Merry Christmas

We Made cookies and decorate them several times this year. The kids both ate the frosting and sprinkles off the cookie and then didn't eat the cookie. They know what's good.

Christmas Eve with the Sautters. We had dinner and opened our pajamas and slippers. Margie with Tinkerbelle, Emma with High School Musical, Jakey as superman and Aiden as lightning Mcqueen.

What a great Christmas! We had so much fun watching the kids open presents, and opening a few of our own. One of the best parts was putting out cookies and a carrot for santa and the reindeer. That was the first thing Margie looked for whe she got up in the morning. She was so excited about the fact that Santa had really come because those cookies were gone!

December 26 the weather was so nice we went for a walk and played at the park. I think the official temp. was about 70! It was a little windy, but died down by the evening so we sent the kids out to play. Sidewalk chalk, swings and slides outside with no coat on Dec.26. What is this Arizona? We didn't complain, but we would have loved to see a white christmas. I guess we'll have to visit Grandma to see that!

Tagged...

So I am posting the 6th picture in my 6th picture folder and tagging 5 friends. This is Margie at just a few weeks old. She had a hard time with night and day and so did I. So she slept a lot in her swing which seemed the only thing that would get her to sleep in the day sometimes. It was a really old hand-me-down swing that didn't really recline so there was a pile of blankets in there to make her comfortable.

I tag: Kim (since I just found out about your blog), Eliza and Emma (my sisters), Debbie, (sister in law) and Christine. Hope to see it posted soon.

A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

We gave our kids the Little People Nativity set for Christmas this year using it in an object lesson for FHE about Christmas and telling the story to them so they can learn about Jesus' birth and the events that took place. Margie has been having a lot of fun playing with them and we've found all sorts of people and animals gathered around Baby Jesus. This one so far is the best. There's the minivan full of Mary Joseph and the shepherds (With Baby Jesus and the angel in the back). The police car with the pilgrims in it, the fire truck with another pilgrim and one Indian and the Barbie carriage with some more people and animals. She had them all lined up going to the stable and I had to come and see all her people on their trip. She was very proud of it.

Hey everyone... make sure you scroll all the way down and look at the Halloween pics that are new also. I posted Halloween and Thanksgiving on the same day. I know, I'm a little slow, but better late than never.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We made Gingerbread houses with Grandma and Auntie Em

Ate lots of Chocolate pie with Dad.

Played with cousin Ethan (till he got sick with RSV.. We love you sweet boy- get better soon!)

Caught Grandma drinking prune juice directly from the fridge!!

Jakey got a hair cut!

Had some semi-successful family pictures done!..

But most of all.... Had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanks Grandma for making a delicious turkey!

This is for all the Martins out there... your goosey brother and his goosey boy.

Happy Halloween

I WANT CANDY!!! I WANT CANDY!!! I WANT CANDY!!

OH MOM... I HAVE TO HAVE CANDY OR I'LL DIE!!!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween

Finally!!!

Ok, I know you're all wondering what we've been up to in the last few months... sorry I'm such a slacker. I'll let you know without boring you too much (hopefully).

Margie had a gymnastics class this summer which she loved till the last day when she used all the will in her three year old body to let me know she didn't want to go to class so that was the end of that. Swearing off any more activities for her till she was at least 12, I ended up signing her up for soccer this fall and then (silly me) volunteered to be her coach also. Well, she had fun at practices, and played about 3 minutes each game. Again that strong will she has overruled any and all coaxing or bribing to get her onto the field and to wear the uniform. I do have one picture of her with her team in her uniform hanging proudly on the fridge (I don't have a working scanner or I would post it). It's the only proof we have. She did have fun and so did I, but I have learned my lesson about signing up 3 year olds for any classes. When she asks me if she can do something my new reply is "when you're 12." She replies that she's almost 6 and getting bigger and bigger every day.

Jakey's developed quite a personality of his own. He is so much fun to be around and sometimes too much energy to keep up with. He is constantly on top of the kitchen table, getting his own water from the fridge(which ends up all over the floor of course), scooting a chair over to the counters to see what sort of mischief he can get into, bugging his sister or just genarally into and on everything he can get to on his own which is more and more every day. Just look at that smile, so angelic and yet so mischevious.

We just love that kid.

As a family, we've been on a few camping trips, trips to the zoo, and had fun playing in the backyard lately so here's a few photo's of the last few months.

Bwa Bwa Bwack Sheep

I overheard Margie singing the other day and this is what it sounded like:

Bwa Bwa Bwack sheep, have you any were.

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags fur,

One for the lamanites who live down the lane,

One for the lamanites who sailed across the sea,

One for the lamanites in ancient history,

Bwa Bwa Bwack sheep have you any were....

and it continued on for about 5 minutes before changing to another song.

It was so dang cute!

seriously so blessed

Ok, I got introduced to this site a while ago and I'm addicted. Ok, not really, but I do check on it every once in a while just to get some laughs. It's hilarious if you have a moment to spare and feel like laughing check it out www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com .

A fabulous trip and a sick fourth of July

We finally made it home from our trip with the kids feeling better and Dan feeling awful. Whatever it was he got it bad and spent all week sick with some sort of flu. You name it he had it. It was kind-of a miserable week for everyone. The kids were trying to recover from the trip, but things were not back to normal with Dad home and sick so they were cranky, I had the startings of a cold so on top of everything we had a sad week. The fourth was uneventful. We had some plans and cancelled them. Finally in the afternoon I couldn't stand it anymore so we packed up and went and got ice cream. I managed to get two pictures of the kids it their cute fourth attire but they were very cranky and didn't want their pictures taken so these are the best I got. I hope everyone else had a great fourth (most of your blogs say so). We are all better and everything is somewhat back to normal now, so you are all caught up on the Martins for the time being.

