New Guitar

Eric has been asking to take guitar lessons. We found a teacher who only charges $7 a lesson. The problem is that between piano lessons, scouts, and karate, he has no time to take guitar lessons. I talked to the teacher and she said she would just give lessons whenever he could fit it in. So here's Eric's new (used) electric guitar. Erin is planning to buy an acoustic guitar as soon as the "guitar guy" gets it all fixed up. Here's some pictures of my new rocker.

Our Week

Mario has been gone all week to Dominican Republic for work. He was fortunate enough to go to the temple while there. He even ran into and talked to Elder Anderson of the 70's. Mario said that the only other time he has met such friendly people in the temple was in Argentina. I guess he is trying to tell me Latinos are much friendlier. I am glad that he had a great week in Dominican and the kids and I survived without him.

I stayed busy all week trying to catch up on 15 years of scrapbooks. Years ago, I made Eric one for birth up until his 2nd birthday. I made Erin's from birth until about 18 months. I made the twins from birth to 3 months. I am only 5 1/2 years behind on theirs!

I made 3 albums this week using the Shutterfly website. I made one that included the last 15 years since Mario and I married. Then I made the twins each one from the time they were born until their 5th birthday. It was so much easier doing the albums digitally. But, it was still very time consuming and I feel bad for ignoring my kids for the past week. I think I will try to make Eric and Erin each one too, but it will have to wait a while. I am burnt out on scrapbooks for now.

Love Notes

These are a few of the love notes around my house today. Believe me, there are a few hundred more laying around.

And here are the busy elfs making even more. Sometimes they can be so sweet. It is probably an effort to butter me up for when they aren't so sweet later.

Laugh or be angry?

Today, Zach punched Nathan. I heard the punch, but surprisingly I didn't hear any crying that usually follows the punch. Since I heard the punch, I told Zach he needed to go to his room for a time out. Of course he didn't want to go. Nathan immediately forgave him for the punch and they continued playing nicely. Then a few minutes ago, I called to Nathan (for the 4th or 5th) time to come put his cereal bowl in the sink. I was distracted so it had been an hour or so since the last time I asked. Zachary must have known from the tone of my voice that Nathan was in trouble (and surprisingly knew why before I told him) so he quickly ran over and grabbed Nathan's bowl and put it in the sink for him.

I don't know if I should be angry with these two or just laugh. Maybe I will live longer if I just laugh and be glad that Eric and Erin aren't twins too.

Sometimes I like to wait outside their bedroom and listen to their conversations. They are very amusing (especially when they aren't about gross bodily functions that usually dominates their conversations). I often hear them asking each other who is their favorite person in the family. If they say someone else besides them, they say "So you don't like me?" It is really funny listening to them have these conversations over and over again. I have to say, I usually rank first in their list of favorites. I guess it is because I am way too easy on them (as illustrated by the above story.)

Where do I begin?

My sister is making me look really bad. She has been blogging almost daily lately. Like I always wrote in my journals, I will try to do better.

It has been a great month. First of all, grandma and papa flew out for Erin's 10th birthday and for Eric's 12th birthday. In our church, turning 12 is a big deal. He was finally able to receive the Priesthood and start passing the sacrament. He has been asking for a suit for a long time and Mario and I finally decided to get him one in time to pass the sacrament for the first time. Seeing him in a suit makes me incredibly sad because it will only be 7 short years before he leaves for his mission. Time goes way too fast.

The kids almost always want Mario to make his special ice cream cake for their birthdays. The problem with ice cream cake is that you can't decorate it the same way as you decorate regular cakes. Erin really wanted an ice cream cake but she wanted it to have a horse on it. So Mario came up with this way to decorate her cake. She loved it.

My dad stayed a week and was able to help Eric build a new "trick" bike. Eric really enjoyed that time with Papa.

My mom stayed an extra week and watched the kids so Mario and I could go to San Diego for a few days. It was so nice to get away and have a little vacation. We were able to go to the San Diego Temple for the first time. It was such a beautiful temple. Of course I am still partial to Washington D.C., but San Diego was amazing. We had a great time walking the beach too. On the last day, Mario decided to go swimming in the 69 degree water. He loved it and has already planned our next trip with the kids there in September.

We owe my mom a lot of thanks. She is so good with the kids. Mario and I wouldn't feel comfortable going away is she weren't here to watch them. We know they are in good hands with grandma. She did lots of cooking and sewing with Erin, playing legos and games with the twins, and hanging out taking pictures of Eric doing karate, piano, and bike riding. We are so thankful that she was able to visit. We are grateful for the good influence the grandparents are on our children. We are also grateful for all the pictures she took while here. I feel like I don't need to take any pictures for a while. Thank you mom and dad for coming.

$100

Mario has been offering $100 to the first kid to beat him at Chess. I wasn't too worried about the $100 because Mario has been playing Chess forever and he is pretty good. The kids have taken his challenge seriously and are even doing things like scouring the internet for Chess moves to beat dad. Erin wanted to join the Chess club so she could get extra practice. But she has karate on the same night, which was a relief to me.

Now Nathan has really been concentrating and trying to figure a way to earn himself the $100. Nathan told me about his simply strategy to beat Mario. I asked him to tell me his strategy. So using his pillow as a mock chessboard, he explained his plan. Nathan did exactly what he told me he was going to do and actually beat Mario. But being only a beginner, Mario forgot to tell him one important rule. He didn't explain that you have to say "check" when you are one move away from capturing the king. So Nathan beat Mario but he didn't say "check" first. Mario apparently told Nathan that didn't count since he didn't say "check." But the kids didn't think that was fair. They think Mario owes him the $100. What do you think?

I asked Mario how he could possibly lose to Nathan so quickly. I guess Mario was not paying too close attention to the game. That lack of attention probably just cost me $100. I think even Mario is agreeing now that he will have to pay up.

Mario isn't the first in the family to lose a $100. I lost $100 to Erin a few years ago when I told her that I didn't think she could pass Eric in Accelerated Reader points. I promised to buy her an American Girl Doll if she did it. I should have know better. Erin is an extremely hard worker. It didn't take her long to overtake her brother.

"Specials" birthday

Well Nathan had a birthday party for Pooh. So it was Zach's turn to have a birthday party for his dog which he hasn't named, but I have nicknamed "Special." Anyway, for Pooh's birthday we went to Chuck E. Cheese and then had birthday cake. Zach wanted to do a little better for Special's birthday. He wanted a dog pinata too. Mario was under the impression that pinatas were expensive so he had the "brilliant" idea to make one. Unfortunately he didn't get it done with the cousins here, but he did finally get to it this weekend. I am glad he is finally done with it because my kitchen was a paper mache mess for a couple days. We finally get to break it tonight for FHE. Sorry Justin, we will miss having you with us. Uncle Mario owes you a pinata! He may decide to buy it this time since he found out they only cost $10 at the BX. In our house we like ugly steaks, ugly cakes, and now we can add a new one, ugly pinatas. But as Justin would say, this homemade one is "made with love."