December

This is going to be a LOOOONG post with LOTS of pictures. Let me start by saying this was the first Christmas since 2006 that we have spent with my family IN Yakima. My mom had an electrician add another circuit to the breaker box.  That's how crazy excited she was for us to come.  The kids played in the snow for the first time ever.  It was hilarious. We so very much missed Andy's family.  We were lucky to spend some time with some of them before taking off.

This picture was their fist time facing forward. I was adamant about them being rear-facing in their carseats until their 2nd birthday. If you know my driving history, then no explanation is needed.  However these rascals kept growing. I finally gave in and turned them around at 23 months.  They seem to like it better, who can blame them though right? Although, kicking of the seats is now happening more and more.

My Mothers of Multiples Club (Yeh, that's how I roll) put's together a Christmas Party for the group each year. It's nice to get over all of us together. All of us includes over 20 sets of twins, not counting the singleton siblings as well.  Verona wanted NOTHING to do with Santa. I tried and tried, but she clung to me. Trenton on the other hand was just shy and kept his head down the entire time.

Whenever my parents come to visit, 90% of the time they drive. And they always arrive with stuff from my childhood to give me.  This year was no exception. My mom has been keeping these jewels from my elementary school days.  Since I have no use for a stocking I made out of construction paper and used a hold punch to punch out the toes (really Sydney?) I elected to have Andy take pictures of me holding each item for prosperity then I delightfully recycled each item.   We are a colored light tree family.  I have done the white lights in the past, but I prefer our purple, orange, etc lights. Plus, these are LED!

Andy's brother Matt came up before Christmas and brought gifts for the kids. But they like his guitar waaay better.  They are mesmerized when he starts playing. Trent likes to pound along and Verona does the strumming.  Matt got them musical instruments.  We just LOVE the drum! ; )  They are getting better at the train whistles though, and sometimes I am being told "stahp, mama" when I play it too much. 

I let Andy open up his big gift before we left for Yakima.  He has been carrying around this newspaper since I met him. It is from 1985 Superbowl.  Andy is the biggest 49ers fan. I thought that this newspaper clipping needs to come out of the cardboard box it was living in and be put on the wall.  He was excited.  I purposely wanted the tack holes in the corner left to be seen to show his devotion.  He had this pinned on his bedroom wall as a kid.  He was 7 turning 8 when they won. 

This pretty much shows how we fly.  We flew from Sacramento to Seattle, then on to Yakima.  We we got to Seattle we were going to be there awhile. Like 6 hour layover awhile.  There is a children's play area. and we spent a few hours there. We explored up at the D Gates. They were all quiet, so we parked and set up Sesame Street for them. Thank You Elmo!

We got into town around dinner and it was go-go the rest of the time.  One of the best parts was the snow. I can't remember the last night I was in snow, and the kids had never seen it.  We were so lucky that there was snow on the ground, but even luckier that it snowed on Christmas. 

 Andy and I got the kids a Little Tikes Kitchen.  This is after Mass, after dinner, and the drinks have already been poured.  Stacy, my brother's fiance and I did maybe 7% of the putting together. We drank and watched Andy and my brother do the rest.  There were mallet's, hammers, and a few curse words involved.

Christmas Day was the best.  After all the stockings and presents were opened it started to snow. And lots of it! We immediately got the kids dressed for the weather, pulled out the old sled and we played in the front yard. They had a blast. And they enjoyed with Uncle Adam would pull them around the sled.

Andy and I took a day trip up to Ellensburg, went to The Tav, walked around downtown, and just enjoyed each other's company for a bit. We went with Adam and Stacy to the new theater and saw "The Hobbit".  The food was very good and it was a cool new experience.  We did our fair share of shopping as well.  Watched lots of football and ate lots of sugar cookies.

The kids decided to play "nap" with some place mats. The Love seat they are fighting over is Raggedy Ann and Andy.  My mom got that for my brother when he was a little kid. It rocks, and the hair is yarn. They LOVE to sit on it when we go to visit. Verona beat Trent out for the seat though.

