Happy Holidays!!!

I wish everyone the most Joyous of Holidays! Enjoy my most favorite song at Christmas Time! "Believe" by Josh Groban from the movie "Polar Express".

See you in the New Year!

"You have everything you need, if you just Believe."

HOLY HANNAH!!!!!

4 Tickets to the Hannah Montana Concert with the Jonas Brothers: $292.00

2 T-Shirts & 2 Glo-Sticks: $80.00

Food: $40.00

The Look on These Faces:

To See This:

(Hannah Montana front & Jonas Bros. back)

PRICELESS!!!!

Worth every minute and every penny!

When You Tickle a Twin is taking a break for the Holidays! We'll see you in the New Year!

Enjoy your Holidays!

Oh God Send Me Snow!

Reilly (my 4 year old) has been praying for snow everynight. He asked me the other night, "Mommy, I know how to pray to keep me safe and healthy, but how do you pray for snow?" I cracked up. One thing about Reilly is that he is never at a loss for words. I told him to just pray like we normally do and just add at the end that you would like for some snow if God thinks it is a good idea.
"Well, Mom he already sent a little bit, so he'll think a lot is a great idea!" Again, trying to hold back laughter, I don't want him to think I'm laughing at him. So, he went ahead and said his prayers like normal. Then, at the end he sat up nice and straight, had his hands perfectly folded and whispered very clearly to his finger tips ( he believes angels sit on his finger tips when he prays and they take his prayers to God) "Oh God Send Me Snow! Good Night, Amen."

Needless to say we didn't get snow, however, Reilly was quite content with the fact that the snow that had fallen previously was still there. "God didn't let it melt this time. That's ok too!"
I know I was relieved to hear he was satisfied because I was in no mood to field a thousand questions of why God didn't answer his prayers.
Tomorrow should be interesting as the weather is supposed to warm up. Maybe by then I'll be able to direct his interests else where. I'll be praying for that...LOL!

The Golden Compass Debate

OK. So I feel compelled to write on this subject because it is just irritating me to no end. First, let me state clearly for all... I am Catholic, believe whole heartily in God, and raise my children in our faith. I live with 2 miracles (my twins) who if not for the grace of God would not be here with us today. With that being said, I will now vent MY opinion.
I am not one to allow someone to dictate to me what I should do, not without question anyway. So when our church sent home letters to boycott "The Golden Compass" naturally I had to find out more. I read an awful lot about "in an interview Philip Pullman stated he based this novel on his atheist views" but never was the interview named. Not to mention a lot of what I read was basically 3rd party interpretation of interviews. Any mildly intelligent person, I would hope, not take those words to be fact. In fact, I got so frustrated of reading interviews of interviews I went directly to Philip Pullman's website. I read for myself his interviews. Are his views atheistic? I don't believe so. Agnostic? Definitely. In the interview on his website when asked if he believed in God he states: "I don't know whether there is a God or not..." Ending with: "...there may well be a God, somewhere hiding away". Those are not the views of a devout atheist! An atheist would have said "NO". Flat out, no explanation.
Further more, he states that his book is a fantasy. I read nothing that stated a secret plot to change all the children of the world into Atheists.
I do plan to read "His Dark Materials" Trilogy and decided for myself if my children will be allowed to see the movie. I am raising intelligent children and we are all strong enough in our faith to not let a FANTASY elude us to believe that God does not exist.
If you do not plan on reading the book(s) or seeing the movie is it because you believe that he is trying to convert your children to Atheism? Well he's not, he's not even an Atheist, not in my opinion anyway. Do yourself a favor and look up Atheist. Now this is a BIG question...Are you boycotting his book/movie because you think he's an Atheist or Agnostic? Well, that's just down right wrong if you are! Are you saying that his views are wrong and yours are right? That is like saying you wouldn't view/read because he was Jewish or some other religion. That is what is so great about our country (and yes I know Philip Pullman lives in Wales) we are allowed to have different beliefs and not be persecuted for them. So what makes you superior to judge him?
What bothers me most is how people just accept what they hear from others as fact. When we start allowing others to dictate our views we loose a piece of ourselves. Intellect is what sets someone apart from the crowd. Do you go along with the crowd or do you stand out? I prefer to have my voice heard and make my decisions on my thoughts and feelings, not of those around me.
I don't want you to think that this blog is a rant for my views, because it's not. However, for my children's sake, I cannot allow them to grow up making unintelligent decisions. They are my greatest gift from God and I thank him (God) everyday for giving me these 5 precious lives. "God never gives us more than we can handle." ~Mother Theresa
I live by that quote. Do you think a mere book or movie could lead me away from that?

The Grades are in!

Inspiring and beautiful she is! My oldest daughter received her first report card for 6th grade on Wednesday. 3 A's & 4 B's!!! Now in our house we reward for TRYING to succeed as much as we do for success, but with grades like that I just wanted to give her the moon. She use to struggle terribly with reading in elementary school, which is when we began this whole reward for trying thing. After all, how can you scold a child for not doing well after you have seen them sit there for hours studying and helped them over and over and they still failed a test. So our rule is, if you do your best and try you will not be punished for your grades. So far this strategy has worked well for us. My children know that as long as they can show us they put forth the effort they will not get in trouble for their grades, which in turn gives them some incentive to study. Now, I'm not a push over, I do quiz them myself to be sure they are actually studying and not just staring at the book, they've yet to pull a fast one on me or even try to for that fact.

My youngest daughter (I only have 2...LOL) she did just as well on her first report card for 3rd grade. 1 A & 4 B's! She just happens to be one of those kids who can do anything. She is an extraordinary child. On the student council (yes, they have a student council for 3rd graders in her school, which she was elected for), a cheerleader, has tons of friends, and a Teacher's Pet. Every year, every teacher has the same comment. "Most Popular and can't find one thing wrong with anything she does." I beg them not to share that with her, her head wouldn't fit through the front door if she knew that. LOL

I'm a very lucky Mom to have such great kids with good heads on their shoulders. It just makes me that much more scared to send them off to High School someday. For now they are on the right track, just hope I can keep them on it!

What's with the Title?

In creating this Blog I was trying to think of an original, catchy phrase that represented what I wanted to achieve with this blog. My intention is to have a blog that is both funny & inspiring. Well, all my children are funny & inspiring, but my there is just something about my twins laughter. It makes everyone in my house laugh. Maybe it's because they're the youngest, maybe because everyone in this house knows how lucky we are to have them here with us (they were preemies). Their laughter is indeed contagious and their lives are indeed inspiring.

The other day as we were playing, I began to tickle one, the other one fell on the floor laughing with us, then my 4 year old joined in (my older daughters were in school still), before I knew it the 4 of us were laughing so hard I think I pulled a few AB muscles. Which is ok, I'm sure they need to be pulled in some way. When I sat down that night to work on my "Mom's Top 10" Blog, the name came to me!

I'm excited to bring to you: "When You Tickle a Twin" hope you find my stories here both funny & inspiring. While this blog is called "When you Tickle a Twin" it is indeed a blog about ALL my children. Each one of them an inspiration.



"The world seen through the eyes of a child is beautiful place. We should all look at it this way."