Father's Day Surprise!

Knowing that I have the world's greatest dad, it is always hard to pick out Father's Day presents. This year just seemed extra difficult...he's building us cribs and dressers after all! I have been looking for the past couple months. I had settled on a nice John Deere puzzle...which I knew he would love - but it still just wasn't quite right.

Now, let me also say, I have the world's greatest mom as well! And seriously. It's not just a plug since I said it about my dad. But mom's are always easier to shop for...at least for me. I know exactly what will put a giant smile on Mom's face. (And if I ever get that quilt finished...she will love it!) Dad's are just more difficult. Okay, let's just be real honest - men are just more difficult to shop for!  

(I have yet to figure out anything for that Daddy of our nuggets/my hubby...)

Anyway - back on track - I had been trying to figure out something to go with Dad's puzzle...and one day the week before Father's Day, I got the e-mail. A 25% off deal for Southwest! The tickets had to be purchased that day, and could only be used the weekend of Father's day! (Can we say a sign?!)

My niece was having a ballet recital the weekend of Father's day and I had wanted to go...but tickets had been too expensive when we talked about going. So, of course I called Tadd at work with his favorite loaded question:

"How much do you love me?"  :)

The response is always,

"Lots...Why?"  

(He quickly figured out in dating/marriage that the question is always followed by a very large favor!)

And of course, this time was no different. I quickly explained the details of the e-mailed offer, and how I had that weekend off, and that it was Michelle's ballet recital, and I could surprise my family, and it could be part of Dad's father's day present, and I felt really bad that I wouldn't even be home for Tadd's first father's day, but I really wanted to go....

Yep, it really did go about like that. Me rambling frantically trying to convince him it was a wonderful idea. With a chuckle he simply said, 

"Slow down...You deserve it. Of course you should go!"

And with that the trip was planned! I called my sister and made sure it was okay I came (like I really had to ask)...and she was the only one who knew! 

Imagine my dad's surprise when they showed up Friday afternoon after a day at the doctor's office with Grandma Chocolate in Denver and came into the living room to find me sitting on the couch! It was almost as good as the surprise on Mom's face when she came in 10 minutes later when she arrived from Alamosa. So many screams! So many hugs! Such a fun filled weekend.

It was a fast trip, but we packed in the fun. My brother and his girls were there, as well as my younger sister and her little boy. All of the kids played so great together. It was a kids only table outside. Adults not invited. They giggled and told stories and just had a blast together. Ahhhh - cousins! Don't we all love them?! I know I love mine like crazy.

 My two year old nephews are only a couple months apart, so we joked all weekend about having twin boys and how this is what it would be like.

If twin boys means we get to do these fun boy things...I am totally game! 

Lincoln Logs!

And Tonka trucks!

And a miniature table for the boys to eat at...

Whose heart wouldn't melt for those things?! Because mine is an ooey gooey pile of mush after looking at these pictures again! 

Even when they aren't all smiles and giggles...

You get this monster face...

 Or the lazy, I'm pooped and too tired to play looks...

Yep, I think I could handle twin boys! Then again, girls really are fun too. And they just bond like boys don't. Boys will play together, but then move on to a new toy and not think much more of it if the other doesn't follow. Girls on the other hand...they are best friends for life. Like these two cousins. If you wondered where one was, just look for the other!  

Plus they do fun girly things like be a ballerina, and pose for a million pictures.

Another fun highlight of the trip was getting to meet my cousin Angela after the ballet recital for lunch. It had been years since I'd seen her or her family. And to make it even more fun - she has six year old twins! Michelle loved that they were all the same age. They were instant friends - instantly planning play dates and swimming adventures together.

And my cousin is alive. She looks GREAT in fact! Twins haven't slowed her down one bit. So there is hope! :)

We missed Tadd. In fact first thing when I got there my (almost) 2 year old nephew Bennett's first words to me..."Where's Tadd?" haha. A question that continued for the entire trip. He's a very loved uncle! Even without him, it was such a fun trip. I can't wait to go back in a month - especially since we're having a baby shower! :) YAY!!

Countdown!

Yep, the countdown is on! One more week until our big awaited day...THE ultrasound! The one where we find out if the babies in THIS belly:

Week 16

Are BOYS, GIRLS or one of EACH?! Wahoo!

Everyone has been asking me if I have any feelings on what these nuggets might be. The answer - Nope! Do boys and/or girls feel different?! It depends on the day what I think they must be - as well as the situation. If I'm shopping and looking for nursery things, BOYS. Definitely boys. Because that's all I like as far as nursery ideas go. I would love love LOVE to do a baseball nursery. I have found so many cute baseball things - especially at Hobby Lobby. They are all vintage looking, and just oh so cute!

Or monsters! I would love to do monsters! So many cute fabrics or patterns with monsters on them. My brain overflows of ideas we could do if we decorated with monsters for little boys. And calling little boys monsters is just, well...adorable! 

My little monsters. 

(Insert *sigh* and *swoon* here!)

