The Fox and The Ewe

Awful-mints

2011-12-07T12:06:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Henry put his legos together this way and said, "Hey, Mom, look, they're awful-mints."
A little confused but trying to be supportive (because I know how frustrating it is for him not to be understood),
"Oh, cool . . . they're what?"
"Awful-mints."
Still not understanding, "Okay, they're awful-mints."
"No, Mom!", he started to tear up, frustrated. "That's not it."
"Okay, Henry, how 'bout you try to describe it to me, because I don't understand."
"You know, there's some animals, and I can't climb on them . . . "
Laughing now, "Oh, right! You mean, off limits."

He remembers when we were at the zoo and there were Christmas decorations (the ones behind the kiddos in this picture) that he ran ahead to climb on and we told him they were "off limits" so he couldn't climb on them.

Awful-mints.
Gotta love little kids
(he tells us he's not a toddler anymore)
and the English language.

Frosty

2011-12-07T11:51:00.001-08:00

Two days ago we turned Henry into Frosty the snowman.
He was bounding around, pretending to be Frosty so I offered to make him a carrot nose and top hat. He thought that was a great idea.
So, we sat down and I colored and cut, and taped and tied. He watched me and every couple minutes he would say, "Mom, you're working hard," "Don't forget the red ribbon on the hat!" or, "The nose is too big." And, "I'm gonna be a snoooooooowman."
Twenty minutes later he became Frosty the Snowman. If you know Henry, you know how much he loves being new characters. He learns all he can about them and then plays the part all day long.

He was in heaven!

Firemen

2011-12-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Henry and his friend Benjamin are the bravest firemen on the block. The fire bell sounds, they gear up and off they go, breaking down doors, putting out fires, and saving the cats. Nothing will stop them. We turned Todd's dry-ice bubbles tool into a hose and water tank. The boys love it. Each takes a turn carrying the water tank, and the hose. Together, they're a great team.

Sometimes they work so hard and work up such an appetite that they can't help but get into a little bit of mischief.

The boys had been "working hard" outside on the playground, and it was getting cold so we came inside and the house smelled so good--Todd had made some homemade bread and it was cooling on the rack. While the boys took off their gear I hurried upstairs to get Theodore's blanket and when I came downstairs I found both boys with the loaf in hand, and their mouths full of bread. Before I could say anything, they exclaimed with smiles, "It smelled sooooooooo good. Mmmm. We want to eat it!" I couldn't blame them.

Thanksgiving / Projects

2011-11-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

I have so much to be thankful for!

A family. A husband. Children. Supportive parents and loving siblings.
The gospel of Jesus Christ. The church. A prophet. Scriptures.
A home. Work.
A body. Health. Warmth. Food. Clothes.
The beautiful world, and all things in it!
Laughter. Books. A car. Hulu.
A fire alarm. Indoor plumbing. Floss and toothpaste. And a washer and dryer.

The list goes on. It's humbling.
I know that all things good are given to me by a loving Heavenly Father. I am indebted to Him and to His Son for giving me all that I have, and could ever dream or hope for.

A feeling of gratitude and peace came to me, stronger than at other times, a few weeks ago. We were kneeling in prayer at the end of the day, and Todd thanked Heavenly Father for our healthy children, for watching over us and them. This thanks has been offered in many prayers previously, but at this particular time I felt a warmth so wonderful it's hard to describe. God, who created all things--the universe, stars without number--was watching over me. My family, and my children. I know that He is. And I know that He's watching over and loving each of his children, everywhere. None are too small or insignificant to be cared for by Him. I am so thankful for that moment of peace and warmth He gave me through the Spirit, reminding me that I truly am in His watchful care. I love Him.

* * *

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. It was wonderful! Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but we also celebrated the baptism of my niece, Brenna.

As we traveled South we bumped into family heading North. St. Louis was where we crossed paths so we spent the afternoon together at the St. Louis Zoo. It was cold and a bit rainy but so fun.

Then we traveled on to Oklahoma. We made it without a hitch, except for the kink in Theo's neck. We stopped every three hours so his head wouldn't be permanently stuck with his chin over his right shoulder. Poor kid. Couldn't keep his eyes off of Henry in the back seat.

We had such a great time in Oklahoma with my sister and her family, and my parents, who flew there for Thanksgiving and my nieces baptism.

Sadly, my camera died and I couldn't find my charger, so I only got one picture in OK, but luckily it was of Brenna, the woman of the hour:

My sister made Thanksgiving dinner, and it was delicious. All the yummy, homemade stuff.

While she and my parents cooked in the kitchen, my brother-in-law, Ryan, and Todd and I kept the kids busy outside playing "Sneaky Snake", Alligator, Hide-and-Seek, Red Light/Green Light, crack the egg, and Hot Potato. You may be wondering what Sneaky Snake is; we made this one up on the spot. It's keep-away inspired by this song by Tom T. Hall (one of Henry's favorites).

We saw The Muppets, and loved this song in particular. Overall the movie was hilarious and just darn cute. It was so fun hanging out with family. We napped, ate good food, and laughed a lot.

Brenna's baptism was wonderful. She's such a lovely little lady, wise beyond her years, and she was just so sweet. I sat there watching her, in awe that 8 years has gone by since she was born. It was awesome to see her be baptized and take part in those wonderful ordinances that will bless her so much.

The baptism was so great that nobody noticed that Henry peed his pants and wore a blue puffy coat instead of pants.

We loved family, we loved Thanksgiving, and we love the blessings the gospel of Jesus Christ brings.

* * *

Before Thanksgiving Henry and I worked on projects. He painted while I glued. He was so diligent working on his Baloo. So diligent. He sat for 45 minutes (seriously) painting, mixing colors (mostly with black), and listening to music with me. I loved it.

Here we are:

And the finished products:

(Still trying to decide if I should spray paint the wreath. In normal light you can't really see the light straw under the acorns, but the flash really brought it out. Any suggestions? We thought about spray painting it all brown, or white, or . . . orange!)

Say What?!

2011-11-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

We're all a bit disappointed around here . . . maybe even a little bit depressed. Okay, it's denial.
About what, you ask?
Did any of you catch the Sing Off this season? It was amazing!!
But, last week our team was voted off.

They've got great voices, great arrangements, great moves, and they're wholesome and handsome. Now, I understand they're probably not the best fit to be the final winners. After all, they are a college group that changes as each member graduates and just not as marketable as, say, Pentatonix, but we so wish we could have seen them battle it out with them.

Here are our favorite performances:

They are SO good.

Love you VP!

All around the town

2011-11-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

What a brother.

A Visit from Mim and Bub

2011-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Remember this great couple? I knew you would.

Well, they came to visit us a couple weeks ago and it was the best.
There's never a visit from them that we aren't served, taught, entertained, and loved! They are so generous and kind and we love them so much.

This trip we made them a chicken pot pie one dinner and the next night they treated us to home made spatzle and schnitzle with this twirly bacon (that's not it's official name but it was some kind of fancy bacon that was yummy) and gravy dinner. It was so good.
We saw Moneyball, went to Curtis Orchard, and went shopping.

Three handsome gentlemen: Father, son, and Grandfather on our way to a pumpkin patch.

Thanks for the visit!

Halloween Festivities 2011

2011-11-14T18:48:00.001-08:00

This year we were the Scooby Doo gang!

Todd - Shaggy, Henry - Scooby, Theo - Freddie, and Rachel - Velma

Halloween this year was so great.

We did a 12 days of Halloween (idea found at Family Fun). Some of the activities included:

Making festive decorations.
The bats hung in a line over our coffee table and could be seen from the sidewalk outside - very spooky!

Going for a walk in the neighborhood and taking pictures of Halloween decorations.
Below are some of our favorites:

Homemade spookiness - sticks, plastic bag ghosts, CAUTION tape - don't miss the creators themselves on the right.

Spooky Trees

and Pumpkin families

Making Spooky treats.
Nutter Butter Ghost cookies, inspired by Marta and other healthy vampire snacks. Yum!

This year the Primary was in charge of the Halloween Party at our church, and it turned out quite alright! We were pleasantly surprised that we underestimated how many people would come - by about 30 - and had to quickly throw up 4 more tables.
We had a chili cook-off, games (pumpkin curling, a bat cave, pumpkin bean-bag toss, and cake-walk), and a trunk-or-treat.

I didn't get any pictures there due to the busyness of the night but luckily we had a sister taking photographs of groups and families. I think we looked great! Not only did we look like the Scooby gang, we sounded like the gang.
Through the night we dropped catch phrases such as: Jinkies! Zoinks! I can't find my glasses! Scooby-dooby-dooby-doo!! And, Like, we need more snacks, Scoobs!
It was so fun.

Trick or treating was a blast, too. The boys got a good nap right before so they were in good spirits to beat the chilly weather and late night hours of 6-8 pm.
Our good neighbors Angela and Jim (I always want to call her Pam) could not wait to see them. They practically came and knocked on our door wondering when they would come by to trick-or-treat.
Angela offered Henry two pieces. To my surprise he said, "No." Rejecting candy? She offered again, "Well, your brother, he's too small to eat candy, how about you take his pieces?"
"No."
And we were on to the next house.
I guess he had his own rule in mind: one treat per door - no exceptions. He was so cute chiming "Trick or treat!" and always gave a big thank you. It got pretty cold so he cruised around in his wagon and we made great time.
We made it back home to a warm dinner - butternut squash soup, bread, and salad. Then we cozy-ed up on the couch with hot cocoa and enjoyed It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Hot cocoa and the Great Pumpkin movie, we've decided, is going to be Halloween tradition every year.
Henry still quotes it: I got a rock.
He finds this hilarious.

We borrowed the costume from a fellow church member and Henry practically lived in it for a good 2 weeks. Like a true dog he often relaxed on the cool kitchen floor.

That's a wrap for Halloween 2011.

One

2011-11-09T17:20:00.001-08:00

Our sweet "witto one" is ONE. A year. Not just months anymore. A year!
Where has the time gone?

What an amazing year it has been, and how quickly it went by. My, my.

As of late Theodore:

"Jokes"
The way he jokes is he babbles or makes funny faces (squints his eyes and purses his lips) and then does a sort of Ernie-from Sesame Street-esque laugh like he's laughing at himself, and then he either shies away, hiding his cheek in his shoulder or looks up at the ceiling with a big open-mouthed smile.

Flashes
You catch his eye, smile, and he'll flash a smile right back atcha--guaranteed.

Splashes
He pulls himself to standing and then plops back on his bottom with gusto, giggling all the while. He's a real swimmer.

Gets around
All around. Up and down our stairs, the slides, behind the couch, into the window, into our laps, the dirt, the rocks, you know, all the fun places.

