August Update

OK, so here is the thing about pictures and videos and blogging. I barely have time to take pictures. I almost never remember my camera so all of the pictures and video end up on my phone. Most of the really good pictures and videos are on Edwin's phone, so I never see those after they're taken. Thankfully my phone sends the pictures to my computer, but not the video. I rarely hook the actual camera up to the computer and download the pictures and video from that. Then I have to get them all on the blog, or at least on Facebook? Pictures are relatively easy to upload, but video takes way too long. The result? Very few pictures and even fewer videos end up anywhere that anyone but me ever sees! All that to say, here is my meager offering of pictures taken in August. No time for video with the current list of things to do sitting next to me on the couch.  already posted some of these on Facebook, but thought I would try to get a blog post up.

August FLEW by! We celebrated Jonah's birthday not one, but three times! Once on the actual day, a party here at home and one in Canada with our cousins. Liam learned how to ride a bike. No pictures of that, only video. Maybe I'll try to post that later. We spent a lot of time outside, playing in pools and at parks, we went to the fair, we survived our first road trip to spend 10 days in Spokane and hit up a lot of attractions, saw some good friends and ate really well, and I can't even remember what else! In kid news Rowan is already 9 weeks old and he has started interacting and smiling with us more. He is the sweetest, cutest little baby! Liam is a fantastic older brother. I love to see how he has matured since Rowan's arrival, even with Jonah. Jonah is talking better and better. He is improving on speaking in full sentences (all of which usually contain some sassy-ness so we are constantly cracking up). Maybe I won't have to develop a Rosetta Stone program for him. Edwin is still really busy with the business (I think I write that line in every blog post, but I don't have time to go back and see). And I am just trying to keep my head above water. I find I almost never sit when I'm at home anymore, which made Spokane such a treat. I actually read a book for the first time in almost a year! Two, if I'm being honest (:

So here are some pictures for proof. I don't have pictures of a lot of the fun stuff we've done because those are on Edwin's phone, so I'm missing half the month's fun, but here is what I could come up with between my phone and camera. No video, that would take too much time, so this will have to do!

 One of Rowan's first smiles. There are so hard to capture because he gives me his shocked look as soon as I lift up the camera.

 Liam and Jonah LOVED the fair! This was our first time on a ride and they are forever changed. We went to another fair in Spokane and went on a ton of rides and they loved it. Liam gets the giggles (all on Edwin's phone, of course) and Jonah looks like a stoic statue. He loves it but he shows NO emotion.  

 We went to the fair with these three characters

 This was taken at horse show that we went to see. The kids loved it.

 These were taken at a really cool pool near my parents house in Spokane. The boys love water. I can't wait until they learn how to swim. Maybe next summer!

 At Riverfront Park with the parents

 Reading the paper with Daddy

 This was taken at Jonah's birthday party. It's so hard to get all three kids looking cute for a picture!

 Jonah eating his favorite meal, ribs, for his birthday. Everyone else had finished and Jonah was still gnawing on rib bones for a good 45 minutes.

 The party was a John Deere Tractor theme. This is the piñata.

 And the cake.

 I love this shot Edwin took of the tractor on the cake with the actual tractor in the background.

 This was the second party in Canada with the cousins. Mady and Ceci put everything together for our little man.

 I took this picture of Liam's drawing pad because I was SO proud of him. When I went to get him out of quiet time he had been writing his letters. I had no idea he knew how to write them all! As well as my name and his. This kid loves his letters!

 Playing in the pool in Spokane. We were loving the 90 degree weather. It was pretty hard to come back to Bellingham with the forecast looking the way it does. :(

Love the hair

What's Been Going On

July has flown by and been really slow at the same time! The transition from two to three kids hasn't been easy for me, but I feel like we're finally starting to get into a rhythm. Rowan is a remarkably easy baby. I'm pretty sure that so far he's been my easiest! He is a very sweet baby and the kids seem to really love and accept him. It's just a process learning to keep up with three kids all under the age of four! Edwin has kept busy with work but tries to be around as much as he can and we've had a lot of support from family and friends. 

Some days I just shake my head in wonder that we've come all the way from a doctors office with the prognosis that we had a 1% chance of ever having our own kids to this crazy and, for the most part, wonderful life! Three perfect, healthy, beautiful, busy boys. I have no idea how I'm going to keep up with them and I know it's going to fly by and they'll be off on their own before I'll ever be ready, but some days I feel like I should be committed to a mad house! But despite the madness we've still managed to have a lot of fun this month. Before we had him I was determined not to let this new little bundle keep all of us locked inside the house for the entire summer. Turns out he's incredibly easy haul around (so far anyway)! 

Here are a bunch of pictures of what we've been up to and a sweet little video at the bottom...

Big Brother's first cuddles with his new toy! Liam loves Rowan so much and I am blessed to see how gentle he is with him. He asks all the time if he can hold him and feed him. If Rowan is crying Liam tries to comfort him. He will sit beside him and "read" books to him, wants to help with bath time, and is always interested to know where Rowan is and what he is doing. So sweet!

Rowan about to get strapped on to Mommy. He'll be spending A LOT of time this way out of necessity :)

Rowan snuggling with Grandpa

During this transition Liam has been a pure delight most of the time. He's still a three year old, but I have really enjoyed his little spirit lately!

Jonah graduating from the Plasma Bike to the Strider. He is a natural at just about anything athletic!

