Happy Easter!

Well we had a great Easter/Spring Party today with gorgeous weather in Park City. Complete with sidewalk chalk drawing...



Sledding in the snow...


An Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt...



A cupcake stuffing contest...
I won!


Decorating cupcakes...Got Frosting??




And the girls always entertain us with a band or a play. Today we got to see 2 plays! Costumes and all! Trust me they are VERY entertaining:)












It was a LONG day, but worth the energy!

Bad Hair Day

So, we decided after a rough Saturday of Mikayl waking up with a stomach bug, and us being in bed all day, to hang out at home tonight and watch a movie. Well one thing lead to another and Mikayl and I got the GREAT IDEA that we should give Jefferson some pig tails since his hair is growing.

So what do you think? The poor thing kept complaining how uncomfortable it was, but we just said, "Welcome to our world! Beauty Hurts!"

He actually hated the removing of the pig tails more than getting them put in.


We can't wait for Easter tomorrow! We have a big party planned in Park City with the Eichner clan. I'll send those pics out on another post.

January & February

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. I've been yelled at too many times so I can't continue to procrastinate anymore. Here it is!
Mikayl - We took Mikayl ice skating for the first time with our friends Jenny & Amaiya. The girls were so scared at first, but by the end they were skating on their own without holding onto any hands or walls. It was a blast! We were all really proud of them. Mikayl had such a good time we decided to go again and she did great then too. She is really changing. In this past year she has really matured and is growing up to be a godly young girl. It's been amazing to watch her grow. She is not as timid about trying new things now. She has made new friends and had sleepovers almost every other weekend at our house. She has befriended my former student Megan. They became best friends after knowing each other for a whole hour! They are so hysterical to listen to. We all sing kareoke together and make movies on our video camera. They crack us up. Amaiya comes over for sleepovers often too. Mikayl loves taking care of her like a little sister. They are very sweet together.
Jefferson - He has been working like crazy. He's mostly gone 6 days a week 10-12 hrs a day. When he gets a day off, it's such a gift. We try to spend the whole day together becasue it's so rare. Over the past 3-4 months we've been trying to get pregnant and have run into some expected fertility issues. Jefferson is scheduled for surgery Wed Feb 27th to help with those issues. It will be a pretty simple 2 surgeries performed at the same time, just an outpatient procedure. He is being told to rest for about a week (no working). Then he has to be careful not to lift anything too heavy for about a month. We may not see any real results from the surgery for about 3 months. Please keep us in your prayers.

Jen - I've been busy working full time in Real Estate. I've been enjoying my move to Keller Williams and their amazing training. I've also been enjoying being a wife and step mom. I love taking care of my family and spending time together. Mikayl is excited about the thought of us having a baby and she is going to be a wonderful big sister. Jefferson talks about it everyday too. I seem to be the most reserved about the idea. I guess I just can't excited until I know it's reality. I know there's still a chance we can't conceive and that's fine too. As Mikayl reminds us, we can just adopt! We'll see.

We also were able to finally finish remodeling our kitchen before we hopefully move into a house later this year. Mikayl and Jefferson spent MLK day painting our cupboard doors and then he and I finished hanging them a few days later. It was pretty difficult living in our little condo with painted cupboards sprawled out all over our living room. But we made the best of it. Jeff Harper did a great job on our backsplash tile, and we jazzed up the hardware on the doors too.

We celebrated our 1st anniversary in January (our first meeting and date). It's funny but we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day because of those anniversaries and I just think the whole holiday is lame and meaningless (I know I'm weird!) It just doesn't hold meaning for us as a couple. But the one thing my husband promised to always give me on that day was a song sung to me by him of my choosing, a tradition he started last year. Last year was "Brighter than Sunshine", this year it was "Everything" by Michael Buble (he sings his songs so well!!) A tradition I'm happy he's keeping:)

Tis the Season

This is our first Christmas together and our first Christmas ornament. As you may have noticed it's from one of our favorite movies to quote, The Princess Bride. Can't you just hear that old minister talking with his weird nasally voice.
We decided that since our time with Mikayl is so limited, we would skip our usual Wednesday night routine and stay home together to decorate our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun listening to Christmas songs, especially the way Jefferson sings them, in various funny voices. We were also having fun goofing off eating chocolates and of course Jefferson had to get gross about it. Boys!


Mikayl was trying out her photography skills, and did really well. She didn't cut off anyone's head and didn't have her finger in any of the shots.Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Remember the "Christ" in Christmas!

He's the reason for the season!

