Happy 26th Birthday Kevin!

This past year I've been working on sorting all my printed photos and because of that, I now have (almost) all of the kids' school pictures in one place. For some reason I'm missing Kevin's 4th grade picture (who knows why), but otherwise they're all here -starting with Kindergarten.  

I thought it would be fun to see Kevin and his many faces throughout the years.  Isn't he just adorable! Each of these pictures brings back so many memories of watching him grow, change and mature into the man that he is now. This year, I asked Terry if he would write a birthday note for Kevin, so here it is.

"Kevin, we’re so proud of you! We think of you often off in that foreign land called Mississippi, and wish there was a way we could be closer.

We’re very thankful for the man that you’ve become, but I definitely miss those days of watching you grow up. I miss going to your basketball games, plays, and choir concerts. I miss going on camping trips and canoe trips with you and the different places we went on our family vacations. I miss so many different things we did together as you grew up – playing basketball, going on hikes together, playing guitars. As anyone who knows you will agree, you are always a lot of fun to be around.

The fact that you chose to serve your country for the last few years makes me very proud. It’s been a joy and a special privilege to be your father, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what God has in store for you in the years to come.

Have a great birthday, Son!  We hope to see you very soon.   Love, Dad"

  

 1st grade

  

 2nd grade

  

 3rd grade

  

5th grade

  

 6th grade

  

 7th grade

  

 8th grade

  

 9th grade

  

10th grade

  

 11th grade

  

 12th grade

  

 12th grade

 Shortly after his 21st birthday

Last Summer - as handsome as ever!

Happy Birthday dear son!  We love you forever.

Our Semi-official Christmas Letter - 2009

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Greetings to you, our dear friends and family!

If you have a few minutes, settle into your favorite chair and catch up on our latest news.

As always, God has been good and our year has been full!  Most of you know that we have been empty-nesters now for a few years.  The photo of the whole family was taken at Disneyland for our one weekend all together so far this year.  We’re excited that we’ll be together again for the weekend after Christmas.  Now let’s see what the family has been doing…

Kevin recently spent about 6 months in Afghanistan conducting some top secret missions with the Air Force.  He’s not allowed to tell us what he was doing for at least 50 years.  (Safe bet that we won’t even be around by then, right?)  He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in August and is now working for a strategy and technology consulting firm.   His job is located in Meridian, Mississippi, a somewhat smallish town a few hours from the gulf. Quite different from anywhere he’s lived before.  All we know is that he’s doing curriculum development and training for the military, relating to the equipment that he worked on in Afghanistan.  He’s been there since early October and is still getting acclimated to the job and the terrain.

Amy and her husband, Andrew are living back in Southern California, just a half hour or so from where they grew up (in Santa Clarita).  She was able to transfer with her job from a similar position in Scottsdale.  She’s an editor for press releases, so gets in on the breaking news before any of us hear it, but isn’t allowed to say anything.  She’s also pursuing her dream of being a wedding and portrait photographer and had the privilege of shooting a wedding in Italy, as well as several others this year.  Her hope is to eventually do photography full time, so if you know of anyone who’s looking, please pass her name along.  She’s willing to travel.  Visit www.TeeganPhotography.com to see her work.  

Andrew has pretty much landed his dream job!  A few years ago he attended The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences here in Arizona, and then was offered an internship at a recording studio in So Cal.  Since then he has moved to a new studio and has the privilege of working with and learning from a well-known mixing engineer.  He’s worked on albums by Green Day, Dave Matthews band, Hanna Montana and many others.  He also has a chance to do his own free-lance engineering work in his spare time.  He LOVES what he’s doing and is learning so much!

Terry is thankful to have survived a round of layoffs at American Funds and has been enjoying some special assignments in his job that keep him from getting bored.  He also loves the 10 minute commute!  During his free time he has been playing music a lot!  Just this month, in addition to the time he plays at church on Sundays, he played in a band for a Christmas concert for 2 nights, then with a different band at a CD release party at a coffeehouse the next weekend, and this weekend he played with a friend at the local Borders Bookstore.  He already has a few gigs scheduled in January as well. I'm so glad that he has the time and opportunities to express his gifts and talents in this way.  It's what he loves to do more than most anything.

As for me, I’m working 4 days a week for Uhlmann Family Offices http://www.familyoffices.org/ .  I enjoy a lot of variety in my position.  Parts of my days are spent assisting the non-profit organizations that share office space with us.  I have the chance to do a little bit of everything…event coordination, basic graphic design, photography, help with mailings, blog posts, website updates, and even a bit of bookkeeping.   I really love my job and my schedule!  My Fridays are precious to me because I have a chance to spend time with my mom and take her shopping, to doctor appts, lunch, the movies or whatever we decide to do together.  My sisters come along sometimes as well.  It gives me the chance to make up for some of the time that we lived in So Cal.  I love having that extra day to get things done either with family, friends or at home.   Speaking of extra time, I now have the time and energy to pursue hobbies like photography, blogging, crafting and hopefully sewing soon (when I get my machine).

