Blue Blankie

Jakey: "Mom, you know what my favorite part of preschool is?"

Me: "What Jake?"

Jake: "Naptime."

Me: "Naptime? Why?"

Jake:"Because I get to have blue blankie. I love you blue blankie."

6 months old!

One of these things is not like the other... One of these things just isn't the same...

can you guess which one is not like the other,
can you guess before my song is done?

We've been noticing the uncanny resemblance between our children when they were babies. Can you guess who looks the most alike? I'll give you a hint... it's not the Turkey (unfortunately that's the only picture I could find of Jake in the playtoy like the ones with Margie and James. Although they do all have similarities. James has the same mouth as Jake and they all have big eyes, Jake's are just Blue. They all have pretty big cheeks also, but there are times when James pulls a face that looks exactly like his sister.

Here's a few more...

Sitting up big and tall at 6 months old!

Margie, James and Jake in that order.

James is the little girl with the curl...I know he's a boy, but when he is mad he's really really mad and when he's good he's fabulous! I can't believe it's been 6 months already! Let's address the sleeping issues... yes we have days when mom is at wits end and blogs about her crying sad baby who won't nap... we've been working on this for a while now. I am happy to say he has been napping somewhat regularly in the past few days. He loves to be awake all morning and then by the afternoon he naps on again off again for an hour at a time till bedtime... we're working on it though and he does love to sleep in his bed now so that is a major accomplishment. We even got rid of the swing so he couldn't sleep in it any more. (For a time that's all we could do to get him to sleep) James also is a screamer.. which means I have a hard time deciphering the hungry scream from the tired scream from the play with me scream... (I think I need a dog or something sometimes to be able to tell me which is which.) But we are getting into a better schedule now so I do know what to try first! When James is happy and fed and not tired though, he's such a fun baby. He loves attention and just adores his brother and sister. They usually get the biggest smiles from him and can get him laughing. He can now sit up on his own which he loves! He gets really excited to have a pile of toys to play with in front of him and will sit there for a good amount of time now on his own without needing to be held by anyone, in fact he prefers it. He is still very social though and if you leave the room where he is he'll start screaming for you till you come back and he can either see or hear you. I'm hoping that learning to crawl will fix that. He's definitely been the most challenging of my three babies, but we love him the same and I don't even remember what more than a few hours of sleep is anymore! So there's the latest on my sweet baby boy Happy 6 month Birthday James!

Sleep.... or lack thereof

This is the face of a sad bawling baby boy. 40 minutes of crying and trying to get him to take a nap. One 45 min nap this morning and it's now 2pm and he's not sounding like he wants an afternoon nap. He had about 15 min in the car while I ran errands around noon. That's about it. Could he really not be tired??? Any ideas?

He sure was happy to get up and as long as I'm holding him he doesn't cry... other than that he's been crying pretty much the whole day... yes even in the car except for the 15 min he finally gave up to sleep (the whole purpose of the errands was to get him to sleep). Some days I'll try anything!

Happy Valentines Day!!

We had a great Valentines dinner tonight. Here's the kids in succession, Margie and James looking and smiling and then Jake... It's amost impossible to get them all at the same time.

The kids helped decorate the table with hearts and valentines.

We made heart shaped pizza's, the kids each had the letter of their first name on it.

Here's Margie at her class party.

Hope you all had a happy Valentines Day!!!

Love XOXOXOXO to all!

Happy 2010 - Bring on 2011

Here's the Martin Family update for 2010
Margie started Kindergarten and loves to go to school and learn. She is starting to read and gets very excited when she realizes she knows a word or can sound one out. She loves to play Barbies, color and do projects at her desk, and help with baby James. Jacob - as he now likes to be called, (sometimes) - started preschool two days a week, it's a great break from mom and gives him an opportunity to learn and have his own school to go to. He loves Batman and all other superheroes and can often be seen sporting a superhero shirt and cape as he flies around the house and even sometimes around the town with mom. James Talmage Martin was born just before midnight on Aug 22, 2010. He just turned 4 months before Christmas and is growing so fast. He is a sweet boy and loves to smile and interact... almost too much because he is usually crying if nobody is giving him attention or holding him. He's a fun and challenging addition to our family. Dan is enjoying and kept busy with his work at Fronterra Geosciences. He is serving with the Young men and as a ward missionary which keeps him busy out of work also. He had the opportunity to go on a business trip to Egypt last month and see the pyramids
(yep that's really him there- no photoshopping required! Becca is adjusting to life with three kids. (She couldn't find a picture of herself without a child in it also..such is life!) She is the Primary Chorister at church and that keeps her busy as well. She still enjoys quilting and has been taking on many household projects lately, when she has time and what can be done with a baby in one arm.

We are grateful for all our friends and family and the great relationships we have with them. We are ready for a new Year and new experiences that may come with it.
We wish you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent with good friends eating Quesadillas, chips and salsa, cheese and lots of yummy desserts. We had our own little nativity play with all the appropriate parts. Margie Jake and Aiden doubled as the shepherds and Wise men. Londynn was the Angel, Jackson and Emma, Mary and Joseph, Kailee was the star, Mason was baby Jesus and Dimitri was the angel Gabriel and the donkey. James was supposed to be a sheep but ended up sleeping through the whole thing. The kids got to open their Christmas pajamas and then we headed home. Amazingly both kids were asleep in about 15 minutes completely out at 8:15 on Christmas Eve. We were all so exausted we even forgot to leave out cookies for Santa! Oh well... He came anyway! Christmas morning at last!!! James was up at 6am, wide awake.. I tried with all my might to get him back to sleep but he woudn't have it. He just wanted to play. So Margie stumbled out around 6:30 and we sent her back to wake up Jake. Of course the chaos bagan the moment they laid into their stockings. We tried to let them open stockings and one present then have breakfast and finish the rest, well neither kid was hungry and Margie sat on the floor staring at me and asking "are you finished yet mom?" as I ate my cereal. They coudn't open till Dan and I were done, pure torture! We were completely finished around 8:30am (and ready for a nap)Here's Jakey sporting his StarWars lego jammies and showing his Transformer car.

Margie didn't like the idea of taking turns so she was done with her present opening way before anyone else. She was so excited she couldn't stand it and was very happy with what Santa brought her. She even declared "I must have been good!" when she saw all she got.
All three gooses on the new blanket from Grama Annie. Thanks Grama!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that Santa was good to you also!

For my Sisters.... several posts in one day!!!

I am trying to come back to the land of Blog. It's been a few months and yes I just did posts for Halloween and Thanksgiving in one day.. so what... at least I got it done before Christmas. Here's some new news from just the last week...

Margie won a major award!!! the King Arthur award at school (basically student of the month in her class - for being an all around great kid!) Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Baxter.

Congratulations Margie! Her best friend and nest door neighbor Bella also got the king Arthur award the same day as Margie! they were very excited! Here's the visit from Santa at the ward party last night(...aaahhmmm sisters... last night... look at me getting this posted so soon...) Margie informed me this year that she was going to sit on Santa's lap and not cry... my little girl is growing up! Jakey on the other hand didn't want anything to do with him, and someone else took James' picture so I dont have that yet, but I'll post it when I do.