Halloween

So, after I read Taffy's post, I decided I wasn't going to post about Halloween. I mean, what she said is totally true. No one else's kids look as cute as yours in their costumes and looking at a million kids in costumes isn't really that exciting. Yet, here I am, posting about Halloween. I couldn't help it!:) Sorry, but I want to remember how adorable the kids looked in their costumes, so bear with me as you endure one more blog of Halloween costumes!!:) Lori and Traci were here, so we had a great Halloween with all of the cousins to go trick-or-treating together!!

We didn't get Kyson a costume because my mom just kept him at her house while we took the kids to the carnival. Plus, he slept through most of Halloween night, so that's why he's not in many pictures.

Here are all the cousins together. Kaden isn't in the picture because he was already trick-or-treating and I never did get a picture of Olivia and Paisley. Oh, and Regyn wasn't here because she was really sick, but I think everyone else was there. The kids LOVED having everyone here!!

Our Little Toothless Annie (Mireya)

We had a little accident yesterday while visiting teaching. We were in the auditorium visiting Andra because she was painting sets for the play. Well, no big deal to visit her there. I've visited ladies at work before for a few minutes, and no big deal, right? Well, not so yesterday. I had 3 of the kids with me and Kaybree & Mireya wanted to go down in the pit with Angela Thompson's kids to play on the bottom couple of steps. They were being quiet, so no big deal. I was a little worried about them getting down those steep brown steps on the front of the stage (you all know the ones I'm talking about). They went down and back up safely. Mireya came and asked if she could go back down one more time and I shook my head yes, then continued to visit. I heard a thump and then screaming. Angela and Andra quickly ran down the stairs to grab Mireya. I scooped her up and sat back down to finish the lesson. There was blood all over my shirt, but I assumed it was from her swollen lip and tried to comfort her and keep her a little quiet so Angela could finish the lesson. In-between appointements I decided to run her home to Martin and change shirts. On the way into the house I asked her to say "Ahhhh" so I could see how deep her teeth went into her lip--there were no teeth. She didn't have her 2 front teeth. Inside I was totally freaking out, but I came in and handed her off to Martin, giving him a quick rundown of what had happened, trying not to burst into tears. That didn't last long. I was kind of a wreck, feeling all kinds of guilt that this had happened while I had her and that it was a totally preventable accident. We called the dentist to see what, if anything, needed to be done and he said to try and shove her teeth back in. Well, thankfully I had gone back up to the school and found her teeth (then I really got sick to my stomach and felt TERRIBLE when I saw how big the roots on her teeth were and thought about how much that must have hurt). Martin had to try and shove her teeth back in, which was horrible, but it didn't work. The chances aren't ever real great that it will work, but sometimes it does. I was really distraught at this point, thinking about my 2 1/2-year-old going 3 or 4 years without her 2 front teeth. How was she going to eat? It's already causing her to talk with a lisp, and she looks a little like a vampire! Well, thankfully, after a lengthy phone call with the dentist, in a couple weeks, after her gums have healed, we will take her to get a mold done for some false teeth. I guess they do it all the time for kids that get their teeth knocked out. He said they were working on 5 different molds right now for some kids. Crazy, huh? That made me feel so much better. So, here are some pictures of her war wounds.

This is her adorable before smile.

It's kind of hard to see, but these are the pictures of her fat lip and missing teeth.

And here's a picture of her teeth.

She was very excited this morning when she found that the tooth fairy had come. She made a killing too. It's amazing what a mother will do to relieve some guilt.:) She kept looking at her dollars this morning and pretending to read them. She said, "This one says 'Jesus loves me' and this one says 'Gramma loves me'." I agreed with her and she was so happy to carry around her "special money." I still feel horrible and it's interesting watching her try to eat, but by watching her you'd never know anything ever happened.

Mylee's Stories

Nearly every day when Mylee gets home from school, she has some story to tell me. Most of them are far from the truth, but she continues to come up with these made-up stories and then sometimes at the end she'll turn to me and whisper, "Just pretend that's what happened, okay?"

