C A L I F O R N I A

 We just got back from our trip to CA on Monday. It was such a great trip! The kids did better on the plane and sharing a room/bed than I expected and they time shifted quickly so they weren't even waking up early! #winning. 

We started off the trip flying into Sacramento where my mom picked us up and we drove up to Nevada City where we were joined by my dad and Katie and Kendall. After the kids were in bed that first night, Eric and I got to go for a little walk around the neighborhood. It was so nice to get some one-on-one time together- our only chance to do that for the whole rest of the trip! We even found a little pop up farmstand selling fresh flowers and got a bouquet for Oma. It was very nostalgic for me to be back in Nevada City in the summertime. It just made me think of being there during the summer as a kid: going boating with cousins, swimming in the river, running around on their land playing tag and building rockets and shooting them off. It was very hot but thankfully our AirBNB hosts brought us a little AC unit for our room that worked fine. 

The next day was probably my favorite day of the whole trip! We got to go out to breakfast with Oma and my parents and Katie and Kendall which was delicious. Then, we went to the farmers market and got to look at some cool gemstones and bought some tasty pluots. Then we went back to the AirBNB and Emery actually lay down and took a nap with me which was very sweet. Then in the evening we went over to Lyne and Jon's new house and had a BBQ and got to go swimming with them and Oma and Michelle and Jamie and their boys and Joey and Emily and their girls! It was so fun and relaxing and everyone had a great time. The kids loved swimming and playing with Michelle and Jamie's boys and I had a good time catching up with my family. The yard was all shady and the food was delicious and it was pretty much just perfect.

Emery is such a snuggle bug! Just hanging out with Auntie Lynne :)

Oma with the kids! 

Sunday, we went to church in Nevada City and then headed to Sacramento and hung out with Katie and Kendall for a while and got to see their cute little apartment before heading on to Mom and Dad's house. It was funny at church I could just glance at a kiddo and tell they were DeMartinis. They've just got a very distinct look: white blond hair, super tan, energetic, and rough and tumble haha. 

The next day, Mom and I took the kids to Howarth park and we rode the train and the carousel and played on the playground. I don't remember ever going on the train or the carousel as a kid although they've been around for a long time. Levi really loved it, Emery was a little nervous about the carousel and wanted to just sit on a bench with me rather than on one of the horses that went up and down. I was fine with the extra snuggles haha. I love Howarth park and the natural beauty of Northern CA. It's so different from where we live now! It's drier than I remember (#climatechange) but I had kind of forgotten the slightly magical feel of the big oak trees dripping lichen and the huge boulders everywhere and the golden grasses. And it's kind of nice that the land actually has some texture to it. I don't mind the flatness of Texas while I am here but it definitely makes driving around NorCal more interesting than driving here! Haha. 

Monday night we went to get frozen yogurt and I think Levi's had something bad in it because that night he came down with a horrible stomach bug! Right before Eric and I were heading to bed around 11pm, we heard Levi crying and throwing up. Poor kid threw up all over his bed, down the stairs of the bunk bed, and on the carpet in his room before Eric got him to the bathroom. Then, as Eric and I were cleaning him and everything else up while trying not to wake up Emery (who miraculously was sleeping through all of this), he threw up on the carpet again! Thankfully after that, he got a hang of using a bowl because he ended up throwing up 10 times between then and 9:30 am. Poor kid! I was super paranoid that we were all going to get it and it would ruin our trip so I made him stay in his room all day Tuesday and till mid-day on Wednesday (because the last time he threw up was 1 pm on Tuesday) and kept Emery away from him and fanatically sanitized EVERYTHING. My hands even started to crack from being washed so many times. And anytime anyone went in the room with Levi I made them wash their hands afterwards. It may have been a bit extreme but it worked! He got better quickly and thanks I think to my efforts and many prayers everyone else in the family was spared and no one else got sick! By Wednesday morning Levi's fever was gone (it had gotten up to 101.2 poor kid!) and he really wanted to go to the beach. So after he had gone 24 hours without throwing up, I let him out of his quarantine and Mom and I took the kids to the beach. It was cloudy/foggy but thankfully not too windy or too cold! I was fine in just a light sweatshirt. And Emery especially LOVED the beach. She was all about the sand and the waves even though the water was FREEZING she kept wanting to go deeper into it! It so cute. And it just made me remember all the times of going there as a kid and running through the freezing waves and imagining what it would be like if I were a mermaid. And on the way back we even picked up some pints of delicious Screamin' Mimis to complete the beach experience of my childhood haha. 

