Monday, April 29, 2013

22

FIVE AND A HALF MONTHS! OUR LIL LADIES ARE FIVE AND A HALF MONTHS OLD!!!

How amazing! Our lil ones are the spaghetti squashes this week. Doc appt Friday - no u/s just doppler and measurements. 
I am packing on the lbs these days and up to 156 which is roughly 20lbs heavier than I was pre-prego (138-140) yay for baby weight which means our girls are growing bigger!!! I am def doing my part in the inhalation of chocolate chip cookies (sorry blood sugar) but also inhaling veggies to counter-act the chocolate chip cookies (hopefully!)

Now, get ready to swoon...the outfits that the girls will wear in their newborn photo shoot arrived...I am still in awe...leg warmers and headbands...omg dyyying


In 3.5-4 months, our lil ones will be rockin these ... so freaking cute AND still surreal :)

Also, got to celebrate my lil Beefcakes 2nd bday this weekend...paired w/ a photoshoot in my sisters bedroom because I was wearing a dress (which is so freaking comfy)...Hey engagement photo photobomb in the background!
AND a lil pic of Erin just because she's cute...
as she is enjoying her mango martini - It is so fun picking and ordering what alcoholic drink she will drink...Maybe turning her into a lush? ;)
I still have a complete aversion to the thought of any alcohol or even the smell of it...I wonder if I'll ever go back to it? Probs not for a long time. (however, an extra dirty martini does not sound half bad - but an italian hoagie still is more appealing)

Tyson is making an appearance on the blog once again with a Pinterest inspired photo....
That lil pup face gets me every time...he has been snuggling his babies nonstop recently..getting reading for his de-throning. 

and our weekly bump pic - 22 weeks...amazing!
Our baby girls getting so big! 

In other news...we are getting settled in our home and I am over-anxious to get everything DONE and organized! The nursery is currently serving as our dressing room which reminds me I should get off the comp and stop wasting hours on Pinterest and get to organizing or grad school work that is staring me in the face. 

Tyson is loving his new found freedom with his dog door and spends most of his days barking at butterflies. We are beyond psyched to have everyone over to hang out soon and we are pretty content never leaving our home again which is lucky for us because I am sure we will be home-bound for the first month after our lil ladies join us. 

3.5 months to go! 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Anatomy scan

Last week we had our 20 week u/s and anatomy scan...the girls are doing great. Our tech was ammmmmazing. Told us every bone that she was measuring and made sure I was overly comfy the whole time as the scan lasted about 1.5 hours. Such great service, I'll tell ya.

Even my mom got to sneak out of the OR for a bit and come see the babies. and we all know how medical professionals are - once another person from the same profession is in the room the name dropping and use of technical terms increases greatly so once mom arrived the tech stepped up her game and talked even more about all that she was doing and seeing. 

U/s photobomb ahead:

baby b waving!


baby a sucking her thumb!

We did get a few shots w/ the 3D/4D u/s machine as well...the girls were pretty wiggly so did not get too many but still is amazing to see how much they have grown from our first u/s pic months ago.


The doc was nice enough to check and make sure we still do have two baby girls coming to see us this September and WE DO!! 



These profile shots still make me tear up every time I see them! Look at those perfect lil faces....im in love - more than I ever thought possible.



and here we have baby b almost stepping on baby a's face...nice sibling rivalry starting early...

another profile....amazing!


next u/s May 17th and a check up w/ the doc next week....yay babies!!!!!!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

21 weeks and exhausted

TWENTY ONE WEEKS!!!! Holy hell. This pregnancy is going by TOO fast! Our lil girls are the size of pomegranates this week and have white hair and their taste buds are almost fully developed! 

Here we are at 21 weeks....pardon the crappy background and the fact that I look like crap....It has been a looooong week.


YAY babies! 

The past weeks have been insanity...We settled on our new home which was owned prior by an older lady which only means 1 thing - WALLPAPER. and lots of it. Effin unreal. and even more effin unreal is that we had the genius idea to take it all down on our own - 'how hard can it be??' 

