Monday, November 26, 2007

Thankful

We sure did miss a great party. Please post the pictures, so that we can see how wonderful everyone looks. We had a great Thanksgiving Day also. We had some good friends over and they brought their Dad, who just happened to be a semi-professional ping-pong player. He played ping-pong with everyone, teaching the boys techniques and tricks. I'm sure he was a little bored since none of us are up to his speed. He was very kind to pacify us though. We had fun.

We Are so blessed to have this blog. Thank you Brad for helping our family to be able to reach out to the rest of our family.

The day after, we cleaned up and switched gears to Christmas, in the past years we have gone to the mountains and trudged through the snow, up and down ravines carrying all the gear you need, and one of the children. While the other children fell behind, excited at first at the prospect of finding a tree, then slowly the excitement dwindles as they start to freeze and the snow has lost it's enchantment. They get wet and cold and just want to pick anything and get into the warm car. This year however, no mountains, no snow, no ravines to fall down when you lose your footing, just a nice little Christmas tree farm. Hundreds of trees as far as the eye can see and all just about perfect. What a dilemma now, which of all the perfect trees is the most perfect? Talk about heated debates- We finally chose one, cut it down and we were off. Life in Virgina has its advantages.
The next day Skip made a purchase of power, the strongest leaf blower this side of the Mississippi. He spent five hours blowing leaves off our lawn, he was on a mission. Sam stayed outside with him using the more traditional method of raking, creating a huge pile for Blake and Sam to jump in. Sam was outside raking for three hours, focused just like his Dad. We love you all and miss you very much.

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Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving

What a great several days! We thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was so fun to have the cousins together to continue to build those bonds that will last through eternity. I really appreciated all the help from everyone in preparing the meals, serving, helping, cleaning, etc. I couldn't have done it without your help. Thanks go to the good fairies who straightened the family room!

Today as Dad and I reflected on the visit, we, again, marveled at our wonderful family. We stumbled through parenthood and you seem to do it much more effortlessly. Look how great you turned out will all our mistakes! The Lord seems to cover for our inadequacies. Each of you is doing such a great job in raising your families and conducting your lives on a day to day basis. Life is not easy and it seems to get tougher and tougher. I am so grateful for the gospel to guide us and we need to avail ourselves of the gifts we have been given. We have been wonderfully blessed to have the gospel in our lives, so many are not as fortunate.

Lauren as the oldest grandchild is setting an excellent example for the others. She gave an excellent talk in sacrament meeting today. I can't believe she will be graduating soon and moving to the next level of independence as she goes off to college. Lauren, we are proud of you! Ty, Eric, and Nate were all assisting with the sacrament; what an example for the younger cousins.

Michellle took some pictures that I am sure she will share for those of you who were missing and for those of us to remember the fun we had.
Mom

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

You're never too old for Halloween



Fall Fun


Hi family! Things at the Martin home have been a bit hectic to say the least. After a slow construction period in the fall due to the cross-country team travels, we are back in full swing with our addition. By the end of this week we should have the rough plumbing, electrical, and duct work all done! We've have workers going every which way. The laundry room is now a dusty memory as the walls came down this weekend! Yikes. We gotta get the new one back together soon because I don't know when I'll ever get to the laundromat.

As some of you have heard, I have started working part-time at home on my computer. It is for a company called Insight Schools which is basically an online high school. Right now they are working on getting accredited in nine states, and I have been working on the documentation end of things doing lots of writing and editing. This has been really exciting for me as it is just the kind of thing I had planned to look for after completing my masters degree which is still in the works, by the way. When mom was in Page a month ago, she heard through her school connections that this woman, Kim, was looking for some help. I called her up, the rest is history. The Lord must have known that we would need some help paying for this huge addition on our house! It is a temporary position as I work on this big project until January, but I am hoping I will get on in a permanent capacity.

We had a fun Halloween. I am convinced Page is the BEST town in the world to trick-or-treat in. You can figure out who is who in our picture by height. We are so excited to go to Salt Lake in a week for Thanksgiving though I can hardly believe it is upon us! I'll be looking for everyone else to post their Halloween pictures!
One other happy note from our Martin side, Tim and Anne had their baby today! Symond Haskell Hawk Martin 7lbs. 8oz, mom and baby are doing great!

Monday, November 12, 2007

RE: Gift exchange and OJ slush

Thanks for the recipe, Michelle. As soon as I remember to buy OJ at the store, we'll make it and tell you what we think.

