Christmas Letter 2024

Dear Friends and Family,

Listen, we aren’t getting any younger around here. My hairline knows it, my arthritic shoulders know it, and my kids definitely know it. With that in mind, we packed up this summer and moved from Florida back to Texas. In 2013 Heidi and I moved to Pensacola with 3-year orders; we left 11 years later with 4 kids. That wasn’t expected, but we’re grateful it worked out that way. We are blessed to have healthy, happy, and helpful family in DFW and wanted to get back before that inevitably changes with time. Plus, what better moment to buy a house than during record inflation and sky-high interest rates? Double the price, double the fun!

We landed in Plano, TX. Our house has a big pool, nice patio, and a park just down the street. We only saw it one time, in the rain, before we bought it. I missed some things during the inspection like the pool leak, plumbing problems, and oven that has never worked. But hey, if it were all easy, we wouldn’t have any good stories, right? The upside? For the first time in 20 years, we didn’t have to drive 24 hours with four kids for the holidays. Who knew Thanksgiving could actually be relaxing? (Apparently, the rest of you did.)

One of my favorite things this year is when I would I’d meet someone new. Inevitably they would ask how many kids I have, “4” their eyes would widen, then they would ask the ages and I would hit them with “ 2, 4, 6, 8—in Heidi, we appreciate.” It was the best. One because the rhythmic flow was on point, but also because Heidi really is the 9-year running MVP of the family for a reason. She is pretty great.

In addition to keeping all of us alive, fed, and clothed (no small task), Heidi has taken on the role of homeschool teacher for Lily and Dexter this year. It’s been incredible to see how far they’ve come so quickly. She also joined me at the gym and can officially say she’s now logged more workouts than babies born in the last seven years—progress!

As for me, I finished up at Velocity in September and have spent the past few months taking a break before diving into my next adventure: buying a small business. Since everyone asks, I am looking for something that is in DFW, with a retiring seller, a non-discretionary product or service, has over $600k in SDE, and with more than a 10-year history. Know anyone? I also transitioned to the VTU in the Navy Reserves, which I describe as “barely still in the Navy.” I’m reserving myself for World War IV and voting against World War III. Meanwhile, Climb Capital continues to grow, and I’m spending more time there again.

The kids refuse to stop growing, no matter how often I ask them to slow down. The oldest three are all in gymnastics, all ride bikes, and swim like fish; and Huxton isn’t far behind. They play enough in the front yard that we are known as 'that family' in the neighborhood.

Lily – 8, Even though she might butt heads with the teacher sometimes she has already finished third grade reading, is still very helpful, but apparently can’ t see because asking to pick up her room has a different meaning to her than the rest of us.

Dexter – 7, Football guy. He kept up with my fantasy football team better than me. He has started reading and is athletically gifted in a way that didn’t come from me.

Max – 4, Our theologian, always knows his Sunday School lesson, but still has some work to do as he prays “I hope Jesus has fun in Heaven” every night.

Huxton – 2, He still finds a way to always have a bump on his head, loves his siblings, and completely melts if even slightly corrected.

We traveled more this year than ever before, thanks to fewer diapers and the airplane. I logged over 140 hours of flight time, most of it with family. We’ve flown everywhere: breakfast runs, meetings in Florida, back and forth to Texas, and even a same-day trip to Indiana and back for a family reunion. Our biggest adventure was a week-long trip to New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta, then on to Scottsdale for a GoBundance conference, visits with family in Lake Havasu, and hitting California before heading home. This week, we’re capping it all off at Disney World with the Dexter family, it should be epic.

Leaving Pensacola, our friends, and our church after a decade was hard. Those were our people, and we miss them dearly. After becoming temporary professional church visitors and lots of prayers, we’ve found a new home at Prestonwood. It’s a little different searching for “your people” in a 7,000-seat sanctuary, but we’re getting there.

It’s not if you come to Dallas, it’s when. Come see us, we are glad to continue to serve you our three staples of tacos, pizza, or BBQ; and the kids will gladly overshare every detail of our family life while burning off some energy in the pool or at the park.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

God Bless,

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, Dexter, Maxwell, and Huxton

Christmas Letter 2023

Dear Friends and Family

So, when you have four kids aged 7 and under your desire to travel is greatly curtailed, as is the desire to eat in restaurants, or leave your house, or stay in your house. This was our 2023. I love my kids, but I have often made the joke that I do wish I still had some of the walls back we took down years ago. Occasionally we could use the separation from their very loud talking, yelling, fighting, laughing, and generally being rambunctious kids. The truth is they are a blast and though sometimes the days are long this year has zoomed past.