I'll tell you how hard it can be! Unbelievably-painstakingly-beyond annoying-beyond frustrating-HARD! Never ever again. If we EVER move again, which I highly doubt because it was HELL, we will not be moving into a house with even 1 wall of wallpaper - EFF NO! 

BUT on the bright side - IT IS DONE! and our home is looking amazing. 

Still a lot to do but nothing major - just piecing the place together, organizing, and decorating which will take weeks, I am sure and that is fine by me as long as it is no more 8 hour work days followed by 10 hours scraping wallpaper. 

THEN BABY ROOM TIME!! Their room is painted and it is going to be an amamzing next few months organizing everything and setting up the nursery..cannot wait. 

And also, on the first floor of our home we have a 4th bedroom that I need to get set up for the girl's playroom aka a place to keep all their crap so I can keep my living room semi-clean. My sister (Hi Shings!) gave us a TON of baby stuff that I cannot wait to go through and all that is currently occupying the playroom in a state of chaos!



Also, I have to get around to designing (aka taking a trip to Ikea) our reading nook for the girls!

Currently, their room is a disaster as it is serving as our dressing room as we have yet to organize our closet. Luckily, my wardrobe is 85% packed up and I am in no rush to unpack it as none of it fits me right now. Erin is surrounded by a pack of trash bags and suit cases trying to piece together an outfit. I need to tell her to just wear my maternity clothes..no one would notice a bunch of extra material on the sides, I am sure.

Our movers showed up a cool 4 hours later so that was rad to stress about that. Also, when they showed up they looked like a group of hippies crossed w/ Justin Biebs and the Killers but they rocked it and got us moved in 5 hours. 

Also, when we were removing wallpaper in the office we found a note on the wall written by the person who wallpapered it back in 1938...pretty rad to find that - and once again, I forgot to take a pic.  

I am totally regretting that I did not take a slew of 'before' pics but once we got in there, we got to work and didn't stop. I am def regretting it but I would not go back to that 'before' EVERRRR

I'll be sure to post after pics once we are settled in!

Tyson is enjoying a new home and so far only 1 feather pillow has fallen victim to his attacks...He still denies it adamantly but no way can he get out of this one....



and I just realized I never updated after our 20 week u/s and anatomy scan...I'll get the pics up soon. The u/s went amazing and we had the best tech who told us everything she was doing and our girls were dancing around like crazzzyyy. They are looking perfect :) We are so beyond blessed and lucky. 

I hope to update w/ the 20 week u/s update asap!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Twenty

Hey all!

This past Sunday marks the 20th week of pregnancy! YAY! 

Our lil ones are the size of bananas this week and my waist is the size of an over-inflated basketball. So wonderful :)

Thursday we have our 20 week u/s and anatomy scan which will be a 2 hour-ish u/s which I am psyched for obvi because I get to see our bambinos for a few hours.

This week is beyond hectic - We settled on our new home (yay!) on Monday and since then, it has been a nonstop construction zone...whoever likes wallpaper and puts it up in your house - I LOATHE you. WTF is wallpaper even for? I love this floral print THAT much that I have want to glue it all over my house?!

At settlement, the seller commented that when she moved into the house - 30 years ago - the prior own had up some hideous, old lady wallpaper and as soon as she moved in, she removed it. I gave a slight chuckle while thinking, "SO you removed hideous wallpaper and put up even MORE HIDEOUS, even older lady wall paper?!" Good move there, old lady now give us the keys and enjoy your golden years in your retirement community!

72 hours later - Erin is still slaving away scraping...Her arm muscles are becoming quite ripped - who needs the gym anyway?! 

I'll be sure to update w/ before/after pics once we get in. 

20 weeks - yay!!!!! Beanie and Squishy getting stronger every day....4 more months - AT LEAST - until we meet our lil ones :)


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Picnic

In hopes of taking refuge from the f&*$%n heat, we headed out for an evening picnic in the park. The temps had cooled and we were surround by gnats the beauty of nature and Tyson enjoyed barking for an hour non-stop at every leaf, bird, and car that went by. 

