Ahead of Schedule...

This is the first year I have ever been this organized and ahead of schedule for Christmas. I always feel like it sneaks up on me then a week before Christmas I am frantically trying to get the gifts I need to get. Well, not this year... I am officially finished with all my Christmas gift buying and wrapping. All I left to do is some baking. On top of finishing my shopping early I was able to get amazing deals on all of the items I bought though the wonderful and helpful coupon websites I look at. Nothing like finshing ahead of schedule, saving tons of money on all the items I wanted to get and enjoying every minute of it!! Love this...

Now we have time to heal since Thomas, Gracie and I are all sick... No Fun at this house right now. I am just hoping that it will be out of our systems come Christmas.

Then there was FIVE!

WOW! I still feel like it hasn't sunk in yet. We are pregnant with baby number 3!!!! Well we have known for about 4 1/2 weeks and most of you already know but for those of you who don't. Surprise... I had a second ultrasound today to check on little peanut and there it was. Great heartbeat, kicking  and swinging it's little arms. We had an ultrasound two weeks ago and at that time I thought I was already 7 weeks but when I went in the baby was only measuring 5 weeks 5 days. The doctor said we may have just miscalculated or because we had a miscarriage a couple of months ago my body may just be a little off and trying to catch up. So 2 weeks ago I was 5 weeks 5 days and as of today little peanut has caught up to about where I thought it should be 8 weeks 6 days. It was so good to get a great report. At my last appointment when the doctor did the ultrasound he didn't even get a pictures because they was not much to see but today the baby looked huge. (Compared to what I saw two weeks ago) When I told Gracie that I was going to the doctor to get a picture of the baby she asked if she could hold her. So Gracie is thinking it is a girl!! Well shall see!Thank you for all of you that have been praying for sweet baby.


For some reason I can't post the ultrasound picture but I will try again later!

Just some fun!!

We had a great morning this morning with some buddies of ours at the Children's Museum downtown. Ashley, Lilly, Asher, Ivana, Evie & sweet Ansley meet us at the museum for some fun times. Here are a few picture to show you the crazy kiddos!!!

He is pouting!!!

Gracie got a huge T-Bone steak and a box of ice cream. What a combination!!

Lilly only wanted her Cereal

"The girls"

Evie "the good one" picking out her fruit and veggies unlike Gracie and Lilly!! HA HA

Just Some Cute Kids.....

Haven't taken many picture of my two in a while so while we were playing outside I pulled out the camera...

Pumpkin Patch & Fair

Well the Martin Family had a very action packed weekend it feels like with doing the pumpkin patch on Saturday and the Coastal Carolina Fair on Sunday afternoon. Tommy the kids and I went to the Legare Farms pumpkin patch Saturday afternoon and really enjoyed it. I think the kids favorite part was the hay ride where you can feed the cows. Okay I take that back it was Thomas favorite. Once Gracie saw how long the cow's tongues where when you went to feed them she was done... No way was she about to feed them again! It actually was very very funny! And as far as Thomas he just wanted to be put in the field with the cows and he would be a happy camper.

I am not sure who was more surprised by the cows tongue....

Then Sunday afternoon when the kids woke up from their naps we meet my parents and brother and sister at the fair. The kids absolutely loved it. Thomas of course was all about the food and Gracie surprisingly was all about the rides. It was so nice to have my whole family together and they were just an awesome help. 

Thomas wasn't a huge fan of the merry go around! At one point I thought her was going to get sick.

Gracie loved the Ferris wheel!!!!



A little dirt won't hurt!

Out of all the toys and swing set and play sink in our backyard to play with what does Thomas like best? DIRT!!! In our backyard we have a tiny little area in the corner of the yard with some dirt and Thomas found it about two days ago and played and dug a hole for literally 45 minutes! He was totally zoned in on the dirt. If you called his name he would look at you for a brief second then zone back in on the hole he was trying to dig. I must say it was the cutest thing ever.... At his age I was lucky to get Gracie to walk on dirt with her shoes on. She would freak if she got dirty. He is all BOY!!!

Working hard

Coming to get me to show me his hole...

Charlestowne Landing & Thomas' first haircut

Two weekends ago Tommy the kids and I met Matt, Ashley and their kids at Charlestowne landing for a fun walk around the park and picnic. The weather could not have been more beautiful..... Perfect day for a picnic! All the kids were great! Thomas and Asher slept in the stroller for a little bit and the girls played, played, played! It was fun to listen to them have their own conversation and giggle then argue if needed! HA HA It was great! Here are a couple of picture from my camera!

Look at that wild hair!

Lilly and Gracie looking at the Bear!

Two peas in a pod!

