A Little more Kate

So she is not 18 months yet, just a few more days- so I am counting these as her milestone pictures. At 18 months what is Kate like? She likes corn dogs and going to the park. She likes coloring, especially when she tells you what animal to draw, dancing, imitating animals and smelling flowers. She is great at getting her clothes and shoes on, getting in the car, taking her afternoon nap and taking care of her stuffed animals and babies. She loves singing but usually only gets the first or second word of song like "A,B," or "Head" no "C" and no "shoulders". She loves playing with other kids and reading a 400 page Reader's Digest Nature in America Book, no seriously we read this for more than an hour everyday. She is really looking forward to October- this I know because every morning she tries to get a shirt I bought her with a black cat on it for Halloween. When I get a shirt out of her closet she will go back to the closet and point up and "Meow" when she sees I have not gotten the right shirt out to wear. I am sure a picture of her in this shirt will make its appearance on the blog shortly as well.

She hardly needs me anymore.

Kate is growing up a lot lately- She attends nursery and happily, she gets her own diapers when she needs changing, she kneels and says Amen when we pray and now she is punishing herself when she does something wrong.
Kate is generally very good. She rarely does something to warrent a "no" from us unless she is asked to sit still for more than ten minutes. Mostly we haven't had to do much parenting up to this point. Even on the rare occasions when she does do something wrong we don't do anything except tell her "no". But realized that lately she understands what "no" means but was not listening. We figured it was time to try and attach a new consequence to the word when she didn't listen and try our hand at some actual parenting.
Jake and I have been experimenting with "time out". The first time was a few weeks ago when we made her sit on a pillow on the floor. She didn't like it at the time, but later even that night sat there like it was some kind of game. So we took away the pillow. Kate was in time out two times this weekend because even after being told no and warned she was going into time out she continued to do what she had been asked not to. The first time- I could hardly help myself from laughing as Jake made her sit in the corner of the entry way and count to ten. She was crying hysterically- and it seemed only because she knew her Dad was mad at her. The second time she knew what to do and sat there patiently. Then yesterday she was getting into the desk, something she knows not to do, and Jake told her "no" a few times. When she didn't listen he said "Do you want to go in time out". She promptly walked over to the corner in the entry way on her own and sat down and looked at us sadly. We counted to ten and then told her she could get up and were clapping and offering hugs because- well it is hard to be mean- and also because our child is a genius and knows how to put herself in time out. It is funny I was so proud of her for knowing how to punish herself. I guess our time outs have been effective- but it is sad to see our little girl sad because we took away the fun. Except for church really maybe- being Kate's parent has been all a joy thus far. I know there will come a day when this is bound to change but- she even in her cute way made time out a little bit of a joy- watching her learn and be obedient.

The Best Sandwich Ever!

I'm in the mood to blog today, probably because my house is clean, I feel alright and kate is napping well. This is a fun little post called the best sandwich ever- in case you didn't read the title. Jake and I have perfected the sandwich. We have been eating this for lunch and some dinners for the past week or so, not to mention often before that. It is delicious if made to our exact instruction. When we eat them Jake always says that he wants to take the sandwich apart and each each layer one by one because everything inside is so good. True honey but really it is the calculated formula that makes the perfection.

Start with really good bread- preferable with a cheese base although a good sourdough will do. Buy canned jellied cranberry like your grandma buys at thanksgiving- mash it up in a separate bowl, then slather on one side of the bread. The next layer is good thinly sliced Provolone Cheese- two pieces if you have it. Next some slow roasted turkey breast- which you may just have to buy a whole turkey and cook it for, shredded not sliced and salt and peppered lightly before being placed on the sandwich. Then a green leaf lettuce-not iceberg, tomato and avocado previously salt and peppered before being placed on the sandwich as well. The last layer is a delicious sauce you make on the side before putting on the other piece of bread. It is four tablespoons mayo, four tablespoons of sour cream (and don't use fat free) and one tablespoon of mustard- just the cheap yellow kind all mixed together. You will also want a spoonful of this on your plate to dip the finished product into. So we are being a little silly, but I promise that it will be the best sandwich you ever made at home.
Plus I think it has every category in the food pyramid so that makes it healthy too. Mmmmmm!

My Little Sister Rocks!

