Non-budget related.

This is a non-budget post, although the clothes the kids are wearing are from second hand stores! Each outfit was a total of $6.

Both kids are sitting up as you can see in this Video and they both have two bottom teeth.

That is all, Anna and Luke just wanted to say hi!

Second hand stores

When you find out you are pregnant, the first thing many women want to do is go out and start buying all the cute clothes. And trust me, there are sooooo many adorable clothes out there. Not like the nasty orange and brown clothes we grew up with.

DON'T BUY ALL THE CUTE CLOTHES! Not yet!

Especially if you are going to have a shower. I resisted the urge, even though it's hard. Your babies are going to grow fast the first couple months. You are going to get all these wonderful and cute clothes from your showers, your family members and friends. Most likely your baby won't even wear some of the clothes they receive. I bought two oneies before the twins were born. That's it. Believe me, it was so hard to walk by all the cute clothes at Babies R Us. But we were blessed with three showers and our family and friends were very generous. Some of the clothes we received were only worn once.

What is my point?

Your kids grow fast. Do you really need to spend $20-$30 on an outfit they may wear once? Sure, it's fun to buy the cute clothes but let me offer you an alternative. Second hand stores

I don't understand why some people are afraid or refuse to buy clothes from second hand stores. Is it because another child might have worn the clothes a couple times? I say might because I have bought many clothes from second hand stores with the original tags on them. Brand new Baby Gap and Ralph Lauren baby clothes for a 1/4 of the price.

Here are some examples of my deals that I got at one store in particular, New to you kids.

• Brand new Polo Ralph Lauren khaki jacket for Luke with the store tags. Originally $25, I bought for $4.75
• Brand new Baby Gap wool sweater for Luke with the store tags. Originally $19.99, I bought for $3.75
• Brand new Tommy Hilfiger jeans for Luke. Originally $18.99, I bought for $4.75.
• Snugli soft carrier - one slightly used, one never used. Both cost about $35-40, I bought for $12 each.
• Baby Gap suede winter jacket for Anna originally priced around $40, my mom got it for $10.
• Long sleeve onesies - usually run anywhere from $1.25 - $3
• Short sleeve oneies - usually run anywhere from $1 - $3.

You get the picture. Plus they buy back your clothes. And they don't take junk. They are particular about what they buy back so you know you are going to get nice clothes.

My point? The kids grow out of their clothes so fast it just makes sense to buy slightly used or never used at all clothes. We have saved so much money. A lot of these stores offer more that just clothes. You can get books, DVDs, toys, bedding, cribs, pack-n-plays, high chairs, and soft pack carriers, plus much more.

Just have an open mind when it comes to second hand stores. Trust me, it's worth it!

Start a budget

This may seem obvious but you would be surprised at how many people do not have a budget. Make sure your budget is on an excel spreadsheet, word document, piece of paper or other computer program, not just in your head.

**Before I go any further I must confess that I never had a budget until I met my husband. He is anal with the budget. We update it every night. Everything must be recorded, even the 75 cents we spend at a vending machine. There is even a dead weight category for parking tickets and ATM fees. If it wasn't for the budget, I would not be able to stay at home with the twins.

Our budget:
If you already have a budget, you can stop reading, scroll down and look at the cutest kids in the world. If you don't have a budget and would like to start, I will describe how our budget works.
Our budget is on excel and my husband has all the bells and whistles on it: Formulas, charts, graphs, colors etc. The first thing you need to do is determine how much money you bring in each month. Our monthly income is my husband's paycheck after taxes, health insurance and 401k. Then create categories where you spend money. Our categories include:

• Auto (gas, insurance, payments, car washes)
• Home (Mortgage, rent, electric, gas, home improvements)
• Connectivity (Cell phones, Internet, phone)
• Debt maintenance (School loans, credit cards if any)
  
• Groceries
• Liquor
• Entertainment
• Eating Out
• Medical
• Charity (Includes church for us)
• Misc. (Big category for us. Includes our trips to Target where I buy diapers, formula, cleaning supplies etc. This category could be broken down into smaller ones)
• Clothes
• Investments (IRAs, savings)

After your categories are established, you need to put a dollar amount to each category on what you can spend. The easiest way is to determine the bills you have to pay - mortgage, car, gas, electrical and so on. Then figure out how much you can pay towards your debt and investments. Whatever money you have leftover each month can then be divided into the other categories. Obviously give yourself more money in areas that are more important. For example, we establish our entertainment and eating out budgets last.

