We're home!

There is so much excitement in our home! Little Leonardo is such a cutie and the boys just love him! He's doing just fine... we all had dinner together and Gregory and Louis are very excited and already want to know when he can start playing with them. Here are a couple of recent pictures:

Benvenuto Leonardo Benedetto!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the third Martin boy: Leonardo Bendetto. Leonardo arrived at 7:27am on November 7th, 2008. He weighed 7lbs, 3 oz. and had blond fuzz. Theresa labored for a very long time and gave birth to Leonardo naturally after only 2 pushes (she was amazing, much to the doctor's dismay who didn't have time to get his gloves on... they in fact told Theresa to stop pushing... yeah, right)!

Leonardo is named after Pete's maternal grandfather Leonard and Pope St. Leo the Great. Benedetto is Italian for Benedict, our current Pope. Leonardo has not "transitioned" well and has been in NICU. His breathing was fast and his blood sugar was low. Being that he was born 1 day before the 38th week, he is technically considered a premie, but all is well now. They just want to make sure that everything is perfect before allowing him into the room with Theresa (which should be soon).

We hope to have Theresa and Leonardo join us at home tomorrow (Sunday), but who knows. Theresa's mother Liz will visit on Monday and stay the week and then my parents will be in town on the 18th and stay for a week. We thank everyone for your prayers and will update this with more pictures when we have Leonardo closer to us!




































Gregory and Louis love to visit and play in the room... they're anxious to meet Leonardo... they saw him from a distance, but since they've both had colds recently, they're not allowed into NICU.

Happy 2nd Birthday Louis!

There has been a lot of excitement around this place! Louis turned two and has also turned into our mockingbird... he repeats everything!



We also celebrated All Saints Eve. The boys got a head start -- on Thursday Sarah, one of the interns at Pete's work, invited us over to the campus of Catholic University to Trick-or-Treat. Here is Buzz Lightyear and his little buddy, Woody... what a couple of cuties!



We've had some very good news lately... Pete was asked to continue his work "remotely" because they were unable to find someone to replace him. He is anxious to get his laptop so that he can work from home although I'm sure he'll really miss going in to work everyday! ;)

The new baby seems anxious to see what all the excitement is about as he continues to push on his mommy and make it uncomfortable (to say the least). The doctors have decided to induce early to help relieve mommy's pain which is great news for all of us as we are all anxious to meet "rocket baby".

With this news (we just found out yesterday)... we have decided to move down to New Orleans early! Pete is going to postpone the defense of his thesis, but will finish the semester of classes. His plan to take time off by calling in sick with a bad case of the "Gottawriteathesis" virus didn't really seem like such a good idea considering the fact that they were nice enough to keep him on! Anyway, he'll finish his thesis and defend it in the Spring.

It will be nice to be home again especially with three children! Please pray for us... we have found the cutest house that we would just love to move into on the first of the year, but we need your prayers to make it work! Thank you!

If you made it this far... here's a couple of treats for you!

Theresa's New Car!

Most everyone has already seen Theresa's Car through e-mail, but I wanted to post the pictures here. In case you're unaware, Theresa earned this brand new 2009 Saturn Vue with her hard work as a Mary Kay Director. It's an amazing accomplishment! Way to go Theresa!


Oh and I added more pictures to Cute Louis' album... he turns two in just two weeks! He is just becoming such a cutie... don't get me wrong, he's always been cute, but he's only recently shown us his cute and unique personality.

Life

Here are a few cute videos of the boys...

From Cute videos

From Cute videos

From Cute videos

Just having fun

A special delivery arrived for Gregory just two days after his surgery and it was such a blessing because it was the first time he was able to laugh. He was so excited to receive both cookies and balloons! Here is a video of both he and Louis playing.



Here are a few pictures from yesterday's fun. With the new baby arriving in just 13 weeks, we were discussing the new sleeping arrangements. The boys came up with a unique solution:

Busy July

July was a busy month for us. We celebrated the 4th of July with friends and also re-celebrated Gregory's birthday as well as my own (Pete).



