please pray

Just a quick update, because I want everyone who reads this blog to be praying. My friend Sarah (from work) is going through one of the hardest losses I can ever imagine. Her husband just died a couple hours ago. He was the sheriff's deputy that was shot earlier this afternoon in east Wichita. She has a little girl whose name is Natalie, who is 2 years old. I cannot even BEGIN to fathom what she is going through right now, and I so badly want to do something to help, but I know all that is going to help her right now is for people to be praying for her. I know the only possibly way Sarah can find comfort during this time is through Jesus, so that is what I am praying for. Sarah and her mom Diane are both nurses on our unit. I was supposed to be working tonight, but got put on call because it is slow, which I'm sure is a huge blessing, because I'm not sure how anyone up there is functioning right now. Please keep them in your prayers.

our latest drama...

It has been a while since I have had a chance to update! Now there is actually something worth updating about :) Just asking for a few prayers...this past Thursday Liam choked/gagged on a piece of an apple. But he seemed just fine afterwards...well soon afterwards he started vomiting, and he couldn't swallow any food with any success so we talked with the pediatrician and he wanted us to take him to the immediate care. We were thinking there was probably still an obstruction from when he gagged earlier. Well before we even saw the doctor at immediate care, Liam had the "obstruction" taken care of :). But then she came in to see him, and found that he has an irregular heartbeat. Which lead to more tests...he had an EKG a chest x-ray and an abdominal x-ray. Not one of my favorite moments as a mom, watching him go through all of that, all though I thought he was very cooperative for the most part. I was pretty proud of him. Anyways...the pediatric cardiologist read the EKG and didn't think it was anything to get too concerned about, but wanted us to follow up with our doctor. The chest and abdominal x-ray came back looking normal. So the next day we went and saw our pediatrician, and he confirmed the irregular heartbeat, and set us up with an appointment to see a pediatric cardiologist on October 7th. He also, does not think it is anything to worry about, but would rather have it checked out just to be sure. These things can be caused by a virus or multiple other things, and they usually resolve on their own, but we will get it checked just in case! So a few prayers would be appreciated :). He is perfectly fine now. Running around and being as ornery as EVER. He is quite the handful right now. Here is a pic of him getting his EKG. It was quite a challege to get the test run before he pulled all the wires off :) A BIG thanks goes out to my mom for meeting Liam and I at immediate care and hanging out with us for the 3 hours we were there :) I think at the end of it all, grandma was a little more traumatized than Liam was :)

sweet cousins

We have gotten to spend a lot of time with Michele and girls in the past couple weeks before "brothie" was born. It has been great!! Sophie, Lili and Liam play SO well together, it is fun to watch. Now that brothie (I guess he does have a name now...Miles!) is here they will have another little play mate in a few months :) At least the boys can stick together now :).
This video is probably my favorite video so far. The two girls pushing Liam around in the swing might seem like torture, but don't be fooled, he loved EVERY second of it! They are becoming quite great play mates.

sweet cousins from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

wrestling with daddy

This video shows a favorite activity that goes on at our house pretty frequently :). I just love how much these two love each other. We sure are missing Jeremy right now. He is in Indianapolis at his "nerd convention" as I like to call it. I'm glad he was able to get away for a little while and take a break. He has been working so hard at work, he deserved some time off. But we sure do miss him!

wrestling from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

mommy and daddy fun

tickle tickle

We have had a lot of videos lately :) Here is another one. He has just been doing/saying too many cute things lately!

tickle from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

Blowin Bubbles and Slidin

1, 2, 3, GO! from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

Blowin Bubbles! from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

lil stinker

Thought maybe I should put an update up that isn't just pictures. Although I know the pictures are pretty cute (I could be biased), maybe everyone would like to know what Liam is up to these days.

One new "fun" (for him) thing he has learned how to do is open the trash can! Oh, and throw things in it :) I frequently find his toys and i-pod in the trash can. Luckily he has not learned that opening the toilet lid is the same concept. I'm not quite ready for things to be thrown in there. A few things that he has been doing for quite a while, but are still annoying, are taking books off of the bookshelf, playing in and eating Emmett's dog food, and playing with the dvd's and dvd player. Not sure how I am going to break the dog food thing. He is obsessed with it! And the poor dog has to eat, so its not like I can put it up where he can't reach it. In the past week he will walk into the laundry room where the dog food is at, and I will tell him no (like I always do), and he will stand there and stare at it (and at me, while I am trying not to smile), then walk away. So I guess its a step in the right direction. That is something I need to work on...my poker face. Lots of the bad things he does are just too dang cute, so I try not to smile so I don't egg it on, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.

