WE HAVE MOVED!

I am excited to announce that I have a new blog!!!!  Please come check it out and follow me at www.martinmommy.com.



A huge thank you to my husband, Nathan, and my brother-in-law, Jeremy.  Nathan spent many hours customizing the site to my *high* standards.  I am still trying to figure out a few things on WordPress, but I am very happy with it so far.

Here is a screen shot of my new blog.

Hope to see you there!

Sentimental Sunday: Pregnant Sisters

I decided this week's Sentimental Sunday would be of me and my sister, Emily, pregnant together.  These photos were taken in October 2006.  Emily was a couple of weeks away from giving birth to my niece, Ella (her first child).  I was about a month and a half away from giving birth to Grant (my third child).

It was so much fun being pregnant at the same time as my sister.  We got to share the fun and not-so-fun moments of pregnancy together.

It has been really neat for Grant and Ella to be about the same age.  They get along really well.  It made cute pictures of them together as newborns too (I will have to do a Sentimental Sunday of those pictures later).

Nathan took these photos of us.  For whatever reason, we forgot to get an individual shot of me pregnant.  But he did get some cute ones of Emily.  This one is my favorite.

It's hard to believe that Ella and Grant will be turning 4 very soon.  Time once again flies!

Family Fun Saturday

We had a very fun and busy day today.  Cooper and Nathan are now taking karate on Saturday mornings.  Also, Cooper and Kindle started rehearsals this morning for the Nutcracker.  They will be in the Nutcracker on December 17 & 18 at Reinhardt University.  They are really excited.  Cooper will be a soldier again this year and Kindle will be a mouse.

Cooper as a soldier last year.

Kindle as a snowflurry last year.

After rehearsals, we headed out to the land to see my parent's house.  We were curious to see the progress being made.  The kids were so tickled to discover how much had been done.

The framers were up there working on the house while we were there.  The kids were tickled about that also.  Nathan and the older 4 went inside (see photo above) and even went up the stairs to the 2nd floor.

 
Nathan wanted to check on the deer stand that he, my Dad and his brother, Michael, have been working on.

This deer stand is 15 feet tall.  He is adding a railing so it will be safer for Cooper.

Here is the view of my parent's house from the top of the deer stand.

The kids had a lot of fun throwing rocks and getting all dusty while Nathan was checking on the deer stand [no photos because Nathan obviously took the camera to get these photos].

After we went to the land, we headed to Dellinger Park in Cartersville.  The kids had a great time on the playground.  One of the great things about my kids is that they are very outgoing.  They made friends with all of the kids and played hide-n-go-seek and tag with them.

Grant counting

Kindle hiding

Celeste went on the slide over and over again.  She also figured out how to hang from the top of the slide.  She was so proud of how strong she was.  She had a wonderful time.

Gunnar hung out with me in the sling.  Nathan captured this photo of Gunnar and I.  

Cooper was too busy for a good photo of him at the park.  I *tried* to capture one, but he was always moving and never looking at the camera.  Oh well :)

We concluded the evening with Mexican for dinner and a little Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  We had an awesome, fun-filled day together.

Ice Cream Faces

My kids are big fans of ice cream.  They always beg me to take them to get ice cream.  Typically, we might get a Junior Frosty at Wendy's (they are 69 cents at the one by our house).  We decided to splurge and go to Bruster's for a treat.  They kids are so excited because they have so many choices.  Nathan and I really enjoy their ice cream too.  As a Fall treat, they are offering Hot Apple Dumplings with Cinnamon ice cream.  We decided to go ahead and get one.  It is super yummy!

As you can imagine, they made a big mess.  This week's You Capture assignment is faces, so I thought this was perfect.  These are our ice cream faces.

Celeste decided she was not going to eat her dinner, so she didn't get any ice cream.  She was crying, but I managed to get a photo of her smiling through the tears (note: the tear on her cheek).  This is her "I had to learn the hard way that we eat our dinner" face.

Gunnar obviously did not eat ice cream.  But I wanted to snap a shot of him as well.  I call this his "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis?" face.  Everytime I look at the photo, that is what I think of.

Homeschool Soccer: Week 6

It was a very nice day at Homeschool Soccer today, a lot better than the rain last week!  Grant decided he wanted to participate in the soccer related activities more today :)

Stretching

They *attempted* to play an actual game with the 3 year olds today.  That didn't go so well.  Every few minutes someone had to go to the potty. Ha ha!  Grant did score a goal though!  Go Grant!

Kindle did wonderful as usual.  She gets goals and plays really well on defense.  Go Kindle!

 

Cooper did not get to play today since he didn't feel well on Tuesday.  I have been having him take it easy for the past couple of days, just to be safe.

We only have 2 more weeks of soccer left.  The kids have had such a great time and look forward to it all week.  I am so glad we decided to participate this year!

It's Mario Time!

After spending the summer off and on trying to beat Super Mario Bros for Wii, they did it tonight!

The kids and Nathan have been playing the game together in the evenings or on the weekends.  They love to play with their Daddy!

They have been on the very last board for over a week.  They would get so close and just not make it all the way.

We had watched a YouTube video showing a guy beating the whole game, so we realized the end was just a jump away.  Finally, Nathan did it tonight.

Cooper is soooo excited!  He could hardly sleep.  He and Grant were in their beds talking about it over and over again.

We unlocked the Secret World 9.  Cooper can't wait to play it tomorrow!

After the credits rolled, I tried to get a final shot.  Cooper's head was in the way, but you get the idea.

This is the first video game Nathan has ever beaten, so he was pretty excited too!  I am terrible at video games, so I was very impressed with their skills!

Superstar

Kindle loves making music!  She has loved guitars ever since she was very small.  On Monday night, she had saved up enough money to get the Hannah Montana guitar with a microphone headset that she has been wanting.  She has been so excited!  It has not left her side.

She ate all her meals, did her school, went to the bathroom, rode in the car and went to bed with the guitar.  She is such a little rockstar.

This morning she told me that she needed her microphone so she could "talk to Jesus".  That is another wonderful thing about her.  She is a worshipper like her Daddy.  She loves to make up songs about Jesus.  I absolutely couldn't be prouder.

Brothers and Sisters

To say that today was busy, was an understatement.  We had to have the van checked out and the oil changed since we are leaving for Ohio (woo hoo!) next Friday.  Of course, we had school to do.  I took Kindle to ballet.  Afterwards, we were in desperate need to go to the grocery store.  Since it was just the end of the month, the kids also got to get their stuff with their money at the store.  I managed to squeeze in a couple loads of laundry and some cleaning too.  I was able to do my Beth Moore Bible study as well (which I am really enjoying by the way).

So no time for pictures...however, I snapped this photo with my iPhone the other morning.  Kindle thinks she is so big when she holds Gunnar.  I love how much she loves being a big sister!

I really love how all of my children love their brothers and sisters.  They are great friends and have lots of fun together.  Of course, they do have their share of disagreements, but at the end of the day, they love each very much.  I am so happy they have each other!

Cooper was just reminding me today of how he guessed the sex of each of his brothers and sisters correctly.  It is pretty wild, but he has gotten it right each time.  He has decided that we should have 10 kids.  A girl is next so we can continue the pattern-boy, girl, boy, girl and boy.  I told him we shall see...