Christmas Party

Erin asked to have a Christmas party this year at our house. We told her that she could invite 5 friends. Fortunately, 4 were able to make it. They had a good time eating pizza, roasting marshmallows, building gingerbread houses and playing ghost in the graveyard.

Baby Names

When I was pregnant with Eric, my sister-in-law Michelle was about 10 years-old. She sent me a list of baby names that she "approved of." So anyone out there that thinks Eric should be a Mario Jr. This is why he not. Ha Ha!

Now Michelle is pregnant with her first child, so I am sending back the list.

Stolen Merchandise

So for Christmas I'm getting a Playstation 3. Me and Erin know but Nathan and Zachary have no idea. I have a Playstation 2 and I went to Gamestop to sell it and a bunch of games. I ended up walking away with a few games from Gamestop. Today Zachary was searching through my room and found the games. I was trying to hide them from him to keep it a secret.

When he found them he looked at me and said, "Does mom know about these?"

I told him she did. He then asked when I had to bring them back. I had know idea what he meant. When I asked him why I needed to bring them back he said, "Whenever I steal something I have to bring it back to the store."

Wow. I told him that I didn't steal them and that I bought them. Well, he didn't believe me. When I told my mom the story she went to Zach and asked if I had stolen merchandise. Zach, in all seriousness, told her that I had. He then asked me if I had stolen them and told me to be honest. I told him I would go get him the receipt. After examining the receipt for several minutes he agreed that I had purchased them and looked a little disappointed. Then he asked why I had the games and I told them they were for Uncle Charlie. He was very upset that I would sell stuff to buy other people gifts.

Great to see he has so much trust in me

Posted by Eric

Sick

Mario left for Vegas sick. Luckily, he left us all his germs. Eric and Zach were home sick on Monday. Now Erin is sick. Nate and I have avoided it thus far. But Nate took compassion on Erin before leaving for school. He covered her with her favorite warm robe and covered her in all his favorite stuffed animals. Only her feet were visible. Even Buzz had to go check it out.


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Great to be Eight

Nathan and Zachary were invited to attend their first Cub Scout pack meeting last night since their birthday was the next day. It was a special pack meeting because the Honor Guard from base attended and did the flag ceremony. I went out Monday and bought the uniform and book for each boy. Zach must have read the book 3 times before last night. He is so excited about joining Cub Scouts. I thought they looked adorable in their new uniforms. After the pack meeting, I had a Relief Society Christmas Meeting. So I quickly dropped the kids off at home and gave Eric a list of things to do. He had offered to make the boys' ice cream cake since Mario was out of town. Then he and Erin decorated the house. They put streamers everywhere, even up the stairs making it a maze. There were streamers hanging from my Christmas tree to the light all the way on the other side of the large living room. The twins loved it.

Unfortunately Mario had to go TDY to Las Vegas all week, so he missed out on all the birthday celebrations. Last night the boys had a really hard time going to sleep because they were so excited about their birthdays. This morning they were up very early as well. We started our morning with blueberry bagels that they chose for breakfast. Nate and Zach exchanged gifts that they got for each other. I found it interesting that each got the other a book they wanted from the book fair. They also opened some gifts from Grandma. Then I went to school with them because it was my day to volunteer in their classes. I checked them out at lunchtime and we went to McDonalds.

Mrs. Williams and class singing to Nate

After school, they each invited a friend to come play at the house for a few hours. They wanted to go to Rocks and Ropes and go rock climbing. But without Mario, I didn't feel that would be safe with friends. So we stayed home, played Wii, football, Legos, and Foosball. I took pity on a friend in the neighborhood that we hadn't invited but Nathan had proudly told that it was his birthday and he was going home to have a party. I know CJ felt bad he wasn't invited. So Zach and Nathan along with their friends ran over to his house to invite him to come play. So with 5 boys between the ages of 7-9, my house was quite loud. But I think they had a lot of fun.

