Outlet Christmas Party at Our House!

This past Saturday Dave and I hosted the Outlet Christmas Party at our house! The Outlet is the Sunday school class that we attend. It is a group of 20's and 30's singles and married folks that meet together to learn more about the Lord. It's a great group filled with people we love and it is growing! On any given Sunday we pack out the room we have at the church, and now we invited them all into our home! It was a little bit crazy, but definitely fun!

Here is our decorated Christmas tree. We picked ours up on our way home from the Thanksgiving holiday at the Home Depot. We picked the first tree we saw, got a great deal and were out the door in about 20 minutes. I love our tree!

With 100+ people invited to our tiny town home we had to get creative with our space. We used tablecloths to cover up the shelves in our garage and used our washer and dryer as a dessert buffet. It worked out pretty well and kept the flow of traffic moving from the kitchen to the garage.

My sister Sarah and her college friends came by to help us all celebrate! Here is Heather, Whitney, Sarah, and then Outleters: Me, Tara, and Lacey.

The hosts with the mosts! We had so much fun opening our home to about 80 people on Saturday night. There were lots of people, lots of yummy food and lots of Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas!

Chargers vs. Chiefs

We came back from Thanksgiving a day early to celebrate our friend Jonathan's birthday (belatedly). His wife Lacey wanted to surprise him with tickets to see his favorite team the Kansas City Chiefs, and employed Dave's help in making the ticket selection and keeping it a surprise. It worked! We picked them up Sunday morning and told him we were going to breakfast before church. Then we got on the freeway and Lacey gave him the football tickets. He was so surprised!

Our tickets were 5 rows back from the KC bench. We had great seats!

Here are Lacey and I showing off our team spirit. (The Chargers won!!!)

It was a really fun day in SD and a great way to celebrate a birthday. Way to go Lacey with the great surprise!

Week of Thankfulness

Dave and I left the Saturday before Thanksgiving to head up North to celebrate with our families. We spent a few days in Merced with Dave's folks and got to celebrate his brother's engagement to our soon-to-be-sister-in-law at her parents house up on a mountain in Mariposa. We also spent a few days with my family in Modesto and doing our annual traditions (or "coincidences" as Bryan calls them.) We had so much fun getting to visit with everyone and have so many reasons to be thankful this year.

Here we are in Mariposa celebrating our first thanksgiving of the day with the Nordmans. Here is Dave, Charlie and Christina's brother Brandon doing what boys do best: watching football!

Now at the crazy Harden house with Sarah and Dad putting the finishing touches on their famous sweet potato casserole. It's so yummy!

Sarah and I toasting with her amazing pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

She's so good!

My parents brought home their new puppy Molly right before we came home. Hannity was not thrilled with the new arrival but eventually they became friends and spent many hours chasing each other through the house. This is the best picture I could get of both of them together. They move too much!

On Friday we went to our Columbia (a small, old mining town in the foothills) to celebrate our day after thanksgiving tradition. Apparently no one checked the weather report and it rained on us. Here we are making the best of it! Jessica, Sarah, Mom and I using our scarves to keep out of the rain.

Then Dad decided to make fun of our ingenious head scarves. I told them this should be their christmas card picture this year. :)

Here is Sarah bowling in the Columbia bowling alley.

And Dave and I in front of the blacksmith shop.

It was a whirlwind week of family, food and friends. We are so thankful to have such amazing families to spend the holidays with. We love going home and we love eating two thanksgiving meals!!!

Random fun in L.A.

Dave and I have been trying to get out more. We live in such an amazing place with lots of fun stuff to do, yet we tend to do the same things all the time. We're making a pact to explore our city and be "young and fun"! So here are our recent attempts at our end of the year resolution:

Last Thursday we decided to utilize our Disneyland season passes and headed over around 6pm. We got free parking at Downtown Disney, rode the monorail into Tomorrowland and rode on Space Mountain. And then we were so excited there was no line when we reached the Matterhorn! Too bad we missed the part about the park closing early to finish decorating for Christmas. Oops! We still had a fun night wandering around the park until they kicked us out. Next time we'll check the schedule before we try to be spontaneous!

