We are getting ready to start our New Year off with some changes. We have started a new rule in the morning to hopefully make it easier to get out the door on the days I work. There is no TV until after the girls get dressed. I get their clothes out the night before, after they are in bed. When they get up in the morning they go potty and then get themselves dressed, as much as they can, without assistance. It has only been two days with this new rule and they seem to be doing pretty good. We have also printed off some papers that have the morning routine and evening routine attached with picture of each chore. I am printing them off today and laminating them to hang as reminders.
I have also been working on our budget for the New Year! My husband and I have really buckled down since July to pay off some of our credit card debt and are extremely happy that in only 5 months we have paid off $4,922 which is 56% of our total credit card debt. This year we plan to continue using our budget to pay off debt and hopefully completely pay off credit card debt by June. Then we will begin to focus on student loan debt for the remaining 6 months of 2013. I use a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to keep track of our income and expenses and if anyone would like to see it as an example feel free to let me know and I can e-mail it to you as an attachment.
Finally, I have begun to set the plan for my post-partum fitness routine that I will begin in May. I only have 5 1/2 months before my sister's wedding, in which I am the Matron of Honor, so I need to have a solid plan so I see the best results. I also want to teach my kids that taking care of their body is important and their responsibility. I plan to include them in a lot of my workouts and to allow them to have dance/outside time for at least half an hour everyday in order to teach them about the importance of keeping active (an hopefully encourage them to get tired out and continue sleeping through the night).
I would love to hear about other's New Years resolutions and the plans you have to achieve your goals!!
Happy New Year to all of you and happy celebrations with your families!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Our Family's Christmas Traditions
So a few months ago my husband and I decided that this year would be the last year we would be going to all of our extended families' Christmas get togethers. Last year was very stressful because we were expected to take our then 18 month old and 6 month old to SIX family Christmas events and our little family Christmas ended up being pushed to the New Year because of all of the traveling we had to do. Also, those of you who have little ones know the horrible things that happen to little ones who goes day without their routine. It took half way into January to get back into the flow of things. This year was also our first year that K started to understand the traditions of Christmas so we decided to try some new things this year.
Well our Christmas events started at my parents' house this past Thursday. We broke the news that next year we will only be going to the Christmas events at our parents' houses and any other family members that would like to see us or the girls would have to come then. We then continued our festivities on Saturday with back to back Christmas parties with my dad and mom's family. We then decided to have our Christmas today (on Christmas Eve) because of all of the traveling and family events we have scheduled for the next two days. We wanted to make sure that the girls had time to play with their new toys so that we can hopefully minimize some temper tantrums. This evening we have Christmas at my in-laws house and tomorrow is Christmas with my husbands grandma.
I am excited to say that we have decided that next year we will continue to do our presents on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day celebrating Jesus' Birthday. Tomorrow we will be making Jesus a cake for his birthday and talk about the gifts Jesus brought to the Earth. I hope as they get older we can spend Christmas Day giving back to the community and help provide dinner to families in need.
Here are some pictures from our eventful evening last night:
Merry Christmas to everyone and God Bless you and your families!
Well our Christmas events started at my parents' house this past Thursday. We broke the news that next year we will only be going to the Christmas events at our parents' houses and any other family members that would like to see us or the girls would have to come then. We then continued our festivities on Saturday with back to back Christmas parties with my dad and mom's family. We then decided to have our Christmas today (on Christmas Eve) because of all of the traveling and family events we have scheduled for the next two days. We wanted to make sure that the girls had time to play with their new toys so that we can hopefully minimize some temper tantrums. This evening we have Christmas at my in-laws house and tomorrow is Christmas with my husbands grandma.
I am excited to say that we have decided that next year we will continue to do our presents on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day celebrating Jesus' Birthday. Tomorrow we will be making Jesus a cake for his birthday and talk about the gifts Jesus brought to the Earth. I hope as they get older we can spend Christmas Day giving back to the community and help provide dinner to families in need.
Here are some pictures from our eventful evening last night:
Letters to Santa and they cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.
