Merry Christmas to You and Yours!!

We hope that each of you had a very Merry Christmas. Our Christmas was very exciting with a lot of little ones around. It always is and we try to stress the importance of how blessed we truly are with all we have, especially our Saviour Jesus Christ. We know that our Saviour lives and loves each one of us. We are so thankful for His birth and life here on this earth. We love Him. We are grateful to live in this free country so that we can teach our children about Jesus and His plan for each of us. We have enjoyed the spirit of Christmas in our home and hope that you have all had your hearts filled with that same spirit as well this Christmas season.

An Ouzts Family tradition is acting out the nativity with all the cousins. With 13 children in the cast, this has become quite the production. Girl cousins are all vying for the part of Mary or an angel (we had a few angels this year). The older 12 year old cousin is praying he doesn't have to be Joseph for the 10th time. :) (He got to be the narrator.) It is a crazy time getting together with everyone at the Ouzts house, but we make the best memories!!!!

Sharing the sweet moments of Christmas morning with the kids is priceless. (If you are wondering about the sheets....I got the idea from Josh's sister, Jennifer. We cover everyone's Santa gifts with a sheet. That way we can ceremoniously unveil each child's gifts and do it one at a time to savor the moment. It also helps with children who might wake up before everyone else (which has not been a problem yet.)

Carrie, Carla, Heather and Amy

Spending time with friends and loved ones is one of the best parts of Christmas. We had a cookie decorating party and caroling in the neighborhood before Christmas with some friends.

Here are the kids showing off their beautiful cookies. We hope our neighbors enjoyed eating all these treats!!!! Spreading Christmas joy is the best!!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!!!!!

Riding at Island Creek, NC

Here are some pictures of Josh and his friend, Michael trail riding at Island Creek, NC.

Happy Birthday Jamie!!!

Happy 10th Birthday Jamie!!!!We had fun celebrating Jamie's 10th birthday. The Saturday after her birthday, we had a little party with some friends at our house. Josh took the other kids out for a while so Jamie could have the house to herself with her friends. She had a really good time. We did some small family celebrations on her actual birthday. I can't believe I have a child that is a decade old!!!! How did that happen???

Jamie's favorite gift is her Fuzion scooter. It is a four wheel scooter that is much like a skateboard with handles. She LOVES it!! Josh says "no" on the electric scooter thing because he doesn't want the kids to be lazy. So, this is the next best thing. Big hit.

10 Reasons Why We Love You JAMIE...

10. You have a sweet spirit and kind heart.

9. You are willing to help out so much.

8. You are a good big sister.

7. You are very smart.

6. You want to do what is right.

5. You have ALWAYS been a good sleeper (you have no idea how great that was when you were a baby and toddler!!!) and not too picky of an eater. :)

4. You have amazing musical talents.

3. You are not afraid to be yourself.

2. You like spending time with your family.

1. You are our baby and always will be, no matter how old you get!!!!

We love you Jamie!!!

Jamie turned 10 on Dec. 10th at 10:02am. That was pretty cool.

We had a fun birthday celebration!

Our Little Gymnasts

Madison and Jamie really enjoy taking gymnastics. They aren't at the competing level at this stage. They just started at the beginning of this year. They do enjoy learning new "tricks" and they are constantly doing cartwheels and flips around the house (especially Madison who can now do a one-handed cartwheel).

They get their flexibility from their dad!!!

This is such great exercise! I highly recommend gymnastics for all kids. It helps with coordination, concentration, fitness, etc.

They have so much fun!!!

Our little stars!!!!

Blake's First Haircut

This weekend while my mom was with us, Blake got his first haircut. Josh was really anxious for him not to look like a redneck with a mullet any longer. I thought his little curls were darling! Away we went with the haircut!!! We are so lucky Grandma Deanna is a cosmetologist!!

This pictures sums up the madness going on during the haircut. Do you see all those little hands in their trying to catch Blake's hair as Grandma cut it??? They now all have their own little sandwich bag with Blake's hair in it. Jamie says she is saving it to show Blake when he is her age. I reminded her that she probably wouldn't even be living with us when he is her age. Then I had to leave the room because I was crying because I know that will be here in a blink of an eye.

Isn't Grandma Deanna so talented to cut a moving target with all those little hands around???