On Friday, Dave took me to Hollywood Park to see the horse races. This is something Dave has wanted to do for years but I had been dragging my feet a bit. (It's in Inglewood people!) But we saw an ad in the paper that Friday was the opening night with $1 hotdogs and $1 beers and $2 minimum bets. We know nothing about horse racing but got a quick tutorial from a stranger and then placed a few bets. We had so much fun cheering our horse on and found out that we're pretty good at picking the 2nd place winner! :) All in all a fun and pretty inexpensive night!

We also took a drive out to Palos Verdes to go hiking by the Trump National Golf Course. You can park at the GC and then use the public hiking trails down to the beach. We brought Hannity and had so much fun exploring another part of our beautiful neighborhood.

Here is our attempt at a group shot on our way down to the beach.

It was low tide so all of the rocks were exposed and there were tide pools everywhere!

Hannity jumped right up on the rocks and went exploring.

We were so proud of our little L.A. prissy dog!

Here she is sniffing out those starfish.

In our search for new, fun and inexpensive things to do I found a website that gives away free tv show tickets. (I'm sure this isn't brand new information to anyone, but I was surprised and super excited about it!) I signed up for tickets to watch Faith Hill perform for a tv show special called "Home for the Holidays". We grabbed out good friends Jon & Lacey, left work early and dressed in our most festive attire. We drove up to Hollywood, waited in line and waited in line and waited in line. At the last minute we were allowed into the theater and given second row seats. It was a pretty intimate show (maybe a couple hundred people?) and she sang two songs, did a couple of commercials and chatted with the audience a bit. Dave and I were definitely filmed quite a bit so there is potential that we could be on tv during the special. How cool is that? So if you're interested, watch "Home for the Holidays" on CBS December 23rd at 8pm and look for us!

If you have more fun ideas for us to try, please let us know!

Babies, Babies everywhere

Sadly, this post comes without pictures but I'm hoping to explain some of my travels the past few weeks. My life has been surrounded by great friends who were about to pop with their new arrivals. I've traveled a bit, helped throw a couple of showers and gotten to spend some quality time with my preggo friends. It has been so much fun to learn all about this new stage of life that they are going through.

So the original plan of events was:

1. Baby Shower #1

2. Baby Shower #2

3. Baby #1

4. Baby Shower #3

5. Baby #2

6. Baby #3

This chain of events was supposed to be spread out between September, October, November and December. I had mapped out my fall and was excited to be there for my friends. Items 1. & 2. happened according to schedule. Lots of fun, games, food and baby talk. Then on October 24th I drove up to Modesto to be there when Crista had her baby (baby #1). She was due Monday October 26th and I was so excited to meet her little man. Well, Monday came and went with no baby. Tuesday came and went with no baby. Wednesday came and went with no baby. She was feeling very ready for him to be in this world so we googled "natural ways to induce labor" and she was such a good sport in trying some of those home remedies! We walked laps around the mall, she ate spicy food, she drank raspberry tea, she ate pineapple... she tried almost everything and still no baby.

Meanwhile, I get a text from Becky (baby #3) saying that she went into labor early. I'm in Modesto thinking "this is not the order it's supposed to be happening!!!" Becky's little Kylie ended up jumping the line and came first on October 28th. She's spending her first few weeks of life in the NICU but is thriving and has even earned herself a nickname from the nurses there: "Sassy"! I came back to RB in time to visit Matt & Becky in the hospital and help them move into their beautiful house in Torrance. About 16 people from our church came out early Saturday the 31st to pack up their apartment in El Segundo and move them into the new house in Torrance. It was such a great and tangible way to help them in the chaotic week they had had.

I hopped back into the car and drove back up to Modesto to see Crista again. (Still no baby!) After a couple of crazy days, little Jackson finally came into the world on Thursday November 5th! He is beautiful and perfect and I got to spend some time with him in the hospital on his first and second days of life. I'm such a proud "auntie"!

I drove back to RB just in time for Becky's baby shower on Saturday. All this driving made me a little tired, but it was really neat to be at a shower for someone whose baby was already here! Even though I haven't gotten to meet Kylie in person yet, we've seen lots of great pictures of her and we were able to picture her in every little present Becky was given. How fun is that?

Then Jasmine had her little Cadence (baby #2) on November 13th. We were also able to visit her in the hospital on Sunday after church. She is beautiful with a ton of dark hair (I told Jasmine she needed some bows!!!) and looks just like her mommy. :)

So the actual chain of events?

1.

2.

6.

3.

4.

5.

