Life With The Newlyweds: 2010

Gender Reveal Party

We had a gender reveal party for our family and friends. Because it was so close to Christmas, we chose a gingerbread theme. We had a great time sharing the news of our babies with everyone!

Gingerbread boys and girls hanging above the table.

Pink and blue gingerbread cookies and cupcakes.

The boys hanging out outside.

Some of the girls

Sweet baby dressed for the party and showing off her two front teeth!

I have wonderful friends who drove in just for the party!

We divided everyone into 3 groups based on what they thought we were having, 2 girls, 2 boys and a boy and a girl.

The 2 girls group

One boy, one girl group

2 boys group

For the reveal we wanted everyone to be involved. I gave each group 2 gingerbread and several cut up pieces of paper. I gave everyone step by step directions on how to dress their gingerbread. In the end everyone had 2 correctly dressed gingerbread.

Working hard to decorate the gingerbread.

Don't know what they are yet...

2 gingerbread GIRLS!!!
Everyone was surprised and so excited that we are having 2 girls. It was so much fun to watch as the groups decorated their gingerbread babies.

She is very excited about her girl cousins!

One of our close friends made us precious burp cloths with the babies names. We let each grandmother open one to reveal the names. I love seeing their names in print.

After we found out that we were having girls Matt brought home my favorite flower. I thanked him for MY pretty flowers and he quickly corrected me that they were for the girls! I think that my time in the spotlight is quickly getting smaller. He is so excited to be having daughters and he will be a wonderful dad.

18 Weeks

We are half way there! My doctor said that he would be happy if I could make it to 36 weeks, the babies should have no or little NICU stay if we make it to that point. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. I look down at my belly now and wonder when I got this big! I am not sick anymore but am having more frequent back pain and it is getting harder to sleep at night. However, I could not be more excited that in about 18 more weeks we will have 2 babies.

We had our 18 week ultrasound appointment and everything looks great. The babies are measuring about 6.5 inches long from the top of their head to their bottom. They each weigh 8 ounces, about the size of a mango. The babies do not have any genetic issues such as Downs Syndrome. All of their organs look great and are fully functioning...they are perfect! Both babies were stubborn and we did not get a good profile shot of either one but we did find out the sex.

Baby A gave us somewhat of a profile shot and has their feet up in the air.

Baby B is looking at us. You can see the brain and eye sockets and a tiny hand in the corner. Baby B looks like a scary skeleton head in this picture.
We had a gender reveal party for our family and friends to reveal the sex of the babies, pictures to come!

Sneak Peek

Matt's mom has a wonderful job, she is the director of the Women's Center at one of the hospitals here. Over Thanksgiving I was telling her how sad I was that we didn't get to have an ultrasound at our last doctor appointment. We have been very spoiled because we have gotten to have an ultrasound due to one thing or another with either me or the babies. I had gotten used to seeing them every few weeks. So....she invited us up to the hospital have a sneak peek of the babies.

One of the very sweet nurses did an ultrasound for us just so we could see the babies. It was so much fun! She was not checking for heartbeats or placements so we just got to watch them in their little world. It was amazing to see them stretch and move their hands and one even opened and closed their mouth. One baby is laying on top of the other so when he/she would move it would be pushing on the other baby below. The baby on bottom was not putting up with its sibling pushing on him/her so they would kick and push back. It was such amazing thing to see them fight and interact with each other. I think we will have our hands full!!

They were not cooperating too well but we may have gotten a sneak peek at the sex of each baby and we couldn't be more exicted! We will be having our official ultrasound in a few weeks and a gender reveal party to tell our family and friends.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays...You get to eat all the wonderful Thanksgiving dishes that are only served once a year. You do not have a schedule or an alarm clock. In our family Thanksgiving means food, family, and football, and of course a little shopping!
We had a wonderful, very much needed, Thanksgiving break this year. I had Wednesday before Thanksgiving off so Gavin and I cleaned house, ran errands, and cooked for Thanksgiving.

We had such a good time making turkey cupcakes! I think more candy was eaten than put on the cupcakes but that was only part of the fun! Gavin did a great job and they turned out really cute!

He had to rest after all the work we had done. Berkley is being introduced to what his life will be like after the babies come! He does not mind the attention at all!

On Thanksgiving we ate a very yummy lunch at the Goodhart's house. I was nice to visit with his family. After lunch we headed to Fort Smith for dinner. This year is the first year that I was actually hungry for dinner! We had a wonderful dinner with my family. We spent the rest of the weekend in our P.J.'s hanging out. It was wonderful! Matt even let us stay in Fort Smith to watch the Arkansas game on TV instead of driving back early and standing in the cold.

We also enjoyed playing with this little girl!

Uncle Matt pushed her around in the box and she just laughed! I cannot wait to see the babies at their first Thanksgiving. They will be about her age next year.
It was a much needed relaxing weekend. I am now so ready for Christmas break!

Mr. and Mrs. McClure

Our good friends, Claire and Robert, got married the weekend before Thanksgiving. Claire and I have been good friends since freshman year in college. She and Robert started dating a few months before Matt and I so we have been hanging out with them for awhile now. We were so excited for them! The wedding was so beautiful and so much fun.

Rehearsal Dinner
It was so good to see all of our friends again.

The next morning we were summoned to help decorate the venue. A few of us were in charge of putting together small trees. This is what we came up with!

