The Martinez family! And one Huff

Alright, I'm going to do a couple days into just one post. These first few pictures was of us playing with our camera and seeing the cool things it could do. Vince turned it on to take 5 pictures, one right after the other. We had fun and got some good pictures and other crazy ones!

Here is one that I think is a pretty good picture, although Mya is not smiling, at least she is looking into the camera!

No matter how good mine and Vince's faces look, Mya still manages to show us up and just look so cute!! :)

The next morning was a gorgeous day! The weather was perfect, I think it was maybe 80-82? So we hurried and got ready and ran out the door to the park so Mya could swing and play to her hearts content on those wonderful toys!

Our first stop was the swings, she just loves swings! *Warning: these pictures are was cute, be prepared to go "ooh" and "ahh"*

This one is my favorite! She was just so excited and was snorting while swinging! (when will her laugh just come out?) Never the less, her snorts are still way precious.

Our next stop was to the toddler play area. We planned to make our way around and end up at the big girl toys last.

Mya was such a big girl! She didn't even need my help! Yes, I was behind her because I'm a worry wart, but she climbed up the thing all on her own!

Mya figured out how to bounce on this thing and it just made her squeal! She would walk up and down this and jump on each end. 

Oh no! The wheel!! This one is a little too tall for her, but she still liked to spin. 

This is such a happy picture! She was excited that we finally got to the slides! She likes to crawl up them and occasionally she'll manage to get to the top all by herself!This gave her quite a thrill! She liked to crawl through the tube. She could stand up and still fit in it!

This park is huge! Look at how small Mya looks compared to the toys! The little toys are behind us too!This is such a cute pictures, I'm thinking about doing it in black and white and hanging it on my wall! (When I get a wall I can hang it on!) It's so sweet and innocent and curious all at the same time! The very happy Mom and Dad. It makes us happy to watch Mya enjoy herself!

Vince decided that he wanted to play a little on the toys himself, but the first thing he tries, he gets himself stuck! I quick snapped a picture before he could do anything and then I had to help him out of the tangled mess!It was a good day and not too hot. Mya had her fun and was crashed in the car as we drove home. I'm hoping another cool day heads our way so we can run to the park again!

What a Big Girl

Alright, so I decided that it's time to start teaching Mya how to feed herself with utensils. We striped her down to her diaper and sat outside on the patio with some berry applesauce and a spoon. We first held Mya's hand with the spoon in it to show her how it would work in that tiny hand! I must say, she got where the spoon was suppose to be realy fast, the problem was keeping the applesauce on the spoon while it traveled to her mouth.

We had a lot of fun! She is just so cute at being a big girl! I'm trying to let her do more things on her own. I think I smother her too much and she really does need to learn how to do things by herself. 

This was the same day and we were making faces to eachother through the window! It was a fun day and I can't wait to get her some plastic forks!

A Day At The Park

The other day, Mya  and I went out to the park for one: to get out of the apartment. And for 2: get some fresh air. She made a new friend that day. This little girl was probably about 4. She held Mya's hand and walked with her everywhere all the while non stop talking. 

Mya really likes to climb up the slides. When her shoes are grippy she can climb up the whole slide! She gets really happy and is sure proud of herself after she does it. What a cutie!

After she gets to the top, she takes off across the bridge and right to the steering wheel. This little play ground isn't much for me, but it entertains Mya very well. So I'd say it does it's job! 

Good old July 4th!

It was my first 4th of July out of Pocatello and away from my family. I didn't know what to expect, maybe the same kind of show that they do in Idaho? It was similar, but not quite as familiar. We drove over to the mall here in Citrus Heights with Daneile, Chris, Vanessa and Taylor. 

We didn't have anything to sit on, but Vince's car. So we pulled our blanket out and sat on the trunk. Mya wanted to climb all over his car. We even spooked her by peeking through the sunroof! 

It really looks like we were driving with her holding on! She enjoyed climbing on Daddy's car, but I don't think she'll be doing it again once it's cleaned. :) 

It was just before the show was about to start and we were all excited! Settling down in our spots we turned and waited for AC/DC to start off the show. Well, it wasn't AC/DC. It was some weirdo music, that didn't fit. So I ignored the music and focused on the fireworks. Mya was having a blast! She loved the fireworks! She would point and look excited! That same day, Daneile and I taught her to put her arm in the air and go "woo!!" and yes, she did it! 

After the firework show, we headed back to our apartments to do our own fireworks show! 

We let Mya hold a sparkler and she loved it. I only wish we could light it. She was in awe when the sparklers would be lit. 

Here is Vince with his very own sparkler dance! He was being a huge dork and was dancing all over like one of those ribbon dancer! 

Daneile was so happy that she got to hold 2 sparklers, it just shows on her face! :)

Mya and Twinkee are really good buddies, they shared the trunk of the car while the adults didn't act so much like adults! Mya was very good that night and stayed where she was just watching all the chaos around her.

Here is Taylor with his amazing sparkler skills! He didn't dance like Vince, but tried a very daring move. 

This is one crazy picture! We were all telling Chris to jump over the firework, I didn't think he would actually do it! He face looks so happy! I have to say that it was a very good fourth and Mya was just a good sport through it all! Happy 4th of July everyone!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYA!!!

