What the SEVEN years?!

This past Monday, Brent and I celebrated our SEVENTH year wedding anniversary. That is right. SEVEN YEARS! Can you believe that I have put up with him that long!? haha... more like him putting up with me! Either way... it has definitely been a crazy ride for the both of us!

The first year was definitely the longest year of our marriage. I will put it simple. It was a never ending hell! Ok... I might be exaggerating a bit on that! :) If it weren't for the temple sealing, I am sure that we would have contemplated divorce. But luckily we didn't and it has been great for the past six.

The next couple after that were filled with work and Brent's electrical schooling/apprenticeship. After that was over, we were blessed with Kenna B. and then a lot of job changes from there on out! Little Gavs came on year 5 1/2 and we have been rollin' ever since!

I am sure that most people think our marriage is crazy, but it works for us and we are both happy! Neither one of us has ever slept on the couch (due to us both being extremely stubborn), or suffered the silent treatment. Although, sometimes that would be easier! hehe

So Brent.... here is to seven more fun filled years! I love you and I am glad that you decided that I was the one you wanted to kiss the rest of your life! I am glad that our kids look a lot more like you than me. I am glad we can fight and then laugh about it afterward. I am glad that you put up with my crap and I put up with yours! I am glad that you are tall and I am short. It is so fun! You rock my world babe!!!

The blessed day (I know this picture makes me look FAT)
Our most recent picture...

Lake Powell

I am the fourth of five to be blogging on this trip, so I will try not to repeat what some of you might have already read.

First off, I want to give a shout out to the Smiths for making this trip happen! It was so dang fun and even my workaholic husband wants to go back, so well done!

Second, thank you to all my baby sitters for taking my kids! Lake Powell is my favorite place on earth and it was WONDERFUL not to have my children there. I love them, but it was SO relaxing!

Things I learned at Lake Powell

-Brent is VERY athletic when he needs to be.
-Brent is athletic because he is TERRIFIED of lizards come to find out.
-Houseboat walls are paper thin
-Melissa knows A LOT about everything
-Cheetos and Whoppers are considered a lunch
-Deanna laughs out loud at everything (and I love it)
-"Do/say it again and see what happens" doesn't mean a thing.
- Playing a wrong card can get you death threats from Aaron or Jordan
- B West can function on very little sleep and still be somewhat pleasant
-Josh's hair is indestructible
- Holding your cell phone in the air really does get you better service
-Peach cobbler is the best after 11:00 PM (you sleepers missed out!)
-Make sure you keep your legs crossed when you are jumping off a cliff unless you need an enema
-Heather is a movie star even without earrings!
-Aaron can fit 10 JET-PUFFED marshmallows in his mouth (maybe 11)
-Bonnie is the new Marilyn Monroe (but better)
-Pumpkin spice and vanilla make French Toast even better! (thanks Mel!)
- The can-can is possible on a tube and it will be perfected by the end of summer (right ladies!?)
-Brent West can seriously fix everything (and I thought my husband was handy!)
-Heather missed her calling in life. She should have been a LEGAL pharmacist.
-Deanna is an awesome rapper/dancer
-Bonnie can go a week without getting in the water and still have fun
-Jordan DOES know how to kill a rattlesnake
-Hollywood and Sanchez know how to dig a hole
-Brent is a great dutch oven cook
-You can ski a lot better when the rope isn't left in the water with you
-Never stand on the back of a boat when Jordan is driving (maybe it was the mustache)
-Josh and Deanna don't swear even when they are scared (SHHIIIIIOOOOTTTT!)
-Tubing is the best thing EVER!
-Heather seriously soaks all desserts in milk
-Aaron is a very patient driver
-Brent shouldn't ever dance (especially when clothing comes off)
-Pregnant women should
-Deanna can do the worm, and do it well!
-Waterproof eyeliner really isn't that waterproof
-Lortab doesn't make Melissa loopy (unfortunately)
-Bonnie LOVES to take pictures and looks good in all of them!
-Melissa has the most soothing voice ever
-Three hours of sleep + PMS = a crazy woman
-Rap music makes everyone's head move
- The kid table rocked the houseboat! (even though I wasn't on it)
-Maybe we should do this trip every year! ;)
-Lake Powell with great friends is the BEST EVER

Thanks everyone!!!

