More

Here are a couple more :)

More Thanksgiving pictures

Turkey Day

Ok! Let's see if we can post a few photos!! I hope everyone is doing well

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Ezra, Mercy, and Gideon love the Christmas tree.

We went up to Temple Square to see the lights last night. I've family in town, and so we drove up to the Trax station and rode the train up to Temple Square. It was cold, but at least it wasn't raining or snowing (as it is tonight). We had a marvelous time!

Happy happy

Happy happy birthday, Jack, dear,
Happy days will come to you all year
If I had a wish then it would be,
A happy happy birthday to you from me!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Christmas Card

We got the Hannay Christmas card today. As I was checking it out, Mercy looked over my shoulder and said, "I wanna see those kids" in the sort of voice you can only do when you're 2. I told her the names of the various people in the photos. She took the card and wandered away saying, "It's Steve! Steve! Uncle Steve!" gleefully pointing at Steve wherever he appeared on the card. He's got a fan! I guess the rest of you are just window dressing. :)

Brad you are the man!

Brad, You are Awesome!! The boys loved being Elfed. They have been Elfing people right and left all day. They think you rule, and you do. Laurene

We have a tradition in our Family of decorating Gingerbread houses every year{ of course I cheat and use graham crackers, much easier} The kids love it. Maybe someday you could join us. Laurene

Thanksgiving Photos

Hey everyone! It looks like the Virginia Rosses had a good holiday. I would love to share some photos, but I cannot seem to get my pictures to load... any suggestions?

Nice but...

Laurene, those were pretty nice photos, but I'm not sure they can stack up to this video clip of the Virgina Rosses that I got a hold of. You'll have to view it and tell me if you agree. Merry Christmas!

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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! (-;

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!

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.

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?

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.

Many happy returns

Happy, happy birthday, Dad. We love you.

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