I think this is just a great reminder of how even when we think we have something planned out, we actually have little control. As a planner, this thought sometimes terrifies me but I try to remember that God never gives us more than we can handle and He gives us the tools to work through situations with the help of friends and family. It has been so amazing to watch all these new little families grow and learn and I feel so special to have been included in any small way in the births of these three amazing little people. I can't wait to see what God has in store in their futures!

Baby Shower #3

This post is actually a little out of order, but I'll explain that whole story later... :)

My third baby shower in three months was for my good friend Becky. I forgot to bring my camera, unfortunately, but I was able to "borrow" some of these pictures from my good blogging friends! (Thanks Jen and Becky!) Becky's shower was thrown by two of my great friends Jen and Sheri. They hosted us at 26 Beach Cafe in Venice and it was the best baby shower I've ever been to! Thanks for a great time ladies!

Matt & Becky named their baby girl Kylie Joy. This is a banner that the girls made for the shower. They carried the pink & brown bird theme from the invitations to the banner to the papers that we used for the games...it was so beautiful and creative.

Here is Jen and Becky together. I'm posting this picture mostly to show my family how extremely talented Jen is. She hand makes these special quilts for all of her expecting friends. I have seen quite a few over the years and I never cease to be amazed at how much time and love goes into these presents. They are so beautiful and she always seems to really "get" each person that she is making them for. Love it!

Here is the group from JOF! We know all of these girls from the Outlet (our Sunday school class) but some have moved on in life to other groups and other cities. It was really great to have this group together!

Shower #3 is it for me for a while. It has been a very exciting few months and so special to be a part of the celebrations for such great friends. I just have to say thanks to Sheri and Jen one more time, Great Job Ladies!!!

Baby Shower #2

This past Saturday I was able to help out at the baby shower of yet another preggo friend! I'm enjoying the time I get to spend planning parties for these great girls and utilizing years of hostess training from my mom, the Queen of parties. I'm so grateful for her serving heart and all of the years she spent hosting events for friends and family at our house. Thanks mom! :)

Here we are! Lacey, Mom-to-be Jasmine, Meredith and Me!

Here is Jasmine opening some of her great gifts.

Baby girl clothes are so much fun and got lots of ooohs and aaahs!

The dessert buffet was amazing! Meredith proved to be quite the cupcake aficionado with three types of homemade cupcakes. They were delicious!

I made the semi-homemade cookies with homemade frosting and sprinkles.

I'm getting good at making party favors! It was filled with four types of yummy chocolates.

And here is the spread! Let's just say that we ate really well.

Thanks to Lacey for opening your home for another great party. I think it was another SUCCESS! :) Can't wait to meet baby Cadence...

Baby shower #1

I spent this last weekend in Modesto to celebrate my very best friend in the whole world! Crista and Mike are expecting a baby boy next month and we got to celebrate her before little Jackson came into the world. Crista's sister and mom helped me throw a baby shower in my mom's backyard and it was a success, if I do say so myself!

We spent the weeks leading up to the shower praying for cooler weather and we were blessed/cursed with a windy morning. As everything continued to fall of tables and blow over we reminded ourselves that wind was better than 100 degree heat!

Here is Crista's sister and mom (Carrie & Carrol), Crista, Me and my mom. We used to live two houses apart, and now Carrie is married with two little girls of her own, Carrol and Jerry have moved to another house, Crista is ready to start her own little family, and I'm living in Redondo Beach! It's nice to know that even though life can change so drastically we will always have good friends.

Here is the mommy and daddy to be: Crista & Mike.

She got lots of fun stuff!

Two of Crista's good friends made this cake for her. It was fantastic!

It was such a fun day of celebrating the new little life they're bringing into this world. We can't wait to meet you baby Jackson! And this post is labeled "Baby Shower #1" because we know quite a few pregnant women and will have the chance to celebrate each of them in the next few months. Yay!

A Homecoming & A Farewell

I haven't had much luck gathering more vacation pictures, so I figured I would just move on and show some other things that have been happening around here recently...

Adam and Angela were two of the first people we met at our church when we first arrived in town. We've had a lot of fun with them over the years and learned a lot too! Adam was recently shipped to Iraq for his third tour of duty and we all took it upon ourselves to entertain his lovely wife while he was away. We had lots of fun nights at Taco Tuesdays, a breakfast party to send Adam some video greetings and we even got a glimpse of Adam's dancing skills at the Outlet's comedy night via video. Thankfully, his six months have come to an end and he's home now! Here are some of the pictures from the night we picked him up from the airport.