Your next step is projections. My husband has the spreadsheet project out a month. We then fill in the mandatory amounts and when they are paid. He has a running total based off of income and as we fill in projected payments it shows us what our balance will be. This is helpful when we schedule hair appointments or want to make a big purchase, we know when we can afford to do it.

Whew. Make sense?

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm going to try to get a copy of the spreadsheet up on the site so you can see what it looks like.

What is the focus of the blog?

When I started this blog, I was newly married, working full time and living downtown in a big city. Well, I guess you can call it big. We were very fortunate to have full time careers, many friends, the ability to come and go, take vacations, participate in sports and other activities and take part in the many events being held in Milwaukee. But my life changed through the years and so has my blog. I wanted a family and it didn't come easy. I was very open about our infertility struggles and while it was hard to be open about our troubles, I can't believe the support we received from so many people out "there." It really made our journey a lot easier. And now we have been blessed with the most beautiful children. As of late, my blog has mainly been bragging about how cute the twins are. But I want the blog to be more.

Before our children were born, my husband and I were pretty much debt free (besides mortgage and car payments), we had two good jobs, we were stocking money away in savings and 401ks and we were able to have a nice dinner out, take a vacation, buy some nice clothes etc. But now we have two children and are living on one income. I have had to be creative with our food budget, kids budget and overall household budget. I've come across other people's good ideas, websites, coupons and just my general ideas to make this successful.

My thoughts are to share these budget saving ideas. Not just for the kids but for an overall household. I also plan to share some of my ideas on raising two children (twins). Things that I have experienced, made mistakes on and have had success on. I would also like you to share any ideas that you have with me and the rest of the readers.

I still plan to talk about the twins (of course!), my family, discuss news etc.

I hope this is a success. Thank you loyal readers!

The Twins first Christmas

Merry Christmas

And don't forget, Jesus is the reason for the season. Keep Christ in Christmas.......

We have teeth!!

Luke has sprouted two beautiful teeth. I found them yesterday after their afternoon bottle. I started laughing and then crying. Can you imagine what I'm going to do when they start walking?

And just because they are so dang cute.

What are the twins up to?

I can't believe how fast they grow. They have developed the cutest personalities. They are the same yet so different. Make sense? Here is what they are up to:

• They both roll over to their stomachs.
• They get very frustrated that they can't crawl.
• Luke has had it and has decided to just roll from one room to the other.
• Anna just prefers to be picked up by daddy.
• They have started to notice each other a lot more. Poking each other in the eyes, kicking each other, taking each others toys away and just studying each other.
• Anna loves to scream. Scream when she is mad, sad, happy and just laughing. Really, it's quite cute.
• Luke has the cutest laugh. If you start laughing, he'll laugh with you.
• They both love their bath time.
• Anna loves pink, or her mommy loves pink on her. I never thought I would go pink crazy. Wait until you see her Christmas dress.
• Luke loves to snuggle.
• Anna is a people person. She will be her mother. She wants to be the center of attention.
• Luke is more laid back and not to sure about strangers. If he can see his mommy he is OK.
• They both love football. Seriously, we have them on video watching football. Luke is more attentive to the game but Anna is interested too.
• They are very good in church but especially like our live praise band.
• They both just love music in general. They fall asleep to classical, I sing to them and they smile, when there is music on the TV they are calm and they like when we play the radio in the car.
• Anna and Luke are our miracles and I can't believe they are my children. I love them so much it hurts.

We are blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so many things to be thankful for:

• The birth of our beautiful and healthy babies.....Anna and Luke
• Jesus for dying on the cross to forgive our sins
  
• Their smiles
• Luke's snuggles
• Anna's screams
  
• Our amazing families
• Especially my mom who has been so helpful, amazing and over generous to our new family
• My dad's company for sending him back to WI
  
