Becca's Art

This girl.

I am dying.

Look at how beautiful and TALL she's grown! She's almost as tall as me now and I'm in denial that she'll be a freshman in high school later this year. Becca!! 

I wanted to show you some of her art that she's put together recently. Nope, I didn't ask permission, I just walked around her room and took pictures of anything I could find. (I'll add more as find them...)

Enjoy!

23 Weeks

Here's my 23 week pregnancy shot! Hope it's more impressive than the last... ha!

(My Grandmother was convinced I was not eating enough judging from the 21 week picture and my daughters also weighed in and said it was not "realistic" and that I shouldn't wear black.)

So there you go.

Both babies should weigh around a pound each by now and they will double in size in the next 4 weeks! Getting ready for some B.I.G. changes.

The babies love to kick and move day and night and I love being able to feel them and know who is who. I finally remembered to sleep with a pillow between my knees to relieve some pressure off the hips, and ahhhh! I forgot how great that works!! I woke up in the night last week to roll over and change sides and I guess I did it pretty quick and a little too rough. Little Megan kicked twice SO HARD!!! It almost hurt and really surprised me. She did not like that at. all.

I've been feeling great, but I had a little (almost) mishap last Sunday. I ate an early dinner on Saturday night and then ate one pancake and one piece of bacon for breakfast the next morning before church. Yep.... that's not enough! By the time the priesthood boys were passing the sacrament, I started seeing stars and felt like I was going to pass out. I managed to get Becca to tell John to come sit by me and I ate two cuties oranges that were in my purse. By this time, all I wanted to do was lay down. John and I went out into the foyer of the church so I could lay down on the couch... but it was covered in glitter. :( I was hoping to perk up and go to classes, but I just didn't have the energy. I went home and ate and ate and vegged and sat on the couch for the rest of the day watching BYUtv and Mormon Channel programs. Ahhh... Monday was MUCH better and you better believe I ate a big 'ole breakfast before church the next week.

I also managed to make, prepare and serve dinner to 11 drill team girls and deliver it to the high school on Thursday night. I did bread bowls with chili or chicken noodle soup, veggie tray & dip, brownies, and water bottles. They seemed to like it! I spent so much time planning and getting ready for all that and they ate and were out of there in like 15 minutes. I had to go to bed at 9 p.m. the night before, because I knew it wouldn't be easy. I also drove to Richfield to go to Walmart to get the bread bowls and brownies from the bakery that morning so they would be fresh. By the end of serving and cleaning up, the Braxton Hicks started. Thankfully, Becca was there to help me the whole time and some boys from her 8th grade class set up the tables for us. I left the high school and went home and watched around 4 hours of movies after that: the "Mitt" documentary and "Sky High"- a fun movie about kids training to be super heroes.

I love my life. :)

Goodbye party

These are the cute people that I've been able to work with since August this last year.... They threw a goodbye/baby shower party for me on my last day of work!

They got a bunch of balloons complete with a 'It's A Boy' and 'It's A Girl' balloons, plus they had yummy food (all gluten free!) and tons of gifts. Talk about spoiled. One of the girls' grandmothers knitted SO many things for the babies. They both received a blanket, plus headbands for baby girl, booties, hats... I couldn't believe how many! I need to lay them all out and count them up- you won't believe it!

I've been very blessed with the kids and the co-workers I've been able to work with this year and have been able to get to know. I worked in the resource department, so the kids have special needs and are oh, so lovable. Thank you my sweet friends!

Thomas and Drill Team Competitions don't mix...

This was Thomas' reaction when we took him to his first drill team competition! We were all there to support Allison at her region competition in Richfield... too bad it cost us $32 to get in and you could feel and hear the bass from the sound system halfway down the sidewalk even before you entered the building. haha!

Ah well, I remember my Dad going to my and my sister's drill team competition with ear plugs and a good book! They dance, then you wait through 20 more dances, then they dance again... repeat until they have performed 3 dances total throughout the day.

Allison has really improved so many dance skills this year, she has really enjoyed it. Becca started playing on the 7th and 8th grade basketball team and we'll post some pictures of her as soon as we can catch her in the action! Love my kiddos so much.

Pink & Blue (& Purple & Animal Prints...)

So... I started some baby clothes shopping after Christmas. (SQUUEEAALLL!!) We managed to save one box of each of girl and boy clothes from our big kids, so we're essentially starting over in more ways than one. :)

I had a nice friend that would send me a message when she saw clearance sales and Becca laid out the clothes and took the picture. We're getting pretty excited around here!

I love these....

...don't you? :)

Never want to forget...

... what Thomas said when we told him about the babies.

 He gave me a hug and said, "Now we'll have lots of kids in the family, including Matthew."

 :) :) :)

Two babies

Twins.

We can hardly believe it.

But we are so excited and happy for this amazing blessing coming our way.

We are now 21 weeks along and everything is great so far! I've been feeling the babies kick and move almost constantly since the week or so before Thanksgiving and this has been very reassuring and comforting to me. We think we lost Matthew at around 17 or 18 weeks, so getting past this point without problems or complications is a big blessing.

