The Martin Family

Happy Novermber

2011-12-05T12:15:00.001-08:00

I just love this picture of James... He is such a ham when he wants to be.

Rub-a-dub-dub three kids in a tub! (first and only time so far, Margie and Jake are getting a little big for tubs together) I guess I was trying to be efficient that night!

This Boy Loves Hats! he'll usually find whatever he can to put on his head, right now he loves to get into my bowl cupboard, this one fits especially nice!

Happy Turkey Day! Dan's Brother Micah and Jess came to our house for Thanksgiving. We're glad we live close enough for family to visit now.

Just about to gobble up..

James and Andrew, cute cousins!

I have some more pictures, I think, unless I was too busy eating Pie to take any. Anyway, we had a fabulous time with the cousins. Margie and Kloe became best buds. We had a great time together.

We made it!!!

2011-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Moving has a way of making you crazy. I forgot just how much work it is, and there is so much to do! We finally sold our house and just as I knew it would everything went so fast I hardly had time to process what was happening. The 10 hour trip took us 12 with so many stops, mainly due to the fact that we were driving separate cars. Trying to deal with kids and drive down the freeway is really hard! We spent a day in Colorado Springs and took the train up to Pikes Peak, hiked the red rock in Garden of the Gods, and made a little vacation out of the move. It was hard though, to be homeless for a few days, it's very stressful. We have a rental in south Denver and are getting settled in quite nicely. I'm in the process of getting pictures organized and downloaded so I can start posting some of the things we've done in the last few months. Until then....

June - Margie dance recital

2011-06-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Here's Margie ready for her debut performance with her dance class. She surprised us all with her booty shaking and stage presence. I don't know what happened to our shy little girl, she did awesome that night. Way to go Margie! Here some of the Best friends in her dance class.

Her friend Emma takes dance at the same studio,

so they had to have a pre-performance photo together. What Cuties!

I got video of the first dance, I'd post it on here, but either our computer, or blogger took way too long, so you'll have to see it here. She starts out in the middle and then moves to the far left for most of the performance. Go Margie!!

Catch-up May

2011-06-27T18:23:00.001-07:00

Well, May has come and gone, and we've done a few things so here they are:

1. We put our house on the market. Here's our page listing if you're interested. It ended up happening on our 8 Year Anniversary May 3. Happy anniversary to us.. I guess.

2. Dan and I went to Denver, which is where we are moving, to check the place out. We think we found an area to live in, but still waiting for the house to sell before we do anything more. We'll call that the anniversary trip, even though we had James with us.

3. We took a fun trip to the Ouchita's in south-eastern Oklahoma.

Here's Dan and the kids on the trail

James

Margie and Jake

It was a beautiful, yet unseasonably cold day, so we went on a few short hikes and drove the Talamina drive. It was a lot of fun. This is where Dan went on his camping trip last month with his friend James. We stayed over in a Hotel - too cold to camp- and swam in the pool and had a wonderful time.

4. I bought a piano at a garage sale for $150 I was pretty excited and it needs a tune, but I'll wait till it has a permanent place in Denver to tune it. It doesn't sound too bad though, and Margie and I have semi-regular piano lessons. She doing pretty well so far.

5. We had a tornado hit just a few miles West of us which at one point was heading our way and then turned... thankfully. Just the day after the big Joplin, MO, Tornado. It's a very scary thing to watch. We were very blessed, and pray for those who weren't so lucky.

6. I turned 33. I made a super yummy lemon-strawberry cake and we had a little party. I have no pictures, how sad is that? oh well. I actually get the whole month of celebrations with our anniversary, Mothers Day, and my Birthday.. we just call it the month of Becca (Dan usually gets to participate in the anniversary part, but the rest is mine!)

7. We went to the Paseo arts festival Memorial day weekend and finally found a great painting of an Oklahoma storm building on the horizon so we can always remember how the sky looks when a storm is building.

That's just about it... we only had two showings in May, unfortunately, it's a bad time to sell a house, but we're hopeful it'll happen soon.

Catch-up April

2011-06-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm a terrible blogger... it's been a busy few months and I have no good excuse... whatever. Here's what's been going on.

Jamesey-poo got his first official teeth in April.. isn't that just the best cheesy photo face you've ever seen. He's a super Ham. Can you see those two little rodent teeth on the bottom there poking out? There they are.

I got to go to California to see my sisters Emma and Sarah and also my mom who was there for my cousin Karlee's wedding. It was a great trip and we had so much fun. It was great to see all the Rudd family also. We had a great time together and the wedding was beautiful also.

Jake turned 4 on April 22nd!! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy. We had an awesome Batman Birthday complete with water guns melting batman out of Mr. Freeze's block of ice, shooting the penguins down with our bat disks, solving Riddlers riddles, tossing Two-faces' coins and becoming Batman. Here's the batmen all decked out in their costumes. (which I made, except the tall big one, that's a Halloween costume) Nathan, Aiden, Jackson and Jakey.

We finished off the month with Easter. We went to our friends house for dinner and an egg hunt on Saturday and had our own again on Sunday. Here's a few photo's of the day. Dan still has facial hair leftover from his annual camping trip, which he went on also. I don't have any photo's of him on his trip or they would have been included.

Blue Blankie

2011-04-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Jakey: "Mom, you know what my favorite part of preschool is?"

Me: "What Jake?"

Jake: "Naptime."

Me: "Naptime? Why?"

Jake:"Because I get to have blue blankie. I love you blue blankie."

6 months old!

2011-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

One of these things is not like the other... One of these things just isn't the same...

can you guess which one is not like the other,
can you guess before my song is done?

We've been noticing the uncanny resemblance between our children when they were babies. Can you guess who looks the most alike? I'll give you a hint... it's not the Turkey (unfortunately that's the only picture I could find of Jake in the playtoy like the ones with Margie and James. Although they do all have similarities. James has the same mouth as Jake and they all have big eyes, Jake's are just Blue. They all have pretty big cheeks also, but there are times when James pulls a face that looks exactly like his sister.

Here's a few more...

Sitting up big and tall at 6 months old!

Margie, James and Jake in that order.

