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!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lucy's new thing

Well, I have to say, I LOVE Lucy's "new thing."  And that thing is...(drumroll...):  making her bed in the morning!

She is all about it, and this is a nice surprise.  Having Lucy make her bed is not high on my priority list, and before she was able to physically do it on her own, I never considered it worth my time, so I never did it. (In my opinion, there are just too many other more important things to do).

That said, I obviously appreciate the good lesson that comes from teaching a child to respect and take care of their things - and making your bed is a part of that, so recently Jason and I added "making her bed" one of her morning chores.  I braced myself for quite a bit of resistance, considering 1) I never modeled good "bed-making" habits to her (a kid is always going to notice when you say one thing and do another...  bad mama!  :) and 2) there is always a whiny soundtrack spouting from that child's mouth every day as she completes her regular chores.

surprisingly, however, she has really taken an ownership of this chore, and even enjoys setting up her dolls just so:

She spends about ten minutes setting up her bed, very serious about it.  :)  way to go, lucy!  great job!

Monday, June 18, 2012

fav workout pants! ON SALE!

I have been waiting for these to go on sale!  I bought two more pairs today, and just wanted to pass along the recommendation.

I'm teaching at least three workout classes a week now, so I wanted to stock up on some more of my very favorite ones!  These really are super flattering, and surprisingly good quality considering it's Old Navy.  (I'm a fan of their inexpensive prices, but I've never been impressed by the quality of any of their clothes until I bought these.  :)  I've been using one pair that I wash over and over...well, until now!  :)

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=8852840020003&cid=77639&locale=en_US

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Papa 'n Uncle Brendan visit

Jason was out of town last week, and my dad and brother were kind enough to come to Huntsville to lend some extra help.  The kids were so thrilled to have them visit.  We had a countdown going for days before their visit!  My brother Brendan is so fantastic with my kids; really, kids in general.  But, as my kids announced, he's their favorite uncle (Ryan:  guess you need to make a visit sometime soon if you want the title :).
















Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Boys and their toys

The rainy weather we've had lately has made super fun puddles to play in:

















Connor is super into his trucks!  All boy, just like big brother!





Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Hilarious Video

My dad and brother, Brendan, are visiting for a few days, and my kids always look forward to "funny videos" they have to share.  We all had quite a good laugh watching this sweet boy, who says some hilarious things while still doped up on anesthesia.  Check it out; I guarantee you'll have a good laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__dUlY0JpSc

Monday, June 11, 2012

Postmas' Pool Party

We love pool parties at the Postmas!  Here are some fun pics from our last get together there:

I relaxed (and enjoyed US Weekly thanks to Julie's huge stash of current mags- thx girl!) and snuggled with super cuddly connor :)




Jack and Lucy were all about jumping off the diving board!  Here, Lucy's jumping to Josh, who did a fantastic job of teaching her how to swim last summer!




and then, jumping to Jason...



Connor watched the big kids...



 and enjoyed the water in his raft...




but, these are my favorite ones of him:  playing with Jason




Splash!



Lucy was delightful all day to watch.  She loved playing with "baby Alex", who's not at all a baby anymore, and in fact, is a big brother!  :)





Thanks again Julie and Eric!  We always enjoy it!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Patience People!

On my personal list of strengths and weaknesses, "patient" would actually fall on the side of strengths.  (Well, except when I'm in line at any Walmart; I hate being in Walmarts so much, I typically loose all sense of self-control when I'm in a line with an interminable wait.)

But, back to my point.  Patience...while visiting my family in Atlanta a few weekends ago, Jason witnessed someone behaving so impatiently, you'll think I'm making it up.  Perhaps you've heard of the reputation of Atlanta drivers being aggressive on the road, often filled with road rage.  Well, that's true, and apparently, if you're an Atlanta driver, you are more important than anyone else on the road.  Case in point:

This is in an outdoor mall parking lot, where it is a single traveling lane in between two sides of parking spaces that are all on a diagonal.  Car A is slowly backing out of a parking space, Car B is waiting to pull into that parking space, giving Car A ample space to back up; Cars C and D are behind Car B, irritated that they're having to wait the ten seconds it will take car A to back out and car B to pull into that spot.

So, Car C decides to gun it, swerve around Car B and through the space that's in front of it, making Car A slam on its breaks as it's backing out.  And Car D decides that's a super plan and screams through the awkward intersection as well.

What's really crazy is those drivers are clearly so dumb, because they were racing through only to drive maybe twenty feet ahead where I'm sure there was another stopped waiting on someone else backing out of a parking spot.

