Fall Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we ventured to the Griggs' cabin to celebrate some family birthdays.  Since most of us were all in one place we took a few family pictures .  We got the CD of pictures today from Andi's sister so I thought I would share a few of them. 

Pictures of the Kids

So, here are some of the first picutres of the kids. The photographer was great, especially given she didn't have any light to help her out. It's amazing how far technology has come. The first is Baby A (Cooper) at 18 weeks and the second is Baby B (Kennedy) at 22 weeks. They say they are measuring about a week further along. So that is hopefully a good sign that they are healthy.

Do I look that big?

Yesterday, I went to get Curtis' Jeep registered and this is a little conversation I had.

DMV lady: Oh, when are you due?
Me: The beginning of February.
DMV: REALLY! I thought you were going to say next month.

I work in a doctor's office and this is an encounter I had with one of our patients.

Patient: When are you going to have your baby?
Me: Beginning of February sometime.
Patient (with bulging eyes): But you're so big!!!

It's at that point that I insist on justifying my huge belly by explaining that I'm having twins:)

21 Weeks

Here's another belly picture with approximately 3 ½ months to go! I'm getting so excited. Okay, I've been excited for a long time. The nursery has been painted since before I was even pregnant. We've cleared out Robert's Craft of all the brown vinyl and are trying to patiently wait for the next shipment. I've been finding all sorts of deals on KSL and Craigslist. I got a double BOB stroller for $300! That's about half off with the extras she gave me. Thanks to my wonderful friends and family for picking things up for me. Cedar City doesn't have very many great deals so I end up asking people for favors. I'm trying to be ready by Christmas even though I probably won't have these babies until the beginning of February. I think it will be nice to know that I'm ready and I'm a little bit worried that I'll be on bed rest at the end (I hear it happens to a lot of mothers with twins). I figure I should prepare for it just in case.

Addresses

Yes, I am posting a blog asking for people's addresses. I've realized that a lot of the people I keep in contact with now is through the blog world. In the coming weeks, we will be having baby showers and in the coming months, we will be sending out some very cute baby announcments. This is a call for any addresses. Thanks so much.

Baby Belly Pictures

Andi had me take a picture a few weeks ago and then again tonight. She hopes to be able to get up a weekly picture so you can see how the pregnancy is progressing (as well as generate some empathetical support from all of you mommies). Here they are. The first one is at about 18 weeks and the second is from tonight. The 20 week mark. Halfway for a regular pregnancy. Doc says that he won't let her go longer than 37 so we're over the hill for sure at this point.

18 Weeks

20 Weeks

We are having.....

TWINS!!! oh yeah, you already knew that....

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................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ONE BOY AND ONE GIRL!!!!

Pink or Blue

So we just got the news. It looks like we are going to have one of each. "Baby A" is a little boy. He was really calm the whole time. He had his hands in front of his face for most of the ultrasound. We have a 3D picture of his face (we might post it). He has a little button nose and full lips. "Baby B" is a little girl. She was anything but calm. Every face shot we got she was opening and closing her mouth. We think she might be a talker. She was also moving all over the place and tugging on the cord. The picture we have of her is with her mouth wide open. Maybe she'll be a singer.

LAST CALL FOR VOTES!

So, the big day is tomorrow (Tuesday). We are going in to see what "Baby A" and "Baby B" are. This is the last day to cast your votes. We're both betting that it's two boys. I guess we'll see...or not. I'm only 18 1/2 weeks along. My doctor told me on Thursday that he thought it was too early, but we are going to try our luck. I don't really care one way or the other. I just want to be able to think about names and know what color of clothes to buy. I guess it all just seems more real when you know what gender they are.

OH SO BIG!!!

I guess it's time to start posting belly pictures, but not today. I went in for my 18 week apt. yesterday. My doctor measured my belly and said I was at 27 cm. Twenty-seven!!! That's what I should be nine weeks from now with a single baby. Problem being, we hope I don't deliver 9 weeks earlier than someone would with a single baby. That means I will be VERY VERY LARGE! The honest truth is that I hope I get huge, but only so I can have two very healthy babies. It still doesn't make the anticipation of a huge belly any more sweet. The comparison has me a bit nervous. For example, I was reading in one of my pregnancy books about where I should be at this point. It says my uterus should be the size of a cantaloupe...try a watermelon!

Quick Trip

Well, we had a whirlwind of a quick long weekend beginning last Thursday. Kelli and Darren got to Cedar shortly after we got home from work and we loaded up the car and headed to California. We stayed in Las Vegas that night after eating at Hash House a go go! As you can see from the pictures [coming soon] the meals were HUGE! I don't think we even have a serving platter in our house as big as the plates.