There are lots of not naughty things he is doing also :). He LOVES to play peek-a-boo. He has played this game for quite a while but now when he pulls the blanket off his face he says "pee-boo!" Its pretty adorable. He is getting much more verbal. Pee-boo, is one of his many words now. He also says, mommy, daddy, doggie, puppy, yo!, yeah, no, baby, hi, bye-bye, papa, bird, bubble. I'm sure there are a few more that I am forgetting, but the point being he is sure starting to talk a lot more! We love it! You might have noticed in the list of words was the word, Yo! Jeremy taught him to say that the other day. Now when he sees someone and gets excited, he will say, "Yo!" Its pretty cute.

Lets see...he has just recently learned to climb up into his little kid chairs. He gets up in there and is so proud of himself. He gets a big smile on his face and claps :). He is also very good at throwing balls now. It is pretty fun to play catch with him, because he gets so proud of himself when he catches it! Another fun thing he is doing is, signing. We have been trying to teach him some baby sign language, and he is finally starting to catch on a little! He will do the sign for sleep, when he is tired. He also does the signs for more, ball and shoes. It is just amazing to watch him figure things out and watch it finally click. I like to think he is a pretty smart boy :)

I will end with a traumatic story :) Not sure who it was more traumatic for, me or Liam. Yesterday afternoon Liam was taking his afternoon nap and I peeked in to check on him, and I thought it was really cute that he had fallen asleep with his leg all the way through the slat of the crib. Then about 30 minutes later he starts crying on and off so I peek in on him again, but he is in the same position, so I thought he was just fussing in his sleep. But the crying continued, so I went in there. He was awake and saw me at the door, but instead of jumping up, like he usually would, he just laid there and stared at me. That was panic attack number 1. I get over to his crib and realize his leg is pretty well jammed in between the crib slats. So I start trying to wiggle it out and its not budging. Panic attack number 2. So I yell at Jeremy to come in and help me and we are both tugging and pulling on his leg trying to get it out. By this time he is screaming (I'm sure it didn't feel good), and I am on the verge of tears, so I climb in the crib with him to attempt to keep him calm (ok, and me), while we try to get his leg free. After trying for what felt like 20 minutes I am yelling at Jeremy to go get saw and saw the crib apart. I guess that would be panic attack number 3. Thank goodness he DIDN'T listen to me, and instead of got a tub of butter. After applying some butter to his leg it slid right out. Poor Liam had a bruised and swollen knee/upper thigh to show for it. But after the incident he was walking and climbing on everything like nothing happened. So I gave him some ibuprofen and iced his knee, and called it good.

14 Months

Can't believe our baby is 14 months old already...he cooperated for a photo shoot :)

MO Vacay

We had a wonderful little family vacation to the Branson area to see Erin. It was a MUCH needed vacation for everyone I think. Especially Erin. We left Sunday, the 12th and came back on the 15th. Erin got off at 6:15 Sunday evening and had to be back 6:15 Tuesday evening. This was here ONE 48 hour break of the summer. ONE. Yeah, she works really hard. We spent the two days we had with her just relaxing at the condo that mom and dad rented. It was really rainy both days we were there, which was marvelous, because it meant that it was not painfully hot. We did a little shopping at the outlet mall and Branson Landing, but other than that we just enjoyed each other's company. Which was wonderful since we hadn't seen Erin since May, and she isn't come back until August. She couldn't believe how big Liam was. He has grown and changed so much since she saw him last! Tuesday evening when she went back, Jeremy, Hill and I got to go back to camp with her for the evening. It was great to see where she has been working the past two summers, and put some people's faces with names :). Everyone we met, just told us what an amazing person Erin is, and how she run's the camp, and how things don't run smoothly when she is not there :) We got to help her set up for one of her parties that she throws for the kids, and then she took us out on the lake on one of their boats. Then we had to say goodbye. That was the not-so-fun part. It was great to see her while we could!! We miss her so so much, and can't wait to have her back here....at least for a little while...after camp.



Our two children that we took :) ha ha.
One is more high-maintenance than the
other..you pick :)













All us "kids"








Erin, Hill and I on our failed
attempt at paddle boating









Aunt Erin and Liam. He missed her :)










Eating at Shorty Small's on
the lake












It was pouring rain and Liam found
a puddle. He splashed in it for about
10 minutes, laughing the whole time.
















Siblings :) This was when we
went back to camp with Erin












Me and my sister :)
I miss her so much.













Me and Hill waitin on Erin.
We worked REALLY hard :)













On the boat with Erin. She is
a pretty legit boat driver.

fishin buddies

I think papa has a new fishin buddy :) Liam LOVED touching the fish that they caught. No fear. And coming soon...pic's from our vacation to Missouri to see Erin.

