A new year and hopefully soon a new me!

I have been thinking about starting the couch to 5k program for quite some time now. 

I've never been a runner....
I've never really been an athlete....

So where to start?  Little did I know, that to start running... you don't just jump in and run!  Who knew?!

My fabulous cousin is a serious runner and had recommended the couch to 5k program, and my aunt successfully went through the program last year and ran the donor dash.  I'm hoping to be able to do the same this year and run as a donor family member, we'll see if I can be ready. 

This week was my 2nd week on the program.  The premise of the program is that you do alternate running and walking 3 days a week for 30 minutes each date gradually ramping up each week until by week 9 you are running the entire time.  I completely week 1 pretty easily, but came down with a minor illness at the beginning of  week 2.  It threw off my workouts, but didn't make me stop completely so I am proud of myself.  I do think I need to repeat week 2 this coming week as I'm just not comfortable enough since I wasn't feeling 100% myself this week to ramp up next week.  I do have about 5 extra weeks before the run, so hopefully after repeating week 2 this week I'll be ready to move on to week 3, but if not... I'll keep trying. 

I'm trying not to pressure myself on too many other changes right now, because I really want to focus on getting into the routine of working out at least 3 days per week.  The kids are so cute about it... they want to know when I am getting on the treadmill and Summer actually keeps track of which days I need to get on it and which days are my "break" days and reminds me.  They also really love getting water for me and their support is really helpful.

I've been trying out different times of the day and although I'm not one for getting up earlier... I am finding that I do better and feel better if I get up and do my workout before work.  It is really nice to have that 30 minutes to myself before anyone wakes up and I'm more likely to have a conflict at night that would make me miss a workout.

Wish me luck!  Now that I've made this public.... I am determined to continue.  I hope to make my kids, my husband and most of all my mom proud.  I want to represent her on at the Donor Dash for the lives she saved on the day that we had to let her go and she gave the ultimate gift to perfect strangers.... the gift of life.

And here is just a tiny plea from me..... make sure that your family is aware of your intentions about organ donations.  I know it is not ideal conversation material to tell the ones that you love that if something should happen to you that you want them to donate your organs.  Who wants to talk about those things?  However, the reality of the situation is that you never know when your last day will be and if it does come.... you likely won't be able to express your wishes at that time.  There are tons of people waiting for life saving organ transplants.  Wouldn't you want someone to choose to be a donor if you or a loved one needed it?? Why not do the same for them??

"Don't take your organs to heaven.... heaven knows we need them here"

Looking forward to 2013

I can't believe we've entered another year already.  Looking back at all we've done this year... We had our carpets on the main level taken out and replaced with laminant flooring (we had the kids' room done at the end of 2011) as recommended by our allergist for Cole's asthma/allergies. Our oven broke, our washer broke and our dryer broke (luckily the washer was still under warranty) but the rest were old and needed replacing), I had my gallbladder removed in March. We lost several beloved members of our family.  Cole had his 5th bout of pneumonia in August which prompted my decision to switch allergists to CHOP and I am SO happy that we did this.  It has made a huge difference in his health.  We discovered that Summer is allergic to milk, which has completely changed the quality of her life.  She is happier and nicer, her craddle cap clears up when her diet is kept strict and her nose has finally stopped running constantly!  I only wish that we had discovered that this was the cause of most of her issues sooner.  Summer & Cole started Pre-K at daycare in September and I am absolutely amazed by how much they have learned so far!  We enjoyed a week in Disney World in October with my in-laws (you can read about our week in previous posts).  And we had a fabulous holiday season.  The kids are really starting to understand and get so excited for all of the celebrations, decorations and holiday cheer.
January marks 9 years at my job and 5 years from our successful IVF cycle that resulted in our beautiful twins.  Looking forward to what another year will hold for our family.  We know for sure that means registering for and starting kindergarten and another trip to Disney World in September.  I'm sure it will also include trips to the aquarium before our membership expires in March, trips to the zoo thanks to our membership from Nonna & Poppy, and trips to Sea Isle for the beach and the rides.  We hope to do a few more renovations to the house as well during the year.  Keep checking in and I will do my best to update more frequently this year. 

We wish you a Merry Belated Christmas....

