Milestones....

We have already established that I (using Chris Farley quotation hands) "am not a good blogger", maybe I don't "blog with regularity' and perhaps I am a "slacker" or am "too busy" nevertheless here is a recent post with the recent news about what is going on in Martinville.

Kate is walking...that's right I said it...she is walking!!!! It has been so fun to watch her start walking although I will say that she is not walking exclusively, only when she wants to. She has been walking a few steps here and there for about a month and half but today she was walking around more and more. She is so happy almost all the time and when she is not she has developed a steady new routine of a full body flail usually resulting in her head on the nearest hard object followed by a nice cry. Kate is also laughing a lot, waving, and saying bye bye every time I leave. She also blows kisses to me when I leave which is so special for me as a daddy.

Jack is doing really well and is doing really well in his speech therapy with Ms. Dee. She comes by his Mother's Day Out class and works with him while he is already there for school and he is really talking well. He continues to be a walking testimony to us of God's provision and blessing as each of our children do. His sense of humor keeps us all cracking up and he still loves his brother more than life itself. Every day that he has school he asks me, "Tay Tay gonna be der? Thomas gonna be der?" He loves being in Mrs. Jennifer's class who was Cooper's teacher last year.

Cooper is a great protective big brother and loves to take care of Kate. They have a special relationship and she still lights up like a Christmas tree every time he comes around. Sometimes she will only do things when Coop is around, like tonight at dinner, she would only eat her apple sauce when Cooper gave it to her. Recently, Tamara and I had our first parent teacher conference with Cooper's preschool teacher, Mrs Lineberger, who he loves. It was a proud parent moment as we sat in little kid chairs in the classroom that Cooper spends Tuesdays and Thursdays in and heard someone else brag about how well our son is doing in class. We picked Mrs Lineberger because some of our other friends had her as a teacher last year and she always shot straight with them about their son's behavior and performance in class. Cooper is doing really well, is playing and including all the kids in the class, and he is learning a lot in preschool. He knows how to spell is name and write his name and Mrs. Linberger said he is the first one to come sit down when it is show and tell time. She said that he loves to read books in class and also loves to dig for worms on the playground. We left there feeling great about his time in preschool and great about how well he is doing in preschool.

Tamara is doing some work doing what she loves to do, picking stuff out for houses. She picks everything from bricks to fixtures. She is working hard and doing well and she seems to be loving every minute of it. We are nearing our 7th year anniversary and are looking forward to the beginning of year number 8.

To date, I don't remember a fall that has been this busy with a full work load and new ministry strategies at work, seminary classes, and trying to be the best husband and dad that I can for my family. I am excited about an upcoming opportunity that God has provided me. I will be leading a group of college students to Kenya this Christmas break. We leave December 31st and will return January 12th. We have been fund raising, praying, meeting, and getting ready for whatever the Lord wants to do in and through us during our time in Kenya. Please pray for us as we continue to raise prayer support and finances to go on this trip. We hope to see as many of you as possible over the holidays and catch up in person.

Love to all
the martins

Big Squirken Birds and the Like

This has been one crazy summer to say the least. I have found myself doing something I swore I would never do in the summer....enroll in summer school classes. However the difference is this time around I am actually going to school because I want the education whereas before I guess i liked the thought of the education but my retention seemed only for the grade not for the education. I know that at times this summer I have found myself reverting back into that pattern with one of my classes. (this next sentence is where I will justify myself for this last sentence) Let's be honest, I have 3 kids 4 and under and a wonderful wife that are very patient and supportive of my scholastic endeavor but I have found it most difficult to balance my work, school, and family this summer. I also was asked to perform a funeral this summer, the first one I have ever done entirely by myself, of a former high school student from when I was at my last church. The week I spent in NLR for the funeral was immensely challenging and immensely rewarding as I was reminded over and over again of what God has called me to in ministry, relationships, as well as being able to give some sort of support for a dear family grieving the loss of their daughter. All that to say, that week I was in NLR for the funeral I ate, slept, and breathed funeral putting me far behind in the school scene but I felt confident that is what the Lord wanted me to be doing that week so I fought the rest of the month to catch up and still haven't fully caught up. This is what I have discerned from this summer, God knew that I would be overwhelmed, busy, stressed, and crazy this summer and He knew that I would do that funeral so I will trust that the things that I learned or didn't learn, as this case may be, He will use to glorify Himself.

