New Judeism

This is Dallas.  I don't write much on here but thought this new saying was blog worthy.  For the last week or so, I've noticed Jude saying something that hasn't made much sense.  He will say "where are my drumsticks, whistle, shoes, etc... in the world?" or "what are you doing in the world?" or "Rhett, why are you crying in the world?"  In case you haven't figured it out, he's putting his "in the world" phrase in the wrong place.  I don't have the heart to correct him.  Besides, he knows what he's saying.

Other noteworthy Judeisms...just to name a few

Please, may can I (insert request for candy, chips, chocolate milk or some other request he knows is a long shot)...
Hostible (Hospital)
Bermember (Remember)
Faridgerator (Refrigerator)
a-post to (supposed to)
"Mom, PERIOD....you need to jump on the trampoline, capisce!?!"

Personality!

Rhett has been exercising his facial muscles this past week...mainly his eyebrow muscles.  That's right, he's down-right scowling at us these days.  It's at the most appropriate times too!  I refuse to believe that he is already giving us attitude, and claim it's merely coincidental that these scowls are sometimes preceded or followed by some sort of violent tantrum or kicking/screaming fit.  Oh no, not my sweet little Rhett.  NEVER in a million years would any of you believe that:).  Quite frankly it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  It's all I can do not to burst out into laugher.  He is also probably wondering why I'm slyly reaching for the camera when he starts his shenanigans.  I don't remember this with Jude, and Rhett is supposed to be my laid back child, so I refuse to believe this is in any way foresight into his behavioral future.

Just seconds later...

{Don't mind the giant lump on his head.}  

I also refuse to believe in mood swings:).  

A few mornings ago I brought Rhett his oatmeal {I love feeding my kids oatmeal, by the way.  So healthy and hearty.  We like ours plain sweetened by bananas.}, and he took a big bite, squeezed his little lips together and said, "MMMMMM."  I thought maybe it was a coincidence, but he continued on throughout breakfast.  I love feeding him, he is such a good eater!  He also started spoon-feeding himself this week.  He grabbed the spoon out of my hand and shoveled it right into his mouth.  Again, I thought this was a coincidence {I promise I do think my kids are smart}, but he kept doing it time after time.  He has a smile on his face {a look of accomplishment} every time.  He knows he's pretty big stuff around here:).

And of course this was documented through photography...

mmmmmmmm....

Jude will be starting preschool this January!  I can't believe it, and honestly, it breaks my heart.  Sigh.  He's surely not ready to be away from me for four hours a day twice a week, right?  Well, according to him, YES, he cannot wait.  I told him this morning that he would be starting school in a few weeks, and I just wish I could have captured the look of shear joy and excitement on his cute little face.  He's been working toward this, and I hope school won't let him down.  We told him this summer that if he wanted to go to preschool he would have to stop crying in Sunday School at church.  Every week it was the same story, tears, big ones, every time we dropped him off in his class.  He's known these people since birth, so I could only imagine the emotional torment {on all of us} taking him to a place where he knows nobody.  Shoot, I wonder if he knows I will not be staying at school with him...I better start working on that one asap.  Anyway, when we bribed him with school to get him to stop crying in church {thankfully he doesn't know that eventually we'd have to let him go to school regardless of his behavior...or suffer the consequences of DHS and jail:)} it was like the best deal EVER!  He marches his little self into class every Sunday and comes out with a smile on his face when we pick him up.  He's like a different child.  Sometimes bribery works friends...sometimes.  I'll keep you posted on how the school thing goes, hopefully it will be all that Jude's been dreaming of!  

Jude was in the church Christmas program Sunday night.  He played the bells and was hysterical!  At one point he hunkered down, took position with his feet and played that bell with all he had.  It was like he had a fever for more cow bell!  The crowd was laughing and I was about to fall out of my chair.  He also played a sheep for a song entitled, "shaggy, smelly...sheep."  The choir behind the sheep were doing motions and pointing at the shaggy smelly sheep, while Jude spent is time facing them and mimicking every hand motion they were doing.  When they said "shaggy, smelly...sheep" and pointed at the sheep, Jude pointed at the other sheep too, as if he was not one of them.  He picked up on all the motions very quickly.  After their part was over the three year olds were taken over to sit on a pew until the program was over.  The older kids sang a song and they were all jumping up.  I looked over at the pew with the 3 year olds,  and all I saw was a tiny blonde head bouncing up and down in the aisle right along with the kids up on stage.  He's the best!  He just puts a smile on my face every time I think about him.  I honestly feel guilty because sometimes I think I expect too much from him because he's so smart.  I treat him as if he's 5 sometimes, instead of the cute little 3-yr old that he is.  Sorry Juder...I love you to the moon and back, up to the stars and down to the worms.  Please forgive me for the times I've expected you to act above your age.  You are such a sweet spirited boy and a wonderful helper to momma.  LOVE YOU!  