Today Kate and I got to get up early and go see my little sister Ali who is a senior , compete in the homecoming pageant at Wasatch High. Kate was really into it and loved dancing along to all the contestants talents, but of course none compared to Ali. She sang and played a song she wrote and - no bias here- honestly was the best, most purely talented contestant. She rocks! She won though she probably would prefer not to be the homecoming queen in the end, but she certainly seemed to have the most fans in the audience. I have had the song she sung stuck in my head all day- now that is a good song. I should see if she has uploaded anything to youtube and put the link here so you all can hear.

It was a little fun to be in the same high school halls I attended 9 years ago, with a child in my belly and another in my arms. I can remember being in those same halls being so concerned about silly things in contrast to now and how happy I am just to hang out with Kate. I thought this would be a great post to add my high school tag post too. I feel like I have been tagged with this 5 or 6 times in the last two weeks by family and friends. I would say I don't like doing these tags, but I sure enjoy reading other people's so maybe my opinion of them needs to not be so negative. Here goes..

High School Tag
1. Did you date someone from your High School? Someone- to many someone's I think. Two in particular I continued to date off and on through high school and college. It was fun to have boyfriends in high school and it helped make me the person I am, but I surely took it too seriously and wish I wouldn't have been so dramatic. I thought at 17 my life SHOULD be like an episode of Friends and that was silly.
2. What kind of car did you drive?
Amy and I shared a really decent Ford Explorer it was turquoise and gray. It didn't have an air conditioner or a very good heater, but it did have a tape player. Funny enough I can only remember us fighting over who got the car maybe two times.
3. What was the most embarrassing moment of High School for you?
Thankfully I was not often embarrassed back then even though I did a lot of stupid things because I thought I was too cool, but my mom coming to soccer practice to get some kind of coaching license is most likely to still make me cringe.
4. Were you a party animal? I was always at a party with lots of people, but partying in Heber would not be considered a good time in most places. There were no drugs or alcohol, or even really loud music.
5. Were you considered a flirt? No, at least I don't think so. Others might say otherwise.
6. Were you in Band, Orchestra, or Choir? Not a one, although I think it would have been fun maybe, at the time I viewed them as less than worthy (meaning kind of nerdy) activities.
7. Were you a nerd? No, at the time I would have likely told you I was one of the most popular people at school, but looking back I am sure this is completely inaccurate and I was likely not quite as cool as I perceived myself.
8. Were you on any Varsity teams? I did play soccer all four years and lettered, but I didn't really "play" all that much. I wasn't a star, but I did enjoy running around in the cool crisp Fall air with some of my favorite girls.
9. Did you ever get suspended/expelled? No, although I did break into the high school once with a few friends in the middle of the night my senior year to pull some April Fools jokes on some of our fav. teachers and administration. We were fingered, but didn't get in trouble like I think we maybe should have. The administration thought me and my friends were pretty cool too, so we got away with a lot.
10. Can you still sing the fight song?
Not a chance. In fact today they sang it at the homecoming assembly and I had no idea what they were singing about. I don't know if I ever could sing it.
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Moss who taught television and Mrs. Southerland who taught AP English. They were the kind of teachers who treated me and my friends with respect and like adults.
12. Where did you sit during lunch? I feel like esp. towards the end of school we hardly got lunches trying to get everything done with all the club meetings and stuff. We did eat at Wendy's a lot, and the grocery store, but the best thing we ever did was a too short lived Joy Lunch Club, where 10-40 of my closest friends showed up at someones house and had their mom's make us lunch. It kind of got to big and the mom's couldn't keep up, so we went back to Wendy's drive thru.
13. What was your school's full name? Wasatch High School: Home of the Wasps.
14. School mascot? A wasp. When people ask me what High School I went to and i say Wasatch no doubt their next question will be "Aren't you guys a bee or something?" Apparently a wasp didn't strike fear into the hearts of neighboring schools.
15. Did you go to Homecoming? With who? My school had I think four or five formals each year. I went to all of them, but we didn't always go with the person we were dating. I could get asked by anyone and pretty much was expected to say yes no matter who it was. When I explained this tradition to Jake he said "asking someone else's girl to a dance would seriously have got you shot at my school". Yes but it made it lots of fun in Heber, plus it was hardly an intimate date because we usually went in groups of 30 or more people.
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No, it was fun, but I wouldn't trade it for being with my hubby and daughter now. Although it was nice to have the most stressful thing in my life be deciding what to do on the weekend.
17. What do you remember most about graduation? I remember being really sad, and had a hard time splitting up my time between everyone I wanted to be with.
18. Where did you go Senior Skip Day? The school had a trip to Lagoon but I was with 15 or so friends in Moab and Mesa Verde for the long weekend and it was so much fun
19. Were you in any clubs? I was in a lot of clubs, but never did too much with them. I feel like for the most part they were just college resume builders for me.
20. Have you gained some weight since then? No- well at the moment only because I am pregnant, but I think I actually lost 5 lbs or so since my Senior Year of High School. I think because I worked at a delicious cafe where I could eat for free whenever I worked. Between having to buy my own food and not eating at work freshman year of college was like an automatic diet. Either way I like the body I have (when I am not prego) more now than then. I am surely more comfortable with it.
21. Who was your Prom Date? I went to both Prom's funny enough with boys who were not at the time but later became serious relationships. Prom was fun, but not that big of a deal, like it seems to be in other schools. Except that we did do promenade Jr year, where we learned a dance with our dates and performed them in front of our parents and grandparents. I actually like learning formal dance, so the learning was fun plus it was just hours with all our friends, but the performing seemed silly.
22. 10 year Reunion? I hope I will go, I hope we have one, but I have been lucky to see most of the people who I was closest too at least once a year since then at little get together, weddings and christmas parties.
23. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? I would tell myself to have more fun. Not make things so dramatic, and not try to do everything and work so much but to spend more time with the people who were most important to me then. I would also tell myself to be nicer to people, I was not the best friend to my closest friends sometimes.

