3 years ago today

Three years ago today, I was a pregnant girl of about 20 weeks.
We knew we were having twins, but we didn't know the gender.
I've never been so sick in my life as I was from week 6-week 20.
It finally subsided during this week.
Because I'd been pregnant before, I knew how my body reacted to carrying both genders.
I wasn't sick with Eli, just couldn't eat certain foods.
I got sick a few times with EK, but for the most part just felt nauseous all the time.
So, based on my very scientific conclusions, I KNEW that these 2 babies were either: 2 girls or 1 of each.
I KNEW that my body got sick with a girl so there HAD to be at least one of those in my belly.
And seeing as how I had been so very very sick, I thought there were probably 2 girls in there.
Why else would I be so sick?
2 sets of girl hormones, I concluded.

So, 3 years ago today, I went in for my 20 week checkup and ultrasound.
Around 2:45pm, I saw my 2 babies.
And they were both boys.
I didn't believe it.
Baby A's boy parts were very evident.
The positioning of Baby B made it more difficult to see, but the ultrasound tech assured me she was seeing boy parts on that baby, too.
I told her to look again.
That just couldn't be right.
Guess what?
She was right.

I found these scanned images at my parents house during Christmas. So the quality isn't the best.

But here they are.

Top 2 pictures are Baby A who is my Zaney.

In case you're not a pro at reading u/s pictures, that is his legs & bottom facing up in the 2nd picture (which shows his male-ness).Down here is Baby B. My Zander Griffy.

3rd picture is his side profile.

And look closely in the 4th picture to see what the u/s tech saw to determine he was also a boy.

And you know the ending to this story.

I love that they are the same gender.

I love that they are both boys.

I'm so thankful I wasn't the one who orchestrated it.

I would've messed up.

HE did not.

And that brings tears to my eyes.

Sippy Cups

One of the jobs that Eli and Emma Kate have is to unload the dishwasher. Anything that they can't reach (high in the cabinets), they lay out on the counter and then I put it away.

After their most recent unloading, I walked into the kitchen and saw this.... Holy Moly! That is just one dishwasher load of sippy cups. And that's only for 2 boys. It really made me start thinking about families with 5 or 6 multiples (you know, the ones that get on TV?). Can you even imagine what their dishwashers & counters look like?

Daddy's Pumpkin Carving

Philip told me to title this post "Daddy's Pumpkin Carving." He said that even though it was supposed to be for Eli & Emma Kate, that he basically did all of it!

To give Emma Kate some credit, she did participate in quite a bit of it. She started reading the "Pumpkin Prayer Poem" while Daddy cut the top off of hers.
Next, she started scooping out the insides.
If you look closely at the picture above (or just click on it to make it bigger), you'll see (in the background) what Eli was doing...reading a book. That's norm for him. Always has his nose in a book!

Philip started cutting the top off of Eli's, but Eli was still reading his book.

EK is still scooping hers out....

She decides that its just disgusting....

Philip finally told Eli to "put his book down and get over here."

So Eli did, but he didn't like the cleaning out process at all.

Next they drew faces on their pumpkins....

which was followed by Philip carving the drawn faces...

The little boys got up from nap just in time to take a picture with the completed jack-o-lanterns....

Pumpkin Pictures

Mandatory during fall (at least if you live in my house), is getting dressed in fall colors and going to a pumpkin patch for pictures.

Clothes went great.

Pumpkin patch was great.

Getting four kids to look the same way and smile at the same time was not great.

Mainly it was one busy boy who just didn't cooperate. He wasn't bad. Just wasn't into sitting still and smiling at the same time.

Before I show you all the outtakes, here are some that were good!

All those were good right? Did you notice none of them had the baby of the family? Enter Zander and watch the atmosphere of the pictures change.

And now attempting to get a good one of all four of them together.


1st try...Zander is looking at the flowers.

2nd try...Zander must be hot and needing to wipe the sweat off his brow.

3rd try....Zander wonders if anything exciting is happening behind him.

4th try...Zander does his "wrinkle up my nose" smile.

5th try...Zander stands while everyone else sits.

And after that, both Philip and I are done. D-O-N-E-, done. Actually Philip would've probably been done after the 1st or 2nd try. But not me. I gave it good effort. Just came up empty.

10-10-10

Today is 10-10-10 and the blogging world is going crazy with all sorts of lists that have "10" in them. A quick google search came up with some of these: "10 Classic Books," "10 Uplifting Animal Movies," "10 Calendar Tips for Busy Families" etc...



