5th Birthday

I can't believe my boys are five. It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant with them and close to 200 pounds! What a joy they are to our family! They add a lot of excitement. I can truly say life would be dull without them around.

We celebrated the big day with a trip to Jumpin' Around. They have several large blow up toys in the building where the kids and parents can jump. They have a large pirate ship, slide, boxing ring, and obstacle course. We have a family pass for the month so we invited a few friends to come with us. Then we all went back to our house for pizza and cake. I have kept up my chocolate fast from a couple weeks ago. I was very tempted to have a piece of chocolate cake. But I kept telling myself that if I can make it through Thanksgiving without chocolate, I can make it through their birthday.

I love you Nathan and Zachary!

Christmas

With Thanksgiving out of the way, we can now concentrate on Christmas. I think Black Friday is my favorite day of the year. I was a little disappointed this year though. There was nothing in the ads (that I wanted) that made it worth getting up early. But it was still fun to look browse through all the ads.

Mario scanned the Home Depot ad and came up with a few gifts he would like for Christmas. They were all inexpensive so I got him each thing on his list. Then when I got home, the twins helped me wrap presents for daddy. Later I heard Nathan tell daddy about the new tool box and Zachary telling daddy about the new stud finder I bought him. They thought it was so fun to ruin my surprise. Then Zachary asked Mario if he would tell him his gifts. Mario asked if Zach could keep a secret (which we all know he can't as illustrated by the above story.) Then Mario was a mean dad and said, "So can I."

We have a family tradition that we try to remember to do each year. We find all our Christmas stories and wrap them up. Then we open one each night for a bedtime story leading up til Christmas. Nathan and Zachary decided they wanted to help me wrap the books. It took a while to wrap 25 books but they did an amazing job. Nathan takes after Mario. He is a perfectionist when it comes to wrapping. Zach takes after me. He just does it as quickly as possible.

It is fun to have twins and see their different personalities even though they are the same age and raised exactly the same way.

Very Thankful Boys

With their birthdays only one week away, Eric and Erin decided to wrap the twins birthday gifts. Yesterday morning Nathan and Zachary saw their neatly wrapped presents. They have no idea what the gifts are yet, but they are extremely thankful-especially to Erin. Check out her door full of thank you notes. Each one has a picture inside that they drew for her. Eric got a few less thank you notes, I think at last count it was 3! I am not quite sure why they are more thankful to Erin. The two gifts are identical and they each put in the same amount of money. Poor Eric.

This morning when the twins were practically on top of us and we needed a little space, I reminded the twins that daddy and I got them gifts too. They quickly left with art suppies in hand and started some thank you notes to us. So far, daddy and I have 1 each. Maybe I shouldn't feel sorry for Eric after all.

Fox News and Chocolate

I gave up two very hard things this past week-Fox News and chocolate. I have become addicted to both. So I decided that I needed to take a week off from them

I thought once the election was over that my addiction to Fox News would end. I was wrong. Now I had to hear all the commentary about our new President-Elect. I couldn't believe they were already taking polls about his approval rating and about how American's felt about Washington being so one sided-democrat. According to the media, we are all ok with the Congress and Presidency being all democrat and Obama's approval rating is sky high. Amazing, is this the same media that was rooting for Obama all along? Do we actually believe all these polls? Now I realize I am off on a tangent.

I have always had a chocolate addiction. But I usually try to limit it to a small piece daily. Unfortunately with four kids trick or treating, my house is filled with tons of chocolate. I found I needed a piece after each meal. So, the only way I know how to break my bad habit of eating too much chocolate is to give it up cold turkey. Lately, if I have just one piece, then I want more.

My week has ended and I am contemplating going another week without tv and chocolate. Mario doesn't care about the chocolate part, but he loves when I give up tv. I think he has become a little addicted to Fox News as well. This is bad since Mario rarely watches any television. He thinks there is always something better to do. When I started this fast I thought I would get a lot more done around the house. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I just went to bed earlier. It actually made getting laundry done harder since I hate to fold laundry without watching tv.

The 2nd Ammendment

Mario recently decided that we needed to start thinking about protecting our home and family. He has since become what his friends call "a gun enthusiast." He wanted me to get my own hand gun. But the ammo can get quite expensive for target practice. So Mario got me a 22 hand gun to practice on. Mario took me to the range to try out the new gun. We pulled up and I didn't want to get out of the truck. I was so scared. There were several men shooting these loud guns just a hundred yards away. I told Mario I couldn't do it.

Anyway, I finally mustered up enough courage to walk up to the range. Maybe the sign helped that said only children ages 6 and up can shoot. What, they allow 6 year olds here! Thank goodness my twins are only 4, turning 5! If 6 year olds can go and shoot, then surely I could do it too. I jumped everytime I heard a shot for the first few minutes. But then I relaxed a bit. I am sure the guys around us were amused by my fear.

I learned how to load the gun and to fire. I didn't do too badly. I hit the target on most of the shots. It actually was a little fun. I hope when we move to Arizona I can just go out in the desert and practice shooting.

I can now see why my sister enjoys shooting so much. It was pretty cool once I got over the fear that someone was going to flip out and "shoot up the place." This has become Mario's new hobby so I guess if I want to spend more time with him, I will have to get used to going to the range.

Still proud to be an American!

There was one bright moment yesterday. California's Prop. 8 passed! Thank you Mario for all your hard work in helping that pass. I am ready for him to spend his Saturdays at home now instead of knocking on doors and holding up signs.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of the division in our country. I am ready to put this whole election behind me and pray that Obama will govern as a moderate. Who knows what will happen with Obama, Reid, and Pelosi in charge. I will be doing a lot of praying!

I look forward to 2012. I am hoping Mitt Romney or Bobby Jindal will run.

How Sweet

Look, they really do love each other! Today in primary, the teacher was teaching how we are all different and how none of us look alike. Zachary raised his hand and told the teacher that he and Nathan look alike because they are twins. I had to laugh. They may be twins, but they sure don't look alike. In fact, if I didn't dress them alike, most people wouldn't know they were brothers.