The Martins take on Yosemite!

Once again we hit the road with the kids, this time to celebrate some spring break time off. We chose Yosemite and had a pretty good time. There were some bumps, and turns....lots and lots and lots of turns on the road which led to Jack puking in his carseat about 1/2 mile from the hotel....he almost made it, poor little green thing. I will spare you the pics of that, but trust me....hour old Round Table pepperoni pizza coming out of a 5 year olds mouth on the side of the road in the middle of the forest was not pretty! The first night the big's and I signed up to go on a nightime flashlight hike with the guide. The stars were amazing and it was all of our first time in snow shoes so that was an adventure all in it's own. We went on some hikes, had some good food, saw some trees, and more trees, and swam in the hotel pool...a lot and saw some more trees! Did I mention all of the trees? Next Martin family vacate.....San Diego, coming to a blog near you; Fall 2008!

3 out of 4?!!!

I took the boys for their 6 month dental check up today.....let's start with the good news....not a cavity in the bunch! Now, the other news......3 out of the 4 need braces. Jason, Jack & Justin. Jason needs them now and the twins will need some sort of correction for a 100% overbite when all of their baby teeth fall out...which is good because that gives John and I both the chance to get second jobs to pay for this. I always wondered what grocery store clerks get paid... I think I am about to find out! 3 out of the 4? Are you kidding me? Am I being punked? Jason has some freaky tooth(that is my technical name for it) that sticks almost straight out right next to one of his front teeth that will apparently not correct itself as I have been secretly hoping it would for months now in addition to the same overbite that the twins have. Sigh----3 sets of braces.....this was SO not in the mommy book...especially as they are offspring of two people who never needed braces in their life...what on earth?! Standby for more posts on this as we meet with the orthodontist in the coming weeks, ya'll know I'll be complaining further about this! :)

Baseball Draft

It only took 11 years but Jason finally broke John down and convinced him to let him do his own fantasy baseball draft. You will notice that this post is remarkably short, as I don't know a lot about that; but what I do know is that my living room is currently full of very excited boys who keep shouting out names that I have a vague recolation of hearing before on Sports Center.

Surgery Successful?!

He lives! Justin came through surgery a few tonsils and adenoids lighter and is 100% back to normal! He was such a trooper! Everyone took great care of him and his nurse said that he was his favorite patient ever!(I choose not to believe that he says to everyone and instead believe that he really meant that!) They gave him a "special doctor's shirt", a stethescope, a party hat and off he marched right on into the operating room. It was quite funny as he was walking through the doors they shouted, "Here comes Doogie Howser!" Very, very cute, and he loved all of the attention. He had a rough time waking up in the recovery room and was in pain and disoriented but as soon as I got in there and bent down and talked in his ear he immediately turned over and went to sleep. So, so sweet what a mommy's voice can do. I love that little bean. We have been having a great time together, the first four days were just he and I as the other boys were still in school so we snuggled, watched lots of movies and many episodes of Sponge Bob and ate through 4 cartons of sherbert....come on people, I couldn't let the boy eat alone! :) John took a day off and spent with him when I had to go to work for a day and they had great man time together. With mom you watch Bambi, with dad you watch ESPN, and a well balanced child you produce. Thanks for all the great presents and well wishes, he felt loved!

Surgery on Wednesday

Survey says......Sleep Apnea!
Aha! I knew my son wasn't losing his mind and going to be expelled from Kindergarten for no reason! He is just very, very tired!
Justin will be having his tonsils and adenoids removed on Wednesday so a popsicle shopping we will go. Even more exciting it means I have 19 days off of work(his recovery time runs right into Spring Break) to spend snuggling on the couch with him! Woo-hoo, happy dance! We will keep you posted, pre-op stuff tomorrow but will try and post on Thursday. Pray for our sweet baby Justin!

Ben Kanobi becomes a Dolphin fan

Obi-one Kanobi (please do not make fun of my spelling, we have been through this) has turned into a Miami Dolphin fan and will be featured in the new Star Wars epic film, "The football force be with you." This is how we found Jack sleeping the other night. Obi-one coat firmly in place but now with addition of Jason's new Dolphin hat. Strange? Yes. Cute? Absolutely off the charts cute. I know I have said this before but these kids keep us laughing. I hope everyone has as much fun watching their kids grow up as we do. It is such a blessing to John and I that we have these four little boys that we are charged with raising to be Godly men who love the Lord. It is the best, best, best job ever and we wouldn't change it for the world!

Spelling Bee!

Jordan made it to the Northern California regional spelling bee last week! It was quite the big event in our home. John and I both took the day off of work, we took Jason out of school too so we could all be there to cheer our little champion speller on! We drove to Sacramento early in the morning, got all situated, grabbed some Starbucks and the let the spelling begin. They did two practice rounds in which Jordan got some pretty difficult words but spelled them right and then it was time to begin. Well, let me just say, there are some words in the English language that a young boy living in a home with four other boys and one non-girly, girly mom does not ever, ever hear. And one of those such words is, "anklet" That's right, "anklet" my precious baby got out on the first round with, "anklet" he came back to his chair, tears in his eyes, looked at me and said, "What the heck is an anklet?!" (He spelled it, "anclet") To add insult to injury the next word was, are you ready for this?....."hockey" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! For goodness sake, now hockey is a word you give to my boy! Not "anklet"! But we rebounded well, went out to lunch and by the time he finished his Oreo sundae it was but gone and forgotten. And being the totally awesome mother that I am, I of course the next day went out to Claire's and bought him an anklet. :) Hey, a mother's got to do what a mother's got to do.

