Still Growing...

Twenty-eight weeks, here we come! This is the belly progression from Weeks 22 - 27. All three of us are doing really well. The babies are ahead of schedule; their last ultrasound was at 26 weeks and 5 days but they were measuring as if they were 28 weeks. Little A is currently 2lbs and 7 oz and Little B is currently 2lbs and 8 oz. Good job girls! I am also still gaining weight but its stayed mostly around the midsection so far, thank goodness. With the exception of a few days of excrucitating tailbone pain that finally subsided (tailbone pain!? no one ever mentioned that!), things have been surprisingly easier to deal with than I expected. The girls are moving a lot more than I thought they ever could and sometimes the only way I can get them to go to sleep at night is to stick the Ipod headphones on top of their heads :) It is very reassuring, however, to feel them moving and kicking so strongly. We three still have a long ways to go but we're getting there!

Happy Birthday Trip!

For Kyle's birthday last weekend we traveled north to Clinton to stay a few days with his Mom and Lloyd. It was great! Friday night we took the Frontrunner and Trax downtown to see the Temple Square lights. The block was packed but it was so worth marveling at the humongous trees wrapped down to the tiniest twig with sparkling lights! We even got some vid footage to send Elder Trent on his next DVD.

Saturday afternoon Candy and Lloyd took us to visit Hardware Ranch, an elk refuge up in the mountains above Logan. The day was sunny and warm and the elk paid us no mind as we rode past them on a horse driven carriage. Then we ate lunch at The Bluebird, an old restored candy shop in downtown Logan. Their sandwiches and rolls were Amazing!




We also got quite a bit of BABY shopping done while we were out of town, thanks to the wonderful KSL Classifieds! I watched for newer, clean, gently used baby stuff all weekend and we were able to pick up a bunch of gear for a GREAT deal! We figured that we got about $790.00 worth of stuff for just about $300.00. Scoooore! More moola for cute clothes!

We got two of these quality Peg Perego car seats for 100.00 each instead of the 275 they normally cost. Gender neutrality is a plus here!

The SnapNGo stroller is a lifesaver for twin mommas so I've been told. The car seats snap right onto the frame so no need to unbuckle and wake sleeping infants. An steal at $40 down from 80.

The Baby Einstein Jumper was $30 instead of $70. I'm not all about 'girly' items. Pink is nice but educational, mind-building toys are nicer. Loving the Baby Einstein stuff.

And this was $20 never used rather than the $50 I'd have paid new. The waterfall lights up and plays nature sounds and the seat vibrates. Heck I want to sit in it!

Again another half priced item here. 10 bucks for a $25 dollar doorway jumper.

Ahhh yes. And the nursing pillow 'specially designed for twins. Again, another 'must have' per the BF twin mommas. $30 instead of $65. Love!

It was a much needed trip and we were glad to spend some time with Candy and Lloyd too during the holidays!

Escaping Winter

While trying to take it easy and keep sane, I've been working on my Plumeria Garden! Most people don't recognize the Hawaiian flower by name, but they do recognize THESE!

LEIS! Leis are typically made out of plumeria because plumeria are so fragrant. Each type of plumeria has a different scent; some smell sweet and others smell like citrus fruit or peaches. Plumeria is also the flower in Hawaiian culture traditionally worn behind the right ear of women that are "available", while a plumeria behind the left ear indicates that she is taken. Plumeria are easy flowers to love!!! I bought my first plumeria "cutting" in a gift shop on my honeymoon in Kauai 4 years ago after falling in love with the huge, fragrant plumeria trees that grew on the grounds of our hotel, and along the beaches. Cuttings are essentially pieces of branch that have the ability to grow into new plants once stuffed into soil, and are often sold in plastic bags like the one I bought in the store. I brought mine home and it sprouted gorgeous yellow and white flowers the very next summer. I about killed it the first winter, not realizing that it wouldn't tolerate temperatures under 40 degrees. Now it's about 3 feet tall and still growing in a pot, indoors for the winter.
Soon after I grew the first, I wanted more colors and smells! Unfortunately, I found that to buy cuttings online cost 15.00-20.00 dollars for the cutting and another 18.00 for a "clean agriculture" certificate allowing them to be shipped to the states (ouch!). So I decided to buy seeds instead, since they required no certificate and are much cheaper. Last spring I bought these 5 new types on Ebay from Thailand: Wipa Delight, Golden, Three Kings, Magenta Powder, and Purple Queen









