Happy Valentimes Day!

Yes I said Valentimes. I think it adds a nice touch of humor to the day. Don't you?

Anyway, I thought I would post really quickly and let you all in on how my V-day went down. Usually Ron sends me a beautiful arrangement of flowers to work so all the ladies can drool over them, but this year I kind of got in the way of those plans. *Sidenote on this one-does anyone else think it's weird that we want our husbands/boyfriends to send us our V-day presents to work even a day early if necessary, just so the other girls can see it? I do. I mean let's just get it out there, we all want our present to be better than the others right? But at the same time, I love the girls I work with and I would never want to make them feel bad about what they did or didn't get. Weird. Ok back on topic...

Before I go into this story let me just say that I am not one of those girls who says "I hate getting flowers or roses" or "I would rather get something else" and then gets upset when they don't get flowers or roses. I do love flowers of all sorts, even carnations, and there was a time in my life when I loved getting them more than anything. But lets face it people, I've been there and done that quite a few times now. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or I just have so much other stuff I could use the money for, but I really didn't want flowers this year. So all that to say this. I was on the BOK website balancing the checkbook when I saw a charge for flowers that was about to go through. I called Ron and told him to cancel it. Of course he was like cancel what? I tried as politely as I could to tell him that I would much rather him clean the house or do the dishes or take the kids away for two weeks while I catch up on everything. Those are the sort of things I'm into these days. After some gentle nudging, I convinced him to cancel the order and I told him I loved him for the thought, but really any of those other things would be acceptable. Ok maybe two weeks is a little much for taking the kids away. I mean I'm sure I'd miss them after the first 10 days or so, right? ")

Anyhoo, last Friday Ron was off work and had to run some errands and I really wasn't thinking much about Valentimes day anymore. (Oh I should probably mention I had the worst week in the history of worst weeks at my job last week. So getting to Friday was really all I had on my mind. That and a nice bottle of wine.) Ron came to pick me up for lunch and you will never guess what he had. Nope not flowers.

He made, yes I said MADE, chocolate covered strawberries and brought them to me at work! Oh it was the best gift ever. They were so yummy and instead of drooling over flowers the girls got to share some strawberries with me. So I'm going to have to say after fifteen years Ron still found a way to out do himself. Way to go honey! I love you and I'm glad you're mine!

The crazy 8 year old I once spoke of.....

Turned 9 today! Yep. 9. I'm not going to get all sappy and go on and on about how fast time has gone by with Kyle, but it REALLY has. This boy. Let me tell you. He's pretty special. He's the king of one liners, he's very smart, very athletic and really a sweet little boy. He says he's a Daddy's boy, but I know the truth. ")

For everyone else's birthday in November I did a little post about funny memories about that person. I think I'll keep up that tradition at least once more for Kyle. So here we go:

1. Kyle was three weeks early. He came during the only snow storm of the year. I went to the hospital at about 8:30 pm or so on the 27th already dilated to a 6. I got my epidural about an or so later and slept until about 2 in the morning. I started pushing about 2:15 and only had to push a few times and there he was. He weighed 6 lbs and 10 ounces and didn't look a thing like his brother. I fell in love with another boy that day.

2. He is in 3rd grade this year at Kane. He passed the GATES test earlier in the year (which stands for Gifted And Talented Elementary School). We are very proud of him and honestly have no idea how he became so smart. He never wanted me to teach him anything and to this day when his teachers praise him, I'm like I don't know where he learned it, but he picked it up somewhere. I choose to believe that he is one of those people who are just born smart and he won't ever really have to try at it. That's my story anyway.

3. One time when we were all eating at Mazzio's, Kyle busted out a quote from a pretty popular animated show (I'm not going to say which one, because it makes me sound like a bad parent) and we all almost died from laughing so hard. I really almost choked on my pizza.

4. The other day Ron asked Kyle if he knew where Emma's cup was and he said "well let me think about when the last time was I used it." Oh I couldn't contain myself. *Sidenote on this one - if any of you know Ron he is always saying things like this, so I found it very amusing that he was on the receiving end for a change.

5. Kyle is the perfect example of Murphy's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Right on Kyle's head. Or face. Or knee. Or elbow. I swear. One time the boys went to stay with my Aunt Dawn and I told her, "Watch Kyle. If anyone will get hurt, it will be him." I'm not kidding within the first few hours the child was hurt.

6. Kyle loves to help Ron do "men's work." That's what he told me one day when I asked him what he was doing outside. He said "Men's work with Dad." Oh ok. Keep it up!

7. This year Kyle played tackle football for the Y. It was his second year and he didn't seem to be as hesitant as he was the previous year. One day at practice he was playing defense and busted through the line and sacked the quarterback, whose dad happens to be Kyle's head coach. The coach was going crazy, all excited about the play and the other parents were like, umm, that's your kid he just tackled! He didn't care and really, neither did Kyle.

8. Kyle used to call magazines, mazagines. I think he still slips every once in awhile and says mazagine. We like to give him a hard time about it.

