THE SURPRISE OF OUR LIVES . .




NEED I SAY MORE!?

OK. So you know I'm going to anyway! Yes, that's right! You saw right! You ARE seeing double!
Twinners!! So unexpected! Well, I guess most things like this are.
We are 3 & 1/2 mo. along so its too early to know what they are yet, but that'll be coming in about 5 more weeks or so. The top photo is a 4D image of the twins & the bottom is 2D with baby "B"s head on the left & baby "A"s body on the right.
We are still in shock somewhat as we let it all sink in & what this news really means.
I first found out last Thursday at a routine checkup to listen to the heart beat & do a quick ultrasound to see how the baby is growing. When we listened to the heartbeat, there was ONE, very strong little heart going (so I thought, & could hear). Then when the ultrasound began the nurse said, "There's your baby !
Oh, wait! There's both your babies!
My heart froze & I began to cry as I looked up at the huge flat screen above me, to sure enough see two little bodies! I felt so shocked, overwhelmed, & stunned that I couldn't help but cry thinking, is this for real!? The first question I asked was, "how come I only heard one heart beat"? And the nurse said that you only would hear one because they beat together.
So after the nurse left to bring in another specialist nurse who works with multiples, I tried my best to compose myself & focus on what was going on at the moment, which was difficult to do. My nurse said, "you know, I almost said something that you might be since you were measuring a little big for your size." Both nurses were so sweet & made it so much fun for me to relax & get to see these two little babies move, & wiggle, & dance around in 4D on this huge screen before me. The nurse had fun taking lots of different shots of them after getting measurements on them. They weigh about 3 ounces right now. Baby "A" is a teensy bit bigger than baby "B" & they are fraternal twins meaning they are in their own separate membranes which is a very good thing.
As Jace was in training/seminar classes for work all day, he was not reachable, so I decided I'd come up with a fun way to tell him the news. After my appointment, I quickly went over to my friend Christie's house to pick up Cole, showed her the pictures & got some cute ideas on how to tell Jace. I had to run over to "A Las Wal Mart" for groceries anyway, so I picked up two matching yellow fleece blankets to be put on the bed next to the strip of ultrasound pictures later that evening. So after dinner I got it all set up, got the video camera, & came into the family room where Jace was hanging out with Cole & said, "Hey Jace, I've got something really cool I saw earlier today that I want to show you!" So he followed me into the room, saw the blankets & later said that, "right when I saw those - I knew!" He dropped to his knees at the end of the bed, covered his mouth with one hand & just stared at & studied the pictures for a few minutes. He definitely didn't see that coming! He was sad to have not been there for the whole experience, but will definitely be there for the next ultrasound! We didn't plan on Jace coming along on this visit since we just thought it would be a routine check up. I think we'll do different in the future, because even though the twins aren't even born yet, we are planning on at least one more for us or whatever the Lord asks of us. I know your already saying your nuts & oh just wait & see. Well, I didn't say how far out the next one would be, which could be quite a ways out, but like I said, whatever we are suppose do - we'll do!
All in all, he's excited, I'm excited, along with still having feelings of surrealness & amazement that Heavenly Father would entrust us with two of his little spirits at once. Cole's still pretty much oblivious to the fact that we're even having a baby period, but we are certainly going to do all we can to prepare him to be an awesome big brother! They will be 2 1/2 years apart by the time they are born.
The original due date is September 28th, but we are pretty positive that it'll be moved up by a couple of weeks at least. We shall see what they say when we go back to the Dr.'s in 3 weeks for another check up & to run tests for any possible diseases or defects which they normally do with twins.
Our biggest prayer now is that they develop normally & are born healthy & strong.
And if anyone has any good suggestions for baby names boy or girl, that would be great, because I was having trouble coming up with one & now we get to come up with two.
I am doing great & feeling good, Jace has still been able to focus on work with a lot of effort I'm sure, & Cole is enjoying being Cole & learning & growing everyday. And now its busy time trying to get done with urgency any & all projects on the house that I/we possibly can before I get too big! And we'll keep everyone posted with pics as we progress along this crazy, amazing journey!!

I have 2 words for you :
Edward Cullan

For all you Twilight junkies out there, this last weekend at Wal Mart's
Saturday Morning Meeting for all its employees & their families we got
to see Rob Pattinson aka Edward as the guest star for the meeting
since the movie is coming out this Friday night on DVD.
Wal Mart has these meetings twice a month & is so great about making them very fun & informative at the same time. They always have some sort of famous star there. For intstance in resent months there's been, Paula Deen the cook, Harrison Ford, & American Idiols David Cook. (No, I was not here in AR. yet for these meetings, otherwise, I def. would have posted about them!)
There was a lot of
excitement about him being there. The crowd was filled with camera crazy woman
& when the interview was over, about a third of the audience left to go try &
catch him.


Although his is definitely good looking, I do have to say that I was truly
unimpressed with him in the interview. But! to give him the benefit of the doubt,
it was earlier in the morning & he may have just flown in earlier than that.
He seemed either very nervous or very out of it tired because a lot of his
answers started out with a slow "uhhhh . . ." & then his answers weren't totally
clear at times. He wasn't sure what day it was either as he thought it was Monday, the host said, "Welcome to our "Saturday" meeting." It was funny though & we
all laughed. I guess when your jet setting the world, its hard to keep track.
He did smile though & made us all laugh, so it was def. fun
to be there!
Now! For all of you who are "dieing" to know what was said in the interview,
here are some of the questions & his answers . . . .

