My Incredibly Beautiful Wife

I want the entire world to know this:

I love you Martha Darley! You are such an amazing woman. You are beautiful. You are as beautiful today as you were when I first met you. I have been blessed because of our friendship before marriage, blessed over these past 6 years in marriage, and blessed to see what the next 70 years have for us. You are a Godly woman who places me second, where I belong and I don’t tell you enough how blessed I am. I love you with all my heart. Happy 1st Anniversary of your 29th Birthday!

Love,
Topher

From Tom Boy to 30 Year old Mommy!

1st of all, this is officially my 1st post on OUR blog, so here goes my valiant attempt at blogging…There are 2 posts by me, Chris. One is really just for Martha, but you can read it too, and the other is for the entire World Wide Web! Enjoy

Well I can’t believe it either to be honest. It doesn’t seem like 12 years, 7 weeks, and 3 days ago my life changed forever as I met Martha for the 1st time. We met at an Ice Cream Social at Clemson’s FCA, 3 days before classes started Freshman year. The event is fantastic entails 30 feet of vinyl gutter, lots of aluminum foil lining the gutter, and roughly 50 Gallons of Ice Cream! I was with my roommate Jason and our friend Kristen Young (yes we did call her by her initials…). We met Martha and the rest of the “Lever Ladies” (an all girls dorm where she lived) and I truly only noticed Martha.

Smokin! That was a good word to describe her, both then and today. Seriously, I thought she was gorgeous. I really can’t remember what we talked about that night, but walking back, Jason and I both talked about a couple of specific girls. So the ice cream party created a group of friends and it is pretty amazing that from that night I pretty much met 80% of the people that we hung out with in college.

So I gave you the introduction story because it is fun for me to think back to when I first laid eyes on Martha. Now the story is not meet at the ice cream thing and then we got together. That would be way to boring. We decided to make it a lot more interesting, but that journey will have to wait. Maybe when she turns 40!

So let’s have a little fun with this. It is not everyday that someone reaches this “mature” moment in life. So, post your favorite Martha story. Post a good time you had with her or a funny story or a good time & funny story...

I will not say anything about the pictures below, because my hair look, well...the exact same!!!

Ally and Martha digging for gold for all to see!

Yes that is a "Strawberry Shortcake" cake in the bottom left. Now I have a few questions about the 4 year old Russian Gymnist out logging in the middle of winter. What kind of unethical training is that?!

OH MY GOODNESS...The mystery is solved as to where the "Parker" face comes from (check out the bottom right pic with the pumpkin)!!!

Straight up athletice ability! She can still do that when one kid is in the den and she needs to get to the kitchen...I'll get some footage and post later.

I'm not sure what happened in the top right picture here. I think Mom Heyward's chest of drawers exploded and covered Martha with patched together pieces of fabric. Well at least she isn't wearing yellow socks...

Merry Christmas and a Happy Prom! Check out Ed, current Operator with Chick-fil-A. When he came through for interviews and I heard his name, I thought, "That name sounds really familiar...Oh yeah, he took my wife to prom 2 years!!!" Ed is a truly great guy and Operator.

I'll get everyone started with some great pictures from over the years. Thanks to Mom Heyward for hooking me up some great pics of Martha back in the 80 & 90s!

Here are some more pictures (not nearly as good as the previous ones...)! We have had some fun adventures and I can't wait to write the next chapter in our adventure together. God is planning a path for us that we can't even imagine. I can't wait!

Click on the slide show below to activate. Hover over the pictures to read the captions...ENJOY!!!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Delicious Christmas Recipes.

Christmas Ornament Party

The boys and I were invited to an ornament party to kick off the Christmas decorating season. What a fun idea and get together for the moms and all the little monkeys. We were to bring clay for the ornaments and of course those cute little paws that leave prints all over our windows at home. It was such a cute idea and I was excited about having their little hand prints to hang on our tree year after year. I even had grand plans of making some for all the grand and great grand mothers.

This is where I should have known better:) My two monkeys HATE having their hands dirty...the rest of their bodies, their clothes and my house, they could care less. Their hands are a different story. So needless to say we painfully got a hand print out of each of them...sorry grand ma's, no luck in getting any more.

If only I had pictures of the process... but it took two of us to do it and lots of bribing with cookies and candy. I am sure the neighbors thought I was torturing my two...oh the lungs they have. The things we do to our kids:) I got my two precious ornaments though...aren't they cute! It was WELL worth the screaming and the boys love walking by the tree and seeing their hands. After all, their hands are only cute and little for so long.

I just love them!

Meghan and Olivia. Thanks Meghan for the help, I'll bring ear plugs next time:)

The boys sharing their snack with Olivia

Oh so close to a cute Christmas picture...

Almost...

