Memorial Day

Daniel and I had both Friday and Monday off in honor of Memorial Day (well, I just don't work Fridays).

While it has been truly wonderful having an extra long weekend with our family, we absolutely remember and honor the true reason for the holiday.  I am grateful for all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our wonderful nation, and to the loved ones left behind.

In true American style, we spent our weekend outside.

We went to the beach twice, took long walks, and enjoyed a wonderful pool day.

Alexander and I also enjoyed a spaghetti supper with the spouses group and all the babies.

It was a fun, friend filled weekend.

Back to the grind in the morning!

Birthdays and Babies

It was a crazy weekend filled to the max! 

After the ceremony and date night on Friday, we geared up for the Goeres's gender reveal party.

It was the perfect day for their outdoor, picnic-style get together.  The babies loved it! 

Being the littlest of them our group, Alexander was definitely an attraction to the older babies.

And the reveal shows.....

It's a girl!!!

Jonathan had already found out,  and did a great job of keeping his little daughter a secret from everyone else, including her mama.

Can't wait to meet you little Geores!

Saturday afternoon we had a few people over to cookout for Daniel's birthday.

Adelaide was certainly the life of the party, and took half our pool with her when she left!

Jonathan's dad smooth talked his way into being Alexander's best bud.  It was so nice to have a great group of friends around, and have so many loving arms wanting to hold our little man.  I'm grateful that Alexander loves new people and is not hesitant to let mama take a little break.

As usual, Daniel grilled up a delicious feast.  We fit thirteen people around the table!  Full table, full heart.

We finished the meal with an ice cream Reese's cake.  Happy birthday, love!

To continue our action-packed weekend, we got a super special treat and had lunch with my cousin Mel on Sunday.

She is in Navarre with her in-laws and came to meet our little guy.

It was absolutely wonderful to catch up with her!

This was taken right before little man pooped on her shirt.  Sorry Aunt Mel!  Luckily, she has two boys of her own, so she was nonplussed by the mess.

Alexander wasn't wiped from his busy weekend, and didn't nap on Sunday until 3:30!  This caused us to be late to our last event of the weekend, a cookout with the Meskimen's and the Teegarden's to celebrate big news for the Meskimen family.

It was so much fun to watch the babies together

Three Year Anniversary

Daniel and I may have started dating in 2003, but we waited until 2013 to get married. 

On May 18th we had been married for three years. It has been such a wonderful 3 years and I am so excited about all the changes that have happened in those three years and all that we have before us! 

For our 3-year anniversary, we had a date night compliments of Leaha and Jesse staying back with the crew. Of course little man absolutely loved getting to spend time with Aunt Leaha and Uncle Jesse and slept better than he usually does afterwards. He always seems to sleep well when I'm not around... wonder what that's about! 

Daniel and I headed out for a delicious steak dinner at Ruth's Chris and then to 3D IMAX Captain America. It was so fun and relaxing to be just the two of us all dressed up on a date night. While we were gone, Leaha and Jesse took Zoey and Xander on a long walk. Both of their favorite activity! Xander would not be put down in his bed, but with a lot of rocking and even more attention, he was sound asleep when we got home.

Zoey, on the other hand, was not so impressed with our date night.  Any other time Leaha and Jesse have been at our house without us, it's because we've left her to go out of town.  Apparently, she spent most of the evening pouting in our bedroom.  She jumped up to wait in the driveway for us when Leaha and Jesse told her we were heading home.

Thank you, Leaha and Jesse, for such a wonderful anniversary celebration!

Also on Friday, we went to the official ceremony to say goodbye to the Jett's.  Andy and Michelle have been such great leaders, and true friends.  I know our paths will cross again and I look forward to that day!  Luckily, we are welcoming another amazing duo, the Turasz's.  I am so glad our community will stay strong and close!

A great group of spouses!

Five Months Old

Our little man is five months old!

Alexander continues to be an on the go kid, happy as can be when we are out doing things and around people.  When he's at home, he is definitely more likely to be fussy, with lots of grunting/ whining, and some crying and screaming.

His sleep is inconsistent, with bad nights always before new milestones are met.

I will happily sacrifice my sanity (temporarily) for my little one to meet these milestones.

After two weeks of keeping me up all night, he sat up on his own!

He talks all the time, and uses his eyebrows constantly to let us know what he thinks about things.  I never knew a baby could be so expressive!

He loves school!  I have come in twice in the past week to him sitting in a circle for story time.  My heart melted!  Leaha says he loves watching the older babies move around him.

He rolls front to back and back to front, but not consistently.

He is swaddled under the arms at night, and needs his fuzzy airplane blanket (thanks aunt Heidi!) to self soothe during the night and at nap time.

We have semi-started solids this week.

He loves peanut butter!

He also likes oranges, bananas, and devoured frozen blueberries in the mesh teether.

He is ok with avocados but not oatmeal.

He loves to taste cheese dip when we go out for Mexican!

What a mess!

We love our little boy so much.

We had a great weekend, starting out with the Pirate Poker Run benefiting my school, the Emerald Coast Autism Center.

We had Leaha and Jesse lined up to babysit, but when we saw our nice umbrella set-up on the docks (and how cute he looked as a pirate), we decided to keep him and Zoey with us.  It is one of my favorite family of four days thus far!

The sun wiped our baby buccaneer out!

Zoey was not game for dawning the pirate hat

But she enjoyed getting to stay and be a dock dog.

After our day on the docks, we met up with Scott, Abby, and Karamia for dinner and then they came over after.  It was so fun watching Kara scurry all over the house!  We have a lot of baby-proofing to do before Xander gets that mobile!

We love you, our little growing boy!

First Babysitter, First Mother's Day

This was a week of firsts for the Martins!

On Thursday, we had our last spouse's social for the season, and our last social before Michelle leaves, who has been a dear friend and wonderful leader of the spouses group.  Daniel was flying that night, but I did not want to miss it!  

In steps Aabett!

This was the first time we had ever left Xander with anyone other than grandparents.  I could not have been more comfortable, though, as I knew he would be snuggled tight in good hands!

He had one of his best night's sleep EVER that night, but hasn't slept well a single night since.  Maybe Aabett should move in?!?!?!

Sunday was my first Mother's Day as a human mom, and it did not disappoint.

Daniel, Alexander, and I went for breakfast at a local diner, Joe & Eddie's.  I ate until I could barely move.  Daniel took care of all things baby from the time he woke up until about 4pm.  It was great!  Daniel has really been doing a lot lately and it is so nice to share more of the baby duties.  I love my little man so much, but do not mind the help!

The only reason he handed over Alexander in the afternoon was because our wonderful and generous friends Jonathan and Karlee came over and did all things baby throughout the evening!  They wanted to give us a date night out, but I had eaten so much at breakfast, I told them I'd much rather eat at home with their company than to eat another restaurant meal.  It was so great having them over, and good practice for them, as neither of them got to sit for the entire meal.  They did not allow Daniel or me to help in any way!  This will be their reality soon enough.  We find out whether they will welcome a girl or a boy next week!

It was a wonderful Mother's Day, and the gift could not have been better.  My crew got me a massage, which I had to use today after waking up with what I thought was a pulled muscle and turned out to be either a slipped disc, or just a very large amount of inflammation right above my sacrum.  I could barely walk, and spent the day icing it on the couch.  Leaha even came over after work to help lift Alexander since Daniel is flying again.

I am so blessed to be surrounded by such loving, supportive people!