Here I am with Angela and Lacey, eagerly awaiting Adam's arrival.

Here is Adam and Angela. A bit overwhelmed, I'm sure,

with all of the commotion and excitement!

We sure did miss you and are so glad you're home safe! What a special night to be apart of.

I have never been apart of an airport greeting like this and it was truly touching.

We had flags to wave and signs to hold and lots of smiles and hugs and relief when we

got to see Adam again. Thanks for your service Capt B!

Adam and Angela were home for about two weeks before they left for their next home: Denver! We got to have a going away party for them and even had a couple of dinners before they left. We're so sad to see them leave, but are excited for a new place to visit. We'll be coming soon!

Vacation Teaser

Dave and I took some time off in the end of July for a little "vacation" to Northern California to visit our families and some great friends. We usually do a marathon weekend trip where we try to cram as many things into a 48 hour period, so it was nice to spread it out and spend some quality time with more people! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so I'm a little short on pictures at the moment. As my friends and family post them elsewhere I will borrow them and tell some stories.

In the meantime, here's a little teaser of what Dave accomplished on his time off:

That's Half Dome in Yosemite! My sister Sarah convinced Dave to chaperone a trip to the mountain with her best friends with only four hours notice. Good thing he's in great shape! They had a few hiccups along the way but made it to the top with a total round trip time of about 11 hours. Here is a picture of Sarah, our cousin Bradley, Dave, and Sarah's best friend Natalie preparing to climb up the cables to the top of Half Dome. Way to go you guys!!!

The was the most thrilling part of the the Norcal vacation. The rest of it was filled with great food, hot days by the swimming pool, the Stanislaus County Fair, a quick trip to Redwood Christian Park, Santa Cruz beach day, three year old wedding cake tasting, catching up with great friends and lots and lots of laughs.

I promise more pictures from our adventures soon... just waiting on Sarah's return from Australia with her handy little camera.

A 26th Birthday & A 3rd Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday was the best! Dave took the day off of work and we celebrated my 26th birthday and our 3rd anniversary at the Happiest Place on Earth. We started off our day with a coffee and free pastry from Starbucks (they must've known it was my birthday) and then headed over to Disneyland. The weather was HOT but it wasn't too crowded and we had a blast!

We only brought my phone to take pictures on so they're not great, but here we are in front of the park before the heat set in.

Here is my cute button so that everyone would know it was my birthday. Hearing strangers wish you a happy birthday by name really is a great way to spend your day!

Jonathon & Lacey came out with their season passes and celebrated the rest of the day with us. We went to the House of Blues for dinner, rode some fun rides and watched the fireworks.

Here's our bootleg picture from Space Mountain!

And my lame attempt to take a picture of the fireworks as we were walking/pushed by the castle. Still, it's pretty awesome to have a fireworks show just for your birthday! :)

What a great day of celebrating with my husband who loves me and placated my desire to spend my birthday at Disneyland. Oh, and did I mention that we are now season pass holders too?! We were able to upgrade our tickets (even my free one!) to a Southern California pass. It has a few blackout dates, but we are ready and willing to visit the park with everyone in the near future!

Dave's New Do

With the summer officially here, Dave decided to update his look. It's low maintenance and he can do it himself. Here he is placating me with a picture on our patio. Looking good!

Concert in the Park

Concert in the Park has officially begun! Dave and I love packing up our picnic backpack, riding our bikes and meeting up with some good friends at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. Lots of good music, fun times with friends and, did I mention, we get to ride our bikes!

Dave & I enjoying our crackers and cheese and the warm weather!

July 4th--My Favorite Day of the Year!

July 4th really is my favorite holiday of the whole year!

Think about it... it's a great excuse for a bbq, there are always friends and family looking to celebrate, the cost is relatively low because there are no presents to be bought, it's summertime so the weather is usually great and you get to end the night with FIREWORKS! And most importantly, it's a day to think about the great country that we live in. We truly are the most blessed citizens in the world to claim America as our home even if we disagree with the way things are run sometimes. Go USA! :)

This year, Dave and I celebrated by going to Sheri's parents house for a carne asada bbq and swimming. Then we cleaned up and headed over to Matt and Becky's house in El Segundo to watch the city's firework show. At the last minute we climbed onto the roof of their apartment for the best view ever. We all agree that El Segundo puts on a great show that maybe even rivals Disneyland! (I'm still not sure if compares to the amazing street show put on at 1809 Cardigan Way, but who can even come close to the fireworks on the ladder technique?!) Thanks to Sheri & Tim for inviting us to the Walsh home and to Matt & Becky for hosting the fireworks show at their house and letting me take this picture of the rooftop viewing!

