Tolleson Trends

March has flown by here in Austin! James and I are doing well and enjoying the beautiful weather and spring wildflowers. Below are a few ways we've been taking a break from our busy work schedules.

#1: FAMILY - We were so fortunate to have family visit over spring break; members of both sides of our family made the trek to Austin. Mom, Dad, and Samuel were here for a few days and James' brother Sam's family drove up for a day.

Bluebonnets at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a place we visited with Mom, Dad, and Samuel

Long Story... but our Chinese teacher at school received this instrument from the Chinese government, which lead to me bringing it home over spring break. It is in the zither family. Mom and I put the 21 bridges on and tuned up the strings!

#2: BASKETBALL - Like Sarah and Dan, we enjoy following a few basketball teams and watching as many of the NCAA tournament games as we can (sad to see UT and WSU lose, but KU is still in). Earlier this month, we attended a Spurs game in San Antonio versus the Thunder (James' two favorite NBA teams).

Our view of the Spurs game; we were on the VERY top row! 

#3: FOOD - The newest addition to our family is a Kitchenaid mixer :-). I've always wanted one! We've made bread, pizza dough, blueberry buckle, and today it is time for chocolate chip cookies.

#4: CATS - Rimsky and Duncan are just as entertaining and loving as ever. We made a DIY cat house and they seem to love it.

We love you all very much and wish we were home for more family dinners, pasture workdays, and birthday celebrations! Happy Easter! Love,

Hannah and James

Rivers Ripple

March Madness is upon us! Something Dan and I have enjoyed the past few years is filling out a bracket and seeing how we fare.

Dan is weathering the transition at work. KWCH was bought by another company and that was finalized in February.  We'll see what the next 6 months bring.  Dan ran the Stratica 5K in the Underground Salt Mine in February.

Sarah is taking one day at a time as we transition to a family of 5. Most days go fairly well. We have a completely different daily routine than before Emily and that's ok!  Sarah tries to get out once a week-no kids. And has started back at the Y-just walking the track with a friend since Emily can go in the front carrier. 

Olivia is enjoying preschool.  She has several friends in her class.  Hard to believe she will start Kindergarten next year (we have enrollment on Tuesday evening!).  She has been taking gymnastics, swimming lessons, and will start soccer in April.  Olivia spends most of her days playing (particularly with whatever small figurines or Barbies happen to be around).  She has quite the imagination and she and Kinley play well together.  Olivia loves when you play with her too.  Dan has been teaching her video games on the Wii--she's actually pretty good!
Kinley is adjusting to being in the middle.  She spends most of her days playing(usually with Olivia), doing puzzles, or coloring.  She's taking swim lessons for the first time on her own this month and has done well.  She is enrolled in preschool for the fall at Little Lambs.  She's been doing music class at the Maize ECC.
Emily joined our family February 1st.  She is 7 weeks old.  She is proving to be a very easy going baby, making our transition easy.  She loves to listen to people and look around.  Just this past week she's started really smiling, so if you see her soon you'll have to see if you get a smile!  I've been sending out update emails on her, which you all should be getting.  Health-wise, we are blessed as she has had no major health concerns at this point.
Brisco has found his groove and hangs out with us most days.  His allergies have really been flared up with the weather ups and downs, his ability to sneak every last crumb off the floor, and eat a variety of things he shouldn't.
Most days you will find us around the house, with a nice mix of activities both at home and in the community. 

Emily on March 21--World Down Syndrome Awareness Day

Olivia sewing a pillow for Kinley

Kinley playing.

Spring is Bustin' Out all Over

Thank god spring has finally sprung!

The winter has been a particularly challenging one on me emotionally, mentally and physically.  I'm glad that it is nearly the middle of March.

My life has been pretty much non-stop since November.  I thought I might get to take a little bit of a break in November and early December.  However, this did not happen.

I jumped right into the Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged] at Stage 9 on December 5 and am just now wrapping up that production (three more performances left as of tonight).  For those of you who don't know, the show was originally suppose to open February 3 and close on February 14.  However, one of the actors broke his wrist the Thursday evening before production week.  Fortunately, the break wasn't bad but it did cause us to post-pone the production until March 3rd.  I've included a picture of the show.

In addition to Complete Works, I was also in charge of sound and lighting design for our 100th Anniversary production of Trojan Women.  Between these two production, I was crazy busy.  I've included some pictures from the production as well.

Finally, to add to my slow lifestyle, I started a part-time job at the Cosmosphere.  I'm working under the Vice President for Marketing and Development as her Marketing/Development Assistant.  This position started out at 30 hours/week and quickly reduced to 25 and to our current amount of 20 hours.  I'm working 9 to 3 pm Tuesday-Thursday.  This seems like a managable commitment.  The previous arrangement was not.

Life is crazy but it is good.  I suppose that's about anyone can ask for.  Love to all.

Chris and Theresa's Update

Theresa and I are still making wedding plans, and still working at the Cosmosphere. That pretty much sums up our life. Work has been a little complicated since Theresa got injured running a simulator, which has limited her hours.

We're working our way through the summons process, with Father's help. Apparently Hutch Regional has problems issuing bills to you, and then, since you're not paying those bills, they eventually have a law firm summon you to court.

Our wedding plans are coming along—if you have any sewing ability, be looking for an invite to make throw pillows this summer—and we even asked Caleb Crainer to officiate for us. Unfortunately, he's out of the country at the time, so now we've got (also engaged) friends from Los Angeles coming down to officiate and witness when we elope to Santa Barbara. We'll be holding receptions in Kansas and Colorado in the last couple weeks of August.

We missed the last photo posting, so instead, here's a video of something we like: Viggen, our owl coffee cup. Mostly we just like the coffee, but still.