Life With The Newlyweds: December 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!