The Martinez Fam

3 Growing Babies!

2011-10-24T14:34:00.002-06:00

Here are a few of the latest pictures we took of our 3 babies! They are growing so fast! Brylee (Brian and Becca's) is on the left, then Berkley (Lori and Dan's) and then Makyla, our sweet little baby, well, not so little, but sweet.:)

Makyla's Blessing Day

2011-08-14T21:35:00.001-06:00

Makyla was blessed Sunday, August 7th. She's grown so fast I was worried she wouldn't fit in her blessing dress, but thankfully it still fit.:) My mom made her afaghan and I love it. It was just what I wanted. Thanks, Mom. Martin's parents and Traci and her family came up for the occasion (plus all of the fam that already lives in Cokeville were there) and we really appreciated the love and support. Martin gave her a beautiful blessing and we are just so thankful to have this sweet spirit in our home. We are enjoying her so much!

The Girls

This is what every attempt we make to take a picture of all 5 kids turns out to be:;) There's always one of them that's not willing to cooperate.

It was a great day and thanks again everyone for your love and support. It really helped make the day a special one for us!

Makyla Zoe...and Cousins

2011-07-07T05:47:00.000-06:00

Well, I know it's a little late since she is a month old now, but Makyla Zoe finally arrived! She was born on June 6th and she weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long (our biggest baby). I was induced early the morning of the 6th and everything went really well for the most part. We are so thankful to have her here safe and sound. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly they become such a big part of our family. It seems like we have always had her! The kids love her so much! Kyson is the one that has surprised me the most because I was worried he would be mean to her (which may still happen), but instead he just stops by for a quick kiss and rocks her once in a while, and that's really about it. Mylee and Kaybree have been a tremendous help with her while Martin was at work. Now that they are strong enough to hold her on their own and rock her, they have been able to calm her down at times when I just can't get to her yet. Mireya can even be a help if I don't need her to move around with her. And she is the most patient with her when she is screaming. She will just hold her or sit right by her and stroke her face or hold her hand while singing her one of her made-up songs that she so loves to sing. It's the sweetest thing. That's one thing I have enjoyed so much with this baby--watching the other kids' reactions to her.

Our 5 kids...man, that sounds like a big number.:)

One of the most amazing things about Makyla's birth is that she had 2 cousins born within 4 weeks of her birth. Berkley (Lori and Dan's) was born May 5th, Brylee (Brian and Becca's) was born May 31st, and then Makyla on June 6th. Berkley was 5 weeks early, but all of these babies were due within a few days of each other. We certainly have never thought these babies were a coincidence considering they all began their journey to earth the same week, shortly after Zoe passed away (even Berkley, who was adopted). What a blessing these sweet little girls are! In quiet moments when I hold my sweet, little angel I think of Zoe and how thankful I am that Heavenly Father sent us this sweet reminder of her.

Berkley, Makyla, Brylee

The Healing Pregnancy

2011-04-07T05:48:00.001-06:00

(I had this in paragraphs, but for some reason it's posting it as one big paragraph. Sorry.)Most of you already know about the upcoming addition to our family, but since I have been so horrible about keeping up our blog, I thought I had better make an official announcement!:) Martinez #5 is due to arrive the beginning of June (in about 9 weeks for those who are counting). We are all getting very excited to meet this new little one in just a couple months, but this pregnancy has been very different from my other pregnancies and the last 7 months have been a major learning experience that I really have felt I needed to share. The first major difference was that this pregnancy was 100% unplanned and unexpected. I am a planner, especially when it comes to when we are going to add to our family, so it was a bit of a shock to us. Normally, I would have been surprised, but so thankful that we don't struggle with the infertility that so many couples deal with, and I would've just moved on, excited about the upcoming addition to our family. This situation was a little different, I'm a little ashamed to say. Finding out I was pregnant just 6 weeks after the passing away of my dear friend and sister, for the 2nd time in that short period, I found myself questioning the Lord. I had felt peace and understanding about the passing away of Zoe and was working through those emotions, but was still very much mourning her loss. I was kind of a wreck to be perfectly honest, and now the Lord added this to my plate? A wonderful blessing, but I am already a very busy mother and just wasn't ready to take on something so big when I was struggling to just make it through each day. I also had a major fear of miscarriage because of how emotional and exhausted I was all of the time as I mourned. Thankfully, my husband didn't freak out like I did and as I crumbled in a ball in his arms, he was able to point out all of the blessings that were going to come from having this baby and reminded me that the Lord has a bigger plan and can see the big picture, and I just needed to have faith in His plan for us. Over the next couple months, whenever I would start to feel overwhelmed or found myself questioning the Lord's plan for us, I was able to refer to that counsel and I found myself conversing with the Lord often, thanking Him for the opportunity to bring this sweet spirit into our home, but also kind of turning all of my fears and overwhelming emotions over to Him and trying to have complete faith in His plan for us because at the time, I just didn't know what else to do. Now, 7 months into this pregnancy and the baby coming in just a couple short months, I can say that my attitude about this baby has completely changed and has been one of the biggest blessings in our lives. Without going into a tremendous amount of detail, I'll elaborate a little bit (which is something I obviously don't struggle with). Many of you may not know this, but the day Zoe passed away, I happened to show up to visit her literally seconds after Kevin noticed her lips were a little blue. The events that took place in the next couple of hours were extremely traumatic. The things I witnessed and experienced that day would haunt me from that night through the next several months. I would do okay during the day. I was obviously deeply mourning, and it was a difficult time for me, for all of us. As soon as the sun would start to go down, another struggle would begin. At the time my family asked me if it was because I was afraid of dying in my sleep as Zoe had. No. That wasn't it at all. Every night I replayed the events of that day over and over and over. I could vividly recall everything I saw and did and felt and I would get very sick and emotional and wasn't sleeping at all really. I couldn't be alone at night at all. I wasn't able to attend young women activities because then I would be coming home when it was dark to a dark house, and I wasn't able to sleep alone. How thankful I am for a loving and understanding family. When Traci and Lori came to visit, they stayed with me and one of them would sleep with me. My mom came and slept with me several nights and if she was delayed for some reason, then Becca would come sit with me until my mom was able to arrive. And when Martin was home, he could sense when I was awake and struggling and he would just hold me tight and comfort me. You're probably wondering what this has to do with my pregnancy. Well, a tremendous amount of healing has taken place throughout this pregnancy. My inability to sleep at all and my fear of the dark slowly went away with the fatigue and sickness of a first-trimester pregnancy. I was so exhausted and sick that when night came, I would fall into bed and before long, the flashbacks came less often until they eventually quit coming at all. This pregnancy has been able to give me a new focus as well. For the first while after losing Zoe, it was hard for me to find value in doing any mundane tasks. Who cared if my house was clean, the laundry was done, or if my flowers got trimmed for the upcoming winter? I certainly didn't. The only thing that really mattered to me was my family and my relationship with the Lord. Rather than focusing on our loss, I was able to gradually turn my focus on all of the tremendous blessings that we have and the blessing that this sweet baby was going to be in our home. I have also felt like this baby has been a very special gift to help me remember Zoe. We joke in our family that Zoe must've told the Lord that if He had to take her, then He needed to send Becca and I these babies. (Becca is due with a baby girl just a few days after me.) Everyone thought I would probably have another boy, a friend for Kyson to help him keep his sanity around all of the girls in our house. I thought so at first as well, but the closer I got to my ultrasound, I started feeling very strongly that we were going to have another girl. And how fitting that would be since this pregnancy and baby had helped me heal so much from the loss of one of my dearest friends. So when the ultrasound tech said it was another girl, the tears streamed down my face. So even though the last 7 months, especially the first 5 after Zoe passed away, have been extremely difficult and I have found myself questioning the Lord at times, how thankful I am for His bigger plan for us. How thankful I am for this sweet little spirit, Makyla Zoe, and for the daily reminder we are going to have of the Zoe that impacted our lives so much in the short time we were able to know her on this earth. We are so excited and looking forward to meeting this sweet little baby that has already impacted our family so much!

Zoe; My Sister, My Friend

2010-09-19T14:40:00.000-06:00

I have neglected writing this because I have been nervous to revisit the pain of the last couple weeks, but I have felt a desire, a need to share some things that I loved so deeply about Zoe. I've been reflecting a lot about Zoe, her life, the impact she had on my life and I never want to forget. There were so many qualitites Zoe had that made her who she was. After spending the last week with her family, I have understood more where some of these qualities came from. Here are a few things that I just loved about Zoe:

She always gave us her opinion. It took the Nates a while to get used to his one, but we grew to love and appreciate her honesty. I was always so excited to show Zoe anything I had bought or done because I knew she would be completely honest with me.

She loved animals. She had a dog that we all thought of as a nuisance, but she loved her and took such good care of her. She rescued a few animals in town and found them a home.

She was always working on a home-improvement project. She has gallons of paint lined up in her house, waiting for her next project. She didn't paint anything the way most of the rest of us do it either. She had her own quirky way of doing it and I loved it! In her house right now, there are like 4 different colors of paint on her bathroom wall. She would always paint several strips of paint on walls throughout her house until she found the right shade. Then she would gradually work on it every day until it was finally finished several weeks later!:)

She's famous around Cokeville for her driving. People got used to pulling over when they saw her gold van drive down the street! No, she wasn't that bad, but she had to be pulled out of a few snow banks and it was always an adventure to travel with Zoe.

She had a love of all peoploe, regardless of age or circumstance. She had some of the most unlikely friends; age, race, religion didn't matter to her. She could be a friend and see the good in everyone.

She loved to socialize. She wouldn't just run into The Store for a quick gallon of milk. She would stay and visit for a few minutes. She would do the same when she went to the diner or when she delivered her Allison's Pantry orders.

She had beautiful, flawless skin. She wore little make-up, but she didn't need to. She had the most beautiful green eyes and when she would get dressed up, she was stunning.

She didn't always keep her house spotless (not because she wasn't capable--she had the cleanest house in town when she dug in), but it's because she was always playing with the kids, reading to them, traveling with Kevin, spending time with all of us. What wisdom that was as she had such a short time to nourish those relationships.

Her accent was pretty much gone in her everyday conversation other than a few English phrases she always used, but whenever she talked to her family on the phone her accent was so thick. I loved being around when she was talking to her mom or sisters!

Everyone knows how much my family loves to support the athletic programs in Cokeville. Well, Zoe was always right there with us, but for different reasons. She was always worried she had missed the cheerleaders dance.:)

She loved England and would often tell us of the many things that were better in England. She loved to visit her family and really loved her homeland.

She loved the elderly. She served my grandma Perkins so much before she passed away and that was her nature.

She used to research everything before she would buy it or do it. She researched for hours before she planted her little garden, before she bought a car seat for the kids, etc.

She was a very generous person. She would've given money or food to anyone if she knew they needed it, and she did to several people.

She had a testimony of the gospel. She had tremendous faith to join the church, leave her family in England, and move to America to be with Kev. As we tidied up the house for her family to come stay this last week, it was apparent that the gospel was a part of her everyday life.