James is the little girl with the curl...I know he's a boy, but when he is mad he's really really mad and when he's good he's fabulous! I can't believe it's been 6 months already! Let's address the sleeping issues... yes we have days when mom is at wits end and blogs about her crying sad baby who won't nap... we've been working on this for a while now. I am happy to say he has been napping somewhat regularly in the past few days. He loves to be awake all morning and then by the afternoon he naps on again off again for an hour at a time till bedtime... we're working on it though and he does love to sleep in his bed now so that is a major accomplishment. We even got rid of the swing so he couldn't sleep in it any more. (For a time that's all we could do to get him to sleep) James also is a screamer.. which means I have a hard time deciphering the hungry scream from the tired scream from the play with me scream... (I think I need a dog or something sometimes to be able to tell me which is which.) But we are getting into a better schedule now so I do know what to try first! When James is happy and fed and not tired though, he's such a fun baby. He loves attention and just adores his brother and sister. They usually get the biggest smiles from him and can get him laughing. He can now sit up on his own which he loves! He gets really excited to have a pile of toys to play with in front of him and will sit there for a good amount of time now on his own without needing to be held by anyone, in fact he prefers it. He is still very social though and if you leave the room where he is he'll start screaming for you till you come back and he can either see or hear you. I'm hoping that learning to crawl will fix that. He's definitely been the most challenging of my three babies, but we love him the same and I don't even remember what more than a few hours of sleep is anymore! So there's the latest on my sweet baby boy Happy 6 month Birthday James!

Sleep.... or lack thereof

2011-02-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

This is the face of a sad bawling baby boy. 40 minutes of crying and trying to get him to take a nap. One 45 min nap this morning and it's now 2pm and he's not sounding like he wants an afternoon nap. He had about 15 min in the car while I ran errands around noon. That's about it. Could he really not be tired??? Any ideas?

He sure was happy to get up and as long as I'm holding him he doesn't cry... other than that he's been crying pretty much the whole day... yes even in the car except for the 15 min he finally gave up to sleep (the whole purpose of the errands was to get him to sleep). Some days I'll try anything!

Happy Valentines Day!!

2011-02-14T17:53:00.001-08:00

We had a great Valentines dinner tonight. Here's the kids in succession, Margie and James looking and smiling and then Jake... It's amost impossible to get them all at the same time.

The kids helped decorate the table with hearts and valentines.

We made heart shaped pizza's, the kids each had the letter of their first name on it.

Here's Margie at her class party.

Hope you all had a happy Valentines Day!!!

Love XOXOXOXO to all!

Happy 2010 - Bring on 2011

2010-12-30T23:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the Martin Family update for 2010
Margie started Kindergarten and loves to go to school and learn. She is starting to read and gets very excited when she realizes she knows a word or can sound one out. She loves to play Barbies, color and do projects at her desk, and help with baby James. Jacob - as he now likes to be called, (sometimes) - started preschool two days a week, it's a great break from mom and gives him an opportunity to learn and have his own school to go to. He loves Batman and all other superheroes and can often be seen sporting a superhero shirt and cape as he flies around the house and even sometimes around the town with mom. James Talmage Martin was born just before midnight on Aug 22, 2010. He just turned 4 months before Christmas and is growing so fast. He is a sweet boy and loves to smile and interact... almost too much because he is usually crying if nobody is giving him attention or holding him. He's a fun and challenging addition to our family. Dan is enjoying and kept busy with his work at Fronterra Geosciences. He is serving with the Young men and as a ward missionary which keeps him busy out of work also. He had the opportunity to go on a business trip to Egypt last month and see the pyramids
(yep that's really him there- no photoshopping required! Becca is adjusting to life with three kids. (She couldn't find a picture of herself without a child in it also..such is life!) She is the Primary Chorister at church and that keeps her busy as well. She still enjoys quilting and has been taking on many household projects lately, when she has time and what can be done with a baby in one arm.

We are grateful for all our friends and family and the great relationships we have with them. We are ready for a new Year and new experiences that may come with it.
We wish you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-29T09:46:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve was spent with good friends eating Quesadillas, chips and salsa, cheese and lots of yummy desserts. We had our own little nativity play with all the appropriate parts. Margie Jake and Aiden doubled as the shepherds and Wise men. Londynn was the Angel, Jackson and Emma, Mary and Joseph, Kailee was the star, Mason was baby Jesus and Dimitri was the angel Gabriel and the donkey. James was supposed to be a sheep but ended up sleeping through the whole thing. The kids got to open their Christmas pajamas and then we headed home. Amazingly both kids were asleep in about 15 minutes completely out at 8:15 on Christmas Eve. We were all so exausted we even forgot to leave out cookies for Santa! Oh well... He came anyway! Christmas morning at last!!! James was up at 6am, wide awake.. I tried with all my might to get him back to sleep but he woudn't have it. He just wanted to play. So Margie stumbled out around 6:30 and we sent her back to wake up Jake. Of course the chaos bagan the moment they laid into their stockings. We tried to let them open stockings and one present then have breakfast and finish the rest, well neither kid was hungry and Margie sat on the floor staring at me and asking "are you finished yet mom?" as I ate my cereal. They coudn't open till Dan and I were done, pure torture! We were completely finished around 8:30am (and ready for a nap)Here's Jakey sporting his StarWars lego jammies and showing his Transformer car.

Margie didn't like the idea of taking turns so she was done with her present opening way before anyone else. She was so excited she couldn't stand it and was very happy with what Santa brought her. She even declared "I must have been good!" when she saw all she got.
All three gooses on the new blanket from Grama Annie. Thanks Grama!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that Santa was good to you also!

For my Sisters.... several posts in one day!!!

2010-12-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

I am trying to come back to the land of Blog. It's been a few months and yes I just did posts for Halloween and Thanksgiving in one day.. so what... at least I got it done before Christmas. Here's some new news from just the last week...

Margie won a major award!!! the King Arthur award at school (basically student of the month in her class - for being an all around great kid!) Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Baxter.

Congratulations Margie! Her best friend and nest door neighbor Bella also got the king Arthur award the same day as Margie! they were very excited! Here's the visit from Santa at the ward party last night(...aaahhmmm sisters... last night... look at me getting this posted so soon...) Margie informed me this year that she was going to sit on Santa's lap and not cry... my little girl is growing up! Jakey on the other hand didn't want anything to do with him, and someone else took James' picture so I dont have that yet, but I'll post it when I do.

A Thanksgiving of Blessings!

2010-12-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

The Hansens came to our house for Thanksgiving! Yeah!!

Isn't that the cutest Thanksgiving smile you've ever seen?Plenty of Turkey for everyone! The kids love thoese Turkey legs, don't tell Ethan his is a wing! Auntie Emma made the best Turkey Pinata. It was freezing cold outside - literally. But we all took turns and cracked that turkey open and enjoyed some after dinner candy. Thanksgiving as it should be!Cousins!! Los Hansen - nice cheeze Beckham!Los Martin - We all enjoyed a day at an indoor blow-up bounce place to let the kids play. A surprise date night for the Hansens at 105degrees - a totally raw restaruant!

Emma was in Heaven! Jake and Dan trying to prove their manliness to eachother by eating one of the serrano peppers from the garden. Yum!!I love my sister... I'll miss having her just a few hours away and getting to see her several times a year. Love you Em! Have fun in California.Blessing Day for James Talmage Martin. I love my sweet Family! Oh yeah, Auntie Em gave me an awesome new haircut also!