Surprise for Mikayl - Horseback Riding

Mikayl finally found out her surprise! She's been waiting 2 weeks to know what activity we were going to do that she had never done before...Horseback riding with Jasa.
We thought she might be kind of scared and intimidated, but she took to the horses well and she didn't want to get off at the end. She got to ride Jasa's horse Tao (Tay-Yo) alot and even trotted! Jasa was amazing with her horse. She has taught him to do all kinds of things and to be very gentle. In fact, we all took turns riding Tao.

I grew up riding horses a little so it was nice getting back on one. It's been years.


Jefferson loved it too, but he loves all animals so what else would we expect?

Mikayl had the pleasure of enduring Tao doing "his business" while she was riding him in the arena. We told her she was lucky he was going number 1 not number 2 -- but we spoke to soon -- that came next :)

Jasa's friend Liz came and let Mikayl ride her horse Sampson. He was so much taller than Tao, but again Mikayl handled him like a champ.

The whole drive home she kept saying, "Can we do that again, but like really soon?" Needless to say our car smells like horses now, but it was worth it! Thanks Jasa!!



And Thank you Tao!!

We're Finally Settling Down

Wow! 2007 has been the best year we've ever had! Praise God for what he's done in our lives. Jefferson and I met in January, just after my dreaded 30th birthday. Dreaded because I was living in Utah, among married couples with kids by thte age of 25, and here I sat a single Christian woman, feeling as though "my time" would never come. 30 years of roller coaster emotions, feeling confident it would come as friends gave me their many words of encouragement, and not so confident it would come as doubt would set in. Now we're closing the year soon and we discuss our amzing journeys to finding each other almost everyday. We didn't do anything to deserve each other or this amazing love and respect we feel for one another. We just walked, or rather stumbled, into God's blessing.

My husband reminds me everyday how thankful and grateful he is to be allowed to be my husband, and that kind of commitment and love only comes from the God who poured love and forgiveness over him 3 short years ago. My husband is an amazing man with an amazing story to tell, where he's come from and the strongholds he's been released of. I wouldn't have liked him very much 4 yrs ago, had we met. But sometimes God needs to break us completely down before we'll allow Him to build us completely up to be the person He wants us to be for His purposes. I just look at him and wonder how it is I get to be best friends with him. This is a guy who went from sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll to listening to Preachers from across the country on his iPod all day at work. What a nerd, right? Oh no, he has a gift of relating to the harshest people and showing love to those who feel and act unloveable. He is shy, but what a people person he has become!

On to our little one. I say "little" because although she is a ripe old age of 9 now, she is quite petite. She is a joy in our lives, miss Mikayl Indigo Martin. We met, fell in love, and then I met her Dad:) We have a great relationship. She tells me everything, no really EVERYTHING! I feel blessed to be able to know her like that. She has a tough life, between 2 homes, different rules, different religions, different values, but she handles it pretty well. She is sometimes confused, wanting to please all 4 of her parents, and grandparents, and cousins, etc. But she is seeing God working in her life, in her Dad's life, and in mine as well. She is a strange child, compared to others her age I mean...favorite TV stations/shows are The Food Network, HGTV, and Hannah Montana and Spongebob. The 3 of us sit, watch these shows together, and eat ice cream all the time. Yes even Jefferson watches these with us. She is my fashion and food consultant. She chooses my work outfits for me and takes me shopping. She has some great taste. Seriously, she chose my outfit for my business cards. SHe goes through my closet everyday she's here and picks out my outfits and jewelry. She's like a tiny 25 yr old girlfriend trapped in a 9 yr old body. She helps me cook dinner, shop and cuddles with me while we watch tv together. She's also quite the dancer. She recently had the opportunity to dance in Disneyland and Universal Studios in October. If I can figure out how to add the video footage we recieved, I will.

Among dating, engagement, wedding plans, and providing food, laundry and nuturing for a new family (boy 3 people eat alot!!) this past year also included saying goodbye to teaching and hello to the world of Real Estate for this busy woman. I don't think I've sat down much the past 10 months. Time seems to fly by faster than ever before, and my favorite time of day is the evening relaxing with my husband, laughing and crying together at our favorite shows (the Office, Chuck, and the Biggest Loser). My new business is going very well, despite the market, and we are very excited at the thought of buying a house together to raise our future children in sometime this summer. Mikayl has designed her room in her head already! We're finally settling down into our new busy lives. And enjoying every moment of it. In this new married life, our ministry and time has been focused on each other the most, so we thought a blog was a good way to keep in touch and share our lives with friends and family. Thank you for sharing your with us as well!