Is more and more like Henry
He loves the "Automatic Door: Activate Switch to Open" signs at the libraries and church.
He points, kicks his legs and reaches with all his might to touch it. He loves all caution signs, buttons, and wires. This morning at his 1-year well-baby exam he crawled under the doctor's desk and went for the power button and almost shut down doc's computer--all in 2 second's time. Boy he's fast.

Toothy
He's getting more and more teeth, a total of 5 now - and the last one's coming in crooked!
It's so cute. Really, it is.

A joy
This boy is incredibly sweet, easy going, independent, and funny.
We love him a lot and will keep him forever.

Here's one of the videos I found from his early days. He's got these amazing big eyes that I love, and I just laugh when Henry slips in the snow. Whoops! Too funny.

* * *

We started this morning off right. Presents!

We pay $14.95 a month for our wrapping paper. Top quality stuff. ;)
Today he's loved reading his new books and playing with Little People cars and the balloon machine. So much fun for a one-year-old.

While Henry "helped" unwrap Theo went AWOL, looking for an early breakfast I suspect.

We had pancakes, some with sprinkles, some with Nutella, and some with syrup.
All the good healthy stuff. When the doctor asked me what he had for breakfast this morning (probably to get a general idea of what we feed him on a typical day) and I told him the truth I think he was a little disappointed in us. But hey, it's his birthday!

After breakfast we got ready to visit the doc.
As soon as we walked into the backroom Henry declared to all the nurses, "It's his birthday!" They just laughed.
Theo got a slew of shots. Henry told him to be brave. He did alright.

We played all day at home and the toy room, and then I made dinner.
Theo's favorite: Rice and Daal. I magic-sticked it (blend it up smooth) and he just downed it.

And of course, we ate cake! He ate the whole piece.
(Hopefully he'll sleep through the night?!? My fingers are crossed.)

Wishing you a very happy birthday, from all of us:

We love you, baby!

And, a bonus video for making it all the way to the bottom of the post

Fierce and loyal and loving

2011-11-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Todd and I recently listened to Amy Chua's book on CD: A Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother. In it she vividly describes how she mothered her daughters, rearing them the Chinese way. Strict. Careful. Invested. Expecting nothing less than perfect. Hoping that someday her daughters would be great. The greatest.

In a way it was inspiring. As a mom I appreciated Amy's dedication, determination, and high expectations. But wow. It was heartbreaking. She described instance after instance of the fighting, the pressure, the tears and the stress as she forced her daughters to practice and study and perform. And all of it was never good enough. That's not the kind of experience I want to have with my children.

In contrast to the tiger mother we also read an article by the dragon mom, Emily Rapp. Inspiring and heartbreaking, too. I love this woman and I don't even know her.
Go ahead and read her notes.

As a young mom I'm still figuring out the type of mom I am, my parenting style. I think about what my parents did, and all that I love and appreciate them for. I observe moms all around. I consider what has worked for us the past three years, and what doesn't work. I'm learning and growing and I don't think I'll ever have it all figured out. And that's okay. But one thing's certain. I love these boys more than I could ever describe and I want them to know it.
I think I want to be a dragon mom: fierce and loyal and loving as ever.

I love the idea of parenting for the here and now. Not for the bright and promising future we parents are hoping for, but for our children--what they're worth--today. In her final thoughts, Emily says, Parenting, I’ve come to understand, is about loving my child today. Now. In fact, for any parent, anywhere, that’s all there is.

Here's for you, my kiddos, today: I love you!

One of Henry's favorites: Shredded Wheat with diggers

Riding with his "mask", or, the hat that Daddy knit for him

A favorite fall past time (now that the cold wind is blowing in!): Heading to the store.
Look how flat it is out here!

Bath time.
I think this is their favorite time of day. (Multiple times a day.) Can you tell?

Outside

2011-10-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Theodore LOVES the great outdoors. He would spend all day outside if he could. He loves to crawl and explore. He attempts to eat rocks and play in the gutter, and if I'm distracted and he's fast enough, he succeeds. He acts truly broken-hearted when we have to finally come inside. Wish us luck this winter!

Here are some photos of us enjoying the beautiful fall weather, and some snip-bits about Teed.

This sweet little man points at what he wants, or what he's excited about. He'll point to his door when he wants to leave, he'll point to Todd when he returns home from work, he'll point to his crib when he's overly tired. He knows what he wants, and he shows us.

He also LOVES apples. And seems to manage just fine despite his lack of teeth.
He also loves cottage cheese, water (odd, I know), rice and daal, PBJs and cooked veggies--but only if he can feed himself.

Talking to a leaf.

Hey, two top teeth! Look at those chompers!

Now ain't he just CUTE?

Leaves!
Oh, the feel, the aroma, the colors, the crunch. So fall. So beautiful.

I am so lucky to be Mother to these two wonderful, goofy boys.

Superman!

2011-10-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Henry loves to pretend.
He's ALWAYS pretending, and what an imagination he has!
Not only is it totally fun and entertaining, but it's a skill that he uses to his advantage.
Let me tell you.

A few days ago we were going for a bike ride. Henry rode ahead with his friend, going pretty quickly, and soon he rode off onto the grass and tumbled to the ground. Normally this would make him cry but this time as I ran to him he stood up and brushed himself off and said in a deep voice, "It's okay, Mom. I'm okay. I'm IRONMAN!" He hopped on his bike and rode off. I was so surprised!

Today when we were working on a Halloween craft he was getting frustrated that his bat didn't look how he thought it should. (Have I told you he's a bit of a perfectionist? I have NO idea where he gets THAT from . . . ahem.) Well, he almost gave up when I said something like,
When you're in school you can't give up. You'll have to keep going and trying even when it's hard. (I know, I probably shouldn't have said that, I mean, way to put the pressure on early, Mom! Anyway . . . ) Suddenly, it seemed like a switch flipped.
His attitude totally changed.
He started pretending.
All pumped up he says, "Oh, we're in school! You're my teacher, and I'm the student. . . . Okay, teacher, I'll keep trying. I can do this!"
What?!
He continued pretending to be the student. He diligently worked on coloring his bat, and finished it! He was so proud of himself, all the while talking about what it's going to be like in Kindergarten. He can't wait to be 5. I think he has big dreams for Kindergarten. He could forget all about turning 4, but we won't let him. We don't want him growing up too fast.

He does this all the time. If something is hard for him, or if he's afraid, he'll start pretending he's somebody who can overcome. He'll find a way to make it through. To me he's a little Superman. He finds a way to conquer anything and everything he wants to.

And, he's super fun.

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No, it's . . . SUPERMAN!

Observant

2011-10-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Freestone boys are observant. They notice details, ask questions, and get right up close to the action to figure things out. When Henry was about 18 months old he and I were at a playground where children were riding a merry-go-round. Henry rode the carousel, got off, and stood a few feet away and watched it for a minute. He then got down on the ground, prostrate, and watched the mechanism under the merry-go-round. For a few minutes he watched it like this going round and round while kids played. I suppose he was curious about how it spun, maybe why it seemed a float, I don't know, but he was curious, observant.

We were just at Meijer last week, doing a store tour. We were in the back where the trucks unload their cargo, and a lady watching Theo noticed he was staring at the ceiling, his eyes darting from the rafters to the lights to the shelving, just checking everything out, even straining his neck to see things as we walked around. She said, "This boy's gonna be an engineer some day. He's just checking everything out."

Recently while Henry and I were baking he sneaked away from the kitchen and was very quiet in the living room. After a few minutes I wondered what he was up to (hoping it wasn't a potty accident) and was pleasantly surprised to find him:

"Reading" The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. This book was Todd's when he was a kid and Henry loves to look at it.

But he doesn't like me to look at him looking at it.

And he especially doesn't like me taking pictures of him. Sorry kiddo--you're too cute.

Much like their father, these boys continue to amaze me. They are creative minds. They manipulate, observe, test, and build. Always creating; always asking questions.

A few days ago we were returning from a morning walk and Henry turned and exclaimed,
"Look at the E from above!"
"What are you talking about?" I asked, totally confused.
"Look," pointing to the sidewalk, "See?"

It took me a second, but yep--I saw it.
"Wow, Henry, what an observation!"
"Why is it like that?", he asks.
"Oh, well, the sun is rising over that way", pointing to the East, "And the building is blocking the sun from shining on the whole sidewalk, and if you look at the windows on the building you see that they stick out farther than the roof--in the shape of an E. The sunshine and the shadow of the roof make an E appear on the side walk."
He gets pretty excited about these things and at the end of my lengthy explanation he was waving his hands, "Yeah, it's like a shadow, an E shadow!"

Another thing Henry has been curious about recently is signs--specifically warning, caution, or "No ________ " signs (the ones that have a picture with a circle and a line through it). Every sign he sees he asks what it means and why.

After a long walk to the construction site where "Henry's new school" is being built (at least we're hoping it's his school when he turns 5--where we live, your school isn't definitely determined by proximity) we came home and he wanted to make a construction zone. So, I made a mediocre caution sign and he was satisfied. He got to work playing with his cars and diggers and tractors while I washed dishes. When I had finished I found him with all his cars lined up, facing the sign. It reminded me of Henry way back when.

These boys are so much like their father (it thrills me, really), but perhaps they do have a little bit of me in them. Would you guess that I like order??? Like maybe too much sometimes?

And, for the sake of random--Theo's new game:

Shall we sign him up for lacrosse just yet?

To Report

2011-09-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

Gardening season is wrapping up for us and we're about to clean up the leftovers. Considering this is our first year gardening I think we did alright. To report, our garden yielded . . .
LOTS of cherry tomatoes
lots of string beans
lots of pea pods
lots of tomatoes
quite a bit of beats
a handful of carrots
a few ears of corn
a couple baby watermelons
a couple butternut squashes and acorn squashes
and a couple zucchinis
(am I forgetting something, honey?)

We learned (in simple terms, because we're simple) that:

Tomatoes can get bottom-rot, but are still good when you cut the rot off. Most of our tomatoes turned out this way, and you can see in the above picture that the rest of the tomato looks fabulous! That is because we cut off the rot. These tomatoes were fantastic by themselves or with cottage cheese, and on sandwiches.

Little white bugs love b-nut squash and practically kill them. We also learned that hosiery is a great way to support squashes and baby watermelons.

Mice like to make homes in gardens.

Weeds are not tame.

Water and sunshine really do make seeds grow!

We may garden again next year, we may not. It was really fun to see it grow and even more fun to eat the fruits, but it was a lot of work in the beginning, and it took some work to maintain it. I often felt like it was a child I was neglecting, it always needed more time and attention, and love--and we just couldn't give it. Being about a half a mile from our garden made it tricky for us to get to it on a daily basis. Perhaps when we're older and our little ones are a bit more grown we'll garden again. All in all, it was a great experience, and reminded me how much I do like to get my hands dirty.

