School and Crackers

Sam likes to eat. This is nothing new. I have been letting him have more regular foods. His favorite are Saltines. He loves these things. I think he looks so old sitting in this chair eating a cracker. He is old. He crawls, following me around room to room, he "talks" making sounds that seem to be capable of turning into "Mama" any day now. He is so grown up and it makes me so sad.

This is how Kate feels about going to school.
We joined a co-op so Kate could go to "school" this year. I guess she is growing up too. So far "preschool" is going well. She is one of the youngest in the group so I think it will be good for her. Also it should be a decent co-op seeing as how most of the mom's are former teachers of elementary school or preschool. We are eat taking two weeks to teach and host it in our homes. I had a policy class my senior year of college that I loved. I remember my professor had a formula for what would cure the ails of the nation. The first was to stop teenagers from having children. The second was to have free daycare/ preschool centered in your own community. There were eight points I think, and I believed every word then of his explanation . I am now a happy participant in the second piece of solving the nations ails....well at least theoretically.
Kate's first day of school
Kate has to eat breakfast on the go... going to school is busy.

Weekend Wedding Storyboard

....and its a long story.

We started our drive Wednesday night with one throwing up little two year old. Hoping she would soon recover and feeling like we needed to be at Jake's youngest sisters wedding we kept going. We slept in Primm, NV and found her much better in the morning. Much better although apparently still very contagious. The wedding was beautiful but the weekend was miserable. Over the next two days all twenty something family members staying at the Freeman Farm minus one niece and (thankfully) a bride to be fell ill to the malicious virus. Sick everyone's with little sleep and lots to do to pull of a completely do it yourself garden wedding made for a stresstul and exhausting visit with little actual time for visiting. Below are some of my pictures from the wedding, both those I liked and others needed to tell the story. One highlight from the trip was that although it was exhausting (can you be sore from taking pictures?) I am pleased with the results.The Freeman orchard 7:00 am day of the wedding. Up early to the cries of sick children. Ready for a beautiful early fall wedding with temps of 102 degrees projected for wedding o' clock.
The Fresno Temple is one of the mini temples they built in 2000. Although it is smaller with smaller grounds it is just as beautiful. Plus you know most the people inside. The kids waited in the waiting room. Kate kept telling me "I need to see my Jesus at the temple."
Father of the bride and father-in-law Calvin. This guy has been puking all night but he is still the most photogenic guy I know.
Elisabeth and Cami. My sister-in-law and niece. She let us stay in her daughter's room giving her and Mark little sleep, let me wash our puked clothing in her washing machine, feed us, gave me a quick tutorial on her photo editing software so I could have some ready for their slide show that night and in the end were some of the wedding weekend warrior viruses sickest victims. Thank you Mark, Elisabeth and Cami.
Did I tell you how the Freeman's can throw a do-it-yourself wedding and you would never know they didn't hire help. Here is Dave (Jake's brother if it wasn't obvious) as videographer. I player photographer. Lisa, a sister, did all the amazing food, for 150, while pregnant and sick. Doris (mother of the bride) as if she didn't have enough to do made an amazing wedding cake...picture to come later. Everyone contributed in some way helping with cleaning, decorating, cooking. Good work Big Team Freeman! They had another friend to a slide show and another DJ. It worked out so well.
DeeAnn and Drew Ensslin. Recently pronoucned husband and wife.

All seven siblings looking so good. Especially that first one.
Jacob, Lisa, David, DeeAnn, Joseph, Kirstin & Mark. I am so lucky to have so many great friends as in-laws. Not only are all the siblings people I love and admire, there are amazing and enjoyable spouses to go along with them.
Bride's maid pictures. DeeAnn has a lot of great friends. These four were her bride's maids.



These are two of my favorite shots I got.

Drew's mother had a lovely luncheon, none of which I got to see sadly. She did have these water bottles made. I love customised drinks!
Nothing like a little glamor on the farm.

My amazing mother-in-law and her cake skills. She always does the cakes for wedding and you would never know they weren't ordered.

Thanks to Jake, his job was harder than mine. Because I had a camera in my hand the entire day he had to corral two cranky and tired children. He missed the whole day really. Not to mention that we rarely saw each other the entire time we were there as we tried to divide and conquer two children who hadn't had a good night sleep of nap for days. That goofy grin is hiding an egg roll I believe.
Dee and Calvin at the reception.
Drew and DeeAnn's first dance. Dee had to have dancing at her wedding, so her mother painted the driveway to look like tile and strung lights.

There are so many more pictures I would love to share, but that is long enough. I can't wait for Dee to get back from Mexico so I can show them to her.
We left the next morning as early as we could get out and made it home around 10:00. It was a long drive, but we made it in under 13 hours so we'll consider that good time. Our home never seemed to nice, comfortable and clean, that is until I started cleaning out the car and doing the laundry.
We only regret not being able to stay for a few more days. Not being sick, with nothing to do and eating wedding reception leftovers with those you love sounds like much more fun than work and chores to Jake and I.

Here we go!

