Merry Christmas!

Before we know it another year will be upon us so let's not let the "holidays" slip by without slowing down to really celebrate.  Christmas.  So grab a warm drink, a comfy seat, and check this out.  Micah was an old testament prophet who lived hundreds of years before Christ.  He penned these words inspired by God:  

"But you, Bethleham Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come from me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.  Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.  He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.  And he will be their peace." Michah 5:2-5.

God has had a plan of redemption since the beginning of time and because of prophesies like this one, the world was anticipating a Savior.  However, for many people, Jesus didn't live or die according to their expectations.  This Christmas, I challenge you to submit your expectations of who God is and how he does things to the truth that can be found in scripture.  So whether 2012 is filled with more joy or more heartache, may we celebrate the fulfillment of this prophesy and may He be our peace!

2011 Year in Review

• Aaron took a job with Amazon.com and we moved to the Phoenix area in late February.

• On moving day we picked up Josiah’s first pair of glasses.  We have a greater respect for warranties and superglue (5 pairs later).  

• Jane and Richard Daume have blessed us with their friendship and the love of family.  They live just 20 minutes away and are relatives on Aaron’s dad’s side.

• We moved into a house in April and have had fun making it a home.  Hooray for Craigslist (our official furniture store) and for artificial grass (we don’t mow or scoop snow now!)

• We took a break from the summer heat with a family vacation to Colorado in July where Aaron hiked his first “fourteener”.  

• The kids experienced the ocean and the Grand Canyon for the first time this year.

• Mary started preschool four mornings a week in the fall.  She loves to role play/dress up and do “projects”.  Give her paper, scissors, glue, tape, staplers, markers etc. and she is set!  If she is not working on a project, she is likely performing through song and dance.

• Josiah loves to draw, be read to, play with animals, go to the park, and eat.  He will also be found belting out a tune and squirming a toddler jig along side his sister whenever a performance breaks out.  He no longer wears his hip brace at all!

• Sarah stays busy shopping for art supplies, snacks, and witnessing daily flash mobs in  her home.  She’s also been part of a mom’s group at church, connected with some neighbor ladies, and helped sew costumes for an annual Christmas dinner theater.  

• Early in October we attended the wedding of a dear friend, had a small group reunion, and visited family and friends in southeast Kansas.

• Later in October Aaron ran his second 1/2 marathon.

• November and December have been more intense for Aaron at work (imagine that!), but we made it through our first “peak” season!
  

from the mouths of babes

Mary:  "Mom, are you excited to hear what songs I'm learning?"  (for her school Christmas concert)
Me: "Yes!  I'm really looking forward..."
Mary interupts:  "Mom, pray to God, and ask Him to give you patience."

A couple recent Mary questions:

"Mom, who made God?"
"Mom, when does a table become a table?"

Some of Josiah's most frequent phrases:

animal book
baby animal
monkey bars
I want...
I did it!
Daddy's home!
God, thank you. amen.

My friend Valerie to her daughter:  Do you want me to sing 'Mary had a little lamb?'
Juliana (2 years old):  Mom!  Mary doesn't have a little lamb, she has Josiah!

A well documented trip to the library!

It wasn't your ordinary trip to the library.  Last Tuesday a reporter from the West Valley View wanted to snap some photos of our newly renovated library and we were in the right place at the right time.  Here's the link:  http://www.westvalleyviewftp.com/wvvpdf/WVV11292011.pdf

Thanksgiving 2011

A few photos to document our Thanksgiving weekend:

Napkin holders- Inspired by "familyfun"

A Family Feast

Family Photo

On Friday we went on a (.5 mile) hike.

The kids had so much fun and loved all the attention!

Josiah's 2nd birthday

We had his birthday party at Maricopa Live Steamer's Train Park

A wildcat shirt, college money, and a backpack, look out K-State, he's ready!

My kids crack me up!

We did not have an alien invasion, but rather Mary decided to wear her pink wig to the dentist.

Mary dressed up as a princess on the 31st

Josiah was totally cracking up when I turned the camera onto him on my iPod.

Anyone need a zookeeper that is passionate about animals? I know a guy.

A Run in the Park

On October 22nd I (Aaron here) ran my 2nd half marathon. Unlike my 1st one back in Wichita in 2008 this one was anything but flat . It was along a road in South Mountain Park in south Phoenix.

