We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Here are a few pictures of Christmas at the Martins. I will post again after all of the festivities!

Our "Everything" tree

My Christmas VillageOur Tree

Our Stockings and the rest of my Christmas Village

Emily's Tree

Christmas Carols

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Emily has been learning all kinds of Christmas Carols during this season! She can sing Jingle Bells, Deck The Halls, Away In A Manger, Silent Night, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, We Wish You A Merry Christmas...pretty much anything else on her Little People Christmas CD. She doesn't sing all of the words to every song, but she can at least sing the chorus for most of them. She has also started recognizing them when she hears them. At Olive Garden the other night she would just burst out with "It's Rum Pa Pum Pum" or "It's We Wish You A Merry Christmas". Charles and I would have to listen for a minute and she was always right! So, she finally sat down the other night and let me video her singing her Christmas Carols. It is a little long, but I think it's cute! Enjoy!

Christmas Pictures

We had our Christmas Pictures made last weekend and I thought I would share some of them with you. Our photographer who has taken all of Emily's pictures except for once or twice has left us! So, this was our first experience with someone else! Emily did very well and the photographers worked really great with her! We hope you enjoy!

Santa Claus

Emily finally got to see Santa Claus last Friday. She has been SO excited about getting to see him! She is WAY more into Christmas this year than she was last! She even knew what she was going to ask him for and did! She talked pretty quiet and Santa had a hard time hearing her, but I think he got the gist of it! She asked for pink light-up shoes like Sterling, the fishing game like Jack and a Cinderella swim doll.

She even picked out what she was going to wear when she got to see him. For some reason she just had to wear her new sweater (I think it is because she is wearing a sweater in the picture from last year). Well, when she got up on his lap, the first thing Santa said was "What a pretty sweater you have on!", she just smiled! Santa knows all :)

"Tulsla"

Charles was off work on Friday so we decided to head to Tulsa to see the Christmas lights. I got the bright idea that it would be fun to go to the zoo while we were over there! Emily has not been to a zoo since she was 6 months old and I knew she would enjoy it! Well, needless to say it was a little cold on Friday, in the 50's. But, it was supposed to be a nice sunny day so I didn't really think it would be that cold!! Apparently, I was about the only one who had this thought as we were 3 of about 10 people at the zoo on Friday.

However, we got to see all the animals up close and personal and even heard the lion ROAR! I don't know that I have ever heard a real lion really roar before. Anyway, Emily loved it! Her favorites were the elephants and the monkeys. Before we left, when I stood her up on the changing table after changing her diaper, she gave me a big hug and said "Thank you for letting me see the elephants!" Totally worth it!!! We don't have any pictures from the zoo, but a good time was had by all (even though I don't think Charles would admit it :). It is a little scary to be practically the only people at the zoo!

After that we headed to Utica Square for to see the lights and have dinner. I was a little disappointed in their light display. There were a lot of lights, but nothing really cool! Then we headed to Rema Bible Church in Broken Arrow. They have a HUGE display that IS really cool! Emily loved seeing all of the lights and didn't want to leave!

We did have a minor catastrophe at Rema....we lost Tiger #1 (or #2, not sure which!). We had previously lost the other "extra" tiger somewhere in the house and were just down to 1. For those of you who know Tiger, you know that he is pretty important!!! Fortunately Emily was VERY tired and did not put up much of a fight for Tiger on the way home that night. However, he was sorely missed for the next 2 days. She finally understood that Tiger was gone and that she was going to have to pick another "lovey". So, we tried Rudolph, we tried Mommy's Bear (yes, that is what she calls it, I told you we were original on names :), we tried Daddy's Bear, we tried Aunt Vicky's silky. They worked OK, she was still very said about not being able to find Tiger and wanted to go to "Tulsla" to get him! Fortunately, I decided to do a little picking up in the extra bedroom and I FOUND the "extra" Tiger!! I waited until that night when Emily was going to be to lay it out as a surprise for her. She went CRAZY when she found him! We were at Mimi & Bub's house and she just screamed and laughed and ran around the house naked for about 10 minutes....it was hilarious!!! Needless to say, we have decided that Tiger will no longer take trips with us. He is going to stay home from now one. This is probably a good thing, Charles has been concerned about her dependency on Tiger when we are out somewhere. I agree, he needs to be more of a sleep lovey!

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Here are the few pictures that we took!

SNOW!!!

Yes, it actually snowed here today and it actually stuck a little bit to Emily's swingset, the grass, the roof and our cars!!! We were outside at 8:45 playing in the snow and Emily had a blast. She remembered that she had "mowed" the snow last year, so she had to mow the snow again this year. It was really pretty and snowed off and on all day!

