Holly Days

List of Allergy Friendly Candy

2011-09-28T16:57:00.002-05:00

Via Gina Clowes of Allergymom.com
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Safe-Candy-List--50--Allergy-Friendly-Halloween-Treats-.html?soid=1101439904708&aid=euFyg7qUbFM

Airheads www.airheads.com Multi-colored and flavored taffy strips.

Bottlecaps www.wonka.com Soda flavored candy. (Root beer, orange etc.)

Divvies www.divvies.com Chocolate ghosts, Halloween jelly beans, caramel and kettle corn, all made to share!

Dots www.tootsie.com Candy corn dots are safe for many too!

Dum Dums www.dumdumpops.com These, (along with Smarties) are food allergy family favorites as they are safe for a variety of allergies.

Enjoy Life Chocolate Bars www.enjoylifefoods.com Three varieties. My kids love the crispy rice milk chocolate.

Frito Lay www.fritolay.com Regular Lay's potato chips, Ruffles, Tostitos, and Fritos are safe for many allergies.

Fun Dip www.wonka.com Candy stick + candy dip = Fun!

Gimbals Jelly Beans www.gimbalscandy.com Very allergy aware company.

Hot Tamales www.hottamales.com Similar to Mike & Ikes with cinnamon flavor.

Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum www.wrigley.com My kids love the bubble tape version.

Jolly Ranchers www.hersheys.com/jolly-rancher Sticks and hard candy.

Jujubes (and Jujyfruits) http://www.farleysandsathers.com Great for decorating cakes and cookies too.

Lemonheads www.ferrarapan.com Small size and jaw breaker size.

Life Savers (hard candies & gummies) www.life-savers.com My kids love the gummy variety.

Mike & Ike www.mikeandike.com Popular movie candy.

Necco Wafers www.necco.com Oldie but goodie shows up a lot at Halloween.

Nerds www.wonka.com My son and his friends love these sugary nuggets.

Nik-L-Lip www.tootsie.com Those cute little wax bottles with colored sugar water inside.

Pez www.pez.com Fun, convenient and safe for most allergies. A clever Pez dispenser is good for trading unsafe candy.

Pixy Stix www.wonka.com Messy but fun. Teens like the larger size.

Pure Fun www.organiccandy.com Tasty way to avoid dyes and gmo's.

Razzles www.tootsie.com First it's a candy, then it's a gum!

Skittles www.skittles.com A "safe" candy that is a Halloween favorite.

Smarties (US version) www.smarties.com These are a favorite for many allergy moms. Safe for many allergies. Smarties pops are good too!

Sour Patch Kids www.sourpatch.com Tangy, sweet-sour gummy candy.

Spree (regular only) www.wonka.com Chewy variety contains egg.

Starburst www.starburst.com Another allergy mom favorite.

Surf Sweets http://www.surfsweets.com Organic gummy bears, worms and jelly beans free of dyes and all common allergens.

Swedish fish www.swedishfish.com These little red fish are another Halloween favorite.

SweeTarts www.wonka.com Regular only as chewy sweetarts contain egg.

Wack-o-wax (wax lips) www.wonka.com Red lips or the vampire teeth anyone?

Warheads www.warheads.com Super sour candy not for the faint of heart.

Yummy Earth www.yummyearth.com Organic lollipops, drops and other dye-free candy.

Dave Ramsey makes me emotional

2010-09-19T21:14:00.001-05:00

Ed and I have set out on our journey to financial freedom via Dave Ramsey. We got the cd's from the Financial Peace University from some friends and have been listening to them. I've limited myself to one a day because of the range of emotions that I experience while I listen.
First, I felt angry at my parents for not teaching me more than savings and for helping me get that first credit card. Then I felt regret that Ed and I hadn't started this sooner. We've been married for almost 8 years and we were making boat loads (to us) of money when we first married. Then I heard a very sad story about a guy and I just bawled through the end of it. That pretty much sent me off the emotional deep end for the rest of the day (and I had listened to it on my way to work in the morning). Now, if you know me, you know that I'm pretty even keeled emotionally so this is kind of new territory for me.

I'm grateful that Ed and I are taking this step, but I know it's going to be hard and that I'll have to really think about every dollar I spend. It's going to be quite the emotional ride around here for a few months.

