Semana Santa

We just got back from a trip to Guatemala for Easter week. It was a long trip down and back but our time there was wonderful! Liam hasn't been to Guate since he was 5 months old and this was Jonah's first time there and meeting a lot of the family. Usually when we go down we spend a lot of time working and driving, so it was really fun for me to get to stay in the city and spend the whole time with family. We had some kind of family fiesta every day and I think I ate enough food to hibernate the rest of the year! Oh well, back to the gym tomorrow.

Liam and Jonah had a great time. Liam got to play every day with his cousins and there were a ton of things planned for them to do. The communication was definitely somewhat of a barrier, as was the fact that he's so tall! None of his older cousins could figure out why he seemed so behind since he's the same size as them. But they all have a least a couple of years on him! And Jonah was just...well, Jonah. He's everyone's friend. He'll go to anyone and he smiles all of the time. You can't help but want to have him around!

We didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked with Edwin's parents due to some unfortunate circumstances, but hopefully we'll get to see them again soon. We did get to spend quite a bit of time with Edwin's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids, so all in all it was a very precious time.

Here is a slide show followed by a video of our time down there. Remember, if you want to see it full screen you can just click the box in the lower right had corner that has arrows pointing outward. Enjoy!

The Toy Bin Trend

Jonah is getting more and more active by the day! And as is true with ALL kids the toy bin continues to be a huge hit. It didn't take long for us to get some video showing Jonah's enthusiasm similar to Liam's when he was that age.

And here is a picture of my little cutie playing in the clean laundry.

Keeping up!

Well, February and into March was a wild ride! We started to potty train Liam on the 11th of Feb. We did the 3 day potty training method and I am happy to tell you it only took Liam 3 1/2 weeks! Oh, it was awful. Edwin left for Guatemala just a few days after we started, so it was just me and there were many times when I would have liked to throw in the towel. But the day after Edwin got back it finally just clicked and we haven't had an accident for a week!

This trip for Edwin to Guatemala was my hardest yet. It seemed like everything that could go bad went bad. Colds, stomach flu, broken appliances, migraines, teething, weather, potty training rebellion, terrible twos, no sleep...I could go on. I was physically and emotionally spent most of the time that he was gone, but we are all doing a ton better now that he's back. And we did have some fun times while he was gone.

Liam now likes to do EVERYTHING himself. Commence instant meltdown if you try to do something for him that he wants to do. But it has its good sides too. He now likes to do things like "help" with the dishes.

For half the time Edwin was gone I went to my parent's house in Spokane for some help. I am so grateful for all the energy the put into the three of us! It was really a relief. And they had a lot of snow, which Liam loved. He doesn't really need to play in it, he just wants to eat it. But he humored Grandpa long enough to help build a snowman.

I love it when I go check on him and he is sleeping in some strange position. He is using the giant Tweety bird at my parents house as a pillow.

Jonah decided to do all of his growing up while daddy was gone. He is now just 7 months old and he cut two new teeth, went from rolling to swimming to crawling across the room, started sitting in a high chair and eating some foods on his own, started sitting up and saying Mama. Now he is starting to pull up to standing a little bit. He's a little daredevil too. He's getting into and trying everything which makes for several bumps and bruises. And he's still the life of the party. He is always smiling, and chatting and giggling. I catch him laughing at himself a lot! I love that about him. And the best part about him is that he is still a fabulous snuggler. Poor little guy, though, gets left on the floor to fend for himself a lot in this busy house. I fight the guilt that I'm not doing as much with him as I did with Liam. I need to read books with him more, sing songs and play games with him more. Liam tends to suck up a lot of the time I have to do those things!

Here is the little guy crawling through the exersaucer.

And here is a little video of my funny baby...

Catching up with Jonah

My little guy is growing up so fast, too fast! I am constantly amazed at how big and strong he is and how he is blowing all of those little baby milestones out of the water.

He started rolling over from his tummy to his back in December and then hit a little lull. But by mid January he perfected his roll over both ways and hasn't stopped since. Today he is making his way all around the house, devouring solid foods like a starving wolf, exploring everything and anything and lighting up my world with his sweet, easygoing, humorous nature. Jonah is such a fun baby and it just kills me that he won't be a baby for very much longer!

Here's a little video of some of his milestones from the end of January to now. Remember, if you're reading this on the email, you have to click the blog title to go to the actual blog post in order to see the video.

And here is a picture of Liam, just because it's funny. He could care less about the Lincoln Logs, but the Lincoln Log container was a TON of fun!

A Decade Ago...

we got married on a sunny day, just like today, and I am so GLAD! Happy 10th Anniversary to the perfect and only man for me! We can't be old enough to have been married for 10 years already, can we? Of course, we did get married when we were just babies, so I guess that makes sense.

You know I can get really wordy and sentimental sometimes with my cards and posts, but I decided in honor of our 10 years AND it being our golden anniversary (ten years on the 10th day of February) I'm just going to sum it all up with my top ten favorite memories and/or things I love about you!

