Lots to post!

I know, I have a lot to catch up on with Christmas and all...I'll get to it sooner or later, but I wanted to drop in and say,

WE'RE having a BOY!!!

And they're wrapped....

I love getting everything all wrapped up and under the tree....such a feeling of accomplishment and gratitude! I thought I'd finally take a picture of the tree. I am going to be so sad the day it has to get taken down and all the fun put away for a whole year....

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas break and good luck for the New Year! Once I steal some pics of the Martin Family Christmas Party from someone I'll have to do a post-dated post....




Merry Christmas!


ps...we've lost(broken via multiple methods) approx. 10-12 ornaments this year, how about you??

I forgot my camera.....AGAIN....

Lots has been going on around here, but I still have yet to remember to bring my camera! Kamryn and Tanner both had cute little holiday parties today and I was able to go to both! Payton had an entire day hanging out with Dad! I'll be sure to take some pictures at our family party this weekend and then again on Christmas day!

Speaking of forgetting....I REALLY wish they made medication for memory! Is our memory "really" worse when we're pregnant, or is that a wise tale? I hope it really is true, then it'll make me feel better about these past few months! Of course there's the millions of little things I forget to do on a daily basis, but it's the ones that hurt my kids that make me so sad/mad at myself! Tanner almost missed a field trip last week because I guess I never sent in the permission slip....(I don't ever recall SEEING the slip to begin with) Brian had to rush down to the school as they were loading the buses to sign it. And then today I got to Kamryn's party, and she's on the floor with her class and she looks up at me and points to a book in her lap and lips-"you forgot my BOOK!" Sure enough they were having a gift exchange with new books to trade and I have completely forgotten about it. When she said that, it still took me a few minutes to figure out what "book" she was talking about. I guess her nice teacher had an extra and hurried and wrapped it up for her. Anyway, these were my two least favorite because they affected my kids the most. The most annoying LITTLE thing I deal with daily is every time we load the car (I mean EVERY TIME) I have to run back in the house 1 to 3 times to get something I forgot...! I know we all do this sometimes, but this is ALL the time, and it's driving me nuts!

Anyway, I better go dig out my presents and start wrapping to be sure I didn't "forget" to buy anything!!

Singing Concert

Kamryn had a little recital with her singing class tonight.

She was in SUCH a sad/cranky mood on the way there and would not smile...

I was worried she would be no fun to watch. Before they started I asked her if she was going to sing when they got up there, and she said, "Yeah, I'm gonna sing the loudest of all!" And that she did, in the first song at least. It was Jingle Bells(her favorite) and she was pretty loud, BUT......sang WAY off. Like she's hold the notes (loudly) ONE HORSE OPEN SLEIGH really lloonngg as the rest of the class and the tape was going fast. It was hilarious.


Yes, the kids SHOULD have been singing in this picture, but ALL of them were a little preoccupied with the flash lights....They were making light shows around the room and the boys sure were loving it!! Kamryns light kept going out and that was all she was thinking about...

She had a great time being up there with all her little friends!

THANK YOU DAD!!

So my Dad just left after a fun filled day fixing computer after computer(he was also here until midnight earlier this week). And now, we are back to EVERY computer working again!!

Oh, and by the way, the problem got worse since it started....A third computer got all weird on my yesterday and I spent a total of 4-5 hours on the phone between yesterday and today trying to get my "windows reactivated"?!?! yes, random....but even more random, is a couple hours ago I went downstairs, and what do you know....that screen is gone and it TOTALLY works fine now.

SO, I thought, I'm back, I should post something....BUT thing is, these problems have consumed my week and I really have nothing more to post about! I'm looking forward to this weekend and looking forward to my mind being able to rest for a while.....I'll be back!

Side note: I was in the midst of creating my Christmas card when the drama began, but thanks Rachel for letting me borrow your computer to get it all finished! SO, they will come later than planned this year, but I'm sure that's fine! Also, for you out of towner old friends, I was just going to go around and leave comments to a few of you that I NEED your home address, but I thought it would be easier to tell you here to email me if you want a Christmas card this year!! I don't want to post my main email address, but I'll check my backup one, so send it there.... klmartin22@hotmail.com. THANKS!!

Could be worse....

