Happy New Year!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

That crazy guy in the red suit

Cate had a little visit with Santa at her preschool. As you can see, she's got some serious doubts about the guy, but will tolerate him in exchange for gifts.

PSA

Cate's preschool serves children with varying levels of abilities and is operated by a foundation that provides a variety of therapy services to children with disabilities. They recently produced a PSA for the program and Cate has a small role! You can see that she really loves their music time.

Looking for photos?

I have finally managed to get all our photos from recent months edited and I posted them to our Shutterfly site at http://martinopics.shutterfly.com

I know a few people who wanted to see more from our China trip, as well as updated photos of the kids. I posted about six months worth of photos, so take your time :)

I put a brief slideshow here of photos from November.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Great Wall of China

Big Trip

Steve and I are traveling in China this week. We are spending time in Shanghai, ZhengZhou and Beijing.

So far, we have experienced a very cool temple in Shanghai, eaten soup with some kind of foot in it and bought dinner for seven people for a cost of about $11.

Next week, I should have plenty of pictures to share.

I am working on this trip. Governor Parkinson is speaking at a large forum on US China relations and also at a university in China's Henan Province. One interesting note: Henan Province (kind of like a state in the US) is considered more rural in China and the population is around 96 million I think.

This will definitely be a unique experience!

Halloween 2009

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Picking Pumpkins

You might think I would have a few pics involving pumpkins, since Cate and I went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday afternoon. Not the case. In fact, I didn't get one photo with a pumpkin anywhere nearby.

It was a long weekend...I have pinkeye, Keaton has ear infections and a fever. In spite of that, Cate and I had a couple hours of fun playing at the pumpkin patch (and we did buy a couple of pumpkins too).

Doggie

Keaton and I had a nice chat about his doggie (aka "dadoo") and he told me that he does love his doggie (as evidence: enthusiastic head nodding). He's recently begun telling his yes and no -- it's so cute right now. In a couple of weeks, it won't be ascute when he says "no" to things like changing a diaper, getting dressed and going to bed.

Laughing Baby Boy

Fall News

Stephen and I have been trying to get a few more things squeezed in before the end of the year and we recently discovered that we have very little free time from now until the end of December. I'm not sure how we got so booked up, but we won't be sitting around, twiddling our thumbs much over the next couple months.

Enough about the future...let's look back! The last part of September, we spent one evening at the zoo for our local Parents as Teachers zoo night. The kids had fun doing all the activities. Keaton particularly one that involved some kind of paint that dries exactly like chalk. He was pretty much covered in paint when we left, including some in his hair.


Cate has started her dance class for this year. She's taking ballet and tap. We are really glad we got a Monday evening class. Last year we had class on Saturdays and that kind of crimped our weekend plans. She is loving her class and gets excited every week to go.

One night, Stephen took Cate to dance and I hung out with Keaton. I got a few cute video clips of Keaton talking in the bath. I will post those later this week.

We've been doing all sorts of fun things lately, plus Stephen and I have quite a bit going on at work and with our various other activities. I accepted a position on our local zoo board and that's been fun. Stephen has had some travel for work and we've got a trip coming up together.

Right now, I'm starting to get excited for the holiday season. Before all that, we have Halloween! Cate has already decided she will be Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) and I think Keaton is going to be a frog. They will be the princess and the frog :)

Recent Conversations

Some time last week....in the car on the way to school....

Cate: Why are we stopped?

Mommy: Because there's a stop sign and we have to stop and look both ways.

Cate: Oh sorry. My bad.

Seriously -- where did she learn "my bad"? And isn't she just four years old?


Getting ready this morning...
Cate: Mommy, can we go on vacation again some time?

Mommy: Of course.

Cate: When we go to the big water slide, I will be first in line. You can stand behind me, Keaton can stand behind you and Daddy will be last. But you can't go if there's any fighting or punching or hitting.

Mommy: Okay. I've got it.

Cate: That's just the way my rules make.


This morning....

Mommy: Cate, what's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Cate: Oranges. (Please note that she has never eaten an orange in my presence.)

Mommy: Really?

Cate: And toast. And those jelly things like I had this morning.

Carnival fun

We spent Saturday afternoon in Olathe at their fall carnival -- Old Settler's Days. Cate had fun riding a few carnival rides while Keaton charmed the ladies. I am thinking maybe next year we can put Keaton in the kissing booth. If we charge $1 for each kiss he gives out, we will be rich! He's quite willing to give lots of slobbery, sweet toddler kisses.

Who is that good lookin' baby?

