Celebrating the Girls' Arrival

I know I'm REALLY late with posting an update from our showers, but I'll blame it on those who were supposed to send me pictures (that sounds like a good excuse, but it's really entirely my fault!)

Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good group shots at any of the showers, but thought I'd post the "candid" shots that I have! Again, thanks to everyone who attended or sent gifts...we're STILL getting gifts!! We have such fantastic friends and family!

Our first shower was at my mom's house, and was hosted by my mom and all 3 of my dad's sisters.

Among our many great gifts, we recieved a few very special "personalized" items!


The second shower was at Abby Wilson's house, and was given by the awesome girls in our Sunday School class at church. (I don't have any pictures of this one yet!)

The third shower was at work. All of my co-workers played "guess how LARGE Mandy is". It was quite an eye-opening experience, and I'm pleased to say that most of them guessed WAY over!!
Here's a picture of Gary and Leslie taking the "official" measurements.

Notice how some people expected me to be as wide as the table??!!


The fourth shower was at Matt and Ashley Raymer's house, given by my wonderful group of neighbor friends.
Here's a shot of some of the girls doing what we do best...standing in the kitchen chatting it up!

Michelle made adorable (and YUMMY) pink cupcakes, which complemented all of the other awesome food that was served! I never leave a neighborhood event without overeating due to all of the good cooks of Crown Harbor!

And here's a picture of some of the gifts...I received so many extremely thoughtful gifts and cards...


The fifth and final shower was at my Aunt Crystal and Uncle Terry's house, and was given by Crystal and my cousin, Shawnna, my mom (Pam), Gary's mom (Marian) and Gary's sisters (Melissa, Sabrina, and Sheryl).
Everything was perfect, complete with adorable "floating" centerpieces...as would be expected, our girls will be quick to recognize airplanes!

Princess Haley was escorted in by her Dad and her Uncle...:) It was a perfect night out by the lake!

I know there are a few of you who still claim you haven't seen my BIG belly, so here's a nice side shot...and cutting the wonderful cake!

Haley helped us open a gift or 2...she wasn't all that into this "little kid" stuff, though...she's such a big girl now!! :)

Among the many fantastic gifts and cards, we received little pink cowboy boots to match the ones grandma and grandpa got for Emmy Cate at her shower. We'll have some country superstars in just a few years!

Here are a few other candids as well...



We had such a great time at each shower! It was great seeing family and friends that we don't see that often, and, again, we're so thankful for the love and support from everyone! We look forward to introducing Macy and Makayla to their new friends and family soon!

Getting Closer!!!

We had another doctor visit and ultrasound this week, and left with, once again, an excellent report! Both babies seem to be growing fast...Makayla passed up her sister and is now measuring right at 5 lbs! Macy's not too far behind at 4 lbs 9 oz. They're still both ahead of the game in the 70th and 60th percentiles, respectively. I'm thrilled that they're doing so well, but having trouble imagining how I'm going to survive through 4 and 1/2 more weeks if they keep growing at this rate! I never knew the meaning of the word "UNCOMFORTABLE" until now! :)
It's so worth it to know that everyone is healthy and safe, but boy is this pregnancy thing a tough one to get through!!

Below are several ultrasound shots...there's not a whole lot to see, since the images aren't that clear, but it's easy to see how much the babies have grown since the first postings.

The first picture is of Makayla.

The second is a shot of the tops of their heads! For the first time, the babies are lying head to head! This is great news, since now, both are head down, ready for delivery, and Makayla no longer has to lay her head on Macy's butt! :)

The final picture is of Macy.

On top of the good doctor report, we've been honored with 5 baby showers from various friends and family, and have received amazing gifts and support from those at the showers, as well as all of our out of town family and friends as well. We are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful people in our lives, and are able to say that we are truly set for the arrival of our little ones. We could never have imagined all of the wonderful gifts that we would get and the generosity that has been shown to us. To all of you who have been a part, we can't say THANK YOU enough times!! Our girls are in for a special treat to meet all of you!! :)

I still need to get pictures from our showers (various "photographers" have to send me their "work"), and I'll post those when I can. We are also finishing up on the nursery, so we should have pictures of that to post soon as well! We're very excited with how it's turning out, and can't wait to show off our final product! (We have to take plenty of pictures now, while it's clean and tidy!!)

