Liz's Surprise Baby Shower

On Saturday, January 21, 2006 my four friends - Amy Kriebel, Julia Spencer, Heather Ferrence, and Julie Delp - threw me a wonderful baby shower at Amy's house in Harleysville, PA. Approximately 30 of our closeby family members and my girlfriends were able to make it out for the special day. The girls know that I love to read so they gave the shower a "children's book" theme and every guest was asked to bring her favorite childhood book as a wishing well gift. Thank goodness we purchased a bookshelf for the baby's room because we certainly have plenty of books to put in it now. To go along with the theme, the girls made beautiful hand-stamped bookmarks as shower favors for each guest, which had a poem printed on them from "Baby Martin." I may be a bit biased, but it definitely was a perfect shower!

Above is me with all of the girls: (l-r) Julia, Heather, Liz, Amy, and Julie.

And here we all are again with Andrew's step mom, Cheri Martin, and my mom, Lisa Caulfield.

The girls prepared a delicious spread of food and were considerate enough to make items that I was allowed to eat per my diabetic diet!

What a cute cake! I love frogs so the girls got a froggie cake and used a frog motif on some of the shower "extras" as well.

Like most showers, much of the time was spent opening all of the beautiful and generous gifts that everyone gave to us. We were fortunate enough to receive so many things that will be useful for us over the next few months, both in decorating the nursery and for when the baby does arrive. Below are some photos that I've prescreened and allowed to be posted on the Internet :) ...and remember that the camera adds ten pounds (at least that is what I'm telling myself!):



My goodness, does someone this little really need all of these things!?! I was completely out of breath after opening some of the larger items, even though I had lots of help.


The ADORABLE froggie chair from Aunt-to-be Maggie will go perfectly in our animal-themed nursery.


So many cute little outfits! Although she wasn't able to be there for the occasion, this one was sent by my good friend, Sandra, in Holland. The baby isn't even born yet and already he has an international wardrobe!


The Alphabet Soup Toddler Quilt is adorable. This is the last item that we needed from the bedding ensemble so now the crib is fully adorned and just awaiting the nursery to be complete.


One of Nana Caulfield's famous gift baskets! It was almost painful to disassemble it since she had it pieced together so perfectly...

Dad-to-be Andrew decided to stay at the baby shower while the two grandpas-to-be and some of the other men went out for dinner. He enjoyed seeing all of the gifts being opened and was a big help moving some of the larger items!

Nursery - Work in Progress

We started to work on our nursery and have made great progress so far. Andrew has been meticulously routing some custom wainscoting (with Pottery Barn Kids as our inspiration) for the bottom half of our walls and is close to halfway finished. We've also installed a white ceiling fan and lighting fixture. Finally, we'll be adding a chair rail above the wainscoting as the finishing touch once all of the molding is in place and then will begin to paint!

Nursery Plans

Starting in January 2006, we will begin converting our messy third-bedroom office into the new baby's nursery. We've purchased some beautiful furniture at Bellini Baby and Teen Furniture and expect it to arrive sometime in February. We do already have our Bellini crib, though, thanks to Nana and Pop Caulfield and their good friends the Ruthmans, so it is set up in our guest room, ready and waiting for the nursery to be complete!

We're going to put up some off-white wainscoting in the room and paint the wall above the molding a shade of yellow. Finally, we are planning to use Pottery Barn Kids' Alphabet Soup bedding, a pattern with animals and letters in various bold colors and fabrics showcased by green and red gingham check accents. It's very cute!

Below are some pictures of the furniture we've ordered and some of our plans for the nursery. We'll update our work-in-progress with some actual photos as we break ground with the remodeling in January!


Above is the architectural plan we drafted for the nursery, showing where the furniture and rug will be positioned (yes, you did read this correctly; we actually DO have an architectural plan and it's to scale too!). It's a bit difficult to decipher, but shows where the crib, dresser, glider/ottoman, bookcase, night stand and rug will go once we finish our remodeling.

Here is the crib that we have, the Nicola model. We have the second darkest shade that Bellini offers, Coffee. It makes a nice contrast to the white background of the Alphabet Soup bedding. Along each side post is some detailed carving, to add some interest to the piece. There is also a full drawer underneath the bed to store linens and towels in.

Kids have a lot of books and toys so we knew that we'd need a bookcase! Here is the one we ordered from the Jessica furniture collection, shown in the color we chose, Coffee.

