Thursday, December 4, 2008

Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving was very relaxing. We ended up staying here in Utah the whole time and I didn't even have to work the whole weekend. It was great. Erik and I, thanks to our daughter, even slept in most of the mornings. That's what vacations are for right?! We spent Thanksgiving day at Erik's Mom's house. Their whole family was there except DJ and Kristeen. Gretchen and I decided that we need to add to Grandma Freeman's toy collection. These kids just don't stay entertained as long anymore and so the cats become their toys which leads to scratching and crying and no fun. We still can't believe that come next summer the grandkids running around at Grandma's house on Sundays will be double! Well, okay so three little ones one't necessarily be running around quite yet, but Grandma's house is going to start getting quite full. These are the three grandkids right now.
Max, Ava, and Madalyn.


Ava definitly has a Freeman thermostat in her, Gretchen says she's constantly complaining that she's hot...hence the tank top in winter. :)

The day after Thanksgiving we did one of my favorite things...set up our Christmas stuff and decorate the tree. If people wouldn't call me crazy I'd probably set up our stuff before Christmas. I love Christmas decorations and just Christmas season in general. The one thing I don't like thoough is cold weather. My opinion is if it's going to be cold outside there might as well be snow, otherwise what is the cold good for?! Absolutly NOTHING! We havn't had much of any snow yet here, which Erik is very grateful for in that he has to commute to work, but as for Madalyn and I, we're anxiously waiting for snow.
Madalyn was hilarious when we were setting up our Christmas stuff. She thought we were setting up a bunch of new toys all around the house for her. She quikcly found out the toys didn't play nice when she pulled the stocking holder down from the fireplace right on her little nose. She now has a little "booboo" as she calls it. The good thing is she hasn't messed with the stockings since. As for the tree, the bottom half is basically empty so Madalyn can't go to town with the ornaments, but she's found she likes to lay underneath the tree and play with all the lights. I'm okay with that. :) Thanks to Grandma Fairbanks she now has her own Little People Nativity Set that she CAN play with. Thanks Grandma, now us parents aren't SO mean.

This is Madalyn helping "clean" the tree. Apparantly she thought it was dirty.


Madalyn helping decorate the tree. She really wanted her purse on it for some reason.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It's ANOTHER GIRL!!!


Yes, we are having another little girl. I tell you, all the schemes about boys make you sicker, girls make you sicker, twins make you even sicker is HOOPLA!!! They're all just scams. I was tons sicker this time than I was with Madalyn...and what do you know, they're both GIRLS!! My theory is it's different for every women, it's different for every baby, plain and simple! Anyway, we were kind of hoping for a boy, Erik in that he wanted his little football player, and me, well honestly I wanted to be sure that we had one of each this time since I was so sick at first being pregnant again sometime just didn't sound like much fun to me. Of course with time us women forget the horrible parts of pregnancy and I'm sure I'll gladly try again sometime. :) Even still, we're excited for a girl and the better part is she'll be born about the same time as Madalyn so I'm hoping she can wear most all of Madalyn's old clothes. A plus for sure!

Apparantly this is how she deciphered we were having a girl. Don't ask me! :)

This is her little foot stikcing out. Can you count all 5 toes?!

Everything looked great in the ultrasound, she's right on schedule and everything. It still amazes me how they can decipher what parts of the ultrasound are. I mean I can point out the main parts like the head, some feet or hands, but it amazes me how they're able to find the stomach, kidneys, things like that so easily. I just nod my head and say, "oh yea, looks good!" Erik wasn't able to make it to the ultrasound, :( and I wanted us to be able to find out together what we were having so I had the lady put a pair of socks, pink or blue, depending whether it was a boy or girl, in a box for us and we would open it up together. I tell you, it was pretty hard not to peek in that box all afternoon waiting for Erik to come home. I'm proud to say that I didn't though.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

Our Halloween festivities started at our Ward Halloween party last weekend. The best part was trunk-or-treating even though Madalyn had no clue what was going on. The first couple trunks we went to she kept looking at me like "What the heck are we doing Mom, stealing candy from people's cars? This is crazy!" After awhile she could have cared less how we were getting it, all she cared about was the candy. I think we're going to have ourselves a little girl with a HUGE sweet tooth. I had to hide all the candy so she would stop asking for it. Thankfully her Aunt Amanda came over and ate ALL of it! Freshman. They are such mooches. :)

For Family night last Monday we had Scott, Jacqueline and Amanda over to carve pumpkins. I'd say between all of our pumpkins, it was quite a toss up who's was the best.

