Air Travel with Babies

The holidays are a time for traveling. When you book the airline tickets the only thing you think about is how wonderful it will be to spend time with your family. You can just imagine the good times and great memories that will be made. However, when the day to travel arrives you remember that it can be quite a challenge to travel with young babies. Emerson and Finlay have been pretty good travelers so far - let's hope they can pull through for us as we fly this break. Here are some tips that have helped us navigate the airport/flying experience with twins. I'm sure the tips could work equally well for those flying with one baby. The picture below is cute Emerson waiting for his plane to Houston (we went there in September).

• Make sure your diaper bag is loaded with all the essentials: Before you leave home make sure your bag has everything you could possibly need while flying (diapers, wipes, changing pad, food or bottle if applicable, toys, books, burp cloths, extra outfit, baby medicine, etc). Make sure you have items such as diapers and toys in a location they are easy to reach for. The guy next to you might not appreciate being elbowed while you rummage through your bag trying to find a rag to wipe spit-up off the arm rest the two of you are sharing.
• Give yourself plenty of time: Everything will take longer with babies. It will take longer to pack the car, unload at the airport, get your tickets, get through security, get to the gate, etc. If you plan on arriving to the airport early you can eliminate lots of stress.
• Have one person be in charge of the baby(ies) and one in charge of any bags, strollers, car seats, etc when you go through security: It can be a real juggling act trying to get twin boys and all their gear through security. We've found it works best if I hold both boys and go through the metal detectors while Ricky sends all of our stuff through the scanning machines. He dissassembles the stroller, sends the car seat through, takes the video camera out of the bag, and sends our luggage through. We send the least valuable stuff through first because it usually takes us a LONG time to get all of this stuff through. Nobody ever tries to steal your stinky tennis shoes, baby jackets with spit-up on them, and car seats. We send the lap-top, wallets, and cameras through last, so we can for sure get through the metal detector before the valuables. Also, when we send the car seats through first I can put the boys in them and set them on the floor. Then my hands are free to collect all of our stuff.
• Accept help: We have been to a lot of airports with our boys, and people have been very nice wherever you go. If people offer to help you - let them. While I don't think I would hand over my boys to a stranger I have no problem letting someone help me dissasemble the stroller, or get a carseat off the table. Ask the security people to help you. They want to keep things going quickly and smoothly. They usually love smiling and playing with cute babies (or is that just the novelty of twins?).
• Change diapers and feed babies as soon as you get to the gate: These are two tasks done most easily when not on a plane.
• Make sure your seats are okay: Most of you might not have to worry about this, but if you have two infants it can be a problem. You are only allowed to have one lap infant per 3 seats. That means Ricky and I can't sit by each other. It wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that our babies nurse. So we usually have to make sure we have two aisle seats close to each other so we can pass the babies back and forth. We've found that if we ask if there are any unclaimed seats they will sometimes be able to give us three seats to ourselves. That's nice.
• Make sure the baby has something to suck on during take-off and landing: Feed the baby or have him/her suck on a pacifier.
• Walk up and down the aisle: When our little guys get stir-crazy Ricky picks them up and walks up and down the aisle. No one seems to mind as long as the stewardesses aren't making their rounds with snacks and drinks.
• Make friends with the flight attendants: You are well taken care off if you let the flight attendants play with and dote on your babies. We have never flown on a plane where the flight attendants didn't treat our boys like little celebrities.
• Wait until everyone gets off the plane before you attempt to: It's much easier to get off an empty plane than a full one.
• Enjoy and don't stress: As long as you do everything you can to be good parents don't worry. If your baby won't stop crying there's nothing you can do and most people will understand. If someone doesn't understand, say your sorry but don't worry about. They are probably the kind of people who are looking for something to be grumpy about.
• Have a great trip!!!!

It's Official

Did you know? In 1838 Louisiana was the first state in the USA to recognize Christmas as a legal holiday. Eventually, other states followed suit and on June 26, 1870 Congress declared Christmas to be a national holiday.

Avoid Wasting Food

If were to ask Ricky to tell you about my quirks one thing he would tell you is that I don't like to waste any food. We try to use every last bit of every food item in our house. Here are some tips that can help you maximize the use of your food. This can help you save money too.