Nathan invited Adian. They have been good friends since first grade. Now Adian is in Zach's class, so Nathan is a bit jealous that he and Zach have become friends too. Zach's best friend is Isaiah. They have been friends since kindergarten. I don't know how the two of them stay friends. They are SO competitive with each other. They each act like he is the best at everything. Today they were arguing over Wii remotes. Eric overhead this conversation between them.

Zach-"We have 4 wii remotes."

Isaiah-"Well I have 5 remotes at my house."

Zach-"Well only 4 people can play at a time, Stupid."

That is a typical conversation between the two of them (and stupid is a bad word in the Perez House). But they remain best friends. So I am a little sad to see Zach lose his buddy when we move. At least he will always have Nate.

Nate and CJ

Isaiah, Zach, and Adian with Eric's homemade ice cream cake

Lego World Racers

Zach and Isaiah

Now the boys have December 17th to look forward to because that is the day of the Stake Baptisms. We have been having many FHE on baptism, so hopefully they will be prepared for the Bishop's interview on Sunday.

What great gifts Heavenly Father gave me 8 years ago. As their kindergarten teacher commented today, "I got a 2 for 1." Truly I did. I love you both so much.

Black Friday

The big kids and I decided we would venture out for Black Friday again this year. Mario wasn't too happy when he found out stores were opening even earlier this year and now encroaching on Thanksgiving. So he thought we should boycott Toys R Us, Walmart, and Old Navy for opening on Thanksgiving. But the kids and I were too excited to wait until Friday, so we left the house around 7:30 Thursday night. We should have listened to Mario because when we pulled up to Toys R Us an hour early, the line was already really long. It took an hour and a half of standing in rain to get into the store (we had to continue waiting outside an extra half hour after it opened because of the fire codes.) When we finally got in, we decided there wasn't anything there that was worth standing in line. So we left to make it to Walmart for their 10 pm opening. There was a line to turn into Walmart a mile away. We cut in line near the entrance, but there was no where to park within a few blocks unless we wanted to park at Lowe's across the very busy intersection. I figured I would never get the Mother of the Year award if I made my two kids cross that intersection in the rain, in the dark. We decided to go to McDonalds for a snack and then try Walmart after some parking opened up again. We went back a half hour later and barely squeezed into a parallel parking spot on the street. When we got in there, I asked Eric to stand in line while Erin and I looked around. We could hardly walk. It was one huge traffic jam. After a half hour of hardly getting anywhere, we went to find Eric so Erin could purchase one $2.00 movie. Eric must have only moved 15-20 feet in that half hour. Again, not worth the line. So after 4.5 hours, we returned home with nothing. We should have listened to Mario and not gone out.

The twins had heard so much talk about Black Friday that they wanted to go out this year. So about 7:30 in the morning the whole family went back out to the stores. I begged Mario to join us because it is really hard to Christmas shop with all your kids with you. We spent the next 4.5 hours shopping and we got 80% of our shopping done. I can give a percentage because I have been putting cash in an envelope (thanks Dave Ramsey) every month since January. So when the cash runs out, the Christmas shopping is complete. Mario teases me and says I always find more money and buy more gifts. But I am going to try really hard to not go over my budget this year, unless it is to buy clothes for the kids. I take that out of my clothing budget and wrap the clothes so the kids have more to open Christmas morning. So I don't think that really counts. I would start buying the kids clothes for Omaha but the way they are growing, nothing will fit by next winter. So that will have to wait.

Never again will I ever attempt to go to stores when they first open. It was a nightmare. I got everything I wanted either online or on Friday morning anyway. Nothing (not even a 42 inch tv for $200) is worth those lines!

Omaha, Here We Come!

It's official, we are moving to Omaha. Mario's report date is end of February. But we are hoping he can stay until at least April because I won't be moving until the end of May. I am so excited to have a backyard with grass. It is something I always took for granted until I moved to Arizona. I am ready for a change! I will start counting the days.