Jude has always been pretty big into dressing himself.  He's been able to fully assemble all of his clothing from head to toe since he turned 2.  It's becoming increasingly difficult to talk him down from certain wardrobe disasters.  Lately he's really into wearing shorts overtop of his pants.  Oh yes, this is really happening.  He came downstairs yesterday, just as pleased and confident as could be, with three shirts on (one was a turtle neck), jeans and mesh shorts overtop of the jeans.  The best part, the icing on the cake, how could this get any better you ask....his jean were tucked perfectly into cowboy boots.  These cowboy boots may or may not have been made for girls.  The heel is just a bit high for my liking on a boy, but I could be wrong.  Also the boot name embossed on the inside of the boot is "Haley", so I'm pretty sure we don't like to wear these in public either:).  I'm letting him embrace his own style...at home.  He doesn't understand why we don't dress like this in public, but I'm confident that one day he'll thank me.  

This is not the boot day, but another classic example.  He's also sporting a drum on his head and the baby monitor on his waistband....

My babes are so fun and creative.  I love both of their spunky personalities! It makes them who they are, and I would never change a thing about either one of them!  

framed!

Okay, so many weeks/months ago my mom surprised me with some awesome treasures from my grandma's attic (thanks mom and grandma)!  She went to Indiana for a weekend to visit with my grandparents, and they cleaned out the biggest coolest attic you've ever dreamed of.  I have such great memories playing in that attic, dressing up with old clothes, hide and seek and so many other fun things happened in there.  That's where a lot of imagination and adventure took place...tons of fun with cousins and sisters!  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the attic is dressing up like elderly people:).  My cousins, sisters and I used to dress up in the old clothes and hats from the attic and walk around hunched over with canes.  We would scwinch our faces up and use an old powder puff to make wrinkles on our faces.  We found old glasses and shawls and had a BLAST!  It doesn't sound like much fun now, but I remember doing that a lot!  So, back to my surprise...my mom brought me several old OLD frames from the attic.  She knows I love vintage pieces and she said they had planned to throw them away, but she thought of me.  I'm so glad she did.  I fell in love with these frames at first sight.  Dusty, crackly, falling apart old frames.  LOVE THEM!  I spent some time cleaning them up, painting and distressing some of them, but a few I left just as they were, in all of their vintage loveliness!  Then I simply added my photos, glass to some of them, mattes to others, backing and hooks.  They are such an awesome addition to our home.  What I love the most about them is their history.  These are pieces from my great-grandparents, great aunt Clara and my grandparents homes.  My mom remembered the "pink" frame from her house growing up.  I just love that some of that history is now hanging on my walls with photos of my children in them.  Call me sentimental, there's just something about that history.
Here are some before and some afters...

Just took pics of 2 before

Okay, so this frame came from craigslist, not my grandma's attic.  It started out gold and BOLD.  It was a framed mirror and is seriously humongous!  It was very ornate and shiny when I found it!  This was my first experience painting/distressing/redoing a frame.  My friend Aja walked me through the process and I've clearly taken a liking to it:).  I payed $40 for the mirror on craigslist, and with a few extra bucks for paint it's transformed into something I love! 

Here are a few other projects I've completed lately...

{Dresser}

This dresser was Dallas' as a kiddo.  I love using it because it was from his childhood, and I love not having to buy things like dressers!  He was forest green when we inherited him 7 years ago, but since then he's been cream, red and now this great blue/green that I picked up on the $5 mis-tint rack at home depot.  It was a lot brighter when I put it on, but toned down quite a bit through the distressing/staining process.  You'll recognize the color from the frames I redid above:). 

I was really pleased with this addition to the nursery.  I got the pulls and knobs on ebay years ago, but I think they were Restoration Hardware and I payed around $30 for 15 of them (there's another ugly dresser hiding in the garage waiting for his turn)!

