Martin Page

New Hair Cuts for a New Year

2012-01-04T16:22:00.004-05:00

The girls have been asking to cut their hair short for the past couple months, so I decided the holiday break would be a good time to do it. I made appointments for them with the gal I go to and they found a magazine with the styles they each wanted. So this morning we took the plunge and did it! They both look really cute and sassy with the shorter hair. Makelle even got bangs which is a first for her. They will let their hair grow till their dance recital in June. We're hoping it will be possible to get Makelle's hair into a bun by then. After that, they can cut it again if they'd like for the summer. They love their hair and can't wait to show their friends at school next week.

Holiday Camping

2012-01-04T15:06:00.009-05:00

Since the kids were out of school and Tom had to take the week after Christmas off, we decided to go camping with our trailer. Mitchell needed to visit the mission he was assigned for his 4th grade mission project, which is Santa Ines just outside Solvang. Tom found a really nice campground a short drive from Solvang. This was our second time visiting Solvang and the mission as a family and we enjoyed it just as much this time. We had to get the kids pictures with the Dutch dancers and with the Andersen's Split Pea sign. We enjoyed lunch at Andersen's and had so much food, we ate the leftovers for dinner that night around the campfire. We also enjoyed roasting hot dogs and smores over the fire another night. Our trip turned very interesting when McKay was playing on a playset and was pushed by a little girl and he hit his tooth on a bar on his way down. After Tom and I inspected his bloody mouth, Tom discovered that his top front baby tooth had been pushed up into his gum and was barely poking out. After a trip to a very nice local dentist, his tooth was pulled out and luckily no damage was done to the permanent tooth above. That night when he went to bed, McKay was excited for his first tooth fairy visit. He woke up to a $5 bill and a new cute smile. All in all, we had a really nice camping trip and look forward to the future trips the new year will bring.

Christmas Morning

2012-01-04T14:53:00.003-05:00

The kids were very happy to wake up Christmas morning and discover that Santa fulfilled most of their Christmas wishes. Makelle got her guitar, McKenna got "Just Dance" for the wii, Mitchell got his Harry potter wand and McKay got his Hipity Hop. We had a nice morning and then enjoyed a special Christmas Sacrament meeting at church. McKenna was able to play "Silent Night" in a large musical number with vocals, flute and organ, and she did an incredible job accompanying for her first time. After church, we came home and opened all the presents under the tree and then the kids were able to enjoy their new toys while Tom and I enjoyed the warm fire. What a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-04T14:40:00.004-05:00

We enjoy being at home for Christmas each year but we didn't have any family to share our big Christmas Eve dinner with. So we were happy to have the Smiths join us for the festivities. There was plenty of yummy food to eat! I made both a turkey breast and a large spiral ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots and broccoli, rolls and Angela brought a beautiful layered Jello salad. Then we had chocolate cream cheese dessert and a Banoffee pie for dessert. After dinner, we had a present for each of the triplets to open, a snow globe for Angela and Conrad to open. And the big surprise, was a rocking horse that Tom had built just for the Smith girls! My girls and I painted it and it turned out so cute! The triplets were so excited when they saw it, and took turns riding it immediately. We had a really nice time with the Smiths and were glad they could make our Christmas Eve so nice.

Here is the rocking horse in the girl's room. Matches pretty well. Their mom said they insisted that it be in their bedroom. I think they like it!

The Nutcracker

2012-01-04T14:11:00.006-05:00

Both Makelle and McKenna had the opportunity to perform in "The Nutcracker" the weekend before Christmas. I played a small part by making 6 dozen gingerbread men that were sold with the concessions at the performances. I also was able to work backstage helping with costume and hair changes during the first performance. The girls worked really hard practicing and it all paid off with two wonderful performances.

School Christmas Program

2012-01-04T13:52:00.005-05:00

Each of the four kids participated in the school Christmas program and they each did a great job. The younger three each sang a couple cute songs and then McKenna's class did a dance that their PE teacher had taught them. They all had fun and looked great performing.