Okay, now that I have that intro done I can address the title of this blog post. If you have kept up with my family or heard me talk about Cooper much then you would probably recognize this as another classic Cooper story. Yesterday he wanted to tell me a story he made up so of course I was excited to hear it as I am with all his made up stories. The story went something like this...first, image my 4 year old with his dramatic facial expression talking with his active hands...okay back to the story, "me and my brother were outside the other day and this big squirken bird sprayed us with water...." My first question after laughing at whatever a big squirken bird is, was how big is a big squirken bird? "Well....the big squriken bird was about ummm ummm ummm 60 feet tall." Classic, I loved it! I have retold that story several times and have been cracking up at the thought of the big squirken bird.

We went swimming today at a friend's pool and if was so much fun. I love how much Cooper loves to be in the water, and now how much Jack is loving being in the water. A couple of weeks ago Jack was not really interested in getting in the water but now he loves to jump in and swim to me with the biggest grin of accomplishment on his precious little face. I was so proud of him and he knew it. Cooper has begun taking his floaties off and swimming between Tamara and I and that has been fun to celebrate with him about his little fish accomplishments.

Sweet Kate! Kate is crawling now and she loves it. She hasn't fully abandoned that prayer crawl yet and is actually doing a partial bear crawl/regular crawl. I guess the point is she is mobile and enjoying her freedom to move it...she likes to move it move it...she likes to move it move it. Kate still loves her big brothers and they love her too. Jack occasionally gets frustrated with Kate when she wants to play with his toys and his, "no no kate....no kate...no no kate" falls on deaf ears. I don't say this lightly but it is a good way to describe it, Kate's other new "trick" is waving. It is really cute because if you ask her to wave she will wave and she has this look on her face like...Mom...Dad, check this out, you see that.

Tamara is staying busy. I know some of you reading this are saying, thank you Captain Obvious for telling us that Tam is staying busy. Tamara always finds something to stay busy with, making curtains, combing through mountains of house plans, analyzing the market, or doing any other things that you can think of to keep her busy. Tamara is doing some work for a good friend of ours helping him do a little of this and a little of that and she is enjoying it. She is like Jose Oquendo...a real utility player. I married over my head but again thank you Captain Obvious!

We are looking forward to football season and seeing as many of you as possible. Let us know what is going on with you and your families. We miss you all and love you.

Stephen

Don't Call it an Update

I remember in the summer of 1990 I was on the way to Colorado to do some backpacking with my cousin and my uncle as was our tradition in the summers; we stopped to get some supplies at Wal-Mart and my cousin and I went nuts with our spending money. To make a long story shorter, I remember buying the tape single for LL Cool J, "Mama Said Knock You Out" which is the inspiration for this post as the opening line of LL's song (that's right we are on first initials basis) is "don't call it a comeback..." I will pause a minute before I get back to my point as I know many of you are still singing the rest of the line in your head....ok good. Anyway, Don't call it an update is the title for this post b/c it has been almost 2 months since I posted anything.

First things first, Jack is doing really well, his ears are so much better as is his balance which is a plus for the rest of his body which was daily getting bumped and bruised because of what we now believe was the amount of fluid in his ears. I can only laugh about it now because I feel terrible that my poor little buddy would "bonk" into things almost daily as if someone had slipped something into his drink....Uncle Dave....just kidding. We are daily amazed at how well Jack is formulating words and making us laugh with his sense of humor, timing, and silliness. I have no idea where he would have gotten such antics.