Macy and Makayla

We're a little behind on updates, partly because we didn’t have any good new pictures to post, but we’ve been to the doctor several times, and thought I should give some sort of update! We had another ultrasound almost 3 weeks ago now, so that the babies could be checked out and measured, and, as far as they can tell, everything looks fantastic! The babies are both just above average (~70th percentile), and almost exactly the same size! At that time, Baby A measured at 2.86 lbs and Baby B measured at 2.84 lbs! We can only guess, after 3 weeks, that they’re both well over 3 lbs now! We are very blessed to have such good reports, and can only pray that things continue in this pattern! Below are a couple of ultrasound pictures, (Baby A on top, Baby B second) but there’s really not that much to see. You're mostly looking at their heads and the tops of their chests. The babies are getting too big to get any really clear shots, and after the 3D pictures from before, it makes the 2D pictures even harder to make out!

We did have another doctor visit last week, and the babies heart rates were still healthy – 135 for Baby A and 145 for Baby B. It could be partly because she may have been sleeping, but Baby A’s heartbeat had quite a substantial drop! This is also a GOOD sign, though, since this tends to happen as the babies mature in the womb. Additionally to that, mom is consistently growing…I’ve gained almost 40 lbs!! I measure what is fairly standard for a singleton pregnancy at 37 – 38 weeks, so the doctor was confident to assume that I’m appropriately uncomfortable, and will be for the next 7 or 8 weeks! :) It’s all for an amazingly good cause, so I just have to suck it up, keep the air conditioner turned LOW, and wait it out!! For the first time in my life, I’M the one constantly adjusting the temperature down! (The dogs like it, at least!)

The big “announcement” is that we’ve officially settled on first names for the babies (some of you have known these for a while, but I haven’t really made the official announcement)! So…Baby A will now be referred to as MACY and Baby B will be called MAKAYLA! We’re getting close on middle names, but figured we’d go ahead and lock down the first names, at least allowing us not to have to call them “A” and “B” anymore!

Other than that, not a whole lot to post…we’re slowly building up to the big day. Mom’s FINALLY slowing down at work, Dad has been doing lots of chores around the house (with a lot of much appreciated help from Aunt Melissa), and the nursery is coming together nicely…furniture in place, bedding is ready, and recliner is in position for some serious rocking action! As soon as we get it all put together, we’ll post pictures!

We’re very excited about the showers that some of our friends and family are graciously hosting for us over the next several weeks. While we’re appreciative of anything and everything, we’ve posted links to our registries over to the left. We’re registered at Target and Babies ‘R Us. Hopefully we’ve made logical selections…neither of us ever dreamed how hard and intimidating it would be to register for a baby (not to mention TWO babies!)!! There’s so much stuff to consider! We look forward to celebrating with everyone as the final countdown progresses!!

Aloha!

I know this blog is meant to be about the babies on the way, but we just got back from an AWESOME trip to Maui, Hawaii, and I decided I might as well post a "scrapbook" of our one last fling prior to changing to our new role as "responsible parents"!! We had a blast and couldn't believe how fast 10 whole days flew by! We managed to make the most of our trip, and stayed pretty busy the entire time, but it was SO worth it! (Tiring, but worth it!)

We did take time to rest and hang out by the pool at the beautiful Ritz resort where we had priveleges as part of our house rental. It was an awesome place to relax, drink "lava flows" (Gary's new favorite drink), and play in the pools with Haley, Reganne, and Riley! We also spent plenty of time on the beautiful beach, where Gary, Clayton, and Jason tried surfing...of course, the girls who wanted to try it were smarter, and they took lessons and had much better luck! :)

Besides hanging out at the pool and having lunch by the ocean, Gary, Whit, and I took multiple "Jeep Adventures" around the island. Gary and I officially circled the island by our last full day! It is definitely one of the most beautiful places on Earth! "The Road to Hana" is one of the most famous "attractions" on the island, but the day before Sheryl's wedding, Gary, Whit, and I found that the South route to Hana is actually better than the more famous north route! There is little vegetation and no rain forests like there are on the "official" road, but the cliffs, mountains, and valleys are unbelievable! We traveled to the "seven sacred pools" (although there aren't 7 and they aren't sacred!) which was a beautiful sight, and finished off our trip with a visit to Charles Lindbergh's grave. He planned his burial place himself, and couldn't have found a more primitive spot! The road is pretty bumpy, narrow, and curvy, and Whit and I were both pretty sore by the end ;-), but it was well worth the trip! We had to hurry back to be ready in time for the rehearsal dinner back at the resort.