Our dresser/changing table. We decided to go for a traditional piece that could be used for years to come instead of a standard changing table that we'd only use for a few years. Again, ours isn't white but is the Coffee color.

Our nightstand from the Jessica furniture collection, also ordered in the Coffee color.

The glider that Grandpa Martin bought for us is similar to the one in this photo, except that the wood matches the rest of the furniture and it will have red cushions.

Pottery Barn Kids' Alphabet Soup bedding ensemble that we've chosen. The white carpet and dark furniture in our nursery-to-be offer a nice contrast to the light background of the bedding. We're just disappointed that there is no plaid Labrador Retriever amongst the other animals in the pattern!

Ultrasound Pictures - 19 weeks

Introducing our son! We're taking polls to see who you all think he looks like, Mom or Dad :).

Wow, despite what we've read about the size of the baby by 19 weeks, we couldn't believe that we could actually see fully-developed hands and feet! He's getting so big everyday.

The moment we've been awaiting for over 19 weeks -- finding out the gender of our baby! Everyone thought that we were having a girl so the doctor's "It's a Boy!" came as a surprise, albeit a very happy moment for us both. We've been consumed with blue clothing ever since!

Ultrasound Pictures - 11 weeks

Here's the baby at just over 11 weeks...he's starting to look human even though he's upside down!

Ultrasound Pictures - 6 weeks

Our first visit to Doctor Hoffman's office proved that the three home pregnancy tests weren't lying! Today we saw the baby's heartbeat for the first time and were given the OK to start telling our friends and family the news. Coincidentally we were visiting our parents this weekend so we were able to tell them in person right away. Everyone was so excited when we handed them a "Welcome, Baby" balloon with this ultrasound picture attached to it!

Introduction

Thank you for visiting our blog! 2006 is going to bring many happy changes to our life, beginning on or around March 28 when our first baby is due. We are very excited for this new addition to our two-person-one-dog family and are eager to share our excitement with all of you!

In October 2005 we found out that we will be having a baby boy during one of our ultrasound visits, so we have since been consumed with preparing for our soon-to-be son. Both of our families have had a lot of fun getting ready for the little guy and very soon we will begin work on the nursery we've been talking about for so many months. We've posted pictures from the ultrasounds that we've had throughout the pregnancy; it's amazing how much they have progressed since our initial one at 6 weeks as our little guy continues to grow (and kick his mom more fiercely everyday!).

We hope that you enjoy reading the latest news about the Martin Family; we will continue to update this site frequently so be sure to check back often.

Group Trip to Ireland

In June 2005 we took another group trip with three couples, this time to Ireland. The impetus for this trip was the fact that U2 was going to be giving a world tour and would be making a stop in Dublin. As a long time U2 fan, what place would be better to see them than in their hometown? So, we decided to just go for it when our friends approached us about coming with them to the concert. So, we purchased our concert tickets and then spent the rest of our time planning for a ten day tour of Ireland.

This proved to really be a task since there are just so many places within Ireland that we wanted to see, but we also knew that we wanted to keep our vacation leisurely and not spend the entire time running from sight to sight. We finally decided to focus on a few key cities - Dublin, Galway, Doolin, Killarney and Kilkenny - and to plan some daytrip activities while in each of these places or en route as we drove from city to city.

First stop: Dublin.

Here are Andrew and I our first night in Dublin, drinking the first Guinness of the trip.

We had a great time hanging out at night in the Temple Bar area of the city, known for its pubs, restaurants, street performers, shops, etc. Basically this in the "in" part of the city and rightfully so since there was just so much to see and do here. We discovered a wonderful restaurant called Gallagher's that served some of the best Irish food we had on our entire trip.

Temple Bar at night:

The whole group at Gallagher's one night. (front to back, by couple): Mark and Heather Ferrence, Andrew and me, Randy and Julie Delp, Ray and Missy Greenley.

While in Dublin, the guys played golf one day while the girls spent the day shopping, eating, and walking around town. We couldn't let the guys spend money on an expensive round of golf without helping the Irish economy out a little ourselves, now could we? Here we are at lunch and below that is a picture from when we decided to stop in "for a pint" (or half pint for some of us!). The guys were so proud of their chicks for stopping in for a beer on our own amidst our day of girly activities!