International Cheese Curling . . . CHAMPS

2011-09-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

That's right, folks, this year's International Cheese Curling Champions for Arcola, IL are . . .

THE FREESTONES!

Oh, and Jacob Stewart and Bill Evans. We couldn't have done it without our other two trusty rollers.

There were about 25 teams competing for the title. We arrived late and were the 23rd team to sign up. We were the Freestone Cheese-stones.

Jacob, Bill, and I were the rollers, and Todd was the sweeper. My man has sweeping skills that I've never seen! I was very impressed and wondered why our floors haven't been swept more by this pro. Wink, wink, honey.

This is how the game goes. Each roller rolls a wheel of Swiss Cheese, the sweeper sweeps or guides, the cheese to the target. The outer ring is 1 point, the next ring is 2, and so on to the center circle which is 4 points. After each roller has rolled you add the points up and a perfect score is 12. The first time we rolled we scored an 11, and joined 3 other teams for a 4-way tie. The roll off began.

The first three teams went--I can't remember their scores--but the pressure was on!

The boys provided moral support.

The first roll: 4

The second roll: 4

The third roll: they weren't so sure. The ref had to get a second opinion.

And it was determined: another 4!
A perfect score. We were the winners!

It was dramatic--Todd was cheering and I ran over and gave him a big kiss. The newspaper photographer said he'd have us do another kiss over the target for a picture for the paper, it was just that awesome, but I think he forgot. It's too bad, too, because that would have been quite romantic.

We not only came home with the title of International Cheese Curling Champions, but also 3 5-lb wheels of Swiss cheese. We've been eating cheese spatzle, BLTs, grilled cheese, and Theo just eats it plain. And we've only gone through half of one wheel! But it sure is tasty.

We celebrated the win with some strawberry and lemonade slushees while Henry bounced in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse jump house.

As we were leaving the festival on our way to a potluck with friends, Todd and the boys were "recognized" by some locals. It took us a little while to get out of there . . .

We ate some good food and played the rest of the evening.

* * *

A couple weeks ago we received a few Graphic-Clarions in the mail, where we appeared on the front page. Thanks, George. If you'd like a copy--just let me know. I won't even charge you a dime.

We plan to compete again next year to defend our title.
Go Freestone Cheese-stones!

The Freestone 4 Go Camping

2011-09-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we ventured over to Kickapoo again for a little camp out.
The boys were excited--can't you tell?

This time we had:

a hammock!

ample amounts of kindling for a roaring fire!

And Theodore!!

The evening was great. We got camp set up and started on dinner: a dutch oven dinner of cheesy mac and beef and, woo-wee, it was spicy!

We had forgotten a can opener, which we needed to open up some fire roasted tomatoes. So I, being the brave (or more like proud) one, took a knife to it. Todd couldn't watch. I almost got the whole lid off when, whoops! I cut myself. Nothing too bad. A Toy Story Band-aid sufficed, but I was humbled enough to let Todd ask our neighboring campers for a spare can opener. Todd made a nice fire, and dinner was ready in no time.

While it was cooking we went for a little "hike". Meaning, we walked down the 80 or so wooden steps to the lake front and back up. The lake was low and murky, but pretty none the less. We lazed and swung in the hammock, admired the stars, sang some songs around the campfire, and told stories.

Theo went right to bed, which was a great relief to me, but it was no surprise to us that Henry could not settle down enough to go to sleep. We let him hang out with us around the campfire til about 10 when we were all tuckered out. By then Henry was out of his mind tired and threw a fit that I'm sure scared all the campers, animals, and bugs--anything within ear shot--away. He demanded that we go home. He wanted his own bed. Todd was ready to pack up camp (I think he wanted his own bed, too), but I said absolutely not. We were gonna finish this thing. Henry eventually tired out and we all slept very well.

Waking at around 5:30 we got breakfast going--hash browns with bell peppers, eggs, and sausage, and juice. Mmm, it was delicious. I love camp food, even if a little bit of dirt gets kicked in. It's all good. We then played tag and "surfed" on a nearby log, each showing off a few tricks or two. (Henry cued the simulated waves.)

On the drive home we stopped by Carmella's Creme for a few tasty donuts. We made it home more tired than the day before, more stuffed, more dirty, and covered with bug bites, but so grateful to have each other.

P.S. These photos make me (and probably only me) laugh so hard. I'd like to share anyway.
So in my efforts to take a picture of the guys lounging in the hammock together I couldn't quite get their focus at the same time--naturally.

I took this picture, and Todd was trying to get Henry's attention to get him to smile, and immediately after I snapped the photo Henry exclaimed while mimicking, "Dad you were going like this!"

Yep, son, he was. You've got your father down.

Catch-up

2011-09-17T20:01:00.001-07:00

So although months have passed since our trip to UT it would be a shame to not finish posting about the good times had there. So, posts may not be in chronological order (oh, for the next year or so) but, maybe within the next year I'll have it all chronicled here for us all to remember.

The Lehi Roundup Rodeo. What a kick!

The pre-rodeo festivities were just as fun as the actual rodeo.
We ate BBQ pork sandwiches, fancy potatoes, fruit, and it was yummy!
The kids got all dressed up and whacked a pinata to pieces.
Henry prepped for the rodeo by riding his bouncin' horse.
And probably the best part of it all was listening to Pop's stories of being a REAL cowboy. Stanley Turley is our boys' great grandpa, and he was a real cowboy from AZ. There's a picture of him hanging in our living room that Henry just loves. He's so proud.

After the moto-cross halftime show we left and bumped into the riders under the bleachers by the ambulance. They said hi to Henry and waved. Henry was in heaven--completely starstruck.

Three Yee-haws for good family fun.

So Long Summer

2011-09-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Goodbye, Summer! We'll miss you, and remember you fondly! Thanks for the good times.

This year fall has come prematurely in my book. The older I get the quicker the seasons go and come, and it makes me a little sad. I know that these days spent with my little ones are going to be gone before I know it. And I just hope that we'll have made the most of our days together.

This particular day at the park was a fun one.

Testing out sand for the first time. Yum!

Getting buried.

Swinging . . . and making sand chicken pot pies.

Dancing on the seal.

"All abooooooard! Choo-choo!!"

Train rides: Henry's the engineer and Theo's the passenger.

And sword fights!!

An evening up South Fork

2011-08-06T11:23:00.001-07:00

Dinner.
Frisbee.
Kickball.
Wrestling.
Nature.
Cute kids.
S'mores.
Good night stories.

Would you ever guess that the above kiddos are twins? They are! They are so fun and adorable--and so different--quite amazing.

" . . . a big long nose . . . "

At day at Sundance

2011-08-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

I love Utah's mountains!

Sundance is a nice little escape up the mountains. We rode the ski lift up and hiked around. We smelled the grasses and flowers and popped blisters on the trees, and we even played with snow--remember it was June. We ate a yummy lunch and I got a dress. Oooo, nothing makes me feel more like a pretty lady than a new dress. Most of all we loved hanging out--and being goofy--with family.

Birthday Boy!

2011-08-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Henry turned 3!!!
(Oh, over a month ago or so, but a post is better late than never, right!?)

We put up the decorations the night before so when Henry awoke in the morning it was like it was Christmas. He bounded around the house all morning just so excited for the party to start. Todd's friend from church, Quintin, had his friend make Henry a robot birthday poster. Henry thought it was awesome, especially the little guy on the right that says "Have the best birthday ever!"

For the activities we started out with brush 'bots. Todd made a card board racing arena for the 'bots and the kids customized their bots with pipe cleaners and wires.

Then it was balloon rockets!
Each boy tried their own balloon rocket a few times, and then it was time for the giant balloon rocket launch.
Above the boys are laughing it up. Joseph, in the red shorts, must have cracked a good joke--he's always so clever.

And the rocket soared! It almost went across the whole backyard. My honey's got quite the lungs.

What a cute crew of boys.
Left to right: Adam, Benjamin, Anders, Henry, Jack, Joseph, Vincent, Spencer and Spencer.

And last but not least, the water rocket launch!!!
The kids raced to the top of the hill and Todd set up the rocket. The kids counted down, or tried to. The video of the countdown (or up) cracks me up--especially Henry's counting.
"Nine! Ten! Eleven! Twelve! Fourteen! Sixteen! Eleventeen! Eighteen! Nine! Ten! . . . " The launch was a success.

The food table and giftbags--each filled with candy and their brush 'bot.

We gathered back home for lunch--rocket (hot) dogs, PBJs, chips, fruit and Capri Suns--and cake--a robot cake. Lunch was good and the cake was . . . not so good. When I made it the night before I muscled the batter with a wooden spoon rather than using a hand mixer. The cake turned out flat and dense and dry. Whoops! Next time I'll for sure use a hand mixer. Henry loved the robot, though.

***

At his party Henry received a light saber and a bike from friends. He was bouncing off the walls about his light saber. It came with a little DVD with example battles so he watched it and that's where he got some of his awesome moves . . .

He was "so 'cited" about his bike and rode all around the village with his friend, Anders.

I love Anders' face in this one. CHEESE!
It was a HOT day so we were all exhausted by the end. But Theo was still all smiles!

Breaking News . . .

2011-08-03T19:47:00.001-07:00

Just in: Henry Cameron Freestone is potty trained!!!! (At least for #1, anyway.)
Three cheers for Henry.
Hip hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip hurray!

It all started last week after a swim at the pool. We came home and right before baths he declared he was going to go pee pee in the potty. Whoa, what!?! He tried, he did it, and was SO so SO happy.

Henry helping me carry Theo's gear to the pool--such a gentleman.

Since that post-pool pee pee he has had only 2 accidents and he is so proud of himself. We even took him to church in under ware and he went potty twice--loving the loud flush of the church toilet--and had no accidents.
He says:
No more bottom owies.
No more baby diapers.
I'm a big boy.
I'm like my friends.
I can wear under ware!!

Of course the kid has to match his under ware to the character he is for the day (or moment), so can you guess which under ware he's wearing?

Nemo!

and Lightning McQueen!
Check out that tail fin on his back--he insisted on that one.
We sure do love our Henry.

Family Pictures and a Deer

2011-08-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Family pictures were planned for the beginning of the reunion week to ensure good moods from all. Oh, we were all in great spirits, that is, except the grandkids. It was the first picture of the night, the kids looked great, the weather cooperative, but it was the parent-less photo. You know, the grandparents surrounded by their sweet grandkids?