Perhaps this isn't translating very well in a word description, and if I was on my old computer and not this new mac, I'd use my handy dandy paint program and draw a rustic diagram just like I've done before to help illustrate this point.  :)  But, either way, bottom line is don't take yourself too seriously and look like these two jack-asses!  :)  Happy, PATIENT driving, everyone!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Disney Fun!

Not that I ever doubted it, but everyone who told me that Disney would be the most fun you'd ever have, but you'd come home absolutely exhausted, was right on the money! (and people honeymoon here!?! :)  Here's a look back in pics:



Grandmama and Grandpa Bert drove in from their home in Tavares, FL to have dinner with us our first night.  This irish pub in Downtown Disney was delicious, and the dancers were so entertaining!  Thanks for dinner, Grandmama and Grandpa Bert!  We really enjoyed visiting with you!



Lucy's gifts from Grandmama, and she was so excited to get back home to make her jewelry!  The markers and coloring book were a super hit, and she made sure she colored each night before going to bed!



Our trip was immensely better because we were able to travel with the Back Family!  Molly and Jason are disney pros!  We got so much more out of the trip because of things like their knowledge of what path to take through the parks to wait the least amount of time, what shows we shouldn't miss, even when to look for "hidden mickeys."  Molly even made a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete at each country in Epcot.  (And it was totally worth the three questions they made it through before they decided they were done with it :p)  Remember when Nintendo games were new and huge, and you could buy the game magazines that would give you all the cheat codes?  That's what it was like being at Disney with the Backs; they gave me all the cheat codes :)  And look at Lucy's shirt; isn't that adorable!  Molly made it for her!



My favorite part of the entire trip was our lunch at Cinderella's Castle.  It was so well done, and Lucy was just in awe each time she got to meet a princess.  Lucy and I made an autograph book before we headed on our trip (another great tip from Molly!), and Lucy so enjoyed getting her book ready before each princess came to the table, choosing a specific page for them to sign.


Aurora, her favorite!






Funny story with Princess Ariel:  this lady had a lovely appearance, but when she smiled for pictures, she opened her eyes very large, and her eyebrows would arch up; this gave her face an overall very strange, scary appearance.  When Ariel was at the table next to us, right before she would be coming to our table, Lucy noticed this as well.  And she blurted out, "She looks evil!  Why does she look evil!?!"  Oh my..."Lucy, shhhh, don't talk so loud!"  So, I tried to explain, very quickly, hoping she hadn't heard, that it was just the way she was moving her eyebrows, and that she was a very beautiful princess and that it wasn't polite to say that people look evil.

Fortunately, Lucy didn't say anything about it when Ariel arrived at our table; but she did have big hugs to give!



The kids were given wishing wands, and here Lucy is thinking about what her wish would be.  She wished for "a bigger hula hoop, so I can hula hoop better."  At a friend's house, we discovered Lucy is a natural at hula hooping, and so a while back, I bought her a hula hoop of her own.  Apparently it was too small (and cheap - from dollar store :), and clearly, it's been bothering her.

I'm going out today to get her a proper one, and I'm going to put it in her room, coupled with a note from Cinderella granting her wish.  Hopefully, it will turn out neat!



Belle was so pretty!


At Epcot, we met more characters:


I wish you could have seen how excited she was each time she was moments away from greeting another character, tightly clutching her notebook and pen!








Spunky little girl!

Best part of being on vacation is having Sprite at each meal (she was super excited about getting "soda"!) and ice cream in the middle of the day!


Oh, this ice cream picture reminds me of a story I have to tell.  While at Epcot, the skies opened up and we endured a torrential downpour for about four solid hours.  So, Lucy and I decided to go have a long lunch in Japan, at a restaurant where they cook in front of you.  (Lucy is always asking to go to those here at home!)  We were seated with a family from Illinois, who announced to the waitress that they had a food allergy to "green peppers."  The waitress was confused, and wanted to send the manager over just to make sure they weren't served anything inappropriate.  Anyhow, when the manager arrived to ask a few follow-up questions, they finally blurted out, "We just don't like vegetables.  All of us...we don't want any vegetables."  I hope they weren't looking my way because I'm sure my face looked quite perplexed.  They don't like any vegetables!?!  Seriously...What a great way to influence your child to eat healthy their whole life!  The kicker was when the chef arrived at the table to cook the food.  You know how they'll always confirm your order before they start cooking?  The whole "green pepper allergy" thing had to be covered ONCE AGAIN, and we had to hear again just how much they didn't like vegetables, "any vegetables."  To make a point, I offered that Lucy and I would be happy to take any extra vegetables.  And then, I swear as if on cue, when we were eating, Lucy forked a piece of zucchini and asked me what it was.  I loudly announced it was a kind of food that was full of natural vitamins that were good for her body.  :)


The rains ended and opened up to a lovely evening...



