Slumber Party

I went into my dr appt on Monday morning and everything with the babies looked good thankfully. I told the dr I was worried because I had a hard time feeling Charis move. I had spent the whole weekend with my hands on her side of my tummy and would only occasionally feel her head move and that is it. Stephen and I debated all weekend whether or not to call the dr but, then I would feel her little head move a bit. When I told the dr how hard it was to feel Charis she said she needed to admit me to the hospital for the remainder of my pregnancy and set me up with a periontologist. They walked me over right then and set me up in a room before I knew what was going on. My mom went to my house and brought my bags and set me up in the room. At a little before 5 the specialist came to do the sono and said he didn't see any reason to take the babies early. They are little but, look healthy. Charis had gained 10 oz in 5 days! She now weighs 4 lbs 9 0z and Drew is 4lbs 10oz. He said my nerves on that side were too stretched to feel her spontaneous movements. My great dr came in to see us about 6 pm and said that if insurance would cover it she could send me home to be monitored. Stephen spent the night with me and didn't get any sleep on his little bed. The next morning we got approval and I busted loose at noon. I only spent 24 hours as a resident at Baylor. We had thought that this was for the long haul so my overnight stay resulted in a cart to carry out my bags, computer, food, and goodies. I better pack lighter for our delivery. I am thankful to be home and very thankful for the nurse that comes out to check on them daily via a nonstress test.

My mom gave Izzy this outfit and this is how she reacted.

3 weeks to go!

Today the dr did my LAST big sono. Drew weighs 4 lbs 9 oz and Charis weighs 3 lbs 15 oz. On Friday I will be 35 weeks along, we have 21 days left. The dr put me on bed rest today. I am thankful for such a good pregnancy for multiples. We are just praying these little guys gain weight before their birthday. The thing I get frustrated by is kick counts. Who came up with this idea? I have tried the whole pregnancy to not get nervous by this and just prayed I would feel enough movement to be at peace but, now the dr wants to really make sure there is no decreased activity. That is stressful for one but, very frustrating with two. I don't always know who is kicking me because they are both breech and so that is four little feet in the same place. I definitely know my little wild man is moving because my whole stomach moves with him. but, her movements are so light that I have a hard time feeling them. I am praying that I will not stress about this and that I will feel her little movements and know that it is her. Everything else is great and we are looking forward to meeting them in 21 days!

Friends and Family

We were blessed with a beautiful shower from friends and family. Here are the beautiful hostesses. My aunt and cousin made amazing decorations. I wish I had more pictures of them but, we were having fun seeing everyone and so I didn't get many. My Mimi read a beautiful poem and said a sweet prayer. It was so good to see people that I hadn't seen in a while and to have my family together. It was special to see and hear how many people prayed for our babies even before we were pregnant. My Mom got us this wonderful double stroller. I was so excited!

LCS shower!!

My two wonderful teams at Liberty (my old Kindergarten team and my new Online Campus team) gave us a sweet shower after work last week. I am so thankful to work with these sweet friends!

Pig Flu

Poor Stephen has the Swine Flu (The Swiner as he calls it). He went on a business trip last week and shook alot of hands. Apparently one of those hands was infested with The Swiner. He has been sick for going on 5 days, even with Tamiflu. We are praying that it is coming to end.

Showers= Big Blessings!

Stephen and I are so thankful for amazing friends and family that have blessed us with great showers in the last few weeks. It was so fun to be with everyone and such a blessing to have things for the babies. I can't wait to use it all!

Our first shower was the FBC Colleyville shower at Anna's house. It was beautiful!! I put some pics below in case you don't believe me. Our second shower was the Central church shower in College Station. It was so fun and everyone was so kind and generous. I also put some pics of that one too.

Mimi, me, and Mom at Anna's
Charis and Drew cake at FBCC shower
Hostesses Pam, Anna, Dina, Laura, and Michelle being funny
Central Baptist shower hostesses
Stephen's grandfather's crib given to us by Honey and Pops
Pops, Stephen, me, Honey, and Lauren at the diaper shower

The babies are growing well and we are so thankful! The doctor scheduled us for a C-section on December 28th but, we will talk to her about that this week. That is our anniversary and it doesn't give us much time to get out of the hospital before we have to pay the 2010 deductible as well as 2009. We are going to ask if she will do the 27th instead.


In the last blog I talked about my preggo brain well, it is a little better but, I tithed 3 times in 6 weeks on accident. I kept wondering where our money was and started to worry something was wrong so I went through our statements and noticed that I can't stop tithing.

Preggo Brain

I have had some absent minded moments thus far in the pregnancy but, today stole the show. I was so content strolling through Target and thinking about how cute some girl's hair is and then I looked down and noticed that the cart I was pushing was not mine. I don't know how this happened! I remember stepping away from my cart for one second to move for these little girls playing hide and seek in the racks and then the next thing I know I am pushing a random cart with a black shirt in it half way across Target. All ended well, I found my cart with my purse in it untouched. Anna told me to expect moments like this even after they are born. I just hope I don't take someone else's kids one day and leave mine by the racks at Target.