Christmas time is just about my favorite time of the year.... granted I do allow myself to get completely overwhelmed with preparations.  I typically swear to myself in the process that I will never commit to hosting Christmas at my house again as I rush to finish everything in time and then after a great day I decide that I overreacted and will do it all again next year.  This year... add in a ton of computer issues at work, organizing gift donations for my multiples club in my basement/playroom and 3 friends having new babies in 2 weeks, plus two 4 year olds who I actually need to hide "Santa" things from now and it was a little bit crazier than usual!  But you know what?  I really wouldn't have it any other way. 

Summer & Cole enjoyed 3 sleepovers with family members this month which is definitely an all time high (other than when we've been away).  They had a sleepover at Aunt Juli's in Philadelphia.... highlights included getting to watch tv while they were sleeping, breakfast at a vegan restaurant so that Summer could enjoy a variety of dairy free choices, and a ride on the choo choo (speedline) to get home.  The next weekend they had a sleepover at Aunt Judy's while Jim & I went to my company Christmas party at the Borgata.  They enjoyed playing with the dogs and doing crafts.  Then they were invited to a sleepover with Uncle Chris & Crystal where they got to go Cosmic Bowling and had an absolute blast!  We are so lucky to have so many people that want to spend special time with our kids. 

Fun baking.... The kids really loved baking this year.  Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite memories of my mom.  This year we only baked chocolate chip cookies together, but Summer was oh so excited that I adapted the recipe to be dairy free (since I knew she'd be partaking in probably too many dairy ingredients as we made our rounds through the holidays I figured why not try for some dairy free ones at home).  I found that Shop Rite chocolate chips are soy based, so no milk!  And we tried butter flavored crisco instead of regular butter (margarine also contains milk).  They came out great.... I know this because even Jim would eat them and not cringe.  They loved measuring the ingredients helping to bake them!  Cole even ate a few while they were still soft and liked them (the kid doesn't like cookies... I really don't know where he came from).  By the next day he was back to not liking them again.  The kids also got to make and decorate cutout cookies one day at Mom-mom's which was tons of fun too!

The Christmas List... last year I had made the kids Christmas lists by cutting out pictures of the items that they liked and gluing them to a piece of paper since they couldn't read.  Well this year they learned how to use scissors in school, so when the Big Toy Book came in the mail... Cole grabbed it and told me he needed his scissors, a glue stick and paper.  He worked on his list daily and pretty soon had the front and back of his paper filled with wishes. I decided it was time for the you can ask for whatever you want, but Santa can't bring everything talk.  It didn't go over so well at first, but he soon began revising the list (which isn't so neat when glue is involved).  When he found something new that he wanted i would see him evaluate whether he wanted it more than something else on his list.  He would then rip something off the list and cut the new item out and glue it in the now open space.  I think next year I will be setting a time limit on this list as I learned from some other friends and we will mail or take the list to Santa so that no last minute week of Christmas revisions can be made. 

A week long of Christmas celebrations... we have tons of family in the area which means tons of visiting for the holidays.  We started out on Sunday with pretend Christmas morning at Mom-mom & Pop-pop's house.  Mom-mom sets out the gifts and stockings under the tree and we have a nice morning exchanging gifts with each other and having breakfast together.  Cole has caught onto the fact that we try to get him to leave some things at Mom-mom's to play with when he visits.  In order to make sure that he doesn't have to leave any of his gifts behind he immediately asks for a bag and packs up all of his gifts so that they are all ready for him to take them all home.  We finished out the day with my annual cousin gathering at Carol's.  The kids had a great time playing with each other and we got some cute pictures.... although Cole has decided that he doesn't like to pose for pictures (kinda like Aunt Liz used to do).

Monday, the kids went to school, Jim went to work and I went to Shoprite and started cooking for Christmas the next day at our house!  I picked up the kids up early from school and we headed to Mom-mom's for her annual Christmas Eve celebration and then headed to my Aunt Patti's for the rest of the evening.  When we got home we had to put out a glass of milk, with 2 chocolate chip cookies and 8 baby carrots.  We discussed at length what needed to be left out and this is what the final decision was.  We didn't want to leave too many snacks for Santa and each reindeer since they would be stopping at so many houses they would get a belly ache if they had too many treats. 
Christmas morning was magical... The kids ran to the tree and found the Disney World monorail and Cinderella castle setup for them.  Cole was very happy about this, but had TONS of questions about how it happened.  Did Santa set this up? That was so nice of him.  Do you think the elves helped him? How long did it take? (Love this kid).  Summer was just happy that there were presents.  We had lots of visitors and hosted Jim's side of the family for dinner and more presents.  LOVE this holiday and next year vow to take off the day after to recover and hang home so the kids can enjoy their goodies. 