Here is our tree after all of the gifts were put under.
And here are our pictures from this morning!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
7 days until Christmas...
There are 7 days left until Christmas and all I can think about is my New Year's Resolution. This year I have decided to set a few different goals for myself.
The first one is a parenting goal. I have caught myself yelling a lot and that was something my mom did that I swore I would not, but it is hard to have two rambunctious kids who haven't quite developed their listening skills, let alone being extremely exhausted from this pregnancy. Today on Pinterest I found the blog of a lady who has vowed to do 365 days without yelling (http://theorangerhino.com/the-challenge-details/). So, I am technically starting today because there is no reason to allow myself to yell for the next 13 days, but I will not start my official 365 day count until January 1, 2013.
The second one is a personal goal. I know that this goal is very cliche and one that many people make at the beginning of the year, but I have not gotten back to my original pre-pregnancy weight after any of my pregnancies and I believe it is unexcusable. I will be starting TurboFire by Beachbody as soon as I get the okay from my OB after Baby S is born. I want to pair this with healthy eating, meal planning and making sure I drink at least 4- 8oz cups of water each day (or two water bottles). I know the recommendation is 8- 8oz cups per day, but right now I am going days without even drinking one, so making a goal of 4 sounds reasonable to me. This is probably going to be my most challenging goal, but I am working on a plan to ensure follow through before the New Year even begins.
My third goal is for my marriage. I want to make sure that my husband and I are spending some time together, without the kids to focus on ourselves. I am planning on setting money aside to hire a babysitter and have one night out a month to do something just the two of us.
My final goal is for my girls. I will create a routine that encourages independence and responsibility for them. I cannot believe that come March they will already be 2 and 3 years old. With that being said I have been a little relaxed when it comes to chores and fostering independence because it was easier for me to do what needs to be done. But, here we are with K being whiny whenever asked to help out and also frequently using the line "I can't". This has started to wear off on R who was my little helper, but now thinks it is easier to just wait for me to help her, which leads to lots of reminding and yelling. I will continue to update everyone on these goals as the year progresses.
I also wanted to post some pictures from our Christmas adventure from yesterday. We went to the Winter Wonderland and our local skating rink. The first part was in 3D and required 3D glasses and the second part was mostly Christmas lights and different Christmas scenes. They gave us some cool glasses to keep that turn Christmas lights into stars and snowflakes.
My favorite picture (besides the ones of them in their glasses) are the two of K by Santa on the bench. She told us she was scared so she put her Gaffee on his lap and said "but Gaffee is not scared". We had a lot of fun and will probably make another trip next year!
The first one is a parenting goal. I have caught myself yelling a lot and that was something my mom did that I swore I would not, but it is hard to have two rambunctious kids who haven't quite developed their listening skills, let alone being extremely exhausted from this pregnancy. Today on Pinterest I found the blog of a lady who has vowed to do 365 days without yelling (http://theorangerhino.com/the-challenge-details/). So, I am technically starting today because there is no reason to allow myself to yell for the next 13 days, but I will not start my official 365 day count until January 1, 2013.
The second one is a personal goal. I know that this goal is very cliche and one that many people make at the beginning of the year, but I have not gotten back to my original pre-pregnancy weight after any of my pregnancies and I believe it is unexcusable. I will be starting TurboFire by Beachbody as soon as I get the okay from my OB after Baby S is born. I want to pair this with healthy eating, meal planning and making sure I drink at least 4- 8oz cups of water each day (or two water bottles). I know the recommendation is 8- 8oz cups per day, but right now I am going days without even drinking one, so making a goal of 4 sounds reasonable to me. This is probably going to be my most challenging goal, but I am working on a plan to ensure follow through before the New Year even begins.
My third goal is for my marriage. I want to make sure that my husband and I are spending some time together, without the kids to focus on ourselves. I am planning on setting money aside to hire a babysitter and have one night out a month to do something just the two of us.