• Take an inventory of the food you already have: If you know what food you have in your house it will be easier to go grocery shopping. You will know what you have to work with, and what ingredients to buy in order to supplement your home pantry and create delicious meals.
• Check expirations dates before you buy food: Most grocery stores aren't going to sell you food that has expired, but you can give yourself some time by finding foods with expiration dates that are far away. For example, when you choose a gallon of milk glance at all the cartons on the shelf. Generally there will be two or three groups of expirations dates, pick a carton that has the expiration date that is the farthest away. This gives you a longer time period before your milk goes bad. This is especially important if you are shopping the sales. Ricky and I like to buy cereal and crackers when they are on sale. We buy large quantities of these items. By checking the expiration dates we can buy the boxes that are good for a year.
• Plan your menues: If you have a plan, you are less likely to end up wasting food. For example, bananas and oranges and grapes all taste great, but chances are if you buy all of them some will go bad. Plan your menu and only buy the produce you know you will be able to use in a week or two (however often you grocery shop).
• Use the internet: If you have an ingredient in your fridge that is going bad go to the Kraft foods or Betty Crocker web sites. You can type the ingredient in their search box and all kinds of recipes will come up for the food you need to use. We have found lots of tasty dishes this way.
• If you aren't going to eat all of a meal in one or two settings freeze some: Most foods can be frozen. If you make a large casserole dish of food or find yourself with too many leftovers just freeze the extras in a freezer bag that has the dish name and date it was frozen on it.
• Make pizza: If you have leftover sauces (marinara, alfredo, etc) and meat or veggies you can make a pizza. Just throw the leftovers on some crust and pile on the cheese. Here are some of the yummy pizzas we have made with leftovers -Alfredo sauce with chicken and broccoli, taco meat with salsa and corn, sloppy joe meat with carrots, sweet and sour chicken with green peppers and mushrooms. The list could go on and on. If you don't want to make pizza you can make a calzone instead.
• Make a grilled-cheese sandwich: You can use leftover meats in grilled-cheese or Snackmaster sandwiches.
• Make a pot pie: If you have lots of leftover meat and/or veggies you can make a pot pie.
• Throw the left-over food into a tortilla shell: Ricky and I have found that a surprising number of leftovers taste great in a tortilla shell. We toast the tortilla shell in a frying pan and let the cheese melt (sometimes we add a little taco seasoning) while the leftovers warm in the microwave. Meat, veggies, or even pasta tastes great.
• Make a casserole: You can cook some pasta, rice, or potatoes and throw it in a casserole dish with your leftovers. Put cheese on top and bake until everything is bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.
• Make shepherd's pie: If you potatoes or carrots that are loosing their freshness - don't toss them out, make a shepherd's pie.
• Make bread: Bananas, apples, pumpkin, carrots and other fruits and veggies make great breads.

Dinner for 200+ People for less than $400

Ricky and I were in charge of the food for our church Christmas party this year. We had never pulled off a dinner of this scale before so it was quite an adventure. I'm happy to say that the dinner (which was held last night) was a success. We were a little nervous because we didn't have a huge budget to work with (less than $2/person), but it all worked out. So just in case you ever have to cook dinner for 200+ people here's what to do:

1. Come up with a menu:

• Pick a main dish first. If you are most concerned about money, don't make meat the main dish - the dish will be cheaper if you incorporate meat but don't make it the main part. However, if you're like us and don't want to have to cook a million pans of enchiladas, lasagna, you-name-it, pick a main dish that will be easy to cook. We went with pre-cooked, spiral-cut hams. These are easy to farm out to volunteers, and since they are pre-cooked you don't have to worry about under-cooking and thus food poisoning anyone.
• Pick side-dishes that are cheap, but filling. We went with mashed potatoes, bagged salad, rolls, and green beans. All of these items are very cheap and filling. Salad is about $1/pound at Sam's Club.