So I've decided to do my own "10" list. And since my mind is always in overdrive, I came up with more than 10 so I have 2 lists.

Ten Random Thoughts on 10-10-10:

1. The Gators are killin' me this year in football. Last nights game against LSU left me furious!! I woke up during the middle of the night thinking about it....ridiculous! I told Philip that if they lose this next week to Mississippi State, that I'm done with them for the season.


2. Emma Kate told me a few days ago that "her tooth felt like it was going to get lost today." Love that girl and her funny sayings!


3. Eli will be 10 years old in 6 days. So strange to think that he's been here and I've been a mom for a decade. Wow - that makes me sound old. However, it also saddens me because if he leaves our home after high school, we have less than 9 years left with him. I need to be more intentional about making each day count.


4. While I'm being all sentimental, I walked into the little boys room during naptime and had to snap a pic of their sweet faces.... I also prayed for them while I was in their room. I can really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when I go into my childrens rooms while they are sleeping and pray over them.


5. Speaking of praying, Emma Kate has brought home 2 papers recently from church that need to be remembered. The first one was a card she made for my Dad after his surgery. I mailed the card to him, so I don't remember exactly what it said, but I do remember that it said, "I'm sorry about your gaw blatter." The next paper she brought home was a prayer & praise list. She had listed Grandpa, Grandmother & Granddaddy in the nursery (nursing home) as her prayer requests. And my dad again on the praise list. Then she wrote, "Dear God, I pray for my grandpa, granddaddy at the nursing home, my grandmother amen. Dear God, I have a praise for my grandpa who is feeling better from surgery amen."


6. My husband has been cranking out some awesome projects lately! Can't show you a picture yet of the big one, but it is Zane & Zander's Halloween costumes. The other cool thing he did was help Eli make a diorama for his book share presentation at school. It is based from the book "Dark Day in the Deep Sea" which is a Magic Tree House book. Didn't they do a great job?


7. A local magazine was doing an issue dedicated to multiples (twins & triplets) for October. I got to submit a column for it as well as have a photographer take pictures of Zane & Zander. It just came out last week and I think it turned out pretty good. If you haven't seen it, you can read it online here (which coincidentally is another "10" list)!


8. My phone is really driving me crazy. It just freezes. When it does that, I can't make any calls, receive any calls, etc... I'm eligible for a new phone, but I can't decide if I'm sticking with Verizon or switching over to AT&T so I can get an iPhone. So for now, I'll just deal with it...which by the way my husband thinks is dumb!


9. The weather right now is gorgeous! Cool in the mornings & evenings but so nice and sunshiney during the day. We do occasionally need long sleeves and jeans. I've realized this year more than ever before, that fall/winter clothes means that my pile of "darks" laundry can't go more than 2 days without needing to be done. Massive amount of clothes I'm talking about!


10. Finally, listen to this song because it tells exactly how I'm feeling lately.

Now onto my 2nd "10" list for 10-10-10.

10 Things I Love to Hear Zane & Zander Say

1. When they want to be held they say "I want to hold you."


2. When they say the words really or silly, they say it with a "d" instead of an "l", so it sounds like "reedy" or "seedy". Everytime we see one of these things waving around... they say, "Oh look, a seedy (silly) guy."


3. At night before they go upstairs for bed, they ask for a "bitah-men" (vitamin)


4. They say their names with an "s" sound rather than a "z." So they are Sane and Sanner.


5. Zane says "momo-cycle" instead of motorcycle. And Zander goes to the pantry doors and while banging on them says, "Open this, I want." I think that means "open this so I can see what I want."


6. Today they were trying to get Eli's attention but he was nose deep in a book. So they both said "E-i, you not hearing me?"


7. I found one of these scooters for them at a garage sale.... Zander calls it a "cootah."


8. Every Wednesday night when Eli and EK go to AWANA, Zane cries to go to "yawna" with them.


9. They call computers and pianos a "peen-o."


10. One of their most favorite foods is fruit cocktail. They call it "fruit hot tail."
    
    

Sick sick sick

Our house has never been as sick as we were this week. It was absolutely awful. All 6 of us fell victim. It started in the early morning hours on Tuesday. Through the monitor, I heard, "Momma, I make a mess." I went up to Zane & Zander's room and found that Zane had gotten sick all in his bed. This story goes downhill from there. For the next 5 days at least 1 of us, but usually 2 at a time, have been sick.

Here's sweet Zaney on Day 1. We had non-stop TV-a-thon because he just felt too bad to do anything else. Notice towels under and over him for when the sickness hits him.