I hope that you had a fabulous holiday season and a blessed new year!  I'm hoping to keep this a little more up to date this year :) 

A belated re-cap of the rest of our Disney trip

Better late than never... right?

Wednesday (10/17) was probably the highlight of our trip! Today was a fairytale.... Pirates & Princesses

Today we had special events for each of the kids.  Our day started by dropping Cole off at the Grand Floridian for a Pirate Adventure Cruise.  He received a bandana and a lifevest and set sail with other 4-12 year old kids (without Mommy, Daddy & Summer) on a 2 hour search for buried treasure around the Seven Seas Lagoon with 4 pirate cast members.  He was shy when we first arrived, but I was pleased that the "pirates" were great at making him comfortable enough to get on the ship.  He had a blast!  Best part for him.... when they returned with the treasure chest, they each got a treat bag from the treasure chest to take home with them. 

After lunch Summer got to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to get styled like the princess that she believes herself to be.  When we got there we were escorted to a changing room to change into her princess dress.  Then her fairy godmother got to work styling her hair.  Summer was a bit overwhelmed and playing shy at first.  I can't say that I blamed her... there were a LOT of girls being styled and all of their adoring fans were with them as well.  Thankfully Mom-mom knew just how to get her smiling for the photographer and both her fairy godmother and the photographer picked up on Mom-mom's tips right away.  This really helped Summer open up and enjoy the rest of her pampering!  She got some shimmery make-up and her nails painted.  After we were finished, she remembered that Mom-mom owed her a souvenir and decided that it would be the princess wand that matched her Aurora dress! 

Then we had the Princess Dinner in EPCOT!
I have to first say that while we did go to this dinner on our last trip to Disney, Summer did not get overly excited to see the princesses and was rather annoyed that Snow White was wearing a dress that matched Summer's! 
What a change on this special night!  Cole was tired and a bit cranky when we arrived and said he did not want any pictures with the princesses, but he quickly changed his mind once inside.  We first took pictures with Belle before being shown to our table.  When Aurora came into view on her way to our table, Summer shrieked, grabbed her autograph book and nearly flew off her chair before we caught her and told her that we had to wait for Aurora to come over to our table.  She waited as patiently as possible with book in hand and eyes GLUED to Aurora!  As you can see by all the smiles below.... we had a MAGICAL night!

Princess Summer with Princess Aurora

 

 

Snow White

Ariel

 I brought our marker coloring sets to dinner to occupy the kids during downtime and Summer decided she would color a Cinderella picture.  When she was finished, she wrote her name on the back and wanted to give it to Cinderella.  Well Cinderella had already been to our table, so I wasn't quite sure what to do.  I saw that she was nearing the end of the tables before heading into the back room, so I took Summer by the hand and headed in her direction and told Summer we would wait for her to finish and see if we could quickly hand her the picture.  I didn't notice that Cinderella and Ariel's assistant was standing close by and asked me what I needed.  I explained that we already had our turn with Cinderella but Summer had colored a picture and wanted to give it to her.  She was very understanding and told us to stand by her and when Cinderella finished the table she was visiting she would call her over to us.  As we waited Ariel talked to Summer and told her that Cinderella loved presents and would so excited by Summer's picture.  Cinderella came over and was very surprised and happy to accept Summer's gift and told her she would hang it over her fireplace when she got home. 

Summer colored a picture for Cinderella

Giving the picture to Cinderella

To top off the night, Summer was able to get a special non-dairy dessert of Raspberry Sorbet.  Did I mention how much this girl LOVES pink?!  She was beaming and ate almost every last bite until the dish fell on the floor and broke.

