He’s been living/working in Afghanistan for almost 2 years; recently quit; and moved to Colorado to go to school January 9.

But that tiny couple-day window between Afghanistan and Colorado he was in Arizona, [...]]]> The first full weekend in January, I planned a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to Arizona to see my brother (without Andrew).

He’s been living/working in Afghanistan for almost 2 years; recently quit; and moved to Colorado to go to school January 9.

But that tiny couple-day window between Afghanistan and Colorado he was in Arizona, so I took a day off work and drove out there.

Kevin knew I was coming (because I wanted to check if he had other plans), but I didn’t tell either of my parents.

So, when I rang the doorbell and my mom answered the confused look on her face was hilarious!

I got there in the early evening, just in time to go out to dinner ….

Kevin picked Oregano’s – salad and pizza and Italian Wedding soup …. yum!

then later that night we did “Christmas” with Kevin …. Which was pretty much just watching Kevin open gifts.

He gave our parents their Christmas gifts, of course, but for the most part we just saw Kevin opening gifts …

(my dad got a chromatic harmonica … he pretty much just collects musical instruments)

That was Friday night.

Then we just had Saturday because Kevin was planning on leaving early early early Sunday morning.

Saturday morning he had to go to his storage unit to supervise the moving crew loading his stuff onto their truck.

I blogged and edited photos and took a nap at my parents’ house.

But that late afternoon …. my parents had originally made plans to have their annual get-together with their close friends. Families we’ve been friends with my whole life. Longer, even.

It’s nice that Kevin’s weekend in town coincided with this get-together! Getting to see most of my favorite people in 1 weekend!

We got there a bit before sunset …. And first and foremost went and met Sushi. The tortoise.

HUGE dude….. Like, 3 feet in diameter shell….

It was awesome.

Shawn and Nicole arrived shortly after that and I got to meet their 2 girls for the first time!

The last time I saw Emolyn was when she was just a few weeks old – and now she’s almost 4!

Elsie just turned 1 a few months ago …

They’re awesome…. LOVE them

(Emolyn told me that her sister Elsie learned how to walk by watching her. And then she went on to tell me that she was going to also teach Elsie to do the splits like this:

Next, our friend Chris came with his family – including his little girl Cadence who is almost the same age as Elsie

3 little girls all running around … all in pink!

my mom somehow corralled everyone out to the backyard to take a group picture in the sun …

Hanns, Thompsons, Thrushes, Haugens, Rolfes, Mozingos ….

(more or less)

Linda wrote about the night in her post here …. Check it out (including more photos)

We stayed through dinner, through sunset, through building a big bonfire in the back!

Elsie followed the cat around quite a bit …

Cadence – looking so much like her dad!

Miranda and her boyfriend Aaron showed up a bit later (just before dinner) …. Love that girl.

SPARKLERS!

Emolyn did so well with holding the sparkler toward the fire, away from the people…. Smart girl.

We all sat around the bonfire in the back, all snuggled up with jackets and scarves and blankets (which now smell SO much like smoke) …. talking about the Thomsons’ recent trip to Disneyland, or Miranda’s job, or Kim and Jed’s new baby! ….

SO fun. Seriously some of my favorite favorite people ….

Next year the get-together should be at mine and Andrew’s house!

Which means we got to do Christmas morning all over again on Monday (which was the Federal holiday so I had the day off)…  Christmas morning with only 4 of us (and Mom and Dad had already opened [...]]]> We did Christmas Day with Andrew’s family, and then that evening my parents came into town!

Which means we got to do Christmas morning all over again on Monday (which was the Federal holiday so I had the day off)…  Christmas morning with only 4 of us (and Mom and Dad had already opened their stocking)…

(I made him do a ‘Muppet face’ to show off some of the gifts)

I had gotten up at 7a to put the chuck roast in the crockpot … so we could have my mother-in-law’s recipe for French Dip for lunch.

Except we have it open face and call it French Drench…

(and potato soup)

After lunch, we headed up to my aunt&uncle’s house in Santa Clarita …. Some of the family was working, but others were home, my grandma was visiting and there were 5 dogs to hang out with!

FIVE

and all were super mellow and easy ….

My head cold was still KILLING me …. I almost fell asleep while we were there ….

Andrew and my mom played cards (Shang-hai) …. Favorite Hann-family game!

And we ended up leaving around 7p or so since I was so sick and needed to go to bed …. Fun, relaxing Christmas-ish day!

Tuesday morning we had more family time …

Andrew’s cousin came into town for a day or 2 and we made plans to go to breakfast….

Drove up to Santa Clarita, met Edmund and his daughter Camille, Daniel and Kaitlin (and Joe came later), and headed over to Coco’s for breakfast.

Edmund is the best ..

