A Whole Lotta Nothin'!

Not much going on in the Martin household. I haven't wanted to bore you too badly so I have debated about what to post time and again. As you can see, my indecisiveness has resulted in NO action.

I know it's been almost a month since my last post but REALLY, not much to tell you. I see the same thing day in and day out and there isn't much to share. In fact, my poor camera has been so neglected because of this.....who likes a post with no pictures????

The latest on the pregnancy...... I went back to the hospital for another couple of days......this time with a pretty good outcome. My cervix looked like it was stable. They sent me home. My doc appointment last week went well. My cervix was still stable. Strangely I had been monitoring 10-12 contractions per hour pretty consistently......which in turn kept me monitoring for most of the day and well into the night. Annoying. The doc didn't seem too concerned about the high numbers since my cervix wasn't showing any change. This has been a blessing and a curse rolled into one......

I am SO thankful that my body is doing well and that the baby seems safe for the time being. On the other hand, knowing that all these contractions aren't doing anything makes me feel like I am doing the pump, the medicine, the monitoring and the bed rest for no reason. This makes it SO hard to stay down. I was doing really well about staying in bed before I found out that these contractions weren't causing me to progress......now, not so good. As the doc said, we never know when they will start to cause changes so we still need to be very careful......but BOY is that hard.

So many people have asked me what I am doing while confined to my bed. Well, lets see.....

-Playing with the kids......they are still here and they still like my attention occasionally..... I am good for reading to them at least......and of course some serious lovin' : )
- I have worked hard on getting my Home Management Binder all organized and purty! I'm pretty excited about this one even though it officially makes me a big huge dork! (I will try to get some pictures up and more details about it)
- I have gotten a TON of little girl clothes input, hung and tagged to sell in an upcoming consignment show called Just Between Friends.
- I have spent a lot of time on the internet..... oh boy......this one is one I should be a little ashamed of. I can get LOST in blogland. So many great sewing, decorating, ideas for fun stuff to do with kids, Christian encouragement, etc. blogs out there that I have to stop myself sometimes. I have also done a lot of research on different things.
- I finally got all of our FSA stuff in order(which was a SERIOUS chore) and faxed off and am now awaiting over $700 back! Woohoo!
- I have done a few little crafty things......made some pretty cute clips for Sam.
- I have been making some activities for Sam on photoshop that I will share will ya'll soon if I can figure out a way to do so.
- And a little recreational novel reading that I don't normally get to do.

That about covers it.....my life is pretty boring right now! I wish I had something interesting to tell you but.....I don't!

My Little Hospital Visit!

OK, so last week when I went to the doctor he told me that he would like for me to change to the terbutaline pump since I was still having contractions. When he saw that my cervix hadn't changed, he told me that I could just call him if the contractions continued and we would deal with it then.

The contractions continued.

When Mom came over yesterday she asked how the contractions were and when I told her that they weren't any better, she convinced me to call the doctor. His response was NOT what I was expecting! I really expected that he would just send someone out to set up the pump. Instead he sent me to the hospital.

I got to the hospital about 12:30. They put me on the monitor and saw that I was having 7-8 contractions every 30 minutes and thought that was too many. They also checked me and noticed I was dilated to a 1. They aren't too concerned about the dilation because the doc says that some women are just that way. (I am probably one of those women considering I have been dilated to a 4-5 by the time I went in to deliver with my previous pregnancies). Regardless, they weren't happy with the contractions.

The doc recommended that I have the terb pump set up at the hospital. The company that does the pumps was taking forever and my contractions weren't getting any better so the doc ordered a terb shot and 23 hours of observation. Ugh....that meant a nights stay at the hospital.

We found out this morning that my insurance company denied the pump. The doc was not satisfied with that response so he did a sono. The sono showed funneling in my cervix, which in turn means that my cervix has shortened and he also saw a contraction. He documented these things, printed out pictures and resubmitted the request for the pump to the insurance company.

We are still waiting for the response......which means another night in the hospital! POO!

Mom has had the kids and thankfully J will be home late tonight.

Praying that the insurance will approve the pump, they will get it set up and I will get out of here tomorrow! In the meantime I am taking the terbutaline orally and spending a lot of time reading! (and starving......the food is HORRIBLE)

Thank you to everyone who is helping out and praying for us!

A Fun Weekend!

Well, after Spencer would NOT go to sleep because of his excitement over the new chair, we decided to get the kids outside to play in the water and the sandbox. Of course they had a wonderful time. Sam really loves to play in the water......Spencer, not so much. He enjoys the sandbox and just exploring!

Daddy spraying Sam! Sam thinks he is SOOO funny!

