Catching-Up

I am on a blogging Roll. This is three posts in one day! They are not in order, but I hope you enjoy them, anyway.

Hawaii

The view of our resort outside our room

Dinner with fantastic friends that we met

I thought this tree was cool, with all its roots exposed

(Just a pretty picture)

Nice Sunset

Luke, sitting in a cave (obviously)

Crab exoskeleton

All ready for the Zipline

Luke, Kicking my Butt at Tennis
(check out his nice form:)

Spouting Horn

Luke about to jump off Shipwreck cliff
(see video below)

I just thought this fisherman was cool.

He was the real deal, using a net and all.

They had these hammocks all over the hotel grounds

Take a look at this awesome footage of Luke doing a Gainer off Shipwreck Cliff

It has been three months since our Perfect Pools sponsored Hawaiian Vacation and I am just now blogging about it. Wow, I guess, better late then never. We went to Kauai in December and stayed at the fabulous Grand Hyatt. It was amazing. Everything from the, the pools, the lagoon, the beach front, the tennis courts, the talking parrots in the Lobby, the amazing grounds, the omelets at the breakfast buffet, the cliff jumping. We hardly left the resort because everything we wanted to do was there. We are not big sightseers, more of relaxers. Ah, I want to go back.
We were able to go on this vacation, because surprisingly (with the bad economy and all) Luke sold enough pool equipment to qualify. We had a great time, I don't want to bore you with all of the details but I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

We will miss you, Bailey!!

Digging the Grave

Measuring the hole

Our sweet Dog, Bailey

We had to put our dog Bailey to sleep the end of January. Luke has had Bailey since he graduated from High School. He was a gift that Luke's parents had promised him if he got a 4.0 his last trimester of his Senior Year. Surprisingly, He did it!:)

It all happened so fast. We didn't know anything was wrong with him, until Luke went to call him to come in for the night, and he didn't come. Luke kept calling him and he never ran up to the him. Luke decided to walk into the backyard to see if he could find him and he was just lying on the grass. Bailey was finally able to stand up and hobble over to Luke. Bailey got down the stairs and into our bedroom and we went to sleep. Then in the middle of the night, we heard a big thud and apparently Bailey had tried to stand up and fell over into the wall. Luke went to work for awhile the next day and I tried to get Bailey to stand and to go outside and he would not even lift his head, much less stand up. Luke got home from work and took him to the vet, and called me and told me that we were going to have to put him to sleep. He said that the vet thought that he had arthritis and dislocated his spine and he had no feeling in his hind legs, that there was nothing that could be done, because he was too old and too big.

I could tell that Luke had been crying and then I started crying. He has been such a great dog. He was so good with the kids and so obedient and loyal.

I wanted Luke to talk to the kids when he got home but Rylan sensed something and so I had to tell him. He was very sad and started to cry. Mason didn't really understand. He still says that Bailey is taking a long nap.

We decided to bury Bailey in the Backyard instead of having him cremated, mainly because it is so expensive to cremate. The saddest part was seeing Bailey just lying there on the grass, tail not wagging, no life left in him. I think that was what got all of the most. We had a little memorial for him and the professional shoveler Luke is, dug him a 3 foot hole in the frozen backyard. He made him a gravestone "B" out of Rocks.
We will miss you, Bailey!

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman (or five)

Well It finally snowed, and we decided to take advantage of it and make our first snowman of the winter. (It's only March) It was perfect snow for snowmen. The snow was moist and packed well. We decided to make a family of snowmen. (our family, of course.) We got a carrot for one of them and Mason decided to eat it off. So they are faceless snowmen. As you can see, we even got Chance to join us. He did surprisingly well, but he wanted to crawl all over and I caught him trying to lay his head down and was probably surprised by the cold pillow.

DownEast Basics outfit Giveaway!

