Martha Metzler.com

Congrats to D Schmidt! I’ll email you and get your info so that I can send to LeapFrog directly. Thanks to everyone that entered!! Hopefully will have some more giveaways in the near future for y’all.

Band of pirates? Check.

Tons of candy trick or treating with our buddies? Check.

Comparing loot with his buddies? Check.

Carving pumpkins? Check.

Spooky Halloween train with our friends? Check.

Homemade pirate ship? Check.

Ticked off little boy because he’s not allowed to climb into the firetruck? Check.

Hope y’all had an awesome Halloween because we sure did!

Bud at 1 Month

Bennett at 1 Month

Sometimes I think they are identical and then other times I see little differences peak through. Here is a side by side my friend Taylor sent me the other day and I couldn’t believe it! Bennett Rippy is on the left and Bud is on the right.

I’ve said from the moment he came out into this world that Bennett looked just like Bud except the nose. What do yall think???

Here are some more moments of funny conversation with my Bud:

I told Bud he had his daddy wrapped around his finger and he just lifted his finger up to his face and stared at it with a very confused look on his face. Note to self, the kid takes things literally.

While we were praying before supper and I had my eyes closed Bud grabbed my arm and whispered, “Mama! Wake up!” At least the kid takes prayer seriously.

Any time he sees letters, he starts to spell it saying “T-R-E-R”… I have no idea where he got that but that’s how he thinks everything is spelled.

When calls me from his nap, he yells “MAMA! MAMA! MOM! MAMA! ……… MARTHA!” I can’t even make this up, the kid yells MARTHA when he really needs me. 

He thinks I sleep when he sleeps (I wish) so as soon as he wakes up he yells, “Mama! Wake up!”

Sam has started saying, “Women!” in an exasperated tone because he knows it is the easiest way to set me off/make me laugh (I should add my husband and I are both egalitarians and he is a champion of women so he is 100% joking when he says this) and the other day in the car Bud and I were going back and forth because I wouldn’t let him unbuckle his carseat which apparently is the worst news I could have given my son and in response he lets out a huge sigh and says, “Come on women!”

………. Sweet Lord, I love this kid.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve had a good giveaway so I’m super excited about this one!

I love Leapfrog and so does Bud. They gifted us a LeapPad Ultra and it has saved us during nursing sessions! It’s a tablet for kiddos so it has durability, Wifi, and educational games all in one. Bud knows he gets to use it everytime I feed “baby brodder” and it keeps him from throwing toy cars at us while I’m nursing. It’s a win/win.

Here is an interview from Dr. LeVos who gives some tips for parents including how to choose the right educational games and other educational trends.

Lucky for us, Leapfrog is giving away a LeapPad2 Power, 2 games and app card to one of my readers.  It values at $170. Just enter in the comments section with your email and I’ll pick a winner on November 7th. Good luck!

 Disclaimer: LeapFrog gifted me a LeapPad Ultra but all opinions are my own!

Sweet Bennett,

Technically you are 6 weeks old but Mama didn’t get your 1 month pictures taken on time. You are beyond awesome and despite your gas and reflux, you really go with the flow. You have started your social smile and anytime me or your brother come over to play with you (aka make ridiculous faces and noises) you just light up with the biggest smiles.

You are eating every 3 hours like a champ, sometimes stretching it to 3.5. As long as I take the time to keep you upright and burp you for 15 minutes after you eat at night, you pretty much make it to 3 hours without complaint. You’ve had the occasional rough night but hey- you’re a baby so that’s part of the gig.

I can’t wait for your 2 month check up (minus the shots) to see how much you weigh but you are filling out nicely and seem very healthy. I cut out dairy to help your gas/reflux and it helped some but your baby acne also went away so maybe you just don’t like it when Mama eats dairy….. there’s no dairy in Twizzlers right?

Just like your brother, you hate tummy time, love music, do well on the eat/play/sleep routine, and like being loosely swaddled with your arms by your head. Your eyes are still blue but a darker blue like your Daddy’s. I can’t wait to see if they lighten like your brothers or turn green like mine.

I adore you little one and keep growing!

Love, Mama

There’s a pumpkin patch just a few minutes away from us with TONS of activities so we’ve been taking full advantage of it. Hayrides, cow trains, pony rides, hay jumps, hay maze, petting zoo, APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUTS, and obviously pumpkins everywhere. Bud loves it and we’ve gone three times already so that he can run around and explore…. plus, did I mention it had caramel apples?!

Yes- Sam had to ride with Bud in the tiny cow train because the lady thought Bud was too little even though if she had said he could ride by himself, I may have paid her $20 extra just to tell Sam he had to ride along.

Bud’s mind basically exploded when he got to ride the pony…. we have a cowboy on our hands apparently. Hope yall had a good long weekend!

Yesterday was a doozy. Bud was sick so he missed preschool, he skipped his nap, Sam didn’t get home until 9, Bennett has reflux and needed to be rocked throughout the day and right as I was sitting down for the night with my pumpkin ale, Roy needed some love too and was whining at my feet. But here’s the thing, Grace was all over it.

I wasn’t mad because against all my natural tendencies, the Lord placed compassion on my heart. They needed me and it was such a clear snapshot of how I need the Lord and His Grace. I have healthy boys, a roof over my head, a husband with a job, and Scripture to turn to. I can’t complain, I will not complain. Instead I will bathe in the pure joy that it is to be their mama, to be a wife who rejoices when her husband gets home, and to be a friend who loves the people around her. It doesn’t come from me, it comes from the presence of God.

Bennett was up early so I brought him downstairs with me and enjoyed stillness. It is rare, but available. I read through Psalm 62.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my salvation and my glory;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

That’s all I needed for today. I read it to myself. I read it aloud to Bennett in whispers. And I tried to tuck it away for memory to repeat to myself throughout this Wednesday.

Trust in Him at all times.

For God alone.

I shall not be shaken. 

Amen? Amen.

My friend Mara took some casual photos of my boys while our families were together the other week. It was so fun and I love seeing their blue eyes and love for each other collide on film. If you are in the area, Mara is awesome! Thank you my friend for capturing this season. 

And of course she captured Bud’s “judgy” face…. this, this he gets from his daddy.

I’ll admit it, I’m too lazy to be a scrapbooker. So when I was contacted about reviewing Rendi’s Storyboard concept I jumped at the opportunity. It is an easy, adorable, and creative way to basically hang a scrapbook in your house.

You get to design the board, and honestly, it turned out much more attractive than I had expected. I put our family motto at the top and get to switch out the photos as often as I like. Rendi comes with an app for your phone and once you download it, you can upload any image off of your phone and make a “tag” that you can hang on your storyboard. You can put titles and descriptions on the tag so that you can remember what each pictures stands for on your storyboard- so it’s like a scrapbook that you can see every day!

You can read more about Rendi here. It’s a pretty cool company with a legit product. We hung our storyboard in the nursery so that Bennett could get to know his family and we can’t wait to add more pictures of him!