Big Sis and Big Bro to be:

Blake and Dax had their first ice cream date at Orange Leaf. If you have not tried it you are missing out. I made the mistake of discovering it and go at least once a week. My love of OL is definitely in B and D's blood because they smiled between every bite and were so happy. They patiently waited on the ice cream which was a first. Dax savored every bite eating it at a snails pace while Blake ate it at a race horse pace. 

Once again this month the kids have been sick. I took Dax to the doctor to find that he had an ear infection. The poor child screamed uncontrollably from the time I woke him to take Blake to school till we left the doctor. He would not allow me to hold him while sitting it was only standing and walking around. It was awful. After waiting 20 minutes at CVS which seemed like an hour. Thirty minutes into being home we received a call that Blake was sick.  So off we went back to the doctor to have a second diagnosis. Poor babies and poor mama!

With all the illness I'm really torn on what I should do with our situation. Do I bring another child into the world and risk having 3 babies sick at one time or do I make changes that will best fit our family. As a working mother I'm torn in finding balance for what I've worked so hard to build and then at the same time I have these sweet children I want to be healthy. 

Besides the illness we have had a fun month of firsts. The kids and I have been doing Christmas crafts where we put foam stickers on foam Christmas trees, we look for our elf who sometimes forgets to move to a new place each night. Actually he forgot to move for three straight days but who's counting right. We have been looking at Christmas lights, singing Christmas songs (when we sing Santa Clause is coming to town Dax looks around the room for him), and each night we turn our tree on which is a big deal let me tell ya. It's so fun this year seeing the excitement in their eyes and to our surprise they have not touched the presents under the tree. 

We had our first friend Christmas party where their aunt Mere Mere thought it would be funny to obtain a drum set and a talking Dora phone. "Hola it's Dora" on repeat over and over again went to bed with Blake and then to church the next day. Dora magically did find her way into a hidden drawer.

We decorated Christmas cookies for Santa that mama forgot to put out, had the school Christmas party, decorated paper with Christmas stickers, and built a gingerbread house. The house truly needed a builders warranty as it collapsed immediately. By Christmas Eve all the beautifully wrapped presents I mentioned had not been touched were missing bows or had been opened just a bit and then later taped back up. The kids had a blast opening their presents and playing with their new toys. Santa brought them a kitchen that included a refrigerator, stove, and sink. Santa's elf worked on the refrigerator earlier in the week and thought oh this is cake; however when Christmas Eve rolled around that same elf had put off all of her work and learned that is a bad bad bad idea. Santa's elf got in a fight with the "other" elf who is not a handyman elf and then to top it all off it was a 4 and a half hour project on Christmas eve. All future toys will be put together by a hired elf. 

Part of our routine is to put our paci's back in our bed in the mornings and we can get them out right before bed. Yes I had fed my children their crack addiction as I'm an enabler to my sweet screaming offspring. I really need the Intervention counseling as the enabler. So yesterday we asked both to take their paci's back to their beds and they both did. Dax went around to the other side of the bed reached in got his paci out and said shhh with his finger up to his mouth at Richard telling him not to tell what he was doing. Seriously the funniest thing we have seen. Little did he know he was not telling his secret to the correct person.  

The Pregnancy:
If we all go back to the first round I mentioned all the entertainment I ran into at the high risk doctors office. Well typically when you go to a high risk doc you are there getting your cervix checked and so forth or at least that's what happens to me every time. With that being said most people would be sensitive to what's going on or whats smelling on in that region. Myself being on the sensitive side I know I would be mortified if that region was in bad shape. So at my  last two appointments I took note of how many people I saw in the lobby with greasy dirty heads of hair that I could smell across the room.  So if the top half smells what do you think is going on in the bottom half? Just a little observation.

Pregnancy BRAIN:
It's for real ya'll! I have found myself going to put my shoes on and then stopping in my tracks to think what was I about to do or starting something in the microwave and then totally forgetting I cooked something until about thirty minutes later. And the best to date was washing my hair with Summer's Eve sensitive skin wash (no it's not a douche). I must admit your hair does not get oily and it does give you some volume. 

