Arizona in January

I found the girls outside doing this today....

Can you fit FOUR kids on Dad's back?

After family prayer at night Brian sometimes takes the kids to bed on his back. Tonight they wanted to see if Blake could join in the fun.



There was NO SCHOOL Monday morning, so the kids asked if they could all sleep in the family room. I said no, but they could sleep in the playroom in the basement! I totally thought they'd turn it down since they are somewhat "scared" of the basement, especially at night time! Well, Tanner and Kamryn both hesitated, but Payton ran to her room and came out with her blanket and pillow, so the OLDER kids decided that if the three yr old isn't scared, then they aren't either!

Running Club

Tanner has been going to running club for a couple months....they go to school an hour early two days a week and run some laps. He has loved going and usually gets up before 7 without a fight.

Well today was their first race. Four schools were there and they ran on a route around the neighborhood. I'm not sure how far they ran, but whatever it was it took Tanner around 30 mins to make it back to the school.


I was waiting in the neighborhood along the route to cheer the kids on...When Tanner saw me he was walking, then he TOOK off sprinting as fast as he could-which explains the blurry photo and the silly look on his face.


Just crossed the finish line back at school.


Yes, he really did get in 237th place! (I don't know how many kids there were total, but my guess would be 260 give or take) But he was pretty excited about it. Hey, as long as he's happy! He's probably more of a sprinter like his parents than a distance runner anyway

Here we go....

Blake has been attempting to crawl for quite sometime now....but the past couple of days he's moving around so much that he now changes rooms! My room to the bathroom, computer room to the hallway, family room to the kitchen. Catch the trend? Literally every room in the house exits onto TILE. He does not enjoy the cold hard floor on his knees so far. But I bet he'll get used to it soon. After Family Home Evening tonight we whipped out the camera to see if we could get some moves on film. It was already past his bedtime and we could tell, but he still did great. I just hope he doesn't find the staircase to the basement anytime soon! I'm glad it's sort of tucked away behind the couch, but I bet it won't take him long to attempt that. Life is going to be different (for mom at least) for a while with Blake on the move now....fun times.

STORABLES

In the month of December I found myself with not much going on. I was done with Christmas things, but everyone around me was super busy, so I was basically at home bored. So Brian and I made a huge list of things to do-room by room. To sum it up, It was a major CLEAN OUT list (and Brian's was more of a paint/drywall/fix it list). Which was much overdue. I was able to get EVERYTHING done on the list before Christmas but ONE thing. My bathroom drawers/cupboards. I just had no motivation cause I didn't know where to start or how I wanted it done....

Well, a few weeks ago a friend told me about this store up at Dana Park in Mesa. I never am on that side of town, so I had no clue it even existed. But I loved it! I used to go in a similar one at the chandler mall years ago, but it closed a while back. Anyway, I looked around, and then came right home and measured my drawers....went back a couple weeks later and bought what I needed. Here is the final result!

The funniest part was I was in SHOCK at how much girl hair stuff I actually had. Before there was a few bows here, a few there, etc. But now that they have a "place" it looks like a TON! One might wonder WHY on earth the girls NEVER have a bow in their hair!?! Well now they will! And I love that all my makeup is now spread out and in view. You know how you get new stuff and the old stuff gets lost in the back and never gets used up....well now I can remember to use it all!

The Boys are in town!

Tanner has few boy cousins....on both sides really. The Martin side is slowly catching up though...9 boys to 11 girls...wait those numbers are alot closer than I thought they'd be! (I guess because only half of the boys live in town, and NONE are within 2.5 yrs of his age) And on the Mazzarelli side it's 9 girls to 4 boys. And half of those boys live in Idaho! In other words, Tanner is more than used to being surrounded by girls. He does LOVE Blake to death-and tells him daily that he's his best friend, etc....I think it's cause he's a boy-he never treated the baby girls like that! It's pretty cute.

So Joey and Hayden on in Mexico for a week, so their two boys (JD and Zephyr) have been staying with my Mom. They got to stay the night here last weekend and they had so much fun. All three of them have the same build-a-bear that Nonna took them to get (at three different times last year) They kept asking for pics of their dinos all day. We took lots of pictures of the dinos posing throughout the house, but I'll spare you those, and show you the ones with the boys in them! (tanner had a mini version of his dino, and he has now gifted it to Blake)




Had to share this one of the animals literally hung to the magnet board in Tanner's room...