Christmas Lights

2012-01-04T13:35:00.002-05:00

One of the things we do every year to help get us in the Christmas mood is to find a neighborhood where they have a large display of lights. Our good friends, the Smiths, told us about a great neighborhood in Pacific Grove that we needed to check out this year. So, we went with them to "Candy Cane Lane" and walked around with their three darling girls (yes, they are triplets) and we "ooooed" and "awwwwed" for about 45 minutes while we walked around the festive neighborhood. Afterward, we introduced the Smiths to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Monterey. It was a very fun night!

Principles List

2011-12-12T12:53:00.002-05:00

McKenna is on a roll. Since she started school in Hollister she has earned the coveted spot of being on the school Principal's List every trimester. This is an award given to 4th - 6th grade students who earn straight "A" marks on their report card. This year's first trimester was no exception. McKenna once again was on the Principal's List.

This was the first year that Mitchell was eligible for Principal's List and we were extremely excited to find out that he joined his older sister and made it this first trimester! We are very proud of him and know that he has made tremendous effort to earn straight A's.

We are so proud of the kids and hope they continue to work hard and do well in school.

Thanksgiving in Utah

2011-12-12T12:47:00.002-05:00

The last couple of years we have traveled to Utah to enjoy Thanksgiving at the Petersen's. There is always tons of good food, and lots of energy as dozens of cousins from all ages chatter and play. Last year we braved Donner Pass in a blizzard in our efforts to save an hour of driving, but this year we used better judgement and went south through Las Vegas. Staying overnight in the Petersen timeshare made the trip much less grueling as we only spent about 8 hours each day driving.

This year was even more special as my parents were able to spend Thanksgiving with us. They just bought a house in Utah and are slowly bringing up car loads of household items from San Diego to their new house. Since they were coming for Makelle's baptism anyway, we invited them to have Thanksgiving with us. It was wonderful that the kids were able to spend Thanksgiving with both of their grandparents at the same time.

Does any kid like being at the "kid table?"

Grandpa Wes is having fun feeding Constantine

This was NOT the quiet table

This was the self selected "quiet table"

Here are all of the cousins

McKenna's Piano Recital

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

McKenna has been working hard this past few months in preparation for her latest piano recital. We have loved hearing her practice the two Christmas songs each morning before school. She played beautifully, and will need to continue to practice as she will be playing one of her songs on Christmas day.

Dad also challenged McKenna to learn more hymns by offering $10 for every hymn she learns and can play with people singing along. With Science Camp right around the corner she needs to raise some money as soon as possible so maybe we will be hearing more hymns in the mornings.

Makelle Turns 8!

2011-12-06T15:00:00.007-05:00

This was the year that Makelle turned the important age of 8 years old! She had the opportunity to celebrate it several times with it being so close to Thanksgiving. She first had a friend party the night before her birthday. She had a ladybug theme and was able to have 5 friends over for good food, fun games and just some good 'ol girl time.

The next day, her birthday, we loaded up the Suburban and drove to Las Vegas to spend the night on our way to Utah for Thanksgiving. My parents were kind enough to let us use their time-share on the way up and back, which made traveling that distance much more bearable. We were also lucky enough to have Tom's parents meet us at the resort and spend the night with us. The unit we had was so large, everyone had a bed to sleep in. For Makelle's birthday dinner, we all went to the Rain Forest Cafe inside the MGM Casino. Papa's birthday was the following day, so we celebrated both birthdays with the waitresses/waiters singing to them and bringing them beautiful desserts. Then we headed back to the resort and Makelle got to open mom and dad's presents to her (her own Nintendo DS and a game) with Grammie CC and Papa looking on.

The next day we traveled to Provo and had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Petersen's home. After dinner, Makelle got to open her present from them, a beautiful china doll to sit on top of her dresser. Then Grandma brought out the red velvet cake that Makelle had requested and we all enjoyed that.

