Question of the Week: Tell Us Your Five Favorite Blogs!

Tell Us Your Five Favorite Blogs!

(and they don’t have to be multiple blogs)

I read lots and lots of blogs online. But of course, I have my favorites. Here they are in no particular order… I’ll try to keep the list down to five. 🙂

1. www.thegreatumbrellaheist.blogspot.com

2. www.thepioneerwoman.com

3. www.jungletwins.wordpress.com

4. www.wingsanddogtags.blogspot.com

5. www.buriedinlaundry.blogspot.com

okay, so I have trouble following rules…

6. www.bnslove.wordpress.com

7. www.samuraistrong.wordpress.com

8. www.andbabymakesfive.wordpress.com

9. www.joybadluckclub.wordpress.com

I’m sparing you a tenth… but if I were to pick a tenth, I’d have to go with:

10. www.multiplesandmore.blogspot.com

🙂

 

Question of the Week: Who are Your Valentines and Why?

Who are your Valentines and why?

My wonderful husband and my three daughters. I love them so much!!! They are my Valentines because… they bring so much joy and love to my life!

(This was an easy question!)

Question of the Week: What Are Your Best Tips for Traveling with Multiples?

 

What are your best tips for traveling with multiples?

(Best Tips at the end of this novel.)

Traveling with Multiples… My Experiences:

Leave at night or right before naptime!!! We really don’t travel to anywhere but the Big City to visit my family. It’s about a five hour drive so we’ve found that the girls usually end up sleeping most of the way if we leave at bedtime or naptime. When Junie & Mags were babies, we’d feed them bottles and then change their diapers and head out the door. We kept a basket full of soft toys between them or on the floor underneath them and we’d toss them toys when they dropped other ones. Looking back on all the trips we’ve taken, we’ve really come a long way. The first few times, we couldn’t see out the back window. Haha! And we really only go up there for at most four days… we were newbies. Now that we’ve done it a bunch of times, we’ve learned to pack less and we’re better at fitting things in the car, too. We’re lucky that at my parents’ house, they have a crib and a pack n’ play so the girls always had beds to sleep in. At first they shared a bed, but as they got bigger we had to use both the crib and the pn’p. We used to stay in the basement in my old room (all four of us!) but now that my Papa has passed (God rest his soul) we stay in his “wing”. It’s nice, complete with a fabulous bathroom and a kitchenette in the sitting room. It’s so much better than the basement because we can sleep in a different room than the girls and they get much better rest not being able to see us. And with the kitchenette, we have a whole space to spread out the girls’ food/drinks/snacks, etc.

 

We’ve gotten much better in terms of bringing less stuff with us. But we always bring the girls blankies (they have two each) and a few of their most important “lovies”. Mainly the Mickey Mice (Mice because they each have one) and Glowies (Glo-worms) and they each have a bear that they sleep with… well, they each have about ten or twelve lovies in their beds but we only allow three for vacations. 🙂 OOH – when they were about nine months old we bought a portable DVD player and strung it up in between their seats and played Baby Einstein videos. What a lifesaver! I’m not sure where we’ll put it now that they’re facing forward…

 

We absolutely try and keep them to some sort of schedule… as close to their usual one as possible. And indispensible items? Dont’ forget to bring plastic bags in the car, lots of extras, for dirty bottles, dirty diapers, trash, etc. It’s amazing how much trash a family of four can accumulate in five hours in a car.

 

We haven’t taken a trip yet with the three of them. That will be interesting, I’m sure. We plan to drive to Florida to my parents’ new condo some time next year. That’s going to be a wild trip. I’ll be sure to blog about it.

