Weekend Zoo Trip

Last weekend Lynlee and I were in a wedding in Little Rock. Pat and my Dad took Lynlee and my niece, Estella Dru, to the zoo! It wasn't that great. Apparently most of the exhibits were empty and Lynlee got scared by a goose right at the entrance gate, so needless to say the rest of her trip was a waste! But they did enjoy the train ride so here are few pictures.

Lynlee and her G-pops. My dad loves this kind of stuff. He will often call us in the morning and want to take all the grandkids to the Gentry Safari Zoo. I can go like once a year, but my dad loves it and takes the kiddos close to 10 times a year! They kids love it!

Here's some really cute shots of E Dru! Isn't she just gorgeous!

This one looks like a model pose with the wind blowing in her hair!

Now that's a pose! Will she ever grow out of this?

Have a good holiday weekend!

Fierce

Look at this pose...FIERCE is the only word to describe it!

And this one is just as good!

Ha! I'm pretty sure a modeling agency is going to contact me ASAP once they see these shots! Lord help us!! I have no clue where she got this prissy side...honestly it's not from me. And BTW those are really her poses, that is not an action shot!

My sister-in-law and I went to the promenade on a rainy day with Jeb, Dru, Lynlee, and Owen. We got a lot of crazy looks, but overall the kids did pretty good. Lynlee and Dru were starting to get tired of each other towards the end. I'm not sure if Ang will ever go shopping with me again! Hopefully she will. We obviously went shoe shopping and the girls were all over the place. I'm sure Dillard's is still finding shoes that they took off the shelves and tried on!

3 months/Baby Dedication/Mother's day

So today is Owen's REAL 3 month birthday! Happy 3 months Owie! He is really a great baby and I think he will forgive me for the mathematic calculation error!

Today was Baby Dedication at our church. Both Lynlee and Owen did very well. Lynlee climbed up and down the stairs during the prayer, but that was it! She didn't even try to talk to us! Owen also did good! Here's a few pics that my brother and sister-in-law took for us.

Here's the best picture of all of us looking towards the camera. Owen didn't have his paci in the whole time, just during the end of the dedication. Apparently, Pat didn't know to look at Matt and Ang taking our picture. He didn't know if they were supposed to be action shots or not???? Men and pictures just don't mesh! What's so hard about it? Smile when someone is holding a camera your direction. I guess standing in front of the entire church flustered him! See what I have to deal with...Pat and 2 moving targets. Can we say mission impossible?

Miss Priss herself! I honestly have no clue how she got so prissy. She DEFINITELY did NOT get that from her momma. I just knew if I was going to have a girl that she would be athletic and love to be active and get dirty....NOT play with barbies and talk nonstop about princesses! She is a firecracker so maybe she will surprise me! But yes she has on a necklace, hello kitty watch from McD's, and is carrying a princess purse jammed packed with lip gloss and lipstick (all from my make-up drawer, and I didn't notice they were in her purse until we got to church).

Here's my niece Belle pointing to Owen's picture in the bulletin today! Isn't she precious?

Lastly, Happy Mother's Day to all the momma's! I got a cute necklace with a "O" and "L" charm on it. I'm so excited about it and it is really special to me! Thanks Pat, Lynlee, and Owen for making this a great and memorable Mother's Day!

Brain please come back!

Okay...completely embarrassed I have to admit one of my MANY mistakes!

In my previous post, I wished Owen a happy 3 month birthday. WELL he's not 3 months yet! Thanks to my Granny for pointing that one out to me. Owen was born on February 10, 2009 which would make him 3 months old on May 10 ,2009 (not May 5, 2009). Minor mistake, right?

So as with most things I say, I have to give you my explanation of what in the world I was thinking! Every Tuesday I add a week to Owen's age since he was born on a Tuesday. So this Tuesday Owen was 12 weeks old. In my mind 12 weeks = 3 months. But not in this case!

At least I made fun of myself in the same post for not being able to count months!!! Little did I know I was making the mistake in the same post! I guess that means another post on the 10th with new pictures for everyone, shucks!

Sorry all, I will try to get my act together...no promises but I will try! Please pray for Pat and the kiddos, they have to live with me and hear me talk on a daily basis! Now everyone knows why my children will never be home-schooled! I guess I can't blame my absent-mindedness (I had to ask Ang how to say/spell that word!!) on the pregnancy any more :(.

Happy 3 month Birthday Owen!

The big man is 3 months old today! I can officially change from weeks to months when I talk about his age. That also means I will probably call him 3 months old for 2 more months. I'm not the greatest with numbers especially month calculations! Here's some pictures I took today! He's starting to hold his head up more, so I can get cuter pictures without the carpet as the background!

Both of my kids make really serious faces. I just tell myself that they are thinking a lot and are going to be really intelligent like their mom (ha we all know that was a type-o).

Still serious...

Look at that cheeky smile! PRECIOUS!

Here's our little-big man! These are some names that he is called at this point in his life (mostly by his loving big sis): little Owie (thanks to Emme), little who-who (created by Lynlee and we have no clue why she started this!), chubby wubby or shubby wubbers depending on her mood, little chub, Owe-nen (thanks to Isabella), fat-man, and Mr. cheekers. That all I can think of at this moment, but I have a feeling there are a few more!

DeQueen Trip

My bestfriend, Kimberly, lives in the big town of DeQueen, Arkansas and she had her 2nd baby 2 weeks ago. I couldn't find a free weekend this month to go visit, so I got brave and loaded Lynlee (2 1/2) and Owen (9 weeks) into the car for a 3 1/2 hour drive by MYSELF! I don't know if that's bravery or insanity! But we had a great time! I'm sure Aunt Kim and Mic-dog (A.K.A. Micah) are glad that we are back in Springdale, but we already miss them. Here is a visual of what Kimberly and I did the past 2 days. We both sat nursing our newborns talking for hours while our 2 1/2 year old and 18 month old DESTROYED the house! It was fun though, at least for me!

