a. hike.

About a month ago...(yes, that is how far I am behind on photos and posting) we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and went for a hike. We strapped Alexander into the baby bijorn and packed up water, our lunches and lots of sunscreen. We had never taken Jack hiking so it was a new experience for us. A few years ago I bought a book called "easy day hikes in Utah" so we looked through it and picked two and headed up the canyon. We had a good time, by the time we got to the second hike we came back to the car, put Alexander in the car seat and ate our lunch on the tailgate of Mike's truck. It was really a nice day.

Our. Family.

These shots were taken tonight! The most recent we've got! I can't believe how big Alexander is getting. 14 weeks old and he is such a joy. We just love him and Jack is a great big brother.

Jack took this first shot and we didn't even show him how, he is definitely taking after his mother in the photography field.

home.

We went home 2 weeks ago for my best friends wedding. Here are some random photos of our time. It was fun, my mom and Jack were playing dress up so then we all started getting involved!

Meet. Alexander.

Gosh, I am so baby brained right now I can't even remember if I posted our name on here yet!!

Alexander Harrison Freeman

We are very excited, it's funny, Alexander wasn't even a name we were considering, it was the second day in the hospital that I heard this name and then the more we thought about it the more it seemed "right" for our little one. But we still took him home without a name - in fact we didn't settle on his name until last Saturday - 6 days after he was born. It was between Alexander and one other name....so it took a couple of days just to be sure.

Harrison - his middle name is my maiden name and pays tribute to my father. Which I am very, very happy about.

So, we are proud to introduce Alexander Harrison Freeman....and of course his big brother Jack.

exhausted. big changes.

exhausted is an understatement. but that is the only word that comes to my mind. for those of you who don't know, I returned to work full time till the baby comes....I'm in my second week and to say it's been an adjustment is putting it to lightly. to be honest, I have cried more days then I haven't cried. it's been a huge struggle for me to adjust to this. on top of everything else I am still owning and running my photography business as well. those sessions have been moved to weekends now but I am feeling stretched to the limits and emotionally and physically spent. I have spent countless hours wondering what I can cut back on but everything I am doing either has to be done - i.e. cleaning the house, working full time and the flip side is everything else is my heart and soul and what I live for. i.e. my family, taking care of Jack, my photography. I simply can't give one up for the other. so hence the lack of blogging. so enough of the pity party - I keep telling myself I can do this for another 10 weeks till the baby comes and I can. I know I can. one day at a time. right? lots of deep breathes and lots of praying.

and since I don't want to end a post as a "debbie downer", this photo brings a smile to my face.

this is how we found Jack sleeping one night, I think it was around 10pm at night, we always go into check on him before we go to bed ourselves and look how we found him. picture courtesy of daddy.

mikes.birthday.

Thinking back to when I was growing up and my own birthdays, I would always wake up the day of my birthday and my bedroom and the entryway to my bedroom would be decorated with crepe paper and balloons, every single year. It didn't matter how old I got, 10, 14, 19 years old. It always made me feel so special, waking up to the first thing you see - balloons and crepe paper. How could you not smile waking up to that? Every year birthdays were always a big deal in our house. At the end of the day depending on whose birthday it was, it always ended with a great family dinner and the best part - a delicious birthday cake with candles to blow out and everyone singing out of tune the happy birthday song. It was the best! I loved birthdays at my house.

So when it was Mike's birthday today I continued the tradition that my own parents started with me and while Mike slept in, Jack and I got up and decorated with crepe paper and party hats...after decorating and learning it was daddy's special day, poor Jack he couldn't take it anymore, he just had to go wake up his daddy! So Jack and I put on our party hats and woke daddy up, Jack jumping up and down on the bed, I probably would of joined him if I wasn't hugely pregnant at this time but it was so cute to see how excited Jack was to celebrate his daddy's birthday. We started off the morning with made homemade french toast with strawberries topped whipped cream and it was delicious!

To celebrate, we went up to Park City and bummed around and had a good time. Just finished a delicious dinner and an even yummier birthday dessert. Mike's request was cheesecake and strawberries!

Happy Birthday sweetie!! Jack, Baby #2 and I love you SO much!!

happy. valentines. day

after Jack woke up from his nap today we made some yummy valentines cookies. cooking with Jack is always messy but more importantly it is so much fun! who cares about the mess, we can always clean that up later!

*remember, click on the photo anywhere to make it bigger*

we hope you guys had a great valentines day...Mike surprised me with an overnight babysitter with Grandma and he took me to a great dinner at the wild grape bistro and then we went and saw "blindside" with Sandra Bullock. It was a great movie!! and the food was to die for at the restaurant. so delicious!! if you ever get a chance go! I can't express how nice it was to come home and know that we could both sleep in!! What a treat!!

he also surprised me with tulips!