What are the chances....we have had TWO of our computers hard drives crash this week! Our main one, and then the brand new(well, a few months old, but barely used) Company one in the office downstairs! At least we still have Brian's laptop and our old Company one (a super old one downstairs that failed a few years back and we were able to recover! But that one has never worked the same since....)

The GOOD news is I keep all my photos and my money/banking program on an external hard drive, so I should still have all that! (I haven't checked yet, but I'm assuming it's fine?!) We'll see if my Dad can help get the computers back up and running....wish us luck!

Perfect weather, perfect day....

We had so much fun playing outside on Thanksgiving. It was not too cold and not too hot! Well, I guess I got a little hot while out running the bases in our kick ball game...but besides that it was great!

We had it at my parents this year. Brie and Joey weren't able to come to AZ, so it was just the 5 Arizonan kids and their families. Also, Dave's sister Diane with 2 of her kids and Brian's parents joined us!! It was nice to have more people around for the holidays.
We ate a good meal then laid around a bit while the kids played outside on their early Christmas present from Nonna.



Soon after we headed out for a game of kickball. We picked teams the old fashion way and sure enough, the 2 grandma's were the LAST picked!! It was fun. There was a park right there for the kids to play at, but they mostly hung out with us.





Sandra and Fressia decided to climb the backstop, and the boys took advantage and started chucking the balls at them....added by throwing water from water bottles up at them to get them all wet!


Like I said, it was a PERFECT day!!

Speaking of...

.....Fressia, she's my "single" cousin! Anyone know anyone that wants to go on a blind date?? She'd love it! She doesn't get a chance to meet too many great Mormon boys at work, so I figured I'd try and help! Hah, you love me Fressia, I know it!! To help you narrow down who you know, I thought I'd put in some side notes....she's a shorty, like 5'1 or 2. Lives in Gilbert, 26 yrs old, fun personality...Okay, I'm not good at that part, so just trust me, she's cute!
Sorry Fressia, this is the only picture I could find of you on my computer right now, you were the one with the camera on thursday so there isn't much there!

Thanksgiving....

Happy Thanksgiving! Can you believe it is already here!! I thought I'd start off the day by saying how thankful I am for my KIDS! It seems like I only blog when things are crazy or out of whack, so I thought today was a good day to mention their "good" side! Here's my perfect morning:

Tanner came in at 7:30 am and woke me up to ask if he could play on the computer. I said sure, but get Payton up first. (she had just then started calling, "mom" from her crib) Oh yeah, and Brian was already out playing in the annual Turkey Bowl)

I didn't hear a thing or see another child until 8 am! Kamryn came in and crawled into bed. I was feeling better (I've got some sort of tummy thing going on the past few days), so we got up and came out to the kitchen.

There I found Payton just headed to the sink and putting her cereal bowl into it. Tanner was still on the computer and he had gotten Payton up and made her some breakfast!

I love that I can take a break when needed and so far I have a 99% chance that things will be in order when I wake up. At the beginning of this pregnancy I took daily naps from 30 mins to 3 hours and the kids always helped hold down the fort while I rested. Luckily I think I'm starting to get passed the tired stage, so as soon as this tummy thing passes, we should be good to go!

Have a YUMMY dinner today!! Happy Thanksgiving...

Polar Express!!

This weekend we took the kids up to Williams Arizona to ride on the Polar Express and see SANTA! We went with a huge group of friends, which made it even more fun. Tanner and Kamryn loved every second of the trip. Payton would have loved it, but since the train left at 8 PM, (45 mins past bedtime) and got back at 9:30, we thought she'd have much more fun spending her time with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. And she did have a blast there!!


They got to write letters to Santa and see Mrs. Clause before the train left. Then once on the train, Santa came walking through and passed out bells for the kids to take home.

On Saturday we took our time driving home and checked out some land/cabins with some friends in Flagstaff. While we were driving around we saw 7 ELK!! They were all together standing in a circle. Once we stopped and got out to get a closer look, (and once Tanner laid on a horn a few times) they started walking away. Very slowly though, they seemed to not care that we were right there at all!

She wasn't lying...

Earlier this afternoon I loaded the kids up and we were off to Home Depot to get some things for around the house. Somewhere between my house and Home Depot, Payton started calling my name REPEATEDLY. For anyone who's been lucky enough to have traveled with Payton knows that this is NOTHING new. It's her favorite thing to do, and its a daily occurrence.