I love how the red came through in the distressing.  I'm a sucker for that kind of character.  

{Pillows}

You may or may not know that I am a fabric junkie!  I LOVE fabric...vintage fabric, swatches, remnants...I love finding art through fabric!  I'm really loving Amy Butler's designs lately.  I am always finding small pieces of fabric that I like, typically only large enough to make a quilt square or a pillow, so that's what I'm making.  Here are a few of the many pillows I've made lately...

{Curtains}

Thankfully I purchased a bagillion yards of a linen-like fabric a few years ago for a whopping .50 cents a yard.  This was when we lived at our old house, and I just couldn't seem to get rid of the stuff.  It was never ending!  I gave several yards away to a friend and still had enough left over to make curtains for two giant window in my living room.  Gotta love the price tag on these!  

{wine rack}

So, technically I can't take credit for this one.  It's not even a recent project, but it's one of my faves!  I REALLY wanted the Pottery Barn wine rack a few years ago, but didn't want to pay the ridiculous  amount of $$$ for it. Well, Dallas made this one for me that summer when I was in IL.  I just love it, and it's one of my favorite pieces in my house to this day!  $20 for the wood and stain! Thanks Dal!  

Other news...

Rhett is putting his hand on this side of his face and quickly uncovering it saying "teet a too", which translates to "peek a boo!" He's getting way too big too fast!  

Rhett is also saying thank "da doo" and "ha".... for those of you who don't speak 'baby', this is thank you and hot!  Yay, he's learning so much.  I remember this stage with Jude, it all just starts happening so fast!  

My Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike came through town on Friday with my cousin Andy and his wife Natalie.  I hadn't seen Andy since 2003, and he had obviously never met my boys.  It was so great to visit with them and give them a short break on their road trip from Kenosha Wisconsin to Enid, OK!  I love family! 

Today we had a surprise 88th Birthday party for Dallas' grandpa.  Many of his family members from New Mexico were here, so my boys got to meet several of them for the first time too.  What a great family weekend!  

FALL....my favorite!!!

I LOVE Thanksgiving!  I just love the fall weather and season as a whole, so Thanksgiving just has a special place in my heart!  We ventured to Illinois this year (we alternate years between our families), and we had quite an adventure!  We drove through St. Louis so that we could take a break about half-way through our trip and visit the AMAZING St. Louis zoo.  This has got to be the most beautiful zoo we've ever seen!  The exhibits were spectacular and the animals were up close and right up in your face!  We could have reached out and touched a giraffe at one point!  There were tons of animals in each area too.  We are used to the Tulsa zoo where you can spot A bear, one, if you are lucky and are there at just the right time...feeding time.  The exhibits were beautiful with giant waterfalls, huge rocks and awesome foliage!!!  The grounds there are vast with lots of land.  It seems like we walked a lot for the portion of the zoo we saw, but the views were spectacular...lakes, pretty leaves, cool old buildings, bridges and statues.  It reminded me of the Philbrook Museum and grounds, if you are familiar.  Jude and Rhett had a blast and were thankful to be able to stretch their legs and run around a bit.  Rhett would spot an animal and just point and jibber jabber emphatically...so cute!  We also all took a spin on the carousel where I may or may not have gotten in trouble for riding the wrong way:).  The best part about this zoo is that it's FREE!!! 100% free admission all the time.  The carousel and train are even free for the first few hours in the morning.  What a great deal!  It was a fantastic stopping point and experience for the whole family!

When we finally made it to IL we had a great time with family.  It was wonderful to see my grandparents, and I always love for them to be able to experience my boys!  Unfortunately I got ill our second night there and it was just a domino effect after that...me, then Dallas, then Rhett and Jude in the car on the way back to Tulsa.  Throwing up and the whole deal!  My dad, sister and niece also caught the bug!  Sorry everyone!

Turkey Mountain...

We LOVE to hike Turkey mountain here in Tulsa.  We've made it a Martin tradition to hike it in the fall when the trees are pretty!  We tried to go on what I considered the peak of prettiness a few Fridays ago, but we were interrupted by pesky rain showers that ended up taking down a lot of the colorful leaves I was pining after pictures of!  So, we made the best of it and drove around and looked at all the color instead...it sure was gorgeous for Tulsa this year!  We hiked the next day and had a blast.  Jude is a such a fun age for hiking and climbing...such a boy!  Don't you just love a good tradition!