Last year I made a change in leaving the day to day in real estate to work at Velocity. In January I took the CEO role and have had a year of learning and just figuring it out. We have done some incredible stuff, including launching four new models, traveling to Dubai, NYC, California, Vegas, and relaunching our brand/website. As the country’s largest restorer of American classic cars, it is a really cool business, but it has also been really hard, and we took some lumps this year. I am really excited about the people and plans we have for next year.

I stepped away from the Navy this year after 16 years, but I still have the itch to fly. Last year we bought a starter plane with some friends, and this year as planned we sold it. However, before we had even listed the first plane Heidi and I (or maybe just I) bought a new one. It has become my personality and allows us to adventure together as a family. We’ll take it back to Texas for the first time at Christmas and look forward to cutting the 12-hour trip to a 3-hour trip. I am also looking forward to the day when my self-loading baggage is no longer in diapers and is actually self-loading.

Heidi has continued to keep us alive and on time. She makes all our lives a lot easier and is the real MVP. Occasionally she does crazy things herself, including flying commercial with all four kids to visit friends this summer. She also ensured we knew her value by breaking her arm when she was blindsided by a kid at the skating rink. That left her down and unable to drive for almost a month and required some real help from our parents and friends just to survive. I am glad to report she is back to full health and banned from skating rinks.   

Because I read too much and get wild ideas, we decided a few years ago that we wanted to do something different than traditional schooling. This year an Acton Academy opened for the first time in Pensacola, Lily and Dex were part of the first class. Think one-room schoolhouse, multi-disciplinary, self-paced learning, hands on projects, no homework, and being outside at least half the day. It has been exciting to see them thrive in a new educational environment, even if they don’t think they are learning.

Lily continues to be highly assertive, very sweet, and quite demanding. She continued with Ballet this year and went from willing participant to obsessed. She practices all the time at home and has her first student, Heidi. She is growing up fast as she went to her first overnight camp this year where her Uncle Drew is the camp director, and she wrote the first draft of this letter. Sometimes she forgets she is a big sister not the second mom, but that happens.

Dexter has become all boy. He loves sports, Legos, and video games. He could and has thrown a ball for hours at a time, still roots for whatever team is in the lead, and somehow has a natural golf swing. He also has the biggest laugh when he isn’t being grouchy or shy and has the slyest since of humor. Recently while running errands, he started hitting me with my own dad jokes, I wasn’t prepared.

Max continues to work at Max time, which is when he feels like it. He has taken the baton from Dexter for the slowest clothes changer, maybe in the world. He may have never actually eaten dinner this year. It is guaranteed if we don’t buy him his own meal he will be famished and eat everything in sight, and if we do buy him a meal, he won’t touch it. We are also very happy to report that after almost 6 hard months he is officially potty trained.

Huxton has gone from sweetest baby to part of the gang, he is no longer content watching from the sidelines. He is starting to talk and nearly always has a bump, bruise, or gash on his head. His greatest skills are following around the older kids and getting food stuck in parts of his hair I didn’t know he could reach. He started preschool this fall giving Heidi a few hours of childless freedom each week too.  

We still can’t call our shot for next year, but we are excited for the future and continuing to raise good little humans. We will be looking for locations to adventure in too, so let us know when and where we can meet you to fly in for lunch!

Sincerely,

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, Dex, Max, and Hux

Christmas Letter 2022

Dears Friends and Family-

“Hans Family, party of six” Growing up as the oldest of four siblings I vividly remember hearing this when we went out to restaurants, I guess for some reason I thought that was enough to be ready for having four kids ourselves. That was a lie.

We started the year by welcoming Huxton to the family. After years of our lives (and Christmas letters) being dominated by babies and pregnancies, I would like to think we are set. I mean I got fixed. Four car seats and three in diapers at times has been… an experience. We call it a circus, but it’s our circus.

This year we never bought an RV. The truth is we are probably not going to buy an RV anytime soon. However, I did partner with two friends to buy a small airplane. Though we haven’t adventured as far or as often as I had hoped so far, we have been able to go flying as a family and have designs to go further and farther as the kids become better self-loading luggage.

Work for me this year has taken some turns that nobody expected. I began the year at Climb Capital and still working the Navy Reserves. In March my business partner and I made an investment in Velocity Restorations, a high-end Classic Ford Bronco restoration company. As part of that transaction, we agreed that I would spend six months at Velocity and that Bob would run Climb during that time. However, as the 6-month time came to an end we realized that the team at Climb had more than stepped up in my absence and that Velocity could still use my service as an executive. So, over the last couple of weeks we have started to promote some of the team at Climb Capital to partners and I have officially stepped away from day to day. I’ll still have a board seat at Climb, but my full-time focus is now on building Velocity.

