Thanksgiving Festivities

Joey giving our present to Logan (monster trucks of course!) :)
Logan loves Joey and calls him "Uncle Joey" all the time now
Me taking advantage of a photo op. with Logan and Austin. Cutest boys!
Mike and Elissa doing some heavy lifting and preparing of the 19 pound turkey
Elissa helping Austin open his present from us (cute jammies:)

Austin was the cutest present I had ever seen;)!
Me, Joey and Kota and baby Martinez (almost 6 months)
Me and Elissa in front of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, VA
Martinez' goof ball shot "how did this happen?" Joey wonders. lol.
Morris family photo :)

Holidays always come and go way too fast in my opinion. I look forward to Thanksgiving every year because I love an excuse to eat a lot of horrible for me but, deliciously tasting foods as well as a chance to hang out with good friends that we don't see nearly enough. This year is our third year (not all in a row) spending Thanksgiving with the Morris family bunch. Joey and I were reminiscing about Thanksgivings spent with our friends this week. The first Thanksgiving we spent with the Morris' Elissa was about 6 months pregnant as I am right now. The second Thanksgiving we spent with them they had their first son, Logan who was about one and a half and Elissa was pregnant with her second son and this year, our third Thanksgiving, they now have two sons and I am now the one pregnant with our first child:). It's so special to have good friends nearby and to get to be a part of each life phase that each other goes through. We are so thankful for you Mike, Elissa, Logan and Austin!

I started getting sick last Sunday and brushed it off hoping that it would be a minor bug but, by Wednesday afternoon when I had to walk out of the hair salon because I couldn't stop sneezing or controlling my gushing eyes I realized I was in trouble. Thanksgiving day was the worst day of my cold or flu or whatever this is. Our drive to the Morris' on Thursday was awful for me. I sneezed every minute and my head was pounding and I was so frustrated that of all the days to be laid out with no ability to taste that it would be on Thanksgiving day for me. In spite of the fact that I was not feeling well on turkey day and that I felt awful that I brought my cold to the Morris house we did have a wonderful time. Elissa rocked the cooking this year and took care of the 19 pound turkey (yes, it was huge!), the green bean casserole and the sweet potato casserole. Mike made a homemade apple pie and some homemade rolls and I made my favorite mashed potatoes and brought a bakery pumpkin pie, sparkling cider and cranberry sauce. It was a delicious meal and that is coming from someone who could only taste with 5% of her tongue:)!!! It was so great to see Logan and Austin who seem to double in size each time we visit. Joey had an absolute blast playing with Logan and getting little Austin to smile which is not hard to do:).

Saturday we attempted to spend a nice day at Williamsburg but, unfortunately the weather only gave us about an hour before it began raining and then pouring. It was super cold and windy and just plain nasty so we pretty much had to make it a quick trip which was fine. I look forward to going back sometime and shopping more as I absolutely loved the area and I find the history so fascinating! We grabbed a bite at Chili's and then enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon in the house napping, watching shows and playing with the kids. It was heavenly:). Elissa also spoiled me with a few adorable outfits for our little girl and loaned me her baby bouncer which is perfect and saves us having to buy one! I can't stop smiling when I look at the cute outfits she got me because I can't wait to see our little girl wearing them!! Thank you for the goodies Elissa, you are such a wonderful friend! Cheers to a great Thanksgiving -- 2009!!

Family

Sunday Joey, his sister Jessica and I took a handful of pictures before it got too dark. Jessica was kind enough to take a few pictures for me and Joey too which was very nice of her:). I am so glad Jessica lives here in North Carolina now so that our daughter can grow up with an Aunt nearby. It is such a blessing! Love you Jess:).

Photography weekend!

Joey has finally wrapped up his bass fishing tournament year and he placed 3rd which is really awesome!! Great job Joey!! He had a tough day fishing Saturday and that was a bummer but, overall he has had a blast fishing with a bunch of other guys who are as passionate about it as he is. I'm glad they have so many lakes and avid fishermen out here to keep my hubby happy:). The club will start back up again next January of February so until then you won't hear about any more tournaments much to Joey's disappointment:).

