Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina...

Sorry for the title. I couldn't think of anything but this line from Kindergarten Cop. Anybody remember that movie? I loved it. "It's not a tuma!" I'm weird, I know... But you know you love me...

I hate I didn't take a picture of this but I wanted to remember it. I found out we're having another boy on Monday, April 19th and was wanting to surprise my parents in person. I decided to make a small cake and tint it blue. I iced it with dark chocolate icing so the blue wouldn't show through and wrote on the top "Boy or Girl...What is it?". My mom thought she was going to have to dig through it and find a gender appropriate baby but my dad immediately saw blue cake and yelled out, "It's blue!". Yay for surprises! Congratulations Vivi and Daddy Mac on another adorable grandson.

In the words of my dad, "Uh oh! Here come those Martino boys!".

Yay! Baseball!

My mom and I took Jonathan to his first Texas Rangers game and he loved it. My mom and I are both huge Rangers fans and Joseph isn't into baseball at all, so we're taking on the responsibility of teaching Jonathan about America's Greatest Pastime. :) We sat right next to the Toronto bullpen so he watched the relief pitchers warming up most of the game. After the game, all he would say was "Yay baseball!" and "Go Rangers!". We will definitely go to many more games this season. C'mon Rangers! This is our year!

Checkin' out the scoreboard

Mmmmm...blue cotton candy

General Conference & Easter Weekend

General Conference was amazing. For those who don't know, General Conference is our church's opportunity to listen to our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles speak along with other members of church leadership every six months. It's incredibly fortifying and uplifting and we always receive guidance from our Heavenly Father on how to better live our lives. Joseph's Uncle Jim spoke in the Sunday afternoon session and it was pretty incredible to see him on TV giving such an amazing talk.

On the couch, snuggling during Conference

Easter morning, we woke up to the Easter Bunny's gift to Jonathan. I hadn't really prepped Jonathan for who the Easter Bunny is. I don't know why, I think I just kept forgetting. When we opened Jonathan's door I said, "Jonathan! The Easter Bunny came! Check it out!". He just looked at us from his crib and said, "Huh?". It was hilarious! But after he saw all the cool stuff he got, he totally knew what was up. Easter Bunny = candy & presents.

Hoppy Easter 2010

The Martinos had their Annual Easter Egg Hunt a week early since Joseph's Uncle Jim and Aunt Jennie would be in Utah over Easter weekend. Jim was scheduled to speak at General Conference, which we were so excited about, but that's another post. Unfortunately, Joseph had school that Saturday so he missed out on the fun. Jonathan had a blast. He's getting pretty good at finding the eggs, but he has a hard time putting them in his basket. Like most kids, he wants to eat the candy right then and there. That was probably our only battle. One of the funniest things he did (which I hate I didn't get on camera) was he found an egg in the shape of a football and instead of picking it up, took a running start and punted it right off the ground! Jellybeans went flying! He was able to retrieve the egg/football but the jellybean casualties remained. The child is obsessed!

After the hunt, we had a weenie roast as well as s'mores and lots more candy. It was a good day in Kidville.

Ready for the hunt!

Mmm...Starburst. Along with every other piece of chocolate known to man on his face!

Tired boy on the way home

Three Year Anniversary!

Joseph and I celebrated three years of wedded bliss on March 24th. We hadn't really talked about doing anything so I was shocked when he called to tell me he had a surprise for me. The only thing I needed to do was...well, everything! Haha! That sounds worse than it is. Just keep reading...

He had school all day that day but thought his professor was going to let them out early and when he got to class, the guy changed his mind. Bummer! So he didn't have time to finalize any plans he had made, other than finding a babysitter for Jonathan which just so happened to be my fabulous sister-in-law, Kristie. He told me he wanted to take me to a nice dinner in Dallas and spend the night in a hotel and gave me an idea of what he was wanting to spend on the room. I got on Facebook and asked friends to give me an idea of where was cool to eat. I've never lived in Dallas like many of my friends so I had no clue where to begin. Thankfully, many people came through. In fact, I got so many suggestions I had a hard time deciding but finally landed on Dallas Fish Market. Cool - one task down, one to go.