This is the last 100 yds. of the race. Notice the wild race fans!




Afterwards I accepted requests to pose with my fan club


Lessons Learned

1. When going for a training run in a park with "Mountain" in the name, know what roads you should be taking.  
• One week before the race I went to South Mountain Park to do a 10 mile training run, missed a key turn, and ran the 3 hardest miles of my life doing switchbacks and curves up the face of a mountain. By the time I realized I was on the wrong road I had talked myself out of coming back for the real race one week later.
2. What goes down must come up
• The 2nd half of the race was mostly up hill. The grade and length of which I've never run. After running my fastest mile on record during the downhill portion it was all I could do to catch people that were walking up the hills on the 2nd half of the race.

San Diego trip

Early in September, we took a weekend trip to San Diego to beat the heat. We had a pretty relaxed agenda that included the zoo, the ocean, cooler weather, and we hoped to meet up with former Wichitans Kyle and Carly Walters and their children. The night before, I hurt my back which delayed our departure and made Friday difficult. However, I got to see the chiropractor and survived the drive (lots of pillows), we have a better appreciation of what real dessert looks like, had real Hawaiian food for the first time, and stopped by Mission Beach before settling into our hotel for the night. Saturday the San Diego Zoo was excellent and I was able to walk around well. Toward the end of the day we met up with the Walters at the zoo for a ride in the air tram followed by dinner at a local taco shop. Sunday we visited their church and visited Coronado Beach before heading home. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Photo op with Mary and Josiah

There is such a thing as a free ride for this monkey!

Baby Giraffe.

Mary and Zoe on the air tram.

My sweet family!

When I downloaded this photos I was surprised to see....my cousin Megan! I thought she was out of the country then, which she confirmed.  She said has been told she has a look alike that runs on Mission Beach!

Becca the Beautiful

Last weekend we had the opportunity to see many friends and family members in Kansas. It went too fast, but I'm thankful for every minute we had! The highlight of our trip was witnessing the marriage of Joshua Ruby and Becca Butler. I don't member when I first met Becca, but we got to know her in the summer of 2008 and grew to love her when she moved in with us for a season. She didn't know it, but when she moved in she enrolled in a marriage mythbusters course as well as baby boot camp!

When I met Becca, she had a brilliant smile and sparkling eyes framed by a cascade of beautiful brown curls. However, it was the inner beauty of her heart that compelled me to call her Becca the Beautiful. Now that she is married, I'll call her Becca (the Beautiful) Ruby and I can't think of a better name! Just like a precious gem, Becca was sought after and is treasured, first by Christ Jesus and now also by Joshua. It has been a joy to see God use her life to bring glory to Himself by investing in women in Wichita as well as impacting college students across the world. May their marriage be marked by daily faithfullness in following Christ and loving people along the way.

5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace

Dr. Paul White, a former employer and friend of ours from Wichita, has just released a new book "5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace" that he has been working on for the past several years with Gary Chapman. It has been exciting to watch him in this journey and I even got to contribute a tiny bit to the research behind the book. I wanted to do my part to get the word out and put a great resource in the hands of my friends and family. Here's the scoop in his words (taken from www.drpaulwhite.com):

Let me briefly share the benefits of the book to you & organizations you are affiliated with (schools, churches, non-profit org’s, your workplace). The concepts will help you:

• Express genuine appreciation to coworkers & staff — even on a tight budget.
• Increase loyalty with the employees and volunteers in your organization.
• Reduce cynicism and create a more positive work environment.
• Decrease staff burnout and the sense of being ‘used’.
• Improve your ability to show appreciation for difficult colleagues.

It is available at www.amazon.com , www.bn.com (Barnes & Noble), www.booksamillion.com, www.christianbook.com and you can also go to bookstores and it should be there (it should be a “front table” display at Barnes & Noble.)

In addition to the hardback version, there are also e-book versions (for Kindle & Nook), an audiobook version, and the Spanish version is coming out soon.

p.s. We have a couple of fun activities on our website, www.appreciationatwork.com. One is a quiz you can take to find out “How Dysfunctional is Your Workplace?” in comparison to other job sites.