Overall, it was the perfect end to the day! 










Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Effin hot

Spring. I loathe you. Always have. Always will.

Tulips and bunny rabbits and allergies and day light savings and 80 degree days paired with freezing nights - WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO WEAR??!!

side note - the ONLY good side to Spring is Rita's opening for the season - obvi. 

anywho - this is my least fav season out of the 4. 

Winter - hoodies, snowboarding, Guinness, stick trees, and during winter mother nature gives us permission to be lazy because by the time you warm up your car and scrape off the inch of ice encasing the windshield - the gym is closed anyway. 

Fall - MY FAV! mesh shorts and hoodies, Punkin Ale, campfires, colorful leaves, mashed potatoes, family time, windows open with cool breezes, the ability to eat slightly more than you did during the summer without feeling guilty thanks to not having to wear a bikini every day.

Summer - we get the beach and we all look marginally better than we do during the other 9 months of the year thanks to our stellar tans (spray or natural - you look better than pale) 

Now in 2013, Spring has shown me once again why I hate it. We go from a pleasant sunshine filled 55 degree day to a hot, humid, suffocating stretch of 85+ degree days. This weather is NOT wanted unless my ass is in my beach chair at the ocean's edge while I spend my days worrying about tan lines and what flavor of Kohr Brothers I want rather than getting swamp ass while standing - as I did today while wearing a DRESS. Fancy, huh!?

This heat wave may have even killed the dog. He hasn't moved in the past 30 minutes but then again he is probably remaining stationary on purpose since he is laying directly in front of my fan stealing every cool breeze that comes by. 

All I need now is for him to start passing gas and have that whack me in the face to add to my discontent with this wretched season. 

Monday, April 8, 2013

Weekend review in pics

An amazing weekend.....

A surprise party for my bestest....YAY! SSURRPPRRIISSEEEE!!


the bday girl and her amazing-party-planning-wife...


beautiful friends.....



and the FOUR of us :) baby bumps!


a bit of laziness with the pup...


Couldn't resist buying a few things for beanie and squishy..(this was Erin's doing - she refused to leave the store without these outfits...so that means it doesn't count as ME spending money ;) Can't wait to see the girls in these outfits this September!)


and I refused to come home until we got our daily Rita's fix...(that mango flavor...im addicted!! AND our bambinos are the size of mangos this week!)


aaaannnd finally - our weekly bump pic!!! 19 weeks!! so amazing :)


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Gender Reveal!!!!!

The time has come!!! 

I can finally post the long-awaited-and-anticipated gender of our bambinos!

We have known for a a short while now and had to wait to tell a few people in person before posting and I do have to say that while waiting to tell others in person is beyond hard to do (hence my busting at the seams), it is BEYOND worth the wait and the suspense to see their reactions!!

We had gift bags with gender specific booties in each bag...was so suspenseful waiting while they would pull out the tissue paper....and peer into the bag!! 

Here we go! 



Any final guesses!?!? 



THE REVEAL!!!



TWO BABY GIRLS!!!!!!!!! 

It STIll feels surreal!! 

A few friends have asked if now it feels more "real" since we know the gender of our bambinos...and I think it definitely does make it more concrete feeling but I am still on cloud 9 about this whole pregnancy that EVERYTHING feels surreal. Each night when we listen to the heartbeats, it feels surreal. When I go into my closet and have only 3 shirts that currently fit me to pick from, it feels surreal. When people ask about the babies or rub my belly, it feels surreal. It all feels surreal...amazingly surreal.

One favorite memory that I keep reliving over and over is having my niece read the ultrasounds to my sister that the doc had written the genders on. My niece got to the "I am a ....." and paused. My sister emphatically saying, "SOUND IT OUT! SOUND IT OUT!" I think my niece only got out the sound of the letter G before we all started screaming paired with tears! Then to calm down - and have her read the other u/s! More tears! Was absolutely amazing :)

Now we are referring to the beanie and squishy as our 'twin baby girls' or just 'the girls'....or even more commonly as 'holy heck...TWO baby girls!!!!'

