My Baby Girl

My McKinley Girl is officially 10!!! Turned 10 October 14th. I have been really thinking about how much I adore my baby girl the past few weeks and can't stand the thought of her getting old. I remember when she was a puppy, still, just as clumsy as ever, hehe. I got her when I lived in Boone, still single, with plans to move to Colorado! She used to hike with me all the time along the Blue Ridge Parkway, she went to work with me at the group homes I worked in, and she laid underneath the counter at the ski resort I was a binding technician for. She has been by my side from day one. Then I met Paul, we married, and then we brought Boda into our family. Since then so many changes have occurred, poor little girl. She has stuck by my side through them all even though she is not a big fan of having to be put second most of the time.


Although a little neurotic most of her life, she is such a sweet soul and just loves her family. I love my baby girl!!

Genetics

Awwww, there are so many special things about my baby boy. One of the things that makes me grin ear to ear are his ears, especially when the sun beams through them =)...see above. They are too cute with their 'glowing sweetness'. Every now and again I get the question "where does he get those ears?" I thought I would look through our blood line a little bit and this is what I found:

Me, In my younger years...

My Dad, in his younger years...

My Dad's Dad, Grandpa Jordan...

My Mother's Dad, Grandpa Finnigan...

So now we know! How cute is this!! Love it....

Freeman Bedtime Routine

....and we are finally sleepy...

Sodium Nitrate

This day in age, we hear it all the time, preservatives are everywhere! Who knows what can hurt us and what can't and what all of them mixed together will do. I try to go organic as much as possible, and would LOVE to go completely organic, but being able to afford it is a different story. Found out something interesting at the Doctor's office last week, especially for those of you that have boys =) Sodium Nitrate, which is found in most processed meats, has been shown to effect concentration and attention span. If course my Eli loves bologna, hot dogs, sausage, etc... and though I have tried to limit his consumption, I have not been able to completely eliminate them from his diet. But now that I know this, I am trying to eliminate it all together!!!! He is a crazy little boy =), and a lot of the time he has trouble sitting still and focusing. But again, he is a boy and that is what most boys do. Hopefully, this will make a little bit of a difference.

If you want to know whether or not your meats have Sodium Nitrate, or if you are wondering if what you are about to buy has it, just flip it over and look at the ingredients. It is usually the last ingredient listed.

Super Cool Karate Man

Yes, my big boy is a solid belt now!!! He prefers to be called "super cool karate man' lol, that is what he told his instructor. Karate has been so wonderful for our little man. Saturday, he graduated into the solid belts. For those of you that don't know what that means, every child in this program starts with a solid white belt. From there they graduate to:

- white belt with orange stripe
- white belt with yellow stripe
- white belt with green strip
- white belt with red stripe
- white belt with blue stripe
- white belt with purple stripe
- white belt with brown stripe

And then:
- Solid orange
- Orange belt with black stripe
- Yellow Belt
- Yellow belt with black stripe
- Green belt
- Green belt with black stripe

...and so on. You get the point! I could be wrong with one or so in the order. My baby was at the 'white belt with yellow stripe' when his instructor came to him (and us) and said that he felt Elijah was good enough to be bumped up to the solids!! Yay! So he skipped everything after the orange stripe and moved right up to the solid orange this weekend! He was soooo very proud of himself. It was so invigorating to see my son so proud of himself! His self esteem has flourished, his self discipline is growing. I see the children that are brown belts and their manners and self discipline are absolutely amazing. I am glad that we have found this place, can't wait to see what is ahead.

Elijah after graduating to Orange!

Elijah and his instructor, Wil. A little blurry =(

My baby doing his technique drill during graduation:

Working on his technique drill in front of his class the day before graduation:

Elijah and his class at graduation:

I will post a video soon!!

Free Branch Jewelry

Few more that I have done this week! Hopefully I will get the Etsy shop up this week. But I am taking orders now, if you see anything you want!! =)

Stone Mountain Randevu

Friday we had a great day at Stone Mountain Park with some wonderful friends, The Sherwoods. What a great place, we need to visit the park much more often!! The boys had a bast!! And so did little Addyson. We enjoyed the Sky Car to the top of the Mountain, a great picnic, the foam barn, the choo choo train, a 4D theater, and pumpkin searching during their Halloween celebration. There was so much more to do but we ran out of time and definitely ran out of energy.

Here is the Freeman Clan getting ready for the 4D movie...

The view of Atlanta from the top of the mountain...

Noah, ready to RUN!! He loved the big rock!!

Elijah (AKA: Raphael the Ninja Turtle) celebrating life!

Thank you Stone Mountain! We will be back soon!! =)

Finally, I did it!!!!

Sushi!!! I finally made it and now have a new 'love' =) I have been wanting to make sushi for years now - never really knew how and never wanted to take the time to get on the internet and learn. I was afraid that it would be just too difficult or time consuming and just not worth it. Then Elijah became a sushi lover, too. So we finally looked it up, found the ingredients, and Vwala! So easy, so good, and so fun. Although, do you know how hard it is to find Seaweed? And after all of my searching, can you believe that I found it at Walmart of all places??! Of course Elijah loved it and Noah hated it. That it how it goes in the Freeman house. We have to plan dinners around the boys - what Noah will eat one night, what Eli will eat the next night...they are soooo opposite.

Elijah approves!! Yum Yum