PS. I totally could have won an award for worst hair EVER. In every picture my hair looks horrible! I wasn't blessed with straight or curly hair. Somewhere in the middle... Oh well though, I guess we were at the lake!

Terry Fator

I don't know how many people have really heard of Terry Fator, but Brent sure has. He is the ventriloquist that won America's Got Talent a few years ago. Brent has been dying to go to a show since he won over a couple of years ago. I then found out on Oprah that he had a one hundred MILLION dollar contract with The Mirage down in Vegas. So for Brent's birthday (in December) I bought him tickets for February 19th (earliest show). We went and LOVED it! It was SO DANG GOOD! We laughed, almost cried, and had a great time. If anyone is down there and has $100 extra bucks to blow (that is for TWO tickets total), go see the show. He even let us bring cameras in to record him. I recorded some clips, but they aren't working so SORRY! You will have to go for yourself! :) Let us know if you need company. We want to go again. Our $21.00 treats. A bag of M&M's, popcorn, and a drink.

(we think they overcharged us on something)

Don't mind the random people. He is a little man though.

Draper Temple

We went up to SLC this past weekend to go to my cousin's blessing so while we were up there, we thought we would take Makenna to the Draper Temple open house so her and Camryn could "get married". They decided that they would get married to each other since they couldn't find Prince Edward. We got to ride a bus, go through the temple and they even had refreshments after! It was a pretty neat experience to be able to take her through the temple.

Father Christmas

Every year we have "Father Christmas" aka Santa Clause aka Mr. Packer from middle school, to come to our friend Christmas party. Makenna is not a fan of Santa to say the least. Gavin likes him it seems though. Every time he sat on his lap, he would just look at him or try and play with his beard or something. He didn't cry at all. He is a pretty good little boy when it comes to strangers for the most part. Here are the pictures of them receiving the presents that Santa "brought" them.

When he gets there, he lets all of the kids (and adults) ask any question that they want too and he tells you all of the things that any person has ever wanted. He then passes out presents that he "brought" and then takes pictures with the kids. We love it when Santa comes!

The Martin's Mintues

OK... I haven't kept up this month very well, so I am going to tell you minute by minute what we have been up to and some random information.

1. Secret Millionaire- SUCKS. I know I blogged all about it, but now I find it quite disappointing after the first show. They had the $300 million dollar man (who is 25) who gave only $90,000 and didn't really live in poverty when he went out to find a place. STUPID.

2. Gavin is now sleeping through the night! I know I know, he is almost one and he should have been sleeping about 8 months ago, but I'm too lazy and would rather walk in his room almost still fully asleep and give him a two ounce bottle and go straight back to bed then hear him scream for a week getting him to sleep through the night. Nevertheless, he is sleeping!

3. Ever since Gavin has been sleeping through the night, Kenna has not. She sleeps in just her panties and hates to be covered so she wakes up in the middle of the night crying and freezing but not wanting to be covered. Hmmm.. she has been doing better though and I even got her to sleep in pajamas last night!

4. Gavin is now on all solid foods. No more formula and I am loving it. So is he. He did really good switching and now he is a big boy! Still no hair, but he is weaned off of formula.

5. Gas prices are WAY down and it only cost $33.00 to fill my car! ROCK ON

6. Brent's work is still busy and we are so grateful for that. He has finally recooped from Halloween and now looking into expanding his work load.

7. Makenna had a fun filled week with her friends. On Tuesday Parker came over to play in the morning while his mom went to help in Carters class. Mia and Chloe came over to play with her in the afternoon and Makenna ate that up. She doesn't have many friends that are girls so she was SO excited that they would watch Tinkerbell and play dress up with her. Tuesday night, Camryn came down from SLC and slept over and Kenna is still on cloud 9 from that!

Watching Tinkerbell (yes, she is always in her panties)

Reading their "scriptures" (princess stories)

So cute together!

8. Saturday Kenna, my mom and I went to the Nutcracker and it was SO good. Makenna sat the whole time (which is very unlike her) and only fell asleep the last 10 minutes of the show. It was a lot of fun.

That about sums up the past couple of weeks. It is too bad that it is all a little boring to read. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season so far and maybe I'll write something a little more scrooge like later.