Let's just say the kids were not up for it. Mim and Bub graciously sat in the middle while we parents attempted to place and replace, and calm and bribe (and threaten?) the kiddos into standing still and smiling. But once one babe started crying it was all over. The babies started it all, the toddlers soon joined in. It all became so loud Henry ran away covering his ears and would not go back. It was quite a sight, and the rest of us laughed our heads off. We may have got one shot without a mom's backside in it.

We thought the picture taking was over but decided to go ahead with the rest of the shoot, and thankfully we did because the kids calmed down and were quite happy, and I think we got some great ones! We were almost finished when out comes a deer from the neighbor's yard!

The deer bounded toward us, then dodged us completely. It was a cute little deer. The Freestone's neighbor is a famous artist who has also become a tender of wild animals, and I think he was bringing out the fawn for a little stretch of the legs and potty break. The kids all went crazy for the deer, chasing it, trying to pet it and feed it. It was just a bit jumpy but I was very surprised that it allowed us to get so close.

Have I ever mentioned Henry's great love for animals? Oh, he's crazy about them. All of them. Not crazy like, I wanna squeeze it and hold it by its tale and chase it, but like, wow, you're incredible and I wanna be your friend. He'd say things like, "It's okay little deer, come smell my hand, come on, it's okay . . . " He just loves them, which is actually a familial trait. Todd's sister, Tasha, is the same way. She loves and cares and respects all animals. I think Henry got this from her.

(My gorgeous SIL with her new baby, Canyon.)

It was quite the memorable family photo shoot.

Branson, MO!

2011-07-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

In June we spent a week in Branson, MO. And we LOVED it. I would recommend it to everyone, it's family-friendly and so fun. I would also recommend doing it in the spring or fall, not the middle of the summer. The summer heat, I'd say, is the city's only deterrent.

My parents and niece, my sister and her family, and the boys and I stayed in Condos in Branson and spent half our week at Silver Dollar City, and the other half relaxing at the condos. I absolutely loved spending time with family.
Some highlights:

-Grandfather's House - everything is crooked or upside down - full of optical and kinesthetic (?) illusions

-The ball playground - the kids spent at least a couple hours here and were never bored. It was a great break place for us parents.

-The roller coasters

-The bonding time. My mom and I came home from grocery shopping and found Grandpa Cameron and Henry sitting on the porch. They looked like ol' pals philosophizing. They were actually talking about all the things that fly--one of Henry's favorite subjects.

-The beautiful flowers and trees, and rolling hills

-Riding the flying elephants, tea cups, and fireman roller coasters that Henry said were "too scary for me"

-Time outs

-Watching Midway to Heaven (Kurt was my sister and Todd's old boss at Comedy Sports). Gotta love LDS romance movies.

-Eating great food and staying up late talking

-The fish hatchery, feeding the fish and learning how litter effects animals

-The St. Louis Botany Gardens--beautiful!--and Arch. Henry was so scared riding up and down in the Arch elevator. We all tried to put on a brave face for him, because wow, that elevator ride felt rickety! Click, click, click up the arch--makes me a bit nervous thinking about it.)
It is a pretty awe-inspiring monument, though.

-Henry becoming John Stewart, the Green Lantern.
Thanks, Subway, for our new little super hero!

We Miss you, Martha!

2011-07-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we said goodbye to some dear friends, the Villegas family. We have known them for almost the whole 2 years we have been here. Shortly after we moved in Todd became a ward missionary and during that time Martha and her husband, Reynaldo, and Martha's daughter, Jocelyn were baptized. Although Martha spoke very little English and I speak NO Spanish we became close friends.

Martha and her daughters Jocelyn and Michelle at our goodbye picnic.
Not pictured: New baby Martha Rochel--such a sweet little baby, and looks just like her daddy.

Alexis (neighbor), Henry and Michelle

Ahhhh, so sweet.

While Martha and I chatted the kiddos walked up and down the streets taking turns in the little red car. They were so sweet with each other, sharing and playing.

They are dear to us and we miss them!

Memorial Day at Clinton Beach

2011-07-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

This year we celebrated Memorial Day at Clinton Lake, about 45 minutes from Champaign. We played and picnicked on the beach, enjoying the sun and the lake waves. Henry loved it, especially playing in the sand--or dirt. This year we applied lots of sunscreen on Todd so he wouldn't burn like he did last year. Remember that?

Oh, wait, maybe I didn't tell the sunburn story in that post. Well, that was our last beach trip, and it did result in a sunburn so bad Todd went to the ER. He has a permanent white hand print on his back where he slapped one handfuls worth of sunscreen and the rest of his back burned as bright as a tomato.

Good times.

Yorb Nation!

2011-07-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

What a ride. We all described riding in the ball using one word: INTENSE.
If I tried to imagine what it'd be like to be in a tornado, I'd remember this.
You're buckled in, ankles strapped, and you hang on for dear life. Mr. Yorb (not his real name) tells you to "become the ball"--to push your back against the ball as much as you can (to prevent whiplash)--and hold strong.
"You'll feel like you're going to fly into each other and that your head is hitting the ground but you won't, and it's not."
Oooo, that's comforting.
But, no fear. I was all for it.
Once you're all ready to go you yell "Yorb Nation!". They give you a little nudge, and then you're off. End over end you roll--and sometimes bounce--until you come to a stop. If the weight is balanced you can roll pretty far, I'm guessing 100 yards plus. That was the case when I rode with my sister-in-law, Lisel. We rolled down the hill--screaming all the way--across the bottom of the bowl and stopped feet away from where the hill started to incline again.
It was so fun, but one of those things that you probably wouldn't have to repeat in a life time. I gave it two runs and that was E-nough for me. I'm getting old.

Here are the first brave souls

and the kiddos followed

to climb in and play like hamsters in a ball.

Then back up to the top of the hill for the next round of daredevils.

My nephew Connor volunteered to run with the ball and take pictures of my ride with Lisel. I honestly don't know how he ran so fast down the hill without toppling over--he's one fast and coordinated kid--but he managed.

It was awesome.
Just wouldn't recommend eating J-Dawgs right before doing this (wink, wink).
P.S. I'm not pregnant. I think it's just a J-Dawg-with special sauce, onions, sauerkraut-and applebear baby.

Birthday

2011-07-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

Can you measure birthday celebration by what you didn't do rather than what you did to? Well this year, I did. The man and boys made the meals and cleaned up after them. They let me take a nap. We took a walk together and checked out our garden. We spent uninterrupted time together and it was glorious. Simple and easy and relaxing. Sometimes . . . that's how I like to celebrate.

I'm happy to report our garden was looking good! We are currently eating a lot of fresh sweet pea pods, green beans, and a few cherry tomatoes. There is just something so beautiful about eating what you've grown yourself. In fact, tonight when I made Sausage and Barley soup, recipe from these friends, I didn't have cabbage and substituted some of our homegrown green beans. Tasted wonderful! Don't worry about about making a quick trip to the store before dinner, just walk on down to the garden and pick your produce! Beautiful.

Sidenote: I like the pictures above because 1) it reminds me of the great day we had, and 2) you can see it's a very difficult experience hefting Henry after hefting Theo. Either he's getting bigger or I'm getting weaker. Truth is, Henry's turning into such a great, big boy. I'm happy to report that Henry went to his 3-year-old physical (not well-baby visits anymore--boo hoo!) and he's 31 lbs, 3'1", and is in great shape, eyes and ears and tummy and all. We're also happy to report that he's above average for language and grammar! Henry just finished up a longitudinal study at the U of I and the researchers told he us he's right on track and a bit ahead for his age. Go Henry!
Happy birthday--party--tomorrow, sweet boy!!

We were in stitches

2011-07-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

The first night of the Freestone family reunion we had The Freestone Film Festival. Todd's sister, Nicole, challenged every one to make a family movie to share at the family reunion. Each movie was so clever and fun and I'm already looking forward to 10 years down the road when we pull them out and watch them again and laugh our heads off. We had:

Steven and Margo: The next life (I think that was the title, I can't remember exactly) - Mim and Bub
The Orphan - the Busby family
Snatched - the Jones family
Mim and Bub - the Robert family
Crouching Diaper, Hidden Dragon - the Z. Freestone family
The Adventures of Space Fireman - the T. Freestone family, a.k.a. us

We loved them all but the one we can share with you is this:

(I really, really hope Mim and Bub don't mind! If you do I can remove it, but honestly I have about 5 readers and they'll love it, I'm sure.)

We were in stitches. If you have ever wondered what it'd be like to be a fly on the wall at the Freestone home and hear a typical conversation between Mim and Bub this would be it. Every word. And we all knew it, and we all loved it and we all love them. I'm sure you can relate.

The best part was that after we finished viewing it, and we were all wiping away our tears and uncrossing our legs, Mim came up the stairs wearing a leopard print top and pearls with a Diet Coke in hand. We died laughing and watched it over and over.

I wish I could post all the videos but I'm sure some are copyrighted by now. The Adventures of Space Fireman is coming soon (I hope) to this blog near you, as well as posts about: my birthday/Memorial Day and Clinton Lake, Branson, MO, and the rest of our trip to P-town including Yorb Nation, tennis, dinner and games up South Fork Canyon, Lehi's Round-up Rodeo, Cars 2 for Henry's birthday, playing at Payon's "splash pad", fireworks, the Hogle Zoo, and the start of our new guilty pleasure . . . the Bachelorette. Thanks Becky.

On Demand

2011-06-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

HELLO! WE'RE STILL HERE!
Wow--I went a whole month without blogging. Nothing, not one post, but that sure doesn't mean nothing went on! We've had a fabulous and busy 6 weeks and lots to show for it.

But, my camera isn't quite cooperating at the moment so you'll have to hang on a bit longer to see photos.

This post, though, is a video of the boys during Theo's FIRST belly laugh.
During dinner Henry was babbling away and started commanding Theo to laugh.
"Laugh, Theo. Um . . . laugh. Laugh!"
This is what followed.

Oh, I think it's darling. I think he and Henry have the exact same laugh. To this day, two months later, Henry pulls the best laughs out of Theo.

Whiteboard Art No. 4: A best friend

2011-05-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

When Henry was 18 months old he made a best friend: Anders. Henry has many friends, and even a few best friends, but Anders was his first. They see each other and hug. They cheer for each other and have little jokes together. They love each other!

On a day that Henry was particularly wishing to play with Anders but couldn't, he decided to draw a picture of him.

He worked . . .

and worked . . .

and voila!

Henry even switched up the colors to personalize the drawings.
You see Henry on the right with the brown hair and large red swimsuit (the red blob between his legs), Anders in the middle with blond hair and small red swim suit, and floating mommy heads on the left. Mine is the big one on bottom, and Anders' mommy's is the small one on top. We're also wearing itty bitty red swimsuits below our heads.
Henry drew us "swimming in a purple ocean". The big blue oval is "a world".