While in Utah, we were able to stay at Grammie CC and Papa's new home in Highland this year. More presents to open at their home! Then on the 26th, the Saturday following Thanksgiving, Makelle was able to be baptized in Provo. What a special day it was! She looked so happy and was very excited to finally be baptized! We are so proud of her and love her very much!

Halloween

2011-11-11T01:54:00.007-05:00

Every year our kids get so excited to chose a costume and then to dress up in it. This year was definitely no different. McKay was Superman, a costume that was worn by his older brother for Halloween 5 years ago and has gotten plenty of use through the years. I was very happy that McKay was excited to wear something that didn't really need any planning, purchasing or searching. Makelle also resurrected a costume that was used a few years ago, only it was purchased for a dance number McKenna performed in her recital. After paying as much money as I did for it, I was determined that it would be worn for Halloween one year by one of the kids, so I was happy when Makelle agreed to wear it this year! A simple search on Amazon and we were set with a rainbow wig, white gloves, clown make-up and huge clown shoes. Mitchell's costume was my most challenging to put together this year. He decided on Indiana Jones and the extremely simple costumes they have for young boys are so cheaply made. They just looked so cheap and flimsy. So, I began the search on-line for each of the pieces individually. I was able to find the hat and whip on Amazon and then the pleather jacket and brown pants were each found on ebay. I dirtied up an old white church shirt of his, so it would look well used like the real Indi wears. I gave him a whiskery face with eyeliner and he looked pretty good. As you can see from the pictures, he loved to look the part with his serious poses. McKenna decided on a free-loving hippy. She painted her own peace T-shirt with fabric paint and then we found the scarf and jeans at Goodwill. To finish off the groovy look, we found a head band and purple shades on Amazon. She borrowed our neighbors white boots and she was looking far-out! It was weird for Tom and I to see her looking 3 or 4 years older than she is.

The kids had a great Halloween and brought home way too much candy! We'll be eating it for months to come. After the kids finished Trick-or-treating, we made our traditional funnel cakes and they were as delicious as ever!

The Saturday before Halloween, we hosted a Halloween Party with a handful of families in our neighborhood and ward. After taking last year off, I decided that we need to continue the tradition that we started in Schwenksville, making this our third Martin Halloween party. We had a really nice time mingling and enjoying plenty of really great food. The kids had fun showing off their costumes and playing games. I put quite a lot of time into preparing for it, but it was well worth it. I've already started thinking about ideas for next year!

Warrior Dash Part Duex

2011-11-01T21:21:00.002-04:00

Last year I participated in the very rowdy 5k race called the Warrior Dash. It involved climbing over wrecked cars, going through tunnels, sliding down soapy hillsides, jumping over fire, and, of course, crawling on your hands and knees through mud. It was a blast, and I immediately signed up for it again this year. Well the long wait was over this past weekend and literally thousands of people from all over came to enjoy "Mud, Sweat, and Beer!" (I did not partake in that last part for anyone wondering.)

This year a group of us from church decided to try matching a bit and we gave artistic control over to a nice lady who decided that we would look great in red shirts and pink argyle socks. I wasn't so sure about the socks, but after a while they grew on me, and you may find me still wearing them from time to time.

The race was tons of fun, and this time a good friend brought his helmet camera and caught most of the race on video. You can check out how fun it was here:

Hopefully they will continue to do this event in Nor Cal in the future because it is so much fun. If you are around you should come with us, we promise not to make you wear the socks if you don't want to, but they will make you look cool!

Walk-a-Thon

2011-10-21T11:36:00.000-04:00

All four kids participated in this years Walk-a-Thon fundraiser for the parent club. Money raised this year helps pay for concrete to be poured in front of the Kindergarten area. This provided lots of extra space for the kids to play and ride.

All of the kids had a great time and lots of money was raised this year!