Sleep Study

Justin had quite the time at the "Sleep Hospital" last week. They think he has sleep apnea which would explain all of the snoring, the bed wetting, the tiredness and last but certainly NOT least, the immense crabbiness during the day. Anyhow, we'll get result sometime next week but in the meantime here is what he looked like as, "Jet-pack boy!" That is what he kept calling himself all night. Too funny. He was a trooper and kept everything in place all night!

Whose dumb idea?

So as a parent you must go on something like 12,000 field trips during the course of your child's education. Well, let me be the first to say the one that John and I went on last week was by far the most ridiculous. We went iceskating. Iceskating with 5 year olds. Iceskating with 24; 5 year olds. Ummmm, hello? What on earth are they thinking? Thankfully both John and I were able to go so as I was slipping and sliding all over the place...essentially looking like a complete dork.... while trying to help one of the twins John would swoop on by at 45 miles an hour with his ice hockey playing self and scoop one up and skate them all over the ice. So it turned out well....well, as well as ice skating WITH 24 5 YEAR OLD'S CAN BE!!

Happy Birthday Punkie!

One turns 11, the other turns 10. The madness must stop! These kids are growing up way to fast and we are having way too much fun with them. Jordan turned 10 and also had a great birthday this year. We typically go on a big overnight trip and really live it up for a double digit birthday but this year there was so much going on that we have decided to wait and we will be going to Yosemite for spring break. In true Jordan fashion he declined a cake this year and instead opted for a shrimp tray from Costco....I know, I know, I too blame his grandfather. :) Happy Birthday Punkie, we love you!

Happy Birthday J!

Our oldest is now 11!They grow up so fast....sniff...cry...sob, booo and hooo. 11 years we have kept this boy alive! He had a great birthday complete with a sleepover with his buddies; some great food and some great gifts! My neighbor Cindy has risen the bar about 20 feet as she bought each of them a jersey. No cheapiness here. Two real live honest to goodness team jerseys. Yikes! I have to go now and get a second job to start saving for her kids' presents.

Another busted head

Another day, another Martin boy busts his head open. Yawn! This is becoming routine in our home! :) Jack was talking to a girl on the Kindergarten playground last week and as we all know, us girls can make boys swoon. So as he was discussing world peace I am sure with Priscilla, he turned to go back up the stairs and slipped....distracted by her 5 year old beauty no doubt...and sliced his head open on the edge of the stairs. Some loving mom came by and scooped him up and ran him into the nurses office. A trip to the E.R. and some skin glue and we are good to go. Does anyone know if you can buy that at Costco? At this point I am considering purchasing it in bulk.

No explanation necessary

An Icee

A flight of stairs

A 9 year old

Need I say more?

Grocery Bill

This is why we spend $1,000 a month on groceries....these boys eat and then they eat, and then they eat. It's breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, pre-dinner snack, dinner, post dinner snack, pre-bedtime snack, pre-wash your teeth and get your pj's on snack....it DOES NOT END. I live in the kitchen. I am considering putting a lazy boy in there, some fuzzy slippers and a collection of my favorite DVD's. And I'm not kidding, the meals we serve are complete! Dr. Spock would be so proud. They get a meat, a veggie, a fruit, a noodle or rice of some kind and a bread at essentially every meal. Add to that a tall glass of vanilla soy milk and watch the consumption begin. It is frightening....truly frightening the amount of food that exits this house on a daily basis. Their "snacks" consist mainly of fresh fruit, string cheese, yogurts, graham crackers, cheese but goodness gracious they just inhale it! For example, when they all want an apple for a snack they will eat 6(about 1 1/2 each) of them! Ahhhhhhh! How on earth do we keep up with that? So just in case you are feeling sorry for our food plight donations can be sent to:

John and Sonia's Poorhouse cause their kids are pigs

c/o Commissary's across the country

123 What on Earth are we going to do Lane

Empty our Wallettville, USA 1,0046/month

A very risky new year

We rang in the new year as we almost always do. John and I stay up and have a "party"with the kids, we turn back the clock 4 hours...they go to bed at 9...they think it's midnight...we shout, "Happy New Year!" and everyone, including us are in bed by 9:30. It's really just a genius system we have ourselves I must say...we should write a parenting book or something. This year, those little kids have finally caught up with us and now would realize that midnight is midnight. So we started a new "tradition" I go to bed, John stays up and has a real party with the boys and their friends. This year it included loads of pizza, snacks and milkshakes, a Madden Tournament and a game of Risk. I assume they had fun....I, in the spirit of full disclosure was upstairs snoozing as any normal wife would be. Happy New Year!