The Twins' First Christmas

The Babies' first Christmas was a memorable one to say the least. It began with Grampa and Grammy (Matt's parents) coming up the weekend before to celebrate early. Not only was the company great but we fixed several feasts, enjoyed walks in the neighborhood, and witnessed the first snowstorm for the twins (it snowed the Saturday before Christmas). The Lees came over Saturday morning to open presents before their trip to Texas. On Sunday, we enjoyed Caine's baptism and dinner with the Stelzer family.

The Jankowskis left on Sunday morning and Nana and Pop (Carrie's parents) arrived later that evening to join us for Christmas Eve and Day. The babies had their first theatrical debut as Baby Jesus in the Children's Christmas Service at church. Imagine that....we played the Holy Family...pretty crazy! Matt was Joseph and Carrie was Mary---Abigail was Baby Jesus during the inside program and George was Baby Jesus for the outdoor live nativity scene. The babies did well. Abigail slept through the whole thing and George was laid back as always!! Pretty funny that one parent said to her child, "Look, Baby Jesus has a binky just like you!" Ha! Matt cooked Christmas Day breakfast and lunch. We enjoyed a very low key day--as low key as you can get with two infants--and it was very relaxing. A walk through the neighborhood to examine the damaged trees rounded out the day. We were all very blessed with lots of Christmas goodies and adoring babies!

As I write this entry, it is snowing again outside and is beautiful! Nearly an inch has fallen and coated the ground with powdery white. Boomer spent the morning in frustration as he wanted to be out hunting squirrels but didn't like the falling snow. Abigail is close to being able to roll over from her back to her stomach. They both awoke with coughs, snotty noses, and sneezes...perhaps another cold. They are both sleeping for their morning nap, whew.

Power-less!

Crazy times in Norman Oklahoma....



After the stomach virus plagued our house and we fully recovered by Sunday, the largest ice storm in twenty years of Norman history hit and wiped out the entire city of power. We lost power at 2am Monday morning and were awake the rest of the night due to the eerie silence and sounds of popping limbs, transformers blowing and crashing timber. By 6am it was freezing in our house so we pulled the babies into bed with us and snuggled up for warmth. Pretty funny to have four humans, one canine, and two felines on a queen sized bed...it can be done! That was just the beginning....

Once the sun came up, we could see the destruction around our neighborhood. It truly looked like a tornado had come through but not touched the houses. We were unable to drive down any street without dodging falling limbs and weaving around those which had already fallen. One reason we bought our house 1 1/2 years ago was because we loved the big trees in the neighborhood...now many of them are gone. Pictures could not do the damage justice...with gaping jaws and tears in our eyes, we drove around town and were amazed. No working streetlights, power lines hanging in the middle of streets, everything frozen. Few businesses were open and those restaurants which were had 2 hour wait times.

The babies and I went to the Stelzers to camp out for the day/ evening, thinking our power would be back on any second. Then they lost power too and their huge oak tree fell in their backyard into the pool, narrowly missing the house by inches. Making the best of it (and it was still fun by that point--we felt like pioneers!), we huddled around their fireplace and enjoyed a yummy steak dinner by candlelight.

Once Matt realized the temp in our house was steadly falling, the Lees graciously offered to let all of us (Boomer, Louise, and Anna too!) stay with them as their power had been restored.
So we moved in with all our entourage and were able to have a good night's sleep in warmth. When Matt went back home the next morning, the neighborhood looked even worse than the day before as the temps did not rise above 29 degrees and limbs continued to fall. The wonderful souls who came to Oklahoma to help restore power from TX and LA were working hard in our 'hood, but our street was the last to have power...two days later. We lived with the Lees temporarily and came to greatly appreciate the small things in life, like dear friends, heat, fireplaces, and electricity. All in all, being a little inconvenienced for a few days and being reminded of our multitude of blessings was a good life lesson. Our house was fine, our friends' houses were fine, we had the money to eat out for a few days, trees will re-grow, and no one we knew was hurt by the storm. Thanks be to God! Continued prayers for those in Norman and the rest of the state without power, now seven days later.

We also experienced the babies' first snow over the weekend. Unfortunately nothing stuck...just flurries all day. We went out in the 30 degree winter weather...the babies bundled up of course....and began Christmas shopping. Typical Martin fashion, no minute better than the last! Fri night we enjoyed a wine tasting at the Lowry's and left the twins with a babysitter for the first time. Yea for us! Abigail slept the whole time while George was fussy but Jennifer was able to get him to sleep! Sat night the babies went with us to the McGinley and Melton's Wassail Party and though one of them was crying for most of the time, we enjoyed the fun....not sure if the other guests did however. Sun night we went to the annual Candlelight Carol service at church and went to Braums afterwards with the McClendons and Nichols---pretty funny that there were six adults and six kids 3 years and younger--the Nichols twins Ean and Quinn are exactly one month younger than George and Abigail, while Brady McClendon is six days younger than g&a.