She was my best friend, my sister. I saw her nearly every day. She spent so much time in our home and we did nearly everything together. Whenever I needed to go out of town for something, Zoe would go with me. I could talk to her about anything. She would always pop in and say she only had a minute and then several hours later, she would finally gather up the kids and go home. I cherish those times. Lori was telling me this last week that I need a "Sarah" in my life (Sarah is the name of her good friend in Kaysville). What she meant was that I needed someone I could talk to about anything, someone who could step in and take care of my kids on a moment's notice, someone who could take my husband cupcakes from me if I happened to be out of town for his birthday. I simply said, "Zoe was my Sarah." And she was. I miss her so deeply every day. She was such a huge part of my life. The pain I have felt over the last two weeks has been the far greatest pain I have ever experienced, but my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been strengthened so much. When I felt I could bear the pain no more, through the power of the priesthood and through the Atonement of Christ, I was able to feel peace and understanding. I don't have all of the answers, but I have come to an understanding that whatever mission the Lord has for her on the other side is very important, so imortant that He felt it necessary to take her from her husband and two children for a short time. Our family has always been very close, but through this trial, we have been strengthened so much and have grown so much closer. It has been two weeks full of the most tremendous pain, but two weeks full of the most sacred spiritual experiences we have shared as a family. I know there are many tough days ahead, but after my experiences the last couple weeks, I cannot deny the power of the priesthood, that through the Atonement our pain can be taken away, that the plan of salvation is real, that the Comforter is real, and that if I live worthily, I will see my sister, my best friend again.

A Child's Prayer

2010-05-02T19:47:00.000-06:00

Mireya's prayers have been so sweet lately. Her prayer tonight was pretty entertaining:

Thank you for my family. Please help me to not be wiggly in church and to sit nice and not throw fits. And please help me to be a nice girl. And please help me to not get water on the floor when I'm in the tub. Please help me keep the water in the tub so my mom won't slip on the floor and fall and scream at me. And please bless all our family.

Can you tell some things that we've talked about the last couple days? I ran in the bathroom last night and slipped and fell on the water and may have yelled at Mireya a little bit about keeping the water in the tub. Also, we had to have a little chat about how to sit reverently on the way home from church.

2010-04-18T19:28:00.000-06:00

April has kept us pretty busy as usual. The kids have loved having a warm day here and there. Kyson is growing up so fast we can't believe it!! He is our one child that loves to be rough-housed with. He loves to be thrown in the air. Martin gets a pretty big kick out of it!:)

Kyson also loves licorice. When it's late afternoon and it's too early for bed, but too late for another nap, sometimes the best answer to his orneriness is a piece of Red Vines licorice. He loves to gnaw on it. It makes a pretty big mess, but it's amazing what we're willing to do for a little peace and quiet.:)

Kamille was baptized on Easter weekend so that was fun to have everyone come visit for that. Here is a picture of all the grandkids, but Hallee and Boston. Boston had the flu so he was at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Pretty cute kids, huh?

Here is a picture of me and the kids at the baptism. I was the pianist for the baptism and I know that's not a big deal to most people, but I don't usually play in front of people. Martin and I both play a lot in the comfort of our home, but that's about it for me. I was really nervous and practiced a ton! Kamille sang a solo and she did a beautiful job. I was so worried I was going to mess up while she was singing! Thankfully I didn't. Phew!!!

Here are the Parkers and Delgados that were able to attend. David came a little later, but didn't quite make it in time for the baptism. Aren't they so cute?! I didn't get a picture of any of the other families. (They are on Becca's blog though.)

I love this picture of Jasmine and Paisley. I had to post it!

Here are 2 of the 3 Nate babies that were born this past year. Kyson was having a nap, so we have yet to get all three babies in one picture, but aren't Paisley and Olivia cute together? They are only 5 hours apart, so it's fun to see them grow up together.

And, of course, since it was Easter weekend, we had to dye Easter eggs. The kids had a great time. I may have been a little over organized though, so they lost interest a little quicker than usual. I had visions of paint flying around the kitchen and eggs being dropped everywhere, so I went down the line, handed out an egg to everyone, then went back down the line with another egg. They got tired of waiting for the next egg.:) Next year I guess I'll deal with the total mayhem so they have more fun!:) (My plan did work, however. The mess was a breeze to clean up!)

The other day when the kids got bored while I was folding laundry, this is the game they came up with!! Kyson wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but the girls loved it! The unfortunate part is that Kaybree weighs too much for Mireya to push her in the laundry basket, so Kaybree definitely got the short end of that deal!

A short time later, this is what I found them doing to pass the time. Kaybree has gotten into a hair-fixing mood lately. They're usually a little unorthodox, but she loves doing it. Too bad she doesn't want me to fix HER hair cute anymore.

One really important thing that happened this month was Mireya's birthday!! She was so excited to turn 3. I felt a little badly because on her real birthday everyone called her to talk to her, but I wouldn't let them because we didn't actually celebrate her birthday for a whole other week when Martin got home. Thankfully she's still young enough to do that this year.:) Then on the day we did celebrate her b-day, I had to call all those people back and have them talk to her so she would know who had called her on her b-day!! She was so cute all day. Every time I asked her what she wanted for her b-day she would say she wanted a cake and cupcakes. She couldn't tell me what she wanted for a present, so it was a little difficult shopping for her, but we got the job done.

This is her adorable Dora cake that Sue Richardson made for her. Isn't it perfect and adorable?! Mireya couldn't believe she got a Dora cake. She is crazy for Dora right now. I think we're beginning to own stock in the Dora company these days.:) Everyone came down for cake and ice cream and she was feelin' pretty special. Anyway, thanks, Sue.

Here is Mireya in her new dance outfit. She has to wear it every day now. She loves to sing and dance. She is famous in the family for her "horsey dance." I never knew it was possible for such little hips to move so much.:)

Pictures like this one remind me once again how little my kids look like me (other than Kaybree).

I think that pretty much wraps up the last few weeks. We're so thankful to finally be getting some warmer weather!!

Random Happenings at the Martinez House

2010-03-17T16:30:00.000-06:00

I grew up eating cinnamon and sugar toast. Martin thinks it's disgusting, but I happen to love it and so do my kids. You just toast the bread, put a thin coat of butter on it and lightly sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. Well, Mireya has still to figure out that the sugar kind of melts into the butter, so she always thinks I forgot to put the sugar on hers. She took things into her own hands this last week. I came in from the living room and this is what I found! Not only had she put about 3 tablespoons of sugar on top, but she had also gotten in the pantry and poured some syrup on her plate to dip her toast in.

A couple mornings after the sugar incident I got busy fixing the kids some breakfast and I guess I wasn't fast enough, because when I turned around Kyson had grabbed a little sandwich bag off the counter that had a couple mini donuts in it from the day before and started shoving them in his mouth. It was quite the mess to clean up.:)

Mylee finally lost her 1st tooth. She has wanted to all year. She has had a really loose tooth for a couple weeks now, but she wouldn't let us touch it. It finally came out in her hand the other night. She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come! Kaybree was instantly worried. She said, "Is the tooth fairy going to come into our room?" I said, "Yeah. She just flies in and switches the money for the tooth really quickly and you won't even know she came. She's magic just like Santa and really nice, so there's nothing to worry about." She wasn't convinced and in the end Mylee decided to leave her tooth on the kitchen table so Kaybree wouldn't be scared.:)

The last exciting thing we did this week was ride horses for the first time this "spring." Mylee was in school, but the rest of us headed to the ranch to ride. Kaybree and Mireya were so excited to ride. Brian was a good sport and led them around and around and around. I rode with Kyson for a bit and then Kaybree wanted to take him. He wasn't sure what to think of the horses. It was fun and the kids really loved it, so thanks, Bri.

That's about all the excitement that happened in our household this week!!:)

From Kaybree's Birthday to State Basketball!

2010-03-09T13:59:00.001-07:00

I am so far behind. I keep telling myself I'm going to do better about keeping up the blog and then before I know it, it's been a month or TWO MONTHS!! We have had a great couple of months so I'm just going to get us caught up.

First of all is a picture of our handsome boy. This is what I get to see whenever he first wakes up. I love that smile!! I can't believe how quickly he is growing up. He's already 9 months old. It's going way too fast!!

The first big thing we had happen in January was Kaybree's 5th birthday. She was so excited to turn 5 so she can go to kindergarten next year!! She also got to have a birthday party with her little friends and she couldn't wait for it. I let her choose what she wanted to do for the party and she chose to do pedicures. I thought that was a pretty cute idea, so we went with it. The girls were a little hesitant at first, but then loved it!!

Because of Martin's work schedule, Kaybree got to have two parties for her birthday. One with her friends on her birthday and then the next day (after Martin got home) we did her family party. It was a lot of fun and everyone came over to celebrate with us. We had a special treat of having my Aunt Virginia (my grandpa Perkins' sister) there with us. We had a nice dinner with them before the birthday party. I think she had a great birthday. I know I keep saying this, but I can't believe how quickly our kids are growing up. It seems like I just had Kaybree and now she's 5!!

Here's our sweet litle boy sleeping. I had just checked on him and he had been sitting up. I was going into his room to get him out of bed, but this is what I found. He loves his bed!

The next big thing was my grandpa Perkins' birthday the beginning of February. Everyone gathered to celebrate with him and he really appreciated it. We all love him so much.

The kids have sure enjoyed the snow since the first of the year. We hadn't really played outside much before the first of the year because there wasn't that much snow, but they have made up for it in the last couple of months!

A couple weekends ago we decided to take a trip to Rexburg to visit David, Traci and the kids. We decided to stay in a hotel so we could make a little family vacation out of it because Martin wasn't going to be able to go to state basketball with us. The kids loved it!! Traci and the kids came to the hotel so they could all swim. The babies got a little bored, but everyone else had a great time. We put Kyson's feet in the water to see what he would think. He liked it for a minute and then started screaming. We always have a blast when we go see them. This time we got to go to the temple and it was really neat to do that with David and Traci. I'm not sure our babysitters (Braxton and Jasmine) enjoyed it so much, but we really appreciated their willingness to babysit so we could attend the temple. We even saw Rebecca Pieper in the dressing room.:) We had a great weekend!! Thanks guys!

Traci will be so sad that I posted this picture because Paisley doesn't have her headband in. She always has a headband in. Traci says she isn't fully dressed without it, so sorry Traci.

Braxton and Jasmine had a stunt competition. That was pretty entertaining to watch as well.

Last weekend we headed to Casper for state basketball. I didn't know if I was brave enough to do it this year without Martin, but I did it and it was so much fun. I did miss having Martin there, but it was a great weekend. I got to spend lots of time with both families, eat lots of great food, watch the kids swim and see some good basketball games. We cheered hard and even dressed for the occasion.:)

Here are all of the cousins that were there. They had so much fun together. They would all sit together to cheer at the games.

Here's Paisley testing the water out. She didn't mind it so much.

Brian spent almost as many hours in the pool as the kids did. And he usually had about 4 kids hanging on him at all times. He's a good sport. He loves playing with the kids. He seems like a pretty tough dude until you see him around kids. He's so good with them.

Then we got together to celebrate my dad's birthday which always happens right in the middle of state basketball. It was fun to get together and celebrate.