Kate turns 10 months tomorrow and continues to be the sweetest and easiest of our babies. She is so loved by her brothers and pretty spoiled by her parents. She is "crawling" which looks more like as Tamara has coined it a prayer scoot. She puts her hands together and pulls her legs around wherever she needs to go but she is mobile.

This has been an incredibly busy summer for our family. I am taking 2 summer classes through seminary which has been challenging as I am taking Elementary Greek and a Leadership class. The Leadership class has been really good reminding me of what is required of me as a leader and challenging me to continue to refine my character daily for the glory of God. Greek, cue the sad song, is the hardest class I have ever taken in my life, but enough of that talk.

On a more serious note, we got one of those phone calls no one wants to get last Saturday, a good friend of mine called to inform us that another of my former students was killed in a tragic automobile accident. She (Rachel) was about to start her sophomore year at the U of A and her brother (Kyle) is going to be a senior. Their family is very close to one another and I have been close with them since having all three of their children in the ministry I used to lead in NLR. Two of the pastors, real pastors Ginny, were out of town so the family thought of me and asked me if I would do the funeral. I didn't hesitate, so we packed up the car and headed for NLR on Sunday afternoon. I won't say too much else about the funeral for time sake but I will tell you a couple of things I learned.
1. The family had an amazing perspective on the loss of thier youngest child and little sister, believing the Lord is going to use this for His glory as others decide to trust Christ with their lives as Rachel did.
2. God provided me with the strength to proclaim the Gospel at this funeral, I am an all or nothing type guy so I was concerned that my emotions might make it difficult for me to make it through the service. However God used those emotions to proclaim His truth and for that I am and have been grateful.
3. I realized again how short life is and how we have a responsibility to live each day as if it is our last never knowing and prayerfully never fearing when the Lord will call us Heavenward where He is preparing a place for His children...for me.
4. This funeral has made me realize that God has gifted each of us and that we must use our gifts to glorify Him. The purpose of our spiritual gifts, for those who are in Christ, is to glorify Him.
5. Tell those you love that you love them regularly, don't assume they know or don't need to hear it. Thankfully the last conversation Rachel and her dad had prior to her accident ended on both sides with I love you.

Those are a few things that I have realized over these past few days in LR. I was blessed to have been asked to do this funeral and thankful to God all over again for speaking through me and not having to rely on my abilities.

I of course have a Cooper story related to the morning I was getting ready to go the church for the funeral service. Oddly enough, the suit (singular) I have I purchased for another one of my former students that died in an accident several years ago is a little big on me now as I have lost some weight in the last year or 2. Anyway I had to buy some suspenders to keep my "britches" up. I came out after getting dressed, I had on my suit pants, dress shirt, tie, and my suspenders. Cooper, my little encourager, says, "you look nice Daddy." I thanked him for being sweet and then he said, "I like your farmer things!" in reference to my suspenders. God knew that in a moment when my heart was heavy I could use something to make me laugh and be grateful for my children.

I pray I never have to experience the loss of a child, but if I do I pray that I would have the perspective that God would be glorified even in that the most horrible of circumstances. God willfully gave up Christ, his Child, to ransom His children from the pit of sin and death, so maybe the lesson God wants me to learn is simply, I need to love Him even more than I love my children. I know that needs to be true but it is times like these that I need to be reminded that the only thing I am promised in my life with Christ is life with Christ....everything else is icing on the cake so to speak. May God receive all the glory and honor forever and ever, Amen

