STEPHANIE'S FIRST HAIRCUT!!

Stephie was super excited about her first haircut. You can just feel the enthusiasm oozing from her little body. Mom was excited to see that the curls were still there, even after cutting off a couple of inches.

AND THE WINNER IS .............AMANDA!!!!

As one of Amanda's GATE projects, she organized and hosted the 2nd annual Hickman Charter School spelling bee. The spelling bee was held on Friday, October 19th. She was super excited to be the winner for the junior high level. She won with the word "possess". She will now go to the county spelling bee in November. Congratulations and good luck, Amanda! We are proud of your hard work.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!

We are finally home after our 17-day vacation back home to Illinois. It was our first trip home after living here in California for almost 2 1/2 years. We had a wonderful trip packed full of fun, adventures, family, friends, and much more. We want to thank everyone who helped to make our vacation so awesome. We sure do miss all of you in the Midwest, and we were glad to spend time with you, but we are also grateful for our home, family, and friends here in California, too! We wanted to share with you a few photos from our vacation. Enjoy!

FAMILY & FRIENDS

THE MEMORIES!

STEPHANIE'S BEST FRIENDS!

MOM'S FAVORITES

Aladdin Musical

Before our vacation to the Midwest, Amanda and Daniel were in the play Aladdin through Hickman School. Daniel played Iago, the parrot, and Amanda was the snake charmer, the butcher and a townsperson. The play took a lot of time and commitment, but it was definitely worth it. All of the kids in the choir did an excellent job, and the show was amazing!!!

ARE WE MOVING?

As some of you may know, Doug has an opportunity to interview and possibly transfer back to Illinois. It would be to a town called Jacksonville, about 1/2 hour from Springfield, the capital.

If we were still living in Chicago, we would have jumped at the opportunity to move to Jacksonville, but now that we are settled in CA, it is a much bigger decision to move there. We are so involved in the local homeschool activities and church callings that we don't know what we would do without these wonderful opportunities for our kids. Jacksonville does not have any type of homeschool support group and no charter schools.

After a long week of evaluating our life and stressing over our decision, we have decided to stay here. We love the things that we are doing here for our family. It was a hard decision, but it feels like the right one for us at this time.

Sorry to those family members and friends who were voting for us to return home. At least you will all have a great vacation spot to come to when it is -10 degrees in December, January, February, March. We are excited about seeing all of you for our family vacation in a few weeks.

To all of you who helped to persuade us to stay-THANKS! We couldn't have made this decision without you.

Ellen-Thanks for reminding me about the long, cold winters.
Brad-Thanks for being such an awesome choir director and piano teacher-irreplaceable.
Eleace-Thanks for researching the logistics of Jacksonville and finding all of the drawbacks, even before I could.
Hickman School teachers and staff-Thanks to all of the teachers who love and nurture my children through your wonderful programs, classes, field trips, etc.
Martha-Thanks for saying how much you would miss me and truly meaning it. I am glad that I am needed here.
Uncle Frank-Thanks for always being so excited about "seeing" us when we come down to LA.

And to any others who found reasons for us to stay here, THANKS!!! Besides, we still haven't made that first trip to Disneyland. We certainly can't move out of California if we haven't gone to Disney. That just isn't the American way!
Yes, we do have a Disney trip planned for March. Look out, Disneyland, here we come!

The Davis' Clan