Baby Appointment

Just a quick update - I had my appointment today with my midwife and brought the twins with me. We were supposed to hear the heartbeat for the first time and the girls were very excited. But they couldn't get a heartbeat and told me they would do another ultrasound to make sure everything was okay. I was pretty worried, but didn't want to upset the girls. So we got in there and she did the ultrasound and our little guy was just moving around so much that it would have been impossible to get a heartbeat. This has been our third appointment and third ultrasound. I feel quite special. I can't believe how much the baby has changed since my last appointment. He or she actually looks like a baby. We were able to see him kicking his legs and arms and got a great look at one of his feet. The baby did sit still long enough to see the heartbeat - constant and strong. Hooray. I told Jeremy this whole story over the phone and he was SO upset that I didn't start by saying something like - Just so you know, everything is fine, but this is what happened...... We made our appointment to find out what we are having - it will be January 31st. I will be 21 weeks then.

Here are some pics of the girls playing out in the yard this afternoon - Whitney came to the back door and said, "Mom, come and take pictures of us in the trees". What a ham.

Snow Day

It finally snowed last night and most of this morning. HOORAY! The girls were SO excited to get out and play in the snow. Having their snow pants on today made all of the difference - they played for 1 1/2 hours this afternoon. That gave me 1 1/2 hours to clean the house and do the laundry. It was so fun watching them do snow angels, make snow castles and play with the dogs. I am often in awe at how I became the mother to these two amazing little humans. They are just fabulous.

On a different note, I just wanted to state how thankful I am to not be sick anymore. If I had been this sick with the twins I doubt I would be pregnant with this little one - but right after the 12 week mark and my bout with the flu I have felt 100 times better. Sorry if it seems like I'm rubbing it in Mel - I love ya. I just can't get over how good I feel. My next doctors appointment is this Thursday and I am bringing the twins with me - I have told them that we get to hear the babies heart beat. They are very excited. I am now 14 weeks and can't wait for the next 6 to go by so we can find out what we are having!

O, Christmas Tree!

We went to Utah last weekend. We have a little DVD player in the car which gives us a bit of peace and quiet when we travel. The girls are obsessed with Aladdin right now and so they watched it on the way down and on our way home Sunday night. Jeremy and I were talking in the front seat when Whitney said, "Daddy, did you know that Jafar is a treacherous villain?" They crack us up on a continual basis. They also know all of the songs to the movie and just sing their little hearts out. It is great.



We finally decorated our Christmas tree this past Monday - sort of. I let the girls put the decorations on themselves. To the adult eye I'm sure it just looks horrible, but to my little sweethearts it looks magical. They absolutely love it. Yesterday morning they came in and asked for pens and a notebook to write Santa a letter. When I came out of the bedroom ten minutes later they had 10 or 15 of the notebook papers ripped out of the notebook and placed strategically on the tree - they had also taken out all of the VHS movies from the drawer and put them under the tree with the presents. They are so funny. This holiday season has been amazing so far with the excitement they have over every little thing - Gracie about hyperventilates every time we see Christmas lights. Now, if only it would snow....

Let It Snow????

We woke up this morning with a little bit of snow on the ground. The girls have been aching to wear their new princess snow boots, so I gave in. I sent them out to play in the snow at 8:30 this morning. I'm not sure how long it will last - it's supposed to be clear and a bit warmer the rest of the week. It is cold, but the girls are having fun. Right now it is 8:55 and they have only been to the door once to tell me it is cold. I thought they'd be in for the day by now - they never cease to amaze me!

Correction - it is now 9:01 and they just came in for the day.

Oh Baby!

For those of you who didn't know we are pregnant! It came as quite a shock - we had to go on fertility drugs to have the twins and I was actually planning on going back to our doctor to get checked out at the beginning of next year. We had our second doctor's appointment yesterday and had an ultrasound of our little one - I did have an ultrasound at our first appointment, but I wasn't as far along as I thought, so it was kind of a bust. I am ten weeks right now and on this ultrasound we could see the baby's arms and legs - the baby is head down in the womb and you can see his or her little limbs. I kept telling Jeremy yesterday that the baby looks like the dinosaur from Meet the Robinsons with its big head and tiny arms and legs! We are very excited! We will find out what we are having in January. My due date is June 10th.

