Professional Photos - March 2010

This morning I took the kids out in the rain to go to our picture appointment since I wanted to get some 4-year pictures for Ben, 2-year pictures for Nate and 5-month pictures for Abby. I debated canceling because the rain was so, well, rainy. Not exactly the impetus I needed to get three kids dressed up and out the door before anyone got dirty or cranky. But, in the end I kept our appointment and I am glad that I did!

Everyone was extremely agreeable and we got smiles and a pleasant photo session out of all three kids. Now how often does that happen with three little kids? Usually at least someone is grumpy or disagreeable.

Here are our results, I was quite pleased!

All three of the Martin kiddos. We couldn't get a smile out of Abby for this one since she is still in shock, it seems, when we have her brothers hold her for a photo. But, she looks calm enough and the boys look so cute. The photographer had told me that the next time I come, it will probably be easier if she is able to sit on her own! Nonetheless, I was pleased with this one and we now own a copy of it for our house :)

My Benjamin, the big smiley four year old. What a big boy he is now!

Our two-year-old, Mr. Nathaniel, also looking so grown-up. I had just finished telling the photographer that he would be the hardest subject since he doesn't like to smile for photos recently. Well, apparently, he doesn't like to smile for photos that I take :)

And finally, Miss Abigail. Not only was she smiley, cooing and completely pleasant the entire time, she even let me change outfits for her! I LOVE that our girl has tons of hair we can put in bows so that she can wear blue and NOT be mistaken for a little boy!

Ridin' Bikes

What a beautiful first day of spring we had today - sunny, calm and in the high 70s. An absolutely perfect day for riding bikes! Benjamin got his first bicycle from Pop and Nana for his birthday, which means that Nate graduates to the tricycle now. Both boys got cool Matchbox Cars or Toy Story helmet sets to go with their bikes, too. So, they were all set...now they just needed to learn how to ride them :)

Daddy took them outside and both boys gave it a good first try. Although not fully "riding" their bikes yet, they did well trying. I have a feeling we will be doing a lot of this activity this summer, once they do catch on and see what fun it is to ride a bike!

Phony Bologna!

When we returned home from our birthday outing with the boys, we learned that our poor sitter had to deal with a very fussy Abby for the last 2 or so hours before we came home. Well, you certainly seem to be wearing out your welcome with our sitters, Miss Abigail! :)

And when we walked through the door, she immediately started beaming, so happy to see Mommy and Daddy! Here's our little Phony Bologna, all smiles with the red, tear-stained signs in her eyes that she had just been fussing for quite some time! And looking so cute in her pretty playdress (thanks, Amy!), that I just needed to snap some photos of her :)

Abigail's First Solids!

So we decided to give Abigail some rice cereal this morning for the first time. She will be 5 months old on Thursday and she seemed ready for it so we gave it a go. The result: Abby likes it! This experience didn't really elicit any strange faces or complaints so overall it was a success.

Trying this stuff out...a little skeptical at first of this colorful thing called a spoon...



On second thought...

...well this is pretty yummy. And to think that I sat here for 5 months while they all ate in front of me!

...Maybe I can move this meal along if I grab the spoon myself :)

Curious George: Live!

Today Andrew and I planned a special day out with our two BIG boys to celebrate their birthdays this month. We like to use about half of the amount we budget for birthday gifts for the kids on a fun family activity that we can do together, and when we saw that Curious George: Live! was coming to our area we couldn't resist. Especially since he was appearing at Stabler Arena at our very own alma mater, Lehigh University.

So, we had our babysitter come and watch Abigail for the day and we headed out at lunchtime with the boys. Our first stop was lunch at McDonald's (on request!) and then we headed to Bethlehem for the show.

What a fun time we all had, especially Ben and Nate. Nate kept pointing to the stage, saying "George! Up there!" and Ben kept asking where "Yellow Hat" was, whenever The Man with the Yellow Hat would leave the stage. Both boys asked why we didn't bring Abigail a few times but even so, they seemed to really enjoy having a special day out with us alone so that we could focus on them and not worry about taking care of the baby. It was such a fun family day for all of us!

Here are a few pictures from the actual show.

Here's little Nate watching the show quite intently.

Here's Benjamin with a cheesy smile, eating their treat for the afternoon, cotton candy!

Finally, a family photo of the four of us and below that Andrew and the boys. I think my camera was on the wrong setting when the family one was taken since it is blurry. Of course it is, why wouldn't it be? This always happens to the nice family photos when everyone is looking, Murphy's Law :).

Happy Birthday to our two birthday boys, we had such a good time celebrating with you today! :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Benjamin!

Happy 4th Birthday to our little man Benjamin today! We cannot believe that he is already four years old - ahh, it seems like only yesterday that I was in labor for 16 hours :). We've cherished so many memories with our smiley, outgoing, chatty, loveable guy these past four years and love watching him grow into a little boy before our eyes (albeit, wistfully!). We love you, Ben!

Lil' Lassie

Our little lassie wishes you a very happy St. Patrick's Day today! My, how those (part) Irish eyes are a'smilin'! :)

Nathaniel - 2 Year Check-Up

This morning Nate went for his 2 year check-up at the pediatrician. He is doing great developmentally and was completely charming the doctor and staff with his mannerisms and funny verbal communication. He can carry on a full conversation now and will repeat everything we say, verbatim. He told the nurse "Nate, big boy and handsome guy" when she came in and proclaimed what a big boy he is now! He also told the doctor that 'Brother Benjamin" was naughty at breakfast. Ha ha!

