Their Names

When we found out we were having identical girls, we realized we had to find 4 girl names. We really hadn't even start to think about names for one baby, let alone two!

 

Well, after a few weeks, we had possibly decided on the names for the girls, but we kept saying they weren't "set in stone" yet. We made a mistake about that though. We said the names around Bryson and he stuck to them like glue! So after a couple weeks of listening to him say his sister's names, we knew they were keepers :)

 

We've known their names for quite a while and they definitely haven't been kept a secret by any means, but I realized (after several people pointed it out to me!) that I had never actually put them in writing on the blog. Oops.

 

Our little twin girls are going to be

 

I love love their names. :)

Emily and Grace were the names we picked out when I was pregnant with Bryson if he was going to be a girl, Marie is my middle name and also my Grandma's middle name and Madelynn is a name we kinda threw out there in the beginning, but Michael came back with it a while later and we both really loved it :)

 

So the cat's out of the bag! ;)

My ABF Shower!!

Our ABF (adult bible fellowship...aka sunday school) hosted a shower for us on Saturday. It was so special!!

 

Several of our friends and family came to celebrate our little girls :)

 

My mom, sisters, mother -n-law and sister-in-law were all able to be there with us, too!!

 

We have had SO many babies over the past 6 months, and 3 more are pregnant right now. Our ABF has decided that we want have showers for everyone without it being a financial burden on just one or two people, so we do a "potluck" shower. Everyone signs up to bring something and help out with the details of the shower so it's a group project.  I think it's brilliant! All of the food was delicious!! 

 

Nicole came up with the cutest games :)

The first was to see who could match socks the fastest since I'll be doing loads and loads of laundy :)

 

The 2nd was to put a paper plate on your head and draw "twins" it was pretty funny to watch everyone try to draw on top of their heads and even funnier to see the outcome of the pictures!!

 

The 3rd was to multitask. We had to hold 2 babies safely while vaccuming the floor and hanging up laundry with the fastest time. It was cute :)

 

Of course I'm the one that has to do all of these things and sadly I didn't win any of the games. I'm too slow :)

 

The girls got diapers, a high chair, adorable blankets, teddy bears and tons and tons adorable girly clothes!! All very much necessities ;)

 

I am incredibly blessed with all of their friendships. I always look forward to Sunday mornings and our get togethers when we all get to catchup. I love that we're all so different, yet have so much in common. It's fun to "do life" with them and have all of our kids grow up together :)

 

23 Weeks

 

I'm amazed every week when I go back and compare pictures from the beginning and end of the week. Goodness gracious.

 

Michael, ever so lovingly, refers to my stomach as "the bullet" :) It's pretty fitting.

 

Sleep is not fun. I'm up several hours every night just because I'm so uncomfortable and can't go back to sleep. I'm always soo tired, but can rarely sleep. It's so sad. BUT, I did find out that I can take Tylenol PM every once in a while, so I have a feeling I might be doing that on the weekends :)

 

I'm also pretty sure my body temperature is changing because I am always so hot. This moning I was in a tank top and Michael had on sweat pants and a sweatshirt. Good thing the weather is getting much cooler outside :)

 

I went to my first Plano Area Moms of Multiples, PAMOM,  meeting this week. I am SO glad I decided to join, I think I'm going to like it a lot! I met a lot of expectant moms of twins and several that have twins that are older and got so much great advice just in the 2 hours I was there. There was a mom of twins talking about breastfeeding. I nursed Bryson without a single problem until he was 10 months and felt pretty confident/hopeful it would just go the exact same with the twins. Ha!

One of the things she highly suggested was tandem feeding, which I was planning on doing just to cut down time. But with that you need a certain "twin nursing pillow", (one of my friends let me have hers) and it's about 3 times the size of a Boppy. You can't possibly use the pillow while sitting in a glider because it would sit on the arm rests and by the time you get the babies up on top of there, they'd be at your neck! ha! SO, you basically have to have a love seat or bed in the bedroom to nurse on. I would have never thought of that until I sat down to feed them and failed. Thank goodness I happened to go to the meeting that night! Now I'm on the lookout for a love seat for the nursery ;)

 

I also have been having a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions. Even though I know they're harmless, it was kinda freeking me out. I talked to my doctor about it, but have been reassured (again) that everything is fine unless they get painful.

