Picture Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve uploaded pictures from August, September, and October.

Just a reminder that the photos are now all on Flickr and you’ll need to log in in order to see all of the pictures with people in them. Please see the previous update for information on how to sign up.

In case you haven’t already heard, Shannon and I are happy to announce that we’ll be adding one more member to our family. Shannon is due at the end of March and we are planning on keeping the gender a surprise.

I hope everyone had a good summer and I’ll try to be better about keeping up on the pictures 😉

Filed under: General
Posted by Eric on November 1st, 2009

Site Update

Hello everyone! I haven’t posted on the blog or gallery for a while – mainly because I’ve been spending all of my spare time on Flickr 😉

I will continue to occasionally post blog updates here, but have decided to move all of our photos to a family account on Flickr. The pictures that are currently on shannonmartin.com will remain for the foreseeable future. There are a few main reasons why I have decided to use Flickr for our photos:

  • The ability to comment on our photos
  • The ability to easily order prints online of our photos
  • Security: only Friends and Family will be able to see pictures containing people
  • Storage: Flickr offers unlimited storage (and we have about 30GB of photos to upload)
  • Usability: Flickr offers a user friendly interface that is easy to use and navigate
  • My Time: I can upload everything to one site and won’t have to worry about emailing pictures to people

Just to reiterate – you will not be able to see pictures with people until you have signed up for Flickr and have been added as a Friend or Family.

By the time you read this, I will already have sent out invites to many of you, but if you have not received one, below is the information on how to sign up:

If you already have a Flickr account, just add us as a contact and we’ll set the appropriate status. If you do not have a Flickr account, go to the Flickr homepage (http://flickr.com) and click on “Create Your Account” on the upper right-hand side.

If you already have a Yahoo account, just enter your Yahoo! ID and password. If not, click on the “Sign Up” link under the “Don’t have a Yahoo! ID?” section.

If you have any problems or questions, let us know!

My (Eric) Flickr account
Our new family Flickr account

Filed under: General
Posted by Eric on March 9th, 2009

Roseville Community Preschool

Roseville Community Preschool, where Cooper and Caden attend, is holding its 8th Annual Forever Young Auction & Dinner on February 21, 2009.

image001

If you would like to help support their school, there are a couple of different options:

1) Buy a raffle ticket for the chance to win a 2008 Smart Car, valued at $14,500. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.rosevillecommunitypreschool.org and prices are as follows:

1 ticket = $10
3 tickets = $25
7 tickets = $50
15 tickets = $100
35 tickets = $200

2) Attend the auction. The auction is at the Holiday Inn in Sacramento on Saturday, February 21, 2009 from 5:30 – 10:00 pm and tickets are $50 each. Download an event registration form

3) Become a sponsor (pdf form). Details included in the form.

This is Cooper’s second (and last) year at the school and Caden’s first. We love the school and everything is stands for and hope that our friends and family would consider helping out. The money helps keep the tuition reasonable, purchases art supplies, helps out families with tuition scholarships, helps with continuing education for teachers, plus much more.

caden cooper

Roseville Community Preschool Background and History
Roseville Community Preschool was founded in 1962 in a single story building as a parent/child playgroup. The building had a few windows, a cement floor, and no yard and was located in the far corner of the Placer County Fairgrounds.

In 1966, one of the parents, Bev Bos, took over as director of the playgroup and turned it into a parent cooperative preschool. Over the next 40 years, the school continued to evolve as Bev obtained a degree in early childhood education. Bev is now an internationally-renowned child educator and lecturer specializing in early childhood development.

Roseville Community Preschool continues to be a parent-participation preschool. Its philosophy encourages open play in a free flowing environment and allows children to explore their limits at their own pace. The environment, inside and outside, is rich in the materials young children require to grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. Every day children have the opportunity to explore, discover and “wallow” in all of the education disciplines through their play. Parents take an active part in their child’s education by fulfilling required one-day-per-week classroom participation as well as other commitments including: school maintenance, monthly parent meetings, and fundraising activities.

The Roseville Community Preschool staff, directed by Bev Bos, has established a truly child-centered learning space based on the philosophy that:

“Experience is not the best teacher, it is the only teacher!”

They are particularly fluent in the following areas: art, science, language, music, play environments, gardening, brain development and child development.

Roseville Community Preschool consists of four half-day classes of 24 students each, with two teachers and eight parents working during each session. The ages of the students range from two-years-nine-months to six years old. Due to high demand, there is always a waiting list. The fundraising activities help to ensure that a quality preschool experience is accessible for all families.