The only area we discussed that warranted some improvement is him being an emtremely picky eater. So, I am going to try a few different attempts to hide some of the foods he will not eat in foods that he likes (let's hope he still likes them after this - ha!). Other than this area of concern on my part, he is doing great developmentally. Here are his stats:

Height: 34" (50th percentile)
Weight: 28.5 lbs. (62nd percentile)
Head circumference: 20-1/4 (95th percentile)

So, as you can see, we went from Abigail's appointment last week with her head being in the 4th percentile to Nate's head this time being in the 95th percentile. Ha ha!

Luckily, little Nate escaped having shots this time around since he was current on all of them. We had throught he would have some so I had warmed him about them. When he ended up not needing them, he proceeded to tell everyone he saw at the doctor's office and this afternoon that he had "No shots, Nate!"

He won't be back for a well visit until he is 3 so we now have two children on the yearly schedule instead of every few months. Yay, for fewer copays (that is, as long as we stay healthy)!

Abigail's Dedication

This morning at church we dedicated Abigail to the Lord and promised that we would raise her in a Christian home. As Psalm 127 states, "Children are a gift from the Lord." So, we are honored to have dedicated our beautiful daughter back to God with the promise to pray for her so that she may one day grow into a strong Christian woman.

Here are Andrew and I with Abigail. Her name means "Father's joy," and she is such a joy to Andrew as well as to our heavenly Father, too. When Abigail (and the boys, as well) are older, they will be baptized. Unlike other Christian denominations, our church performs the dedication as an infant, mainly as a ceremony where the parents promise to raise the children knowing Christ, and the baptisn later in childhood, when the child can decide for him/herself that they will follow God.

Our grandparent photo - Grandpa G and also Pop and Nana joined us for Abigail's special day. Unfortunately, we had already brought the boys back to their classes, but this gave Abigail the chance to have the spotlight without her chatty brothers :)
Our beautiful "Father's joy!"

Ben and Nate's Outer Space Birthday Party

March is our big birthday month here at our house, with both of the boys having birthdays only 9 days apart. While they are little and have common friends (and interests) we have decided to do a joint birthday party for them. This year we decided on an outer space theme, since the boys love rockets, space shuttles, planets and anything that flies. They love to launch model rockets with Dad and to play with any of their toy rockets. So, it seemed like the perfect theme for them!

Our invitations (already part of a scrapbook page):

Here are the birthday boys with their little sister, all clad in the space logo (and personalized) party shirts that I made for each of the children in attendance.
Pop and Nana and Uncle Mike and Aunt Chang were able to come out for the party and the boys had such fun having them there for their special day! Abby also loved spending time with Aunt Chang while I handled the details of the party and Chang acted as surrogate mother for the day :) Thanks, Chang!!

Of course Abby got a tiny party tee-shirt to wear! I made two little ones for Abby and also the other baby who came, Adriana.

Me and my little girl!

For one of our activities, we played with Moon Sand. If you are not familiar with it, this is basically like moist, colored beach sand that you can mold and it never dries out. Lots of fun, especially for Ben and Nicholas, who played with it for almost the entire time we had playtime!

Talya loved it, too!

An ideal husband in training. Ben immediately ran to get their play cleaning set to clean up the spilled Moon Sand. Soon, the other boys at the party were taking the lead and helping out :).

Smiley Koen!

Our second activity station was an outer space mural and space-themed foam stickers. The kids got to play with stickers on the walls. FUN! Nate was at this one for practically the entire time.

We had Natey's new rocket tent that he got for his birthday all set up. The kids loved crawling through it. Peek-a-boo, Brianna!

Talya loved it, too :)

Lunchtime! On our menu: space shuttle-shaped hot dogs, "blazing sun" cheese balls, star and moon shaped cheese chunks and some boring, non-themed adult food :).

Don't mess with tough-guy Nicholas!

My favorite photo subject! Samantha smiles for every photo I take of her. What a breath of fresh air when it's such effort to get my boys to smile :)

Our craft for the day was painting Moon Rocks. We now have two brightly colored paper weights in our living room :).

Next up: cake time! I was quite proud of my space shuttle and earth cakes that I made for the boys with homemade fondant. It was my first time using it and it was a lot of fun! Of course we needed two cakes so this worked out perfectly :)

Mom and her boys (and Nicholas - lol!)

We had sparkler candles for the cakes. Very cool looking but very smokey. Note to self for next time! The kids seemed to enjoy them, though :)

Our big FOUR YEAR OLD, Benjamin!

And our big TWO YEAR OLD, Nate!

Mom and Dad and the boys (and Nicholas - lol!)

Yum, cake!Now, can you believe this?? All 11 kids sat nicely on a couch for a group photo. Well, either they sat nicely or they were too wedged in to even move :). Nonetheless, we had no tears or screaming that they wouldn't take a photo so we'll call this a good photo shoot :)

The boys sat in their little Anywhere chairs to open their presents.

Finally, in addition to their tee-shirts, homemade rocks, and a little candy and some stickers, the boys and I made homemade activity pads for all of the friends to take home. We printed out coloring pictures and activities with a space theme and put this special cover on them.

Finally, Pop and Nana and Miss Abigail.

Happy birthday, Benjamin and Nate, we love you bunches!