2. Well, it’s that time again, time to recap our year for our eager readers (hehehe). We began the
year with celebrating New Year’s with Daniel’s family in the BURG! It was fun to have his
brothers and sisters and parents see where we had called home for the last 2 ½ years! We
didn’t get any good pictures of all of us together but we had a great time walking in CW, visiting
DC and playing silly games together.
Most of you know that in mid-May we packed up our 1993 Toyota minivan and headed back
West to Tucson. Daniel graduated from The College of William & Mary with a law degree.
Behind us we left some amazing friends and family. We miss you all but hope to exchange visits!
If you missed our exploits as we moved across country...just check out our blog. We did the trip
a bit of justice with photos and text.
Since we’ve been back in Tucson, Laura cleaned and painted the entire house with my mother’s
help (see our new colors on our blog!) and Laura got a job as an Administrative Assistant to the
Department Head of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona. This has been
such a blessing to pay the bills rather seamlessly after arriving. Laura really enjoys her
coworkers and enjoys a slow paced work environment which is a nice change.
Daniel spent the summer studying for the Arizona Bar Exam. In late July he took the two day 8
hour days exam and in early October he found out that he passed. For which we are soooooo
grateful! We had a big bash to celebrate the last 3 ½ years of studying and hard work in early
November. We will let you know when Daniel gets a job!
We have enjoyed reconnecting with family and friends while we’ve been back and have fit back
into our church, Northminster Presbyterian, which is awesome. We joined the choir right away
and have been hard at work recovering our breath support in an attempt to contribute positively
to the recent performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria. It is such a privilege to perform such amazing
music with such talented people.
We have become an Aunt and Uncle for the first time – 3 times over this year! In January, my
brother Jason and his wife Jennifer became temporary foster parents to Priscilla. She has been
a special member of our family and has enliven all of our family events. In early May my college
roomie, Jess and her husband Derek had a litle girl name Ryah Soren. We were able to visit
with the tiny little one on our trip from VA to AZ while hanging in Dever for a couple of days (we
are Auntie and Uncle to this fam). And last but not least, in late July we welcomed Lewis Clayton
Byrd to the family. Daniel’s sister, Stephanie and her husband, Preston who now live in
Portland, OR invited us to stay with them when Lewis was only 9 days old! It was such a joy and
we are looking forward to playing with a bigger Lewis in January!
We have a feeling that 2012 holds a lot of new and pleasant changes for our little family. We will
keep you posted...on our blog. We pray that you and yours find a little peace in this crazy over-
commercialized season. We look forward to a quiet Christmas in Tucson with family and festive
Photo: Colonial Williamsburg in Winter. We miss our CW walks in all weather & seasons

3. Also while in Florida we
visited Daniel’s
Grandparents, Esther &
Clayton at Traveler’s Rest
Resort in Dade City.
What a great trip!
In March we went to sunny
Florida to warm up and visit
Disney and Universal with friends
Amy and Michael who flew over
from AZ. We also visited with our
friend Lisa and went to Wycliffe
International Headquarters.
Merry Christmas
& Happy New
Year 2012