Mitchell turns 10

2011-10-20T18:33:00.001-04:00

Wow, double digits for the big Mitchell. When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, it took him a long time to come up with any answer. I guess he is stuck in between that age where he still wants toys (Tron toys to be exact), but he also asked for a watch (very practical.)

Mitchell also wanted to have a friend party with kids from church, scouts, and school. It was very loud, and afterward mom mentioned how much she appreciated how mellow Mitchell is compared with most boys his age. Sometimes you have to experience the other side in order to appreciate how good you have things.

We also went out as a family for dinner, and given anywhere Mitchell wanted to go, he chose A&W Root Beer. We have an old style resturant here in Hollister that looks like it was built 80 years ago. We all enjoyed eating burgers and drinking root beer floats. It was a great finish to a great day!

McKay's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-27T16:37:00.005-04:00

McKay's first day of Kindergarten was exciting. He was a little bit nervous but was very anxious to meet the other kids that would be in his class. He found his name tag and then his spot on the big table and made himself comfortable. At recess, he recognized a boy that he knew from the play-room at Makelle's dance studio. When he realized that he was someone familiar, he ran over and gave him a big, long hug. It took the boy by surprise as he just stood there wondering how to respond. I ran over and explained that hugging is nice but it isn't something he should do with the kids at school. That is still something he is working on. He just wants to let everyone know how much he likes them. Could be worse, he could be hitting them. McKay loves kindergarten and is very happy to be at the "big school" with his older brother and sisters!

Martin Family Reunion

2011-09-09T19:32:00.000-04:00

"The Final Goodbye at Streamview Drive." That is what the t-shirt said to remind us all that the family home that each of us kids grew up is up for sale. For many of us, this would be the last time we would see the old home so it was a bitter-sweet reunion with the Martin family.

We started off by doing some work around the house. Painting, trimming, weeding, power washing, were all being done simultaneously. It was great to see so much activity going on at once. The house was truly beautiful, and will make a wonderful home for the next owner. We just hope that the buyers love it as much as we do. So many memories.

House prep wasn't the only thing on the agenda. There were trips to the temple, beach, Balboa Park where we got to take lots of great pictures and go on a fun scavenger hunt. It all ended with a trip to Disneyland where cousins got to spend an awesome day being together. It always makes me said to know that it will be another 2 years before we can all see each other again, and that San Diego has seen its last Martin, but it was wonderful being with family and renewing ties and friendships that will last a lifetime.

See you in Washington in 2013!

Love this picture. All the siblings and in-laws.

This is where I am pinching my brother in the butt. He is smiling...

Nice family picture.

Favorite picture

Labor Day Trip

2011-09-09T13:25:00.001-04:00

It has driven us a bit crazy knowing that we haven't been able to use our camper this past year. In fact it has been exactly a year since we moved it from the storage unit out to a campsite. It has been a busy summer with two family reunions that took much of our summer vacation, but we wanted to get out one more time before summer truly slipped away.

When we lived in Fresno, we loved that we were in the shadow of some of the worlds most beautiful National Parks. We have not been to Yosemite in a while, so we planned a trip. The kids loved seeing the big trees in Mariposa Grove. Taking the official tour made viewing all of the trees much more convenient. We didn't think that McKay would want to take a 3-4 hour hike, so the 1 hour ride was much more doable.

We also loved walking around the valley. All of the snow that California had this year allowed the water falls to still be running when most years they are dried up this time of year. Of course crowds were especially heavy due to the holiday weekend, but we made sure to get to the park early to avoid most of it and left by the afternoon so that the kids could enjoy swimming in the pool and playing our normal camping games.

Don't you just love this kid on a leash? I always laugh when I see that.

Garden Time

2011-09-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

This year we attempted to plant a garden in the small garden box we built last year. Because we got started late last year, we were only able to get some carrots into the ground, but they never really grew because winter set in. This summer we put in several vegetables and we have had mixed results. The main problem is that we have a very crafty thief that comes every night and steals most of what grows before we can eat it. I am assuming it is a rat, but it has gorged itself on our peas, corn, tomatoes and even tried to take a bite out of our watermelon.