Meeting cousin Irie and getting some much needed cuddle time with Nana. Poor Nana wanted to be spending time with Rowan when he was born and was so excited to finally be near by when one of our babies arrived, and then Irie came down with some sort of flu the night Rowan was born! But she has been able to make up for lost time.

Enjoying a warm evening on the patio with Nana.   We finally got a few days of warm weather and really tried to make the most of it by being outside as much as possible.

Irie, Liam and Jonah waiting for Daddy to take his turn on the slip and slide.

Edwin trying to show the littles how its done!

Liam, Morgan, Merritt, Jonah, Lauren and Elliot having a picnic in the back yard watching Edwin mow the field.  They were anxiously awaiting a turn on the tractor. Edwin took each of them for a lap around the field and let the steer and work the tractor controls. They loved it!

Our sweet neighbor, Janet, called up and asked if she could take the boys on a hike around our properties and picnic lunch. They had the best time and were talking about it for days! I had a pretty great time without them as well :) They went all over, picked berries, visited her dog and the tree we planted when Liam was born, picked wild flowers, and ate a ton of food.  I love our neighbors! We have been so blessed by so many of them. And they all seem to enjoy our kids!

This is seriously what happens to Rowans hair naturally after every bath! It just sticks up in every direction and we have a hard time getting it to lay flat.

Sleepy baby with a mohawk. All natural, I'm not kidding!

Another proud big brother! Though Jonah is not as interested in Rowan as Liam is, he's still pretty interested. He loves to give hugs and is actually pretty gentle. He likes to give him toys, which I have to really watch out for :)  And he likes to make an announcement every time Rowan cries, "baby crying, Mama!"

Grandma and Grandpa came back over for ten days to help out with the kids and keep me sane. We started their visit with a belated birthday celebration for grandpa. All they really care about is decorating and eating cupcakes, so it's not too hard to put a celebration together. If anyone thinks their birthday is about them in this house, they're wrong! It's really ALL about the cake!

Nana left some sparklers at our house so we made use of them one evening! You can't really see anything, but I like this picture of everyone :)

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Christine came up to meet Rowan and show off Charlotte. She is the cutest little girl with the longest legs you've ever seen! She'll be a looker, thats for sure!

Could these two cousins look any different? They are actually first cousins!

We decided to take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa's time here to help us to take the kids to the Seattle zoo. Come to find out Grandpa wanted to go to the zoo WAY more than the kids did! I don't know who had more fun :)

And after the zoo we stopped by Dan, Mikki and Ellie's to introduce Rowan. The boys LOVE Ellie and it looks like she has another new fan!

We also made it up to Canada to visit Edwin's cousins. The boys had really been missing all of them. Liam asks about them all the time. We had to wait for Rowan's birth certificate to go up. We had a great day playing on the trampoline, playing in the pool, eating food and catching up!

This is the perfect example of how sweet Liam is with Rowan. He loves his little brother so much and he's so helpful!

Rowan James Martinez

Rowan James was born June 27th at 2:22 in the afternoon. He is 8 lbs 9 oz. and 21 inches long. I haven't had any time to get pictures on the computer, but here is a link and some information to see some of the shots the hospital photographer got:

http://www.our365.com/BabyPhotography.aspx

Search by customer number 702501394195433
Click on Christina M. 
Password is the same as the customer number
Last 4 digits of last name Mart


Here are a few quick photos that we took as well. No explanations because I'm typing with one hand. (There's a newborn who won"t go to sleep in the other one!)

Finally Blog Worthy!

My new (and first) baby niece, Miss Charlotte Ann Grant! Born Thursday morning, March 8, to my brother, Jeff, and his wife, Christine. Now that is blog-worthy, don't you think? Here she is, just two and a half days old with the new daddy.

And here she is again with her Grandma, who is thrilled to finally have a grand daughter to shop for!

And here she is with her favorite Auntie ;) snuggling up to her cousin, due in 3 1/2 months. The baby in the belly was getting in some good love kicks to Charlotte's little bottom!

We spent the weekend with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin Ellie in Everett as a half way point to spending time with Charlotte. The boys LOVE it there! They had so much fun. Ellie and Mikki spoil them, so who wouldn't love it. They spoiled us too...

And some odds and ends from the camera...

Last week we were so surprised to wake up to this! The kids had an amazing time playing in the yard and the sun was so gorgeous and warm that even I enjoyed the hours outside!

My two favorite goof balls. I love that they are playing together more and more now. It's so fun to hear them giggling and laughing (and then, of course, screaming and crying) together.

So, no, the camera hasn't been broken and the blog still works. I just haven't had much blog worthy stuff lately. We've all been sick off and on most of the winter. Jonah had his surgery to get tubes put in his ears and he's a totally different kid now. So fun and happy! His vocabulary is finally taking off now that he can hear and he is transitioning into a lot of big boy things as well. Edwin has been gone to Guatemala A LOT. I went on a four day weekend retreat with some girlfriends, which was an amazing break for me. And Liam has just been getting more and more mature in so many ways. He is often a huge help to me, he's very loving and cuddly, and more than anything he loves to play with his best buddy, Merritt. Oh, and the baby in the belly is growing well and moving around a ton. He/She looked great on last ultrasound and I have been feeling pretty good, aside from the normal pregnancy tired and off and on heartburn.

So, that's all for now. I'm hoping to have more blog worthy stuff in the next few months. It's been kind of boring around here!