Ben gets baptized...

Beautiful day for a beautiful moment in Ben's life!

Proud moment for all of us

Brandon praying over our boy

Pastor Steve who is Ben's youth pastor has been such an amazing instrument in Ben's life in just a few short months of finding a home church. 

Oh Ben we are so proud of you and the man you are becoming. You have such a giving and gentle heart and your love for the Lord shines through all you do. Thank you for being who you are in Him! We look forward to seeing all that He has in store for your life as you chose to continue to serve Him in all you do. 

fish on....

I love watching my kids fish. I love watching how independent the boys are now baiting their own hooks, restringing their line, getting un-snagged, unhooking the fish. It's all just amazing to watch how much they've grown up. 

Cutest fisherman ever! We went to buy bait. The boys picked out lures and she picked out this hat! I mean it really does come down to looking good!

After 3 hours we decided silly pictures was more entertaining!

Ahhh....nothing like a day at the lake

One day at a time....

God continually brings me to a place of complete surrender. I know my desire to be 'in control' gives Him lots of opportunity to show me just how 'out of control' I am. He does this because He desires to deepen my dependency on Him and bring me to a place where all I can do is look up! This pregnancy has proven to be another opportunity for Him to teach a very slow learner :)

We right now are dealing with pre-eclampsia at a very early time in pregnancy. This warrants all sorts of concerns and scares at 23 weeks. As of today I've started blood pressure medication. Even though there are risks involved to the babies, the bigger risk is it being untreated.   I've had the prescription for 5 days and have been praying what to do. Today I was able to talk to the nurse, at the University of WA high risk pregnancy department, that I will be seeing on Thursday. She spoke to me clearly and with great knowledge and I got off the phone knowing I had no choice but start the medication. I'm thankful for the peace that came from waiting on the Lord and waiting for Him to show me my next step. Today He really just showed me to take one day at a time. I can't get ahead of myself or HIM and I can't know what happens next. What I can do is rest in the fact that I serve a God who gives me what I need for that day. And today I have peace. 

The evidence needed for a few boys around this house!

Makenna and I just keep saying our motto 'girls rule and boys drool!' ;)

This one is great. It just takes some head tilting and deep concentration ;) So both girls are labeled. You can see that Baby A (Alexa) is resting her head on Baby B's (Avery's) belly. She is tilting her head backwards and looking at her sister...love it!

Our first 3D picture. Only Alexa showed up for this photo shoot this time around! But I sure love her little hand up by her face. And I can see Makenna in her little nose and mouth! 

And lastly me at 23 weeks! 

These are also the pants that will never be worn again! (moment of silence) Sadly on my way to the doctors appointment, with only 15 minutes to spare, I hopped out of the car and heard a ripping sound. I immediately felt the draft and knew we had an issue! From crotch to rear I was completely exposed. I rushed to Target with white sweater, featured above, tucked into the back of my pants and my purse place strategically in front of my crotch. Rushed/waddled back grabbed some yoga pants, put them on, ripped off tags, paid, and made it to appointment on time! 

Just one day at a time :)

the results are in....

The results are in....

We are having 2 little girls!! 

Introducing....

Alexa Drew

She is named after my brother Nathan Andrew

Avery Scott

She is named after my brother Scott

Alexa's feet

These are their two heads together! Not sure how all these angles work. Just before this we got video of Alexa kicking Avery in the face.

And here we are at 20 weeks! Not really sure where these girls are going to go in the upcoming weeks! Just know it's probably going to involve more and more Maalox! 

changing my mind....

A pregnant girls allowed to do such things right???
I mean I do it when I order at a restaurant. I'm all set with with a chicken salad and then I see something shiny like mozzarella sticks!
Or I start trying to figure out dinner and all the sudden pizza is the only answer that really makes sense!
So I originally thought I was having one boy and one girl. And I'm going to now say I think it's two girls.
This could be from a variety of reasons leading me in this direction. First, I have my two girl names ready to go and can't for the life of me think of a single boy name. Second, I have a teenage boy at home so I'm seeing boys a little differently right now! Ok, yes people, I have not done teenage girls yet and I know that has to be worse than this but for now this is the only crazy I know! And third, I have all of Makenna's girl clothes still so that would sure be helpful since the double diaper thing is going to break us :)
I'll let you know in 10 days!!! Can't wait!! :)

pregnancy bliss...