Growing Babies

Last week when I went to the doctor she was concerned because Charis has a little head and abdomen. Apparently, Drew has a little head but, his markers lined up okay and she wasn't as concerned for him. They both weigh a good amount but, Charis is too little in her measurements for the doctor's liking. In order to try to beef our little girl up I was told to work from home and rest for two weeks. Today I went again and I have gained four pounds in six days, so that is good but we have to wait until next week to measure the babies. That means one more week of home rest.

Today Julie made my day by bringing me delicious Chick-fil-a for lunch! I am so blessed by great friends, family, and work. So many sweet people have prayed for Charis and I feel a peace about things now knowing that. My awesome team at work is coming over tomorrow to bring enchiladas for lunch. I am thankful for the people God has placed in my life. When I called my boss to tell him I had to work from home he prayed on the phone for the babies and told me that it was no problem for me to do that. Thank you for your prayers for our little girl!

The nursery

Stephen has been working hard on getting the nursery ready. I am so proud of him. Stephen has really been working hard and wanted to have this long weekend to work on the nursery. He painted on Friday and started the bead board. He has done a great job and done the whole thing by himself!

This is my little Bob Villa using some sort of saw. All he has left to do is the trim and paint the bead board. I will order the bedding this week and then we will be half way there.

It's a ...

BOY and a GIRL!

Stephen and I went to the doctor last week for the 20 week sono and she told us that we have one of each! Yay! We are so excited and can't wait to meet Drew and Charis in December. After we found out the great news we went to Pappadeaux for lunch (we played hookey that day). We made cupcakes for Stephen to take to work the next day.

The sono was great and it is neat to see them. My doctor told me at the beginning that I may get dizzy because I was laying my back and I thought "whatever, I can lie on my back just fine". About 15 to 20 minutes into the sono I started feeling queasy but, was focused on all she was doing and ignored it. She told me to roll towards her if I felt sick and I kept saying "I'm fine". Then I suddenly felt the panic of "I really am going to faint and she is still on the first baby". I adjusted as much as I could and the nurse brought me juice and cold cloths. I stayed conscious but, kept my eyes closed the rest of the time expect to look at Drew's little boy parts. What a wimp. I guess those doctors know what they are talking about after all.

Praying for baby Ridge

My cousin and her husband have a sweet 10 week old baby boy named Ridge. Ridge has been in the hospital for 23 days now due to an extremely rare disease (only 30 people in the WORLD have this disease). Ridge has lesions in his little stomach and GI tract that cause him to bleed out. They noticed the symptoms because his diapers and spit up were bloody. The only treatment is blood tranfusions and steroids. Ridge is O negative and that is apparently a rare blood type and so my cousin is asking people with O negative blood to donate in the name of Ridge Cary.

Please pray for Ridge's complete healing from this disease. His parents are amazing and finding strength in the Lord. They are asking for prayers from everyone on behalf of their son. Below is a clip of my cousin on the news regarding Ridge and his illness.
http://www.ksbitv.com/news/53072457.html

Smelly Gas

Stephen and I had an interesting night on Friday. Stephen had mowed the yard that day with an old mower but, it worked great. While getting gas for the mower he accidently spilled the container in the bed of his truck. Later that night we went out to eat and came home and smelled the gas in the gagrage and slightly in the house, so he moved the truck out of the garage. A few hours after we had gone to bed Stephen woke me up to ask if I smelled gas. I wasn't really awake and didn't want to be so I said no. About thirty minutes later I woke up told him I did smell gas. The smell had engulfed our house and was getting worse. Stephen realized the lawn mower was leaking and moved it out also. We opened all the windows and were still nervous about the babies so I tried to sleep in the closet because there is no air vent in there. That lasted about thirty minutes and then I decided I needed to sleep on the porch to avoid the smell. The back porch is scary and had a snake before and so that was out. So I sat on the front porch for the next few hours until the smell went away. At 6:45 am our house was finally smelly free. I bet you thought I was going to blog about some other gas. I hope you're not disappointed.

Real Nice!

Our our way back from Oak Dale we spotted this great ride from a 100 yards back and Marcus made sure we caught up with it. Stephen got these close ups of the Caddy. It had a huge flat screen TV inside and on the visors. I wonder if it could hold twins?

Day Trip and CFS

In April Stephen and Marcus came across this cute little restaurant and ice cream/ soda shop on a hunting trip. They came back telling us that they had already had dinner but, Marcus wanted some Chicken Fried Steak (or CFS as he calls it). They thought about splitting one and then thought that may be not the manliest thing to do and so they settled on sitting in the pink soda shop, in their camo, drinking milk shakes. Dina and I thought that was a great mental picture and wanted to see this place and so yesterday we went out there for dinner.

The restaurant is an old house and the Soda Shop was the Oak Dale Community Center, the owners moved them to their current location. Behind the restaurant they are building a saloon, general store, and sheriff station. They will be a separate eating area, museum, and "jail".