I can feel that the babies are getting bigger, because their kicks are more noticeable. The kids and John can now use their hands to feel the babies kicking, too. I used to have to stop what I was doing and concentrate on feeling the babies before I would feel a kick, now they meet me with surprise. All day and night! At least one of them is moving at all times... it seems.

It is extra fun now since the last ultrasound when the technician told us that our baby boy is Twin A and is on the bottom. I can now always tell who is kicking and moving, where I just had to guess before. Baby boy will be the first born if I have the babies naturally. Baby girl is Twin B and is floating on the top of Twin A. I'm not sure who will win the kicking competition... it seems they will both be getting moved around by me or each other a lot!! The last ultrasound was so funny, we could see that baby girl had her calf and foot resting right on brother's head and face. Haha! He's learning patience with the opposite gender already.

The ultrasonagrapher also took a couple of 3D pictures of baby girl. These were taken at 18 weeks, so she's still really tiny and skinny.

We love this one with her thumb in her mouth and her arm resting across her face.

Preliminary names are Megan and Alex. We're not sure yet. John happily agreed to Megan (hurray!!) and also ruled out Daniel or Charlie for baby boy.

We're just overall ecstatic and a bit overwhelmed with this amazing blessing. I have working at the high school in the Resource department since August and this Friday, Jan. 10 will be my last day at work. I'm finishing 2nd term and then I'll be at home to rest, get ready, work my other at-home job, and nest! I'm so excited. I'll also be able to attend Thomas' school events when they have day programs or presentations.

We'll put most of our personal updates about the babies over here on the blog. Another thing I've discovered is that I'm not able to exercise much without getting Braxton-Hicks contractions at night. I've tried to do a little bit of yoga during the days and I get the "practice" contractions each day I've tried this. I'll most likely try to get some walks in when I'm home during the days and see how my body fares. I can foresee that the last trimester may just be a time for my body to become a very LARGE "incubator" for the babes. :)

I'm also on the lookout for a new obstetrician to deliver the babies. The lady at Richfield hospital is not comfortable with twins and having them any other way except with a c-section. I'd like to avoid a c-section if possible, so I'm going to find a new Dr. (either to the south or to the north) that is comfortable trying to help both twins to be born vaginally, no matter what way they are facing. I've been told that the usual lineup for twins is that Twin A will be head down and facing the right way and with Twin B... you just never know. Twin B is usually transverse or breech. I will have much more time to research and prepare for the delivery when I am finished with work!

21 weeks. Getting pretty thick pretty fast!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of late. This was the day we told the kids about the babies and the girls are checking out all the ultrasound pictures here.

High School Musical

Allison auditioned for "High School Musical" at her high school last week..... and she got the lead female part! Gabriella.

Congratulations Allison! You sing so beautifully, act like a true superstar and your dancing is pretty amazing too! We love you and can't wait for the play. (We think the performance dates are around May 7-10, in case anyone else would like to mark their calendars now. I sure hope I can be there!!)

Children

"When to have a child and how many children to have are private decisions to be made between a husband and wife and the Lord. These are sacred decisions—decisions that should be made with sincere prayer and acted on with great faith." Elder Neil L. Andersen
 

One of my favorite talks ever. Ever!

That's all.

#santaproblems

Thomas' Christmas program almost went down without a hitch (see previous blog post)... Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit the kids of Marysvale right after the program. Thomas has been indecisive about what to ask for from Santa, because he asked for so many things from his Dad. :)

 I watched Thomas sit on Santa's lap for a minute and talk to him. When Santa handed him the Marysvale city bag of treats (lots of chocolates, candies, and peanuts), Thomas told him he couldn't have it. (Breaks my heart!) Santa and Mrs. Claus looked confused and then set the bag down again. Thomas came off the stage to me and hugged me and cried and cried. He said, "Doesn't Santa know I can't have treats?!" I think the crying was partly from the candy/Santa not knowing and also the adrenaline rush of the play being put on and then suddenly being over. He really loved the play and the songs and everything about it and put his whole heart into the practices and the performance. Luckily, we have had Christmas break to rest and recover from all the excitement!

 The picture above is from 2 days after the Christmas program, my friend told me that Santa and Mrs. Claus were visiting all the houses in Marysvale on Saturday morning! I asked them to send Santa a message to ask them not to offer Thomas any of the Christmas candy. It worked great! Thomas got to talk to them for a minute or two and I snapped a picture. Santa arrived in style in the town's fire truck complete with the lights and siren!

Christmas morning... Allison and Becca received "money trees" so they could do some of their own shopping and Thomas received an Xbox, new Xbox game, and a Lego set from Dad! Santa brought me a Ninja Blender! I'm so excited, I use the blender for lots of things: smoothies, desserts, soups, even flours. I couldn't believe it.

  

So... after all the requests from Dad for Christmas, Thomas got a.... SUIT and some clothes from Santa! That's all the room there was left in the budget for poor Santa. (Sorry Santa Claus!)