Samantha's scooter

Samantha loves her scooter! She rides it everyday in our neighborhood. Most of the kids in our neighborhood ride bikes but she prefers her scooter. Its kinda funny to watch her follow Kayla or the other kids on their bikes because she's trying so hard to keep up with them. At least her legs are getting a good work out.

Today before she went out to ride, she put on a helmet all by herself. She normally doesn't wear a helmet but for some reason she decided to put it on. I thought she looked so cute that I just had to take a picture or two.

New Years Eve

I forgot to post our New Years Eve party we had with the kids. Originally we had planned to go out with friends but they got sick. So we took the kids out to dinner at Some Burros, went to see the Temple lights, got ice cream, and then came home and partayed! We played with streamers, played with those little things that pop when you throw them on the ground, blew our horns and watched the ball drop in NY. The kids had a lot of fun staying up till midnight, well Samantha fell asleep about 3 mins to midnight, but we woke her up with our loud horns and she wasn't happy about that!

Then my husband started getting a little crazy!

Maybe its because he started drinking too much!(don't worry its just Martinellis)

Or was it?

Tonto Natural Bridge

On Saturday after playing in the snow, we went to the Tonto Natural Bridge which is just south of Payson. We were just planning on going home but saw the sign saying it was just a couple of miles away and we had some daylight left. So we decided to drive down to the park and check it out. Actually Jake and I had been there before years ago and liked it so we thought the kids would enjoy it too. I've always liked to hike, I just don't get the opportunity to do it as often as I like. Anyways, the trail wasn't too hard to walk down for us, Kayla did fine on her own but we had to hold Samantha's hand. When we got there, this is what we saw. A pretty little rainbow with the water falling off the bridge.

Most people hike under the bridge over the wet rocks but we knew we couldn't do that with the kids. So we just walked over a few rocks and I had Jake and the girls climb into this small cave to take a picture. The hike back up the trail was tough, especially for the kids. But we all had a fun time seeing nature and getting some good exercise.

Snow Day

Yesterday, we drove up north to play in the snow. When we got to Payson, there was no snow. So we were getting concerned that we weren't going to find any. After eating lunch we decided to keep driving till we found some. Just after Strawberry where the turn off is to Camp Verde, there was a big hill covered in snow and lots of people were already there playing in it. So we stopped there. And we had a lot of fun sliding down the hill, making snow angels and throwing snowballs at each other! It wasn't even that cold, I had to open my jacket a few times cuz I was feeling hot. It was Samantha's first time playing in the snow and she loved every minute of it! By the time we were ready to leave, poor kid was soaked from the waist down! But she didn't care, she had so much fun. And Kayla loved it too! It had been a bout 4 years since she was in the snow. I'm glad we didn't have to drive all the way to Flagstaff to find snow cuz that would of been too long of a trip!

Me sliding down the hill.

Jake and the girls sliding down.

Its a Boy!

Friday Jan. 16th, my brother Nathen and his wife Nina had their baby. They named him Benjamin Elijah which is my youngest brother's name. My brother Ben is on his mission right now is Guatemala. I don't know why they decided to give their baby the same name but another intersting thing is that Nina has a brother named Benjamin too. I guess they really like that name! But he sure is a cutie!

The proud grandparents!

Safford Trip part 2

While we were visiting Safford, we took a little trip down memory lane. We first visited all the places we lived in. In the 9 years that we lived in Safford/Thatcher, we lived in 6 houses/apts. This was our house before we moved to Phoenix 4 years ago. We lived in it for about 2 years. We think back and wonder why did we move here, because the neighborhood was kinda trashy, it was in a flood zone (which a couple of times there was a flood that came through our back yard but thank goodness it didn't flood our house) and it was far out of town. But other than all that we enjoyed the ward and living close to Jake's family.

This tiny house(we call it the closet because its so small) is the 3rd place we lived in. Its in Thatcher and we moved here to save money and because Jake was going to EA so it was nice to be closer. It was about a year or so before we had Kayla. It was a one bedroom house with a small kitchen and living room. Jake built a little storage room under the driveway to store all of junk. Again I don't know what we were thinking! It was cramped, everything was old and needed repairing. We'd get a lot of cockroaches coming in and it was cramped. Did I mention it was CRAMPED! Ah, the stupid things you do to save money!

The beautiful place was our first home. Isn't it lovely! Its a duplex and ours was the one on the left. When we were engaged we hardly had any money so this little gem was the cheapest we could find. We had no electricity our first night and being married in January, it gets a little cold. We had all sorts of problems with the plumbing and heater. We moved out a month later.

