Merry Christmas wishes to our family and friends!

Just a little sum-up of an amazing year of change for us!

To know more about any of the kids ... check out their link (on the right under OUR KIDS)! Or just keep reading the nexts posts to be filled in on our year!

Tim keeps busy working to provide for us all! He is no longer working from home, but is back on-site at Boeing. He is thankful to have a job, surviving many rounds of lay-offs! We've done a lot of remodeling/reorganizing this year, so in his "free" time his to-do list is never ending! He's happy to have bought our first low-mileage car, meaning less maintenance for him!

Sandy is happy adjusting to a life of no home-schooling, after 20+ years at it! My "job" this year has basically been as a college counselor to our two teenagers! I'm getting pretty good at making great looking transcripts and figuring out the college application ropes! We've been busy re-organizing and thinning out stuff from 31 years of marriage and 22 years in this house! I am thrilled to report that we have finally replaced our 22 year old nasty carpet with beautiful wood floors and actually bought real furniture for the first time!

Deborah and Jonah became parents in August and moved into their new home in September. OUR grandson, Owen, is now an adorable 4 months old!!!

Rachel and Clay have had a busy year with Clay completing his MBA, working on their new home and enjoying OUR darling granddaughter, Adah, who just turned one!

James finished high school, was accepted into his dream school, and is now attending the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music! We're all missing him!

Beka is left alone at home! Well, when she IS home! She keeps very busy being a full-time community college student, while finishing high school. She is usually in some production, performing somewhere in the valley. She is auditioning for colleges and hopes to go next year!

We feel tremendously blessed and so thankful for the goodness and grace of God in our lives! Just wish we could sit down with each of you to chat and catch up - hopefully someday!

Much love and we hope to hear from you!

Two thrilled grandparents...we're loving it!
...and some more family shots!

Fall Fun Highlights!

We picked James up a the airport on Dec. 8th -

He's been away at college for the past 12 weeks!

The last post was about saying goodbye ...

it's way better getting him back!

We were all happy to be together again

... especially "little" sister and "big" brother!

Our "small" Thanksgiving dinner!

We missed having James with us...

Clay, Rachel and Adah came for dessert and games later! Our first grandbaby had her first Birthday on November 19th!!!

She was so proud to be ONE!
We packed a box of fall goodies for James away at college!

The outside was decorated so beautifully!!!!
Just how a college guy wants a package to look when he gets it in his dorm!
We had fun!

Halloween with Adah Belle the "Blue Belle"!

Adah and Owen checking each other out!

Deborah and Owen spent a weekend at our house
while Jonah went to visit his family in Wisconsin!
So fun to have babies around again!

We had a night out with babies and strollers to Schnepf Farms Pumpkin and Chili Festival!

Our three BIG girls!

Moving James to Ohio!

Early Morning goodbyes at the airport!Clay, Rachel and Adah met us at the airport to say goodbye to James!

Not an easy day for any of us!

James is at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music!

The campus is beautiful and

The College Conservatory of Music is a "Village" as a part of the campus!CCM Plaza...a beautiful courtyard

surrounded by awesome buildings and performing arts centers!

This is Memorial Hall...where the practice rooms are.

James' dorm is the tall building behind it!
The Vocal Arts Center... There is a beautiful Park just north of campus...Burnet Woods!
James is on the 5th floor of this dorm..."MarketPointe" is where he eats! James at work in his lovely dorm room!
To read more about James and see more pics -

check out his link on the right!

Ohio Visit!

On September 15th James and I left Arizona to move him to Ohio!

What is soooo amazing is that it just "happens" that the best school

for Musical Theater, in the country, is in Cincinnati, Ohio!

(Of course it's amazing that my boy was one of 23 that got accepted this year

- out of 800+ applicants!)

But what is really cool is that my brother, Steve, and his dear family live

15 minutes from campus! I was able to stay with them for over a week!!

It was just great spending time with them and my parents & sister, Lisa,

who each drove a few hours to visit!

Their lovely home in Cincinnati!

My adorable nephews...Kyle, Kent and Vince! I loved getting to know them!

My brother Steve and his sweet wife Christine!

Before I left town...Steve, Christine and I met at "Zinzinnati's Oldest Restaurant"
- right close to campus!
We couldn't ask for greater people to be close to our "boy"!

~~~~~~~~~~~

....So I was in Ohio for my birthday

and received these awesome photos on my phone

...one by one!

I love my kids and grandkids - They're the greatest!!!!

Owen Reid Nelson is here!

Owen Reid was born on August 6th at 2:39 pm!

He weighed in at 7lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long!

Happy parents...Deborah and Jonah!

Just a few hours after Owen was born!

Happy grandparents...Tim and Sandy!

Happy Aunt and Uncle...James and Beka!

We are all thrilled to welcome this new life into our family!

See more pics and info under Deb and Jonah's link...

Some Wicked Fun in July!

It's catch up day!

I rarely get to this...but will share some highlights of the last three months!

Uncle Tom came to visit in July! Tom came to help with some work but we wanted him to have some fun while he was here, too... We went to see James in Bye, Bye Birdie twice.

Check out more under James' link (past performances)!

On July 3rd we all went to see Wicked at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ.

We had tickets for all 8 of us but James couldn't go

(he was in his own show on the other side of town!)

So Tom used our extra ticket! We had awesome seats and all loved the show!

On the 4th of July we went to Clay and Rachel's for food and fun!

Adah couldn't take her eyes off her great uncle Tom!

The big reason Tom came to visit was to put wood floors in much of our house!

It was time for the 22 year old carpet to go!!!

Here are some before pictures...It was a bigger job than we had anticipated...

tearing out old, filty carpet, replacing all the doors and woodwork, leveling concrete, etc....

and then laying 900 sf. of wood flooring!Before we tore out the old the kids had fun creating awesome artwork on the

"much loved" carpet!We are THRILLED with the results!
Thanks Tom!!!! You do awesome work and it feels great!

Family Fun on Mother's Day and Father's Day!

For Mother's Day we all went to Beka's show...Snoopy!

(Check out more about Beka's show under her link to the right!)

It was wonderful to all be together.

Then we all went out to pizza and yummy ice cream!

On Father's Day, Clay and Rachel has us over for "Beautiful Sandwiches!" Tim's favorite!