When I went to pick the twins up at my friends house after the appointment Whitney said, "So, is the baby in the car?" I guess she thought I was having the baby today. They are so funny! When we first told them we were having a baby they kept telling Jeremy they wanted a sister. Gracie actually told me she thought baby brothers were stupid. But now, Jeremy has warmed them to the idea of having a baby brother. Poor guy - he needs a little testosterone in the house. Of course we will be thrilled with either a boy or girl! My mom said that the third child makes things crazy. Thankfully the twins will be almost 4 1/2 when the baby is here and are already telling me what a big help they will be.

Primary Program & Carving Pumpkins

I don't have any pictures of the girls before their primary program, but I just wanted to mention it. They did such a great job! They both memorized their parts and got up to the pulpit like champs and said their lines. Whitney, by nature, is very dramatic. She has been carrying around this invitation to our ward party (which was about a month ago) in one of her purses. She has it rolled up and when they are playing "primary", she rolls it out very seriously and says that it is her talk. Well, she brought it with her to church yesterday - she kept telling us it was her lines for her part in the program - so when she got up to the pulpit you could see her pull out the paper, unroll it very seriously and slowly and then proceed to say her lines while looking at the paper like she was reading it. It was so funny. And Gracie wanted to bring a talk also, so she brought a Halloween window cling and had that for her talk. They are so funny. I called my friend last night, who is the Primary President, she is the one who helped the kids with their parts and she said it was hard for her to not laugh when she saw Whit's paper and she was very glad she didn't take Grace's window cling - she didn't realize it was her talk - duh!





Anyhow, Caren and Neil came up for the program and we had a very nice visit. We went and got pumpkins for the girls and Caren helped the girls carve them after church yesterday. We lit them for a little while in the house last night because if we leave them out on the porch our dogs will eat them.

Soccer Rules

For the past 5 weeks the girls have been playing on a U3-4 soccer team. It is fun to see their personalities come out as they participate in a team sport. The first game Gracie was so busy waving to Jeremy that she was headed off the field several times waving like mad, oblivious to the game. Each time Whitney or Gracie kick the ball they run right over to me and say, Mom - I kicked the ball! Did I mention I was their coach? I'll bet you didn't know I have experience in soccer - I don't.

Last night the other team was doing a bunch of sommersaults and getting on all fours and trying to kick their own bums with their heels - betcha can't guess what the girls favorite new thing to do is - and it's not sommersaults.



I have learned that Gracie is our endurance girl - she just runs, runs and runs some more. I have been so proud of her and that she consistently tries when asked. Whitney on the other hand has not been that excited about soccer. As you can tell from the pictures she was much more interested in drinking water and pouring said water on her head. The whole teams favorite thing is when we do a big cheer for the opponent at the end of the game - Whitney got two other girls from the team and about midway through the second quarter, started doing a cheer for the green team every time the whistle blew. It was really funny.



One more week and then we are considering dance/tumble class. We'll see.

Grandma & Grandpa Visit

My mom and dad came up this past weekend to visit and we had such a good time. The girls were very excited to see them and we had lots of fun. On Saturday Jeremy, the girls and my parents came to lunch at Applebee's while I was working and it was so fun to see them there - the girls were extra good - probably because last time we went we threatened them with their lives if they ever acted like they did in public again. We barbequed Saturday night and we just talked and watched a show while Jeremy went fishing. Sunday was church and my parents took the girls on a drive in the afternoon to go see the Rexburg temple - the only time my house was quiet and the car was finally quiet once they both fell asleep. We all took the dogs on a walk Sunday night - Gracie was trying to walk Molly who was running and Gracie would run a bit, her pants would fall down, she would hitch them back up and go again until she finally (and reluctantly) gave up the leash to her dad because her pants had fallen around her ankles and we were afraid she was going to trip and get hurt - my mom thought it was the funniest thing she has seen in a while. We went shopping and to the movies on Monday and had to say goodbye Tuesday morning. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls in their new church dresses - Whitney was crying because Gracie kept pushing her out of the way so she could be in the picture herself.