Saturday was quite a day of picture taking for me but, I enjoyed it very much. First shoot was for cutie pie Boston's 3 year pics and his family pic for Christmas. Boston is so adorable so it was easy to get cute pictures of him but, he is also 3 so it was hard to get pictures of him looking directly at my camera. I think that to toddlers, photographers are invisible and that is why they look over, under, to the side and around them but, never directly at them because they don't know they are even there:). See, I can use my imagination:). Still got some great shots of B though and had a great time at the gorgeous park where we all met up. I will be going there much more often for photo shoots in the future! After Boston I had two senior gals come by the park. Alexa and Chris (who I took pics of last weekend), and we got some great shots for their Senior pictures. It was very chilly out so we were getting very rosy cheeks and runny noses but we had fun:). Sunday I took some pictures of Joey's sister Jessica as well as some of us together and preggo shots with me and Joey thanks to Jessica who had a great eye when taking our pictures. Thanks Jess!

Sunday Joey was kind enough to wait patiently in Motherhood Maternity while I purchased a few much needed things. I have tried to stretch my wardrobe out both literally and for practical purposes as long as I can but, I no longer fit in my regular shirts or pants and getting dressed was getting very depressing with my 3 shirts and 2 pants every day. Thanks Joey for being so wonderful and blessing me with your company while I shopped! Sunday night we met at a pizza place with 20 high school kids from our bible study groups and hung out with them. We had a great time! Praise God for a super short week and a yummy meal right around the corner!! I hope you all have wonderful plans with friends and family this week! God Bless each of you!

More pics will be posted at http://caseymartinezphotography.blogspot.com

CONGRATS BRANDON AND LINDSEY! & 21 weeks

I just wanted to give a shout out to my dear friend Lindsey and her husband Brandon who just welcomed their second daughter into the world yesterday afternoon. They already have one little girl name Claire who is 2 and now Claire is joined by a little sister named Emily. I have a little picture of her but, I want to make sure Lindsey gets to announce her in a picture first. I have to say that even though Lindsey had a natural birth (no pain meds) at a birthing center and she also had horrible back labor, she sounds amazing and so at peace today and will be heading home shortly. I didnt' realize how excited I would get hearing someone share their labor experience. I know labor in itself is far from exciting but, the outcome, bringing a child into the world through the most miraculous experience and greeting that little person face to face for the first time....well, I felt warm tingles all over when I thought about meeting our little girl next March or April. I am not one to rush things or wish things would hurry up, or I should say that I really try hard to live each day to the fullest and not let the future sweep me away but, I felt twinges of overwhelming joy today for the first time while talking to Lindsey. Perhaps this is what many women feel every single day of their pregnancy but, for me this feeling has been slow coming for various reasons. I thank God for this little morsel and I will savor it today. Brandon and Lindsey, CONGRATS!!

In other news: I am 21 weeks and counting as of Tuesday. The weeks are really flying by and I know every pregnant woman tells me they will come to a grueling stop in my last couple of months but, nonetheless for now they are going by too fast. I am trying to savor every kick and body surf that my little girl makes in my stomach and I am trying to savor my time alone with my husband before our little one joins us and we become a family of 3. My stomach has all of a sudden bloomed in the last 2 weeks and there is no more concealing it. I get asked if I am having a boy by sales clerks and strangers because I am carrying so low...nope, this lively, low hanging kid is a girl:). I have young teenage girls staring at me in public and pointing, evidently thinking I am pregnant and thus somehow must be stupid and unaware of their obnoxious, "Mom is that lady pregnant or is she just really fat," comments. haha. It's all very different but, fascinating at the same time! We haven't started anything in regards to the nursery but, I have a general idea of what I want to do. I want it to be simple and easy to transition with as our little girl grows. I'm guessing we will work on her room in December and January once things mellow out Lord willing. I'll post more preggo pics next week.

Lastly, as I always say but, must say again. I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!! Seriously, he cracks me up on a daily basis and adds so much joy and spice to my life. Babe, you are my sunshine!!

First news: Dakota has not had anymore unusual looking stools since Friday. She did have the shakes most all of the day on Saturday and I thought it could possibly be a fever but, of course I am not sure. Today she seems to be very much back to her old self; feisty, obstinate, whiney and playful. lol. So, though I did read that intestinal infections can take weeks to really reveal their effects I am hoping and praying that Dakota is in fact getting better on her own with the aide of all of your prayers:). Only time will tell but, in the meantime I am not going to burn anymore brain cells worrying needlessly about our pup. What will be will be. That top pic is of her as a puppy over a year ago now. Cutie pie:).

Second: Joey is still sick. Poor guy started getting sick on the 8th with a really bad sore throat and that lasted most all of last week and now he is getting the respiratory junk. Poor bubbus. Hoping he gets better soon and still praying that I can avoid getting this cold/ flu from him. He has his last fishing tournament this Saturday. Please wish him luck if you talk to him as it is a big deal to him and he is really excited about it. I'm hoping he wraps up the season with a second place trophy. He deserves it!! GO JOEY!!!

