Don't You Just Love Fall?

I found this beauty (the apple) at Sumida's Fruit Stand in Perry. It weighed about a pound and a half. These pictures don't really do it justice. This is probably the coolest apple I have ever seen.


(This is what it looked like next to an average sized apple)

Update

A lot of things have been happening lately. We went to the doctor last week for our four month appointment and we found out that Cameron weighed 14lbs. 15oz. and Dallin weighed 13lbs. 2oz.. Wow they are growing!!! Last week Dallin really started to roll over. That is a great thing except for two major times: when we are changing his diaper, and when he is sleeping. Sometimes he turns onto his tummy in his crib and can't flip back over. It is a very traumatic experience for the boy and he tells us by screaming until we come and get him--even if it is the middle of the night!

The babies are becoming more and more social and fun. It is so fun to hear them giggle and coo. I am really enjoying this stage of their lives because they aren't very mobile and yet they have such fun personalities!

Darin and I have only three more weeks until we move. It is going to be a very bittersweet change. We are so excited to have our very first house and to have Darin start work, but we aren't looking forward to leaving our friends and family. It has been so great to be with family members since the babies were born. We have been very supported and we appreciate everything that people have done for us. We have enjoyed letting the babies become acquainted with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and our friends. We really will miss Utah.

Off the record: If there is anyone willing to experiment with shipping, we would love for someone to figure out how to (safely) ship Cafe Rio food to Texas.

The Day Has Finally Come!!!

The day has finally come, well almost. Darin and I have put in an offer on a home and it has been accepted. Here is how it all came about.

Darin has accepted a job with the FDIC in Texas. It is the job he had to leave the babies and I to go interview for the day after the babies were born. He will be a Financial Institution Specialist. Since we are going to be living in Texas for about three years we decided it is time for us to buy a home.

Last Monday, in the wee hours of the morning, we began our 17 hour(drive time) trek to Texas. It was not an easy drive with 4 month old twins. We had to stop the car every two hours to feed, diaper, and exercise the babies. This was not such an easy task because it is very difficult to find a private location in a strange town. We became very familiar with finding our way around cemeteries... but that is a whole other story.

The first day we drove almost all day and made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico. That night the terrible happened. I came down with a whopper of a cold. It started mildly with a sore throat and then worsened to a severe sore throat, runny nose, headache, body ache, and hoarse old-man-like voice. Needless to say, the next day of driving all day and stopping every two hours was one of the worst. I didn't want to get any of my boys sick so I tried to use a lot of antibacterial hand sanitizer, wash my hands often, and not breathe on anyone. That is not an easy task on a road trip.

After two strait days of driving, we made it to our destination. I was still in the clutches of the illness so my first views of the city were not pleasant. We met with our Realtor and she had arranged for us to view six homes that we had already viewed and liked online. I hobbled and rasped my way through each home and at each home the babies fussed from being cooped up for two days strait in a moving vehicle. I am amazed that we were able to find two homes out of the six that we liked.

The first home was really beautiful inside. It also had great curb appeal. The kitchen had lovely granite counter tops and all of the floors inside the house were gorgeous stained concrete. The price was really good for this home. Darin and I thought it was the one for us. It would have been--if it wasn't on a busy road and if it had a backyard.

The second home really didn't impress me too much at first. It really grew on me as I continued to ponder on the homes we looked at earlier that day. I could really picture myself in that home. It wasn't my dream home, but I liked it. The cons were that it has a garage that sticks out(that is my pet peeve with houses), it has popcorn ceilings (apparently every home in this area in our price range has popcorn ceilings even the brand new homes), and it was on a very small lot. On the other hand, the layout of the house was awesome, it would fit our family perfectly, it had a yard (as compared to the other home we liked), it was in a nice area, and I just felt like it was a great place for our family.

Well Darin and I prayed about it and felt that the second home was the one for us so we made an offer and after counter offering we have reached an agreement with the sellers and we will be buying that house. I am so excited. I look forward to being able to decorate a space of my own and raising the boys in a house that we own. I will leave you with some pictures of the house.

On a side note, after suffering for three days with the most horrible symptoms I was able to boost myself past the clutches of disease and regain my composure in time to celebrate the approval of the contract with a hearty breakfast from "The Place" in Flagstaff with my dear husband and babies.

Kudos To Me (my body)

It is amazing to look at the way that a woman's body will change throughout a pregnancy. I cannot believe how big my stomach got! I don't really think that my body was all the way prepared to handle multiples. It will never be the same again. As a teenager it is easy to take your body for granted because of the pressures associated with being thin and beautiful. If only I knew then how my body would look after giving birth to twin boys, I am sure that I would have cut myself some more slack.

Does Every Parent?

Does every parent think they have the cutest kids in the world? I keep asking myself that question. Even though I am pretty sure that is the case, I can't help but thinking that I really do have the cutest kids in the world. It seems like they are doing something new and cute every day. For instance, Darin was folding some of the babies clothes after doing the laundry the other day. He left just for a minute to go and get Cameron from the other room and he came back to find Dallin had pulled all of the clothes down from their neatly folded piles and was playing with them.

Does every parent worry about the tiniest things with their kids? Whenever I hear one of my babies cough I automatically assume that they are getting a cold. I am always worried that my babies aren't long enough because they can't fit into some of the outfits that are labeled with the weight that they are at. I am always worried about not playing with them enough when they are awake or I worry about not giving them enough enriching experiences to stimulate their minds. I guess that there are a lot of worries that are associated with parenting. I am sure that my worries are going to multiply as the grow and especially in the teenage stage.