Madalyn had a blast cleaning out the pumpkins. She thought the stringy stuff in the middle was pretty cool.



On the other hand, Amanda...well let's just say, I think this was her first time carving a pumpkin. She really needs to get out more. :)



Then of course we had to go trick-or-treating with Madalyn. The best part about kids is that you get to start doing little kids things all over again! It's GREAT! However, trick-or-treating isn't quite what it used to be when I was a kid. I remember leaving at 5 or 6 and not stopping till 10 or 11. Now people who go past 8 are looked at funny. Madalyn knew what she was doing this time and loved it. There was one house that the guy who answered it was wearing a mask and scared all the kids. Madalyn just started screaming. It was really pretty funny. Madalyn dressed up as Cinderella this year. "Lella" to her. She loved the dress. She would just stand in front of the mirror and stare at herself. She's definitly a girl! Sorry Daddy. :)



We went trick-or-treating with Carter and Berkley. Carter was T-rex and Berkley was a fairy. All three of them were so cute. However, it was pretty hard to get a good picture of all of them. Whoever thought little children would stand still when they know candy is within reach is crazy.
Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality. Until we get a new camera we're using our video camera, and obviously it doesn't take the best still shots.

WHHAAATTT????!!!!

I know, I know! It's been awhile! I could think of a million excuses as to why I have failed keeping up to date with my blogging, such as our camera broke in California- and what is a blog without pictures?...or that I've been too busy working and taking care of a little stinker to think about blogging...but that's what those all are...EXCUSES! The real reason is that all my extra time has either been spent sleeping or staring at the bottom of the toilet! Sound like fun? NO! Yes, the rumor is true. We are expecting our second child. And I can officially tell you that I am excited. For those who have known since the beginning, that's huge for me. This pregnancy was nonetheless, an "accident". As Erik says, He tripped, fell over, and wha-la, his wife is pregnant. :) I was really sick at the beginning and so with not being mentally prepared to be pregnant, not exactly wanting to throw-up 2 or 3 times a day, and self-ish maybe, but not looking forward to the instant weight gain...I was having a hard time being excited about having another child. But now that I'm about 18 weeks and feeling much better, I'm very excited. I have this feeling that 9 months is going to be WAY too long though, I'm already getting uncomfortable. YUCK!



This is the first ultrasound of our little baby. It was taken at about 13 weeks. It's still amazing to me how soon they look like little babies. That little stinker's no bigger than a peanut there, yet you can tell exactly what it is. Simply a work of art! We find out in a couple of weeks what we're having. To be honest, I think we're both hoping for a boy, just so we know we have one of each..but we'll love it no matter what.

Two of my sister-in-laws on Erik's side both pregnant also, so that will be really fun to have three little cousins all the same age. Kristeen is due about three weeks before me in March, and then Gretchen is due in June. I'm sure all the guys are going to get so sick of us when we're all together cause all we talk about is pregnant junk. Sorry!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A

My family and us (minus Bryan and Eliza, they were busy having a child!) all took a trip to San Diego the other week. We stayed in a Beach House in La Jolla area. It was so much fun. We definitley didn't want to leave. The house we stayed in was just a couple blocks away from the beach and it had just enough room for all of us.


Boogy boarding was the favorite on the beach. Even Madalyn got some in! Erik liked body boarding better. Apparantly he's too good for the boards. :)


My poor dad. He tried so hard to catch those waves. :) The good thing is, he didn't end up a failure! We'll say he caught at least one good one! :) Just kidding Dad.
Basically we did the beach thing all day everyday!!! What could be better?! Then at night we'd walk around the shops and stuff.




One of my favorite days was when Grandma and Grandpa took Madalyn to the zoo and Erik and I were able to hang out at the beach by ourselves. Scott, Jacqueline, and Amanda all went to Sea World that day. I loved just hanging out on the beach without having to worry about Madalyn wondering off or anything.
It took Madalyn a couple days to get used to the beach. The first beach we went to had some pretty big waves and I think they scared her a little, and then there was seaweed all over the beach which she would try and walk all around it. It was pretty funny. Towards the end of the week she was walking out to the water by herself and being able to play in the waves with mommy and daddy and enjoy them.



She really liked playing with the sand though. The one good thing about her being a little more causoius at the beach then at the regular pool is she wouldn't go running off by herself. Pretty much she would stay by us and the towels the whole time. Lucky us!



We all got really fried the first day on the beach...apparantly we didn't take into account that being in the sun the WHOLE day would burn us? Who knows! So the next day we took a little more precaution. Hence the turban on Erik's head.