Here's Lynlee and Emme! I know Lynlee has a mouth full of banana Laffy Taffy (yeah I know I'm a great mom for giving my child candy on a regular basis...no need to tell me!) and Emme almost has a toy covering her face, but this is the ONLY picture I got of the both of them looking at me at the same time and believe me I tried more than once!

Here's Lynlee reading a book to Emme. SO CUTE. Emme was actually looking at the book too, but I distracted her!

Now Lynlee is looking but not Emme! See I was telling the truth!

Once again...only one girl looking at me!! I have several bath shots and it is crazy how those two stinkers would not look at the same time. Oh and I promise Lynlee is not drinking that nasty bath water! She's just about to poor it on her head!

OKAY...now prepare yourself for some of the cutest pictures you will ever see in your life!!!

OWEN IS SMITTEN OVER A GIRL!!!

Is that not the cutest? Just wait they keep getting better! Owen has his arm around Lila and Lila is resting her sweet head on his shoulder! As you will see Owen LOVED it and couldn't stop smiling! Kimberly and I were cracking up too! Kimberly and I put them in the bouncy chair together to make fun of Mic-dog b/c he has already laid strict rules in the Martin house! No boys can sleep in the girls bed!

He is loving it! Another funny note, they both kept hitting each other in the head with their uncontrollable arms!

This was the reaction after we discussed the arranged marriage!

How cute will this be on the slide-show during rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding day! Ha, so I'm totally joking, but it would be funny! Doesn't Lila look so safe and sound in the arms of a real man??? (that's a one liner courtesy of one of my grandpas...EVERY time you give him a huge he says "I'm glad you now know what it feels like to be hugged by a REAL man!" It still makes me laugh even though he has said it a billion times!)

Hope you all enjoyed! Sorry for the abundance of pictures! We miss you Aunt Kim, Mic-dog, Emme, and Lila! Thanks for letting us crash at your place for a couple of nights!

Easter Baking Challenge

My sister-in-law, Angela, put a baking challenge on her blog earlier this week. She was really encouraging us to cook an Easter treat with our kids. Lynlee loves to cook with me so I thought this was a great opportunity to get in the kitchen with her. So with my competitive spirit, I searched for the best, most unique recipe. As I was making it yesterday (all day event with a baby that needs to be fed in between), I decided to look and see if anyone has posted their baking pictures yet. Low and behold, there was a family who was making the same thing I was :(. Oh well, the prize is a cookbook that I already have anyway!!

So here's our adventure yesterday. Be prepared...there are a lot of pictures!

We made something called cakepops. You will have to check the blog that I stole them from, Bakerella. She is extremely talented and her cakepops look amazing so don't judge mine. Basically, a cakepop is crumbled caked mixed with frosting, rolled into a ball, placed on a stick, and then dipped in chocolate/vanilla coating.

Lynlee mixing the frosting into the crumbled cake.

Posing for a picture as we prepare to dip our cakepops in pink vanilla coating. And yes she is wearing her princess PJs with her peacock tutu! We like to keep things interesting at our house!

Lynlee helped dip the cakepops. This was a tricky task because the cake would start falling off the stick, but I did learn a neat trick if you are ever dipping things in chocolate. Slowly turn the object in one hand while tapping your wrist with the other hand. It made the excess chocolate fall off while not putting too much pressure on the cake. I will definitely be using that trick again.

Lynlee starting to decorate her cakepop. We put a small amount of light corn syrup on a paint brush to use as a glue for our sprinkles.

Still decorating...look at that set up she had! I used to make sugar cookies for everything when I was in high school, so I had an abundant supply of sprinkles. So it was easy to give her free-reign...I needed to weed through those sprinkles anyway!

Another big helper! This was Owen's position most of the day, because those cakepops took Lynlee and I most of the day.

Just precious, right? And yes I kiss his cheeks a zillion times a day!

This was his reaction after Lynlee fed him a bite of a cakepop. Totally just kidding, the boy was so deprived yesterday that if you just looked at him this was the face he would make!

Lynlee's beautiful finished product! I was so proud of myself for not intervening with her creativity! I'm a perfectionist when it comes to baking, so I usually try to make her creations look a little prettier, but these babies were all Lynlee!

Notice the bite out of the top left one! She's such a sneak!

Here's my finished product! I know I wasn't too adventurous, but I did try a few other designs and they totally failed. I figured I would stick with what worked!

Another view!

So I got tired of glueing every single sprinkle on! I resorted to my old standby...just squiggle coating all over the place!

Finished product! I guess not too bad for our first try! Now for the taste verdict. Kind of weird if I was going to be honest. It taste like soggy/wet cake covered in a hard chocolate/vanilla coating. I'm thinking I added too much frosting, I would not recommend adding the whole can if you try it.

R.I.P. fallen cakepops!

THE MESS!!! Can you tell which sprinkle plate was mine and which one was Lynlee's? I promise I gave her FREE-REIGN with the sprinkles. I think her only goal was to empty all the sprinkle containers. I would keep telling her that she would use all the sprinkles and we wouldn't have anymore. Here's her response "it's okay mommy, we just go to tore (store) and buy new ones!" I guess I have trained her well! Sorry Pat :(.

The sprinkle bottles that Lynlee single-handedly emptied! Like I said, most of these I had in high school so I promise I am not throwing money down the drain here! I'm sure sprinkles probably expire anyway!