Heidi is thriving as a super mom with four kids. We have a pretty clear break that Lily is a daddy’s girl and that all the boys are momma’s boys. With all three of the boys having an “X” in their name I was hoping to have intense, action-oriented, and extreme kids ready to take on the world. But for now, we have babies, toddlers, and little boys who still need naps and always want to be held by their mom. However, there is still hope! If the amount of noise they make and the amount of running around inside the house is any indication of their future I may still get my wish.

Lily is in first grade, has started reading, and continues to be more like me. She is very sweet until she flips to teenager mode and gives all the sass. She is old enough with Hux to actually be helpful and has the other two wrapped around her finger. This summer she mastered swimming and is going to run the world someday or will at least continue to think she runs the house.

Dexter is in his last year of preschool. He likes to follow the rules and report on those who are not. He loves playing and watching sports but has a terrible habit of switching loyalties to whatever team is in the lead. He continues to be the slowest clothes changer of all time. He and Lily are starting to really get along and create trouble together and he is our jokester with a big laugh.

Maxwell, or Maxie, as he likes to call himself, is also in preschool and started talking clearly around Thanksgiving. He is using his newfound voice to be very specific in his requests. Almost every night he wins the contest on not eating dinner. He is also the sweetest kid, with big puppy dog eyes, including when he is told to stop doing something. He will sweetly agree, look you straight in the eyes, and then immediately do it again.

Huxton rounds out the family, he is already standing and is by far our most chill baby. Other than when he wants to eat, he is the happiest baby we have had. He is also going to be tough after all the “love” his siblings give him both intentionally and unintentionally every day.

We don’t know what next year will bring, but that has been pretty standard practice the last few years. The plan is to make Pensacola home for at least a few more years and raise these kids to be Jesus loving productive adults. We would love to have you at our 10-seat dinner table!

Sincerely

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, Dexter, Maxwell, and Huxton

Christmas Letter 2021

Dear Friends and Family-

As has become a somewhat consistent theme over the last six years, our Christmas letter again starts with Heidi being pregnant. As baby number #4 will fill out the seats in the van I feel pretty confident in saying this is the end of an era. We don’t know the gender, and may just let the baby decide their own pronouns in the future (kidding). When baby #4 arrives In February we will have a 6, 4, 2 and new born baby. Pray for us, that is a lot of kids, and in the words of Joe Exotic “I am never going to financially recover from this”.

This year has been a lot of keeping our head down and going to work. After 14 years, 10 on active duty, and 4 on Reserve Orders I left full time Navy work in August. I am now full time at our real estate company Climb Capital. It has been a crazy year as a growing small business, lots of hiring, adjusting, buying/selling, and figuring things out. We are really excited about our future, and have shifted focus to investing in and operating RV parks going forward.

At the beginning of the year, I needed an executive assistant, I hired the most qualified and the cheapest, Heidi. We then hired part time nannies so she could focus a few days a week and she shifted to bill paying, bookkeeping, and any nursing question needs. I am very thankful for her help and only time will tell what next year looks like.

This year saw Lily starting Kindergarten at our local elementary school and we were blessed to have a great first year teacher who we already knew from church. In fact, Heidi and Lily attended her wedding this summer. Lily loves school, and is just starting to learn how to read. I applied on a whim for the School’s Advisory Council thinking that I would never be selected as a kindergarten parent, but only 6 people applied for 6 spots, so I was selected by default. At our first meeting I somehow caused the door to lock behind me and some of the other members were unable to get in, while they were locked out, I was selected as chairman. So, I would say we are crushing elementary school politics.

As a family we put some good miles on the minivan. We went to Texas for my sister Kelley’s wedding in April, to Indiana for Heidi’s grandmother’s funeral in May, and our bi-annual beach vacation in Fernandina Beach with my family in July. The kids also got two weeks in Texas without us for grandparents’ camp. I, being the wonderful husband I am, tried to plan a kid free vacation for Heidi and I during that time, but somehow ended up booking the only kid friendly resort in Biloxi, MS, Margaritaville! ugh.

Max is now a walking and talking germ machine. He had no ongoing issues after his seizure scare last year, but he does find a new virus from preschool just about every other week. He wants to be wherever his siblings are, wants to do things himself, is a really happy guy, and is obsessed with Mommy. He has no idea how much his life is going to change in February, but he will roll with the punches.

Dexter continues to be our sensitive guy. He loves his Hot Wheels, hates loud noises, and fluctuates on his thoughts about Lily. He picked up riding his bike this year, has started to swim but hasn’t committed, and still likes playing catch. He also has found a way to do anything as slowly as humanly possible. I think he will be our sarcastic jokester when he is old enough to actually understand sarcasm, but until then everyone is just a “silly pickle”.