Everyone had so much fun and I'm so glad we went. I just realized that I don't have any pictures with Martin's family this time. Oops! We spent a lot of time with them going to playland and such. Martin's parents took the kids to a movie (a tradition my kids love) and they have been talking about it ever since. They LOVE to go to the movie!

Thanks for the great times everyone. We have had so much fun seeing everyone the last couple of months!!

Holidays

2010-01-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

***Warning--Picture Overload***

The 2nd half of December started with Mylee's cheerleading performance. She loved doing it! She's got me a little worried (nothing against cheerleaders) that she'll want to do that rather than play volleyball and basketball, which would be hard for me, but we've got a few more years to brainwash her, right?!

Kyson has a thing with chewing on the strings of hoodies. If we are wearing a hooded sweatshirt, he will always start chompin' on the strings.

Then we headed to Casper for some Holiday fun!! On Christmas Eve we got together for Cade's 3rd birthday party. It was so fun to get everyone together. Here are the 3 "Martinez" babies that were born this year. Cute, huh?

I LOVED this skirt!! Isn't it adorable?!

Then we proceeded to take pictures of all of the moms with babies, dads with babies, Grandma and Grandpa, etc.

Ty, Nicole and Braelyn (sorry-can't remember for sure how you spell her name)

Brian, Darlene, Cade & Jackson

Grandma Martinez got a SNUGGIE!!! Now we have to quit crackin' jokes about them!:)

We took the kids sledding Christmas morning and they had a blast!!

The girls LOVED their scrapbook stuff and continuously designed masterpieces during our stay!

Kyson had a hard time deciding which interactive toy to play with first!

This is a picture of the kids in their new church outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Martinez. Thanks!

We finally came home from Casper after being snowed in a couple extra days (we weren't complaining). It probably goes down as the most miserable trip home from Casper for me. We had separate vehicles since Martin met us in Casper after work, and I got slammed with the flu around Rock Springs. So the last couple hours of the trip I had to keep stopping to puke. Nice, huh? We made it though and I was feeling better in time to participate in the New Year festivities over at the cotttage at the lake with my family!

Braxton and his little sister, Paisley. Aren't they cute together?

I'd have to say that other than all of the wonderful food (although I was still a little queasy, so not able to partake of much food), and the visiting, the concerts performed was the best entertainment! I never knew Lori had such moves!! I've always known Martin had some moves, and he sure wasn't too shy to show them off (the video of him was flipped the wrong way, so I couldn't put it on here). The kids loved it!!

Kyson and Paisley--Olivia wasn't there or I would've had a picture of all 3 of the "Nate" babies that were born this year!

More performances!

We had such a great holiday season!! Lots of fun memories. Thanks for all of the fun, everybody!

1st Half of December

2009-12-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already been more than a month since I last posted!! Time goes by so quickly. We've had a great December so far! The kids talked me into doing sugar cookies last week. I had been busy doing "Hair Play" parties and it was the first Saturday I didn't have to rush around to get things done, so we had a "family fun day." The kids thought it was the best! We spent the whole day together doing fun family things (we missed you, Martin). I didn't have classic red and green food coloring, so we got to have bright Christmas cookies!:)

Kyson just hung out in his highchair and didn't know what all of the excitement was about.

Here is a picture of the kids after I got them ready for church a couple of Sundays ago. I made them headbands to match Christmas dresses we had from last year and they loved posing for some pictures. As you can see, Mireya had lost her vim and vigor for picture-taking after her pictures alone. She didn't want to take any with all of them together!

I was trying to get Kaybree to pose for me in the latest headband I had designed, but she wouldn't put Kyson down, so yet again, another picture I've taken of Kaybree and Kyson. She loves him so much. She only puts him down when I insist that his armpits and belly are probably sore. She's so cute with him!

I finally got a picture of her without Kyson!!:)

We look forward to the 2nd half of the month!! I love this time of year!!!

Halloween

2009-11-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-10-23T07:57:00.001-06:00

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

2009-09-30T09:30:00.000-06:00

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

2009-09-20T20:13:00.000-06:00

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 . . .

2009-08-16T18:37:00.001-06:00

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

2009-08-07T13:57:00.001-06:00

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

2009-07-19T21:41:00.000-06:00

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.

Rexburg Trip

2009-07-01T15:33:00.000-06:00

Last week the girls and I headed to Rexburg to spend some time with Traci & Jasmine. David was out of town most of the time and Braxton and Riley were camping, so it was just a girls' week out (other than Kyson of course). We had a great time. I was so nervous to drive 3 hours by myself with the 4 kids, especially since Kyson has to eat every 2 hours, but we made it all in one piece and it wasn't even that bad.

The first day we took the kids to the splash park. We both forgot our cameras, but they had the best time. My kids finally dared go down the slides, well, at least Mylee & Mireya did. Kaybree preferred to play in the little fountains of water that sprang up all around the park. We ended our little splash park trip with some yummy cotton candy.

The next day Traci had the wonderful idea of taking the girls to the beauty school to get their toenails painted. The girls that painted their toenails were so good with the girls. They had a blast and talked about it for the rest of the day. My girls thought it was the best thing ever. (It did take Kaybree a while to decide she did actually want to get them painted.):)

Mireya's Toenails

Kaybree's Toenails

Mylee's Toenails

When we were done at the beauty school, we headed back to Traci's for a quick lunch and then drove into Idaho Falls to do some shopping at the mall. It was a lot of fun and we were able to find the perfect gift for Martin for his birthday.

After we got back to the house and had dinner, David mentioned going on a boat ride with his parents down the river (which is VERY high right now). Well, we aren't ones to sit around the house, so me and the girls loaded up in the motorhome (which my girls think is the coolest thing ever) and drove to the river. Traci stayed home with Kyson so we could go. Thanks again, Traci. We froze to death since it had been a rainy day, but it was still a lot of fun. Kaybree was tougher than nails. She sat on the back and had the cold wind blowing at her the whole time, but every time I looked at her, she had a great big smile on her face. I wasn't so tough. It was a lot of fun though and the girls really enjoyed it.

This is the famous motorhome that my kids love. Kaybree told me we need to get one just like it so we can sleep while we drive. :)

We had the best time in Rexburg. I was completely exhausted by the time I got home, but it was so much fun. I'm so glad we went. I think I gained a couple pounds (right when I'm trying to lose the baby weight) from Traci's amazing cooking, but it was totally worth it. Thanks, David and Traci.

We got back to Cokeville just in time for a little picnic up Pine Creek. The bugs were annoying, but other than that, it was a lot of fun.

What a great weekend!! It sure made Martin's time away go by faster. Thanks, everyone!!

Anniversary and Happy Father's Day!!

2009-06-21T19:49:00.000-06:00

I know I am more than a little behind. I never had a chance to do a post for our anniversary because I was a little behind and then I had Kyson. Well, now it's Father's Day and tomorrow is Martin's birthday, so I thought it would be a perfect time to get caught up!!

May 23rd was our 7th anniversary!! This is a picture of us before we went out to a nice, quiet dinner without any children. I can't believe it has already been 7 years and I certainly can't believe that we already have 4 kids in those 7 years!!

I am so thankful for my husband. He is such an amazing guy and I am so blessed to have him as my eternal companion. We're attending a marriage and family class for Sunday School right now and each week as we discuss different things that are important in our marriages, I have reflected back over the last 7 years and the many ups and downs we've had and the things that we have learned together. It's been a really great experience and it has made me realize even more just how thankful I am for Martin and the kind of husband and father he is. Here are ten things that I admire about Martin and some of the many reasons I love him so much.

1- The first thing that attracted me to Martin, (well, other than his gorgeous brown eyes) was his testimony of the gospel. I first saw him at institute and then when I heard him talk about his mission at a Sunday Evening Discussion that we always had on Sunday nights, I think I was already in love. I knew I wanted to get to know him better. My roommate and I were fighting over who got first dibs on him when we got back to our dorm room.:) He continues to be a spiritual strength to me and our family.

2- He is one of the most selfless people I know. He will ALWAYS put my needs and wants or the needs or wants of our family before his own.

3-He is a very hard worker. He leaves our family for 2 weeks at a time, sometimes longer, and works hard to provide for our family so that I can stay at home with the kids. When he's home he's always doing projects around the house and working on things that need done around here.

4- He can play the piano. He is an amazing piano player--much better than I am. I love to sit in the living room and listen to him play. He learns new songs so quickly and he's always learning new songs. The first time I heard him play the piano, I KNEW for sure that I was in love.

5- He is very respectful of his mother and he's teaching our children to treat me with respect regardless of how angry or frustrated they may be with me.

6- He can cook, clean and do the laundry. He is actually an amazing cook. Some of the things he comes up with are a little different, but when I am down and out, he can totally run the household. He has done a ton of cooking over the last couple of months and we had some darn good meals around here. He is also not afraid of dishwater hands. He does a lot to help me out around the house. My sisters-in-law are very jealous of this trait.

7- He is the cutest dad. The girls adore him & Kyson already has him wrapped around his finger. He is very hands-on. If he wasn't we definitely wouldn't have 4 kids already. He is such a big help to me. He can do anything I can do for the kids (He even did Mylee's hair for school some this year and he does a good job.). I can leave him with all of the kids, even overnight, and not have to worry at all. This is another trait my sisters-in-law are jealous of. He lets me have breaks from the kids quite often and it helps me be a better mom, so I really appreciate it.

8-He loves me despite all of my faults. He has so much confidence & faith in me as a mother & it helps me have confidence in myself so I can keep our household together when he's away.

9-He's my very best friend. When I'm having a bad day or my best day, he's the first person I want to tell about it. He seems to know when all I need is to just be held for a minute and he always helps me deal with problems rationally rather than getting all worked up emotionally over things. I love to just hang out with him and chat about whatever.

10- He's just plain hot. I know that's a very high school way of putting it, but there's no other word for it. He's got the most amazing eyes and many other features that I could go on about, but won't.

I love you, Martin. Thanks for all you do for me & our family. Happy anniversary, happy father's day & happy birthday!! We miss you & can't wait for you to come home.

Kyson Duran Martinez

2009-06-04T13:51:00.001-06:00

He's here!! Kyson Duran was born on June 1st at 3:50 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and is 21 inches long. Here is our handsome little addition to our family!!:)

I thought I would take you on our little journey over the last few days!! We were so excited to be having Kyson. I was induced, so we happily checked into the hospital and settled in for the day. Martin played his PSP, spent time on his computer and we both watched a lot of TV while we were waiting for the delivery. Once I got my epidural, I was really tired, but of course couldn't sleep. Don't I look lovely?

After waiting most of the day, Kyson was finally born. Everything went really smoothly and we were all so excited to meet him for the first time. My mom brought the girls down to see us in the hospital, so they were so excited to see and hold Kyson. Mireya was a little confused for a minute, but then fell in love quickly.

Kevin, Zoe, Michael and Lori and her kids and Kamille also came to see us in the hospital, but Kevin got all of the pictures of them. The kids had had the hardest time being patient all day waiting to come to the hospital.

The next day I was feeling quite refreshed and I was looking forward to having a day just with Martin and Kyson. I love the couple days in the hospital when I just get to spend so much time with Martin and get to enjoy the sweet little spirit that just came to our family.

This is what Martin did a lot of. We finally went and rented some movies from Redbox to pass some time.