It started a little early today because she was telling stories before she ever even got to school. She was all dressed and ready for school, but it was raining outside so I told her I would give her a ride. We were all sitting in the living room waiting until it was time to take her to school. Then it began:

"We painted the school bus. It's not yellow anymore. The yellow was too bright and sparkly so we decided to paint it bright pink, like my jacket. Our bus is the only one that got painted though. And we decided to put black stripes on it too, so it totally matches the outfit I have on today. Wow, huh, Mom. And if you wear something that matches the school bus, you get a special prize when you get to school and you have to keep it in your desk until Halloween. Then you get to bring all of your prizes and treats home and share them with your family. (Kaybree and Mireya were getting excited at this point.) They give us all kinds of prizes, like Bratz dolls and all kinds of stuff. It's so cool, Mom. You've got to see all of the prizes I have in my desk at school, one for everyone in the whole family."

Finally Kaybree said, "You're lying, Mylee, and it's not good to lie." That was the end of the story, but it sure was entertaining for the moment. If only the school busses really were bright pink with black stripes. That would be a little more exciting, wouldn't it?

August/September

I am so far behind with the blog, so this will be a long one to catch us up--sorry. Kyson was blessed August 9th. It was a really neat day and we were really thankful to those who were able to come support us. We know that those who couldn't come wanted to be there. Kyson looked so cute in his little tux. I didn't realize how wild his hair was until I got looking at these pictures. He had just woken up from a nap in the swing and I realized after looking at these pictures that his hair could've used a little taming down!!:)

Mylee did NOT want to get her picture taken. She got tired of the pictures, but we finally got her to sit there but she said she "was not going to smile!"

Next we had our little camping trip. The girls had been begging all summer to go camping so we finally decided we'd better do it since school was starting the upcoming Monday. Man it's a lot of work for parents to get things ready for camping. It took forever to get everything gathered and packed, but we did it. The kids were so excited. We only went for one night and then spent part of the next day up there. We were maybe going to spend a second night, but Martin was worn out because he got NO sleep the first night and the hornets were horrible up Pine Creek, so the kids wouldn't get out of the tents or camper. They would sprint back and forth and quickly shut the door so the hornets couldn't get in. I was giving Mylee a hard time about it and telling her to relax, that they weren't that bad and then the next thing I knew, I was sprinting to the camper and slamming the door. Martin thought we were the biggest wimps, but there were so many hornets!! Anyway, the kids loved cooking the tinfoil dinners. They thought they were the coolest thing and we had to roast marshmallows, of course. The kids slept really well (except Mireya) and they were so excited the next morning to snuggle around the fire while I cooked breakfast. They did get a little cold in the morning, but thankfully we had haircuts scheduled with Traci, so we came out for a little while, got haircuts and then went back up for lunch before we packed up and headed home. We were able to take my mom and dad's camper and it was so nice to stay in and cook in. (Thanks, Mom and Dad.) We will definitely have to do it again, but I have to say that I am really glad that we can't go again THIS year. We need a LONG break before we go through all of that again!!:)

Thank goodness for the portable swing. I just put it in the camper, so Kyson was happy as ever!!

School started the Monday after our camping trip. Mylee wasn't really ready for school to start--summer seemed way too short since we had so much rain in June, but she had a great attitude on Monday morning when I woke her up. I was so worried about her all day going to all-day school now, but she thought it was the best ever. She thinks it's so cool that she gets to eat school lunch or pack a lunch and she has absolutely LOVED school so far. I'm sure it will wear off a little, but I'm sure enjoying her attitude about it right now. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up. She is starting to actually enjoy reading rather than me MAKING her sit down to do her reading and it's so fun to listen to her read books to her siblings. She gets so excited when she picks up a book and can read it. It's so cute!! This was Mylee's first day of school. My mom let her pick out an outfit this year and this is the one she chose. She loves it!!

Kaybree LOVES to hold Kyson. She holds him way more than the other girls. She always picks him up and rocks him in the rocking chair. She can actually be a lot of help. Sometimes she gets a little rough with him and then I have to rescue him, but she loves him so much. It's so darn cute!!