… and Camille is so sweet …

Andrew is great with her…

I ended up leaving early-ish again …. still sick sick sick … but Andrew stayed a bit to hang out with Edmund some more.

Then Daniel came over that night to play video games and hang out …

2 days full of family …. one of the best part of the holidays ….

Christian has family in Santa Clarita, so he and Avalon came down for the holiday and we got to meet them for breakfast! Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday and miraculously both Andrew and I happened to have off work ….

Andrew and I are going to have a little nephew in a few months!

I’ve always said I wanted to be an aunt before I became a mom – and luckily Andrew’s sister Kaitlin pulled through [...]]]> I know that most of you already know this …. but I still wanted to make it blog-official!

Andrew and I are going to have a little nephew in a few months!

I’ve always said I wanted to be an aunt before I became a mom – and luckily Andrew’s sister Kaitlin pulled through for me!

Joe and Kaitlin made these adorable ‘gender-reveal’ cupcakes to tell us all they are having a boy !!

AND he’s already named!

Joseph Paul LaRiccia

(and we’ll call him Joey) … we all had fun buying little boy socks and things for them for Christmas!

Coming May 2012!

Wait, let me explain.

Between not really having the floor space and potentially having to start packing any day to move into our new house, we didn’t really feel up to getting a big ol’ Noble Fir and dragging our boxes of ornaments and lights and [...]]]> We didn’t get a Christmas tree this year.

Wait, let me explain.

Between not really having the floor space and potentially having to start packing any day to move into our new house, we didn’t really feel up to getting a big ol’ Noble Fir and dragging our boxes of ornaments and lights and tree skirt out of storage.

We DID, however, help Andrew’s mom pick out and take home her Christmas tree, so at least we got that fun experience….

About mid-way through December on a weekday morning, we drove up to Santa Clarita with our truck and met Julie and her mom at the local Home Depot tree lot…..

Grandma Sheila actually ended up picking out the winning tree!

We looked at 4 or 5 or so, but the one on the end that she had pointed to was clearly the best!

Of course, being around all that Christmas, Andrew and I just couldn’t resist.

Instead of a *Christmas tree* …. we ended up getting a little Rosemary “Christmas” tree …. Basically a potted rosemary plant trimmed in the shape of a traditional Christmas tree….

That way we get to be festive without having to get out the ornaments and tree stand

Our house still smells delicious … AND if we can keep it alive, we can plant it at our new house whenever we find it!

Christmas time at Team Schubert Headquarters!

Once we had decided we would be heading to Phoenix for Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to book a portrait session with this sweet family ….

I photographed Zach and [...]]]> (Psst! Merry Christmas Sunday! I still intend to blog my stories in order, though …. sorry but we’re going back to Thanksgiving weekend! )

Once we had decided we would be heading to Phoenix for Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to book a portrait session with this sweet family ….

I photographed Zach and Hannah’s wedding in January 2008, and now I got to meet their little 4 month old son and shoot some family photos!

Super fun!

Eli was great! A little weirded out when I had the camera in front of my face, but for the most part easy to photograph …

Unfortunately, I had to go straight from Zach and Hannah’s to a funeral service for my great aunt.

So sad …

But, on the plus side, we got to see a lot of family we wouldn’t have otherwise had time to see … After the funeral, we went over to my dad’s cousin’s house for a get-together …..

(and this was their backyard)

But then we all had to leave the get-together early to head back to my parents’ house because my mom’s family was on their way over there!

Yes, we had our Saturday pretty booked solid!

Thanksgiving with my mom’s family ….

(I love Thanksgiving food!)

(my grandma is so cute)

After dinner we played Traveling Pictionary! Best game ever

And then, surprisingly, everyone had left by 630p or so ….

Thank goodness, because I still had a big project to finish AND Andrew and I were both exhausted! AND we had made plans for breakfast Sunday morning before we drove back to SoCal!

There were still a lot of people we would have liked to see while we were in town and it just didn’t happen …. but we managed to finagle a breakfast date with the while Haugen family (mostly so Andrew and I could see Jay and Sharon)….

SO much fun with them !

They told us all about their family home that *may* be haunted; we told Jay all about Andrew’s new record label …

I love that family

Eventually, we got on the road…. A little later than we had wanted to, but still early enough to get home by 5 or so.

Except that we got stuck in SERIOUS traffic. Serious as in a flipped car blocking both lanes and we were basically at a total stop and even turned the car off for awhile.

Annoying, but a holiday weekend so I suppose we should have expected it ….

Anyway …. We really enjoyed our weekend together, seeing some of our favorite people! Great holiday weekend!

We had a full weekend planned and wanted to be able to see as many friends as we could while we were in town …

Once we were in town, the first stop was to visit our [...]]]> The Friday after Thanksgiving, Andrew and I got SO early to drive all the way to Phoenix!