This girl loved getting as sandy as possible! 

Poor kiddo was completely worn out after the trip to the beach and feeling nauseous again. So I got him his bowl and he just collapsed on the stairs! But thankfully he didn't throw up again and by the next day he was feeling all better. 

The next day, Thursday, Mom and I took the kids to the children's museum in Santa Rosa, which they enjoyed and then later in the afternoon, our family left Mom and Dad's house and drove down to San Francisco and met up with my friend Caitlin Nichols from college in a park and had sandwiches. It was soooo cold I was shivering in my shorts and light sweatshirt but it was still so nice to get to catch up with her a little bit. Hopefully, I can see her again the next time I am out that way. 

Friday, we got to spend pretty much the whole day with Matt and Greta and their kiddos. They are renting this super funky house in Palo Alto which was only an 8-minute drive from the hotel we were staying at. The kids had fun playing together and it was so great to get to catch up with Matt and Greta. Rachel has gotten so big! In the evening, the kids watched a movie while Matt and Greta and Eric and I got to play a game together. That was really nice. I'm really glad we get to see them again soon for the Martino family reunion in August because one day together was definitely not enough!

Cute cute cousins! I love how much our kids look alike! 

Saturday, Eric braved the cold and took the kids swimming at the hotel pool because they were begging to even though it was only like 67 degrees outside! They didn't last long haha. Then we went and hung out at a park with my parents and Katie and Kendall and Eric and Natachia and we got to meet baby Patrick for the first time. He is soooo cute! And doing so great! You would never guess he was a preemie. He's adorable. Emery was fascinated by him and even finally got to hold him, although he wasn't too keen on that idea. 

Sunday was Patrick's baby blessing and then we spent most of the rest of the day hanging out together as a family at Mom and Dad's AirBNB. We got to play some jackbox games and then later took the kids to a park to run around for a while before driving back up to Santa Rosa. It was just so great to get to just relax and spend time together as a family. Makes me wish that we lived closer to each other, although we have no interest in moving to CA.

Poor Patrick is like "please rescue me!" Hahaha

Then on Monday, we flew home! Thankfully the kids were great on the plane again (thank you tablets with headphones haha) and the trip went smoothly. We had to get an Uber to take us from DFW to Lovefield because we accidentally booked our flight out and our flight back in different airports. Ooops. But it was fine. We got home Monday night pretty exhausted and excited to sleep in our own beds. 

Since our trip it's been jump back into the deep end of stressful, busy life! I had to play catch up on laundry and at work and I had activity days on Wednesday and two OB appointments last week (I had to do an ultrasound because I was measuring big and they were worried I may have too much amniotic fluid but I don't and baby girl is measuring right on track and looks good thank goodness). Thankfully, on Friday the kids and I had a chance to relax again a little bit and went to Little Elm beach with Karem and her kids. The water there is so gross to me but the kids loved and it and I loved getting to just sit in the shade and chat for a few hours! Haha.

Willy, Emery, Levi, Lauren and Danny had so much fun playing in the water and the sand! 

Friday night, we had Eric's old mission companion Christian Carter, and his kids over for dinner and watched some of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I am so glad the Olympics are happening this year even though there are no spectators and a lot of COVID precautions. The Olympics are just so amazing to watch! Last night we got to see beach volleyball, men's gymnastics and skateboarding and it really is just so incredible what top athletes are capable of. Very impressive.