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas. We came back on New Years Eve, went to bed around 9:30 and called it good. 

Ms. Current Event

When I was in high school, I had an awesome history teacher. I had him my entire sophomore and junior year. I was bummed he didn't teach senior history classes. At the beginning of each class, he would ask if someone had a "current event" to share.  As long as it wasn't sports or entertainment and you had it memorized, you would get a point. The points would then be added to your grade. As in, you missed 5 on a test, now you only missed 2 because you had bonus points from current events.  To say I "read the newspaper" is a laugh. I devour news. I make news wish it had never been wrote.  Everyday I would get up early and read the entire newspaper. All sections. Front and back. I only skipped classifieds.  I always had at least 3-5 current events to share each day.  I had gotten so many points, that my teacher declared me the "current events winner" for the year. An unofficial title of course.  My friends teased me about my "current event' knowledge. But deep down I knew they would always want to be on my team in a trivia game.

My love for news has only grown. I currently read 3-4 newspapers online everyday. My hometown paper, Yakima Herald-Republic, the Seattle Times and PI, and the Chico ER. I read the Herald the most.  I like to know what is going on in my hometown. When I talk with my parents, I feel that we can talk about more then just the kids, weather, and life. I can ask them about their opinions on a murder trial, a city manager making bad decisions, the new Cabela's or JCP. 

I have played many many many trivia games over the years with friends and family.  I hate losing. I love not just current events but, FUN FACTS!  My closest friends can attest to my 'fun fact' giving through high school. 

I truly hope that my love for learning, curiosity, and need for knowledge get's passed on to the kids.  I hate not knowing what is going on in the world. Good or bad, I learn something new every.single.day.  Pretty sure my high school history teacher would just shake his head and smile if saw these pictures I took of Verona in November. I would be lying if I didn't tell you I was laughing uncontrollably, and I to, just shook my head.

November

I had to look through pictures to see what November was all about. 

My parents left on the 3rd after a week with us.  It's nice to be able to leave the house alone and get errands done. I always forget out enjoyable it is to get in and out so quickly!

The first full week of November was a busy one. There was the presidential election of course on Tuesday.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but my candidate did not lose. Shhh.

Andy as in Sacramento for a conference from Monday-Thursday.  The kids and I came down Wednesday night and stayed with him.  Andy and I had never stayed in hotel room with the kids before. I lied. We did. Twice! Once at Easter 2011 when they were almost 4 months old and June 2011 when they were almost 6 months old. But at that age, they weren't going to be at 7 yet so it was ok.

Not this time. After we had them in their pack'n'plays at 7 we were left to lie in bed, quietly, no TV, lights, nothing. How could we be so silly? While they slept, we lied there and texted each other. Romantic, no? Note to self, book a suite in the future, or be prepared to go to bed at 7 at night.

The next day we took them to the Sacramento Children's Museum. We had a BLAST! There is nothing like that in Chico.  I wish there was!

Andy likes to get inventive at breakfast.  This isnt' the first time he has made something out of the letters V and T.

This was the first year I was free on the day after Thanksgiving.  Unless you have been living under a rock. the "day after" is it's own holiday now. In the retail world, it's referred to as Black Friday. I won't bore you with the history of the name Black Friday. That's what Google and Wikipedia are for!
I haven't been off from the day after since 2002.  This year we got out of town, I spent $2.44 on the day after, I slept in, and enjoyed the day.

We went to Tehachapi down in Southernish Calfornia. I say "ish" because to me it's more mid-California.  Andy's aunt lives there and we had the best time.
We ate like royalty, explored the town, played at parks, ran her poor doggy ragged, and slept. It was great!

The last picture sums up Trenton.  He LOVED the doggie door.  Andy would get on the other side and when Trent would peek in Andy would grab his arm and tickle him We have a doggie/cat door from our laundry room to our garage, I may need to figure out how to open it and let Trent play.

We were sad to go.  The weather was perfect. The food oh so delicious, and it was nice to not have to get up and the crack of dawn, literally, and go to work. One year I had to be at work at 3 in the morning. Ugh.