 

Speaking of, I had an OB appt on Thursday and I took Bryson with me for the first time. I was a little nervous, but the appointments are usually super short, so I thought it would be ok. WRONG. Little man was SOO good, but I had to wait over an hour to be called back. That's an eternity for him!! We looked at magazines, watched Mickey Mouse on my phone, played I Spy, read a book, looked through pictures on my phone...everything I could think of. He was a little resless though...but heck, so was I! He was so glad when the nurse fiiiiinally called my name.

 

He thought it was so neat that I had to lay on the table and he got to sit in the chair, instead of the other way around at all of his appointments. He LOVED hearing the girls' heartbeats. And when the nurse left he told her that she forgot to give mommy her bandaid :)

 

He played Dr and spun around on the chair while we waited for the real dr. I gave him the piece of paper and said, "ok Dr. Bryson, these are the instructions, what do I need to do?" He pretended to read it and then said "Just get the babies out of that tummy!" It was really cute :)

 

The heart beats were great: 154 and 148. I've gained 16lbs (feels and looks like 36) and am measuring 25 weeks for a single baby- she said it was slightly small for twins, but the babies are growing great so she wasn't concerned at all.

 

After that ridiculously long hour and 45min appointment, we most definitely had to stop for yogurt on the way home ;)

 

I was supposed to have a perinatal appointment Friday morning, but had to cancel, so I won't have another sonogram until the middle of December. It's so weird to have to go 4 weeks without seeing the girls!!

 

My ABF threw a wonderful shower for me this afternoon and I am so excited to download pictures!!

 

23 weeks

Beginning and End!!

 

(Ok, funny story about the 2nd picture. I went to the store yesterday to see if there were any cute dresses for my shower and this dress looked really cute on the hanger and it was on clearance. Sweet! Then I tried it on... and little did I know that sucker must have been made out of 100% spandex! haha!! Don't worry, it's sitting pretty back on the clearance rack.)

Showering Ellie

(I've been having technical difficulties with this little ol blog and it's been driving me nuts that I couldn't post about Jen's shower!!)

This past Saturday, we had a wonderful shower for Jennifer and baby Ellie.

 

Steph, my mom and I hosted the shower and have been soo excited getting everything ready for the last several weeks. I was so giddy about it for a good week before :)

 

The theme was "She's about to POP"  We had food and drinks that went along with the "pop" theme such as: soda POP, cake POPs, POPcorn, ringPOPs, blowPOPs, jalapeno POPpers, and of course balloons!

 

One of my favorite decorations was the diaper bouquet. Steph and I took a different approach on the diaper cake

 

 

Lots of loved ones and friends showed up to celebrate little Ellie

 

She was so blessed by all the wonderful gifts!! I love love baby showers because everything is just so darn adorable and tiny!!

 

Ellie got SO many amazing gifts, but I have to give special mention to a couple of them.

My dad isn't really one to go shopping for gifts, unless it's for my mom, but when he does, he always puts so much tought into it. I've always cherished the gifts he picks out fo me :) Well he went out looking for something special and unique for Ellie and went to several stores and finally found the pink princess jack in the box, which also went along with the "pop" theme of the shower :) It was really sweet! (bottom left)

 

The other one was my Aunt's gift. She put SO much time and effort to make it perfect. She strung a ton of baby items together on ribbon and after Jen  punched a hole in the top of the box, she pulled out the sring of items and pulled and pulled and pulled. :) It was a hit; everyone loved it! (top right)

Jen looked absolutely beautiful! A mommy's glow, for sure :)

 

Jen with the grandmas :)

 

Sisters!!