The finished product! She did a great job putting things together, it was perfect and very "Claire"!

The beautiful bride

Little Miss would not cooperate...I think she was flirting with a guy behind me.

Brides Cake

I loved the grooms cake...so did the babies! :)

My family - I stole some of the pictures from Claire...Thank you for posting them!
We wish Claire and Robert many years of happiness!

15 Weeks

I can finally say that I am not feeling as sick!! I feel more like my self again! It is so nice to feel better and have a little more energy. I have not had any crazy cravings yet. However, there are several things that I cannot even smell, like BBQ and Mexican. Some of my favorite things I (used to) eat I cannot finish because it tastes horrible! In the past few weeks, I have started having "growing pains" in my stomach because the ligaments are growing faster with twins. Because of the growing, strangers have noticed my belly and commented about the baby or babies! My back has also started hurting when I am on my feet a lot. I know these things will only get worse!!! I also wake up super early because I cannot get comfortable or I have to go to the bathroom and most of the time I cannot go back to sleep.

The babies are growing so fast! They are each the size of an avocado, about 5 inches long! They each weigh about 4 ounces. This week the babies are able to hear our voices and can see bright light.
The next thing on the agenda is to find out the babies sex!! We are so ready to start decorating and planning for their arrival!

Unexpected Baby Pictures

We had an unexpected doctor visit this week because of a couple concerns, but everything checked out perfect! The babies both have strong heartbeats, Baby A 157 and Baby B 136. The ultrasound tech said we might have one of each based on the different heartbeats! :) She also said that they are implanted high and they are both measuring the same size, right on time at almost 14 weeks.

It was so much fun to see the babies! They have almost doubled in size in just 3 weeks. We got to see them move their arms and legs and one was even doing small jumps.

Baby B was shy and had his/her face turned away. But his/her arms and legs were moving constantly.

Baby A let us see his/her profile. (Matt says he/she has his nose!!) He/she was jumping when the tech was trying to get a heartbeat!

I cannot wait to get to see them in a few more weeks and maybe we will be able to find out the sex...if they cooperate!

Dr. Appointment

We had our second doctors appointment. Everything checked out normal with me.
Blood pressure.....check
Weight gain.....check :(
I know it is all part of the game but still not fun!
Lab work.....check
Then we got to the part where we were going to hear the babies heartbeats.
Baby A....a very faint pitter patter heartbeat
Baby B....the doctor could not find another heartbeat...
We began to panic but he very calmly said that it was hard to find the heartbeats because they were so tiny. He said that we would just do an ultrasound so that we could see them instead.
Nervously we went to have the ultrasound, and we saw 2 little beans with 2 beating hearts!
It is amazing how scared you get when you think that something is wrong with one of your children. We are so fortunate that they are both healthy and growing...very fast.
Pictures of the babies at almost 12 weeks.

Thing 1
There is a very tiny arm sticking out above his/her head.

Thing 2
You can see both an arm and a leg.
It is amazing how much they have grown in 4 weeks. Our last pictures show just little blobs and now I can tell they are babies!

Happy Birthday

Happy 4th Birthday Berkley!
I cannot believe that Berk is already 4! He has been the best dog and I cannot wait to see him with the babies!

He is less than thrilled about the hat!

Enjoying a new toy for his birthday celebration!

10 weeks

It is hard to believe that we are already at 10 weeks, more than a fourth of the way through (since full term for me is 36 weeks!) So far I have felt very nauseous and tired. We joke now that our bedtime is 9:00 even after the occasional after school nap! Nothing sounds good to eat but I am hungry all the time which makes things interesting. Our next doctor appointment is next week, maybe we will get to have another ultrasound.

At 10 weeks each baby is about the size of a lime and about 2 inches long. They only weigh a third of an ounce.

Even though the babies are only 10 weeks into their development they have already been spoiled! YaYa bought them their first outfit complete with duck feet! Aunt Adrienne gave them bibs that say "My Aunt Loves Me" and "I Love My Aunt". I think she is hoping that they are a boy and a girl! Mimi gave them their first stuffed animal, fall teddy bears. Cousin Lily Kate gave them a picture frame that says cousins. And our friend Gina sent them tiny socks.

Sharing the News

One of the most exciting things so far has been telling our family and friends our news about the babies. We waited until we went to the doctor so that we could possibly have pictures to show off. Well, we were glad that we did because they got two surprises at once!

I found a poem for the grandmothers and great grandmothers and I put it in a frame.

I do not have a face to see,
Or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss,
I don't yet have a name.
You can't yet hold my tiny hands,
Nor whisper in my ear.
It's still too soon to sing a song,
Or cuddle me so near.
But all will change come May,
That's when they say I'm due.
I'm your new grandson or granddaughter,
And I can't wait till I meet you.
All I ask between now and then,
Is your patience while I grow.
I promise I'll be worth the wait,
Because of all the love we'll know.
So what I have to give you now,
Is a wish to you from me.
I cannot wait to be a part
Of this wonderful family.

It took them a few lines to get when we were trying to tell them! They were so happy, there were tears of joy and screams of excitement. After they had calmed down from the excitement of a new grandchild we showed them the ultrasound picture. Both of our moms knew instantly that the picture was of 2 babies. Then the tears of joy and screams of excitement were back!

Lily Kate got a special onesie that said, "This little monkey...is going to be a BIG cousin!"