Our New Home...

Our beautiful neighborhood views in Stevenson Ranch, CA

with freshly snow-capped mountains...


We finally made our move and we are getting adjusted to the new area. We do miss our friends dearly, but are enjoying the absolutely stunning nature & mountains in this area. Apparently we luckily moved into a very nice area of Valencia called Stevenson Ranch. It is quite nice and we feel we have stepped right into Pleasantville, CA. Everyone is overly friendly, and they actually start conversations with us every time we go out. Everyone is always dressed nicely and properly groomed at all times (we might not fit in here...) The people here are actually laid back and relaxed...we sense a strongly bonded community here with lots of neighborhood interaction.

This is ideal for our kids, who have made some neighborhood friends already. The girls were sad and still miss you all, but are excited with having so many kids right out our door.

We went to Golden Spoon one night and Megan said, "Mom, they actually speak the same language as us here." She must have thought we were moving to a different country. Right now I am home schooling Megan part-time to continue the curriculum we left. However, the schools here are top notch & multi award winning, and very different. I have toured the Kindergarten options for the fall, and the parent involvement is unprecedented (lots of stay at home moms with lots of pull) and the technologically advanced facilities were quite impressive. Every house sold in Stevenson Ranch has a mandatory "school HOA fee" that goes directly to the schools, above and beyond the property taxes. There are many huge mansions here in the hills, so I can see where the school revenue is coming from. We are looking for a home in this area to buy within 6 months, so that has already been a bit stressful, and we are hoping the market comes down a tiny bit more, before we buy. Our renters have successfully moved into our San Diego home and they are happy there and wanting to upgrade some stuff for us already, which would be nice. Chad just got a season pass to Magic Mountain for his birthday and needs some friends to go with... Come visit us anytime! Hope you all are well and will stay connected to us!
- Brandy & Family

Valentines Sweethearts!!!

We enjoyed a Valentine Latte at Starbucks in Sunny Valencia...

Pooped Valentine!

New member to our family...

Winnie the Guinea Pig!!!!

We had to have our family dog Hershey, temporarily move in with Snickers and Peanut M&M (his wife and son, Grandma Joan and papa's dog's.) So Megan received a lovely house warming present from my parents... I happened to have raised a herd of guinea pigs as a child (as well as rabbits, goats, birds, and a monkey), so we were happy to welcome Winnie the Guinea to our home.

Megan puts Winnie in her doll stroller and pushes him around the house, as well as puts him in her large Barbie castle to be the Prince Charming. She says he LOVES it. Emma screams "Winnie" in his ear and scares the crap out of him and them throws a carrot at his head and yells, "Eat cawwrret." He is starting to get used to the mauling and excessive handling that is going on. Today, I put him in the sun for a short while with some broccoli, when the kids were gone and he thought he was in heaven, purring and squealing so happily. We will be getting him a girlfriend soon and start to breed them. if you are interested in having a well handled, mauled, loving critter for your kids, let me know. They are $30 - $40 in the store, but you can have one for free when we get babies.