The Artiste

Grace loves anything 'artsy'. She loves to paint, draw, dance, 'cook' in her Dora kitchen, play music, dress up in the latest fashion (actually she's more of a trendsetter).

Here she is working on her latest piece, 'Stickers on Window'.

Her medium: Colorforms on glass pane in her living room.

Next stop: MOMA

The Intellectual

Madeline LOVES puzzles. She can usually entertain herself for quite a while doing them. She can do the 100 piece puzzles by herself pretty quickly and is always trying to convince me that she needs to do a 1000 piece puzzle. We usually get all the edges together on the 1000 piece puzzles but it takes a couple of hours (distractions included!) and she gets tired of it, (ok, I get tired of it), or the dog eats a piece and Madeline decides that she needs a new puzzle.

Party! Party! Party!

Lee's birthday party was a wild one, even Buster got into it!



Actually, Becky and Josh have a hobby that involves humiliating dogs for their entertainment. The 'helmet' Buster fashions is a Speulda invention (Becky is the designer? Josh is the mastermind?). They said they got the idea to make a helmet for Buster after they heard that Grace likes to carry him around by the hind legs, possibly dropping him on his head. Jack, (the Speulda's dog) helps by biting a tennis ball in half thereby providing Becky a palette to work with.
You're in for a long ride with this family, Buster!

Brrrrr!

The girls went sledding for the first time today.The day was warm so the snow was starting to get slushy but, we still managed to get enough sledding in for our noses to run and fingers to go numb.
We're hoping for some new snow so we can go again soon!

A time to weep and a time to laugh

Gracie holding the dog.

Gracie not holding the dog.

Chocoholic

This condition runs in the family, the Martin side to be exact. Madeline comes from a long line of chocoholics and, as you can see, she's got it bad. Can you see the pleading in her eyes? The desperation of an addict? Yes. She wanted more chocolate after ravaging this innocent cup of chocolate pudding.
Can't say I blame her...there's really no such thing as an innocent cup of chocolate pudding.

Fusser-holic

Grace is our fusser baby. (By the way, a fusser is a pacifier for those of you who don't know my sister, Sarah.) Grace cannot (or should I say, will not) go to sleep without her fusser. She often says, "I won't never have my fusser again", when she wants her fusser and is very sad about it not being with her. When fusser is with her she has the biggest smile you have ever seen, especially after a long, hard day without it. My parents say that Sarah was a fusser baby until the age of 5...Lee doesn't like to hear that.

Snow Babies

Madeline and Grace enjoying the snow.

Peter the Cute

Peter is my cute nephew that I have the privilege of babysitting every Thursday for a few hours allowing me ample time for photo shoots.

Madeline and Buster

Buster joined our family on December 15, 2007, as an early Christmas present. He is about 13 weeks old now and is as much trouble as he looks. The girls love him and he is Lee's baby. I just say it's a good thing he's cute. Buster has many names so you may see me refer to him in the future as, "Buster" (his given name), "Busterd" (a Maddy-ism), "Snackbutt" (also a Maddy-ism that Lee and I use when he is being bad), and "Hoover" (when he is eating).

Trying out a new way to share pictures

Madeline and Grace with cousin David

New Years Day 2008

I'm going to try to post pictures regularly so that you all can 'see' the girls more often. I'm new at this so if there are issues with viewing pictures or accessing this account let me know. This is the first site/time I've tried so I am willing to keep looking for other ways of sharing if this doesn't work. Love you all!