The babies are doing well...growing like crazy and definitely detecting the craziness in our lives at the moment. George has been much fussier than usual (which I am attributing to my consumption of regular milk for a few days) but hopefully today will be a better day. The past few days have been tough as they have been crying and fussing lots and not wanting to take naps for more than 30 minutes. But as I write this, Abigail is beside me in her bouncy seat cooing, "talking" and kicking up a storm...moments like these remind me that parenthood has times of warm fuzzies!

Three Months Old!!

It has been a crazy time since our last entry. Our dear friends Monique, Jules, and Darby came up to visit which was a blast! We spent lots of time watching the three babies and making sure Boomer didn't eat any toys. The weather was cold so we hung out at the mall in the kids play areas for our "outings"---the play areas are great for cities with cold weather, big squishy toys for kids to climb on, brilliant! Though our visits have deviated from late nights out and non-stop going, we have taken new affection to the parenthood roles and calmer way of life. It was wonderful to get to know Darby's sweet spirit and exciting to dream of how he and the twins will grow and change before we are together again. But...Matt and I have been singing the theme song to Mickey Mouse Club in our sleep since they left...hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog...

Then the stomach virus exploded in our house. Abigail first (before Mo & Jules left), then George, then Mommy and Daddy, all within less than 36 hours of each other. George and I are still recovering while Daddy has been helping to keep things running. I would not wish this on anyone...we have canceled all weekend plans to fully recuperate.

Needless to say that we have not been taking many pictures lately, but here are a few to share...

George & Abigail's Baptism and First Thanksgiving

What an amazing weekend we had! We celebrated Thanksgiving by hosting Jerry, Judie, Sherry, Doug, Kevin, Laura, Cliff, Evie, Kirby, Bill, Debbie, and Brad at our house. Even Jack and Tori came to play with Boomer....needless to say, we had a house full!! Thanks to everyone pitching in to help with cooking and cleaning, it was relaxed and seemingly effortless.

We had a feast of a meal on Thursday and watched the football upsets. On Friday, several from the group went to Pauls Valley and toured our cousin's pig farm--the kids loved holding the new piglets! Despite the cold temps and snow flurries all weekend, the kids had great fun playing with the dogs, building fires, and beginning to build a potato gun with Pop. Saturday morning, we had family portraits taken by Trina Gibbins and they went great--can't wait to see the finished products. On Sunday, George and Abigail were baptized at our church, McFarlin Memorial United Methodist. It was great to see them wear the baptismal gowns that Laura, Brad, myself, Cliff, Evie and Kirby wore-- a family heirloom passed down again. We held a lunch afterwards at our house to commemorate the occasion and many friends came by to join us.

It was a fabulous time and the babies were great all weekend. They loved being passed around and showing off their personalities to the family. They had a growth spurt this weekend...we think Abigail is close to 10 lbs. and George looks so much longer. They will be 12 weeks old tomorrow!

Hope you enjoy the two sets of pics!

Ten Weeks Old

Here are some fun sights from George and Abigail's tenth week of life...

Two more milestones...

Forgot to mention two more big things this week...

1. Matt and I left the babies in the church nursery for the first time this Sunday! The nursery workers were able to get them to fall asleep!

2. George is continuing to grow stronger and started holding his head up more! He is still pretty wobbly since he has such a big noggin', but he can hold it up! Yea!

Nine weeks and growing wiggly...

The babies are smiling and cooing and being adorable....making all those nights of 2 hours sleep and continuous crying worthwhile! Yesterday Abigail and George put themselves to sleep for 2 naps (and are doing it right now as I type) which is a big milestone. They have been a bit fussy while awake but when we can see their little tired red eyes, we can understand why they are crying. Slowly but surely, we are starting to figure them out and recognizing their cries. We are learning how to be effective parents!

My work is still going well...two days a week seems to be the perfect amount of time away. Matt is still working hard~~in fact, he watched the babies at his office on Friday while I went to a work meeting (and even got lots of work done!). He mastered putting them to sleep in a new environment and the babies' reward was being passed around amongst the baby lovers after they awakened. They were enthralled with the ceiling fan in Matt's office and he "built" a tent with blankets to "remove" the distraction. Too sweet!

We accomplished many projects around the house this weekend, which was tricky with two babies. However, understanding their need for sleep and the invention of baby monitors gave us the freedom to work in the garage or continue the multiple loads of laundry. We are preparing for the whole Martin Mob and Bill and Debbie to come up for Thanksgiving~ the twins will be baptized that weekend too! What a celebration to come!

We finally figured out who Ab looks like, at least for this week. After looking at Matt's baby pics, she has begun to favor him and the tinge of red in her hair is the exact color of his baby hair in his baby book. I do believe that the chipmunk cheeks are from both of us! Of course, George is still mini Matt...

Enjoy this week's pics! (excuse the fuzziness of some, they are becoming very wiggly, and I haven't mastered our camera with movement)