2. Figure out how much food to buy, and how much everything will cost. If your estimate comes out over-budget change your menu until you find food that fits within your range. There are some great web sites that tell you how much food you will need for large numbers of people. Here are the amounts you would need to serve 200 people a ham dinner. The prices below are for Sam's Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan unless otherwise mentioned. I won't make you do the math, but we spent less than $400 on this meal, which means it was less than $2/person. You can't buy food like this that cheap at a restaurant :).

• 80 pounds of ham ($2.19/pound)
• 70 pounds of potatoes ($3.88 for 10 pounds)
• 7 containers of sour cream ($1.59 for one container at Kroger's)
• 3 large containers gravy mix (each container should have 60+ servings) (a little over $4 per mix)
• 4 large cans of green beans (I can't remember the price)
• 300 rolls ($4.07 for 32 rolls)
• 1 gallon ranch dressing ($6.87)
• 1 gallon Italian dressing ($4.88)
• 30 pounds bagged salad ($2.66 for a 3-pound bag)
• 1 whole sheet of chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting (a little over $30)
• 1 whole sheet of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (a little over $33)

3. Find people to help you cook the food. We found a few families to help us cook the food. Each family warmed a ham in their oven and made mashed potatoes. If you are serving dinner to 200 people you should be able to find some volunteers to help cook. Wait to cook the gravy until right before the meal begins. You should be able to cook it at the church or wherever you serve the dinner.

4. Put the food out to be served. We had two serving stations with food on each side. That way four people could get their food at one time. This helps you avoid long lines. We had a separate water station. We wheeled in a dessert table with the cakes and dessert plates on it after everyone had finished the main meal.

5. Enjoy the food - my favorite part!

6. Take care of any left-overs. We were surprised that we had a few left-overs. We let our cooking volunteers take home the extra ham. We also gave left-over salad and rolls to families who helped us clean-up after the party (great incentive to stick around and help). We donated the rest of the left-over food (unopened bags of salad and the rest of the cake) to a homeless sheter in the area.

Christmas Movies

Here is a list of Christmas movies I found. How many have you seen?

• All I Want for Christmas
• Babes in Toyland
• Ben-Hur
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• A Child's Christmas in Wales
• A Christmas Carol (1938 and 1951 versions)
• A Christmas Story
• A Christmas to Remember
• Christmas in Connecticut
• Christmas Lilies of the Field
• The Christmas Shoes
• Christmas with the Kranks
• A Disney Christmas Gift
• Ernest Saves Christmas
• Father Christmas
• Frosty the Snowman
• The Greastest Story Ever Told
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
• Hans Brinker
• Holiday Affair
• Holiday Inn
• Home Alone
• Home Alone II
• It Came upon a Midnight Clear
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Jesus of Nazareth
• Jiminy Cricket's Christmas
• The Kid Who Loved Christmas
• King of Kings
• The Little Drummer Boy
• Little House on the Prairie: Christmas at Plum Creek
• Little Women (1933, 1949, and 1994 versions)
• The Man in the Santa Claus Suit
• March of the Wooden Soldiers
• Miracle Down Under
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947 and 1994 versions)
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• The Night They Saved Christmas
• The Nutcracker
• The Nutcracker Prince
• One Magic Christmas
• Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
• Pinnochio's Christmas
• Prancer
• Rudolp the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• The Santa Clause
• Scrooge
• Scrooged
• Surviving Christmas
• White Christmas
• The Year Without a Santa Claus
• Yogi's First Christmas

Ways to Enjoy Christmas

The period beginning with Thanksgiving and ending with my birthday (January 9) is my favorite time of year - Christmas time. I love pretty much everything about the season. I love the music, lights, food, festive atmosphere, cards, friends, nativities, etc. The whole season feels like love and happiness. Here are a few ways I have found to enjoy the holiday season (I will go into more details on many of these points in later posts):