We were off Friday morning and made a pit stop at In & Out in Lancaster (a must a least once on a CA trip). We made it to Ventura where we stayed by the harbor. The skies were grey, but the temperature was perfect. After we wandered around the harbor we decided to go to Camarillo to do some shopping at the outlets to see if they had any baby clothes on sale for the babies-on-board. Even though we don't know what they are yet we figured that we will just save them. It turns out there weren't too many good deals though, but we did get some really cool argyle sweaters (just in case it's two boys as our poll indicates is the most popular answer--we'll see on the 29th!). We returned to Ventura and attempted to go to Andria's--a seafood restaurant where they litterally back the boat up to unload the fresh stuff, but to our dismay the power was out on that side of the harbor---so we had to go somewhere else. It was pretty late and we were all starving, but we finally got to sit down after a 45 minute wait.

On Saturday we headed up to Zuma Beach in Malibu to just take it easy. A few miles from Zuma we began seeing lots of cyclers and the far lanes were blocked off--it happened to be the Nautica Malibu Triathlon--lucky us! That meant parking a few blocks away and hiking in to the beach with all our stuff. It was a hazy morning so the beach was almost literally all ours. We hung out, tested the cold water (some of us only put our toes in and that was enough), and did a little California Dreamin' (We love naps!) The haze burned off in the late afternoon and the beach started to fill up as the tide came in and the waves got higher. We headed back to Ventura for showers and to go to dinner at Andria's--the power was on this time!

Sunday morning we went to a local sacrament meeting and then loaded the car up to head back for what seemed like a very LONG drive. Darren was a champ and made great time. We sat in the back and read and napped.

It was a fun trip and we wish it would have lasted a little longer. Maybe next year.

Thinking in Two's

It's been a while since we posted so we thought we would give everyone a glimpse of what has been on our minds lately (and is probably on the minds of anyone expecting twins).

Though we are very excited about having twins both Andi and I keep wondering "what are we going to do when we have two of those (e.g. babies). We understand that people have been dealing with two children (or more) at once for years--but for a couple of novices we are going through some interesting mental exercises. For example:

We went to Wal-Mart the other night and there was a cute little boy who got mad at his mother and he let her know it. He was screaming so loud you could hear it on the other side of the store. The mother was very flustered and did what she could to calm him down but he was having none of it. She obviously had to get some shopping done because she kept shopping. My thought out loud was, "Wife, what are you going to do when you have two children that are screaming like that and you need groceries?"

Whenever Andi sees a mother lugging around a car seat or even just trying to entertain her single child she pictures herself doing double. One has to wonder whether anyone has figured out how to change two diapers at once?

And then there are the horror stories of new mothers who haven't showered for a couple of days because of all the new things to learn, along with being completely exausted. Then multiplying the work by two...

Though it might seem that we are nervous that is not really the case. I think we have almost made a game out of trying to figure out how we will accomplish new tasks (x2). It will be an adventure for sure!

By the way September 29th is the day we find out if they are boys/girls or one of each.

Happy Birthday Addison!

It is hard to believe that one year ago yesterday we spent all day at the hospital and at 12:15am on August 7th our little Addison was born. It is even harder to believe that today we would have a one year old! The last year has been a whirlwind and we have missed having Addison around, but we know that the Lord's plan for us is much bigger than we imagine (especially having just found out that we have twins on the way!). Today we got some flowers and decorated Addie's grave along with a gift from our friend Megan, and some flowers from family and friends. We took some pink balloons with us and let them go and plan on making that our tradition. Andi also asked a sister in are ward to decorate a birthday cake for Addison and it was AMAZING! We had some friends over and sang to our Addison. Thinking of what a difficult time we had letting her go and of all the love our family, friends, and neighbors showed we know we are very blessed. We know that there are many others thinking of Addison today. We know she is looking down and preparing her twin siblings to come to our home!

Twenty Toes!!!

Yes, you read the title correctly. This is our official announcement in the blog world that come February we will have two new sets of toes, twenty in all, in our house! That's right, we went to the doctor on Friday for the first appointment and after joking with the him (as we have everyone else for the last year) about having twins it was confirmed that there are TWO buns in the oven!

We are both excited and nervous, but above all we are feeling very blessed. I'm sure that their older sister is getting them ready to come and live with us.

Over the weekend we visited our families and made the announcement. It was so fun to see their reaction. We made our parents t-shirts that said "Proud Grandparents of..." and then put the number of grandchilderen they would have with two more included. They all got a puzzled look, quickly counted their grandkids in their heads and then, wondering if we had counted wrong, asked if we were having twins?

We will keep everyone updated on the progress as we get further along. It will be about 8-10 more weeks before we find out if they are boys or girls or one of each. We'll take bets at a later date!

THE FOURTH OF JULY!