Several of them in fact, Thanks Emma!

A bountiful harvest and a Happy Halloween.

2010-12-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

A fabulous Halloween party at a our friends house, Smores and Hot Chocolate (in the garage because of the rain) and a spooky Haunted House. A rainy Day at the Zoo. We took a break under a patio when it started to pour. Here's little James hamming it up for Mom.Children's petting zoo How's that for a sweet potato harvest! Our first time to grow them, and they have been soooo good! Six Little pumpkins sitting on a porch.....

One of these things is not like the other...

Batman, our little pumpkin and a good witch at the mall for Trick-or-treat.

September Fall Fun!

2010-12-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

Margie and Jakey playing in the Leaves. Hanging out on the Trampoline with Dad!

Margie wanted to take James for a ride. He fit perfectly in the baby doll stroller.

The cutest little Ghost I know getting ready for Halloween! 8 weeks old!

3 weeks old!

2010-09-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Grama Annie came to visit just about a week after James was born. She was fabulous to have here. She read lots of stories to Margie and Jakey and they got to have a sleepover in her room, she made a whole bunch of good food, let me take lots of good naps, We even went to the science museum on her last day here. We miss her being around and helping out, now we're left to fend for ourselves. Thanks Grama for the fun visit(and Pagah for letting her come)!! We love you! James has been a fun and challenging addition to the family. I forget how much work and time it is to take care of a newborn! He had a few terrible colicky days at about a week old, which prompted me to cut out all dairy and it seems to be helping. He knows what he wants and when he wants it, ( food or diaper changes of course) but he's also very social when he's awake and likes to see us and be around us, not left in the other room in his swing. He got his first bath at 2 weeks and was so sleepy in the warm water it just lulled him right to sleep. He woke up after the bath and decided to be cute for some photo's He's got big brownish eyes, we're pretty sure they'll stay that way, like Margie. Quite a bit of hair on the back of his head(He's all party in the back) and a funny parted cowlick on the front of his hairline which parts it to either side... good thing he's a boy! He's sleeping up to 4 hours on a good night and we're starting to get into a routine... well, depending on the day! The big brother and sister love him to death and literally fight over being able to hold him. Dan has had a lot of entertaining in the evenings with the kids.. I knew the trampoline would come in handy! Here's a few shots from last night. Dan and the kids on the tramp.... Mom and James hanging out.

I love this face!!! "I know it says to pinch me cuz I'm so cute... but I wouldn't try it if I were you.. I've got a really good wail and my mom wouldn't be happy!"

Our little bundles of Joy!

2010-08-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Margie was the first little bundle of joy...

here's the first day of Kindergarten Aug 19,

I can hardly believe she's so big! Our second little bundle would not get in the picture with his sister

on the first day and insisted on his own photo shoot.

He started a two day a week preschool on the 26th. The third little bundle came to us very quickly, but not after a seemingly long and hot pregnancy in the Oklahoma heat. James Talmage was born 11:55pm on Aug 22. My water broke a little after 9pm we arrived at the hospital about 10:30, I was dialated to a 5 and then a 7 within 15 minutes and like Jakey's birth, all the nurses had to say was "don't push yet, the doctor is on her way!" (We were taking bets Auntie Anna that he might hold out and be born on your birthday, but alas it was not to be, to be honest, I don't think anyone bet that he would at that point, Sorry)
A little love from DaddyMargie had no problem being the first to hold him
and still does as much as she can.It took Jakey till we got home and everyone else
wanted to hold him to take his turn. Here's the three little goosies!Everyone make a silly face!Margie makes sure James is very comfortable, here's a little pillow, blanket nest she made for him the other day. She is definitely a good helper! We're so glad baby James is here safe and sound.

Hello everyone- Can't wait to meet you all!

Trip to Utah

2010-08-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Utah was a Blast! We exausted ourselves with plenty of Family Reunions and more Cousins than the kids knew they had! We spent the first week with mostly Martin Cousins, Jakey, Tyler, Margie and Anna enjoying some Ice Cream

(Katie and Laney enjoyed some too they are in the background).
At the Holt Reunion we were able to see Grandpa Holt,
and all the Martin and Holt cousins.
I didn't get any pictures hardly though, I'll have to get them from others.
We stayed with Cousin Kloe and uncle Micah and aunt Jess. We had an awesome time with them and especially loved hanging out doing slip and slide with Kloe, watching Nacho, and playing Rock Band - Thanks Guys!!!

We always take our chance to drive up in the mountains as much as we can while we're surrounded by them. Sundance had a good small walk
(just enough for me and my swollen feet)

We did get more adventurous in Little Cottonwood canyon. I couldn't keep up with the kids so Dan and they went ahead up the trail with the kids this day. They apparently didn't want to come back down.

The last week was Johnson reunion at mom's house and backyard. We were packed in like sardines with everyone in trailers and tents, but we had a fabulous time with lots of good food and activities, Olympics, family home evening, the Bean Museum, water slide, service project, swimming, and talent show to name a few.

Car cart races at the Macey's to get ice cream.

Dan and Jakey loved the hammock swing.

South Fork hike was beautiful as usual,

I made it all the way even in my flip flops.

We were pretty dusty and hot by the end, but it was worth it.

We rented a huge blow-up water slide one day and set it up in the school yard behind my mom's house. It was so much fun. Jakey only tried it a few times with dad and then he was done. Margie was like the energizer bunny all day long (that's her on the steps). The Dad's had their usual races to see who could make it up and back down and out the fastest, I think Dan was in 2nd place with 14 seconds? the Mom's did it also(My sisters Sarah and Eiza in about 12 seconds thus smashing the men's time), I did try it once and that was enough, my time was around a minute and 3 seconds - not too bad!

Here's the Johnson cousins mostly lined up by age,

(including my belly which will be the newest grandbaby to come).

Here's my siblings lined up by age also.

We had a wonderful time and are so glad we were able to go even though it took about 4 days to recover from lack of sleep and swollen feet. Thanks everyone for a fabulous time. (and thanks ot Grandpa Johnnie for the great foot rub, I wish he were around to give me one every day!)

Auntie Eliza

2010-07-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

Auntie Eliza has been here with us for a big part of the summer. She is getting ready to go to BYUIdaho so she's been shopping and getting school stuff ready and playing with us as much as she can. We had to take her to the traditional Oklahoma City sites and the weather cooperated with us enough to get some of them in. Here's us at the Bombing memorial site.On our way to get some Sonic downtown... it was so Hot!

