Signs Joan is pregnant......

*Napping more than usual, for me that's a lot.

*The smell of girly soaps that I usually love, now make me want to barf.

*Songs on the Country station make me cry.

*Joe asks me why I'm crying and I have no explanation.

*I forget the usual things.....like to take my purse with me if I'm going out.

*I miss my family more than usual.

*I wish Amber would come hang out and watch Max and Ruby with me.

*I miss going to the Bienz's, letting the kids run wild and have Laura taking care of me. (I actually miss this one all the time.)

*Ezra tells me I better do laundry soon because the hamper is about to tip over, and I think to myself, I should teach Ezra how to do his own laundry.

*I make dinner and then don't want to eat any of it.

*I don't make dinner, because everything sounds disgusting.

*I wonder why we don't have Ramen and grilled cheese for dinner more often, because it is really delicious.

*Ice cream doesn't even sound good.

*I wish I had some of that spicy pickled cauliflower. (I think it's a Martin thing)

*I think laying on the couch watching Spongebob with River is a good activity.

*I wonder if I'm drinking enough water and eating enough vegetables.

*I have to go pee all of the time.

*Joe tells people I'm expecting.......expecting to have morning sickness and be grumpy.

Sorry for the pity party, I just thought I would share some of the things that have been going on. I know all of you are sad that you are not here to enjoy me in my pleasant state. I do remember when I was pregnant with the boys, I felt better after twelve weeks. So, I've got that to look forward to.

Baby #3

If you didn't know I was pregnant, you do now! We haven't been telling people, because we wanted to wait until my first appointment. We did get to tell our families while we were in Arizona that was pretty cool. I had my first doctors appointment today. I have been a little nervous since we found out and it was a relief to go today and find out everything looked good. Since this was planed I have been taking my vitamins, the doctor was very proud and said I was his first patient in over a month that had been taking her vitamins before she got pregnant. They gave me a little ultrasound and the baby looks like an alien/peanut, but that is normal.
I am 9 weeks along and due on August 19. Do I know where we will be living on August 19? Not really, but that is the fun of it, am I right?

Really long post about Christmas in AZ

We had such a wonderful Christmas visit to Arizona. It was so great to see our families. We got there on the Friday before Christmas and totally surprised Joe's mom. She had no idea that we were going to be there. It was so great. We want to say a big THANK YOU to our friend Mary Johnson for putting it all together.
The plan was to surprise Pam (Joe's mom) at the new Mimi's Cafe in Casa Grande. While we were waiting for her we decided that it would be a good idea to let everyone around us know what was going on. We knew Pam was going to freak out when she saw us. She hasn't seen Joe for over a year. It was a good thing we told the people because when she saw Joe she screamed and started crying, asking Joe what he was doing there. She was so excited to see Joe, the boys and of course me. It was so great. Sorry I don't have any pictures. We tried to get it on video, but she came in faster than we thought. The people around us were very nice and congratulated Pam when they were leaving. A nice lady told us that she wasn't feeling the holiday spirit and we made her Christmas and cheered her up.

On Saturday night it was the Martin Family Christmas Party. This year it was at Kyle and Elyse's house. It was so nice of them to let everyone come over. We had such a good time and it was so great seeing all of my family. Every one was able to be there this year. We had delicious Mexican food and a great program. My favorite was the puppet show by David's family. We almost forgot to take a picture of all of the grandkids. I think there is 28 grandkids, 29 including Jill Bienz, Danny wife. That's right Danny's wife. Here it is, pouting, crying and all.

So, if you are Ezra and River and you are staying at Nannie's house there are some things that you are definitely going to do:
1. Make a "palette" to sleep on and watch boomerang.
2. Eat Nacho Cheese Doritos.
3. Go to IHOP for breakfast, at least one time.
4. Have spaghetti for dinner, unless mom and dad are there, then then you get delicious Tacos.
5. Get surprises from Nannie on Saturdays
6. Play outside, if it's too cold for a pool, then dig in the wash with metal spoons and buckets.
(they dug all day on Saturday, boys and dirt.)

Here is their spiderman palette.

Here are Ezra and River playing in the dog cage, they don't need much to have a good time.

Since Pam didn't know we were coming she took her tree decorations to work. Mary supplied us with some ornaments to decorate the tree with. They turned out to be real keepers.

On Christmas Eve we opened one present. It was a Nintendo Wii. It is so much fun to play. Here is a picture of Pam and Joe playing baseball. It can get a little crazy, Pam was sore the next day. When Pam and Joe play together (against each other is more like it) it gets competive and the trash talking starts.
I'm pretty sure Ezra said something like, "Nannie what did you just say to my dad?"

