New Pictures!

Victoria lined up all of her animals to watch a movie!

Richard often lets me sleep in and I wake up to breakfast in bed! Victoria helps out!
Reed pulling everything out of his toy box!
Victoria started dance class this month and she loves it!

Update!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything, and now is as good a time as any.  Reed and Victoria are both napping, which really is rare!  

Since we returned from Christmas vacation, we have been busy!  We were home for one week and then moved closer to campus.  We didn't get any snow during the move, which was lucky, and Richard and his good friend from UConn moved the "big stuff" in under four hours.  Richard and I made quite a few trips alone and Richard did quite a few by himself, not to mention that he basically cleaned our old place on one trip without telling me.  He really is a hard worker.  However, he said next move he is just going to pay someone to do it!  I said let's just burn it all and start over! kidding. We remembered how when we moved right after getting married that we only needed to make one trip!  Kids require so much stuff!

That weekend was also Ward Conference, which was a bit stressful for me being the Primary President and I also was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting as well.  So, we are glad that's over!

All in all we love the new place.  It is larger, closer to campus, has a sidewalk and a playground and has lots of "friends" for Victoria once it warms up a bit!

Reed has really started crawling and is super fast.  His favorite place is in the bathroom pulling out the wet bath toys.   I try to keep the door closed, but I think he has a sensor telling him when it is open.  I can hear the beginning of new words.  He already says Mama and Dada and now I can hear "more" and "no", accompanied with a head shake!  I don't know how I feel about that last one! He and Victoria are starting to play together and I can see how much fun they are going to have in the future.

 Victoria is a character and comes up with the funniest things.  The other day I was sitting on the couch and she was sitting next to me, the next thing I know she was trying to like cradle me and saying " come here little fella"!  The things she comes up with crack me up.  She is always asking for things Reed has "told" her he wants for her self.  Like she'll say, "hey Mom, Reed wants some crackers!" I usually give her a handful of crackers even though I am pretty sure Reed didn't ask for them! One day she was telling me that she is like chicken nugget, I am like a shake and Reed is like french fries.  I don't know exactly what she was talking about, but she says french fries so fast it's funny!

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!