Reese has discovered her tongue!

Reese has discovered her tongue lately. She pretty much has it sticking out all the time. It is pretty hilarious. (you might have noticed in sa few pictures in my more recent posts). Love this girl!

It ain't easy being cheesy!

I'll tell you what this little boy has personality for days! He is the best! Check out this ham!

6 Months Old!

Can you even believe the girls are 6 months old!! We took a few pictures over the weekend. It was in the evening, so we didn't have time for a full shoot, but we had the lights set up from another shoot, and thought that we might as well take at least a few. Stay tuned for part two of the 6 month shoot :)

Presley

Reese

Haircuts

It was haircut time at the Martin house this week. I forgot to take a before shot of Riley. Oh well! These are not the best pictuers, but you get the idea.

More of the look-a-likes

I realize I have posted a ton of pics of the babies (and even more to come), and I just wanted to assure you that it isn't because I love them more than the other littles. They are changing so fast, and I want to document it. Mostly so I don't forget about all the little things that happen in those first couple of years. It is precious, and before you know it they have gone ahead and grown up on you. I am sure that there will be A LOT more "twin posts" to come!

This is something that I want to remember forever! They do this all the time when they are next to each other. It melts my heart everytime!

Just thought I would share

This is an article I read today, and thought it was worth sharing with all moms (new mom's and seasoned moms alike) So good, so true!

Dear Mother of Only One Child,
Don’t say it. Before the words can even pass your lips, let me beg you: don’t say, “Wow, you have nine kids? I thought it was hard with just my one!”
My dear, it is hard. You’re not being a wuss or a whiner when you feel like your life is hard. I know, because I remember having “only one child.” You may not even believe how many times I stop and reflect on how much easier my life is, now that I have nine children.
All right, so there is a lot more laundry. Keeping up with each child’s needs, and making sure they all get enough attention, is a constant worry. And a stomach bug is pretty much the end of the world, when nine digestive tracts are afflicted.
But I remember having only one child, and it was hard—so very hard. Some of the difficulties were just practical: I didn’t know what I was doing, had to learn everything. People pushed me around because I was young and inexperienced. But even worse were the emotional struggles of learning to be a mother.
When I had only one child, I truly suffered during those long, long, long days in our little apartment, no one but the two of us, baby and me, dealing with each other all day long. I invented errands and dawdled and took the long way home, but still had hours and hours to fill before I would hear my husband’s key in the door.
I cared so much what other people thought about her—they had to notice how beautiful she was, they had to be impressed at my natural mothering skills. I obsessed over childhood development charts, tense with fear that my mothering was lacking—that I hadn’t stimulated her enough, or maybe had just passed on the wrong kind of genes. I cringe when I remember how I pushed her—a little baby!—to achieve milestones she wasn’t ready for.
I lived in terror for her physical safety (I once brought her to Urgent Care, where the doctor somewhat irritably diagnosed a case of moderate sniffles) fearing every imaginable disease and injury. In my sleep-deprived state, I would have sudden insane hallucinations that her head had fallen off, her knees had suddenly broken themselves in the night, and so on.
My husband didn’t know how to help me. I didn’t know how to ask for help. My husband had become a father, and I adored him for it. My husband got to leave the house every day, and sleep every night. He got to go to the bathroom alone. I hated him for it.
When I had only one child, I told myself over and over that motherhood was fulfilling and sanctifying and was filling my heart to the brim with peace and satisfaction. And so I felt horribly guilty for being so bored, so resentful, so exhausted. This is a joyful time, dammit! I should enjoy being suddenly transformed into the Doyenne of Anything that Smells Bad.
I loved my baby, I loved pushing her on the swing, watching squirrels at the park together, introducing her to apple sauce, and watching her lips move in joyful dreams of milk. But it was hard, hard, hard. All this work: is this who I am now? I remember!
So now? Yes, the practical parts are a thousand times easier: I’m a virtuoso. I worry, but then I move along. Nobody pushes me around, and I have helpers galore. Someone fetches clean diapers and gets rid of the dirty ones. When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night for the ten thousandth time, I sigh and roll my eyes, maybe even cry a little bit for sheer tiredness—but I know it will pass, it will pass.
It’s becoming easier, and it will be easier still. They are passing me by.
I’m broken in. There’s no collision of worlds. We’re so darn busy that it’s a sheer delight to take some time to wash some small child’s small limbs in a quiet bath, or to read The Story of Ferdinand one more time. Taking care of them is easy. It’s tiring, it’s frustrating, but when I stop and take a breath, I see that it’s almost like a charade of work. All these things, the dishes, the diapers, the spills—they must be taken care of, but they don’t matter. They aren’t who I am.
To become a mother, I had to learn how to care about someone more than I did about myself, and that was terrible. But who I am now is something more terrible: the protector who can’t always protect; the one with arms that are designed to hold, always having to let go.
Dear mother of only one child, don’t blame yourself for thinking that your life is hard. You’re suffering now because you’re turning into a new woman, a woman who is never allowed to be alone. For what? Only so that you can become strong enough to be a woman who will be left.
When I had only one child, she was so heavy. Now I can see that children are as light as air. They float past you, nudging against you like balloons as they ascend.
Dear mother, don’t worry about enjoying your life. Your life is hard; your life will be hard. That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong—it means you’re doing it right.