We are getting ready to go to Fresno for Jake's sisters wedding this afternoon. I remember in 2004, Jake and I flew to Fresno for Christmas for most of a week, and all we took were backpack carry ons. I have started collecting everything we need for our four day trip and it is getting ridiculous. Clothes, food, pack and plays and other baby equipment, toys, temple clothes, wedding clothes, wedding decorations, bottles, camera stuff, diapers. I hope there is room for us in there.

Sam doesn't mind rainy days one bit. this has nothing to do with the other picture. It was just on my camera and I like it a bit.

Summer Picnic Storyboard

What did Wednesday's this summer look like? Noon time picnics at a psuedo park near Jake's work. We use to try to go on picnics at real parks but Kate would never eat and we had to spend the whole time pushing her on the swings. So we found this grassy area complete with trees and picnic bench behind the county building just a block from Jake's office. Not only was there room for Kate to run around and play, and a table to eat at, nobody seemed to ever be using it and there was plenty of shade.

Kate loves roast beef from Arby's.... even though she calls it turkey. Arby's was often the picnic food of choice because Kate will eat it.
Here the family eats at the table they refinished, we like to think just for us. Jake knows some of the ladies that work at this office. I know they saw us out here each week. The table was old and needed some work, then we came one week and it was gone, then it reappeared the next week sanded and painted like new.
Samuel is there too, a fairly passive participant in the picnic.
Oh and there are sticks there too. She looks like quite the warrior with that blood (BBQ sauce mom failed to clean off her) all over her hands.
Kate loves to climb this tree.
Chatting with this guy mid day makes any day better.
Summer Picnic Wednesday you will be missed.

Motherhood

Normally I would agree with those that say "Being a mother is the hardest job". Sure there are days when I don't get even a lunch break from 20 straight hours of toddler and baby care. But then there are mornings like this morning. Samurai went down for a long nap while the Tatertot and I sat and watched PBS and picked all the M&M's out of the trail mix. Sure it was not my proudest hour as a mother. Sure Jake will get the Trail Mix out of the cupboard tonight to snack on and I will blame the candy thieving solely on little hands. Sure my daughter will be singing the theme song to "Super Readers" for the rest of the day. But sure it is nice to have an easy day....errr half day. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Labor Day Weekend

Show me your Cougar shirts. Look at MOM!!! you kids are impossible.Really pulling for the Cougars!

Sad to see the summer come to an end- we PACKED our Labor Day weekend (unintentionally) with more than we could almost handle.
Swiss Days with Jake and the kids, Swiss Days Parade with Kate, More Swiss Days shopping with my sisters, Lunch at the Homestead with Grandma and ever aunt and female cousin I have, meeting old high school girl friends for some catching up, BYU first game of the season kickoff party, church, chores, dinner and games with friends from American Fork, errands, yard work, BBQ and games with Jake's sisters and spouses. WHEEW. Maybe we are ready for summer to be over.

Nicknames for Samuel- TOP TEN

You may remember this post where I set out to share with our family and friends the top ten nicknames we had for Kate. Well that post is getting our blog a lot of fame with more than 100 views a month from people google-ing for a nickname for Kate. Really people you are using google to find a nickname for someone you know named Kate..... isn't Kate kind of its own nickname??? don't nicknames just happen??? Apparently not.

I thought seeing as how Samuel is 6 months old now- it could be time for his TOP TEN.


1. Sam- well this is a no brainer. I actually call him Sam more than Samuel despite my best efforts to call him by what I named him
2. Sammy- this is primarily what Kate calls him. Makes sense Mommy, Daddy, Grammy, Sammy. I can remember not liking this originally- but I don't mind it now and use it myself sometimes
3. Chumby- this came from Chumba Wumba- which I called him which apparently means chubby. This is still one of my favorites. I think Kate thought this was Sam's name for a little while because I called him it so often.
4. Chubs- Again because he use to be fat- though he has slimmed down quite a bit. I like to sing this so the tune of "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas- "My Chubs, My Chubs, My lovely little Chubs"
5. Samurai- Another one of our favorites- well, because it sounds like he is a ninja fighter at just 6 months old
6. Samwell- morphage of Samuel with a spanish accent
7. Samson- well his name is Sam and he is my son. Plus he IS Jake's son so we can all guarantee he WILL be hairy.
8.Handsome. I always am saying "hi Handsome" is my high cute baby voice directed to Sam of course and Jake will chim in "Thank you".... and he thinks it is funny every time.
9. (Sad, Sleepy, Silly, Smiley) Sam- you can't go wrong will alliteration right? He use to be always Sad and Sleepy, but now he is all smiles.
10. Son- I know that this is not really a nickname, but we are always saying "HEY SON" in a deep tough voice. Plus we never said" hey daughter" to Kate, so I am going to go ahead and count Son as number ten.


* How could I forget BUDDY. Though we still call him buddy a few times a week at minimum, BUDDY is what he was called for the first two days of his life while we debated on a real name for him. Somehow buddy seemed a perfectly fitting term of endearment for an 8 lbs infant, not that we spent much though coming up with this nickname it just came . I am sure my first words to him almost were "Hi Buddy"
*Update on Kate's nicknames. Of the ten listed in her post we now use none of them.
New nicknames include. Tatie, Tatertot, and Sister.