Filed under: General
Posted by Eric on February 5th, 2009

Happy New Year

As the new year approaches, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at 2008:

January

  • The boys enjoyed all of their Christmas gifts from 2007
  • A storm caused one of our trees to fall over
  • Trip to the Sacramento Railroad Museum

February

  • Cooper started riding a bike without training wheels
  • Caden started riding a big boy bike (with training wheels)
  • Shannon celebrated her birthday

March

  • The boys first trip to the snow
  • Celebrated Easter

April

  • Trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s (Ron and Lisa) house in Oakdale
  • Trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s (Gail and Roger) house in Novato

May

  • Cooper turned 4 and had two parties
  • End of Cooper’s first year of pre-school
  • Trip to Fairytale Town

June

  • Trip to visit Grandma Penny (and family) in Colorado – the boys first experience on a plane
  • Rocklin Jubilee

July

  • 4th of July & kids parade
  • Cooper takes up photography 😉

August

  • I got a new camera (Nikon D40)
  • Trip to Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea and Gilroy
  • Trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s (Ron and Lisa) house in Oakdale
  • I took Cooper for his first bowling experience
  • Shannon took the boys to the Folsom Zoo
  • Shannon and Caden went to the Ridgewood Rec 50-year Anniversary
  • Cooper and I met Grandpa Ron for the Oakland A’s/Minnesota Twins game

September

  • Caden and Cooper start preschool – it’s Caden’s first year
  • Caden turned 3
  • Caden “breaks” his leg the day after his birthday

October

November

December

  • Trip to Novato/Petaluma for Noah’s 1st Birthday
  • Trip to the Flower Farm Inn to get a Christmas tree and visit Santa
  • Grandpa and Grandma visit with Cousin Kiana
  • Christmas!

It was a very busy year, packed with a lot of firsts and new adventures. We’re looking forward to a great 2009 and wish all of our friends and family a very Happy New Year!

Filed under: Family
Posted by Eric on December 31st, 2008

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, although it was a bit unusual. Since Cooper and Caden were both sick, it was the first time that we didn’t travel anywhere on Christmas Day. We missed spending time with extended family, but it was nice not having to drive on Christmas and the boys enjoyed playing with their new toys all day.

Cooper was soooooo excited for Christmas this year – he had a very hard time going to sleep Christmas Eve and was up at 4am Christmas morning. Despite all of our talks about waiting for the entire family, he snuck out to see if Santa had come and then ran into our room announcing that he had!

It was fun watching how they each opened their gifts. Cooper would open one and then play with it for a while before opening the next. Caden tore open each one and then played with them all afterwards. It is fun to see their personalities come out in different situations.

Here is a video of Cooper and Caden getting their “first look”:

The rest of the Christmas videos are on YouTube.

Our gallery is now up to date with everything that happened in December:

  • Trip to Novato and Petaluma for Noah’s 1st Birthday
  • Trip to The Flower Farm to pick out a Christmas tree and visit with Santa
  • Gingerbread houses, Christmas goodies and decorating our Christmas tree
  • A visit from Grandpa Ron, Grandma Lisa and Cousin Kiana!
  • The Frenches Christmas Party
  • Christmas Day

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

PS – Congratulations to Molly and Steve on their engagement!

Filed under: Family
Posted by Eric on December 26th, 2008

Fairytale Town

Pictures for the first part of November are posted (finally)!

They include a trip with Grandma (Lisa) and Grandpa (Ron) to Fairlytale Town in Sacramento. Growing up in Sacramento, I went there quite often as a kid, so it is always fun to go back.

More November and December pictures coming soon!

Filed under: Family
Posted by Eric on December 12th, 2008

Halloween

Pumpkin Patch: On Oct 26th, we took our 4th annual trip to Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland. In the 4 years that we’ve been going, Bishop’s has turned into quite the attraction. Our trick is to go early on a Sunday, which gives us a couple hours before the masses arrive. [Pictures]

Bishops 2007 Bishops 2008

Pumpkin Carving: The boys carved their own pumpkins this year. Caden just hacked away and was very proud of his work. Cooper on the other hand got frustrated and wanted us to help him. It’s fun to see their different personalities at work 😉 I carved the WordPress logo (the software that runs this blog) into a pumpkin and it ended up receiving a lot of attention from the WordPress community. [Pictures]

Boys carving pumpkins WordPress Pumpkin

Halloween: Shannon made some awesome super hero costumes for the boys; they were Super Cooper and Super Caden! Despite raining all day, the rain subsided just long enough for us to get our trick-or-treating in. [Pictures]

Ivan, Anna, Caden and Cooper Super Heros

Filed under: Family
Posted by Eric on November 2nd, 2008

October News

Caden’s “broken” leg update: so, it turns out that his buckle fracture was a relatively minor hairline fracture and he didn’t even need a cast, nor did it prevent him from walking for 4-6 weeks. He stayed in a split and actually had it taken off last Monday (10/13). He is still walking with a limp and the doctor said it would probably take 10 days or so for him to get back to “normal”.

Other news: the day after Caden had his splint taken off, Cooper woke up in the middle of the night with a 104 degree temperature. Then, the next day, he had a really bad cough – turns out he has croup. In recent days, Caden has had a high temperature as well, but no sign of a cough…yet!

Photos: I finished adding all of our photos from September and started adding photos for October.

Filed under: Family
Posted by Eric on October 18th, 2008