 

When the big girls were about four months old, my parents flew us out to La Jolla, California to spend a week there with them and my siblings after Christmas. (My Papa – same one who lived with us – bought a condo there in the early 70’s and it’s been my personal favorite vacation place since I can remember.) We were really apprehensive about flying with the girls. A few days before we left, Magnolia developed RSV. We had to bring the nebulizer (?) with us and sure enough, Junie got RSV the day we left. It was pretty awful navigating the airport with twins. We were nervous for all those looks we were sure to get as we boarded the plane. To our delight, the only time either of our babies cried was when Hubby lifted Junie into the baby carrier and smacked her head on the roof of the plane cabin. I don’t think she would have cried but everyone around us gasped loudly “OH!”… and she cried.

 

I was amazed at how easy it was to fly with babies – we didn’t even have to change a diaper on the plane. And I have no memory of feeding them on the plane… we probably did. I don’t know what it’s like to fly with toddlers – and I doubt we’ll ever find out. Plane tickets are WAY too expensive to be worth the hassle of checking luggage, extra fees, and all those restrictions these days. I’d much rather drive and see the beauty of the USA.

 

So my best tips?

1. Try not to stress. Crazy things will happen and you will survive.

2. Pack ahead of time so you minimize the chance of forgetting something.

3. If you’re driving, leave just before naptime!!

4. Driving? Invest in a portable DVD player.

5. Flying with Infants? Don’t be afraid to be “those people”. So you brought your kids on a plane… would you bring them on a bus? On a train? Airplanes are public transportation. If the other passengers are really in such a stink about traveling with children on a plan, then they should think about chartering a private plane. You have every right to be there, and it will likely go better than expected. 🙂

6. Bring familiar toys, lovies, blankets, etc from home. Don’t bring everything – just a few.

7. Driving? Bring lots of plastic bags (grocery and ziplocks) for trash, storage, etc.

8. Bring more diapers and wipes than you think you’ll need. Diapers can come in handy for soaking up big spills if you can’t find a paper towel in a hurry… and wipes are indispensible for lots of things.

9. If you’re traveling to visit family, see if a neighbor has a pack n’ play, etc, than you can borrow during your stay. It will save you room in the car or luggage fees, and therefore save you a ton of hassle.

10. Your sense of humor. Don’t forget this one at home! You’ll need it when something goes wrong.

 

Bon Voyage!!! 🙂

Questions of the Week

I’ve been on sort of a hiatus with the QsOTW from the Multiples…and More! website. I’ll be back with a post this week answering ALL the questions I’ve missed since Snowdrop was born. 🙂

Answering questions is fun. 🙂

Question of the Week:What are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

Question of the Week: What are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions as of a few years ago. I realized that whenever I make a resolution to DO something… it never ends up getting done.

I know that’s a super lame answer and that I should elaborate a little more, but I wanted to keep up on the Question of the Week posts from the Multiples…And More! Blogsite … it’s been a resolution of mine as of a few weeks ago.

HEY! ……… WAIT A MINUTE!!!! I guess I DO make resolutions.

I resolve to keep posting on my blog at the very least once a week, even after Snowdrop arrives and I have less time to do it. So there. A Resolution for 2010.

🙂

Question of the Week: What are your favorite Christmas cookie recipes?

Question of the Week: What are your favorite Christmas cookie recipes?

I’m sorry I really don’t have the energy to track down actual recipes and post them here. I promise if that I can remember, and when I have time, I will come back and add a post with the recipes so everyone can enjoy these! 🙂

That being said… my favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes are:

Those cream cheese cookies… And they are delicious. My MIL made them this year with sprinkles on top and seriously, they are amazing. And probably contributed to my weight gain this week.

My friend’s mom makes pinwheel cookies. And I love them. And now they are sold at the bakery at which I used to work – that’s how good they are. 🙂

I’m a big fan of anything with peppermint, chocolate, crushed candy cane, coconut, etc.

Buck-Eye Balls, a specialty of my MIL’s… a favorite of my Hubby. They’re peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. And yummy.

****************************************************************

I used to be a fan of the cut-out cookies we’d make as kids with my parents. When I got married and asked my mom for the recipe she confessed to me that she used the pre-made dough from the store (ala Pillsbury, etc) and just pretended all these years that she had made it.

