1st "pretty"

Here are some of the cutest kids I know with their first "pretty's!" Lewis really needs a hair cut again and I stuck his hair in a pretty (that's what the girls call ponytail holders) and dang if he doesn't look exactly like Mary. It's so cute! So here are the pictures for you to judge, all of them around age 2. Me and my brothers might not look alike but my kids are all cut from the same cloth.

No pretty picture for Grif but he sure looked cute when he was 2!

4 Day Weekend

We had a 4 day weekend for Martin Luther King Day this past weekend. My parents came down Thursday to see Ida Smithson who had a stroke the first week of January and isn't expected to live much longer. She is at a hospice care facility here in Gilbert.

After visiting Ida they came over and spent the night. The next day they took us out to lunch and then took the girls with them to Flagstaff to play in the snow. Griffin had a birthday party on Saturday. We were glad we kept him because on Sunday he and Lewis both got really high fevers and have been sick since Sunday.

If you want to see how much fun my girls had check out Amie's blog
http://freerville.blogspot.com/2009/01/martin-luther-king-3-day-weekend.html

Here is how we spent our weekend. Sucking our thumbs and watching tv, wearing our pj's. Fun times!

Freer Family Photo's

A friend of mine loved my Jenkins family photo's but wondered why I didn't look like anyone in the pictures. I explained that that was Brad's family and I'm sure I posted our Freer family pictures from Thanksgiving at Newport Beach. Well, I checked and no, I didn't do the group pictures just my little family. So, I got the good pictures my brother took and here they are for your viewing pleasure! I still don't think I look like my brothers but I do look a bit like my mom and our kids look like their cousins so you can tell this is my family! :>

**No, seriously, I don't look like my brothers....Once when I was waitressing at Sizzler with my brother Michael and my cousin Mark a lady stopped me and asked me to send my brother, her waiter, over to help her, I sent Mark and I was right, we totally look like brother and sister. When Michael and I were at BYU-Hawaii we were sitting next to each other for a choir concert and my friend sat next to me, she noticed Michael and I weren't talking at that moment and proceeded to introduce us to each other (I knew her from the dorm and she was in Michaels classes) she really couldn't believe he was my brother!**

Coaster

At my parent's condo in Del Mar, the train tracks are right outside the condo. It always honks right as it gets to our area because of the crossing about 200 yards away. This takes some getting used to but we are oblivious to it after 24 years of vacations there.

**Picture from Condo back door
grass...walkway...small hill to train tracks...big cliff to beach & ocean**

This year, every time it would honk (or blast) it's horn, Lewis would run to the window and yell "Choooo Choooo, Choooo Choooo!" considering it goes by every 45 min or so it was great entertainment for Lewis who only spoke one word the entire vacation.....you guessed it....Choooo Choooo! I couldn't coax an ocean, beach, park, swimmin, or anything out of him, just Chooo Chooo! So, since he was so loving it we decided to ride it from our station down into San Diego and then walk down to Anthony's for dinner.

We had a great 45 min ride to downtown San Diego on the Coaster. We went on a Saturday so it wasn't too busy. Griffin loved the little cups of water you could get from the fountain on the bottom level and he kept going to get us more and more water. We rode on the top level so we could see the coast. We took the 4:45 train which made for a great sunset ride. Our downtown stop was the end of the line and we walked about 3 blocks down and 3 blocks over to get to Anthony's Fish House on the pier. Grammy and Pap met us there for dinner and a ride home. It was a really fun way to end our day!

Check out my sis-in-law's picture of the huge fog bank that rolled in while we were in Del Mar. It was awesome!!! www.freerville.blogspot.com/2009/01/san-diego

Jenkins Family Photo Shoot

**double click picture to enlarge**

We had a photographer come and take family pictures for us the day after Christmas in St. George. It was freeeeeezzzzzzzingggg cold and breezy. Yes, I mean cold. Mary was almost in tears "Are we done yet with pictures, I'm freezing" The answer, " Suck it up and SMILE for the pictures. It actually started snowing by the end. Yes it was chilly but the pictures turned out good so I guess that's all that matters.