Decorating

Between all of the food, family and Thanksgivings we actually managed to get ALL of our Christmas decorations put up this weekend...inside and out! Very exciting! Emily is so excited about Christmas this year! She can't wait to see Santa and ask for a Cinderella swim doll and light-up shoes like Sterlings :) I think she got a little bored once she realized exactly what decorating was (and that there was a lot of glass stuff that she couldn't play with!). But, once we got her tree put up and found all of the Christmas toys and books she seemed ok! Emily loves her tree! She has to go to sleep with it on at night now! This morning we were awakened by the musical talents of Emily singing "O Christmas Tree" to her little tree....at 6:30AM!!! I hope this is not an everyday occurence or Emily may not have a tree in her room anymore! Here are some cute pics from our decorating this year!

Thanksgiving #2

On Friday, we had Thanksgiving #2 at Gigi's house. It was a nice relaxing day, we cooked another great lunch, put up Gigi's Christmas tree and then drove around and looked at Christmas lights! Emily did not take a nap all day, but was actually in a pretty good mood! She did fall asleep pretty quickly on the way home! Again, only a couple of pictures...I get so busy doing stuff, I forget to take pics! Enjoy!

Helping Daddy fix the pies!

Emily fixed her very own bowl of dressing...yum!

Licking the beaters (they were only mashed potatoes! :) I don't know where she gets that from!

Thanksgiving #1

On Thursday we had Thanksgiving #1 with Mimi, Bub, Grandma, Pa, Aunt Le, Uncle Buzz, Kevin and Rachel. It was a great Thanksgiving! Thursday morning we made 4 pans of Grandma's famous dressing! I didn't get very many pictures, but the ones I did get are pretty cute!

Trying on Mimi's earrings :)
Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner!

Lily's Birthday Party

Last week Emily's friend Lily turned 3, so we went to her Elmo birthday party on Monday night. Emily was excited ALL DAY about going to the party. She even got over the fact that the Princess Shoes were Lily's, not Emily's! The party was great, there was pizza and cupcakes with RED icing...thanks Tracey :) Then Lily opened her presents, with a little help from everyone! After that, they got to play in a big climby-thing (I don't know what they're called....think Chick-Fil-A play area) and then they got to jump in a big bouncy house! Needless to say, I think Emily slept VERY well that night. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera to the party :( However, as part of her party favors, Emily got 6 Sesame Street ponytail holders and as soon as we got home she wanted ALL 6 of them in her hair. So, I got a few cute pics of her running around with her new Sesame Street ponytails! Thank you Lance, Tracey & Lily for a great birthday party, Emily still talks about it and sings Happy Birthday to Lily :)

Tis The Season

I cannot believe that the Holiday Season is already upon us! Santa Claus is already at the mall! We went downtown last night. They have the lighting of the square and a parade around the square welcoming Santa Claus. Emily loved it! We met up with her friend Caroline and they had a great time. She also got to ride the ponies! Emily is going to ask for Cinderellas and light up shoes from Santa. Actually, any toy she sees she says she is going to ask Santa for! Uh oh!

Getting ready to go, she put on her gloves and hat all by herself :)

Kind of a silly smile, but still cute!

She really enjoyed the parade...can you tell!

Her and Caroline posing...kind of!

She loves to ride the ponies!

Isn't She Cute!

I thought Emily looked especially cute the other night! We went to the bookstore to pick out new Thanksgiving and Christmas books and to see the Christmas lights at the mall. She is such a big girl now!

Splish Splash . . .

Emily has discovered Mommy and Daddy's bathtub...aka the one that makes bubbles ;) Now that she is big enough, she can actually take baths in our bathtub now and she loves it!!! She would take a bath in there every night if we would let her, but we just use it for special nights!

We're Pregnant!!!

For those of you who don't know, this is a picture of my sister and I and yes...we are both pregnant!!!! Vicky is due June 17th, so she is about 8 weeks along. I am due June 1st, so I am about 10 weeks along. Both of us are doing well, other than being majorly exhausted all the time! This will be Vicky and Jeremy's first so they are way excited!! We are very excited as well! We haven't told Emily yet, but I know she will be excited once she realizes what is going on!

Our Singing Star

The other night Emily had to put Ariel to bed before she went to bed! It was so cute, she rocked her and sang to her, then covered her up with a blanket and put her to bed on her changing table! It was TOO CUTE :) And yes, she is only 2!!!!!



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Halloween Activities

Well, we have had a whole week of Halloween this year! I waited to post all of the activities together! There are quite a few new entries with lots of pictures so enjoy (the last new post is "Let the Festivities Begin")!

Finally Halloween Night

Emily and Daddy really went Trick or Treating this year! She has been so excited about it, even though she didn't really know what it was until after we went to Daddy's work. I had to wake her up from her nap on Friday and she popped her head up and said "Now it's time to go Trick or Treating?"!! It was so cute! I was afraid she was going to be in a bad mood, but not at all! After they went around the neighborhood Emily helped hand out candy at the door. I think that was as good as actually Trick or Treating! She would get so excited when the doorbell rang, it was cute!