Baby ? Foster now ways 1lb. 13oz. and had a heart rate of 134 as of 12/27/12. The original due date given was 4/14/13, second due date was 4/9/13, and today we were moved to 4/11/13. I find it so entertaining that  when you don't know when you were knocked up the due date is ever changing. 

Enjoy our favorite pics from this month. 

Between 23 and 24 weeks-thought it was 24 but no idea now. 

3 Under 3 --11/27/2012

The kids would not wear their sunglasses.

We are surprised and happy to announce that we are expecting a baby April 2013. Yes that is correct a baby in 2013 and yes we will have 3 under 3. This little blessing shocked and surprised us and went undetected for 13.5 weeks. Yes I am now a believer in the show "I didn't know I was pregnant" I seriously thought that show was a joke and seriously how could anyone not know they were pregnant. I mean really, seriously there's no way that can really happen. Oh yah it did and I'm now a believer. So let's go back to all the obvious signs that I should have picked up on.

Now here is my disclaimer:

We went through fertility treatments where I barely produced enough eggs to become embryos, my embryos were not even freezable, my only two embryos we implanted only had a rating of a C and a D, and they said we only had a 60% chance of getting one baby with those piss poor ratings. Next on that agenda we were under the impression that it was physically impossible to reproduce. This is in our eyes a true miracle and  I'm already having a waaay better experience as a pregnant person. I'm able to work out, and actually hear positive things from the doctors. They are watching this pregnancy very closely as a result of the pre term labor previously. Weekly injections of progesterone are being administrated by "the bull" aka "father of 3 to be" to get us to 39 weeks. Last time at 20 weeks I was on a modified bed rest, no exercise, sleeping in a recliner, and wearing a back brace. So this go around has definitely been a better experience.  

Leading up to the shocking discovery:

Incident #1: I went to Homeland and while walking through the aisle I found some cheese whiz, bought it, and ate it in the car on the way home. I told Richard I bought it and his response, what? you don't eat that shit. No I don't, I don't know why it just sounded good.

Incident #2: I mentioned to Meredith, gosh I feel so hungry and like I have this ravenous appetite. Do you think it's my metabolism messed up from not being able to work out? 

Incident #3: Puking from the dirty diapers, still had not caught on at this point. (kids had been sick so I just figured it was going around)

Incident #4: The medication they had me on was not giving me my period but I kept waiting. 

Incident #5: The tatas magically came back but again I thought it was this hormone medicine. 

The Realization: 

Realization #1: Babe I'm starting to freak myself out, I feel like I have all the symptoms of being pregnant but that's impossible. He laughs, my response, it's really not funny. Again at this point I go another 3 days because that's just not possible. 

Realization #2: I drive by the sewage in Moore and think I'm going to puke in my car. I call Richard and tell him I really don't feel good and that he needs to pick the kids up. There is no way I can go in that daycare feeling the way I do.

Happy Birthday to me....10/10--The Discovery

Finally I get home and come to terms with I'm going to look further into this. Test = Positive Result!  What theeee?!?!?! Drive straight to the store, take another one. Test = No lines at all! What theee?!?!?!? Okay I'm going to wait till the morning. I'm on the internet all night long looking for answers to false positives, typing away, searching baby center, and of course not sleeping. Test number 3 = Positive! Neither of us believe it so I call the doctors office with the list of medication and leave a long message for the nurse verifying if this medication gives false positives. The nurse calls back and says no. My response---"I'm a fertility patient I don't know what  normal people do in this situation? I need more proof ASAP!! I need blood, I need blood confirmation, I have to have blood and need to know the earliest we can confirm this. The nurse's response you can come now if you like. 24 hours later while driving to OU/TX we get the call confirming what we thought was impossible. After sheer shock set in I came to my senses and had to call back to confirm HCG levels and to make sure that those levels indicated one not two. Even though I know two is physically impossible I had to double check. The levels were very high so according to the numbers we decided it had to be about 9-12 weeks.