• Deck the Halls - It doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive, but there is just something special about having your home decorated for the holidays.
• Put up a tree - Ricky and I bought an artificial tree for $15 a few years ago. It is pretty low-quality, but we love it. It is fun to put up our ornaments and some lights. It really makes our home feel like Christmas.
• Blast the festive music - We have Christmas music playing almost 24/7 right now.
• Enjoy the treats - Everything in moderation of course, but enjoy the flavors of the season (pumpkin, gingerbread, fudge, hot cocoa, pie, etc).
• Enjoy winter comfort foods - It is fun to make soups, stews, and other yummy comfort foods this time of year.
• Serve others - Nothing gets you in the spirit like helping others.
• Make homemade Christmas presents for those you love
• Wear comfy sweaters and sweat shirts
• Attend Christmas events - Look online, in the newspaper, and listen to radio to find out about free holiday events in your area.
• Sing Christmas songs - Ricky and I have had fun jamming on his guitar and belting out Christmas songs (we would never do this in front of anyone else of course).
• Bake Christmas goodies and bring to friends - Make sure to sample the treats before you deliver them!
• Watch classic holiday movies.
• Learn about the season - There are some great books teaching about how Christmas traditions came to be.
• Read the biblical account of the Christmas story - You don't have to save this for Christmas Eve and there's nothing that says you can't do this multiple times during the season.
• Save some time for cuddling and reading
• Look at Christmas lights
• Go to church - This is a good thing to do every time of year, but church can take on even more significance when our focus is on the Savior's brith
• Send Christmas cards
• Connect with family - We like to spend time talking with our families via web-cam. We can share the holidays even when we are far away from each other.

I guess the main thing is to just enjoy the moment you are in. There is no need to stress or let pessimistic vibes poison your holiday. Use the time to feel joy, happiness, and love and express your gratitude that God has given you so much. Celebrate Christ's birth and honor all that he has done for you. Merry, Merry Christmas!

Birthday Freebies

After talking to a few friends I decided if would be fun to post some random tips and ideas I use in my day-to-day life. These tips are just things that work for me and my family - they are not expert advice, so use at your own risk:). Hopefully they will be of use though. If nothing else they will give you a glimpse into the workings our crazy home.

The first installment will be fun for all of you who enjoy freebies. Ricky and I are still living the cash-stripped college student life. We don't have lots of extra money to put into fancy dates, but we do enjoy a night on the town every once in awhile. Here's how we do it. We have signed up for a number of free birthday offers. Most of these sites email you a coupon that you can print and use within a two week period surrounding your birthday. Ricky's b-day is in September and mine is in January so it works nicely for us.

Here's the list:

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/BDayClub/ They give you a free single scoop of ice-cream. They only email the coupon before your b-day - no extra spam unless you specifically request it.

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/birthday/birthday_club.aspx They give you a free creation.

http://apps.fishbowl.com/a/redrobin/join/agegate.asp They give you a coupon for one free hamburger meal. They DON'T require you to buy another meal. For Ricky's birthday he got his free meal and I ordered a cup of soup (about $2.50). We split his hamburger, shared the bottomless fries and my soup, and went away with happy stomachs. If you request it, a lot of locations will have their waiters come sing happy birthday to you and bring a complimentary dessert. So even if you leave a generous tip you can get the whole meal for about $5. The other nice thing about them is that you can sign up your whole family on the same email account. We even signed up our little boys. About once a month you might recieve an email advertising a new burger they have or a coupon for a few dollars off.

http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/ndls/lp/join/join.asp They give you a free birthday meal. We haven't used it yet, but are excited to use it for my birthday.

http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/bdscrp/lp/wb/join.asp They give you a free birthday meal. We haven't used this one yet either, but it is a fun restaurant. They have an island with various meats and veggies. You can fill your bowl with whatever you want (you are allowed to eat as much food as you can stuff in your bowl). Then you get to mix your own spices and sauce. Next you bring your concoction to a chef and he cooks it on a huge grill right in front of you. He is usally quite a performer. When we went he even made me an origami rose while he cooked our food.

Hollywood Video: They let you have a free rental on your birthday (including new releases). You have to use this one on your actual birthday. We discovered this one on accident when we went to rent a DVD on Ricky's birthday.

I'm sure there are other freebies, but these are the ones we know about. If you have other good ones let me know and I'll post them for all to see. We prefer ones where you don't have to buy an entree to get a free entree. We've found it's really fun to share a meal and then go home and have fun making a yummy dessert together.

So Happy Birthday whenever it may and enjoy a few freebies!