Ski/Snowboarding Fun...

Tanner and Kamryn we're so excited to go up the mountain with us and go to ski school again this year. Case went too and talked Tanner into snowboarding(he wanted to, but I wanted him to wait a couple more years so he could enjoy life beyond the bunny hill, but he won, and he did alright...)

The place was PACKED and the ski school was booked for the am by the time we got the kids rentals taken care of, so we had a few hours to "hang out" and wait for the pm class to start.



Brian and Jared helped the boys get some practice runs in before class...

Kam and I hung out and took some pictures while killing time...Then FINALLY the clock said ONE so we could go get in line to check them in! We got about 3 runs in and it was time to pick them up and head home!

On New Years day we went again, but to a different place. That one takes reservations for skischool, but it was all booked! So Brian and I went anyway and I'm so glad I went twice. I hadn't boarded since we were engaged-9 yrs ago!!! I enjoyed it much more the second day-but overall I think I did better than I thought I was going to.

Temple Square Lights...

The kids begged us all December to take them to Mesa to see the temple lights, but we never made it! It's just SO far!! Anyway, while in Utah we got to take them to Salt Lake to see the lights at temple square. It may be the first time my kids had even seen the Salt Lake Temple??! Well, Kamryn fell asleep on the way up there, so that explains her mood.....The kids loved running around outside in the cold too. I'm just glad it wasn't even that cold! I think it was in the 40's.

Sledding

The kids had been begging to go outside and go sledding, so Monday morning we got the gear on and headed across the cul-de-sac to a little hill. It was nice to just be right there! There is no snow on any of the roads around here, but TONS still all over up on the hill where we're staying. When we got there the first night it took like 20 mins of effort to even get my car to their driveway through the snow. Anyway, Tanner had the 5 hour flu Monday morning and was taking a long nap so he missed out on the sledding.

Merry Christmas!

Tanner and Kamryn came in just after 7:30 and then we woke up Payton and Blake and headed out to the family room!



The kids were excited about Utah and loved their sweats to travel in. (FYI-Costco for like 16 bucks for a set right now!)


That afternoon Grandma and Grandpa Martin came down to bring the kids gifts and Tricia and her family came along for fun. We played games for hours while the kids ran around outside and played lots of Barbies....I had planned on Breakfast for dinner that night but since they all had a big breakfast that morning we just whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches and some salad.


Late in the afternoon we looked out back and saw a rainbow! It was much brighter in real life.

We had a great Christmas and I'm sad it's over....have a happy New Year!

Christmas Eve...

We had Christmas Eve dinner at my Mom's tonight and it was SO GOOD!!! One Argentina tradition that has stuck with our family is my Mom making Melanessa either for Thanksgiving or for Christmas. It is the ONE thing I can eat and eat and even go back for more just to savor the taste even though my tummy is so full. When new "in laws" are married into the family they just don't get it. I think it's starting to grow on them, but mostly they used to say it tastes like nothing. Well, it's my kind of nothing, and I don't like red meat any other way! I should have gotten a good pic of it. We did our gift exchanges there and then all our jammies showed up mysteriously at the door! (it's my own little family tradition to have them ding dong ditched at the door on Christmas Eve) I should have got a pic...since extra cousins are in town visiting there was a big pile of little presents. Anyway, it was a fun night and we headed home around 9:45! We are really off schedule around here lately and have been sleeping in a bit.....when Tanner was going to bed he asked me, "Mom, is it okay if we wake up early tomorrow, like 7 something?" My body is stuck on going to bed after midnight....this has got to change or I'm in for it when school starts back up!

Three Three Year Olds....all a few weeks apart! Payton, Makenzie, Hailey

David and David happened to show up in the SAME shirt!

Fast asleep on Tanner's floor....Kamryn was in the middle, but she decided her bed was more comfy....smart one.

Since it's after midnight already I went to take a peak and look who came! I can't wait for morning and the big surprise! We're headed to SNOW to visit cousins and the kids don't know yet! That's the SPECIAL gift on the fireplace. They have to unwrap it to find out where we're going....

Annual Martin Family Christmas Party

It was Peggy's (Brian's mom) turn to host this year and she did a great job! The kids LOVE when we get together-even though everyone is pretty close by, they don't get enough cousin time! We had a fun night that ended with a Santa Visit....

(with grandma mckown)