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!