Big babies

So, I went to see my doctor yesterday. Everything looks good, and he apparently is convinced that these babies are staying in there a long time. Hopefully they will so I can actually experience taking babies home with me for the first time.

Everything is looking really good. Both babies are growing very well and are measuring big. The smaller baby is measuring about 4 lb. 15 oz., and the bigger baby is measuring about 5 lb. 6 oz. If I make it a few more weeks, these are going to be some big boys! We are so glad that they are healthy and growing well. We can even see on ultrasound that they both have some hair. It's a good thing since I have suffered with major acid reflux this pregnancy. (Thank goodness for Prevacid. It is a miracle drug!)

Anway, just thought I'd post an update on the boys. I've already passed the date when the girls were born, so we're doing great. And, in two days I'll be to where I had Abbey. These babies could end up being my longest pregnancy. Wouldn't that be crazy?

The girls

Well, I can't post an update about the unborn babies without a posting about Brooklyn and Hannah as well.

Brooklyn and Hannah are going to preschool again this year. They go 3 days a week for 3 hours each time. It's kind of weird to have them gone so much, and I'm not so sure I like it. To be honest, I kind of like it when they have days off from school. What will I ever do when they go to Kindergarten next year?

They are loving school. At first, Brooklyn would tell me she didn't want to go. When I asked her why, she said it was "Because of the songs." I asked if she liked learning letters, writing, coloring, playing on the playground, and she said, "Yes" to each of these. When I realized that she ONLY didn't like singing time, I just told her she didn't have to sing. However, now she seems to love it. In fact, the girls often come home and sing their preschool songs to me. We love hearing their little voices sing their silly little songs.

They are doing really well in preschool. They are both getting really good at writing all their letters, and they both write their names very well. They can both spell their names well. In fact, the other day we discovered that Brooklyn can tell you how to spell her name backwards without even looking at anything. That's something that most adults would have to really think about in order to do. What a little smarty pants.

Both girls are really happy. They are getting more and more fun all the time. We recently painted their room (well, my mom did) and we got them new big girl beds and new bedspreads. They love their new room.

Hannah recently got glasses. We had noticed that her left eye seemed to wander a bit, so we decided to get her eyes checked out. Well, we are sure glad we did because we found out that not only does she have a little bit of amblyopia (lazy eye), but she has an astigmatism in both eyes and is farsighted. So, we got her some adorable purple glasses. She has been such a great kid about wearing her glasses. Also, because of the amblyopia, she had to wear a patch for 6-8 hours a day for about 6 weeks. Now, she is down to about 1-2 hours a day and things have improved a lot.

The girls are in such a fun stage right now. We can't wait to see what fun we have in store!

33 Weeks and counting...

Well, today I am 33 weeks pregnant with the twin boys. Hooray!! I am hoping to keep them in another 2-3 weeks so they won't have to be in the NICU very long, if at all. I had Hannah and Brooklyn at 33 weeks 3 days, so we're probably getting pretty close. Hopefully the boys can just be a little more patient.

We are all really excited to have two new little baby boys around the house, but I'm also a little nervous. It's been a while since I've had newborns, and I've never had boys, so I don't quite know what to expect. Any advice?

Anyway, just thought I'd update about our progress. The boys are doing great. They are both measuring large for their age. At my appointment about 10 days ago, one baby measured about 4 lb. 1 oz., and the other measured about 4 lb. 14 oz. If I keep them in there a while longer, they'll be HUGE. We're just happy they're so healthy.

So, not too much longer. Now, the real waiting begins....

Boy times 2!

So, I'm sure most of you know by now, but for those of you who don't, we are having twins AGAIN!

We couldn't be happier about it. I know, most people probably think we're crazy thinking that having two sets of twins is going to be so much fun. We know it will be hard, but we are up for the task. Hannah and Brooklyn will be almost 5 by the time these twins are born, so they will be good little helpers.

Oh, and according to recent ultrasounds, it looks like we are having two little boys this time. We are thrilled! Twin girls followed by twin boys - it doesn't get much better than that, does it? Oh, and the girls already have their names picked out: Jonas Brother (Hannah's pick) and Baby Bear (Brooklyn's pick). LOL! I hope they won't be totally offended when we don't use those names. (No offense to anyone who has boys named these names.) But, for now, we just let them call them by Jonas Brother and Baby Bear. If they want to call them that after they're born, they can do that, too.

Anywho, just thought we'd share the fun news!