Ecstatic that they had Raspberry Sorbet (dairy-free)

 

Thursday (10/18) was an impromptu down day for us.  We decided to head to the pool in the morning and then make sure the kids got a good nap after lunch since Jim & I would be heading out for a dinner on our own leaving the kids with Mom-mom & Pop-pop for the night.  We had a blast at the pool with Uncle Chris. 

 

 

 

 

Jim and I had a fabulous dinner by ourselves at Narcoossee's in the Grand Floridian and then headed over to the Top of the World Lounge in Bay Lake Tower to watch the fireworks, while the kids enjoyed dinner and the pool with my in-laws. 

 

 

Friday (10/19) was our last day in Disney World!  We spent the whole day in Magic Kingdom.  We did mostly characters and a few of the kids favorite rides (Dumbo, Goofy's Barnstormer and the Teacups).  We finished up buying souvenirs with the money left on their gift cards and had dinner at Tony's.  Cole fell asleep on me at dinner and Summer's was super excited that they had dairy free ice cream with mickey sprinkles for dessert!  After dinner Jim and Uncle Chris took the kids back to the hotel so that I could do some rides and watch the fireworks with Michele.  



A busy weekend of Halloween Activities (last weekend)

I know that I haven't finished blogging about our vacation yet, but we had such a jam packed weekend followed by a crazy hurricane that I had to jump ahead and then I will complete Disney later.

Saturday (10/27) morning kick started with my SJMOMS group's Halloween Parade.  This is a really great activity that we hold at a local park with crafts and trick or treating and then playing on the playground if the weather cooperates. Thankfully the weather was BEAUTIFUL (last year it actually SNOWED!).  The kids had a great time and I'm happy to say that at this age, I don't feel like I have to be as constantly on top of them as they play.

After the parade we decided to head to Johnson's farm to pick pumpkins.  We were supposed to go before vacation, but it was rained out and the kids missed their field trip while we were away as well.  They decided not to change out of their costumes and guess what??  Since they were in costume, their hayrides were FREE!  I sometimes worry that Jim thinks I'm going overboard by dragging us on another outing, but even he admitted having a great time.  Once on the hayride, they told us that we could get off at the first field to pick popcorn, sweet potatoes and broccoli and the second field would be pumpkins.  I thought it sounded fun and popcorn pretty much sealed the deal for Jim since it is probably his favorite food.  

Once in the pumpkin field, Cole really wanted a big pumpkin until he realized that he wouldn't be able to carry it himself.  Even though I offered for me or Jim to carry it for him, he opted for one that he could carry himself.  

 

Summer led Jim way back into the field in search of a small pumpkin and I had to smile at what she returned with.  So her.... she actually selected a tiny pumpkin like gourd!  

Once returning back and paying for our pickings... we did the bounce house, got apple cider donuts, lunch and then headed home

After a nap we headed to the local Starbucks to check out their kids' Halloween party.  It was really nice... crafts, decorate a caramel apple, popcorn and face painting.  All free while I sipped my delicious coffee!  

Decorating their apples

Summer the butterfly

Cole the Batman

As if this wasn't enough excitement.... on Sunday as our area braced for a hurricane I needed to get a few items at the grocery store.  More or less because I hadn't been grocery shopping since before our vacation so I really had NO food.  Jim was out so I had to take both kids with me (which I try to do as seldom as possible). 

 

                                             

I have never used one of these car shopping carts! I will admit.... I'm kind of afraid of them.  They are awkward to push.... I did nearly take a few people out rounding the corners.  The kids are far from me and able to touch each other and if you are a parent.... you know what kind of trouble happens with those two factors involved!  Overall they did pretty well!  The only thing that wasn't on the list that they asked for was noodles... and I let them have them since there was much worse they could have asked for. 

 

As the rain from the hurricane began we had dinner at Mom-mom's and carved jack o' lanterns!  Pop-pop & Aunt Chele even thought to get one a bit bigger than Summer's gourd in case she wanted to carve too!

Meeting Cole's Heroes

Tuesday (10/16)
Let's face it... what characters do most people want to see when they go to Disney World?  Mickey & the princesses?  Well, not today my friends.  This morning Jim & I had the morning off of kid duty (thanks to my in-laws) and everyone else on the trip headed into Hollywood Studios for breakfast with Jake from the Neverland Pirates, June from Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Special Agent Oso. 

