Babies!

I realized the other day that I've never officially announced that I'm pregnant with TWINS! So, I thought I'd take a moment and share some of our latest photos.

I am 25 weeks pregnant with a little boy and a little girl. The doctors call them Baby A and Baby B (the boy is baby A because he's positioned lower). My due date is June 5th but the doctors have said that they won't let me go longer than 38 weeks which puts me around mid-May. Because I'm having twins, the doctors keep a close eye on me and have me get monthly ultrasounds. I have to admit, I like getting them so that I can see what they look like and be reassured that they are doing well.

When I was about 12 weeks we had a nuchal translucency test done which measures the fluid behind the babies necks and can be an indicator of a chromosomal abnormality or major defect. A normal measurement is 3 mm or less. The baby boy measured in at 1 but the baby girl measured in at 9+. So, they told us that the little girl had about a 1 in 3 or 4 chance of being born with either Downs Syndrome, Turners Syndrome or some other defect (such as major heart problem, etc.). At that point, they were concerned that she would even make it to birth.

Of course hearing this news the day before Thanksgiving sent us spinning. I was pretty much a mess trying to make heads or tails of this and learn as much as I could. The weeks since then have given us more and more hope. Both babies are growing as they should and the ultrasounds and echocardiograms we've had show no signs of abnormalities. So, the doctors think that there is a smaller chance of her having Down's but still a possibility of her having Turner's or being completely healthy and fine. At this point, we really won't learn much more until the babies are born. We just count our blessings though that both babies appear to have strong, healthy hearts and are growing as they should. We don't know what the Lord's plan is for us or these babies but we hope and pray for a miracle.

This is a picture of our little guy looking at the front of his face. So sweet! He currently weighs 1 lb. 9 oz.

This is a side profile of our little girl. What a little angel! She currently weighs 1 lb. 7 oz.

Birthday Boys!

This time of year is always crazy between Blake's birthday (1/23), our anniversary (2/1), Ethan's birthday (2/7), Valentine's Day, etc. We are in constant party mode! So, I thought I'd take a minute to document Blake and Ethan's birthdays.

Blake turned 31 this year and kept griping about how old he was getting. I'm 2 1/2 years older than him and whenever I tell him I'm getting old, he insists that I'm in the prime of life. I wonder how many years I can be in the "prime of life." His theory apparently only applies to me - not to him. Anyway, we celebrated with a quiet birthday party at home with some presents, lemon cake (his favorite), etc. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Ethan turned 3 last Saturday. The poor kid - he was SO looking forward to his birthday but it seemed that everyone he knew was having their birthday first (cousin Lincoln, friends of ours - Baby Gavin and Ethan, Daddy, Aunt Cathryn, Aunt Nic). It was torture for the poor kid but his turn finally came. He chose to have a fire truck party so he gave out fire "chiep" badges to all our guests. The highlight of the party for him was definitely the pinata. He had to do that first, before anything else. We had a great time celebrating his little birthday with him. He's our little angel!

Blowing out candles on his cake (sorry - a little blurry).

The birthday boy got his very own Fire "Chiep" hat to wear along with a badge. So cool!

Whacking the pinata. He had so much fun doing this that we actually ended up refilling it and letting him do it again (luckily it only broke on one end so we could reuse it).

Candy HEAVEN!!

Playing with a new gift from Gemma. Poor little cousin Rylan had such a tough time trying to sit back and let Ethan open stuff. It's just too hard at their age but they both did very well together. We were so glad Rylan and his family could join us. Unfortunately Gemma, Pepe, Pat and Cathryn weren't able to come because they all got sick. We sure missed you guys. Luckily Nic and TJ were there to represent the family!

Ethan's big gift from mommy and daddy was a new "big boy" room. We painted the walls, bought some new furniture and decorated without him knowing about it. He was so excited about his new room. We were afraid he'd want his old room but he hasn't looked back once. So cute!
Family picture in Ethan's new room. Ethan looks like he's crying here but he's actually just being silly and uncooperative for the picture (I know, hard to imagine!). :)

Ethan Quotes

Lately I've been trying to keep better track of all the funny things that Ethan says during the day. There are so many cute comments that make me laugh but I always forget them as the day progresses. So, I hope you enjoy these as much as I have and get a good chuckle from them.

* * *

While giving a prayer, Ethan said, "Bless Jesus that he will be good like Mommy and Daddy. And, bless the Christmas tree that it won't fall down."

When a lady who was walking quickly into BJ's almost walked right into Ethan, he looked up at her and said, "Whoah, hello!"

I tried to help Ethan when he spilled a plate of his play plastic hot dogs. He looked at me with a very disturbed face and said, "Mom, you can't do this. It's only for little boys. This is HORRIBLE!"

Mom: "Ethan, did you eat all your food?"
Ethan: "Nope, not quiet" (I'm pretty sure he meant quite)

"I'm gonna save some juice so I don't get pee pee all over this beautiful house - like the Christmas tree and the new presents."

When visiting the doctor, the following conversation took place:
Doctor: "Okay Ethan, now I need to look up your nose with my special light."
Ethan: "You wanna look at my boogies?"

In a prayer at bedtime, Ethan said, "Bless Heavenly Father and Jesus and Gemma to peetect me from the heater."

"Mommy, I got an idea...daddy goes in mommy's car, mommy goes in daddy's car, Ethan goes in daddy's car. Does that sound like a great plan?"

M: "Ethan, do you want to help me clean the kitchen?"
E: "Well...let's get to it!!"

M: "Ethan, we need to gel your hair before we leave."
E: "Mom, I don't want to gel my hair. I like it brown and furry."