Welcome to Kelly Martin's Blog! Here I share my stories from my blessed life as a wife to a super-talented man, Jason, mom to my precious kids, Lucy, Jack, and Connor, and friend to my amazing girlfriends who inspire me every day!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Too much Fancy Nancy?

I love that Lucy enjoys this fun character, "Fancy Nancy," and is really into the fun stories and books in this series. In each book, Nancy uses several "fancy" words, and the last page of each story (in the "I Can Read" series) teaches around 10 fancy words that were used. Words like "delectable," "interesting," and "exhausted" to name a few.

And of course, she is still LOVING her bedding Lady and Papa gave her at Christmas:

So, just a cute, quick story to share...

I was putting Lucy down for nap yesterday, and she asked me, "Mommy, what does 'glorious' mean?"

I replied, "Well, it's like wonderful, or really beautiful. Like a bright, sunny day or a beautiful piece of nature can be 'glorious.'"

A brief pause, followed by her precious comment, "Well, Mommy...I. AM. GLORIOUS!"

Three-year-olds...precious!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sibling Class

On Monday night, we went to the Sibling Class offered through Crestwood (where we delivered Jack and will have this one too). It was a cute, little one-hour course which taught the siblings what to expect with the new baby.

Lucy was all about it, focusing hard and paying close attention. Jack...well, he sort of listened, got up and moved around, made a few friends among the adults, etc. ;-)

Here are some pics:


Lucy and Jack were by far the youngest of the kids...




This is how we hold a baby...not too bad, jack ;-)



followed by sitting on the baby...hummm...not so good ;-)



feeding the baby with a bottle...with jack it was more like spearing the doll's face ;-)



how to put on a diaper. what's cute about this picture is that lucy's doll is wearing the exact onesie lucy wore when she was a new baby...SO TINY!!!


undressing baby...











next, it was on to the maternity section to see a real baby in the nursery...




they gave the kids dr's hats and masks if they wanted to wear them ;-)


I've made my list of things to pack...we're within four weeks of due date! (2/22) Next OB checkup is next Wed - a week from today. We'll see what we find out!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Freestylin' at Dance Class!

Lucy is really enjoying her Dance Classes Papa and Lady gave her for Christmas. This last weekend Baba 'n Grandpa got to see her in action. No doubt when Papa and Lady get to see this in person, they'll be reminded of their own "less-than-graceful-ballerina" (me ;-) whose "leaps in the air" lacked a certain quality ;-)


Couldn't get YouTube's code to embed properly on this blog, but just click the link below and it will take you to the video.

Before you watch...Jason's filming from outside the viewing window, so you can't hear the audio inside the dance studio, but you can hear giggles and chatting from family watching.

Also, to help you know what's going on as you watch...

*the first 45 seconds the instructor was leading the girls with something, and Lucy just kind of breaks into her own "wiggle dance"

*at one minute in, the girls are instructed to do some "leaps" across the floor. (Lucy may have cleared two cemtimeters LOL!)

*and my favorite part, from 1:30 min - 1:50 min, the girls were told to do their own "freestyle" in front of the mirrors. Lucy goes first, and it's just adorable...and funny when she looses her balance. At the end you can see a more stable Audrey begin her freestyle ;-)

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ICWiaHNBM

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Baba 'n Grandpa Visit for Daddy's Birthday!

Daddy turns 30 today! Happy Birthday, Jason!!!!

Lucy LOVED making Daddy a red-velvet cake...here are some pics from that exciting baking event ;-)

Check out her "ensemble" that day! She put on princess belle socks, fancy nancy shoes, a pink petticoat, and a halloween red and black dress on top of all that! Her apron from aunt rebecca makes the final addition! ;-) She received lots of fun smiles at publix from the older ladies, while men just looked at her and then me with a confused look... ;-)




We enjoyed dinner out last night at Surin! Then, we came home and did presents and cake!

Here Lucy is giving him her card and gift that she picked out!




"Monster Face" - (there was a monster on the card...)



Other pics from the weekend:








Sometimes, you just don't have enough hands... ;-)


Great to see you Baba and Grandpa - thanks for all the fun!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

boy vs. girl "coming home" outfit

We're in the "home stretch!" Today I am 35 weeks and 2 days (but who's counting, right?) I'm actually not eager for this kid to pop out early - well, other than the suspense over what "it" is being ended - there's really no other reason I wish to hurry up this process. After all, once it begins, having 3 little ones at home under the age of 4 begins. That will be a wonderful -and exhausting - situation - why rush it? Well, and I am excited to nurse again - I just love it, and I pray I have an eater like Jack in store ;-)

Speaking of Jack, quick update on my little man I'm so proud of - in less than a week he's made some wonderful gains with potty training! Back in Nov. and December, right before he turned 2, he began making requests to go potty when we changed his diaper. Most of the time, we'd take him and surprisingly he could pee on demand, every time. Not eager to begin potty training, I decided to talk to his doctor at the 2-year checkup and see what they thought. Well, to my disappointment (sort of, really I was just being lazy ;-) Dr. Susan recommended that we begin - Jack seemed to be "ready." So, we slated "Potty Training" to commence in Jan once we returned home from all the Christmas travel.