My final goal is for my girls. I will create a routine that encourages independence and responsibility for them. I cannot believe that come March they will already be 2 and 3 years old. With that being said I have been a little relaxed when it comes to chores and fostering independence because it was easier for me to do what needs to be done. But, here we are with K being whiny whenever asked to help out and also frequently using the line "I can't". This has started to wear off on R who was my little helper, but now thinks it is easier to just wait for me to help her, which leads to lots of reminding and yelling. I will continue to update everyone on these goals as the year progresses.
I also wanted to post some pictures from our Christmas adventure from yesterday. We went to the Winter Wonderland and our local skating rink. The first part was in 3D and required 3D glasses and the second part was mostly Christmas lights and different Christmas scenes. They gave us some cool glasses to keep that turn Christmas lights into stars and snowflakes.
Monday, December 17, 2012
8 Days until Christmas...
There are only 8 more days until Christmas and we only have two more presents to buy. I have decided to start wrapping tonight after the girls go to sleep. We have our first family Christmas gathering this Thursday with my parents. We are trying to continue doing different activities every day to celebrate Christmas. Today we are going to an indoor light exhibit at the local Skating Rink. Part of the year it is turned into a haunted house and they turn the facility into an amazing Christmas Light display starting after Thanksgiving.
We are also continuing to work on potty training and both K and R are doing really well. K has been dry during the day for almost a whole month, with minimal accidents. She has really wanted to wear "pretties", her underwear, to bed so we decided that if she stayed dry for two nights in a row she could wear her pretties to bed. Well, the past two nights she has been dry so it is finally time to take the leap and hope we are turning the corner to NO MORE DIAPERS! R has been doing really as well and has even been waking up dry in the mornings as well. She is being pretty consistent about telling us when she needs to go potty but the only hang up is that she refuses to keep clothes on and will have accidents in her bed on occasion during nap time. Today is her second full day in underwear which is also exciting. I was once dreading have three babies in diapers and am now hopeful that we will only have one!
I am continuing to work on our Letter of the Week plans and have some things to share with all of you when the time comes. I have, however, decided to start off our learning with colors and shapes so R can also have a chance to learn more of her colors and shapes. She currently knows star, circle, purple and pink, so I know she is interested in continuing to learn.
I cannot wait to share our fun activities with all of you!
We are also continuing to work on potty training and both K and R are doing really well. K has been dry during the day for almost a whole month, with minimal accidents. She has really wanted to wear "pretties", her underwear, to bed so we decided that if she stayed dry for two nights in a row she could wear her pretties to bed. Well, the past two nights she has been dry so it is finally time to take the leap and hope we are turning the corner to NO MORE DIAPERS! R has been doing really as well and has even been waking up dry in the mornings as well. She is being pretty consistent about telling us when she needs to go potty but the only hang up is that she refuses to keep clothes on and will have accidents in her bed on occasion during nap time. Today is her second full day in underwear which is also exciting. I was once dreading have three babies in diapers and am now hopeful that we will only have one!
I am continuing to work on our Letter of the Week plans and have some things to share with all of you when the time comes. I have, however, decided to start off our learning with colors and shapes so R can also have a chance to learn more of her colors and shapes. She currently knows star, circle, purple and pink, so I know she is interested in continuing to learn.
I cannot wait to share our fun activities with all of you!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
And the Christmas Festivities Continue...
This week we have continued to keep up with keeping the girls active with different Christmas festivities. My husband is now home at night during the week but is still working a part time job on the weekends. It was so nice to have him home this past week. We spent most of our evenings driving around town looking at various Christmas lights. A local Skate place has lights professionally synced with music on a local radio station. This has been a hit with both of the girls and is such a fun free activity.
We also began working on Christmas cards and have decided that we will just be passing them out at the various family Christmas' we attend. K was a big helper and was trying to remember everyone in our families that should get a card. It is so good to hear her start to understand different relationships within our family.