Some of my blog followers are friends from this era in my life. It would be interesting to hear how their memories differ from mine. I wouldn't want to do High School again, but I might not mind doing college over. It was fun, and there are things I would change. Somebody should make a college tag post, I would enjoy even more talking about then. Jake and I- especially since we share several years of college together often say when we are stressed about jobs and money and such that we wish we were in college again. I guess ever era of life has something we will miss as we move on.

Lions, Tigers and Brown Hair- oh my

Kate has a new obsession. Lions, Tigers and all other predatory cats. I had mentioned her successful "roaring"lessons before. It has been taken to a whole-nother-level. She watched the LION KING at her grandma's last weekend when Jake and I went to the temple. We brought it home with us because we heard it had been a big hit. We watched it together. There was roaring, neighing, and other commenting through out. I'll admit to letting her watch at least part of it every day since. She just loves it so much and plus give me a break I don't feel good. Then grandma brought over a giant tiger that was ours when we were kids that had been hidden away in a closet. The roaring has taken over, it starts in morning, she points at the tv and roars. It is hilarious, I love that she has something she likes so much.

On another note, I colored my hair brown. Really I have not been blonde since I was 23, it started going dark then and has been getting darker and darker since (well not that anyone knew because I lightened it every month). I went to my hair stylist (Jake hates when I say that- he thinks it sounds snobby), and asked her to get me back to my roots, so that I won't have to dye it anymore. Sounds easier, maybe not as pretty, but easier and cheaper too. She convinced me to go a little darker than my roots because it was going to be hard to cover the blonde. I think it is too dark, and am not in love with it, but think I will after a second take and maybe some fading. I am sure I will like not dying it eventually. I figure I will likely dye out my gray hair when they come, so why not have easy natural colored hair while I can. Well that is my intent anyway. We will see how long it lasts. I don't feel as pretty without my blonde hair. Look at the picture in my last post. It was blonde, longer and curly, it has been a dramatic change. Sorry for this bad picture, I actually took several but I am just not good at taking picture of myself, I just always miss. At least I look more like my parents and siblings for the moment, but I don't like that I don't match Kate.

Hey Baby!

