DISNEY!!! Disney!! Disney!!!

Goodness!! What a month it has been, woohoooo!!! I haven’t posted in so long. But to kick it all off, the Freemans went to Disney and had a BLAST!! We were able to enjoy all 4 parks, a food and wine festival, the beach, some great food, pool swimming, a few dates (thanks to Paul’s mom) and much more. We were soooooooo tired at week’s end and I am still recovering. A lot of pictures below – thank you to all that helped out – the Freeman’s first get-away in a year and 1/2 and it was MUCH needed. Now we need a vacation to recover from our vacation!! So many pictures to post – sorry, we had so much fun, it was hard to choose!

Pumpkins and Legos….

Sun Bathing…

Just a few of the characters the boys were able to meet and get autographs from:

   

   

Even Jobe got in on all the fun – he loved the costumes!! 

Animal Kingdom was beautiful!!:

The tree of life at Animal Kingdom. How many animal carvings can you pick out??

 

We were even able to head to Cape Canaveral one day. Noah’s first time seeing the ocean!!!! It was a bit cold and windy, but that didn’t stop my babies from loving the sand.

“Honey I Shrunk the Kids” Playground…

Putting on a concert at the Phineas and Ferb stand….and Noah was told to SMASH the guitar!

Jedi training…

They are now ‘True Jedi’s”

His new Jedi robe….with Mickey ears:

Meeting Terrance and Tinkerbelle. If you TRULY know Noah, you know that he is obsessed with Tinkerbelle and has been since he was 3. He could not stop staring at her long enough for me to get a picture. He stood in line for 45 minutes to meet her….now that is TRUE love!!!

Light Parade and fireworks – beautiful!!!

We took a day off and headed to Gatorland, which we LOVE! We were able to feed the birds, study some gators, meet HUGE turtles, snakes, and goats, ride a train, and much more. Such a great, educational trip. The boys love it.

Smores with Chip-n-Dale and a country concert:

And at the end of the week – this is how we felt…

This Mama’s easy recipe of the week…

What to make for dinner?? I find myself asking this question every single day, and when the time comes, my mind is BLANK!! I cannot, for the life of me, get creative and make up fun little recipes my family will love. I just don’t have the time to research, try new things, make new shopping lists…or even shop multiple times a week. So I did some ‘talking’ over facebook and some friends sent me some great, easy recipes I will be trying out very soon. But in the meantime, I found this amazing site (thank you Sara!) called e-mealz – These people make a 7 day menu for your family, make a shopping list for you, and get this…..the menu is based on what is on sale that week at YOUR grocery store. So if you have the coupons clipped, just match it all up – the dirty work has been done for you!! All of this for $1.50 a week, which I think is MORE than worth it. My family gets to try out new recipes and I never get in the ‘stump’ of what-to-make-for-dinner0. I don’t have to make the shopping list, and I don’t have to spend time making a schedule. We don’t use all 7 meals, maybe 4 or 5 since my boys don’t eat too much, we always have a lot of leftovers to eat on other nights. So if something is on the menu that my boys won’t like, I just mark it off. Easy as that =) LOVE IT!! And I sometimes change things up a bit – if it calls for corn, I substitute cantaloupe since my boys enjoy that more. I change things around to cater to my family’s likes and dislikes. Try it out you busy mamas!!! You will love it!

My favorite so far…

Cheesy Mini Meatloaves!!!!! They were SOOO GOOD! And super easy. They are great for little hands to hold on to, and my boys loved them because they were able to peal them like muffins.

Just make your regular meatloaf recipe (I used gluten-free bread crumbs because of my diet), roll it into balls that fit in the muffin cups, top with any yummy cheese you like, and cook. Bake 45 minutes at 350, or until you feel they are done.

I served mine with homemade potato salad, and Texas Ranchero baked beans. It was to die for, with a lot of left overs. For 3 days straight, this was my lunch.

The Freeman Boys

It has been a while since I have posted about the boys. We are all doing so well and staying SUPER busy – they are growing so fast.

  

 Elijah is LOVING school and is doing so well in the 1st grade. He is dying to become a boy scout and he is trying out acting for the first time in his school’s Christmas play. Sniffle…he is growing up =)

Noah is LOVING staying home with me and doing homeschool preschool under our own roof while also attending (once a week) a nature based preschool program nearby at a nature center. He gets to hike every week along with doing educational hunts and ‘stuff’ throughout nature. I absolutely love it – this preschool was made for the Freeman family.

Jobe is almost 9 months old is a WILDMAN. He has turned a corner in just 7 days. He started crawling, sitting up on his own from a laying position, and feeding himself finger foods within a 7 day period. Baby proofing is UNDER-WAY! He is also saying a few different words including Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, and Nu-Nu which means ‘eat’. I have started sign language with him but he just looks at me like I am a crazy woman =) Super cute.

This is what happens when he eats too much…

I am hoping to be blogging more soon! I am going to start a weekly ‘easy’ recipe for other mommies out there that don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen and I am also hoping to start back up our ‘crafty tot Tuesday’. Woohoo!!!! Where the extra time will come from you say?…..sigh….

Nerd Fest 2011

Yes, I admit it, we attended Dragon-con in downtown Atlanta this past weekend. I must say, I actually had a blast! I felt as though it was at an out of control Halloween celebration. My favorite part was seeing all of the costumes and believe me, there were some VERY interesting ones. We did realize that there is really no need to spend the $$ because walking the streets and getting into the hotels where the fun was, was all free. The fee went towards all the ‘geek’ classes and contests – most of which our children were way too young for. Although Eli and I did sit through a ‘Make your own R2D2 class’ – I felt like I was in science class again in high school – Eli was in LOVE while I was falling asleep…BORING! If there were any doubts that Eli was going to be a science fanatic, they are completely gone now. He spent 4 hours yesterday skimming a new lego magazine we got in  the mail and surfing the internet for science things. We had to peel him away for dinner and bed.

    

I have never seen so many Star Wars Characters in one place…Eli was in heaven!! They were all so wonderful with children, too!

          

Partying in the streets…Noah was putting on a show for everyone walking by…

 

Noah’s turtle costume was a HIT – we were chased down by this girl below who wanted a picture with him. She was dressed up as a girl from the Turtle movie. He loved the attention =)

Even Mommy got in on the fun…

the Hooters ladies were so sweet – the one in black was pregnant so she was just swarming Jobe the entire time!

The Darma Initiative…

These silly boys asked if they could ‘rescue me’…

And some super fun pod racing!!….

 

   

Noah’s FAVORITE super hero – Green Lantern!!! ….

 

And at the end of the weekend…

 

We will definitely be back next year. And at that point…I will have a shirt that reads “I am with nerds” with little arrows pointing all around!!