Christmas morning was fun, the boys were so excited. We left some tacos for Santa, he ate them. The boys got pajamas, clothes, pokemon, and digital cameras for kids. The best present was being able to be with our family for Christmas.

Oh, you know we went to In-N-Out Burger. Here is a picture of Joe's "double, double, animal style" with his fries. Plus the boys fries too. It was so delicious. When we were almost done eating Joe said to me, "Do you realized we haven't said one word to each other since we got our food?"

We also got to stay a few nights with my parents. Here is a picture of Ezra and Grandpa lighting the fire. Was it cold enough to have a fire? Not really, but that never stopped my mom from being cold or my dad from building a fire.

When we got to town the boys were desperately in need of haircuts. I asked my dad and he said yes. It brought back memories of brothers and nephews getting their haircuts. We had a good time with my parents.

Ezra requested that we go see Jed before we leave. We had a good visit with Kyle and Elyse. Joe and Becca stopped by with their cute baby. All kids ran around having lots of fun. When it was time to go Ezra was very sad. He cried for a bit on the way home.

We did get a picture of this awesome Arizona sunset, on our drive home.

Here is a picture of Joe playing Guitar Hero and Ezra playing along on his indestructible Brazilian guitar. I never thought I would hear my kids say, "I think dad's playing Slowride." and then run in the room singing along.

It was good and busy visit. We didn't get a chance to visit everyone in my family before we left, so I was glad I got to see them at the Christmas party. We also got to see Joe's dad and step-mom who were in town for Christmas too. We had a great time, and made it home with only minor complications (lost luggage, that we got in a few days.) Now we are home and it is back to real life.

Ezra's B-day Party!

Ezra is 7!!

On Ezra's actual birthday we had a family party with cake and opened up presents that Nannie had sent in the mail. He was so excited to get pokemon and sonic toys!



The next weekend we had a birthday party with friends. By the time we invited friends on our street and friends from church (and some siblings came), there was 17 kids! I had a hard time telling Ezra he couldn't invite people, but next year I'm sure it will be easier. It was crazy chaos, but all of the kids had a good time. Joe and I were wiped out after it was over. The kids played relay games, tried to break the pinata and decorated cupcakes.

The kids doing the dress up relay.

The kids doing the crab walk relay.
Ezra taking a swing at the pinata.

Decorating cupcakes and getting messy.

All in all it was a great party and it seemed like everyone had a blast. Later that night I asked Ezra how his party was. He very excitedly told me "it was a rip-off!" He was about to be in big trouble until I asked him what rip-off means. He told me it meant a really super fun exciting time. I corrected him and let him know that he shouldn't tell people his birthday was a rip-off.

Family Snowball Fight With Nannie

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"I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas!"

We put up our fake Christmas tree. Every year I think, next year we will get a real tree, but so far no luck. It has been a while since we have had a real one and really, next year we are going to get a real one.
We had good time putting the tree up and decorating it. We listened to Frank Sinatra Christmas CD, the one where he sings J-I-N-G-L-E Bells. Ezra and River love that one. Joe put the tree together and the boys were very eager to "help" him. River said, "I like Christmas." Then Ezra said, "I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas." He was saying it all night, it was cute. I just loved how they decorated the tree. There are a lot of little groups of ornaments together. The branches near the top, don't have much on them. Ezra kept asking if he could put the topper on the top, so Joe lifted him to the top. I think he must have seen this on one of the Christmas movies.

Fun with the camera

So Ezra and River were playing with the camera they started taking pictures of the toys Ezra got for his birthday. (We are having a party with his friends on Saturday, so I will post about that later.)They took about a dozen pictures, or should I say Ezra took a dozen pictures. I will just show you a few.....you'll get the idea.
Picture 1 -toys


Picture 2- toys


Picture 3- toys


Picture 4 -"when is it going to be my turn with the camera?"


Picture 5- "You better let me have a turn!"


Picture 6-River running "I'm telling Mom you wont let me have a turn with the camera."


Here is a picture of two cabbage heads. Aren't they cute?


I feel bad that I haven't posted in a while. We had a good Thanksgiving. Our friends Rich and Monica Welch came over, plus Rich's mom came from Minisota. We had some delicious food, watched some football, took naps, and divided up leftovers. I have a lot to be Thankful for.

Peanut Festival?

This past weekend we went to the Peanut Festival, it wasn't really a festival as much as it was the state fair. It was overpriced and we didn't have Nannie (Joe's mom) with us to buy a ridiculous amount of tickets and all of the fried food that we wanted. So we settled for a ride on the carousel and an elephant ear. The boys scouts from our stake had a booth and they were selling, elephant ears. I had never heard of them before, but they are like a flat churro or a bigger thinner version of indian fry bread covered in cinnamon and sugar. We bought two and then one of the guys that was working there was one of Joe's flight instructors and gave us a free one, so we ended up with three elephant ears. We couldn't eat all of them, but immediately Ezra was in heaven, River took some convincing, but after we made him take a bite he thought they were delicious too.
It was pretty much a rip off of over-priced games, rides and food.