Blake did so great! No tears!!! Just patience.

Thanks Grandma Deanna for making me look like a toddler and not a redneck. heehee

We Are Thankful!

Who wouldn't be thankful for these beautiful kids?
This Thanksgiving was spent really enjoying time with each other as a family. No stress. No cooking..... We went to Golden Corral for a festive meal. My mom and dad were here and went with us. We didn't have to spend hours in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. We simply loaded up in the minivan and drove over to dinner. We ate lots of yummy things like turkey, ham, rolls (the BEST), pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, banana pudding and much more. Well, I say "WE" but I mean the grown ups. My kids just ate pizza and mac and cheese. Whatever makes you happy on Thanksgiving!!!!
After dinner, we drove down to the river and had fun taking pictures.

Josh had a clever idea that we stand on some posts and be funny. My dad helped me up and held my hand for a second and that was fine. Then he backed away and I was flying solo on that 2 1/2 foot post. heehee This picture really has a funny story behind it - Josh and I were originally holding hands and that was fine but then he let go and said, "grab my foot". I started screaming, "I can't!!! I can't look down. I am going to fall!!!!" I was really terrified. I am still such a chicken!!! Good grief!

I am thankful my parents came to stay with us for a few days. When they come here, we don't have to share them with anyone else. With 4 of their own kids and 13 grandchildren, sharing is a must. So I am glad they were just ours for the weekend!!

I am also thankful that my dad got up at 4:30am on Black Friday to wait outside of Staples (that didn't open until 6am) with me. :) After getting really awesome deals (like this new laptop that I am using right now...finally a computer not from the stone age!!), we went home and traded shopping partners. He stayed home with my kids while Mom and I went shopping ALL day long. Talk about "shop until you drop"!!! After getting up so early, he took care of the kids for another 7 hours. Thanks DAD! And thanks for shopping with me Mom!!! Good times. AND thanks for going to work to "make the money" Josh!!!! I love you all!

Do you notice a theme with our attire?? Yes, it is Josh's favorite NFL team - Philadelphia Eagles. He has liked them since he was a kid. He is very loyal to his teams, whether they are having a good season or not. That's my Josh...loyal and true!!!!! Go Eagles!!!

I had a GREAT Thanksgiving letting someone else do the cooking, having fun with the family and shopping like a crazy person. Life IS good!!!!

Fall Pictures

I love school pictures! It takes all the pressure off of having to go to a studio for portraits! I thought these pictures turned out nicely. What happened to my babies???

Jamie - 4th grade

Tyler - Kindergarten

Madison - 1st grade

This is how we roll....

A dear friend from High School, that I haven't seen in ages but recently reconnected with (Yeahhh!!) asked what a typical Friday night at our house looks like....Here you go!!!

Having friends come over for games while the kids entertain themselves. This week the kids were dancing in the garage! Good times!

Well....almost all the kids. The girls always keep going strong, but Tyler and Blake usually pass out much earlier!!! Tyler was watching Transformers on the portable DVD player and then fell asleep. So cute.

Halloween Craziness!

Happy Halloween from the Martins!!!!

I don't think I have ever experienced a busier Halloween season! It was CRAZY but oh, so fun!!! We started the week at a Halloween Party at a friend's house. There was homemade rootbeer (BIG hit with the kids~all the "smoke" from the dry ice), caramel apples, spooky Aunt Edna (long story...just trust me...spooky!!), carving pumpkins (thank you Josh for taking so much time and effort to create the BEST jack-o-lantern EVER!!) and just having so much fun!!!!

Of course the kids had Halloween parties at school. I tried to go in and help as much as possible with that.

We also had the annual Preschool Parade downtown. One of my friends from the kids' school said she was jealous because she misses those little things from the younger kids' activities. I told her that is why you keep having kids - so you can keep doing all the fun stuff!!!! :) Blake was a cow this year for Halloween. We have been practicing for over a month now on what a cow says. For Blake, it is somewhere in between "moo" and "boo" - perfect for Halloween! He was a little shocked to see a BIG COW stand next to him at the parade! This is actually the first Halloween in a LONG time that we had to wear jackets at the parade!!! It was nice and crisp. Not hot and muggy! Blake and I had fun!!!!