Spencer enjoying a little snack. Ugh....isn't that gross? Eating sand is just nasty. He seemed to enjoy it though.....he did it more than once! What a goof!
And even though this picture is horrible of me, I just had to share. It is classic Sam. I said, "I'm taking a picture, SMILE!" and this is what I ended up with. She was not upset at all.....she is just a stinker. The girl is so full of drama.....I will be surprised if she doesn't end up making it her career : )
And here is my Little Man after a little fun in the backyard : )

Saturday morning it was raining so we thought we would go outside and watch the rain. I was actually really surprised when Spencer just walked right out into it and played. Of course Sam wanted to get out there after that! How much fun! I remember playing in the rain as a kid and I LOVED it.....probably because it was so "crazy" and I felt free!

Isn't this so sweet? She was taking care of her little brother!

Don't you just love the plumber pants : )

And here are the kids saying "hi" to me! I was trying to be good and resting inside, watching them through the window.

I love these kids! Even though I was stuck resting, I still enjoyed the weekend!

The Chair

When Spencer turned 1 (June 23) there wasn't anything we could think of to get him so my Mom just got him a visa gift card. We figured there would be something he would want soon enough. We finally decided on something and got it this weekend.

When he was staying at Dawn's, he loved to play in Connor's little upholstered chair. Sam has an Elmo chair at the house that he never seemed interested in......until recently. For the past week or so they have been fighting over who gets to sit in that chair so we figured it was time to get him one of his own.

Babies 'R Us was having a big sale so we went yesterday and got him a little upholstered "Cars" chair. We figured picking out another red chair would limit the fighting over who got what chair.

When we got home, it was time for a nap but my napper was NOT interested. He was SO excited about his new chair. He just kept going over and sitting down in it. It was so cute!

Here it is fresh out of the bag (of course Sam had to put hers right next to his and sit with him)

And here is Sissy showing him the cool car on the back!

And here he is being so proud! (I was so upset that this one turned out blurry)

And for those of you who are asking why I was out running errands........we just went in, got the chair and left. :)

The Big Helper

So, we decided that we would switch the kids rooms since Sam's room is so much bigger and the boys will be sharing a room. Sam was soooo excited to pick out the color of her new room and help Nini paint! Here is her hard work! She was so proud of herself and when she finished she said, "Daddy will be so happy!" That girl loves her Daddy!


As you can see, she chose a light aqua color which is not all that much different from what she had in her other room : ) When we switched the rooms, we put her bed up on rails and attached the headboard. (pictures to come) We originally put the mattress on the floor so that she wouldn't have far to fall if she rolled out but now that she is bigger we thought it would be nice for her to have a BIG big girl bed. She loves it.

And FYI for anyone painting in the near future.....the Behr Premium Plus, which is the primer and paint in one, is AWESOME. We were painting over the intense green and a black stripe and it only took one coat. Wow!

Big Boy Haircut!

My Little Man got a big boy haircut. It's crazy how grown up he looks now. He did pretty good for his first time. They put on the movie "Cars" and he was glued to the TV. The clippers bothered him a couple of times but he did really well and we were outta there quickly!

BEFORE

AFTER

I took him to Cool Cuts 4 Kids. I'm glad I took him there for the first time since she was accustomed to working with kiddos and was super quick and patient but I won't be going back. They are ridiculously expensive and dirty.

Here is his only little freak-out! (isn't it cute)

overly tired = defiant

SAVE ME!

She Makes Me Laugh

Seriously.......Sam cracks me up. The things kids say are just great. This is also a little bragging so just know that going in...... I AM one of THOSE Mom's who thinks their kid hung the moon.

So, we were playing with her Aquadoodle. She told me she was going to draw a fish and this is what she drew. I was quite impressed. I realize it's no Picasso but for a 2 year old......pretty impressive.

(grrrr..... I don't know why but every time I upload this pic it turns it sideways)

After that she wanted me to sit and draw with her. I drew a smiley face and showed her how to do it. Here is her smiley face......pretty cute, huh!


So, THEN I drew a house. She wanted to draw it so bad but she was having a REALLY hard time. So, in my very teacherish manner I proceeded to do a dotted line house that she could trace because she usually really likes to trace. I thought that was brilliant.

Apparently she did not.

I was trying to tell her to trace the dots and she was "busy" drawing something else. So, I tried to take her hand and show her how to trace it. She pulled away and told me she was drawing something else. I guess I am a little persistent because I tried once AGAIN to tell her to trace it. Of course, she continued to ignore me so I said, "Why are you being ugly to me?" and her answer......... "I'm not hearing you!"...........WOW! I laughed out loud on that one. Just thinking about what she was thinking and hearing her so serious tell me that was just funny.

And because I am a Mom, I had to explain to her that she was in fact hearing me and what she was doing was called IGNORING.

