Shoes

This is one of my first topical blogs, it of course still has to do with one of my children, but it also deals with the obsession of shoes. Personally, I don't have one. I am guilty of still having shoes that I bought in the ninth grade. And, yes, to me they are still in fashion. I think shoe obsession is something we are born with or without, the reason I say this, is my 11 month old baby has a complete obsession with shoes. She is constantly getting in to our shoes and wanting to wear shoes. And today at the store she proved to me that she was born with this obsession. I decided to buy her some church shoes, as she is walking now. As soon and we turned into the shoe isle, her eyes lit up and she got really excited. And then, I picked out some cute, yet simple black church shoes. Well, Lia just went crazy from that point on. Not fully understanding why she got so upset when I put them in the cart, I continued on. She continued to whine. I, all the time thinking she was hungry, just kept pushing on trying to get to the car so I could get her a bottle. She whined all the way to the check-out counter and as soon as she saw her shoes go on that conveyor belt, she flipped. And that is when I understood. So I had the check-out lady ring them up and take the plastic off so we could put them on her feet, and that little shoe girl stopped crying and immediately began to smile with her new, black shoes on foot.

Loss of a loved one

We heard the shocking news today of the passing of my dad's younger brother. I will admit, I have never had a family member that I am close to die before, so this has been more of a challenge than I ever thought. I grew up with my aunts and uncles around. This changed as I grew older, but I will always have happy memories of those times. Now that I am adult, I have come to see that things were not as rosy as I had painted them out to be. My dad's siblings don't always get along and now with the shock of my uncle passing, I think things were left unsaid. Things that should have been said more often, like, "I love you". I am an only child, so I may not understand fully what the sibling relationship is. However, I know that every relationship that we are given on this earth is for our growth and to see how much we can truly love God's children. I am so sad at the passing of my uncle, but I have already seen how my family has come together in ways that I thought weren't possible. I hope that we can all reflect on our relationships with those that we love because we chose to love them and those that God put in our life to love. You never know what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow just may be too late. I know that the Jesus lives. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that we can be together forever as families. I love my family. I hope they know this. We love you Alan and we will miss you.

Zion Ponderosa Ranch with Gramma and Grandpa

Flavio dancing with our girls at dinner.

We went to a place near Zion National Park for my Mom's birthday last weekend. We had so much fun. Riding 4-wheelers, horse-back-riding, doing a zip-line, hiking and paint-balling. It was beautiful up there and the weather was perfect. We stayed in an amazing cabin, that really seemed like a great, big house. The cabin sleeps 16 very comfortably. It was great hanging out with my family. Our girls love them and love spending time with them.

Bitter-Sweet

So, one of Hannah's favorite people has moved away: Auntie Natalia. I am not sure whether Hannah understands this concept or not...but we sure do and we will miss her. We have prayed for her to get a great job these past months (as she graduated from BYU Law school this last April and right now is a horrible time to have done that, due the economy) but she received an offer last Friday from a Law firm in Las Vegas. We are so happy for her and Luis, but sad for us. We love you Auntie Tala, and will hopefully get to visit often.

Haircut and Locks of Love

So, for those of you who have seen Hannah's hair, it is actually pretty long. It is also pretty hard to do everyday, so we decided to cut it. And here is the journey to shorter hair...

We went to Laurie, because she is great at her job and we love her ;) Hannah did great and seemed to enjoy the experience.

Hannah loves looking at herself in the mirror...too cute.

And here we have shorter hair, and the ability to get ready quicker in the morning! Yay! Thank you Laurie! We both love our new hair-dos!

The best part is, Hannah had enough hair to donate to "Locks of Love" which takes real hair and makes them into beautiful childrens' wigs so kids with cancer can have natural looking hair. She actually had ten inches to cut off. So cool!

School days

Hannah started preschool yesterday. I can't believe she is old enough to be in preschool. She loved it and had so much fun with her teacher, Miss Mandy, and her class. She is the only girl with five other boys. I love my Hannah so much and we are so proud of her. She is our first miracle baby and we are lucky to have her in our lives. I love you Hannah Banana!

Lagoon, Dino Park , and other fun Martins adventures

This is one of my favorite new things that Lia does...she really knows how to relax.

We went to the Dinosaur Museum with my Dad while he was here last...if you have never been, it is an awesome place for both adult and the kiddos.

Hannah has learned how to make her bed...not sure if I started too early or too late. But she sure is good at it!

Lagoon!

This was the first ride that we took Hannah on, it scared her a lot, but I think she got a lot of confidence after and rode as many rides as Lagoon would allow her. We had a great day!

We took Flavio's sister and her husband, as our girls love them and it was great to be able to ride some of the bigger rides with Flavio, we had a great time!

I love these two pictures because Hannah is riding these rides, you just can't see her...but she is there!

Cute Lia was so good all day. She loves to just watch people and see what is going on. She seemed to have fun...can't wait to take her on the rides some day.

I love spending time with family...we had a great time and hope to go more next year.