Busy Weekend

After the snow on Saturday, it started warming up so we went to the city's holiday parade with our friends Tamra and Brian (and their kids). The parade didn't start til 6pm (we were told to be there around 4:30 even though we were just watching!) so it was frusterating just sitting around waiting, but awesome once it started. Raziel was out by 6:45 so I laid him in his stroller and let him take a 30 minute nap. Alina got to hang out with Jason, another dad from church, who happens to be very tall (so she could see.) She had a blast - she was waving and saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone, grabbing the candy they threw, she even got to see the horses which she was VERY excited about. It was her first parade and I was so glad she had such a fun time. Jason mentioned to me later that he hadn't had a little one like that at a parade for a very long time and it was really enjoyable for him to experience it with her because it reminded him that it was magical and fun and new and different - not cold and boring. I was so glad that he'd enjoyed holding her so much because she wouldn't come back to me once she got up there with Jason!!

That night we had dinner with Tamra and Brian and ended up staying over until midnight -- not the plan origonally, but the guys worked on their Blazer (SUV) and we made dinner and it just turned into a late-night sort of a thing. Tamra called me the next day and asked what our normal bed-time was because she realized I was grumpy after about 11pm (haha! I was EXHAUSTED and hadn't eaten since 1pm!!!) It was so funny, but I explained how bedtime is normally 8:30 for the kids and I'm rarely up later than 10 so it was a blast to be over there but we agreed to have earlier dinners in future. I'm going to make sure to invite them for dinner sometime in the next week or two so that she doesn't think we didn't enjoy our time there. It's strange to me that I used to stay up until 2am all the time and that was the norm - and now I can't stay up til 1am once without being so tired that my hostess noticed I was grumpy!! Being a mom changes things so much.... but I'm okay with that I think.

Sunday we got to go grocery shopping with our new WIC package and I am so thrilled! WIC never made since to me because the concept was to facilitate families like ours in getting a balanced diet -- but all they gave us was too many eggs, and waaay too much cereal with some milk, cheese, juice, peanut butter and beans mixed in. The new way, we get grains (our choice of bread, tortillas or rice), produce (frozen, canned or fresh), milk (less), eggs (much less!), cheese (also less), juice, and cereal (more, sadly! lol!)

The fact that we choose what breads we want is awesome. We actually get really good stuff to choose from too... it's all whole wheat which is even better because that's the expensive stuff that I can never afford. They also give a dollar amount for fruit and veggies - and I choose from fresh, frozen or canned, and can pick any combination. Sunday, I bought 3 apples, 1 orange, 1 big bag of baby carrots, a can of corn and a can of green beans.... and I get to do that 2 more times this month! I'm really excited because I used to pay so much money for produce and grains every month, and still didn't buy the nice stuff... now that it's all paid for, I can buy really nice veggies and really nice healthy bread and grain and I don't have to pay for it. I'll gladly trade all that for buying a gallon of milk here or there and supplementing my cheese. We also had one tiny little alteration on our peanut butter that is a huge difference! Now, we can buy a 16-18oz jar instead of just a 16oz jar. All the natural peanut butters are 18 oz - so we can get the good stuff now! I'm so excited!

Monday I went to the OB and they said everything looks great and normal, so that's fantastic. They're keeping to my duedate for now (sigh). It would have to be the week of my anniversary and birthday. Poor kid (LOL). I ran a few errands and came back home right when Brent was putting the kids down for their nap. We wrapped the christmas presents we had for the kids, and put them under the tree. When Alina got up from her nap she was SOOOO excited. She has guesses about every single thing that was wrapped (all wrong, of course). It was adorable, I was so excited that she's enjoying this already so much. We're going to buy a bunch of little presents at the dollar tree and let her open one every day till Christmas so that she can count down the days in a tangible way. Brent did this one year as a kid and never forgot it.

I'm making the kids their ornaments this year. Becca has some glass ornament kits that she won't be using and she volunteered to give them to me. I am so excited about this because I'm getting REALLY good at painting cartoon type charaters and I plan to make a tinkerbell one for Alina and a Tigger one for Raziel.

Last night, we lit a fire in the fireplace. (it's cold here and my central heat and air doesn't work.) We run space heaters in the kids rooms at night and one in our room too because its just waay too cold not to. Since we've started that Alina has slept perfectly (with her new yellow pacie). Anyways, Alina was very excited about the fireplace and called her daddy to come and watch the fire with her while I made dinner. Brent thought this was so sweet he came and sat with her for 30 minutes before he put her in bed. It was adorable, watching them all snuggled up in front of the fire.


That's all I have worth mentioning for the weekend.