Then again, I see little girls come into the store at work and think, awwwww - I do need one of those! ONE being the key point of that phrase. Let's be honest, two girls would be the end of all sanity. Drama drama drama! I have nieces, I know. It isn't even something you can blame on the parents. My sister is not a drama person. In fact, she is the least dramatic person I know. Yet her daughter is the girliest girl and the biggest drama queen I think I have ever met - and she is six!

If ever I thought I didn't want girls, that thought ended when I went to Colorado this past weekend. I surprised my dad for Father's day by being there when they showed up to my sister's house for my niece's ballet recital. (And what a great surprise it was! More on that later.) But if you ever have any doubt about wanting or needing a little girl, go watch a ballet/tap recital where little girls are involved. It is enough to make anyone swoon and think, awwwww!! (Especially those little 3 year olds!)

And if that wasn't enough, add in a daddy-daughter dance! I cried through the whole thing. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. The daddy's so proud and so doting on their baby girls, and the girls so proud and completely in love with their daddy's. 

The second it was over, my sister leaned to me and said  (with tear filled eyes of course) 

"Tadd needs a little girl!" 

All I could reply was (with even more tear filled eyes) 

"I know!!!!" 

Because that's what I thought of through the entire dance. 

So, like I said, it is totally dependent on the situation what I think we must be having. In reality, as long as the nuggets are healthy, we will take whatever we get. We will be completely in love with every little detail of their little selves. More so than we already are. One more week, and we will *hopefully* know, and can start planning that nursery, and getting to the projects I've been dying to do! Come ooon nuggets....cooperate and give us a peak at what you are! Here's hoping.

In the meantime, we will just sit back patiently (or not so patiently) and wait...and keep growing a large round belly like this!

Week 17

Daddy to Be

With Father's Day coming up this next weekend, I've been thinking a lot about my hubby...and how he will be as a daddy. All I can say...he will be incredible! I love to watch him with kids. Whether it is our nieces and nephews, friends' toddlers, or just watching the look on his face when he sees a cute kiddo with mom or dad at the grocery store...he is great! 

That being said...because I'm a worrier and have been in a bit of panic off and on lately, I worried about how he would be with our own kids. You know - when they are ours all the time, and you can't just hand them off to someone because they are crying, mad, in trouble, or smelly. I wondered about how he would handle that. Self admittedly, babies scare the CRAP right out of Tadd. Especially newborn babies. 

It's almost painful to watch him try and hold them. He looks completely terrified, its awkward...and well, I just don't get why it is so hard. (He would like me to pipe in for him that babies are scary, and they are fragile. He doesn't want to break them!) Maybe that is because I grew up around babies. I have a younger sister, my mom did daycare, I babysat, I have nieces and nephews, my cousins have babies...It's just never been a big deal. (Tadd assures me it is because I am a girl.) 

Anyway, there for a while I was a little nervous. Especially after finding out there were TWINS! That means like it or not, he's helping...LOTS!!! We've had plenty of conversations about this, and he tells me constantly, "When they're our kids it will be different!" (And I hear that's true...I just hope and pray it will be for him too!)  

Of course, Mr. Wonderful is more than willing to chip in wherever he can. He's just great like that. If his actions during this pregnancy are any indication of how he will be when the babies get here...there is nothing to worry about! Such a doting daddy-to-be. He makes sure I take my prenatal vitamins, cleans the kitchen, does the dishes, goes to Taco Bell at midnight when that is the only thing I will eat for dinner (And it has taken me 2 hours of being cranky to figure that out), rubs stretch mark cream on my belly when it itches, tells me how adorable he thinks my enormous belly is...The list could go on and on.

And in case you wondered, he will enjoy every minute of being a daddy. This video shows it perfectly! Our friends the Ribao's little girl completely adores her "Uncle Tadd"...And yes, he eats up every second of it.

As much as I worried about it before, I look at him now and just sigh to myself. I'm a lucky girl. Sure it will take some adjusting, I'm not expecting that when they come he will magically get over his fear of newborns. Luckily, he is already so in love with these lil nuggets I'm sure that will take some of the edge off. Our nuggets are going to be so extremely blessed to have such an amazing daddy who already loves them so much and is already willing to do anything for them.

So happy early father's day babe. The three of us love you like crazy!

Faces & Monkey Arms

The excitement of being pregnant and having babies is all encompassing. So much planning. So many fun conversations to have.
How will we turn the office into a nursery? What nursery theme do we want to use? What kinds of names do we like?  What kind of car are we going to buy? What will we be like as parents?

I get completely wrapped up in it all. It is literally all that is on my brain. I promise there is an intelligent brain somewhere in there - the kind that doesn't only talk about babies! But with so much to think about, it is so easy to get completely lost in it all.