Then yesterday, Eric and I were just very busy getting the rest of the materials to build our pergola and rabbit-proofing our yard! It was much more of a task than I anticipated but it actually went really smoothly and has been successful so far! I took chicken wire and cut it and staple gunned it to our fence and buried the ends of it and then sprayed it with liquid fence to discourage the rabbits from digging under. It was very hot and I sweated sooooo much but it did feel good to be taking a stand and kind of creating a little fortress oasis of our backyard that hopefully once the rabbits are kept out will be able to finally be freed from chiggers! Haha. I did feel bad though that the whole thing took sooo long and I didn't spend much time with the kids. They were both very emotional and had had way too much screentime by the end of the day. And I definitely was more short-tempered with them than I ought to have been. Definitely had to do some repenting last night. But thankfully, today is Sunday and we get to spend some good quality time together as a family and not have to do any house/yard work! 

So yeah, that's a very long recap of our trip and life lately. I do feel more ready now to face everything we have coming up soon and to dive back into productivity after taking 10 days to not worry about the house or work or any of my many projects haha. I've scheduled our newborn photographer and ordered all our outfits for our family/newborn pictures we will take after the baby is born. She's coming so soon now! Just two months away! And Levi starts kindergarten in just 2 weeks! I can barely believe it. I took the kids on Friday afternoon and we picked out all his school supplies and he's got meet the teacher night coming up. I feel like he is definitely ready for kindergarten but I am going to miss him on Mondays and Fridays and I know it's going to be a BIG adjustment for Emery! She isn't going to have anyone to play with on those days anymore! I was talking to Karem about it and realizing I will just have to do a lot of playdates because otherwise, I don't think she will know what to do with herself! 

My silly boy! 

Before our trip I FINALLY finished the murphy bed! I LOVE how it turned out. It's just like I imagined it and I am so happy about that. Now I just need to make the shelves on the sides :)

Emery, Levi and I went to a birthday party in June at a farm and my goodness it was SOOO hot but the kids had a great time. 

Early 4th of July celebration at Old Celina Park! There were food trucks, live music, water slides and a fireworks show! It was a perfect fun evening. 

Aren't these smiles the best?? Emery was just living her best life! Her best friend, pizza, music and dancing and fireworks! The girl was in heaven. 

These cute cousins had so much fun dancing to the music with their Auntie Emma! 

Eric and I danced too :)

Lazy Sunday afternoon with my sleepy girl and dashing little man

Before our trip we made cupcakes for one of our family home evenings. Levi was so pleased with his creations! 

ALLLLL the Sweat Equity

 Well the rain has stopped and it is officially HOT here. Especially because our AC kicked the bucket last week. Thankfully only the downstairs AC died completely so we've still had the upstairs one doing its darndest to keep us from melting but it's still been mighty toasty here, especially with the heat index getting up to or above 100 degrees multiple days this past week! But we got lots of bids for the replacement and we have a guy coming out to do that on Wednesday. Only 3 more days to go! Haha.

These past couple weeks of June I feel like everything I do involves lots of sweating. The kids started swim lessons which were a steal of a deal through the city and they have been loving. But it's every evening from Mon-Thurs and I definitely almost passed out trying to get Emery changed in the concrete box cooker of a family dressing room one of the nights last week. 

The kids have had a great time with swim lessons! And I love that there are 2 teachers for their class of 5 kids. Not bad ratios at all! 

I've also been busy working and literally sweating over the Murphy bed. Holly came to visit us last weekend which was wonderful and I was determined to have the Murphy bed done in time for her to come... however, I had misjudged how much contact cement I would need so I ran out 3/4 of the way done with the veneer. And of course, there was NO water based contact cement available to buy locally so that set me back a couple days because I had to order off Amazon and wait for it to arrive. So, long story short, it wasn't done by the time she got here. But we had the mattress for it set up for her and she tells us that it was super comfy so that worked out.