The morning of the wedding, we made a quick trip just past our resort in Kapalua, only to find that we were staying within about 2 miles of roads as beautiful as we'd seen the day before! So that we wouldn't be late, we turned back for that day, but Gary and I started our own "road to Hana" trip from there later in the week.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Sheryl looked gorgeous, of course, and Ryan was studded out in his beach "tuxedo"! They released butterflies at the end of the ceremony, per Hawaiian tradition, then after champagne, cake, dancing, and pictures, everyone headed to the reception, which was a traditional Hawaiian luau. The luau was so much fun, and the food was amazing!! Whit surprised us all with a little bit of stage dancing, and Reganne and Ryan did their share as well. The highlight of our show was watching the kids. I've never seen more happy children as Reganne, Riley, and Haley were. They especially LOVED the fire eating and twirling!!

The sunsets in Hawaii are everything you'd expect...some of the most beautful sights you'll see. Unfortunately, haze moved in later in the week due to the eruption of a volcano on Kona, which was a bummer for the sunsets, but there's no cooler excuse for a bad sunset than to know it was hazy due to a rupturing volcano!! On our final evening in Maui, Jason, Jen, Riley, Reganne, Jim, Marian, Gary, and I did a sunset cruise on a catamaran. The kids loved that too, and it was so peaceful and relaxing!

Speaking of sunsets, we also saw our share of sunRISES! The 6 hour time difference made us miss very few toward the first part of the week (although we got more lazy as the weeks passed!) and we could even see a pretty good set of colors from our own bedroom! Afterward, Gary would share tea with Haley, and then play in the koi pond on our patio! :)

The day after the wedding, Melissa, Whit, Gary, and I made the long trek up to Haleakala (volcano) to watch the famous sunrise from there. We had to leave our house at 2:30 am, and had heard it would be cold, but had no idea what we were really in for! We had stripped blankets from our bed, but still couldn't hardly stand the cold! It was a beautiful sight, and we were glad we made the trip up to 10000 feet anyway!

The other main adventure of our trip was a day trip to the island of Oahu, where we toured the Pearl Harbor memorials. The USS Arizona is the ship that has been laid to rest in the Pacific with a beautiful monument built over the top. You can see the ship in the water, and can even still see trickles of oil rising to the surface. What a way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend! Beside that, we toured the USS Missouri, the ship were the peace treaty for WWII was signed with Japan. No trip would be complete without a visit to the Pacific Air Museum. Unfortunately, this was a pretty rushed trip, but we saw what we needed to, and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Maui!

On Monday before we left, Gary and I headed out on our own trip to Hana! As mentioned before, there were lots of beautiful flowers, plants, and waterfalls along the complete trail. Between this road and the others that we toured, I've never seen more bumpy, curvy, and scary roads, but luckily, Gary drives like a champ, and we made it safely all the way around the island! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the hike to see many of the "hidden treasures" promised along the road, but there's no way we would have made it to all of the stops anyway, and Gary was glad I wasn't able to kill him with hikes! :) We stopped for some amazing banana bread in one little town, and picked up a box lunch that we ate at a different stop along the way.

By Wednesday, we were exhausted, but VERY sad to leave the beautiful island...and much dreading our trip home! Fortunately, we slept most of the way home, and then stopped over in Atlanta to see our beautiful new neice, Emmy Cate! After a quick overnight visit, Gary headed to work, and I headed home. Back to the real world...

Anyway, the babies seemed to have no issues on the trip, and I think I grew several inches while we were there...we've officially entered the 3rd trimester, and went back to the doctor today. No major news to report. Very good doctor report based on baby heartbeats and all of mom's measurements and vitals. We go back for an ultrasound for baby meaurements next week! We'll post more updates as soon as we have them!