One thing I love about Davis Hospital in Layton is that they do a "candlelight dinner" for parents right after they have a baby. They even bring a bottle of sparkling cider. Martin and I love it. We sent Kyson to the nursery and had nice little romantic dinner to celebrate this new addition and our love. It is one of my very favorite things about the hospital.

By the next morning, we were ready to get out of the hospital and get home to the girls. Martin's dear mother stayed with them while we were gone, but I was anxious to get home and back to real life. We were all packed and ready to go by 10:00, but my doctor was in c-sections all day and so we didn't get released until 2:00. We were SO BORED, so we watched some more TV and tried really hard to be patient.

Here is the proud father with his son. Kyson is the first male in Martin's family to carry on the Martinez name, so they're all pretty excited.

Martin was such a sweetheart while we were in the hospital as always. He jumps to my every whim and just takes really good care of me. I love the bonding experience with him right after we've had a new baby. He brought me a rose the day after Kyson was born. He's so sweet.

When we got home, there were lots of people waiting to see Kyson!! My grandpa Perkins, my mom and Kamille came over to see him, and then Martin's parents & Cade (Darlene's little boy) were also there since they stayed with the girls while we were gone. Zoe and Michael also stopped in for a little visit. We had quite a houseful of people that wanted to see Kyson.

We are so thankful to have Kyson here safe and sound. I am always amazed at the miracle these little babies are. I stare at this new little boy and just can't believe how blessed I am to have these four healthy, sweet spirits in our home and I am amazed at how much trust Heavenly Father must have in us to send them to us.

May

2009-05-28T09:59:00.000-06:00

This may be a record for how long it's been since I posted!! We had a great month of May. It has been busy, as May always is, but it has been nice to have things start to wind down for the summer. The weather has finally turned for the better and we have had several nice days now!! We are loving it. The girls are outside almost all day every day and Martin and I have been able to get some much needed time in on the yard, so we have all been happy campers!:)

A couple weeks ago, we got really bored, so we decided to take a trip to Logan for the day and visit my grandparents and take the kids to the Willow Park Zoo. My kids love it there, even though there are mostly a bunch of birds. They had a great time. It was a little bit chilly still, but not bad.

The next week we had another really nice day (we had been waiting a while for one) and so the girls decided they wanted to learn to ride their bikes without training wheels. I think our kids are about the only ones their ages that still have their training wheels on. Mylee is petrified of trying to ride without them, but she finally decided she would be brave (well, as brave as is possible for her). Mylee tried first and was doing pretty well, but got frustrated and ended up crying in her room from frustration. Then Kaybree gave it a shot. She's a little braver than Mylee and actually rode a ways by herself, but then freaked out when she realized Martin wasn't holding onto her anymore. She ended up in my lap crying because she felt her dad had betrayed her. So, needless to say, our kids still have their training wheels on. It's going to take a little more practice!!:)

We've had a great month of May, but we're so looking forward to June and no more school and the new baby and everything that comes with the summer!!

1st Half of April!

2009-04-18T07:37:00.000-06:00

We've had a pretty busy April so far!! We had a couple things going on a week, so I didn't get a chance to post about them individually as they happened--now I have to get caught up.

The first thing we had going on in April was the Sunshine Generation show. Mylee loves Sunshine!! It has helped her come out of her shell so much and now she doesn't get shy or nervous when she's on stage near like she used to. Anyway, we had to take some before the show pictures. Regyn, Lori's little girl, was here playing, so she had to get in on the action as well!!:)

The next event we had was Mireya's 2nd birthday on the 9th! I can't believe she is already 2 years old. Where does the time go? Anyway, the girls were so excited that it was her birthday (she wasn't near as excited about it as the girls were). She kept saying she was 3 years old though, instead of 2. We've been working out the kinks on that one and now about half the time she'll say she's 2!:) She did have fun at her little party with the fam!! There were so many people there to celebrate with us since Lori and her kids were here, so she had fun. She's my first child that isn't afraid to blow out a candle with a crowd around! As you can see by the last picture, the Mrs. Potato Head was the hit gift of the night--thanks, Mom. She had a great day and Martin and I just can't believe how quickly our kids are growing up. Mireya's like a little teenager already from hanging out with her older sisters!!:)

The last exciting thing we had going on the 1st half of April was Easter!! The girls were so excited for Easter. We even did a little Easter egg hunt with them in our basement since there wasn't a community egg hunt this year. The girls had a blast looking for the eggs. It did take Mireya a little while to catch on though. She would put one egg in her basket and then when she'd find another one, she would take out the one egg that was in there and replace it with the new egg she'd found. She finally did catch on at the very end. Thankfully, Mylee and Kaybree were good about sharing the loot. And, of course, dying eggs was a hit with them like it is every year. This year we did tie-dye eggs, which were a little trickier, but they had a blast and it stretched the egg-dying out for a whole hour rather than having everything dyed within 5 minutes! It made their hands a little messy, but they had fun!

Martin wasn't super enthused about the egg-dying this year. He was trying to get some stuff figured out before he went back to work. He really missed out.:)

Mireya wasn't super enthused about it either--it was a little complicated for her and she did not want to get her hands dirty, so she mostly watched and ate snacks while Mylee, Kaybree and I did all of the work.

We just hope the rest of the month is as fun as the 1st half of the month has been. Martin has gone back to work now, so that's always a bummer, but we're looking forward to a few nice days of weather coming up (we hope)!!!:)

Spring Fever

2009-03-30T16:08:00.000-06:00

About a week ago, we were so excited to have some rather nice weather!! For about three days we went on numerous walks and played outside most of the day. It was so nice and made us crave spring. As we all know, the wonderful weather didn't last and it is winter once again, but we sure enjoyed it for a couple of days.

We went and got the girls' bikes out of my parents' garage and they were so excited to ride their bikes!!

Mireya was feeling a little left out since she doesn't have a bike to ride. We have plenty of things you use your feet to push along, but she really wanted to ride something with pedals. Thankfully Mylee felt bad for her and took her for a little walk on her bike.:)

We sure enjoyed the nice weather for a couple days and can't wait 'til it's here to stay!!

State Basketball

2009-03-12T10:31:00.000-06:00

We have a hard time staying home when state basketball comes around. We have gone every year so far and it is always so much fun to spend time with Martin's family, my family and watch good basketball games. This year was especially fun because my WHOLE family was there. That doesn't usually happen, but everyone kept hoppin' on the bandwagon and before we knew it, everyone was going!! We had such a great time.

The first day there we celebrated my dad's birthday as it had been the day before while we were all traveling. I am so sad because when I took out my camera, my batteries were dead. We all met at the hotel and the kids all went swimming and had a great time. Then we all met out in the breakfast room and had ice cream cake for his birthday. The kids were all shivering from having been in the pool and then coming out into the cold to eat ice cream, but it was so fun to spend time together and celebrate my dad's birthday.

We watched so many good games and it was so fun to cheer for the girls!! Mylee, of course, looked forward to the cheerleaders dancing at halftime. Martin and I went to some late-night games after the kids were in bed and we even went out with Kevin for a midnight snack one night (the weekend was not good for my pregnancy weight-gain, I'm sure). In-between all of the basketball, we got to spend a lot of time with Martin's family. I, of course, had to go to the mall with Darlene and we had to go to playland and do all of the things that we ALWAYS have to do when visiting Casper!!:) Saturday we went to Pizza Hut with all of Martin's family to celebrate Darlene's birthday and then Sunday, we had a family dinner to celebrate Martin's dad's birthday, so it was a busy weekend for birthdays!! I did finally get my batteries charged by Sunday night and was able to take some pictures of the birthday celebration with all of Martin's family.

All of the grandkids had to help him blow out his candles (except for Kaybree, who was a little camera shy).

So I had to get a picture of her by herself since she wouldn't get in any of the other pictures.:)

Then everyone had to be patient while waiting for cake and ice cream!!

But they served it up quick and it was yummy!

Then the kids had a great time running around and playing together. They ended up in the TV room coloring. It's so fun to watch Mireya and Cade play since they're so close in age!!

This is poor Cade sitting in time out. He sure looks cute when he's in trouble.:)

Mireya will take to anyone if they will just read her a book. She LOVES to be read to, so she went around the living room trying to get everyone to read to her. Ty read to her first, but I didn't get a picture of it, then Grandpa, then Grandma and last, but not least, Nicole. By the time she got to Nicole, she was a little tired of the book they were reading, so it went pretty fast.:)

We had such a fun weekend, as we always do when we go to Casper. We were exhausted when we got home from all of the partying and then the time change combined, but I'm sure we'll be feeling better within the week!!

Bathtub Swimming Pool!

2009-02-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

This last weekend while we were in Layton for my doctor's appointment, we decided to go swimming suit shopping since this is the only time of year there are any sizes to choose from in the cutest swimming suit styles. The girls loved it. They were very happy with their selections as was I. Mireya actually didn't get a new one because hers were big on her last year and they still fit! Kaybree has a very hard little body to fit a swimming suit to because she's very tall and very slender. I don't know where she gets her body type from (obviously not from me), but her 2T swim suit bottoms from a couple years ago finally fit her without falling off, but then the top shows her belly. It really has been frustrating to find a swimming suit to fit right, so we were so pleased to find a smaller size suit that had a long top (thanks for your help, Lori). You can't really see their suits in these pictures, but they had a blast "swimming" in the bathtub last night. They begged and begged to wear their new suits in the tub since it was going to be a while before they got a real chance to try them out!!

They had a great time. As soon as I went in there I realized why I was a little hesitant to let them do it in the first place--there was an inch of water all over the floor and the towel I had put down was dripping wet. Mylee quickly explained that they had to pretend to get in and out of the pool. You obviously can't just stay in the pool the whole time!!:) I sure hope they enjoyed it because after wringing everything out, I decided it will be a while before we try the bathtub out as a swimming pool again!!!

Thanks for Crossing Your Fingers!!!

2009-02-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of you already know since word has traveled down the grapevine, but I thought I would post it for all of you that haven't heard--WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!! Can you believe it? I actually lifted my head off the table when the ultrasound tech said "boy." Then she even double checked for me to make sure. Lori went with me to my ultrasound because Martin was working and we were so excited!! Of course I called Martin immediately afterward and he tried to hide his excitement, but it has been apparent since then just how excited he is. I think we were both just kind of planning on it being a girl, so what a surprise!! Lori went shopping with me to buy his first outfit for him. It was so fun to look at the boy clothes!! Thanks all of you that kept your fingers crossed for us--it worked!! Now if we could just agree on a name for him.:)

Kaybree's Birthday

2009-02-02T14:48:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it, but Kaybree turned 4 on the 19th of January (I'm a little behind, as usual)!! She was so excited to turn 4. She had been asking me for weeks if she was 4 yet and I kept giving her the countdown of days until it was finally her birthday. The timing was perfect because her birthday was on Monday and Martin had to leave for work on Tuesday!! We never know what birthdays and holidays he's going to be around for, so Kaybree was so excited he could be there. We also celebrated her birthday in Casper while we were there, but I totally forgot to take any pictures---these are the best we have. Anyway, she had a great day and now she is so excited to be BIG! She keeps asking me when she can go to preschool now--she's got a while to wait!:)

To give you some insight as to how shy she is, she doesn't even blow out her own candles!! She doesn't dare do it in front of everybody!! She had to have Mylee help for her cake in Casper and Amelia and Mylee helped at home. She's one of a kind. I sure hope she can come out of her shell a little more before September when she starts preschool. She's making slow progress, but it's VERY slow. We love you, Kaybree, and are so thankful you are a part of our family!!