Not all has been lost as for some reason our thief doesn't care for onions, cabbage, zucchini, squash, or cucumbers, and we have enjoyed eating all of those. We also had great success growing our potatoes and they were extremely yummy. We will definitely be growing more of those next year. Nancy made a super delicious dinner with our harvest and all the kids gobbled it up. Looks like gardening is fun and tasty. Here are a few pictures of our bounty from earlier this summer.

Mormon Battalion - Reunion Continued

2011-07-28T15:23:00.002-04:00

Petersen Family Reunion

2011-07-27T14:27:00.007-04:00

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year and part of their celebration was having a family reunion in Oceanside, CA. We all stayed at a beautiful resort through their time share and it was very comfortable and enjoyable for everyone. One of the days was spent in San Diego at Balboa park. Tom created a scavenger hunt for us to do in the park. It had clues about all the beautiful buildings, museums and attractions. Each family was a team and we wore bandanas with our team color. We had to find the attraction and then have our picture taken by someone else so all of us were in each picture. It was a ton of fun and a great way to get to know the amazing park.

Another day, our family and my sister's family went back down to San Diego and toured the Midway aircraft carrier. That was a very interesting tour and we were glad we were able to see how those incredible ships function.

Swing Set

2011-07-08T01:52:00.001-04:00

One of the major disappointments of moving into our new house in CA was the lack of true space in the backyard for any play equipment, especially a swing set. We have a very small piece of grass that the dog has happily burned holes in by using it has her primary place to relieve herself. I had no vision of how it could be used to put in swings, but Nancy did, and she consistently prompted me that I needed to get going with that project.

After months of prodding, I finally took the opportunity while my friend from AZ was in town over the Memorial Day Weekend to put it together. A quick trip to Lowes and we had the necessary equiptment. After a few hours it was up and the kids were fighting to get a turn. It is now a prominant place to find the kids in the afternoon after the sun has moved to the other side of the house. Now if we can just get the dog to find a new place to spend quality time.

Father and Son's

2011-07-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

It has been a few years since Mitchell and I have participated in the annual Father and Son's outing. For mostly weather related issues, we never went while we lived in PA, but now that we are back in CA the weather is much more predictable and this year it was beautiful. Just a few miles from where we live the church owns an awesome piece of property with cabins, mess hall, full bathrooms, playgrounds, horse shoe pits, tether ball, volleyball, basketball, and baseball. It really is wonderful place to spend a weekend.

This was McKay's first year going with us to Father and Son's and he had a wonderful time. I'm not sure how I got out of changing diapers with him at camp like I did with Mitchell when he first went, but it is much more fun when I don't have to constantly worry if they are eating dirt, or getting into a pile of poison ivy.

The kids had fun setting up the tent and participating in the campfire program. The next morning they just played with friends and swung on the big rope swings that were all over the place. They are looking forward to camping again there next year.

Makelle's Dance Recital

2011-06-27T20:09:00.001-04:00

A week before Makelle's ballet recital was her school talent show. There were two other girls from her school that were in her ballet class so the three of them decided to tryout for the talent show performing one of their ballet dances. They made the tryouts and performed for the school. They did a great job and Makelle especially had great stage presence and a huge smile.

The next week came the recital and she did a fabulous job again. I was able to help backstage in the afternoon performance and then our family enjoyed the evening performance. We are so proud of how well she is doing in dance and she is happy that all of her hard work and practice is paying off.

Farewell to the Aquarium

2011-06-27T18:52:00.005-04:00

We have had a membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for many years and we have really loved going time after time. However, even though our kids have really enjoyed our visits, it was beginning to get a little old and not quite as exciting as it had been in the past. Our membership was up for renewal in May and we decided to let it expire and take a break from it for a year or two. The kids and I made our last visit the end of May. It was a little sad knowing it would be our last for a while. We will be very excited to return again in the future.