Finally, U2! We saw U2 on their Vertigo tour in Croke Park in Dublin. What an experience! It was a concert unlike any I have ever been to before. As for our seats - do you see the stage? Well...just about as far away from the stage as you could get was where we were sitting. Ok, bad seats, I know. But, we got to see U2 play in Ireland, didn't we? Who cares if Bono and the boys looked like a bunch of ants from our seats (and they cost us a fortune anyway). Good thing for large screen tv's on either side of the stage!

Our next stop on the trip was western Ireland, starting in Galway and taking a daytrip from Galway to the Aran Irelands for a day. While in Galway, we met up with my cousin Chris and his (then girlfriend, now fiancee) April. They were also traveling in Ireland at the same time we were. We hung out with them our first night in town and then they spent the entire next day with us on the Aran Islands.

Here we are with Chris and April our first night in town at a place called O'Connor's Pub.

The next day we left early in the morning and caught a ferry to the Aran Islands, where we rented bicycles and biked for the entire day. Our ultimate destination was the Dun Aengus fortress at the far end of the island. At times it was a greuling ride, over rocky terrain and up inclines, but it was always so scenic and this experience was among the most exciting things we have ever done on a vacation. Here are some photos of the island:

With Chris and April offroad:

Dun Aengus fortress from afar and below that are some photos from atop the fortress once we finally arrived.

After we left the Galway area, we headed south towards Doolin and Killarney. En route, we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely beautiful!

We next stopped at Dunguaire Castle as we continued to make our way south to Doolin and Killarney. This was our first official castle of the trip and was among our favorites, even after seeing several others. We toured the castle ourselves in the afternoon, left for Doolin and arrived there a short while later, and then showered and headed back to Dunguaire for their nightly Medieval Feast. What a fabulous experience - great food in a real castle with real Irish singing and dancing.

Here are Andrew and me in one of the windows of the castle.

Killarney was our next big stop and this was our favorite city of all. We absolutely loved it here and would consider going back to Ireland just to visit the Killarney area alone for an entire vacation! In the below photo, Andrew and I were at dinner by ourselves one night. Andrew had developed a liking for the lamb stew early on in our trip and tried this dish many times across cities. The best he had was at a restaurant called The Laurels in Killarney. Here we are at dinner at The Laurels, followed by two photos showing just how much Andrew enjoyed his stew.

Before...

And after!

While in Killarney, Julie and I did a tour on our own to the Gap of Dunloe and it was fabulous. Basically you take a horse and carriage ride through this beautifully picturesque valley. We were seated with a lovely older french couple with whom I was able to converse using my high school french. The ride itself was green, calm and peaceful for miles on end. You literally feel as if you have been superimposed into a painting or something. Seriously. I really can't even describe how beautiful it is and my photos don't do it justice, but here are some of the best.

Our destination on our Gap of Dunloe tour was Ross Castle. Once you are taken halfway via horse and carriage, you finish the tour in boat so that you are able to see the scenery from the water. Here is Ross Castle as we approach it from the water. One of the nicest people we met on our entire trip was the lady selling the souvenir photos of everyone in their carriage once the tour concluded at Ross Castle. Julie and I didn't know we would have to pay cash for our carriage ride so we had used up all of our cash and only had our credit cards left at the end of the tour. So, we couldn't afford the souvenir photo and though I usually think they are a ripoff, this one turned out really nice and would have been worth the splurge. We told the lady selling the photos that we couldn't buy one today because we had spent all of our cash and she GAVE us the photo for free "because I know ya's woulda bought it if yer had the money." What a blessing! We had a fabulous trip and that instance made it that much more memorable!

After a wonderful time in Killareny, we (wistfully!) left for Kilkenny. En route we stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the stone and gain a bit of the 'ole "gift of the gab" Supposely, whoever kisses the Blarney Stone will become an eloquent speaker. We all wanted to see Blarney Castle and we knew we couldn't come to Ireland and not see the biggest tourist attraction in the country. Here's a photo of the castle followed by Andrew and me kissing the stone. You had to lie on your back and bend your head backwards to kiss it. I'm so glad I decided to wear a skirt this day (a long one at least!!) :).


Finally, one last photo of Kilkenny Castle in the city of Kilkenny. We had a lovely time here and the quiet atmosphere of the city was a great way to wind down from our trip!