Oh, and fine Grandma, I can see you don't love Gideon as much as all the rest of the grandkids. He's not even on the gift exchange! (I'm just kidding--it really doesn't matter that he isn't on the exchange, he doesn't care and I don't care. I just had to tease you about it!)

See you all at Thanksgiving! I'm so excited.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Orange Slush

If memory serves correctly (that's one BIG 'If'), the recipe Brad wanted a while back is:

1/2 can frozen OJ
1 C milk
1/2 C water
1/4 C sugar
1 t vanilla
ice to fill blender to top

If that tastes not quite right, it may be 1/2 C sugar and 1/4 C water.....

Let me know how it turns out!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Gift exchange

Nicole claims she is too busy to post the list for gift exchange (actually, she is pretty busy). Her you go.............$5.00 same as last year.
Lauren to Claire
Ty to Jack
Eric to Drake
Nate to Corbin
Jack to Gabe
Sam to Seth
Blake to Nate
Claire to Lauren
Gabe to Bowen
Seth to Rex
Elise to Mercy
Jackson to Ezra
Jebb to Ty
Drake to Eric
Corbin to Sam
Bowen to Blake
Rex to Jackson
Ezra to Corbin
Mercy to Elise
Have fun with it everyone. Several of you can make the exchange at our house when we celebrate Thanksgiving. Remember it is a week earlier this year, the 22nd! We are excited to see everyone. We have the pool reserved on Thanksgiving day. We can use it the other days, if it isn't reserved by someone else. Don't worry about towels, we have plenty, just bring your suits. Let us know if there is anything special you would like to do while you are here. We can watch kids if the adults want to do a temple session, if the temple is open that weekend.
Hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had 15 trick or treaters! One group even sang to us.
Love,
Mom

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

More pics



For some reason, we are still having trouble getting photos posted--here are a couple more...

Fun October



We have had quite a month. Elise and Michelle flew to SLC for General Conference and got to be the first to stay in G&G Ross' cool new house. We went to the Sun afternoon session and saw Pres Hinkley!! We also got to see the B-Ross fam and the Hannay clan. We had a great time! the Gilly boys all went dirt biking while we were gone. Gabe and Seth finished up their football season (shwew) and Gabe turned 11 on the 10th while Kip's family was visiting.
Of course a huge milestone was reached for Elise this year as she turned 8 on the 19th. We are so grateful to the Martins and G&G Ross for making the drive to support her. She really appreciated it and we had a great visit with you.
We hope everyone else is doing well and we enjoy seeing pics of the clan, especially the Virginian Rosses as they are so far away.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Family Photos

Michelle & Elise came for conference weekend and we all got our photos taken by an amazing photographer Michelle found. You have to see the great pics she took.
Go to www.julieparkerphotography.com and click on proofing... enter Kim to see Hannay photos or Michelle to view Elise & Michelle.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Life

Greetings from Virginia, We have been so busy with school, soccer, scouts, and life. These are just a couple of pitures of our life here. Deer outside our front door, we see them almost everday. We never get tired of it. Blake just celebrated his fifth birthday, growing -up way to fast. The boys are playing soccer for the first time and having a blast, if we could just find a way to keep Claire off the field, She desperately wants to play. Please count us in on the gift exchange. Hope all is well with everyone , Love Skip and Laurene

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Volleyball Season

Check this out... http://www.deseretnews.com/photo/gallery/hs/1,5380,385011597,00.html
and http://www.deseretnews.com/photo/gallery/hs/1,5380,385010797,00.html

Lauren is #12.
She has been in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune several times!
We are sad to see the season end. The state volleyball tournament is the first weekend in November.... We'll let you know how they do.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Paria Adventure







Theo, his brother Shaun, and friend Otis all went on a trail runner's dream run this Monday. Starting at the Paria trailhead just a bit north of Page, the three adventurers started their run at about 7:00am. Over the course of 40 miles (yes, that is correct, four-zero), they crossed the Paria River a couple hundred times, greeted campers just getting up for the day, and enjoyed some spectacular scenery. About six hours later, they arrived at their destination, Lee's Ferry on the Colorado where they soaked their sore muscles in the chilly river. Shaun said, "That was the best run of my whole life!" Theo has dreamed about achieving this feat for many years as his Grandpa Symond used to hike this trail every summer when he was younger. He had a great time, and extends an invitation to anyone who wants to join him the next time! (-;

