Welcome, Abigail Nancy!

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of the Martin family, Abigail Nancy Martin. She was born 8 days early on Sunday, October 25th at 6:43a.m. after only about 5 hours of "true" labor. They say each child tends to arrive faster than the last and as our third child, this is certainly true! The actual delivery of Abigail was only about 7 minutes this time. Literally. She was there before we knew it and took both us and the doctors by surprise at her quick appearance!

Abigail - "Father's joy" - is a name that Andrew and I have both always loved and as such a classic, biblical name, it seemed perfect for our beautiful daughter. We will call her both by her full name and also Abby as a nickname. Her middle name - Nancy - is in honor of Andrew's mom who passed away in 2003 from cancer.

Abby was 7lbs. 6oz. at birth and 20 1/2 inches long. She has a beautiful complexion and dark hair, although ironically, not as much hair as either of the boys had at birth. Certainly enough that she will be able to wear barettes in a few months, though :)

And now, introducing Baby Abby. She definitely has her days and nights mixed up at this point but is just such a sweet, calm baby for the most part. We are delighted that she is here and thank God for her safe delivery and health!

Just after her birth, getting weighed in. Our kids defy the usual norm that each subsequent baby tends to get heavier; ours get lighter by about 1/2 pound each. She is our lightest by far, over a pound lighter than Ben and about a half pound lighter than Nate at birth.



Wow, that was tough work being born so quickly!


Her cute little tuft of hair on top of her head!

After a few hours of rest, Dad, Mom and Abby were taken by storm by the big brothers when Nana and Pop took them down to the hospital for their first visit with their sister. Both boys have been so good with her so far and are really loving and gentle. Of course they love to smother her with kisses and hold her all the time!

Biggest brother Benjamin meets Abigail for the first time...

And the newest big brother Nate meets his baby sister....He is quite the talker and has already mastered saying her full name! Here, he is saying "Hi, Abigail!" since he had been practicing with Nana before the visit...

Nana with her first grand-daughter.

Pop and Nana posing with Baby Abby.

Our perfect little gift from God...

Me and my little girl. I'm happy there will be some more estrogen in the house from now on!

Daddy's girl...

Maggie and Billy came to visit us in the hospital to meet Abigail. She loved being held by Maggie the whole time!

On Tuesday morning, here we are all ready to go home after two nights in the hospital. Of course she is dressed in pink and brown, my favorites!

Mommy and Daddy and our new little daughter!

Ready to go!

Once at home, the big brothers loved on their little sister (instead of taking their naps that day!). Ben wanted to hold her and Nate kept coming up in her face and saying "Hi, Abigail!" So precious....

Our new family of five! I can't believe that we have THREE children now!

Just a few more pictures from Abby's first full day at home. Here she is resting in her bouncy seat...

...and here she is during her first sponge bath. Apparently, this is the worst experience of her entire life so far :)

But after the bath wasn't so bad. Ah, all clean-smelling and changed into a new outfit!

...and she's back to resting again. We're working on her sleeping habits little-by-little. At first she would not even sit in a bouncy seat or swing but she seems to be getting used to them for a little while at a time. Laying in her crib is another story, though. She's not too into sleeping in her actual crib and would prefer to be held instead so this will be our challenge for the next few weeks as we transition Abby to life outside the womb :)

We love having visitors so please come and see us and meet our new little princess!

Field Trip to the Farm

This morning Ben and I went on his first class field trip to Varner Farms in Collegeville, PA. We dropped Nate off at his girlfriend's house :) and then headed out for the farm. Ben was so excited for his outing, especially since it was something that little brothers weren't able to participate in, although he did pick some apples for Nate to share :)

Varner Farms is a really nice orchard about 25 minutes from our house and the fall foliage today was beautiful so it was the perfect day for fall festivities! Our tour included a tractor ride around the farm, a tour of the farm trucks and machinery, a run through the hay maze, a visit with the farm animals, time to pick our own apples, and a glass of fresh apple cider. What fun!

Ben was a little shy at first when we arrived and just wanted to spend time with me. But after a few minutes, he started pointing out the kids in his class and we met several of the boys he has talked about (and their moms). It was really cute to see him interacting with his school friends and especially to see how much he likes his teacher and assistant teacher. He wanted us to sit right across from his teachers on the wagon ride and kept asking them questions! I can't for the life of me figure out why my son would ever be a teacher's pet :) :)

Here he is with the first big tractor we saw as we were waiting for all of the kids to arrive. There were farm trucks and machinery all over this farm so Ben, of course, was intrigued right from the start :)


Here is the tractor and wagon ride that we took around the farm. Ben loved this!