The other is a contest that you can enter — the “National Workplace ‘Fill-in-the Thanks’ Contest” where you can answer either (or both) of the following: “You know you are not appreciated at work when ____” and “The best example of feeling appreciated at work happened to me when _______.”Prizes will be awarded weekly for the best entries.

Summer 2011

It has been two months since my last blog, so here's a little update.

In June, we participated in VBS at our church, my mom came came for a visit, and Mary took a Ballet/Tap class. In July, we took a family vacation to Colorado, the kids took swim lessons, and Aaron's mom came for a visit.

Josiah can climb on almost anything now and his third pair of glasses (in 5 months) is in the mail. At his last appointment, his left hip's development is progressing as hoped. Mary learned a lot about swimming and water safety this summer and is looking forward to preschool starting next week. Aaron has finally found a handful of men who like strategy board games and will be kicking off his first game night in August. Sarah has started sewing costumes for our church's annual dinner theater at the end of the year.

Below is a before and after photo of the work we have done in our yard. The kids now have a big patio to ride around on and a patch of artificial grass to play on. We put in a few plants to spruce things up and our orange tree now has 6 oranges on it!

Here is most of the Hanzlick family in Colorado. Ryan, Vica and our niece Juliana were missed, but we had a great time fishing, hiking, and playing the wii together!

Here is Mary with two of the friends she has made from church. They were playing dress up.

Here's a crazy photo booth picture we took on the airplane to Colorado.

Below is a strawberry marzipan torte I made for a dessert party I hosted for women I had met on our street. Two of the six came and we had a great time getting to know each other.

The big thing people talked about when we first moved here was the heat in the summer.

Here's my take on it:

1. Hot is hot, whether it is 100, 110, or 120 doesn't matter too much.

2. The lower humidity is great and my hair is straight.

3. The cold water knob on the faucet is a mean joke.

4. Bath time routine includes dumping a pitcher full of ice cubes in the "cold" water bath (see above)

Grand Canyon and Settling In

An update is long overdue. Sorry about that. So, here's what we've been up to!

Mary's design skills have exploded!

Aaron's brother came to visit and help us move, but when our move was delayed, we took a mini-vacation instead and visited Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Above is a I photo took on a short hike.

Here's Team Timmons with Uncle Ben at the Grand Canyon. Mary became a Junior Ranger!

Josiah has recently figured out how useful stools can be.

After moving and unpacking, we have started putting in a yard (before it was just rocks and a few plants). Maybe I'll get around to posting some before and after photos when we are done. We have also acquired a few pieces of furniture off craigslist and we are starting to "make our house a home."

I have plugged into a mom's group and we have found a church and sunday school class that fit us well. It has been fun to start to make friends here and feel like part of the community. There are A LOT of kids in our neighborhood and much to Mary's delight it seems like 50% of them are 4 years old. Other than getting more teeth and getting into and onto everything, Josiah is talking up a storm! He has stopped fishing in the toilet and instead likes to stock the pond (with whatever toy is in sight). Mary is fascinated with letters and constantly trying to figure out how to spell things.

Aaron has really enjoyed his work with Amazon. It is so fun to see him in his element! The hours are long, but he has the weekends off. Everyone here is gearing up for the summer heat. They say it feels like you are walking into an oven every time you step outside. We'll see! :)

April Fools!

In the back of my mind lately, I have been trying to come up with a fun April Fools joke to play on someone. I thought that since it was the day the movers were coming to our new house there surely would be a fun prank or trick I could play. Well, it turns out the joke is on us. Yesterday I had to call to postpone the movers. I didn't want them to show up and find out we didn't have a house key yet. There has been a delay with the sale of our house in Kansas that has complicated the purchase of our house here. I'll spare you the details, but just wanted to update you all that we are waiting and praying that paperwork would go through next week and both houses can close.

Mary's 4th Birthday!

Mary and Daddy with her birthday cake.


In the spirit of the southwest, we whacked a pinata at her party!


Josiah LOVED Mary's birthday card that had sound when opened!


Aunt Jane and Uncle Richard joined in the celebration. Aaron's dad was Jane's cousin and they live about 20 minutes from where we plan to move to.


We were so delighted to have Grandma Nancy here for a visit and to celebrate Mary's birthday!