Zachary's Birthday Gifts

The boys each got a Nintendo DSi for their birthday. I had originally bought each of them a new one, but Eric decided he didn't need his anymore because he had an Ipod Touch. So he sold me his DS for $60. So I returned one of the new ones. Then I had a dilemma on which twin would get a new one and which would get a used one. But then I found a Groupon special for 50% off horseback riding. Zach has been begging to go horseback riding, but every trail riding company requires the kids to be at least 7. So, I decided to give Zach the used DS and also a sunset trail ride with Mario for his 7th birthday. It was a good deal for Zach because he didn't even know his DS was used until he questioned me about spending so much money on new ones. He knows that I am cheap and don't normally spend so much money on birthdays (or Christmas). I then admitted that his was used but as a consolation prize he got to go riding. So he was very happy.

2010 Christmas Letter

I asked Erin if she would like to write the family Christmas letter this year. She was excited that I asked and she went right to work on it. Her brothers didn't give their approval to what she wrote, but I told them they could write it next year and add their rebuttals. They should be fun to read. Zachary is still fuming over Erin's comment that she is the favorite. He doesn't get that it was a joke. Regardless, here's Erin's cute letter:

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas! I got assigned to do the Christmas letter this year…. Warning! This is from my point of view, so it may make you laugh.

Dad’s doing a great job at his work and is getting pay raises from doing well on language tests such as Portuguese and other random languages I didn’t know he spoke (he probably just guesses, he has nothing to lose). Even though he studies a ton for his language tests (not really) he still finds time to play ping pong and spend time with us. He spent 6 months at a resort (more like a tent) in Afghanistan this year.

Mom is continuing to always keep the house clean and keep up with us kids. We’re a lot of work! While dad was gone, she took us to Florida and the Grand Canyon. I wonder if she feels bad about leaving dad out of the once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Eric is keeping up his grades as always, surprising since he spends all his time flirting with my 6^th grade friends (not joking). He surprised us all when he told us he was going to run cross-country. Then another big surprise was when he told us he was going to start wrestling.

I (Erin) also ran in cross-country but decided to pass up wrestling. I keep up with my grades even more than Eric (not surprising). I love to read and spend a lot of my time in the kitchen. Although my parents won’t admit it, I’m the favorite of the family.

Nathan continues to love and adore Winnie the Pooh. He’s in love with his 1^st grade teacher, and when he came home from school the first week, he said his teacher was his girlfriend. He still plays with Legos, and he also played flag football. He had a lot of fun even though he hasn’t learned to be competitive yet.

Our family wouldn’t be complete without Zachary, who is always making people laugh and doesn’t even know it. He also played football, but wasn’t competitive until I showed him how to win. He loves our dog Buzz and the football team the AZ Cardinals.

This year, we have much to celebrate especially since we are all together for Christmas and we hope you also have a great Christmas. Thanks for reading.

Love, Erin

Christmas Carols

Yesterday I spent all day cleaning my house. I was exhausted by the time evening came. I was very grumpy. We still needed to have FHE. It was almost more than I could handle when my twins tried to do our Nativity Puppet show after eating too much chocolate fondue. I need to remember to always eat the treat at the end instead of the beginning. Anyway, we found out last night that Mary and Joseph must love each other very much because the boys had them kiss constantly. I barely made it through FHE. But then I asked the big kids to start playing some Christmas Carols for us. Those wonderful, uplifting hymns were just what I needed. I became a little teary-eyed as I listened to this music played by two of my children that have been taking piano lessons for 6 years now. Eric saw the tears in my eyes and asked why I was crying. I am not sure why he asks anymore...I cry at Hallmark commercials. I am so grateful that despite their desires to quit lessons, they continue to play and add beautiful music to our lives. I am grateful for the Spirit that can be felt when we have this music in our homes.

Frugality and Table Etiquette

Mario and I were discussing the need to teach our children some table etiquette. For 13 years we have served our children on plastic plates and given them plastic cups. I am kind of tired of all the plastic and all the poor manners at the table. I thought that maybe we should buy some nicer dinnerware for Sunday dinners and holidays. Maybe the nicer stuff will encourage our children to act more maturely.

So as I was discussing this with Erin the other day in the car, she wondered why they needed to learn this stuff. I told her that she and Eric are going to begin dating in a few years and she wouldn't want to embarrass herself while out with a date or even worse, her date's parents. Her response was that she wasn't going to date a guy that took her to fancy restaurants. She wants to marry someone that doesn't spend a lot of money eating out. She is looking for a guy that will eat at inexpensive restaurants for their dates. She said maybe eating out at places like Melting Pot once in a while would be ok, but not often.

I had to laugh. Mario and I would eat at Burger King (99 cent Whoppers) all the time while we were dating. We were poor college students. Even though I tease Mario about it now, I am glad that Mario took me on these cheap dates because I appreciate that he is frugal. We are a perfect pair. Now we can afford to go out to places a little nicer than Burger King, but we find ourselves at Subway quite often for their $5 footlong subs. We did recently go to Melting Pot, but only with a coupon.