Smokey Mountains

The vacation continued...

The next stop was the Calhoun's in North Carolina. My cousin Tisha, her husband Curteis, and their two kids. We left the Day's on Thursday and drove down to their house which is just outside of Raleigh. Stayed the night there and drove with them to the great Smokie Mountains National Park. We love camping, and when we camped as kids it was always with My cousin Tisha's family. It seemed a fitting way to hang out with her. I hadn't seen her in three years and our kids had never met so we were excited to spend some time with them. We left in the afternoon and underestimated the drive time because we arrived in the dark (10pm) with grumpy, feverish, and sleepy kids. Set up in the dark, and went to sleep. Thankfully the kids slept in a little in the morning (Tisha's kids weren't so forgiving -they stuck to their regular schedules and were up at 6) We spent the day exploring the park, went to the visitors center, and drove to the highest point Clingman's Dome. The drive takes you up almost to the top and then it's a very steep 1/2 mile hike to the lookout tower. We made it trailing after the Calhoun's, by this time, Margie and Jakey were both not feeling well and had fevers. Margie rode in the stroller and we took turns pushing her and carrying Jakey. But, we did make it and the view was beautiful. We took another small hike on the AT for a few minutes and made it down just in time to beat the oncoming rainstorm that we had been watching all afternoon. Luckily it was short so we were able to have a great dinner of Hamburgers and hot dogs and of course smores. The kids were feeling a little better by this time and when we finally got them in bed so we could have a little grown-up time, the rain started again. But this time it didn't stop. It rained all night and all morning. We cut our morning short and packed up in the rain. Our tent held out pretty well, Tisha and Curteis' did not. They had puddles. We did not get much quality time with the cousins the last 12 hours or so with them. The rain really did put a damper on the end of the trip but it was well worth it and tons of fun anyway. It's trips like this that don't always go the way we've planned we always remember the most - Did I mention those camping trips when we were kids were at the Oregon Coast, there was plenty of rain there and many days we spent playing card games in the car. We appreciate the Calhoun's for taking their weekend to spend with us, it was so great to spend time together. And it was, despite the rain, a great weekend.
I hope to get a few more photo's from Tisha for the slide show and the last few are on the trip home when we stopped in Memphis and did a 5 minute drive-by of Graceland. I would have signed my name on the wall if I had a pen but I didn't. Now I can at least say that I've been there (sort-of).

vacation at the Day's house

The vacation was fabulous. We drove through 5 states the first day, that's Oklahoma, Missouri, illinois, Indiana, and ended up in Kentucky where we spent the night. The second day was the rest of Kentucky, West Virginia andVirginia to My sister Jenna's house in Herndon (near DC). We spent all day Saturday hanging out and just having fun. It was Margie's Birthday so we had a great party for her and Eleanor (B-day in July). The two cousins hit it off right away and had the best time together! Yeah! Jakey had a great time babyproffing Auntie Jenna's house for her new little one. We spent all week just having fun. Dan and I got a day away from the kids to spend in DC and we saw all we could in a day. The capitol, Indian Heritage, Air and Space museum, Washington Monument, WWII and Vietnam memorials, Lincoln memorial and Natural History museum. (Pretty good for just one day) We also took a day and drove to the Shendoah National Park and got to walk a little of the appalachian trail (one of Dan's requirements for the trip). The rest of the week was spent playing in the pool, helping Uncle Jason set up the new tramoline, (and then of course playing on it) getting pedicures, having birthday parties, going to REI, and whatever else we coult think of. It was wonderful. Thank you Day Family for the awesome trip and accomodations. We had a great time.

Vacation at the Day's house

Catch-up

Ok, so I am officially a slacker. Here's what's been going on....



I turned 30. May 26th memorial day. Since it was a holiday for everyone, we got together with some friends at the spraypark and did a barbeque in the afternoon. I had mixed feelings about turning 30, but now that it's happened I realize it's not that big of a deal.

Here's Margie and I enjoying a slice of watermelon at the park, a few minutes later I was attacked by the sprayer in the spraypark trying to help Jakey and spent the rest of the afternoon soaked. It was fun!

Later that week, one of our fabulous Oklahoma storms blew in and took a huge branch from the top of our tree in the backyard and blew it over our house (hitting the roof, $500 damage) and landed in our front walkway. Here's the photo's to prove it. I guess we're just lucky the whole tree didn't blow over on the house.

This is the view from the front door.

Margie also had a birthday. June 21, she turned three. We were at my sister's house for her actual birthday(more on that in the next post) but we got together with some friends for a little party and had a blast with face painting, dress-up, candy neclaces, and a princess cake.

Barbies

I love to Garage Sale. A few weeks ago I found a whole box of barbies of all shapes and conditions and a barbie carriage for $2. Margie was in heaven and as the clothes washed and dried she had all her naked barbies lined up watching a movie with her. It was too cute!

Five Years Later...

Dan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on May 3. We went and did sealings at the temple and had a date night. I am grateful for such a wonderful husband and know we'll have many more wonderful years together. I love you Dan!

Camping

We had a fabulous camping trip to Chickasaw National Park with the Hansens a few weekends ago. It was absolutely beautiful there. Lots of great places to wade or swim and just relax.

Obviously Jakey our little climber decided that he was pretty cool getting nice and dirty on top of the fire grate. Little stinker. We finally made some sort of barricade so he couldn't get up. He found the road too and we ended up chasing him down a few times, good thing it wasn't busy. Those little legs sure can go fast!