Dave's Rugby Glory

This post is a little late in coming, but we just got a great new picture to show off!

After 4 years of playing rugby for the LA Rugby Club, Dave finally had a big injury this year. He ran his face into another guy's face while going for a ball back in March. His eye immediately split open, blood everywhere, and he calmly marched himself off of the pitch. (Rugby apparently has a rule that they call a "blood time out". When a player is injured and there is blood he must leave the field to clean it up. The player only has 10 minutes to get the blood cleaned up and get himself back into the game, otherwise he's out for the rest of the game. If you want a more detailed explanation than that you'll have to ask Dave!) Because of the blood rule, Dave didn't have much time to worry about his eye. The team doctor sat him down on the training bench and proceeded to give him six (blue!) stitches right on the side line. He cleaned him up, taped his whole head to prevent further damage and Dave ran back into the game--all within ten minutes! What a stud he is!

Here's a great shot of Dave's stitches and the shiner that came with it. He had a rugby buddy pull the stitches out a week later and he never missed a game.

Family Time with the Lockridges

We went up to Merced to visit Dave's family this last weekend. His brother Charlie was in town from Virginia for two weeks and we wanted to make sure to get in some quality time with the Lockridge clan. We got to go up to Mariposa to see Christina's (Charlie's GF) parents house -which is AMAZING- go fishing in the pond where Dave caught his first fish in 20 years, go rafting on the Stanislaus river, and just enjoy time spent together. We had so much fun!

Here is Dave's brother Charlie, Charlie's GF Christina, Dave's dad (also Dave!), Dave's mom Sue, Me & Dave. Charlie got to kayak down the river and the rest of us worked together to get us through the 8 miles of river. Despite a few close ups with some trees and a continued zigzag pattern, we managed to finish the trip and had fun doing it.

Special thanks to Bryan for getting us on the river!!!

Doing Fine in 2009

2009 is almost half way gone and I'm just getting around to updating the blog. Whoops! It's been a very busy year so far with a wedding to attend/be in, a new nephew being born, lots of friends babies being born, rugby, rugby and more rugby! I'll try to catch you up on some of the highlights...

Christmas was amazing as usual. With our families living so close, we are able to travel back and forth from Merced to Modesto and try to spend as much time with everyone as possible. Here is Dave's dad and brother Charlie with their brand new Ashland longboards. 

 On February 28th we celebrated the marriage of my cousin Amy to her husband Joel. What a great party it was!

Dave & I at Amy & Joel's wedding.

The Harden/Lockridge family at the wedding.

We also took some trips with the rugby team to support LARC. 

Our good friends, Jonathon & Lacey Baker traveled to Santa Barbara with us in March.

Here we are eating ebelskivers in Solvang on our way home!

The Hardens made a couple of trips down to the South Bay. Here are the boys enjoying some fire and cigars on Easter weekend.

This year we used our tax return to pay for a company to paint our downstairs. Our ceilings are VERY high and it was something we have wanted to do ever since we painted it ourselves three years ago. We chose the safe color "Richmond Bisque" and love it every time we walk in the door. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to come and visit!

In April, our nephew Jackson "Jack" was born. This is the sort of thing that makes living out of town so hard! We missed his birth, but loved getting to know him over Mother's Day weekend.

Recently, we have spent most of our weekends out on the piers and beaches nearby. A few weeks ago we were walking on the Hermosa pier and saw these men sitting at Hennessey's with their Ashland Longboards leaned up against the gate. We couldn't pass up the photo op! Hope they had a good and safe time at the pub skate!

We found a new, great restaurant in Manhattan Beach with Matt & Becky. It has great burgers and french fries and lots of atmosphere. We even took my folks back last weekend!

This past weekend my dad, mom and brother came down for some business/fun time at the Lockridge house. We went had a great LA weekend of a Dodger game, Seaside Lagoon (for my end of the year party for school), Pink's Hot Dogs, the Getty Museum, watching The Proposal and lots more. What a fun way to start the summer!

You're all caught up!