My Sweet Boy

 

Turning FIVE today, April 1st, 2010!! I cannot believe that 5 years ago today, I was in the hospital holding such a sweet, precious baby boy. I was terrified, still in horrible pain from my surgery, but so very excited. Parenthood….it was paralyzing….today, 5 years ago, is the day I became a Mommy. It is the day that I became a selfless person, had a strong purpose, we became a true family, and… I became a germaphobe =) hehe.  I had an overwhelming urge to keep him safe…safe from everything that I could control, germs being one of those things. My life was no longer all about me and my wonderful husband. My entire being was given to my precious boy on this day. I fell in love…and for five years, I have yet to fall out. As I sit here looking through his pictures, I realize how much of a better person I am because of this precious little boy. He is my world, he is my reason for living…I do not remember what life was like without him. Had to be dull =) because he keeps me laughing every hour of every day.

I have learned a lot about myself the past 5 years. I have become a person I never knew I had the ability to become.

My sweet boy will always be my precious little angel. No matter how big he is or how far away he is from me (God Forbid) I will never cease to love him and NEED his love in return. He is my firstborn….The first child that taught me how much I could love unconditionally. He holds such a special place in my heart.

 

He taught me how much I could really laugh every single day….he never let's me down in that department, hehe.

      

Elijah Jordan Freeman….born 5 years ago today!!! What a blessing this world has gained!! I am excited to see what he brings to our world for the next 90 years.

Crafty Tot Tuesday and Terrific Tommy

Finally, back to our Tuesday crafts =). Of course, we had to do a traditional craft today, Egg Dying!! Fun, easy, messy… fun and messy, hehe. The boys were too cute and they had so much fun. We put rubber bands on them to make the little lines.

Eli our ‘Egghead’…

  

Just a little addition to my post. We love our new neighborhood and our boys just love our neighbor Tommy!! Tommy is 12 years old and is such a loving soul. He is so sweet with my boys and plays with them until he is ready to fall over. Whenever my boys see someone outside of his house they immediately say “Can Tommy come out??!!!” And of course, he always comes out with a toy and they just play away. Thank you Tommy for being so lovely =) We are blessed to have such great neighbors!

Our Sunday:

CAGLEWOOD…the race is on!!!

 

We need your votes!!!! Our campers NEED your votes!!!!!! Please read this post and please pass this on to everyone you know. This grant can make a HUGE difference in our organization and can make a HUGE difference in the lives of so many with special needs.

Starting April 1st, we will be in the running for a Pepsi Refresh Grant for $250,000. This is HUGE! The broken economy has hurt our organization just as it has most of the community. We are getting so many applications for scholarship help, and we just cannot fund them all. Our campers are in need. Since our organization is run solely on volunteer work, all money that is brought in goes directly towards programming and scholarships. The donations just aren’t there. Please help us by voting for our wonderful organization – April 1st!!!!!!

 

My great friend, Calloway, posted about this on her blog this morning. Please visit this link (below) to learn all about Caglewood and the Grant process. She wrote it well, so there is no reason for me to rewrite it all when I could just send you to her post.

READ HERE:   http://thedeegandaily.blogspot.com/2010/03/thankful-and-camp-caglewood.html 

WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!

Gatorland Baby!!! …and video =)

The rest of our vacation was marvelous.  We saw such an amazing ‘light show parade’ Saturday at 10pm in Magic Kingdom and it was such a wonderful send off to a wonderful vacation.
Sunday morning we woke up early, packed the car, and headed over to gatorland before our long trek home. We have been there before (when Eli was 2), but they have grown so much since we were there last. So beautiful. They have a lot of rescued gators along with other wildlife and it truly is a fun and educational place. I highly recommend it if any of you are ever near Orlando. We learned a lot and had a great time in the petting zoo, the swamp, the train ride, and wrestling our own gator of course!! =) See the video below of Elijah and his 5 minutes of fame!!!
Many cute and funny signs around the conservancy:
   
Beautiful wildlife:  The gator below is a leucistic gator, not albino, and is extremely rare. Only 12 known in existence and Gatorland has 4 of them. They will not survive in the wild because their color makes them stand out saying “come eat me!!”. They are also extremely violent with other living things so they would kill each other if ever gotten the chance. So they are safe and beautiful, their eyes are amazing!
  