Punishment at the grocery store

2010-09-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

Last week I was looking for some dairy free ice cream alternatives at the grocery store. Ed had given the girls some sherbet while I was out of town not knowing that it's first ingredient is MILK! AUGH! So, I head over to the healthy food freezer section and find the ice cream...much to my dismay....even though there is dairy free ice cream, it's all horribly expensive!! Does anyone else think that $6 a pint is okay? I mean, you can get a whole gallon of Blue Bell for that price.

I hate that people who choose to eat these foods for health or moral reasons or people who have special food needs (the allergy people) seem to be punished financially. And yes, I do know that there is this little thing called "supply and demand" that causes the price to go up. It just frustrates me that my poor kiddo who can't consume dairy is going to miss out on one of her favorites because I can't bring myself to spend that kind of money on food for her. Someday I will buy an ice cream maker and make all the dairy free ice cream that her little tummy can handle! Until then, we have to figure out some other "su-prises" for my girl.

Flexi-Vegan-atarian

2010-08-21T21:17:00.000-05:00

I know, it's a weird title...but here's the deal. We delayed giving K peanuts until she was almost three because she has a cousin with a peanut allergy (and that was the advice we'd read). Turns out she's allergic to peanuts, almonds, and Brazil nuts.

Over the last year, Ed and I have been on a journey to figure out some healthier ways to feed our family. I made all of L's baby food, then started to make yogurt. now I also make all of our bread. It was all about getting rid of the "junk" that's in food. We eat fruit at almost every meal (because we don't eat a lot of veggies and fruit is easy). In all of this, Ed has lost about 30 lbs (so proud of him)...some due to eating, but also working out almost daily.

Anyway, this year after some research I began thinking that K's nasal "stuffy-runnies" were due to a food allergy. Also she has pretty severe excema. I'd been reading that milk is a huge contributor to excema so after vacay I asked the pedi to test her for any other allergies. It came back that she was allergic to everything in our backyard (dogs, oak, bermuda grass) as well as milk and eggs. About a week later, we eliminated all dairy from her diet and replaced it with non dairy products as much as possible. Her skin cleared up and she's not all stuff/runny all the time!! This made me so happy. Now we did have a relapse last weekend when we had two parties in a row where K ate copious amounts of dairy. :( She was almost immediately back to where we started before getting rid of that in her diet. Bad momma!

So what is Flexa-vegan-atarian? Well, we learned about flexitarianism (mainly vegetarian diet with some lean meats added in) earlier this year and really like it. It's basically what we follow now. She needs to eat vegan for the dairy free aspects (although not for the cruelty to animals aspect, and she does eat meat). So tonight, after some research, I made up my own new word for the way we eat (which really equates to dairy-free, nut free....but I prefer to use my term).

We see the pedi again this week so we'll see what he says about her skin and nasal conditions after being off all of the dairy for about a month...I'm looking forward to learning more about healthier eating, but not looking forward to the higher grocery bill that comes with dairy free eating. Oh well, it's worth it to keep my baby girl from suffering so much.

Milk Lids

2010-08-21T15:56:00.001-05:00

We have been saving up milk lids for a learning project that I wanted to do. I'd seen several of them on http://totschool.shannons.org/ so today we finally had 26 lids and so K and I put ABC letters on all of them. I wrote her name on a piece of paper and she started to match up the lids with the letters on the paper. Then next thing I knew, she had made a huge flower. I thought it was quite funny! The girl has a great imagination!

Party Weekend

2010-08-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

This weekend was our party weekend. We had K's friend party at the house on Saturday. We had a great turnout. The kids all played on the water toys out in the backyard. Then we had sandwiches, chips, and fruit for lunch. A ladybug cake and strawberry ice cream was the dessert.

Then on Sunday, we had the family party. We went to Aunt D's house for the family party. We swam and ate some more sandwiches and chips. I was sad when we left because we forgot our dip and I live for left over dip from the family parties. :( Plain chips just aren't the same without it.

In other news, K is doing great with the removal of dairy from her diet. She doesn't eat a lot of food these days, but that's not a big change for her. She's always been a little picky. We are encouraging her to try more foods though and occasionally she humors us and takes a tiny bite.

Playdough and Crayons

2010-08-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, K and I set out to make some crayons and play dough to give in the goody bags for her b-day party this weekend. I did a little Internet research and we started on the crayons first. I read a good tip to soak the crayons beforehand so the paper would come off easily...it worked great! I used mini muffin tins and I didn't really like how they came out. Some of the colors didn't melt quite enough and there was also a weird layer of non colored wax on the top. I think it was cheap crayons....
Then we started on the play dough. I used this recipe: http://deannasstuff.blogspot.com/2008/07/glitter-playdough.html
I halved the recipe and did end up having to add a little more flour to get it more like play dough. K had a great time stirring and kneading the dough...then we bagged it all up for the goody bags. I hope all our friends like it tomorrow!