We love you Jen and Ellie and had SO much celebrating our little niece!! Can't wait to hug that little girl!! ;)

Friend Thanksgiving

We had our 5th annual Friend Thanksgiving on Sunday. We had so much fun :)

 

This year was extra special becuase Kaylan and James moved to Arizona a couple years ago and hadn't been able to be a part of our feasts, but this year they were in town for a wedding so we got to celebrate with them!!

 

This girls have a tradition of taking a silly picture eating a deviled egg :)

 

The boys being boys

 

Every year, the food gets better and better!!

 

 

Bryson skipped his nap, so I was afraid he'd start getting grumpy, but Stephanie was billiant and brought their Kindle, so Bryson nd Jacob sat on the sofa for a little bit and watched Bubble Guppies. :)

 

I'm so thankful for these special friendships and always look forward to spending time with everyone!

 

(P.S. I totally used Alicia's pictures and didn't want to steal ALL of them, so there are more over on her blog ;))

22 weeks

22 weeks

 

Where did Steph go!?

 

My kids at school are just adorable with my ever growing belly. They ask about the girls all.the.time. They draw pictures for them, they always want to rub my belly or if walking by, they just have to slyly stick out their hand to gently swipe my belly (as if I'm not going to notice ;))

 

One of my new little girls just moved here from Mississippi and has the strongest, most adorable southern accent. She was hugging me one day and kind of nuzzled her head against my belly, then suddenly jumped back and told me my babies bit her! Haha! I asked if she felt them move around, which she did, so I got excited and told her that she was the first person in the whole class to feel them move!! She took a step back,  looked at my belly and in her most southern accent said, "well, I don't think I like that very much." It was so funny and so precious!!

 

Bryson is becoming quite the caretaker. He has a heart of gold. I had to start taking my prenatal vitamins in the afternoon instead of the morning so he could help me with them and get a glass of water for me. As he hands me each one, he makes up what they're for: "mommy this one is so they get strong to play baseball with me" "this one is so they can run fast". One day after he gave me the vitamins he asked to put lotion on my belly and continued for a good 10 minutes. He kept telling me his sisters like it so he needed to do more. :) He concentrates mostly on and around my belly button because he's fairly certain that's the "door" to being able to see the girls. He'll stick his eye really close to my belly button and try to pull it apart to look for them. I just love him so much!!

 

At the beginning of the week I was having a lot of "growing pains" in my stomach. I talked to my dad and called my doctor. I also found out that I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for the fast couple weeks. I told my doctor that my belly felt like both of the girls were rolling over at the same exact time and my stomach would get tight, but then it went away shortly after. I had no idea that was what Braxton Hicks felt like!! I never ever remember having them with Bryson, so this was new to me. I was reassured that they were normal to have this early in twin pregnancies so it wasn't a big deal unless they became painful.

 

My belly button has been on the verge of "popping" and it finally did this week (it didn't pop until 31 weeks with Bryson!)
I've also gotten so big now that I've resorted to the "double hand push off" when I get off from the sofa or up off the floor. I'm also quite certain I'm in the beginning stages of transitioning to "the waddle".  And I have how many weeks left to go!?!??

 

I had a request for a comparison picture at 22 weeks with the girls vs Bryson. I've been so used to comparing my size with my sister, who is 31 weeks pregnant mind you, w and now looking back at this picture I CAN NOT believe the difference. Holy smokes are you kidding me!??!!
 

 

21 Weeks

 

Doctor- I had a perinatal appointment Friday morning. I found out the night before that Michael couldn't make it (because ALL of his meetings and phone conferences had been rescheduled from Monday/Tuesday to Friday. The headquarters of his bank is in Virginia and they canceled work due to hurricane Sandy. Bummer! But, my mom came to rescue and went with me. I was a little nervous I might pass out again.

 

Everything checked out great! The girls were both 15 oz and growing strong :) It is music to my ears everytime they say that!! Also, a huge praise, the placenta moved up and there's no more previa!! Thank you thank you, Lord! Thankfully, I didn't passout this time, but I could feel it coming on several different times so I rolled over and took a few breaks from laying on my back.