9. Kyle is a really, really good big brother to Emma and a does an awesome job with any kiddo. Our nephew Ayden loves Kyle to death and follows him around everywhere and the cool thing is Kyle likes it. He likes to have him around and entertain him. He's a very good helper. I'm going to start renting him out to parents of 2 to 4 year olds. I can guarantee it would worth every penny for an hour or two of relaxation.

10. When Kyle was born Luke was around 3 and he used to love the song BINGO. So if you asked Luke what his name was he would say Lukas Brody Freeman-O. Just like in the song. Bingo's name ended with an O so Luke thought everyone's name ended with an O. Anyway, when Kyle was born, Ron's parents started calling him Kyle Preston Freeman-O. Which led to Kyle-O and then Kyle-Odie. One Sunday at church we were taking the boys to their nursery rooms and we had to put a nametag on them. Craig decided to put Kyle-Odie on Kyle's nametag. No big deal right? Wrong. About halfway through the service a message popped up on both of the big screens in church. "Will the parents of Kyle-Odie please come to the nursery." Yeah. I loved being the one who had to stand up and respond to that one. Thus we have Kyle-Odie!

So there you go. I could go into a few other things, but I'll save those for another time.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KYLE-ODIE!!!
Your mommy loves you!

Is this weird?

Oh hi! Bet you all thought I was gone for good, huh? Nope. Just been busy of course. After Christmas I had to go to Dallas for a check up on my heart thing and then I had a little girls trip to Colorado last week! My heart is doing great and I had an awesome time in CO! I'll fill you in on all those deets a little later. First here's this....

Before Christmas I was trying to get a good picture of the kids for cards. Of course Emma had a runny nose which made her look like a little Rudolph and since I haven't purchased photoshop or wouldn't even know how to use it if I had, I thought I would put the kids in the tub and maybe if Emma's face was really clean her nose wouldn't look so bad. That makes sense right??? So I ran a bath in our big tub and, wait for it, made all three kids get in!

So my question to you all is this. Do you think this will cause permanent emotional damage? Bad memories? Or is it just weird on several different levels? I somewhat regretted making them do this but at that point it was too late. Once they were in there the boys were having fun, but Emma was a little grumpy. Here are the shots I got. (Oh and her nose is still crazy red!)

She was umm, how shall I say this, taking her 20 month old red-headed anger out on her brothers. I don't know where she gets it?

I guess it's Luke's turn now. Yeesh!

Man look at that face! Those boys better thank their lucky stars they will be out of the house when she's a teenager!

So I rescued the boys from the demon and then their true colors started oozing out. I have so many shots of these faces. Don't worry, I'll spare you.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Love you lots!

Okay really quickly...

So I'm still finishing my Christmas shopping, I've been baking cookies all evening and I just finished addressing my Christmas cards, but I thought I would pop in and say hello.  Just for a second anyway.  We've had a very busy weekend and I'm sure it's not going to get better before Thursday.  One of our really good friends from high school got married tonight, so we spent a good chunk of our weekend hanging out and catching up with our peeps.  I've been toting my new "baby" around with me everywhere and for those of you who want to know, this is what I've looked like for the past two or three weeks.

I've taken, and I'm not making this up, about six to seven hundred pictures since I got the new camera.  I really like it and I'm trying to learn as much about it as I can.  Here are a couple of my favorite shots I've taken so far.

This is my nephew Kohen.  He turned one last weekend and he's pretty stinkin cute!  We celebrated his party Freeman style at Buffalo Wild Wings.  It rocked.

This picture is from the wedding we went to tonight.  The cake was beautiful and very yummy! We had a really good time catching up with old friends and seeing our sweet Jason get married.  Anyway, I'd sure love to post all 732 pictures for you guys to admire, but let's face it, we've all got much more important tasks at hand.  I'm sure most of you are already done with all your Christmas activities but I'm the kind of crazy who likes to wait until the absolute very last second and then go "I'm going to be way more prepared next year."  Ha!  Yeah right!  Anyway, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I'll check in again soon!

I can't wait!!!!

Ok so Santa came a little early for me this year.  In my defense though, I've been really good and I've wanted this for a long, long time.  Does that count??  I think it does, so I finally got a new camera!!  Woo hoo!  It is a Canon Rebel XSI.  I'm really excited and can't wait to get some more pictures of the kids.  I'm not a pro or anything, I'd just like to get some clearer pictures instead of the blurriness I'd been getting in the past.  I thought I'd share a few of my first pics with you guys.  

I'm no Lauren Clark or anything but they are heck of a lot better than what I was getting out of my last camera.  I hope to learn more about what all this Rebel can do and get better.  I'm sure I'll fit all the learning into my schedule somewhere!!  Here are a few more of Emma.  (I promise she isn't my favorite child.  I don't have a favorite.  But she will pose and make cute faces for me.  The boys don't really care to do that anymore.  Plus they are usually dirty and need to comb their crazy hair or something.)

And here we are after the bath.  Checking out some ribbon I'm going to use to make hair bows for her.

And now we are going to brush our hair.

We take hair brushing very seriously at our house.  See...

Wow.  It was clearly bedtime.  ")

Happy 12th Year Lukey!