Henry's little friends mean the world to him. I'm glad he has been able to make so many friends and learn what it means to be a friend. His friends are so special to him. As you can see in his drawings, H&A are so happy together--look, they're smiling all the way up to their eyes!!

For the first time

2011-05-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

(Excuse the blurred pictures I have. It's hard to get kids to sit still :) .)

I just tucked Henry in bed.
No tantrums, no request cycles, no running out of bedroom--it was a success! After kissing Henry on the forehead for the last time he told me what every mom wants to hear (and I'll get to that in a second).
But first, I'd like to document the conclusions I've come to about bedtime for a toddler. I want this here on my blog so when rough nights come, and I'm sure they will, I can come here and remember that bedtimes aren't always horrible, no good, and very bad.

After experiencing much trouble with bedtimes--which I've found is completely normal because, really, what kid wants to go to bed?--and trying many "techniques" of "convincing"Henry to go to bed (threats, bribes, time outs, ignoring, etc.) I've come to three conclusions. I don't claim to be a master at this, I haven't established my corner on "putting a toddler to bed" but these three things stand true for us every night:

1) The kiddo needs to be tired. Like, played hard all day: been happy, been sad, dirty then clean, discovered and lazed, rebelled and obeyed. In all, a full day.

2) The kiddo can't be too tired. Because too tired (but with enough energy to still fight) is definitely worse than not tired enough. Believe me. Oh boy. It's a scary sight when the kiddo gets beyond tired (and when mom does, too). Lastly,

3) Bedtime, and leading up to bedtime has to be stress free. Henry can't feel rushed or forced to bed. Being rushed combined with points one or two = bad news.

So, although these three things are pretty general and a bit ambiguous, they are my guiding principles for bedtime.

I never thought I'd have to put so much thought and energy into putting a child to bed. But, being a parent of a toddler, I find myself thinking, "I never thought I'd . . . " often.

Like this morning at the playground when Henry came up to me holding something white and black and round-ish, "Hey, Mom, look what I have--bird poop!"
"Gross, Henry!" And chasing after him as he bolts from me, "Drop it, put it down. Let's wash your hands!"

I never thought I'd see my child holding bird poop.

Or later today when playing outside with his friend, Benjamin, Henry picked up an ant and ate it! "Henry, I can't believe you just ate an ant! It's a bug! It's so yucky!" Too all those remarks he just gave kind of a half-smile. I guess eating bugs doesn't alarm him.

I never thought I'd see my child eat an ant.

But I digress.

To the part where Henry told me what every mom wants to hear.
After tucking him in I kissed him on the forehead and he said, "Mom, you're the best mom in the whole world."
I didn't think I heard him right. Usually it's something like, "I want some more milk," or with a mischievous smile, "I'm gonna get out of bed."
Hesitant I whispered, "What?"
"You're the best mom in the world."
My heart melted. All that I do everyday suddenly became worth it.
"And you know what, Henry? You're the best boy in the world."
[And your brother is the best baby in the world.]

I love you!

Theodore vs. Henry

2011-05-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Born from the same recipe, these boys look a lot alike. At least that's what most everyone, okay everyone, says. With Theo's little face fresh in my mind my memories of Henry as a baby became foggy. So, I started looking back at old pictures of Henry to compare and decide for myself how similar or different they really are. Take a look, make a guess, and find out who is who at the bottom.

1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

10:

11:

12:

13:

1: Henry, 2: Theo, 3: Henry, 4: Theo, 5: Henry, 6: Theo, 7: Theo, 8: Henry, 9: Henry, 10: Theo, 11: Henry, 12: Henry, 13: Theo

C is for Cookie

2011-05-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

I can't keep this one from you any longer.

I crack up EVERY time I watch it.
His big "Oh!" and the voice crack after when he says "cookie", eating his pretend cookie, and his "I'm all done," with the cutest smile.
Is is just me or does he seem so grown-up?

Hope you enjoy.

Summer Picnics have begun

2011-05-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

The best, scratch that, the ONLY way to get Henry to eat a lunch in the summer: picnics. I don't know why but this boy hates lunch. Stop in the middle of a good play to . . . eat? And healthy food? Kiddin' me? Well, with a few bribes--playtime outside and a treat after--he gets a good one down--even some apples and carrots sometimes.

Last week commenced our picnic-filled summer. Our first picnic was at a new location: the new "Dr. Seuss stools" (Henry named them) at the Winfield playground. It was great. We heard the birds singing, we played in the rocks and enjoyed some PBJs. Theo fell asleep in my arms and then slept on the gravel.

Theo woke up on the way home and we took these pictures.
I love him in his new hat! It shades his face perfectly.

Do you think he likes kisses?
And, Dad, you're right! His eyes are blue!! Well, bluish-green. They may change, but so far they're still blue. Who would have thought? I used to say that Todd and I would have kids til we had a blue-eyed baby, but I might have to take that back, i.e. we want more kids.

Mother's Day and T.A.M.s

2011-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

What a blessed day Mother's Day is!
I love to remember all the things my mother has taught me:
to clean, iron, bake mint-chocolate brownies (thank you!) among other things,
to care about the world and what's going on in it
to garden
to serve and care about others
to recycle
to read the scriptures
to exercise
to sew
to do my best . . .
Although I have not mastered all these things yet I realize now more than ever before, because I am a mother, how grateful I am for her and for her inexhaustible effort to raise me.
Thank you, Mom, for all you did and do! I love you!!
I'm grateful, too, for my mother-in-law--I could not ask for a better one, I love her so much--and for all the mothers who have influenced who I am today.

It's also a blessed day because now that I'm a mother I am spoiled. This year for breakfast Todd made fantastic omelets, which I ate for both breakfast and lunch--they were so huge and delicious. He let me take a nap after church for 3 hours, and Theo and Henry cooperated. (I really didn't expect to sleep that long!) And he made us fish and chips for dinner and Texas sheet cake for dessert. We totally indulged ourselves and it felt so great. We went for a walk around the village and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It couldn't have been better.

I got a totally awesome card from the boys, it's a hoops and yoyo card that tells me that I'm a "totally" (repeated a dozen times) "awesome" (repeated another dozen times) Mom. "Just one Mom. Totally awesome. You're a T.A.M.: a totally awesome mom!" If you're reading this you're probably a T.A.M., too. Go T.A.M.s!

One thing I did request after church was to take pictures with my boys.

They are so handsome!

And then it turned into a photo shoot of Henry. How could it not? I've wanted to get pictures of him in his new (or newly acquired) suit. This was actually Todd's and I think Henry's absolutely adorable in it. He sports his new saddle shoes and knee socks--which together he calls his rocket boots.

May the 4th be with you!

2011-05-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

We celebrated May 4th properly by attending a Star Wars party at the "Banana Wibrary" (as Henry calls it). The folks in the children department over there are so clever. I will never have another May 4th without thinking of Star Wars. Truly though, the librarians there are so great. One in particular always calls Henry by name, remembers the toys he has shown her, and even the books he has checked out. He really feels like a big star when he goes to the "Banana Wibrary". Thanks nice librarian lady!

When Wednesday, May 4th finally came Henry was SO excited. He had been looking forward to this event for an entire week, each day wondering if it was yet Wednesday the 4th. The event was late in the evening, 7-8, so we prepared by putting him in PJs and "Darf cape".

My little Darth.
He did choose that day to be the bad Darth and not the good one.
You can tell by his pout lips.

The party room was all set up with different stations:
a treat table with Wookiee cookies and Yoda soda,
a Pin-the-lightsaber-on-the-Jedi station,
a Yoda origami table,
a trash compacter (giant cardboard box filled with scrap paper and old call-number cards) to find Luke (a laminated picture of him),
and a station with lightsabers and green balloons to bat at.

When they entered the room fell silent except for Darth's breathing, it was a bit scary! Only one little girl started to cry, and she was under 2, and the rest of the kids were just star struck.

Henry was brave enough to ask to have his pictures with Darth and a storm trooper.

He loved playing, or rather, working with the lightsaber. I don't think he batted at any balloons with it. He spent most of his time pulling it out and putting it back in--I think figuring out how it works.

He did a great job trying to close his eyes as he pinned the lightsaber on Yoda. It was so cute. He got a perfect match! You can see Todd in the background making a Yoda origami.

It was a great party.
Henry couldn't fall asleep for another hour after coming home.
He was too thrilled.

May the 4th be with you.

Whiteboard Art No. 3

2011-05-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Henry and I started playing Toss Up, a dice game. He earned 10 points so I pulled out the whiteboard to keep track of our score and Henry forgot all about the game and wanted to draw.

Here's what he came up with:

From left to right, one big happy family: Todd, Rachel, Henry, and Theodore.
We are encased in spaceships . . . if I remember his explanation correctly.

Henry is sporting a bow tie next to itty bitty Theo.

Using the left hand . . .

. . . and then the right.

We're still not sure which hand he prefers. He switches to whichever is more convenient to where he's drawing, but he seems to use them equally. Stay tuned for more to come from our neck of the woods.

Todd's 29!

2011-05-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Todd!!

By Todd's request we celebrated this way:
1) Birthday breakfast. Chocolate muffins and milk. They were D-licious. The sad part is, I was zonked from a long night with Teddy, and Todd made them himself. They were fantastic!! I think I had 4 . . . I think.

2) The annual Todd puzzle and opening presents!

3) Todd's professor's investiture at 4 pm (we're interested to find out what an investiture is!).

4) Then home to work on the garden!
Todd has declared this first week of May: Freestone's Garden Week

We'll get on our grubbies and head to the garden to do the following . . .

Hooray for gardening!! Side note: You may wonder what we do with our kids when we garden. Theo lays on a blanket with an umbrella shading him. He likes to bat at the handle and watch it spin around him. Henry finds "wormies" and rocks to show to Theo--but not feed to him!!! Of course we have found ourselves creating rules we never thought we would have to, like, No feeding worms to your brother.

5) Birthday Dinner. After gardening we'll clean up to eat some of Papa Del's finest deep dish pizza, and then we'll be off to our church with our neighbors Laurie and Ashley for a tour by the missionaries.

6) Then, the kids will go to bed. We'll enjoy some Ben and Jerry's--Chubby Hubby and Midnight Snack--while watching some Office or a Redbox . . .

The best part about having a Monday birthday means Todd can celebrate all week long. Happy birthday, love!! There's not a better husband and daddy in the world. WE LOVE YOU!

"Witto one"

2011-04-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

My pet name for Theodore is Little One and Henry has picked up on it. He goes about saying, "You're so cute, 'witto' one."
"You're too 'witto' to eat cookies, 'witto' one."
"No, no, no, 'witto' one. You can't eat my fingers." (As he allows Theodore--with a smug smile--to put his fingers in Theo's mouth.)