Does every parent look back to pictures (especially the ones that were taken when they were first born) and realize that they are growing every day? I cannot believe how quickly they grow and change. It seems like they are so much different today then they were in pictures that were taken last week. They really do change every day. In some ways it is sad to think that they will never again be the size that they are today, but on the other hand I am so excited for random things such as seeing what color their eyes will be and seeing how tall they are going to become.
I just look forward to seeing all of these things. I think that the most important thing is to enjoy the stage that they are in and make the most of each day.

Two Babies are Born!

Well the big day has come and gone and now we have two adorable boys at home. They were delivered by planned c-section on May 25th. I ended up being put on bedrest the month before the twins were born. Here is the story of how it all came about.

I was still focusing on teaching and we had just finished up the big state testing. I was planning on teaching for one more week and then using my sick leave to relax at home until the babies came. The week before I had gone to have a regular ultrasound and the doctor told me that I had begun to dialate. I was dialated two centimeters so I was given directions to take it easy. That day I had woken up feeling fine and teaching was going well. After teaching a couple of hours, I started feeling a little bit sick to my stomach. As the day wore on the naseua increased and I mentioned how I felt to a coworker. That coworker then told my co-teacher who approached me and told me that if I was feeling sick I should just go home and relax. After she talked to me I thought that she was right so I called in a sub for the rest of the day. I called Darin to come and get me and as he came, my back started to really hurt as well.

Some of the students saw me leaving and told me that they hoped I would be feeling better and I assured them that I would see them the next day. When I got home I immeadiately went and laid down on the couch thinking that I would be feeling better soon. I did not begin feeling better, in fact I started feeling worse! Darin thought it best to go to the hospital to get checked out and get some medication. I agreed and we rushed over and had to wait a while in the wating room. While in the waiting room I felt so nautious that I went into the bathroom and threw up. I will never forget how horrible and uncomfortable I felt. I was sure that I had contracted the flu from a kid at school. After throwing up, I went back into the waiting room and they finally called me back to a room in the maternity triage unit. They hooked me up to monitors and the nurse asked me, "How long have you been in labor for?" What?! I didn't know that I was in labor I only though I had a nasty case of the flu. They immediately put an IV in my arm and started pumping in medication to stop labor since I was only 31 6/7 weeks along.

After being the recipient of many medications including the dreaded Magnesium Sulfate, I finally got feeling somewhat better. After they got the contractions stopped I was told that I needed to be on bedrest until they were born. They gave me steroid shots to help the babies lungs develop faster in case they were born early, but they were able to stop the labor for the time being. I had to stay in the hospital for several days and then they sent me home on a medication called Tributelene. That medication was very nasty. My body was shaking, my athsma was flaring up, and I was feeling like my heart was going to pump out of my chest. All of those sympoms and stresses caused me to start contracting again. After being home for not even 24 hours I couldn't take anymore of that medication. Darin and I returned to the hospital and I was checked in again. Back to Magnesium Sulfate to stop the contractions a second time. They ran some tests to see why my body was reacting so strongly to the medication. They decided to put me on another medication and a few days later sent me home again.

While I was in the hospital the second time, I had the best nurse. Her name was Jean and she worked with me and taught me how to help my body relax so that it would be better able to support and take care of the twins. She was amazing and looking back, she is one of the reasons that I carried the twins as long as I did. She taught me how to use gravity to my advantage to alleviate stress and pressure on my cervix. She advised me to take baths a couple of times a day (which really were wonderful when I was huge). I also learned how to use pillows to get comfortable and relax.

After I went home, Darin and I got into a routine. Darin wasn't working at the time and we were still being supported from the school district. He was absolutley amazing. He fulfilled every craving that I had and cooked and set up baby items and entertained me. It was truly an amazing time to be together for the last time as a married couple without children. Every day was long and I was worried the I wouldn't be able to make it to 37 weeks, which was my goal, but with a lot of prayer and faith we were able to make it through.

Darin had scheduled an interview for a government position on May 26th. He had scheduled the interview back in April so it seemed that the babies would have been born before that date. As we approached the date, we knew that we needed to make sure that they didn't arrive when he was gone. I was ready to meet my babies and I didn't want to wait until after he was home from DC. After speaking to the doctor we decided to have the babies the day before he flew out. That way we could be together that day then he would fly out and come back while the babies and I were in the hospital.

The babies were born when they were 37 1/2 weeks along. There were days when I never thought that we would make it and we did! They were born absolutley prerfect. Cameron weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and Dallin weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz. . I decided to exclusively breastfeed them (which I didn't know what the heck I was getting myself into at the beginning but it all turned out okay). They were little champs and I was known throughout the maternity ward as a great breastfeeding mom of twins. Darin's interview went well and he got the job.

The first week having them home was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. Hormones, crying, oozing body, painful incision, painful other body parts, and that was just the beginning. The babies somehow were peaceful and calm all throughout the day and then cried and screamed at night until about 4:00 am. We went through a million diapers and were peed on almost five times a day. Closet malfunctions, boiling hot desert temperatures, and stress all contributed to that dreadful week. I am glad that we are all past that.

Fast forward 1 1/2 months... Cameron and Dallin are so much fun. We have enjoyed having them be a part of our family. They have already grown so much from the time that they were born. We went to the doctor on Monday. Cameron weighed 12lbs and Dallin weighed 10lbs 6oz. That is a long way from their birth weights of 6lbs 12oz and 5lbs 9oz. They are starting to sleep better at night thank goodness! I cannot believe how far we have come from the last time we blogged. We are truly blessed!

Moving closer to the big day!

This week we begin the final trimester. So far Meredith and babies are doing fine, but this is when we need to be the most cautious. These are the baby seats we bought and the cribs we bought. (Two of everything!!!)