The next day, we started our day at Animal Kingdom at Donald's Safari Breakfast.  Such yummy food!  And more characters:




Lucy loved water rides!  (She heard me calling from the bridge above, but looked the wrong way; Jason and Parker, however, saw me!)



Another story:  So, while on a Disney trip, every kid (and parent, for that matter) will have a "breaking point," and for Lucy it was on this day during lunch.  We were going to have an early dinner that evening, and we had enjoyed a huge breakfast at Donald's Safari just a few hours before.  So, for lunch, I ordered us a turkey sandwich to split.  The first thing that upset her was that there was mayonnaise on the sandwich (it was a super yummy cranberry mayo), but when I pointed to the fresh fruit that was on the plate (a slice of honeydew melon), that's when she really lost it.  Tears sprung forth, and she wailed, "I wanted it to be M-A-N-G-O!!!!!)  Yes, her meltdown was over a piece of fruit, not being to her liking; that it was merely a piece of honeydew and NOT mango.)   I think us adults laughing at her only made the situation worse, but seriously, we couldn't help it.  Thinking back, we were in the Animal Kingdom, I should have suggested that she go find a mango tree and help herself!  :)





After Animal Kingdom, we cleaned up at the hotel and donned some fresh clothes for a dinner out at Disney's Wilderness Hotel.  This was an adorable restaurant, where the waiters do quirky things.  If you ask for ketchup, they yell across the room, "Whoooooo has the ketchup?"  And then they make someone from that table bring you ketchup - all 14 bottles of it :)  They're sassy, and it was hilarious to watch Lucy interact with our waiter, because she just couldn't figure out if he was being real.

At one point, they gave all the kids horses to ride, and they galloped around and around the room.  Had a blast!




Such a ham!  I swear I've never shown her any moves like this!  Either it's in her DNA or she's sneaking viewings of Toddlers & Tiaras!  :p




And after dinner, it was "over the river and through the woods to"... a whole new world of Disney.  Even the Backs' didn't know this, but there is a whole campground where you can camp.  Like, pitch a tent and sleep on the ground, camp.  (Why anyone would want to do the parks all day and then come home to sleep ON THE GROUND is beyond me, but I digress.  Although the people watching here was fantastic!  :))  But, this is where we had smores with Chip N' Dale.  There were sing along songs, too.  We all enjoyed stuffing ourselves with smores!



And despite a helluva' departure day, we managed to make it back to Huntsville!  (We visited Hollywood Studios that morning where we got totally stuck in the Star Wars parade (Holy moly!), and then, while on the bus to the airport, I realized - to my horror - that I had totally forgotten to clear out our drawers and left my jewelry bag (with two of my push presents in it and thus a lot of emotional value) in our hotel room.  My phone wouldn't get any service, so I couldn't locate a phone number to call the hotel.  The disney transportation service got us to the airport way late, and then I managed to take the wrong bus to the wrong terminal.  At this point, I had been able to talk to the hotel, but I was waiting for a phone call back from the Lost and Found dept. and clearly my  mind was not focused on looking where I was going in the airport.  (By the way, don't ever make this mistake because once you get back to the main wing from the wrong terminal, they make you go back through the entire security line - except this is where I broke down into squeaky tears and a kind security guard took pity on my sorry self and took us to an employee only line and we were able to get right through, and finally on the correct train to the correct terminal.  Stupid me, there are gate numbers clearly posted, only I just never looked up to see the signs that indicate there is more than one train to get to different gates.  When we finally got to the correct gate, I was soaked in sweat, my anxiety issues were back in full force, and I looked more haggard than a character from Fraggle Rock.  And only because I was with my child - and her only guardian - did I not order several alcoholic beverages and gulp them down immediately.)

The entrance signs at the parks say, "Let the Memories Begin," and from this trip we have every kind of memory you can!  Can't wait until Jack and Connor are older and do it again with my whole family!

For a view of all the pics from our trip, visit my Shutterfly page:  http://kjjlmartinpics.shutterfly.com/#:albumId=3871