Happy December!

Madelyn loves to use Catharine as a pillow. Poor thing.

I said, "Madelyn, smile for Mom!" She is such a sass pot.

I was on the phone with Justin's Dad (Pop) and Madelyn was crying because she wanted to "go on the airplane and see Nana and Pop. Pitiful.

Madelyn stayed up late (one hour past bedtime) to watch "Shrek the Halls" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"...we popped popcorn and she loved it!

You know Madelyn doesn't feel good if she is just "laying" around. She had a fever last night of 101.5. Will we ever get well??!

Do you see the present under the tree? Catharine's favorite place to crawl :)

What a cutie :)

Madelyn loves to "be a baby." I wish she would love to be a "big girl!" She would rather eat out of a bottle and talk baby talk like her sissy. Will she ever potty train??!! Oh bother.

Oh Christmas Tree, How Lovely

We have five years worth of enjoying Christmas to do this year (including this year!). Last year I celebrated Christmas from a hospital bed, and while I adored my hospital room decorations, it isn't like home! The other three years we are celebrating for are those that we will possibly spend in Africa! We decorated our tree last night...and I can't help but stare as I pass through the room every single time! It is precious. Madelyn loves it too...and Catharine, as you can see from the picture, is all about crawling under the tree. We will pick our own "Christmas day" this year to open presents and all that. We will be in Disney World for Christmas this year, so we are doing everything else early at home. I am so thankful for what God has done over the past year. Last year we were unsure if Catharine would even live, and now we are watching her crawl under our Christmas tree. God is so gracious to us. He is so giving. We are so thankful for this time of year when we reflect on how good God is to us that He sent His Son through a virgin to give us salvation, if we only trust in Him for new life! We are new creations in Him and are forever greatful for our salvation and personal relationship with God!

We pray that this Christmas season, you will celebrate the birth of the Savior, however you chose to do so, remembering that He is to be praised above all!

Thanksgiving in Maggie

Any ideas of what animal this is? We think maybe a coyote? (taken at the back side of Cataloochie in Maggie Valley)

Pop and Catharine (the kids call him Poppy or Papa)

Pop and the kiddos.
A picture of the creek at Cataloochie.
Decorating Pop's Christmas tree.

These kids are natural harmonica players! Can you just imagine how our ears felt?? Thank you Nana and Pop!!

It was so cold that at night we had a fire! We made S'mores after the kids went to bed. The kids loved looking at the fire. Every time the fire would start to go out, Madelyn would sign the word for "more" and say "more fire!"

Our futile attempt at a Christmas picture. Crawling EVERYWHERE! We are in trouble :) A family tradition for the Martins when visiting in Maggie is to drive over to the back side of Cataloochie (I really hope I spelled that right?!) where there are elk and other beautiful sites. Mr. Keith got some great shots this time.

Aww!
Catharine is wearing Madelyn's first Christmas dress! How fun!
Nana LOVES her grand kids :) We were all about taking some Christmas pictures. The kids took better pictures with Nana and Pop then they did with us! Stinkers :)

Look at those cheesy grins! Can't you see the Christmas card now?

Catharine loved her walker! Aunt Katie brought John David's for her to borrow.

We had a wonderful time enjoying the company of family in Maggie Valley. The kids played and got spoiled, as usual, and we ate really yummy food! Here are some snapshots of our few days in Maggie. We are all "recovering" from our trip. Everyone is sick...please pray for Catharine especially. I'm taking her to urgent care tomorrow as soon as they open...she seems to be getting worse (started getting sick on Monday). We appreciate your prayers :) Love to you all!

Mike Huckabee For PRESIDENT 2008

We are standing behind Mike Huckabee for President in the 2008 election. Please go to his website and read all about him...he is truly the ONLY candidate worth casting our votes for! Check out our links on the right of this page to find his website.

My first digital scrapbook pages! Enjoy!

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Madelyn goes to the dentist

Madelyn had her first dentist visit today. I took her to Carolina Pediatric Dentistry, which was a great choice! The office is extremely child friendly. Madelyn didn't want to leave! Our Dental Hygienists were wonderful (Keisha and Tameka) They were so good with Madelyn. They would snuggle her after each thing. She got her teeth cleaned, flossed and got fluoride on them. Of course she wasn't sure about Dr. Barry, the dentist because he showed up in the middle of everything, but after that she got lots of prizes, including a Dora tattoo, which she LOVES. We go back in six months. The trip was overall a success!