I thought I would share some more about the new baby news since my only post thus far was mostly a complaint. Jake, Kate and I are going to become a family a four on or around ( and hopeful this time before) February 24, 2008. Making me about 16 weeks along or so. We are excited and most of all surprised. Shocked, completely caught of guard and a little slow.
The first week of April or so I was really sick. I kept telling Jake I was so sick it felt like I was pregnant. He told me it was probably just the flu but if I felt pregnant I should stop just talking about it and go get a test- how practical of him. So I did, it came up neg, and shortly there after Jake came down with a flu and thus ended our thoughts that I was pregnant.
A few weeks later, late May say, I felt the same way again. This time more sure I was just sick, plus I had been a little stressed maybe that was part of the reason I kept getting the flu. Not to mention getting pregnant with Kate took around 18 months longer than planned, several Dr's, tests, drugs, and lots of frustration and tears, the chance that I was accidentally pregnant seemed uber unlikely. The icky feeling stuck around, week after week, and was just too familiar to how I had spent six month of 2006. I just kept thinking, why am I so sick, maybe I am pregnant this time, but I don't want to be silly like last time and spend twenty dollars on a test just to tell me that I am really sick, plus if I am not pregnant, than I am really sick. Maybe I should go see a Dr. Kate had her 15 month appointment while Jake was at scout camp. While there I had a consult with the gen practitioner. We decided to take a blood test, to test for babies, low iron and other abnormalities that could be causing me to vomit, faint and be exhausted. He called later to tell me my blood showed a baby in the works.
At this point I had been sick for two months, but I was still surprised. I had to wait three days to tell Jake, when he got home from Scout Camp (this years scout camp blessing I guess). Till then just Kate and I shared the secret. We waited a few weeks and started sharing the news. Of course I was about 9 weeks pregnant when I finally figured it out.
So now we are counting down the weeks until February. Kate and baby #2 will be about 22 months apart. We really think we are just too young to have two kids, and think it is hilarious almost how easily this baby came. The thought of adding to our family had not crossed our minds seeing as how my body only had one month off between nursing Kate and being pregnant again. But what more could be want than another Kate in our lives! The summer months of pregnancy were daunting to me, to be so sick and care for Kate, but with the cooler weather has come some relief and I am only throwing up once or twice a day now, which seems much more manageable.
We don't have our ultrasound till a little late- Oct 17, but I just can't wait to see a healthy baby boy or girl and start going through all of Kate's old clothes organizing and such.

10 Signs the Freeman's have Big News!

10. I am managing to sleep up to 15 hours a day on the weekends and am still exhausted.
9. The only thing I can eat before 11:00 am is the broth from the Creamy Chicken Cup of Noodles, but after 6:00 pm I can easily consume an entire box of Cheez-its.
8. Did you know that you can throw up out of your mouth, nose and eyes? Serious vomiting happening here people.
7. I find it completely reasonable that my husband should wake up with Kate each morning, go to work for 9 hours, come home make dinner, put Kate to bed and rub my feet for an hour.
6. I can't remember what it is like to breath out of my nose. ( I am so congested)
5. Though I managed to get back down to my pre pregnant 110lbs for a whole two months, I am already 10 lbs on my way to my most pregnant 168lb and have considered bringing back the all velor suit as an appropriate outfit to wear out to eat.
4. My mouth and all water tastes like metal, and I am therefore using a bottle of mouthwash a week and only drinking Rootbeer, Diet Coke and Orange Juice.
3. My house looks like we were in a hurricane, Jake even felt like the bathrooms needed to be cleaned and proceeded to clean one without being asked.
2. I have actually gone to Wendy's and McDonalds to purchase a spicy chicken sandwich two weeks in a row doubling the amount of fast food I have eaten this year.
1. The doc says to expect to meet #2 in about 24 weeks.

So I thought this was just a funny way to break the news to the blog. A lot of family and friends already know, and if they don't it is probably because they are too polite to ask me why i have gained ten lbs in the past two weeks. The 10 things has a negative tone, but really we couldn't be more delighted about having baby #2. I have lots more to say on the subject ( like "I'm pregnant???) and I am sure you do to so I will be over blogging about it for the next several months so I will just leave you with this for now.

Labor Day at the Pool

Though Jake and I have lived in Heber for a long time now, and heard a lot about the fun pool the Summit County rec center has, we had never made our way there until yesterday. We are so glad we did. They have tons of stuff for kids to climb on, two water slides, one which Kate went on all by herself, and the other she loved going down with her parents. They also have a lazy river, and the best part is that it is all indoors and all heated- meaning I will actually get in! Also it is only a foot in parts so Kate could walk around and though it took her a minute to be sure it was safe, by the end she didn't want to leave and when we got out was saying "waaw" and pointing trying to say she wanted to get back in. Also we went around 9:30 am and there were only two other small families, but by 11:00 it was getting a lot busier. Also they charge you a ton for plastic pants which they require children under two wear even over a swim diaper, so I suggest if you are going to go make sure you have some and bring them. Sorry for the lame picture of Kate, she was having too much fun to even look at me for a second. Here is there link
http://www.ssummit.k12.ut.us/ssafc.cfm?subpage=291393.
If you live near by or are in the area visiting you should try it out. Especially in the winter. Indoor water park made for little kids- what could be better. I think kate and I might look into a pass there we had so much fun.