• Our supportive friends
• My niece Zoe who has taught me what it means to fight
• My Dr in Milwaukee that took care of me for 9 months
• Our other Dr in Gurnee, IL that helped "create" Anna and Luke
• All the amazing Drs and nurses at Columbia/St. Mary's
• An overall healthy pregnancy
• Eggos (I ate them everyday during pregnancy)
• Mc Donald's double cheeseburger, fries and vanilla shakes (my Saturday splurge during my pregnancy)
• The years at our Condo in Milwaukee
• Our new place in Mequon
• Brookfield Lutheran Church, the members and the incredible staff
• Jackie, my cat, who has been with me for 11 years and adores the twins
• The beach. It's just so peaceful
• Wine and dark chocolate
• My jeep
• Jaime's job
• Our education
• Music
• Facebook which has connected me with old friends
• Running
• The United States of America
  
• The Packers, even though I'm mad at Ted Thompson right now
• Brett Favre, even though he is a Jet. He is still so fun to watch
• The summer Olympics which got us through the late night feeds
• My husband who I love dearly. He is my rock and has been the most supportive person during our struggles to get pregnant, during my pregnancy and is just an amazing dad.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Take time to be thankful

Zoe update

Overall the surgery was successful. The shunt is in and it seems to be working. We've had a couple scares but she seems to be stable as of now. They will take her vent out tomorrow as long as her temperature goes down. Keep praying!

Please pray for Zoe

In March my niece Zoe was born. A couple days later we found out she has Trisomy 18. Many of you read the story here. She has been alive for a miracle 8 months. Today she is having surgery to repair the hole in her heart. She is set to go into surgery at 2:00 pm. Please keep her in your prayers.

I'll post an update later.

Update: You can follow my brother in law's blog if you want for thoughts, comments and updates.
http://www.batiansila.blogspot.com

My sister and Zoe:

Beautiful pictures of Anna and Luke

These pictures were taken by CaseyBower Photography back in August. She also took my maternity pictures. These are a few of my favorites. Anna and Luke were about 2 months old during this session. You can view more of the pictures at our Smugmug account.

One year ago

October 20, 2007 is when we started the injections that helped create this:

Changing my format/layout

I know, I changed it again. I'm trying to find a layout I like. Right now I like the palm trees. It's getting cold and snow is on the way  so I need to think about palm trees to keep my sanity.

Find Your Wings

Hello from our new digs. Everything went as smooth as a move could. A big thanks to my parents for all their help and keeping me sane. 

It's nice and quiet out here and I think I'm going to like the community. We have a nice patio and I can watch the sunrise every morning. 

I went for a run to check out the neighborhood. It felt a little "Leave it to Beaver-ish" with all the kids walking home from school, football practice going on, neighbors talking to each other etc. It was a nice safe feeling.

Anyway.....I'll update more soon. Twins are doing good. They have adjusted well. Above is the most recent picture of them from this weekend. They are talking (Ooooo, goooo, boooo-ing) a lot and love to smile. They are getting on a great sleep schedule through the night which I especially love! They are developing their personalities and becoming little people. It's so much fun.

This is the song my brother sang at the twins baptism.....They were baptized on August 24, 2008 at Brookfield Lutheran Church. 

Find Your Wings by Mark Harris:

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold 
The plans that heaven has for you 
Will all too soon unfold 
So many different prayers I'll pray 
For all that you might do 
But most of all I'll want to know 
You're walking in the truth 
And If I never told you 
I want you to know 
As I watch you grow 

Chorus: 
I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams 
And that faith gives you the courage 
To dare to do great things 
I'm here for you whatever this life brings 
So let my love give you roots 
And help you find your wings 

May passion be the wind 
That leads you through your days 
And may conviction keep you strong 
Guide you on your way 
May there be many moments 
That make your life so sweet 
Oh, but more than memories 

Chorus: 

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky 
I'll have tears as you take off 
But I'll cheer as you fly 

Leaving downtown

It happened. We sold our condo. We weren't trying to sell our condo. It's a long story. But as my mom would say, it's a God thing. As of next week we will be members of the North Shore. I'm excited of our next move as a family. But at the same time I will miss downtown Milwaukee. I have been down here for 6 years and I really have enjoyed my stay. I decided to make a list of what I will miss the most:

• Walking to Jazz in the Park
  
• Metro Market
  
• Walking to work
  
• The Farmers Market
  
• Izumis
  
• Flannerys
  
• Real Chili
  
• Walking to Riversplash
  
• Hearing/seeing the fireworks every weekend during the summer
  
• Walking and camping in Veterans Park for the 3rd of July fireworks
  
• Running along the lake
  
• Being a block away from the Post Office
  
• Walking to the Symphony
• Alterra on the lake
• Ice skating in Red Arrow Park
• Walking to the Marina and admiring the boats
• Walking to the Art Museum
• Never having to worry about drinking and driving
• People watching
• Going to Bradford Beach every weekend for Volleyball

What I won't miss:

• Drunk people walking by the condo at 2 am
  
• Immature people destroying property at our condo complex
• Paying for the failed MPS
  
• Taxes
  
• Watching the crime sneak closer to our location
  
• People coming downtown and driving like they have never come downtown before
• Watching people drive the wrong way on one way streets. OK, well sometimes that is funny especially when they have no clue they are going the wrong way.