Here's a great shot of my huge belly...only 8 weeks to go! The Zoo is always a favorite. She was my lifesaver when Jakey took off and ran away from me this day, I would never have been able to catch him. The Lorikeets were so fun until they practically attacked me. I had several on my arms and shoulders and then one landed on my head.. I couldn't get them off - it was a little much. Liza was able to keep them on her hand luckily. The kids wanted nothing to do with them.

We're glad to have Auntie Eliza with us for the summer and we'll miss her when she goes to school. Jakey thinks she's here permanently and probably won't be too excited that she'll be gone and a little brother will soon be in her place when we get back from our trip... we'll see how that one pans out!

Margie's Birthday

2010-07-08T17:23:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Margie's Birthday June 21.

We had a family party on her actual birthday -

she loved her new Jesse doll from Toy Story. And she got new pink sparkle tennis shoes that she loves, I tried to get a picture of her in them here and she insisted on standing very strange for the picture so you can't see them too well. The Birthday party with her friends was super fun and super crazy! We invited the girls in her class and it turned out almost all could come except 2! So we ended up with a big group of girls.

It was an "almost sleepover" everyone wore pajamas and we painted nails, made glow in the dark bracelets, played musical pillows, and toss the beanbag into the baby bed. Made ice cream sundaes and read a story. It was a rocking party and everyone had a blast!

We love our little Margie. I can't believe she's 5 already! Happy Birthday!

Lucha Libre...

2010-06-07T12:21:00.001-07:00

We turned on "Nacho Libre" to watch the other day, which prompted an impromptu Lucha Libre fighting competition in our living room. Here's Jakey, the instigator of it all... showing his muscles just like Ramses in the background... Here he is again with Nacho and Ramses at the face off....

He forgot his mask, so we had to do another one, this time Margie decided to join in...

With her mask also (this one has a cape too!)

Somehow it turned into spiderman V.S. Hulk with pom poms by the end...?

Well, it's been the first of many fights at this house, whenever the couch gets pushed back and Jakey comes out with just his underwear on we know we're in for a good friendly competition between the two. Nachooooooooooo..........

Memorial Day 2010

2010-06-07T12:04:00.001-07:00

As a tradition we always go to the Paseo Arts festival on Memorial weekend. This year, I got sick on Saturday so we went on Monday. There's tons of art and handmade goods for sale and to look at. It's lots of fun. They even had a kids area where they could make their own art. Here's the kids making spin art.

They did a great job and made cool spin-art pictures.

It was a very hot day and we were glad to have a little party planned at the spray park with some friends in the afternoon. Margie had no trouble running through the spray.

Jake didn't mind using the sray gun.

Dan and I even got a little wet to cool off.

Margie tried to get Jakey to go through the sprayers...

She made it through and back ...

He preferred to come back around on the outskirts.

It was a great way to cool off a bit and wear everyone out for the day. We headed home and were all asleep early that night. Hope you all had a good memorial day, we didn't forget about our soldiers past and present.

Bless Them All - Especially Uncle John - We Love You!!

Pre-K Graduation and Summer is finally here Party!

2010-06-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

Margie graduated from pre-k on May 26th. Her class looked so cute in their graduation caps. She was very proud of herself but sad that school was over. Here's her teacher Mrs. Leonard with her certificate of graduation. So cute! After School was out the neighbors had their annual summer is finally here party with a shaving cream slip-n-slide. (I gave them the idea a few years ago and now it's a tradition!) Here's the little girls before pictures. Maci, Margie, Reese and Bella.

Here's how it started...

A few still shots...

Jakey obviously did not like the slip-n-slide.

He was much happier dried off and observing from the sidelines.

Margie, on the other hand, had a blast! and got herself good and covered.

It was lots of fun!

After the kids got cleaned off and dressed, we played a bunch of "minute to win it" games. Dan went home to change and left the camera at home so I didn't get any photo's of the games, If I get some from others I'll post them later, it was hilarious. We played separate the M&M's into colors and shake the balls out of a kleenex container tied to your waist. The kids had a blast!
Yeah for summer!!!

Baby Boy

2010-05-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Jakey: "Mom is there a baby in your tummy?"

Me: "Yes Jakey there is, it's going to be your new little brother."

Pause for a second....

Jakey: "Did you swallow him?" In case you didn't know.... #3 is due in September. Margie and I will be outnumbered with the boys. He was so squirmy in the untrasound the best photo they could get was this face shot, there's two more but they look more like skeletons. Thanks kid. I guess he'll take after his brother. Margie loves to feel him kick and Jakey won't sit still long enough to feel it yet, I think he's still trying to figure out how he got into my tummy, maybe when you're a little older Jake you'll understand, for now just keep wondering.

Mom, can I...?

2010-05-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

Margie: "Mom, can I go outside and swim?"

Me: "No Margie it's too cold outside."

Margie: "Please, I'll wear my jacket." We can't wait for swimming weather at our house!

Happy Birthday Jakey!

2010-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

April 22, 2007 Our sweet little readheaded stinker came to us. I can't believe he's already 3!!

We deciced to go to the Zoo with our neighbor Bella and her Grama (GeeGee) who has become our surrogate grama lately. We love hanging out with them after school several days a week. This trip was especially fun because there's a new baby Giraffe at the zoo. It was very cute!
Gee Gee bought Lemonade for a treat for everyone after a long walk at the zoo looking at all the animals. Then we went back to Bella's and had birthday cupcakes baked especially by GeeGee and Bella for Jakey. He loved them, well, the frosting mostly.

He got a few new Dragon toys from Gee Gee and Bella, One that makes a lot of noise, but is really fun and these eggs that we had to put in the bathtub to find out which kind of Dragon they were.Of course we had to get in the bath as soon as we got home. It was really cool, the eggs fizzed up in the bath until all the dragon parts were exposed and then we got to put them together. Obviously he loves them! Friday night we had a few friends, 3 because that's how old he turned, over for a party. He and Aiden would not stand still long enough for a non-blurry picture, this is the best one. He got some super fun presents... Jets, books, Dragons, clothes, and a t-ball set which he loves. Here's Dad giving a little instruction.And the Hit! Of course we finished the party off with the cake and ice cream. He wanted a Rocket ship cake it turned out pretty good. We love you Jakey. Happy Birthday!

Photographer or Fashionista...

2010-04-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Margie has her very own and very independent fashion sense. I cannot usually pick out clothes for her, and even if they are ok, she'll pick something else just to be the one to do it herself. Sometimes it turns out super cute....Sometimes I wonder if she got dressed in the dark... She especially loves to dress up on special occasions... Here is the Easter photo posted earlier, purple and blue flowered skirt, purple polka-dot shirt(barely seen poking out of the bottom of her sweater), purple and pink striped sweater.

This one takes the cake, I have no idea where we went this day, but I know she wore this.... Gotta love that little girl.

