I love having a New Year’s Baby! Xander again, like last year, thought we were staying up late celebrating, partying, for his Birthday, not New Years! I set up our small tent in our living room so Becca, Katie and Xander could have a campout/sleepover New Year’s Eve. Funny how the simple, sometimes a little strange, things can be so entertaining for kids. Xander and Katie thought it was the coolest thing ever sleeping in a tent in the living room! They had a great time. We shouted Happy New Year at midnight then sang Happy Birthday to Xander! Susie had a YW sleepover at her leader’s house. She got a total of 2 hrs sleep but had a great time! We missed her though…

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Xander was anxious to open gift in the morning so we said go for it! We got him a new suit for church and he was so thrilled to have “shoes like Daddy”…”belt like Daddy”…”socks like Daddy”…and on and on… He was one handsome little man!

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Xander loves super heroes. Becca designed a Zorro costume for him. She found foam swords, black hat, rope for his waist to hold the sword, perfect fabric. And we sewed it together. She did great! They had so much fun sword fighting. Xander went seriously nut-so whacking away at Becca. It was great! We also found a Batman costume for $1.oo. What a deal!!! Halloween leftovers… Gramma Sam made him a Spiderman blanket and Grandma Freston gave him a cool Spiderman car that shoots missiles. I loved his reaction to Aunt Lisa’s gift, it was a plastic tool set. He opened it and exclaimed “tools!!! Just what I needed!” What a little man!

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We went to the beach to fly Xander’s new kite. It was beautiful as always. Not much wind for flying a kite but Xander still had a great time. Katie and Becca love to search for neat shells and rocks. Susie was pretty grumpy (no sleep) until she escaped with G’pa to see Fort Macon and then she came back a lot happier! It was a great day!

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Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve is always wild and crazy at our house… Jason’s traditional yarn balls are what the kids look forward to the most at Christmas time. Xander was old enough this year to do a lot of it by himself but G’ma still helped some. Katie and Becca were old pro’s going at it but Susie was the one that kinda cracked us up. She calmly sat in the recliner the whole time and made a neat little pile with her yarn as she undid the ball. Hum… is this the last year for her??? And of course new PJ’s. Xander loved his Batman pj’s. G’pa makes a good Batman too we found out!

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Christmas Day was wonderful. Time with family, gift giving, lot’s of love and excitement! We feel very blessed.

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Here are some pictures of our Christmas tree adventures and decorating Olivia’s tree. We chose a tree in our backyard to be hers so we can continue our tradition of decorating her tree like we did in Logan. Yes it is December in NC. Shorts are allowed!!! The weather has been really wacko this year. Some days it is cold, feels like winter, some days warm, feels like spring or fall and we even had a few days of humidity like summer…very crazy!

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We also went Christmas Caroling with friends. It was such a great night. Our friends had a trailer that was all decorated in lights and we drove all over their neighborhood and into another where other friends and church members live. It was so fun! Check out Jason’s shake face! Then we enjoyed goodies and hot cocoa. We just love all our friends here who have taken us under their wings! We feel so blessed!

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The primary was in charge of the Ward Christmas program this year. We choose the theme to be ‘Old Fashioned Country Christmas’. Xander looked so stinkin’ cute with his cowboy hat on! One of our members and a good friend of ours plays Bluegrass music and he invited a friend in his band to come perform with him. It was really great. Susie also sang ‘Mary did you know’ and the primary kids did the 12 days of Christmas. It was a really fun night. Santa Clause even came and danced for us before seeing each of the children. Good food, good music, good friends makes a great night! The only downfall of the night was our two big kids refusing to sit on Santa’s lap. I wasn’t too surprised at Susie saying no but Becca… I really tried talking her into it but no way…”that’s for babies” she says! Very sad, our kids are growing up. We should have written to Santa and told him that he only needed to take presents to the “babies” this year and to skip Becca!

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Sunday the 14th was our Primary Program. One more thing I was in charge of…glad to have it done. It was really beautiful. The kids did a great job. Xander had his lines memorized perfectly, the only hiccup was when Xander started swinging his lacing toys around his head like a lasso and nearly took my eye out!!! I caught it just in time. I thought it would be a good idea to give the Sunbeams something to do with their hands while waiting their turn. Not such a great idea!!! It gave us all a good -reverent- laugh!!! Katie did a great job giving a talk on when her prayers were answered, she told the story of last summer getting lost at Lagoon and praying and having Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Lisa be a immediate answer to her prayer! Becca talked about how the priesthood has blessed her and her family. Susie was really irritated that I was making her be a part of the program since she moved to YW in June. But she was a part of Primary half of the year so she reluctantly gave a talk on doing temple work for her ancestors.

