Christmas Eve 2008!

I can't believe Christmas is upon us. Time flies waaaaaaayyy to fast. I remember when I was a kid, the holidays seemed to last a lot longer. Now I feel like it flies by in the blink of an eye. But anyway...here's a few photos from the Fruge Family Christmas Eve!

My step-mother makes pajamas for all the grand kids each year. It's one of the favorite gifts we get...two pairs of warm, comfy jammies for each of our children. Meredith was so excited about her pajamas...she walked around swinging them around and saying ... "Jammies! Jammies! Jammies!"

Getting ready to open her jammies.

Opening the jammies.

Playing with her jammies.

Posing in the jammies.

A picture of the fireplace with all the presents...we went with a little 2 foot tree this year...it was cheap and safe since Meredith is at the stage where she's into everything and everything she's into goes into her mouth.

We're excited about this little kitchen set we got for Meredith. Not bad for $20. They have a little play kitchen set in the nursery at church and Meredith loves to play with it, so I think she'll really like having this one!

Look at me I can be Twilighted too.

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You are an Emmett:
You are strong and playful, with a good sense of humor. If there’s a problem, you’d rather be actively doing something than sitting around coming up with solutions. Despite you’re aggressive and competitive nature though, you’re always there to back up those closest to you.

What Twilight Character are You? I'm an Esme!

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You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

Fun with Meredith

Meredith is getting so big! And her personality is really coming out. She's talking up a storm and often amazes me with the things she does and says. Like this morning, I asked her if she was hungry and wanted some oatmeal. She walked over to the cupboard and pulled out the box of oatmeal and brought it to me...I didn't even know she knew where the oatmeal was or that it was in that box! A few days ago I was watching the TV show "Reba" and at the end of the theme song, Reba sings "I'm a survivor!" All of the sudden Meredith started singing, "I'm a bi-ber!" It was so cute. I actually was able to record her singing it last night. Here's a few fun video clips of Meredith:


Here's Meredith singing the Reba Theme Song (forgive my horrid singing!;) :




Here's Meredith doing the actions to "The Wheels on the Bus"
Again...sorry you have to hear my horrid singing! ;)




Here's Meredith saying, "I Love you!" and blowing kisses!

Where Did November Go?

I can't believe it's December already. Where did November go? It was such a busy month, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it is such a blur! Here's some of what we've been up to...


Court's youngest sister, Kari, got married on the 22nd. Court had to work until 9pm the night before, so we got up at 3am, got dressed and made the 2.5 hour drive so we could make it in time for the 8am wedding. It was a great day and Kari looked so beautiful! It was neat to have all the Fruge kids together in the temple for the first time! I know that was a very special moment for Court's parents. Here's a few pictures from the day...

Matt and Kari McCallon

I'm not sure what they were looking at, but it must have been funny!

This was typical Meredith that day.
She didn't want to be photographed and would cry whenever we tried to take a picture.

All the Fruge grandkids together. Meredith was such a pill...I wish we could have gotten her to smile cute for the camera!

The Bride

My two favorite people walking around the Houston Temple.

Kari and her brothers. Kari is modeling her batting stance!

The only picture that Meredith wasn't crying in.

The only reason she's not crying in this one is that she didn't know I was taking it.

The following week was Thanksgiving. After being so busy, and Court working 60+ hours a week, we decided to just stay home and take it easy. Court's sister Caryn and her family came for dinner. We ate, we chatted and then we all took a nap. It was beautiful! The rest of the weekend, Court, Meredith and I just hung out at home and enjoyed some time together as a family. It was hard when Court had to go back to work on Monday...we were really enjoying having time together.

This year Court decided to do 2 turkeys...one smoked and one fried. They were delicious. Sorry, I should have rotated this picture so you could see the turkeys better...they were so pretty!

Court carving his turkeys!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Court took the leftover turkey and made Gumbo...it was delicious! Caryn and her family came over as well as our friend Sunshine and her 2 boys. Sunshine's youngest boy, Tru, turned 5 that day, so we sang happy birthday and ate cupcakes to celebrate.

The Birthday Boy!

The kids and the cupcakes.

Meredith loves "kuh-cakes"!

Finally, on Tuesday, Meredith got to go to her first parade! I wasn't sure if she'd like it or not, but she had a blast! We went with Caryn and her family, the Seekins family and the Ericson family. The kids had so much fun! While we waited for the parade to start, they got to eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate! Unfortunately, Court had to work late, so he didn't get to attend. I was sad that he missed out. Meredith was waving and yelling "Merry Christmas!" to all the people and floats as they went by. It was really cute!

All the kids eating popcorn.

