Marten Family Fun

Last weekend I went home to Wichita Falls. I hadn't been home since Leland and I moved to Missouri which was in January. It was so great to be home again! I missed it! I have to brag on my dad a little. They bought their property outside of Wichita Falls 2 years ago and ever since they've been out in the country and on some land, my dad has been like a kid on a playground. He's built so many neat things and made so many improvements around there. This first picture is an outside shower he built that stands just outside the pool area. It has a big water tank above it and you just pull on a cord and water comes out a rainshower spout! It's so neat and rustic looking.



This is his most recent project-a floating dock. My parents joke and call it their lake house. It's so cool! He completely welded and constructed the whole thing by himself and it's floating on big huge styrofoam blocks. I'm not sure how he got that out in the tank all by himself, but he did and I am so impressed with his skills! They recently found they have fish in their tank and if you throw out some fish food, here they come-little bass and catfish come right up to you and will practically eat if from your hand. We had so much fun with it. They're small fish-nothing we could eat, but it was still neat to see. You can see my brother Kyle's head poking out of the water. There's a rope with a tire attached on the end that you can swing off of into the water-he was having fun with that.

Here's another view

This is a hamock that sits out over the water

These are my cousins and nieces playing Candy Land. The two older ones are my cousins Britton and Audrey, and the younger ones are my nieces Sarah and Callie. They're so much fun!

I had such a great time coming home to be with family. It was hard to leave but poor Leland would get lonely if I didn't come back to Missouri.

I look forward to the day my kids can come stay with their Nini and Pop and enjoy all the fun things there is to do out there. My younger cousins and now my niece Sarah who is three have so much fun coming to visit and I can't wait for my kids to enjoy their time out there too. My in-laws live on quite a bit of land too and have this really cool creek that runs at the back of their property. They have livestock, chickens, a duck, guinea hens and all kinds of fun stuff to do out there too, so our kids will definitely get their share of the country life which I love because that is mine and Leland's background.

Marten Family Reunion

Last weekend I flew back home for our yearly Marten family reunion. This year was a special year because it was a 100 year anniversary. There's a story behind it that's pretty neat but I'm probably a little biased. They posted a story and a photo of my dad and uncle Steve in the Wichita Falls newspaper. To read the full story you can go to: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/jun/21/joining-club/

Here's the short version. My great-great grandfather, William August Marten, moved his wife and 13 children to Texas from Illinois and bought some land in 1908 (hence the 100 year anniversary) and the land has been passed down from generation to generation. My great-great grandfather put in his will that as long as the land was producing a barrel of oil that they would never sell it. The land was passed on to all of his 13 children and then passed on to their children and so on all the way to my dad's generation. So it's now split between 56 owners. And someday it will be passed down to me and my brothers, cousins, etc. Kind of neat! So this reunion was a huge one and we had I think over 200 people there from all over the country. We took a tour out to the farm to see the land that everyone has part ownership in. There's an old church there too that has a lot of family history. My grandfather was baptized and married in this church. So it was a special reunion this year. I don't know most of the people there, but I got to see some second cousins that I hadn't seen since we were kids. It was a fun weekend. We spent a little time out at my parents' place too that weekend. I'll post some pictures of those fun times soon. Here's some pictures of us out at the farm and church.

12 Weeks

I had my 12 week doctor's appointment on Friday. It was a much shorter appointment than the first one. She said my all of my tests from the first visit came back normal and right on target and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again-this time with a Doppler machine. At first she had a hard time finding it because it's still so small and she kept moving it around until she found it and when she did it was very loud and fast! But it was such a relief to know that the baby is doing well and I am too! Praise God! So, we just asked her a few more questions we had and we were on our way. I get to find out the sex in mid-August. I can't wait for that appointment. So far we haven't bought anything or even started on getting the baby's room ready. It's kind of funny because we have 3 spare bedrooms and when we moved in one was bright pink and lime green and we thought we'd better just paint over that a neutral color so that when we sell our house that it won't be this bold colored room-----never in my mind was I even thinking that this room could potentially be a nursery someday (the other two rooms have beds in them and this is the only room that is empty for the most part-plus it's the room closest to our bedroom). So now that we've already painted it once, Leland says we are not going to paint it again! I would really like to since it's our first baby and I want to make the nursery cute and all, but we probably will only be here for another year and a half before we move again, so it does seem kind of pointless! We'll see. I may talk him into it. Right now it's a buttery off-white color, so it could work either way if we ended up leaving it.
Other than that, all is going well and I'm officially in my 2nd trimester now. I'm not really showing yet, but my clothes are getting a little snug. My doc thinks by 16 weeks I'll be showing. We'll see!
Please pray for my friends Traci and Dustin. Their home burned down on Thursday from a leaky propane tank while they were grilling out and they lost everything! They are such nice people and I feel terrible for them. They have a newborn too so please keep them in your prayers.
Also, please pray for a good friend of mine who just had her 3rd miscarriage and she and her husband are devastated, as I can imagine. I know her prayers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Finding Out