Sweet Jack

Though I wish I were writing to share funny stories with you, today I write to you as a father who is asking for prayer for Jack. There is nothing that is life threatening but next Tuesday, May 22, he will have tubes inserted in both ears and have his adenoids removed. Jack has been in early intervention therapy for most of his life due to his premature arrival. He still goes to speech therapy once/week and he loves Mrs. Wendy very much. The Lord has been so faithful in so many ways as we have been blessed to have Jack as part of our family. You don't have to spend much time in our home or with Jack to know what an amazing blessing he is. All that to say, the speech therapy that Jack has been in has been completely paid for by DHS, and when Jack turns 3 he will be transitioned into another program. He has been finishing up his therapy with Mrs. Wendy and with that comes testing his progress, he has done very well in most of his progress reports. He has failed several parts of his hearing tests over the last several weeks, and Wendy said that sometimes fluid can build up in the ear and cause the minor problems Jack is having. Wendy recommended we send him to a audiologist to be tested so Tamara took him today and in fact he does have some fluid that doesn't seem to be draining which is causing some of his hearing difficulties. When his ears were tested bypassing the fluid he passed the tests with flying colors.
I realize that I am probably belaboring the point a little bit about this, but I am asking the Lord for protection over Jack, wisdom for the doctors, and faith for Tamara and me. I know this is so minor for all that Jack has been through and the Lord has been so faithful and I believe full well that He will continue to be faithful. Pray too for the post-op as he has certain things that have to happen before he can come home, and once he is home he is supposed to avoid major rough play for 2 weeks....2 weeks are you kidding me we can't go 5 minutes at our house. Pray for us.

God Bless,
Stephen

Never a dull moment

Spring is trying to come back here in NW Arkansas after it was rudely ushered away by one last freeze that lasted about 10 days around Easter weekend. A lot of our plants are struggling to survive that one and our kids were the fortunate recipients of one more cold, we are just now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel from that one. Nevertheless the stories keep coming and since many of you don't get to experience them everyday I thought I would post a few highlights from the last week or so.

Tales from the Jack:
Jack is coming into his own more and more everyday. His personality is funny...not like peculiar funny but like he is really funny. The things he says, does, and his little facial expressions are funny. You know that he is showcasing some new talent around our house when you hear in his sweet little voice, "hey hey look at me guys....look at me guys." Of course you have to say it in Jack voice to get the full cuteness of it but it is hilarious. He also has a fascination with his tennnnnnis shoos. We were out for a bike ride the other day and we got to Taylor Davidson's house and from about 100 feet away Jack pulls up his feet and says, "Hey Tay Tay....i got tennnnnnnis shoos on" These are not new tennis shoes he just loves to wear them and to make sure others notice them. Not just his tennis shoes but he wants everyone to wear tennis shoes....Mommy have tennnnnnis shoos? Daddy have tennnis shoos? Bubba have tennnnnnis shoos? Kate have tennnnis shoos? Jack loves to bring me my tennis shoes before I go to work or go for a run. I run some days when I get home from work and when I do run, Jack looks at me with his pretty blue eyes and his scrunchy face and says, "I go runnin'?" So as I am finishing up my run he and I run down the street together and do our cool down. Cooper likes this part too.
The other night I heard Jack who thinks we might someday want to actually pee in the potty running naked from out bathroom to the living room yelling, "we got a streaker in the house." This of course is much more cute when you can see this little naked jay bird running through our house in his little voice proclaiming his streaking...PRAY FOR US!
Tales from the Coop:
I know I have harped on Cooper's imagination but the boys if full of it. The things he comes up with sometime I think it would be impressive for a 12 year old to have thought. The other day Tamara and I were talking in the kitchen around a meal time about God. Honestly, I don't remember know exactly what the discussion was but there was a small break in the conversation and Cooper said, "Dad....you're just not making any sense!" I laughed and said what do you mean buddy? He shrugged his shoulders and said, "you're just not making any sense!" So I began to explain it to him, which by the way this was a conversation between Tamara and I, I used an analogy of some king. I started by saying, "you know that...." So the light bulb comes on for a min and he says with this big grin on his face, "You know that....word" Again we all started laughing because at first I thought my 3 year old was using some good ole slang..."word". I came to realize he was giving me an analogy of his own...you know that word....cheerio?
One day last week I was mowing the yard and the boys were outside with me when Cooper sees a butterfly on the ground and says, "look it's so beautiful" Fearless Jack goes over and touches it and proclaims gladly that he had touched the butterfly. Cooper asked me if it would bite and then tried to touch it but it flew away. I found the butterfly again in the back yard a little while later which by now Cooper was referring to as "his butterfly", we looked at it again and it flew away again. Cooper got really sad and sort of walked away with Jack. I looked over a few minutes later and he was just sitting in the grass sad. I went over and asked him what was wrong and he said, "I just didn't want my butterfly to leave." It was so cute.
One last story:
Several months ago, I was putting a pull-up on Cooper when i realized that he had some coverage issues in the rear. I asked him to turn around so i could get him squared away and he decided to stick his hips out pushing his little butt toward me and looking over his should said, "how bout this?" I lost it laughing and I smacked his little butt and he laughed too. Well fast forward to every time he gets out of the bath he gives me at least one "how bout this?" What do you know, monkey see monkey do....Jack has caught on. So now after bath time there are 2 little jay birds running around my house sticking their hips out and asking me..."how bout this?
There is never a dull moment and we are loving every minute of it. we love you all and hope you are doing well.