I think that you can tell by the photos that a blast was had by all and luckily... Cole decided that he liked the characters today.  And Summer was super excited to dance with ballerina June! 

We met up with everyone after breakfast and attempted the Disney Junior show, but partway through Summer got scared of Captain Hook (and really this show is not scary at all).  I left with her and Cole followed me and we left all the adults inside to finish the show! When we exited the show, who did Cole spot again but Jake! And even though he had just seen him at breakfast he wanted to stand in line to see him again, so that is exactly what we did.  I have tried to take the approach of letting the kids' interests guide our trip as much as possible as it leads to less meltdowns and creates a better trip in my opinion.  We've been there many times before kids, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything by doing this.  After Jake, we saw Handy Manny, Buzz Lightyear & Woody from Toy Story.

Jake comparing boots with Cole

Holding hands while waiting in line

Posing with Buzz & Woody

Being out a little too late Monday night soon wrecked havoc on Cole's mood and he began to lose it a bit.  We headed back to the hotel for a nap and wound up changing our dinner plans.  Instead of heading into EPCOT for dinner in Mexico, we opted for dinner at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney.  This would enable us to park close to the restaurant to get in and out more easily and could do a little shopping if the kids decided to cooperate (which they did).  This is one of my favorite restaurants.  All pieces of the restaurant are from Ireland and they have AMAZING food and often have live entertainment.  On the night we were there they had Irish dancers.  Summer was fascinated to watch and even got to join in and try some steps herself.  It was so cute and she got a little certificate for participating.

Returning to the Happiest Place on Earth...

After about a 15 hour drive and an overnight stay in Florence, SC.... we made it to the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World last Sunday.  Check out the view from our room....


Giraffe & Ankole Cattle from our balcony

We thought about heading into one of the parks for a bit, but when we asked the kids what they wanted to do first the resounding answer was THE POOL!  We had a quick dinner at our hotel and then went swimming. 

MONDAY (10/15)
Monday morning we headed out to Animal Kingdom for Donald's Safari buffet breakfast.  Cole decided that he did not like the characters and did not want autographs or pictures with any of them.  Summer on the other hand was a major ham with all of the characters and was super excited that the chef made her special non-dairy waffles and brought them out complete with a scoop of non-dairy butter and a little pitcher of her own syrup.  (I really can't say enough about the food allergy program here at Disney, but will probably make a separate post about that later). 

After breakfast we all went on the Safari and then split up in a couple directions afterwards.  Everyone wanted to go on the rapids except for Princess Summer who doesn't like to get her face wet!  (Cole had an absolute blast on the Rapids and then at Festival of the Lion King)  She decided on her own that she wanted to go shopping and reminded me that she had her own money to spend.  They have been saving money in the banks for our trip and received some additional money from family for the trip.  I loaded this money on gift cards with their names on them and the deal is that they can buy what they want, but when the money is gone they get nothing else.  We went through a store with loads of little girl toys and she like a lot of things.  I kept reminding her that we should look at all of the choices before making her final decision.  We did find a Princess Castle that she loved but was more money than she had on her card so we decided to put that on her Christmas list for Santa.  Here are her final picks for the day:

After shopping we decided to hit up some characters while everyone else was doing rides & shows. 

 



 

 

Summer & I really had some great Mommy/Daughter time and it was really fun for me to watch her do exactly what she wanted to do.  She also got so excited for me when we saw Eeyore... she squealed, "Look Mommy.... It's Eeyore your favorite!". 

 

Cole had an equally fun time with everyone else! 

 

After some rest at the hotel we headed into the Magic Kingdom for the evening.  Jim and I were super excited because we learned that they were having a dress-rehearsal for portions of the new fantasyland!  We got to go on the new Ariel ride (which Summer & Cole were scared of because they thought it was going to get dark) and look at the new castle and sampled a LeFou's Brew which was a delicious frozen treat.  After dinner they finally got to take Mom-mom on the teacups and rode some other rides before heading back to the hotel for the night. 

 



 

I'll try to get caught up on the rest of our adventures this week. 

 

PS - I know that it appears from these pictures that I only have 1 child, but Cole DID NOT want his picture taken on the first day or two of the trip.  Don't worry he overcame this and is in many more pictures later in the week.