Going to see Santa

I would first like to mention that for the last seven years we have seen the same Santa at the same mall, which was really neat because I have photos of my oldest and my youngest with the same Santa! He was the nicest man, and always made my kids feel comfortable. The photos are awesome - even when the twins were 10 months old they were both babbling his ear off, which made a great picture.

My boys are 2.5 now, and are so scared of Santa! We waited in line for a normal amount of time (we do go early!) and they were all excited, the huge Christmas tree was great, and once they saw Santa they were all about leaving. He was a new Santa, and was not terribly smiley or friendly. When big kid tried to put thing one on the big seat next to him he screamed so loud he set off all of the babies waiting in line! I was so embarrassed, but hey he's a big scary dude in a funny red suit with a huge white beard! Not something you see every day...

I had tried to "prepare" the boys to see Santa, we talked about it and watched Rudolph to introduce them to the idea. They did wave goodbye to him between screams!

Suprise Suprise!

I have anxiety attacks as pms - it's hormonal, and easily controlled by the pill. I decided when I realized they stopped while on the pill that I was going to actively start trying to be a healthier person. Since I had twins I have been horribly out of shape, everything makes me out of breath. It feels awful the three days I do have anxiety attacks, it feels exactly like what a heart attack is described as. I want to be a healthy person, I am only 31!

About two months ago I started this yoga ball video workout. I'm allergic to actual exercise, this is more along the lines of stretching that happens to work your weakest muscles a bit, on a huge yoga ball. The twins love doing it with me, that should tell you how easy it is. They get it sort of, they mostly laugh and sit on their play balls. It's pretty hilarious.

Much to my surprise my clothes started to get bigger! Yesterday I finally broke down and bought myself a new sweater, jeans, and a few undergarments and was shocked at having to go down one to two sizes (I did, of course, get a huge discount at Kohl's and hit the maidenform outlet, I never pay full price for anything). I have only lost five pounds, but I'm apparently moving my weight around on me. I don't post about weight and such, but this one just surprised the heck out of me!

Having to stick to a gluten free diet is nasty enough without trying to actually go ON a diet to lose weight, that would just make life unbearable for me. I realize I probably am on a "calorie controlled diet" to begin with, because I can't eat most of what I really want to! Ha, god forbid anyone ever told me there was a pill I could take to eat gluten without harm, I would probably gain four hundred pounds the first month of eating real food again!! NICK TAHOE'S GARBAGE PLATE HERE I COME! Only in my dreams ;)

Generosity

So after hearing about the two shoeboxes that big kid and I are packing for OCC, my husband got into the giving mood as well and asked me to post his immaculate nintendo ds on freecycle. His iPhone has really replaced it for him, so he doesn't use it at all now. He wanted to find a family who had a child who would love a ds but couldn't afford a new one. We got over two hundred responses on our local freecycle list within four hours of me posting it. It was hard to hear so many stories of hardship, but we finally decided to give it to a 9 yr old girl whose family has been going through hard times financially. He loaded his r4 card with games, barbie, bratz, mario and such, and we are giving it to her mom this morning. He still had the original box it came in, the actual game system looks absolutely brand new, he even had the packaging that went in the box and the bag of manuals! It is such a nice feeling to help someone else's family for the holidays, to be able to! I am so proud of hubby for doing this, he really made a little girl's christmas this year. We are well enough off to be able to take care of our three children's christmas presents this year, thankfully! We really can't afford to donate money to anything, but I think hubby's "gift" is that much better!

Cupcakes!

These are the cupcakes that turned out so well for our party, using a box mix and frosting I got for free with coupons! I just used a small star tip with a decorating bag and voila - messy hairy cupcakes! I used m&m's for the eyes, and those crunchy white dot sprinkles that my husband hates. He flicked them off ;)

Halloween!!

All I can say is my mother should become a professional photographer just to take photos like this! She did this on purpose and knew exactly how to play the lighting into the photo, thanks to taking a million photos at a recent air show. GO MOM!!!

Operation Christmas Child

So I don't ever post advertising some awesome product and such, but I wanted to post about what we are doing this week. The kids and I decided to make two shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year. We first went through all of the free items we have picked up at various stores using coupons over the year, big kid was very surprised at how much we have accumulated! We gave each box some toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, soap, washcloths, and have various toys such as sidewalk chalk, crayons, magnadoodles, puzzles, sticker sets. Keep in mind this is just the stuff I have found free with coupons. We are going to the dollar store to get a few items, and we need to find two shoe boxes! I have already started shopping for christmas so I have used all of ours already!!! I think this is an awesome easy way to give to a child in need, and it's a great lesson for my kids to learn - that christmas is about giving AND receiving!