Terry and I also were blessed with some fun travel this year.  We went to Steamboat Springs, CO for a week in the summer.  Kevin and two of our dear friends were able to join us too.  We had gorgeous weather and spent a lot of time outdoors.  In September we spent a long weekend enjoying Antelope Canyon and the north rim of the Grand Canyon with a couple of other great friends. The next weekend we drove to L.A. to go to Disneyland with Amy, Andrew and Kevin.  We had a blast!

In early November we spent a week with Terry’s dad and wife, Ginny in North Carolina.  We were treated to some amazing Fall colors and other gorgeous scenery there.  It was wonderful to have the chance to spend some extended time with them.

So what’s on the horizon for 2010?  You’ll have to ask the kids about their plans, but I’m hoping to travel to Fort Myers, Florida with my mom and sisters in February.  At 86, my mom still loves to travel, as long as one of us comes along with her.  We’re looking forward to visiting her half sister, Alice there.

In May, Terry and I are hoping to travel to Bosnia with a few people from our church.  Open Door Fellowship has had ongoing relationships assisting several churches there since their war and unrest in the 90’s.  Terry and two other guys are planning to go and play music at several churches and coffeehouses.  The men who lead worship at these churches are often the pastors who end up doing everything on Sundays.  The guys will be able to give these pastors some rest from that portion of the morning and will give the congregation a treat by having some different music and musicians.  They’ll also play at local coffeehouses to begin to make connections between the churches and the community they serve.  I will be going along to help with whatever I can and document as much as possible with photos.  They haven’t had anyone go with them to Bosnia for the purpose of capturing the images of the people and places and I hope to be able to bring home visuals that will help them spread the word about the work they do there and the needs that are evident.  We will be raising money for the trip in the coming months, which will be a first for us.

We'd love to keep in touch thru-out the year and hear updates from you anytime. We’re all on Facebook  (except Terry), so look us up there. 

We trust that you have a blessed new year, filled with the love of family and friends.  We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in the coming year!

I'll leave you with a photo that we took of the family just this week.  Amy made the beards and mustaches as stocking stuffers for all of us.  Fun stuff, huh?

Love from all,

Nancy (and Terry)

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween just isn't what it used to be for me.  I've definitely done my fair share of trick-or-treating.  In fact, growing up in Ohio, we used to dress up and go out as early as possible all around the neighborhood and fill a large paper grocery bag with candy until it was so full that we could barely carry it.  Then we'd go back home, just to get another empty bag and head out again.  My favorite house to go to was the one that gave out hot apple cider and fresh donuts!  Mmmmm...

As a youngster, part of the fun of Halloween was figuring out what kind of costume to have my mom make.  She never used a pattern and NEVER bought those cheesy costumes with the stiff plastic masks from the 5 and Dime store.  We always came up with unique ideas and she just figured out a way to make it work.  I guess that's what you do when you have 6 kids and not a lot of money or ways to get to the store.

I'll admit that one year she got a little TOO creative and decided that I should be Mother Nature for Halloween.  Now what would you imagine Mother Nature to look like?  She decided that I should have leaves sewn all over my leotard (which later became dead and brown) and that's all I remember of it.  I also recall that my sister was a beautiful sparkly silver Christmas package with a huge red bow in her hair that year and she won a prize for the prettiest costume at our neighborhood Halloween Party.  People just kept looking at me and asking, "What are you supposed to be?"  (Not my most fun Halloween to be sure.)

I do know how to get in the Halloween spirit, as evidenced by this photos of me as an adult.  I'm the scarecrow on the left and yes, my belly was stuffed with straw.  This was at California Institute of the Arts where I worked in the Accounting office.  My boss, Christina (on the right) was so excited about Halloween that she would take vacation days just to decorate the office.  We won the CalArts contest almost every year for the best decorated office on campus.  She was the mastermind of it all.  I was just there to help.  That was in the mid-90's and may have been the last time I dressed up for Halloween.

I have had a lot of fun continuing the tradition of creative costume designs with our kids too.  It was always a challenge for them to come up with an idea and for us to make something from nothing.  Often times it was a matter of some thrift store shopping with a few alterations, props, accessories or make up.  Other times it was just whatever we could do to bring an idea to life.  As they got older they created their own costumes and they were much more creative than I ever was.

These last 2 shots are the first time we dressed Amy up for Halloween.  She was 17 months old and I debated and debated about whether to do anything.  On Halloween Day I decided it would be fun, so we went down the street to the nearby Salvation Army Thrift store and I bought her whole costume.  I love the one of her looking at her own face in the mirror.