Twin bond

So, it's hard to explain to people just how much of a bond twins really have. Hannah and Brooklyn love being together. They usually want to spend every waking minute together. In fact, if one of them is sleeping, the other one is asking to wake her up. The girls really do play together so well. In fact, sometimes I forget that they may want to play with other kids. Ooops!

I have told people before that when my girls are watching a movie together, they sit RIGHT next to each other. One day, the girls were watching a movie in our room, and we got this great photo op. Here are the results:




Cute, right?

Hannah and Brooklyn turn 4!!

Well, it's a couple days late, but,

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn and Hannah!!

Hannah and Brooklyn turned 4 on February 16. It was an exciting day for them, and it felt like a milestone for me. We lost Abbey 11 days before she turned 4. We all had a fun day together. The girls had preschool on their birthday, so I made some cupcakes for their class. I also went over to the school and shared some special things about them with their class and showed some baby pictures of the girls.

After school, I picked them up and drove to SLC to pick up Greg early from work so we could all go "party" together. We took the girls to the Gateway and had lunch at Z Tejas. After lunch, we told them we had a surprise for them. When they asked, we wouldn't tell them, so they were getting way excited. We took them to their first visit to the Build-A-Bear Workshop. They were so happy to be there. Hannah chose a panda bear whom she named Cinderella. Brooklyn chose a bunny and named her Tinkerbell. They loved watching their animals "get big," and had a blast picking out clothes for them. Here are some pictures of their special day. (They were taken on my camera phone, so they're not the best quality, but still cute.)

Hannah and Cinderella

Brooklyn and Tinkerbell

Our sweet girls

We'll be having their birthday party on Saturday, so I'll have more pictures after that. But, overall, I'd have to say that their 4th birthday was a success.

So, I'm a totally lame blogger (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc)

So, yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged. And, I've probably lost all 4 people who even follow it, so I'm just going to type into cyberspace. :)

This Christmas was GREAT! Hannah and Brooklyn were so much fun! Now that they really "get" the Santa thing, it's a blast. They had a great time going to parties, visiting Santa, opening gifts, and playing with family throughout the holiday season. They got a big new doll house from Santa for Christmas. They love it, although Mommy and Daddy had to take it away for a day just a couple days after Christmas because they were trying to "clean" it with soggy washcloths. Gaah! Because of the possible water damage, I was a little less than happy, so Greg and I took said doll house and put it in the garage in "time out." (And, for the record, the garage is only time out for large toys, not children. ;))

New Year's was really fun as well. We have an awesome group of friends we get together with, and we all got together for New Year's Eve to celebrate. 14 adults and 22 kids later, we were all pooped by the end of the evening. We had a blast playing movie charades (boys vs. girls again), and the kids had a blast watching movies, playing, and making lots of noise.

The holidays were, of course, filled with WAY too much food and WAY too many treats. I think I made Oreo truffles 4 or 5 times. (And, I'm still craving them now.) I love those perfect little confections. And, I LOVE making treats. If I could make it lucrative, I'd do it all the time.

Hannah and Brooklyn are still keeping us on our toes. They are loving preschool and getting smarter and smarter every day. We love all the funny and clever things they come up with. For instance, just the other day, we were leaving from Little Grandma's house, and Brooklyn was throwing a fit and crying because she didn't want to leave. (For those of you who don't know, Little Grandma is Greg's mom and Big Grandma is my mom. The girls came up with this. Hehehehe) Anyway, we were driving in the car, with Brooklyn still screaming, and Hannah starts singing Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues." Greg and I busted up. It was absolutely perfect comedic timing. Way to go, Hannah. Another incident happened in sacrament meeting a few Sundays ago. I gave the girls the assignment to draw a picture of Mommy and Daddy to keep them quiet. Brooklyn drew Mommy and Hannah drew Daddy. Then, when it was really quiet, and the sacrament was being passed, Hannah turns to Greg and says in a full voice, "Daddy, this is a picture of you and Mommy. You're mean and Mommy is sad." Oh boy! You should have heard the snickers from our neighbors in the pews in front and behind us. It was awesome! I just love my girls. (Oh, and for the record, Greg and I are perfectly happy. He's really not mean, and I'm really not sad.)

Anyway, that's us right now in a nutshell. I'll try to be a better blogger. Over and out.

Halloween

As many of you may know, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. It ranks right in there with Kwanzaa for me. But, this year I had to dress up a couple times, and really had a good time with it. I had purchased the girls' Halloween costumes back in September and made them wait until Halloween to wear them. (I know, I'm a mean mother.) This year, it was pretty fun because Brooklyn and Hannah each chose a different costume from the other.

