Happy Birthday Tucker!

Tucker turned 7 years old on July 18th. He was SOOOO excited for his birthday and he was able to get a DSI for his birthday. He got money for all of his presents and I found it on sale on Fred Meyer. His Grandma Eyvon gave him his money in a fun way. She made several $5 bills into origami and mailed them to him. Here is a picture of him with them. They were very cool but the only problem was that he didn't want to use them to buy his DSI. He finally agreed if I would take a picture of him with his present.






He picked a cookies and cream cake which was very easy to make. Good choice Tucker. We had a very fun day and were able to go and watch a movie and he got to play with friends. A few days later we went to dinner at his favorite place Sweet Tomatoes. I love that place because it was inexpensive. He also got to have a birthday party with his friends the following week and chose a Laser Tag Party. I even got to play and it was lots of fun. We are so grateful to have Tucker in our family. He is a very fun loving boy. He is kind and has a great sense of humor. He is very loving and still likes to get lots of hugs and kisses and I hope that doesn't change. We love you Tucker!!

Good-bye Oregon and Hello California!!

So we are now officially Californians. Trent officially started his big promotion in Irvine,CA at the beginning of September. We moved down at the beginning of the month and I got the kids into school ASAP. The schools had started down here three weeks earlier and so they they started a little bit behind but they are doing just fine. We are renting a house in Corona, CA and I chose it mainly for the good schools. Talia and Tucker are not at the same school. The good school has no room for anymore 4th graders so they are sending Talia to another school a couple miles away. Tucker is going to Eisenhower Elementary and his school is a year round track. He starts at 7:45 in the morning and gets out at 2:10. Talia is going to Vicentia Elementary and her school has a modern traditional track and she starts at 9:05 and gets out at 3:17. Their schedules are a headache. We live too close to Tucker's school to get a bus so we walk Tucker to school and then I drive Talia to school an hour later. I am hoping that she will get into Eisenhower Elementary SOON!

The weather is very different here than in Portland. I knew that it would be but experiencing the extremely hot weather is not fun. At least it isn't humid here. Next week we are dreading the 105 temperatures to 110 all week. I am going to grow out my hair a little bit so that I can put my hair in a ponytail. Hopefully we will adjust to the weather sooner than later. That will probably happen around the time it cools down.

Talia tried out for the swim team and is in the Age Group 1. They practice for 1 1/2 hours 5 days a week. This is a big jump up from what she has been doing. We are slowly getting her used to the longer and more frequent practices. She is very excited about moving up and excited to be swimming again. Tucker is trying out the Chess Club and will taking swimming lessons next month and hopefully he will join the swim team soon.

We are slowly making friends and hopefully it will feel more like home soon. We sure do miss our friends and family in Portland. Talia, Tucker and I are spending a lot of time together after school. Talia and Tucker haven't made any neighborhood friends yet and aren't up to any playdates yet. It has been good to be able to spend lots of time with them. They are really being troopers about leaving their friends, activities and school. They are adjusting well.

I need to do a lot of catching up on my blogging but wanted to let everyone know that we had moved. We are renting this amazing house and it was little more than we wanted to pay in rent but it was a 6 month lease. We are hoping to be able to buy a house here in the next 6 months. We are close to Disneyland and the beautiful California beaches. Come and visit if you are southern California. Here are some pictures of the rental house. We had to wait for over 10 days for the moving company to deliver our stuff so that is why the house is empty. We only had airbeds and a patio set for furniture. It was an adventure.