And the story behind the next pic. I drew the large sun and then she asked me to draw the small sun. She said, "Mommy & Daddy." I asked her which was which and she said the big one was Daddy & the small one was Mommy. This is just funny because she is always saying, "I'm big like Daddy & Spencer is small like Mommy."

I really don't know what to make of this but she says it all the time! (Guess I should enjoy that I am small in her mind)

The Reward

So, we have implemented something new in the Martin household. It's the reward jar......it's equivalent to a reward chart w/ stickers.......I guess I am just more artsy fartsy than I am teacherish and so I had to do something different!

It works like this: I got a small glass jar and a bunch of pretty glass stones. When Sam does something good, she gets a stone. When the jar gets full, she gets a big prize (as opposed to a bunch of little junky stuff each time she does something good) She gets stones for a variety of things but I wanted it to promote independence, character and initiative for doing things.

At what point do you quit telling your child to say "thank you", "share with your brother" or "pick up your toys"? It isn't as if they don't know they need to do these things, they are just hoping to get away with NOT doing them. I was hoping for some positive reinforcement for positive behaviours. So far it has worked beautifully......BUT I must say that Sami is a natural people pleaser so this is right up her alley......don't know that this would work for all the little guys.

So back to what she gets stones for.......here is a small list of things she has actually gotten stones for......

putting away her toys w/o me asking
sharing with her brother w/o me asking
taking a nap w/o a fight
putting the silverware away
putting her laundry away
being a good girl at the store
watching/entertaining her brother while I need to do something
small but important stuff that makes my heart smile because she is such a great kid (character issues)

Sooooo, all this to tell you that she got her jar filled up and received her first reward today. She LOVED it. Her cousins are in town and my Mom was taking them to NRH2O, so we decided that would be a perfect prize. She is hesitant of water but she really warmed up and ended up doing really great and having a fantastic time. She went down slides, played on all the cool kid stuff and swam in the wave pool. It was a wonderful day!

Here are a few pictures.......

Sam & her cousin Parker

Sam & I going down the slide (we are on the left)

Daddy & Spencer

Sam hasn't been to NRH2O since she was less than a year old so she doesn't even remember it. I'm sure we will be going back. Spencer did pretty good. He just got REALLY tired and was fuss talking when we left.......I think his ears are still bothering him.

OH, and that brings up a good question........how do you reward one child w/o rewarding the other? or do you just let them both enjoy it? this isn't so much an issue now but it will be as Spencer gets to the age to do his own reward jar(and I could be wrong in my predictions but I have a feeling that his is going to fill up MUCH slower than hers).

Well, the fam is still zonked from the trip.......hoping they will wake soon.....getting close to bedtime.

A First

Ha! We just got back from the play area at NE Mall. Due to Spencer being sick, we haven't been out of the house in several days and Sam was just about to lose all civility. I decided it was time to take action since Spencer's temp had been gone for over 24 hrs.

It was so stinkin' cute. This was the first time we have been since Spencer has been walking so this is the first time he has gotten to play. It was precious! He was in heaven. There were 8 billion people there but he just thought it was great. He would take a few steps and then just watch everyone, move a little and then just watch everyone. He was mesmerized! He would just laugh and squeal in excitement. It was hilarious.

And Sam was soooo sweet. She is the greatest big sister in the world. She was so concerned about him. She made sure he was doing good, would go play a little and then find him again to make sure he was ok. I don't know how many times she came over to me and asked me where Bubby was. She didn't have to watch out for him......I never asked her to do that. She is just a little mother hen. I'm sure it will drive the boys crazy as they all get older but I think it is sweet that she cares so much.

I am so blessed!

The 3rd Pregnancy.....

doesn't exist. Maybe it's just because my kids are so close but I don't have time to think about being pregnant!

For those of you who don't know this, I HATED being pregnant with the other 2...... like, despised it.......couldn't wait for the day I could get those kiddos outta there. Why?

1) there are too many things that happen to your body that are just flat uncomfortable (some unmentionables, some things like feet in your ribs)
2) your emotions are just RIDICULOUS
3) you get fat
4) nothing you wear looks cute and when you get really big, nothing is long enough to cover your protruding belly
5) you are TIRED.....all the stinkin' time
6) but you really can't sleep because you're either uncomfortable or HOT
7) and most of all for me it is because they are invading MY SPACE!!!!

All of that said, I have actually been able to enjoy this pregnancy because

1) you aren't sure if the things that are so uncomfortable are just leftovers from the last pregnancies
2) well, the emotions are still annoying
3) now you have an excuse for the fat you already had
4) nothing you wore before the pregnancy was cute anyway because you used all that money on making sure your kids look cute
5) you're already tired all the time from the other 2 kids
6) but you can't really sleep anyway since they don't sleep through the night or take up half of your bed
7) space? what space? toddlers just don't understand the concept of space.

and there you have it.