The problem I was coming across for the hotel was everyone was either booked or too expensive. I was running out of time because I had to leave to teach my hip hop class at 5:00 and it was already 4:30! Needless to say, I was flustered and called Joseph telling him maybe we should just cancel because I wasn't able to nail anything down. I didn't want to bail on our celebration but it seemed the odds were against us. It was pouring down rain, I had my class until 6:45 and it takes me 30 minutes to get home so by the time I got home it was around 7:30 and I still needed to take a shower, Jonathan was a mess and needed a bath, blah blah blah, etc. etc. etc. Everything a mother worries about. Joseph just said (in his laid back way), "Ok babe. Whatever you want." which upset me because I got all girl-like and thought he didn't care. I know...I can be stupid! He was the one who wanted to surprise me!

Ok, fast forward two hours. I'm driving home from the gym and thinking we're just going to spend our anniversary at home on this wet and chilly evening when I walk through the door and Joseph, completely dressed and looking fine, tells me to take a shower. He's bathed Jonathan (HALLELUJAH!) and was going to take him out to Kristie's while I got ready. Then he told me to pack a bag for the night. I asked him where we were staying since I had zero luck finding anything (I pride myself on my Google skills) and he said it was a surprise. The little stinker was pulling it off! I was so excited!

We wound up eating at the Dallas Fish Market which was fabulous! Our waiter was amazing and so nice and attentive. As he brought us the check, he thanked us for coming in and I said, "No. Thank you. You've helped make our anniversary memorable." and he couldn't believe we hadn't told him. He brought us a complimentary dessert, Lavender Creme Brulee which was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. Oh my goodness! If I could make this, I'd be one happy lady! I need to get the recipe somehow. Dallas Fish Market might be one of our new celebratory restaurants. It's expensive but when it's only once or twice a year, it's not too bad. Plus, they change their menu with each season which I love. Seriously, if you can make it, GO!

After dinner, we got in the car and Joseph asked me to input the hotel address in my iPhone GPS. As we were driving looking for it, a little icon popped up on my screen telling me where we were going - the HOTEL ADOLPHUS! Oh my goodness I was so excited! The funniest thing about Joseph picking this hotel is:

1. He told me after dinner, "I hope you like this hotel. It seemed pretty cool online but you never know with the Internet. I guess we'll just have to find out." (We've had some disappointments) :)

2. Once I found out we were going, I yelled, "Shut up! Are we staying at the Adolphus?!" My reaction caused Joseph to think this must be a pretty cool hotel. Glad I could ease his worries.

I studied the Adolphus in college since Hospitality Management was my major. The Hotel Adolphus was built by Adolphus Busch in 1912. It has been ranked ever since as one of the top hotels in the country for it's service and food by the Zagat Survey. It's seriously one of the coolest places. Not only are the rooms super cute and cozy, but right when you walk in you notice all these old antiques that are throughout the hotel lobby. The first thing I noticed was this amazingly old looking wall clock and I pointed it out to Joseph. After we checked in, the front desk manager asked if we'd ever stayed there. He told us to take a look around and gave us the history of the antiquese. I took pictures. :)

Overall, this was an anniversary to remember. Joseph is constantly surprising me and I love him even more than I did the day we got married. In the words of his Granddad, "I love you more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow." Thank you Joseph for putting up with me! I love you with everything I have.

The bride and groom :)
This table is right when you walk in. The front desk clerk told us it was carved from one piece of teak wood and worth $2 million! Unfortunately this picture does zero justice. Trust me when I say it's absolutely beautiful. Uh yeah, I just touched a $2 million piece of furniture. No big deal.

This is the clock I noticed right a way. Turns out, it was owned by Louis XV. Apparently I have an eye for these things...haha! I'm ridiculous!

And this bowl is over 400 years old and was owned by a Chinese dictator. He used it as a fish bowl. That's the difference between him and me. I wouldn't have allowed anything near this bowl and he's got goldfish pooping in it.

