Counter Chaos

We have a huge kitchen counter that is usually covered in stuff.  Like so...

The main culprits - school papers and mail.

Its things that need to be dealt with, not the "file it away" papers. 

So in an effort to become a bit more organized, I bought a wall file folder organizer thingy.
 

Its cute and functional.  Win.

Now lets see if it works in daily life. 
And by works, I mean if I actually use it!

Cousins

While some may have tons of cousins, my kids have one.  Yup that's right - one!  They live about an hour away from us and we got to see them recently.  Our kids absolutely love little Emma Claire.  She is a year younger than Haleigh, and so Haleigh feels the need to "mother" her.

Emma Claire especially liked Haleigh's princess figures.  They fought over them like sisters.  I'm thankful we don't have that to deal with right now.  One girl is enough for right now!

Ray and Stephanie are expecting their second baby, so we will soon have two cousins.  Rumor has it the baby is a boy, which the boys are super excited about!

My Brother's Wedding

 We just got back from a weekend in Maryland celebrating my brother and his new wife!  They got married Friday night on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding.

Ed officiated the ceremony, Haleigh was a flower girl, and the boys were ring bearers.  It was so fun to have the kids be apart of it even though it made things harder on us.

I could not be more happy for my brother.  They are on their honeymoon right now enjoying a bit of paradise, something they very much deserve.  It has been a long road to get here.  Ed and I have had the joy of watching front row at what the Lord has done in their lives.

Haleigh and me at the rehearsal dinner

I love these girls!  My sisters - Hope,  Krista,  Jill

 

the flower girl

waiting for the ceremony to start

no words necessary

our sweet family

my mom made this dress

some of my girl cousins

the two ring bearers

beautiful

sweet boy

Haleigh called Jill the "white Princess".  She was in love with the bride!

my family

Turks & Caicos

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary back in June.  Ed and I decided a long time ago that we wanted to take a big trip for our 10 year.  We began saving and saving, and finally saved up enough to go on our trip this summer.  We decided on the islands of Turks & Caicos.  We went to the island of Providenciales because of its white sand beaches and the clear blue carribbean water.  And it did not disappoint!

We stayed at Seven Stars Resort in Grace Bay.  Although it looks like a huge crowded resort, it was only at 30% capacity.  We had our own space which was nice and we never had to fight over chairs or anything like that.  It was absolutely perfect for us!  It was everything we wanted!

our building was the one on right

one of my favorite things to do was float on a raft in the pool

our favorite cabana

the view from our balcony

Ed and I really enjoyed our uninterrupted time together.  We had the best mornings on our balcony reading and drinking coffee.  Long days at the beach and pool talking and reading and swimming.  Late dinners with no need to hurry and interruption-free conversations.  I really was reminded how much I love my husband.  He is absolutely my best friend and I would not rather spend my time with anyone else.  

So although we are back physically, we often want to be back on the beach.  We are glad to have our little family back together though.  The kids were so happy for us and loved seeing all the pictures.  They think it is so weird that we do our own things without them.  Like they can't imagine it!  I guess they think the world revolves around them!  

More pictures to come soon!

Some New Friends

A few weeks ago I mentioned we went to the beach with our friends the Kohouts.  We have continued to meet with them and pray with them.  It looks as if the Lord is leading us to plant a church together.  We have prayed and prayed throughout this whole journey and God has answered so many prayers.

Martins and the Kohouts - minus sweet baby girl they are adopting from Ethiopia!

Its frightening to me at times to link arms with a family we have known 6 months.  But the Lord has met every fear with truth.  He always seems to come back with something to walk me through the moment of fear.  And we so love them.  That have become some of our best friends in this short amount of time.  And our kids adore each other!

We have said over and over that we are walking in as much light as God is choosing to give us.  And we will continue to walk in the way we think He is leading until He tells us otherwise.  This is the Lord's doing, it's His Church.  So we have to remain in him.  Let him lead and build his church in the way He's going to do it.  We are called to trust and be obedient.

This journey has been exciting, stressful, frightening, encouraging, hard, and strengthening.  It's been so worth it!  Pray with us as we seek to follow the Lord's desire for a new church in the area.  We have no idea what its going to look like, but we know its gonna be awesome!

Mr. Baseball

Backtrack #2...

Those of you who know him, know my Micah is quite the athlete.  He is definitely gifted at anything with a ball and running and jumping.  He played baseball this year and did really well.  It was t-ball but what we loved about this league is that they get the option of the coach pitching it to them first.  And if they couldn't hit the ball after about 7 pitches, then they could hit it off the tee.  Micah never needed the tee.

He had such a good season.  He absolutely LOVED wearing his uniform and playing in the game.  He felt like the guys on tv.  He is so serious when its game time.  No time for playing in the dugout.  He always was watching the game.  Its all business out there.

He had a great coach.  He played mostly first, shortstop, and second.  He did a great job at all three.  He had a great diving play while at second stopping the ball and tagging the base getting the runner out.  He also had a great play at first catching the ball and running it to the base.  We were so proud of him on the field.

However, hitting was another story.  He was known as the big hitter.  The coaches always pitched it faster to him knowing he could make contact and hit it further.  He had several hits out to the outfield passing all the players.  He had a triple - that really was a home run but they stopped him at third.  He had some doubles and singles as well.

I am so proud of him because he works so hard and does it all with excellence.  He purely loves the game and it is a joy to watch him out there loving what he is doing.  He is absolutely in his element!

You Make My Heart Melt

I need to backtrack a little because I have too many good pictures that grandparents need to see.  I apologize for being so bad this year updating the blog, especially now that we are far away.

So here's backtrack #1...

Ed and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary a couple of weeks ago, which I actually did blog about.  But we had a friend come into town that weekend and we conned her into watching the kids one night so we could go out.  We decided to go to an oldie but goodie - The Melting Pot.  Hence the cheesy title.   We love that place not only for their fiesta cheese, but also for the chocolate.  We love that it is a really long meal, so you don't feel rushed.  You can just sit and talk and eat.  Three things I love to do!! So thank you so much Rachel!  We had a great night.  I'd say we look pretty good after 10 years!

And just for fun!  Because they are boys and they love to show their muscles...