Yet every once in a while, there is something that yanks me from that blissful planning and excitement mode and throws me right into a freak out. This time it was the doctor's appointment I had a couple of weeks ago. Tadd couldn't get off of work to go with me to this one, and I was okay with that since I was expecting a pretty routine doctor's appointment - go in, chat for a minute, check on a couple things and leave. Imagine my excitement when she said, "Ok, let's do your pap and then we'll go check out those babies on the ultrasound" (Sorry for the bit of a TMI...And, yes, I secretly think this might have been some of the reason Tadd couldn't go!)

I was definitely not expecting another ultrasound! We had even called prior to the appointment and the nurse told us there would not be one. That's really why Tadd didn't come - that and he really couldn't get off work! It was a nutso week for him, I just like to give him crap about it.

Anywho, people had told us we would get to see our babies more often since we are having TWINS, yet I was still very pleasantly surprised when she told me I would get to see them again at the appointment! She said
 "With twins it is difficult to hear each heart beat separately on the doplar - and plus ultrasounds are more fun!"


And let's be honest - SO TRUE!!! I could not believe how big they have gotten. It was so fun to get to see them wiggling around inside of me - and wiggling they were! Active little nuggets. That was the fun part. As I watched the screen and saw them both I had the realization...They have FACES!!! And little monkey arms!

Sure, they are the cutest monkey arms I've ever seen! (Their legs just hadn't caught up quite yet.) And the most adorable faces. But that wasn't the point...the point was that those lil nuggets are no longer the sour patch babies from the first ultrasound pictures! These are REAL little people! Growing all too fast, becoming a very BIG reality.

Yes, pregnancy is all consuming, and literally all I think or talk about these days it seems is the babies, or planning for the babies, or pregnancy tidbits...but those are the fun things. The things that keep my mind literally occupied.

So when something pulls me out of super-planner mode, and I get a slight dose of the reality of it all...I go into a bit (I say bit...Tadd says GIANT) of a freak out mode. For a good few days after the doctor's appointment, I would stare at the pictures. It was almost like finding out we were really pregnant all over again. I went into the mode that randomly I would just text Tadd or call him. All I/the message would say was, "Faces...and monkey arms!"

For a good week after the doctor's appointment I was just completely overwhelmed. Suddenly the kids that I saw around town, or that came into the store with their parents, weren't the cute adorable kids I normally see that make me go awwww inside. No, all the sudden they were the screaming, whining, crying constantly kind! The toddlers that talk back to parents, the newborns that are perfectly content and then just SCREAM - without any hope of consolation.

I tried to tell myself it was just in my head. I swear it was real though- and it didn't help my overwhelmedness one little bit. I can't even really say when my attitude started changing again, or what event made me stop panicking and worrying so much. I can sure say that I am glad it did though.

Now instead I send Tadd random picture messages of things I find shopping around that I can't wait to buy when we find out boys/girls/boy & girl. Things like outfits that I find completely irresistable, or baseball decor for if we have a boy(s), shoes I find at work that must be purchased...Basically all the reasons Tadd tells me once we find out the gender(s) he is taking my debit card away! :)

OH, and yep, we did set the date for the BIG ultrasound! June 27th! Wahoo!!! The days cannot go by fast enough. Excited, ecstatic, elated...none of those words begin to describe the anticipation quite right!

And just in case you thought we were going to be cruel and only talk about the ultrasound pictures...here are the lil nuggets at 14 weeks!

Baby B heartbeat 138 bpm

Baby A heartbeat 146 bpm


And here are both babies (sorta). You can see most of one, and part of the other. Their heads are next to each other, but you can only really see the one's body. 

But seriously, they have FACES!!! And you can't see the monkey arms so much in the picture, but trust me, they were just a movin!

What cute lil nuggets they are already!

Speaking of Food...

We have quickly learned with this pregnancy that if we gaive into every food craving of mine...we would quickly go broke and have no money in savings when the nuggets arrive! So, we made a pact that we will not eat out for dinners anymore! 

Yes, perhaps that pact lasted one whole day, and we were eating Dominos for dinner the very next night...but in our defense it was because we grocery shopped after I got off work at 9:30 pm and got done very late. Cooking didn't seem like an option at the time!

Since then, however, we have done SO much better! In fact, just to make you all a little jealous, we took a picture of dinner a few nights ago - it was just that delicious!

 

Steak, corn on the cob and potatoes all cooked on the grill! And a yummy salad to round it out. Mmmmmm!

 

And homemade orange glazed cookies for dessert!

Since our Dominos indulgence, we have done much better with eating at home. Tadd has been such a big help with that! He is great to cook dinner if I am working that night. I come home to fajitas sizzling on the stove, or a lasagna in the oven - yes, he is just that amazing! 

As long as he knows what I had planned for dinner, and a recipe to make it, he is amazing to just pitch in and help so when I get home late from work we can eat dinner together and I can crash on the couch while he cleans up.

It is no wonder that after a few days of home cooked meals my belly is looking like this:

14 Weeks

And just in case you wanted the up close view too!

Thank goodness for the world's best hubby! I sure am grateful I get to keep you forever. (Most days) :)