The Rest of Christmas

I guess Christmas is officially over now, though we still have up all of our decorations:) This year for Christmas we spent 4-5 days in Ohio visiting with my family. We had a great time hanging out, visiting, playing games, opening presents, and eating LOTS of yummy food. The twins were little piglets and I think gained a few ounces:) Thursday, Christmas Eve was Shaffer Christmas. We had a lot of fun and even got in a few fantastic group pictures. Good job family!

Whole Clan, and everyone was looking!

Cousins picture

Thursday night and Friday we had Christmas with our immediate family. We always enjoy each other's company and lots of laughter. This year was no exception. Perfect Christmas Day!

Baby A and Baby 1's stockings

1st set of onesies (not sure why Josh looks puzzled)

Whole family before "Santa" presents opened

Excited to be together in red

Finally, we had Mount Christmas on Saturday evening. Again, lots of eating, laughing and hard-core game playing. I think this is the first year in a long time that both sides of our families had everyone there for Christmas. That was so nice! Unfortunately, we didn't get a group shot on Saturday...I guess none of us thought about it. Sorry Grandma! Hopefully we can all be together again next year!

Great grandchildren (next Christmas will have at least 3 more!)

Christmas sweater picture of the cousins (mainly borrowing family members' sweaters)

Christmas Elves

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Busy December!

We have had a busy December, as I'm sure many have so far. The first week of December, we drove down to Arkansas with four families (minus kids) for the weekend, to help some very good friends move, to begin Harding in January (yeah for Harding, boo for them moving). It was a hard-working but fun weekend, and unfortunately I don't think we took any pictures. We will miss the Maynards very very much but are excited for their new journey.

The second weekend in December brought my college roommate, suitmates and their spouses down to our house for a get-together. We have been blessed that all of us live within 4 hours of each other and can meet up several times a year (usually at a different location). This time, everyone stayed at our house and we had a great weekend with lots of laughter, talking, bowling, eating, and Wii playing. Always a fun time! Below are a few pictures from the weekend (I won't post the action shots of the Wii Hula-Hooping:)

We had more fun posing than bowling, 2 real and 2 joksters:)

The real preggos (did you guess right?) Roommates due 2 days apart, so fun!

The serious bowlers

This past weekend we had Steed Christmas at our house, a tradition that began a few years ago under the "big" tree. We had a delicious brunch and enjoyed our time visiting and being together as usual:) I think the kids had the most fun, though, as soon as we let them loose on the presents. I don't think we got any posed group pictures but plenty of action shots! Again, another fun weekend!

Unloading of presents under the tree

Not sure which is bigger, bag or baby!

P man getting assistance from his cousins and sister

Fun toys!

Little A enjoyed watching her cousins opening their presents too

Sharing a gift

Happy for more Legos!

Legos are a hit!

Finally I'll leave you with a 17 week picture by the Christmas tree. No new news to report, other than I am getting bigger! We have our big ultrasound next week to find out what our little ones are, so we will keep you posted. Merry Christmas!

Pregnancy Update - 15 weeks

15 and a half weeks....moving/growing right along! Just wanted to give everyone a little update and satisfy some family requests for pictures:) Here is me at 14 and a half weeks (I'm a little deliquent on taking pictures on the exact week days). 2nd trimester may not show actually belly but I think you get the idea with the tank top....still same pants though!


Here is what has been going on:

- I have gained 11 lbs, and I don't feel like my appetite has increased...just babies I guess!
- Have 2 pairs of pants left that fit (snuggly)
- Feeling MUCH better this past week: much fewer headaches, very little nausea and more energy
- Nursery/office cleaning out still a major work in progress but steadily improving
- We are currently browsing names and have at least 4 for each gender that we are liking so far
- Looking forward to 16 wk appt in 6 days!

**NOTE : I ended up going to the doctor yesterday for an impromptu visit. For the past 24 hours I was having extreme pressure and lots of stabbing pain in my lower lower abdomen, along with a major increase in pulse rate. I called the nurse just to see if this was normal...she said yes probably, but would I like to come in anyway to double check since I was right down the road? YES! So yesterday I got to hear both (we think) heartbeats and see the little ones. Everything was fine and the doctor said it was probably just my round ligaments stretching hard. He said he normally sees this is women 18-20 weeks, but twins are normally 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule, so very normal for me. That made me feel much better and gave me a baseline for stretching pain:)

Next update I should have new ultrasound pictures.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Big Ole Tree

On Monday, we had our 3rd annual raising of the 12 foot Christmas tree. Josh's brother, wife and kids came over to help us man-handle and decorate......this is their tree but it is out on loaner to us as it doesn't fit in their current house. And we love it!! It fills up our room well and is so pretty to look at. This is definitely a Christmas highlight for me (I also don't do a lot of the "lifting or setting up" so the guys may not share my sentiments:) The tree is also a great conversation piece when people come over:)

Tall ladder used for set up

Passing out the ornaments with some help

Niece and nephew having fun with the toys

Perspective of how big and beautiful the tree is!(We now have a pretty red tree skirt underneath that looks a little better than the carpet square)

Locks for Love

For the third time in several years, it was time to chop off the ponytail for Locks for Love (an organization that makes wigs from hair donations for children with cancer). My ponytail was longer than I anticipated, as I was waiting to go to the town of my in-laws for my favorite hairdresser. She does such a great job but we have been too busy to get down there. So Thanksgiving break was the perfect time!