So for those who love this holiday, have an awesome spooky day!  I'm perfectly content to decorate for Autumn and avoid all that scary stuff.  I enjoy watching others celebrate the holiday and that's good with me.

In fact at the very moment when this is scheduled to post, Terry and I will be on our way to North Carolina to visit his Dad and wife, so we'll pretty much miss Halloween altogether unless they have trick-or-treaters at their house.  But we're o.k. with that.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Disneyland with the Family

When Terry and I arrived at Disneyland with Amy, Andrew and Kevin on Sep 20th, they had already begun decorating the park for Halloween.  In fact, Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion were both closed for decorating.  We were a little disappointed since Space Mtn had been closed for a total re-do when Terry and I were there the last time (which was about 5 years ago) and we've heard so many great reports on it since then.  Oh well, I guess it just gives us a good reason to go back again soon.

Here are a few highlights of the first part of the day.  You can also see more details on Amy's blog here.

Here are the guys doing Splash Mountain just before they plunged into the water.  They didn't get too wet though, which was probably good.  Amy and I decided not to go on it because it was in the afternoon and we didn't want to be wet when the sun went down.

I think part of the reason that the kids get tired before the end of the day, is because they wear shoes with no support, so their legs and backs hurt by the end of the day.   As I've gotten older, I've become much more picky about my shoes, especially when I'm going to be wearing them all day.  It's amazing the difference it makes!

Don't you just love the detail at the Disney parks?  These squirrels are at the tops of the pillars on one of the rides in FantasyLand.  I think it was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  Look for them next time you're there.

I was very impressed with how well frozen my Mickey ice cream bar was on a warm afternoon.  I'm not sure how they keep them so cold in those little freezers.  It was creamy and delicious!

And isn't it great how they made Captain Jack look like Johnny Depp on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride?

Can you tell that Amy was a bit warm that day?  It was actually warmer than I thought it would be, but definitely much better than a visit in the summer would be and the lines were great - especially for a weekend day!

Don't Amy & Andrew look so cute?

Terry and Kevin look pretty interested in something on the ground, but I'm not sure what it is.

Next we visit California Adventure, where Kevin has never been before.

Visiting the So Cal Hanns
As mentioned before, a few weeks ago we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Southern California to see our kids. We had just found out that Kevin (who was living in Omaha) was hired for a new job in Mississippi and it was going to be just a couple of weeks before he had to start working. Since it had been over a year since we'd seen him, we asked if he'd be willing to fly to Los Angeles and spend a few days with us and Amy & Andrew before he moved to Meridian, Mississippi and he agreed. Yea!

Whenever we can work it out, one of our mandatory stops is a visit to see Terry's brother, Ted and their family. They were a big part of the reason that we originally moved to Santa Clarita and we love spending time with them when we we're there. We miss hanging out with them on holidays and for all of our kids' activities, so we always look forward to whatever time we can have with them.  So we all planned to head over there after we checked into our hotel and Andrew got off work.

They live on top of a hill on a flag lot with a gorgeous view of the Santa Clarita Valley and when we pulled up, the sun was just setting, so I jumped out of the car and ran to the back yard to snap a few pics before the color was gone.

Then we enjoyed some delicious dinner that we picked up from StoneFire Grill in Valencia.  I miss this place and had been craving a BBQ Chopped Chicken or Tri tip salad with cilantro dressing!  Unfortunately, they ran out of the dressing, so I had to settle for another kind, but the salad was still great.  We also had some excellent BBQ Chicken pizza and a new kind, "Allison's Creation" pizza which was so tasty as well.  I would love to have one of these places in Phoenix.  I tell you that we would be there all the time!  I'm sure it would be a hit here.

We had our dinner on the back patio with that amazing view of the valley.  So nice!

After dinner Terry, Kevin and Spencer decided they wanted to play guitars.  Fortunately, Spencer has 3 of them so they were all able to play together.  Lucas joined in with a little percussion as well.

All the kids are growing up so fast.  It won't be long and they'll ALL be adults and having kids of their own.  That's just crazy to think about.  Wow!

Quick stop at Amy & Andrew's place

After visiting the studio where Andrew works, we made a quick stop at Amy & Andrew's apartment which is very close by in Tarzana.  Since they haven't been in there long, we had just seen pictures on their blog so it was nice to actually be able to visit and see it in person.

It's very cute, and they make the best of the small space.  Since there's only one chair, and I was sitting on it, Amy & Kevin staked out the bed so they could chat and Terry hung out where he could find space, but mostly perused the bookshelves to see if there was anything of interest there.

Afterward we headed up to Santa Clarita to check into our hotel, pick up some dinner, then head to Terry's brother's house for the evening.

It's Official!

Kevin's in Mississippi!  He and The Professor arrived safely in Meridian (the Magnolia state) on Sunday night .  

