Twins Update

I went to the doctor today for an ultrasound and everything looks great! Both babies measure right at 26 weeks and they both weigh 2 pounds. It was fun as always to see them move around and to see those little hearts beating. My mom was with me for this appointment and it was nice to share that with her too. As my doctor said today, I am doing "marvelous". Good to hear!!

Arianna came to play

We are lucky that we still get to see Arianna, and she came over for a visit last Saturday. We spent a couple hours playing at home, then we went to a park to play. We had a great time with her and we were surprised at how much she has grown since the last time we saw her in May. Emma was really excited to see her and was taking such good care of her. Saying goodbye is usually tough, and it was heartbreaking to hear her cry, but we will be able to see her again sometime soon.

While Daddy is Away...

...the girls will play!

Lee was gone all this past week on a 130 mile bike trip on the Oregon coast with some of the youth from our ward. Of course we missed him, and we were so happy to see him when he got home this afternoon, but Emma said it best when we dropped him off at the church on Monday morning: "now it's time for a girl party!". We did have a good time and I love spending time with Emma. Here's a little of what we did.

We went to a fun pool at Wilson High School in Portland with a few friends from our ward. The best part was that Meredith and her girls were also able to meet us there. They were visiting from Arizona. Emma was happy to see Lindsay and Caroline and I was excited to meet new baby Kate. Meredith and I had fun catching up while the girls swam in the pool. We had to be a little creative when Meredith stripped Kate down to change her diaper and realized she didn't have any diapers left to put on her. I remembered back to the days of changing my little sister's cloth diapers and we made due with a cloth diaper burp cloth. Meredith, did you make it back to Aunt Shelly's without too much of a mess?

Lee came home to two totally tranformed girls. Emma and I both got our haircut which involved a lot of inches being chopped off and new bangs for both of us. This is a terrible picture, but you get the idea.

Later that day my mom and my sister came down and we got pedicures. Emma was especially excited to participate and hers included a manicure too! We enjoyed being together and doing something girly.

We got to meet up with another friend that was visiting from Arizona. Heidi and her three kids met us at a little water park in Wilsonville. We took one of Emma's friends, Kasey, with us and all the kids had fun playing in the water and then at the park. I spent the time quizzing Heidi on how to handle twins! Her cute girls are 2 1/2 now and I gleaned a lot from her "twin wisdom". It was good to see them and catch up.

Emma and I spent the rest of the week relaxing, reading together, having lots of playdates, doing a little school supply shopping, enjoying scrambled eggs and cereal for dinner, and even having a movie and popcorn night.


Although we had a great time at our week long "girls party", we were thrilled to see Daddy come home. We're especially glad that he and all the other leaders and the boys made it back safely. We love you Lee!

I am so mad!

Many of you know that back in January I had a little run in with a wall in a parking garage that dented up the passenger side of our van (that was not even a year old at the time).

A week later I put a little dent on the other side when I was pulling out of our garage.

A month or so later I shut the garage door on the trunk. (it's just the little scratch on the trunk, the spot on the bumper is just the reflection of the sun.)

I thought that was the worst I could do to our nice, once shiny, van.

Well....I was wrong. Somebody hit me sometime on Monday. I have a whole new set of dents and scrapes (also on the passenger side) and a broken tailight. I am positive I didn't do it myself because there is enough damage that I would have known it if I hit something. We were parked at a pool in Portland for several hours that day so it probably happened there. Grrrrr...

So, our van now looks like this on the passenger side:

Now we will have to pay TWO deductibles to get it fixed.

24 Weeks

I am 24 four weeks pregnant today! Here is the latest belly shot, I am still shocked at how big I am getting so fast. I am definitely starting to get uncomfortable, and the heartburn is about to kill me. I tried to paint my toenails the other day, but I couldn't reach them (I guess that is a good excuse for a pedicure!). It is so fun to feel them moving almost all the time now, and Emma loves to be able to feel them also. I went to the doctor last week and everything still looks great. It was actually my first doctor appointment this whole pregnancy that I haven't had an ultrasound. That was a bummer, but I will have one next time. My doctor stressed the importance of getting a lot of rest at this point, we want to be sure that they both stay in there for a lot longer.

