A Big Announcement!!!

So, Levi and I tried to keep it a secret, but some of our closest friends and family already know that....

We have been expecting for quite some time now...

We would like to introduce our new "little" addition (although he won't be little for long!)

Meet Malone :)

That's short for...

Karl "The Mailman" Malone Freckleton

We are sooooo excited!

Nice Surprises

For the most part, our lives our pretty routine. We get up, go to work, come home. Now that we have the house, we are definitely busier than we used to be. It's not boring in the least, and I am certainly not complaining! However, every once in a while, something comes along that throws us off, just a tad. Sometimes they are big surprises, sometimes it's the little ones that make big impacts. 

I am a big fan of small gestures, and Levi knows it. Levi and I have created a tradition that we cook breakfast for one another on our birthdays. My birthday last week was on a weekday, and those start early for us. We are up by 5:30 and I'm out the door by 6:20 to catch the train. I was not surprised to find no breakfast for me that morning. I didn't give it much more thought after that, so I was completely thrown off to find breakfast waiting for me on Sunday morning (a whole 5 days after my birthday!) Levi has been getting really into cooking, and it is paying off for me big time! Check out what he made for me:

French toast (Levi style) with bananas and pecans. Yum!

Thanks Levi once again for being such a thoughtful guy!

Another, rather bigger, surprise has come up in the past few months. We found out that we have another member of our family, which did catch us off guard a little bit. But what started off as a surprise has really turned into a blessing. Her name is Megan, she is 16 years old, and she lives in St. George. We have had the great privilege to spend some time with her and get to know her a little bit. She is such a sweet and cute girl, and we look forward to getting know her better!

Levi and Megan waiting for their Concrete at Nielsen's :)

Yards, Grills, and Dishwashers...

As you can probably guess by the lack of posts, not much has been happening here at the Freckleton home in Clearfield. Now that spring has arrived, Levi and I are getting ready for the work ahead in our yard. Hopefully it won't be long until we get it where we want!

I feel that this picture best represents how dead and unkempt our yard is! I have big dreams for our awesome yard!

We also were able to get a grill, which Levi was extremely excited about. He spent a lot of time studying the different kinds out there, and I think he made an excellent choice! So far we've had hamburgers twice, hot dogs, and we are having hamburgers again tonight. Levi is becoming quite the "grill-master". 

Here he is, using the grill for the first time!

We also decided it was time to trade in our dishwasher, which has been a frustration for me since we moved in. So far, I love it!

Yesterday was opening day for the Arizona Diamondbacks! We were so tempted to make a trip down this weekend, but thought we better not right now. Instead, we decided to bring baseball to us. In addition to watching the game, we grilled some hot dogs and made our own garlic fries!

It was perfect and just as delicious as it looks here!

So far, it's been a nice spring!

Random Fun and Awesomeness!

This past weekend we got the opportunity to hang out with the Greatest Power Forward to ever play in the NBA, Karl “The Mailman” Malone! Levi’s dad used to work at the Delta Center and he, along with Levi and Taylor, became friends with Karl Malone and some other really cool celebrities (such as Sawyer Brown). Brad has been trying to arrange a get together with Karl for some time, and the opportunity finally presented itself last Friday night.

He was in town visiting his car dealerships. After he was done signing autographs, we got to hang out with him for a few hours catching up and sharing stories. It was a great time. The best part was listening to Karl tell stories about hunting and some of the things that he had done. It was cool to see how nice and down to earth he is. We can’t wait for him to come back in town so we can hopefully catch up some more and hear more of his great stories. As Levi and Taylor had gotten used to growing up, The Mailman delivered a great time. Big thank you to Brad, Karl and Rob for making it happen. Thanks Karl!

Just A Thought

Ever felt like just crawling under the couch and hiding out??

Me too...

Winter Break 2011

I had 2 weeks off for winter break, and it was wonderful! Levi was able to take quite a bit of time off as well, so we had fun spending time together. We spent a ton of time with family for the holiday's. We are so lucky to have such awesome families! 

We saw some good movies (Sherlock Holmes, Mission Impossible, We Bought A Zoo, and Moneyball). We also found some time to go down to American Fork to eat at one of our favorite places, The Rocky Mountain Wing Shack. Their address is 456 East State Road. If you are ever down there, you should definitely check it out. YUM! 

We also had the fun opportunity to go curling with some friends of ours. I had a good time until my feet went numb :( However, everyone else had a great time, and Levi wants to join a curling league!

Levi (the veteran) showing us how it's done

Taylor getting ready to go

Terri and Levi doing a great job brushing the ice!

It's really hard. I wasn't very good.

Levi's sister, Jordyn, and her family came down for a visit, and we got to babysit her amazingly cute kids one afternoon. It was so much fun and I made sure to have my camera out the whole time!

Checking out Pinky, my fish

She had fun on the ottoman! 

Bennett is just so happy all the time!

These two are so easy to babysit. Just put on Tangled!

Even Bennett was interested until he fell asleep

It seems our couch has the same effect on Payton's hair as it does on mine...

Such a good uncle!

We also had an assignment from Levi's Step-Dad to write a review of our year. It was fun to go back and re-read the blog to see how many changes happened this year, and all the fun things we did. I am really looking forward to 2012, and I am interested to see what comes our way!

A Long Time Coming

Well, I apologize for how long it has taken for me to get pictures up here of our new house. We have been putting a ton of work into it, and it is finally to a point where it looks like home. So, without further delay, I now present to you the new Freckleton Residence:

These are the pictures I took on the day we first walked through it with our Realtor. Little did I know when I was taking these, they would be the first pictures of our home. I never got the chance to take better ones before we started working on it.

Formal Living Room

Family Room

Master Bedroom

Spare Room

Spare Bathroom

The first night we had keys, Levi and Taylor ripped up all the carpet, and Katie and I began patching up all the holes and we spent the next few days getting ready for paint:

 One of the rooms had a million tiny push-pin holes

And then we spent nearly 4 weeks painting EVERYTHING! There were several times Levi and I believed we had taken on too much. It was a little overwhelming:

And then, the Friday before we were supposed to get our carpet in, Levi surprised me and had the carpet put in early. We were able to finally move into our home. Now we are onto the fun part of getting everything put in it's place. I think that will be a lifelong project:

Thanks to all our families for the hours they spent helping us. We couldn't have done it without you!