One of The Many.....

I find myself wanting to blog about a lot of things but never making the time.....This is one of the many....

Olivia was baptized on August 1st, 2009...It was a beautiful day and she was so excited....it was something she had been looking forward to for a long time she said to me..."Mom I am really excited for my birthday to come but you know what makes me most excited about my birthday?" "What " I replied, "It means I am old enough to be baptized."

She is a sweet and totally kooky girl you just gotta love her. Even when she was little we used to call her "Phsyco" because she was just crazy and silly all the time....she is our little peace maker (most of the time). She drives her siblings crazy because she mothers all of them. And when she gets the giggles (mostly during family prayer or scripture study) you can't help but smile....Right after you discipline her for being disruptive....We love her so much!!!! The day was beautiful. And she, with her sweet little spirit was even more BEAUTIFUL!!!! The picture above was totally special to me. After we had taken pictures of her with grandparents and mom and dad Jackson stepped in and said can I get one? At first we thought he meant just a picture of him and then he grabbed Liv. (Aren't they normally complaining about having to have pictures together?) It was a sweet moment and the photo will be one of my forever favorites.....

Her dress was beautiful even though it wasn't the one I would have picked...she loved it....I didn't do a very good job photographing details because the dress has these beautiful buttons that run up the entire back. You can barely see them in the picture above. (I still have lots of work with my photography...)

I took the photos up at my parents home up in Huntsville....I loved the wheat field.....

This was my favorite photo of all....I love the softness of Olivia being out of focus....

I know it has been a good three months since I last posted.....all I can say is 5+ kids ( counting all the neighbor kids we had hanging around) home all summer long was sheer craziness...I found that not many of the projects I anticipated doing during the summer got touched....I have resolved that they probably won't until my kids are all school age and I am home by myself. There is just no time!

What a great summer we had.....The boat was one of the best purchases we made. Simply for this reason.

Jacko learned to wake board and was ready to go to the lake at any time. He could have lived there all summer...he has since practiced doing his back flips on the trampoline with a rope tied to the tree....he is hoping for nailing a back flip on the wake board next summer. I sorta hope he chickens out!

Dayvis was gung ho until she swallowed half the lake on the first try. Then it took her the whole rest of the week in Lake Powell to warm up to the idea of water skiing again...but she did it long enough for me to get two photos....and she was done....she was a good sport!!!

Livi is always happy go lucky! She learned to ski when she was 5 and is our marathon skier....she could go and go and go, with a smile on her face the whole time. What a doll!!!

This is my CRAZY kid....you can't help but love him...he is three and begged us to let him ski. I thought for sure he would get in the water and quickly decide he was done....let me just say I probably have a full half hour of footage on our camcorder of him skiing.....he is a mad man and only cried that it couldn't be his turn every time!

Because of the boat we spent a ton of time up at my parents house in Huntsville....

Strolling the beach......

Digging Holes......BIG holes.......

Sun bathing in man-made water holes.....

Skipping rocks...

And just playing in the water.....

These are just of us at the lake I will publish some of my favorite photos of the kids playing at the house. Huntsville is the most realaxing simple place ever....We love it!!!!

A Love Hate Thing!!!

In April Tom found this Jeep for sale......

What else do I need to say. Those of you who know Tom know he has a weakness when it comes to buying cars....(especially a Jeep because he had to get rid of his when we got married....) I did not say he could not purchase it. I just said I did not think it was a practical purchase...I mean what was the likelihood of me transferring 3 car seats over to the back of the.....oh wait 3 car seats won't fit in the back of the Jeep all 7 of us won't fit in the Jeep, which meant we wouldn't be going anywhere together.....but for some reason as much as I hated it I really did love it!!!

Tom thought I was crazy when we were on a drive and I asked if I take a photo of his hand.....It was totally something I loved when we were dating!!! I know, how strange is that...

Then there was Jensen...Tom's partner in crime..."dad can we go on a Jeep ride?" I mean how could I hate it when the kid seriously loved everything about it...

And I can't tell you how many times I went into the garage and found the kids just sitting playing in the back of the JEEP......(Littlest pets stick well to those roll bars). That Jeep went to and from baseball many times. The kids loved it.....

