Update: My Decision on the H1N1 Vaccine During Pregnancy

At the end of October, the H1N1 vaccine finally became available in the area I live in.  Being pregnant, and therefore at higher risk for catching the Swine Flu, I contemplated on whether to get the vaccine.  The only one offered at the time was the vaccine with preservative.  When the day came and I had to make my choice, I decided not to get the vaccine.  I was unsure of the long-term affects of receiving a vaccine with preservative in it, so I decided to wait for the preservative-free vax.

Last week the vaccine was offered preservative-free.  After a lot of prayer, researching, and talking with my husband, I decided not to get the vaccine, even preservative-free.  I simply didn't have peace about it and felt very uneasy about getting injected with anything while my baby was in such a crucial period of development.

Although the vaccine is supposed to be safe, and many pregnant women have received it and done fine, I still didn't feel comfortable not knowing the long-term affects on children whose mothers are vaccinated during pregnancy.  I also could not find 100% reassurance that there isn't a link between flu vaccination in pregnancy and miscarriage. So for now, I'm passing on the vaccine.  It's possible I could decide to get it later on, but for now not getting vaccinated in pregnancy is the decision I've made.

For those of you that are still contemplating whether or not to get the vaccine while pregnant (or not), please don't let my decision influence you.  There are many good reasons to get it, just as there are reasons why some people decide not to get it.  What might be best for our family might be different from yours.  Whatever decision you make, though, it has to be one you can live with, regardless of the outcome.

Thanks again to all of you who offered advice!

Our Favorite Toys for Kids Ages 4-7

 Looking for ideas on what to buy for Christmas?  Today I'm sharing a list of toys that our 4 1/2 and 6 year old never get tired of.  The toys on this list are ones our kids have used and have been proven as fun to play with again and again, rather than something that just ends up on a closet shelf.   Have a fantastic toy that I missed?  Please leave a comment and share!

*If you're looking for ideas for a younger tot or preschooler, you can find our favorite toys for younger kids on yesterday's post. 

*Learning Resources Cash Register. We gave this to my (then) 5 year old son.  He has enjoyed scanning toys to find out their prices, as well as making change and playing the games on there.

Where to Shop:  Amazon.com.  I found it on sale last year around Thanksgiving.  The price on there right now is ridiculous, but I've seen it for a lot less.  Specialty toy stores are likely to carry it as well.

*Playmobil.  My 4 year old can sit and play with Playmobil toys for over an hour.  There is so much detail to each of the Playmobil sets that even I enjoy playing with them!

Where to Shop:  Toys R Us and Target sometimes have various sets for 20% off.  Amazon.com carries most of the sets as well.

*Lincoln Logs.  Younger kids enjoy making basic houses and older kids enjoy making more elaborate buildings.  This is the type of toy that will be used for years!

Where to Shop:  Toys R Us has them on sale around Christmas (which is where I bought our first set).  I've also found unique' sets at garage sales for only a few dollars.

*Snap Circuits Jr. We gave our oldest son this set for his 6th. birthday and he has had a blast with it.  He has made a fan, radio, siren, light, and other fun things using the circuits.  Then he takes it apart and starts all over again. The set came with an instruction book for making 100 projects and has been pretty easy for our 6 year old to follow.

Where to shop:  Amazon.com

*Nintendo Wii   Our kids love playing Wii Sports (the game that came with our system).  Our boys are able to play baseball, bowling, boxing, tennis and golf together.  My husband and I like it because it gets the kids active even on days that are too cold or wet to go outside.  Our family has had a lot of fun playing this together.  If you are considering buying a Wii, I highly recommend purchasing active games as they allow the kids to play together and really get them moving!

Also, many public libraries carry Wii games!  Using the library is a great way to try out a game before buying it.  Plus, it's free!

Here are some active games our family would like to try someday: 
*Wii Sports Resort
*Mario and Sonic at the Olympics
*Wii Fit Plus
*Wii Active Life Outdoor Challenge

Where to Shop:   Just about everywhere has great deals on Wii games and Wii bundles right now.  Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.  If you're thinking about buying one, this is a great time. 

Other of our 4 1/2 and 6 year old's all-time favorite toys:

*Books:

• Magic Tree House
• Magic School Bus Chapter Books
  
• Usborne Fact books
• Garfield

Other Favorites that the Kids Never Tire of:

*Matchbox Cars 
*Puzzles!!!
*Slinkies
*Paper, Crayons, and Activity Books
*Color Changing Markers (my 5 year old's current favorite)
*Board Games: 

• Checkers
• Chess
• Clue
• Candy Land (4 1/2 year old's favorite)
• Trouble
• Sorry
• Yahtzee
• Uno
  

How about your kids?  What toys has your family found to be worthwhile and fun?