I bought the girls a makeup kit about 6 months ago and have had it put away because I haven't exactly been looking forward to letting them use it - I gave in today and let them put the make-up on themselves - they did a fabulous job don't you think?

Egin Lakes

I took the girls out to Egin Lakes on Wednesday. They are at the base of the sand dunes in St. Anthony. It's pretty amazing because they are just ground water that rises in the spring and pretty much goes away in the fall. It is a great place to take the kids because the water doesn't get too deep and it's just this great sand that surrounds it. We had a really fun time - the girls floated around in their tubes, played with their sand toys and we went on a few "adventures" walking in the lakes to different areas. We can't wait to go back. I also believe I am featuring (how exciting) the first picture of myself - I got a new swim suit and got a little bored so I took a picture of myself!

Zions Trip

Well, I think that I have finally recovered from our outing down to southern Utah. We had SO much fun. Jeremy and I agreed that trip was the best time we have had as a family in a long time - it actually felt like a vacation instead of trip. The twins did so many fun things and are still talking about the ho-cabin and when they get to go back and swim in the big pool. They both went to a day camp at the ranch where they went on a horse ride, visited the little petting zoo, went on the zipline twice (it was about 50 feet in the air?), did rock climbing, rode on the atv's with their counselors and went swimming. Jeremy and I got some alone time and went on an ATV tour, played frisbee golf and played paintball while the twins were at camp. We also went swimming as a family a few times. I think one of our favorite things we did was rent a golf cart - the girls loved it and it was pretty fun to have it for the day. This trip made me and Jeremy realize how much we want to do as a family - beyond watching t.v. together - and that we are going to make the effort so that our family spends as much time together doing activites, serving others, making a difference.





These pictures are from our last day at the ho-cabin. Gracie was quite upset that we were going home - this is the first time we have been away from home for an extended period of time and Gracie didn't want to go back to Idaho. They are both growing up so quickly!





Side note: the reason it is called the ho-cabin in courtesy of Whitney - instead of staying at a hotel she decided it was the hocabin.

4th of July & Yellowstone

I feel like such a slacker - I have not been great with keeping this blog up to date. On the 4th of July we went down to Idaho Falls (or as Gracie calls it, Idafo Falls) to the big parade with our friends Mandie and Kevin (the Duprees) and then we spent the rest of the day there. We took the girls to the zoo and to an arcade to play games and go on rides. That night we met back up with the Duprees to watch the fireworks. It was so much fun. These first pics are of the girls at the parade - Whitney had just applied her own lipgloss.

We took the girls to Yellowstone Park this past weekend and had such a good time. We took them almost exactly a year ago and they did so much better this time around. We finally saw bears in the park - it was our first time - and we ended up seeing 3 black bears - one far away, and two of them were about 20 yards away. It was pretty amazing. We also saw a lot of buffalo, elk, coyotes and did see a moose and its calf. The girls and Jer went hiking up these rocks for the following pictures. It is so beautiful up there. It would be fun to rent a little cabin up there for a couple of days and see the whole park and go on a few hiking trails.

One Year

Wow! A year ago this coming weekend we will have been in Idaho for one year. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like yesterday we were still in our little house living next to Arvid and Joyce. Living here has been such a blessing for our whole family. The girls are just growing and learning by leaps and bounds every day - they love living here - going to the sand bar, the lakes, having our puppies, playing with friends, going to primary each week. They are so amazing and I am so grateful that they were entrusted to me for this life.

At times I don't even recognize Jeremy anymore - he is just so happy! Our marriage has never been stronger - 9 years in August - and he is such an amazing husband and father. His new job is turning out better than we ever expected and finally feel like he has made a great fit with Sprinter.

My new job is fun and very challenging - I forgot how much I love waitressing. Yesterday was our grand opening and Applebee's was full from about 5:30 until 10:00. I didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. and went right to sleep - the girls were up at 6:30. You've got to love it!

These pictures were taken this morning out on the tramp. If you can't tell, Whitney has been on one this morning.