A. This of course, disappointed me to no end.

B. Really? I mean… Really???

C. I don’t know if I can believe her or not on this one. This IS the same woman who wouldn’t share her Chili recipe with me because it was June and “You can’t make chili in the summertime.” (Of course, I HAD been asking for the recipe since the previous Fall… AND I was pregnant at the time. I just wanted some freakin’ chili.) And this is the same woman who won’t share ANY of her other recipes with me either, leading my younger sisters to secretly make copies of recipes from her recipe book, hide the pages in their suitcases, and hand-deliver the recipes to me when they come to the Little City for visits. Yes. This is seriously my life. My mother is batty. I’m sometimes (ok, often) thankful that I’m adopted and not related by genetics to her.

******************************************************************

I’m still looking for that perfect cut-out cookie recipe to pass on to my daughters.

Question of the Week: What are you favorite holiday movies?

Question of the Week: What are you favorite holiday movies?
Who doesn’t like a good Holiday Movie? There are tons out there but here are several of my favorites:

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (My husband’s favorite… and who doesn’t love Clark Griswold?)

Elf (Will Ferrel as an Elf. ‘Nuff said.)

Those “Classic” Rudolph, Santa Claus, Frosty, etc from the 60’s (Simply Classic.)

Fred Claus (I was an extra in the Santa Claus chase scene on Michigan Avenue… you can spot me at minute 16, seconds 43-47!)

Love Actually (Also a fabulous “love” movie)

Bad Santa (Definitely NOT for the kids…)

A Christmas Carol (The one with George C. Scott)

Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire… Loves it!!)

There ya have it! My favorite holiday movies. 🙂

Question of the Week: What Are Your Favorite Holiday Traditions?

Question of the Week: What are your favorite holiday traditions??
Since I got married, we’ve had to switch off holidays between the Big City & the Little City. This year we were supposed to be in the Big City for Thanksgiving but due to the pregnancy, we opted to stay home. So we spent Thanksgiving here in the Little City and will also be spending Christmas in the Little City.

Hubby’s family has the tradition of gathering at his parents’ house on Christmas Eve for dinner and present-opening. The extended family normally hangs out downstairs while Hubby & his parents open presents upstairs. This year we’re changing it up and opening our presents the weekend/week before, instead of making the extended family wait & wait until our presents have been opened. I think it’s a swell idea as it always made me a little uncomfortable opening presents while everyone waited for us downstairs. (A little obnoxious I thought…) On Christmas Day, Hubby’s family traditionally eats a nice breakfast and watches movies all day long just as the immediate family.

Now that we’re married, when we’re in the Little City we spend Christmas Day just as our family of four (soon to be five!!!) at our home, open presents, have breakfast, and just hang out.

“Traditionally” for the last two years, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve switched off holidays. I’m starting to rethink this tradition and want to start my own. I’m thinking that next year, instead of travelling up to the Big City for Christmas, we’ll plan a trip up there for right before or right after Christmas. That way we’ll still get to have our “OWN” day as a family. Just us. I’m big on that. Plus, I can’t imagine my girls not waking up in their own bed on Christmas morning… you know?

When we’re in the Big City, and as I grew up in the Big City, we’d traditionally have Christmas Eve dinner (Pot Roast, fancy sides, fancy china in the dining room…) with just my immediate family. We’d usually go to Mass on Christmas Eve… but if not then we had to wake up super early to arrive at Church and get a seat before all the Chreasters got there. (Chreasters = People who only attend Mass on Christmas and Easter…) That was never fun, especially because Mass would suddenly take two hours instead of the usual one.

So that’s it, our traditions. Big City vs Little City. I think my favorite of all has been hanging with my Hubby and our girls on Christmas Day just by ourselves. 🙂

I’m wishing for snow, snow, snow, snow… and to be at home with a healthy newborn this Christmas. 🙂

Question of the Week: Describe the Top 5 Moments with Your Multiples

I’m still having trouble posting this button. I think I won’t try doing it next week. 🙂

Oh WAIT – IT WORKED!!!!! Awesome!!! 🙂

This week’s Question of the Week is as follows:
Describe in detail 5 of the most special moments you have shared with your children.

