La Jolla Vacation

Happy 5 Year Anniversary!!!!!!

Happy 5 year Anniversary Freeman! Can you believe that just five years ago, we became a family of two, and now we are a family of four? It's amazing how much we have grown and how strong we are. I remember 8 years ago, you took me to the Boise temple before I had to say my goodbyes to you before you went on your mission. That day you told me that if I wanted to, I could wait for you while on your mission. You left on your mission, and I wrote you almost every week... and you wrote almost every month... ;)

When you came home from your mission, I came out the next day... (Except the message didn't get to you that I was coming... so surprise! You had to come pick me up from the airport.) I remember you practically leaning out the car window you were so uncomfortable and nervous to be next to a girl alone. A month after you got home you moved down to Arizona, every weekend we would commute back and forth from Flagstaff to see each other. (Thank goodness gas was cheap back then...) After many, many, many months, you proposed, and we were married exactly 3 years after saying our goodbyes before your mission.

The day we were married, was the happiest day ever. It felt wonderful to know that we were living our lives the right way, and that we were going to be married in the temple. I wasn't just going to be married to you for "death do us part", I wanted to be married to you forever, for time and eternity. I wanted our future children to be sealed to us. I wanted to be happy and live wholesome lives.

So here we are 5 years later. I'm amazed how happy marriage can be and am truly happy and grateful that you are my husband, and how wonderful you are. I am amazed to see the blessings we have, just by being married in the temple and keeping our promises.

I love that you are my best friend, that we can be goofy and not care what the other one thinks, and just grow together. I love you Free. Happy Anniversary.

Getting So Big!!!

Nate likes to scoot himself across the tile.


Nate likes to chase Freeman down. Freeman was teasing Nate. Soon after Nate reached the dump truck, Freeman and the dump truck took off... with Nate following close behind...


Freeman decided to join Nate in his crib, and Daddy Freeman attacked the boys with tickles. I have never seen these kids laugh so hard.


Freeman is being quite the swimmer. Here is Freeman getting rings of the step. He can hold his breath and go under water.


This is one of Freeman's favorite things to do. He climbs onto dad's neck and they hold their breath and swim under water. Daddy Freeman has taught Little Freeman so much with swimming. They go almost every day. That is our special family time when Freeman comes home from work.

We put Nate on this car toy and surprisingly stayed on. He loves playing with all the little contraptions on this car and was so happy.






Time to share... So Nate always wants to play with what Freeman has and vice versa... Except Freeman is always able to take the toy away from Nate.


Nate is crawling around so Freeman is copying him.


Here is Nates little "Mission Impossible" move. Or is "Downward Dog" pose.


We are trying to wean Nate off his binkie and this particular night I hid one underneath his teddy bear (just in case I needed to find it during the night)... well as you can see he found it and fell asleep clutching it in his little hands.

Dedicated Thought

I was reading from a talk given by Thomas S. Monson from the Worldwide Leadership Training and was titled, "A Sanctuary from the World." There is someone very important in my life that I think this is important to hear, and maybe somehow will help reassess what's important.

"At times we may become bored or irritated with home and family and familiar surroundings. Such may seem less than glamorous, with a sense of sameness, and other places may sometimes seem more exciting. But when we have sampled much and have wandered far and have seen how fleeting and sometimes superficial a lot of the world is, our gratitude grows for the privilege of being part of something we can count on- home and family and the loyalty of loved ones. We come to know what it means to be bound together by duty, by respect, by belonging. We learn that nothing can fully take the place of the blessed relationship of family life."-Thomas S. Monson.

I know that my family may not share the same beliefs as me, but I want you to know that what the prophet counsels us in isn't just for the members of the church, it is for everyone. These teachings are for us all to learn and be strengthened by. This little paragraph in this talk hit home and I know that that is for me and my family to hear. I love my family member who this is dedicated to and I hope they will soon learn who they can count on.

What's with Scaring Me?

Okay, I don't know why but I keep getting spooked. I just downloaded new songs for our blog, and I like to just crank up the music and listen to it when I'm doing stuff. Anyway, the song Coldplay came on, and there is a extra voice in the song so I thought someone was in our computer room singing along. Anyway, click on Coldplay-Yellow from my Jukebox to listen to see what I'm talking about. Ha Ha.

The Return of the Special Smile

Here is Freeman at 1 year old. This is his famous "Special Smile." He has a great smile... but if you asked for his "Special Smile," this is what you got. Every now and then, we would ask and sometimes he would do it. Well, for my birthday, it was the return of the Special Smile!




2 Year old Freeman's special smile.

I wonder where he gets it from?

Nate's still working on his!

Sleeping Freeman

The many different sleeping positions of Freeman...

Freeman likes to tuck in his stuffed animals, so you can see his pile of toys that went, "Night Night" with him.
Freeman and his froggy legs...

Okay, this was funny... I was going in to check on Freeman, and he was tossing and turning and all of the sudden he got out of bed and stood up, and then bent over and his upper body rested on the bed. We have found him a few times like this, so I don't know if he starts to sleep walk, and just falls back into bed?
And of course, in the car... I don't know how he breathes like this...

