22 weeks

Of course by now we all know my weekly pregnancy posts are usually a few days late so here is my 22 1/2 week post =). Maybe just maybe I will get to post 23weeks later this week. We were on vacation this last week. We had an amazing time at the beach. This picture was taken at Ripleys Aquarium (if you can't tell by the fish that looks like he is about to bite my head off..lol) We have two appointments this week one with the regular OB and then one with our UNC specialist. I definetly feel like I am growing!

How far along: 22 weeks

Clothes: Still Maternity..lol

Names: we have a few

Movement: Yes, daily

Food/Cravings: nothing specific although we were on vacation and I did eat...probably more then I should have....I acutally had dessert and seafood and it was YUMMY!! I am sure the scales will not tip in my favor this week. =)

What I miss: right now the beach 

21 Weeks

Better late then never...lol Here are a few pictures of me right around 20 weeks. We had our OB apt. last week and things are moving right along! Both of the boys looked great! Its really awesome that we get an ultrasound each time we go even though its just a for a few minutes to make sure they are doing ok its still great to see them and see how much they have grown. Everything looked good and we are right where we should be. Our Dr. was very honest with us letting us know that the next few weeks are going to be our "honeymoon" period so to speak. He said we need to enjoy them and get as much done as possible...that is our goal! This week we are preparing to go visit some friends and then take a short family vacation to the beach. Our last "big" trip as a family of four!

Right round 20 weeks

 Me and my FOUR boys!

 Me and My awesome hubby

How far along: 21weeks

Clothes: Maternity my favs are shorts and comfy shirts

Gender: 2 boys

Names: Still deciding....

Movement: Daily little flutters and kicks can't tell them apart yet but hopefully soon

Food/Cravings: Nothing really but I have ventured back into eatting a little bit of red meat...steak not hamburger...yet!

What I miss: sleeping comfortably I knew it would get to the point where it ws uncomfortable but was hoping not this soon. =)

Happy Anniversary!!

This past Thursday we celebrated 10 years of marriage! I can't believe it has been 10 years. It has been a truly wonderful journey thus far. This picture from our wedding day is one of my favorites. I have posted it a number of times and absolutly LOVE it. Two lives joining together for better or worse through all of lifes trials and celebrations!

This picture was taken on Thursday night before we went out to dinner to celebrate. There are so many events that have taken place in the ten years that lapse between these pictures....buying and selling of our first house, a cancer diagnosis and treatments that cured, a move from VA to NC, buying a second home, having two boys with two more on the way, and a few gray hairs to prove that we have lived through it all. =) This list is just a very very small list of what we have been through and the blessings that we have had. Looking forward to celebrating many many more years with my amazing husband. I could not be more thankful for the husband that God gave me.

End of the Year Art Show

We had the boys end of the year art show at preschool last night. It is always fun to go and see what they have worked so hard on throughout the year.

Benjamin was so excited to show us what he had been working on. He ran straight to the bulletin board to show us his butterfly and flower first.

He was super excited to show Daddy the kite that he made. He did an awesome job. Red is by far his FAVORITE color.

Showing Daddy where some of his artwork is on the wall. He is so cute he can pick his name out and knows that it starts with B.

Love those little hand prints and finger prints

Benjamins two teachers from this year Mrs. Peggy and Mrs. Joanne. They have both been wondeful. Its has been a blessing that both of my boys have had the opportunity to be in Mrs. Peggys class she has been teaching for YEARS and has such a passion for working with little ones. Her talents and her patience amaze me! Mrs. Joanne was her assistant this year and just loves on all the little ones in the class. I can only hope Mrs. Peggy is still teaching when the twins are ready for preschool.

This by far has to be one of my FAVORITE pictures ever with Benjamin L.O.V.E. it...I am going to print it out and frame it ASAP!

Next stop was Christian's room. He could hardly contain himself while we were in Benjamin's room. He was so EXCITEd to show us all of his artwork. He had A LOT it is one of his favorite things to do.

Holding up his calendar that he made can you tell he is proud.

Here is my Firetruck!

Some of the artwork focused on books they had been reading. Here is his version of the very hungry caterpillar.

His winter Penguin fingerpaint.

His snowman. I love to see his creativity. He tends to lean towards the stripes and patterns when he is making things.