Here goes:

1. When we finally got to drive them home from the hospital. We left them at the hospital around 5pm, and went back to the hospital around 11pm to visit them that night. They had only stayed one night longer than me but it seemed like an eternity at the time. We were at the hospital at 9am, bright & early, to pick them up and bring them home. Sometimes I laugh at us – we should have gone out to breakfast or slept in! I couldn’t be apart from them though for any longer. I forgot to bring their going-home outfits so they just wore diapers and the side-tie shirts that the hospital let us keep… I felt so stupid for forgetting their outfits. We listened to Dave Matthews and it felt so good to have our little family in our car together. All four or us. I was also SO nervous the whole ride home that someone was going to crash into our car… Silly Mommy.

2. The excitement on their faces when each of them went potty on the potty for the first time. They really understood that they had done something great and their smiles just beamed! We were all really excited!

3. At the apple farm this year, there was this “airplane” ride. I thought they’d be afriad or try and leap out from the planes… but they LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Neither girl wanted to get out. And they still ask to go to the apple farm at least three times a week!

4. Every night as I leave their room after tucking them in, I say “Goodnight Pumpkinheads, have a great ni-ni! I’ll see you in the morningtime. I love you so much!” Tonight, and for like the last week/two weeks, they’ve started responding with “Love you, too” or “Love you too Mommy Daddy”. It nearly makes me cry every time. They are just so sweet!

5. At Thanksgiving this year, Hubby’s cousins brought their less-than-well-behaved boys (ages 3 and 2). The boys wouldn’t stay in their seats, they wouldn’t listen to simple good behaviors that they should be able to follow, they were screaming – they were just terrible and misbehaving the whole night. So at dinner, Juniper kept saying “Naughty Boy, Naughty Boy” over and over and over again. My MIL and I were dying trying not to laugh too much. It was too funny. And I hope Hubby’s cousins didn’t hear Junie – although, it might not be a terrible thing if they realize that even a two year old was annoyed by the boys bad behavoir. HAHA!

6. I’m adding a #6 because my #5 was about Junie. This one is about Magnolia. The day we found out that she wasn’t going to need surgery for her kidney… was one of the greatest days of my life. I think I’ll always be in awe of that moment. Sometimes I can hardly believe it happened.
I don’t suppose these are the end-all-beat-all TOP FIVE/SIX moments but I’m pregnant so my brain isn’t as clear working as usual… we’ve had some really wonderful moments with our girls….  Like at their 2nd birthday dinner when Mags said “Thank you Mommy” after I brought out their cakes. And when they get so excited about Caillou coming on that they scream like teenagers girls do over the Jonas Brothers. Or the Beatles! When they first walked was a special moment… when we make cookies or bake a pie and they help me out. They LOVE to help me bake – and I love to have their help. There were many special moments when they started playing together and sharing toys. They call each other “Sister” if you ask one what the other’s name is… it’s fun to hear them in the mornings talking across the room from their cribs. Sometimes one will throw her animals at the other until she wakes up. Or sometimes we’ll hear Mags saying “No Junie NO!” I always wonder what Junie’s doing that warrants a “No!” … They also ask to go to the Baby’s Room and they lift my shirt up to kiss their baby sister aka my belly. It’s ridiculously adorable. They haven’t done it in a while but they used to feed the baby drinks through my belly button.

Really, can anyone just pick FIVE?  I could go on for hours but Hubby is staring me down from the other room pining for me to come play Trivial Pursuit with him…

My kids are awesome, and I love them so much!!!!!

Question of the Week: What do you like to make with your Thanksgiving leftovers?

I’m still having trouble posting the little icon from the Multiples…And More! Blog that they use for their Question of the Week… I tried a different way this week and it gave me a different picture. Don’t know why this is…

Question of the Week: What do you like to make with your Thanksgiving leftovers?