Anyway, next week we become people from the burbs. 

::sigh::

I really am excited for our next move but at the same time I will miss being a city girl. I assure you though, we will not be strangers of downtown. I plan to expose our kids to the city life like my parents did the same with me.

Look what the twins got yesterday......

Jaime's company gave us some gift certificates for "Ribbon - the gift of choice" and this is one of the items we picked out. It came in the mail yesterday, they love it!

Mom and I went shopping yesterday too. We went to "New to you kids too" and got some cute jeans and jackets for Anna and Luke. The jacket I got for Luke was a Ralph Lauren jacket with the tags still on it and I got it for $4.75. I also got a "Snugli" soft pack carrier for half the price! Gotta love that store. We also went to Babies R Us and got some more bottles and a monitor. That store is dangerous. Such cute clothes. 

The twins are 11 weeks and are becoming so much more alert. They are smiling and "gooing" all the time. They are also sleeping more through the night and I actually slept in my bed last night, the entire night with only a 4 am feeding. 

I went for a run

I have gone running a couple times since the twins have been born. But yesterday's run made me realize how much I love running and I don't think I'll ever be able to give it up. I stopped running last year just before we started IVF. That was almost a year ago. It's hard to get motivated after not running for that long. But my sweet husband got me a new Nike running watch, a pair of Nike sunglasses and I bought a new pair of Nike running shoes (no, Nike isn't endorsing me, I wish!). 

I didn't want to go running yesterday. I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before but I knew that I needed some exercise. 

I loaded up my ipod and and headed out the door. 

"Don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow
Why put it off another day?
One by one, little problems
Build up, and stand in our way. .....

(Right now) Hey! It's your tomorrow
(Right now) Come on, it's everything
(Right now) Catch your magic moment
Do it right here and now
It means everything"

They played that song at the beginning of the 2002 Chicago Marathon. I remember having chills up and down my body. What a great feeling.

I was a little tight at the beginning. I decided to start slow and concentrate on my form. Usually when I take a lot of time off from running and start again I have to push it hard because I have a race I'm getting ready for. Well, no race in the future so I figure it would be a good time to start slow and really think of my form and start some strength training. 

I get to Prospect Ave and I have beautiful view of the lake. Lots of other runners around giving the typical nod or wave to each other

"Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted, one moment  

Would you capture it, or just let it slip? "

Eminem may be weird but that song really pumps me up. I started to pick it up and it felt really good. But I made myself slow down again. 

I started thinking to myself ......what race did I want to conquer first? Just a 5k? A half marathon? I wonder if I could be ready for the Badgerland Striders Southshore Half Marathon in April. I really want to do another marathon. Is Chicago 2009 a crazy goal? 

"You have to learn to pace yourself 
Pressure 
You're just like everybody else 
Pressure 
You've only had to run so far 
So good 
But you will come to a place 
Where the only thing you feel 
Are loaded guns in your face 
And you'll have to deal with 
Pressure ....."

What a beautiful day for a run. I can't believe summer is over and I missed a great season of running. Ugh, the hill going up to Brady Street is hard. Well, usually it's not that hard but it is when you lost all your leg muscles. 

I finished the run hard. I wasn't too tired. I don't think I lost my endurance. I probably could have run for a lot longer. But I need to work on strength training. I need my muscles back so I don't get injured. 

My goal is to run 3-4 days a week right now. I would love to run more but I have to remember that I have two little ones to take care of. So that marathon may not be next year but soon. We'll see. 

These kids are so cute

Could they BE any cuter.

Check out more pictures at our Smugmug account

One month

Anna and Luke  - 1 month old (Born June 25, 1 month on July 25)

I had to include the picture of them screaming......

And now peaceful......