Third: I took pictures of a Senior from our church on Saturday. She is beautiful and photogenic so she made my job easy and I had fun seeing the results later on. I posted a few here and will hopefully post a lot more on the photo blog later this evening at: http://caseymartinezphotography.blogspot.com

I will be taking more pictures this weekend for a 3 year old boy and for 2 senior girls and I am so glad to have a little of my photography energy back again. I still have so much to learn but, every time I take pictures I tackle something new so I can only move forward:).

That's all for now....

Tradition - Fall pictures 09

It has become a fall tradition for Joey and I to make it to a forest nearby us each year for pictures. The pretty leaves were long gone by the time we made it this year but, it was still nice to carry on the tradition and get pictures for our Christmas cards that we will send out later. I thought I would share a couple that we will not be putting on the Christmas cards:). The top picture cracks me up because this is classic Joey. I ask him to hold still so I could get the camera settings right and in the blink of an eye he had picked up a massive leaf and attached it to his belt buckle (like Adam in the garden of Eden) and had the weirdest expression on his face:). haha. I wanted to be frustrated but, all I could do was bust out laughing. What a guy:). I had Joey take a couple preggo pics of me outside for a change and I really liked these. It will be a trip to compare these pics to my 9 month ones in just a few months! These are me with 5 months down and 5 to go! Half way there!

Your Hands

I am stealing this song from another friend's blog. I am also going to post the lyrics as she did so you can read the words while you listen to the song. It's beautiful, comforting and so nice to hear someone else put into words the thoughts that many of us have had at one time or another. I do want to add that I am not in the depths of despair today by any means but, Joey and I are definitely riding through a unique season in our lives right now and songs like this are so fitting and encouraging for us. Our little Dakota is sick again. It may be nothing but, it doesn't appear that way. She has thrown up twice in the middle of the night now for two days, didn't eat yesterday and this morning she had a full bowel movement uncontrollably in her crate that covered her and everything around her. Poor baby Kota. When I took her outside to go potty at 7 AM she had blood in her stool. A good amount of blood I might add. I am concerned because she got a hold of a plastic cup in our backyard somehow last Friday and chewed it to pieces. Though it seemed that all the pieces were all over our lawn it would not surprise me now based on her symptoms if she consumed some. My mom and I prayed for her together this morning and I laid hands on her little body and asked God to get her through this for us but, only time will tell and I hate to say it but, we cannot afford to take her in again. So we sit and we wait. Hoping for a miracle for our Kota Mota!
Just thought this song was fitting and sometimes we don't understand why things happen but, it brings us so much peace to know that we are ALWAYS in God's hands! What a friend we have in Jesus.

YOUR HANDS

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn’t there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That you would take my pain away
You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crooked lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking, heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave your hands

When you walked upon the earth
You healed the broken, lost and hurt
I know you hate to see me cry
One day you will set all things right
Yeah, one day you will set all things right

When my world is shaking, heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave your hands

Your hands that shaped the world
Are holding me
They hold me still

4 Preggo ladies

I am so blessed to be going through my first pregnancy with 3 other ladies from my church. Our due dates are all fairly close too. From the right: Lindsey Davis and her hubby Todd are Due the early part of February, Jennifer Chaisson and her hubby Evan are due early March, Lindsay Hege and her hubby Brian are due just a handful of days after Jennifer and I am due March 30th. All of us except Lindsey Davis are expecting girls for our first child! Two of the gals have their names picked out already and the other two of us are still wrapping that process up. I look forward to many playdates, birthday parties and sunday school classes with these ladies and their children and I'm sue we will all be bouncing so many first time experiences off one another for many years to come. I'm hoping that we will get a few more of these group belly shots down the line to show our progress:).

This that and the other thing

Here are some random pics since I haven't posted much lately. The top pic. was taken today and is my more or less 20 week, 5 month shot. I may not look much bigger in this picture but, I know I have grown because I am cramping all the time and my regular shirts are not long enough for me anymore:). Today Joey and I took our traditional fall pictures at the forest nearby and I have to say that it was hard for me to get used to seeing myself so round in the pictures. I know I am pregnant and being round is a beautiful part of pregnancy but, when I see myself in the mirror I'm like, "whoa, who is that woman?" haha. It's just such a rapid change that by the time I finally begin to get used to my new shape it will be shrinking back down again (Lord willing that is:) I'm sure lots of you moms can relate right:). Anyhoo, the other pictures are of princess Dakota since she hasn't gotten much blog time lately. She loves laying by our back door and can bask in the sun's rays for hours, but, if it isn't sunny, she is bored out of her mind and drives me crazy. That's why when it's bright and sunny I know it will be a good day for both of us. lol. The other pics are just for fun. I got a baby memories book for our little girl and I have started documenting all the details before her arrival. I have a baby book that my mom diligently filled out for me before and after I was born and I love reading her thoughts on her pregnancy and my arrival etc so I hope my little girl will cherish her book as well:). We also have a couple little outfits that I found on summer clearance at Target and we bought our first pack of many of Swaddlers diapers to come.

