Baby Shower and Pregnancy Update

Last weekend some of my really good friends put on a neighborhood baby shower for me. Over 20 people came. It was amazing to receive all of that love and support. I have a great neighborhood. Emily, Melinda, Tiffany, Becca, and Ashley spent so much time and effort putting it together. They are over achievers. Emily and Ash spent 12 hours the day before making the amazing cake! Not only did it look amazing but it tasted amazing too! I failed to get pictures with the hosts. They are seriously amazing.

This last week my pregnancy has turned upside down. I have felt as you would expect someone with twins to feel when they are pregnant. This last week has really got me complaining. My nighttime contractions are getting more and more painful as the babies are getting bigger. They keep me up most of the night, along with heartburn. The doctor gave me a prescription to stop preterm labor and I take it 3 times a day. I also had to go in to get some corticosteroids to help speed up the lung development of the boys in case I do go into labor. The morning after I took the contraction medicine I woke up like this:

I went to bed with skinny cute feet and woke up like this. I have been massaging my feet and it has helped a lot.


On a good note, the babies are doing excellent. As of my 32 week appointment they were about 4 1/2 lbs each (who knows how accurate that is though). On Monday after my NST my doctor said that their fetal monitoring charts were the perfect model for what they want to see happening with the babies. They have good heart beats, good movement, good development, you name it. And now that they've have the steroids for lung development they should be healthy if they arrive any day. They might have trouble feeding until after 35 weeks but that is expected.

31 weeks

 33 weeks

I was determined to dress better this pregnancy because I didn't get ANY maternity clothes last time. I went to DI and bought some very large tent clothes that still had tags on them and altered them. The two shirts above are my favorites. I wish I had taken a before picture because they really did look like tents that had major ruffles.

At around 20 weeks when we found out we were having boys I started to collect all the gear I needed. I noticed Lucy's old car seat was pretty faded and needed to be recovered so I worked on that. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I made a matching canopy for it that I love. One baby will be orange and grey child, the other one will be blue and green. 

I have also recovered the bobby to be more gender neutral. I love that this pregnancy forced me to pull out the sewing machine again. It had been a while.


Today's goal is to pack the hospital bag and wash all of the baby clothes. The dresser that we ordered is in transit as we speak and this weekend we're headed to target to buy everything else we need including the bedding.

New Year Resolutions

I've mentioned this before but I love making resolutions. I kept my 2013 goals in mind all year round and was able to accomplish all of them for the most part.
Review of 2013 Goals

1. Read 25 novels. I read 23 novels. I went on a reading hiatus sometime in June when I was really sick and it took a couple months to get back into it. I really enjoyed my reading list with the exception of a few. My favorites were probably The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Scarlet Letter, and Divergent. My least favorites were Catch-22, Me Talk Pretty One Day (I don't suggest ever reading it), and Anne of Avonlea (that girl drives me nuts!)
 2. Get Lucy in gymnastics and preschool. Grantsville doesn't have gymnastics available anymore but dance has been amazing.
3. Buy a car. I love my Traverse and it has really made my days go with ease especially with all of the doctor appointments and things that Lucy needs to get to.
4. Go on a big vacation. Ben and I wanted to go somewhere tropical but we ended up going to St.George which was a blast! It was so fun.
5. Build back porch. This goal got put on the back burner when we had IVF and bought a car.
6. Frame entire basement. Instead of framing the whole basement we decided to complete one entire room so that we have a guest room after the boys arrive.
7. Catch up on scrapbooking.  Accomplished
8. Get 100% visiting teaching.  Accomplished
9. Send out birthday cards to all family members. Accomplished
10. Follow my daily schedule. Accomplished
11. Have FHE every week. We did fairly good but struggled for a few months when I was sick.
12. Read the Doctrine & Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. Accomplished
13. Go to the temple every month. I went 10 times but Ben made it all 12 months.
14. Go on a date every month.  We did so many fun things this year.


2013 was an amazing year. We have had so many blessings occur and did so many fun things as a family. The most exciting news of course is that we got pregnant with twins. That whole experience was full of ups and downs and we are so happy to have it over with but we are grateful for the things that we learned during the process. Ben did well at work and had a lot of fun on local sport leagues. He put together his own softball team and ended the season by winning the championship game making their stats 18-0. He's been working hard on building a room in our basement. Lucy started preschool and dance and continues to go to story time weekly and Home Depot's kid's club monthly. She has a busy schedule for a 3 year old and handles it well. She has become so helpful. This has definitely been my favorite year of parenting, although I have loved every one.  I have been filling my time teaching, and driving Lucy around to all of her activities. I feel like I have become a better parent to Lucy this year and that is probably the accomplishment that I feel the proudest of for 2013. I have been keeping myself busy with projects and in Primary.

2014 Goals
1. Read the Book of Mormon and memorize the Book of Mormon scripture masteries. 
2. Start my morning with a prayer.
3. Read 15 novels.
4. Lose all of the baby weight. 
5. Finish landscaping the front yard.
6. Listen more and talk less. 
7. Stay positive even when I'm tired. This sounds so silly but I'm a really good complainer and starting in a month or so I won't be getting any sleep and I don't want it to affect my family.
8. Stop breaking my split-ends.This also sounds like a silly goal but it's an awful habit.
9. Have professional family pictures taken.
10. Continue having FHE every week and continue going to the temple frequently. 


Things I look forward to in 2014:

1. My baby boys arriving! The excitement didn't really set in until late in this pregnancy. I was so concerned with possible complications that it was just until recently that I've been able to enjoy the idea of having two new babies to hold and to cuddle.
2. Finishing up preschool at home(mainly I'm excited to clean it all up!)and sending Lucy to Pre-K. I feel like my house is turned upside down. I would do it again in an instant but I think it is time to pass the torch over to Karma's Kiddie Korner.
3. Lucy's birthday! We promised her Disneyland when she turns 4 but she's agreed that the Circus would be alright too if the boys are too tiny.