad we missed those.) We went on the pirates ride twice.  Got to meet 4 princesses and two pixies.  The Park is all decorated for Christmas and on Friday the Christmas parade starts.  We are trying to figure out when we can go back, but we are Scrooged.  Rehearsals for our church's Christmas play are taking up every free day we have.

Ashton had his second art class yesterday.  He painted two pictures and learned about mixing colors.  The week before e made a small bowl out of red clay and decorated it with beads, pasta, and feathers.

Alayna is eager to go to her next swimming class that starts at noon today.  Daddy takes her to class and it is good fun for both of them.  They have a half hour lesson then they get to play for 30 minutes.

  Alayna would love to tell you about her latest visit to Disneyland.  Just for your information, we have been trying to meet Aroura since April.  Uncle Jeremy said that the best bait for princesses was peanut butter,  well we didn't bring peanut butter but we did bring peanuts.

For any of you who are Hidden Mickey hunters too...  we found the little one at the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  We couldn't see it with our naked eyes but managed to get a picture.  So far we have found the Mickeys on the Pirates ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Soarin' Over California, and some of the Mickeys that aren't really hidden.  We still have until February 6th to use our season passes, that's three more months to hunt!  And we are just getting started!!!

Our resent road trip.  It was Ashton's idea to go to Mount Rushmore.  We all had a great time looking around and learning.  We also went to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Yellowstone.  It was fun seeing the country and visiting family and it was really hard to come home.