He said The Professor was pretty vocal the first hour or so of the drive, then quieted down a little and tried to sleep.  He woke up and meowed at him every time they hit a bump or something though.  Overall he's acclimating to his new surroundings...and Kevin's settling in too.

He (Kevin, not the Professor) will be working for a company named, Booz Allen Hamilton doing curriculum development and training.  He's been doing busy work for a few weeks, so I know he's looking forward to getting up to speed in his new job.  I think it's something that he'll do really well.  He's smart, logical and creative and could make the training informative, fun and interesting too.  Can't wait to see how it goes for him.

He's in a temporary furnished apartment for up to the first 30 days while he's looking for a permanent spot.  He was telling us that some of his co-workers are living in some great downtown storefronts that have been converted to apartments.  I'm not sure if this is them (below), but they look like what he was describing.  He wasn't sure of the cost and didn't think there were any available, but they look pretty cool, especially for a small town.  Go to the site to see how roomy they are inside.  Maybe something will open up if they're affordable.

I did some Googling on Meridian and found out a few things.  Good news is, there ARE things to do there, just not sure there's much for a twenty-something single guy.  I did see that Lyle Lovett is coming there though.  Check out the events calendar here.

Kevin also likes that fact that the Meridian area is woodsy and has several lakes and rivers nearby.  Could be some good places for hiking there.

Wikipedia says that the city is located 93 mi  east of Jackson, MS; 154 mi west of Birmingham, AL; 202 mi  northeast of New Orleans, LA; and 231 mi  southeast of Memphis, TN, so it sounds to me like he has a lot of exploring to do.  He's never been to that part of the country, so it should be fun to see what's around.  I have a friend, Allen who lives in Mobile, AL (about 135 miles away) who's been bragging about their gulf shrimp for years.  Maybe Kevin could go visit him and check it out.

I'm hoping we'll get to visit him sometime next year.  It definitely won't be in the summer though, because it gets horribly humid.  Yuck!  Looks like maybe Fall might be nice.   We'll see...

I'm excited for him in a brand new place with a brand new job!  I know he'll enjoy the change and the chance to see new places and learn new things.  We're proud of him!

Our cute kids!

O.k., so this is a random post, but I wanted to do it before I forget. I am going thru old photos today for another purpose, but came across these adorable pictures of Amy and Kevin.

Don't you just love em?

Kevin was the Lion in the Wizard of Oz when he was in 6th grade. I made the costume. His mane was made out of raffia and the rest of him was covered in fuzziness.

Amy looks like the perfect flower child. I'm not sure where or when this one was taken. Amy, can you help?

I've seen lots more that I like too, but thought I'd share these today.

The Happiest Place on Earth with my favorite people on earth!

O.k. this may sound ridiculous, but sometimes I think that I posted news on my blog only to find out that I just posted it on Facebook. So those few who aren't on FB, but check my blog are missing out on the news. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better in the future.

First off, for those who don't know; Terry and I drove to Los Angeles on Saturday to spend a couple of days with Amy, Andrew and Kevin! Yes, Kevin flew in from Omaha to spend a little time with us before he moves to Meridian, Mississippi for his new job at the end of the month.

We arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon and...

• Drove to LAX to pick Kevin up from the airport
• Stopped to see the studio where Andrew works
• Stopped to see Amy & Andrew's apartment
  
• Went to visit Terry's brother, Ted, his wife Kristi and 2 of their kids, Spencer and Lucas
• Sunday we went to Disneyland and California Adventure with the 3 "kids" all day
• Monday morning we had breakfast together at CiCi's Cafe on Ventura Blvd in Tarzana
  
• then drove back to Phoenix with Kevin.
  
• On Tuesday morning I'll take Kev to the airport to head back to Omaha, then on to Mississippi very soon.
  

It's been so much fun to be with all the kids together. Not sure when we'll all be together again, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sometime around Christmas. We'll see how things go with travel and time off work and all...

So as you can imagine, there's a lot of fun to post about, but I won't get there tonight. Here are a few fun ones to give you a glimpse of our time together.

I also have a confession to make. Do you remember the gorgeous blue Mickey scarf that Amy was wearing when she was in London (same scarf pictured here - this photo wasn't taken by me). Well I liked it so much that I bought the same one for myself and can't wait to wear it. I actually checked to see if they had a green one so I wouldn't copy her EXACTLY, but they didn't and I didn't like any of the other colors nearly as much, so I got the same color as hers. I figure since we're in different states, it won't be a big deal, right? Of course you may look at both of our blogs and see pictures of us wearing them, but oh well. I'll live with that, and hopefully Amy won't mind too much.

So much more to come, so stay tuned. The easiest way to keep up on my posts is to click the "Follow" button on the right side of the page and you'll be notified each time there's a new post. See you soon!