His tye dye thanksgiving turkey

Me and my biggest boy. I cannot believe that he only has one more year of preschool until he starts kindergarten. I am thankful that his birthday is in October and it gives me one more year of having him at home. His picture is behind me on the right. He did an awesome job gluing his name. He amazes me by how smart he is. He can write his name with no help at all. I loved finding his pictures and seeing his name written on the bottom.

Mrs. Diane his lead teacher for this year. We LOVE her so glad that my boy was in her class. She is a treasure that is for sure. He adores her!! She is wonderful with all of the children and encourages them each so much! I am so thankful that next year Benjamin will be in her class!!

Christian and Mrs. Shelia. Chrisitan lucked out Mrs. Shelia was Mrs. Peggys assistant last year and then moved to Mrs. Dianes class this year so he has been with her two years in a row! He loves her! I can only hope she doen't play musical classrooms next year so Benjamin can have the opportunity to be with her!

Daddy and Christian Christians Pigeon is to the left of Eds arm its covering a little of his face.

Our Family at the Art Show. I can hardly believe everyone is looking at the camera! YAY!! We had a awesome night looking at all of their hardwork!!



My Little Guitar Man

This past weekend when we were in Richmond Benjamin got to play with his cousin Aiden's Paper Jamz Guitar. He was one happy little guy. He has his own real guitar but he is not allow to just pick it up and play with it so he had a blast with this one. Out of the two boys this one has a LOVE for music if he even hears his Daddy cracking open a guitar case he goes running as fast as his little feet can carry him waiting for his turn to play. He can name e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e.  p.a.r.t. of the guitar. He LOVES it. I hope that he can learn to play just like his Daddy.

Can you tell hes excited!

                              

Struming with the music

 Just look at the faces he makes while he plays....to say he gets into his music is putting it lightly.

PURE HAPPINESS

My First Video on the Blog....I recorded him playing once he knew the video was going he didn't show off as much but the song choice was perfect. Born To Be Wild! Enjoy~ (Sorry its sideways I dont know how to roate it =)

19 Weeks

I can't believe we are already 19 weeks into this pregnancy hard to believe that we have at the most 19 more weeks until we meet our two little ones! I have so much to do I guess I need to get my list going and get on with it. I have been trying to decide what to do in the nursery but we haven't officially decided on anything just yet. Last Thursday we had our first appointment at UNC with the specialist. It was a long ultrasound where they take lots of measurements and see how each baby is growing. They both looked great and they measured exactly the same for everything. They both weighed about 8oz. Since we are having twins we are going to have quite a few ultrasound but thats fine with me....more pictures of our littles and getting to watch them grow from one appointment to the next is amazing. They change so much! I have been feeling them move for a few a few weeks. In the past week they have turned from little flutters into small kicks. Ed got to feel them move for the first time on Saturday night. I can't wait until Christian and Benjamin are able to feel them moving!  

Mothers Day 2011 (almost 19 weeks)

Twin A- looking down to the left (the thin line in the picture coming out from behind Twin A is the membrane that is between Twin A and Twin B seperating them).

I think this picture is self explanatory...  

This is the profile of Twin B

and this picture is self explanatory as well. It is definetly 2boys! 

How far along: 19weeks

Milestone: Since they are not going to let us go 40weeks knowing we are half way there

Clothes: Maternity

Gender: 2 boys!

Names: We have not decided 100% yet

Movement: Yes for the past few weeks Ed can feel them kicking from time to time now 

Food/Cravings: NOTHING! I'm still really only eating grilled chicken as far as meat is concerned and the only thing that I have really enjoyed lately has been snyders pretzels dipped in ranch...interesting I know

What I miss: not having to get up in the night to use the bathroom  

Weight Gain: I dont mind sharing this now but as we get closer to the end I may not be as willing to share..at this point only +3lbs.

What I am looking forward to: setting up the nursery x2!



Pregnancy 18 weeks

I know I am the worst at blogging. I mean I haven't updated in over a month. At this point we are almost 1/2 way through this pregnancy. It is amazing to me that in about 22 weeks we will have two more little members in our family! I haven't posted any pregnancy pictures anywhere so I thought I wold go ahead and post a few.

First here are two pictures of me from last fall (one in Aug. and one in Sept.). These two pictures were taken before I lost weight (otherwise I would probably not post them).

This picture was taken in January 2011. I wish I had taken a few more while I was losing weight to see the progress along the way. Its amazing to me to look at the pictures and see the difference. I still had a ways to go...but little did I know 8 days after taking this picture I would find out that I was pregnant and then with twins!