Lily continues to talk, ALL THE TIME. She loves to be helpful, loves to learn, and loves to ask questions until Heidi and I go crazy. We are working on not talking back, but to be honest we aren’t doing real well yet. She went from scared to swimming this year and loves being adventurous. I can still beat her in a foot race, but I’ll retire from racing in a few years when she has a few more inches.

Heidi and I have now been married for 13 years. We still like each other. We plan on buying a RV this year, I am sure that will go about as well as all the boats we have owned (see previous Christmas Letters). However now that we are focusing on RV parks, it makes sense to visit them once in a while. We both are still serving at church and take every advantage to have lunch together while the kids are at school.

Though I work a lot, it has been nice to pick my own schedule and be home for dinner. That should continue next year and we hope to take advantage and travel more (maybe even in a RV!). We hope we can see more friends and family after we settle into life as Hans Family, party of 6.

Stay in touch and if you want to visit the beach, come join the mad house!

Sincerely

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, Dexter, Max, and baby #4

Christmas Letter 2020

Dear Friends and Family

In 2020 our kids got taller and I got wider. I really took that COVID-19 to heart, or should I say stomach.

However, even though we all like to talk about the trashcan fire 2020 was, all is not bad!

We started 2020 with a pregnant Heidi, and purchasing a new house. Not a bad combo, however that house needed a complete gut remodel and Heidi was 9 months pregnant with two little kids. I guess I am a glutton for punishment. In fact, we picked out all of our final finishes and appliances just a few hours before we went to the hospital to induce Maxwell Robert Hans on 27 February 2020. Nothing like a little pressure to get it done!

We consider ourselves very blessed to have a third child and even more so to be out of the hospital before the pandemic made everything harder. Max has had quite a year with two older siblings who believe showing love looks a lot like a WWE wrestling move. At the beginning of November Heidi noticed that he had a slight spasm, I couldn’t even tell anything was off, but she smartly took him to the ER. We were very fortunate because she caught the Infantile Spasms, which are seizures, very early. He lost his personality for a few weeks but after heavy steroids is starting to gain it back and we now just have to wait and see if any of his development gets delayed. Overall, we were blessed to have just about the best outcome that could have been hoped for, the doctor wants us to prevent him from getting sick for a few months and believes he may grow out of the diagnosis. Max is now crawling and is basically a heat seeking missile for the Christmas Tree, he has been relegated to what the kids call baby jail (a pack and play).

Our other wimpy white boy is Dexter. He has gone from grunting to holding full on conversations this year. He is as natural at sports as a 3-year-old can be. One day he just took up hitting a ball that I tossed him and he probably has a better golf swing than I do too. He loves (in no particular order) football, basketball, golf, soccer, baseball, bouncy balls, and his power wheel. Dexter is our sensitive kid and typically needs cuddles after naptime. He gets shy easily and loves OU football nearly as much as me.

The dictator, I mean Lily, has continued to allow us all to live in her presence. I prayed and planned to have a little girl that was assertive and confident. Be careful what you pray for! Nothing gets by the girl, she can decipher whatever we spell, is always conniving her own plan, and wants nothing more than to play the teacher or mom. We all have to take turns getting told what to do. She is also the sweetest thing ever, took to a riding a bike immediately, and loves to help in anyway she can.

Our minivan chauffer and butt wiper, Heidi, has somehow continued to function with less sleep than is possible for most people. Besides keeping track of all things in the house, shopping, cooking, breastfeeding, and a lot of the child rearing is slowly starting a new career, working with me! In January we are hiring help around the house and with the kids so Heidi can come clean up all my business messes too. She is taking on Climb Capital’s administrative functions as my executive assistant. I was preparing to start a hiring process and realized that Heidi is way more capable than anyone I would find, probably should know more about the business anyway, and is pretty much good at all the things I am bad at.

Then there is me, Dad. 2020 has been incredibly fun, demanding, stressful, interesting, incredible, and overwhelming. Much to my own dismay I have continued to serve full-time in the Navy Reserves. However, the professional rewards have been incredible. This year I was sent in the first group of 4 Navy Pilots to fly the newest training helicopter. I spent much of June at the Leonardo factory in Philadelphia flying the TH-73, a much-needed replacement to the aircraft I have flown for the last 7 years. Since returning home I have been writing the curriculum for future Student Naval Aviators. I am going to be able to create a pretty cool legacy that will outlast my time in the Navy. However, barring any unforeseen circumstances this will be my last year on full time orders. 13 years later its time to move to only part time reserve work.

