This one's for you, Mom...

We are no longer a house of sickos. After strep, flu, colds, pink eye, yeast infections, six sets of double ear infections, I believe that we are finally well! Being sick since Thanksgiving has worn us out and we are ready for good health and SPRING!

Life keeps moving forward and we stay busy. But if you asked me what we did on any given day, I would have no idea. Such is life as the mother of three young kiddos. Here's a gazillion pictures of my family and WARNING: only a grandma could enjoy them all! Feel free to ignore them entirely. However, since I post semi-annually, you might be waiting awhile for the next update... :)

House of sickos!

I feel like my family is always sick. Seriously! I would venture a guess and say that most of my local friends would agree. I'm wondering if we just have weak immune systems or if we have a germ factory running in our A/C. Either way, we are a house of sickos and I'm sick of it! I swear that we wash our hands regularly and clean our house at least once a month... :)


As of today:

- My 4-year-old has a "horribly nasty" ear infection that must be "ridiculously painful". ("" is the quote of the doctor diagnosing it.)

- My 2-year-old has a double ear infection.

- My 8-month-old has a double ear infection, a yeast infection, and RSV!


To go back a couple more weeks, I had Strep over Christmas, and John had Strep over Thanksgiving. We are falling apart here, people!


No picture of our nastiness. Wish us speedy recoveries!

Update anyone?

Our crazy family! :)

D's Preschool shot-- what a handsome dude!

A frequent sight in our home-- with lots of noise.

At BriBri's wedding in October. Love this pic!

A pouty D... Now, THIS is a familiar face!

Love that the girls are holding hands...

Tubba bubba!

Wasn't strong enough. I'll try duct tape next time...

Edible or what?

Time flies when you're the mother of three little ones... Five months since my last post?? Shame on me! :) Here's a Cliff Notes version update!

D-- Got his tonsils out two days before Christmas! (What a horrible mother am I?? D might have nightmares about Christmas for years for that one.) He absolutely LOVES preschool. Miss Janet is everything that I'm not-- crafty, creative, and organized! D comes home with some of the cutest things and has learned tons. We love it. He loves to write words and draw scary pictures and is trying to sound things out now too. He would have "school" all day long if he could. I don't have the energy! Make believe and dress up are some of his favorite activities. He answers the phone constantly (my apologies ahead of time for messages you might have left that never made it to me) and idolizes his daddy. He rocks as a big brother but will always be my little boy. He's growing up way too fast.

R-- A princess diva extraordinaire! This girl has sass and an attitude to boot! She can be the most precious angel and turn into a raving demon within seconds. I am hoping that it is purely her two-year-old feistiness. If not, we're in trouble! She loves to play dress up and play with her dollies. She's a great little mama to her babies (especially her Aurora doll-- her favorite). I would cuddle with her all day long if I could-- she is so lovable!! Her nursery teaches adore her and we can't go anywhere without someone commenting on her gorgeous hair. She loves to sing songs, shake her bootie, and race her brother around the house. She is fiercely independent and competent at most anything she tries. She loves her friends and her family and will tell us often. She gets into more mischief than Daniel ever did and she is impossible to find when playing hide-n-seek. I'm just giving fair notice-- she's good! I ADORE this little girl-- she is our sunshine.

S-- My little baby is not so little anymore. Eight months old and EVERYWHERE! She started sitting up a little before six months and heaven help us since then! She was crawling a week later, and pulling herself up to things a week or two after that. My children are so fat that they rarely are on their legs this early. Yikes! She's now cruising and feeling like a super big girl with all of her new tricks! She has said Dada for FOREVER (of course), but Mama has only been for the last month. At first it was only when she was sad and irritable, but now it's for me and it's adorable. :) She has two teeth, eats solids pretty well (weighs over 20lbs., so I guess that speaks for itself, eh?), is finally growing some volume to her hair. She's sporting a mohawk right now. I love it. She started waving a couple of days ago. Her smile takes over her whole face and most of her body as well. She is edible and adorable and brings such joy into our home.