December

2009-01-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

December has been such a crazy month that I have gottten so far behind. Now it's time to play catch up, so here are the goings on for the Martinez household for the month of December.

It started with the Sunshine program. Mylee was very excited for it and it was nice to get it over with early in the month as the end of the month was just plain hectic. She did a great job. She even had a little solo and she belted it out right into the microphone. I couldn't believe it. We were so proud of her!!

Next came my grandma Perkin's Christmas party. Now that she's in the nursing home, we weren't able to spend Christmas day with her so we had a little party for her the Sunday before Christmas. She didn't really get what was going on or what all of the fuss was about, but we sure enjoyed spending the time with her. The kids loved it because they got to sing her Christmas carols and hand her presents to open. Then they each got to take a candy cane and tell her something about themselves before they opened it. It was neat to spend the time with her even if she didn't really understand who we were or what was going on.

Then, right before Christmas, was the school play. The tradition still stands for the dads to sing with their kindergarten kids. Mylee was so excited to sing with her dad. I didn't get very good pictures because I was also trying to film it and watch the other two girls at the same time. Mylee & Martin looked so cute up there together. It was a moment I will always cherish and look forward to with the other kids.

We let the girls open their present from Grandma & Grandpa Martinez early because we had a very big hunch they were going to be Christmas dresses and Martin wanted to see them wear them before he went to work (he had to go to work on the 23rd). This is a picture of the girls in their dresses. They love them, so thank you so much, Grandma & Grandpa, "Tinez."

Next came Christmas!!! We stayed at my parents' house since Martin was gone. I didn't want to wake up by myself on Christmas morning. Plus, Kevin, Zoe, & Michael were there, so we thought it would be fun to spend Christmas Eve with them. We had a great time on Christmas Eve and the girls were so excited for Santa to come. It was really hard for me to not have Martin there, but watching the girls' excitement helped keep my mind off of it. They, of course, loved their gifts and spent the morning getting in and out of their new cars. Mireya was very excited she got a car too and her next favorite thing had to have been the gum in her stocking!! Anyway, we went to the lake to have dinner with Lori & Dan and David & Traci, but because the weather wasn't very good, we had to rush home. It was so fun to spend Christmas together with the whole fam again, as we have all been having our own Christmases for a few years now. We had a very merry Christmas and hope everyone else did as well.

Dare we hope for a boy?!!

2008-12-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Martinez fam has an announcement to make--#4 is due to arrive the very beginning of June!! We are very excited!! Dare we hope for a boy?!! Mylee & Kaybree are SURE it's going to be a boy--in fact Mylee has been telling people that I'm having a boy and it's name is going to be Shellyn--what a masculine name!!:)

I have been thinking a lot about motherhood since I found out I was pregnant. I've been contemplating the miracle that each baby is. We were so excited to find out I was pregnant, but I'm always just a little bit nervous until I can make it to a doctor. When Martin and I saw our little baby moving all over the place on the ultrasound screen it was so exciting. No matter how many children we have, the miracle of the creation of a new little being never ceases to amaze me. It's truly a miracle!!

I've been thinking a lot about my other 3 pregnancies and deliveries and how I felt about each one and I'm just so thankful for the blessing I have of being a mother. I know there are so many people in the world that desire to be moms that can't be. I'm so thankful that for whatever reason Heavenly Father granted me such an amazing blessing. I hope that it is something that I will never take for granted. When I am having a hard day with the girls, I always remind myself of that. As I've thought about each of my children coming into the world I've also thought of the bonding that takes place with my husband throughout a pregnancy and delivery. It's so fun to see the look on his face when he feels the baby move for the first time and to anticipate the arrival of something that is a part of both of us. There can't be many things in the world you can experience with your spouse that are sweeter than bringing a child into the world. Every time I think of those times right after having a baby, when it's just me, Martin and our new baby, I feel so much gratitude and joy. Some of my greatest memories of Martin and me have been right after we've had another baby. I know this is kind of a sappy post, and way longer than it needed to be to make our announcement, but I have just had a full heart lately and felt like sharing some of the things I have been thinking and feeling.

Keep your fingers crossed for us to have a boy!!:)

A Little Pampered

2008-11-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

This last week Martin and I got to go on a little trip without the 3 munchkins!! Twice a year Martin has to go to Denver to do some computer work in the office. We, or at least I, didn't used to like the trip so much, but I have come to look forward to the trip for months and can't wait until we can plan our next one!!:) I was so sad when I realized that my camera batteries were dead and I had forgotten to put the charged ones in my case, so there are no pictures. Sorry. Hopefully I won't bore ya with the details of our week--I'll try to make it short. There are some very important reasons why I enjoy the trip so much. I'll share just a few of them as I explain the happenings of our week.

We left Sunday right after church. Mylee stayed with my parents while we were gone so she wouldn't miss school and we drove the other two to Rawlins where we met Martin's dad. He took them back to Casper with him so Martin's parents could keep them for a few days. The enjoyment of the trip started immediately. We didn't have any whining or crying for the rest of the trip to Denver. It was really weird. I kept looking in the back seat to check on the kids, and then would realize we didn't have them.:) We got into Denver around 8:30, so we found the hotel that we always stay in that is a block from the 16th Street mall and right across from the MI office. There are a few things we do on these trips that we don't get to do in normal day-to-day life. The first one of those is to use valet parking at the hotel. There's no parking in downtown Denver, so the company actually tells you to use the valet parking. It's so nice. Everything is in walking distance anyway, so it's nice to just pull up, get our stuff out, and then check in to our room. We enjoyed a relaxing evening in the room--it was so quiet.

While Martin goes to the office, I always just relax a little bit, read my book, and then walk along 16th Street and duck in and out of stores. The first time we went, I have to admit that I was a little bit paranoid. Whenever I walked along the streets, I would hold onto my purse with a Kungfu grip and was very aware of everyone around me, just in case one of them wanted to mug me or stab me or something. I have relaxed a little bit. I still keep a tight grip on my purse, but not to the point that my knuckles turn white, and I can enjoy being out without thinking everyone is going to attack me. I have learned that even though we do see a few VERY interesting (maybe even a little bit scary), people every time we go, most of them are just business men & women going about their day like everybody else. I always enjoy the time alone to wander and think.

One of the other great perks of the trip is the food. Every day I meet Martin (and Kevin this time too since he moved to Denver and works in the office) for lunch and it's not at Wendy's or McDonald's like usual. We have a whole array of nice, maybe even a little more on the fancy side, of restaurants to choose from. The service is amazing and the food...I can't even explain how good it is. Plus, we can order appetizers and dessert, which is something we NEVER allow ourselves to splurge on any other time. The week is never good for my waistline, but it's sure fun to splurge a little. The other thing we can do that we would never normally do is order room service. I had never ordered room service in my entire life until we started going on these trips. It's so much fun to eat a yummy dinner or dessert, or maybe even just some hot chocolate, in the comfort and warmth of the hotel room.

The last, but not least, wonderful perk of the trip is all of the one-on-one time I get with my husband. It's so much fun to spend so much time with him wandering the streets and shopping, eating at nice restaurants, and just discussing all of the wonderful things we have to enjoy in life. Plus, this time we got to spend quite a bit of time with Kevin and Zoe and it was so much fun to have someone we know and love there to spend time with. We were only there for three days, but we had a great time. We drove to Casper to pick up the younger girls, then woke up the next morning and drove to Cokeville to get Mylee. The kids had a great time being spoiled and it's always so good for us to have a little break from parenthood. We come back refreshed, rested and ready to soak up our three sweet little girls again!! I have already started thinking about what I want to do next time we go. It's so fun to be pampered just a little bit!! Sorry--I didn't do a very good job of keeping it short.

Halloween

2008-11-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween! It's not my favorite holiday and it is a lot of work, especially since Martin was at work this year, but my kids always love it. They were so excited all day to go trick-or-treating. They asked if it was time to go when they woke up that morning. They had a hard time waiting until that evening!:) We went to the football game and then came home and got ready to go to the carnival. Mylee was a pirate, Kaybree was a raggedy Ann doll, and Mireya was a poodle. The carnival had really good food and there were lots of fun games to play, but my kids are too shy to play them, or at least Kaybree is. Mylee did actually participate in a few, but Kaybree wouldn't do any of them but the coloring station. So, it's basically a waste of money every year when I pay for them to play the games. They decided they wanted to leave the carnival and go trick-or-treating. Traci went with us for a little while and then Brian came with us. They had a blast!! We tried leaving Mireya in the truck for a couple houses, and she wouldn't let us. She didn't want to miss out!! When we were done trick-or-treating we went to Brian & Becca's to celebrate Brian's b-day. We had chocolate roll and it was SO good.

The girls were pretty worn out by the time the night was over. This was after they were done trick-or-treating!!:)

We had a great Halloween & I'm just glad I survived another year!

Getting Caught Up

2008-10-21T09:45:00.000-06:00

We have had a couple of kind of busy weeks. A couple weekends ago we got really bored, so we decided to go to Layton and stay in a motel so we could swim and just spend quality time together as a family. The kids were so excited to stay in a motel because we haven't stayed in one since Traci's wedding in March. Anyway, we had the best time. The kids had an absolute blast!! We went swimming and ordered in Chinese and it was so much fun. I also got to go on a little girls' night out with my sisters that night because Traci happened to be visiting Lori at the same time. It really was a lot of fun. The only sad part about it was that we had to cut our trip short on Saturday morning when we woke up and watched the news--lots of snowfall. We headed home early, but the kids were still talking about our weekend days afterwards!!

Mireya wasn't so sure about the water for the first half hour we were at the pool, but once she got in, we couldn't get her out!!:)

Sure enough, on our way home from Layton, we got caught in a huge snowstorm. We only passed one wreck, but we had to be super careful. The kids were so excited to see the snow though, so our cut short trip to Layton was quickly forgotten. As soon as we got home, the kids changed into their snow clothes and headed outside for hours. There wasn't even very much snow out there, but they had the best time. Mireya wasn't too sure about it though. She could barely even walk in her jumpsuit, so she didn't last long.

The next weekend Martin's parents came to visit. I don't know what I was thinking, but I forgot to take any pictures while they were here!! The girls loved every minute of their stay. They wore Grandpa "Tinez" out with all of the drawing they did with him. He had to take a couple little naps a day just to keep up with them!! We had some wonderful cooking by my mother-in-law and we just visited and had a great time. Thanks for coming. We loved your visit!!:)

Lori & her kids also came to visit last weekend and so in-between visiting with Martin's parents, we got to spend a lot of time with them. The girls played with Hallee & Regyn for hours and we had a great time. It's always fun to spend time with them.