**double click picture to enlarge**

Thomas Crazy

So we are slightly train crazy at our house. We have moved our dinning room table over a good 8 feet to accommodate the train tracks and after finding them winding around the kitchen island one day I have put blue tape on the tile which is a no track crossing zone. Brad keeps magically producing more and more track so the trains get more and more elaborate set ups. As I type 4 separate trains can run on their own track at the same time downstairs. Its just slightly insane but its all for "the boys" so it's worth it. Lewis will lay on the floor and watch the trains forever!!! Unfortunately he sometimes wrecks the tracks so I have to fix them and you do get really involved in it and loose track of time and suddenly you too have gone Thomas crazy.

Santa realized we didn't have enough trains to run on all that track and both the boys stockings were filled with engines. Griffin asked Santa for bullet trains "like daddy rode in Japan" and he got his wish. Those things go wayyyyyy faster than Thomas and his friends. So, thanks Santa and Costco for the 48 count AA battery packs, we will keep building and creating and having fun with our Choooo Chooooo's!

Griffin with his favorite Christmas presents
DS & bullet trains

Cutie pie with a fabuloso santa hat

Lewy's favorite place in the house
by the choo choo's

Christmas

Hello! It's been a while. I can't figure out how to blog when I'm out of town so I have a whole lot to catch up on. Let's start with Christmas. It was the Jenkins Family year so we headed to St. George, Utah to stay with Brad's parents. All of his sisters and their families were there (his brother David's family didn't come down) at one time or another during our visit so we got to see all of those cousins except for Andy who is on a mission in Florida. We were so happy that all of Auntie Paula's family came down from Orem too and I mean ALL even Joanie who lives in Washington DC and Kurt, Traci & Naomi who live in New York. We seem miss them the most since we saw weekly when we lived in Pleasant Grove.

We had a great time in St. George. We got there on the 23rd and stayed until the 30th. We went to the St. George Temple on Christmas Eve and walked around while it snowed to look at the lights, yes it snowed for Christmas in St. George! It was kind of a rainy snow so we were practically the only ones on the temple grounds but we weren't afraid of getting a little wet. We took some pictures in front of the big statue of Christ in the visitors center and some outside in the snow/rain with all the Christmas lights. It didn't stick on the ground but it was great fun to be outside in. They also have a great new indoor water park that the kids loved with their dads while the mom's finished some last minute shopping.

Santa found us in St. George and everyone had a great Christmas, I guess they have all been good since they got what they asked Santa for! Brad was the only one who got rocks--the girls idea of coal--in his stocking. They had a good giggle over that. We got everything our hearts desired and then some! Every night was a slumber party with Julia, Josh, Zach, Megan and the girls. Griffin and Lewis got to slumber party with Mommy and Daddy--lucky. It was wall to wall family and we loved it!

Enjoy all the photos, here are the before and after gift opening. Lewis didn't want to open anything, even his cool new little people nativity, and was just happy to suck his thumb!

2008 Christmas Card

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year!

Griffin's Snow-MAN

*****Warning*****
***Graphic Content***

So we got a sweet treat today when Griffin got home from school. He drew us a snowman, emphasis on Man. Yes, that would be an anatomically correct guy. His teacher sent me an email with a head's up...

"Take a look in Griffin's folder. He drew an amazing snow"man" with all the right parts. God Bless our boys!!!!!!
Debbie"

We were sooo very proud of our little man. When I asked why his snowman had a peeper he said he didn't have time to draw his pants, but he didn't get sent to the principal even though he was this close, "I stayed on a green light and didn't have to go to the principal even though I was this close." (Picture fingers pinched very close to touching!) We have discussed bodypart drawings and Mrs. Levandowski had already done the same so hopefully this will be our only Michelangelo's David Snowman. You gotta love the holidays!

Grammy Jammies

Every year Grammy gives the kids some Christmas jammies, this year we got them at Thanksgiving since that's when we were all together. (It's the outlaw year for Christmas :> ) Here are the girls with Grammy, aren't they cute?!?