Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas 2011

Wow, is Christmas over already!? We had a really nice day. Christmas eve we went to church and sang songs and remembered what we celebrate this time of year. Ryan took a little nap. Who wouldn't, it was dark with wonderful music. I would have! Christmas morning came with snow on the ground. The boys got up around 8 and they went to town opening their gifts and seeing what Santa had brought. After presents we sand Happy Birthday to Jesus and had cinnamon rolls. Then we hung out and listened to Christmas music and the boys played with their new toys. Denise and her family came over and we had ham and all the yummy fixings. The day ended with a viewing of A Christmas Story (my favorite Holiday movie). It was a nice relaxing day.
Have to mention what Connor did: I had gotten up at 6am to get a drink of water and noticed the presents where in neat little piles separated by names and the boys stocking where missing. I found the Connor's stocking in contents in his bed opened and Ryan's contents layed out on his bed. Connor had also opened 2 presents. It was pretty funny. I put everything back under the tree and re-stuffed the stockings and hung them over the fireplace. It was no wonder he wasn't up before 7am, he had been up in the middle of the night having fun with presents!! He is to funny.
We have now plans of right now for New Year's Eve. Probably just hang out with the boys. Maybe go see a movie and out to dinner. We hope you all had a very blessed Christmas and may you have a very wonderful New Year!
Here are some pics of the boys:

Monday, November 28, 2011

A lot has happened!

It has been a while since I posted last. For awhile I couldn't find my card reader to upload photos then when I found it, it didn't work. We bought a new one. This post is going to just be some photos and an update of what is been going on. August we had Ryan's 4th Birthday. We had a lot of fun. He invited his friends and we played pin the tail on Perry and we did an obstacal course. Ryan opened presents and we had yummy cake. I can't even believe Ryan is 4! In September Connor started 4th grade! I really like his teacher this year. I talk with her at least once a week. Connor is doing really well. I am very proud of him. On the 19th of September, Shannon and I celebrated our 19th anniversary. October was Halloween and the boys went trick-or-treating. Ryan went as picachu and Connor was Luigi. They did pretty well. For Thanksgiving we went to Denise's in-laws for dinner. It was nice and loud. There were about 30 people there. The kids had fun. We just decorated our tree the other day. I am just about ready for Christmas. I need to get a few more presents and get them wrapped then I am done. I plan to just take it easy and enjoy the reason for season. I want to try to start some fun things to help the boys understand that Christmas just isn't about Santa and presents. We celebrate something much more important and that is the birth of Jesus! We have been busy and trying to keep up with two very busy boys. Here are some pics of what has been going on with us.















Saturday, August 27, 2011

Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!

On August 28, 2007 @ 12:34pm Ryan Cooper Freeman entered our world weighing in @ 6lbs 10oz and 171/2 inches long. He was so tiny and sweet. Right from the begging he was so quiet and easy. We couldn't believe that we now had 2 sweet boys that God had blessed us with.
Right after Ryan was born.

Ryan you are such and awesome boy. You are easy and will try and do everything. You totally look up to your big brother and want to do everything he does. You have such a sweet and loving personality. I just adore you and love you so much. You have blessed my life in so many ways. I can't believe you are 4 today, where has the time gone. We love you so much!!!
Happy Birthday! to our little monkey man!!

My little fish!

Friday, June 17, 2011

4th grader

We now have a 4th grader in our house. I can not believe Connor is going to be in the 4th grade. Weren't we just bringing him home from the hospital?! He sure has changed this year.

First day of 3rd grade

Last day of 3rd grade. Now a 4th grader!!

And of course we can't leave out Ryan:

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter 2011

We had a sunny,warm Easter. What a fabulous day to celebrate Jesus resurrection. Spring is my favorite time of year and it is even better when we can celebrate what Jesus did for us. The night before the boys colored eggs and had so much fun. They love to color the eggs. Ryan hasn't figured out how to use the egg dipper so he uses his hands and ends up with colored fingers. To cute!


colored hands, thankfully it all washed off!

Being silly!

All finished

On Sunday, we went to church. The service was fabulous and I (Stephanie) even sang in the choir. It was fun but scary! After service we went out to Denise's and had lunch. She made a really yummy ham and all the fixings. It was all so delicious. After lunch the kiddos went on an Easter egg hunt. They had so much fun looking for all 40 eggs. It was a very wonderful sunny, warm day for an egg hunt. Sorry didn't take any pics. The boys had so much fun. They crashed when they went to bed.

such handsome boys!

Monday, April 18, 2011

WHAT!

If you live in Spokane this is what we are seeing right now:

What you ask is that? Why it is snowing. Yes, you read that right, it is snowing here. Coming down really hard and fast. Shannon and I are wondering if he will have to be using the snowblower in April. Crazy huh!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Connor's 9th Birthday

We had a BBQ lunch for Connor's 9th Birthday. Denise and her family came over and my mom. It was a nice quiet afternoon and I think Connor had a good day. We are going to have a party for his friends at a later date. I have to say I can't believe Connor just turned 9. It seems only yesterday day we were bringing that 8lb baby home. We love you Connor!


Eating some lunch

opening presents

after blowing out candle

his Sonic the hedgehog cake

playing his new pokemon game


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Happy 9th Birthday Connor!!


9 years ago today out lives change forever. Connor Ray Freeman was born @ 1:54 pm. Weighing in @ 8lbs 81/2 oz @ 20" long. He was so perfect and we were so excited that the very much longed for baby we had tried a long time for had finally arrived.
How fast these 9 yrs have gone. Connor we love you very much and are so glad you are our son.