Stephen

The Things he says....

Let me just start by saying that while many of you may be trying to find your glasses to figure out who hacked into the Martin blog and actually posted twice in one week....not to worry, it is me. Cooper, our oldest child has been giving us some classic material lately and for any of you who I haven't called and told, this is for you.

Story #1
We were on our way home the other day from running errands and like Cooper is prone to do he started telling me a story that is usually very elaborate and complex for a 3 year old to have come up with. Anyway, in the middle of the story he stops talking so I wonder if he thinks I am not listening which of course I was listening as the uninterested parent is a big pet peeve of mine. I ask him, what happened next buddy? His response was, "hang on Dad, I'm talking to myself for a few minutes right now." Tamara and I laughed so hard I could have wrecked the car....but I didn't.

Story #2
Cooper and Jack got some money from their Nana and Papa for Easter, they decided to go to Wal-Mart and pick out a new "Movie Cars" (that is Cooper talk for a car from the movie, Cars). Cooper picked the green Ramone and Jack picked Chick Hicks. We get home and they are playing with their cars, but when asked to do something or not do something, whichever it was, Cooper chooses to disobey. Tam sends him to time out and out of frustration he threw his new car down. The punishment was an explanation of why we don't throw our cars and loss of the privilege of the green Ramone for one day. Fast forward to Saturday after nap time, Cooper gets up after a good rest and wants to know if he can play with Jack's Chick Hicks because of course his green Ramone is in exile, we tell him yes he can until Jack gets up from his nap. Then, Cooper says, I want to play with 2 cars, where is Sally? Tamara tells him Sally has been put away and he responds with, "Well Mommy, would you be so nice to let me play with my green Ramone?" Tamara and I smirk at each other from across the room at his grown up dialect and delivery. Tam does what any good mother would do, she says, "go ask your Daddy." Cooper walks over to me with his heart on his sleeve and sincere face and says, "Hey, hey Daddy, would you be so kind to let me play with my green Ramone?" I busted out laughing and told him how cute he was, how polite he had asked, and of course I told him he could play with green Ramone until Jack got up from his nap when green Ramone would return to exile in place of another movie cars.

Story #3
This one involves our newest member to the family...no it isn't another baby, just a renaming of a current member. Jack for the next week will be referred to as Jack Balboa in honor of Rocky Balboa who often wore a black eye as Jack is currently doing. Cooper and Jack were at Mother's Day Out Thursday playing in the same playroom when Cooper helped a hard plastic puzzle piece into Jack's face at a high velocity resulting in a swollen eye just in time for Easter pics. Jack however is doing quite well and is so cute and animated. In fact, the picture here is one of Jack making a funny face the day of the incident on our way to an Easter Seals Celebration for NICU babies. Cute...that's all there is to it.





Story #4
This one will be a short story, my precious daughter is cutting her first of hopefully many teeth on the top of her mouth.

Story #5
Welcome into the world Carter, my nephew who my kids already love and can't wait share Easter eggs with him as Cooper says, "when he's a kid." Carter is doing quite well and is home with his Mom and Dad. They are very proud of Carter and rightfully so...he is a handsome little fella.