Thanksgiving is without a doubt one of my favorite holidays of the year. (New Years Eve is also in the running for favorite! Hello, Overnight Babysitter! Hello, Champagne, my dear friend!!) Lots of good food, lots of fun, and LEFTOVERS!!!

As a child, I would eat green bean casserole for DAYS after Thanksgiving. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. (It’s a co-winner for favorite side dish with my Nana’s stuffing.) And just this past year (while I wasn’t pregnant) I got in the mood for green bean casserole and made myself a 9×13 pan of it… and proceeded to eat the entire 9×13 pan all by myself. Over the course of three days!!! It’s just SO GOOD!!!

Once I was able to drive, my friends and I would gather after we had celebrated Thanksgiving with our respective families. All of us (typically 10-13 of us) would gather at one of our houses (never mine because I lived so far from my friends… another story for another day) and drink, have a pow-wow, and then have our own leftover feast together! Other than Christmas night (when we’d get together and do the same things), it was really one of the nights when older brothers and younger sisters (not mine… my sisters were always too young and my brothers too delinquent to include…) of the families (me + the P’s + the G’s, and a few other stragglers) would hang out together. We were our own little family in a way. Now that we all live in different cities, and that two of us are married living in separate parts of the country, it’s much harder to coordinate our special holiday celebrations and I miss them very much. Especially at Thanksgiving. That’s when it’s the hardest because that was always OURS. I’m planning on doing a whole post about this, this week, so come back later to hear more about that. Read on to see my answer to the Question of the Week! 🙂

ANYWAYS…. Leftovers are just so delicious. The gals over at Multiples…and More! asked the following for the Question of the Week: What do you like to make with your Thanksgiving leftovers? So here goes…

With my Thanksgiving Leftovers, I like to eat plentifully for days. Sometimes I make a traditional “plate” of food: Turkey, Stuffing, Sides, Gravy – and enjoy a repeat feast. I also really like to make a Thanksgiving Sandwich. It involves: Bread (duh), Turkey, Cranberries, Cream Cheese, and Stuffing. Just stack and enjoy! YUMMY!!!!

I do a lot of eating side dishes for breakfast… like green bean casserole breakfast. Or stuffing breakfast. Or mashed potato with gravy breakfast…

And I eat my leftovers COLD. I know, I know – most people would say yuck to that!!! But I really, truly, LOVE eating my leftovers cold. More or less, right outta the fridge! I suppose if I ever HOSTED Thanksgiving, I’d have to make some sort of soup with the Turkey leftovers… I’m sure people do that. But I’m not a great hostess (I get too stressed out) so I don’t know if I’ll ever do that. I’m better with bringing desserts.

I don’t like my MIL’s stuffing (she puts breakfast sausage and mushrooms in hers and I’m a traditional plain stuffing kind of person, although I DO like mine with celery and apples) but I’m making Organic Stuffing for Juniper & Magnolia so… I’ll just eat some of theirs! Plus, MIL will send us home with enough food to last the rest of the week. And because I’m pregnant, she might not even “let” me help clean up afterwards… SCORE!!! 😉

As long as I don’t go into labor this week or this weekend, I’ll be able to enjoy it all!!  🙂

What do you like to make with YOUR Thanksgiving leftovers?

Question of the Week: Name 5 small successes in your life from the past week. (And yes, laundry counts!)

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Question of the Week from the Multiples…and More! Blogsite: Name 5 small successes in your life from the past week. (and yes, laundry counts!)

1. Laundry. In anticipation of my family’s visit from the Big City, we did a lot of cleaning up around here which led to LOADS and LOADS of laundry. We’ve still got a couple piles hidden in the basement but we probably did about ten loads between Tuesday and Friday afternoons… Go us!!

2. Hung some frames & pictures. Our room is hardly decorated at all. I recently purchased frames from Pottery Barn Kids that would match our bedroom and so we got them hung up. No pictures in them yet, but at least they are hung & ready!