So, she'll be dressed in her very own style, which is fine with me, (I only put my foot down occasionally on an outfit), and she'll be taking pictures whenever she can get her hands on my camera. Here's a little slideshow showing some of her photo's in the last few months. There's a lot of them and it's only about half. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this wasn't Easter weekend, this was a few weeks ago, but I had to show you these awesome snowmen Dan and the kids made after our latest (and hopefully last) snowstorm.

They were just too cute! So, on Saturday we went to the Yukon park Egg hunt. Our neighbors invited us, we were a little late so we got there right as the horn sounded to get the eggs, they didn't get very many but it was still fun.
When we caught up to the neighbors the girls quickly filled the kids baskets because theirs were overflowing as you can see. Bella and Shelby (one of our babysitters next to Margie and their friend and two cousins)
Where's Jakey you say?....

... He was grouchy and didn't want to be in the picture...

...Until I let him open up an egg and have some candy!
Candy makes everyone feel better!

We dyed eggs after conference on Saturday. Notice the huge goose eggs our friend gave us to dye! They were awesome! Jakey also tried his first hard boiled egg. He won't eat another one. what do you do with hard boiled eggs nobody will eat? hmmmm......
by the way the goose eggs tasted great, just like chicken eggs!!
On Sunday we had the Brewers, Sautters and Asays over for dinner and conference and of course an egg hunt. The food was delicious, ham Turkey, rolls, salads, ... so good, all of it. We hid the eggs in the backyard and let them loose.
Don't look too happy about your eggs Jakey.
"Mom will you hurry up, I'm ready to eat some candy!!!"
Margie, (our little fashionista (more on that in another post)) loved the egg hunt and was proud to show off her found eggs in a photo. Cute girl!

And here's the whole gang of kids we had over. Jake, Aiden, Dimitri, Elaine, Emma, Lilly, Kailee and Stella, Margie and Londynn. Yeah for the egg hunt! We had a golden egg this year, Emma found it, Laurie has a picture of her with it on her blog as well as the beautiful and yummy desserts she made for everyone.

Everyone stayed all afternoon and into the evening when it was time for baths and bed. We had a fabulous time hosting everyone.

Happy Easter!

Fun stuff We've done lately...

2010-03-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

The ZOO.. we went to the zoo over spring break and had a great time. The kids got to pet the rabbits and brush the donkeys in the new children's petting zoo.

They got to ride the Merry-go-round also. Jakey had to ride the "spotted Tiger" and enjoyed every second of it.

He also loves the "eepos" (hippo) and had to have his picture taken with it also.

Margie got to go to the play Cinderella put on at the High School which two of my Young Women were in. We got a group together and had mother-daughter dates to the play. Here's Cinderella and all of our little princesses

Here's Heather Thomas as Joy one of the step-sisters, she did a fabulous job!

And here's Catherine Thomas the Fairy Godmother who also did an amazing job and had a huge beautiful dress!

Three of the little princesses on their way to see Cinderella.

Sick

2010-02-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

We've been through a week of stomach flu at our house and after losing a week I'm not sure where February went. March starts tomorrow! Here's a few pics I never got around to posting of stuff we did in February. As you can see we had the extremes of weather- that's Oklahoma for you. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Dan!

2010-02-04T12:02:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Dan! To a wonderful husband and Daddy and the most fabulous man in the world! We love you and were glad to finally be able to celebrate your birthday with you! The party was only one day later than the big day, but the post is a week and a half late! Sorry.

Christmas is so over and New years was 3 weeks ago!

2010-01-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

So here finally are Christmas/New years/January photo's.

We had friends over Christmas Eve who braved the Blizzard to get here (barely) unfortunately the snow wasn't slowing down so all the daddies shoveled snow to get them here and then we had dinner and they shoveled snow to get them out and home for Christmas at their own houses. We did make time for a very fast nativity pageant and the kids opened their pajamas. When Dan came in finally and everyone was gone I got a great shot of the snow frozen on his eyebrows.

Christmas Day was magical and fun as it should be. We woke up to a white Christmas of course with a bizzard all night, and all got wonderful presents and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and spent the afternoon of a beautiful sunny day playing in the snow and with all our new toys.

The snowdrifts were quite amazing and when we did finally venture out in the new car - Oh yeah, we got a new car right before Christmas also, a Honda Pilot and it's awesome!!! Merry Christmas to me! -Dan was dying to use the 4 wheel drive in the snow. We found lots of roads blocked still with huge drifts and cars stuck everywhere! the entrance to our neighborhood was a one lane passage because of the drift, there's a photo of the car next to it, all the way up to the door.

By new years most roads were clear, we went to the cowboy museum. Dan went to a Thunder game on New years eve. New years day, we played at the park and had a fabulous time (anything to get us our of the house and get some energy out). and Then the Hansen cousins came and stayed the rest of the weekend.

We're finally back in school and back on a normal schedule for the most part. Thank you everyone for the wonderful Christmas cards and e-mails. We love to stay connected with you even if it's just once a year!

Uh-Oh

2009-12-22T13:44:00.001-08:00

We don't usually put presents under our tree till right before Christmas. Mostly it's because our kids have been too little to understand that they can't open them till Christmas Day and that's really hard to have them sitting there. So this year as we recieved packages from our family, I decided to let them be put under the tree, with the strict understanding that we don't open them yet. I thought we were doing pretty well until today..... Margie helped me wrap a few of Daddy's presents and I said she could put some of them under the tree. I had a few of hers that could go out also because I thought we were doing pretty well not opening them. Well, as I cleaned up the wrapping paper and Margie took the presents to put under the tree, she came back surprised I had cleaned up everything and asked "where's the tape, I was going to put it away". Of course my suspicion was immediately raised that something was wrong. I told her it was put away and followed her into the living room where I caught the last seconds of her stashing something behind the tree. This was what I found. Margie has this defense mechanism that when she gets in trouble, especially big trouble she has a total breadown. Clinging, crying, burying her head into me and depending on the severity of the trouble it can last a while. Well, I told her how disappointed I was in her and this present might be back under the tree on Christmas once it was fixed.... then I took a closer look at another present to her under the tree... and another... This is what I found.
If you can't tell, there's a rip there where it says "Merry" and it's been heavily re-taped.

This one I'm pretty sure didn't have huge long strips of tape up the back along the seam...

And the front definitely didn't have any rips or tape when we recieved it.
(Sorry Debbie, don't tell Anna she peeked,
I'm sure she'll still be excited when she gets to open it for real)

She won't fess up that she knows what any of them are, and since the breakdown, ignores me or leaves the room when I ask her about it. (I still don't know what they are either, they were taped back up!) We don't have any more presents under our tree currently. She only opened ones that were for her. Maybe I'll put everyone else's back except hers. I don't know. There's only 2 days left anyway. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Holiday Happenings

2009-12-22T13:04:00.000-08:00

Margie was very excited to decorate the Christmas tree. She insisted on doing most of it herself and wanted the chair to help her reach. She wouldn't let us move the chair though so there are a lot of ornaments right in that spot!