My new brother-in-law John (recently married to Stephen's sister Kristen) was at our house a couple of weeks ago looking at the photos on our living room mantle. I have one baby picture of me when I was probably around a year old sitting among a collection of dozens of photos of Cate and Keaton. John asked if the photo was Keaton. Of course, I was flattered to be compared to such a cute baby! When I told him it was me, he just mentioned that Keaton looks quite a bit like me as a baby. What a compliment ;)

Last Saturday, Stephen and I went to the KU football game. We sit with another couple from Salina, Charlie and Marcy Roth. We know Charlie as the State Representative from Salina. He's been a great colleague for both Stephen and I on several issues and now we enjoy sitting with him at the games.
On Sunday, we spent the afternoon with Stephen's sister Kristen and her husband John, celebrating John's 31st birthday. Cate kept telling me that John is getting really old.

Monday was a busy and productive day doing all those fun "homeowner" things like mowing the lawn, cleaning skylights, picking up stray branches and cleaning the hot tub. Okay, in full disclosure, Stephen did all those things! I ran errands to the grocery store, cleaned out the fridge, caught up on laundry and made some pasta salad for the neighborhood block party. We had our Labor Day block party at 5:30 and I can say a great time was had by all. Cate got to ride her tricycle up and down the street. Keaton visited with all the neighbors and had fun playing with some koozies and ice!

We've had a great summer, but it's definitely starting to wind down. We are getting into those cool but humid Kansas nights -- thick with mosquitoes! It's not quite cool enough for long sleeves yet, but we definitely need sweaters or light jackets in the morning.

I have posted a few pictures of the kids from recent weeks. The photo at the top is Keaton wearing Pop Pop's hat. He thought that was fun game when Stephen's parents were over a couple of weeks ago.

Below is a photo of the kids with Mimi and Pop Pop (Stephen's parents). I love this photo (even if it is a little blurry) because I know how happy everyone seemed that morning. It was a fun weekend. Stephen and I are so fortunate that they live nearby. They are always there for us when we need a little help -- that's priceless! And the kids just love them, of course. I am so glad that both our kids have the opportunity to be close to their grandparents. I am constantly amazed at how much patience Stephen's parents have and how generous they are with their time. We couldn't be luckier!
A few weeks back, Cate went to a birthday party for a friend. It was a gymnastics party and she had fun running, jumping, flipping and climbing. What a great way to burn off some little kids energy :)

Just Because

Birthday week

Cate's birthday is coming up on Wednesday, so we kicked off birthday week with her party on Friday evening. We invited a few friends from her old school and a few from church to a party at a carousel in one of the Topeka parks. After the evening was done, I asked Cate what was her favorite thing about her party. She said, "Everything." Mission accomplished.
We decorated the room in pink and green.
This was the table with the party favors, a small candy buffet and Cate's princess birthday cake.
Our small, yet popular, candy buffet: pink and green M&Ms, pink and green jelly beans, Starbust packets wrapped in pink paper and pink and green lollipops. We had pink and green sacks for the kids to fill with candy and take home. I'm sure the parents were loving it :)
As the kids were coming in, we had them work on prince and princess crowns. Here is Cate making good use of the glue stick.
One key to kid party success: lots of balloons. Even little brothers like pink balloons.
The carousel rides were a hit with everyone. The ride lasts four and half minutes!
Blowing out the candles on the birthday cake.
Loving the chocolate cake and oreo cookie ice cream. The ice cream was delicious and I owe some credit to Stephen's mom for the idea. I mixed on gallon of vanilla ice cream, one container of Cool Whip and a whole package of oreo cookies, ground up in the food processor. It was so good....I made a second kind too :) Vanilla ice cream, cool whip and nutter butters. Yum.
After they were done making crowns, riding the carousel, eating dinner, eating cake and ice cream, opening presents, riding the carousel and getting candy treats (whew!), everyone went outside to burn off the last of their energy on the playground.

Backyard Paradise

We spent Sunday afternoon with Stephen's parents in Olathe. In addition to fixing lunch, they set up a little water park in the backyard for the kids, complete with a slip 'n slide, baby pool and sprinkler. I think a good time was had by all.

Bubble Man

Keaton is learning new words very quickly. He had nearly doubled his vocabulary in the past couple of weeks. Items in the current word count:
Mama (my personal favorite)
Dada
Doggie
Night Night
Hi
Bubble
Bye
That
Ball

I discovered last week that he could say bubbles and it's really cute. He says it more like "buboo" and puts a lot of emphasis on the second syllable. Stephen and Cate took a little trip to Kansas City together last weekend, so Keaton and I blew bubbles outside so I could listen to him say buboo about a hundred times. I loved it.