No Holds Barred

This was the title of my daily devo that I read yesterday...I wanted to share, because I LOVED it.
It is out of Reflections for Ragamuffins, by Brennan Manning.

"What the world longs for from the Christian religion is the witness of men and women daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burned in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how unreal they are. Jesus, Son of the living God, anoint us with fire this day. Let your Word not shine in our hearts, but let it burn. Let there be no division, compromise, or holding back. Seperate the mystics from the romantics, and goad us to that daredevil leap into the abyss of your love."

I loved the simplicity of the message. Yet, it seems to hit the nail right on the head. A great motivation for how we should be living.

nike+

So I have decided it is time for me to stay dedicated to something, for once in my life. Maybe I will actually do it, because I really do love the concept. I have started working out with nikeplus.com. I have put quite a bit of money into it, so that is also motivation to keep going :). Visit the website and check it out, its pretty neat. You have to buy nike+ shoes, and then you buy a sensor that goes in the bottom of the shoe. The sensor comes with the attachment for your iPod. Then you start to run. The iPod and the sensor talk to eachother while you are running (or walking), and it keeps track of your distance, calories burned, average pace, and your time. You can listen to your music on your iPod while you are working out, and a little voice will interrupt every once and a while to update you on how much time you have left. Once you are done working out you plug your iPod into your computer and it automatically puts your workout onto the nikeplus website. On the website it graphs out your runs. Its pretty neat. The feature that I am LOVING is the training feature. I am doing their "walk-run" training. It is for people who are trying to get back into running again. So every day, it tells you exactly what you need to do, in order to build up to 25 minutes of running at the end of 12 weeks. And for me that is really helpful. I need something to tell me exactly what I need to do. Then it keeps track of all your runs in your training. You can also set goals for yourself, and it will keep you updated on how far ahead, or behind you are on reaching your goal. Mine is to work out 48 times in 12 weeks. If you are already an avid runner, you can do their other types of training. You can train for a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or full marathon. And it will tell you exactly what you need to do everyday in order to be ready for your race!

Anyways...just thought I would share what I have started. I am hoping to stick with it. So far I have done 5 days in a row..its a start right? :) So how long does it take to establish a habit? I am hoping not very long :) Today is my day off, according to the training. They give you ONE day off a week. So generous of them.

Speaking of iPods..Liam's new word is iPod. It comes out more like, "i-ba". But he is pretty cute carrying around his iPod, and trying to say the word.

2 new favorites

more fun videos...

For those of you who haven't seen these on facebook...

bulldozer from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

Liam's "Oh!" Face from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

genius? i think so.

This is Liam's latest milestone that we are pretty excited about. Jeremy put the spoon in his hand and showed him how to do it ONCE. Just ONCE. Then we gave the spoon to him and he just did it. Granted its still pretty messy...and maybe this is developmentally normal for a kid Liam's age...but just let me continue thinking he is a genius :)

eating with a spoon from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

my birthday dinner

Kind of a late post...but I wanted to put up pictures from my birthday dinner. We went to HuHot for my birthday with the Birkey's. (Fyi...HuHot=amazing. If you have not been, GO.) It was a great time to celebrate turning a quarter century old :). Thank you so much to my mom and dad and the Birkey's for celebrating with me :)

my little cowboy

12 Months

Liam had his 12 month check-up yesterday at the pediatrician. He did well, until the mean nurse came in with his three shots :). That trauma proved the last the ENTIRE day. But he is growing well! He is 21 lb 8 oz, which only puts him in the 29th percentile in weight, and 30 inches long which puts him in the 57th percentile in height! The doctor was very happy with Liam's development up to this point. He told us things like, he can sit facing forward in this car seat now, and, you can start him on whole milk. So we just said, ok! Decided not to mention that we took it upon ourselves to do both of those things a couple of months ago :).

Here are a few pictures of Liam enjoying his birthday present from us. I forgot how cold the water is that comes out of a garden hose! I figured he would hate it because the water was so cold, but he loved every minute of it! His little chin chattered the whole time, but he was smiling! :)






Oh SO cold!




















"I'm freezing, but overstimulated,
so I'm happy!"













Could I sell this one to
Toy's R Us to use for
an ad? :)

birkey time

We were SO happy to have our BEST friends here over this past weekend. We got our fill of Birkey time...although I think we would have all taken more :) We took some fun

pictures...here they are...








Giving Aunt Jodi kisses...

More fun with Aunt Jodi...

Our traditional picture :)