Monday the 15th was Xander’s Christmas Program at the Preschool. He did a great job singing with his class. He was extremely distracted by his Christmas sweater. He kept rolling his arms in it, then eventually lifting it partway over his head, just enough to get it stuck on his head, then back down it would come, he did this over and over all the while singing right along. Well he decided to take it a bit further and completely stripped it off and then started swinging it around, again like a lasso. The girl standing next to him was just cracking me up too, she must have been telling him to keep it on, she tried several times to pull it back down when he had it stuck on his head. Then he must have told her he was taking it off because he was hot because she reached over and felt his forehead. It was hilarious. My son was the stripper at the party!!!

The next night was Becca’s Christmas Concert with her school chorus. It was a lot of fun. Great song, great dances. In one of them Becca was chosen to be a reindeer with her friend Casey. Well when they practiced the dance they couldn’t get it quite right so the teacher made them Reindeer in Training, turned it into a silly joke. It was very funny! She did a great job. These concerts are so much fun!

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We had a full busy week with Grandma and Grandpa Freston here as well as Gramma Sam and Grampa Dave parked in our driveway. It was so fun having both sets of Grandparents here. Most kids don’t get to experience something like that. We were so glad they were all here. Xander was very confused about it though, couldn’t figure out which grandparents were staying for Christmas, which ones would be there for his birthday, which ones were going to fly on a airplane home, which ones had a home and which ones lived in a bus! It was pretty cute seeing him try to keep it all straight!

Jason’s parents arrived Thursday the 4th my parents Friday the 5th. Susie and Becca had 3 performances on Friday. Katie had her baptism on Saturday morning (see previous post dated Dec. 6), Saturday night was another performance as well as Sunday afternoon. Monday afternoon we all went to Susie’s basketball game then that night G’ma and G’pa Freston went to fencing practice and watched the girls and Jason fence. Tuesday we relaxed…we needed it… Wednesday was Susie’s YW in Excellence. Thursday my mom and I and Xander escaped to the beach and then that afternoon we went to another basketball game for Susie. Thursday night we had a early Christmas party with Grandma and Grandpa Freston. And then Friday the 12th my parents flew home. :-( Whew! It was busy but so great! We were so very glad they were able to come spend a week with us!

Pictures of our day at the beach, the last one is of Xander’s Beach Art that he created with the rocks and shells he collected, pretty cool!

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Early Christmas Party:

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On Saturday the 13th Katie had her first piano recital, she was nervous but very excited too. The only thing that bummed her out was that Grandma Freston had to leave and couldn’t be there. But she got to hear her practice at home and could see how much she had improved since the last time she was here visiting. Katie is doing really well with lessons and she played her piece perfectly! These other kids in the picture are from our ward who are taking lessons. One family found out about Ms. Rachel teaching and spread the word. Her spots filled quickly from this group of Mormons who have been trying to find a good teacher. She started 6 Mormon kids in one week! The recital was pretty long, there were a lot of students performing piano and voice. Well wouldn’t you know it…right in a quiet moment of transition Xander belts out real loud “Are we done now?” The whole audience erupted in laughter but Ms. Rachel answered back real quick and just as loud “No” and went right on announcing the next student.

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Susie and Becca auditioned for the Christmas play Scrooge with the New Bern Civic Theater back in September. Susie played the part of Emily, fiance to Fred. And Becca played Richard, one of Scrooges workers. They both really loved being part of this production. We had lots and lots of singing going on at our house! Beware of the photo’s coming up…the black and white ones were the ones the theater took. Susie looks more like she is 17 than 12!!! And does Becca look hot in a hat! It was a really great experience for them. I noticed in both of them a boost in their self esteem. They did such a great job. They had 5 performances in 3 days…they were exhausted. Both Freston and Swan grandparents were here for Katie’s baptism so Susie and Becca got to have their own personal fan club in the audience…Anyway enjoy the show!

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Well her big day finally arrived. She has been counting down for months! She was very excited to have both grandparents there…what a lucky little girl! Katie told me that her favorite part was her Daddy giving her a blessing after she was confirmed, that it made her feel really good. Here are some photo’s.

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We really like Albuquerque. In general, we like New Mexico better than Arizona. NM is a poor state, not really as commercial as Arizona, but there is an attitude here we like. People seem comfortable with who they are.

Albuquerque is a very old city tucked into a new city. The edges of the city sprawl with acres of subdivisions, all faux adobe, all painted in the colors of dirt, and most with iron bars on the windows. We cant tell whether the wrought iron is protection or decoration.

Downtown ABQ is trendy and colorful, the sidewalks are full. The newspaper says Los Angeles gangs have come, thinking New Mexico is soft on gangs. We didnt see any evidence that (if you dont count the bars on the doors and windows). We did spot one unique sign posted in a tiny one-bench park downtown: Please no puking, pissing, panhandlers or perversions. Thanks.