Favorite Toys for Kids Ages 1-4

With Christmas only 5 weeks away, I wanted to share some of my children's all-time favorite toys, as well as where I found the best deal on them.  Most of the toys are pretty basic- not a lot of glitz and glam, but the kids have a lot of fun with them .  Today I'm sharing our children's favorite toys for ages 1-4 years old.  Tomorrow I will share a list of our favorite toys for kids 4-7 years old.

Please feel free to leave a comment with what your kids' favorite things are too!  I have enjoyed getting ideas from other moms as our kids have been getting older and becoming interested in different things.

 *Duplo Blocks by Lego.  These are a lot of fun to build with, plus they are big enough that choking is not an issue.  This is a toy that kids play with for years and is great for letting several kids play with together.  Even our 6 year old still has a blast with them! 

Where to shop: Wal-mart, Target, and garage sales.

*Touch and Feel Books.  Usborne has some really cool ones which can be found through their consultants, or for an even better price on Amazon.com.

*Baby Dolls.  Our girls play with their baby dolls all day long!

*Little Tikes Shopping Cart.  Our 2 year old loves to push around her babies in the shopping cart and the other kids enjoy using it in their kitchen play.

Where to shop:  Toys R Us will have the shopping carts on sale for $17.99 on Black Friday.  

*Doll Stroller.  Our daughters push the stroller around all day long.  You can find these anywhere- Target, Wal-mart, Toys R Us.  Just make sure you find one that has a seat cover that stays on well. 

*Play Food.  The Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box has been a big hit, as well as Learning Resources Pretend and Play Bakery Set

Where to Shop:  Amazon.com (especially next week as there are likely to be sales all week long).  Garage sales are a good place to find Fisher Price and Little Tikes Play Food (from the 80's and 90's) for pretty cheap.

*Play Kitchen.  All of our kids love playing kitchen!

Where to Shop:  I found ours at a garage sale for $5!  I find that the older Little Tikes kitchens have better storage, (especially shelves) then some of the newer ones.  Usually you can find people selling play kitchens on Craigs List, however it will be pricer than if it was at a garage sale.  Wooden play kitchens can be found at Amazon.com (with free shipping on some of them), Target and many specialty toy stores.

*Fisher-Price Loving Family Dollhouse and Dolls.  My daughters (ages 2 & 3) play with their doll house every day. I like how much detail there is to the sets and have had a lot of fun playing it with them.

Where to Shop:  Garage Sales!!! I watched spring garage sales and Craigs List for 2 years until I found the doll house I was looking for.  I bought a large doll house with a box full of items to go in it for $25.  This Spring I found another Loving Family Doll House for $5!  I bought it and gave the other one to a friend.  The one we have isn't the newest or fanciest model, but it's just right for our girls.  .  If you can't find one at a garage sale or Craigs List, Wal-mart has them for about the best price I've seen.  They also carry some of the very basic decorating sets to go inside the house.  Toys R Us carries some fun sets for house as well that you might not see at other stores.

*Dress-Up Clothes and Costumes.  Every day is dress up day at our house!  My daughters love to wear ballerina skirts over their clothes, and my sons enjoy dressing up like super heroes as they run around the house.

Where to Shop:  The week after Halloween at Target (you can find them up to 75% off).  Garage sales are a great resource too.  I've found ballerina skirts for 25 cents, as well as ballet shoes, leotards, hats, and costumes for the boys.  25 cents- $1 is what I've found most of those items for. 

*Thomas Trains.  Our kids started playing with these as toddlers and our oldest (age 6) still enjoys playing with them. The wooden ones have a lot of cool bridges and accessories to go with them, but our familiy has the metal Take-Along type.  If cost was not an issue, I would have chosen the wooden type, but our kids have still had a blast with the take-along ones.

Where to Shop:  Just about all the mega stores carry Thomas and finding them on sale is fairly easy.  Craigslist and garage sales are a great way to get a larger ammount of trains for less.

*Matchbox and Hot Wheels Cars.  Our boys started playing with these when they were 1 and like the trains, they still enjoy playing with them now.  When they were really little and couldn't even talk much, they would sit pushing the cars and make car noises.  Funny how boys just know how to do that.

Where to shop: Target, Wal-mart, Toys R Us.  There are tons to choose from and they are super cheap- 88 cents- $1 a piece, or $4 for a set of 10 at Toys R Us on black friday.  They've made great stocking stuffers for our boys.  Our girls enjoy playing with them too.