Shameful Quarterly Update

Kate my precious daughter went for her 6 month check-up last Thrusday, she weighed 15lbs and some change and the doctor said that she is the picture of health...almost perfect of course. She got her shots and she did fine. Kate is great and continues to live up to the stereotype of 3rd child as we have been told, she is laid back and so happy. She is probably our happiest baby and is such a joy. Her big brothers love her and they still love being big brothers.
Cooper and Jack seem to be getting closer with each other and they are so glad the summer months are ahead of us and and that means more time outside playing. Jack's speech is coming along very well and he is so cute and funny as we have adopted a Jack language around the house with phrases like, "i wear my crocs day", "i wear jersey day", "yes i do". I know that you can't a full appreciation for how he looks and sounds when his precious little voice utters these words but let me assure you it is cute.
Cooper's imagination and memory continue to amaze us as does his mentality of almost 4 going on 40. He is very sweet and funny and amazing in his comprehension of the spiritual matters and his ability to memorize stories from our nightly Bible reading. The key now is to get him to apply these things to his life and remember them in his frustration. This is something that is the perpetual struggle for us all as we seek to integrate the gospel and the power of the authority of the Word of God into our lives so much so that it affects our lives.
Tamara and I are doing well and have recommitted to a nightly devotional and prayer minus the last couple of days while we were in Little Rock for the birth of our precious new nephew, Carter Chase Martin born at 12:05pm on March 31st. He was 6lbs 14ozs and is doing well. We are gearing up for birthdays for Cooper and Jack and looking forward to the summer months. We love you all.
p.s. I got a new computer and one of the features is an integrated camera and one of the features allows us to have fun doing things like this.

Another shameful update...timing wise

kate, now 4 1/2 months old is doing very well and as you can see has begun eating cereal. She had her 4 month check-up last Thursday and she weighed 13lbs 1oz. She is sooo cute and Mom is trying to transition her out of her daily pjs into
"real" clothes. she lives up to the theory of the laid back 3rd child syndrome. She sleeps great and eats great, she is.....perfect! Ok, so maybe I am biased but hey she is pretty stinking cute. the boys continue to amaze us with their tenderness toward "kater taters" as she is often called around here.

cooper and jack are anything but tender toward one another as they seem to have fully embraced the battling brothers dynamic. they love each other well most of the time but cooper seems to get really frustrated at jack and jack like another little brother I once knew wants more than anything to be and do whatever his big brother is doing. often that desire manifests itself in being a little pest. needless to say we are working with them on this issue and praying for them often in regards to attitudes and actions towards those we love.

here are a few funny stories that I remember from the past few weeks: a couple of weeks ago cooper came out into the living room after having closed the door to his room and hallway and told me, "dad, there's and ant in my room and i'm never going in there ever again!" he has mistaken a worm for a snake which also was very cute and the other day while he was talking to me on the phone I thought he was talking to me so I asked him what he said and he responded with, "juss (just) a minnit (minute) dad, I talkin (I am talking) to mom rye (right) now." jack likes to tell us after we tell him we aren't going to do this or that, "I think 5 minnits (minutes)" jack is talking more every day and is really cute and funny. there are many days we just sit back and laugh and thank God for the joy of raising these 3 children and yet other days we sit back and wonder....what have we gotten ourselves into. Although those comments are mostly in jest it proves difficult to stay patient while we raise these beautiful children. However, I keep going back to the fact that God, the Creator of it all, never looses patience with me and never stops giving me one more chance. Even in the midst of discipline, grace is ever present. glory be to God!

as for tamara and I we are still training for the half marathon in little rock though the weather has made it difficult. I have decided to begin taking seminary classes and am in the midst of enrolling in souther seminary in louisville, kentucky. there is an extension here in springdale and I begin taking classes on monday. pray for us as we walk down this road as it is a large financial commitment as well as time, but we feel confident that we are to take advantage of these classes being offered in our back yard. more to come sooner rather than later....hopefully.