Monday, October 15, 2007

Count Us In

The Martins would love to participate in the cousin gift exchange. Last year I had the arduous task of assigning the givers to the receivers. I am sure someone else would like a turn at this job. (-;
Life has been a little busier than usual this last month. We have three boys in soccer (all on separate teams that each have two games a week). Theo is in the thick of his first season as the head cross-country coach. We are still working on our addition. I am doing two classes this semester for my master's degree. And the kicker, I have started working part-time at home on my computer! Not to mention all the day-to-day stuff like doing stuff for callings, and FHE, and school projects, and kids with the sniffles, and birthday parties, and play dates, and cooking dinner, and cleaning house.....I'm getting tired just thinking about it.
I think Christmas shopping therapy is in order!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Orange Slush

Way back in the day (I'm thinking Fruit Heights, I think), Michelle (and I think Skip) would occasionally make an orange slush drink and give me a little bit of it. It had orange juice and ice and... what? Can you give me the secret recipe? Keryn just made something similar and I wanted to compare.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Gift Exchange

No one has responded yet to Keryn's request... (Michelle was traveling and Nic is writing for big $$$, so maybe everyone is just too busy to blog right now.)

The Hannay Family usually has all the cousins who want to exchange put their name in and exchange... Maybe we should do that in the Ross family. That way each family can decided what they can handle and we can all have a happy and stress free holiday!

Ezra, Mercy, Gideon, Lauren, Ty, Eric & Nate are in... anyone else?



Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Christmas gift-giving

Are we going to do the cousin gift-exchange for Christmas this year again? We had a lot of fun last year, and as the weather cools down, my Christmas-juices start flowing. If we are, it would be awesome to start early, so we can get everything sent off to the right places in good time (or even handed over at Thanksgiving, for those who will be there).

Just a thought. Yes, a Christmas thought on the second day of October. I'm a Christmas freak, so sue me.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

OUCH!!!!

It has been fun reading all of your responses to the growing pains that little Ezra has been going through. It is hard to find our way in this world at times. I read an interesting article today that is not quite the same kind of thing, but that caught my attention; not to mention it made me think about different kinds of pain we go through for our kids. Here is the link for your reading pleasure...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20995289/wid/11915773?GT1=10412

The real answer

The real answer is to listen to the "still small voice." Raising children is such an incredibly difficult job that no one can do it successfully without the Spirit. We are so blessed to have the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us.

Personally, I made so many mistakes that perhaps you can learn from them.
Remember that the most powerful teaching tool you have is your own personal example. If I could do it over again, I would try very hard to make the following words the ones to live by: Kind, Loving, Gentle, Fun-Loving, Firm, Caring, Persistent... etc. Words I would eliminate are: Angry, Mean, Severe, Ignoring, Mocking.

Don't forget, you will make mistakes but children are very resilient and will bounce back. Keep trying to do it right and the right will out-weigh the mistakes.

To all my children: I am sorry for all the many mistakes I made in raising you. The example that was provided for me by my father was not the greatest (of course that is no excuse). But, it is amazing how many times I found myself reflecting him in what I did. Now that Mom and I are alone, I often think of instances where, if I could do it again, I would do it differently.

Brad, let love be your guide. If you care, Ezra and your other children will turn out great! In fact, I can see that they are already well on the way.

On a side note... as the Dad, you have a minor role in shaping your children. The Mom is the biggest influence. In my case, I had the best "Mom" in the world raising my children. Just look at how great they turned out. You have Keryn. You can't lose!

Love, Dad

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Parenting

I have never had 7-8 weeks to prepare for a talk before and hopefully, it won't happen that way again! It is nice to have it behind us. I know I didn't give a better talk with an extra 6 weeks to prepare. I spoke with last week's speaker and she has 6 weeks and still did it the night before!

Well, Brad, parenting is an adventure and you aren't always sure you have taken the right road, but with prayerful decisions it will usually come out with a good product, a functioning member of society and someone with a strong testimony of the gospel. We can't protect our children from the world through childhood, then expect them to deal with life as adults or teenagers. There are steps that must be taken by children as they experience the negative things of life with the tiny issues so that when big ones arise, they have the tools to respond appropriately. You have discovered that bullying starts very young. It is a huge issue in schools. An explanation that the behavior isn't proper in your home and a time out (brief) to reinforce the concept will have him well on his way with what is expected of him in spite of what he sees elsewhere. Once won't do it, but hang in there, he will get it. It is all these little issues that build character and shape the individual. The fine line is to know when too much exposure isn't good. It is good for our children to be good role models for others as long as they are staying afloat. There are lots of parents out there with poor parenting skills. these are the ones you don't want watching your children but have the friend in your home (if necessary) where you have control and can set the rules of what happens in your home. Be consistent!
I know I made tons of mistakes with each of my children and I am not much of an expert, but I believe the Lord makes up for your shortcomings if you are trying to do what is right. There are no perfect parents out there, so relax!
You two are doing great, keep up the good work, it is a long, rocky road with lots of highs and lows, but worth it! I have awesome grandchildren!
Mom

Friday, September 21, 2007

Michelle and Moroni, together again

Happy birthday, Michelle. And happy Angel Moroni day to the rest of you.