Zander was next, but I don't have any pictures of that because Zane was still also sick and quite honestly I just couldn't take care of 2 sick 2yr olds and take pictures also. I have never known the level of awful that this was.

2 days after Zane's began (and 1 day after Zander's), it hit the big kids. They were so pitiful. I've never seen them so lethargic and lifeless. Here is the extent of what they did all day long.... laid with washcloths covering their face and buckets beside them for when it struck. It hit Zane & EK the hardest, but probably EK more than anyone. That seems to happen to her anytime we are sharing a virus. I wonder if that's because her body is so lean?

The day after Zander was so sick, I tried giving him some jello-ice (similar to jello water. I read about it online and thought we'd give it a try. Note to self: get a different color other than red. Its not pretty on the carpet.)

I got it on day 4 and Philip on day 5.
This picture was on day 5. I still wasn't feeling great so we were laying low. Still on the couch and watching TV. Honestly I don't recall even feeling well enough to smile. I bet I was faking in this picture.

Several sweet friends helped out by bringing things over. We didn't leave the house the entire 5 days (well Philip did until he got sick on Day 5). Sonic crushed ice, jello, Sprite, chicken noodle soup. Thank God for good friends who kept us supplied!

Friday Night Girls Night

Daddy and Eli went to a sleepover at a friends house last night, so after Zane and Zander went to bed, me and EK had a girls night. She got to pick what we did.

First, we made cupcakes with her cupcake kit. Doesn't that icing look scrumptious?Mouth watering, I know.

Then, we watched a DVR'ed "19 Kids and Counting" and gave ourselves manis and pedis.
EK chose lime green for her toes....
and a pinkish for her nails.

The last big event for the night was getting to sleep in the bed with me. She was so excited that it took her a VERY long time to fall asleep. Once she did though, she made herself quite comfy....

Sweet Dreams my Emmy Kate.

I'm so thankful you enjoyed our girl time. I hope there are many more fun mommy/daughters memories ahead!

Kupcakes & More

A week or two ago, as I passed the Square in Bentonville, I noticed a new place on the corner, Kupcakes & More. Made a mental note to maybe try it sometime. Then, yesterday as I flipped through this month's Kids Directory, I saw a full page ad for it. Moved that mental note up to a definite "to-do."

Today was the day! After we picked EK up from gym, we went to the square for cupcakes. Unfortunately, I broke Rule #1 of being a good blogger....ALWAYS carry your camera with you. After all, you just never know when a picture opportunity will present itself. So, I have no pictures of the yumminess as it happened. We did bring home 2 cupcakes though, so I've got pictures of those to show you.

For the most part though, you'll just have to imagine how this all went down:

Eli chose Berry Berry Strawberry....

Me and EK chose Chocolate Peanut Butter....

and I got a Party Cake flavor for the Z's.

We also got a Berry Berry Strawberry to bring home to Daddy and because a "special" was a 6 pack of cupcakes, we bought another additional Berry Berry Strawberry. (This seems like a good time to talk about the price of cupcakes. Why are they so expensive? These were $2.75 each. Apparently that is the going rate because its the same price as the cupcake place in Fayetteville. At least these at Kupcakes & More are bigger. But still, that's a lot!)

As we sat down outside to eat them, we saw several classes of school kids walking to the square for lunch. Emma Kate recognized 4 friends from gymnastics but we were across the street from them so she didn't get to talk to them.

We all took our first few bites and oh. my. goodness. Pure enjoyment. I was helping the little boys with their Party Cake kupcake because it had a heaping mound of icing on it and I knew that was just going to be a big mess. So I took one for the team, and ate most of the icing off. I am a self-proclaimed icing connoisseur and let me tell you, this icing was DEEE-LISH!!! The little boys ate the "cake" part of the kupcake, with the exception of one bite I took, it was so moist...mmm, mmm, mmm!

I looked over at Eli and he only had one bite of his left, so it was apparently equally good. Emma Kate dropped 1/2 of hers on the table, but I know she liked all that topping (as seen in picture above), because it was all over her mouth! (don't you wish I had my camera so you could SEE all these visuals I'm giving you?)

The owners/workers were so very nice also. When they found out we were going to eat outside, they went out and cleaned the tables and chairs for us. Great customer service!!

While we were outside eating our kupcakes, 3 firetrucks with their lights and sirens on came barreling down the street. That was super exciting for the little boys. They, especially Zane, love "fifa-truks."

Impromptu times. Fun times. So thankful to be able to share them with my Busy Blessings!