I was soo nervous to work with the veneer having never done it before! I watched a ton of youtube videos and psyched myself up. Then, the day I was planning on doing it, it was POURING rain! So the humidity in the garage was ridiculously high which I was sure would ruin the contact cement and make it not adhere properly. But I was determined to proceed because I was trying to finish in time for Holly. Soooo I looked up all the ways to dehumidify a space. I set up fans and set bowls of baking soda and buckets of charcoal all over the garage and bought a humidity monitor. And despite my best efforts, I never did get the humidity down below 67% or so, but I forged ahead anyway. And you know, it wasn't as hard as I feared! I only really messed up one piece as you can see below but I managed to fix it with a tiny strip of veneer and I feel like it turned out ok. 

I'm actually really surprised that I was able to cut and adhere such a tiny strip of veneer. I had to cut it twice because the first time I accidentally cut it with the grain running the wrong direction. But second time was the charm. 

It was really nice having Holly visit us. Emery got lots of practice with her "h"s trying to say Holly's name. We went to a cool new park in downtown Dallas, ate BBQ from a food truck, celebrated Eric's birthday and had family dinner and just generally got to hang out. The kids had a blast having Holly around to play with and I loved being able to spend the evenings just chatting with her. I wish she lived closer to us. And I realized after she left that we didn't take any pictures together while she was here! Bummer! 

After Holly left, it was back to work on the Murphy bed in the evenings. I don't think I've ever sweated more in my life than I do in our garage in this summer heat sanding, staining, filling, sanding, staining, etc all in a respirator. But after many set-backs including a big one on Friday where I was just sure I had totally ruined the doors, the bed is ALMOST done. The doors just need to be sealed and the handles attached and then the whole thing can get installed. Halllelujah. 

So I was kicking myself so much on Friday because I followed the directions on the wood filler that I used which had told me to stain the wood first, then do the filler then sand and stain the filler. Clearly this was WRONG! I was literally crying Friday night sure I had not only thrown away hours and hours of hard work but that it would be irredeemable because I was worried if I tried to sand it down and do it over, I would sand through the veneer! It was definitely a rough evening and I was more than a little frustrated/devastated. I may have thrown the staining rag... twice. BUT thankfully we had a game night with some friends that evening that was a lot of fun and proved to be a great distraction.

When I woke up Saturday morning I was literally dreading trying to fix the doors. I felt like I was about to go take a test I knew I was going to fail. But I said lots of fervent prayers and asked for prayers from my family and bravely took up my orbital sander. And I guess God decided to have mercy on me because I was able to sand down without sanding through the veneer! And as much as I hate all the extra time it cost me to do it all over again, I actually like it better now. I feel like it pulled out the grain even more and accentuated the character of the wood and I really like how it turned out. I feel like it is some kind of metaphor for life. Like how even when we screw things up, God can make it work out for our gain, we just have to accept ALLLL the sweat equity involved in the process. 

Also, in case you're wondering where there are stain footprints all over the place, yes I dropped the full can of stain (because oh yeah, I had to go buy more because there wasn't enough to do the doors over again after the whole wood filler fiasco) all over my feet and the garage floor! Thankfully I saved like half the can which was enough but holy cow it was like one more thing being difficult about this bed! 

In case the heat and humidity weren't enough of a deterrent to being outside, we also have chiggers back in our yard despite having Moxie come out regularly for pest control. Clearly, it's not working. Eric called them to come out again this week but I'm less than optimistic that we will be successful at getting rid of them since we never did manage to fully exterminate them last summer despite all our efforts. Which is so annoying because our yard is SO pretty now with our trees and our lush grass and our flowers and our trampoline... but it's also infested with nasty pests! So unfair! And yet, we still keep working on our yard. Am I bullheaded or what? I spent a whole hour and a half yesterday at Home Depot trying to order the materials for our pergola! HD's bulk ordering system needs a serious makeover. But hopefully, on Tuesday (after they call me to tell me what the estimated delivery date of the cedar is) we can finally order the materials and get going on the project. 