This year also saw the official launch of our new business Climb Capital. In March my partner Bob and I launched a Real Estate Private Equity Company that is focused on buying and improving workforce housing across the Gulf Coast and the Southeast. We set goals for the year, then blew right through them all. We own and manage hundreds of units of apartments, mobile home parks, and RV parks. We are launching ancillary companies in the next year and after my orders are complete Climb Capital will be my full-time focus. Entrepreneurship and business ownership are often described as a roller coaster ride and that is definitely how I have felt this year. God has been so good and also demanded that we recognize that all that we have accomplished has come from his grace, not our ability.

In September we experienced our first Hurricane, Sally. Not recommended, it was pretty crazy to ride out even though it was “only” a category two. We were without power for 3 days, had to replace our roof, and had massive damage at our rentals. We also had a lot of people that helped us out.

At church I have now tried just about every online option for connecting. Zoom, Google, Online services, Facebook live, we have used it as our young family’s group has continue to grow. We were able to start in-person classes again in September with new covid friendly protocols, though I have to created a pretty elaborate setup so that the webcam we use to record isn’t directly pointing at my double chin. Priorities.

Our move in April was great because we have a little more space and a more kid-friendly neighborhood. I may have spent a little too much on creating the nicest lawn in the neighborhood, but seriously come visit just to see the lawn! Its awesome. We traveled very little this year, but have spent a lot of time riding our bikes to the playground, that’s the same right? We look forward to getting back out more and having people over soon, but until then we have built-in entertainment with these crazy kids.

We hope this letter finds you well, or as well as can be expected right now. We love you and pray for better days to come. Reach out and plan to come visit the beach (or the lawn)!

God Bless

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, Dex, and Max

Christmas Letter 2019

Dear Friends and Family

How do I wrap up our life for the past year? Well we drive a minivan now. I think that says enough. Also, we love it. Sliding doors, low floor height and cupholders for the win!

This year has been a blur and to sound completely basic “the days are long but the years are short”. We are still in Pensacola. Heidi is pregnant with #3, a boy due in Feb. I am still juggling the Navy and Real Estate. Because we love torture, we are also under contract to buy and renovate a new house while Heid is 8-9 mos. pregnant. We have no idea where we will be in the future, but we are enjoying the ride.  

Our big trips this year revolved around family and funerals. We did a family trip to Amelia Island with the Hans family in July and we had a memorial service for my aunt. A week later we flew to Indiana for a funeral for Heidi’s grandmother, and in September it was back to Oklahoma for a funeral for my uncle. Not the reason we wanted to see people, but it was great to be able to get together. After all of this Lily and I were eating one day and she put her hands on my face, looked me straight in the eye and as sweetly as possible told me “Daddy I want you to die”. Confused, but relatively sure this wasn’t a direct threat to my life, I asked why. “So, you can be with with Jesus and Grandma Mil in Heaven”. So maybe her timing is off, but her theology is sound.

Because everyone should be bad at something, I’ll proudly admit this year we had another boat blow up its engine. That is now the 3rd major issue with a watercraft in about as many years. I think Ill take a break for a bit.

I am still a Navy Reservist but continuing to serve on Active-Duty orders. Though I still instruct my primary responsibility is working on a team replacing our training helicopter and figuring out how to modernize a program that hasn’t changed in 40 years. Once selected I should be one of the first going to the factory to learn to fly it. I am going on 7 years as a flight instructor here and most of my peers are now former students. That makes me feel old, but I really do still love it. My career track is not one that I could plan, should not have, but am blessed it has worked this way.

Heidi is Chief Operating Officer of Team Hans. She has taken on more than her fair share of keeping us fed, clothed and loved. She is the master cook, shopper, and wraps almost all our gifts. I asked her what to write here. “I am pregnant and have been kind of miserable for 20 weeks this year”. Nailed it.

Lily cannot stop moving, can’t stop talking, and can’t stop telling everyone what to do. She is 3 going on 30 with her dictates, and often forgets that Dex is her brother not her slave. Though she was not excited about another brother initially, she is very proud to tell us all the things she is going to do to help when the baby comes. She is wholly sweet, loves to use her imagination, and has the best serious face.

Dexter loves throwing balls, not catching them. He talks like his sister, unfortunately we have no idea what he is saying. He loves Lily and gets tickled anytime she plays with him. He can entertain himself with almost anything, is smarter than he lets on, and is very opinionated on vegetables. He has the best laugh and it is amazing how he can hear airplanes, trains, or ambulances well before anyone else knows one is coming.

Heidi and I continue to serve at the second campus of our Church where I teach a young married Sunday school class and am a deacon, Heidi is on the medical team and works in preschool. We love having people over, it gives me a reason to fire up the Big Green Egg and we actually clean up the house.

This coming year we are planning to build up our Real Estate Investment Company with hopes that I can move to that full time in the near future. I am also working on extending my repertoire of Dad jokes, faces, and command voices. We are not ready for playing zone defense with parenting, but God will provide.