Okay, funny/scary story. We put a gate up in Freeman's doorway so he won't keep getting out while he is trying to fall asleep. Well, with the start of Potty Training I was thinking that eventually he'll need to be able to go potty during the night and that maybe I should try to not keep the gate up. So we did our bedtime routine and I went to my room. I was talking on the phone to Freeman, and out of the corner of my eye I saw someone enter the room. Little Freeman had quietly come in and scared me to death. So, the gate went back up. No scaring mom when Dad's at work. We'll try again later.

Sleeping Nate

Funny Sleeping Moments of Nate...

Falling asleep after bouncing around like crazy on Exersaucer...

This is Nate's first time eating solid food! He was just so excited!

On our vacation in Palm Springs... "Time to Relax," was Nate's motto.

Bouncing Kids

Summer Days

Here is Freeman playing with his Sprinkler Fire Truck that Aunt Donna gave him for his birthday. He just loves this! Of course, shortly after this picture was taken we were attacked by those sprinklers!!!
Freeman loves helping Dad and cleaning the pool. Here he is empty out the skimmer.
What a hard worker.
Here is Freeman and his friend Carson. They were having so much fun bouncing on the fire truck.
Nate and Freeman hanging out.

The Shakes

So, I filmed Nate and the "Ball Popper" because of Nate's reaction. This video only gives you glimpses of what happened earlier... When I first turned on the Ball Popper, Nate started to Shake and I thought he was having a seizure. As soon as the ball popper turned off, I realized he was just so excited and that is why he was shaking. So if you look closely, occasionally he starts to shake. But just imagine that for 20 seconds straight. Scary at first, but then it was really funny.

My First Tag!

3 Joys
1. Having the gospel in my life and being happy
2. My 3 boys (Free, Freeman, and Nate!)
3. Having air conditioning

3 Fears
1. That my husband will get hurt at work.. Oh wait.. that happened..
2. Dolls scare me... funny thing once, my sister and I stayed at her friends house in Massachuetts, and the room I had to stay in... Filled with dolls on the dresser facing the bed.
3. Something happening to my children. They are my world.


3 Goals
1. I bumped up my goal from 1/2 marathon to full marathon. (Jan 31st anyone?)
2. Having a big family! I love my kids so much and it's so exciting to wonder who else is going to be in our family. I always picture Free and I as Grandparents and having all our Grandkids running around and spending time together.
3. Eventually I would love to participate in a Sprint Triathalon. But, I need a bike and be a better swimmer. (Yeah, I thought I was going to drown once at Lake Bartlett from swimming after our beachball... I had to just let it go :(

3 Current Obsessions
1. Working Out... has always been an obsession... Thanks to you Jane Fonda!
2. Of course, Blogging and letting my family know what's going on.
3. Trying to keep a clean house.

3 Random/Surprising Facts about Me
1. I had a short finger, but thanks to surgery it looks somewhat normal.
2. I think my husband is the only one who has seen my true, hyper crazy self... well besides my mom and sister
3. Even though shopping has never been my favorite thing to do, I discovered that I really like to shop for my husband and kids.

I tag, whoever reads my blog.

A Sad Blogging Mom :(

I decided to figure out how to make our blog look more interesting and accomplished that, but still not knowing what I am doing, when I saved my original template it didn't work so I am devasted that I lost what I've been journaling about my kids. I was going to take the time to copy down everything I have been writing and add it into their journals, but I am a procrastinator and put it off. I now regret not following my instinct to write in a journal first and then put it on the computer. So, my advice to my fellow bloggers...

"Write down what you think is important before you try to mess with it on the computer."-tiff

Whoops...

So.... my roots were grown out so bad, and it was going to be another 3 weeks until I had time to go into town to get my hair done... I just had to do something to my hair. Well, the FIRST time I colored my hair it was a light brown, but by the end of the day... Hmmm... My hair was looking a little red. So afraid to go lighter and the fear of making it orange, I decided to go with a natural brown to rid of the red... So my hair turned out reallllllllllly dark. The top still has golden tones in it, but then towards the ends it gets really dark. This is the only flattering pictures... the rest I look goth. Well, check out the blog in another 3-4 weeks and I'm sure I'll have a different haircolor.

SWAT

We recieved some recent pictures of when Freeman went through 2 different trainings for SWAT. He learned how to mount on a helicopter and taking a ride on the skid, plus getting on/off when it is hovering off the ground, some repelling, and for another training they were able to practice building searches and negotiations. All this training is soooo Freeman and he has so much fun.

Freeman (on left) after getting checked in before Practice Scenario.
I think this is when they come up to the door to throw in the phone for Negotiation.
Freeman (on left) behind The Shield. They are going in to do a building search.

Freeman getting off helicopter

Repel practice

Getting off helicopter.

Freeman and Reggie getting ready to ride on the helicopter.

SWAT Team Photo

Ready for Take Off?

There they go!

And they're off!

During this drill, the helicopter will hover above the ground and they all have to dismount at the same time. (The chopper gets a little closer to the ground...)

This is another team photo after another training they did.