Summertime definitely calls for new shades for these two cuties of mine!! They are my joy. After LONG days at work or frustrating moments with my DIY projects, cuddling them before bed or seeing their joy as they play with each other, or Emery's excitement when she successfully says "pig" instead of "big" or "ham" instead of "am" makes my day. 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's summer now! Well, at least school's out, but good gracious it has been so rainy here lately! I swear it was a much wetter May than usual. I keep waiting for the forecast not to include thunderstorms every single day and it is only just now happening this week. All this rain is making our lawn grow like crazy which is cool but its also making my lavender pretty sad and my poor marigolds got way too damp and succumbed to some kind of fungal infection. Even my mint (which is usually so hardy) is looking ill. I know I will feel differently when I am wilting from the heat as I am huge pregnant in August, but I am ready for some summer vibes! 

In spite of all the rain, we've had a good last few weeks though. I am finally feeling much better. Last Sunday I had a bit of a relapse because I ran out of doxylamine and didn't realize how important it was so I threw up multiple times that day and just felt horrible. But Eric went and got me more and since then I've been doing good again! I only have brief periods of nausea every day and I'm functioning pretty much back to normal except that Eric gets up with the kids to give me extra rest in the morning which is helpful. I am sooo grateful that I am back to doing things and not feeling like death all the time!! I really hope I can keep this up for the rest of the pregnancy but I know that sometimes things get worse again during the third trimester so I'm cautious in my optimism. 

But speaking of pregnancy, we found out the gender of our baby a couple weeks ago!! We are having another GIRL! And look how sweet she looks:

Mom was here for a visit when we found out which was a lot of fun. We got to go out to get delicious Brazilian BBQ with her to celebrate. And now that we know the gender, Eric and I have been talking more about names. It's so different this time because there's so much fewer things to prepare. We already have all the things pretty much so really we just need a name! 

One thing we have done to prep for baby girl though is to rearrange Emery's room and get her a new big girl bed! It was definitely time for that. Grandma and Grandpa got her some adorable bedding and she loves her new bed. The first night she had a bit of a hard time sleeping and woke up a few times but since then she's been doing great and it is sooo much easier for me because I don't have to lift her in or out (which was getting harder as baby has been getting bigger). 

The bedframe hasn't come yet because it is back ordered (ugh) but we just set her up with the mattress not the floor which is probably perfect to start with anyway because then we don't have to worry about her falling out. 

Speaking of Emery, we started speech therapy with Emery again. She actually really likes it and she does so well with it. She is working hard to learn how to say her "p"s and "h"s. It is very hard for her and she has to really concentrate. But I am seriously so impressed with how she attends so well and tries so hard. The speech therapist even remarked about how impressed she was at Emery's ability to sit and listen and try hard to imitate the sounds and do the activities. We have been practicing with her at home too and she asks about going back to speech therapy because she likes it which is awesome. 

Emery is getting so big. She's THREE now!! We celebrated her birthday for days! On her birthday we did a little celebration just our family, and then on Sunday Papi and Nona and John came over for dinner and we celebrated her again. They got her a pink princess dress that she is obsessed with and wants to wear all the time. It's perfect for her. Then on Monday, we got to have our first party since COVID! We had friends over and did a BBQ and I made Emery a barbie princess cake! I was a little nervous about the cake but I feel like it actually turned out pretty well. I am so grateful that I have the personality where I refuse to let intimidation keep me from trying hard new things. I learn so much by diving in and giving things a shot even when I totally don't know what I'm doing haha. 