Here is Brooklyn, our little Tinkerbell:

Here is Hannah, our little Cinderella:

I also had to dress up for London's (my niece's) birthday party, and I went as a goth:

This is Greg and me with the girls before we went to a couples' party. Greg and I were dressed like two of The Village People:

And, of course, here are Greg and I with Jamie and Mandee as The Village People:


I have to admit that I did have fun over Halloween, but I'm still glad it's over. Now it's time for the good holidays. (hehehehe)

Disneyland!

Well, we did it! Greg and I took a day during our San Diego vacation and drove up to Anaheim to take the girls to Disneyland. It was an extremely HOT day, but we all had a good time. The girls loved almost everything about Disneyland. Despite a few fits and tears, we really enjoyed the time at "the happiest place on Earth" as a family.

Greg and the girls in a teacup. Both girls loved this ride.

Hannah and Brooklyn waiting in line for their first ride. Little did we realize that they would HATE "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." Ooooops! Hannah keeps telling everyone who will listen how scary it was.

Here is a picture of Greg and Brooklyn on the Dumbo ride.

Here is Hannah waiting for the Dumbo ride.



Ah, the joys of Disneyland. Just one of many fits thrown that day. (lol)

Just the girls and me at the front of Disneyland. This was actually a "good" picture.

Greg and the girls in front of Disneyland.

We had a great day at Disneyland. It totally wore us all out. Greg and I ended up carrying the girls most of the day throughout the park, so our arms were dead by the end of the night. It was definitely worth it, though. It was so much fun seeing how magical Disneyland was to our girls. They were in awe when they saw all the Disney characters dancing and singing in the street. And, they were utterly speechless when they met the princesses. I will post some pictures of that in another post.

This is how worn out the girls were after their day at Disneyland. They got to sleep in the "magic bed" that came out of the couch.

The one thing I can say that I would change is the time of year we went. When we take our kids to Disneyland again, we will DEFINITELY go right after school has started for everyone.

San Diego

We just got back from our family vacation to San Diego. We had a fabulous time! Greg's whole family went, and we all stayed in a condo that was a block away from Mission Beach. It was a great location. The weather was awesome, the company was great, and the food was fantastic. We went to San Diego for a family reunion of sorts because both of Sue's siblings live there, and several of their children live there as well. We all had some great times together going to Sea World, hitting the beach, enjoying a BBQ, going to dinner, and just hanging out.

I'll have some more specific posts to follow.

Stress fracture

*sigh*

So, I've been having pain in my right hip, and occasionally right thigh, when I'm walking. Since this symptom was relatively new, I decided to go to the sports medicine doctor to have it checked out.

After researching my symptoms online, I came to the realization that I may have a stress fracture of my femur. Since I'd already been having problems with my IT bands on the sides of both knees, I decided that I could at least talk to the doctor about that.

So, I went to the sports medicine doctor on Tuesday, and after some testing, she determined that I most likely had a stress fracture of my right femur. I went in for a bone scan on Thursday to confirm. On Friday, my doctor called and informed me that I had a stress fracture in the middle of my right femur. YAY!

The bad news is that I won't be able to run for a while, which takes me out of the Wasatch back. I was really looking forward to that, too. The good news is that the stress fracture is already in the healing process. So, I more than likely fractured it during the Ogden half marathon.

Oh, and speaking of the Ogden half marathon, I never posted about it. It was an awesome experience! The course was beautiful running down from Eden park through Ogden Canyon. What a gorgeous run. I felt really good the whole time, and finished in 2:o3. On the other hand, my body totally hated me for a few days after, but I made it. At least now I know part of the reason I was in so much pain. LOL!

So, there you have it. I won't be running for a while. I guess I'll just have to take up biking. ;)

My little cuties

I just thought I'd share a few of my favorite pictures of the girls from the last couple months.

This is on Easter in their Easter dresses. We actually caught a picture of Brooklyn giving Hannah a kiss. (Awww!)

This was Easter morning right after the Easter egg hunt in our front yard. The girls were so happy and excited, and I just happened to capture the little grins they shared.

Aw, that sisterly love!

Sitting out on the front porch after the egg hunt.

Sorry, just another New York post

And, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I got a couple pictures with the Naked Cowboy! That's right, the Naked Cowboy. He just happened to be hanging out in Times Square on our last day there, so Greg took a couple pics for me. Please take the time to enjoy. (LOL)

More New York

No trip to New York is complete without a ride on the subway. We took the subway down to Chinatown. I'm so glad we did. The subway houses some very interesting people.

