James is 8!

Well, I figure I had better hurry up and post this post before Alex's birthday happens tomorrow!

Happy belated birthday to James!

My little boy is now 8. It is so hard for me to believe... I am still going through withdrawals. Even when you ask him, he says that he feels like things connect more, now that he's 8. And I already feel like he's so much older. He truly is connecting the dots more, and frankly, it is a little scary! I enjoy kids when they still don't connect the dots fully, and you can tweak the system a little :-) Not James, anymore...

He has always been my go-to child. If anything needs to be done, I know I can count on James to get it done, first time, right away, and most of the time with a happy smile on his face. He's my unexpected child (I wasn't ready to be a mom, but the Lord had other plans!), yet he was the only child who could have broken me in to be the mom I have become. He teaches me how to become a better person on a daily basis. He ALWAYS keeps us on tract, by telling me when to lower my voice, when to pray for patience, and always informs us when we haven't read scriptures at night... even if it's midnight!!!! He's his Papa's boy when it comes to staying up late at night... we've found him in his bed sneaking his book light at 12:50 in the morning... still reading... and last night as I passed out when my head hit the pillow, I woke up for a little bit at 11:45... enough to see both Todd and James reading voraciously... trying to read as much as they could before the evil Mama woke up to tell them to get to bed!

James LOVES his family. From a little boy, has always been content just spending time with his family. He's Alex's biggest fan, and Ellie walked for him before she walked for me! And James and Glenn... most of the time... are the best of friends, and will both say as much. He's such a wonderful example, and I hope his brothers and sister follow his footsteps! Thanks, James, for all that you do for me, and for your family! You are our twinkling star!

For his birthday, he wanted toast... yep... toast... so we make him a smiley faced toast! Then it was off to baseball games. Our neighbor took him out for his birthday to buy him baseball gloves... I don't know if it was because he was so excited about his birthday, or if it was his gloves, but he did an awesome job hitting that day! He looked like a little professional hitter... way to go James! Glenn had his game first, then James. So, we got to enjoy hanging out as a family at the fields, with beautiful weather! Life was bliss! What more could you ask for...

Well, this boy LOVES the New China Buffet, so we went there for lunch so James could eat his full plate of shrimp... he was in 7th heaven! Then we met some friends at the Bounce Place, and met more back home for cake and ice cream... with a Pikachu cake. James wanted to Pokemon theme... and his favorite is Pikachu. Knowing absolutely NOTHING about Pokemon, it was the best I could do. James did everything else related to Pokemon... and he did a great job! By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but I think James had a fantastic day!! It was great.

A few weeks later, James had the wonderful opportunity to be baptized with his buddy Christopher. In our church we believe in baptism at age 8, when they are old enough to understand what they are doing, and old enough to be accountable for the covenants they make. And James has done his best to prepare for this day. He's read the Book of Mormon, and has had many wonderful teachers in church, and talks with his family, to know what this day was about. And he was SOOO excited!

It was a perfect day. We were very blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Brown visit us for the occasion, and help participate in the program! It was such a special moment to watch him get baptized. We are so excited for him! My friend Stephanie and I wrote a song together for this special moment with my mom accompanying, and we held it together till the very end. It's so hard to sing when you have your 2 little ones smiling from ear to ear up at you ... Christopher mouthed 'I love you', and that was the end for Stephanie... which in turn ended me. It was a special experience to write the words of our hearts, and sing to our special little boys.
I'm sad that we didn't get to record this song before my mom left, but hopefully she'll be back again, so we can record it for posterity. The boys always ask me to sing it.

Well, James is now 8... I feel old... at least the sun is shining to help me feel young again! We hope all is well with everyone! And hope you are enjoying a good growing season! Garden pictures to come!

Happy Birthday to Miss Ellie

I'm not sure how Miss Ellie became a Miss, but she most certainly is a Miss. She's not an Ellie yet, she's not an Elizabeth yet, she is Miss Ellie. And I can hardly believe that she turned one a few weeks ago! Of course with her being one, she was oblivious as to what was going on. She just loved the fact that everyone payed so much attention to her!



We started off the day with pancakes with whip cream smiley faces. She loved the whip cream, and shoved it in her mouth as fast as she could!



Throughout the day, people brought her a few gifts... her favorites where: banana bread made into a shape of a 1 ( we like the one, she only cared about the banana bread!), and a picture book that had pictures of our family... but the best part about the book, is that it is drool proof! But I am amazed how much she LOVES to look at those pictures... then chew for a little bit... then look at the pictures again!

Now, as a family, I think our favorite present was a PINK John Deere onesie which says, "Dirt, makes me cuter." It is OH so adorable. And Alex LOVES the tractor shirt, and always pulls it out for Miss Ellie to wear!