Happenings

Lots going on last week:


Horse obsession continued...

The 4-H Horse Fair was at the fairgrounds in Canby last week. Emma went to the fair THREE times, twice with me and once with some friends. She was so happy and content to just roam the stables and look at all the horses. She enjoyed watching some of the competitions too, especially the Trail competition which was like an obstacle course for the horse and rider. I let her use the camera and she took A LOT of pictures that she is planning on making a scrapbook with. I guess she could be obsessed with much worse things! She spent the rest of her week swimming, playing with friends, and at a birthday slumber party where they stayed up until 3:30 am (!).





Fun day with the Brown's

We spent a day with our friends the Brown's. We went to a free summer movie, out to lunch, and then to a little water park to play. We took the Canby Ferry on the way home. We always have fun with the Brown's!





Getting ready for babies

The babies bedroom is painted! Lee and I started it almost 2 weeks ago, and Lee finished it this past weekend. It's a boring tan color but should end up nice accented with chocolate brown, pink and blue. The crib bedding came in the mail, it is cute and I am excited to get the cribs up (once we get them!). I scored at a garage sale last week and got several things we needed for the babies that were practically new and very cheap. They also had a lot of cute boy clothes that I couldn't resist. I like those kind of garage sales! We also got a recliner for the babies room. I wanted something that would be big enough to hold and nurse two babies at once, and be really comfortable because I am sure I will be in it a lot. So, we went with a recliner. For now it will give me another comfortable option for sleeping at night.



Hard at work

As if Lee doesn't already have enough to do, he has gotten several projects crossed off his to-do list lately. He sealed our aggregate concrete over the weekend. That stuff is toxic and our nice neighbor brought over the mask. I think he looks cute! He does a lot around the house and I am so thankful that he is willing to do it! Now on to painting the entryway, right honey?? =-)




Last but not least, Granny is 52!!

We celebrated my mom's birthday at Grandma Dorothy's house on Saturday night. She sure is getting old, but we love her and are so glad she is willing to help us and hope she is still willing in a few short months!

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July this year. Our celebration started the night before when we camped out at our friend's, the Sunderland's house (thanks again Peter and Brenna!). They live out in the country and have a couple of acres so we felt like we were camping out, but still had the benefits of a bathroom and kitchen (the best part for me was that we were only 10 minutes from home and I could sleep in my own bed if I needed to!). The kids ran around and played in the water for most of the evening, while Lee and Peter put up the tents and started the campfire. After we ate dinner Lee and Peter had to leave for a little while to take care of some bishopric duties, but when they got back we had s'mores around the campfire and then we did fireworks. The dads had a great time managing the pyro and loved to come up with elaborate shows with our selection of fireworks. By the time we were done with that though, it was 12:30 and I literally fell into our tent because I was so tired. Thankfully the air mattress and five pillows I brought were surprisingly comfortable and I slept well without having to sneak off to our house. The next morning Peter treated us to a pancake breakfast on the campstove. It really felt like we were camping, it was great!
The actual 4th of July was full with the General Canby Days parade, a barbeque, and a party with more fireworks. We ended it all by watching the Canby fireworks. We are so grateful to live in our free country, and for all those who have fought for our freedom and who still do today. We are blessed to be Americans!

Horse Heaven and Garden Update

We promised Emma that she could have some more horseback riding lessons this summer. She had one last Friday and she was in heaven! It looks like we may have to set up a few more before the summer is done.

Since you all got to see the huge weed that came out of our garden, I thought it might be nice to show the good things that have come out of it too. We finally got the garden planted over the weekend, so we will have our usual fresh tomatoes (that only I eat), squash, zuchini and other yummy veggies later in the summer. The apples, raspberries and strawberries are doing well, too. The grape arbor is really big this year and it looks like we are going to get tons of grapes. Emma loves to pick the grapes and they are so good to eat. Emma was a trooper and helped me weed most of the garden earlier in the week (the rest of the weeds weren't nearly so big, there were just a ton of them!), then my amazing visiting teacher came over on Saturday to help finish up the weeding while Lee was gone on a 30 mile bike ride with the Teachers Quorum in 100 degree heat (I would much rather be weeding). I am just glad the garden is in....better late than never!