These next pictures were on Kaybree's first day of school and Mylee's birthday. Kaybree had to wait a whole extra week to start school and it was so hard for her to wait. She's been asking me when she gets to go to school ever since her birthday in January. She LOVES it. She comes home and practices writing her letters and numbers for hours. She gets Mylee's old homework and traces over it. She definitely has a different attitude about learning than Mylee had at her age!!:)

Next, we had Mylee's 6th birthday. She was so excited for her birthday. We had cake and ice cream with the fam and she loved it. She LOVES brownies right now, so I just made a big oreo cookie and homemade chocolate syrup to drizzle over the top. She thought it was perfect (thankfully)!

Then I decided to have a party for her since she's never had one before. We invited all of the girls from her class. I hadn't even counted them for sure, but once they were all there I realized that with my children included I had 18 kids there at one time!! It was a little crazy, but Mylee loved it and I think the girls had a great time. They each made a bracelet and then decorated their own cupcakes to eat. It sure made a mess, but they had fun. I was left with quite the mess to clean up after the kids were in bed. It only took me a couple hours to get the whole kitchen clean again!!

Then we had a break from the excitement for a couple weeks until Ty (Martin's brother), Nicole and Braelyn came for a visit for the weekend. We were so excited for them to come because we hadn't seen Braelyn yet. She is so adorable. She looks so much like her daddy. Anyway, it was so much fun having them come, even though they couldn't stay long. We just hung out, went up Pine Creek and roasted some marshmallows in our backyard (we have a pit) since it was too cold for the babies up Pine Creek. We really enjoyed their visit and hope they'll come again sometime this winter to hit the slopes!!:)

The last, but certainly not the least, exciting thing that happened at the Martinez residence this last month and a half was the finishing of Mylee and Kaybree's room in the basement. It has been a very long process, but we finally did it!! We started on it before Kyson was born because we knew we were going to need another bedroom, but after I had Kyson we took a 2-month break from working on it. Well, I am ready for Kyson to get out of our bedroom and into his own room, so it got us motivated again. We finally finished it this last week and moved the girls down. I don't know how many total hours I've spent working on that room, but it is definitely worth it now!! We weren't sure they were going to sleep down there since the rest of the basement isn't finished yet (that's our goal over the next year), but they LOVE it down there and haven't had any problems (knock on wood)! Plus, now when they play in their room, the noise level upstairs is so much quieter since all of the noise is downstairs!! We love it!! I wish I would've taken before pictures of this room, but I forgot to. John and Sharon Linford used to live here before Bri and Becca and John made beautiful willow chairs. Well, this was his workroom. There were all kinds of workbenches and shelves and pegboard on the walls and stacks of wood and willows. It was a HUGE project just to get the room ripped back down to the studs before we could actually start finishing the room (thanks, Martin). Then we went to town on it. I actually love doing stuff like that--it's just hard to do it with 4 children!:) This week I hope to finish Kyson's room! We'll see.

Well, I think that catches up the Martinez household. Hopefully I'll do better about keeping up so my posts don't have to be so long--sorry about that!!:)

A Tribute To . . .

Orlean Sizemore Perkins

My Grandma Perkins passed away this last Tuesday, so she has been on my mind a lot this week. I have known all week that I wanted to do something special for her, but I wanted to wait until after her funeral so that all of my thoughts would be more complete. We've had such a great week in so many ways as we have gathered as family and friends to remember the grandma that we all loved and miss. In moments of solitude I find myself talking to her and thinking about some of my favorite memories of her:

- her purple puffy coat
- her sitting on the edge of the seat in her car so she could see over the steering wheel
- her beautiful white hair
- playing dress-up with her size 5 shoes when I was in elementary school
- her pack of gum that she was always willing to share
- mashed potatoes with white gravy
- the pitcher of grape juice that was always in the fridge
- her holding and bouncing babies
- going on drives with her and Grandpa
- spending endless hours at their house (I was there nearly every day of my childhood)
- her crossword puzzles & pepsi every afternoon
- seeing her snuggled under a blanket up to her chin since she was always cold
- her hugs and kisses
- her famous sayings: "not much of anything," "gettin' along pretty good," "ya don't have to rush off," "I'll have what she's having"
- little conversations we had the last couple years
- the last time I saw her and heard her tell me she loved me