After the tour of our old homes, we drove around Eastern Arizona College where Jake and I went to school. Here is middle campus. These buildings weren't there when we were going, it was just a sidewalk and a bunch of trees.

Here I am peaking in the window of my old dorm called Nellie Lee. It was a all girls dorm, thats where I had some really awesome friends. It looked a little different inside like where the security person sits, its now a small room with a window. The tv/game room window I'm looking in was about the same. It brought back A LOT of memories!

Here I am in front of the my dorm. Its really small compared to the others on campus. To the left of it used to be a Archaelogy building but now its a 3 story dormitory.

Here's the backside of Nellie Lee along with the really tall dorms next to it.

Here is the Auditorium on south campus.

Here I am at north campus next to the big sign. It was fun to see how much EA had changed and to remember all the fun times I had there.

January 5, 1996 Our Wedding Day

I just thought it would be nice to post some pictures of our wedding day since we just had our 13th Anniversary. We have definitly changed a lot since then! Here we are in front of the Mesa Temple. I remember Jake wasn't feeling that good, so he was having a hard time...poor guy! But it didn't stop him from having a good time on our honeymoon!
*The pictures below are pages from our wedding scrapbook.

Here we are in the traditional cutting the cake picture. My mom spent a pretty penny on our reception including this really tall cake! As you can see my colors were purple and white. The recepetion turned our really pretty!

My wedding gown! That dress had so many beads and sequence on it, it really was a beautiful dress! My favorite part was the train!

Our photographer made us take sooo many pictures of us kissing! We didn't complain, I love kissing Jake, but it was kinda embarrassing to kiss in front of everyone!

Happy Anniversary!

On Jan. 5 1996, Jake and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa Temple. Its almost hard to believe that its been 13 years! Where has the time gone! We weren't able to celebrate yesterday so we are going out for dinner this Friday. Happy Anniversary honey, I love you!

Safford Trip part 1

On Saturday Dec. 27th we went to Safford for a baby blessing. Jake's brother Austin and his wife just had a baby boy and they named him Trayven. The blessing was real nice and we had a fun spending time with Jake's family.

On the way there we saw lots of mountains with snow on them. It had snowed the day before. It was a pretty site to see.

Kayla just chillin in the car

Jake and I on Tom's Harley(Shera's husband), it was so cold! But it was a lot of fun! Its been so long since I rode on the back of a motorcyle. Jake had a motorcyle not to long ago but it had no back seat. See the snow on the mountain behind us?

The reason we were all there, little baby Trayven. What a cutie!

The whole family after the blessing. See my little nephew in the front...what a stinker!

Jake's grandparents with Austin and Mary after the blessing.

Jake's parents, Paul and Joyce with Trayven.

All of us at Clay's house Sunday afternoon. This picture was just supposed to be just our family but for some reason Mary's neice got in the picture on the far left.

Part 2 is coming up soon!

Christmas Day

Our tree a few days before Christmas. We usually only put a few presents under the tree and all the rest Christmas Eve night. I think it makes it more exciting for them to wait till Christmas morning. I wish I had thought of taking pics of the what the tree looked like Christmas morning before we opened gifts. We woke up about 7am and right away opened our presents. The girls were so excited! Jake and I just got each other a few small things while we gave more to the girls.

Kayla got a Frog Webkinz and a Orca Webkinz. She also got clothes, bag full of little toys, and a bike. And lots of stocking stuffers.

Samantha got a Pig Webkinz and a Rhino Webkinz. She also got a Littlest Pet Shop Club house, clothes, bag full of little toys, and a bike. And lots of stocking stuffers.

Opening presents!

Jake got me these end tables that I've been wanting for a long time. Jake bought them at a yard sale and the girls helped fixed them up really nice.

Their bikes from Santa! They have been riding them everyday since Christmas. Samantha's bike is a little too big for her so I have to help her so she doesn't fall over.

Later we went over to my mom's house for dinner and to open more presents. We first opened presents and then ate some delicious Mexican food. It was just us with my mom, stepdad Jerry and my grandma. We had a really nice time.

Kayla got walkie talkies from grandma and grandpa.
My mom gave Kayla her rock collection from when she was a little girl. Kayla loves to collect different rocks so this was a really special present. She also got clothes and a couple of small things.

Samantha got a princess bank from grandma and grandpa which makes sounds every time you put in money. She also got more LPS, My Little Pony, a Little Einsteins bingo game and some clothes.

We hope everyone had Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!