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