Moo!!!!! His cow tail is the cutest thing about the costume! It sticks straight up when he crawls around. Thanks to my stupid camera and the flash not working, I couldn't get any pictures of that. Thanks Melissa for letting me borrow your camera at the party! I am going camera shopping this week!!!

After the parade and school parties, we went to the local library Spooktacular. All the kids had fun doing crafts, games, snacks and stories - except Blake who was just trapped in a stroller for 3 hours. Long day...but fun for the kids. Lucky for us....no school the next day on Halloween.

On Halloween we went to our church for dinner. The kids decided they would rather do the traditional trick or treating this year versus trunk or treating at the church. Since this was my first year in 6 years not in charge of the Trunk or Treating, we decided to go with the flow.

After dinner, we went to a big carnival hosted by another church. It had a ton of jumpy things and slides, pony rides, hot dogs, funnel cakes, cotton candy and lots more. Then we went trick or treating on probably the busiest street in our town. It was fun but we'll stick to our church or neighborhood next year - more light and less people.

Look Who's One!!

This has been, by far, the fastest year of my life! Where does time go? My baby has been with us for a year now. We have enjoyed every moment of this year with him!
Blake makes being a Mom an easy job. He keeps me on my toes, but he is really good. He is generally happy and easy going.
We just adore this sweet little spirit that has been sent to us!
We had a fun birthday party with Blake. He enjoyed his cake, presents and balloon. Jamie, Madison and Tyler really enjoyed helping with the cake and presents. (And the balloon didn't even last 24 hours...they enjoyed beating it to death. Oh well.)
He thought that digging into his own cake was just hilarious! I think he ate the most out of any of our other kids. He really thought he was something!

Happy Birthday Sweet Blake!

Jamie has been taking piano lessons for over 3 years now. This is a video of her playing "Jamie's Song" written for her when she was a baby by her daddy. And then she plays some of her songs she is working on for piano lessons. She has a great piano teacher and she does a very nice recital each Spring. The first year Jamie took lessons she received a trophy for her amazing work for a first year student. I really hope she continues to enjoy it and sticks with it. I would love for her to be able to play for church. We need piano players so bad! You know we are hard pressed for players when anyone looks at me and asks if I will play the piano. This is one of the many things I wished I would have learned when I was a child. My mom tried (because she plays so well) but I resisted. Sometimes there are tears because Jamie has to practice the piano instead of going outside to play but I hope she will thank me one day! Go Jamie!

Mum Fest

We thought we would go downtown and enjoy the Mum Fest this past weekend. We started our adventure by parking at the mall and taking the trolley to downtown. We had no problem getting right on at the mall. It took us down to the Farmer's Market where we met our friends, the Millers. There were a lot of things for the kids to look at but this one was the most amazing for the kids....Coastie the Boat robot. They really couldn't get enough of him. They were so amazed that Coastie could talk and move around. They knew he was real too because he knew what color shirt Jamie was wearing and that she had on a blue "Statue of Liberty" hat. Just amazing....
Coastie told them it was okay to give him a pat on the head. Nobody wanted to touch him though. As we were walking away, Madison stuck her hand out and poked him in the eye to see what he would do. It must have not bothered him because he didn't yell!!! ha ha
Checking out the race cars. And oh, by the way, did I mention it was pouring down rain at this point? Well, it was. The race cars had a nice big tent over them so we hung out here for a while. Then we decided it was time to get out of the rain for the day.......
We got in line for the trolley and of course it took A LOT longer this time to get where we wanted to go (to a nice DRY place)....40 minutes actually. We had to lighten the mood while standing in the rain waiting so we played with Blake and Josh's hair.
Can someone, ANYONE, give us a ride to our van??? Please? Can you believe we didn't get any offers??? Oh well. The trolley did eventually show up and all 11 of us hopped on board. What a day to remember!!!

Goodies at the Mum Fest

Chocolate Fudge Marshmallows Anyone???We went to the Fudge shop downtown when we were at the Mum Fest this weekend. This is Madison with her friends Anna and Madison.
If you don't like the marshmallows, you can try a fudge covered rice krispy treat. That's what Josh and Jamie had.... Yum!

After a few bites, Madison handed me her goody and said, "I just can't take it anymore!" I guess you can have too much of a good thing.
Even Blake got in on the good stuff.

We love the Mum Fest (when it's not pooring rain!).