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!

Sentimental Sunday: Celeste's Baby Dedication

Continuing with the theme from last week of baby dedications, I thought it would be fun to look back at Celeste's baby dedication.  Hannah "Celeste" Martin was dedicated on August 31, 2008.  She was a little over 2 months old at that time.  Celeste wore a dress that my Mother, Sister, Kindle and I all wore for our baby dedications.  It was made by my Great-Grandmother.  My Mom bought a handkerchief bonnet when Kindle was a baby that she and Celeste wore for their dedications.  One day, they can use it as a handkerchief on their wedding day, if they would like to.

Celeste was dedicated at our church by our Pastor Marc Lawson, just like all of the other children.  It was a very sweet dedication.  Celeste was wide eyed and checking it all out.

Praying blessings over Celeste and handing her back to her Daddy :)

After the dedication, we ate lunch and came back to take some photos together.

Belated Sentimental Sunday: Grant's Baby Dedication

I spent the majority of today sorting through winter clothes with my Mom.  It is [hopefully] going to be getting cooler here soon since the first day of Fall begins tomorrow.  I am happy to say that we got through 4 out of 5 kid's clothes (whew!).  With that being said, there was no time for taking photos today :(  I decided since I missed Sentimental Sunday this week, I will do a belated version today.

I thought since we just had Gunnar's baby dedication, it would be neat to look back at Grant's baby dedication.  Back in March 2007, we dedicated William "Grant" Martin at our church.  Grant was 3 1/2 months old.  Kindle had just turned 2 the day before.  And Cooper was a little over 4 years old.  We had our family there as well to celebrate Grant's dedication.

Our Pastor, Marc Lawson, has dedicated all 5 of our kids.  Here is everyone praying a blessing over Grant.  He was so happy as always.  We gave him the nickname "Smiley" as a baby because he was so joyful all of the time.

After the baby dedication, we went to the same Mexican restaurant, Tecali Grille, that we went to after Gunnar's dedication (we love it, can you tell?).

My Grandparents

My niece, Ella (she is one month older than Grant)

Kindle had just learned to say "Guess what...Chicken Butt!"  She thought she was hilarious.

Here is a video where I was trying to get Kindle to say "Guess what..Chicken Butt!", of course she saw the camera and just kept saying "Cheese" instead :)

It's so hard to believe that this was 3 1/2 years ago and now 2 more children have been dedicated since Grant was the "baby of the family".  It is nice to look back and remember what life was like with 3 little ones :)

Sentimental Sunday: Day Out with Thomas

This time 5 years ago, we went to Day Out with Thomas in Nashville, TN with Cooper and Kindle.  Cooper was almost 3 and Kindle was 6 months old.  I can hardly believe that it has been that long because it seems just like yesterday.   Cooper was a huge Thomas fan and he has passed that on to his siblings.  

I remember the night before we went, Nathan asked me what time we needed to leave the next morning.  I had been thinking the event was in Chattanooga which is less than 2 hours from our house.  I peaked at the tickets and realized that it was actually in Nashville which is about 4 hours away.  It was already past midnight so we realized how little sleep we would be getting.  

The next morning, we got up super early and headed to Nashville.  We arrived and realized that Nashville is in the Central Time Zone not the Eastern Time Zone like us.  We were bummed because we could have slept another hour.  We just laughed and drove around Nashville waiting for Day Out with Thomas to start.  

Once Day Out with Thomas was open, we went to check it out.  Cooper was so excited!  We headed over to get free train tattoos.  Cooper picked Thomas and Kindle got Salty (not that she really had any clue what a tattoo was).

Then, Cooper went over to the train table to play with the other children.  He was so well behaved and waited his turn to play.  I stood there watching child after child throw a fit because they wanted to play with a certain train and someone else was playing with it.  Or their parents told them they had to leave the area and they didn't want to.  I will admit I was a bit nervous since Cooper was not known for easily leaving places without getting himself in lots of trouble.  I was so pleased to see him do the right thing.  