Fast forward two weeks and we find out it's actually 16 weeks after seeing the high risk doc. Again this is after my ob looks at the ultra sound and says in shock your 15 weeks. Sheer panic goes through my head. I've had x rays, a girls weekend, labor day weekend, OU football games, anti inflammatory from my foot, oh and the hormones. After another night of no sleep my persistence pays off and I magically get into the high risk doctor which was originally scheduled for another two weeks. They told me people do not cancel but we will put you on the wait list just in case for both offices. Turns out ten minutes later they called me back with an open appointment  

All blood work came back as being a healthy little one so we are accepting our news and preparing for life as a twin mom plus one or 3 under 3. To be honest I'm completely freaking out, nervous, and hoping for everything to run smoothly. The biggest goal is to get to term without all the complications we had previously. Oh and the second goal is for us to not find out the sex of the baby. Well that is if I can go the entire time without finding out. 

On to big bro and big sis:
Blake had tubes put in her ears on Halloween, both caught the flu so we had a full week of sick babies, vomit, and lots of unhappiness. Both went to work with me and destroyed my office pulling every paper out of every spot and dumping absolutely everything out. No way you could tell they were as sick as they were. We went trick or treating with Elle and Riley and the kids all had a blast asking for treats. They really didn't know what they were getting till Uncle Chad gave them a taste of what they were getting. After that we could not keep them out of the candy. Since the tubes Blake's words have been coming along greatly. We are working very hard to break her from screaming for things and encouraging words as much as possible. 

Dax continues to say thank you as he steals something from his sister and the other day I heard the words stop it Blake come out. I turned to Richard and ask if he heard what I thought we heard. This taught me that we have little parakeets in our home as I say stop it all the time.

Both love to run from us, play outside, and get into everything. 

Enjoy our favorite pics by Sharlee Rother Photograpy. 

Shanna and Richard who has now been dubbed back to "the bull" for the time being.

HALLOWEEN

School Halloween Party

Trick or Treating at the Cleveland County Court House

Two Pirates and a Super Girl

19 Months:

The latest favorite thing to do these days is to poop in the bath tub. Literally I'm cleaning up poop almost weekly or pee on the tile from after the bath. Now that both are mobile I basically do a lock down where I shut the closet door and the bathroom door because both areas have carpet. My most recent poop ended with a black eye. I was trying to man handle Dax as he is trying to move and roll over at the same time trying to get the diaper on as fast as possible because poop was about to be all over the bathroom rug. At the same time Blake starts to stand up and we have discussed this multiple times that we don't stand in the tub. So as I'm telling her to sit and trying to keep myself from being covered in poop the child slips and hits her eye on the tub. Literally in a matter of seconds I have her screaming bloody murder and I now have poop. My poor baby girl has had this shiner for a few weeks now and it keeps getting darker. Since this accident she has been better about sitting in the tub. I remind her daily of her accident and what happens when we don't listen to mommy.

Another new experience this month has been the obsession with stuffed animals. Each Saturday since I have been unable to workout we take the kids seperately in the mornings. I took Blake to Target and decided  that since she was being really good and patient I would let her pick out a toy. I literally had a shopping cart full of stuffed animals so after some negotiation we finally narrowed it down to two animals, a frog and a horse. The child would not let me pay for the animals as she did not want them out of her reach for even a second. On the way home I discussed with no intention of it happening that I wanted her to pick out her animal and give Dax the one she chose for him. I explained that mommy bought an animal for each and she only got one and if she could not choose mommy was going to take both away. When Dax arrived at home she literally picked up the horse and walked it over to him. The frog on the other hand eats and sleeps with her. He has even been dragged all over the nasty zoo floor. The child loves her froggy. When Dax is sad she will get his horse and bring it to him.

Another little funny that happened which I was mortified by and is probaly was of the funniest to date. I know every mom can relate to this one. When you leave the house you want your kids to look cute whether it's a bow, cute outfit, whatever. Well I left the house leaving Richard in charge of Dax. About two hours goes by and they return. My husband the most fashion cautious man I know actually took my son out in public without shoes and pants. He took him in a t shirt and diaper. The first thing I said when upon his return was did he shit his pants? His response.....no I didn't notice until I was walking him in and I told the lady not to tell you.