I had all good intentions of establishing them during summertime, but instead they sat in my seed basket in a dark laundry room cupboard while I enjoyed the sunshine and outdoors. Now that its cold and I'm stuck indoors "resting", I finally have more of a chance to get them going, AND more of a challenge that I don't have the tropical-like heat on my side. I set them up with a plastic tent and a gro-light every night, and uncover and put them near a sunny window everyday. They seem to be doing well, most have sprouted and are on their way up! It's refreshing to see green things growing while everything is so cold and dead outside.


A stray orchid picture that got in there somehow... :)

YES! Call me the crazy-plant-lady, but this is what I love doing and what MAKES ME HAPPY! :D So Alooooooha everyone and a Mele Kalikimaka to you!

Progression...

Ouch! I have always heard lots of complaints about the discomforts of pregnancy: the backaches and headaches, the nausesa, the fatigue, but I don't remember anyone ever mentioning the STRETCHING! I'm talking about the feeling as if someone is blowing up a rubber balloon inside my abdomen. Move over organs! Don't have a place to go? Too bad! Crowd those lungs! Press that spine! Stomp that bladder! It's ok, it won't kill her! Sheeeesh... And its only November. Enough of my complaining though, you moms have already been through it, here are some belly progression pictures from Week 15 - Week 20. I dared grace photos with my bare belly in the first one but nay in the ones following.

Our Halloween Stint

Its the moooost wonderful tiiiiime. . . .of the year! YAY Halloween!!!

My family was awesome enough to set everything up and take everything down this year so that us fat pregnant girls didn't have to. They did an excellant job with the graveyard and garage haunt! Kalin drew people passing by in with his creepy antics chasing older kids around on all fours and crawling on and shaking vehicles. Matt was the crazed butcher hacking away with a meat cleaver, and Tim's costume even scared me! As in years past we got big thanks from kids and their parents for providing such a fun place to come trick-or-treating. We assure them that its just as much fun for us since we are too old to go trick-or-treating anymore!

As for Thriller at Tuacahn, it was just as good as always. It was Kalin's and David's first time seeing the show and they were entertained by the pre-show zombies roaming the audience, which I think is one of the funnest parts of taking new people with us!

Here are a few pics from both Thriller and Halloween night. WE MISS AND LOVE YA TRENT!

And then there WEREN'T 3....

We had a big surprise at our first ultrasound this week.
We thought we'd go from a family of two to a family of three.
But instead, it looks like we'll be doubling our ranks.
Thats right! We are pregnant with TWINS!

When I took Clomid, I knew there was a 1 in 10 chance of becoming pregnant with multiples. Kyle and I had talked about it and decided to take it anyway because nothing was happening without and we decided that two at once (but not more) wouldn't be all that bad. I, in fact, liked the idea of getting two babies out of 9 months of misery instead of just one.

When I went to my first doc appointment, we heard only one heartbeat. The nurse felt my lower tummy and said that it "felt like a one-baby uterus," but couldn't be sure without ordering an ultrasound. We were fairly confident then that there was only one in there. So when the ultrasound tech said "There's one........and there's two," we were super surprised!
Kyle thought she was kidding with us and I thought she was mistaken. But we saw them side by side kicking and climbing the walls with their feet and knew it was true.

So.... here we go! I've got a LOT to read and learn!

Out and about while it's cool...

The temps dipped this last week and I was anxious to get out of the house for some non-house-smelling fresh air (blahhh), so we cruised on up to Pine Valley to take a walk up Forsyth Trail and to try and spot some mountain lions (I was up there last week and heard some). No luck with finding lions, just a few tracks, but we did enjoy the things we saw along the way.

Burned out area from last summer, near the summit

Cute log bridge and cuter Kalin

Slide area

BIG log slide area at the bottom

Along the trail we found wonderful, delicious, RASPBERRIES! They were small but tasty...

...and best eaten like THIS!

We also had some of these berries (much better cooked into pancake syrup, Mom's specialty)

And a few of these berries...