They did have a free booth you could go in and learn about the Alabama Farm, which leads me to Joe's favorite story.
The boys and I are in the booth learning all about the farm, Joe is waiting with the stroller outside the booth. A man and his kids, who clearly know about farming in Alabama, walk by and his kids start to go into the booth. Then the dad in a thick southern accent says, "Kids don't go in there that is for people who aint never seen a fa....."
Then he sees Joe and says, "For people who want to be a farmer for a day."
I don't know if is funny as a story on my blog, but it was funny when it happened.



So there was this lady and she had a monkey on a chain. You could A) Give the monkey a quarter for a good luck handshake. B) Give the monkey a dollar and get a picture OF the monkey. C) Give the monkey 5 dollars and get your picture taken with the monkey.
Holy Smokes that monkey was raking it in!!! Joe said if I wanted to live comfortably like a carnie he would buy me a monkey. I'm still debating.

Mississippi

Ezra & River on the back of a giant C-17.

My three boys in the Huey.

Ezra on top of an F-15



This weekend we went back to Columbus MS, too see our friends get their assignments (what plane and where to). Our good friends the Woodlands and the Carusos both got their first choice and they are both going to go to Travis AFB in California (Lucky!). It was so fun to see all of our friends from Mississippi. We went to dinner with the Caruso family and some other friends after assignment night. On Saturday we went to "Career Day" (planes set up for you to look at and talk to the pilots).

We got to watch a University of Alabama football game with Joe and Katie C. and their friends, Ana and Kyle (I recommend this to everyone). If you don't know what "Roll Tide" means look it up. Katie's dad was calling her during the game so they could discuss what was happening. I'm pretty sure she answered the phone "roll tide" when he called. My Joe was impressed by Ana's football knowledge, first she was discussing how college football should go to a play off system and then during the game she claimed there was "p.i." (pass interference). It was so fun to see what being a true football fan is all about.

Here are our friends with their new aircraft.

Kelsey and Oliver on the left with C-17.

Joe and Katie on right with KC-10.













On a side note when I said "look it up" I didn't actually look it up myself because I know what it means. The Mascot for University of Alabama is an Elephant or The Crismon Tide. I don't get it either, but I'm from AZ. I found this quote on the internet(so it must be true.)

“Roll Tide is Alabama’s battle cry, but among fans, it’s the ultimate all-purpose phrase, like prego in Italian or namaste in Nepali, an acceptable substitute for hello, goodbye, nice to meet you, and Amen” — Warren St. John, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Trick-or-treating on post is out of control. It is set up to be from 6-8pm. Once it starts it is non-stop. I wonder if it was like that in Queen Creek, AZ? They have similar set up, lots of houses in a row, that are full of kids waiting to get candy. Joe got home from work at 6:10 and he said it was crazy trying to drive home. We had 6 giant bags of candy and we still ran out before the 2 hour block was over. When we (I took the boys trick or treating) were on our way home at 7:05, most houses were out of candy too. The boys came home with a good haul. River is still too young to guard his candy and let Joe and I pick out our favorites.

Fall Festival

This past weekend was the "Fall Festival" put on by the housing office on post (post, because we are on an Army "post" otherwise it's a base). I had to go to a bridal shower in "town" so Joe took the boys. There was jumpy things, snow cones, face painting (always a hit) and you could vote for your favorite carved pumpkin. A good time was had by all.

Navarre Beach, Labor Day Weekend.

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We had so much fun at the beach. Our first day we were in Pensacola and there were lots of little jellyfish floating around. The second day we went to a place a called Navarre beach. It was very clean. The water was the perfect temperature. It was shallow for a long way out so the boys had lots of room to play. I was raised to love San Diego and the beaches there, but I'm sorry to say this beach was so much better and totally awesome. If you ever get the chance to go the the beach in Florida (technically we were in the Gulf of Mexico) you should totally go.


At Navarre beach there was plenty of old people some had their metal detectors and some were searching for seashells. Of course the seniors loved Ezra and River. There was this lady who was collecting shells, not just any shells, shells that looked really good and you could buy them in a shop. River didn't really get the part that the shells had to look good and when he found any shell broken or not he would take it over to the lady.
There was an old man who was looking for shells, he saw the boys looking for shells and gave them pointers on where the best places to look were. Every now and then he would find a shell he thought the boys would like and bring it over to them.