Theo, the Champ

While I spent two days in the hospital recovering with Theodore Todd and I stewed over what to name him. Is he Franklin? Calvin? Theodore? Grant? We didn't know. We even sang Happy Birthday to him hoping the right name would pop out, but it didn't. However, each night I spent alone with him I had time to feel who he was. As I held and loved him and sang to him in those wee hours I just knew he was our Theodore.
He's our little gift from God.

Turley is a good middle name for little Theodore, too, because in this family Turleys are known as great eaters. Theo was born hungry and was a champion of eating from the get-go. This made life so easy for me and he is now known as our little champ. Way to go, champ.

I was so lucky to have my mom come and stay with us for a week. Nothing compares to a mother's love. This goes for mothers-in-law, too. Oh, how I love my moms! In the previous post where Henry is "teaching Theo" you can hear vacuuming upstairs. Yep, that was my mom. She took such good care of me and the boys. She cleaned house, made meals (which we are still eating) and played with Henry. We loved having her.

Grandma and the boys at the indoor playground and at home.


Theo's first bath. Henry was a great helper.

Post bath. He appeared to feel like a king, and so serious! This is how he often rests--with his little hands folded over his chest.

One of Theodore's features that we just adore is his scallop-edged ear. So cute!



Just some cutes of the champ and big bro Henry.

What does Henry do while I tend to Theo? PLAY. It is so wonderful. He entertains himself for a good couple hours a day (while I'm near or watching, of course). I think he loves the slowed-down pace we now enjoy. I love it, too.

Henry's playing with his crab robot he and Todd built.


We all love little Theodore around here!!

P.S. If you want to compare Theo to Henry click here. I think they're actually pretty different, but both very handsome!

New and Green

Things could not be better around here.

Theodore is the most wonderful addition to our family.
We all love him very, very much. And this includes Henry.
For months I've worried that Henry would hate the baby, try to hurt him, and insist that I not hold him. Much to my surprise, Henry is the sweetest big brother. He LOVES Theodore. He finds him inherently fascinating and funny. He laughs at every little squeak, sneeze, or kick little Theo makes. He shares toys with him and actually likes me to hold him! I hope this lasts . . .
Although I'm duly impressed with Henry's acclamation to a new baby I do keep a good eye on them at all times.
Just a week or so ago Henry had a good friend, Alaster, over and while Alaster's mom and I were chatting down stairs we were interrupted as a laundry basket sped down the stairs. Alaster was sitting in it complete shocked and Henry stood at the top of the stairs with a nervous look on his face.
Again, I'll be keeping a close eye on my two boys.

Here are a few pictures of our darling baby. More pictures to come soon!

Theo's awake

Henry teaches Theo

Theodore Turley Freestone

This is Todd writing again, for we again have some BIG news.



Theodore Turley Freestone was born on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 5:16 pm. He weighed 6 lbs and 6.7 oz. The delivery went great and everybody is doing well.

Here are some more pics:

He doesn't usually look like this -- he was scrunching is face


Henry is doing really well with his new brother.

And here's a little video:

Some big news

This is Todd writing. I don't write on the blog much, unless I have something really important to write.

Well, I have some BIG news.

Actually, I don't, but Ryann Monahan of WICD News does, and she interviewed my beautiful wife to get her story:

http://www.wicd15.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/vid_3333.shtml

Rachel wasn't too excited to know she made the six o'clock news, especially considering she didn't wear makeup today -- but she still looks stunning. If there was a spike in their ratings this evening, I think we'll all know why.

A glimpse

Getting pictures taken while pregnant isn't the most desired thing, and I was a little nervous wondering how this photo shoot would turn out. Not because my very talented friend Jenika isn't able to take phenomenal photos, but because I am 36 weeks pregnant and let's say not feeling the prettiest.

Well, I'm floored. Our shoot was amazing. The weather was perfect and Jenika made me feel so comfortable and happy. She was a joy to be with.

Please go to her blog and check out the pictures of well . . . me . . . and my sweet husband and son. I am so glad she was able to capture these special moments of us as a family. I know I'll never regret getting photographed 9 months pregnant.

Jenika and I are working on an extended project so please stay tuned for pictures to come. Hopefully in the next 4 weeks or so when baby brother arrives . . .

Halloweening

This year Halloween was spread out over 9 days. From October 23rd to November 1st we celebrated Halloween.

It started with our ward party on the 23rd. Henry wore his skeleton PJs all day long--and loved it--but changed for our "real" costume that night.
We dressed as detectives Sherlock Holmes (Henry), Watson (Todd), and Irene Adler (Rachel). We received 3rd place in the best family costume category. I attribute our not getting first due to our tardiness. We arrived 30 minutes late, darn it. (Wink, wink.)

Our only Halloween picture all together was with the missionaries. But, that's okay, we do have the best missionaries--Elders Christensen and Kroll.

We had a plethora of chili choices, corn bread, popcorn balls, and homemade root beer. We played pumpkin bowling, bobbed for apples, and pumpkin bean bag toss.

"Pssst, Dad, you're all wet!"

It was a blast.

While the rest of the kids were out trunk or treating we stayed in and cleaned house a bit, and I spied Henry doing his own investigations. He made a great Sherlock even though he wasn't trying. I'd throw a plate away here, pick up a pen there and glance over to Henry. He was picking up clues all over the place. These photos weren't staged, I swear.
In the middle photo you see some of Henry's favorite friends: Jack and Alaster. He loves them. A lot. And we do, too. Jack was a great vampire and Alaster a mischievous Robin.

Next came trick or treating at the First Christian Church Friday the 29th. Henry chose to be Spider man. I think he made this decision after seeing all the awesome super heros at the ward party. Being a detective wasn't as cool anymore.

Despite my attempts to convince him to dress in his skeleton PJs and detective hat and coat to be Dirk Bones (the main character in one of his favorite books) he made an awesome Spider man.


Check out his spidey moves.

We met our friends Chihirio, Jay, and Theodore (or Red Power Ranger) and together they and had a ball exercising their super powers--or stretching.

Two costumes Henry was amazed by were Darth Vader and "the ice cream cone man". I think they alone made Halloween a memorable experience for him.

Darth's wife was a trekee.

Saturday the 30th Henry trick or treated and made holes in his heavy candy bag as he dragged it around the village. This kid loves candy, and can now sing the "Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar" song while eating a Kit Kat. We have high hopes.

Then, to top it off and because we forgot to on the actual Halloween night, tonight we watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Todd and I laughed hard when Charlie kept getting rocks while everyone got gum, chocolate bars and popcorn balls, and now Henry is collecting rocks and seems to be wondering why he wasn't as lucky as Charlie to be getting rocks. Henry believes rocks are a great thing to get trick or treating. Two year olds love rocks.
Well, I never got to that last Halloween decor item I was going to do, but maybe next year . . .