I was so sad to think that we could officially be done having babies. To think that I would never feel a baby kick inside of me again or nurse a baby in the wee hours of the morning made my heart hurt. 

So what God did was give me a double dose of all the other things I forgot about :)

Pregnancy Bliss 101...

*the 'morning' sickness that was SO not just in the morning lasting a wonderful 15 weeks 

*the peeing every hour all night long because I'm already as big as I was at 8 months pregnant!

*feeling like everyday I ran a marathon that I was not prepared or conditioned for!

*12 hours of sleep being just not quite enough

*the burping and other air based activity that took over the entire 1st trimester

*the heartburn that left me last week wishing God had skipped the whole 'creating fish day' 

*the pillow that is already wedged between my legs to sleep to keep the stabbing pains in my girl parts to a low roar :)

*packing emergency underwear with me everywhere I go in case I sneeze, laugh, or cough

*being hungry ALL of the time. So hungry that last week I woke up at 4am craving hash browns, thought about them all day, went to Denny's for dinner just for hash browns, and then hovered over the toilet for the rest of the evening. Needless to say I'm over the hash brown thing!

*hemorrhoids.....enough said!

I say all of that to say this...I would do it a hundred times over! 

God is giving me 2 beautiful babies and it's just alot of work helping make 20 fingers and 20 toes :)

I want to remember ALL of it this time with it being the last time I'll experience it. 

That means documenting the good, bad, and ugly so not for a moment will I forget this miracle!

Me at 14 weeks....

It was during this week that we had a huge scare. I started bleeding a lot for 5 very long days. I was sure something was terribly wrong and my heart was in pure anguish. 

Finally after the nurse telling me each and every day 'there is nothing we can do at this point' she finally scheduled me an ultrasound to atleast see what was taking place. 

Oh the joy and relief to see both our beautiful babies doing so amazingly well!

They did find the source to the bleeding. A blood clot that formed next to one of the babies from where the placenta pulled away slightly from the wall of my uterus. 

So lots of rest, no lifting, and pelvic rest for atleast a couple of weeks were the orders. And pray that it didn't remain a continual bleed for the rest of the pregnancy,

 which would put me at all sorts of other risks.

Since then I'm thankful to say we've had no more bleeding, thank you Lord!

Me at 16 weeks...

Yes I'm huge and yes it's alarming. Oh the faces I get when I say I'm 16 weeks... with twins. Which then starts all sorts of questions like "do twins run in your family", "wow..." I get that one a lot, "are these your first" to which ensues all sorts of other questions when I say that I have 3 at home. So I now see why my twin book says it's ok to just lie and say your 7 months along to strangers. So I think it's the way I will go. These strangers don't care and they don't know I've told the story 5 times already. So I will simply grin and say 7 months from here on out :)

April 7th is the magical day that we find out the sexes so stayed tuned for that!!

mind blowing....over the top....crazy....exciting....blessed....NEWS!!!

Sometimes when something is so BIG you have to skip over things and arrive to current news. And our news is this.....

We are having TWINS!!

So I was not shocked because I just knew. Had this crazy gut feeling. All my dreams were with two babies, I would slip and say 'babies', I'm SO sick and tired this time around, and I'm freakin huge for 12 weeks! I only told those closest to me that I had these feelings about twins because I didn't want to appear too crazy!

Here is baby 'A' who is closest to the exit and the one I think is a girl :) The harder one to get good pictures of but the one who kicks Baby 'B' in the back on the head when he invades her space lol. 

Here is baby 'B' who I think is a boy! Isn't he sweet? :) We won't know the sexes until next ultrasound. I am currently 13 weeks and they can't tell until atleast 16. 

My sweetie sucking 'his' thumb! Amazing!!

And me at 12 weeks. When I was reading that my uterus was only the size of a grapefruit at this point it raised some red flags because I look and feel about 5 months along! I sent a picture to my mom and asked if this is just what happens when you've had 4 pregnancies and things are already stretched out! She just replied 'wow you look really pregnant'. 

So there you have it... our BIG NEWS!!
Please send wine, diapers, and cash donations to....

31 Horseshoe Cir 

-kidding of course except for the wine :)