back to school.

cole started MDO today.  we decided to put him in two days a week this year, which was a great decision since i now dread running errands with him.  i am already trying not to carry him so much and just lifting him in and out of the car is so tiring.  so this gives me time to get lots done without him.  

anyway, here he is when we are leaving for school.  i made him wear his backpack for a minute and he kept trying to take it off and tell me it was heavy.  

clearly we need to start weight training. 

so in my 5 1/2 hours without my little man, i ran ten errands, watched two episodes of Alias, and ate 6 cookies without interruption.  it was glorious.  it has been a long time since i have had a good amount of time to myself (other than when i am sleeping which is usually interrupted by the babies anyways).  

cole only napped for 45 minutes at MDO, so i put him back down at 3:30.  i decided to lay down too.  i woke up at 5:27.  we were supposed to meet dinner with friends at 5:30.  

i guess cole and i both were worn out after our day of play. 

it was a good day.

the first haircut.

we finally decided that cole needed to get his haircut.  i went back and forth for a long time because i loved his little curls and wispies.  but honestly his curls in the back were getting really fuzzy and not really looking like curls anymore.  plus one side in the back grew faster than the other and so there was some funky stuff going on back there.  

 so here is a last picture that i took where cole's hair was looking cute and curly.

a friend told us about a great place to get kid's haircut (thanks amy!) and it was perfect. 

he sat in a car and drove (which is his favorite thing to do in the whole world) throughout the whole haircut and never cried.  they also had a tv going with a disney movie on which also was a great distraction.  overall, it went well but i am a little sad that we have already reached this milestone.  what happened to my teeny tiny baby???

so here is a picture of cole on the way to getting his haircut (see what i mean by wild?):

and here is a picture from our ride home:

he is such a big boy!!!

pregnant with twins: how we found out

so i know that i have been unusually quiet about my thoughts on the twins.  

i guess that you can say that i am still in shock mode.  

but, the idea that i am going to have two babies in six months is slowly beginning to sink in.

so i think that it is about time to tell you the details about how we found out about the babies.

i found out i was pregnant on the 1st of july.  brenner left for duty in boston on the 5th so we did not have time to go to the doctor before he left.  we wanted to go together so we waited and went the day after he got back in august.  

i had obviously been much sicker for the past 7 weeks than i had been with cole but the thought of anything more than one little nugget swimming around NEVER crossed my mind.   when we got to the doctor, we immediately did and ultrasound and this is what we saw:

one healthy baby.  the doctor confirmed my guess that i was 10 weeks along.  (this picture is way better than my first one of cole which was done when i was 6 weeks pregnant.  he looked like a lima bean, this actually looks like a baby)

anyways, we hear the heartbeat and he is taking measurements and cole keeps talking about the turtle on the screen.  

then, the doctor moves the picture over a little bit and says, wait a minute, "what is this?" and stops at this picture.

we all just kind of stop and look.  after a few seconds, brenner says, "is that a mirror image?"

to which the doctor laughs, and says, "no, that's another one." 

my first thought was, "another what???"

brenner and i just sat there.  literally with our mouths open.  we didn't say anything for at least 30 seconds.  the doctor kept measuring and said something like they both look great and are the same size.  cole continued to desperately point to the screen saying "turtle!" "turtle!" 

we were silent.  i start to cry.  mostly out of shock.  and because i am pregnant with double the amount of hormomes of a normal crazy pregnant woman.  

finally brenner says, "are you sure?" and the doctor humored us in our states of shock and said "yes".

  the rest of the appointment is a blur.  we talked about due date, prenatal vitamins, C-sections and identical versus fraternal.  he says it is too early to know, but they took a picture of the line dividing the two sacs so his guess is they are fraternal. 

one of the funniest things was that both the nurse and the doctor made jokes about us having twins before the ultrasound.  seriously.  the doctor later said that he never makes jokes about twins and he doesn't know why he did this time, except maybe i was giving off a twin aura.   

we got in the car and our minds went through a thousand thoughts.  we need a new car because mine is too small.  is this really the time to downsize our house?  i am going to be so fat.  can i nurse two babies at once?  we are going to have three kids in college at the same time.  my parents are moving to texas for at least two months....maybe two years.  we have to buy an extra everything.  what is brenner has air force duty when they are due?  

my mind was going a million miles a hour.  

but i keep coming back to this:

what. a. blessing.

there was a time when we weren't sure i would be able to have kids.  

and now look what God has done.  

what. a. blessing.

  

randomness.

a few days ago i said to brenner, "i think i just look fat and not pregnant yet" to which he 

replied, "whatever you say".  not the response i was hoping for.

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i took this picture:

i love taking pictures of old tractors.  and on my granddad's farm, 

there was never a shortage of old tractors. 

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i got mad at cole today because he would not go and play with his toys.  i was trying to eat a cookie in the kitchen without him seeing me since he knows what cookies are now and asks for them.  

fabulous parenting moment.

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scooby!

scooby turned 10 this summer.  he is getting gray around the muzzle. 

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cole is getting his first hair cut later this week.  i swear the kid's hair grew 1/2 inch while we were in oklahoma and it is a little o.c. (outta control)

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i got a little people noah's ark at a garage sale. 

i liked to line up all the animals.

cole liked to try to fit in the ark.

