Martin Family: February 2013

On the Move

Well sort of. People ask me if I can tell a difference between my girl and boy's behavior, even at this age. The answer...YES!!! Emory would sit for a long while and play with toys, if they got too far away she would simply wait for someone to give them back to her. It's probably why she didn't crawl until 10 months or walk until 15 months...she was perfectly content wherever she was at the time. Gavin on the other hand is ALWAYS trying to get something out of his reach. I sit him down, give him toys and 3 seconds later he is on his belly trying to get at that one toy or forbidden object just out of his reach. Today was no different. While taking his "8 month" pictures (technically he turned 8 months on the 16th) he really wanted the oral syringe on the little table beside the chair. Then it was the strap to the camera. He even dove head first into my lap trying to get it! I don't think I'm quite ready for him to be officially moving though! He already wears me out!

Mom why do you keep putting this bear next to me?!

I LOVE this face...he was so proud!

Once he got it, he had to get back...

Squirrel...the books distracted us!

Sorry for the excess of pictures but there were too many cute ones to choose from!

Goodbye Christy!

In a very short time, some of our good friends will be moving to Dubai for 3 years! While this is an opportunity they simply can not pass up, we will certainly miss them! Emory has been like a 3rd daughter to Christy since we met them in 2009! The girls in our Bible study had a little girl's night out at the end of January (we thought she was going to be leaving the next week), not all of us could make it (poor Rachel was sick-hence the reason we have her picture at the table-she was there in spirit!).

Tara and Christy with the picture of Rachel. Rachel is the one always taking pictures so we didn't want to leave her out of disappoint!

Liz, Leslie, and Jessica.

Tara, Tara, Christy, and Me

We ate dinner at Chuy's and talked long enough that the server kept coming by and picking up one thing at a time off our table after we had paid. Oops! We have since been able to have another girls night out complete with pedicures and dinner. Hopefully we can squeeze in one more before she leave us for good! Well for a few weeks. She's coming back in June for a wedding and staying until August! Yay!

Where to begin?!

I'm so far behind in blogging that it would take me a week just to catch up. While I would love to make a separate post for every activity we did from my last post (in November) up until now, this will be a synopsis...

Thanksgiving:
We spent a little time both places because my mom had had a total hip replacement the week before. Actual Thanksgiving day was spent in Jacksonville. Basically we ate a lot of good food and had a great time with family.

Ok so technically this was the week before Thanksgiving...Go Blazers!

impossible to get all 5 looking at the camera at once

Thanksgiving at the Martins...this is most certainly Photoshopped!(thank you Katie)

Because my mother had just had a total hip replacement, we were put in charge of getting the Christmas decorations down...I don't think this is even all of it!

Daddy ready to fluff the tree

This is what mom did while we unloaded everything from the attic...

Too cute not to post!

Big milestone...This was Sunday night after Thanksgiving...Sunday morning he couldn't do it, by Monday evening he could reach for a toy and sit back up...why does it happen SO quickly?!

Reindeer the Elf flew in and was waiting for us when we got home after Thanksgiving in Alabama

Christmas:

We divided Christmas as well. The weekend before Christmas we spent with the Martins, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were at our house and then we drove to Birmingham for a few days. Lots of driving but we were VERY blessed!

Either right before or right after our picture with Santa at the beginning of December...which was a HUGE success this year...NO TEARS!

At the Nashville Christmas Parade...I meant to have an entire post about this but that didn't happen. Best laid plans!

Christmas in Jville...Gabriel

The twins and Gavin. Elyn is on the left and Finley is on the right. Dang near impossible to get all of them still and looking at the camera...this was the best I got!

Christmas Morning...Emory with her loot!

Gavin with his loot!

Our Babies...It's amazing how much I love them!!

Emory with her iPad from Nita and Papa.

These are the same outfits that Emory and Payton wore their first Christmas

Eva (7 months) and Gavin (6 months)

Payton (10 months) and Emory (8 months)

The Rigney Family!

Love our little family!

Mom, Will, Tripp, Claire, and Katie

I think they were attacking Will here!

January:

I turned 31! Yay! : / We went to the circus...not much else happened.

She really was excited about being there...she has started being VERY stubborn when I'm taking pictures...we took it 2 more times and she was goofy in both so I picked the one where Chase and I looked the best!

February:

We left Gavin for the first time overnight to go to our church marriage retreat. I was a little apprehensive because he isn't great at taking a bottle. My mom and dad came up to keep them for the night. Mom was able to get him to take the 2 bottles offered to him...not easily but he took them and didn't starve!