Mrs. Allen took a photo of me and Ben on the wagon ride. This is my second wagon ride in a week and a half and we have another farm visit scheduled with church in another week and a half so hopefully they will help to induce labor :)

Some scenic photos of the farm from our wagon ride. I love PA in the fall!

Here is the entire class in front of the hay maze with two pumpkin-head scarecrows. Ben is in the back, right next to the scarecrow in the blue shirt.

All of the kids loved the hay maze! It was easy enough that they could go in on their own and the entire class kept running through it again and again.

Next, we saw the farm animals. Everyone also enjoyed this and oddly, the chickens were the most popular of all of the animals with just about everyone!

Finally, the highlight of the trip: apple picking and then getting to sample our apples and enjoy a glass of fresh apple cider. Ben has eaten two entire apples today and has already requested a third one for his snack when he wakes up from his nap. In the background of the first picture is Ben's teacher, Mrs. Allen. I realized on our way home that I hadn't taken any intentional photos of her and should have since Ben adores her!

Trip to Charlottesville, VA

This past weekend Andrew had plans to be away so I knew I'd be alone with the kids for four days. So, when my good friend Aimee asked me and another friend to visit their new house in Charlottesville, VA since her husband would be working much of the weekend, it seemed like the perfect time to make the trip. Even at 36 weeks pregnant, the journey was well worth the 7 hour car ride with 5 children (under 5 years old!) since we had such a nice time with our friends and I had some help with the kids while Andrew was away.

Did I mention that we drove 7 hours each way with 5 young children? :) In all reality, the trip both there and back was much better than it could have been and we really only had to stop for lunch and for a bathroom break each time. It was a tiring experience for me, being in the third trimester of pregnancy, but I am really glad that we went when we did since we probably would have had to wait until the spring or summer to go otherwise, with the new baby on the way, and it would have been more difficult to fit another child in the minivan as well.

And despite the long drive to VA, we got to have three fantastic days with our good friends. The kids had so much fun playing together and we mommies had a great time catching up at night for some much-needed girl time. We loved seeing Chad and Aimee's new home and being shown around Charlottesville.

Our first night in town, we all went out to dinner and then visited a famous cupcake bakery, where the kids all got fancy cupcakes to sample. Ben got a Lego cupcake, which had edible Legos on top of it!

He is enjoyng his treat!

Apparently, Jonathan also is enjoying his! Jon is about 3 weeks older than Nate so he was one of the "young ones" of the 7 children.
So, call us crazy, but we decided to let the "big" kids have their very first sleepover while on the trip. Elaina and Tyler are nearly 5 and Ben and Samantha are both 3. Everyone was SOO excited to camp out in the family room and out of the three nights, Ben was the only one who opted to sleep with me for one of the nights because he got afraid of something he had seen on one of the movies they had watched. That was the second night and both the first and third nights everyone did great. We let them all watch a movie before lights out time and then we waited (and waited) until they all fell asleep. On average it was around 9PM when everyone was finally sleeping so that wasn't so bad at all!

So excited for the big slumber party!


Ben brought his firetruck sleeping bag and his truck pillow case (and of course his blankie and Mr. Bear - awww!). It was so sweet that everyone had their own little Lovey with them :).

Being silly!

Elaina is so excited to have her friends stay in her family room with her!

Do you think Samantha is excited about this as well?!?!

Tyler too!

FINALLY! Ben gives me a real smile, he is so excited to be actually using his sleeping bag on the ground (he has used it in his bed before) and to be having a sleepover party.

The 7 children at breakfast the day after the first big sleepover. How cute!

Yum! Nate is enjoying his cereal...

Jon is loving his banana...his family calls his Curious George since he eats his banana out of the peel and whole, just like George does!

On Sunday we visited Carter Mountain for a fall festival. We bought some cider donuts to eat, went on a hayride and learned all about apples. Here are the 7 kids after their donuts on the side of the mountain. What a view!

Next up was the hayride. The big kids had a great time looking at the apple orchard as we rode through.

Ben spots something in the distance...

Aimee and Jon with me and Nate.

Amy and Brianna, Nate's little girlfriend. The whole weekend they kept saying "Naaaate" and "Bri-anna" to each other. So sweet!

Fortunately, we had some nice calm moments at the house when the kids were all playing nicely outside together. Nate didn't feel like being social for this photo so he is off on his own in the one below it...

...and, of course, with 7 children under one roof, we had a few hectic moments as well!

Finally, on our way home in the minivan after three very fun and tiring days, the 5 little visitors take a nap or some quiet time!