We love visitors, Christmas cards, and to talk about the good ‘ol days. So, stay in touch!

God Bless

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily & Dexter

Christmas Letter 2018

Dear Friends and Family

Every time Heidi and I have moved in the last 10 years we have broken a grill. Weird flex, but ok. The last few years I have not bought a replacement in anticipation of a probable move. We still haven’t moved, and we finally decided it was time to put down roots and buy the ultimate dad accessory, and this year we bought a Big Green Egg. So now you have three reasons to come visit us, cute kids, nice beaches, and smoked meat!

This year Heidi and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. I think at this point we should have this adulting thing down, but sometimes we fell like we are still faking it. Regardless, to congratulate Heidi for keeping me alive for the last ten years we went on a vacation this year. She really deserved it, I am pretty needy. We were able to pass the kids off to the grandparents (thanks fam!) and had a great trip to New York City. Heidi realized on our plane ride back that we had never even called back to check on them, parent fail! (or parent win?).

One reason we have remained in Pensacola is that over the last year we have had the privilege to help begin and now sustain a new church campus, Olive Baptist Church, Warrington. Heidi works in Preschool Ministry and I teach the Married Adult’s class. Recently I was elected as a Deacon and we both continue to lead Financial Peace Classes. How is that Budget!?

Heidi is now all mom all the time. Besides keeping me alive, for the last two years she has also been instrumental in keeping two children fed, changed, and clothed. By instrumental I mean she basically does it all. I recommend everyone get a wife, they are super helpful.

Lily turns 3 this month. She very much thinks she is in charge. She talks all the time, and her favorite word is “why”. She is sweet, loves going on adventures, and is highly opinionated. She has Heidi’s temperament and my mannerisms, which is terrifying.   

Dexter (we all call him Dex) is one, has a killer blue-steel face, and knows only one word “no”. He gets into everything he can touch, walks wherever he wants, and is all boy but unlike his sister loves to cuddle. We are successfully working on making his high pitch squeals into more ear pleasing low pitch grunts.

This year I have continued to work two jobs. I took another yearlong set of orders with the Navy, it is hard to say no to flying helicopters every day! I also promoted to Lieutenant Commander which means I am no longer the same rank as all my former students who are now all my fellow instructors. While flying I have also continued to grow our commercial real estate company, including purchasing another apartment complex. We have had our fair share of struggles but have been blessed to keep growing. Next year I am planning on going bigger and documenting all of my progress on social media, but I may have a face for Twitter ☹. We’ll see. 

We hope and pray that this letter finds you well. Thanks for checking in on us. Say hello or better yet, come visit.

God Bless

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily, and Dex

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Christmas Letter 2017

Dear Friends and Family-

In 2017 Heidi and I went from “having a baby” to “being parents”. We are totally nailing it. Lily has about .010 batting average for using the toilet, can count to five if two & four are not required, and her favorite thing to carry around is Dexter’s dirty diaper. Though Dexter is only 9 weeks old he already smells like an old man and is incredibly sweaty. Like I said, totally nailing it. I will also say that the advice that having a second child changes thing is correct. Having Lily was a game changer, having Dexter is like flipping the game board over. We’re in it now, we are real adults.

I made a rather poor decision this year. I bought a boat, a big boat, a boat that was far away. It took a week to bring back home and was an epic trip, I will forever think about it fondly. It was during that trip that Heidi told me she was pregnant with Dex. Two small children + a big boat + a complete lack of fix it skills = a boat for sale. So, if anyone wants a great deal on a boat and the ability to make your own poor decision, hit me up!

This year I also finished my commitment to the Navy and left active duty. I had a blast for the last 10 years, but I was also ready for the next chapter. I immediately joined the Navy Reserves and will continue to be a helicopter flight instructor, though part-time. Well kind of. A month after I left I took long-term orders until next summer filling a job that didn’t have a person to fill it. So, I really delayed leaving my daily grind until the summer of 2018 when my replacement arrives. After that, I will truly be part-time.

Oh! I bought a Prius this year. Pretty exciting. It gets great gas mileage and is another reminder that the game is over. It is very hard to look cool when getting out of a Prius, I have not changed that fact.

What is next for me? I think Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights said it best “I’m not sure what to do with my hands”. I don’t really know what my next year looks like. I am praying that doors are opened or closed that make it clear. I think it will include the Navy, Real Estate and something else. Where? How? When? Who knows. The good news is that I have a lot of options and that God has it under control.

Heidi and I both felt led to stay in Pensacola once I got out of the Navy. We didn’t have to be here, but knew there was a reason. When we learned that our church was launching a new satellite campus we knew the reason. In October we were part of a core team that launched the new campus in the Warrington neighborhood of Pensacola. It has been cool to be part of something new and completely different than the mega-church vibe we have been associated with for the last few years.