We started practicing our new table manners last night. The kids walked in and I had the table set with real dishes and real glasses. They all seemed puzzled and wondered why the table was set nicely. We began with practicing using our napkin correctly. They took advantage since we were only working on our napkins and started putting their elbows on the table since we hadn't worked on that yet. I am not sure how this whole experiment is going to work out. But I did buy some really cheap China yesterday and we are going to begin using it Sunday evening.

Piano Lessons

After Erin's piano recital last month, Nathan asked if he could start lessons. We had decided a long time ago to wait until the boys turned 7. So Nathan had his first piano lesson yesterday. We decided to put him with Eric's piano teacher, Sister Leishman since she seems really good with young kids. I stayed with him during his lesson and as soon as it was over, he asked if he could go alone next time. He came right home and sat down at the piano and showed Mario what he learned. He seems excited about taking lessons, even though the big kids keep telling him that the excitement will wear off very quickly.

Zach doesn't want to take professional lessons yet, but he is enjoying his lesson from Nathan. It was so sweet listening to Nathan teaching Zach everything (which isn't much yet) that he knows.

The big kids don't think it is fair that we are giving the boys a choice with piano lessons, but I really don't want to fight 4 kids about practicing. The big kids have 6 years invested (not to mention the thousands of dollars Mario and I have spent) and so we don't want them to quit and regret it later.

On a side note, Zach is wearing the Cardinals jersey that Erin gave him for his birthday. We have been here less than 2 years and we don't watch much football, but Zach is a huge fan of the Arizona Cardinals. So Erin couldn't resist buying the jersey for him.

Happy 7th Birthday!

Today my boys turned 7. I am getting old!

Our day started out with chocolate muffins (made by me) for Nate and scones (made by dad) for Zachary.

Then for lunch they took a short break from school to enjoy a Happy Meal at McDonalds. One of them made a comment that he thought this might have been his first Happy Meal. Not true, but its great that they don't eat there often.

After school, each picked one friend to go to Chuck E Cheese with our family. Nathan chose our neighbor, Chloe Winterton, and Zach chose Isaiah Jackson, a friend from school.

Eric acts like he may be too old for Chuck E Cheese so he started reading Erin's book that she brought along.

But we all know the truth, he is just a big kid!

They were very excited to each get a Nintendo DSi. We tried to confuse them by giving them Grandma and Papa's gift first which were DS games. Then the big kids gave them each a DS case. By then, they knew what the next present would be.

After Chuck E Cheese, we had dad's homemade ice cream cake and sang Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Nathan and Zachary!

DITY Moves and Out of Control Small Children

When we moved from Illinois to Monterey, we did a DITY (do-it-yourself) move. Usually when we move, the military hires contractors to do all the work of packing, loading, and unloading. Mario even makes them unpack almost every box. We decided to do a DITY to California because we had a lot of our household goods already boxed up and in storage because we sold our house a few months too early and we had to move into a temporary house. So with a lot of the packing done, it only made sense for us to do it ourselves. The military reimbursed us 95% of what it costs them to pay the contractor. We made about $10,000 on that move to California and that was after we paid for the ABF truck, all the materials, and professional loaders. $10,000 wasn't too bad. But it was hard work and I don't really want to do it again unless my boys take charge of the entire move and they collect the money and put it towards their missions. They can box everything and hire loaders and unloaders if they want.

Mario told a guy at work about our DITY and apparently made it sound like it was great. The guy got a short notice PCS to Puerto Rico. So in two weeks, he and his wife packed up the entire house. Unfortunately they didn't hire loaders like Mario suggested. They begged for help from guys at work. Most of the guys refused to help because the guy was making money on the move and they felt he should hire people. But Mario felt like he should help because it was a great missionary opportunity since Kenny has been asking a lot of questions about the church. I went with Mario today along with a young guy from church. We worked for about 4 1/2 hours loading. The couple has 2 small girls ages 2 and 3. I found that I was of more service taking the girls off the mother's hands while she got work done. We played at the park for about an hour in the 50 degree weather and high winds. I froze to death. Then I asked if they would like me to take them to McDonalds for lunch. Unfortunately the closet McD's was all the way across town. Then it was like pulling teeth to get the girls to eat their chicken nuggets. Then as we were leaving and I had my arms full of food to bring back to their mom, the girls refused to leave. They ran opposite directions and would not come back. I am sure everyone thought they were my own children and I couldn't handle them. The whole point of this blog is to say that I am sure glad my youngest are almost 7 (in two days) because if they ever acted like this in public, they would get grounded for life. But they both acted this way at 2 and 3 years old. It was a nightmare taking my twins anywhere until they were old enough to understand stranger danger. My other point is I should never let Mario talk anyone into a DITY again. It is a lot of hard work and should never be attempted if you have small children.