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)