2012 Maas Christmas Letter

Happy Holidays from Bloomington Indiana!

This year has brought many changes to our family, but with each one we've found bountiful blessings! We started off the year with Jeff working hard on his final defense and me 7 months pregnant! We carted the whole family off to a family wedding in Utah and enjoyed one last trip as a family of 5.

Jeff defended his thesis on March 1st and our little Beck was born March 5th. To keep up with a busy schedule we moved to Utah two weeks later to enjoy hanging out with family before starting a new job. Jeff started work with Crane Naval Base as a PhD Researcher in the Maritime Warfare Department May 18th. This meant another move back to the Midwest to Bloomington. While waiting to close on our home we stayed in a small apartment for three months…this was a challenge but nothing new.  A few bumps and bruises later, we closed on our home July 27th.  We were quickly assigned church callings, Jeff serves as the Ward Mission leader, whcih requires a lot of Sunday meetings and Ann serves as the Activity Days Leader and Ward Historian (Occasionally filing in elsewhere as temporarily needed). If yould like to hear more about the early missionary efforts in Indian email us, we've got a large file almost ready to share!

Jeff has had the opportunity to travel a bit to DC and Ohio, this January will bring on an "at sea" trip to San Diego and DC. We look forward to hearing about his week long adventure as a navy-wan-a-be. Sleeping in a berth, eating in a mess hall...and hopefully not walking the plank. He has become a valuable asset to his group, in the few months he has been here, he has acquired research funding for 3 1/2 Full time employees... but he still remains the only employee on them... hopefully he will get some extra help soon! One perk of a commuting job is that Jeff was able to get "BlacK" a reltivly new car which has made the commute quite bearable.... how can it not be when you get to listen to exciting books on tape for a full 1 1/2 hours each day!

Ann is teaching piano again and has two wonderful students, She is waiting to hear back about a part time job with the hospital, which would keep her connected to her "other life".  She has been running a lot since the baby came and can successfully say that she has lost a bit of weight (over 60 lbs!) She is currently starting to train for a mini-marathon and hopes to run it at the end of April.

The children through all of this have been nothing less than spectacular. Ehre and Ben miss their friends from Purdue but are quickly making new ones.  They both started school and love their teachers, both are doing great in their studies and added piano lessons with mom...though the time is quickly approaching that we will look for a new teacher for them, they need to be accountable to someone else. :)  Ehre's teacher informed us that she can no longer accept the reward for taking 1st place in an art contest...she wins them all (and we have a impartial teacher as the judge!) So she accepts the title only and the rewards now go to 2nd place...she must have a bit of her Grandpa Mark in here!

Benjamin is making lots of friends and absolutely loves his teacher, he is learning how to read really well and really adds to the Family Scripture time each night! He loves to play outside and make new friends. He often can be found singing primary songs while he "works". He has such a tender nature about him and always has, he still will come and snuggle with us if asked, something we hope he never grows out of.

Elise and Beck are Ann's two tag-a-logs at home. Elise is quite the talker who loves doing whatever Ann is doing. She has acquired a bad habit of drawing on things, with anything, including her baby brother Beck...view our Facebook picture of her permanent marker impression she left on him.  She is so sweet and talks alot, she is quick to give hugs and kisses and really makes staying at home fun!

Beck now crawling can figure out how to go anywhere in his rolled and tumble way. He still isn't much of an eater and loves milk...wait he does eat paper and anything on the floor does that count? He can pull himself up to stand next to furniture but will follow the pattern of his siblings, and most likely won't walk till his 1 year birthday.  He is a wonderful addition to our family, and we aren't complete without him. Everyone loves to help out with him and play with him, even if he tries to chew on their fingers.

We have been so blessed this year, we are excited to explore southern Indiana more this year and try out new places where we can canoe, rock climb, hike and bike. We miss family dearly but we know this is where the Lord wants us right now. We love participating in the missionary work and have enjoyed the blessings that come with it. Jeff assisted with his first convert baptism this summer, and Ann made a best friend from it. It is amazing to see how the Lord works to put everything in place.