After a while, I turned and asked her what she needed. USUALLY she just smiles and continues to say my name. But this time was different...She told me, "My shoe!" I then asked, "Where's your shoe??" She pointed at the window (which was rolled down) and said, "At the window!" I was like, WHAT?? Did she really throw her shoe out the window???? This was my FAVORITE shoe I had ever bought for ANY of my kids! It lasted all summer, stayed on her (until now) and matched everything!!

Sure enough, we got to Home Depot and she only had one shoe in the car. Driving home I was trying to figure out where she started the whole "MOM" thing....and I began looking in the road as I drove. I was almost home, (but still on a major road) when I SAW IT!! It was in the middle of the street. I pulled on over and ran into the street to get it. It was still in good shape and didn't appear to have been run over.

Random story yes, but I still can't believe she actually chucked her shoe out the window!! She can't even reach her hand out of it, so actual throwing had to have been involved!

He did SO good!

Tanner had his appointment this morning to have his front tooth pulled along with one filling done. He was actually pretty excited about it! He hit his tooth when he was one, and it has been brown/gray every since. It turned pink last month and it was clear that there was an infection inside it now. It was literally eating away his tooth(you can see a little hole in the top by his gums) Everything went great! The tooth was all broken on one side inside his gums and they couldn't get it all out, so over the next year or so the dentist said he'd have random pieces of a tooth fall out!??! They used laughing gas, and it relaxed him so quickly and perfectly. It was about 35 minuets that he had to lay there with his mouth open! Anyway, now we're waiting for the numbing to go away so he can eat some lunch and go to school to show all his friends!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

What a crazy past week we have had! But with today actually being Halloween, I think I enjoyed the whole thing the most tonight! We headed over to the Goff's (do they have a perfect Halloween last name or what?) for a yummy Halloween dinner, then we were off to the best Halloween street in Seville! It was packed and was so much fun. The kids loved seeing all their friends pass by also.


Here's Payton with one of her BFF's Bella. She's on Sucker #8 out of the 20 she had tonight!

The girls and I took a candy break while the boys went in the Thompson's scary haunted house!!

Lunchtime gone BAD!

Kamryn views my blog probably way more than even I do, so I try not to post her mishaps so she doesn't look at them as attention for her wrong doings! BUT, the pictures of this event we're too nasty not to share! (For example, I left off pics of her CHOPPING her hair off last week, because I for sure don't want that to happen again!)

I sent them outside (at least that was a good decision) to eat their corn dogs. Kamryn came in a few mins later and asked for more Ketchup. I handed it to her and told her she could give herself some. BIG MISTAKE!



I don't have a hose in the backyard, so I made them strip down and head around to the front yard, where I hosed down two naked girls. But now I still need to bring the hose around to clean off the table and patio!!

OH, and check this out. I had JUST OPENED this Ketchup before serving the girls lunch. Over half gone! Shows just how COVERED they were. It was pretty gross....

Martin Halloween Party!

Thanks Crystal for planning and putting on the Halloween party this year! Everyone had such a blast. Of course the the older kids crashed in the car on the way home pretty quickly, and Payton was wide awake when we got home 25 mins later....(at least she was happy and awake!) Here's some pictures of the fun night up at Grandma's house...

Yes, that is Brian in the picture.....DORK!


Payton throwing a ball to knock down the cups.


Kamryn doing the bean bag toss.


Tanner looking cool. I should have taken a picture of the two goldfish we were lucky enough to bring home.....All night Tanner has reminded me that I need to go to PetsMart first thing in the morning and go buy them some breakfast. (how does he even know what PetsMart is?!?!)


Do I really want to claim this guy??? I know you're jealous Jared that you could't be here to join the Joe Dirt brothers....

Kamryn's First GOAL!!

With only a couple weeks of soccer left I figured I'd better get some pictures of Kamryn playing! I picked a good week to have a camera there too!! Half way through the game she kicked off the ball and just took it right down to the goal and scored!! She had the biggest smile on her face I think I've ever seen. It was too cute.



Tanner also had a good day. He loves to be out there running around with his team, but is usually just "watching" all the action and rarely touches the ball the entire game. Well, today coach had him play a little defence and I think it was more his style. He only had to fight the ball off of one player instead of get in the midst of 6 or more!