Yes, I said it. We are thinking of maybe going to Disney. I am in the process of trying to talk Bill into it. They have a great deal going on, so if we don’t set this up soon, we will lose the deal. However, if you have any advice I’d love to hear it. We are leaning towards staying at Disney’s Port Orleans: French Quarter Resort. I have an 18 month old and Madison will be 5 when we go. I am trying to research everything I can like how we can avoid Plantar Fasciitis and how to save money while we are there. I already found super cheap airfare through Southwest. We also are leaning heavily towards getting the dining plan. Things we still have to figure out is how long to go for, what disney parks we should see, etc. If you have been there with small children, I would defintely love to hear from you.
The winner of my Sears gift card giveaway was Oona! I am super excited for her, and according to her comment, she was going to get a toaster. I have a feeling that she’ll have some money left over after that so hopefully she can get some some snow chains or something nice for herself.
I’d also like to thank all the people who entered the contest. I love doing giveaways, and I was glad to see so many people who entered. Keep reading, because I plan on having quite a few new, great giveaways coming up for this year!
I’ve been on a blogging hiatus since we were gone to Wisconsin. I really didn’t blog about it too much since I didn’t think it was wise to let the internet know that we weren’t home. However, we are back now and I am hoping to get back to blogging a little more frequently than I have been. My parents only have dial up, and that is just not worth my time to even try and do. I don’t know how my dad looks for cheap auto insurance or even checks his email. It is so slow that I can’t stand it at all. We are trying to talk him into getting DSL, so hopefully, I’ll be successful with that. I am hoping to get some of our pictures downloaded later tonight, so I can show you what fun my kids had. I am hoping that everyone had a great Christmas and got everything they wanted.
Now is the time of the year to talk with your kids about fire safety. With many of us stuck in our homes (see the post before this about being snowed in) and having real Christmas trees, this is a talk we all need to have. Even if you don’t have a real tree, your kids definitely need to know what to do if a fire would happen to break out. I know that everyone thinks it won’t happen to them. However, I am sure that the people who have house fires think that also.
Liberty Mutual has a great website dedicated to being fire smart. This is a great way to start a conversation with your kids. There are some great forms on this site that help you develop your fire plan and to just help you start the conversation. Even though my kids are still pretty little, this is a conversation we started having with Madison last year already. They even have sections especially for children, parents, and educators. You are also able to search your local firehouses and learn about them too!
Be safe this holiday season and make sure you check out BeFireSmart just in case.
It is terrible here in Illinois. This is what my house looks like this morning:

We broke our back door trying to open it this morning. My house is a sheet of ice. We have about 4 inches of snow. On top of that, we have freezing rain, so it is definitely an interesting combination we have going on out there. We watched the traffic report starting quite early this morning, and at this point, Bill isn’t even going to try and go to work. The bad thing is that he left his laptop at work, so he’s trying to do what he can from his cell phone. It actually was hailing and snowing at the same time this morning if you can believe it. We are hoping to take the kids out a tad later and maybe build a snowman. However, the snow is more like ice chunks, so I don’t know how easy that is going to be.