Before:

11 inches later:

So far my hair has been SO much easier to wash and dry, saving me lots of time (and hopefully fewer headaches:)

13 week update-End of 1st Trimester!

So, about time for a blog post on the babies (sorry family, I know you have been asking for weeks). On Monday I began my 13th week, which is technically the beginning of the 2nd trimester! Yeah!! Can't believe it is here already.

Here is me at 13 weeks, not a whole lot of change yet. (I really need to stop taking these pictures after I have fallen asleep on the couch:)


Here are the babies at 12 weeks 3 days:


Picture #1: Baby A, a mover and a shaker. This little one was in a different position every time the doctor came back to take a look. The blob to the right is actually the head, facing us....kind of looks like a skeleton. We were able to see little legs on this one!

Picture #2: Baby B, a little more chilled. Head is to the left. This one appeared to be asleep though we could see some movement.

Picture #3: Baby B again, the little dot between the 2 blobs is actually an arm. We were getting a little wave:)

At our 12 week appt, we were able to do an ultrasound first, to make sure we could see both babies' heartbeats as the doctor said there was a good chance we would only hear one on the Doppler. Turns out the babies were right on top of each other, so we could just hear one for now. That was a really neat sound!! Hopefully next time they will be a little more spread out so we can hear both.

What is going on at 13 weeks:

- Have gained 7 pounds so far, with Thanksgiving feasts coming up so I need to be careful!
- Was vaccinated with the H1N1 shot
- Am feeling a little less nauseated, with fewer headaches
- Still get tired very easily (bodily tired) but am taking fewer naps
- Have a noticeable bulge in my tummy starting about mid-day
- Working on cleaning out my office, to begin a nursery (quite the project!)
- Rejoicing on all the hand-me-downs that have been given to us already! We are amazed!
- Babies do not fit on the same ultrasound screen anymore
- Am able to stop taking my progesterone pills
- Anxiously awaiting my next appt on Dec 17
- Thankful for every day spent with these little miracles!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Josh and I are very thankful for each one of you!

Viva Las Vegas

A few weeks ago, Josh and I took a mini-vacation aka "last hoorah" to some place "cool", Las Vegas:) We seem like Las Vegas people right?:) We left on Sunday and traveled most of the day, arriving to our hotel, New York New York in time to eat dinner, browse our hotel and crash. An unexpected trip to CVS kept us up pretty late...but a fairly uneventful first night there.

Views of our hotel. Our window looked out to the roller coaster but surprisingly we couldn't hear the noise.



Monday we did a LOT of sightseeing of the different casinos and attractions. It is amazing how detailed everything was! That night we watched Monday night football in the ESPN Zone for a bit, Josh's request, and did some more sightseeing. At my request, we watched the Bellagio fountain show a few times:)

Monte Carlo

Closeness to the cats at MGM

Luxor

Excalibur

Tuesday we slept in a little and then began the rest of our sightseeing. We stopped off first to pick up tickets for a show that evening and then decided it was time for our Vegas buffet experience shortly after starting out:) Our plans were a bit off this evening but we ended up having a great time: saw the evening sights from atop the Eiffel Tower, Chinese food, more Bellagio fountains and volcanoes erupting, and ended with a great show of the "Blue Man Group."

Blue Man Group

Blurry Bellagio from the Eiffel Tower (none of our pictures were very good from here)

Ready for our "Tower" Ride

Gondola rides at the Venetian

Volcano erupting at the Mirage

Inside shopping at the Forum

Paris

We really enjoyed our time and didn't realize we would get to visit so many cities/countries in 2 days! (New York, Paris, Egypt, Rome, etc:) My 2nd favorite, next to the fountains, is explained in the picture below. Floor to ceiling tubes of M&Ms! Can't beat that! We are so happy we were able to go...but were very glad to come home. Our feet and legs needed a break!

Putt Putting and Batting Cages

Putt-putt golf and swinging in the batting cages.....these are activities you do in November right? In the south you do! Several weeks ago we went with some dear friends for a fun night of Mexican food, golf and batting cages. It was a little chilly but we and the kids had a great time. Here are some pictures of some of my favorite people on a fun night!

Peanut gallery

Snake-skinned boots made an appearance....rattlesnake we were told.

Sweet family!

Concentration amidst chaos

The two who were not allowed in the batting cages:(

Josh (if you can see him) swing for the fences

Very excited!

Pros