Our 2008 Family Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We always enjoy writing our Christmas letter and looking back on all the wonderful memories of the past year. We treasure all the cards and letters we receive as well. What a special way to catch up with our dearest loved ones we haven’t had nearly enough time to visit with in 2008!

This year was extra special in our household as we welcomed our second sweet son into the family! Liam Robert Summers surprised us 13 days early, arriving on Sunday November 30th. He weighed a perfect 6 lbs 15.8 oz and measured 20 in long. He has dark blue eyes, fuzzy brown hair and looks an awful lot like his handsome big brother Benjamin. He is such a dear baby, still pretty sleepy but getting more alert every day. He has the cutest facial expressions, makes the most precious little squeaks and grunts and loves to cuddle. We feel so very blessed to have this little angel join the Summers and Otis clans.
Benjamin was overjoyed to become a big brother! He is such a big helper and so dear with Liam. He covers him in hugs and kisses all day long! He loves to sing to him too. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star seems to be Liam’s favorite. We can’t wait to see how their relationship and love for each other grows.

Most often found in either his superman pajamas or firefighter hat, boots and gloves… our 3yr old bundle of energy, and unending questions, fills our lives with rocking dance moves, nonstop role play scenarios, and unbelievable love and compassion. Although he might tackle you during one of his David and Goliath moments, he will not hesitate to come to your rescue when you are in need (real or imagined)! He was so dear during mommy’s pregnancy, the better part of this past year, always asking her if she needed anything and giving her lots of love and affection. What a love! Together mommy and Ben filled their weeks with Bible study, gymnastics, playgroups, library visits, nature walks, art projects, and lots of fun learning time activities. Jaimee loves teaching Ben and treasures the opportunity to be both his stay-at-home mommy and favorite playmate. Benjamin mastered underwater swimming, big boy bike riding (with training wheels) and drawing this year. He also started preschool last fall. He attends Altus Christian Academy’s 2 day 3yr old program and has thoroughly enjoyed his new friends and fun-loving teachers Mrs. Wood and Miss Wanda. Right before Liam arrived, we celebrated Ben’s third birthday at a local farm where he and his friends pretended to be real Oklahoma cowboys! What a blessing this big boy is!

Jaimee spent most of the year caring for and loving on her two favorite guys (Marc and Benjamin)… and preparing for the arrival of a third (Liam)! She continued to enjoy her Squadron Spouses’ groups, dinner club, Sunday school class, Bible study, church small groups and fellow playgroup mommies. After finishing her first year of teaching Kindermusik in May, she took the rest of the year off to rest up before our family so blessedly expanded. She looks forward to resuming her classes in the spring. As our chief travel agent, Jaimee coordinated three fantastic family vacations this past year. A week on Bainbridge Island, another at Disney World and two wonderful weeks (for mommy and Ben) at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in North Carolina were the highlights of our summer! Vacations are even better when enjoyed through the eyes of your children. What fun we had watching Ben’s eyes light up as he chased the waves on the beach, covered his face and fingers in marshmallows by the bonfire and hunted for gooey ducts! And I’m not sure who had more fun dancing with Goofy, driving the race cars over and over again and eating breakfast with Mickey Mouse… what a treat! And as always, Grandma and Grandpa’s was a fun and restful retreat complete with the best cultural activities, lots of pool time and fishing with Grandpa. Back home, Jaimee became the expert at orchestrating many new and very special family traditions such as Friday night family game and movie night. We’ve enjoyed reacquainting ourselves with Twister and Don’t Drop the Egg! And motherhood the second time around has been a little more demanding (with two precious angels to attend to), a lot less stressful (after I had the opportunity to hone my skills with my dear firstborn) and just as heavenly!

Marc was the real family superstar this year, taking over many duties at home while Jaimee dealt with morning sickness. He did this more then willingly, ever so lovingly, and of course on top of his regular super dad and hubby duties. We are SO thankful for him! Oh yea, and we can’t forget that he still had to work a fulltime job. His hard work instructing and evaluating student pilots, as well as his leadership role as Chief of Wing Current Ops, resulted in many big rewards this year. He was awarded a school select spot, Major select status and a follow on assignment to Germany. He will be taking our family on a 3 year European adventure with an assignment to Ramstein Air Base to fly the G-4 aircraft this spring. All this on top of mad diapering skills and the ability to wake up multiple times a night to assist mommy in Liam duties. What a saint! I’d go anywhere with this guy… although Germany is definitely more desirable then other possibilities. I just can’t say it enough… I/We are so very blessed!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday celebrating the birth of our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please keep in touch, and although our visitors have been few and far between in this sweet, but sleepy, tiny Oklahoma town… we hope you’ll consider a European vacation in the near distant future!

Love and blessings,
Marc, Jaimee, Benjamin and Liam Summers




Our family as Joseph, baby Jesus, Mary and the donkey/shepard boy in our Church Christmas pageant!


Our Christmas guests this year: Grandma, Teeta the poodle and Grandpa!!!

We are so thankful for their presence, help and love! Here they are loving on our little guys!