Other than that we are just super, super busy right now. I don't think a night goes by lately that we don't have some sort of engagement booked in. This week was one day after another and thought it was all wonderful we are sooooo wiped out right now. Joey is getting sick...again. I'm just praying that I don't get whatever bug he is getting and I hope he gets through it asap in Jesus name!

Our baby girl's name is very much in the works. Looking forward to sharing her name once we both are certain it's the one! God Bless each of you and hope this week is good to you all!

She finally kicks for Daddy:)

Joey had sort of felt our little girl move a couple of weeks back but, it was really weak and inconsistent and every time we wanted her to kick for him she would stop and evidently go back to sleep and ignore us. Last night while we were watching a movie Joey and I were blessed when our little lady kicked 3 times very hard for him. I'm not sure what was cooler...seeing the freaked out look on Joey's face because it caught him so off guard, or just knowing that he had finally gotten to feel the life inside me that I have been feeling for so long already. Either way it was such a treat and I couldn't have been more blessed by that experience! She is kicking like crazy all the time and her kicks have grown increasingly stronger in the past 3.5 weeks. Not to mention, when she rolls around I start to feel a bit queezy like my stomach is spinning around without me. So crazy, weird and awesome! Just a few days shy of 5 months! Just over 6 inches long and 8.5 ounces in weight My how the time flies!

The Latest

This past Saturday I set the day aside to begin tackling the daunting task of registering for the million little things that a tiny baby needs. It blows my mind that our little girl will own more stuff before she is born than I have owned in my entire adult life! lol. Joey's sister Jessica was a wonderful pal and accompanied me to Babies R Us in the morning to register while Joey fished. I enjoyed looking at all the baby goodies around me while we sat through registry "orientation." I gave Jessica control of the gun and we walked around scanning the things that I had pre-determined that we needed. It didn't take long however; before the store began to feel extremely warm and my pregnant body began to give out on me. haha. I had to cut our trip short, hand over the gun and rush outside to blast air conditioning on my face for 10 minutes before I felt my body temperature level out again. That and a delicious lunch at Panda Express helped:). Thanks for the company Jess! I wouldn't have survived without you! :) Thank God for the internet as I was able to finish things up from the comfort of my own couch later that evening:). When Joey got home from fishing we headed over to Target to register there as well. Joey got control of the gun and was such a trooper and made the process much more enjoyable for me than I would have expected with a husband:). haha. I did notice that a few things I did not register for showed up on the registry and that cracked me up. Honestly, I'm glad to have the registering out of the way. It's actually pretty brain frying and tedious but, it was fun to see all the cute little outfits and hairbows for little girls:). The only thing I couldn't register for was the mini city jogger stroller as neither of those stores carry them. I've decided on this stroller based on feedback from friends and look forward to power walking with it next year:). I can't decide which color would be better but, I'm definitely leaning towards the green!

Now we are in the process of choosing a name for this active little girl. We think we may have come up with one but, we are giving ourselves time to think on it before we decide or announce. We'll keep you posted:).

That's about it over here for now. Oh, aside from the fact that I found out that I will get zero paid time off to have this baby. This information came as a very painful and unfortunate blow to Joey and I this week. We are still processing it all and it will take us quite some time to determine the best plan of action to take as I will not have more than a week and a half paid of vacation to use. Please keep us in your prayers in regards to this matter if you could. We would really appreciate it! I do have to say that it amazes me that the United States is one of the only developed nations in the world that does not recquire paid maternity leave for women!! We provide welfare to millions of people that don't deserve it (some do, I realize that) and disability to millions more than aren't even disabled (some are of course) and yet, a woman who pushes a human being out of her body can't even get 6 weeks of paid time off to recover. Wow!! Twisted and bizarre in my opinion. Forgive my rant. I couldn't help myself.

Hope you are all doing well in health and spirit and Happy Holiday season to everyone!! I'm so excited about Thansgiving with our friends in Virginia and Christmas with Joey's family!! There is so much to be thankful for but, I am especially thankful for family and friends! God Bless each of you!