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!

Fun with Grandbaby Adah!

Tim, Beka and I were thrilled to babysit Adah!

She was an angel!
More pics under "Lots of Pics here!"

Fun family visits!

Wow I'm not very good at this!!! These have been busy months -

updating this isn't high on the priority list!!!! '

This is what's been going on ... in a nutshell ...

We've had some great times with lots of Sandy's family visiting!

We're all pretty consumed, as James has been applying, auditioning and planning to go off to college next year! Check out his link for all the latest on him! Pretty exciting stuff!

Beka has been busy with show auditions, rehearsals and productions! We've been driving her to Scottsdale almost daily for the past couple of months - just five more weeks and her current show will end! Check out her link for details!

Jorge, Carrie, Sebastian and Avery visit in January...

Sunday night - games, popcorn and smoothies for 12!

Sandy's sister Carrie, hubby Jorge, and boys Sebastian and Avery came in early January!

Then Carrie and the boys came again in late January to see James in "West Side Story"!

We had so much fun with the boys and of course their mom and dad, too.

It's great having them close in Las Vegas!

Lisa came to visit in February!

Again - popcorn and smoothies - our Sunday night tradition!

We all enjoyed Sandy's sister Lisa! ... something that hasn't happened very often over the last 25 years - as we were each busy raising 4 kids!

Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa,

Great Grandma and Grandpa visit in March!

Sandy and her dad!

First great grand child!

Four Generations!!!!

Grandma with her daughter and 4 grandkids!

We're all pretty exciting about baby boy Nelson on his way - due August 8th!

Sister Love!

And of course baby Adah, at 4 1/2 months old, is the delight of everyone!

She pretty much keeps us all entertained these days!

She is growing up so quickly -

WE ALL LOVE HER!

Christmas Pics!

If you came here to read our "Christmas Letter" ... it is now the next entry!
Just want to post some pics of our Christmas!

It was just the four of us for Chistmas Eve...Times are changing!
We enjoyed yummy Cheese fondue and a game of Monopoly that lasted past midnight!

Christmas morning was pretty special with just our two teenagers!

Deb and Jonah joined us on Christmas night for a dinner of "picky food" and dominos!

All nine of us were together the day after Christmas for ham dinner with all the trimmings! It was great spreading Christmas over three days! ... What made this Christmas extra special was Deb and Jonah's surprise announcement - They're expecting a baby in August! The best Christmas present! We were all in tears! Check out their link for some awesome pics...The kids gave us a digital frame loaded with great pics of the six of them - plus our little Adah - what a treasure! These are just a couple of the many great shots they took!