And of course, the best part of Ellie's birthday, is the fact that she is only starting to learn how to open packages... which means she needs help from her brothers. They were so excited to teach her this new delight! And by the end, she was thoroughly enjoying ripping paper up. In fact, as the present came out, she'd look at the present, then go back to tearing up the paper some more! So adorable. She is so blessed to have 3 older brothers who love to help her, though. They have just as much fun as I do, teaching her to do new things, and watching her grow up and learn new things every day. It's wonderful to sit and just watch our little family at times...

So, since Ellie has no preference yet as to birthday cakes, we decided to go all out with Ladybugs this year! So, these are not just any ladybugs... let me tell you! These are fancy ladybugs! My friend gave this idea, and it was FABULOUS! It is a chocolate cake mix, prepared and baked, then crumbled and mixed with the absolutely most delicious cream cheese buttercream frosting I have ever tasted! Thankfully I made quite a bit of frosting, so we had plenty left over for taste testing.

Once that mix is made, you form them into the body of a lady bug... for the big bug, I actually pressed the mix into a small bowl... the rest were just done by hand. Then... get ready for this... I bought red chocolate, and dipped the backs of the ladybug into the melted chocolate. Then the kids quickly put chocolate chips into the backs of the small ladybugs, and Oreo cookies into the backs of the large ladybug, and used pieces of licorice for the antennae! The kids had a ball creating these little creatures!!! And we all had the best time enjoying the leftover Oreo's dipped in the leftover cream cheese buttercream frosting... to die for!!!!!

And voila... here is our little family of ladybugs! There is another sweet lady that we know that shares Ellie's birthday... she turned 92! So, we took over a lady bug for her and sang happy birthday... it was fun! Then we were off to ball games, and back home to enjoy birthday cake together as a family! Now, when it came to the cake, Ellie was not so sure about all this. Glenn came up with the idea about putting dirt around the big ladybug with crushed oreo's. She touched that a little, but other than that, she kept on wanting to feed the cake to Koya! Todd broke up her cake and fed her the FABULOUS inside, and she ate a little that Todd gave to her, but really was not interested in it! So, the rest of us were very happy to help her eat her ladybug! They were fabulous! You can see from the picture, that Ellie enjoyed seeing something different in front of her... and enjoyed having everyone's undivided attention on her, but still was not interested in the cake!

The last cake picture is of Ellie's crumbs that she made, while trying to break up the cake to feed to Koya... :-)

So, as her birthday has come and gone, I have to say that Ellie is definitely the twinkle in our family. We all light up around her. She has a way of wrapping us around her little finger. The boys LOVE being a big brother, and treat her so gently and kindly... most of the time :-) Alex still tries to discipline Ellie sometimes, and will say "Ellie Zander Martin" when she's in trouble. Cause of course his name is Alex, but when he's in trouble, it's "Alexander Martin" which in his eyes is "Alex Zander Martin." So, when anyone is in trouble, it's "Ellie Zander Martin, Glenn Zander Martin or James Zander Martin!" And yes, I have heard, "Mama Zander Martin" when he thinks I've done wrong! Hilarious! But Alex, who has tried our patience the most, is becoming friends with Ellie, and that has made such a difference in his life. Yesterday they played peek-a-boo for at least a half hour, and both were giggling uncontrollably! It was so delightful to see!

And as a one-year-old, she can say a few words, with her new favorite being "Cheese." No, not because she likes cheese, but because we went camping last weekend, and took lots of pictures... and now she says cheese when the camera is on! We are trying to teach her sign language, and the funniest is Papa. She puts her thumb on her head and says, "Papa" But when Todd's not there, and she REALLY wants him, she starts with one hand, saying "Papa." Then she works up to the two handed (looks like antlers on her head), "PAPA!" She gets so excited! She can sign eat, and banana, and we're working on please now! Gotta teach them their manners while they're young! :-)

She also has enough hair for a fountain! Well, she had it in for a day, and then she found out that she could pull it out... so we now have fountains for about 5 minutes a day... it's adorable for those 5 minutes! :-)

Since last month, a few more notable moments, are:

The Assyrians have attacked again, and here are the boys practicing their attack strategies!

Alex loves to get dressed by himself... most of the time in James' clothes! I don't know what he's thinking, but he loves it! And here's him with a shirt on halfway inside-out and halfway right-side out... how he did that was beyond us! And the pants are size 8!

James earned his blue belt in karate! He's loving it! As do Glenn and Alex! Alex doesn't take karate lessons at the school, but he sure does take lessons at home!

Well, sorry this is so long! I didn't even include James' birthday! But I will next time! I know if I did this more frequently, they could be shorter! But I am grateful for the chance this blog gives me to look back on the week/month/whatever time allows and see the wonderful blessings we have in our lives. I hope you enjoy it as well.