We were going to carve pumpkins while Martin's parents were here, but we ran out of time. We finally did it last night as part of our family home evening. The girls love it every year. I had never carved a pumpkin in my life until I married Martin, and he loves it, so now we do it every year with the kids. I have learned to enjoy it quite a lot myself. Kaybree wanted a turtle, Mylee wanted a horse & Mireya got what we did for her!!:) We had a great time and the pictures are a little fuzzy because I couldn't figure out what setting to put my camera on, but they turned out quite well. The girls were pretty proud of them.

We had a couple of really great weekends and it was so much fun to see everyone and spend time together. Now that I'm caught up, hopefully I will do better. I can always hope, anyway.:)

My Dad

2008-10-07T06:34:00.000-06:00

Once again, I'm a little slow, but a couple weeks ago it was homecoming. Since I've graduated from high school, it's been interesting to be around every once in a while for homecoming to see all of the things we used to do when we were in high school!! Although, I know we didn't look as silly as the kids do now-a-days!:) Anyway, this was a special homecoming for the Nate fam--my dad was recognized as a coach. He is going to be getting a Gold Card. What that entails and all of the details behind it, I'm not sure. It was a really touching program. We felt like we were at a funeral. All of us (including Brian & Kevin) had red, puffy eyes by the time it was over. If you know my dad at all, you know that he was really uncomfortable with the spotlight being on him. It really meant a lot to all of us that the coaches put as much thought and time into the recognition as they did.

My dad's MS hasn't been doing so well lately, so it has been really hard on all of us to see him deteriorate. He seems to be deteriorating at a much faster rate now. He has to drag his left leg around by the end of the day. It's hard to watch him try to walk to the locker room at half time or walk over to shake hands with the coaches after a football game. The other coaches are so good to him. He's never left to stumble off the field alone. I've thought a lot about it since homecoming and I'm so thankful he has good friends that care about him. He's been coaching with Coach Dayton and Coach Teichert for so many years now. They are his best friends and it's so touching now to see how their friendship has grown over the years. Not all of us have the privilege of living around and coaching with our best friends, but I'm thankful my dad has been able to.

I don't know how long we'll live here--maybe forever--but I'm so thankful we have had the opportunity to live here and spend so much time together as a family. For about two years all of us lived here except Lori, and it has been such a neat experience. I have become very best friends with all of my siblings and sisters-in-law. I'm pretty fond of my brothers-in-law too, but ya know. We're not really "best friends.":) We have made so many memories over the last couple years and I know it's a time in our lives that we will never forget, and hopefully never take for granted. Some of my favorite memories and more that I hope to make are of going on the ranch with my dad. I have always loved to be on the ranch and my girls are starting to love it as well. I could spend every day on the ranch if I didn't have so much to do at home.:) I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that I get to spend so much time with my dad. He really is my hero. I'm so thankful for him and his influence in my life and I'm thankful my kids get to have that influence in their lives as well. I know that he's not perfect, but he is such a good man and I know that he touches a lot of lives for good.

Grandma & Grandpa Nate, Aunt Colleen and Uncle Kent were all there to surprise my dad in support of him.

All of the family was able to make it to the program except for Martin. He was working. Kevin and Zoe were late, so they didn't make the pictures, but the rest of everybody is "kind of" in the pictures!!:)

Mireya was just thankful that my grandma Nate had a wonderful lunch ready for us after the program.:) She had a hard time waiting patiently while her plate got dished.

It was fun to have us all together again, so we decided we'd better get a picture of all us siblings. We would've done one with the spouses, but with Martin gone, it would've been a little wierd.:)

Lori's gonna love me when she sees this picture. I just took some shots of everyone during lunch, so some of them are of people with their mouths full!! Sorry, Lori.

My grandma's favorite place to be is the kitchen. She's an amazing cook!!

It was such a neat day for our family. Not only was the program good, but the football and volleyball games were great as well. Go Panthers!!

Mylee's B-day!!

2008-09-15T15:36:00.000-06:00

September 1st was Mylee's 5th birthday!! (I know. I'm a little behind.) I can't believe I have a 5-year-old! She was so excited for her birthday. (There aren't many kids that get to start kindergarten when they're 4. We debated for a whole year as to whether to send her to school or hold her back, but every time we came up with the same conclusion--she should go.) Mylee's birthday was kind of a wierd day because the power was out. It went out on Sunday night and it was still out in the morning. Of course my alarm didn't go off, so I slept in so Mylee slept in. When I woke up I figured there's no way they can have school with the power off (I was wrong) and so we doddled around and had a good birthday breakfast (my mom and dad have a generator). Then I called my dad just to make sure there wasn't any school--he said there was. By this time Mylee was already really late for school and she's only there for a few hours anyway, so I talked to her and she decided she wanted to stay home and go on a little date with me during the day instead of going to school. Grandma Nate babysat the other 2 girls and Mylee and I went on a little date to Montpelier. We just went out for lunch and ice cream and talked about everything that goes on in a 5-year-old world and we had the best time. I was so glad I did it!!

She decided to wait for Martin to get home to open presents, so on Wednesday we actually celebrated her birthday!! She picked her cake out of a book and so I did my best to satisfy. It wasn't perfect, but she loved it!!:)

She was so excited to open her presents. She got spoiled since we have so much family close. We even have new adopted members of our family. Brian's mission companion & his wife that Bri & Becca have stayed close to all these years moved to Cokeville a few weeks ago, so now they are part of the fam as well. She loved having so many people there to celebrate with her. She is so into High School Musical, so she was excited to get her Gabriella outfit, even if the look on her face doesn't show it (she got a little tired of pictures).

My girls play dress-up all day long, so when I saw this Fancy Nancy hat, I had to get it for her. She LOVES hats! I thought she looked so cute in it!!:)

She had a great birthday!! I can't believe how grown-up she is getting. She can practically run the household when she wants to. We love you so much, Mylee, and we're so thankful you are a part of our family!!

Mylee's 1st Day of School!!

2008-08-29T09:59:00.002-06:00

This last Monday, the 25th, was Mylee's first day of school!!! She is officially a kindergartener!:) She was so excited to go to school. She didn't really like being ripped out of bed to get ready for school, but once she realized why I woke her up, she was so excited to get her clothes on and get ready to go. She did so well when I dropped her off. I have been so excited for her to go--one less child to trip over in the morning while I do my chores. I didn't think it would be hard at all to take her, but I did find that my eyes were on the verge of watering when I saw her sitting in her big desk and started to think about how wonderful she is to have around in the mornings, but thankfully I had to take some stuff to the office, so I didn't get a chance to think about it too much. Within a few minutes of being home I knew why I had been so excited--I got so much done and there was no fighting!! Kaybree and Mireya played so well and every morning has been such a breeze!! I love it and so does she. Every day she has come home bouncing off the walls and she was SO EXCITED about riding the bus twice every day!! (Mireya and Kaybree thought they needed to be in the pictures too.);)

"Slacker Mom"

2008-08-20T21:23:00.000-06:00

I just got done reading Taffy's latest post and as I was commenting I realized that it was turning into it's own post, so I thought rather than fill up Taffy's comment page, I would just write my own post on the subject!!

I have to say that it's such a relief to know that I'm not the only slacker mom around. Ofentimes I look around at all of the other moms and wonder how come they always seem to have all of their ducks in a row--how come their houses are always clean, their kids never have sticky faces, their kids' clothes are always clean and in good condition, their kids' hair is never snarly and always fixed really cute and a big one I always wondered last year as I drove Mylee to preschool 2 days a week is HOW IN THE WORLD CAN A MOM LOOK SO CUTE THAT EARLY IN THE MORNING WHEN THERE'S SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE?!! So I thought I would share a few of my own thoughts on ways that I am a slacker (and these are in no particular order).

1-Every once in a while I will allow my kids to have chips or a popsicle for breakfast. It's not every day, in fact it's very seldom, but every single day (without fail) my kids will ask if they can have chips or a popsicle or some sort of treat for breakfast!! Some days I am just too tired to explain to them why those aren't a good thing for our bodies to have first thing in the morning and so I will just go with it!!

2-I have turned the 5-second rule into the 2-day rule. This may seem kinda gross, but if Mireya comes across a cracker that she dropped a couple days before and wants to eat it, then I say go for it. Now if I notice that it has a hair or it has been stepped on or that it has been contaminated in some sort of major way, then I will of course take it away from her, but she hasn't been harmed from it yet. Besides, there are two major benefits from this--it makes my vacuuming job that much easier AND it will keep her from begging for another snack for at least a few minutes!!

3-I remember when I first had Mylee and I thought," I am always going to have her dressed in her cutest outfits and her hair is always going to be done and completed with a bow." I have a confession--my kids have looked like rugrats a lot this summer. Oftentimes I have gotten to Montpelier or Evanston to do a little shopping and as I load my kids in the cart, realize just how messy they look. Now, usually when we go out of town, I try to put them in clothes other than their stained play clothes and I try to do their hair and wash their faces good before we leave, but sometimes we have spur-of-the-moment trips, and that's where the problem arises. And it's not until we get there that I realize I haven't even combed their hair that day or that I missed wiping their mouths after their last meal.

4-I have days where I just don't want to clean my house anymore. It feels like all I do all day every day is clean the house. I'm constantly doing dishes, picking up toys, wiping up spills, doing laundry--some days I need a day off. On those days my whole living room, kitchen and hall get filled up with toys (I even let them take all of the pillows off the couch and they jump off the couch into the floor of pillows), the dishes only make it as far as the sink, and all of my floors are left with their crumbs and sticky spots for the day. Even moms & housekeepers need a day off, right? What I've learned is that if I ever want to have company, I just have to have a day like that. If I work hard to keep my house clean, I can guarantee no unexpected visitors, but as soon as I have a "day off" I will undoubtedly have someone just drop by out of the blue. It works that way every time without fail. In fact, last month I was having one of those days and my visiting teachers stopped by to see me!!

5-There are days that my older kids never get out of their pajamas. I have a hard time admitting to that one, but it is true nonetheless. It doesn't happen very often, but there are days when we aren't going anywhere and I am just cleaning the house or working on a project and the kids are getting along so well that I just can't get myself to interrupt them just to get their clothes on. I have days where I don't feel like getting all dolled up, so I figure they probably have days like that too, so why force the issue? They can play and play to their hearts' content and then it makes one less step to do when it's bedtime--they're already in their pj's.

6-My last one may have a little more to do with me than my kids, but how do other moms look so cute all of the time? Last year as I drove Mylee to preschool, I was almost always the only one that was still in my pj's or my work clothes. How can someone possibly have their house clean and all of their little jobs done, plus be showered and ready for the day by 9:00 a.m.? I thought that over so many times throughout the school year. I even set little goals for myself so that I didn't feel so silly in the mornings. I started making sure that even if I wasn't done with my chores, I was showered by the time I took her. I even made a goal that I would actually be all dressed and ready for the day with my hair done and everything. That was too much pressure--it only lasted a couple of weeks. I have come to the conclusion that either they never cleaned their houses, they cleaned them at a time other than the morning, they didn't get dirty and sweaty from cleaning their houses, or that they woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get everything done before 9:00. Thankfully, this year the bus picks Mylee up so that I don't have to stress about it!!:)

These aren't all of my slacker traits, but if I let you in on all of them, I wouldn't be upholding my image very well, would I? Does anyone else have any confessions of ways they are slacker moms? Please share to make me feel better about my slackings!!:)

Nate Family Reunion

2008-08-04T21:11:00.000-06:00

So this is my last event to catch up on. On the 26th & 27th of July, we went to the Nate family reunion at the lake. We had an absolute blast!! It was really neat to see so much family that we don't get to see very often. It was also really good to see my dad relax a little bit and be able to spend some time with his siblings. We were able to use the USU Training Center and almost everybody stayed there, but we stayed at the Conger's cottage again (they are so sweet to let us stay there). We ate such good food while we were there (my dad's family can cook like nothin' else), and we visited a lot and we spent a lot of time on the lake!! Martin and I boat-hopped and went with about everybody and tried a bunch of different stuff. It was so much fun! I have to say that tubing was our all-time favorite. It was so awesome! I only pulled a few muscles and was really sore for a couple of days, but I never did fall off!:) I came awful close a couple times though.