3. Packed for the Hospital. We’re all packed for the hospital. I did have to take the girls’ black stretchy pants out of their bag so they could wear them last night, BUT other than needing to now wash those and repack, we’re all set to jet off to the hospital when we need to. 🙂

4. Made a Curtain for our kitchen window. Actually, I made two. But the first curtain turned out to be about four inches too short on each side. So I went to the fabric store for something different (I had used some leftover fabric from an upstairs curtain I made last year) and ended up finding some great fabric for only $3/yard (originally it was over $12/yard) Thank you Veterans Day Sale!! 🙂 So I made a new curtain and it actually looks better & goes with the curtain much better than the first one. Now I just need to make some slipcovers for the barstools and we’ll be set.

5. I’ve been nice to my mom this whole weekend (So far. They leave this afternoon. Who knows if something will go down at breakfast, haha.) even though she’s been a total bitch. Go me for not being the one to act like a child!! 🙂

Five Small Successes. 🙂

Question of the Week: How do you stay beautiful on a budget?

So over at the Multiples…And More! Blogsite, they do a Question of the Week every week. I’ve decided to TRY my hardest to start doing these as it will give me writing fodder & might encourage me to write more often on my blog! I know once Snowdrop arrives, my brain will be on baby-time and not necessarily working creatively… at least for a few months. 🙂

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(Okay, that was supposed to insert a cute button with the MAM logo…hmm… I’ll keep working on that.)

So the Question of the Week is: How do you stay beautiful on a budget?

Hubby and I are certainly NOT wealthy but I do make sure to spend a little on myself to keep my spirits up and looking human! He gets to drink his locally brewed beer, I should get to spend a little on my body right? Haha. Once every month and a half I get my eyebrows waxed and my moustache (yes, please pronounce that “moose-tache”) waxed. That costs roughly $32. I tip the girl to make it an even $35. Yes, $35 is a hefty amount of change for a “spa treatment”. It’s the one real luxury I allow myself in terms of “beauty”. I look like an amazon woman for the last week before my appointment… but going once a month would be too often. And the hair removal creams are far too harsh to use on my skin. AND there’s no way I’d be able to go through with waxing my own face. OUCH!!!

I don’t get my nails done (unless my MIL gets me a giftcard to the local nail place) – I do them myself if there’s ever a reason. Frankly, I wash my hands too many times a day to validate paying someone to paint my nails – the polish would be off by the day’s end! And I only get my hairs cut once a year, twice at most. I’m in a constant state of growing it out… so, I got it cut this year in January and again on my birthday in September. Even in September that was just because it was my birthday… And I guess it needed a trim.

As far as make-up goes… I try and remember to wash my face every night before bed and apply lotion (simply, Oil of Olay). Nope, I don’t ALWAYS remember – but I do feel that keeping my skin in good condition is a great step to staying “beautiful”. I don’t wear makeup unless I’m going out of the house – so that’s a pretty big budget cut right there! Plus, when I do wear makeup it’s not a lot. I wear Clinique UnderEye Concealer (not sure if that’s what it’s called, but that’s where I use it), Maybelline Great Lash Mascara, and Clinique Blush. Oh, and lip gloss. I buy makeup when it’s on sale, or during “Bonus Days”, so I at least get a little gift with my purchase. The Maybelline Mascara I can get for Buy One Get One at Walgreens (or another good discount) so when it does go on sale, I buy two of them – it will keep for up to a year, I believe.

I don’t use drug store cosmetics because I have super sensitive skin. I’ve been using Clinique makeup since I was a teenager and stick to it now because of the “success” I’ve had using it. 🙂

I guess it’s on a budget. I don’t use a lot of products. And I am sure to buy good quality products so they last longer and don’t have a negative effect on my skin – which would cause me to spend more money in the end. I think you get what you pay for and when it comes to “beauty” – it’s important to be safe. 🙂