In other news...

Jude tied for the first time the other day...woohoo!

Rhett got is first haircut a few weeks ago and is looking pretty handsome with his big boy haircut!  Thank goodness the mullet is outta here!

Rhett is super lovey these days...he loves to snuggle and give lots of hugs unprompted.  He will just run up to us and hug as tight as he can.  When he was younger I would be holding him and he would swing his body around and look at my face and get the biggest smile.  He just wanted to look us in the eye and let us know he loves us!  He's my lovey boy!

Rhett has almost 4 teeth now, two on bottom and two on top!!!  The 4th (upper) is just poking through, so we should have a full tooth in a few weeks, folks!

Rhett weighed 20 lbs at his last dr. visit and was in the 10-11th % for his weight and the 87th for his height.  Tall and thin...that's how we make em!

                           first hair cut...big boy!

                      Time to get rid of the pumpkins and pull out the Christmas decorations!

                         Thankfully I also LOVE Christmas!

        

The Bullet!

The magic bullet, that is!  Everyone is always asking me if I have a mommy must-have list.  A list that contains all of my most useful devices to aid with mommy-hood.  Well, I don't, but if I did this sucker would be at the top of my list (this and the nose frida).  Most people probably wouldn't put an infomercial/kitchen appliance on their list of must-haves for babies, but I use this bad-boy every.single.day!  This baby will shred, blend, mix, puree, chop or liquify ANYTHING you put in it.  My sis-in-law bought this for us as a Christmas gift last year, and I started out using it to make smoothies with all of my fruit and veggie servings for the day.  This was the best way for me to get everything I felt necessary for nursing.  It's now converted into a baby-food making machine!  Everything from bananas to chicken and rice, this thing does it all.  I've started putting Rhett's meals in there and adding a handful of spinach leaves for all of the vitamin-packed nutrients.  He loves it, though we have yet to find a food this boy does not love!  This little machine has enabled me to make my own baby food, and it feels good to know that Rhett is eating fresh, healthy foods!  I still use the bullet for smoothies, and now I add the spinach leaves to my mix as well,  you can't even taste it!  I just feel great starting my day with every serving of fruit and veggies I need, not to mention 2 dairy servings!  You could even get fancy with flax seed oil and protein powder!  But no worries, it also makes fabulous other treats like salsa, pesto, marinara sauce and margaritas!  The list really goes on and on.

Here's my favorite smoothie recipe:


*1/2 banana
*3 strawberries
*10-15 blueberries
*7-8 pineapple chunks
*1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
*splash of milk
*4-5 fresh spinach leaves
*3-4 ice cubes

I must say, I do not believe there is an equal substitute for the bullet.  I know there are copycats out there, but I've read nothing but bad reviews.  The blades don't last long, they break easily, they leak, thy don't chop smoothly, they are hard to clean and overall are not great quality.  I think it's worth the extra buck to get the real deal.  They run around $70, but I know they have them at Kohl's, and you can always catch a good sale there!  Blenders and food processors are for the birds! They have WAY too many parts to clean for me to commit to using it multiple times a day.
                                            
 So there you have it, my mommy must-have!

                                        

baby einstein...

Rhett has added to his vocabulary the last couple of days....his silent vocab, that is.  He's been signing "more" for a while now, but now he's added "eat" and "all done" to his silent jargon.  It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen!  It was so cute when Jude did this as a baby too, but you forget how adorable it is to see a baby use their tiny little hands to make words!

i heart dallas...

I just want to take a few minutes while Dallas is sleeping to record how blessed I am to have him!  I know it sounds corny, but I KNOW that God made this man just for me.  I threw my expectations for my husband out the window years ago because he had way surpassed what I ever dreamed I would have or deserve.  He is by far the most loving, giving, sensitive, caring, honorable man I have ever met!  He surprises me constantly with his positive attitude and his relentless faith and love for Jesus.  Every time I see him reaching out to help others I fall even more in love with him!  When someone is against him, he prays for them (I need to take lessons from him on this).  Just the other day he was telling me a story about his trip to Haiti (last march), and he got choked up remembering his time there.  I just remember looking at him and getting tears in my eyes wondering how I got so lucky to have this man as my husband.  