#2 did me in

2010-08-11T20:45:00.002-05:00

Well, seeing how the last time I wrote was 2 years ago, I guess that I would say having a second baby did me in. We had Baby L in February and she's now 18 months old. GASP! She's not so much a baby these day, but rather a barbarian. She climbs things, dives off things, and speaks her own language. I love her with all my heart even though she makes me feel like a first time parent all over again.

Baby girl #1 just turned 4...yes, that's right! She's the big 0-4! I can hardly believe it myself. K acts like she's about to turn 12. She's ever so sassy in both her chatter and her ways.

Life is good in our house in spite of my two year absence.

Kid UN-Friendly Restaurants

2008-10-09T16:23:00.003-05:00

I have not thought much in the past about if a restaurant is kid-friendly or not. And by that, I mean that they have a kid's menu and crayons. I think I haven't thought about it because we have never been to one that didn't have those things....until last night. We went to dinner at PF Chang's and after we were seated the hostess brought us one of those toys that you can draw on using the magnet (the name of them eludes me right now). I simply thought the menu and crayons would be coming. We ordered our food then asked if there was a kid's menu. The waiter proceeded to tell us the things that they would make for kids, but that there was no kid's menu. Fortunately, they did have some chicken nugget type things that K ate (dipped in ketchup, of course). But it made me realize that not all restaurants cater to families with kids. It wasn't that we weren't welcome there, we just weren't welcomed with a kid's menu and crayons.

Updates

2008-09-03T16:15:00.003-05:00

So long time no write, but we sold the house in Carrollton and bought a new house in Roanoke/FW. The new house was supposed to be ready about now, but they got delayed in getting the permit....so we are homeless. Sort of. We are living with Ed's dad and that's been good so far. we hope that the house will be finished by the end of this month!

I'm pregnant with #2. We THINK it's a girl, but not 100% sure yet. We'll find out more at the sono in 4 weeks. I've got to start looking at decor. It was easy with K because we called her the Lovebug from the beginning so it made sense to have bug stuff in her room. This poor child has no nicknames yet...

K is awesome...and TWO! Some of her things lately:

"I want something else."
"I be back, mommy" (when she's getting off the bed to go get "something"
Spider song (itsy bitsy spider)
Head, knees, toes (head, shoulders, knees, and toes song)
Chicken Dance!
Spinning at Aunt Libby's wedding.
Uncle John
Uncle Matt
Uncle Paul
Pa-pa (Ed's dad)
bueberries (blueberries)
Gapes (grapes)
macycheese (mac and cheese)

I'm sure there's more that I'll have to list out later on. She's got quite a vocabulary. I couldn't even tell the dr. how many words she has right now at her 2 year visit.

To Buy and Sell a House

2008-06-05T20:06:00.003-05:00

So for the last month, we have been working to get our house ready to sell. It's been a lot of work getting the fence straightened and stained and power washed. We stripped the wallpaper in the master bath and then painted it. It's georgeous! It almost makes me want to stay....but not really! We need more space! We are busting at the seams with the three of us here. We have found a floor plan by David Weekley that we like. We are planning to build in Roanoke. Hopefully, the house will sell in good time and we won't have to live in an apartment (for long). we listed the house on Sunday (June 1st) and so far we have had 2 showings and 2 more scheduled for tomorrow! More to come, I'm sure.

New House...

2008-05-22T17:18:00.003-05:00

So, Ed and I decided that it's time to get a new house...we are outgrowing the one we are in now and needed something bigger. We went to look at some builders in a town northwest of where we live now and found a builder that we liked...and we put in a contract after a week of deciding things...things we needed/wanted to add to the house and whatnot. I'll post a picture as soon as I take one. I went out this week with the intention of taking one, but didn't take the camera. The funny thing was that when I drove up to the lot, I told K to look at where our new house was going to be. She peeks around the side of the car seat and burst into tears and covered her face. It was quite funny!