We also attended John and Kristen's wedding in Pittsburgh. Yeah John and Kristen!! It was a great time:



Here's a cute video of Louis dancing... it's a little misshaped because the camera was turned, but it's still cute.



Now look at the video again and notice the boy behind Louis. That's his cousin Daniel Roy. Here's how he gets his groove on:



And then after that, we flew down to New Orleans where Gregory and Louis got to hang out with Nanna and Grandad and all the cousins while Mom and Dad flew to Dallas for the Annual Mary Kay Seminar:

"I think it's going to be a Louis"

That is a direct quote from Gregory after being asked whether he's going to have a baby sister, or a baby brother. We found out that he's right, it's a boy! Below are some images of the 20 week old baby boy. Please pray that he continually grow strong and healthy.

Oh, by the way, Theresa did earn the car!!!



Gregory and Louis got an additional piece of furniture to go with their new BBQ. Daddy built them a picnic table which is just the right size for them.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Gregory!

Gregory had a very exciting birthday and would love to share it with you:



Here's a video especially for Grandad and Nanna.



Thank you everyone who made this a great day for Gregory!

Viva il Papa!

As promised, here are the photos of the Papal Mass:



Gregory and Louis wanted to do something special for their cousins, Nate and Zach who turn 5 today:

Gregory has some news for you!!

This video was made on St. Patrick's Day, but the news is still very current!

He is Risen!

Happy Easter everybody! We have so much to be grateful for! Theresa is doing very well in her business and I (Pete) am finally getting started on my thesis! I have a wonderful director who is willing to help me throughout the summer to complete it in time so that I can finish with everything in December. Here are some cute videos of the boys who never cease to make us proud.


This first video is an example of how Louis adores Gregory.


This next video is part of the Martin morning routine. If laughter is the best medicine, then we're pretty healthy here.


Have we mentioned recently how adorable Louis is?


A great imagination and an expanding vocabulary go well together:


Easter Pictures

New videos!

OK, so I still succumb to peer pressure... everyone else had their blog updated, so I had to do something. For those of you wondering what we've been doing, here's a few videos showing how we spend our time:



Thanks to Uncle John for the Veggie Tales CD... we love to listen to our favorite characters singing!



It may look a little weird because I held the camera sideways, but I wanted to catch the footwork! Louis loves dancing... and cookies!



You know how they say that kids enjoy the packaging as much as (or more than) the toy? Well, that was the philosophy behind this creation. It's a nice little castle, but it gets pretty crowded when they both try to get in.

Just a quick update. Everyone is doing well. It's back to school for me (Pete) and Theresa is working hard and doing very well with her MaryKay Business. We're supposed to get some snow tonight, so we hope to use the new sled Nana got the boys for Christmas...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

For Christmas we went to New Orleans to stay with the Slatterys. What a wonderful time and how blessed we were to spend our Christmas vacation with them. The boys truly enjoyed being at Grandad and Nana's and Gregory always asks when we're going back.

Here are some pictures of the past month's activities:

New Toys!!

Gregory shows off his new toys in these two short videos:

Free Ride

Here's a cute video (in three parts) of Gregory giving Louis a ride... this video is a little over one minute, but we felt that we had to include the wardrobe malfunction.



Make sure you visit Our Photos Page, or you might miss out on more cool pictures of this rock star:

Louis and Gregory Updates

We felt that we should first show you the little blessings that make our new house so wonderful!

Our new home!

The following is a series of videos of our new house! Enjoy!

First, Theresa walks you through the entrance and the living room:


Then you can see the bathroom and our unique bedroom:


Gregory's room:


The lovely kitchen and dining room...


The play room/ laundry room... Gregory enjoys going "down"; he'll love it even more when his little brother can join him!


Theresa's work space includes a nice little bathroom for her clients:


We are very excited that Theresa gets her own work space. She has done so much to make this place look good!


OK, this might be Pete's favorite room, even though he hides his enthusiasm.


Finally, the sunroom. This would have looked better in the day time, but we just wanted to get these videos uploaded so that you could see our new home, so you'll have to use your imagination.