Case in point.

Ready for a walk!

Welcome, Spring! We're glad you're here.

A Green House

2011-04-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Todd told me he wanted to rent a garden plot and start a garden.
(We can do that here at Winfield--isn't that cool?)

My first thought: More work. Sounds like a great idea . . . but I don't know if I'm up for it. All growing up we had a garden and when I was young I thought it was so cool to plant, take care of, and literally eat the fruits (and veggies) of our labors. But, with the combination of our busy schedules, a new baby, and my, well, laziness, I wasn't so sure. I admit, I doubted that Todd would--could--actually take part in it.

But, he has proved me wrong. I'm sorry I doubted you, honey!

He's going all-out. And doing all the work.

First he went to the library and checked out gardening books.

I laughed at his choices: the no-work garden and 60- Minute Garden. Seriously?! Too funny.

But, Todd got to work and has done amazing things. I am so impressed. He has built 4 large boxes to do raised beds, a trellis, has put together a watering system and a fence. We've started a compost pile and started seeds.
Turns out Jeff Ball is the guru of gardening. We're big fans of his now.
It looks like we'll be planting in the next week or so. I wonder how things will turn out in a wetter (than Utah) climate. This'll be fun.

We've "started" everything: tomatoes, green beans, pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers and a watermelon . . . I know. We're crazy. But, we figure not everything will survive past "starting" and then when we plant we'll narrow down to the choice ones. We're also planning to grow things up, like our squashes, so that'll give more room for other things to grow in the ground.

Leftovers for compost

Things are growing!

And needing to be transplanted.

Pictures of our plot to come. Cross your fingers for us!

Overdue

2011-04-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we enjoyed General Conference weekend. We loved hearing from the prophet, the apostles, and other general church leaders. What a worldwide gathering it always is! It is so amazing to partake of such a spiritual feast in just 2 days. Now as we re-listen and re-read their inspiring words of faith in Christ, families, service, etc. we can fully digest them and hopefully apply them to our lives so that we are better for hearing them.

During the 2 hour break between Sunday sessions Todd and Henry made windmills. It was a crazy windy day and we fully experienced it.

My favorite part in observing it all was how Henry became an expert of homemade windmills. Todd and Henry made it with a pencil, paper clip, and paper. Todd cut up the paper and Henry helped him put it together. Here you can (kind of) hear (thanks to all the wind) Henry explain how it works.

That what is happen when the wind blows . . .
A windmill.
The wind blows it, it has paper on it, and the pencil has a paper clip on it, and the wind blooows it.
Around and around and around.

Henry is fascinated with most everything these days and soaks up all the information he can about a subject of interest. Then he loves to talk, and talk, and talk about it. How things work, who does what, who is who, the rhyme and reason for things. My favorite is watching him explain with "as a matter of fact" facial expressions and hand gestures. So big-boy.

Rowan

2011-04-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Meg posted a video on her blog of Rowan singing a Caitlin Rose song and I wanted to share it with all y'all.
I think Rowan's the cutest little singer I've seen.
Enjoy!

http://tobetomars.blogspot.com/2011/04/ooooh-ooooh-oooh.html

I should have knocked on wood

2011-04-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Just after I posted about the boys and their brotherly love Henry threw a toy right at Theo's face and made him cry. Arg. I put him in time out. He threw a tantrum . . . and then took a nap. So, life isn't always sweet this side of the Mississippi. But when it is sweet, my heart melts like butter.

On a happier note, here's Theo entertaining himself in the mirror.

He always gives awesome smiles when looking in the mirror. Does he know he's looking at himself? I don't know; I think so.

I sure hope this next photo makes you laugh!
I know, I look pretty scary.
Feel free to click on it and zoom in. You may laugh harder.

Brotherly Love

2011-04-14T18:15:00.001-07:00

These boys love each other.
When Theo cries, Henry comes to his aid and pats his chest or kisses his cheeks and says happily, "It's okay 'Feodore'", or quietly, "Calm down, 'Feodore', calm down."
When Theo wakes up from a nap crying Henry will climb into his crib and lay next to him and babble. Theo quiets down and babbles right along with him.
Henry pulls funny faces at him and make funny sounds.
Theo laughs.
Henry hugs and holds him.
It's so sweet!

They just love each other, and it thrills my heart to see it.

Henry's his hero!

Pitches

2011-04-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

Theo's exploring high pitches.
And is just the cutest babe on the block.
(In my humble opinion.)

P.S. I know you can "get the idea" and get pretty sick of my voice after about 30 seconds, but that's okay. I'm just hoping the grandmas like it.

We Went Bowling

2011-04-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

And he bowled.

And did quite well.

107 to be exact.
Better than mom.
He jumped, and jumped, and jumped.

Oh, and he got so excited over a strike that he ran perpendicular to the lanes and cut off a few older bowlers mid-stride.
Luckily they didn't slip and drop their balls and get a gutter ball and get really mad.

Everyone was pretty understanding.

We had a ball.

B-Squash Baby

2011-04-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

Theo is now venturing from milk to meat. Well, not meat exactly. Butternut squash and wheat cereal. B-nut squash is my favorite. Love it. It's one of the sweeter vegetables, and that's probably why I love it so much. The cavities I just got filled mark how much I love sugar . . .

Back to where I started. Theo. The milk just wasn't enough. He is steadily climbing the growth charts and at almost 5 months is ready for the good stuff: real food.

He's ready for more . . .

And, he likes it! Hooray, my love!

Speaking of Darth

2011-03-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

To help Henry stay in bed at night we made an incentive chart. Every night that he stayed in bed and did not whine about going to bed (which I'm learning may be too high of an expectation for a two year old, but it's worth a try) earned him a sticker in the morning. Before this incentive program we tried everything to keep him in bed. Nothing worked. For weeks night times were a major struggle, but this incentive program finally worked!! Oh, what a two year old will do for a smiley face sticker. After earning enough stickers he earned a surprise (a toy of his choice).
What did he choose? "Darf Vader from Meijer."

He loves him.

He loves pretending to be Darth, but not the bad Darth. "The Darf that changes from being bad to good because of his son Wuke Skywalker."

I brought this Kleenex box home from Meijer and thought it was pretty cute in our bathroom. As soon as Henry saw it he said, "Mom, that's spooky." I can see what he means, but I still think it's cute. Then yesterday I noticed that Henry placed his Darth on the toilet positioned to stare at the "spooky Kleenex box".

Then I went back and noticed the Kleenex box laying on its side . . .

Just kidding.

Exercise and Artwork

2011-03-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Recently I've taken to exercising.
I know. It's surprising.
I don't think I exercised a minute while pregnant with Theo. But it feels so good to do it again.
I ordered for myself Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred. It's awesome. It is made up of 3 levels of 20 minute workouts. Doable, but not easy. It's just what I need. At the rate I'm going it's gonna take me about 90 days to complete the "30 day shred" but that's okay. The exercise is great.
I usually choose Theo's morning nap to fit in the 20 minutes. During that time Henry either climbs on me, under me, or draws on the whiteboard.
The latter is my preference.

In this one I drew an Easter Egg to start him off, and then Henry drew about 10 brown and black spotted ones. He also drew a sun, a smiley face, and an arrow. Can you identify them all? As you can probably tell I had to catch this picture before he erased them all with his finger.

This one is my favorite.
Henry says the red, orange, and green scribbles are twisters (tornadoes). In the top middle of the whiteboard you can see a person with an arrow pointing to him (he's sideways). He named the person Franklin. He's complete with two eyes, a nose, and a smile, and two arms and two legs. I watched Henry draw it and was pretty dumbfounded! Most of his drawings have been circles, scribbles and lines, but this time he put them all together to draw a person. It's so fun to see him learn and grow!

This one was taken just yesterday. Henry and I had made puppy dogs with Legos and decided to draw houses for them. Henry's dog is Franklin, and mine is Scarlett. Henry drew two purple ladders, two very large green "H"-es (how do you write that?). He also drew a purple airplane above the clouds. He was so proud of it.
Here he's posing while he pretends to be Darth Vader.
I love his Darth face.

Whiteboard Art

2011-03-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

We've been putting Todd's whiteboard and markers to good use these days. Henry uses it to draw his specialties: balloons, windows, doors, snakes, worms, suns, waterfalls, fire and the letters "H" and "T".
Because whiteboard art can't be kept forever, I plan to take pictures of them and feature them here. Stay tuned.
Anyway, a few weeks ago when we were all sick, we spent a good afternoon drawing "our family".

This day we were a Toy Story family.
Buzz: Daddy
Bullseye: Theodore
Jessie: Mom
Woody: Henry
Mr. Potato Head: don't know

Theodore showed great support.

His nose ran like a faucet and his cheeks were rosey with fever, but he still smiled. What a dear.

8 sides!

2011-03-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes dinner is a struggle, that is, Henry would prefer not eating dinner. He'd rather play, run, "eat candy", or watch a show. However, the promise of dessert makes Henry a great dinner eater (yes, we bribe).
One of Henry's favorite dessert choices is a "mint cookie sandwich".
He loves them, and anything mint, really.
After dinner on this night, we were all enjoying a sweet treat of choice when Henry said, "Look at me, Mom! It's an octagon--8 sides!" He had bit the corners off of his mint cookie sandwich to make an octagon.
Wow, I was impressed.
Thanks to Elmo and Jack Black Henry has become a huge fan of octagons and can spot them in a flash, or make them . . . even out of mint cookie sandwiches.
"Count them, Mom, 8 sides!"

Expressive

2011-03-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

This half-dressed fellow is always super happy, thus photogenic, during diaper and clothing changes. I find myself laughing to the point of bellyaches at his sweet expressions (especially this last one).

Yuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

2011-03-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

When I came home from church on Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised by Henry and Todd with a beautiful car cake. It was so sweet of them--literally!
It had been a long day of meetings for me while Todd and Henry stayed home sick. Todd asked Henry how they could surprise me when I came home and Henry said, "A cake!"
This boy knows me.
Turns out we didn't have eggs, but they used a banana and the cake turned out to be delicious. Also, all our cake pans were being used for other purposes so they used a bread loaf pan. Talk about resourceful! It's exactly 1/3 the size of a normal cake.
Here you can see it's lovely coat of chocolate "paint", Ritz cracker wheels, and mini paper cups for the headlights.
I loved it.

Laughter and Turley Thighs

2011-02-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

Theo laughs! In Primary on Sunday I got him to totally belly laugh. He cracked up like this over and over again. Then he took a nap.

Check out those kicks! He sure is living up to his middle name! Those Turley thighs are gonna get him places soon.