Watching the parade with Aunt Caryn


Meredith and Mom

My favorite float...it was a carousel of toilets!

Whew! We've been busy! No wonder I've been so tired! I think it's time for a nap!

Stupid People

The Elementary School I went to has been in the news lately...seems there are people in this world with WAAAAAAYYY too much time on their hands. Protests over kindergartners in pilgrim costumes? Ugh. I remember dressing up as an indian for this annual tradition and I had a great time. When people dress up as Mormon pioneers to commemorate the trek and other historical events in Mormon history, I don't get all bent out of shape or feel it is "stereotypical." It's how people dressed back then...deal with it. Aren't there bigger issues these parents should be focusing their time on??

Click here to read the story in the LA Times.

Cousin Christmas Hoedown!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Holidays from the FRUGES!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Birthdays and a Happy Halloween!

This last week was another busy one! Court turned the big 3-0 on the 28th! I wanted to take him to dinner and then have cake with family, but he had a work crisis and ended up working 13 hours on his birthday! Not fun. Then he worked 14 hour days for the following two days. Needless to say, we never got to go out for his birthday. Court didn't seem to mind too much. I think he was glad the day just went by without too much hoopla. His sister Caryn and her kids did come by for cake on the night of his birthday. I was glad we got to do at least that much. Here's a couple pictures:

I've been watching that show "Amazing Wedding Cakes" and I thought I could make an amazing birthday cake. Not so much...but it did taste good.

We had a bonfire on top of the cake.

Happy Birthday Court! I love You!!

On Friday, Court, Meredith and I flew out to Utah for my brother John's surprise 30th birthday party. It's our family tradition to throw a big surprise party for each person's 30th...John's isn't technically until November 12th, but we wanted it to be a total surprise, which it was. We had all the nieces and nephews trick or treat to his house. It took him a minute to figure out what the heck was going on. It was a fun party...the cousins got to trick or treat together, we ate tons of food, played Guitar Hero, watched a video tribute to John, and just enjoyed being together. Here's some pictures:

Time Out for Women

This past weekend the Fruge women drove to San Antonio to attend the annual Time Out for Women conference. It's sort of like a mini women's conference. The theme was "Joyful Life", so most of the talks focused on finding joy in the everyday.

On our way to San Antonio, we stopped for lunch at the Katy Mills Mall...Katy, TX in on the Northwestern edge of Houston. It's a huge, HUGE mall with every store you can think of. When we walked past the Books-A-Million store, I decided to go in just to see if they had any of Kristyn's books there. Well, not only did they have a few copies of "Bedtime at the Swamp", but it was on a shelf that said "Books-A-Million Recommends". It was cool! I had to snap a picture!





Once we got to San Antonio, we checked into our Hotel and then headed over to the venue for the Friday Night event. They had musical performance from Hillary Weeks and Michael McClean and Sister Cheiko Okasaki spoke. Her presentation was really funny. The next day we ran into her at the book store and got to talk to her for a bit. She is so tiny! And such a sweet woman! After she left, we realized that we didn't get a picture! Darn it! I think most agreed that the Friday night concerts and presentation were the highlight of the trip. We really enjoyed Michael McClean especially.

The next day, we attended the morning presentations, then skipped the second session so we could grab some lunch and walk around the River Walk a little bit. Since it was about a 5 hour drive to San Antonio, we knew weren't going to have much time after Time Out for Women was over to see the sights. So we went to the mall that was right there on the Walk and had lunch and then went on a boat ride. The tour guide on the boat told us all kinds of interesting historical facts about the area. It was fun, and the River Walk has some really beautiful scenery!


This is a photo of all the presenters giving a little introduction to what they will be talking about during their presentations.




All the girls together. Don't know what that white orb on Sarah is? And I should mention that our good friend Sunshine Seekins was also with us, but was inside watching a presentation when we took this picture. So, sadly, she didn't get in on the pic.

We ran into one of the speakers on our way to the mall. He was funny. He spoke about the lost art of letter writing and encouraged us all to write a letter to someone we love.


This soda can sculpture was hanging in one of the buildings. I thought it was cool, so I took a picture.

This is a picture of the girls on the boat tour. I thought it was a pretty fun and interesting ride. I love historical tours like that. The following pictures are just a few that I snapped while on the boat tour...






I really had a great time on this trip. It was a much needed getaway and the messages of the conference were just what I needed to hear. I've been a bit blue the past few weeks, so it was nice to get a spiritual boost and to be reminded that I need to make an effort to find some joy in this life. With the state of the world and the economy and all that, it's easy to lose hope and to feel depressed, so I will try each day to find something joyful!