We are opposite of what I hear is happening to a lot of married couples.  It seems like couples start out with all the passion and newness and fall in love and get married, then the newness wears off and they grow apart.  With us, we started as friends.  We built our friendship first, moved onto a relationship and got married.  We got married really young and it was rough...really rough at times.  We've had to fight for our marriage at times and work hard at all of the details.  It hasn't always been roses and sunshine if you know what I mean! It's been more of a blood, sweat and tears deal, but I wouldn't change a minute of it!  This is who we are and how we've come to the place we are at.  Because we had to work so hard, we know we are worth fighting for and we love each other so much more for overcoming the struggles.  We are closer now than we have ever been.  God knew what we had to go through to truly appreciate each other and to grow together into this neat little unit that is our family....we are blessed, and I know God has big plans for our lives!

Another thing I love about Dallas is that he has worked for everything he has.  His work ethic is unmatched in my book.  Every car, job, house, college and any other major purchase has been earned with hard work, discipline, prayer and planning.   There have been no handouts in this joint (besides the blessings from Jesus along the way)!  I used to wish that we had some rich family member that would pay for things for us like some of the peers we had when we first got married.  I found it unfair that some people didn't have to work for what they had, save up for a down payment, pay their own bills...yet some did (namely us!).  Well, it turns out that I am SO thankful we have worked for everything we have!  We take so much more pride in every blessing we have because we know that it was a reward for hard work!  Dallas is so very thankful for all he has.  He's not at all materialistic and he knows it could all be gone tomorrow.  He's okay with that too:).

He's extremely giving.  I once asked him if we could give $ to a family that needed a little help one month and how much to give...his reply, "give it all, Sarah."  There's nothing sexier than this giving man!

Some men dream of being millionaires by a certain age, or retiring young and traveling the world or some other super appealing scenario, but my man dreams of being in God's will and having a heart after God's own heart.  He wants his heart to break for what breaks God's, he wants to be where God wants him and in His timing.  What more could I want...I want to be more like Dallas!

Dallas has always been so sensitive to my needs and my issues (maybe sometimes to keep the peace), and I don't know many men (or women for that matter) who would put up with all of my quirks.  It's probably not entirely fair to him, and he's given in to me much more than me to him over the years, but it seems to be a nice balance now, and I'm so thankful that he puts up with me and tolerates me beyond reason sometimes.  He's the best!

The BIGGEST reason he's the best....our kids!  He is such a wonderful and loving daddy.  From the minute he walks in the door from work until the boys go to sleep, he is playing, wrestling, helping feed kiddos, bathing and tucking our sweet boys into bed.  He wouldn't have it any other way.  There was a time when he would lay with Jude for 2 hours until he fell asleep...night after night.  Dallas is Jude's hero, and I love the way he looks up to him.  I also love the sweet little compassionate boy Jude is turning out to be because of his dad!  I'm sure it will be the same story with Rhett.

This is probably a lot of rambling to readers, but these are the things I hold dear to my heart.  Things I don't want to forget, and that I want to continually be thankful for!  I want my boys to grow up knowing how in love with their Dad I am, and all of his wonderful qualities.

Dallas James, I love you to the moon and back, up to the stars and down to the worms!  I'm so blessed to share my life with you.  Thank you for being who you are!

OMG!!!

Okay, so a few weeks ago we were amongst friends and one of them used the phrase, "Oh my g_d!" As soon as said friend was gone, Jude was running around saying this every chance he found appropriate  (Isn't it weird how they know what context to use these phrases in?).  Well, we just don't say this at our house, it is the 3rd commandment, after all (no worries, I don't have plank-eye, it's just a personal preference).  We have had to remind him several times over the past few weeks not to say this and have even experienced a handful of time-outs to help him refrain from this verbiage.  Well today he was dancing around the living room and just blurted out, "god!"  I asked him what he said and he very quickly fessed up. I just looked at him in a disappointed way and asked, "Jude, why are you still saying that?" He whipped right around and said, "So He will bless me."  Awe, shucks folks...he's a smarty!  Though I doubt he knows what this even means, I'm proud of him to come up with an answer he knew I would like.  What a quick thinker.  Oh, and it seems as though he's been listening in church!  Testing limits is a SUPER fun part of age 3 (wink wink).

lunch...

Mom, I love you, but I DO NOT love this sandwich....it has grossness on it! - Jude

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween!