Here was the FUN part!! We went to the gator wrestling show and Elijah was picked out of the audience to help the man choose what gator he was going to use for his ‘educational segment’. He was too funny and was ready to wrestle…just watch!

People saw him around the park after the show and said “Look, there is Eli!! He is so brave…” And he would just cackle.

Now we are home, trying to get back into the swing of things and trying to warm up to this time change…ugghhh. Thank you Mom and Dad for taking care of our furries =) they are recovering, too. 1 1/2 acres to run, they are pooped!

Our Wonderful Vacation so far….

It has been forever since we have had a ‘real vacation’ and this one has been absolutely amazing! Of course, we will be more tired when we get home than when we left, but we will soon recover I am sure. The boys have had a blast. Our townhome is nice and has new, clean carpets (great when you have toddlers). Everything has been soooo pleasant!!

Paul surprised me this morning with a trip to the spa for a massage and facial here at our resort. They were wonderful and I feel like a new mother. Of course the Freeman’s can’t go anywhere without some sort of scratch, bruise, or trip to the ER. Last night we visited the ER here in Celebration, FL for a dislocated elbow. I was not impressed with the staff, but we are spoiled with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and I don’t think anyone can compare. But we are well, taking it easy today and we will hit Magic Kingdom tomorrow for our ‘farewell day’. Goooo Disney!!

Sunday:

• Downtown Disney…way too crowded for me!! But Eli had a blast at Lego world.

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Monday:

• Breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, and friends. Fabulous!!!!! We had an all you can eat breakfast and the characters visited every table for hugs and pictures. We also enjoyed a little parade around the restaurant.
• Magic Kingdom all day!!!

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Tuesday:

• Animal Kingdom all day.
• Noah met his ‘girlfriends’, 3 sorority girls on spring break who fell in love with him. They rode the safari ride with him, got a photo taken with goofy  (see below),  and saw him throughout the park during the day. He was in love….and they were, too. So funny.
• Elijah’s birthday dinner at the Wilderness lodge. Here they are very loud and crazy. They got to participate in a parade and the entire restaurant sang happy birthday to my little man. So cute!

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Wednesday:

• MGM and Epcot.
• This is the WONDERFUL day that Elijah had Jedi Training on stage and got to fight Darth Vader.
• The boys got to play in a ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ Playground where everything was bigger than us. Very COOL!! 

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32 HOURS!!!!!

 

And we will be on our way!!!!!! Every morning this week, Noah has come down in the morning asking “Are we going to see Mickey today??” In 32 hours I can finally say “YES!” – Oh I can’t wait.

Not sure if we will have internet access in our townhome. I get e-mail on my phone so I may send a few pictures to e-mails this week. If we do have access, I may post pics on the blog. Unless I am asleep every night by 8…which could definitely happen.

Love to you all!!

Crafty Tot Tuesday

Today we did color mixing. So fun and extra yummy!! We used pudding because we had it in our refrigerator. Colored Jello is also fun and definitely just as yummy =)

What you will need:

1. white pudding or colored jello
2. Primary colored food coloring if you have white pudding
3. bowls for color separation
4. plastic baggies

 

Make the colored pudding:

Let the children choose which 2 colors they would like to add to a baggie. Noah chose blue and yellow. Elijah chose red and blue. Then let them squish away (make sure the baggie is completely closed)!!!!! This is so much fun for the kiddos, such a cool feeling getting to mush it all together. Great learning project for primary/secondary color teaching.

Noah had GREEN and Eli PURPLE! They loved it….and in the end, they were able to eat their project. What could be yummier?

Sweet Moments

Friday was a great ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ day at the Freeman Household. So sweet…cuddled up on the cozy carpet for breakfast reading Dr. Seuss. I just love my boys…

 

‘Welcome Home Daddy!!’ This is how Daddy is welcomed home every night. Of course, he just eats it up. Underoos and all!!! =)