Country Days 2009

The whole family went to Farmington to enjoy the annual Country Days festivities. On the drive down to Farmington in the morning, Ellie furiously wanted out of her carseat, and made herself so upset that she threw up in the car. So we pulled over on the side of the highway near Festus, cleaned up as best we could, then took a bath when we got to Gran and Papi's...so the morning wasn't going well...

But once we got to our spot on the parade route, things began to turn around. Ellie loved the parade, collected lots of candy, and even got to ride in the parade for a little while with my cousin, Kathy, and her daughters Sophie and Anna Caroline...What Fun!

After the parade, we walked downtown to where the rides and games were. After grabbing a bite to eat, Ellie twisted Papi's arm to take her on the pony ride, and then next was the bungee trampoline.

Ellie was getting so excited just standing in line watching the other kids jump. We were a little surprised she was so enthused to jump, since it goes really high, but she had no fear and LOVED it!!!

Max was his normal, happy self. He hung out in the stroller all day and enjoyed being outside and watching everything going on around him.

We ended the afternoon with some other rides, like the carousel and giant slide, and played some games. Ellie brought home some lovely prizes, which will go into a box soon.

I always seem to forget how Country Days brings out all of Farmington's finest (all of the Lead Belt area's finest for that matter). And I was a little scared to expose my children, but they had a good time, and I'm sure we'll be back again next year.

Working at the Carwash...

Ellie has finally gotten big enough to begin helping out with chores around the house and outside with Dad. And she actually thinks it's fun, so we're trying to take every opportunity to let her "help" while this stage lasts. She usually insists on "helping" me dust, and her "helping" usually puts more fingerprints on the freshly dusted furniture than were there before, but we've got to start somewhere, right?

Colorado Trip

cheesey picture

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Cool dude, Max, ready for the hike.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed out to Colorado for Jason's cousin, Allison's, high school graduation. We had a great time visiting with family. One of the days there, we all headed up to Mount Falcon for a picnic and a hike. After posing for cheesey pictures (see above) we headed out for the walk.

Mount Falcon has old castle ruins from the early 20th century. The castle was being built by the founder of the Stanley Steamer (I think), but he was killed in a car accident before the castle was completed. Then a few years later the castle was struck by lightning and burned down. Not really an inspiring story, but it was still a beautiful walk.

The Garden of the Gods

Max slept in the baby bjorn while we all walked around.

Another day while in Colorado, we headed down to Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods and the Broadmoor. The Garden of the Gods is awesome, with enormous rock formations in the middle of relatively flat land. Unfortunately they are too dangerous to climb on, but they've inspired an upcoming trip to Elephant Rocks.

We also headed to Manitou Springs, with the original intent of going up Pike's Peak; however, the last 4 miles of the 19 mile trek were still closed because of snow, so we decided it wouldn't be worth it to go up and not actually be able to reach the top.

3 Club Tourney

While in Colorado, the guys played a "3 Club" Tournament. Which means that instead of everyone lugging their clubs out to Colorado, they all just picked 3 clubs out of the sets that Jason's uncle and cousins had, and then played the whole 18 holes with the same 3 clubs. Jason had a great day on the golf course and stomped the competition (or so he says).

His reward was the lovely bunny trophy, which Ellie thought was hilarious...."Mom, did you see that bunny. It has a golf ball for a tail. It's not supposed to have a golf ball tail."

This & That

When we wake up in the morning, it sometimes takes a little while to get going, so many times I'll let Ellie watch tv in my room while I'm getting ready. She often asks to have Max lie on her arm in the bed, and they look so adorable together.

Ellie loves books, going to the library, and being read to. As soon as we get to the end of the story she says, "Again," so she knows many books by heart. We're trying to start Max young as well, and hopefully he'll have as big a love of books as his sister does.

Our cute little guy.

Playing in the Dirt

We built a flower bed under the deck last year, and have now finally gotten around to adding plantings in the bed. It stays shaded most of the day, so we picked out some lovely, shade loving plants. It was looking great and only lacked the top layer of mulch or rock, which we planned on adding the following weekend. Unfortunately, Lucy (our dog) did not agree with our selection of plants, so she did some editing. We had to replace some of the plants when we added the river rock layer on top, but since then Lucy has stayed out of the bed, and it looks great.

