Quotable

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and trying to REprioritize and simplify my life:

“I used to think I could do everything, that my babies would be fine squeezed into the rest of my To Do list. Today I know that children must rise to the top of the list, and that list must dwindle considerably.” ~ Iris Krasnow

For more on this and an interesting read anytime, visit 71 Toes, written by a woman I've looked up to since I can remember.

1st Amusement Park Ride

This summer we (or I should say grandpa Freeman-thanks!) took the kids to Lagoon. I loved going here once a summer as a kid.

B loved the rides. S did not.

Here is B on her 1st ride:

Dad volunteered to go while I corralled S and took pictures.

"Who is this guy pushing down the bar on my lap?"--don't we all think that?!

Excited!

LOVED it!!

SIU

Here's something I wrote a few weeks ago that shows the reality of my life. I finally got the courage to post it:


" . . . But the truth of it is that this very busy time of year has me pooped.

It's Bella's birthday week. So, besides gearing up for that and the festivities it brings, Eric's been working a few 24+ hour shifts that have us all tired.

So, here's to being more patient tomorrow, since I can always work on that.

A story for you:
While cleaning up the kitchen, a mom (who shall remain nameless) was getting sick of her older daughter tattling on every little thing her YOUNGER sister was doing to her while they were on the couch together watching a show. As in tattling, I mean yelling up the stairs, "Mom . . . she's bugging me." "Mom, she's touching me." "Mom, she's pinching me." "Mom, She won't give me fish." Etc. etc.
The mother gave the usual replies, "S, don't do that." "S, give your sister fish." "S, we share." "S, do you want to go to time out?" etc. Finally, after an excessive amount of this, in the spirit of Monk (as in the TV show), the mother yelled down, "Suck it Up!"

I am in shock. I still have no idea what would possess a mother to say such horrid things to her daughter!?!"

~~don't worry, we are better now. :)

Redemption

And just to redeem myself so that you can see
the true Beauty of our only female Eating Contest contestant.
Here she is as her petite, cute, sparkly self surrounded by tall strapping Free - men:

Love ya Joyce!

Eating Contest

So, I've been debating posting these pictures for a while, but every time I see them I just laugh. And so I thought I should because I know EVERYONE just loves to see themselves in an eating contest. ;)

A little background: the Freeman Family Olympics were held this year at E's fam reunion. Us 20+ peeps were divided in 4 teams as fairly as possible. We tried to divide it up so everyone got to do 2 events. There were many events listed here such as Bocce ball, "roll the ball," card games, float the river, etc. etc. AND an EATING CONTEST. Props to Joyce who was nominated as her team's representative and was the only female Eating Contest contestant.

Pictures speak for themselves:

Pre-donut anticipation!!

The FIRST bite--(love how the little boys are so excited that their parents are doing this!)

Working at it!

I think I hear gagging and laughing going on here:

Father vs. Son: Josh--have you even taken one bite yet?! ;)

And to be honest I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure Uncle 'Teve was our winner!!!

And in case you were wondering how Joyce felt after eating a donut in less than a minute, here's a picture for you. Seriously, wow. I would want to gag too:


You go girl.

the Patch

Truth be told, I am not a fan of the patch.
The eye patch.
Bella's eye patch.
Those of you who have had to have this annoying bandaid thing cover your eye or convince your child to wear it on their eye for 4-6 hours a day know what I'm talking about. And those of you who don't can imagine, I'm sure.
Here she is wearing it on her birthday last year:


It seems like around this time every year we are told she needs to patch her eye again for a 6 week trial period to see if it will do anything to help her eyes. And it doesn't. But we do it anyways.

So here we are again, doing the patch to see if it will help her again.

Cross your fingers that this time it works so we won't have to do another surgery.

Family Pictures 2010

Bella's bday was great this week. When I get the chance I'll upload the pictures. But for now, here's some pics I've been promising some of my gentle readers.

As you can see, S did not thing fam pics were fun. She HAD to be held by ONLY mom. No grass poses. No dad. No anyone. And we were lucky to get B to look at the camera. We found out afterwards she had Otitis Externa (Swimmers Ear) and lots of stuff was draining from her ear. I hear it kills. No wonder she was not into it.

But don't worry, we had some cute ones in the end:

Here B was able to play with my bracelet: (but you can't tell right?)

These are courtesy of our friend, Monica, who drove all the way with her baby and husband to E's family reunion in Morgan, UT in July and took pictures.

Which one do you like best?

I love this one except I think I look bigger than the E in this pic:

Go here to see more pics of the shoot.