Special Gift

Our family has been blessed with a special gift. At first I really thought my mom Stephanie had been blessed, but what I'm realizing is that we all have. My mom married Chuck Bolden in 2005 (right?). I must say I was a bit sceptical (sorry Chuck, no hurt feelings). I say this only because my mom has been through a lot and I really didn't want to see her get hurt again. I wanted only the very best the next time around and wanted her to be HAPPY. I also knew that Chuck had been through some tough times (he lost his wife Jody to cancer). He has a daughter Lacy who is 21. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out for my mom, let alone our family.

But what I have come to realize is that my mom is HAPPY, she has found someone that absolutely loves her and is taking great care of her. After a year or so of fighting the reality I realize that yes, Mr. Bolden can give her what she needs and care for her like she deserves.

What I didn't realize is that we too have been blessed by this marriage.

First off, Chuck is very respectful of me and my family. He doesn't push or impose, he doesn't expect anything of us. Which is something I sort-of feared. I selfishly would say "we already have a family, we don't need more". Chuck has welcomed us to his family, but has not pushed us.

Secondly, Chuck is very giving, giving to my mom and giving to us. We have been blessed by his generosity greatly. He has given us material things, made us hand made items (which we treasure...our mantel and the toy box you'll see in the post)

Third, and I feel most strongly about this, is that he and our children have already established this bond, that I could have only wished for. He and Owen share a relationship that you long for your son to have with a grandpa figure. Owen just loves Chuck, he has coined Chucks saying "That's right", he also loves to go to "Charlie's Place" which is Chuck's new pool room up stairs to see the life size cut out of John Wayne, who Owen believes is Charlie. Chuck loves Alyssa and has been so kind and gentle with her. She loves going to Grandma and Papa's to look ride the Quad and look for frogs in the pond. Papa Chuck gets her the net and helps her to find the biggest frog in the pond which she holds without fear and chases her mom with.

We certainly have been blessed. Chuck, Thank you for loving my mom, being so generous and loving my children and us! We are also fortunate to be part of the family, we look forward to getting to know your family more.

Owen turns 2

We celebrated little "O's" birthday yesterday. It was a fun filled day, started by going to the recycling center to get rid of all the recyclable material on our back porch from Christmas. We had a small party for him at our home. Our house is tiny so the 7 adults and 10 children felt really snug. But it was fun. Ball themed, with baseballs, basketballs, and footballs we sported a fun table and finger foods. Owen was not the least bit interested, and was really oblivious to the fact we were celebrating him. He enjoyed opening presents and chasing after the big kids. His favorite presents were is "shaky car", which was a Lighting McQueen car from Amber and his first tricycle. Boy is he two!

Hunter won the hoop shoot contest and the kids participated in a cake walk to earn their cupcake and ice cream. We enjoyed the company of our closest Tacoma friends, Uncle Chad and Auntie Desi, Uncle Patrick and Auntie Laurie, Laura (Owen's second mom), and all the kids: Hunter, Bridger, Amber, Alyssa, Bella, Ricki, Romelio (our friend Harriett's children), and Josh and Ian.

Owen got several calls throughout the day, where he was able to say "Happy Birthday" to Auntie Holli when she called. What a fun day.

Tis the season to be jolly

Fa,la,la,la,la,la,la....I did it! I made my first entry and it worked. I feel like a pro.

Now I can share a little about our Christmas season. Can you believe Christmas has come and gone. I slightly remember it being November and now December has come and gone. Time flies. This December was festive and fun for the Friddlefour.

Alyssa really loves decorating. We got our tree the first weekend in December, I hauled out all of my ornaments and Alyssa carefully unwrapped each and every one of them. I must have 50 or so hand blown ornaments, that I treasure. Alyssa has become very fond of them as well. She helped to find the perfect place on the tree for each of them. I had to take a mental picture of her and the ornaments (because our camera was broken). The whole time she was in the middle of the decorations I thought "this would make the best scrapbook page". I guess there is always next year.

Speaking of next year, Alyssa insists that next year we have Christmas lights on the outside of our house. She said more than once this season "our house is so boring without lights". We don't have any outside electrical outlets, making it a bit tricky to hang lights without feeling a bit sabotaged by extension cords. But maybe next year we can talk Chad into trying his hat at hanging lights. We will keep you posted on that one.

To Believe or not to believe, Alyssa really struggled with the notion of Santa this year. She's only 5 for crying out loud. But her best friend Amber who lives across the street doesn't believe in Santa and made it very difficult for Alyssa to hold onto the idea that there really is a Santa. We just told Alyssa you must "Believe to Receive". I think she did her best to Believe and Santa came through, he brought her that basketball hoop she really wanted...and a Barbie. Good thing she mailed the letter to him!

Mr. Owen was quite taken by Santa Claus. We visited him once at the Long Beach Pharmacy right after Thanksgiving. I will just say...neither kids would sit on Santa's lap, or go near him. We all had to be in the picture and Owen was crying. Owen did come around though, he talked himself into "liking Santa". He would say things like "Santa's a nice guy" or "Santa's fake". By the 24th, he found himself dancing with the "fake" Santa at Grandma TT's and Papa John's.

Owen was featured in the Friddlefour Christmas card. For those of you that got one, feel lucky. He is our star performer. All I can say is : Boys will be Boys. If you didn't receive Owen's card, you might have received Alyssa's card, she is quite the artist and I believe she captured all the treasures of the season, an angel, a wreath, a manger, a candy cane and a tree.

Chad and I delighted in all the joys of the season especially the following:

*Time off

* Emily finished her 5th of 6th courses she's taking for her credential program.

*Chad's 32nd Birthday (even though he had to get up at 5:00 am to go to his sister's to get medicine for Owen)

*Seeing our family and connecting with Lacy and Justin.

*Looking at lights around the neighborhood.

*Getting a new camera, thanks Chad!

*Making bread for the neighborhoods...and delivering it, even though no one answered their door.

*Papa John who looks like Santa.

*Making dinner for Grandma Grape (Great Grandma Millie and Poppo Ceglowski)

*Hearing from friends we hadn't talk to in a while.

*Progressive Dinner with our small group.

*Celebrating the birth of that baby Jesus.

We couldn't have asked for a better holiday season.

Believing I can blog

Ok, so my dear cousin Andrea makes this blogging thing look so easy. I really really want to know how to do this. I tried back in September and was unsuccessful. Here I am again, hoping this time I can figure it out. Don't tell anyone I've already misplaced one blog entry...I have no idea where it went. I already started a blog page and now I probably have two.

I want so much to use this as a tool for family and friends to know what's happening with the Friddlefour. We are so busy and our lives are running full steam ahead. I'm terrible at keeping everyone up-to-date the traditional way. I wonder how well I will do with this, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

So here it goes (AGAIN). Happy reading