He was asked about the next film to be made "New Moon".

He said filming is starting this week on it and he described New Moon as a darker movie than Twilight, and he said that he is "hoping that it will be a little scarier."

When asked what he thought about playing a vampire in Twilight, he replied, "He wanted to portray a regular guy that happened to be bitten by a vampire, and that just happened to live forever."

He described his role as Edward Cullen as the "first time that he has played a real masculine character."

The audience erupted into loud laughter when he referred to Edward as a more "regular" guy.

One question that was asked of him concerned his hair. He was asked if he used mouse or gel to get his famous do.

He replied, " it is mostly because I sleep on it, and a bit of grime, and because I sleep upside down at night!" The audience got a good laugh from that one too.

So, what about the upcoming release of Twilight on DVD? Well, Wal-Mart has plans to have a huge Twilight Party on Friday March 20^th @ 12:01 am. and Wal Mart is the only company anywhere in the world that is selling the 1 disc only version for $17. Twilight merchandise will also be released during the next week and displayed in soft lines.

A great little side note about these Saturday meetings . . .

It is amazing to see what this company is doing & how they are building & maintaining such a huge company, it is really fascinating! For example, Wal Mart is the only company in the world right now that has a hybrid semi truck that runs solely on electricity up to 48 MPH & also has about 5 semi trucks that run off of food grease made from with in the company.

Another example is they are taking & can take for instance, 2 garbage bags full of styrofoam & reproduce it into a plastic lunch size baggie of pellets which is then turned back into plastics such as CD & DVD cases which are then sold in the Wal Mart stores. They are def. an "earth friendly" company & very, very efficient with using their own products again.

Little Bentonville, Arkansas is actually a really neat place to be!
And not just because of Wal Mart (Go Wal Mart!) :)

The beginning of the bump & Strawberry pie . . .

11 weeks baby! So here we go!
I'm showing much sooner with this one that I did with Cole.
They always say you will with the rest of your babies than with your first & it's true. I had people at 5 months that couldn't tell I was pregnant & I always thought, come on, you've got to be kidding me! Well I don't think that'll be the case this time around. And good!
Cuz I either want to look totally pregnant or not at all, non of
this inbetweener stuff.

I love strawberry pie! I haven't made a pie from scratch in quite some time! It took awhile but it was fun! I added a little "touch of Irish" to the top for good luck. :) And then we had our friends the Gosneys over to help us eat it since that is the pie pan that they gave to us as a house warming gift when we first moved here. It's hand made from Silver Dollar City in Branson Missouri; a favorite touring spot of theirs that we are def. going to try out.

Our Morning Walk

This morning Cole & I went for a little "nature" walk behind our house & down the dry creek to just explore the area & we found some great things that spring is bringing with it!

Like green grass & clovers in the field behind us.

Where I saw a single dandelion blossom & showed Cole how to "make a wish" on it & blow the seeds away. It was the cutest thing to see him try to blow at it so softly.

Then while enjoying that, I found a little red lady bug that I let crawl all over our hands & Cole laughed when it tickled the back of his little hand. And throughout our walk we prob. saw 10 or more lady bugs around. He loved 'em! He wanted to take everyone we saw with us & was upset when I said they didn't want to play anymore.

We found a dandelion that Cole carried around with him for most of the walk/hike.

But my absolute favorite part about the walk was when we went around the bend in the creek which is farther then I'd explored before, I found patches of wild daffodils growing along the edge of it.

And since Jace was home sick with a head cold, we picked a few to bring home & brighten his day. And Cole liked the part where we carried a lady bug on the daffodils the whole way home on them.

I loved that I got to show & teach Cole some great things about nature, hear the birds sing such beautiful songs from atop the tall trees, & enjoy the beauties that nature brings like bright yellow flowers.

Can you tell I'm just a little excited for spring & warmer weather!?
I'm really loving the area we live in! Even though we love & miss good 'ol AZ.
we are getting to experience things here that we wouldn't have the opportunity
to do so otherwise.

Rocks in the Pond

A few days ago Cole & I walked over to a big pond just one block away from us to
see if we could feed the large geese that sometimes reside there, but no such luck
on that day. No problem! Cole had a hay day throwing rock after rock into the pond. A new favorite around here.
Good pitching practice for that baseball team some day!

Since it was beautiful weather today, I thought I'd better take advantage of this since weather here honestly changes so quick from day to day & head out jogging. And it was so nice! I decided to try the pond again. And . . .

Ta Da! They were there today!

Cole laughing at the geese when one pecked at the other & honked real loud. I think he
thought they were playing chase.

They didn't care too much for Coles fishy crackers, but hung around close by even when Cole threw rocks in the water.

Geese are very loud & very beautiful.

I guess they liked our company & wanted to come with us.

It was a great little outing!
I'm so excited for spring! -Hooray for spring!!