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

40th Birthday

My 40th has come and gone and I have to say I don't really feel 40. No really, whenever I say I am 40 it feels really weird. I just don't feel like I am 40. It is really strange and surreal. I think that is a good thing. I had a really great party put on by my Mom with help from Shannon. I had a really cute cake.
Cute huh! It was just a yummy as it looks. White with white frosting, just the way I like it. We had tons of food made by my friend Mindy and Blair. We had fruit trays, veggie trays, sweet and sour meatballs, some yummy hot dips. It was all so good. The kids played the wii while us adults visited and laughed. It was so nice and wonderful to have all my friends and family there with me. My niece put together a board of my life. It was fun to look over all the pics from over my years and see how much I have changed. I have to say I was so cute when I was little!! I do have to question a few of my looks though. hee, hee!

All in all it was a really great night and I had so much fun. I am truly blessed to have the friends and family that I do. Thank you to all of you who support me and love me no matter what is going on with me and my life.

Monday, February 28, 2011

What a year it has been!

I can't believe that almost a year has gone by since I was diagnosed with having end-stage renal failure. What a difference a year makes! So much has happened in just the last few months. Back in December I got some information about doing home dialysis. I looked it over and thought that would work really well for us and our busy life. We started training on January 17 and right away I could tell the difference. I had more energy and wasn't feeling so wiped out all the time. Let me tell you when I was doing dialysis at the center I always left feeling drained and tired and it would take a whole day to feel back to normal then it was time to go back. So the difference right away was night and day. We trained Monday thru Friday from 8:30 - any where from 2-4. depending on what kind of training we did after my dialysis run. Here are a couple pics from the training time.

My machine and chair. All set up and ready to go

Me all hooked up and getting clean.

My Awesome partner!

We were in training for 4 weeks. On February 11th we did our first run at home. Our trainer, Michele, came and sat with us to make sure all went well. On Monday the 14th we did our very first solo run. No trainer here this time. We did good. Scary, but we got thru it. Now we run 5 days a week. We can do it anytime we want when ever it fits into our schedule. I am liking it so much better. I am healthier and feeling so much better. I am already starting to get off some of my meds, which is really nice. Here are a few pics of our set up at home:

My comfy chair and my machine.

Shannon's chair and our work table.

view of the room from the door.

We also have tons of supplies we keep stored in the closet and in our bedroom closet. This room is the front bedroom where Connor slept until he informed us it was haunted. (it's really not) He is sharing a room with his brother. it has worked out really well. Once Shannon goes back to work we will be able to work around his schedule and I won't have to scramble all the time to find a sitter for the boys. This of course is temporary until I get my new kidney. Hopefully we can get rolling on that this year.

As for other stuff that has been going on: Ryan is all potty trained and I am loving not having to change diapers anymore. He did an awesome job training and is actually a better shot than his older brother! :-) He is getting big and tall. He has a super funny personality and is always making jokes and laughing. He is for sure the easier of the two boys. Connor is doing really well. Getting really tall and big. I can't believe he is going to be 9 in April. He is doing really well in school. He seems to have adjusted to the new school. He has made a friend from across the street. His name is Spencer and they both like to play Super Mario Bros on the Wii. Shannon is working for North by Northwest and still working on movies. He should be starting a new movie in the next week or so. They have several movies and a TV series lined up this year so we are hoping for a busy work year. Yeah!
This year is also a big year for Shannon and I. We both turn 40! I will be 40 before him but I am surprisingly not freaking out about it. I am actually ok with it. The last year has been a very trying, challenging year for me and I praise God for where He has brought me thus far. I know that with out God and my family and friends that I would have lost it months ago. I am truly blessed to have the support system I have. So now that 40 is literally only 19 days away I am feeling blessed and calm. At peace with were I am at in life. So 40 isn't to bad, only an age. I am not going to let it define who I am. And if you asked how old I am I will proudly tell you I am 40 (but not until the 18th!)
So I can't end this post without posting a few pics of the boys:

right after a haircut. He wanted it to be spiky like his Dads.



Ryan wanted his hair poky and with some color gel.
How could you not love both of these cute faces!!


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Science Fair

Connor had his first science fair project this last week. I gave Shannon the task of helping Connor decide what he wanted to do and help him put it together. (science was never my thing!) Anyway, Connor wanted to see if the temperature affected the bounce of a ball. They had 3 brand new tennis balls. The first one they froze, 2nd one they heated in the dryer and the 3rd they left at room temp. Here they are checking to see how high each ball will bounce:

They found out that the heated one bounced the highest and the frozen one bounced the lowest.
It was really fun watching them work on it together. Here they are filling out some of the questions on the sheet to help them put the project together later: (ok, so Shannon did most of the filling out!)

The had to put all their information on to a poster board. Shannon typed out all the information and Connor pasted it all on the board. It turned out pretty good for a first time project. In fact they received 5 out of 5 points!


The finished project.


Posing in front of the project at school.

We went to the school to see all the projects. Each classroom displayed the kids from that room. We only went and saw Connor's class. When we got there we noticed a little sticky note on his desk next to his display. The note said to not take home that night because it had been chosen to be taken and displayed at the CV district science fair display at the mall! They were so excited. The teacher said it was a big deal since only 2 from each class are chosen and Connor's project was one of the few that had all the points made on it. He was so excited. What a great job they both did!! After we went and had some ice cream at Dairy Queen.


Great job Daddy and Connor!



And of course we couldn't leave Ryan out of the pics!!