Our New Baby Girl!

Introducing Miss Madeline Grace Freestone

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

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

Our family of four!

One very proud daddy with his sweet little girl

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

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

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

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

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

Has it really been since August....

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

Halloween:

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

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

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

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

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

Residency Interviews:

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

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

Meanwhile:

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

Thanksgiving:

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

Christmas:

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

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

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

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

It's a....

Girl!!!!

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

Big Brother is blissfully ignorant!

California 2011

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

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

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

Naps!

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

The Hula courtesy of Emma, Liz and Lilly

Us at the family Luau.

Swimming!

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

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

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

The Beach!

Family Pictures!

Redwoods at Muir Woods

San Fransisco!

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

Pennsylvania 2011

We have been blessed with an amazing summer so far!! Dave had a test that was only given in Philadelphia...so, thanks to my awesome parents, we decided to make a family trip of it. I had never been to Pennsylvania nor had my parents so we were all excited to see that part of the country and get away from the heat. Sure enough Philadelphia was having one of their worst heat waves on record so no reprieve from the high temps but it was still a super fun trip!! Here as some highlights:Our secret for surviving the long flights....dum dums! James has been on more flights than I care to count but as he gets older and more active he gets to be more and more difficult to fly with. I debated all sorts of methods to keep him happy, but the options were few. He doesn't get sugar often, not even juice...so this was like baby crack for him....it only took two suckers to get him there and three to get him home...the result, happy baby, happy passengers, happy mom and dad!

Day 1 Reading Terminal, Philly Cheese Steaks and Ice Cream..YUM!

Day 2 Lancaster PA, Amish Country

Science Factory

Lancaster and the surrounding Amish towns were BEAUTIFUL. It was amazing to see the pristine gardens and land maintained by the Amish using horse drawn tractors and plows. We were able to go to a Farmer's market where we got lots of yummy produce, jams, popcorn, cheeses...afterwards we ate at a fresh garden restaurant for dutch oven cooking.

Day 3 Downtown Philadelphia Tour and Test Day for Dave
Dave had already seen Philadelphia so we took a tour of the city while he took his big test. We saw lots of fun things!!!
The Liberty Bell
Enjoying ice cream just outside of the Church where many founding father's attended church including George Washington, John Adams, & Benjamin Franklin.

James getting recruited for the Continental Army

I think James' face in this picture shows how we all really felt about the heat...It was in the high 90-low 100's and super humid! But it was still so fun to see the beautiful city and learn so much American History!

Day 4 Gettysburg

Gettysburg was beyond beautiful. The history there is incredible.

Day 5 Constitutional Center and more downtown Philly

James hanging out with Ben

James' Inaugural Address (He did amazing)

James LOVED the fountains that were throughout the City

James and Dave giving the weather report at the Franklin Institute

For our final adventure James climbed the Rocky Step...all by himself....it took a while.
It was such a GREAT trip. Thanks so much to my mom and dad for making it possible for us all to go and thanks to Dave for letting us all tag along for his big test!!!