Our Babies

I am going to the doctor every week now and it is so neat because they do a sonogram every time and I get to see the babies. It is amazing to see them grow and move. Next week we get to see the real doctor and have a 3D sonogram. I have always thought those things were scary looking, but now I am excited to see a great picture of them.

This is our 11 week sonogram. "Baby A" is on top and "Baby B" is on the bottom in each picture. The last picture is "Baby B's" heatbeat.

Double Blessings

Sorry I have not blogged in a long time. I never know what to put on here but, it appears we have two new little reasons to blog. Stephen and I are so excited that God has blessed us with twins! They will be here at the end of December!



I have taken a while to write anything because I don't even know where to start. We have been blown away by God's blessings. Many people know that we have struggled with infertility for a few years now. After meeting with doctors Stephen and I thought that adoption would be our best route and started to pursue that through one agency. As we learned more we felt uncomfortable, like the Lord was leading us away from that decision for now. We still would love to adopt one day but, the timing was wrong a year ago.



God worked in some amazing ways to lead us to the decision to do IVF. Stephen and I both prayed for over a year specifically about IVF. We were concerned about any extra embryos (babies) and told the doctor we didn't want to do IVF the traditional way and have embryos that we weren't prepared to use. Our doctor was very supportive; however, God did all the work.



My uncle passed away at the end of February and it was and is very hard on my family. That same week God led us to begin the IVF process. It was so neat to see His timing because after a year of prayer and mostly silence God spoke clearly that week. We met with the doctor again and kept praying for confirmation. That same day a family member I haven't seen in a long time approached me and said that they had done IVF and had $1000 in medicine we could use. That was a blessing financially and felt like a confirmation that this was the right road for us now, no matter the outcome we felt this was what we were supposed to do. The process went very smoothly and to make a long story short God provided the two babies with no embryos left over. We were so thankful to see His hand over the process.



After the procedures there is an excruciating two week waiting period. During that two weeks I needed a root canal and my doctor said no way, take Tylenol. Due to the pain and that I saw that God had potentially given us another gift, I tricked Stephen and went to the doctor a day early to find out if we were pregnant or not. I have always wanted to tell Stephen that we were expecting a certain way and it involved a park in Bedford. God worked it our that we just happen to be down the street from the park for a party the night I could find out if we were pregnant. So I seized the opportunity. I went into the doctor that morning for my blood work and as I was waiting to go in God gave me this verse Isaiah 30:18-20

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.

I was scared to believe that the verse came from God and wasn't wishful thinking but, that afternoon He confirmed it to me when the nurse called and told me Congratulations! I met Stephen at the park that night and gave him a baby Bible. I was trying to tell him we were pregnant but, he kept talking about Dirk and his girlfriend drama. Finally, I was able to interrupt and tell him we were pregnant!

Sorry this is so long and if you are still reading then you deserve a cookie or honorary degree. God has been so gracious and faithful throughout this journey and I wanted to share about His character. We believe that God has called us to be open about our process for others that may go down this road.

Before and After

After

I wanted a new dining room set that wasn't so formal and Dina told me to paint it. I was nervous but I had seen some done at Canton and I liked them and so we went for it. The Watson's were nice enough to come over and spray it down with their big paint sprayer thing. The room is almost done. We need a new light fixture, to paint the alcove and a few other special touches. Here are the before and after pictures.

Moooo!

We definitely are feeling like Texans in the Spring at our house. Right over our fence there is a herd of black cows. They are cute and have babies now. Sometimes they lean up by our fence and moo, that scares Isabelle. I have to "encourage" Stephen to not try to shoot them with the bb gun.

Jury Duty

I had jury duty for the first time on Monday. I would have been excited about serving our judicial system except I had a spa appointment scheduled for Tuesday. I was so scared I was going to have to miss it because I was on some scary murder trial. I was assigned to a criminal court and after a 2 hour lunch the attorney let us all go because they moved the trial date. I don't want to make people jealous but, I was paid $6 for my time.

by Maya Angelou

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not shouting 'I'm clean livin,'I'm whispering 'I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven.'
When I say... 'I am a Christian' I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.
When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.
When I say.. 'I am a Christian' I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.
When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not claiming to be perfect,My flaws are far too visible, but God believes I am worth it.
When I say... 'I am a Christian' I still feel the sting of pain...I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.
When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

I turned 30...

My sweet Mimi and Poppi

Larry is celebrating.

Dina had everything decorated soo cute!

Last week I turned thirty. It was a great day. My mom took me shopping and surprised me with my Mimi waiting at the mall. We had a blast and stimulated the economy.

After that, Stephen said we were going to dinner and we went to pick up Marcus and Dina. When we got to the Watson's, SURPRISE, he had put together a party for me along with the help of many others. It was so special! I was so excited to have my friends and family together.

New Year's Eve 2009

This New Year's we had a great time with our Sunday school class. We had a Tacky Sweater/ Re-gift Party at Dina's. It was alot of fun and the sweaters were hilarious. Here are pictures of the night.