A Work of A.R.T.

Many of you stated you were not able to open our New Year's Letter or accidently came to my website, so I've decided to post it on here as well!...


Happy New Year Family & Friends!!

We’ve decided, instead of doing an annual Christmas letter, that we would do a New Year’s letter J (we were very busy w/ moving, the holidays & dealing w/ Alicia‘s health). We had a Very Merry Christmas, snowed in together!! We played games, Andy started a couple of fires (in the fireplace haha), read the real Christmas story & cuddled together watching lots of movies. 2009 was a very enjoyable year for us, full of lots of changes & adventures!

We moved to a town home in Dec., shortly before Christmas and are really enjoying it. It has a full basement, a 2 stall garage & a second floor. Fathead (our cat) is enjoying all of the room as well, to roam & play! No more walking up 3 flights of stairs in the bitter cold! We have had some pretty amazing drifts here though. 8 foot drifts out our front door & another 5 foot drift on the garage roof. Ready for Spring!!! (note the paper) J

God has been very good to us this past year. With the economy being slow, Andy’s business has soared. Ouch come tax time though haha. God also made a way for us to get a new car by the time we went to Texas over Thanksgiving!! We had a great time seeing our new baby niece Isabel “Izzy” & Andy’s older brother & wife. They took as to Galveston TX & Moody Gardens for a mile long walk through Christmas lights. It was hard for uncle Andy to leave his new niece because he was so proud! We also welcomed our niece Lilah, Alicia’s older step-brother & wife’s, youngest of 4. We look forward to hopefully meeting her this year! We were able to see a lot of our family this past year, including Alicia’s cousin Trina who came to stay with us for a couple weeks this summer. Having a teenager around was great for Alicia. They’d stay up late every night chatting & giggling like little girls. They both were a huge blessing to one another. Wish we could make a tradition of that!

In August we were able to go on our late honeymoon to Orlando & Daytona Beach, FL. We had an amazing time. Andy did well on his first time flying, but after having gotten stuck for hours at the airport, on our way home, I think he’d rather drive from now on. We went to Orlando Studios for 2 days. It was so much fun being a kid again. We saw Fear Factor Live, road many 3D rides & watched the Blue Man Group. The resort we stayed at had 6 pools which we enjoyed a lot. Then we headed to Daytona Beach. We were greeted by a nice surprise… a beach front room! What a breath-taking view!!

We went camping in Genoa this summer with some great friends Jesse & Amanda & my brother David. That was a lot of fun. Alicia drove the 4-wheeler for the first time & did really good. She also had us set up with everything you could think of for a good camping trip! She says she gets that from Scott. J

Andy has a new adventure this year… football! He started pre-season practices for a different team, but after having learned of some things the owners were doing that he didn’t agree with morally he quit & is now part owner of a semi-pro arena football team!! The Omaha Rhinos. He will be playing middle line-backer. He would love to have you come to cheer him on this year up here in Omaha or at his away games (4) in KC… let us know if you would like his schedule!

I am so proud of Alicia. She has grown tremendously this year. She is mentoring & life coaching several ladies, who adore her. The Lord is doing a great work in her life & is causing her to share it with others just as God spoke into her life on our wedding day. He lead her to apply for a mentorship program with million-copy, best-selling author Shannon Ethridge earlier this summer. She got accepted, along with only 40 other individuals from countries all around the world! I feel one day God will write many books through her. She has also done a great job on a new website & blog. God is touching many people through her words!!

The Lord has grown Andy so much this year. He is leading us in new, exciting ways! His younger brother David wanted a bible study for him & his friends, so Andy stepped up to the plate & began leading them. He asked me to join their bible study & it has been so thrilling to watch him lead & grow!! I am so proud to call him my hubby J

Another big change took place this summer when the Lord lead us to leave Trinity church, where we got married, to grow closer to Him through an organic church called the Storehouse. We have met some amazing people & God is teaching us how to seek Him in new ways!

This is a letter to share with all of our family & friends what has happened in 2009, but we have to share a couple of things that have already happened this year in 2010. We welcomed another baby into the family… Alicia’s sister Tiffany had her baby boy, Taiten, this past Tues. Alicia is very excited to give him all of her loves. It will be a lot of fun to have a little one close to home. Thank goodness for Facebook though so we can enjoy watching the other little ones grown up! Andy is desiring to do something else other than laying tile the rest of his life, so as we are praying about where God is leading him, I decided to do something fun to earn us some extra cash. This will help us pay off our debt more quickly than the 2 yr. plan we originally had. I’m selling Scentsy candles & they are really amazing. They are safe for kids & pets because they are wickless & the wax doesn’t get hot enough to burn you! I’m excited to cheer Andy on in this way, just as he has cheered me onto my dreams, and it will be a great way to meet new people up here in Omaha as well.

Hope all of you had a wonderful 2009 as well & we look forward to 2010 with you!!!! Love, The Todd’s

ps~  There were pictures in the letter format, but they are not copying in here.  I will try to figure out how to post them.