Funny happening: around Jan. 8th or so, my friend Tiffany inquired how PT was going, and I realized I had totally forgotten that we were going to begin! ;-) And then Daddy was at the AU game in Arizona, and I was not about to begin this on my own, so we finally began last weekend.

Successes:
-he will go every time we take him to the bathroom (about every 30-45 minutes)
-he LOVES picking out his underwear and putting his stickers he earns on his "tickewr char" (sticker chart)
-he wakes up dry from nightime sleep (that was a big surprise!) and naptime.
-he will ask for "privacy" followed by a firm shout, "Go Away! Go Away (swiping hand motion to boot) when he needs to poop.

Remaining challenges:
-he rarely TELLS US when he needs to go. Guess he needs some more time to connect that feeling to what comes after.
-going at school - it's just far too entertaining to play trucks AND remember to tell teacher when you gotta go ;-)

Anyhow, I'm really proud of him, and glad I gave up my reluctance to begin the process. Originally, I thought I'd rather wait until after the baby was born, let that transition happen before beginning another huge change...but, upon more thought, I do think it's better now to begin -get the "grunt work" done before baby arrives, and hopefully (fingers crossed!) we'll have made lots of progress in the next 5 weeks so that when baby does arrive, Jack's nearly got it ;-)

Lord, hear my prayer! ;-)

But back to the point of my post...

I've chosen the "coming home outfits" for baby:

First, if it's a girl:

I have LOVED this dress (it's a creamy velvet texture and ivory color wrap-dress), and kept it in a closet for close to 4 years now. This was given to Lucy before she was born, but she was born so tiny ( 6 lb 2 oz) that by the time she fit into it, we were in June, and a long-sleeve velvety dress was not appropriate for our Huntsville summer weather. ;-) So, I stored it away and hoped it might be used for next baby.

*Oddly enough, Lucy's "going home" outfit was the hospital t-shirt they give you...the day we were being sent home, we did a trial run, getting lucy in the carseat. She screamed so loudly and hated the whole process so much! When it was time to actually go home, she was sleeping - in her hospital t-shirt - and we thought it would be unwise to wake her just to change her clothes and risk a screaming incident again. So, we transferred her, managing thankfully, not to wake her up, and off we went. And it didn't upset me one bit for her not to wear home whatever little dress I had picked out.


Jack did have a coming home outfit, a sweet little white sweater and blue pants that my mom had given him I think.


And for this baby, I found this sweet little Strausburg outfit at Play It Again for $6. I figured it was a small price and risk to get it. This third baby has already gotten the shaft in various ways, I figured it nice to pick out something special just for it (if it's a boy of course ;-) This is the first and only thing I have bought for baby #3. I'm a whole six bucks in... ;-)

So, should we be frightened again by a largely swollen testicles/penis area when our newborn pops out, this is what he'll be wearing home!




Boy or girl? Anyone want to make a prediction? Maybe I should get Jason to make a betting pool...you know...$5 makes a guess, date, and weight, whatever...could be fun!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Jack's favorite YOUTUBE video

So, Jack's uncles, my brothers Brendan and Ryan, are so patient with him, and one of their favorite things they started doing over the holidays was watching YouTube videos of excavators, monster truck crashes, garbage trucks picking up trash, etc.

Well, this particular video - about an excavator - is his absolute favorite. It's hilarious because the song played to go with it is just so funny. Be careful, you might get stuck singing it over and over in your mind - or like Jason, singing it obnoxiously out loud. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhhXXsxSfE

Monday, January 10, 2011

More Snow!

While Daddy is out in Glendale, enjoying the sun and festivities, we're here enjoying the snow and lazy days!

We woke up to 7 inches (thanks Tiffany ;-) of snow, and it only took us until 10 am to get all geared up to go play outside.

Lucy had little trouble with the terrain, but poor Jack just kept falling...




Lucy was so sweet to try to help him, but he'd rather just sit and pout. Lucy finally said, "Jack, can you just get up?" ;-)








We saw the Lamy's out and made the trek down Jacks Creek to say hello. The girls ate lots of snow, Toby played with Nash, and Dave threw snowballs with the kids! ;-)





After that, we headed over to the Becker's, but Jack was distracted by a neighbor driving a remote-controlled car around. So, we had to stand there and watch for about 10 minutes before moving on. Finally arriving at Tiffany's, the kids were in tears and crying about their cold feet. And Jack had managed to have a blow out that went through this TWO pair of pants. Of course... ;-) But, lovely friends that they are, they took us in and even had us stay for lunch.

Heading back home for naps about 1:00, Jack learned what "tire tracks" are and how to walk in them to avoid the deep snow. The kids ate some more snow from a neighbor's snowman, and were stripped down in the laundry room. Phew! It was actually a really sweet time together, just the kids and I. When you're forced to slow down and stuck at home, it can lead to some really precious times. Their pink little cheeks are so kissable, and watching them marvel at things like snow (and the atv's racing down the street ;-), and making an adventure out of a snow day with Toby leading the way, well those are some pretty great memories to have!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

message to family:

check out lucy's eyes peeking through the handle... ;-)




"War Eagle!"



Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Lucy's Fancy Nancy Bedding

Lady gave Lucy a "Fancy Nancy" bedding set for Christmas, and she loves it! Baba completed Lucy's fancy nancy book collection, so this girl is all set!





I've made this bed and setting about as fancy as i can get it! ;-)


Night night!