But we did NOT have any of THESE berries!!! x_x

Little chimpunk-man mad we're stompin through his berry patch.

We picked for awhile...

YUM! Thanks Mother Nature for the treats and fresh air!

And then there were 3...

First time's a charm!

Exactly two weeks after taking Clomid, I decided to take an early pregnancy test "just for the heck of it" because I was feeling impatient. It was a faint positive. Kyle didn't believe it. So I took three more throughout the following week. All strong positives!!! YEEAAAAHOOOOO!!!!

We are only 6 weeks but we are SO SUPER excited not to mention scared out of our minds!!!

Can't wait for the first doctors appointment Aug 31 to confirm there is only ONE!

Here's Hoping!

Just finished a 5-day dose of Clomid for the first time!

And I'm crossing my fingers for NO TRIPLETS! Cause thats what my Mom got out of Clomid.

Wish us luck! :)

Just Beachy

Ok. I'm going to take you on a little tour of a beach in California that we like to camp at every summer (or as often as we can get reservations, which is sometimes every OTHER year). It's in a small oceanside town called "Carpinteria," population just under 15,000. It is about 15 minutes south of Santa Barbara, and about an hour north of Los Angeles. It's main attraction is the nearness to the species-rich Channel Islands, which are just off the coast, and all of the ocean life that comes along with it. Seals hang out on the rocky parts of the beach, dolphins play just off the coast each morning and evening, whales breech, crabs scuttle, starfish cling, sand crabs burrow, sand dollars hide, pelicans dive, sandpipers pick, squirrels shred, raccoons steal, and seagulls swoop. It is truly an amazing place to watch wildlife! Now for the tour.
Here is a view of the beach as coming from the main parking area.

I don't know who these people are. Local homeless I suppose. That or surf-rats. The Santa Barbara Mountains, the ones famous for all the wildfires last month, are in the background.

Kalins wonderful beach hoe that he so enjoyed using to push sand around. I think it's still laying on the beach down there.

LaCrosse, badmitton, football, and volleyball is how we spent most of our day, everyday. It's a great workout running in the sand, let me vouch. Oh and BOOGIE-BOARDING! How could I forget boogie-boarding? The only ones crazy enough to immerse themselves in the frigid water were those with few or no brains. You won't see any of us girls in there.

If sports and cold water aren't your thing, there is always a good book to be found in the "library" that Misty brings on every camping trip. Good thing she does cause we sure enjoy reading a book on the beach much more than we think we will before the trip. P.S. Book reading only works on the beach if annoying boys aren't hitting you with sandy footballs.

He's only smiling because he's happy that he doesn't have that body behind him. Working hard or hardly working? He makes lifting that spatula look like someone could throw a shoulder out of place. This is our outdoor kitchen. With lovely towels drying in the background, Tijuana-style. This kid had more little girls running back and forth trying to get him to notice them, I thought I was going to have to start throwing crackers at them and shoo-ing them away. I kept telling him it was the surfer-hair, the cute curls.Again, boys in the cold water. Jumping waves I guess. Cheap fun. "Whoa man. Check this one out."

When boogie-boarding was too cold to bear, running from them was good fun too. Here is one mans attempt to get a girl in the water. Good thing Tia was able to outsmart him by crying and threatening.

I actually LIKE being sunburned. Call me crazy, I know, but the feeling of my face feeling like its going to crack when I smile is great.

Don't ask. I turned around to see a palm tree growing out of a lightpole and I loved it. Isn't it great?

You know he's probably just thinking about video games or something. The ocean was gorgeous this morning though. And this kid knows exactly how to enjoy the water. Every morning he was out there with his feet in it, just staring out at the horizon for minutes at a time.

Here is a kind-of shot of our camp. Firewood. Firepit. Inflatable boat. Me. Just up the hill and over the berm is the ocean. High-tide brings it pretty close to camp, close enough for the crashing waves to wake you up at night and make you start thinking about moving to higher ground.
This beach is REALLY awesome at sunset! The colors are always perfect, the sand cold on barefeet, and the shells bright and white.

Wish I could step inside this one. Miss the water always moving under me, making me dizzy.

Loved it. Love it. Need to go back next summer.