Because you need something else to look at

I am sure you are all so sick at looking at my last post when you visit my blog (is anyone still even looking at my blog since I don't update it very regularly anymore?) So, here are a few randon pics of the babies. I love the pic of Presley that has Reese trying to stuff her whole hand in her mouth! Now that is determination, people!

TV

Jace made a new TV stand to go with his new new TV.  We designed it together. We wanted something that was pretty basic and simple, not bulky. I am happy with how it turned out.

Just because they are cute

I took a few pictures of the look-a-like's today. They have on new outfits, which is always a good reason to have your picture taken. I thought I would share. Because they are worth sharing. :)

All that playing wore them out!

Other Festivities

Here are a few more pictures of things that we did during Christmas:

We spent one day hanging out at the cabin. I is fun to see it finally coming together. Hopefully it will be totally finished soon!

 Everyone went tubing on Christmas eve. I stayed Home with The babies and Kam. Riley and Payton had a BLAST! Definately one of the highlights of the weekend!!

Christmas

Christmas was a blast this year! My kids are at at the perfect ages for Christmas. IT is so magical for them! Here is a quick rundown of all the madness:

We made Christmas cookies for Santa

We even gave Santa a quick call, just to make sure that he didn't forget that we were at Grandma Kaye's house. Good thing Aunt Stephanie had his number ;)

We were teaching the girls about the true meaning of Christmas, and about the spirit of giving. Jace had told the girls about when he was a little boy, and he got his Dad his favorite candy as a chirstmas gift. He told them how excited he was to see how surprized his dad was, and how happy he felt by giving him a gift he knew he would love. So they wanted to buy daddy a gift this year. Wouldn't you know it was a pack of M&M's. His favorite treat :) They were so excited because they knew he would love it. He mad a big deal about it, and made them feel super special!

Reese and Presley were super excited about Christmas too :) This is during the opening of gifts. I am amazed what they can sleep through sometimes!

Kam got this helmet because he is always trying to wear Riley and Payton's. Now he has his very own! He didn't want to take it off. So he sported it for the majority of the morning.

Riley was super excited to see that Santa had gotten her everything on her list! It was a good day!

Payton was so excited about everything that she got! She thought every little thing was the greatest gift in the whole world!

Santa was also good to me! I got a ton of fun stuff. I especiall ylove my new ihome! (
No pics of that).

Santa was ESPECIALLY good to Jace! He got a new 55 inch flat screen TV!! He had NO idea about it, and it made his whole day...I mean week...I mean year! It is a good thing I told Santa what Jace would REALLY want for Christmas this year. He never would have thought to ask for such a big gift :)