Maybe next year:)

If you are looking for a fun mom and children gathering...this was perfect! Everyone brought their own clay. We all used Crayola Model Magic. It requires no mixing and air drys. Don't buy the Model Magic Fusion, it is too sticky. One pack made my two ornaments. Walmart, Target and Michael's carry it. We rolled out the shape we wanted with a rolling pin, pressed the kids hands and then made two holes at the top with a pen for the ribbon. So easy and such a fun memory to have. Meghan and her friend hosted the event and provided drinks and snacks for the moms and kiddos and fun Christmas ribbon to hang our ornaments from. I am already looking forward to this annual event.

Still a No Go...year 2

Santa Clause is coming to town....

Welllll, it didn't go quite any better this year. I really didn't expect it to though. Neither one likes new situations or new people for that matter. Not quite sure what made me think a guy dressing in a red suite with a beard would make it any better:)

Parker: "Woooow, it's really HIM...He IS real!"

The mothers of multiples club here had a children's Christmas party and of course Santa was there. This is the most "real" Santa I have seen yet. He really was picture perfect...well, except for with my two!

Santa was WONDERFUL with the kids. He would come by and say hello and keep moving if he saw the kids were not up to it. He would wait for the kids to give him the "OK" before touching. I wish I had my camera ready when we first got there. He was kneeling just around the corner when we first got there greeting the kids. Parker was so cute as he kept peeking around the corner to get a look. He eventually even gave him a high five! MUCH improvement after last year. Peyton however kept backing up saying "back, back".

We found a seat at the table and began our snack, coloring and crafts. The boys were able to watch Santa move around the room and eventually let him get close enough for me to grab a few shots.

Peyton giving Santa the side glance... not so sure about his close proximity. In a "scary" situation he ALWAYS turns his head away and then cuts his eyes to see what is going on. So funny to watch.

He finally felt good enough to turn and look at him.

Parker not so sure anymore...doesn't Santa really look just like you would picture him! Sweet face, real beard and rosy cheeks! Sure wish we could have gotten a traditional sitting in Santa's lap shot with the boys. Maybe next year!

Peyton waiving "bye, bye". Shew, he is gone now!

Parker and Gi Gi (Chris' mom) making an ornament.

Peyton and his ornament... "I do it myself"

Yep, this was as close to sitting in Santa's lap as Peyton got. I even took new trucks for Santa to give the boys in hoping it would "bribe" them to get close. Only close enough to get his truck and then make a mad dash far away.

Parker checking out his new truck.

"Maybe this Santa guys isn't so bad after all...think I'll just stand by him though, no need to get all cozy with him."

It's different trying to "force" an almost 2 1/2 year old into his lap than an 18 month old. Last year was a first and was just cute and funny. Santa wasn't going to get hurt...this same scene could have resulted in many bruises, a bloody nose and several broken bones this year. For all involved we tried to keep it to a dull roar this year. I do have to say, looking back at the Santa we saw last year.. he was pretty darn scary looking. I think I would have screamed too! But this year...come on boys, he was so sweet and cuddly...Oh well.

The party was at a local library so we went to read some book after it was over. Of course the books the boys picked out were about trucks. They LIVE for trucks! It was a really cute book that I want to find a copy of for us. It was an alphabet book with every letter representing a different type of truck. Clearly, they can learn their letters this way!

Reading the SAME book with Gi Gi...what is it with toddlers and their repetition? :)

As close as I am going to get of a picture of them in their "Christmas outfits". The don't sit still for much...pictures is not one of them. Chris likes to call these outfits their "dresses"....they are Jon Jon's Chris, and they are precious on them. They can't wear them for long but by golly we are going to wear them for now:) I think they are sweet. He loves that term:)

Speaking of sweet!

Our motto for visiting Santa...Try, Try again. We will see what next year holds.

Catching Up

Wow, I've got a lot of catching up to do. 2 months to be exact...where did time go? I really do need to be better at staying up to date!

SC State Fair

We went to SC to visit my family one weekend in October. My parents and sister took the boys to the fair and gave us much needed time together. They all had a blast. I think the boys took a 4 hour nap that day!

The boys first fair ride...a fire truck of course!

Peyton loved the jeep ride. At this point Parker had gotten scared on the big slides...he refused to talk to my mom for quite some time and would NOT get on another ride, not even trucks and jeeps! My parents said Peyton could have ridden all day long.

First soft drinks

My favorite...the Elephant Ear. YUM! They inhaled it:)

My mom didn't get pics at the animal barn...they were clinging too tight for her to get her camera out. I am so sad they don't like animals:( They did enjoy the pig races though!

Thanks Mi Mi, Papa, and aunt Mel for taking the boys to the fair and for giving us a day to ourselves.