PEARLS FROM HEAVEN

We have two new little grandchildren in our family this year - a little girl born to Jason and Amy Freeman and a little boy born to Kami and Robert Bailey. Jason and Amy's little girl is named Ashley Eva Freeman and she is being held by her grandfather.

Kami and Robert's little boy is named Kolt Riley Richard Bailey. His little sister, Brea, is holding him.

Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful, none more to be cherished than these beautiful little spirits so untouched and uninfluenced by the cares and troubles of the world, so perfect and precious. What a blessing!

The Maynard family also have a new member of their family - a cute little dog they named "Sasha". She came trick or' treating on Halloween as you can see in the attached picture. Wished I would have known ahead of time and I would have had some doggie treats.

Sharese says she is just like one of her kids. She came out of MayCee's bedroom the other day with an all-day sucker hanging out of her mouth. We had a laugh over that one! She should have taken a picture. It sounds like Sasha has discovered the girls' goody stash.

2008 CHRISTMAS AT THE FREEMAN'S

Miracle of all miracles...I managed to get all of our beautiful daughters together for a picture. By the way, our two sons are not in the photo below. Yes, we have eight children. What a blessing!

It was a wonderful afternoon together! All eight families came to our home Christmas Eve day. We also enjoyed having mom and dad (Lynn and Velma Metcalf) come from Leslie to celebrate the season with us.

We made pizza for everyone, munched on snacks like Suzie's delicious homemade caramels and fudge, Russ's stuffed mushrooms and peppers, Daisha's reindeer cookies, and Angie's five-layer desert. We had a family home evening where each family brought a game, story, special talent, or sang a song. The FHE ended by Dick gathering the grandchildren around him on the floor and asking them questions about Jesus Christ's birth and why we celebrate Christmas. This year our grandson, Chase, even brought some of his art drawings to show us. As you can see, he is very good!

Then we opened gifts from one another. This year we drew names and exchanged gifts. Dick and I gave each of the grandchildren new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve and Dick made each family birdhouse lawn art for their yards.



But look at what our children did for us. They somehow managed to gather patterns from each of our grandchildren's handprints. Amy Freeman and her sweet mom appliqued them on aprons for each of us since there were too many handprints for one apron. I just can't understand that - can you? (We have 28 grandchildren). What a memorable fun gift they gave us!

This is a picture of Dick and I modeling our new aprons!