My newest babes

I'm 3 weeks and 2 days late in announcing the birth of my newest babes here on my blog. That's ok though, since everyone that reads this already knows anyway.

Here is our little, olive Isabel. She is the older sister by 20 minutes, and weighed 6lbs 10 oz. She was the mellow 'Twin A' inside my tummy and still is for the most part, but can have a fairly feisty wee personality when she's hungry or looking for 'a hold'.

My wee breach baby, Penelope Anne,was 6lbs 13oz and it took that full 20 mins to turn her(which was pretty amazing) and push her out. She came out as perfectly beautiful as her big sister despite all the maneuvering. She is really quite demanding when it comes to the serious business of eating and is extremely vocal about letting me know when she's ready.

They are just as lovely as can be when they sleep side by side like this...

And even though I completely hate how I look in this picture, I kinda love it too....simply because it shows how bloomin' tired I was in the first few days after bringing the twins home. oh, wait, I'm still super tired...but thankfully not quite this bad. This will be a "nice" reminder of the beginning of my whole new life as a mum of four wee ones under the age of four...my life is happy chaos.

Time to come out!

If our two new wee girls haven't arrived all by themselves come the early hours of Friday, August 19th........at 6am that morning Ryan and I will be headed to the labour and delivery ward at Providence Hospital here in Newberg, where they will be forced to come out! ha.

I may laugh, but I'm terrified....and excited.

Back with names and all (well maybe not ALL) the details soon-ish!

35 Down

Yesterday I reached 35 weeks along in my pregnancy with our wee twin girls. I feel pretty happy about how things have gone thus far. I expected to be fairly miserable by now and be begging my doctor to help speed things along. I had a horrible fear of having to be on bed rest for a month or so. I was terrified that my tummy would be so enormous that I would have tons of stretch marks (how vain of me). I have had a few crying episodes when I think about all that is to come, but I thought I'd be way more panicked that I actually am. So with a few contractions, some aches and pains, a couple of small stretch marks, and a tight/compact belly with an 'outty' belly button, I feel alright and ever so happy to have made it this far.To be perfectly honest, I have a feeling the wee girls aren't in any hurry to come out either. I feel like I could go all the way to 40 weeks, but maybe I'm completely wrong.

I had hoped and still cling to the hope that I will be able to have a regular delivery, but as of right now baby 'A' is breach and if she doesn't turn I'll be looking at having a c-section. I scared myself and watched a c-section twin birth a few months ago. It really wasn't all that bad, but I was so nervous at the thought of having a long recovery with four wee children to take care of...goodness it's overwhelming to think of at times.

But my lovely Doctor continues to remind me each time I get that 'nervous look' on my face when he brings it up, that we are only doing what is necessary to get the babies out safely. I pray that wee baby 'A' will turn daily, but if it's not going to happen then I know we're doing what's best.

We bought a Honda Odyssey a few weeks ago to accommodate our growing family.....and I LOVE it. Hilariously enough Ryan really likes it as well (although he will never admit just how much he likes it because it's a minivan). It is much nicer than our other cars though, so who can blame him. He's already on the search for a new snazzy car for himself now because we have so much money left. NOT.

Jack is anxious for the babies to come and insists on calling them 'shark 1' and 'shark 2'....slightly obsessed with sharks? Indeed. It is very sweet though listening to him jabber on about how the babies "really ought to come out now." I can only imagine the pregnancy has seemed like an eternity to him. Peter kisses my tummy A LOT and tells me "You have babies." I'm interested to see how he will react to their arrival. I'm so in love with him right now....he totally potty trained himself. It makes up for the delightful 2 yr old temper tantrums he's been having lately.

Ryan still looks like a deer in the head-lights every now and then when people mention the babies arrival , but I know we'll struggle through and enjoy it together.

p.s. Still working on narrowing down our 'names list' so if you have anything lovely that you want to suggest let me know....so long as you don't care if I steal it.

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.

A birthday, mother's day, and 25 weeks along.

A little after Easter the wee ones received a package each from my parents. The amount of chocolate inside was ridiculous! But I have enjoyed stealing some every now and then.

Granny knows Jack's great love for sharks, so he got a diver with cage, and a new great white...hours of entertainment..yuuusss! Peter got a bunch of winnie the pooh toys, he's a big fan.

I was craving a Cafe Rio pork salad 2 weeks ago. After doing some research through a few different recipe blogs I found a copy cat recipe that claimed to be the best. It was amazing if I do say so myself....particularly the ranch dressing. I felt pretty proud.

This picture may be a little silly to show, but a few weeks ago it was my turn to teach the preschool co-op Jack is involved in with some friends from church. I was teaching the kids about different baby animals and focused on pigs. I had the best time making each of them a wee piglet

to take home. I love how cute the piggies are together.

Mother's Day

It was Mother's Day here in the States on May 8th. It was a rough morning with the wee ones (they did not want to wear their church clothes), but it immediately got

better when Jack wasn't too scared to go up with the other kids during sacrament and sing, "Mother I love you". He swayed to the music and kinda got in the way of the wee boy next to him unfortunately, but I was so pleased that he knew all the words. I've been singing that song to him every night since the beginning of April so I was glad to see that it had payed off.

Tuesday the 10th, was my 29th birthday. I'm already feeling nervous for next years big 30. It was a very relaxing and glorious sun-shiny day. I feel very grateful for the wonderful friendships I've made in this ward. All day I had different

members stop by with flowers, fabulous gift cards!, cakes, chocolate goodies, balloons, and more. I felt very spoiled and loved. Ryan and I were able to have dinner BY OURSELVES that evening, thanks to some dear friends who watched the wee ones. It really was a lovely day.

On Saturday morning my good friend organized a birthday brunch at this stunning restaurant, Gracie's. It was by far the best breakfast I have ever eaten....I don't know why I didn't take a picture. I had the Benedicts topped with hollandaise, blackstone bacon and warm tomato slices...incredible. We are planning on returning to try their dinner or better yet, dessert menu.

Lastly, I'm 25 weeks now and feeling a lot more tired these days. I try and rest for a little while each day when Peter is taking a nap. Jack doesn't always make it easy, but he is pretty good about being quiet. At my last appointment, a week ago, I had my glucose test. I failed this test with both boys the first time and then passed after the 3 hour blood draw. I haven't heard anything from the doctor's office yet, so I am REALLY hoping that no news is good news.

A dream

A property manager sent this in an email to Ryan and it made me smile. Course, ours aren't identical or boys, but it's funny none the less.

How Twins Are Made

Last night I had my first dream about the babies. It was so realistic, I almost expected to see them when I woke up this morning. In the dream I was trying to nurse them both at the same time and having a right time of it! I could not for the life of me do it and I kept busting up laughing just looking at them both trying to latch on. Good grief...what a riot this will be.