***In case you're interested, you can find many of the black friday ads on the internet already!  For our family, I usually watch sales at the stores as well as keeping an eye on Amazon's prices every day.  The prices fluctuate on amazon.com on a daily basis, so I find it helpful to add things to my cart and just check back each day until the price drops low enough and I'm ready to buy.

There's a Baby in There!

Last week, my husband, our 4 children, and I went in for my ultrasound appointment.

Thankfully, this is what we saw on the screen:

 Not only did we find out there is officially a baby in my womb, but we also were able to see it move!  As tiny as the baby was, he (or she) was moving it's arms and legs a little.  Amazing.  I had no idea babies did that before 10 weeks!  The O.B. also moved my due date up by 5 days.  The date being off wasn't a big surprise as I had had a pretty quick positive on an early pregnancy test.  Plus, an ultrasound at 3 1/2 weeks showed a sac already, so I figured the baby was at least a few days ahead.  So now I'm due at the beginning of June!

Now I'm looking ahead to what I need to do in the next 6 1/2 months.   My husband and I will be trying to figure out how to get 5 car seats in our 7 passenger mini-van, making decisions on what cloth diapers to buy, and in a few months we will be setting up the crib again.

I also have the birth on my mind.  Most likely, this will be c-section #5 for me.  5 cesareans in 6 1/2 years.  I will be praying for an awesome birth like my last 2, but also to make it without a migraine this time! 

For those of you that have given birth more than once, did you find that you showed much more quickly with the 2nd.+ pregnancy?  I think I am about the same size right now as I was when I was 18 weeks pregnant with my 1st. baby!

I also want to let you know of a couple giveaways that blog friends of mine are doing:

♥My Emmy Baby is giving away a free custom child's T-shirt or onesie.  She can design just about anything you can imagine, so this is sure to be a fun prize!

♥Penelope's Oasis is holding a Baby Bliss Celebration with some really cool prizes.  She's featuring different things each Monday and Thursday throughout the month of November, so it's something you need to check back with a couple times a week to make sure you get registered for each of the drawings.  My favorite giveaway she has on there so far is the Diaper Cakes gift baskets.  All you have to do is leave a comment and you're registered!  Very easy!

♥The Apron Goddess frequently holds apron giveaways from various companies.  Currently she's featuring a giveaway for an apron from Apron's by Julie.  Visit the Apron Goddess and leave a comment with which of the aprons from Apron's by Julie you'd like to win, and that's it! 

Keepsake Hand and Footprint Turkeys!

I made these turkeys with my kids 2 years ago and have enjoyed them so much, we made them again this year!  It makes a nice craft for the kids and a fun decoration for Thanksgiving!

To make the Turkeys, you will need:
*Construction paper in brown, red, orange, and any other color you want
*Googly Eyes
*White Paper- the bigger your child, the bigger the sheet of paper you will need.
8 1/2" x 11" works well up to preschool age.

Instructions:
To make the feathers: Start by tracing your child's hand on a sheet of construction paper.  Stack 6 more sheets of construction paper under the one with the traced hand and cut out the hand shape through all 7 layers of paper.  Set aside.

To make the body: Fold a piece of brown construction paper in half and trace your child's foot onto the paper.  Don't worry about going around each toe, simply trace a general outline of your child's foot shape.  Cut the foot tracing out through both layers of construction paper so that you now have 2 foot shapes to use for the turkey's body.

Flip one of the brown foot shapes over and then place both brown pieces onto the white sheet of paper so that the heals overlap and then flare out towards the toes. The heals will be at the top of the paper and the toes at the bottom. 

Glue the hand shapes behind the turkey body so they are fanned out like turkey feathers. 

Using orange paper, cut a small triangle for a beak and two legs.  Use Red paper to cut out a wavy oval for the wattle. 

Glue the legs under the bottom of the turkey body (see picture) and then glue the rest of the turkey in place.
Using glue, put the wattle and beak on as well.

Add the googly eyes and the turkey is complete!

*I laminated my turkeys and have held onto them as keepsakes.  By laminating the pictures, they last longer and can be put up as decoration again in future years.  Check out your local teacher supplies store for using a laminating machine.  If you live in TX, MO, KS, CO, or AK, consider checking out Mardel.  They have laminating machines in the teacher section of their stores that are VERY inexpensive to use.  

*IF you plan to laminate, do not add the eyes until AFTER you laminate the turkeys.  Glue the eyes on after laminating the pictures.