We hope that your year has been just as enjoyable, best wishes for 2013!

Love,

The Maas Family

My version for Elise.

What does Santa bring for a 2 year old...a cute doll. ... Beck is getting a blanket. The older kids were easier...Kindle Fire. :)..shhhh don't tell.

Tie for Eire's teacher!

(Sent from my phone)

Oh, Elise!!!!

...I love you.....but not your deeds!

Tour press conference

Jeff just finished up working on this Tour yesterday, here is a press release for it today.  I'll admit we are a little nervous about where budget cuts will go and hopefully not to the defense sector... but this report does show favor for Crane's search and in particular what Jeff works on!

...Here is Jeff's email to me...

Ann,

The CNO gave a press conference at the end of his tour yesterday.  Seems he liked it and implied that Crane will be here for a long time to come.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/dec/10/navy-chief-tours-crane-facility-part-indiana-congr/

Love,

Jeff Maas
Engineer
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter

Longest consistent run to date!!

Today was my longest run on record yet I did for strait miles without any walking!!!  I will start running 4 milers for the next week then bump up a 1/2 mile each week. I hope to be running 6 miles around Christmas! Todays run 47 min....so at this pace I should be able to finish the next race in about an hour!!!

Finishing a wedding cake...

I said I would finish the tutorial...and then holidays happened and life..and well I didn't. But here is finally a photo of the finished cake.

Each layer has white leaves as a boarder, then the ferns have white flowers and leaves on them. This was a fun challenge...and the purple flowers are actually paper flowers :) Still not professional but it works for me!

Ann

Free doll pattern!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/264299/black-apple-doll

Early christmas gifts!

These hats are now done. I completed the mall in 1 week :) the kids will get them early because why we don't have snow it can get really cold.... and each 1 has given input on how their hat was to be completed so there is no surprise.  Merry Christmas kids, I love you!

Mom

Please join us!

We are Thankful!

Flowers from a friend...

A good friend/ like a sister brought me these, they are cheerful and fun, I love them!

Come 1

On Nov 15, 2012 8:10 AM, "Jeff Maas" <anonymaas@gmail.com> wrote:

Come 2

Deck 2

Deck 1

...and now the snow is gone.

(Sent from my phone)

FIRST SNOW!!!!!!

First 6 months progress report!

Just hit the 6 month mark and I have success to report!

Date Started: May 20, We had just arrived and gotten settled in our temp apartment here in Bloomington, and Jeff started his new job! Baby Beck is now 3 months old! Its my birthday and I am determined to get to a good weight (or as close to it) by my 30th birthday!)

Weight Lost: 56 lbs
Inches Lost: 32.5 "  (that's not a typo!)
I'm down 3 pant sizes and 1 shirt size!

What am I doing:

• Started out with 30 minutes of Turbo Jam each day.
• Moved up to running 3 times a week (but now I'm back to 1 day a week ... to cold!)
• Daily I workout at least 45 minutes: elliptical, treadmill, DVD, Bike-ride, Aerobics at the Church, or outdoor run.
• Hit a plateau in Oct so I started Weight Watchers...love it!

Lbs to go: 30
Don't bother looking for them...its not coming back....ever!

Or another one...

...or these made of crescent rolls, hot dogs, and bologna trim...

Great Thanksgiving Treat Idea...

... I may just do this!

Elise's friend in Nursery

She has just started to go and hug her friends, say hi and address them all by names it is sooo cute!

Sunday morning dance lessons...

(Sent from my phone)

Last one there is a rotten egg...

...Ehre learned about idioms.

Sorry for the flux of new posts... I realized that I had a bunch of unpublished posts...not sure why...and I accidentally clicked to publish them all..that's what I get for trying to clean things up.

Preschool graduation

Ann Maas

Surgical Video 2

#1

(Sent from my phone)