My Mom and sister, Holly, had come on Tuesday to help celebrate Mya's birthday with us that coming Saturday. It was so nice to have them come and stay at our little apartment! It was a full house, but everything seemed to work out just fine. We played a lot of card games after Mya had gone to bed and ate a ton of ice cream! We were all anxious for Saturday to come and could hardly wait! 

Later that week, Shelynn, Amanda, and her friend, Erica, arrived to also celebrate Mya's birthday. I can't tell you how pleased I was that we had so much company! I'll tell you this though, it's a good thing that Daneile and Chris are here too because we wouldn't have any room to put everyone! So Shelynn, Amanda, and Erica all stayed over at Daneile's apartment. 

The plan with Mya's birthday was that we would all go to the park just down the street from our place and have dinner and cake. Well, Vince and I ordered the chicken on Saturday morning, hoping it would be ready by 6:30 that evening. (You have to give them a 24 hour notice if you want a large chicken order) Sure enough we got there at 6:30 and they didn't even get our order written down, but the people there were really nice and told us that they could get our order done within 20 min. 

We then got to the park to set everything up, but all the tables were being taken up by other families and their birthday parites. So when we headed back to our apartments, Amanda found a small table area that we could have our party at. (Thank you Amanda) 

                                                          Just look at all those presents!!!!

It was a hectic start, but everything seemed to fall into place in the end. We had an enjoyable dinner and a wonderful show!

Mya unwrapping her presents was just the cutest thing ever! She didn't rip into them like I would have liked and we did have to end up helping her. But when she saw what was under the wrapping, that was a classic look! She would hold the box and just stare.

Her favorite toy ended up being the baby stroller that Vince and I got for her. 

After her birthday presents, we went straight for her cake! This was the part I was most excited about! I wanted her to just dig in and tear that cake apart!

She liked to eat the top part of her cake, which is totally disgusting, so I pulled off the top and showed her the best part of the cake.

She didn't really dig into it, but she did eat a lot of it. She wasn't afraid to get messy. She even sat in her cake to eat a cupcake that we had make for everyone else. 

As Mya sat eating her cupcake, Chris and Amanda were in the back making evil plans. I saw Chris holding the camera right at Vince and I knew right then that something was going to happen. Sure enough Amanda comes running up and grabs Mya's cake and goes to throw it on Vince, but Vince, being the fast guy that he is, dodged that baby and it went sailing through the air and landed SMACK on the ground!

After that it seemed to turn into a cake war between Amanda and Vince. Those two are just too funny!  :) 

Saturday was the highlight of my week and having both our families there made it even better. I just want to say Happy Birthday, Mya babe, you are the best! 

A Little Blogging Break

Hey everyone!! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this. I just haven't felt in the mood to blog. However, I believe that I will be back to work on this and update everyone in just a few days. If everyone could wait, as you have to, then we won't have any problems! Be back before you know it!

Road Trip!!

Alright, I know it's been a very long time since I last updated the world on our family. I'll start with an all girls road trip. Daneile, Mya, and I went back to Pocatello for Amanda's graduation.

We were going to be driving for 10-11 hours with Mya. It was going to be an interesting journey, but Mya surprised us all and turned out to be a pretty good traveler! Apart from her occasional outbursts, she did a great job and I couldn't be more proud! She might not be her mother's daughter when it comes to traveling after all! :)

You may not know this, but you also might say "that sounds like Ashley" when I get into different situations I either talk a whole bunch of nonesense or I won't talk at all. The first situation is when I know someone, but not well. I get nervous and that leads to my jibberish talks. The second situation is when I don't know the person at all or I don't like them. I'm happy to say that I was in the first situation.

I warned Daneile that I might talk nonesense and to just tell me to hush if I got out of control! :) haha, she didn't say anything about me being a pest. She would talk very little, but it was enough to keep me babbling on. It was a very fast drive.

My family was extremely happy that we had come.  We had a good time just being together as a family:

Here is me and Lindsay brushing our teeth and making weird faces at Mike who likes to take pictures at the wrong time! It was silly!

As you might notice by now, Mike has very large hands and my camera is very small. He can't quite get his finers out of view. As for my facial expressions, lets just say I was really happy to see him! My dimple is really deep here too.

And for the whole reason why we went back for our short trip. Amanda. I just want her to know that I'm very happy and proud of her. It's a fun thing to be graduating and moving into adulthood. It gets scary at times, but she has a brother that really watches out for his little sister and cares a great deal for her. A sister to talk to and confide in. And a mother that would do absolutly anything for her daughter. (Plus the best sister in law there is!) She is a lucky girl to have such a great family. I wish her luck in college and I tell you Amanda, you can be anything you want, so have fun with it! 

I'm sad to say that I forgot my camera charger and my battery died during the graduation, I got the pictures I needed before it went. It was a good weekend, nice to get away. But before I knew it, we were packing up and leaving to go back. I missed Vince and so did Mya. Part of us wanted to stay, but a bigger part wanted to get back to Vince. It was a longer trip going back, we were both anxious to get back to our men. And I'll end with "Congrats Amanda, I'm proud of you!"