big brother, little brother | july 2016

One's a beach lover. One's not so sure about it. Taking it on together though, all is right in the world. 

This week you can find us exploring tidal pools, enjoying the "collections" of shells that get left behind when the tide slips back to sea, watching the "rollie-pollies" (waves) & jumping them, searching for birds, kites and airplanes, making friends at the pool and just enjoying being here. 

Oh, and living on frozen yogurt, popsicles, Doritos and Coke Zero ... because it's vacation and you should do things on vacation that you normally don't do at home.

month four | ezra

Baby Ez!!! You're 4 months old! You are one happy little dude. Somehow, with as unscheduled as I am, you've managed to put yourself on a pretty decent schedule. By 9-9:30 PM you're ready for bed & will either sleep 6.5ish hours or 8.5ish hours consistently! Some mornings you even go back to sleep after nursing until around 9AM. You've gotten really good at self-soothing, you little thumb sucker you...and prefer to put yourself to sleep rather than being held or rocked to sleep. And I thought Solomon spoiled me.

You love to be in the middle of what "the brothers" (my nickname for the big boys) are doing. Today I found you under a pile of stuffed bunny rabbits in your bouncy seat jabbering to Solly who'd put them there. I'm sure you were asking him to take them off of your face, but you didn't seam to mind too much. You love Amos and laugh at him often. It's really sweet the relationship you two are building even this early on. 

You've rolled over a couple of times and love to be in the exersaucer. I've even had to raise it up a notch already because you're really tall! You're very strong and have really good head control. We practice sitting, but you're not quite there. Soon, though, I'm sure! You're also a talker. And a  L O U D one! Amos will tell me, "mama, Ez sure is talking loud!" (He's one to talk.) I can't wait to know what you're saying! 

You're getting your first taste of the beach next week and I can't wait! You're also going on your very first boat ride this weekend on Mimi & Papa's new boat! Wooohooooo! Yay for all things summer! (: We're still spending evenings at the park as often as we can - when we can sneak away from the work of the white house - and when we do, I wear you in the bjorn. You like to look around and occasionally will fall asleep right on me. 

Ezra, you're a handsome little devil. Your smile is one of the sweetest ever. It lights up your entire face and make my heart glad every.single.time. I sure do love you little buddy! 

daddy dates

daddy, thank you for taking us on dates to places like Krispy Kreme where we get sticky and spill milk, the Farmer's Market where we get to harass uncle Luka, Chick-Fil-A dressed like cows, the Fresh Market where we each get to pick treats for mama and for letting us stay up late to share your pe'nut butta milk shake. 

thanks for teaching us things like "happy hump day," the cat & the hat song, to laugh when we tootle-toot (oh wait...that one's inherent), to be tough when we fall and scrape our hands and knees, to respect mama and treat her sweetly (we try!), to really love Jesus, and to work hard and play harder

we love you daddy, to the moon & back 

currently...

currently...

reading: (still) our trail blog book that i gave mike for Christmas a couple of years ago // (& back to) All the Light We Cannot See 

playing: Matt Corby 

watching: the Olympic trials when I can

trying: our damnedest to finish Wayne Cottage enough to move in by July 31 

cooking: currently in a rut ... 

eating: crunchy peanut butter straight outta the jar

drinking: coke zero 

calling: no one (it's 11:25PM)

texting: Mikey (he's across the street working on the white house) 

pinning: things for our girls trip

planning: room by room how we're going to finish this house 

crafting: Rust & Stardust necklaces! Check us out -- new summer necklaces are in the shop!

doing: painting rooms at the white house

going: to enjoy unpacking our boxes / bins in a couple of short weeks!! 

loving: Amos' "mos-hawk" 

hating: when people comment, "You have your hands full." The next person is getting punched in their jugular. My hands are not full yet. 

discovering: that Mast General has the best gummy bears (thanks Ria-haha!) 

enjoying: sweet Ezra's personality at almost 4 months old 

hoping: for a little rest once we're across the street 

celebrating: this sweet friend's engagement  

smelling: Capri Blue | Volcano  

thanking: every one who's put in hours at our white house (: *thank you* 

considering: what being at the beach with 3 littles will be like 

finishing: dividing up leg for the Tuna 200

starting: a paper chain for the boys to countdown moving across the street 

celebrate | happy birthday M

We celebrated Mom's birthday last night with dinner with the gang & a homemade chocolate chip cookie cake! Amos had fun fulfilling his duties as dough masher and then later on as taste tester. 

Happiest birthday to you, Mom! We hope you felt special, celebrated and so very loved!

saturdays are for splashing

Saturday we'd planned to be at the lake, but, after a couple of 14+ hour days of working on the floors at the white house we decided we'd hang around town this weekend. We'd also planned to be up in time to walk to the Farmer's Market, but, we weren't. (Well, we were up in time, just very, very slow movin'.) So, with a disappointed Amos + unaware Solly + "along for the ride" Ezra, we walked downtown anyway. We had lunch at Gringos on their upstairs balcony, then walked over to the splash pad. The boys had a B L A S T! And, Mikey & I were super surprised with how not crowded it was for a super hot & sunny Saturday! Win-win! 

Wayne Cottage | #demodays

Move over Chip Chip & Jo Jo, the Martins have come to town! If you (really) think that #demodays look like they do on the (totally awesome) show Fixer Upper, let me assure you ... they do not. Demo-ing the inside of our beloved Wayne Cottage took months. Granted, we didn't have a massive crew to come in and do it for us - we did have Mikey (the new Chip Gaines) + our nearest & dearest friends & family that we roped into helping. We painstakingly removed almost 100 year old plaster from the walls (the kind that was made with horse hair) to expose gorgeous structural brick (#swoon), we reworked the upstairs to include a family room, bedrooms, a full bathroom & a 3rd story loft, we pulled termite infested / water damaged floors from the downstairs, we knocked out the old windows to replace them with something that would be energy efficient, we dug up a 10-12" concrete floor on what was the back porch to add plumbing and new concrete in what became the master bathroom, we removed nails from very board that you see in the pictures above - one by one so that new walls could go in, we pulled the old knob-and-tube electric system so new wiring could be installed...and the list goes on. We've sent at least 8-10 dumpsters (like the one pictured) to the landfill with the guts of the house in order to start from the ground up and make this house exactly what we want it to be. 

Y'all, it's dreamy. Mike & I constantly sit back and just soak it in. We dream of the #martinbandofbrothers (& future Martin kiddos) running through the house, hanging from the steel I beam in the kitchen, summering in the back yard, walking to school from here, having sleepovers in the loft...we hope that they're one day proud of this house like we are.  We're still so grateful for the opportunity to work on this house & for what it means to and for our family. 

We're busting it to make an August 1 deadline (hoorah!). Stay tuned for before & afters as we get to them. We're currently finishing floors & ship lap walls that we've laid ourselves (again, with help from family & friends), painting, caulking, staining, etc - all the things that go into finishing a house. We know that we'll be far from finished when we move in, but we'll be home.