A late Birthday post

I've been meaning to get around to this post for a while but my dear sweet Peter pulled a few of the keys off the laptop I use making it near impossible to type anything. I got a hold of Ryan's for a wee while to get this written.

The wee ones birthday always seems to last a week or more. They get gifts sent from abroad which don't always arrive right on time....of course they love that, and then I've had a birthday party for them the last two years that have been a few days after their actual birthday bringing in more gifts. The morning of their birthday we had two of Jack's wee

friend's over for an hour or so. The boys had fun but we kept things pretty low key that day as we had the party coming on Saturday (18th). We took them out for ice cream in the evening after dinner and they were more than content with that.

I had planned on keeping the party fairly simple, but I ended up inviting quite a few kids from the ward and I was so happy I had only set the party for an hour long. That was MORE than enough time. Even with the help of Ryan, my sister, Amy, who has been here visiting for a few weeks, and Ryan's sister, Callie, and her husband, Josh, I was still grateful it was a short party. It was an hour of fun chaos.

We played "pin the fin on the shark", musical statues (which the kids LOVED), and pass the parcel. Then we sang 'Happy Birthday' and handed out ice lollies and ice cream.

I kinda felt bad afterwards that I didn't dish out the cake, but my boys are even all that fond of cake and none of the kids seemed bothered at all about it either. It was just so hard to cut into it as I'd only finished making it about half an hour before everyone arrived.

After the kids left we all headed out to Red Robin for dinner.

Poor wee Pete hadn't had a nap and was completely wiped. He fell asleep on the ride to the restaurant and would't wake up no matter how hard I tried for a good 45 mins.

Callie and Josh left shortly after dinner and we dug into the cake.

It was a long day and I was completely exhausted....I'm kinda grateful that they share the same birthday, it's nice to get it all over and done with in one go. And I'll be able to do the same for the girls too I guess.

As far as the pregnancy goes things are going pretty well. I'm down to having appointments every two weeks now. It's been great having my sister here to watch the wee ones for me. I get to take a nap almost every day for a hour or two. She leaves on the 6th July and then the following day my mother-in-law comes to stay with us until the 2nd August. She'll go out to Reno for Ryan's sister's wedding, which is on the 13th Aug. and then be back to help out again. Who knows if the babies will be here by then or not. I've got another ultrasound next week to see the position of the babies and check their weight. I've been scaring myself a little by watching videos of twin birth c-sections. I know I won't have any option if baby 'A' isn't head down, but I am praying I won't have to go down that road...to me it just sounds scary having to spend more time recovering myself when I have 4 wee kids to look after.

Anyway, time in flying in and before I know it the girls will be here.

On our list of things to do still:

-Buy a new car that can hold us all! AND figure out what we are going to name these new

additions.

On a VERY happy final note. Peter decided to start potty training himself on Tuesday. I was skeptical that it was the real deal and didn't want to get my hopes up, but so far we have gone 3 days with 3 tiny accidents. He even went to the bathroom in two different public places yesterday...it's been quite amazing. A major blessing actually.

28 weeks

Despite my urge and desire to keep things busy for the wee ones, especially during the nice weather, things are definitely starting to slow down around here. Last week after pushing myself a little too much I started having contractions that were only a few minutes apart. I was so worried and scared; I barely reached 28 weeks on Sunday. The last thing I want is to have these babies earlier than is already expected. After speaking with a nurse, who contacted the 'on-call' doctor, I was told to sit down and hardly move for the remainder of the night. They didn't want my body to establish a pattern that they couldn't stop. Luckily, I was fine for the rest of the night and only had a little bit of pressure. I headed into the doctor the following morning and although I was slightly effaced, I hadn't dilated at all. Good news. I was told I didn't need to go on bed rest, but I shouldn't be standing for more than 10-15 mins at a time. And to be honest, I can hardly do that anyway these days....I get exhausted so easily.

(I'm glad these wee guys like to dress up like superheros so often...it makes life easier when I want to have a lazy day at home.)

Saturday was just lovely. Some wonderful friends from my ward threw a baby shower for me. It was very personal and special. My friend, Val, had contacted my family and asked them for some info on me as a baby. It was so surprising to see the gorgeous picture my mum had sent of me as a baby with my parents, and just great fun listening to the stories she had sent about me too.

My mum had also sent a ton of chocolate for the shower, which was just amazing! I loved every minute of it.

(This is one of the girl's blessing dresses...my mother in-law made it, but I had my RS president add some lace around the hem.)

(And my friend, Anne, made a very pretty nappy cake (diaper), with lovely flower hair clasps on it.)

My sister, Amy, is coming to stay with us next Monday for a few weeks and then my mother- in-law will come the day after she leaves. I was starting to think my mum was over reacting a wee bit by sending my sister to help me this soon as I've been feeling fine since last week, but on Monday after going to target to run some errands I started having contractions again. I think it put me in my place....I am definitely SLOWING way down from here on out.