Not many people knew my grandma very well because she was a very quiet, non-confrontational person. She lived her life quietly doing service for those around her. She was such an example of selflessness. My grandma suffered from Alzheimer's the last 8 years or so, so sometimes it was hard to see her being confused and frustrated with herself when she didn't know who we were or what was going on. We got to learn pretty fast that open-ended questions weren't good to ask because she would get frustrated when she couldn't answer them. When her condition became such that my grandpa could no longer take care of her on his own, my parents moved them over to their house. What a tremendous blessing that was in all of our lives! It was really hard, but it was such a blessing as well. We used to all stop by and see them in their little white house on the corner when we would come to town for a visit, but when they moved to my parents' house, we saw them much more often. Not only did we see them more often, but we were given the tremendous opportunity to serve my grandma. She got to where she couldn't do some things for herself that we probably often take for granted. That gave us the opportunity to help her do those things or do those things for her. I didn't think much about it at the time. I used to just chat with her while helping take care of her or while sitting with her for an afternoon so my grandpa could get out for a while. Those little chats have been on my mind a lot this week. One thing I used to say to her often after helping her get ready for the day was, "You'd better go tell Grandpa you're ready for a hot date now." She would just agree with me and head in to her recliner next to Grandpa. How priceless that time I had with her was. I wouldn't change it for anything. Sadly, it finally got to where we could no longer provide the medical care she needed and so we had to send her to a nursing home. The visits to the nursing home (as hard as they were) were no less precious than the time we spent with her in my parent's home. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had to serve her even when at times she didn't know who I was. I'm also thankful for the opportunity which I had to tell her I loved her before she passed away. We knew she wasn't doing well last Sunday so we went to see her. It was heart-wrenching to see her in pain and not doing very well. I was given one last opportunity to serve her as I held her hand and stroked her arm to try and calm her. I was able to embrace her and tell her how much I loved her. She passed away about 36 hours later.

As much as we miss her and as hard as it is to realize she has gone from this life, what a blessing it is that she doesn't have to suffer anymore, that she no longer has to be confused or frustrated with herself. I am so thankful for my knowledge of the plan of happiness. When I get thinking about her and missing her, I picture the reunion she would have had with her mother, father and sister when she got to the other side. I picture her with our family's future children--getting to know them before they come to earth. I am so thankful for the Savior and for the opportunity which we have to be together forever if we choose to live worthy of that blessing.

This has been a hard week for our family, but it has also been a very priceless week, one I will never forget, as it was spent discussing our Father in Heaven's plan for us, as well as the tremendous part this little woman played in all of our lives. I will be forever grateful that I was able to live just across the lawn from such a wonderful woman who has had such a tremendous influence in my life, especially in her latter years as she taught me what it means to truly love someone through serving them. I pray that I can live my life in such a way that I will be given the opportunity to embrace her once again when this life is over. I also pray that I never forget the wonderful memories I have of this five-foot tall, white-haired woman that I have called "Grandma."

Family Home Evening

The girls have been BEGGING to go camping all summer long, but with the new baby, we just didn't dare go yet. Well, we have finally decided we are brave enough to give it a shot, so Martin and the girls drove up Pine Creek to find the perfect spot. For family home evening this week, we decided we would try the spot out for a couple hours by roasting marshmallows. The girls LOVED it!! They were so excited to haul their camping chairs up there (Mireya decided she wanted to take her floaty thing to sit on instead of a chair). They settled right in as soon as we got up there.

Then the girls did a little exploring while Martin built the fire. They loved all of the lovely weeds (flowers to them) they were able to pull and bring to us.

Martin and I just hung out once the fire was going and watched the girls play for a bit. Mylee took the picture of me--a little too up close and personal. I don't have any secret flaws on my face now!!:)

Then the girls decided to roast some marshmallows. Mireya didn't get her marshmallow very roasted.:) She had to have a little help since she never got close enough to even begin to roast her marshmallow.