A review of our year would not be complete without mentioning the worst two weeks of our lives. One night at only 5 weeks old Dex was running a fever and seemed to be breathing strangely. Heidi smartly decided to take him into emergency room. For the next two weeks we were admitted to the hospital as Dex fought RSV and pneumonia, including spending over a week heavily sedated and on a ventilator in the ICU. It was surreal to be the parent of a really sick child, with nothing to do but wait. We were blessed to be able to stay in Pensacola, have great care, prayers from friends, and family who was willing to drive from Texas to take Lily. It was a scary time, but we cannot begin to say thank you for the outpouring of support. In the darkest night the light of friends and family shined brightest.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If you read this far, I am 1. Surprised you kept reading after the Prius story 2. Grateful for your friendship. Be blessed and stay in touch. I am off to go work on Lily’s batting average now.

Sincerely,

Jeremy, Heidi, Lily and Dex

Christmas Letter 2016

Dear Friends and Family

Let’s start with an apology. Last year’s Christmas letter was basically a series of lies. I told you that Heidi was expecting in 2016, then Lily made her arrival on December 29th (she beat the tax deadline, and it is probably the last time she will save me money). I also told you I was moving to Bahrain and that Heidi would move back to Dallas. Well a few weeks before I was supposed to leave we were informed the command needed me and I was able to stay until I get out of the Navy. Boom, Miracles! A prayer was answered in a way that we never expected. To understand how unlikely this is understand the Navy had already completed a top secret clearance, which is an expensive, lengthy, and at times painful experience (thanks if you answered weird questions about me too!), and I already had completed the overseas move paperwork. We were literally days away from moving truck coming. Crazy.

Now that I am able to see Lily grow up I feel like my life is complete. I could lie and say it’s because I have a child now who creates a reason for me to get up every day or that I love to see her learning new things every day or that I have a reason to make the future better, but the real reason is that I can now officially have a dad bod and make dad jokes. I mean the other stuff is cool too, but I can say the stupidest puns and just blame it on being Dad! This is life changing. Clearly she is my daughter because she gets to things when she is ready for it. Lily is growing strong, but she is still small and is taking her precious time with milestones.

With a new lease on life and because of the major life change we had to make some decisions. Specifically where do we live? So we bought a house in Pensacola and sold our house in San Diego. In effect we cut our last tie to California, which was sad, though I think the state still has other ideas until we pay taxes next year. Shout out to all our friends from San Diego! We also expected that we would be moving back to Texas in July after I finish my active duty service. However recently we have felt led to stay in Pensacola for a least a few more years.

So why stay? Well this year I finished my MBA from the University of Florida and after it was done, I finally had time to read again. I was reading a book about transitioning from the military to the civilian world and I realized quickly that I would make a terrible employee (did you know you are supposed to respect your boss and not have an attitude that they should be appreciative of you only?). I would be such a terrible employee that I need to work for myself.

Over the last two years Real Estate has gone from a hobby to a career. This year we were blessed to sponsor the purchase of an office building and an apartment complex. I am now fully committed to continuing to sponsor more purchases, and intend to make it a full time career in commercial real estate.

What did Heidi do this year? Well besides taking a step back at work she has become full time super mommy (she claims average). A job she handles pretty well. People often ask how my sleep is and how hard it is now that we have Lily. Honestly, Heidi is such a stud that I just reply, you should get a wife like mine, no sweat.

Well that wraps it up for us. From our family to yours have a blessed Holiday Season. Oh and come visit sometime soon! It’s beautiful here.

Sincerely,

Jeremy, Heidi and Lily

Christmas Letter 2015

Dear Friends and Family-

In a world where we move almost as frequently as we buy new shoes, it seems to get harder and harder to stay in contact. We have met so many awesome, fun, or otherwise “interesting” people and families in our short lives that we want to stay in touch with (if you do not know which one you are, it’s “interesting”). Since we have failed you in consistency, we will make up for it in a concise note, the dreaded CHRISTMAS LETTER!

So the big news is that this year after years of trying, testing, and fertility procedure-ing we are expecting our first monster/child in January. To say thank you to the many who have prayed for us in this journey does not really feel like enough. The process was a dark place for us for the last couple of years and a very sore point of contention when discussing our lives. Thankfully God heard our cries and now we are completely overwhelmed with the idea of parenthood (I guess this is where you say be careful what you ask for). We have decided to wait to find out the sex, though we do have an envelope on our refrigerator that has the answer in it. I can proudly say that my self-control with not peaking in the envelope is much higher than my self-control to not eat an entire box of Cheez-its. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as new parents, as I know that Heidi’s stubbornness and my good looks will make for many interesting experiences in the next few years.