Dad, I'm in suspense! Thanks for the response, Kim. I'll look forward to any others you all have to share.

While talking to Dad on the phone, he clarified the answer to my question in a post below. It was his dad's mom that played the piano for the silent movies. I also got him to tell me a bit more about his own dad's musical life. It was fun to hear a bit about it. We're going to have to sit mom and dad down and do some video interviews pretty soon. It is so fun to hear about their lives before we were around.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Our famous Lauren

These photos were posted on the Deseret News website and one was even on the front of the sports page! Check 'em out.
Look at 8/24 12/24 16/24 17/24

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Welcome to parenthood

Never avoid any opportunity for growth! The Lord sends young men on missions, sometimes to dangerous places, and gives them experiences we, as protective parents, would never let them have. He wants us to be IN the world. To live and experience and learn and grow. And hopefully to be shining examples of righteous choices.

Steve and I have struggled with what to limit and what to learn from... They will go out into the world and experience temptations eventually. Start now, yes age 2+, to let them be "tempted" while you are still there to guide and help them recognize the consequences of those "temptations". In this case if he is rude/bossy/mean, he will be unhappy with the consequences and not be able to play happily with those he chooses to bully. Ezra will learn that he has to choose how HE will act, even when others around him are acting differently. What a life lesson! We always told our kids... others have their agency, but we (our family) choose differently and we are happier for those choices.

It is so great when you see your kids recognizing for themselves what they want to do and the reasons they want to do them. (Not just doing things because Mom or Dad is there hovering and threatening.)

GO BRAD!

The Answer... soon

Of course, I know the right answer. However, if I simply give it to you before your other family members have had a turn, it would stifle their initiative. So, after all others have responded, I'll tell you.

Love Dad

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Dear Abby

I need some advice, and since Abby is dead, the rest of you will have to fill in. We're not too far into this parenting gig, so any thoughts you have are welcome from your various stages of life, from no children to grandchildren.

Ezra is absorbing behaviors like a sponge. He loves to put on a white shirt on Sunday "just like Daddy!" Sometimes, we don't really like the behaviors that he picks up. He has a fairly small Sunbeam class and the other boy in his class lives around the corner from us and his mother brings him to the weekly playgroup the women in the ward do.

This little boy has two very timid parents (from our very uninformed and distant view) and he has become quite strong willed and bossy. He's starting to manifest some bossy/pushy/bully behavior. After Ezra is around this boy, he starts to show those sorts of behaviors too.

Keryn said, "If this is the worst influence Ezra is ever around, we'll be amazingly blessed." Good point. But still you wonder... do you try to avoid the kid when you can, or do you try to deal with the fallout of Ezra mimicking the behavior?

Help me, Abby!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

BIG Ty

As all of you parents are realizing... time flies! It was so weird watching my little Ty on the high school football field playing like a big boy. All those kids seem so old, and I am certainly not old enough to have a child that "big". As Lauren and I wade through ACT registrations, college admission requirements, and scholarship possibilities, I am starting to think maybe I am old enough. I guess what I am saying is... enjoy every moment! Your kids will soon be BIG kids too!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Love You Mom!

I hope you have a terrific birthday today.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Prov. 4:7)

Monday, September 10, 2007

Boo! Hiss! Cheer!

Our stake is putting on a melodrama. The woman putting the whole thing together was apparently getting desperate to find a pianist after being turned down several times--so she called me.

I explained that I could play sheet music but that I'm not much of an improviser. Knowing that I was going to be at the home of a really great pianist in a couple of days (in our old Orem ward), I agreed to do it, or at least to find some music if I could.

I turned to the internet and, without too much trouble, found some old music originally composed for use by the piano players that accompanied silent movies. There was "sailor music" and "hurry music" and "funeral music" and "battle music." The pieces weren't very hard to play and I had a great time at the rehearsal bouncing through the pieces and the actors really enjoyed having some sound effects. So I guess I have the gig. We perform in about two weeks.

Wasn't it Dad's grandma that played the piano for the silent movies? Which one?

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Happy Grandparents' Day!

According to my wall calendar, it's Grandparents' Day today. So, happy Grandparents' Day, George and Eva!