35 weeks.

here we are at 35 weeks. 

only 2 weeks left!!!! 

this was my outfit from church.  i am not always so stylish. 

most of the time it is me and my velour jogging pants.  

but i didn't think anyone would to see me in those.

maybe next week.

diapers. and more diapers.

last week our church choir threw us a shower where people brought just diapers and wipes.  

here is what we ended up with.

can you say amazing?  

with two babies, we will go through these faster than i can imagine, but we are so thankful for the love and support of our friends and church!

thoughts on this pregnancy.

today i have washed four loads of pink.  

just about everything that i washed was either solid pink or had pink in it.  
it got me thinking to how different these girls are going to be in so many ways from my wild little man.  and how different this pregnancy has been compared to my first pregnancy. 

this pregnancy started out different, with me being so sick until about week 15.

of course week 10 was a shocker, where we learned we were having twins. 

week 18 we learned that we were having two girls, also a surprise since we both were convinced that at least one was a boy.  

week 19 we learned that we had twin to twin transfusion syndrome.  

week 20 we went to houston for surgery, which was then cancelled.

from weeks 20-27, we had ultrasounds twice a week to monitor the girls, in arlington and waco, and went to my regular doctor every 2 weeks.

starting at week 28, i got just one ultrasound a week, still in arlington. 

by week 31 i was seeing my regular ob weekly too.
at week 33, i saw the specialist in arlington for the last time.
here we are at week 34.
(a cute leg shot)

we are in awe of God's goodness that we are here, with the girls still cooking, and showing no signs of distress or early arrival.
after being told that there would be a strong chance of us needing to deliver between 30-32 weeks, which we were told was the best case scenario, here we are. i'm trying not to take each day for granted that i have to keep my girls safe and allow them to grow stronger before getting to meet them.
at our appointment today, it was hard to get good measurements because they were in bad positions and not cooperating.  basically one is lying on top of the other and they are both smooshed over on my right side as far as they can go.  but we think they are both over 5 lbs.
(both girls are head down this week!)

i feel so much different in this pregnancy.  i hurt more, if you can believe it!  my legs hurt the most which is hard because it means that i really am not able to exercise at all other than chasing cole and going to target.
although to be perfectly honest, the last couple of times i have been in target, i have gotten one of the scooter carts and rode around in it.  my pride is gone and my large pregnant body now calls the shots.  most recently the shots have said, sit on your butt as much as you can.
so if you see me in target or at the zoo or in any other store riding a scooter, don't laugh at me.  or at least not where i can see it.


(this picture is a little hard to figure out as my sweet girl's head is not very clear.  but what is clear, is that these babies have some hair! who knew that you could see that on an ultrasound!  now to see how much and what color!!!)

zoo time.

friday the weather was unbelievable and in the upper 70s.  we seized the opportunity to go the the zoo one last time before the girls arrive.  

my mom was a trooper and played with cole on the playground there.

 once he remembered this was not real, he loved crawling on the kimono dragon.

 jumping on the chimes.

 and here is how i navigated the zoo.  

i  knew that walking around the zoo would probably be too much for my big belly and tired legs. 

but i also did not want to miss out on the opportunity to spend some time with my boy.  so i set my pride aside and we used one of the zoo's scooters.  it was worth it to be able to get around and not be exhausted and hurting (or going into labor) by the end of the trip.  

(my granddad would have been proud of my scooter driving abilities!)

baby shower.

we have been so blessed these past few weeks by people that we know and love as well as by people that we do not know.  

we were given many things by a complete stranger who had heard about our previous complications and had lots of extra twin baby stuff and she just gave it all to us.  i am talking about cribs, bedding, clothes, swings and more. 

it is truly amazing and truly a blessing.  

i also had some dear, sweet friends throw me a baby shower.  what a blessing it is to not only have people come to celebrate the birth of your child/children with you, also bless you with gifts for the babies and a party too!  the love of my friends and family touches my heart.

here are just a couple of the personalized onesies for the girls. 

 jars of pacis, socks, and rattles.

banner made by amanda which will soon be hanging in their room.

 diaper wreath made by sarah.

most of the guests.

 my wonderful hostesses, blanche, amanda, lisa and sarah.

it was a wonderful day!

lego table.

for christmas, brenner and i got cole a lego table.  actually, i made it.  

i mean, i didn't make the table itself, but i found an idea about turning a simple side table (mine was from ikea) into a play table. 

i decided to make it a lego table.  cole loves to build things and i wanted to find something that can grow with him.  legos are so good for creativity, fine motor coordination, and dexterity for young kids and i love the fact that they make larger legos for little toddler hands!  i also decided to make it Cars themed, since he loves that movie (like every other little boy i know).  

i ended up getting three sets of legos, two with Cars characters and parts, and one basic set, plus a building board.  i added the white stripes like a road around the edges to the table.  

so far it is a big hit! 