 

New Things-

I used my belly as a convenient tray for the first time

 

This isn't really new this week, but Bryson has been SUUUUUUUUPER clingy to me. You know how your dog just "knows" when your sick and stays curled up next to you the whole time and won't leave you side? Well Bryson is my little puppy. He won't let anyone do anything for him except for me. Michael can't get him a drink of water, click his seatbelt in the car, play games with him...anything. Which has never ever been the case with Bryson. I know he loves his Daddy dearly, it's just a phase...(an exhausting phase for mommy though!)

 

Movement- "supposedly" the girls are supposed to sleep in the womb, right? They move SO much. Really, all day and all night I feel one or both of them. My belly rolls around and my kids can actually see it while I'm teaching. It's really funny :) But I love feeling them wiggle and roll all around!!

 

21 weeks

beginning and end :)

 

(can you tell that I live in pretty much the same clothes everyday?? black leggings or yoga pants and the best maternity tank top ever made--I have one in every color they make now ;) )

 

 

Our Weekend

Bryson's school had to reschedule their Fall Festival a while back, so we went Friday after we picked him up. Michael met us up there shortly after he got off work :)

 

He and a friend spent a LOT of time in the bounce house (surprise surprise!)

 

He already wanted to get his face/arm painted and then realized Ms. Rosie, his Spanish teacher (who he adores), was doing the painting.  He ran as fas as he could to the table! It was so fun to get to talk to her because Brson seriously talks about her every day and LOVES learning Spanish. I've have had to look up 10-20 words in the last couple weeks just to know what he's saying because he picks it up so quickly and knows much more than I do. She was bragging on him that he is her best student and always keeps her on track and sings along with all the songs and knows the answers to the questions she asks. I thought it was just polite small talk until a few of the other teachers in other classes came over and said they've been called into his room just to watch him during Spanish time. That was just crazy to me!!! But then she said something all too familiar. She said just watching him during class, you'd never in a million years think he was paying attention to her because he is constsntly running and skipping around the room while all the other kids are sitting quitely on the carpet (oh great...) yet he's the only one that knows the answers and sign language to all the things she does. haha! Don't I know I have a crazy hyperactive little kid. ;)

 

haha long story short, he loves Ms. Rosie and I loved getting to talk to her and hear about part of his school experience!

 

He made a scarecrow craft all by himself.  It was adorable!

 

 

And did a little candy corn bowling

 

When we finally made it home, we saw our freshly painted nursery for the girls!!! My mom and a dear family friend came over while we were at work and painted it for us!! I was SO excited I couldn't stand it!!

 

Saturday was the first Saturday of the month, so we took Bryson to Home Depot for the Kids Workshop. He loves using real tools! He kept telling me he wanted to build a birdhouse, which is what he wanted to build last time. Maybe one month in the Sping... ;)

He got to build a turkey napkin holder. It was cute and definitely one of the easier projects they've had. He did almost the entire thing on his own! I'm so proud of our little handy man :)

 

 

 

 

I spent the rest of the day picking up some things for my sister's baby shower next weekend and finishing the touchups in the nursery. Michael took Bryson to the park for a while to keep him out of the mess while I painted and they had a fun, exhausting afternoon :)

 

I love spending time with my boys! It's going to be so interesting when we start throwing in dolls and ballet to the mix next year!!

Ham & Cheeeeese

Bryson is SOO funny these days! He keeping us laughing all day long :)

 

Right now he's really into taking pictures and he is a HAM in front of the camera!!

I have NO early idea how he ever learned some of the poses he likes to do, but I laugh at him everytime he asks me to take a picture of him.

 

Recently, he found his footy jammies from last winter and thought they were hilarious. He laughed and laughed as he put them on. Then he needed me to take pictures of him to send to Daddy since he was at BSF...

 

A few days later, he called me into his room (where he was playing with Legos) and I walked in to his near naked little body in a cowboy hat and cowboy boots holding a bandana. He asked me to put the "cowboy necklace" on him and then take lots of pictures of him. ;)

 

 

I love his adorable personality!! ;)