Daddy could help with the tall stuff.When it's cold outside they entertain themselves any way they can. I happened upon this party in the kitchen. Doesn't Jakey look darling! Margie had a book exchange for her class holiday party. Her friend Katie and her got the same book. She loved it.Jakey also enjoyed the party. Good thing there were extras! Making Gingerbread houses. I'm amazed so much candy made it onto the actual house and not just in their tummies! We decided to get a pass to the Oklahoma Science Museum. There were a ton of old airplanes and Jakey was dying to get in them. This was as close as he got, which was still pretty cool! Here's my handsom boy with his crooked smile in his church suit.

Thanksgiving- finally

2009-12-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Margie had a Thanksgiving feast at her school, one class was the pilgrims and the other the Indians. It was a fun activity and her class looked so cute in their outfits. Her teacher is great with activities like this (she's the one dressed like a pilgrim in the middle). Here's our little indian girl in her fabulous outfit. For the real feast we went down to Dallas to Emma and Jake's house. It was a blast. Emma made a fabulous turkey (did I mention she's a vegetarian?)

And I made a pumpkin pie from scratch... no not even canned pumpkin, a real pumpkin baked and pureed to make this pie. It was really tasty. The kids needed lots of entertaining while the food was being prepared. I brought all our Thanksgiving books to read to the kids. To work off all the many plates of food, we spent the afternoon at the park. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

I know Thanksgiving was almost a month ago, but I thought I'd share these pics before the thousands of Christmas pics that are to come. Plus it was really fun!

Fall

2009-11-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

Fall is great. We've had very pleasant weather here and lots of time to play outdoors. I also got a new camera so I had to take a bunch of photo's to try it out. Here's our little Jakey looking very sweet I wish he were always like that, unfortunately he's usually up on the countertop getting into cupboards and anything else he can get his hands onto. I wonder if he really thinks he is spiderman the way he climbs up and gets onto things. Here's the last photo of our Halloween pumpkins......before they became this. It was very theraputic and fun. We raked some leaves and of course jumped in them. We set up our tent in the living room and the kids had a blast filling it with every blanket we own as well as their stuffed animals.
We've been to the library a lot so we have had many books to read. Dan wanted me to include this photo of Jakey and his finger up his nose. He's such a boy!And last but certainly not least, I have one of Dan's work associates to thank for these photo's. Him and a bunch of guys from his office go riding during their lunch hour on a mountain bike trail. Go Dan Go!!

Trick or Treat

2009-11-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

Ok I know it's almost 2 weeks since Halloween, but I had to show off my little cuties. Jakey as spiderman, notice the crooked mask, he can "do it himself!!"
Our little Cheerleader

The Ward party with Darth vader and lots and lots of candy!

Trck or treat at the mall with friends. Jaycie, Margie, Maci, and Bella. We had a great time and got way too much candy. Gotta love Halloween right?

When I was a kid we went Trick-or-treating once on Halloween, this year we went to the Zoo(haunt the zoo trick-or-treat), the Ward party, the mall and then around the neighborhood. Are we just spoiled or what?

Pumpkin time!

2009-10-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

We went to a pumpkin barn to pick out our pumkins and take some cute photos of the kids with the pumpkin displays. They both cheesed it up for the first few photos and then Jakey decided he was "tired" and was less than enthusiastic about the photos from then on. Margie milked the opportunity to be in front of the camera and gave lots of cute poses. After picking our pumpkins we decided to paint them now and carve them later this week, two activities with the same pumpkins. The kids mostly did abstract art as did Dan on part of his pumpkin, I found one that was the perfect shape for a Frankenstein head.

Here's the finished products!

Pagah and Grama Annie's visit

2009-09-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

Pagah and Grama Annie came to visit us last weekend. We had a wonderful time and are so glad they came. Here's some of the highlights:Oklahoma State Fair! We saw lots and lots of animals. The kids got to pet bunnies, goats, horses and see lots of cool bugs. It was fun.

We took a tram ride to see a little more of the fair without having to walk it and finally got dropped at the pig races. They were super cool. Grama of course read lots and lots of books and her and Jakey had a blast playing animals. Jakey the tiger really got into this. We ventured downtown to see the OKC memorial and Bricktown and eat at the Earls Rib Palace. This is in front of the Survivor tree at the memorial. Our last stop was the round barn in Arcadia.

It's not too exciting, but it is a cool landmark on the route 66.

We tried not to bore Pagah to death at the round barn so while we were there we took him to Pop's to pick out any soda he wanted.

Dan also enjoyed his soda from Pops.

We spend our last day relaxing and playing in the backyard.

Thanks for the great visit. We love you!

Carpet, Table, Pre-K, Carbon Freezing and Potty Training

2009-08-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Month of August is almost over so I thought I'd give you a recap of the many exciting things that have happened this month...

First, we got our new carpet!!! Yeah!!! it's only been 7 months since the kitchen flood and all the remodeling that we've been working on and it's finally done.. almost. At least the carpet is in and it's amazing. Margie has become the carpet patrol not allowing anyone with food enter into the living room. I guess 7 months of drilling in "when the new carpet comes..." worked. Unfortunately the week it came in I was sick with a nasty flu that turned sinus infection and on the days I most wanted to lay in my bed it was leaned against the kitchen wall. Oh well, I'm fine now and it's done! Yeah!
New table. Our old garage sale table finally gave out on us so we've had the card table up for a few months and now we decided to finally get a real kitchen table. It's wonderful and Jakey was so helpful putting it together. I couldn't help snap this shot of Daddy's helper.

First day of Pre-k. Margie was so cute this day. She layed out her new outfit and had everything ready to take to her first day. She's been in a week and loves it. We are still working on the separation anxiety when we drop her off, but I think in a week or so she'll be fine. Good thing it only lasts a minute or two and there's not been crying yet, just the leg lock on mom. Jakey looks as excited as she is. Too bad he's not able to go. I think he misses his sister in the mornings. He keeps asking "where Margie go?" "Preschool? oh. ok."

The kids have become Star Wars fans and we watched The Empire Strikes Back last weekend, so the other night we were cleaning up our room of the many toys that had collected there during the day and Dan said to Margie "Can you please get all these toys on the vent?" Margie replied, "No Dad, they are being frozen!" What a great imagination. I can see how Obie Wan, Han and the wookie got into this position, but I'm not sure how the loving family Grandma got into this mess.