32 weeks!!

i am 32 weeks preggo.  that means we are on the home stretch!

we feel so blessed to have made it this far after all the complications.  things are continuing to go very well for both of the girls.  their fluid levels remain normal and they are growing at a great rate!  at my appointment last week they measured their growth and they were both measuring 3 lbs 13 ozs.  i was 31 weeks and 1 day at my appointment and they were both measuring 31 weeks and 1 day...right on track!  

it is so funny to think that i am carrying more baby right now than i did when when cole was born.  they have been growing about 6-8 oz a week!   

we are hoping to make it 5 more weeks!  

christmas part 2.

here are a few more pictures of christmas.  

i must say that i did not take as many pictures as i wanted, mostly because of the fact that i

was tired and lazy.  being 30 weeks pregnant with twins will do that to you. 

ball pit time.  

and yes, i am sitting in cole's bed....praying that it will not break under me.

 brenner's sweet cousins bill and mallory gave us a basket full of goodies and cole was most taken with the 'hay' in the basket and had lots of fun loading his tractor and dump truck.

 our living room turned into a hay field.

at the mayborn museum, of course playing with the trains.

my mom got an ipad for christmas from my dad.  neither brenner nor i have an iphone or ipad so we have had fun looking at all the apps, especially for kids.  

cole is officially hooked and wants to use the ipad ALL the time.  

go bears!

this photo sums up baylor these days. 

this was taken a couple of days before the alamo bowl after it had been kind of rainy.  

we were on our way home from the mayborn museum and saw the rainbow and fortunately 

we had my camera with me.  

isn't it amazing???

with baylor football ranked #12, women's basketball ranked #1 and men's basketball ranked #4, 

this is the most amazing year in baylor sports!  it is so fun to live here and be able to go

to so many of the games.  

since my family came into town for christmas, we all decided to go down to the game (except for my brother).  my sister and brother in law had never been to san antonio and while we did not have time to go to the alamo, we still had a great time eating at budros, walking along the riverwalk and of course beating washington in the alamo bowl!

(cole honestly was not being tortured during dinner!)  

  

we are so proud of our baylor bears!

christmas. part 1.

this was the first year that we have spent christmas in waco.  

it was really special to have the family come and see us, and it was also really great not to have to travel anywhere.  

christmas morning was wonderful.  

everybody slept in, brenner was on his usual breakfast duty and whipped up delicious eggs and sausage, and we started opening presents about 10:30.  

actually, cole started a little early as he discovered a loosely wrapped present of play doh and play doh accessories from aunt jenna and uncle adam. 

uncle chris played with him for quite a while until everyone else was ready.

brenner read from the book of luke about jesus' birth to celebrate the real reason for this special season.

we decided to start some christmas traditions of our own this year.  

on christmas eve, we gave cole a new pair of pajamas and a book to be opened. 

then, from brenner and i, cole got one thing he wanted, one thing he needed and a surprise.  we also got him an ornament, which is a tradition that i grew up with and love having an ornament from each year of my life hanging on our tree.  

the rest of the family pummeled him with presents.  here are just a few pictures of some of his presents. 

Cars punching bag from chris.

 sticker books from nana and poppy.

 tractor/combine from jenna and adam.

 rockin elmo from chris and cousin tim.

 Cars ball pit from jenna and adam.

lots of play time ensued.

playing catch up.

there is so much to catch up on that it is going to take me a little while.  

the week before christmas, also know as my birthday week, i was sick with bronchitis.  

it was not fun since i couldn't have the good drugs to help me get better faster.  i was sick over brenner's graduation, which i drug myself to, and over my birthday, which was even more depressing.  

and it was also hard to finish up christmas shopping and getting ready for a house full of company.  

fortunately my mom got into town to save me and help out with all the things that need to be done.  

anyway, i will catch up about our christmas over the next week or so.   

i will leave you with a picture of me and chewy, our sweet, mischievous old man.

(picture taken christmas morning sans makeup....for me and chewy.
we are both looking older these days)