Family Pictures

Yesterday was a bitter sweet day for me. We had family pictures which I was stoked about because of our photographer, but I hate the stress of it all. We had them at four which meant that the kids would have a great nap, wake up just in time to get ready and we would head off and things would be great. That would happen every day except PICTURE DAY! Sheesh, neither one of my kids would nap, and I had my friend come over and cut Kenna's hair right before (thank you SO much Jill) and then I had to throw Kenna in the bath because she was black from playing in the back yard, Gavin's teeth still haven't broken through and he hadn't slept most of the day. Therefore, pictures were not so fun! They turned out great though surprisingly (thanks to Stacia Shaw) here is a preview and I can hardly wait for the rest!!!

Ahoy Mateys!

Last night was the annual Martin Halloween Party. We were a family of pirates and it was pretty fun. This year it was HUGE! We had a bunch of games, tons of food, and even more kids! It was fun to see all of the kids in their Halloween costumes and having fun. It wasn't so fun getting ready for the party, but after frosting over 40 cupcakes, making my 12th batch of taco soup (I swear I have made more of that in the past three days than I have my whole life), and getting the kids (including Brent) and myself ready to go, coming back home after realizing Kenna had forgotten her hat, we were there and happy! (all except Gavin).... Thank you Gloria, Kengie and Jill for all of your party planning. It was a blast!

San Francisco!

Where the men shave their pits, and the women don't...

That's right- we witnessed it first hand when we were on the 100 degree trolley sitting on the bench and a husband and wife had to hold on to the handlebar way above their head right in front of the Nielsens faces... That was just the first of many adventures we had while we were there. I'm not going to bore all of you and make you read my ramblings so I will just make our adventures short and sweet. I only have pictures of the first day because I didn't want to lug my camera around the rest of the time so we are short on pics!

1. The trolley to Fishermans Wharf (aka Pier 39). It stopped at every street and let more people cram on. Therefore, nasty armpits or boobs in your face.

2. Italian restaurant. No A/C and it was hot. The food was OK.

3. The Bush Man. There was this homeless guy hiding behind a fake bush and jumping out and scaring people as they walked by. SO FUNNY!

4. Pier 39. It was OK... the sea lions were pretty entertaining and Brent was entertained by some dude putting on a show.

5. Homeless guy dancing to reggae dancers. Even Brent couldn't pull down his sweet moves.

6. Trying to catch a cab back to the hotel and then cramming back on the trolley.

7. Dinner. Kim Thans. N-ASS-TY! That is what the food tasted like. We aren't sure if we ate cat, dog, or rat, but we do know it couldn't have been the chicken or beef that we ordered.

8. Beach Blanket Babylon. After I hiked halfway back to the hotel to my forgotten ID it was a pretty good show! It was super hot in there as well.

9. Haight-Ashbury. A little hippie part of town where Brent and Mike walked in a protest and it was OK to smoke pot in the stores.

10. Golden Gate Bridge. We were there for about 2 minutes and then left back to the pier for lunch.

11. Alcatraz. An awesome prison on an island. It was a neat experience to go to. Except for the crazy hills you had to walk up. I'm surprised Jill didn't go into labor from it! (Thank goodness!)

12. Dinner at Ruth's Chris. DELICIOUS and I seriously almost threw up because I ate so much. Thanks Mike!!!

13. Shopping at Union Square. Our hotel was right by this huge shopping center and it was amazing. I'm not even a big shopper and I loved it!

14. All of our cab rides. These guys are all nuts and I'm surprised we didn't wreck or hit anyone.

15. Brent and Mike. Enough said there! :)

It was a great trip and I was ALMOST sad to leave. I missed the kiddo's but it was so nice to relax and go places without lugging car seats and such. Thank you Mom and Dad for taking them! They had a blast!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

So Brent and I celebrated our SIXTH anniversary this past Sunday! WOW... it has gone by so fast the past couple of years, but at the same time it seems like FOREVER ago that we got married! It has been a pretty fun journey though I must say! Even though I threatened divorce a numerous amount of times the first six months of marriage, I am so glad that I "toughed" it out. Brent if you ever read this "You rock my world! I'm glad that I was able to beat up all of the other girls up that wanted you (even though most of them were 5 times my size and smellier than heck)!I love you babe." Here's to another six years (times eternity!)

The Blessed Day

Now (I couldn't find a picture of just the two of us)