Incredible Family

2011-02-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

We just watched The Incredibles for the first time. We are now:

Mr. Incredible: Todd (although he really wants to be Frozone Henry won't allow it)
Elasti-girl: Rachel
Dash: Henry
Jack Jack: Theodore
Henry says someday we'll have a girl and then she can be Violet.

The movie's kinda boring because he does the same thing the whole time, but I love it. I love watching him play. His energy is what I envy. He continued to do this for like 15 more minutes. What a super hero!

Videos of Theodore in the coming posts . . .

P.S. Sorry if this viewing makes you sick. I'm half bouncing Theo in my other arm.

Teddy Bear

2011-02-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

This babe is so cuddly and sweet and just adored around here. He's our little teddy bear.

If I could use one word to describe him, it would be: content.
He goes with the flow, is happy, and could kick around in this bouncer for 30 minutes without making a peep.
He can really get it rockin', too.

Learning to Read

2011-02-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Henry is really into reading these days. We love to sit down and read the story, talk about it, and talk about what's happening in the pictures. A short book could take 20 minutes to read because we get so into it. Henry loves to incorporate or compare the stories or characters in the book into his life. Here are a few examples:

He has a book called, That's What A Friend Is.

It's a sweet poem-type book by P.K. Hallinan describing all the ways one can be a friend.
One page is his and Anders': "You can have your own hideouts in dark, secret places . . . or spend the whole day having caterpillar races."
Another page is his and Alaster's: "A friend is a buddy who'll come to your aid when he thinks you need help, or you might be afraid."
Or his other friend, Benjamin, from Kindermusik: "You can sing and shout 'til your tonsils wear out, 'cause that's what having a friend's all about!"
He loves this book, and he loves his friends.

Also, the other day when I was telling him that the toy room at the village is "closed for renovation" I told him all the toys were taken apart and the carpet was gone, but soon it'd all be back together again. He piped up, "Mom, that's like Humpty Dumpty, except [in a sad voice] he couldn't be put together again . . . "

We can tell he is becoming familiar with the written language, too. The other morning Todd was using this on his eggs:

Henry pointed at the name, and sliding his finger left to right, from the T to the O, he noted,
"Hey Dad, this 'I' is broken!"

He has practically memorized his favorite books: Where the Wild Things Are, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, He Came with the Couch, and his Henry books (Henry Goes West, Henry Babysits, Henry's Awful Mistake, and Henry's Important Date). I can stop on any page and he will finish it for me, or most of it. I'm always amazed at how well he remembers things, things that I haven't been trying to drill him on.

I'm so glad he loves reading. It is so fun to watch his mind and imagination grow. I think his dad has been a great aid in his interest. Todd always does the best voices and asks great questions. This kid is a bright one; he's definitely going to keep me on my toes.

Science Education and Bubbles

2011-02-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Todd is currently enrolled in a teaching science education class.
His first applied assignment was to show some awesome science to kids at the Boys and Girls Club. Naturally, he chose bubbles. It was a big hit. The kids loved it, especially Henry.

He was a bit nervous at first . . .

But then he loved it and couldn't resist popping it. The "big kids" at the Boys and Girls club thought he was the cutest thing.

And taking a bow.

He said it hurt to do it with his shoes off--he tried for a brief second. We figure his feet are much smaller than ours and it probably did. He did brave the nails with shoes on though!

Todd also made dry ice bubbles. They are so cool!! The vapor from the dry ice and water goes through the tube, and the end of the tube is dipped in soap, and the vapor hits the soap, forms a bubble and floats down. The cool thing is, when you wear cotton gloves (and it helps if they're a bit dirty with oils), the bubble doesn't pop right away when it lands on your hand. You can kind of juggle and bounce it for a minute. But, when it does pop, it's even cooler, the bubble turns to the vapor and it all floats away.

A bubble just popped off of her hand.

If you're interested in trying this at home, folks, just let me know and I can tell you how.

Henry was a good big bro and offered to take Theo off my hands for a second. It turned out to be a whole fun-family affair.

Identity Crisis

2011-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Every day, and sometimes every hour (or minute), our identities change.
Sometimes things get a bit confusing around here.
You see, we all play different "families" and Henry decides who we all are.
One minute I'm Jessie and I have to refer to Henry as Woody, and the next minute I hear Henry shouting from the other room,

Henry: "Hey, Daphne, come read me a story!"
Me: "Okay, Scoobs."
Henry: "No, no, no, I'm not Scoobs, I'm Woody!"
Me: "Oopsies, I mean, Woody. I'll be right there."
Henry: "Okay, see you soon, Jessie . . . oh, wait, you're not Jessie anymore, you're . . . um . . . Minney!"
Me: Oh, boy.

Most of the time it's pretty fun but some days I think I'm going through an identity crisis.
Here's a list of our characters just in case you get caught up in the mix, too:

Mickey: Henry
Minney: Rachel
Donald Duck: Theodore
Goofy: Todd

Woody: Henry
Jessie: Rachel
Buzz: Todd
Bullseye: Theodore
(And, yes, sometimes Woody tries to ride on Bullseye, but don't worry, he just hovers.)

Charlie Brown: Henry
Lucy: Rachel
Linus: Theodore
Snoopy: Todd

Grover: Henry
Elmo: Rachel
Oscar the grouch: Todd
The Count: Theodore

Scooby Doo: Henry
Shaggy: Todd
Daphne: Rachel
Fred: Theodore

No Where to Go, but Much to Do

2011-02-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

We have been snowed-in now for 3 days. Before the storm hit I became a bit anxious wondering what we would do together at home for who knows how many days. I came up with a few things, quite a bit more than we actually have done because, who would have thought, these activities entertained for quite some time. Take these activities, add naps, meal times, and you've got a day. Surprisingly, not once during the three days did Henry ask to watch a show or eat fruit snacks. Well, that was until today (Friday), but it was wonderful while it lasted. Without further ado, let me show you what we did:

Bed slides

The incident that sparked the bed sliding was an "accident". Henry had been doing pretty well during his diaper-less day and, well, missed the toilet and hit my bed skirt. Sooo, we decided to turn my bed into a slide. It was awesome.

"Don't Eat Pete!"

He loves this game. His favorite snacks to use are craisins, cashews, chocolate chips, and popcorn.

Pirates
We don't have patches but Henry wanted to cover his eye like a pirate, so I pulled out my headbands. And, the extent of our pirating was . . . taking pictures, but it was fun. The headband patches didn't stay on quite so well.

Check out Theodore's smile! We love him!! Peanut butter face anyone?

Then Henry gets a good idea . . .

T-hehe, "Feed-a-dore not can see!" (Currently he switches "cannot" to "not can", it's cute to me.)

Ah, there he is.

Dancing Raisins

It looks like they were all just sinking, but we did have a few dancers. The funnest part is just plopping them all in. This is probably the 5th time we've done this experiment, but Henry still thinks it's pretty neat.

Finger Soccer Games

Ready Spaghetti?

Ka-Pow-Eeeeeee!

Goal!!
Tinfoil served as a guardrail. Henry's team: Henry (blue) and Franklin (brown). Rachel's team (although I don't have a picture of them): Roxette (red) and Penny (purple). They were pretty and wore fancy hats. Many soccer balls were eaten by the giant Henry monster.

Oh, and some more pictures of little T for kicks

The best goof

2011-02-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday I made probably the best goof of my life.
I made homemade cupcakes with Henry. He was a big help. He scooped, I leveled, he poured, and we mixed. He says, "I'm a good cooker, Mom." And, he is. We love our kitchen time together.

But back to the goof.

So the recipe called for 3/4 Cup of butter. Well, I looked at the sticks and saw the 1/4 on the end of the stick. The rest of the identifier, i.e. "cup" or "lb", was folded into the end. Without giving it much thought I assumed it was Cup.
Whoa, three sticks of butter for one cupcake recipe? Wow, okay. It does say "butter-yellow".
I went with it and we made the batter and baked them. They were great. Pretty shiny but great. When Todd came home he was happy to see cupcakes.
"They're good but you probably don't want to know how much butter is in them."
He's curious, "A stick?"
"Three."
He laughed.
"Yeah, I was surprised, too, but . . . (Todd's still smiling) wait a second."
I pulled the wrapper out of the garbage and found the "lb" after the 1/4.
I was supposed to use a stick and a half.
I used three--I DOUBLED the butter for the recipe.
Oops.
I'll have you know, they are fabulous.
If you're looking to put on a few pounds (and I'm sure some of you are), just double the amount of butter called for in a given recipe and that'll do the trick. Surprisingly, it doesn't ruin the recipe at all, it just makes it more full of love . . . or butter.

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

2011-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we went to Chuck E. Cheese. There was a "big celebration" of sorts and the place was C-R-O-W-D-E-D. At first Henry seemed a bit overwhelmed with the noise and crowds but he eased into it and loved it. The rides, tickets, pizza, and games were fun, but when Chuck E. made his appearance Henry became a huge fan.

I didn't realize how big of a fan until yesterday.
Henry started acting funny:
He wasn't talking, but he would hold up his hand to give me high-5s, or he'd just wave and smile.
He walked around the house keeping a constant pace with his lips pursed
and he would communicate through gestures--pointing, nodding, waving, poking.
I was a bit confused, but soon I realized what he was up to.
He was acting just like CHUCK E. CHEESE!
At Chuck E. Cheese's Chuck walked around with kids following him in hopes of earning tickets; he didn't talk, he just smiled, waved, and gave high-5s.
"Ooooooh, Henry I know who you are! You're Chuck E. Cheese!" He lit up and held up his hand for another high-5.

"Chuck" last night . . . and "Chuck" this morning. I'd say he has Chuck's 2 looks down.

Acting is one thing Henry's big into these days. A few FHE's ago we played Disney Charades and we taught Henry what it means to "act". He loves to act now and will stay in character for pretty lengthy time periods. His favorites this week are Buzz Light Year, Woody, and Chuck E. Cheese. He tells me sometimes when he's being over-the-top silly, "Mom, I'm just acting." Or he'll request to "do acting" with me and then we spend time guessing each other's characters, or we'll do things like pretend to go grocery shopping, play basketball, and other charades. It is so funny. I'm impressed how he picks out key qualities and then keeps in character so long!

Well, below are some pictures of our adventures at Chuck E. Cheese.

Chuck and Henry
"Hey-ya, Chuck, how do you put this thing in reverse?"
And, "Oh, and let me pull your cup holder out for you."

He loved Jett Rider . . . but was a little nervous, and had to keep one hand on Dad for support.

I think Henry liked it a lot more than the other boy . . .