 I had planned on coming up with something matching and super creative for the boys this year, but Jude was pretty set on being a firefighter, so I caved.  Rhett loved being a lion for the night!

Look at the bright side...

The other day the boys and I were on a walk and we came across a man with one arm mowing a lawn.  He actually mows several lawns in our neighborhood (I find this to be an interesting career choice for someone with only the one arm, but that's neither here nor there)-OOOO-I could turn this into a valuable life-lesson...a person can do anything they put their mind to!  Jude, of course, is very concerned that this man is missing an arm, or as he put it, "has a broke-off arm."  I was trying my darndest to explain what had happened to the missing limb...maybe he was in an accident, or he had a blood clot, or probably he was just born without an arm (or quite possibly he didn't listen to his mom and she broke his arm...too far?).  This went on with a countless amount of questions for some time.  He wanted to know why HE was not born with only one arm and why God would not give this man two arms?  I was mentally drained by the time we reached the cul de sac to turn around and go home.  FINALLY he looked up at me and said, "well, at least he has 2 feet!"  I was shocked with his glass half full attitude!  It's true, things could always be worse:)!

The Verbal Filter

I think it's been established that Jude's verbal and social filter isn't quite as polished as one would hope.  In fact, I'd argue that his filter is non-existant.  This story pretty much gives a painfully obvious glimpse into why we are cautious every time we go out in public.  Yesterday, we had been out running around after church and decided to grab something to eat.  Jude wanted McDonald's, but we thought it would be a better idea to go to Sam's and get one of their pizzas.  Rather than take it home and cook it ourselves, we dicided to have Sam's cook the pizza while we walked around and shopped.  After 5 or 10 minutes, we walked back to the food area to pick up our pizza.  Sarah went to the counter and I took the boys and sat down at a table.  In a moment of absent mindedness, I picked the table right by the checkout lanes.  The boys were both sitting in the cart waiting patiently (Sam's was taking forever) and I was distracted by feeding Rhett a smoothie.  Meanwhile, Jude was doing some "harmless" people watching.  Then, out of the blue I realize Jude was asking some woman a question.  "Why is your forehead bleeding?"  Kind of an odd question, but inquisitive...  She looked at him with a smile on her face because, apparently, she didn't hear or understand him.  Then, while still smiling, she said "what?"  Before I could realize what was happening, you guessed it, he posed the question in a way that might be a little clearer;  "your forehead is bleeding...why?"  This was the noooooo moment that leaves Sarah and I speechless.  It was at this point I realized he was talking to an Indian woman whose "blood" was actually a red dot adorned by many married Indian women.  NOOOOO.  Fortunately, the nice lady brushed aside the question and went on her way. 

Clearly the moratorium on talking to strangers hasn't worked.  I started to get onto him, but really, how good is a lecture when you are having to stop mid sentence to compose yourself?  I just stopped, took a deep breath and asked that he not talk to strangers anymore.  That should work. 

Catch up...

Ever since Jude was tiny we have told him at bedtime that we "love him to the moon and back, up to the stars and down to the worms", hence the name of the blog.  This has carried on to Rhett and it's just a part of who we are now. Dallas even had a necklace made for me before Rhett was born with a moon and those words inscribed on it, and a charm with the boys names engraved on it....so sweet!

Rhett had a birthday party last weekend and Mom and Butch and the Jett family were all here for it!  It was wonderful to have "Hughes" family here to share a birthday.   Rhett was not too interested in demolishing the cake, but respectfully took a taste when I picked it up and offered it to him.  It was clearly too sticky and messy for him to hold.  He is getting so big and is saying momma and dada now, and "more" in sign language.  I estimate he's a little over 20lbs, but getting bigger everyday.  I just picked him up last week and thought, wow, he's getting heavy!  Oh, and he will eat absolutely anything we feed him...ANYTHING...it is great!  He's also a wonderful sleeper.  I can just lay him down in his crib and he goes to sleep...what a notion, I know, but this was not the case with precious #1.  Rhett is in.to.everything! Jude was never this way.  He was uninterested in destroying things or disturbing things too much, but Rhett can tear it up with the best of them.  He has the bumps and bruises to prove it!  I don't remember Jude EVER having a goose egg on his head (minus the fall off the bleachers and cat scan), but I have lost count of the giant bumps the Rhett has incurred.  There's just no stopping this child!  He's just inquisitive and awesome...I love him!    I also love Jude for his reserved and safe personality!  He gets a gold star for being aware of his surroundings....always...and for wanting things a particular way and structured just so.   Rhett is walking and has been since he was 10 months old.  He took his first steps in IL this summer at 9 months, and was practically running by month 10!  Jude walked right at a year.  Jude also had many more teeth than Rhett at this age (6).  Rhett only has 2 teeth (on the bottom) still. It's so interesting how two children from the same ingredients can be so very different...looks and personality!

