Our Annual Beach Trip

It was our annual trip to the beach this weekend.
We go for rest (of course we don't get much of that), relaxation and the pool!!!
The kids had so much fun in the pool. They went 3 times within 24 hours. HOURS at the pool! Strike a pose Jamie!!!

This almost looks like we cropped Madison in the picture sitting down in the air!! :)

She was doing a fancy jump though!!

Tyler doing a "cannonball" - with a picture perfect smile!

Our little Blake was so funny! He was a little reserved about getting in the pool on Saturday morning. He didn't want you to let go of him at all and he had real anxiety about being in the water. When asked if he wanted to get in, he said, "no. I said no!" After an hour of being in the pool, he warmed up to being in the water. By that night, he was Mr. Independent and jumping in the pool with his water ring. I was so afraid he was going to slip right out of that ring but he never did. He was great entertainment for us to watch!

Here's a picture of the Pool Dominators! We can out swim, out last and out splash any one! Just ask all the other people that tried to come to the pool while we were there! It was kind of funny to see other people come and quickly go after a little taste of the Miller-Martins.

It was a gorgeous weekend to spend at the beach! The weather was perfect! It's hard to believe that a month ago we were playing in the snow!

The kids were building a large fort and it kept them occupied for the longest time. We finally had to tear them away from it so we could leave.

This weekend has given me summer fever! Let's skip spring and head right into the lazy days of summer! (except you can keep the summer electric bill!!!)

We ended our short and FUN trip to the beach with seafood and DQ!! Yum!!

PERFECT weekend!

Goodbye beach! I shall miss you until we meet again this summer....

Madison's Special Day

We are so proud of our Madison! She turned 8 this week and she was baptized this weekend. We had such a great weekend with our family visiting. It made the day even more special!
Here is Madison in her beautiful white dress (side note - $6 two years ago at JCPenny!! - I planned carefully!! :) ). Madison was truly blessed to have Dad baptize her.
Look how tall she is getting compared to Dad!!!! The time really flies!!

Her Primary leaders gave her a special CTR towel to use after her baptism. She really loved it! She was so filled with excitement that she had the chills before her baptism so it worked out really good for a blanket too! Thanks for the towel fantastic Primary leaders!!! :)

Madison's favorite part of her baptism was actually being baptized in the water - even though the water was FREEZING cold!!

It was such a special day with our friends and some of our family there (we missed everyone who couldn't be there!!).

We are very proud of Madison and her decision to be baptized. She is such a sweet little spirit that tries so hard to do what is right.

We love you Madison!

Playing with the Millers

Since we were going to be cooped up all day with the snow, we decided to trek out to the Millers and be cooped up with them.
The kids had so much fun going in and out, in and out...
building snowmen, igloos, eating snow (but watching out for the yellow snow!!) and of course having a HUGE snowball fight!! Madison, Madison and Anna "cleaning" off the car to make their snow collection.

Here is the winner of the snowball fight - Blake. He followed me the whole time saying, "Mom, watch out." And then BOOM - I would get smacked with a snowball. He thought it was hilarious!!!

There were snowballs in faces, ears, underwear and countless other places!!!

Here is the Miller Family snowgirl. She is ready for summer!

Here is the Miller-Martin creation - "Rose"!

What can be better than being snowed in together with a huge pot of vegetable soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies and then for dinner - a "mama" pizza from 37th street!!!!

It was our best day in a long time!!

We had planned to have a grown up Valentine's Date but....oh well. This was actually better! We'll find time another day for a kidless date.

Snow Day

Here are our snow day pictures of Feb. 13, 2010.
We had such a great day!!!
"Charlie" was a great collection to our family (until he melts!!!).
We had a lot of fun driving around and looking at everyone else's snowmen!!

It's not everyday that we get to play in the snow!! This is the most snow we have had since 2003. It was sure fun but I wouldn't want it everyday! It is very messy and the loads of laundry are CRAZY! Definitely worth it for one day though!

Our Greatest Gift

Our Christmas was filled with joy. Good food, good times, great company with friends and family. I love the excitement that Christmas holds through the eyes of our children. I know it won't always be this way so I try to enjoy these precious moments. Our Christmas joy and greatest gifts are....

Tyler

Blake

Madison

and Jamie

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.

We love our Savior and are very thankful for His birth and life here on earth. We are greatful that He lives today.

Merry Christmas

and have a very happy New Year!!!

Christmas with our Family!

Our Christmas fun continued as we went to the Ouzts's for our family get together. As always, we had a lot of fun!

Here is Bella (with the red eye evil look) all decked out for Christmas in her little Santa jacket! The girls enjoyed making Peanut Brittle with Papa. It was very yummy!

The kids and Josh had fun playing Foosball. They were in the basement playing and you could hear Blake cackling so loudly with laughter all the way upstairs. He thought it was just so funny to see the ball rolling around and getting hit.

Let the fun begin! The cousins are at the "cousin table" in the laundry room. I love how they fill their plates with food, take a bite and then run off to play. They will put 20 pizza rolls on their plate, eat one and then they are done. It is just too busy to eat when you have so many cousins to play with!

Or some don't find time to eat because they are hiding under tables holding "their dog". My nephew, Brock, was told not to hold Bella until after he ate. He REALLy wanted to hold her right then so he snuck under the dessert table and held her for a long time. ( I really wish I could get a good picture of Bella without the evil eyes - I am too lazy to actually edit the picture!! :) )

Our annual family Christmas picture by the tree - minus hats and reindeer antlers this year!!!

The Ouzts grandkids - 13 in all!

This is really what it usually looks like....

The cousins put on a musical for their Great Grandma and Grandpa Aldridge this year. Jamie and Maddie played the piano, then they all sang a variety of Christmas songs for them. There really is no better present than that!!

Grandma Aldridge had her big family get together on Sunday after Christmas. Those of us that were there had a great visit! We have to meet at the church for our get togethers now because it is such a big crowd! (13 grandkids and 21 great grandchildren - I think?)

I cherish this family time that we had together!!

Basketball Season

Tyle is participating in YMCA basketball right now. He is really enjoying his season. To ensure that he had the best coach possible, I signed Josh up to coach Ty's team. Josh is so good to do this for basketball and soccer!! He is really good at it too! He is the best coach ever!! Of course, one of Tyler's favorite things to do is run! He thinks it is a race to get to the other side of the court before his other team mates. He is pretty fast!

Tyler made the first basket this past Friday night at the game. His cheering section went wild (me, Blake, Jamie and Madison). Although a few things have come up and I haven't been to every game, I really do enjoy going to the game and watching Tyler and Josh in action. It's fun to see them enjoying themselves.