Pregnancy has been good for the most part. I feel so thankful that I am not having some severe symptoms like some of my other friends who are pregnant right now. I've had some slight nausea at times but nothing to the point where I actually get sick and have to run to the toilet. I had some food aversions there for a while. Anything healthy like a salad or chicken breast sounded awful to me but a cheeseburger sure did sound good-which is so not like me to eat that way, but hey, I didn't care at this point.........anything to make me feel better. I've been super tired most days and try to take short naps when I can-however sometimes they turn into 2-3 hours naps! I feel like I'm getting over the hump of 1st trimester pregnancy yuckiness. I'm 10 weeks so I've got 3 more weeks to go before I hit my 2nd trimester and everyone says you get your energy back by then.

How we found out we were pregnant:
Well, we went out of town to visit some friends one weekend in April and I already knew I was a few days late but didn't think too much of it at this point. But I was feeling super bloated and uncomfortable the whole weekend which I thought was weird. And also, about a week or so earlier I noticed some spotting for a day but it only lasted that one day and that was it (so sorry if there's any guys reading this right now!) So I was talking to my friend Sally and she was asking when Leland and I thought we were going to be ready for kids and I was telling her that we were planning on trying this summer. At this point we weren't trying but we weren't trying to prevent it either (again, sorry if this is too much info) But I told her I was a few days late and she lit up thinking I might be pregnant and I told her about the spotting and she said that could be what's called implantation bleeding where the embryo cells attach to the uterus. So Sunday night when we got home from our trip, I had to know........so I took a test and it instantly told me it was positive. I couldn't believe it! Leland and I had previously talked about how this would be a terrible time to get pregnant because I would be due around Christmas, so I was shocked that it was positive to say the least! I went downstairs and showed Leland and he was in total denial. He thought we would have to have a doctor confirm it before we really knew. But I explained to him that you cannot get a false positive because it's detecting a hormone in the urine that you only have when you're prego, so I think when I explained that to him, he was like, oh wow.......but kind of still in denial. I think by the time I took the 3rd test over the next few days, he finally realized we really are pregnant! So at first we talked about how awful the timing was and we won't be able to go home for the holidays and how we'll always have to do birthday parties around the busiest time of year! But once it all sunk in, we were so elated! I don't care if I have this baby around Christmas, I just feel so very blessed that the Lord has given us such a gift.

A Picture We Want to Share

That's right! We're pregnant! Well, technically, I'm pregnant, not Leland-but he was a big help in it all. Ha! I am 10 weeks and we are so thrilled. We feel so blessed that God has brought this amazing miracle in our lives. It's a funny thing how you think you can control the things in life. We were hoping to get pregnant this summer so we could have a spring baby-you know, after the holidays-I mean who plans to have a baby around Christmas?! Well, God had other plans for us and guess what.............I'm due Dec 31st!! I always told myself I would never have a baby around Christmas, who would do that to their child....or themselves? At first we kind of freaked out but then once reality set in, we were very excited. (I think most of you already know, so this is not news to you, but I had to officially post it on the blog now that I've told friends and family).

Okay, so we had our first doctor's appointment when I was 8 weeks. Leland came with me. They did an ultrasound and we got to see and hear the heartbeat. It was so neat. Even though I was looking at all of this on the screen, it still didn't register that that little baby is growing in my tummy. But the doc said everything looked very healthy. I was just relieved that the baby was still okay because I had known I was pregnant since I was 4 weeks and had to wait a whole month before the doctor could confirm that I was still pregnant. So you probably can't tell much from the ultrasound other than it looking like an odd-shaped blob, but in this picture you can see the baby's profile. The round thing above the head is the yolk sac which provides all the nutrients to the baby until the placenta develops, and the whiter looking area is an arm bud and at the bottom you can see little points, we think both are legs or one is a leg and the other is the tail-that's right it still has a tail at this point!

So that is our exciting news and we are so happy. More to come later..............