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Checkup

Yesterday, we had our scheduled monthly OB check-up. All went fantastic!

Our nurse was COMPETENT this time and easily located both heartbeats. Both babies sound perfect! She reassured me that we had TWO! 
The doppler she used was much more advanced that our at home monitor and she did not even have to search for the babes. Just plopped on a big squirt of the lube and found them immediately. I think this proves that Erin deserves major props as with our doppler you really need to be right on top of the bambinos in order to locate their heartbeats - well done, Er!

I am measuring about 22 weeks prego which for being 18 weeks prego w/ twins is right on track. 
Gaining weight a bit slow but nothing to be concerned about. In the past 4 weeks, I gained 3 pounds. She would like to see me gain 1 per week soooo....time to eat! Okay by me...now if I can just find a healthy dish that I LOVE (outside of chocolate chip cookies, vanilla bean ice cream, nilla wafers, and chocolate cadbury eggs - sweet-tooth much?) Last night I gobbled down an impressive-to-me amount of broccoli but that was purely done to make room on my plate for spicy twirly fries.  

Still feeling so lucky that we have these two bambinos cooking away :) 
Will do our gender reveal post soon!!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Gender

A few semesters back, I was fortunate enough to work on a project that centered around gender identity in schools. Specifically looking at the early elementary years, how to arrange your classroom centers in a non-gender biased manner. 
How can I as a teacher stress that it is encouraged and acceptable for boys to play in the kitchen area just as girls can play with the trucks? Not an easy this to accomplish! 
How to sort your students in alternative ways than boys on the left - girls on the right?  We should be focusing more on methods such as, 'anyone wearing jeans over here and shorts over there' to help show our students from a young age that gender does not always serve as the boundary. 
This is a topic that I find beyond interesting which made researching it for 3 months, writing a 15 page paper on the topic, and presenting on it quite enjoyable and painless. 

Since we found out the genders of our bambinos, we have planned on amending a few choices on our registry to reflect more gender specific items. Nothing major - a few pacifiers, pacifier clips, receiving blankets, and a few outfits. 

While I do think kids should pick whatever style they want, I totally am gender type-casting my bambinos already!  But with all these damn clothes that are so freakin cute - how could I not?? 
Once they are older and have their own opinions, of course they can wear whatever they like, within reason, but for now, I'll indulge in the adorable-ness of gender specific clothes for our bambinos.

But I'll be sure to remember....



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Hatched

Seriously, these may be the most amazing onesies ever!!



I can't wait to see our lil ones wearing these!!

A huge thanks & hugs to a special friend for the gift :)

Monday, April 1, 2013

Busting at the seams

HOLY HECK - it has been an amazing few days. 

Literally, busting at the seams for a few reasons: 
1) this growing prego bump!
2) the over indulgence in Halloween candy (HAD to leave that typo - Halloween? Really? How about Easter?     to my brain - you are missed)
3) the excitement over finding out the GENDERS OF OUR BAMBINOS!!!!

We are beyond psyched ... it still feels surreal. I have to wait a few more days to post on here what the genders are as we have a few more friends we need to tell in person. I'm sorry for the teaser but the excitement is over-whelming so I had to mention that we found out. I have spent over 24 hours on etsy planning out the newborn photo apparel and loving every onesie I come across! 

We had an u/s Friday and the babes are doing great!!!! Both measuring a half pound and look healthy and perfect! I was slightly worried that the babies would be too small - Maybe because I have not gained that much weight yet and according to the books I should have gained a good deal more than I have but all is good - thank baby jesus!

During the u/s the doc switched to a 3D ultrasound which we were NOT expecting and it was beyond words amazing. One of our babies was doing the sprinkler (getting dance moves from his Mama Erin) and the other kept covering and uncovering their eyes. So wonderful. 

Another u/s in a few weeks and a doc appt check up this week. 

We were 18 weeks yesterday which is basically our half way point...time to focus on keeping these babes cooking until mid-August!

Baby bump!


And here are our lil ones at their u/s on Friday (17 weeks 5 days)....I am still in amazement!