As a side note, I normally wouldn't cuff my pants at the bottom, but it was wet outside, and the streets of New York are really dirty. You do the math.

We took a harbor cruise that took us under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. Then, we went around the end of Manhattan and saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the fabulous Manhattan skyline.

The Statue of Liberty:
Ellis Island, also known as the Island of Tears. It was called this because some of the people who made it all the way across the Atlantic were too sick to be allowed into the US. Many people, including children, had to be left behind on the island, and most of the time ended up dying there.

Greg and the Brooklyn Bridge:

This is just a visual of how many taxis and how much traffic is in the middle of Times Square in the middle of the day:

WICKED!!

A trip to New York wouldn't be complete without seeing a Broadway show. A few days before our trip, I found a website and called a ticket number to get some tickets to Wicked on Broadway. There are ways of getting really cheap tickets to shows, but it's kind of a crap shoot to get them, so I decided to go the safe route since I REALLY wanted to see Wicked. I'm SO glad I did it! We saw Wicked at the Gershwin Theater in the Broadway district. Wow!

This is right before the show started. We had AWESOME seats. We were only about 8 rows back right on the inside aisle of the left side. It was amazing all you could see!

I absolutely LOVED the show!! The singing was wonderful, the costumes and scenery were incredible, and the story was outstanding! I was bawling at the end of the show. I highly recommend it!

This is Greg and me after the show:

Running in Central Park

Since Greg and I both enjoy running, we decided we needed to take a jog through Central Park. It was raining that day, but we decided to go anyway.

Here is a picture of me under a cool little underpass in the park:



Here I am going across a bridge. There is a big "lake" in Central Park. (Remember the movie "Big Daddy?" ;) )
These are some pictures of Greg and me running in front of the same fountain:

Despite the rain, our run through Central Park was really nice. It's amazing how big the park is, and how beautiful it is with the busy city right outside it. Another thing I found interesting is that Manhattan is built on a big bed of granite rock. Right inside Central Park there are HUGE granite hills. It's really gorgeous.

Our New York trip

Well, we made it. We survived New York City! What an experience!

Greg went out on Sunday, May 3 to NYC, and I flew out the next day. I took my first NYC cab ride from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel was a Hilton right in Midtown Manhattan. We were just about 4-5 blocks from Central Park, 3-4 blocks from Times Square, and a couple blocks from Radio City Music Hall.

When I got there, I dropped my stuff off in the room and we went out to explore the sights a little. Greg took me into Central Park to check it out. It's huge! Here is a picture of us in Central Park:

We also went down to Times Square to check out the action. It was amazing to see things that I've only seen in movies. As you can probably tell, it was a bit rainy while we were there.

This is in front of Rockefeller Plaza. It was so cool to see it in person.

More to come...

New York, New York!

I'm super excited!! I'm going to New York City!! Greg is going on a business trip in May, and I'm going with him. Wow, New York City!!

Greg is scheduled to go out there in May, and I've been itching to go somewhere for a while now. So, we found a great deal on a flight, and I'm flying out with him. It will be so much fun!

We are staying in a Hilton right across the street from the Museum of Modern Art. It's only a couple blocks away from Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and about 5 blocks away from Central Park. During the day, I will be on my own for the most part, so I'll have lots of exploring to do.

I'm so excited! New York City is somewhere I've always dreamed of going, and now it's finally happening. So, if anyone has any great ideas on things I have to see, please let me know. This is going to be fun!!

Tag! I'm it.

My friend Diane tagged me, so I decided to see what would come up. I am posting the 6th picture in my 6th folder from my pictures. Thankfully, it wasn't anything incriminating of me. Here it is:

This is a picture of Hannah on Christmas Eve just last year. She was opening a My Little Pony baby from Grandma and Grandpa Stuart. Despite the look of dismay on her face, she really loved the pony (still does). She was pretty tired when this was taken. You know how the holidays can be.

So, now it's my turn to tag. I tag: Bree, Mandee, Kathryn and April.

I have a slight bedspread issue

Uh, yeah. I got a new bedspread about 6 months ago. I really love it, but it's, of course, dry clean only. So, the last couple days my girls have been wearing panties and pull-ups. (It's not going well, by the way. LOL)

Anywho, Hannah sat right at the end of my bed on said bedspread and peed like I wish she would on the toilet. I used some stain/odor remover that's used for pet and kid stains (yes, that's what the bottle says - hehehehe) on the bedspread. Other than that, I think I'll go get it dry cleaned now. :( Has anyone had any experience with this, and how did your bedspread fare? I sure hope it's okay.

Ah, the joys! LOL!