Lastly, Jakey who is almost 2 1/2 years old has decided he wants to potty-train himself. I had nothing to do with this, in fact, it started the week we got new carpet and I was sick. He learned that it's really easy to get his own pants and diaper off and then he's usually streaking around the house like this picture I snapped only minutes ago after putting his pants back on about 5 times in the last hour. I give up. Ok not really, but this boy is really strong willed. Nice timing Jakey, we just put in new carpet! Any advice on Potty-training boys?

July Vacation

2009-07-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Our vacation started out at home when my sister Emma came up with her two boys and my brother Ray and his Wife Stephanie and their three kids drove through in the motorhome for a day on their way to Palmyra. We had one fabulous day with everyone. We saw the OKC Temple, Sonic Headquarters, National Bombing Memorial, and ended up in the backyard swimming and BBQ-ing. It was awesome. Thanks everyone for visiting us. We had a blast.

After a very very long (21 hr) drive to Utah, we had a great time staying with Pagah and Grandma Annie. We played with cousins, did 4th of July fireworks, ate Cafe Rio...

This was the best 4th of july pic I could get of my kids. they were not interested in posing for pictures, they only wanted to play. I can't blame them really.

Every Morning Grandma got up with the kids (it was especially nice after getting in at 4 in the morning from a 21 hr drive) and took them on walks and fed them breakfast and played with them. Grandma, will you come live with us?

We love our Grandma and Pagah! Thanks for letting us stay!

After three fabulous days at the Ashtons, it was time for the Martin Reunion. All Dan's siblings, and families got together in a cabin up in Heber for three days. It was so much fun. It was a huge beautiful cabin with a game room, hot tub, beautiful balcony overlooking the aspens and mountains in Heber. It was awesome. We put together a huge puzzle, swung in hammocs, played pool and Uncle Micah's Wii, Had a Fireball Island championship game, card games and soaked in the hot tub, while the cousins roamed around and played to their hearts content. It was great!

Cousins, cousins and more cousins!!!

(Anna, Margie, Katie, Tyler, Jakey, Madison, Ella, Caroline, Kloe, and Ivan)

We just couldn't get enough of the mountains, there's none where we are. When we saw our first mountains in the distance coming into Denver Margie pointed them out with a loud "Look Mountains!" We stayed two more days in Utah before heading home - We went hiking with Liza and her kids to South Fork, one of our favorite places (can you see why! look at that view!) We hung out with the Martins again, and Uncle Micah showed us the method to baking his famous cookies. It was so much fun and well worth the drive. Thanks everyone for helping us have a wonderful trip!

Happy Birthday Margie, Happy Father's Day Dan!

2009-06-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Margie. She turned 4 on Sunday June 21. She is getting so big It's hard to imagine her as the tiny 6.14lb baby she was. We had a playdate at our house already scheduled so we turned it into a birthday party with her friends last week and then on Sunday we had a few more presents for her to open and she shared a brownie with Dad for Father's day. I sure love that sweet little Goose! Happy Birthday! And Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful Husband in the world! I love you Dan.

A fun weekend with the Hansens

2009-05-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

We went on an awesome trip to the OKC Zoo

It was very hot and muggy so the water sprayers were a highlight.

Here's Margie and Ethan going for it.

"Margie, pretend you're scared of the big T-Rex"

Group pictures with 2 year olds... not happening.

My sister came and played soccer with me and rocked the house.

She even kicked the ball into a girls face! I wish she could play with us every weekend. (This is after the game.. nice and sweaty.)

Bugs Mommy! Look at the Bugs! Jakey's new fascination.

After the soccer game a trip to Martin Park. We love this place.

Two Cousins swinging together.

Margie loved her baby cousin Beckham.

Happy Children! Ethan, Jakey, Margie and Beckham

Auntis Becca loved Baby Beckham too!

Thanks guys for a fun weekend.

Tribute to a Red-headed Boy

2009-05-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Jakey's Birthday was on April 22. I have to give a tribute to a small red-headed boy who gets into everything but always gets out of being in too much trouble with his charming smile, personality and stubbornness. We love you Bubsy/cinnamon bear/stinker goose-boy!

Is that the sweetest baby you've ever seen!

1 Year Old Jakey with a smile to melt your heart!

CHEESE!

I love my little boy! (Yes he's a boy, with a big sister who has lots of dress-up stuff)

So on his actual birthday I took the kids out to ice cream. (Dan was out of town.) and Jakey thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream as you can see. He kept asking for more like a broken record and ended up heping mom and Margie finish ours also. This boy loves treats!

We also had a little party with some friends when Dad got home and I made an awesome spiderman cake.

Happy Birthday to Jakey!

I have to add this photo in the mix to show how stubborn he can be. We have been fighting naps since around 18 months (just like his sister) so usually we just put him to bed early or sometimes we just find him passed out on the floor which he did a few sundays ago. Note that if I had put him in his crib he would have cried for at least an hour or more and no nap would have taken place this day. It's usually on his terms as you can see.

Happy birthday Jacob. We love you so much.

I hope the terrible two's don't make us all crazy!

What's been going on at our house

2009-05-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted so I thought I'd do a rundown on the past few months and what we've been up to. We had a little flood in our kitchen (I'll post that later) which have kept us very busy and in a lot of chaos, but we've had a lot of fun also. My two goosie kids are getting so big sometimes I wonder where the time is going. We've been rockclimbing in our garage. Margie picked up on it very easily and by the end could go almost to the top by herself. The kids and I went on some preschool fieldtrips to the Express stables to see the horses and the Myriad Gardens. We went with our Dad on his day off to the aquarium and got to touch the rays and see the sharks swim around us in the shark tunnel (Margie didn't like that one) and chase Jakey through the crowds (he's so dang fast! Does anyone know where I can get one of those harness leashes?) we also saw lots of fish and turtles. Easter came and went, that's the best photo I could get that morning of the two kids before church - little turkeys! Margie got to plant some flowers at the library storytime and when the weather is nice we're outside on our bikes or in the backyard. So that's a rundown of the last few months at the Martin Household. I'm sorry I'm so bad at keeping up with this, it's just been busy around here. I'll do better!

Dan's birthday and a streak of crazy weather

2009-02-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Dan on Jan 25. We made an awesome chocolate cake and had a fun afternoon. He's wearing his new shirt in this picture and blowing out the candles that the kids put on the cake, a little heavy on the one side. We love you Dan!How about a snow day! Dan got to come home early and stay home for 2 days. It was the usual Oklahoma ice/freezing rain/sleet storm which kept us indoors for a few days. We had a great time cruising around the neighborhood on a walk one day.

So the snow was monday through Thursday and by Saturday we were at the park with sweatshirts on going for a hike. Crazy Oklahoma Weather!