So much to say

Well, it's been so long I don't really know what to say because there is so much that has happened. I want to tell you some of the things I learned being a working Mom but that is for another post entirely.

Spencer turned 1! My baby boy.......the very reason this blog ever started, is ONE! I can't believe it! He started walking at about 11 months so he is really getting around good now! We had a GREAT birthday party for him......I will share some of those pictures soon.

I found out I am pregnant again! Samara turns 3 in September and the baby is due October 18th! That means a 3 yr old girl, a one year old boy and a newborn baby boy! Wow! This blog just might get REAL interesting come October. We are excited it is another boy. Not sure we could have handled the drama another girl would have brought! Samara likes being the Princess and I'm not sure how she would do sharing that title : )

My brother graduated from basic training and now he and his family have moved to Kentucky! We are sad! Sam and Balin loved playing together.

The pregnancy thing means we will be having to make some changes. Well, the first already happened and that was quitting work. We will most likely have to sell our car and get something a little bigger. And we will have to change the kids rooms around (NOT looking forward to this one) I figure it would be more appropriate for the boys to share and right now Samara is in the larger room. Right now Spencer's room is lime green and black......probably not gonna fly with my girlie girl!

Spencer loved staying at Ms. Dawn's. Conner says that Spencer is his best friend! It is SOOO cute! Sam got jealous when she heard Conner say that so now they fight about whose best friend he is. I know we will look forward to our playdates with the Younger's!

Alrighty.......I'm sure I'm forgetting something but that's all I can think of right now. I'm thinking it's going to take me a few posts to get back into the swing of things! Excited to be back!

Here are a few pictures I took the other day while we were playing outside.....

Isn't this so sweet! Sam is really good about playing with Spencer and helping him!

I'M BAAACCKK!

Ok, not yet, but I will be soon!

My last day at work will be the 26th of this month! I can't wait to be home with my kiddos again. I have really missed blogging and having those memories preserved, so I will be jumping back on here once I get settled back into the being at home routine.

Can't wait.....the kids are getting so big and so much has happened!

Our first week!

Hey everybody!

The first week of work went great! I really enjoy the job and my coworkers have been so great. I feel right at home already!

I haven't had a chance to update the blog because I don't spend near as much time on the computer that I once did. When I get home from work I just want to hang out with the kids and many nights don't even open the computer......I'm sure you understand.

Life is quite different as a working Mom of 2.

Sam LOVES LOVES LOVES her school and new friends. She is so precious......praying and thanking God for her new friends and new school! She even wanted to go this weekend. I really think she was getting bored at home all day, every day. She LOVES to learn and this is giving her an opportunity to learn and play all day long! I think she will probably HATE staying home with me if I ever get that chance again. : (

It was so cute getting her valentine's and little goodies for and from all her classmates! Soooo caaauuute! They had a little party Friday morning......how fun!

I LOVE picking her up......it brings such joy to see her so excited to see me and excited to tell me all about her day on the car ride home. I get so many sugars on the way outta that Preschool that those people probably think I'm crazy ; )

Spencer was sick all of last week. He had upper respiratory stuff, an ear infection and at the end of the week came down with some funky rash. Poor guy. Things seem like they are getting better on that end!

Spencer is not being very nice to Dawn......only sleeping in 30 minute increments. Please be praying that he can settle into a routine over there. He seems to be doing fine at Angel Land......sleeping good for them......little stinker!

We are all adjusting nicely.......THANK YOU to everyone who prayed.......we could not have done this without you! I really do have the best friends and I am so grateful everyday for you!

I realized while scanning the blog that it has been a while since I have posted any pics......I will try to do that soon! Spencer is getting so big. Josh dressed him yesterday while Sam and I were at church and when I checked the size on the outfit he was wearing it said 24 months! AAAHHH! The kid is BIG! I can't believe how fast he is growing! He is such a sweet soul......he loves to give kisses and this Momma loves to take them : )

Please pray that my heart can continue to be at peace about our new situation!

A little better!

Well, the week hasn't seemed to get a whole lot better but my attidude certainly has : )

Tuesday and Wednesday Sam stayed home with me because she wasn't feeling well. Today was her first day back and she seemed excited to be going to school and playing with her new friends. Unprovoked by me, she prayed for and thanked God for her new friends all this week! Hopefully I will find a happy child when I pick her up!

Yesterday, I wasn't able to keep my eyes open, my head was pounding, I kept getting the chills and just felt YUCKY! Ya, I'm pretty sure I've got the flu! Thank goodness for WONDERFUL kids who basically kept themselves entertained all day! Mom came and stayed last night to get the kids a bath and feed Spence in the middle of the night! Thanks Mom!

My grandpa is home from the hospital.....YAY!

I am officially starting work on Monday!