Probably one of Henry's favorite games was the helicopter. Basically he put a token in the machine, heard helicopter sounds while the token rolled to either 1, 3, or 5 point indicators and then received tickets (1,3,5). We probably spent about 20 tokens there, which later amounted to a tiny lizard (seen below on Theo's tummy) and sucker. Gotta love Chuck E. Cheese.

The race car was so fun to watch them ride together because throughout the ride Henry's facial expressions matched Todd's exactly, whether it was nervous, happy, relieved, or intense. Henry's so much like his dad.
He also loved Barney's choo-choo train.

Theodore was a bit (that's an understatement) overstimulated. I tried to keep him calm and happy.
A binky, blanket, and snuggling next to me did the trick.

We told Henry that he will go back to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate when he gets potty-trained . . . we aim for within this next year . . .

Cute Theodore and the Chuck E. Cheese lizard.

Thanks, big bro

2011-01-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

Who needs batteries when you've got a big brother?

Today we put together the swing. Henry helped and thought it was for him. At the first, "No, this was your swing when you're a baby, but now it's for Theodore," he tried to climb in but as soon as I told him that he could push Theo, he forgot about swinging and was so excited to do the big brother thing and push Theodore.

Henry loves his little brother so much, it's wonderful.
When Theodore hick-ups Henry says with a smile, "He's growing! Soon he'll be able to walk and talk like me!"
Henry tries to give him high fives.
He coos and blubbers right back at Theodore and tells me that Theo is talking.
He gives him hugs and kisses on the head.
When Theodore cries Henry will tell him "It's okay, 'Feedadore'," and then he'll whisper while petting his head, "calm down, Feedadore, it's okay."
When I change Theodore's diaper Henry will come and lay next to him and talk and giggle to him. If Theodore happens to touch Henry as his arms kind of flail around Henry gets so excited, "Mom, he touched my face!"
The cute thing is, Theodore loves Henry right back. He lights up and starts kicking and squirming when Henry gives him attention. Theo will keep his eyes on Henry as he plays around the room, seeing what his big bro is up to.
I think these two will be good friends.

McHankster

2011-01-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Henry's just getting into Mickey-D's these days.
(I hate to admit) we've gone there like once a week for the past three weeks.
It's PlayPlace is one of our newest winter hangouts
and since you have to be a customer to play
we end up eating lunch of sorts there.
Henry loves
the hamburger seats he gets to eat his lunch on,
the McNuggets,
the Happy Meal toy, and
the "space ship" he gets to climb around in.
The kids he meets become life-long bosom buddies . . . for about 20 minutes.
But really, by the end of play time it's pretty hard to say goodbye.
Well, what this is all getting to is one of our new creations, or copy-ations.
Todd attempted to make homemade egg and sausage biscuit sandwiches, like the delicious egg-sausage McMuffins from McDonald's.
We named them McHanksters.

They are SO good, if you're into this kind of breakfast.
Todd makes the biscuits from scratch and the whole process including cooking and shaping the eggs, sausage, and cheese takes quite a while. We figured one of our McHanksters costs like 75 cents. What a deal! I highly recommend a McHankster to everyone.

Doesn't he just sell it?

Playtime

2011-01-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

These days playtime consists of Toy Story 3 re-enactments and story time with stuffed animals.

He pulled them all out, set them up to make a "cwass of friends" for story time. We read the Treasury of Curious George.

I got some ideas from this post on Megan's blog of things to do when stuck in the house. I'm looking forward to a slide made out of our mattress . . .

Theodore Smiles!

2011-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

Theodore is now 9 and a half weeks old and he is smiling! We love it.
This video is cute to me for the following reasons:
Theodore's sneezes and smiles
Henry just adores his brother
and Henry works so hard to hold up 2 fingers
(and sadly I miss it because I'm watching the smiles, poor Henry . . . )

His biggest grins are when he's in arms and sleeping so the camera's not very accessible, so most of these photos aren't of him smiling, but they are just so darn cute!

Oops, cross-eyed!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2011-01-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

For New Year's this year the boys and I, minus Todd, made it to the library to welcome in the new year. The Urbana Library hosted a party for kids starting at 11:30 am and lasting til 12:30 pm. A noon party. They had tables set up for kids to make New Year attire--crowns, blow toys, head bands, etc. They told stories and played music. We all counted down to 12 noon then we all made a ruckus.

It was kinda chaotic to be honest, and Henry seemed a bit overwhelmed. It was a small room filled with more adults than kids, most between the ages 18 months and 2 years. Awesome. We had fun though. Henry looks a little gloomy in most of the pictures; perhaps he was already missing 2010?

We did, however, celebrate in the evening by eating out at Old Chicago--great food and service, by the way--and then partying at our friends, the Diaz'. They have an awesome, old home. It was built over 100 years ago, and it is huge. We danced, ate great food, and mingled. Then we left at 9:30 to put the babes to bed. Sayonara 2010. I wonder what 2011 will bring . . . good things, I'm sure.

A clean vessel

2011-01-12T19:24:00.001-08:00

Last night we, as a presidency, met at the church during a blizzard. We pulled all the contents out of our "Primary closet", went through it, and organized it. A rule of thumb: If we hadn't used in the past 7 months or already have a plan to use it, we would chuck it. There were many outdated things, but also many awesome things.

You might be interested (hah!) to hear some of the nastiest things the closet held:

stale dinosaur crackers
glitter (Todd hates the stuff)
molding crape paper (just slightly)
and worst of all . . .
an old water pitcher with water, and mold growing.

Yuck!! Double yuck! So, we figured as we put things back in the closet that if anything was behind anything else, it wouldn't get used. Now everything's easy to see and accessible.

Some of its awesomer contents:

a Polaroid camera
a laminating machine
Primary helps from the 70s
all the Primary songs on cassette tapes (which honestly can't be used anymore, are tape players still used?)
a Sharing Time video with President Hinckley

Although this post may seem really silly to most of you, a clean Primary closet is like . . . I don't know . . . if closets could be exalted, ours would be the city of Enoch of closets.

It's golden.

Lots of great things have happened in our lives since Christmas, which I will post about, but a clean Primary closet? Come on.

Anyway . . .

Blessed

2011-01-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Is this guy sweet, or is he sweet?

Christmas in Utah!

2010-12-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

The Freestones had a wonderful trip to Utah to celebrate Christmas with both the Freestone and Cameron families. The trip just wasn't long enough.

We blessed baby Theo at the Cameron's home.

It was a beautiful blessing for a beautiful baby. Henry was not too keen on being around for it nor for taking pictures. Rather, he much preferred watching Toy Story and playing with his cousins.

He had so much fun with his cousins that even now when we ask him what his favorite thing of the day was he says, "Play with Josh." I think he's answering us as if we asked, What's favorite thing of all time?". As you can see by his out-of-the-chair, point-at-the TV behavior, he got such a kick out of "Buzz-White-year".

We did BYU things:
Attend the Carl Bloch art exhibit; it was AMAZING.
Attend a BYU basketball game; we totally skunked UTEP. Go Cougs!

And I met up with my lifelong friends and ate at Cafe Rio--that's kind of a BYU thing to do . . .

(Theo, me, Meg, Alpha, Rachel, Sam, and Ashton)

Oh, and we visited Santa a few times. Henry's enamored.

Christmas traditions that we love:

Christmas Play
Sadly we couldn't go see the Christmas play we were hoping to this year. The roads were terrible and the show house didn't allow infants in arms. Bummer. BUT, we did go see The Tourist together and it was a great outing together. Theodore was a good movie go-er, eating and sleeping the entire time, and Henry got to spend the 2 hours at his great aunt Mimi's house, whom he LOVES.

Bub Stumps and Stump the Bub
The Freestones play a trivia game put on my Mim and Bub in which they ask each of us questions about things related to our personal interests. This is where we get to shine! (Well, sort of.) This year Bub came to me before the game and said we were going to play a trick on the rest of the family. He gave me the questions and answers he was going to ask me during Bub Stumps.
They were:
1. Timbuktu is in what country?
2. What does the 57 mean on Heinz 57 bottle?
3. Name two stage actors that passed away this year?
There was one more but I can't remember what it was.
(Answers at the bottom)
Lisel was on to me after the first question. There was no way I could think knowing what country Timbuktu is in is an easy question. Maybe I shouldn't have claimed that it was an easy one. I was a little offended . . . just kidding. I think it's a well known fact that I'm not a trivia buff. By the end I made my confession. I was happy though that Todd did believe, and was impressed, that I knew the answers . . . up until the end. It was a good laugh.

Homemade chicken noodle soup and Luminaries

Before we sat down to the Cameron's traditional Christmas Eve dinner (homemade chicken noodle soup--the noodles are homemade and it's delicious) we ventured into the cold to stroll up and down Foxwood and admire the street lined with luminaries.

Henry took a detour to check out the Peanuts Christmas decor.

We made it home just before we froze and then we enjoyed dinner together.

The Nativity

Marysa: Mary, Theo: Baby Jesus, Henry: Shepherd, Peter: Donkey, Caleb: Joseph, and Todd: Shepherd.

Christmas PJs

The Monster | Henry with Theo and tractor | "Cheese" and the crooked lip

We had a wonderful season celebrating the birth of Christ!

1. Mali 2. Nothing. It's just a random number 3. Tony Curtis, Leslie Neilsen, and I added Dennis Hooper for good measure.

The Second Installment

2010-12-17T13:28:00.001-08:00

Jenika has done it again! It's such a joy to have her as a friend, AND photographer.
Check out more photos of Theodore (and us) at:

JENIKA'S LENS

Dizzy Henry

2010-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

I was looking through my pictures and came across this video. It was taken a few days before Theo was born. While I was mopping the kitchen floor I heard Mickey's voice, "Ha ha, time's up!" I was on my hands and knees and turned around to see this:

I cracked up.

We were dumped on

2010-12-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .
This past weekend it snowed and snowed and snowed.
It was gorgeous.

Theodore and I watched it come down.
And now it's cold.
Like 10 degrees . . . Fahrenheit. Brrrrrrr.

When the downpour slowed down I chose not to brave it, but Henry couldn't be stopped.
He was anxious to get out. He loved it.
Theo and I encouraged him from inside.
"Henry, try crawling in it . . . okay, stomp around a bit . . . oops, that's okay, get back up again!"
Eventually he kind of whitewashed himself and that was E-nough.

As he changed out of his snow gear he whisper-yelled, "Mom, it's ffffffffffreezing cold out there!"
I put up decorations, we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional, we ate peanut brittle and ginger thins, drank hot chocolate and read Christmas stories.
Everyday now Henry exclaims, "It's Christmas time!"
Oh, and what a magical time it is.

Theo, the Champ

2010-11-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-16T13:07:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

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 . . .