Jude LOVES everything music!  He has loved the drums since he was tiny, and now he's into drumming on anything that will make noise.  He helps Dallas out in the sound booth at church, so now he pretends his toy laptop is soundboard.  It's really very creative of him.  We are getting him drums for Christmas this year, and I can't wait to see his eyes light up when he sees them for the first time!  Rhett is now picking up on the drumming as well.  We may have a Martin family band on our hands here.

Jude learned how to swim this summer!  He swims all on his own, the entire length of the pool...as many times as you ask him to!  He can dive to the bottom for toys and bring them back up for you.  He learned in about 2 weeks of solid swimming at the neighborhood pool.  He was a brown berry this summer, while Rhett has a fair tone.  Rhett wasn't too interested in the water.  He definitely was in the water a lot, but not interested in being set free.

We recently took a weekend road trip to Atlanta, GA to watch the Braves play in a playoff series.  It was  Bobby Cox's last series as the Braves coach, and it was a BLAST.  I really can't think of one bad thing about the trip.  Sure it was 14 hours in the car each way and we ran out of gas on the way, but it was still so so fun!  We visited the Zoo Atlanta, underground Atlanta, Turner Field, The Varsity, Centennial Park, CNN and the Cyclorama.  We are investing in memories, and Jude had such a great time!  He talks about it all of the time.

Jude Really wants to go to school.  He's asks, almost daily, when he can start school.  I refrained from sending him this fall, selfishly because I'm not ready to give him up yet, but we are really considering sending him for the winter semester in January.  I just know that he would love it.  We did come to a compromise though, he started soccer this fall, which mainly consists of standing around and running after a herd of other kids.  He's not been to interested (he likes the uniform more than the game).  He's really into having shirts with numbers on the back.  He likes to look like the real deal.  Jude is very particular on clothing.  He likes to pick out what he wears, and we usually never match or look appropriate for public (thankfully most of our time is spent playing at home). Jude had his first trip to the Dentist in September, and he did so well.  I was very proud of him.

Jude LOVES milk.  He has always loved milk.  He was a picky eater for a long time, but milk has always been a staple for him.  He likes to have it when he goes to bed and first thing when he wakes up. I'm curious to find out if Rhett shares this same love for cow's milk.  Surely they will have something in common!


Jude is working on Letters right now.  He can write his name, but we are working on letter recognition and writing.  He just pointed to a "Q" the other day and said, "that's a Q."  I have no idea where he learned that, but he's picking up letters quickly.  He's still not interested in television, but I've started turning Sesame Street on in the morning because I think they do a great job with letters and #'s.

I am in awe of these boys, and so thankful for every day I get to spend with them.  They are my best buds, and I am one blessed momma!

Recent photos

 Rhett is 1 now, can you believe it?? Look how handsome he is, I just love his big blue eyes!

 Uncle Dave recently took some pictures of the boys at our favorite picture park, Woodward. Thanks Dave! This pic was taken after a quick wrestling match between the boys...that's right, they wrestle.  Already.

 Jude hams it up in EVERY picture we take lately...I was hard-pressed to find one without a silly face, so I figured just use the ones that show his personality.  He's overflowing with silliness, and I love it!

Blog?

If you know me, you know I am not a "blogger".  I'm actually pretty anti-blogging. However, I think this will be an excellent way for me to record special moments and memories with my boys.  Dallas and I are so not good at writing things down, and my mom is ALWAYS saying, "you better write that down".  Jude is a tiny comedian with little to no social filter, and he is constantly cracking me up with his very public comments.  Those will be on here.  Rhett is growing so fast and it into everything.  He learns new things daily, so I will share that on here as well.  At the end of all this I will have a great little memory book to remind my boys of how wonderful they are:).  My family is far away, so I also think this is a great way for them to stay up to date on the happenings in the Martin household.  Dallas and I will both take turns posting as great things continue to happen.

Sarah