So, it has been a while since we posted. Not a whole lot new to report. We had a great trip up to the Happy Valley area over the weekend of the fourth of July. We came up on Thursday night and Friday went to see the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple.


On Saturday night we had a barbeque at the Hatch's house and I took a few pictures of the nieces with their new cousin Damon. Grandma JoJo got the girls matching 4th of July dresses and Damon got dressed up for the festivities too.


I got a kick out of Aedyn following her twin "sissies" around. She's a crackup.

On Sunday Baby Damon was blessed and we celebrated Aedyn's and Uncle Trevor's birthdays.

Aedyn was so facinated by her cousin Damon that she has taken to carrying her doll around patting it on the back saying "Good Baby Damon" over and over and over. She loves her cousin.

Write/Call/E-mail/Text your Congressman Today!!!

Just an FYI. Congress will be voting on Cap-and-Trade energy bills this week with VERY LITTLE debate. This is a big issue and has the potential to raise your energy bills by HUNDREDS of dollars next year! Congressmen Chaffetz (Utah 3rd District) one of the few people who does anything good on Capital Hill has said that for every public school in Utah this bill will raise energy costs by $10,000 or more. That means our struggling schools with underpaid teachers and over crowded classrooms will now have to pay higher energy bills. All for the sake of cooling the planet by less than 1 degree. No matter where you stand on the Global Warming issue this bill is UNDER-DEBATED and UNDER-READ by the congressmen that will vote on it. Call/E-mail/Fax/Text your Conressmen today and tell them to vote against it!!! No matter what state you are in. Get the word out. They are supposed to vote on Friday June 26th.

Here is a link to Utah's congressional districts so you can see where you are at and who your congressman is. Southern Utah is Jim Matheson. You can google them and there is usually a link on their website to contact them. It will take you all of 10 minutes to write a short message and tell them NO! Remind them who they work for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Congressional_Districts

Look up your state on Wikipedia.

Girls Camp

When I got back from my 6th year of girl's camp, I thought it was my last. WRONG! I just got back from camping for 4 wonderful days with the Young Women in my ward.

I felt like a kid again:)

Until it started raining and we had to put tarps up over our tents to avoid and further puddles on our pillows.

Curtis got to come up as one of our priesthood leaders for one of the nights. I think he quite liked being at girl's camp. Our camp director is quite a prankster. After it got dark, she gave him a scary mask and told him to jump out at me when I was coming down the hill. He did and I fell to the ground. Only problem is he about fell to the ground too. He ended up with a paper towel and ice on his head because he ran into a small tree on the way to me. (I think the eye holes in the mask were pretty small).

And the best part of camp...camp fire. We had some good ones.

Gardening

Before

After I'm going to try and see how green my thumb is. I've started a garden. Here are some before and after pictures of the plot I picked out in my back yard. There weren't too many tiny spaces to choose from. I went ahead and cleared away as many of the itty bitty rocks as I could and then did my best to mix potting soil with the existing clay. Now, about three weeks later...most everything is growing. I have corn, tomatoes, carrots, onions, zucchini, summer squash, & kohlrabi. I'm still waiting on cucumbers and the cantaloupe already died. Still, if I get one tomato, it will be worth trying again next year.

DC

Right after the cruise, we took a trip to DC for my brother's wedding. It was a quick trip, but quite fun.
The church they got married in was so beautiful. It was a classic wedding with a rehearsal dinner and everything. I really did feel like I was in the movies.

I got so see some of the DC sights that I don't know if I've ever seen (I think I went to DC when I was 4, but don't remember it). It was a first for Curtis as well. We went to Arlington on Memorial Day and got to see President Obama drive past. That was really a cool experience! I almost wish we would have gone and heard him speak just a couple hours earlier. That's not something Curtis would have allowed me to set and alarm for, so we slept in and walked through the cemetary in peace.

More Cruise

We already posted our underwater camera pictures, now here are some others. First off, Curtis started the cruise like any normal person would...on his computer, trying to send some last e-mails for work before internet cost $9.99 a minute. Eventually, the internet connection got slow. Result: Curtis allowed himself to crash.
The whole cruse experience was perfect! We were able to relax, get tan (I think I read four large books), and see some of the most incredable things ever. We spent the first two days at sea. Each night, we got these cute little animals on our beds. I loved them. The food was good, the desserts were even better, and we had some really fun people at our dinner table.

Our first stop was Jamaica. That's where we hiked up Dunn's River Falls. It was really incredible. I got this picture of the coast and my camera died while we were at Dolphin's Cove...so that's all we have of our Jamaican experience.

This is a picture I took in Grand Cayman. It really is that beautiful. We also went to the Turtle Farm. It was surprising how hard those turtles can flap. They calmed down when you rubbed their heads.