Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sunday TOP TEN - Calm before the storm


Sunday TOP TEN - Calm before the storm
(updated 11/18! check out #4)

10. Lighter side first...Somebody turned 5 on November 7th!!!
Happy Birthday, Leonardo!

Celebrating with "minion" cupcakes! 
(yes, totally not healthy, but you only turn 5 once!) ;-)

I wish we could add subtitles in for the minions babbling with their heads on fire ;-)

9. Speaking of birthdays - we forgot to share with you the fun birthday run they get to do (only if they want to!) at karate!
  Here is Louis doing the run - he was a little nervous, but he REALLY wanted to do it!


And here is Leonardo's run!



We ALL love this dojo and all the great people there - adults and kids alike!

8. "Socks" is our outdoor cat, aka I-desperately-want-to-be-in-your-house-cat. The outer glass of this window was missing for a day (got broken, that's another story) and Socks is right there, trying to find his way in! Silly farm cat who thinks he's a house cat!  :-P


7. We let the boys watch this preview ...



Which led to this ...



And this ...



And this ...

And those are just the times I caught it on video! The "fun" never ends :-)


6. Whenever I feel down, his face gives me joy - could he be an cuter?! 

5 months and rockin' it!

5. We are in the 2nd Qtr of school - so many things they are learning ... here is one fun project Gregory did. It took him forever to make the volcano and it seemed so anti-climactic to me when it just barely bubbles over - but they seemed to have fun!


  
4. Two Year Old King returns! (UPDATE! With a THROWBACK video of Leonardo at age 2!! See below!) 
Yeah, you want a piece of this? WHODAT, baby.



Love, love, love our Emmanuel! LOL!

UPDATE! Peter found this video of LEONARDO at the same age, with the same attitude, and the same HAT! :-) They are so alike! How sweet is this:


3. Big Day approaches ... So, we know Damian has the same extremely rare disease Louis does - on Tuesday (this Tuesday, the 19th!) I take those two both in for their doctor appointments. As the day draws closer, the thoughts that I have kept at bay all this time begin to surface and make my heart start beating more rapidly. Then I take a breath and remember that we can only take one day at a time and most days include moments like this ... these are two very special little boys!




2. I just need to remember to breathe ... it seems like such a simple thing, but when you feel overwhelmed and bombarded by so much out of your control, so much that means suffering for your babies, it's easy to forget. So I have to remind myself! And I must remember that you have to keep smiling because...

 it's just no fun to go potty if you can't be Darth Vader!

and it's just no fun to roll around if you can't tear into wrapping paper!

and it's okay to have a glass of wine when you need it! :-)


1. Did I mention we love our karate?  To say good-bye, here is a fun video of Louis (on left) fighting Leonardo (right)! :-)



Please pray for us on Tuesday!  And check our caringbridge site for updates! (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/louisfm) Thank you so much!


a punch to your shoulder,
the Martins






Tuesday, November 05, 2013

7 Scattered Things of Celebration, Love, Heartache & Craziness

7 Scattered Things of Celebration, Love, Heartache & Craziness

1. Happy 7th Birthday, Louis!

2. Carving Pumpkins 

For Louis' Birthday Party - we carved pumpkins! So fun!!

Louis carved a ghost, Gregory a top hat &mustache guy, Pete carved IronMan & Theresa carved Mary & Jesus 


3. Trick - or - Treating

"Two-face"  (Batman's enemy)
Batman!

"Buzz Lightyear"
Darth Vader (Peter) & Darth Mal (Louis)

with friends!
"Ninja Mamas"
4. Loving Karate!

Gregory & Louis participated in their first karate test!

And they both progressed a stripe!
Congratulations, boys!

5. Blessings of boys ... it may look like just rolled up garbage, 

but it's really a map of Mysterious Island!  

6. Update on Damian 
So, we did get the test results back and Damian does have the same genetic mutation as Louis, & the same disease NOMID. But he'ssocute - even with spots :-) 
Mom, another picture? sheesh!
You can follow the medical updates on our CaringBridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/louisfm

Thank you - everyone - for your support and prayers.  We are not sure what the future holds - and that just forces us to rely even more on our dear heavenly Father ... your prayers are so precious - thank you for every one of them! They are helping us so much!


7. Birthday Boy Treasures - Oh Louis!

Louis was reading the chapter of his religion book to me - the chapter when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (and remember that made them lose the ability to go to heaven - and no, I'm not going to get into the difference between condemned to hell and not into heaven yet, but Louis didn't see a difference ;-) love this kid...)

"And they were not able to go to heaven"
Louis: "oh no! That's terrible! That's so sad!"
Me: "keep reading"
Louis goes on and on about how awful not going to heaven is and all the fire in hell, with me saying "keep reading" every 20 seconds or so... Aprx 7 minutes(! - no joke.) later he reads again
Louis reading: "then God promised a savior-I know who that is! Oh I get it! Jesus had to come save us because Adam & Eve lost Gods grace and Jesus wins it back for us!"
Me: "yes!" Close enough ;-) so sweet to see him make the connection of the entire spread of salvation history on his own!


The 2nd best part about Louis' lesson today was when he began reading about Eve and the snake 

"oh she better not listen to it!" He says between words & after the snake speaks 
and Eve ate the fruit he said "Nooooo! Oh mom, she should have said what you did! She should have said, 'no way Satan, not me! I am a daughter of the living God!' And all that other stuff you said"
Me: "yeah, that would have been better huh?"
Louis: "definitely. If snakes ever talk to me that's what I'll say, but I'll say 'son' not 'daughter.'"
To which I tried to explain how Satan can tempt us in many ways & your snake could be a whisper in your heart to be naughty when you should be good.
Louis' response? "Mom, you can't have a snake in your body. We had one in the house that one time but it didn't talk to me."
:-/
Lol!


& that's all I got!


a punch to your shoulder,
the Martins

PS - look for an update on the NEW foyer that Pete built soon! It's done and SOOOOOOO Beautiful!!! He gave me a front door! Love my man!