Happy Birthday, Emily

With a party with the Garvin cousins, Emily turned 7 this year! A few years back Emily had seen a little girl who had her ears pierced. Upon asking if she could get her's done, I quickly told her, "Maybe when you're 7." I think that was how old I was when I got mine done, so that's what came out of my mouth...thinking she would probably forget about it.



Well, many of you can attest to the fact that kids don't forget! So as Emily turns 7 this year she is going to be able to get her ears pierced...perhaps it's a rite of passage of some sort. We haven't had the time to actually get it done, but I will be sure to post some pictures when it does.






Happy Birthday to my special girl!!

Merry Christmas!

Each Christmas seems to get a little bit more exciting as the kids get older and have come to anticipate it more. The chains made from red and green construction paper were made and the countdown was on (and not forgotten as in years past). They finally made it to the last link of the chain!! Here are some pictures from our morning together.

We have the kids go on a hunt for their stockings, so this picture is before the hunt.

Samuel was the first to find his stocking this year!

After the hunt, ready to open!

After gift giving, breakfast, and playing with this and that, we packed the van and headed for Grandma and Pappy's house!

Emily made a few of her gifts this year and was so excited for Grandma to open it up!

The Garvin Cousins

After church the next day Dad and Janet opened their home to all 22 of us on the Martin side (Tim, Anna, and Marisol were visiting Tim's family) I failed to get a picture of all of us together.

The classic eating picture

Joel...this one's for you..top o' the mornin to ya.

The older kids were having fun playing games, while the younger siblings were in the next room dumping out all the rest of the games. Thanks goes to Uncle Nate for cleaning and sorting all those pieces!!

It was wonderful to be able to spend time with family. God has blessed us so richly through them!

Happy Birthday, Max

Max turned 2 years old on the 13th of December! Here are some pictures from his party:

Max is a boy of few words, but his favorites are "fire", "train", and "football". The kids thought he should have a football cake since that is one of his favorite words.

He really had no idea what to do with the candles on his cake, so finally daddy helped him put out the "fire".

It didn't take him long to figure out the gift thing. He wasn't shy about tearing the paper open. It was harder keeping the other kids away so he could do it on his own!

He also opened a box of gifts from Grandma and Pappy containing this SUPER MAX costume! I'm not sure what he's doing with his face, but he must have known that he needed to act like a tough guy...SUPER MAX!!!

Max is such a blessing to our family. The thing that stands out the most about Max is that he is Daddy's boy. He wants to do everything Daddy does. As soon as Bob gets home from work, Max is his little shadow. If Daddy gets changed, Max helps him by finding his slippers. If Daddy goes outside to split firewood, Max tries his best to stack the wood. If Daddy does push-ups, Max does too! He keeps us busy and is all boy for sure!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAX!

I'm Back!

If you have read my previous post you will know that I have lost my camera. Our house has been turned upside down searching for it, so I have officially called off the search and hit the stores instead.

So now that I have a new camera, I am ready to start blogging again. The next road block presented itself in the form of a computer that would not turn on. After the sad diagnosis of being more expensive to repair than to buy a new one, again I hit the stores.

People say that things come in "three's", so I'm wondering what might go next.

Here are the first pictures with the new camera!!