Babies' First Photos

The babies have already made it to their second concert, this time to see George Strait with Mom (obviously), Dad, and their grandparents! I'm pretty optimistic that they're going to share their parents' love of music, since they seem to get pretty excited in there when the music starts crankin!

The more exciting news is that we went this past week for our 24th week doctor visit, got a clean bill of health again, and also went to get a 3-D/4-D ultrasound. I was a little nervous that it would be kind of freaky, and that they'd look more like aliens than babies, but I was totally wrong! It was AMAZING to see their cute little faces, hands, fingers, and feet! They look SO real now!! Unfortunately, we didn't crank up any music and they wouldn't seem to wake up or wiggle around much. We poked and proded, but only got slight movements.

"Baby A" was the most photogenic of the two. She kept her hands up over around her face most of the time, and seemed to rub her eyes with sleepiness, but we got several great shots of her! "Baby B" is our little acrobat, apparently. She had her FEET in front of her face instead of her hands. She must be comfortable, but boy did she not look like it! There was a cute shot of her grabbing her little feet with her hands! We mostly just got profile shots of her, though. It was amazingly obvious to me already that these girls have inherited plenty of features from their daddy!

The positioning of the babies is kind of amusing...Baby A is straight upside down on my left side. Baby B, as I mentioned, is almost bent completely over, with her head up on my right side...and, with her butt right in Baby A's face! At one point, you could see Baby A had just accepted it and given up, since she was laying there peacefully with her head resting on Baby B's behind!

I'm starting to feel the babies move more and more every day. The ultrasound tech did confirm that both placentas are in the front, so this might mean that I feel less movement than I would otherwise. I think this will be a nice advantage once they really start kicking around!

So, the big confirmation for the week was that everything looks good with both the babies and mom, so mom and dad are headed for Hawaii tomorrow morning! I've bought and packed all of my "big girl" clothes, and, we're ready to roll! We'll probably have plenty of pictures from Maui and from Aunt Sheryl's wedding, so we'll be sure to post those when we get home!

Additionally, we'll come home to a new little niece in Atlanta as well! Nathan and Lauren are due any minute, so, unfortunately, we won't get to be here for the big day, but we're planning to go see them as soon as we get home! I can't wait to find out what the new baby will be named!! We'll post pictures of her as well!

So, until next time, Aloha 'oe! :)

Baby Cheeseburgers in Paradise

The girls attended their first Jimmy Buffett concert this week, and we all had a fantastic time! For those of you who have been there with us in years past, you know the concert probably wasn't quite the same crazy party that it usually is, but we still had a blast! (Maybe Dad more than Mom! :)) It was a long night standing up, but totally worth it. Luckily, the girls got a little bit of dancing time in too...We confirmed that we've got some little Parrot Heads in the making!

Below are the newest ultrasound pictures...we went yesterday for our 21st week visit! Time is flying SO FAST! From what they can tell, the babies are very healthy, and seem to be pretty tall (maybe not a surprise??). One baby is in the 70th percentile, the other at 87! This seems like quite a drastic difference to me, but the doctor assured, when speaking in mere grams, this isn't that much! They're pretty close in size, their heartbeats have stayed around 146 and 150 - 5 beats apart - and they checked out completely healthy! We were able to get both hearts...all 4 chambers, and they measured everything from head to tummy to femur bones!

It's pretty cool now that I've started feeling the babies move, and it was exciting to figure out how they are positioned in my belly! It helped to confirm that I have been feeling their little wiggles (not just indigestion! :)), based on the way they are positioned. There's one baby on the right, upside down, and one on the left, rightside up...seems logical enough, but with all of the pictures you see on the web, I wasn't really sure how they were stacked in there!

Every visit makes this all feel a little more real and close, and we're getting so excited! Mom's been a little stressed with work lately, so it was nice to get confirmation that everything is still going well. Luckily, Mom also likes to eat when she's stressed, so nutrition and weight gain haven't been a problem!! I'm getting big, but seem to be right where the doctor wants me.

The other good news is, as of now, everything is still on for our upcoming trip to Hawaii in May for Sheryl's wedding. We're both eagerly anticipating that much needed vacation!! We'll have some tests done at our next doctor visit right before we go and then we'll be ready to catch our (LONG) flight!!!

The Two Little Girls!!!