Rachel Turns 30! (Belated)

I just wanted to congratulate Rachel on turning the big "3 - 0" on December 22. Happy Birthday Rachel! As you all know, Rachel is such a wonderful person and has been such a great wife, friend and a phenomenal mother. Like most women, she wasn't too thrilled in leaving twenties and entering her thirties. How easily she overcame the transition! As much fun as we have had in her twenties, we are looking forward to many more decades of fun and adventure that are yet to come. We love you Rachel!

 - Richard

Martinez Christmas Vacation

Well we just returned from a 3 1/2 week holiday vacation to Utah and Texas. It was a wonderful Christmas celebrating Reed's first Christmas and celebrating Rachel's 30th birthday. Reed and Victoria really have many people that love them in Utah and Texas and we traveled home with much more luggage than we left with from CT! We enjoyed spending time with both the Crane family and Martinez family. We had a great time shoveling (what seemed about 10 feet of snow), sledding, paying basketball, skiing (Richard) and spending time with family in Utah. In Texas, we enjoyed spending time with family, playing basketball, staying at a Texas hill country resort, watching movies and the 70 - 80 degree weather. It was great wearing shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt before our return to the frozen tundra that is New England. Although we are excited to be back home in Connecticut and getting ready for the Spring semester at UCONN, we truly cherished the time we spent with our families over the holidays. We wish you all a wonderful 2009!

 - Richard

Thanksgiving!

Wow, I can't believe that it is already December 13th and I am barely getting my Thanksgiving pictures up.  

We were so lucky to spend Thanksgiving with family!  My sister Amanda's in-laws invited to their beautiful home in Philadelphia!  They are so wonderful and we felt so welcome.  You will see from the picture that we made ourselves quite at home, especially Victoria! Thank you Pope Family for the wonderful vacation!

I also have to add that this was the first time I met Amanda's new boy, Baby Asher!  He is exactly as cute and sweet as I imagined!  He is Amanda's son for sure, crocked sweat pants and all! He doesn't give out smiles that often but if you get one it makes your day!  So cute!

I am so grateful for all of my wonderful family, Crane and Martinez!  You are all so wonderful! We can't wait to see you all soon!

Reed it's only 4:45 go back to sleep!

I love my little Reed, but he is killing me! Seriously, this whole week he has been starting his mornings super early. I was just getting used to his 6 am habit and now he has turned it up a notch to 4:45 or 5 this week. I don't understand why neither of my children think they need to sleep. They must get it from Richard, not me! He wakes up happy and ready to start his day. He is not quiet. I have been trying to leave him in his bed in my room, as not to encourage the habit. But he is just too loud. I have to take him down stairs and try to silence him or else Victoria will be up and there goes my day.
This morning I tried to drowned him out with a white- noise machine and I left him in bed with a sippy cup of water and that worked until I heard Victoria trapezing around at 6 AM.
I am hoping this is just a pre-crawling phase. You know how they get all out of whack right before they cross a huge developmental stage, well he is trying to crawl. He gets his bum up in the air and is on his toes army style. It won't be long. He sure is a sweetie though.

Old Fish!

I just wish each of you could play Go Fish/Old Maid with Victoria. For Halloween, Moe's Cantina gave her a deck of "Old Moe" cards and since then all she has wanted to do is play "old fish". And believe me it is like playing with a professional poker player. Tonight, I kid you not, I saw her cheat a little. I caught her sticking a card down her night gown. She didn't say a word when I caught her, she just kept chewing her wad of gum as if nothing had happened. And I thought to myself, "hey wait a minute, I thought I banned her from chewing gum ever since I had to cut a piece out of my hair on Halloween".
It really is funny how excited she gets when she gets a match. She high-fives and says "oh thank you" when you hand her your card. She says "Me?" every time I say "go fish" like I hadn't said it a million times. She really is a crack up!

Happy Halloween from Connecticut.

Well we just finished our first Halloween here in Connecticut. It was a gorgeous Fall day here in New England at 61 degrees. The highlight of our day of course was watching Victoria yell "Trick or Treat" for herself and Reed. She really scored like a bandit in the candy department however, judging from her basket it seemed like she double-dipped  a few times. She was so cute as a Bumble Bee this year and her younger brother was, in her words, a "baby chick." We later met up with their friends for a Trunk or Treat. It was a fun night to see the Bumble Bee and her Baby Chick trick or treat. 

Victoria!

Mommy, you better hide.  I'm going to seek you.