Our last days of vacation.

we are home from oklahoma and about to jump back into real life.  brenner begins his last semester of seminary on tuesday and we are excited.  excited that this will be the last first day we will have for a while. did you know that one of us has been in school for 8 of our 10 years of marriage?  one year was my internship year and one year i was taking pre-requesite and supplemental classes before starting my graduate program, but one of us has been enrolled and taking some sort of class for 8 years.  

we are ready to be done with school.  

anyways, here are a few pictures of what we did in oklahoma when we were not inside staying cool. 

waterhose + pool + big field + 107 degrees + little boy = happiness

 the water was FREEZING too since it is from a well that is crazy deep in the ground.  

the dogs enjoyed the water too.  they cooled off in the cow tank.

jake was graceful getting into the tank. 

 scooby....not so much.

we left oklahoma when it was 106 degrees.  we got back to texas and it was 108 degrees.  we are glad to be back home for reasons other than the weather.

lay of the land.

one of my favorite things to do while we are up here on the ranch is to go for a walk.  our house is in a low land area and it is a mile up to the gate.  the road is kind of rough and is not fun to drive (especially when nauseous) but it is not bad to walk up.  i love walking these couple miles because not only is it slightly uphill which is good for the ole' gluteus maximus,  but it also gives you really pretty views of the land.  

(below are 3 of our family houses: ours is on the left, my brother's is in the middle 

and my parent's house is on the right. )

isn't it beautiful?  this morning i went out before 7 am and was able to watch the sun come over the horizon.  i guess one good thing about my lack of sleep lately is that i am awake early enough to take advantage of this time of day.  it is my absolute favorite time of day, before the rest of the work wakes up.   i will be sad to leave this weekend.

heading to the hills.

brenner, cole, and i (and all the furry ones) headed to oklahoma last thursday.  we stopped through tulsa to see some family before heading over to the family ranch on the western side of the state.

cole and i have pretty much been chilling out since we got here.  brenner has been working outside doing some land maintenance and has been putting up deer feeders for the fall (since this will be his last time to hunt for a while).  

brenner and cole have been having fun too.  here is what they have been doing  A LOT of.

since cole is OBSESSED with driving, brenner took him out on the 4-wheeler and after telling them to drive ridiculously slow about 23 times, they went and brenner said cole went "wwweeeeeeeeeeee" the entire time.  so now each day he asks to go on the "fo fo wee".  i can't believe that i let them do this but brenner took advantage of my weak and puking state.  

at least i have a happy kid!

and since many of you have asked, here is an update on me:

i have still been feeling awful but it is SO nice to have brenner back home.  it's not only nice to have him back so he can help with cole, but it is nice that i have someone to complain to.  no one wants to hear every hour that i feel nauseous and the outcome of everything i eat, for good or for bad.

  except my husband, right? 

 because when he said that he would have me and hold me in good times and bad times, he had no idea he would get to hear about the bad times in such detail.  lucky brenner.   

i have started taking zofran for the nausea finally.  it may sound stupid, but it never even occurred to me earlier in my pregnancy to call and get some.  when i was pregnant with cole, i didn't know such a thing existed.  i never really told me doctor about all the nausea and it wasn't until it had passed and i said something like, "i'm glad that's behind me", that my doctor said, "you should have told me, i would have given you something for that".   so i just forgot this time since i didn't take anything with cole.

but i finally had to try something.  it was getting too bad.  it seems to be helping a little bit but not that much.  i just keep praying that it will end with the first trimester!   

Checking in.

so now you know the real reason for why i have been on sabbatical.
these babies have been making me sick.  

really sick.
it has not been fun and with brenner gone, it was all i could do to watch and feed my kid, and try to feed myself.  the thought of expending energy that wasn't directly related to a basic need to survive seemed impossible.

and yet we flew on an airplane.
4 actually.  and we went to 4 states along the east coast.  but this was still in the name of survival.  we went to virginia to be with my family.  we already had a vacation scheduled in new york since november.  then we found out that brenner would be stationed in boston.  a mere 4 hours from where we would in in new york.   i needed so help and i was desperate to see my hubby.

so, cole and i flew to virginia, then flew to boston, then drove to new york, then flew home to virginia, then flew home to texas.   (are you tired yet because we sure were!) 
but we vacationed!  and i was sick.  and we got to see brenner for 2 days!  and i was sick.   we hung out with old friends!  and i was sick.  we spent time with family!  and i was sick.  are you getting the jist of our time away?  it was great....and it was hard.  even when i wasn't getting sick, i felt like i was about to be.  and the few moments i felt okay, i was overcome with tiredness.
i am beyond ready for the first trimester to be over.
i will post pictures of our vacation soon.  i will also get back to more regular posts soon, i hope.
here is one of my favorite photos from our trip.

this is the crew from New York, at a family camp called Camp of the Woods.  

more to come!

Back with a bang

hello friends!  it feels like it has been ages since i have been here. 

 and it has.  

so i thought that i would re-enter the blogging world after this temporary absence with some good news.

but wait....there's more.....

yep.  you read that correctly.  we are having twins!
and we have no idea how this happened.  i mean, we know how it happened, but neither have us have twins in our family.  totally random.  totally god.  totally shocking.  and totally amazing.

here are our little nuggets.  more details to come!