Mireya loved the smores. She would cook one and start to eat it, but then as soon as she saw that another marshmallow was cooked, she would throw her smore in the fire and want a new one. Let's just say we wasted more than just a couple smores.:)

When the girls were done with their smores, they decided to do a little more exploring. They moved their chairs away from the fire and had a little discussion by the patch of weeds. Then they found a little grove of trees to be their "house." They thought it was the best thing ever. Since we were pretty much done roasting marshmallows, they started using the sticks to dig around in the dirt. They got SO dirty SO fast, or at least Kaybree did. Her hair kept tickling her face and every time she would itch her face, her face would get dirtier.

Kyson slept in the truck through all of the roasting action, so when he finally woke up, he just hung out with his dad for a while I took pictures of the girls.

After I first noticed Kaybree's filthy face, Martin and I had the giggles really bad. I went and got the water and washed her face. She came back a couple minutes later looking like the picture below. I couldn't believe it!! Martin and I burst into laughter, but she didn't appreciate it. She finally caught onto the fact that she had been the reaon for all of the laughter and it hurt her feelings. I felt really badly, so we got her all cleaned up again.

We had a great time. The girls didn't want to leave, but Kyson didn't really appreciate being wrapped up so much to keep him safe from the bugs, so we decided to head home. It got the girls so excited to go camping and we decided our chosen camping spot should be just great. The girls definitely found plenty to keep themselves entertained!!:)

Catchin' Up

We sure have a lot of catching up to do. We've had a busy couple of weeks and I haven't had a chance to update our blog. It all started the 4th of July weekend. Traci and her kids and Lori, Dan and their kids and our family headed to the Congers' beach house to enjoy the pool. We had a great time. The kids loved it since it was the first time we have been in water this summer!! We had a really terrifying experience with Mireya because she almost drowned in the hot tub. Lots of prayers were answered that day because Lori happened to notice her under the water and saved her. I don't know when I'll go around a pool again because every time I think about how close we came to losing her, I get physically ill. Other than the pit in my stomach I had the rest of the time we were at the pool, we had a great time!!:

The 4th of July was an eventful day. There were lot of things going on in the park so we basically spent the whole day there. Plus, we had a booth where we were selling flower head bows and headbands, so we were pretty attached to the park. The kids had a blast because the Baptist church had a booth where they gave out free cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones. My kids thought that was the best thing ever!!!:)

A few days later we headed to Casper to see Martin's family. We haven't been for about 4 months and we hadn't seen Jackson (Martin's sister's baby that's 2 weeks older than Kyson) yet, so were excited to go. Plus, we hit it during fair week so we were able to take the kids to the fairgrounds for some fun and excitement. We had a great week, but were completely exhausted by the time the week was over. We had to stay an extra day just to rest a little before we headed home!!

This is a picture of the two dads with their new babies. Isn't it cute?

The kids had a blast at the fair!! They even found someone to make them balloons!

Grandpa Martinez took Cade and Mireya to the kids' play area while Mylee and Kaybree rode the rides. Mireya was so sad that she was too small to ride the rides.

The kids wore Grandpa "Tinez" right out!!

Kyson got to hang out with Grandma while the older kids had some fun!!

Then the kids went to Darlene and Brian's house to play in the pool (and make a mess with all of Cade's toys in the basement).

Kyson and Jackson hung out and slept most of the time we were at the fair. Isn't Jackson adorable?!! I can't tell you how many comments people made about his hair while we were out and about!! He has the most adorable hair and he's such a cutie!!

We went to the new hospital open house the next day and about roasted to death. We got a tour of the hospital and saw Katie and Mike there as well. It was nice to get in the air conditioned building for the tour, but the rest of it wasn't so enjoyable since it was so hot. We and the Websters (Darlene and Brian) didn't last long!!:)

We finally made it back to Cokeville, but we had an absolute blast while we were in Casper!! The kids were so worn out they slept almost the entire way home. We always love our visits to Casper. Thanks for all of the fun!!

A few days after we got back from Casper we took our first trip to the lake. We haven't been yet this summer since it was so cold for so long, so the girls were really excited. Kyson and I just hung out in the shade while Martin and the girls played in the water. Mireya was scared of the water and hardly got in. She mostly stayed on the beach, but the other girls spent almost the entire time in the water and loved it!!

We've had a fun couple of weeks!! We've been exhausted from it all, but we've had so much fun spending so much time together as a family before Martin goes back to work.