Peek a Boo

It's been far too long since I posted a video... Girl could do this all day long.

Untitled from Sara Martin on Vimeo.

Bday pics

November has been brimming with birthdays. What a great way to kick off the holiday season. Excellent practice for best birthday celebration of all.

Here are some snapshots of Millie's 1st bday party. Thanks to Matt Lochtefeld for letting us borrow his awesome camera!

Bday girl rockin' the party poof- as I called it

Cupcakes compliments of Little Miss Cupcakes

at the Woodland Mall. (I know, what?!)

They looked great, tasted better and cost me $9

thanks to Groupon.

Gotcha nose, Grandpa Dietz!

Not walking yet, but getting there!

Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet, 16 lb peanut. As I often pray, may you supernaturally know God's great love for you and have a deep love for Him in return.

1st Bday

Amelia Grace's first birthday was yesterday. The weather was very similar to what it was on November 17th, 2010: Sunny but cold. I remember waking up that Wednesday morning thinking, Okay little lady, we have 2 days til you'll be forced out. (an induction was scheduled for Friday morning as she was nearly 2 weeks late) Let's get walking... And off we went, Asher in his bright yellow stroller and me with my ready-to-burst belly feeling like a freak of nature as we walked up to Panera. I had a free bagel waiting for me on my Panera card, yet I could not eat it. What was wrong with me? Asher and I sat and chatted with Zachari and Kelli for a while and then walked back home. I thought that baby might fall out of me she was felt so low!

It will all I could do to feed Asher some lunch and then get him down for a nap so I could lay down too. I just did NOT feel good. And then as I laid down and tried to rest, I knew it was happening. Finally. I called Ben who was supposed to come home for lunch and told him to let his boss know he wouldn't be back.

Things stared to get pretty intense pretty quick and luckily Asher took a brief nap. We dropped him off at the Alt's and came back home. Both of our mom's were on the way since they were invited to be a part of the birth. We tried to wait, but I felt like we should head to the hospital and get checked in. I didn't want to be going through all the nonsense when I was really laboring.

We got into our room around 3:30 pm. By 6 I was ready to push. At 6:09, our girl was here. Still time to eat some dinner :)

Oh good times... But I must say I'm enjoying not being pregnant right now. I like being able to keep up with my 1 and 2 year-old without constant fatigue and a giant belly.

Pics of the 1st Bday party to come...

Fall Pics and Projects

Here is a picture update of some things we've been up to this fall!

Uncle Joe and Aunt Lucy came stay to with us one weekend in October.

Here we are taking A&M on a horse-drawn hayride out at a fall festival

at the Wood Co. Historical Center.

Joe and Lu :)

In Asher's words: Tigey. Rooooar!

Pumpkin croquet (of sorts)

She's a giraffe, btw.

The verdict is still out of our official stance on Halloween in the Martin household. No, I don't like the idea of celebrating evil. But at the same time, it's nothing but fun for the kiddos to play pretend in their costumes... But the candy, oh the candy. I def. do not like the idea of all that sugar. I could list a million reasons, but mainly is just excessive and I don't like what it is teaching children who already have horrendous eating habits. (no fault of their own) I understand my kids will eat candy some day. Just not sure of how to commuincate that yes it tastes good, but no, it's not a good choice. I want to find the balance.

Nevertheless, on Halloween day, Asher and I did our own jack-o-latern project since we didn't get around to carving pumpkins.

We started with a jar and the supplies seen here.

Cut masking tape into pieces for the face.

Then I let Asher go-to-town with the paint.

There's really no way to screw it up since there were no

lines to stay in or boundaires of any kind. Just paint and get messy.

After the paint dried I pulled off the tape and voila!

We used a votive inside, but you could use a flameless candle too.

The Martin Fam passing out mini bags of pretzels (and M&M's since Ben thought

we'd get egged if all we gave out were pretzels) to trick-or-treaters.