Our little princess with Papi and Nona

Not too bad for my first attempt ever. I will admit the frosting was frustrating me quite a bit though because I made homemade strawberry frosting using dehydrated strawberries and it WOULD NOT stick to the cake! It took me extra long to decorate because the frosting kept wanting to just peel off! I admit I may have just straight up used my hands to smoosh the crumb coat into place a few times. Shhh haha. 

Sweet cousins. Maren's face totally cracks me up in this picture. 

Dawnelle and her boys Cooper and Lincoln were so nice and came to celebrate Emery with us. We love them! 

Karem's kids: Lauren, Danny and Willy with Levi and Emery. Would you believe Willy is actually a few months older than Levi? He's so petite in comparison! Haha. 

So excited to blow out her three candles! 

Anyway, we had planned to have Emery's party at a splash pad but what with the weather we ended up just doing it inside which worked out just fine. I love hearing our house full of laughter and people!! We've waited sooo long for that. Eric and I enjoy hosting and having people over and this was the first time we've gotten to do so in this house because of COVID. Thank heaven we're vaccinated now and can finally start hosting again. 

In other good news, the permit got approved for our pergola! Major summer DIY project, here we come! I can't wait to see our backyard when it's done. I am soo looking forward to sitting out on a chair out there and enjoying our wind chime and lights and watching the kids jump on the trampoline while Eric grills us up some delicious food! Of course before we can do the pergola, I have to finish the Murphey bed. That bed has been a LOT of work. I mean I knew going into it that it would be a big, challenging project that would take a lot of time but each step does seem to take even longer than I expected. I don't mind too terribly much because I like working with my hands and creating something all my own, but I do feel bad that it is eating up so many Saturday hours and I'm not spending as much time with the kids as I could be. But I have a deadline to really try to finish it now because Holly is coming into town to visit us this Saturday! So it will be a lot of work this week but I am really hoping I can finish it before she gets here :) 

The work in progress on the doors for the Murphey bed. It took me literally all day last Saturday to cut all this veneer! Some things I learned: 1) you don't need a veneer saw, a sharp exacto knife actually works better 2) Even with a sharp exacto knife it takes 3-7 passes to make a single cut  3) wear knee pads 4) you can clamp veneer to plywood to sand the edges which works great unless you're trying to actually take off more than a millimeter or so in which case you will split the veneer and then have to re-cut that piece 5) plan for it to take approximately 5x longer than you expect to do the project! haha

So yeah, that's what's been going on here. Oh! Also, Levi "graduated" from preschool! I mean, he will keep going until kindergarten starts on August 11th but his school had a cute little graduation ceremony for him and the other kids moving up to kindergarten and first grade and it was soo adorable! They all sang songs like "The World is a Rainbow" and the graduates walked across the stage and got their diplomas. Some of those kids have been at Cypress Creek since they were 3 months old and Miss Meghan was getting a little teary talking about them. It was all very sweet. I've been really pleased with what the kids have learned and are learning at school. Levi is very prepared for kindergarten. Just this week, he read me a simple book for the very first time! I didn't even know he could do that! I knew he is great at math because he is always talking about numbers and posing math questions to us. He's gotten really good at simple multiplication and division even and his number sense is really good. But I didn't know he even knew all his letters but then he surprised me by bringing home two little "books" and he read one for me sounding out the words and everything. I am so proud of him. 

Levi and his very best friend Jaxon who will be going into first grade in the fall! 

Anway, here are some other random snippets of life in the Martino household lately! 

The kids built a "pillow fort" and were practicing their gymnastics and Ninja skills! I'm kind of bummed gymnastics and Ninja classes are over now but tomorrow we start swim lessons!

Love sunny evenings with these three! 

Lots of rain means lots of mud and the kids LOVE playing in it. 

While Grandma was here, she and Emery made cookies together. Love my little baker! 

Date night! Love them Texas sunsets and pretty lakes! 

Emery actually ended up being sick with a cough and fever on her actual birthday so had to stay home from school that day and hang out with Daddy. But she made sure that she took good care of her babies. She is going to be such a great big sister!