10. I have been married to you for 10 years and I am still finding out new things about you. Most recently, how creative with designing things you are.

9. Your sense of adventure and desire for the spontaneous. I can't imagine how boring I would be without you!

8. That we literally built our own home together, with our own four hands.

7. Surfing with your for the very first time in Hawaii, on our honeymoon, and the excited, proud look on your face when you saw me get up for the very first time.

6. Your ability to love people, no matter who, no matter what. People are constantly drawn to you and your incredible nature. So much so that I have to pray sometimes that we don't run into anyone we know when we go out together and I want some privacy!

5. How life is more important than time to you (this one is a little love/hate :) ). It doesn't matter if you have a whole list of things to do, you will always slow down and give the best of yourself to the kids and I. Like the time you had a million things to accomplish in the shop and yard, yet you patiently allowed Liam to help you put the table together, even though it took 10 minutes to screw in each screw.

4. That you are so in tune with the needs of people around you. You anticipate what someone will need even before they need it. And you make yourself available to serve so that everyone else around you can just relax and enjoy themselves!

3. Our last minute trip to Disneyland, planned the day of, about 3 hours before we hit the road! Grilling burgers in the back of the pick up in the parking garage, driving all night, listening to tunes and talking about everything. This one is a definite repeat someday, but maybe we should go to Disney World next time!

2. Your incredible good looks, and the fact that you were kind enough to pass them on to our kids, who are SO CUTE!

1. The phenomenal father and teammate you have become in raising our boys. You are fun, sensitive, loving, stern, flexible, patient, and willing to learn. Liam and Jonah are so lucky to have you and so am I!

I know there are so many more and probably some that would rank higher even than some of these, but these are all precious to me in every way (and they were the extent of what I could come up with, with our two screaming blessings in the background!). I am humbled by you often and more in love with you than ever before. May God grant us many more decades and millions of memories in the years to come. I love you.

Back from Owie

It's funny how you talk about a vacation, plan for it for over a year, and then your sitting on your couch looking at the pictures you took on your vacation, wondering if you were actually there. It goes so fast!

We just got back from a 10 day trip to Maui (or as Liam calls it, "Owie"). We spent half our vacation celebrating my brother, Jeff, and his new wife, Christine's wedding, and the other half playing with my parents. We were also sort of celebrating our 10 year anniversary, coming up in February. The weather was amazing, the people were a ton of fun, and the sights did not disappoint. I had Aunts and uncles and cousins to play with, we met the important people in Christine's world. All in all we made some great memories.

We started our vacay with a day on the beach followed by an incredibly delicious welcome BBQ hosted by the bride's family. The next day we toured around the area where we stayed and then hit the rehearsal. Sunday was the wedding and then Monday through Saturday we did whatever we wanted! We took our sweet friend, Heidi, with us to watch the kids during all of the wedding stuff. She did an amazing job and the kids love her. I wish we would have begged her to stay for the whole 10 days so that we could have gone out more!

There were only two downsides to the entire trip. Liam was terrified of the ocean, which killed our ability to hang out on the beach...in Hawaii...are you kidding me?!? It was so bad that every time we got in the car he started to panic that we might be going to the beach. His little eyes would go moist and his face would get red and he would start coming up with any excuse not to go to the beach. "Liam take a nap," "Liam stay in his seat," "Back to Owie house," "Back to Owie Condo," "Go to store." You get the idea. It didn't matter how much we tried to convince him we were NOT going to the beach, he wouldn't relax until we got where ever we were headed and he could see we weren't at the ocean. And then half way through the trip Jonah got a really bad cold, followed by Liam, followed by my dad, my mom, Edwin and then me. Again, are you kidding me?!?

But, those aside, we had an amazing trip. So much so that Edwin is now trying to convince me we need to buy a condo there and go all the time! He does this everywhere we go. Maybe we should wait awhile and see if Liam gets over his fear of the ocean. I would hate to live in Hawaii and not be able to go to the beach!

Here is a slideshow of some of our photos. Turns out we were having so much fun that we forgot to take pictures most of the time. I guess we will have to go back for more!

NOTE 1: The email will not show the slide show. You have to click the title of the blog post and that will send you to the actual blog with the full post. This is ALWAYS the case with video/slideshows etc.
NOTE 2: there is an icon at the bottom, second from the right on the slide show that looks like four arrows pointing in all different directions, making the shape of a square. If you click on that you will be able to view the slideshow full screen! And turn on your sound if you'd like to hear some tunes...

SNOW!

We got some serious snow on Sunday and it was glorious! It was also Liam's first time really playing in the snow. He LOVED it! I put together a little video. By the way, I was recently told that when you get the emails for Martinez Moments you don't get the videos. No problem, just click on the title to the blog post and it will send you straight to the blog, which is better for viewing photos and videos anyway. The emails are only meant to be an alert that there is a new post.