Earlier in the week R had an appointment with the pediatrician. A little bit of background regarding R is that she has been diagnosed with Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance and reflux. She has had a long journey with feeding and didn't even have her first table food until 6 months ago. At her last GI specialist appointment the doctor informed us that she has not been growing or gaining weight in the past three months. She put R on a powder, called DuoCal, which adds extra calories to foods/drinks in hopes that she would start sleeping through the night and ultimately gain weight. We continued adding new foods and gave her the DuoCal three times per day.
At our follow up we found out that R has gained a total of 8 ounces in one month and has finally grown 1/4 of an inch. I never thought I could be so happy about 8 ounces or a 1/4 inch. We are going to continue with DuoCal 4 times per day and see if there is even more weight gain and growth between now and when we see the Specialist in January.
We also have begun a few things to prepare for homeschooling. First, we subscribed to www.abcmouse.com and K has begun to explore the website and completed her first lesson about the letter A. I am especially impressed with this website because I can customize both girls' path of learning and it can be accessed on the Kindle which seems to be easier for K. R has not yet had a chance to try it out, but I don't think she is ready to sit down and focus on the lessons and also think some of them may be a bit above her academic level. I plan to use some of the activities for both girls, especially the songs and picture cards.
Secondly, we purchased Scholastic's BOB books from Books-A-Million, but they are also available online at :http://www.scholastic.com/parents/bob_books/series/my_first/index.htm. We purchased the Pre-Reading Skills set, which contains 12 books for $16.99. This series introduces patterns and story sequencing. We plan to use this set for both K and R, even though K has a basic understanding for these concepts. We also purchased the Alphabet book set, which also contains 12 books for $16.99. These books each focus on 2-3 letter and contain mostly words with these beginning sounds. We will use these books to focus on specific beginning sounds as we begin our version of Letter of the Week and these books will mainly be used for K.
On a final note, I have officially made it to my 23rd week of this pregnancy and Baby S seems to be doing as good as ever. I think we have ourselves another little gymnast, as she spends most of her day flipping, kicking and punching. She definitely is an active little girl, hopefully she mellows out a bit before she is born! I don't know if I will be able to handle another little walker at 8 months old!
Happy weekend everyone!
We also began working on Christmas cards and have decided that we will just be passing them out at the various family Christmas' we attend. K was a big helper and was trying to remember everyone in our families that should get a card. It is so good to hear her start to understand different relationships within our family.
Earlier in the week R had an appointment with the pediatrician. A little bit of background regarding R is that she has been diagnosed with Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance and reflux. She has had a long journey with feeding and didn't even have her first table food until 6 months ago. At her last GI specialist appointment the doctor informed us that she has not been growing or gaining weight in the past three months. She put R on a powder, called DuoCal, which adds extra calories to foods/drinks in hopes that she would start sleeping through the night and ultimately gain weight. We continued adding new foods and gave her the DuoCal three times per day.
At our follow up we found out that R has gained a total of 8 ounces in one month and has finally grown 1/4 of an inch. I never thought I could be so happy about 8 ounces or a 1/4 inch. We are going to continue with DuoCal 4 times per day and see if there is even more weight gain and growth between now and when we see the Specialist in January.
We also have begun a few things to prepare for homeschooling. First, we subscribed to www.abcmouse.com and K has begun to explore the website and completed her first lesson about the letter A. I am especially impressed with this website because I can customize both girls' path of learning and it can be accessed on the Kindle which seems to be easier for K. R has not yet had a chance to try it out, but I don't think she is ready to sit down and focus on the lessons and also think some of them may be a bit above her academic level. I plan to use some of the activities for both girls, especially the songs and picture cards.
Secondly, we purchased Scholastic's BOB books from Books-A-Million, but they are also available online at :http://www.scholastic.com/parents/bob_books/series/my_first/index.htm. We purchased the Pre-Reading Skills set, which contains 12 books for $16.99. This series introduces patterns and story sequencing. We plan to use this set for both K and R, even though K has a basic understanding for these concepts. We also purchased the Alphabet book set, which also contains 12 books for $16.99. These books each focus on 2-3 letter and contain mostly words with these beginning sounds. We will use these books to focus on specific beginning sounds as we begin our version of Letter of the Week and these books will mainly be used for K.