Although you are going to be my competition, everyone needs to go to Supermom Central and enter to win a new outfit from DownEast. I love downeast, I just bought a cute pair of jeans there. They have their own line of Jeans now and they look like designer jeans. While you are there, check out the blog too. My friend is an amazing writer and gives some awesome parenting tips. Good Luck to you all (not really though:)

Chance's Birth

Wow! It has been a long time since I have updated this blog of mine. And most of you know that much has gone on namely the birth of our little boy

Chancelor Lee Marti

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, July 27th, one day before my due date. My doctor would have induced me a week earlier but unfortunately for me was out of town that week so we scheduled an induction the first day that he was back in town. So on Sunday, the day before the induction the hospital called me and told me to call at 7 in the morning to see if they had room for me to come in. I was having a lot of sharp pains on Sunday but was experiencing no contractions. So I packed my bags Sunday evening and got ready for the next day. Luke and I went to bed at about midnight. At two in the morning I woke up because I thought I had wet my bed but it wasn't a whole lot so then I thought maybe it was my water breaking, I got out of bed and woke up Luke and he told me to call the hospital to see what they said. I called the hospital and explained what had happened and they said since it wasn't a lot then it might just be urine. They told me if I had anymore gushes or leaking then it was probably my water breaking and that I should come in. After I got off the phone with them I laid back down and not 5 minutes after I had laid down I experienced another gush. I knew it was my water. I hadn't arranged a babysitter for the middle of night but we decided to call Luke's sweet Grandma who lives about 4 blocks away and see if she would come over. She agreed and came over in about 10 minutes.

We got to the Hospital and got admitted, they told me that they weren't going to give me pitocin yet and they wanted to see how I progressed on my own. I think they told me that just to stall me so they would have to call my doctor in the middle of the night. I was having contractions but they weren't that strong, when I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 3 and at 7:00 in the morning I was only to a 4. They finally decided to give me some pitocin at about 8 or 9. I told them I wanted to wait before I got my epidural, but that was a mistake because by the time I said I wanted it, the Anesthesiologist was in a C-section and wasn't able to come until an hour and half later. By that time I was in a lot of pain. But after I got the epidural I was feeling good for the most part except I think they had given me too much because I had to recruit Luke to roll me over and move my legs. They decided to crank up the pitosin after I got my epidural to speed things up a bit. So I got my epidural at about 10:30 and then at about 11:00 I was dilated to a 7 and then at 11:45 I was a full 10 and they called my doctor and he arrived at about 12:10 I gave one good push and out little Chance came at 12:19 pm. I was a little worried because he wasn't crying that much and he was purple but the doctor assured me that he was fine and told me to rub his back to get him to cry. The nurse then came and took him to do his assessment. He scored a perfect 10 on his apgar score.

He was beautiful.

Even though this is my third time giving birth it still blows me away at what a miraculous event it is. To have this little thing grow inside me that has eyes and ears, 10 fingers and 10 toes and knows how to suck from the moment they are born is truly amazing.

I love him.

He is now two months and has started to smile and coo. Thankfully he is sleeping somewhat better, only gets up one-two times per night and usually goes right back to sleep.

The boys have adjusted to him quite well, Rylan is a very good helper and sometimes can be too helpful. Mason is also cute with him, he will talk to him in a baby voice, I have to watch Mason though, he will swing him way too high in his swing or give Chance a blanket and put it on his head.

The boys on Daddy's Monster Truck (that is what they call it)

Rylan

Tough Mason

Gotta have a bum shot

Me and my sweet boy


We had these pictures taken by a local photographer, (Kristen Spencer Photography), it was nice because she comes to your house and takes them. I think they turned out really good. I just need to get some printed to put in his room and the house. I am so slow. It is hard to get out with 3 kids.

(sorry for all this dead space right here)

First Camping Trip of '09

We were able to get out this weekend and spend time in the

beautiful outdoors with some family. We had a lot of fun. We went up to Currant Creek Reservoir. Our campsite was right across from a cute little playground and the reservoir was just a short walk away. The weather was nice, although it did rain on us a few times but not very hard. Luke was so nice and took Mason and Rylan fishing most of the day on Saturday so I had a relaxing time sitting by the fire chatting and playing games with my sisters and I even got to take a nap. Ahh! I hope that we can go a few more times before I have this baby. Here are some pictures of our trip.

I love my boys! I think they are pretty dang cute!

Rylan Fishing

(I can't believe how good he is getting at fishing, he takes his pole and cast it out into the lake all by himself, and rarely gets any snags)

Mason being goofy with his favorite cousin Spencer

I thought this was a funny picture because I think Mason looks like an old man without his teeth.

My cute niece Brooke and nephews Spencer, Nick and Josh and of course Rylan.