Albuquerque is big. There are 12 Wal*Marts here, and 17 exits off I – 40. The park we map is about 12 miles west of the city, just off the freeway. This is a good job for us, even if we have to drive quite a bit. Dave also gets a bike ride or two in with Ted Bertholate and his crew of retired PHDs, or up the hill from their place to the end of the road, urged on by Marcia.

We had some valve work done on the Bird (routine maintenance) and two days later we left to go east on our next job. On acceleration there was a bad growling rattle that seemed to come from up front in the engine. So we paid to stay over two days to take it back to the valve guy Monday morning; it was a weekend of trying not to worry. Our luck held, though, as the mechanic guy determined it wasnt the engine, but an actual rattle up front. By 50 miles later Dave had tracked it down and fixed it ( loose hinge bolt on the Wanderlodge Face Plate on front that opens up so he can check the oil and coolant levels). Whew!

So were at Santa Rosa now. This is the fourth year weve done this park. Its always a struggle, as there are only about 20 businesses in town and the print cost is real high since we print 10,000 maps. (Most parks use 3 – 4 thousand a year.) It can also be cold and blowy here but we really like the town. Most of our stay this year its been a lot like summer. In years past weve seen the Christmas Parade of Lights (one float with 6,000 twinkie lights, and 17 vehicles with red and blue lights, and of course all the police cars and fire trucks in town). This year we watched them dress the town for Christmas. They plant little plastic stick trees pre-wrapped with twinkie lights… a LOT of them.

This year we also went to the Santa Rosa Mighty Lions football game. Wanna feel like a minority? This IS a New Mexico town. They played the Texico Wolverines in the AAAA semifinals. Almost everyone in town was there, and there were a lot of folks from Texico too. (Texico is down by Muleshoe on the Texas/NM border.) The teams were pretty evenly matched; neither could win. It was so cold I thought I might have wet my pants but couldnt tell; my nether regions were numb from sitting on a metal bench in 28 weather. Poor Dave got to shivering so bad the bench was vibrating and of course it wasnt Daves idea to join our Santa Rosa friends in this community event. When it went into OT he started to groan. It was still tied when we left. I heard the next day the Lions lost . . . . . Bummer.

We are both feeling good. Im still testing my glucose levels 2 – 3 times a day but the numbers are good, and I no longer have to take insulin. I have lost 20 lb. and am stuck. Will try not to over eat on Thanksgiving which shouldnt be too hard since well probably be eating at a Flying J truck stop in Oklahoma. Our managers gave us a $50 gift certificate for Flying J, so we are looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner on the road . Woo-hoo! Life on the road is a constant adventure!

Tomorrow we start our big trek east. We figure it will take about a week to get to our next job, a park in Lenoir, North Carolina. Well leave the bird there and drive the car to the kids place to celebrate Katies baptism and see Susie and Becca in the Christmas play.

Were counting our blessings and as always, each of you is on our list.

Love,

Sam & DaveÂ

Once again we had a great Halloween. This neighborhood is so fun for Trick or Treating. There were some great houses all decorated up, some scary ones too. It was really great. We went with our friends the Andrews and the Martins. We all had a great time.

I have been teasing Jason because he is hilarious at Halloween. Here we are, all the kids are ready, I am wanting to get a picture of our family together but he is still upstairs “primping” getting his costume ready. He was a troll and had to reattach his nose! He wore it to work and had a swarm of people checking him out! Anyway he finally comes down and all our friends arrive so I once again try to get everyone together to get a picture. The kids are all excited but we are rounding up all 12 of them and what does Jason do???? He is such a overgrown 5 year old at Halloween…”oh come on, we are loosing trick or treating time we can do pictures later…let’s go…let’s go…times a wastin’ ” So off we go and do you think we got a picture later…of course not!

Jason had Xander on the run the first half of the neighborhood. Darting from one house to another. Xander was having a blast! I had to keep hollering at Jason to slow down and wait for everyone else…again big overgrown 5 year old…he is such a nut! Once Xander’s pumpkin was full he lost interest in running to the doors, he was ready to eat the candy!

Katie’s costume turned out really scary. She was a sight! It was awesome, she had so many comments on what a great costume. She was covered in spiders, hard to see in the pictures.

Becca was a what did she call it…a punky She-Devil. She painted her hair and face red and then put sparkly stuff all over her too. She was very cute in a evil sort of way. 🙂

Susie stuck around long enough for a picture and then we didn’t see her for several hours, she went off with her friends. She made a very cool Hippi though…Peace Dude!!! What a great night! We love Halloween!!!

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