Then Tom found a boat we both wanted to purchase.....reluctantly he asked me to put pictures of the Jeep on KSL so we could sell it....I figured the Jeep probably wasn't going anywhere because as much as I hated it everyone else in my family loved it and I wasn't about to list it. Long story short he ended up selling it to the guy we bought the boat from.....
And just like that it was gone. I cried when they drove away with the Jeep. Yes I cried!!! It still makes me sad but the boat was a much better purchase.....(it's always better when you can all get in it at the same time!) I'm convinced someday there will be another Jeep sitting in our driveway....And it will probably be one of those love hate things again....I guess more love than hate!!!!

It's Her Birfday!!!!

Lainey Happy first birthday you sweetest girl ever!!!!!

Lainey makes our hearts MELT....She turned 1 on June 1st.....She is so {SWEET} even with the torture she endures from a 7 year old sister who must hold her instead of allowing her to play, a 4 year old sister who isn't really strong enough to hold her and nearly crashes every time she attempts to pick her up, and the torture of her 3 year old brother who is relentless, laying on top of her so she is squished like a bug...yes she puts up with a lot, a {TEASE} one of her latest things is to put her food on her head and just wait for me to notice. When I do she gets a grin from ear to ear....she also loves to tease daddy by only kissing mommy and ignoring him...{BEAUTIFUL} her soft little skin, her pretty little lips, her dark hair (which with a little sun is lightening very fast) and her sparkling brown eyes those eyes just kill me.....{KISSABLE} the ones she gives are even better than the ones we give her. {PETITE} okay so she still has CHUB which I adore....but for Freeman children who are usually in the 90th percentile, Lainey being in the 50th percentile is fairly small....Those tiny feet are my favorite...I really do just want to eat her all the time!!!

I feel like I have known her for so long the little spirit she brought to our home when she was born is Heavenly....she brings out the best in all of us...I am so thankful to be her mother. How blessed are we to have our little Lainey!!!

Do you think she enjoyed her cake????

We Love you HAPPY GIRL!!!

(Thank you for my pretty dress Hopee, it is perfect!!!)

p.s. Tom bought me a new lens for Mothers Day (Wahoo). I have taken so many photos that I feel overwhelmed....I will post again and give you all the pictures and info on our crazy month of May!!!

Dayvis

It's pretty rare now a days that my kids actually ask me to take a picture of them...I'm usually totally begging and just trying to get a shot of them holding still.....I think because I let her make up a dance wearing her new tank top undershirt that she felt the need for me to take a picture....I'll never understand what the fascination is with running around in a tank top when it is still freezing cold outside, she would wear one every day if I'd let her....for some reason I just don't love the look. She never looks dressed when she is in a tank top. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that just today she was begging my to get her a bikini for the pool (I still can't do that )....However, I Love this photo of Dayvis.... I think because she is usually hiding those big blue eyes behind her glasses. Love it, Love it!!!!!

{Sweet} Sisters....

I have been totally blessed with an abundance of sisters!!! There are six of us and we always have such a good time together...they have been life savers I don't know what me or my kids would do without them!!! Three weeks ago Kristen my sister next to me (second one in from the left) decided to serve an LDS mission..... And.....She already got her call!!!! She is going to the Indianapolis, Indiana mission. She leaves June 24th.... Bummer :( that means she misses the yearly Lake Powell family trip...We'll miss her in her always daring cliff jumping, and my girls will miss the almost daily painting of their fingers and toes....You know, they can't keep the polish on longer than for a couple of hours...but they can always talk aunt Kristen into pulling out the nail polish again!!! We will totally miss her but we are so excited for her!!! Now if we can just keep she and my mom separated until she leaves. (They have already been fighting about what she can and can't wear on a mission.) Although today they went shopping and I heard it was a better day.....Good Luck Kristen WE LOVE YOU!!!

Another Photo of my {Sweet} grandma who I love dearly....

she is a total crack up. We were laughing because it took her 10 minutes to figure out where we should be looking....(Maybe because she can't see but she always makes us laugh!!!)

Spring Break in St. George!!!