Braxton tried wake boarding for the first time while we were there and got right up. He did awesome!!

It was really great to see everyone and thanks everyone for sharing all of your fun stuff and all of the good food!! I'm looking forward to seeing you all there again next year!!

Visiting David and Traci

2008-08-01T07:29:00.000-06:00

The Monday after the Celebration, Lori and I decided to load up our kids and go see Traci in Rexburg. (I said I had a lot of catching up to do. I have been somewhere different every week, and sometimes a couple different places in one week!) We hadn't had a chance to go see her yet this summer, and we wanted to see all of the work she has been doing on their house. Anyway, we had 6 kids with us (Lori left one of hers home) so our drive there was a little crazy.:) Once we got there, David took us on a buggy ride. It was so much fun. The kids loved it!! Kaybree decided she wanted to help him drive and she wouldn't stop. David was pretty tickled since she's never before given him the time of day.

The next day, we hung out for a while and then headed to the splashpark. It's a park that has water all through it (you can see it in the picture below) and it is free and open to the public. Not only that, but the school serves free lunch to all of the kids. All of the kids thought it was awesome (especially Boston--he loves the water)! They had so much fun! And I just wished I was a kid so I could go on it. I didn't want to be the only adult on there. It was so hot and the water looked so
refreshing.

After the kids had lunch and played a little longer, they all layed down on the cement to dry off and get warm. It was pretty cute.

On Wednesday, we just hung out and visited a little more and then we headed home. Thankfully, we had worn the kids out, so they slept almost the entire way home! We had a great time and thanks for letting us come visit ya, David and Traci!! We love you.

Brian, Darlene & Cade's Visit

2008-07-29T07:18:00.000-06:00

I am way behind on what has been going on in our lives, so you will just have to be patient while I get caught up on the month of July!!:) The week after I got back from Casper, Brian, Darlene, and Cade came for a visit. It was so much fun!! They were here on the 15th and the next day we headed to the lake with all of my family. We had a blast!! David and Traci brought their boat and Bri & Becca rented a jet ski, so we had lots of fun stuff to keep us entertained!! Plus, we had the cottage on the lake to nap the babies and eat meals. It was perfect!! We had so much fun that we took the Websters back to the lake on Thursday to do some more jet skiing. The kids loved the shallow water, especially Cade!! We couldn't keep him out of the water. The kids and adults alike had a great time, and boy did we have tired kids!!

On Friday, Darlene and I took Mylee and headed to Layton to do some shopping!! Darlene doesn't get to Utah very much, so we decided to have a girls' day out without all of the kids!! We had a lot of fun! We even got back in time for Brian and Martin to go to The Dark Knight. The next day was the Pioneer Celebration. It was Brian's VERY FIRST PARADE EVER!! Can you believe it? He'd never been to a parade!! Anyway, the kids loved it, and it didn't take Mireya long to figure out how to chase the candy down. She wouldn't put it in the bag--she just wanted to hold on to it so she wouldn't lose it.:)

We had such a great time while they were here!! Martin and I ended up with the flu on Saturday night and threw up all night, but other than that, it was so much fun. Thanks again for coming, guys!!

Our Quick Trip to Casper

2008-07-27T18:35:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I got really brave and decided to drive me and the kids to Casper for Parade Day. We used to always go when we lived there and I knew how much the kids would love it, so I decided to take them. I was actually extremely nervous about traveling that far without Martin (he was working), but we did it and the kids were amazing!! To make it even better, Sahara was there (Martin's niece), who we haven't seen for a couple of years. Mylee and Kaybree just loved having her there to play with.

The first day there, we just hung out at Darlene's for a while and let the kids splash in the pool. They loved it!! They each had a treat and the older girls hid their treats in the teepee. It didn't take Mireya long to figure that out!!:)

That afternoon we took the kids to Edness Kimball Wilkins Park, which is a park that has a pond. The kids thought it was so much fun. They were especially fascinated by the fish in it. They totally freaked me out when they would brush against my legs, but the kids thought they were so cool. Pretty soon everyone was trying to catch the fish. Lamduan (my mother-in-law) caught a whole bunch of them with her hands. It was pretty entertaining!!

The kids were so excited for Parade Day!! Lamduan went early and saved us some sidewalk and shade and then we came shortly before the parade started. The parade was a couple hours long, so by the end of it, the kids weren't too excited, but they hung in there. Mireya got her first taste of cotton candy and was hooked!! The girls loved everything but all of the clowns. They especially loved all of the snacks and drinks we packed to enjoy during the parade!!

We took the babies home for naps after the parade and then we headed to the fairgrounds. My kids had never been on a ride before, so they had a blast!! They went on one ride after another and Darlene and I even snuck a few in. In fact, we went on one that was a little wild for us and we were screaming the whole time. Some little girls that were on the ride with us told us we were wimps. It was pretty funny. (Now that I've got kids, I'm not as brave as I used to be.) I had to ride with Kaybree quite a bit, since there were 3 girls, and a lot of the rides only had 2 to a seat. They had a play place set up for the babies, so Cade and Mireya stayed with Grandma and had a great time with all of the cool stuff they had there for babies. Everyone had so much fun.

That night the kids played in the pool at Grandma's and had lots of fun. We had to do something to keep them awake for a couple of hours before bedtime. They had all fallen asleep on the way home from fair, so we drug out the pool and let them play for a bit before bed. I thought this was such a cute picture of Cade, so I had to post it. He came over all ready for bed, but it didn't last long. He went over to the pool and was all wet in seconds!!

We had such a great time in Casper. I'm so glad that we went. I got to spend a lot of time with Martin's parents, especially his mom, and it was really fun. And then, of course, Darlene and I were together almost the entire time. We had an absolute blast!! I might just have to skip on over to Casper by myself some more!!:)

4th of July

2008-07-10T11:19:00.000-06:00

So I know I'm a little late posting about this, but we had a great 4th of July!! Martin had to work, so I just hung out with my family for a lot of the day. Then Martin came home and all of the fun and excitement began!!:) We went up to the park because there was a potluck dinner there (which was so good). Then they had a little parade around the park for the kids. This is our wagon we decorated. (I know Spiderman doesn't really go with the 4th of July, but it was the right colors and Martin is a Spiderman fan, so we went with it anyway.) The kids were so excited for the parade and loved it!!

After the parade, there were lots of family games that everyone played until it was dark enough to light the fireworks!! They had so many games. We didn't actually participate in any of them because our kids seem to have the shy syndrome that I had growing up. They decided to just swing and watch everyone else instead. It was still really enjoyable just to visit with people and enjoy the beautiful weather. My grandpa Perkins even ventured out for the evening. I thought he and Kaybree looked so cute sitting together on this bench. After the fun in the park, we headed to the elementary school for fireworks. The kids loved it--Kaybree covered her eyes and ears for some of them, but they enjoyed them for the most part. It was an enjoyable day and we're just so thankful to live where we do so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have.

Fun in the Sun

2008-06-28T07:27:00.000-06:00

The other day we got bored sitting around the house, so we decided to head to the lake for a little fun in the sun!! Zoe & I loaded up the kids and away we went. The kids loved it!! They chased the seagulls around and buried themselves in the sand and splashed in the water while Zoe & I relaxed on the beach.

Mireya wasn't quite feeling herself that day, so she just hung out on the beach with us. She fed the seagulls and relaxed in a beach chair almost the whole time we were there. She thought it was great because of all of the snacks we had!! Zoe & I decided it was quite an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon--the kids didn't fight or name-call, and if we got hot, we would just take a little dip in the lake!!:)

Our Little Drama Queen!!!

2008-06-17T22:04:00.000-06:00

I came home from visiting teaching tonight and Mireya was prancing around in her swimming suit bossing everyone around. It's been a couple of years since I have had a baby her age, and I had forgotten how bossy and full of attitude a child, or at least a girl, can be at just 14 months of age!!!:) Sometimes it's really hard not to get the giggles when she's "telling someone off." She definitely gets her point across!! When I got home she was following Mylee around begging her for a taste of her popsicle. First, she spotted the popsicle. Then she came right up to Mylee and started going, "Uh, uh." That translates into, "I want that." When Mylee still didn't give her a taste, she came to me and looked at me like, "Can't you see I want a taste of that? Please make her give me a taste." You can see in her eyes that she is begging for something. Sure enough, I asked Mylee to give her some. Mylee finally gave it to her and then she was upset that she couldn't get any out!! She kept looking to me for some help.

Once the popsicle episode was resolved, we went inside and eventually had dinner. Afterward, she went and stood at the closet where the snacks are and just looked at me like, "Well, are ya going to give me a treat or am I going to have to beg?" I gave her a piece of chocolate licorice and she yanked it out of my hand and marched around the house with a great big grin on her face!!

When I had to put her down for a minute outside, this is the fit she threw. She threw her licorice down, gently laid back on the cement and then started kicking and flailing her arms. I'd have to say that our house is so full of drama queens!! Girls and their little fits.:) I realized tonight that I have got to get control of this girl before she turns into a little brat!! It's amazing how young they pick up on how to manipulate their parents and siblings to get what they want!!!

Summer Dresses!!

2008-06-09T20:43:00.000-06:00

On Sunday it was such a beautiful day and we were actually ready for church early, so I thought I would take some pictures of the girls. These are the summery dresses I bought them recently and I thought they looked so cute in them!! Mireya wasn't too excited about the pictures. (Church is at the exact time she usually goes down for her morning nap. We are already counting months until she can go to nursery.)

There's nothing cuter than a little girl with her daddy!!:) And there's nothing more handsome than my husband in a white shirt and tie. Aren't they cute?

Happy Anniversary to Us!!!

2008-06-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

I know I'm a little slow, but about 10 days ago, on the 23rd of May, Martin and I celebrated our 6th anniversary!! It was a great day and we had a lot of fun. We just spent the whole day together and we had such a great time!! I thought it was neat how other people put a couple of their wedding pictures on their posts, so I thought I would as well just to reminisce a little bit. Anyway, I can't believe it has already been 6 years. And I can't believe we already have 3 kids!!:) I'm sure all of you can totally relate, but I have been thinking since my anniversary about how I can't remember ever being single!! Isn't it amazing how within about a month of being married, you can't remember anything different? And isn't it also amazing how much more you love each other within just a week, and then a month, and so forth? I think about when I got married and I was definitely in love, but the things I love Martin for now and the depth of my love have increased so much over the last 6 years. It makes me feel like we were just in puppy love when we got married!! Anyway, I know that was a bit sentimental, but I just thought I would share some of my thoughts about our anniversary! I love you, Martin!!

