A Birthday, A Blessing, A Holiday, A Baby & A Camping Trip.

It feels like the last two months were a total whirlwind.  At the end of March we travelled to Utah for Dave to finish his LAST med school rotation, YAY!!!  While we were there we had a party for James' second birthday with all of his cousins on my side.

 James with daddy cutting into his fire truck cake.

 Before we left we celebrated James' birthday here at home.  Daddy surprised James that morning with a room full of balloons...as you can see he LOVED it.

 Our sweet Maddie was blessed while we were in Utah so we could celebrate with friends and family.

 Here is my mom...she was passing a kidney stone that day...in fact she had been trying to pass that darn stone for many days and finally had to go in for surgery two days later to have it broken up.  What a trooper!!!

Easter! 

 It was a fun trip to Utah!  We loved being with family and seeing some of our friends.  But it is soooo nice to be home, for a little while.  We just have a few more weeks before Dave's big Graduation!!  And our move to Las Vegas!

Since we have been home I returned to work, we've done LOTS of house hunting (without any luck yet), found renters for our place, Dave took his very last med school test (YAY!), and James went on his first Fathers and Sons campout....

 James slept even better than Dave.

 Exploring caves.

And our cute little Maddie...just being cute. 

Our big 2 year old

Our sweet little guy turned 2 years old yesterday!! I can't believe how quickly time passes when you have kids!

James has been a joy since the day he was born! He has always been full of smiles and he constantly makes us laugh. He was the easiest little baby and now he has become the funnest little toddler. He loves anything with wheels, especially Trucks!!! He loves to go for walks, go down the slide, chase birds, kick his soccer ball, watch shows, collect rocks, build forts with dad blow bubbles and read book after book after book. He is a great big brother and greatest son I could ever ask for. Our lives are so much more enriched because of his sweet spirit and all the joy he brings to our home! We love you James!!!!

They come with a personality!

Our funny, sweet little maddie is full of personality already!! We are often laughing because of the hilarious faces she pulls. She just started smiling purposefully this week...hopefully i can catch that on camera next. She is such a sweet baby I feel totally spoiled! She struggles a bit with fairly severe reflux and vomiting....but rarely cries or fusses because of it and (best of all) she sleeps like an angel...8 hours straight last night!! I can't believe she is five weeks old today. We sure love our little girl....I think brother is even getting to be quite attached!

Our New Baby Girl!

Introducing Miss Madeline Grace Freestone

She was born February 7th at 6:02pm weighing 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long. She has TONS of dark hair, long skinny fingers and toes and a very sweet and mellow demeanor.

I was induced a week early. The labor and delivery was a great experience. Less than 5 hours and just three pushes we had our little Maddie!

Our family of four!

One very proud daddy with his sweet little girl

James has been very sweet and gentle with his new baby sister. Most of the time he is more interested in his cars and balls than our new addition, but he is quick to bring her a blanket and and gentle pat when she whimpers.

Great-granddad Charon was able to be here for Maddie's arrival. She loves to nap in his arms all day long.

Maddie and her Lady. My mom was here for the delivery too. She has been a huge help getting me adjusted to two small kids!!

Our little princess has been even sweeter and more beautiful than we could have ever hoped for. It is hard to believe it has only been a week since she joined our family she feels so familiar.

We cannot express enough gratitude to all our friends and family for all their love and support!! We are truly blessed!!!

Has it really been since August....

I can't believe I haven't posted a thing since August...Quick recap:

Halloween:

Such a blast! James was totally into it this year. We carved Jack-o-laterns for family night the week before...he LOVED it! We had to go outside and say "nigh-night" to our pumpkins before bed every night.

We went Trick-or-treating with two of James' favorite people Brynn and Ava. James couldn't really keep up, he had to say "tank too" (thank you) to everyone involved with the candy and look at all the decorations along the way. It was so much fun! For several weeks after Halloween James would still run up to our neighbors doors when we went for walks and knock on them and yell thank you....probably hoping for some candy.

We didn't go very far just down the street with the girls and around our

block but James got loaded with candy. We let him indulge on a few

pieces the first couple of nights, but then the candy disappeared.... Oh and he was an airplane incase you were wondering.

Residency Interviews:

Dave has been really busy interviewing for Pediatric Residencies this fall and winter. He did three audition rotations (in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Phoenix Children's) and interviewed at 7 programs. One of the programs he got an interview at was Loma Linda University just about an hour away from Disneyland...so we decided to make a very last minute trip out of the interview since it also happened to land on my days off of work. We went and saw family in Escondido and took James to meet this guy:

He LOVED Disneyland. It was especially fun seeing our friends the Stevens who live in LA... We hope we can go back again soon!

Meanwhile:

We have been working on a little potty training. James actually likes sitting on the toilet and prefers going #2 on the toilet to going in his pants...we are not so good at #1 though. Just before Thanksgiving I had a little time off and he did GREAT. We had a few days without any accidents...but then the holidays came...along with double ear infections, bronchitis, croup and now some nasty virus that I have to be cautious of with my pregnancy...needless to say we will be starting over when the baby comes...but I just love his skinny little legs in his big boy underwear!!!

Thanksgiving:

We were able to go home for Thanksgiving this year!! It was so much fun seeing all of our family. We spent most of the time in Richfield with the Freestone/Ogden family. Lots of GREAT food and fun memories!

Christmas:

We also made it home for Christmas. Though I realized as I was doing this post I was horrible about taking pictures! We all had a great holiday. It was so nice to again be with our loved ones.

James helping daddy set up his new toy from Bonnie and Grandpa. He also got a Toy Story bag from my parents that he had to take with us EVERYWHERE we went...to the store, to get the mail (fortunately the novelty has begun to wear off)...He had a great Christmas!

I had to head back to Phoenix early to go to work. But Dave and James were able to have some Father/son bonding time in Utah after I left. Dave took James to his first college basketball game. He loved it!

Sorry no preggo pics...I need to take some! Hopefully I can post some before the baby comes...but that is just 3 weeks away (or less if I am induced as scheduled)...so don't hold your breath (mom). But there you have the last 4-5 months! One of my new years resolutions is to be better about blogging. My goal is to write at least once a month. I am one for one!

It's a....

Girl!!!!

We are so excited to welcome baby number two! She is due on Valentines Day.

Big Brother is blissfully ignorant!

California 2011

I guess it goes without saying that I am behind again on my blogging (sorry mom).
In July we were able to go on another amazing trip this time to northern California with Dave's family to celebrate Phil and Liz's 40th anniversary!! It was an absolute blast!!! We had great weather, beautiful scenery, yummy food and best of all we got to be with the family all week long!! There was so much we did I don't know where to begin. Here are the highlights:

Dancing! Our cute nieces entertained us with songs and dances they put together. Adorable.

Catching up....Emma and Lilly (my 12-year-old nieces) have officially passed me up in height (quite the accomplishment)...they are quickly gaining on their moms and even Nancy....she is jumping in this picture.

Naps!

More Dancing! Ken and Thomas doing the Haka at our Luau.

The Hula courtesy of Emma, Liz and Lilly

Us at the family Luau.

Swimming!

More Dancing! The kids put on a 4th of July program for us. They are so creative!!

4th of July psuedo-5k (more like 3 1/2k)

Happy 4th of July!!
The cute grand-kids showing off their festive pinatas they made.

The Beach!

Family Pictures!

Redwoods at Muir Woods

San Fransisco!

It was a wonderful trip that came and went to quickly. Thanks so much to Mom and Dad Freestone for the great time and for everyone for the many happy memories!!