And finally about a month ago now we took Thomas to get his first haircut. It was driving me crazy. He had a mullet and it just drove be banana's. So we too him to the barber shop that Tommy goes too. I had to sit in the chair and hold him. He screamed and cried the whole time. You would think he was having his ears cut off.

I even tried giving him a lollipop and that didn't work.

Every time he looked at Mrs. Debra he would cry harder!



Bible Verses

We have been teaching Gracie some bible verse with the help of her ABC Bible verse book! I finally got a video of the first few verses we have been practicing.

A: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

B: Be ye kind to one another.

C: Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

D: Delight yourself in the Lord.

E: Every good and perfect gift is from above. (this one she has some trouble with)

F: We are working on F! (Fear not for I am with thee.)

G: God is love

H: Honor your father and your mother.



This Girl Cracks Me Up!!

With in the last few weeks I feel like Gracie as developed this funny personality. (Well sometimes it is funny!) Gracie has been in a big girl bed for well over a month now and boy oh boy has it been a challenge. Never did I see this coming otherwise her little tush would still be in a crib. Every night it is something new with her. Well about a week ago Tommy was laying her down for bed and as usual she gets out of the bed only about 10.5 second after Tommy put her there to tell us that she has a boo-boo on her leg and needs medicine. Okay first time out of bed. Then Tommy puts her back and I will tell you how the conversation goes:

Tommy: Okay Gracie! It is bedtime and you need to go to sleep. Everyone is tired and everyone is going to bed.
Gracie: Okay Daddy! Can I have my passy. (pacifier)
Tommy: Here!

(About 5 minutes later we hear)

Gracie: Oh Daddy! Oh Daddy! I can't find my passy. Oh Daddy you hear me!

(At this point Tommy and I are listening to her on the monitor and just laughing.)

Tommy goes in there: Gracie! Where is you passy?  What did you do with it?
Gracie: I don't know! I can't find it!
Tommy: Well Gracie I can't find it either. Where is it?

Gracie gets out of bed and runs over to her little play kitchen in her room opens the microwave on it and says "Oh Daddy look I found them!"  With all Tommy has to compose himself he puts her back in bed comes out of her room and loses it laughing!

Another thing she has done is one morning she woke up around 6:00 and decided she was not tired any more so got out of bed and came in our room. She I guess wanted us to get up so she open and closed our door probably 10 times before Tommy got up and took her back to her room. And when I say closed our door I mean slammed it! After Tommy put her back in bed we got up about 30-45 minutes later only to find her in Thomas' room talking to him and throwing him toys into his crib. I guess since we didn't wake up and play she knew her brother would.

Date Night! (on a budget)

Tommy and I got to have a wonderful date night last night. I think I was even more excited about it because I got to save a lot of money and still have a great night. If you have never heard of the website Restaurant.com then you totally need to look into it. I went on there and found a gift certificate for Savory Sushi. I paid $3.00 for a $25.00 GC. The only catch is on the certificate it say you must spend at least $35.00 to get the $25.00 off. But hey $13.00 for a wonderful sushi dinner for two is amazing. Then after that we decided to go rent a movie and so I looked online again at some wonderful coupon websites and found a code for a free movie rental at the Blockbuster Kiosk. GREAT!!! Talk about a perfect date night on a budget!

Clemson Weekend!

Tommy and I finally got a chance to get away for the weekend with no kids. It was great to relax and enjoy each other without someone saying Mommy Mommy every two minutes. But about three or four hours into the drive to Clemson I started to really miss my kids. This weekend was family weekend up at Clemson and since my brother is now a student up there at the Bridge program we went for a visit. My mom was awesome! She really didn't feel like driving up there since she just saw my brother the weekend before so called me and offered us her tickets to the game and offered to stay home and keep the kids by herself while we got a weekend away. She is Awesome!!! Tommy has never been to a college game so he got the royal treatment for his first game if you ask me! My cousin and his family own box seats so that is where our tickets were! Not only did we get box seats we got a parking pass right on front of the stadium to experience the whole tailgating thing. Once we got to the box it was fully catered. Tommy was in amazement! We get to seat in A/C, eat all the food you want and have two flat screen T.V.'s in front of you to watch other football games along with the one in front of you! Just his luck Ohio State was playing at the same time as Clemson so we were watching that game on T.V. too!

      It was really great to see my brother and where he is living! He is in a awesome apartment complex that the bridge program has all of there student stay at! Way nicer then you could ever imagine! They have a club house there that has a huge outdoor pool with a lazy river around it, ping pong table and volleyball court. Then you go inside a you got tanning beds, pool table room with huge flat screen TVs to watch whatever you want, huge work out room, study room and giant kitchen! Tommy wanted to know how in the world are you supposed to study with all of that around you to do! But it was great! I am really happy for him and can see he really likes it! I just wish it was closer to home! Didn't realize how much I would miss him!