John and I are good. :)

Ouch!

By the way, I broke my foot. No sympathy necessary (unless you want to bring cookies, candies, lemon blueberry cheesecake, babysitters...) I'm just a klutz that needs a refresher course in walking. I'm actually feeling MUCH better and get along quite well in my boot. I would not recommend breaking your foot with three young kids.

In case you're wondering, the story of how it happened is too boring to relate. I took a step and my ankle rolled, crushing my foot underneath. I guess. I was in the middle of a street at the time, so that's pretty exciting, but no one ran me over so the drama is shortlived.

Fourth of July fun!

little pool that entertained my kids for HOURS!!

cute daddy/daughter photo op

d-man in foam. yes, foam. soda festivities include a firetruck hosing the town down with foam in their city park. isn't that grand? i love soda!

doesn't it look like fun??

We were lucky to be able to go to Soda for the fourth this year. We love the small town festivities and spending time with Martineau grandparents. This year my whole family was able to be there, which was nice. Chey drove up from California, which is hard for him to do, and Adam and their family met us there. It was fun to celebrate together.

We love grandparents!

taking a stroll along the Boise river...

kids looking cute (and actually staying a reasonable distance away from Sarah)

Mima Sally enjoying her newest grandbaby... (number 25? 26? i lose count-- she loves them all like they're the only one, though)

grandpa getting whooped by D at Chuck-e-Cheese... D loves this game!

some good 'ole swinging time, courtesy of Grandpa!

Grandpa and Mima Tomlinson came to visit for Sarah's blessing. We love when they come to visit because we don't get to see them as often as we'd like and we know that it's a huge sacrifice for them to come up. They live in southern California so distance makes it tough for us to see them often. But boy, when they come up-- we party!! :)

We did Chuck-e-Cheese, the park, Iceberg, Boise river, walks, games, tree trimming, the works! My kids can't get enough of them from sun up to sun down. We are looking forward to seeing them in October in southern California-- YIPPEE!!

Blessing Sarah

she's wondering why on earth everyone is staring at her! :)

the happy parents

the happy Martineau grandparents

the happy Tomlinson grandparents

the elated mama (it has nothing to do with the fact that her baby is asleep)

sweet little girl

the happy family... welcome to ours, Sarah!

I love John. It seems like I always have. But whenever it's time to bless a baby, I feel even MORE love for him. I am so overwhelmingly grateful for the Priesthood in our home. In our church we give newborn babies a name and a blessing by a man worthy to hold the Priesthood. It's a tremendous experience for families. So, on June 27th, John blessed little Sarah. It was a beautiful blessing which filled my heart with joy. I am so grateful to have Sarah in our home. Even in the chaos of "toddler-dom", she brings this sweet, sweet Spirit to our home. We love this precious girl.

My little princess...

has turned two!!

cake courtesy of Mima Tomlinson-- we love having her in town for birthdays!

what a sweetie!

recovering from some serious partying!

pa and Mima Martineau were in town for the festivities. (rach's bday and sarah's blessing)
(and cute prego Dana too!)

Grandpa and Mima Tomlinson and the oh-so-photogenic Adam

never let Daniel loose with a hose...

that Spencer knows how to par-tay!

chillin' in the sweet pool.

those two! D has a vein bulging in his neck-- this must be serious!

happy birthday to Rach!

Rachel is two! Where did the time go? It makes me sad sometimes to see them grow up so fast! Rachie-bop is such a sweet girl. She has this sweet little voice with an angelic face. Everyone is tricked into thinking that she's a perfect little saint-- well, mama knows better! Although she has her naughty moments (and has learned had to drive D-man INSANE) she is really a good girl. She enjoys "reading" books to herself, kisses boo boos, pretends that she's a sweet mama to her dolls, follows D like a little puppy dog (and he loves it!), kisses Sarah 10,000 times, and gives me the best hugs and kisses and signs "I love you" just because. Our family wouldn't be complete without her.