On a final note, I have officially made it to my 23rd week of this pregnancy and Baby S seems to be doing as good as ever. I think we have ourselves another little gymnast, as she spends most of her day flipping, kicking and punching. She definitely is an active little girl, hopefully she mellows out a bit before she is born! I don't know if I will be able to handle another little walker at 8 months old!
Happy weekend everyone!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Fourth Day of Christmas Celebration 2012
We have continued to keep up with our Christmas Festivities. K and R have been helping me decorate more ornaments for their Felt Christmas Trees. Since it is taking so long to make all of them we have decided that this year they will get their bag of ornaments and we will add to them as we decorate more, and they can decorate their trees as they wish. Each girl's tree will hang on their bedroom door with their plastic bag of ornaments attached next to it. Our new additions to our felt ornaments are:
Light Blue Rectangle (present)
White Snowflake
Orange Oval (ornament)
Black Square (box of coal)
Sunday morning we went with my parents to their church's Annual Breakfast with Santa. K and R both sat nicely on Santa's lap and even told him one thing they would like for Christmas.
There some raffles set up with arts, crafts and a few DVDs and we are very thankful that K won one of the baskets. We decided we are going to keep all of the goodies and use them as necessary and save the DVD to watch as a family on Christmas Eve before bed.
Sunday night we took K and R for a trip around town to look at the lights on different houses and in the down town area. We plan to take another trip out later this week.
Monday night (last night) we took both of the girls with us to the zoo to see their Lights Before Christmas show since the weather was so warm. K was a little upset that none of the animals were out but quickly got distracted by all the lights and different animations that were going on. The zoo even had an area of trees that would light up in sync with various Christmas songs. This is the girl's favorite area and they even started dancing together. It was so nice to see all of the innocent children dancing without a care. Here is a picture of K and R dancing! They must have been moving fast because every picture I got was blurry.
This morning while I was searching the internet for fun activities for the kids I came across the website: www.freelettersfromsantaclaus.com This website comes with templates that you can customize for each child. They have the option of e-mailing or downloading the letters for FREE. I made one up for both K and R and had it sent to my e-mail. I plan on reading these letters to them tomorrow morning. I cannot wait to see how they react to receiving their very first letters from Santa!
We have some more family fun planned for the upcoming weeks and only a few more felt ornaments to finish up before we can move onto our next crafting project. I am also continuing to prepare for our journey with letter of the week! What busy weeks we have ahead!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Christmas Cheer
Day One of our Christmas celebrations have officially begun! We are still slowly working away at our felt ornaments for our felt Advent Christmas Trees. We finished our Dark Blue Igloos
and Yellow Stars.
We took K and R to my work Christmas event. They got to make some crafts, write a letter to Santa and put it in a little mail box. Before we left K was excited to see Santa come in the big gym and pick up the letters. When we got home we put up our Christmas Tree and the girls both took turns putting up the ornaments with a little rearranging after they were all up.
We also hung up our brand new Advent Calendar that came in the mail just in time! It is the "Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Advent Calendar". (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=900002&e=storeproduct&pid=51245§ion=excl_view_all) for $30.00 plus S&H.
The girls are really excited about it but I don't think they fully understand how it is supposed to work so we may need to start this trandition next year. They also like their new "Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Gift Set" (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=900002&e=storeproduct&pid=62806§ion=excl_view_all) for $59.00 plus S&H.
We took K and R to my work Christmas event. They got to make some crafts, write a letter to Santa and put it in a little mail box. Before we left K was excited to see Santa come in the big gym and pick up the letters. When we got home we put up our Christmas Tree and the girls both took turns putting up the ornaments with a little rearranging after they were all up.
The girls are really excited about it but I don't think they fully understand how it is supposed to work so we may need to start this trandition next year. They also like their new "Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Gift Set" (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=900002&e=storeproduct&pid=62806§ion=excl_view_all) for $59.00 plus S&H.
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