One afternoon we all took a kawayking trip down by La Jolla shores. That was pretty neat. We got to Kawayk along the shore there and go through some caves up against it. We saw quite a bit of animals that trip also. I did however get a little sea sick on the kawayk. What a woose I know. Overall it was a very fun trip and Erik and I are wanting to turn it into a yearly adventure. :)

Monday, July 28, 2008

Who's grateful they WEREN'T a pioneer?!

In honor of pioneer weekend we thought we'd take a little hike....with Madalyn! We borrowed Erik's brother's backpack to put Madalyn in. We tried to prepare her and put her in it at home a few times and she thought it was pretty cool. Just like the first twentyish minutes of our hike! :) And that was IT for her. She wanted nothing else to do with that backpack. We chose to hike up to Stewart Falls...which shouldn't be that long of a hike...unless of course you are walking with an 17 month girl who stops every foot to smell the flowers, weeds, whatever she can find and to play in the dirt. Needless to say we turned around about a half-hour after she gave up on the backpack and unfortunatly didn't even make it to Stewart Falls. The only thing that kept her happy on the hike down was to let her suck on my camelback. That little girl drank almost the whole thing. At least we didn't have to worry about her getting dehydrated in the heat. :) So after that adventure we've decided we're grateful for the pioneers, but that's it. We don't in the least bit wish we could have ever been one. If we were, I don't think I would have had children, so I'm glad I wasn't.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

4th of July Weekend!

My whole family came to visit for the holiday weekend. Bryan and Eliza were even able to come as they just returned from Chicago the week before. Unfortunatly, Scott and Jacqueline went to Texas for the weekend, so they missed out on all the fun with us. :( It was great to have them here. We had a lot of fun. On the 4th we had a BBQ at Erik's Mom's house. It was fun to see all the kids play together. The biggest hit was Grandma's coffee table in the living room. They all thought it was so much fun to jump off it.



Grandma with her two little granddaughters


Before going to see fireworks we let the girls run through the sprinklers. Although this picture doesn't look like they're having fun. They really did, this was just a brief moment of confusion. :) I really liked the picture though.


That night we went up to Rock Canyon Park to watch the fireworks. We decided they would be a lot cooler to watch from inside the stadium, but it was still fun. And thanks to Meeko, our dog, we collected a few more kids throughout the night. Here's us having some fun while waiting for the fireworks to start.


Can't you tell we all loved getting our picture taken then!



HOW CUTE!!! Despite the occasional fighting, these girls really do love eachother.


Saturday was a fun-filled day. We started our morning off with a nice run up the canyon. That's one of my favorite things to do in summer...run up the canyon...it's so pretty up there and nothing feels better then the feeling after you've gone running. We then took the kids swimming at Scera pool. Bryan and Eliza didn't come. I guess being 8 months pregnant and sitting in the hot hot sun didn't sound all that exciting to Eliza. :) I don't blame her. The girls had a lot of fun. And the slide was by far the greatest hit!




We then took everyone and went up the canyon, built a fire and roasted hot dogs and smores. Although the hot dogs and smores were delicious, the hot fire didn't help cool us down one bit. :) The two girls were so cute, we set them next to eachother in their strollers and let them eat there. Keeping them contained didn't last long though.



Both Madalyn and Kambria found the sand in the volleyball pits. They had a lot of fun in it, but once they found the fountain and then went back to the sand, that's when things got messy. :) Don't we all wish everything was as exciting to us as it is to little kids?!




Overall we had a really fun time. Erik and I love it when my family comes. We always have a great time. We can't wait until we all go to California in August. And of course the little girls love their grandparents.


I guess you could say they love their Aunt Amanda also:)

Friday, June 20, 2008

Madalyn Marie Freeman!

Picture me saying her name with some sternness...and saying it A LOT! That's all I've seemed to be doing lately. Madalyn is still the biggest sweetheart, but she is getting a little more personality...or maybe an "attitude". :) NO! She's been saying quite a few words for a while now, but just lately she has found that her two favorite words are "NO" and "MINE". Not my little sweetheart I know. She's also started this screaming thing, well more like grawling, when she gets upset and she shakes her fists real hard. It is actually quite funny though and it's hard for Erik and I to not laugh as she does it. She's still cuter than ever though. She is becoming quite the good helper also. I just need to get her some utensils her own size so her help can be a little more productive.



Madalyn still loves playing IN....


ON....


and with anything.


Since all the flowers are out now, Madalyn has found she loves to smell them. She'll rip them out of the ground too if that's what it takes.



Mommy was so proud the other day because I was able to get all of Madalyn's hair up in pigtails! YES! That is quite the accomplishment.