Here's Dan's second place mustache in Fronterra's Great Mustachio Bash. (Shaved from the goattee (sp?) seen earlier. I couldn't help laughing every time I looked at him.

The latest storm was just yesterday. We were very blessed to get missed by the tornado that hit a mile away and ripped the whole back end of a Chuck-e-cheese off and the roof of Target and damaged a bunch of other homes and other places. We did get a ton of Hail. Pea sized up to Gumball sized. This is a scoop of hail from my back patio and the size of the biggest ones.

20 things we learned from our trip

2009-02-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to California to see Dan's Grandpa Holt for New Years. Jake and Debbie (Dan's brother) came down from Utah and a bunch of Aunts and Uncles and cousins came from Mesa also. We had tons of fun playing on the farm with lots of cousins. We continued on into Mesa to stay with my brother Ray and Stephanie and their family and then to Sierra Vista to see my sister Anna and John and their new baby Isabella. It was a fabulous trip. Here are a few things we learned.

Our kids really do love eachother!

We love to have cousins the same age.

Dan is a super goose!

California is a long car ride!

A day on the farm can make you tired!

We love our grandpa Holt!

A lasso is a great tool for picking oranges and Grapefruits.

Jakey is a Ham! (We actually already knew that)

Daddy knows how to feed the cows. Cows can't bite you if you throw the hay at them.

We have a lot of cousins, and we love them all!

Eating Oranges and playing in the dirt makes you sticky and muddy.

This boy loves his Daddy!

Playing Barbies in the tub is a lot more fun with a cousin than a brother.

Glow bracelets are awesome! (as are more cousins)

Auntie Anna is the coolest. Especially when she lets Margie cook with her.

She's even cooler when she makes a pancake in the shape of "M" for Margie.

Baby Isabella is super cute and has great hair!

Orange trees make great forts.

Cows have different hair styles.

Christmas is a Happy time of Year!

2009-01-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

I appreciate all of you who sent out those hilarious pictures of Santa with bawling children. This year we got our very own to cherish forever. Hope you all had wonderful holiday!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-29T08:20:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-12-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2008-11-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-08-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T13:56:00.001-07:00

The vacation continued...

2008-07-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-08T18:46:00.001-07:00

Catch-up

2008-07-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-12T19:57:00.001-07:00

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!

Preschool graduation

2008-05-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Margie "graduated from our little preschool group we did this year with a party in the park. It was great fun we played at the park for a while, had snacks and then a small ceremony where each kid recieved a medal with the letter of their first name on it. As you can see, Jakey had fun playing, Margie was less than enthusiastic about the medal, oh well. You can't make a 3 year old be excited about anything they don't want to be. Thanks to all our preschool friends for a great year.

Happy Birthday 1 Year Old!!

2008-05-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a year already since our sweet Jakey was born. This was in the hospital at one day old - he was so little (and has such a goosey sister still)

We had a great party for our one year old. Auntie Em and Uncle Jake and cousin Ethan were here after camping for the weekend (pics of that soon to come). He got loaded up with lots of cars and trucks and cool boy toys!

Jakey loved his chocolate cake - well he didn't love eating it, just smashing it and smearing it all over the place. I guess most one year olds are probably the same. We love our happy little boy.

Happy first Birthday Jakey!

Sleeping Beauty

2008-04-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was checking e-mail, doing stuff in my room when I realized that it was very quiet in Margie's room where she was playing. That usually means something bad so I went in to discover this scene. Lights off, curtains closed, nightlight on, music on, and Margie taking a nap with her babies. Too cute!

Hoppy Easter!

2008-03-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

We had a Easter party with our neighbors. It was so fun. We had an egg hunt and made candy bunny cars and of course when we got home we had to do our own party and read all our Easter books and hide our eggs again. It was so fun!

Jakey trying out his first peep, I think he liked it!

Jacob was really hamming it up for the easter pictures. I couldn't help but post this great shot of him dressing up as the easter bunny. He's also eating a pretzel and has one sticking out of his mouth which looks like his tooth is bigger than it really is. What a little goosie.

The big thing around here are community and church egg hunts for Easter. This is a fun one we went to with our friends. Here you see the before and after, notice all the eggs in the background of the before and our overflowing baskets after!

He can walk!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!!

2008-03-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Jakey started walking about 3 weeks ago. This is his latest video, he's getting pretty good now. I think he just couldn't help but try and keep up with Margie. They are like two peas in a pod!

Trip to Utah

2008-03-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful trip to Utah in February. We saw cousins and Auntie's and Uncles and Pagah and Grandma and Papa and Nana and lots of snow which was fabulous. Thanks to everyone for making it a great trip.

Happy Birthday to Dan

2008-02-10T15:04:00.001-08:00

Mom and the kids surprised Dad at his office with balloons and treats!
Birthday night we had ice cream and pizza
Sunday we had friends over for more ice cream and the super chocolate, chocolate glazed cake - if you can't tell the candles spell out 31 - he's getting old!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008-01-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

Both kids were sick over Christmas with Pneumonia we are still trying to get over the cough and other things that came with it, so mom didn't get a lot of Christmas photo's (probably lack of sleep) But Jakey did cut two teeth that week - contributing to his miserableness. Here's the two of them showing off their teeth. (notice Jakey's rosy flushed cheeks from being sick)

New Years was a little better, everyone had been on antibiotics and other meds for almost a week but since we were still under a little bit of a quarantine so we wouldn't spread our sickies to other kids, we decided to have our own little New Years Party!!

biggest smile

2007-12-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Jakey (as we lovingly call our Jacob) has the best smile.

He can melt any heart with that big grin of his. Even as a small(er) baby when he would smile his whole body would contract into a little ball of glee. This smile was for mom. I am all he wants in the world when he's hungry or tired and Margie is all he wants when it's playtime. We all (including Dad) get the biggest grins when he sees us. He is such a sweet boy and so good natured it's a lot of fun having him around.

He is in a very usual spot in front of the doors looking outside in this photo. He loves to be outside and since the winter came he is usually in this spot looking and longing to be outside. We make it out when weather permits and he thinks that dirt, grass and leaves are the greatest thing in the world, as any small boy would. My biggest challenge is to keep him from eating too much of them while he's out there.

I just love that sweet little face of his and especially that smile, he'll be breaking hearts before we know it.

2007-11-15T08:36:00.000-08:00

I am a blogger

2007-11-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

Even though Dan thinks that Blogging is a little goofy, I think it's a great way to share. I was looking at some of my family's blogs and thought how much I liked to see what was going on in their lives and so I decided to share what was going on in our lives. Plus my kids are so cute I want to show them off, as any mother would. So, I am trying this out and hope you'll add us to your favorites and check up on us Okee's periodically, I will, in turn, try to make regular postings.