The kids love to do touch downs with their hands, Dax will even say touch down. They love to read their books, look at animals, and dance. At school they are learning numbers and letters. They are coloring too which has become a concern of mine. Now when they see a pen they immediately start to draw where ever the pen lands. They are still in to everything, including the diaper cabinet, anything at their reach they can open and now Blake will run from me while dax is going the opposite direction. We seriously need eyes in the back of heads as well as another set of hands. As soon as Dax is walking I have a feeling that I may be in the market for some backpack leashes. Don't knock it till you've been in my shoes is all I'm going to say about the naysayers. I want my kids safe.

20 Months:

In the past 19 months this has never happened and I must say mama broke for the first time. I was changing a diaper and literally the smell was the worst to date. I started yelling for Richard to help me and as he was arriving I was puking in the trash can. Poor B got her feelings hurt and my mean sister called me a big pu-tang saying she thought her hubby made it up when he would gag from dirty diapers. 

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Our most popular word in our household. The kids are growing so fast and exploring more and more each day. Everyday when we get home from school we check on our pumpkins on the front porch. They love to run and giggle as they run from us. We went to Pumpkinville in OKC, if you have not been well worth the trip. The kids loved it. We trick or treated at the PI PHI house and they had a blast. At first they would not put their costumes on so we started singing and dancing to get them excited. "We're going trick or treating, we're going trick or treating" over and over again. Finally had both dressed as pirates and off we went. They were grabbing handfuls of candy offering it to others and loaded up their treat bags. Along the way mom did some sitter recruiting so overall it was a win win. As we were leaving the house Dax told all the girls bye and high fived them as we walked out the door. A little ladies man never forgets the ladies as he leaves them. 

Enjoy some of our favorite pics from the past two months. 

Checking on our pumpkins

"UP, UP"

A cookie past my bed time is this happening?

A pirate and his June-yes it's an arranged marriage

"treat, treat"

18 Months 08-27-12

18 Months

What a month we have had and in fact probably our most interesting to date. Where to begin?!?!? I was put in a walking boot as the result of a stress fracture, so no workouts for mama. No workouts means a grumpy irritable mama too. We attended three birthday parties, all of which were a blast with great themes. Mama got a weekend away with college friends and found out real quick my body can't handle  the late nights. We took the kids to a long awaited ENT appointment and literally two days later Dax was getting tubes in his ears. Oh and lastly we began the end of the crack addiction by going cold turkey on the pacifiers.

Thunder Girl Birthday Party

Dax Man: 25 pounds 1 ounce in the 63rd percentile, length 31 and 3/4inches in the 26 percentile and 18in head circumference in the 10th percentile

Since his tubes were put in the little guy has become more vocal repeating more words and even taking steps. His equal librium has been off creating issues with his walking and balance. His new favorite word is NO. His personality has changed quite a bit meaning he is now a toddler pressing limits and throwing himself on the ground like a fish out of water flopping around. Time outs have increased and the screaming has escalated to no end. My sweet little boy does come out and loves to give his mama lots of hugs and kisses. He will even blow me kisses at daycare when I leave. 

Little Miss Blake: 20 pounds in the 15th percentile, length 29 1/2inches in the 2nd percentile, and 17 1/2in head circumference in the 9th percentile

Fortunately Blake did not need tubes in her ears so we will do a follow up soon. She began walking and loves to giggle to herself when she finds something interesting or funny. Time outs mean nothing to her and when she does go she just laughs. She is doing great at signing and continues to get into any and everything. 

18 month apt:

I learned I had no control over the two little boogers. Something I have been concerned with considering my stress levels have been beyond the point of concentration. After learning a few tweeks to the discipline we have seen some changes. The tantrums do not last as long and the time outs seem to be making more of an impact. I feel more in control and they seem to be learning that screaming at mama will get them nowhere. Past mama behavior is the constant pick up stop what I'm doing and to drop everything. I was advised they were controlling me and if I didn't get it in check at age 2 I was going to have my work cut out

Boomer Sooner

Taking a break from feeding the ducks on campus

Playing Dress Up

Our new cousin Zach

We did a tire mini session with Angel Porch Photography. I'm simply addicted to her talent. Enjoy some of my favorites.