St. Paddy's Day

Man! I'm way behind! Here are some pics from that day. We didn't really have anything planned. Just dressed all in green and went around town running errands. I love St. Paddy's Day - it's one of my favorite holidays. I always make corned beef and cabbage for dinner and next year I'm adding authentic Irish soda bread to the mix along with tinting our breakfast food green. Erin Go Bragh! (That's Gaelic for Ireland Forever)

Joseph

(I didn't wear those earrings all day. They're cute but huge and they tend to blow in the wind, making my ears hurt)

Baby J

Cheer tryouts

Yesterday, I got an unexpected opportunity to judge high school cheer tryouts. I used to do this all the time back in the day, but stopped about 5 years ago due to my work schedule. I am completely disconnected from the cheerleading world now and for those of you who know me, that is a big deal. I cheered from 5th grade til my junior year in college but now I am lucky if I get to see cheerleading on TV! It makes me sad, so when I saw a friend of mine needed a last minute judge for her tryouts, I jumped at the chance.

If you've ever tried out for cheerleader or known someone who has, you know it's absolutely one of the most intimidating things ever. Not only do you have to perform a cheer and a dance in front of judges, you also have to show spirit and not make a fool of yourself. Showing spirit means getting the crowd excited and on their feet. It's easy to do at a football or basketball game, but when you're trying out in front of 5 judges who aren't allowed to yell along with you, and there's nobody else allowed in the gym, you're basically yelling to the stands full of non-existent people. How awkward!

When judging tryouts, you have to be as professional as possible. By no means is it acceptable to laugh at a girl and more than half the time that's dang near impossible. I mean, you're putting a girl or boy in an incredibly awkward situation and you're just sitting there watching them. Things are bound to go wrong...and that's when the hilarity ensues. I've had friends judge tryouts where a girl goes for her running tumbling pass and literally tumbles into/on top of the judges' table! How do you not laugh at that?!!!

Yesterday was no exception. Thankfully, this school has a really good program so there was a lot of talent we got to see which is always fun. Varsity and JV were really great so nothing too major happened with them...except this.

First, you should know that the mascot is the Yellow Jacket. One JV girl was doing her cheer by herself and at the end of it, they had to yell either "Go Jackets!" or "JV!". For some reason, this girl hit her last motion (a high V if you have any idea what I'm talking about) and yelled out "GO YACKERS!" If that wasn't funny enough, the look on her face immediately after was priceless. It was as if she knew what she said but didn't know how to correct it, so she slowly brought her hands down to her sides, looked at us for a really long time and then said really quietly, "I meant to say Jackets." and walked out. I was dying inside!

And then it was time for the freshman...

The cheer they all had to perform had a line in it that said, "We strive for perfection! We won't back down!" Varsity and JV had no problems yelling the words to the cheer. The freshman were a little different. About half of the girls would yell, "We strive for protection!" If that wasn't funny enough, one of the guys I was judging with said, "It would be even funnier if their mascot was the Trojan." It's too bad it wasn't...

You can always tell an immediate difference between a girl who has never cheered a day in her life to one who is comfortable with the sport just by how she shows crowd spirit. An experienced cheerleader walks confidently through the door and starts doing little chants the crowd can easily pick up on. For example, R-H-S! Is the best! They know when enough is enough and when to move on to the next thing. The normal flow of a cheer tryout is to show spirit once you come through the door, do your running tumbling pass, go to the center of the mat and perform your three jumps and then do your cheer and leave. An inexperienced cheerleader is one who yells "Woo!" a lot. They also don't think of what they will say ahead of time, and tend to yell random stuff. My favorite example from last night was this. A poor little girl busts through the gym doors and immediately starts yelling:

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! C'mon RHS! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Let's go! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

If that wasn't bad enough, right after her non-existent tumbling pass (she did a roundoff for those who are interested) she starts in again with the wooing. And then she says this:

"C'mon Cats! Scratch their eyes out! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Really? I thought they were the Yellow Jackets? This child didn't even know who she was cheering for! And to top it off, she started getting desperate and finally said:

"C'mon! It's a great day! It's almost spring break!"

That did me in. I walked away with some great memories and good inside jokes to share with the other judges. I think that might be the best part of judging...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!