Next, we went to meet Sir Topham Hatt.  He is the Superintendent of the Railway for those of you who aren't familiar with Thomas and Friends.  Kindle just stared at Sir Topham Hatt trying to figure him out.  Cooper was thrilled to meet him "in person". 

We then went to check out all of the activities.  They had a petting zoo there along with moon bounces and slides.  Cooper loved it!

For some reason that day, Cooper decided that whenever I was asking him to pose for a picture, he was going to lift his shirt so we could see his tummy.  So here he is with some of the trains.

And again, posing with the Thomas that was made out of Legos.  This was probably his favorite thing there.  

There was an old train car that you could go in and watch Thomas movies.  They also had a car where a train conductor would tell Thomas stories.  We enjoyed all of the activities.  

Here is a very short video of Cooper telling us what he was going to do.  It is sideways and I don't know how to flip it.  If anyone does, let me know :)

Next, it was our turn to ride on Thomas.  Cooper had been waiting for this all day.  We boarded one of the passenger cars and took our seats.  We rode down the tracks with Thomas pulling all of the passengers cars.  Then, we went backwards back down to where we had started.  Afterwards, each child got a certificate naming them a Junior Engineer.  

We attempted to take a family picture of all of us.  It's a bit blurry, but it will have to do.  We did get professional pictures taken with our whole family and Thomas later, but those are in my scrapbook :)

Finally, we headed to the gift shop.  Cooper picked out a t-shirt and a train set.  He also got a Thomas balloon that was as big as him.  

It was a wonderful day that he still talks about 5 years later.  We plan on going back since Grant and Celeste love Thomas too.  

Sentimental Sunday-My Sissy's Wedding

I know lots of people do different themes depending on the day of the week.  I had been looking through my "older" photos and it made me happy to remember all the fun times we have had over the years.  I don't know that I will be doing this every week, but I figured why not??? :)  Maybe one day I can even scan my wedding photos since they were all taken with a film camera (it was 1999).  Until then, you can enjoy a couple of photos from my sister's wedding. 

Emily and Gil's (my sister and brother in law) wedding was on January 29, 2005-the day it ice stormed in Georgia.  It was such an emotional day for all of us.  We went to the rehearsal the night before and prayed that the weather would hold off.  Unfortunately, it didn't.  We woke up to ice all over the ground.  We weren't sure we could get out of our driveway.   I was about 9 months pregnant with Kindle.  Cooper was just a little over 2 years old.  I was the Matron of Honor and Cooper was the ringbearer.  I was so sad that I thought I might miss my sister's wedding.  Nathan went outside and moved our mailbox out of the way so we could back down into the grass if we needed to.  He told me he was going to get us there and I love him for making that happen.  I had such big plans of how everything would go that morning from my hair and make up to having Cooper walk down the aisle with his Build a Bear in a tuxedo to his Daddy.  Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.  The photographer could not make it to the wedding because she was trapped.  So, Nathan became the wedding photographer.  I did my hair and make up in the car on the way to the wedding that we were running late for because we had to go so slow on the ice.  We drove down Highway 41 through Kennesaw slipping and sliding the whole way.  We made it just in time to get changed and walk down the aisle.  Cooper decided right before it was his turn, that he didn't want to walk by himself.  So, I picked him up with my huge pregnant belly and walked down the aisle carrying him with my bra strap showing in all photos and videos.  Hurray :(  Oh well, such is the life of a Mom.   He looked so adorable in his tuxedo though.  The ceremony was intimate and sweet.   I was so thrilled that my sister found the man of her dreams!

Of course, he was sucking in his thumb too.

I don't have any photos on my computer of Emily and Gil on their wedding day, but I had photos from going to try on her wedding dress.  She was so beautiful :)

Here is a photo of my Mom in her Mother of the Bride dress holding the bridesmaids dresses (which of course I couldn't wear since I was 35 weeks pregnant at the wedding).

Since a lot of people couldn't make it to the wedding.  We had a separate reception later in March the weekend after I gave birth to Kindle.  It was a great time with friends and family. 

Here is one of my favorite photos of my sister, Emily, and her husband, Gil.  It was taken at Celeste's 1st Birthday part in June 2009.