Martin Man Camping Trip

Two years ago was the first ever Martin Man Camping Trip.  Ed took Micah for an overnight camping trip in Shenandoah National Park to experience life in the great outdoors.  Caleb at that point was only 3 months old, so he did not go.  Last year it rained literally every weekend last fall, so they never got to go.  So all three of them packed things up and left for the mountains last weekend.  Ed will have to explain more about the trip itself, since I was not there, but here are some pics from the boys' weekend.

Martin Man Camping Trip 2008

Martin Man Camping Trip 2010

Caleb roasting his first marshmallow

Breakfast

On the way home

Summer Ain't Over Till We Say It's Over!

To Infinity and BEYOND!

It's the Season Baby!

Around these parts, aka-our house, we are NFL fans! While others are jumping on the bandwagon of the latest "America's Team" - Cowboys - No! Patriots - Done! Saints - So Last Year! We are still cheering on the team we have stuck with since birth! We are proudly Redskins fans. You can debate about whether it is worth following a team with such ups and downs, and lately (as in past 10 yrs) its been mostly downs...and I don't mean 1st downs! We are beginning this new season with high hopes! As with every new season! So here are the boys decked out and ready to go last week when we played the wretched cowboys. And yes, we won!And this is what the boys looked like last night, when we almost had a win, and couldn't pull it off! (Note: Cowboys lost!)And this is what being a redskins fan does to you! It just makes you crazy, but we still love them! Seriously! We are scoring touchdowns! Can we complain?!

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...

A little more on the saying goodbye to paci...Caleb thought it was funny at first that his paci was broken. Immediately I had this God-given image of him still keeping his paci in his mouth broken. Yes, he was that attached! Just keeping it in his mouth even though he couldn't suck it. So I thought, let's have a throwing away "ceremony" to say goodbye forever. So we all trekked into the bathroom, our very small bathroom, our only-one-in-the-house-that-all-five-of-us-share-and-its-the-only-room-still-reflecting-the-1978-original-design-of-the-house bathroom. Anyway...I lovingly explained to him that paci was broken and it didn't work anymore. So we needed to throw it away in the trash. I also reminded him that he was a "big boy" now and he didn't need it anymore. So here's the pictures...so sweet! By the way - IGNORE the bathroom, and yes, ew!, the toilet seat is up!

An Update with no Pics...Read ON!

So its about time for me to update the ole blog, but I just have a couple of things going on. So my goal is by the weekend I will have an update, which is Haleigh's 10 months, so I better. Not to mention my last post was her 9 month update...Oh my have we been busy ever since we got back from vacation almost a month ago! And yes, I know there are still no pics from that. Here's a little of what's been going on...

- Meetings, meetings, meetings! Woohoo! I love meetings! Not so much, but between a new school year, a new youth ministry vision and set-up, budget meetings, etc we've been doing a lot of meeting! I won't bore you with the rest of the details!

-We successfully but not without a fight took Caleb's paci away! We cut it just like we did with Micah. And Caleb of course made a joke out of it! So we all laughed, and I thought it was going to be easy. However, Caleb blessed us with those lungs of his for the next 2.5 hours! Oh that poor baby finally went to sleep and a week later, we were back in business!

-As if the paci thing wasn't enough, we then decided to make things more traumatic on our son, and move him to his big boy bed! Are we stupid?? I'm still trying to figure that out! We purchased a set of bunk beds for the boys, that we did bargain for thank you very much! We were so proud of ourselves even if we only knocked off like $50! I guess we could've come on a little stronger. ANYWAY! So after a LOT of disciplining, we have got him to stay in his bed at night. Now I am working on the morning!

-I, Katie, the most amazing wife in the world, am helping my husband put together some sunday school curriculum for this year. We are working on two separate sets and are almost done! I can't wait till I can cross that off my list! Oh did I tell you I haven't met ANY of my deadlines! Sweet.

-Consignment sale is coming next week and so I am cleaning out! I love this time because it is fun to shop but also OH SO FUN to purge! So we have clothes and toys thrown EVERYWHERE! Oh if you could see my house right now! Living room over taken by Micah's old furniture, upstairs just consumed with kids clothing, and my room, well its always like that! Sorry mom, my bad cleaning habits have tagged along with me in my marriage! (Seriously, a VERY BAD HABIT we are WORKING on!)

I could bore you with so much more, but I am going to go have some ME time because my husband is at yet another MEETING! At least I'm not there!