Fancy Madelyn

As most of you know, a dear friend of mine, Sandra Miller, gave Madelyn the book "Fancy Nancy." She loves it. Last night when we were reading it, she said she wanted to dress fancy like Nancy so we got her all dressed up. Then she said she wanted ice cream (in the book Nancy goes to get ice cream with her family) So I gave her an ice cream bar to eat. She loves dressing up, and who doesn't love eating ice cream? She is really such a fun girl.

The Birthday Lunch For Genny, Gina, Janel and Joanna

Our Table

The kid's table

Heidi, Janel, Me, Joanna

Joanna, Genny, Heidi and Janel

I made a pot of soup, Heidi brought bread, Janel made drinks and Genny made a cake. We had a yummy lunch to celebrate everyone's birthdays.

Hanging out with Neighbors at the Fire

We LOVE our (the building went in together and bought a fire pit) cold weather camp fires! The men get wood together and build a fire and the kids and women keep warm! The kids loved roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores. We have a lot of fun together...one big family!

"That's How You Do it"

Let me just say, NO ONE taught her how to do this. She broke out in this dance after her bath tonight. Is this hilarious or what????!!

HaPpY HallOwEeN!!

Our Halloween Night Story

We really wanted to make a difference this Halloween. We feel that it is silly to sit at home and turn our light off because Christians "shouldn't celebrate Halloween." We obviously do not want our kids to be scared or anything like that, but we need to be where the people are to share God's love and that is just what we did. We made little thank you notes to pass out to the houses. Madelyn loved handing out the notes as much as she loved getting candy. One man said, "thank you so much! This is the first treat I've gotten!" How precious. Here is what our note said...

Happy Halloween!
"Our Trick, God's Treat"

Thank you so much for the treat,
we know that it will be fun to eat!
We want to share this thought with you and
hope that you will share it too!

Long before time began, Father God had a plan
for His people to without sin get along
But we blew it, you see, when we chose selfishly to insist on OUR WAY and do wrong.

What we did was a trick that made God really sick
But He didn't trick us in return
He reached out with a treat that is sweeter than sweet
It's a treat that we never could earn

God says, "I'll be your friend!
I'll forgive all your sin
I sent Jesus to make you brand new."
On this Halloween night as you turn out your light,
just remember how much He loves you!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

For more information about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus please contact the Martin family at chandrabmartin@aol.com

We pray that you will seek the Lord in what you should do with your family for Halloween. We believe that engaging culture is necessary to reach the lost. People need Jesus, are you willing to do what it takes to tell them about Him?

Justin pulled Catharine in the wagon down the street from house to house and I held Madelyn's hand most of the time. Madelyn loved trick-or-treating. She especially loved handing out the notes we had made for each home. She would say "here's your treat!" People really enjoyed getting something in return, they were pleasantly surprised!

Madelyn knew there was lots of candy in her bag. It was hard work keeping her out of the bag and focused on what we were doing. I gave her one tootsie roll,which was a huge mistake because then she knew what she was missing out on!

You can see the Batman couple behind Justin and our friend Dan. Those were the first masked people Madelyn saw and she wasn't too sure about them at first, but she didn't get scared. I was very pleased about that. She just watched them carefully at first and then moved on. There were some other scary costumes that we passed by, but she never noticed. I think she was too occupied worrying about all the candy going into her bag.

We parked in a Seminary parking lot near downtown. These are all the kids from our friend's apartment building. Lots of them, huh? I am in the picture because Madelyn wouldn't stand by herself, this was when we first got there and she wasn't too sure about everything yet. Can you spot us??

This picture was taken the day before Halloween. I wanted to try the costumes on the girls to make sure they fit. We ended up dressing Catharine like Madelyn instead of the chicken costume that Madelyn wore her first year. Madelyn loved being a lady bug again. She pranced around the house looking in the mirror for an hour.

This is Madelyn's good friend Lana. We went to college with her Mom Rachael Armitt Davis. Rachael and Dan are very dear to our hearts. We've borrowed their bassinet for Catharine as well as their Baby Papasan, and swing. They have been huge blessings to us!

Leaving our camera memory card at home proved to be no big deal with Rachael and her camera close by. She was so sweet snapping pictures of us all night. I'm so thankful, or we would have none! Look at this sweet family shot!