We had a full weekend planned and wanted to be able to see as many friends as we could while we were in town …

Once we were in town, the first stop was to visit our friend Michael at his apartment…. Just for a little visit. Andrew was super excited about trying Michael’s homemade pumpkin beer!

And now Andrew wants to try his hand at brewing beer himself!

This is totally silly, but while we were there we also played this game – Fruit Ninja – on Michael’s Xbox Kinect 360. The game senses where we are, and we use our hands (basically) to karate chop the fruit as it flies across the screen….

It’s ridiculous and super fun

(Kaitlin: you and Joe need to get this game!)

In the image below you can see the silhouette of the 2 players on the screen…

(We looked like robots dancing, basically)

We left Michael’s around 430 or 5 or so, and headed back to my parents’ house …

We had a little bit of stuff to do (um, nap) and I needed to work on a Christmas gift on my computer ….

But later that evening we had more plans to see more friends!

Kim and Jed Gray were hosting a get-together for all the church-friends that were in town for the holiday weekend! They’re renting a cute little home in Scottsdale and had plenty of room for 15 or 20 people or so!

Kim made chili, we all ate outside, and sat around to catch up …

Some of those people I haven’t seen since we moved to CA in 2008!

P.S. I found this OLD photo of Mat from 2004 … He’s such a cutie So glad we’re friends with him…

(loved seeing Jamie and Zack…. There’s really no reason we don’t see them more often since they live in San Diego, but it’s always nice to see them)

Related: Jamie and Zack have been brewing their own beer too, so Andrew got to try THEIR pumpkin beer!

Those church friends are so awesome …. Glad that we got to see them, glad that we are still welcome nearly 4 years later….We basically gave all of them a standing invitation to come visit in SoCal when we get our house (and guest room)….

But this Friday was a LONG day. We stayed far longer than we intended …. especially considering we were up early Friday and needed to be up early Saturday …

But still a great day

How did you celebrate Thanksgiving weekend?

Thanksgiving this year we spent with Andrew’s family in Santa Clarita ….

Julie – bless her heart – planned our Thanksgiving dinner for early in the afternoon so we could go [...]]]> Um …. does it seem like this post is a little late-ish? I guess we’ve just had a TON of stuff going on!

Thanksgiving this year we spent with Andrew’s family in Santa Clarita ….

Julie – bless her heart – planned our Thanksgiving dinner for early in the afternoon so we could go see The Muppets that night! The first Muppet movie in years and years – of COURSE I want to see it opening weekend!

We got to the Schuberts’ around noon or so ….

Guests include Andrew’s parents, grandma Sheila, Katie and Joe, Joe’s dad Paul, Andrew’s cousin Chris and his girlfriend Kahla …

full house!

… and I was immediately assigned to making mashed potatoes!

I am always assigned to mashed potatoes…. Obviously I’m awesome at it

But this year, I got Andrew to help peel the potatoes …

Apple cider. Obviously

I guess the backyard *needed* to be mowed on Thanksgiving … (Andy likes to avoid the crowd)

After dinner: We played Taboo …. Andrew and my team won because we are awesome!

Or, you know, because we know each other SO well and have a bunch of inside jokes….

Turns out only Andrew and I went to see The Muppets …. Why all those jokers didn’t want to see the best movie of the center is beyond me….

I cried 3x. LOVED it …. Then home so we can get up early and leave for Phoenix!

How was YOUR Thanksgiving?

Both mine and Andrew’s first time holding a baby in a very very long time …

But she was so sweet and calm and adorable [...]]]> Our friends Betsy and Justin had a little baby girl at the end of October and we got to meet her when she was about 3 weeks old ….

Both mine and Andrew’s first time holding a baby in a very very long time …

But she was so sweet and calm and adorable she made it easy ….

Check out the whole gallery here: Meeting Elora

He arrived in Edinburgh about 3 or 4 days before the rest of us and spent all that time in the city by himself.

He went to some pubs and some Fringe festival shows….. and along the way he made some friends.

Including 2 guys from California! Jesse and Richard [...]]]> Kevin makes friends everywhere.

He arrived in Edinburgh about 3 or 4 days before the rest of us and spent all that time in the city by himself.

He went to some pubs and some Fringe festival shows….. and along the way he made some friends.

Including 2 guys from California! Jesse and Richard (I think).

When Kevin and Chelsea and Mom and Dad came home from the west coast, they said they had seen Jesse and Richard at the restaurant they went to in Oban…

… and then – in the middle of Stirling Castle – who should come around the corner but Jesse and Richard AGAIN!

Granted, Scotland IS a small country… and we WERE going to very touristy places.

Nevertheless…. It is funny that Kevin makes friends everywhere and then runs into them again on the other side of the country.

Only Kevin…