*Before I even start this post, please do not pay any attention to the unmade bed in the background of these two pictures.  My OCD tells me not to post them!  Are you crazy?  But then I really like the sweetness of Luke and Emma so I'm going to have to over ride my OCD.  Sorry Mom.  And Trin.  ")

I know I've been going on and on and on about my Lukey getting older but I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that he's been a part of my life for over 12 years now.  It's scary to think how fast time can pass.  I hate it, but I should quit griping about it, accept it and move on.  Right?  Right.  So anyway, Luke's birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving this year.  He doesn't really like it when it is like that because all his friends are usually busy, but we made sure to celebrate a little early the Friday before.  We took about six extra boys (yeah, what the heck am I thinking?) bowling and out for pizza.  They seemed to have a good time and I know Luke was happy to get to spend some time with all of them.  We also celebrated the night before his birthday with the family.  If I were a good mom I would have had some pictures of those two nights to show you all, but I'm not.  Not when I seem to hide my camera from myself.  Something tells me I won't be doing that too much anymore (I'll fill ya in on those details a little later.)  For now I guess I better keep up my birthday posting theme here and throw out a few memories or silly facts about Luke that I love.  So here we go....

1.  Luke was four days overdue and I was in hard labor for twelve excruciating hours.  It was the day before Thanksgiving that year and all of our friends from school showed up and waited forever for Luke.  It was a very special day for me in more ways than one.  When he finally decided to make his debut, he weighed 8 lbs and 10 ounces.  He had a glimmer of red hair and funny feet like his dad!  I fell in love with another boy that day.  

2. Luke's middle name is Brody.  It was a name of a character in a popular movie at that time (I'll see if you guys can figure that one out on your own).  Ron's friends called him Brody Baby.

3. His first room was decorated with Paddington everything.  We still have every Paddington from his nursery and one huge Paddington we got at Sears when they marked it down.  The thing is seriously about 3 feet tall!

4. Luke loved Blues Clues and had several "Handy Dandy Notebooks" and "Thinking Chairs".  I can still sing every song from that show!

5. When he was about 2 or 3 he was having a hard time pronouncing his "L's" so I would try to get him to say la-la...and then whatever L word he was trying to say.  So I would say la-la-Luke for example.  One day he was messing around with a hanger and I told him to put it down.  He proceeded to tell me it wasn't a hanger it was a hammer.  I said no it is a hanger now put it away.  He said "No mom.  It's a la-la-hammer!"  I think that was the day he figured out if he made me laugh he didn't seem to get in as much trouble as he would otherwise.

6. Luke also had several funny sayings that we still say around our house to this day.  Some of which include:

"I judge you." Luke's first attempt at I love you.

"Kyle's on the down." This is what Luke told our friends when he was explaining the bunk bed situation.

"Ass cream."  Ice cream.

"I'm gonna wear my toes."  This was Luke going somewhere barefoot.

"Sorry doesn't work for me."  His daycare taught the kids to use their words and if someone did something that made you mad and they apologized it was ok to tell them this.  We still throw this one around a lot in our house.

7. He's very funny and loves making people laugh.  I do too so I can relate.

8. He's sensitive and caring and doesn't want to hurt any one's feelings. 

9. He has to have the last word.  Always.  (I know my mom is reading this right now and cracking up because Luke and I are so much alike.)

10. He's growing his hair out again.  I don't like it.  Does anyone know when this will be out of style?  Or if it is out of style can you help me convince him?

11. He's been taking guitar lessons for about seven months now and he is really good.  He knows how to read the music and all that jazz which I think is pretty impressive.  Especially since I went to his lessons for a while and I couldn't follow along with that stuff at all.

12. He's the best big brother/son anyone could ask for.  The night we had the family over for his birthday I wanted to put together a quick slide show for him (this is quickly becoming another hobby of mine).  The only problem was I didn't have enough time to scan in a bunch of pictures.  So I sat down and made a quick slide show with the pictures I had on the computer already.  It wasn't very long but enough for a couple of songs.  I picked two of his favorite songs and we played it for him and everyone else that night.  I was feeling kind of bad because I didn't get everything in there I wanted to and after it was over this is the conversation we had.

Luke:  Thanks for the slide show mom.

Me:  Well I'm sorry it wasn't longer.  I wanted to do more but ran out of time.

Luke:  It's ok.  I'm just happy you made one.

Oh the kid kills me.  I love him so much.  I'm really very sad that he has to grow up.  I will never be able to express in words what that child means to me.  I love you Luke! 

More to come....

Ok so I haven't posted in a little bit but I wanted to show you all a couple of pics I took with my phone the other night. The kids were all laying on our big ottoman covering up with a blanket. The boys tried their hardest to keep Emma up there with them, but she didn't really want to hang around too long with those yahoos.

Anyway, I have been really busy lately and have a TON to blog about later (hopefully this weekend.) You will get to hear about a very special (sigh) birthday, all of our Thanksgiving dinners (we had four, yes four!), a really cool Christmas Concert I got to go to last week, my early Christmas present (does anyone remember what I asked Santa for??) and I may even throw in a post about my beloved Sooners! Why not? So stay tuned. Things should be hopping around here in the next few days!