Currey Christmas Update!

Hello Family!  I hope you are all having a lovely holiday season!

2014 has been a great year for us.  The biggest news, obviously, is that we have an adorably amazing new baby, Aubrey.  It was so great to introduce her to everyone back home this summer at her baptism.  Here's a family photo from the day.  Thanks to everyone who made the trip!  I know it's not easy to get everyone together.

It's also not easy to get a pic where everyone is looking at the camera!......except for Aubrey.  Come on, Aubrey!

I already gave a bit of an update from the summer up until Oct so I won't bore you with the same stuff again.  Here's a link to that post if you're interested.

In other news, we've been trying to get in more India travel while we're here and our most recent trip over thanksgiving was to go on a tiger safari in a place called Ranthambore.

these are some of the tigers in Ranthambore that we did NOT see.  *sigh

Unfortunately, we didn't see any tigers.  BUT we did get a glimpse of a leopard and saw many Indian antelope and deer.  It was nice to get out of Delhi and into some pretty great natural beauty in India.  Here are some REAL pics from the journey.

We also had a ridiculous Indian train experience on the way back.  Indian people LOVE babies and especially want to help take care of strangers' babies.  We had a few offers of babysitters on our journey.  One guy in particular really wanted us to give Aubrey to his daughter for a while.  We kindly declined.  Aubrey also had her palm read by a nice fellow.  He said that she was very smart and would live a long time.  I think he knows what he's talking about.

It's been really cool to see Aubrey experiencing all kinds of interesting things so early in life.  I've been taking her to as many musical performances as I can.  She's already seen one of the most famous guitar players in the Netherlands, a solo ensemble performance by students and she's had many live music experiences with various teacher bands here on campus.  Just last night, she was serenaded by a Portuguese folk song!  Why Portuguese?  Who cares!  She loved it!   Here's a clip:

There are also lots of babies for Aubrey to play with every day here on campus.  Here's Aubrey with her buddy Nina.  They love playing together.

and pushing each other.......

We really enjoy living on campus.  This is where we look at the birds every morning.  Aubrey likes to rock in this chair.  It kinda reminds me of the ones that used to be at grandma and grandpa's house.

And here's our view:

OK I think that's all the info anybody's attention span can take.

I just want to thank everyone for trying out this whole blog thing!  I know if can be a steep learning curve and I really appreciate it.  If this seems like a good thing, we should keep using this to update each other on happenings in out lives.  If Brittany ever gets a gmail account!  ;)  Love you, Brit!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Casey's Post

2014. As told by Casey Carlberg

And other supporting characters. 

Hello family! 2014 has been a whirlwhind adventure for me. Though, that's kind of how I prefer things. Always busy.

I suppose I'll get the boring work stuff out of the way first. 

Most of you know that I'm working in downtown Chicago's Loop as a Dental Hygienist. The office, Downtown Dental, is an awesome environment to be in, and I love going into work every day. Well, most days ;)

I especially enjoy the fact that my job allows me to go on really cool adventures in my city as well as other neat places. I'll expand more on travely type things later.

Johnson Family 2014

Our year started off with a wild trip across the country.  Because we wanted to bring our dogs, we decided driving was the best option. We left Georgia at the beginning of Dec 2013 and drove up to WI and over to WA.  We were able to see both our parents while in WI which helped break-up the drive.  In Montana we were able to visit some of our old college friends!  We were able to make the trip leisurely, with the only deadline to be in WA in time to get on a ferry to ride up to AK.  After the ferry trip, we still had 5 days of driving on the Alaskan highway.  This was probably the hardest part of the trip.  At one point it was so cold that our car thermostat stopped reading the temp.  This was quite an experience!!  But luckily we made it to Anchorage on Christmas day!!! It was a great Christmas present!!

After that trip everything started to slow down.  James got situated in his new unit and I was able to find a nursing job at a long-term care facility.  Unfortunately, I HATED that job and James was notified that he would have to deploy to Afghanistan again.  James volunteered to be part of the team that went early to set up for the rest of the unit and left in June.  I tried to enjoy my job more but finally decided in July that it wasn't worth being miserable, especially while James was away, so I resigned from my job in July. 

Without a job, I was able to travel to Colorado and see my childhood best friend get married in August.  My dad came up to stay with the dogs while I was in Colorado and then stayed for another month to keep me company in Alaska!  It was great having him visit and I was super sad to have him leave but I knew my mom was missing him! 

In September, I got a new job at a local hospital in Anchorage.  I tried to focus on working the next few months.  Luckily, James’ deployment was cut short and he and his unit returned home 2 weeks ago!!!  I’m so glad to have him home!!!  Especially, in time for the holidays!!! Our hairy, four-legged children were ecstatic!!! 

Anyway, hope you guys are all well and had a fabulous Thanksgiving!!!  We love you guys!!!

Mandy and James

The Hoene Fam

Hello Family!

Sophia turned 4 this October and had a princess theme birthday party. She loves to play with Barbies and play dress up. Sophia started going to a new preschool this fall. She attends Campus Cooperative Preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  She still goes to Tiny Tigers preschool at Urbana High School on Tuesday and Thursday. 

Little Henry (Buddy Boy) turned 2 back in March and is also going to Tiny Tigers with Sophia. He LOVES to play with skid steers (bobcats) and any other heavy machinery toy. And all capital LOVE is an extreme understatement of how much he loves to play with them. Both kids love to go out on the farm and see the cows. They are actually really good at helping feed the calves.

One really cool thing about living in a campus town is Sophia and Henry get to participate in research studies on campus. They have each been in 4 or 5 studies.

 Big Henry is still busy managing the U of I dairy farm. We get to go out and see him at work some days. He was able to take off a couple weekends this summer so we could take little trips. We took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry and Lincoln Park Zoo this summer. They had a really good time. We didn't really do a whole lot vacationwise.

 We have been doing a lot of activities with the moms group I joined right after we moved here. I am the co-leader and have some responsibilities that have been keeping me busy. Which is nice. I have been experimenting with pie recipes and still baking bread and other sweet treats. This summer, Grace stayed with us so she could do a project for school. It was great having her here. It was fun to practice cooking Vegan food. I must admit, I enjoyed the challenge, but it is nice to cook meat and use butter and cheese ;).  
Henry and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this year and took a weekend trip to Indianapolis. We stayed with Henry's sister and brother in law and went out in Indy with them (their anniversary is the day before ours). It was nice to be able to do something for our anniversary. 
We wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday season and new year.

2014 Mendy Update

This year has gone by extremely quickly for us.  Scott’s been very busy working for an advertising agency in Chicago while I am reaching the home stretch of physical therapy school.   I’ll graduate in June, take my boards in July, and then I’ll finally be a fully employed doctor of physical therapy! (fingers crossed!)

Other than work and school, Scott and I took a few really great vacations this year.  We skied in Jackson, WY, visited Lake Geneva, WI a few times, and Scott came out to Oregon to visit me at my clinical rotation.  I also ran another marathon while I was in Portland.  All in all, it’s been a great year. 

We wish everyone a very blessed and joyous holiday season.  Merry Christmas!

Love,

Katie and Scott