Here I am Easter Sunday (not the best picture but you can def. see the rapidly growing belly=)

The Story of the TWINS~

 I wanted to write this down so that I would remember and could share it since so many people have asked. The first question we got a lot was were you guys planning on having another baby. Well I guess the answer would be yes and no. We have not really been trying or not trying and it just had not happened so in the fall I went to a new OB just becuase I felt like something was wrong at my first visit I was diagnoised with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) after talking with the Dr. and having a ultrasound done. After meeting with the Dr. a few times we agreed on a weight loss goal (being overweight is a factor in having PCOS) I had for myself and then we would discuss pregnancy options if we really wanted to have another baby. I was well on my way to my weight loss goal only about 9lbs away from where I wanted to be. I went in for a follow up visit and told him I felt like I had hit a wall and we had a discussion about what I would do next.

It was that very next weekend that I found out I was pregnant. When I took the pregnancy test I thought it was pointless and that my cycle was just off but it was POSITIVE!!! Three tests later I believed I was pregnant! It was a Saturday morning and I had to go to work so I was trying to figure out a creative way to tell Ed. I mean I knew that if I was in shock he would be to. We were downstairs getting breakfast for the boys he called Christian and Benjamin to come eat he said alright Snickers and Milkway come eat breakfast. I responded and said if they are snickers and milkway is the next one going to be twix?? After he picked his jaw up off the floor he was very excited. I think that we were both in shock not thinking that it was going to happen anytime soon.

Fastforward to the first doctors apt. we went in and had an ultrasound they saw one sac and a possible fetal pole but no heartbeat yet it was still really early. The ultrasound tech also saw something else but said it was probably just a blighted ovum. We left hoping that at our next visit things would look good and we would have a healthy baby growing. We went back at 7 weeks and a few days and saw one healthy baby growing with a stong heartbeat. We were very excited! We had a due date of the end of Sept. first part of Oct.

Over the next serval days/weeks I was SO SICK I couldnt eat or drink nothing was staying down. I was napping everyday every chance that I got I felt HORRIBLE to put it lightly. I did what I had to do to make it through the day and that was it. This past week I still was not feeling well and was really worried that something might be wrong so I called and they said they wanted me to come in. I went in and met with my Dr. he has to be my favorite and I am SOOO glad that we changed practices. He told me it was fine to be worried and I was not the first women to come in and feel that way it was perfectly normal that we would just check everything out. Well he started the ultrasound and of course I couldn't see...I have not been wearing my contacts when I am pregnant they give me headaches and in a mad dash out of the house didn't grab my glasses. The next thing I know I hear Dr. C say Dad do you see that....to which Ed does not respond I can't see and I say is everything ok do you see a heartbeat?? Dr. C moves the screen and says can you see mom...ummm not yet he moves the screen again and I said oh my is that TWO?! Yes mam' do you see TWO heartbeats?! Yes mam' everything looks great you are having TWINS!??!??! (They are fraternal twins two seperate eggs both fertalized so each baby is in his/her own sac and has his/her own placenta) We were both in a complete state of shock to say the least. We are very excited about these two little blessing and I guess I def. choose the right candy bar when I asked Ed if the next baby(babies) is going to be TWIX seeing as they only come in sets of 2!

We are soooo excited and go from excited to shocked and are looking forward to welcoming two little babies in the fall!! So far we have gotten a lot of opinions on the gender of the babies...Benjamin has said from the start he was having a girl and if you ask him if its a boy he will give you a very firm NO its a girl...now that we are having two he says its a boy and a girl and Christian's answer is generally the same. My vote is that it will be a boy and a girl or two boys... we will see.....and yes for those of you wondering we will be finding out this time since we are having twins. We are just praying for a healthy pregnancy and the babies to contine to grown strong and heatlhy.

Something to....

brag blog about. I know that it has been over 5 months a while since I have blogged. I am making no committment to keep it up on a regular basis but did want to share how far my biggest boy has come with his writing recently.

Love the concentration on his face in this picture with his tongue sticking out...just like his daddy!

Look at how well he is holding the pen!

and TADA! The finished product after a lot of hard work my boy finished every single valentine for his class at preschool.

Here is a close up of two I am so proud of him!

 

Wordless Wednesday~ (almost)

Don't you know its hot outside?!

I wonder if sleeping like this is really comfortable?