Now, on a lighter note, we did have a lot of fun on our anniversary. We played Donkey Konga on the Gamecube for a while in the morning. We used to stay up and play it after the kids went to bed when we lived in Casper, and we hadn't played it in forever. It was fun. Mylee even got involved and she had a lot of fun!!

Then we just chatted and watched movies and played with the kids and enjoyed our little family, which I love to do. That night we drove to Montpelier to go to dinner and it was so nice to enjoy a nice, quiet dinner together. Then, that night is when things got a little crazy!! We went over to Traci's house because Lori was staying over there and we had a little party!! We played American Idol on Kevin and Zoe's Playstation3 3. It was so much fun!! I know in these pictures that we all look like a bunch of morons, but hey, we had to get into it and have a little fun!! (My family is going to kill me when they see that I posted these pictures on here--nothing they can do about it now!!!;))

It was a great day!! I'm just so blessed to have such a great husband. 6 down and only 60+ more to go!!!

Our Exciting Weekend in Casper

2008-05-17T21:29:00.000-06:00

We just got back from Casper today, and boy was it a busy, fun trip!! It always is though. We did lots of fun stuff, stayed up way too late every night and we are all completely exhausted now that we are home!! The kids had a great time, as always, because they were spoiled rotten!! And I had a great time because I got to go on dates with Martin, hang out with Darlene, I even saw Katie Boulter, did lots of shopping (with Darlene of course--she's the one who taught me to shop) and went to a Carrie Underwood concert!! Yes, you got that right. I went to her concert !!!!! It was incredible!! Here are a few pics from our trip!!

The first day there we just hung out at the mall and took the kids to "playland." It's the stuff in the middle of the mall for them to play in. They love it there. We always have to ride the vehicles there as well, most of the time without any money in them!! They had a great time!!

To celebrate both of our anniversaries (Brian and Darlene's and ours), we decided to go to a Carrie Underwood concert!! That night we got all the kiddies ready for bed and headed to dinner at the Outback (one of my favorites). Then we went to the concert!! Don't we look all hyped up and ready for the concert?!!

These are the after pictures!! We had a great time!! I can't even tell you how incredible the concert was!! We had floor tickets (thank you, Darlene) and so when she came out to the mini stage she was just right there!!! Oh, and Josh Turner opened for her and he was really good too. It was so awesome and I tried really hard not to make a fool of myself singing and dancing. Sorry, Brian, if I screamed in your ear too much. She was so incredible I didn't want to sing. I just listened to her and she was so cute!! I could go on and on--I loved it!! Thanks again, Darlene, for spending hours at the computer to get us good tickets!!! Oh, and I had to take a picture of my t-shirt to show off to my fam. They were all so jealous I got to go to her concert!! I told Martin I am going to wear my t-shirt to every family dinner now for 6 months just to rub it in!!!

The next day, after recovering from our late night, we just let the kids play outside for a while. Then we let Mylee try her hand at photography!! These are what she came up with (except for the ones she's in). Not bad, huh? Mireya was having a nap so she missed out on the photography fun.

On Friday night, we took the kids to the park!! At first it was just Mireya and Cade because Mylee and Kaybree got spoiled and went to a movie with Grandma & Grandpa Martinez!! They had a blast, well Cade did anyway. Mireya wasn't too fond of the slides, but Cade loved them!! Do you see any resemblance between these two? Look at their Thai noses and eyes. Mireya's are a little rounder, but they both have Asian eyes!! Aren't they cute together?

That night Ty and Nicole came over and visited for a bit and then we went to Brian and Darlene's house and played the Wii until way too late, but it was a blast. She got all the pictures of that though. Wait 'til you see her game face!!!

It was a great trip!! It always goes by way too fast!!! We already miss everybody and can't wait to see them again!!! I know this was kind of a long post. Sorry. I just had so much fun and had to share it with everyone!!! Ta-Ta!!

The Newest Addition to Our Family

2008-05-11T17:24:00.000-06:00

I had to post pictures of the newest addition to our family (and no, I'm not pregnant). The girls named her Chloe Stacey Nate Martinez. My girls kept asking my dad which one of his horses was theirs and so he finally caved and gave them one. Yeah for us!!! We can finally say we own stock in Nate Quarter Horses!! She's cute, huh?

A Winter Wonderland in May?

2008-05-09T10:47:00.000-06:00

I just wanted everyone to know why I just MIGHT be a little depressed today. I'm so sick of winter!!! Is it ever going to end? It is May 9th for pickin' sakes!! Well, I'm not depressed, but I am a little bugged by the weather! (Don't pay attention to my messy yard. I trimmed a bunch of trees and ripped some stuff out and it is still piled up because Martin has been at work so his truck hasn't been here to haul it to the dump.)

I'm it!

2008-05-02T15:50:00.000-06:00

I know I already did a post today, but Darlene tagged me and it has taken me a few days to get it done. I kept getting interrupted...imagine that. Anyway, it's been fun to learn some little things about those that have been tagged. Enjoy!

A: Attached or Single? Attached to my adorable, amazing and helpful husband, Martin.

B: Best Friend? Definitely Martin. We can talk about anything and he helps me keep my sanity amidst all of the chaos in our household. My sisters, sisters-in-law and other friends are close runners-up!

C: Cake or Pie? If it’s chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, then cake hands down!! I do like pie though.

D:Day of Choice? Any day that we spend the whole day together as a family (with minimal fighting and tantrums).

E:Essential Item. The phone (home or cell). Sometimes it’s the only adult conversation I have in a day.

F: Favorite Color? Black and brown right now. I wear these colors and decorate my house in these colors (not together, don’t worry—I accent with other colors).

G: Greatest Accomplishment? Motherhood. I’m always trying to do better at it, but I am so thankful for the opportunity.

H: Hometown?: Cokeville. I’ll always be a panther at heart!

I:Indulgences?: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

J:January or July?: Right now January doesn’t sound too good because I AM SICK OF COLD WEATHER, but normally I prefer the cold to the hot.

L: Life is incomplete without?: Daily hugs and kisses from my girls. There’s nothing better than their little arms wrapped around my neck.

M: Marriage Date?: May 23, 2002

N:Number of Siblings?: 2 sisters and 2 brothers. I am the baby, and absolutely the spoiled one that got away with everything!! Martin says I am still spoiled (but in my defense it’s only because he spoils me)!

O: Oranges or Apples?: Oranges for sure, although I love fruit!! Grapefruit is my favorite at the present time. It rotates.

P: Phobias or Fears?: The dark. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I still sleep with a nightlight (it not only scares away the boogey man, but it is also very helpful when I have to get up with the kids in the night).

Q: Quote?: Snotrocket. I think I picked this term up from Darlene. I’ve got to stop using it because my kids have started calling each other snotrockets.

R: Reason to Smile?: I’m blessed with so much, I would feel ungrateful if I didn’t keep smiling.

S: Season? Spring & Fall. That’s when the temperature and weather are perfect (although this spring has definitely been the exception).

T: Tag your friends?: I tag Ashlie.

U: Unknown fact about me?: I HATE doing the dishes right after dinner. After I’ve worked in the kitchen for a couple hours getting supper prepared, the last thing I want to do is be in the kitchen. I like to put everything in the sink and tackle them in the morning with a fresh attitude and vigor for life!

V: Very favorite store? This is a tough one…I love to shop!! Charlotte Russe for me, and for the kids Mervyns & The Children’s Place. I used to like to shop for Martin at Maurices, but now they don’t have the men’s line. What’s a girl to do?

W: Worst Habit? Martin says it’s chewing the inside of my mouth—it’s a nervous habit.

X: X-ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound—I’ve never had one except when I’m pregnant and I quite like them for that occasion (except for the pushing on an extremely full bladder).

Y: Your favorite food?: Ginger chicken and sticky rice, or pretty much any Asian food that Martin’s mom cooks!

Z: Zodiac? Leo. I have no idea what it means. I just know that’s what I am.

Sunshine Show

2008-05-02T08:46:00.000-06:00

Mylee's Sunshine Generation show was last night. She was a lot less reserved this time than she was for the December show!! She even had a speaking part. We worked on it a ton and she had it memorized so well, but of course, as soon as she got up to the mic she forgot it. At least (with the help of her instructor) she did actually say it into the mic. I was afraid she wouldn't. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Jasmine and Kamille were in the show too so it was fun to watch them. (Notice how Mylee poses for her pictures. Every snapshot I take of her at home is posed like this? Think I should be worried?)

Ranch Girl

2008-04-24T15:13:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago (when it was warmer) Kaybree wanted to go out to the ranch with Grandpa. We went out to watch a cow calve, but we waited for an hour and a half, but she wasn't calving fast enough. I got some pretty graphic pictures and Kaybree was amazed!! We gave up on the cow and went to help my dad feed a calf a bottle. Kaybree was all excited until she got close to the calf. It took her a minute before she would touch it. She loves the ranch, but she also likes to keep her distance from the animals!!

Mireya's Birthday Dress

2008-04-13T20:20:00.000-06:00

This is her new birthday dress that she got from her grandma & grandpa Martinez. She was so proud of herself walking around in her new dress!! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa "Tinez."

The Cake!!

2008-04-13T20:09:00.000-06:00

After following Mireya around and filming her, we just hung out all day and then went to my mom and dad's for her little party. (By the way if you see drywall in the background, they added an addition to their dining room that is still under construction.) It was Traci's birthday too, so it was fun to celebrate them together. Mireya wasn't quite sure what to think about everyone staring at her, but she loved her cupcake!!

More Mischief!!!

2008-04-13T20:05:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday, Mireya!!

2008-04-13T19:50:00.000-06:00

Mireya turned a year old on the 9th. I can't believe my baby is a year old. My kids are growing up way too fast! I started out the day by following her around and taking pictures and filming her doing her favorite things: taking all of the sippy cups out of the drawer, pulling everything out of other cupboards, filling the dishwasher with soap, filling the toilet with LOTS of toilet paper and pretending to flush, and pulling all of our extra toiletries out of the closet! We have to keep the bathroom door closed or she dips her fingers or toothbrush in the toilet and then sucks on them. Gross, huh. We were also afraid she was going to clog the toilet with all of the toilet paper she was putting in there. We sat Mylee and Kaybree down last week and talked to them about using too much toilet paper when they go potty. A couple days later I found out who it really was that was filling up the toilets!! She tried to flush our phone the other day. Thankfully, it dried out nicely, I sanitized it and it works again. My other girls were not this mischievous!!

Girly Girls!

2008-04-08T08:16:00.000-06:00

Dress-up is the favored thing around our house! I did have to limit it a little as they had started to change into new clean clothes several times a day! Of course you have to change to "go shopping," or to go to a "party" or to go "swimming!!" When Jasmine comes over the camera has to come out! We even got Michael in a princess dress & crown!!

Hey everyone!!

2008-04-08T08:12:00.000-06:00

Hey! It's been fun to see what some classmates and others are up to in their lives!! I'm excited to get our blog designed!! Too-da-loo!!!