Pooh Shoes

2008-04-10T20:55:00.003-05:00

The other morning I was getting K ready for school and went to put on some cute hot pink shoes that matched her girly outfit for the day. As I was about to put the first shoe on she started to yell, "Pooooooo. Poooooooooo. Poooooo." I looked up and realized that she was pointing to her Winne the Pooh shoes. So my girl has an opinion about her shoes for the day....I gave in and let her wear the shoes she wanted! Why not? She's a girly girl and can wear her Pooh shoes if she wants to!

storms in the night

2008-04-10T20:42:00.003-05:00

3:42 am - tornado sirens go off
3:43 am - waiting for the tv to come on so we can check out the weather (it's a flat screen and for some reason they take a long time to come on)
3:45 am - Ed and I are frantically looking for a flashlight
3:50 am - Ed and I are quickly cleaning out the downstairs closet (the ONLY room in the house that has 4 inside walls...WHAT?!?!)
3:55 am - Ed is moving from the front door to the back door checking out the storm
4:00 am - Ed and I are sitting at the top of the stairs wondering what we should do - should we wake K up or go back to bed (the siren has stopped at this time)
4:15 am - lying in bed listening to the storm rage (yes, rage) around us.
4:30 am - wishing I could go back to sleep
4:35am - K starts crying - what? She didn't wake up at all through the tornado sirens or the lightning or thunder...but NOW she is going to wake up. Thus begins the series of "visits to her room to make sure she has all she needs to sleep.
4:45 am - I casually mention to Ed that he could just bring K in our room.
5:00 am - K is rolling around between up and popping her head up. I almost attempt to take her back to bed and she quickly quiets down and goes to sleep.
5:15 am - I'm still awake listening to my two favorite people sleep....loudly.
5:16 am - I turn off the alarm clock in hopes of actually going to sleep for more than 5 minutes.
6:40 am - The cutest girl in the world wakes up and showers us with her hugs and kisses! That's a great way to wake up after a rough night of storms.
8:39 am - roll into work to find out that we are not to be on campus until the electricity comes back on...seriously? So even though I've gotten nothing done this week, I came home to spend the day with K.

I need to change

2007-08-24T11:24:00.001-05:00

Adventure Week Away!

2007-07-26T15:10:00.000-05:00

The Castle in the middle of the building

So, where have I been for the last month? I've been working my proverbial tail end off...for the coolest summer event ever! Fellowship Church has a huge summer event called Adventure Week and it's basically VBS on steroids....for FOUR weeks! We spent all of last week building up the preschool and children's areas into different environments (space, aquarium, city scape, sports, etc). The late nights are well worth it when you see the kid's faces as they enter the building and see it transformed from what it was the week before.

Each night the kids rotate through some really cool activites and then see a theatrical production at the end of the evening. My hubby is playing the bad guy and having a blast. I have been watching the show each night to see him and it's been so much fun!

If you want to check out more, go here: Adventure Week

Katie's back

2007-06-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

I know this probably isn't too significant to a lot of people, but one of my favorite authors (Robin Jones Gunn) is going to be writing a new series about one of her characters named Katie Weldon. KW was in the Christy Miller series for teens and I loved the books (even though I read them past the teen years - and still read them from time to time now). I was left wondering what ever happened to Katie...and now we will find out. The downside is that the books won't be coming out until March 2008!! That's a long time...I guess if I waited this long...then what's another 9 months!

Good Bye to Sara

2007-06-26T13:29:00.001-05:00

My hubby had to say good bye to his first (and only) car this weekend. He bought her 10 years ago and they traveled long roads together. He had to take her out for one last car wash on Thursday night. He came in with the hint of a tear in his eye and told me that they had had their last ride together. He did also mention that he was sad to get rid of the car because we had our first date in it. So sweet! He's getting my Camry and I'm getting the new car...So good bye to Sara and hello to the new Mazda CX-9!!!

5 Minutes for Mom Contest

2007-06-14T15:38:00.000-05:00

These gals are always giving such great things away! Go check them out and maybe you will win something! Also check out http://www.playskool.com

Inaugural

2007-06-12T20:46:00.002-05:00

Well, it has to be done...there has to be an inaugural post...and this is it. Everyone has one so maybe it's best to just get it over with!

I'm blogging (again) because I want to start writing again. Writing is an outlet for me and it's also a way to hone my writing skills. Yes, I write on a daily basis for work, but this is different writing.

Anyway, I'm wife to Ed and mom to K and friend to two four legged puppies - Scooter and Olive. Scooter is lovable and compliant. Olive is pesky, obnoxious, and sweet at times. I learn a lot of life when I take time to observe them.

So, now on with the business of real posts...