Ellie loved digging, watering, and getting dirty. She's usually a little OC when it comes to getting dirty (she probably gets that from me), but she had a ball this day. I think having her own Dora gardening gloves may have helped her feel comfortable getting her hands dirty.

This is what Max did while the rest of the family planted.

Lately, Ellie is constantly asking to take pictures with the digital camera. So after we finished planting in the back yard, I was in the front yard cleaning while Jason was mowing the lawn, and to appease Ellie I let her have the camera for a few minutes. She took lots of wonderful pictures of her shoes, the grass, the bushes, and this nice picture of Lucy through the fence.

Mr. Smiley

Max is getting into that happy, smiley stage, when he'll give a big grin whenever someone talks and smiles at him. These are a couple of the better smiles we've been able to catch lately.

I love this picture, though he looks so much bigger than he really is. And you've gotta love those blue eyes.

Jason likes this pic...What's up, Man?

Enjoying the floor and the attention.

Happy in his swing.

Max and Ruby...I mean Ellie

The happy family, minus the family photographer.

During my pregnancy with Max, Ellie announced that she also had a baby in her tummy. Once we decided on the name, Max, Ellie started calling her baby, Ruby (All you moms will understand that from the Max & Ruby cartoon). She would talk about Ruby anytime we talked about Max.

After Max was born, we asked Ellie if Ruby was also born, but she would always say, "Nope, not yet." She began to say that maybe Ruby would be born at the hospital in a few months. When we were going to the hospital to wait for baby Ella's arrival, Ellie mentioned that Ruby may also be born, but alas, Ruby has decided to stay in Ellie's tummy a while longer.

Today Ellie was carrying around a baby doll, and brought her to me to hold for her, saying to the doll, "You're too heavy. I can't hold you while I have Ruby in my tummy." Do you think we scarred her by telling her I couldn't carry her around while I was pregnant with Max?

Cousins

A few days after baby Ella was born, the whole family finally got to meet her. Ellie has been talking about "Laura's baby girl" and then "Baby Ella" (once the name was decided) for the last 9 months, so she was super excited to finally see the baby.

Can you believe that Max and Ella are only 5 weeks apart in age? Max looks like he could eat her. These pictures are a little misleading though, since Max has finally stretched out and Ella still has the tight fetal position arms and legs. But he is still quite a bit larger than her...

Little Miss 5 Pounds and the 11 Pound Gladiator.

Baby Ella

Congratulations Laura and Nathan!!! Baby Ella finally made her long awaited debut. We are so happy she is here and is healthy, and what a beautiful baby she is!!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from the Freeds.

Max in his Easter attire, courtesy of Aunt Sherry. It was an adorable Winnie the Pooh outfit, though it looks like it is swallowing his small, little 2 1/2 week old body.

Ellie in her beautiful Easter dress. Here she is showing off her princess ballerina dance moves. This picture was also taken before she went outside and realized that Mommy wasn't fibbing when I said it was cold and she would need to wear tights or socks....the crisp, spring morning air helped her to make the decision to go with the socks.


A rather pitiful family portrait, but at least we're all together.


Ellie loves the egg hunting part of Easter the most. We hid and hunted out eggs over and over for the next week.


Ellie made quite the haul from the Easter bunny this year. Max was not forgotten either, but he was not as excited as his big sister was.

Spring is here

I bought these adorable headbands when Ellie was a baby, and subjected her to wearing them for pictures when she was about 7 months old. I think the headbands are just too cute to keep in a box, so today I pulled them out and got my camera ready.

What a couple of cuties!!! Happy early Easter!!!

Sweet

These are a couple of cute pictures...Daddy and his kids hanging out and watching tv on Saturday morning.

Ellie cuddling Max.


The sweet big sister kissing on her little brother.

Ballerina Ellie

We got Ellie some ballet clothes recently, after she saw another little girl in the store with her ballet clothes on and kept talking about how beautiful the other little girl was and how she wished she had ballerina clothes....that's what Ellie says now when she wants something...."I wish I had that when I get big."

So anyway, since she's such a girlie girl and loves to dress up, we knew she'd enjoy the ballet clothes, and she sure does. She put the clothes on one morning, and wore them all day long. We played school, she made some little books, and then she read her stories to Max. He already lights up when he hears her voice, trying to turn towards her and smiling. Later we had to turn on "ballerina music" and get the video camera out so she could perform for us.