The Family!

The Kids!

In the Box!

It's Coming!

I can't wait for Fall. I am so over the really hot hot days and really over the rain. This morning it felt wonderful outside. While Thomas was taking his morning nap Gracie and I went outside on the deck and painted some pretty pictures for daddy and enjoyed the breeze!

She Did It!!!

We did it! Gracie is potty trained! Wahoooooo! I have never been so happy about someone using the bathroom! Ha ha. It has been about a week straight of using the big girl potty with a few accidents here and there but for the most part she is not wearing a diaper. The only time I am putting a diaper on right now is at bed time. We will work to that stage. We went to Babies R Us the other day and I tried putting a diaper on her for the car ride put she refused and screamed when I tried to change her she we went to North Charleston with Elmo underwear on! She made it the whole way there and as soon as we got there is went potty! I was so excited..... But needless to say we didn't make it the whole way home without an accident. She told me she needed to go but there was no where for me to stop so I tried to explain to a 2 year old to hold it and obviously she didn't understand. How do you explain that to a 2 year old. Hold it! HA HA

A Mom's Purse

I am not sure if it is just me but the contents in my purse sure have changed since I have had kids. The other day I was at CVS (my favorite coupon place) when I was trying to dig around in this bottomless pit of a purse to try and find my CVS card! So after my CVS trip I decided to come home a empty out my purse and clean it up! Let me just tell you what came out of my not so big purse.

-two sippy cups (1 Gracie's and the other Thomas)
-random stack of receipts
-loose change
-Gracie Toothbrush (okay I have no idea how that got in there)
-coupons and lots of them
-keys
-sunglasses
-lots on pens
-my wallet
-my coupon organizer (obviously I haven't been very organized if I have random coupons floating around my purse)
-chap stick
-small bag of goldfish (to keep Thomas entertained with)
and finally band aids!

Okay way to much stuff to be in my purse but I must admit everything beside the Toothbrush I use or would need. I guess to fix my problem I just need a bigger purse! HA HA

Love it.. Love it..

It warms my heart to no end! I love listening to this!

Party Pictures

Thomas birthday party was a great time! Thank you everyone for coming and joining in in our celebration for Thomas.

His Tractor cake!

Thomas was a little unsure of everyone singing Happy Birthday!

But he still didn't have a problem digging into the cake

That cake was gone in no time!

Princess Noa the cleaning fairy! Noa you can come over anytime and clean girl friend!

I wish I had gotten more pictures of all the kids. Like Issac laying on his belly looking like he was swimming and Ansley trying to crawl and the kids playing with Gracie's T-Ball set and Harrison sweet smile! Thank you again everyone for being part of our lives!

Wow.. This is the best thing since slice bread!

Guess Who enjoyed his Birthday Cake!

No problem putting the whole thing in at one time!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

My baby boy is ONE! I can't believe it... This is so exciting but at the same time emotional for me! ( I guess it is a mom thing) They are growing up way to fast. Thomas is the most cuddly mommas boy. He is by far more cuddly then Gracie ever was or is and he is a mommas boy to the "T". I love going in in the mornings to get him out of his crib. He first gives you the biggest smile like he hasn't seen you in ages then hands you his pacifier then stretches his arms way out of you to pick him up for a hug and kiss. So Happy Birthday to my baby boy!!! I love you to the moon and back....

Yankee Doodle

Santee State Park

Well I must say camping was a huge success! The kids loved it!!! After a long week away from reality I was ready to come home but Gracie was not at all. She cried when we told her it was time to pack everything up and go back home. It was so nice to be away from home for a while and not have any phone service to interrupt our family time. The kids slept in the same room and it worked out wonderfully! Gracie even learned to sleep in a big girl bed and never once tried to get out. Time for the switch at home!  I feel like alot has happened with Thomas while we were away. He has learned how to climb. And when I say climb I mean everything in his sight. Before we left home I caught him trying to climb the bookcase in our living room. He also has switched to whole milk and been taken off the bottle. I wasn't thinking that would happen for a while but he decided he liked the other milk better and likes having a cup like his sister. Hey I am not complaining here. Well here are a few pictures of our trip. The one picture I wish I could have gotten was Gracie and I on the tube being pulled behind the boat. She was a little nervous at first but loved it once daddy starting going.

Gracie helping herself to a little watermelon for breakfast

Why on earth would you sit in a high chair when you can stand in them!

Poor Thomas! Every time Gracie would get in the wagon she would tell Thomas to push her!

Gracie made a new friend. One she likes very very much! The 2 month old deer is giving Gracie kisses.

Gracie thought is was the funniest thing that when Thomas got hot he would crawl over to the fan and push it over and sit on it! He is one air condition baby!

Busted!