In other news, it looks as if I have one more pain tour in the Navy. I have verbal orders sending me to Bahrain for a year starting in April. The logistics are still in flux but we are expecting Heidi and our monster/child to move back to Dallas while I spend a year unaccompanied in the small island country on a staff tour. It certainly is not ideal, and it was not our decision, but we will attempt to make the best of it. After returning, I plan to move back to Dallas and leave the active duty Navy. Currently I am exploring joining the reserves and going full time in real estate.

This year has been a blur. Heidi has been a Nursing supervisor at her practice and still enjoys writing policies and procedures, which is a little sick and twisted, but that is my beautiful wife for you. I have been a helicopter instructor for over two years. I have now taught 40 people to hover and will pass 2500 hours in the next few weeks. We decided to get serious in real estate this year too and drove around all year with yellow signs on our cars that say, “We buy houses”; we even bought and sold a few. Heidi also became a trailer queen as we purchased our first mobile home park and small apartment complex. We also finished leading our sixth round of Financial Peace University.

I think this is the part where we normally would tell you about all our awesome trips. Oops, we should have done more of that. Well besides some awesome lake weekends and a family cruise, we went to Dallas. Therefore, if you have any questions on where the police hang on I-10, let me know. If you want to know about exotic locales, google it.

If you are reading this we would love to know what is going on in your life too! We really like you. Please stay in touch and have a blessed holiday season.

Sincerely,
Jeremy & Heidi Hans

  “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20

Christmas Letter 2013

Dear Friends and Family-

I know you were probably waiting all year for a picture of Heidi a year older and one of me a year more distinguished, but it didn’t happen. It won’t either. I know some people will take a picture with their dog, but we don’t roll that way, on principle. We can still be friends if you do take pictures of your dog, but we have to take a stand on something. And, not taking a picture in a silly hat with my pooch is my principle. So, this year Christmas Cheer from the Hans family comes in this note. It begins now:

This year started much like it started in 2012 with Jeremy on a boat (really a ship named the USS John C Stennis) and Heidi back at home in San Diego. The Navy informed us that our next stop was back to Pensacola, FL and Jeremy was able to leave deployment 2 months early to move across the country. Within a week of getting back to the States in March we were packed and on the road. Honestly, the details are a bore, but the two of us have this moving thing down at this point (five times now).

We have learned some cool stuff this year. On our trip across the country, Jeremy rolled a Turkey while bowling. He is now retired from bowling; he never liked it and will probably never top this feat so he never plans to play again and instead leaves on top. You may have heard about the twerking craze spreading across the country, we have no pictures (the camera was confiscated by Heidi) but Heidi is pretty good at it. So good that she won an ugly sweater contest by using those moves. On vacation in July, we both picked up wake surfing as one of our new favorite things.  Speaking of favorite things; we splurged on our trip to Las Vegas and now we are even more spoiled by our love of the club level (free snacks and drinks in the club lounge is where it’s at).

Life in Pensacola has been much better than we imagined when we left sunny San Diego. Jeremy is an Instructor Pilot at Helicopter Advanced (Flight School). Not having to deploy, much less stress, and getting to fly a helicopter that is like driving a go cart are only a few of the reasons that the HTs are a great place to be. Heidi was fortunate to find another job as a Nurse in a Cardiology practice, again working business hours. We joined the same church we attended last time we were in Pensacola. Heidi is working with special needs kids and Jeremy is coordinating FPU (Financial Peace University). We also found out that we don’t love the suburbs of Pensacola as much as we thought we would. We are already planning on moving again to be closer to Heidi’s office and to downtown.

We haven’t done everything great this year. We bought a second car in Florida that lasted 1000 miles and 2 months before it literally ate itself and had to be scrapped (actually we let PBS tow it away). That was a learning experience. We bought three lawn mowers in Florida before we found one that worked (two of them were brand new). We didn’t win any marathons this year. In fact, we didn’t enter any marathons this year, nor triathlons, nor mud runs. Also, Jeremy was humbled after deciding to apply for business school. Apparently, his ability to do simple math wasn’t as strong as he remembered; though his ability to create a top half by being a member of the bottom half was strong. Heidi has had to learn to share again with her husband, and that having him home means more laundry.

Next year we continue our adventures with Jeremy planning more cross countries in the TH-57 and Heidi saving more lives. Both of us plan on starting Master’s programs. Other plans include staying on top of all important YouTube videos, dance crazes, memes and most celebrity gossip (well maybe not). We hope this time of year finds you well and having a Merry Christmas with those you love. Until next year, stay classy and stay in touch. 

Love

Jeremy and Heidi