Chillin' at home, blowing some bubbles on the back porch.

Craziness

Stephen was gone on Wednesday evening, so I picked up the kids and we hung out at home. Usually, dinnertime at our house is a little hectic to say the least. Keaton devours any food in front of him in roughly three minutes, so by the time we've all sat down to eat, he's finished and asking for more. Once we've put more food on Keaton's high chair tray, Cate is usually ready for more food or beverage, whining because she doesn't like the food and/or beverage or yelling something at the top of her lungs. Mallory is always stationed about three inches from my foot, waiting for someone to drop some tasty morsel on the floor, and right in the perfect spot for causing a major accident when I trip over her. In the mean time, Stephen and I are trying to grab a couple bites of food and keep our sanity.

So on Wednesday evening, I was expecting all this craziness times two since I was on my own. But to my surprise.....the kids were angels. They were both happy when I picked them up, waited patiently while I fixed dinner and made polite babbling and/or conversation through the whole meal. We had baths for everyone and made it into bed on schedule.

I thought maybe we had turned a corner.

On Thursday evening, things started to look bad right about 5pm when I picked up Keaton. He was crying when I picked him up and cried pretty much the entire trip to Cate's school. Cate was reluctant to leave her preschool because she was in the middle of computer time when I got there. I had to drag her out of the building to get her into the car. At home, they both cried and generally made things difficult all through dinner. When we got upstairs around bath time, Cate went into the bathroom and refused to let any of us in. As she was pushing the door shut to keep all of us out, Keaton was toddling up and down the hall, trying his best to get a clear shot to the top of the stairs. He seems very interested in throwing himself down the stairs if we would just give him the opportunity.

Finally, Cate opened the door to the bathroom just a crack and Keaton pushed his way in. I scrambled down the hallway into the bathroom to see what they were doing and walked in just as Keaton was giving his stuffed Elmo a little dunk in the toilet.

Fun times.

VBS

Cate and Keaton spent last week in Olathe with Mimi and Pop Pop (Stephen's parents). They were joined by their cousin Quentin and I know the three of them enjoyed a myriad of activities ranging from blueberry picking to regular McDonald's lunches. In addition to all the daytime fun, Cate and Quentin went to vacation bible school on the weekday evenings.

Stephen and I went over for their program, which was cute, and concluded with cookies and Koolaid (I think the most popular part for the kids). Cate always gets really shy when we are watching her, particularly if we are close by. I had the best plan for getting some video of their program, but it was derailed when she stopped participating! For someone who loves being the center of attention, she has a tendency to get a little nervous in front of an audience.

Party Time

Cate's fourth birthday is coming up in just a few weeks. At any given moment, it's both hard to believe that four years have gone by and hard to remember life before these two little kids made us a textbook nuclear family.

I have set to work planning Cate's party. There is a great carousel at Gage Park in Topeka, so we are having her party there on August 14. Invitations (handmade by me!)were mailed Saturday to six of her closest friends.
I am working on all the other preparations -- princess cake, hot pink/lime candy buffet (the other parents will love me!) and coordinating plates, cups and decorations.

In the mean time, my birthday came and went about a week ago. Stephen and the kids kindly treated me to hot dogs and ice cream for my big day. They also chose the most lovely purse and ruby pendant necklace as my gifts. I had a great birthday and had already begun looking forward to next year.

Saturday evening, we had dinner planned with another couple in Kansas City. Stephen casually suggested we stop on the way for a drink for just the two of us. I happily complied as he veered from the path to the restaurant where we had 6:45 p.m. reservations. We pulled up to another restaurant that I truly enjoy, La Bodega. As we walked in the door, Stephen reminded me that I had been giving him a hard time all day, claiming I made all the plans for our kid-free night on the town. I laughed as he said, "Well, you didn't make all the plans."

I followed his pointing finger to the back of the room where seven other couples sat waiting to surprise me for a birthday dinner. My gaze ran the length of the table and it didn't really register for me until my eyes crossed the Governor and First Lady. At that precise moment, I realized exactly what happened and the shock set in. It took about 30 minutes and three glasses of sangria for me to settle down.

We had a lovely dinner and followed up with more drinks and fun at the Cashew Bar downtown. It was a great time and certainly an unforgettable birthday. Thanks to my thoughtful husband for planning a true surprise.

On another note, I will spend a lot of time thinking about how many lies he so easily told to pull this off.

The Fabulous Martino Girls

Cate asked if she and I could get our picture taken after church on Sunday. That little girl loves to dress up and I think it brings out her not-so-subtle performer side. I handed the camera over to Stephen and he took several shots. Cate's happy with the results.