Happy Birthday Tommy Free!! He celebrated his 33rd birthday last Tuesday. (Without us...) He went to Augusta, Georgia to see practice rounds of the Masters golf tournament. A trip I was supposed to go with him on but got uninvited..."Honey you are more than welcome with us but I don't know how fun it will be for you because you will be the only wife coming..." Or so it went, so the kids and I ended up in St. George for the entire week of Spring Break. There was no way I was sticking around here in this yucky weather with 5 kids out of school and nothing to do. I was a little nervous about the 5 hour drive but the kids were awesome!!! We drove strait through without any stops....I couldn't believe none of them had to go tho the bathroom. To tell the truth I was so grateful because I was a little nervous about stopping at the gas stations along the way with no husband...something about truckers and such that made me a little nervous. It was a great week and I was so glad for the sunshine and the lounging by the pool...actually there really was no lounging with 5 of them swimming... I ended up with sunburned shoulders and no color on my legs. I didn't care it was just nice to see the SUN!!! Tom flew down to meet us on Wednesday...The kids swam, swam, and swam some more!!! It was the PERFECT weather...

Silly Faces at the Pool...

When Tom arrived we celebrated his birthday by breaking an Easter egg pinata (obviously more for the kids than for him...) Jensen (the 3 year old...) was the third one to go and had it broken open before everyone got a turn...Thank goodness for packaging tape...We had it fixed and ready to go in no time!!!

This was a little scary....they all decided to jump together....
My heart skipped a beat when I saw Jensen entering the water like this...Thank goodness all ended well!!!

We went to a little Easter egg hunt over at the college and they had a sack hop race...Dayvis was surprisingly fast...She came in 3rd of 10 kids even beating her 9 year old brother!!! I love her bouncing curls, and her sunburned arms...not from the pool but from playing at the park!!!



It was a great trip can't wait to go back!!!

The other morning I was getting things picked up after the chaos of getting kids off to school. Lainey just usually quietly follows me around but this morning she was a little grumpy. Dayvis picked her up and the next thing I knew, Lainey had found a strand of Dayvis' hair to play with (It's her new way of soothing herself... She plays with a little strand of hair until she's asleep and her arm goes limp) and had fallen asleep in her arms. Dayvis hates it when Lainey is "STUFFY" or for those of us that do not speak Dayvis' language... "FUSSY".... Dayvis felt so big for putting Lainey to sleep by herself. It just reaffirms to me that Lainey truly is our little ANGEL...

I got my new lens!!!! It finally came. Nothing fancy just a 50mm f/1.8 but it sure does take amazing shots. I don't know how I did without it. I had to try it out last night. I have a photo of each of my kids during tub time on the wall in my main bath... Laineys has been a blank frame for over a year now. (I hung it when I found out I was pregnant with her.) She had fun playing in the running water. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't grab hold of it. It made for some hilarious shots. These are a few of my favs...

She was even pretty happy considering she is cutting all 4 top teeth!!!

The Crazy Weekend Flu!!!

We have had a crazy weekend...Lainey woke up on Saturday morning with dried throw up stuck in her hair...You gotta love that when you open their door and that sick smell is totally overwhelming. I felt so bad. She seemed not totally great but okay, and never threw up again. Sunday evening I began to feel nauseated...Thankfully Tom put all of the kids to bed on his own and at about midnight I finally got everything out of my system...Monday I felt a lot better. At 3:00 on Monday afternoon Jack began complaining of a stomach ache and by 10:00 p.m. we had Tom, Jack, Jensen, and Olivia all puking!!! It was a fun night let me tell ya! On the plus side everyone was sick at the same time and it seemed to only be a 12 hour thing....YEAH!!! Dayvis is the lone sole who never got it. I'm just waiting for her to complain of a tummy ache....So far so good!!! Livi stayed home for school because she was up all night. By noon when she woke Lainey up from her nap, I think she was feeling fine and I was feeling ready for her to go to school.... Instead due to this nasty weather (which I am totally sick of) we decided to take some photos inside... I can't wait to be outdoors doing this!!!

I love this photo of Dayvis. When she was 2 weeks old I noticed a tiny white dot in her pupil. It turned out to be a Cataract she was born with and has worn glasses since she was six months. You see it like a little pin drop in her pupil. I love her glasses. I think this has been my favorite pair on her!

Lainey didn't love the hat but Jensen thought it was hilarious to put it on her and watch her try and take it off. The torture this little on puts up with. He totally loves her in his crazy wild Jensen way. I love her crazy hair!!!