Gender Reveal......

Saturday night we decided to throw a last minute gender reveal party just inviting a few of our closest friends. Before we decided to do anything I had been doing some research online about different ways to reveal gender. One was to take the information to a bakery and have them fill cupcakes with frosting of the appropriate color so when you bite into the cupcake you'll see what you're having. Another was to have someone fill a box with either pink, blue, or both color balloons, then you open the box together and see what color comes up. There were several pictures of couples online opening boxes of balloons and I thought it made for a really cute picture.

I ran the ideas by Matt and he said, "Are you kidding me? You want me to stand there with you and open a box of balloons so you can get a picture......of me......with balloons flying up in my face? I don't balloons, Dusty. Look at those guys, that's so gay. I don't eat cupcakes either. Cupcakes are for girls. If you want me to open something other than the envelope you can go fill a box with those "It's a Girl" or "It's a Boy" cigars." While he's saying all this I'm looking at pictures of reveals online and I had to laugh. He was right. The men in the balloon pictures did look pretty soft......and I've never seen Matt eat a cupcake.....too feminine for him. And though it would have possibly made for an adorable picture-I'm really glad my husband doesn't want to be "adorable". So we decided on just opening the envelope.

Here are the votes for what friends thought we were having......

 We decided to let Jeff read the results to us.......and here they are.....in the order he read them to us

Baby A is a little hard to see so if you can't see that it says "BOY".

At the ultrasound they told us "Don't go buy anything just yet" so we'll wait and find out for sure on September 26th.

Here's how we're growing....

In other news Gage turned six on Friday and I'll have another post about that soon!!

Love.

Gage's first day, twins 2nd ultrasound

We got up Monday morning and I told Gage to get dressed to go to the gym. He said, "I thought today was the first day of school?" He was right, but with afternoon kindergarten most of our days will start with something else. Here he was......

We went into his classroom, put his backpack in his cubby, sorted his supplies, and waited for instructions. His teacher said she had a heart-shaped stamp for the kids to put on their hand. Then we should kiss the stamp on their hand and anytime they needed to they could put their hand to their face and get a kiss from us.  Gage turned around to his dad and me rolled his eyes and said, "I am NOT doing that!!" Whew...I was hoping he wouldn't be into that.

Yesterday morning we had our first ultrasound at the perinatologist. It's so weird to say that my pregnancy is "high risk". My original due date was February 21st, then it was pushed back to Feb 25th, and at this appointment they measured the babies due Feb 20th. They won't likely make it to any of those days but I think I'll go off of the earlier due date because Gage and Gracie were both born closer to their earlier due dates. We asked the technician to write down the gender of the babies in an envelope and seal it so we could open it together later-this is our compromise. Matt would have wanted to wait until they were born to find out......but with twins I need to prepare as much as possible so I wanted to find out early. Having it sealed to open at a later time at least gives it a little greater element of surprise. The problem is they were pretty positive on the gender of Baby B but on Baby A they were apprehensive. Baby B was really busy moving around so I was surprised that they were able to get a more certain answer with that baby. Here are some pics.....

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It's still so weird to think we're having twins.....that there are two babies in there at once. Crazy. We're going to go ahead and open the envelope anyway, knowing that we should take the gender of Baby A with a grain of salt. The next ultrasound is 5 weeks away and then we can know for sure. 

The weekend should be quite eventful with Gage's birthday bowling and the opening of the envelope! Can't wait to fill you in next week!!

Love. 

The latest.....

Last weekend we headed down to the farm to see our new nephew, Heston Weaver Creighton.


I can't believe how big he is! 10lbs, 5oz makes for quite a large first baby, already too big for the newborn diapers! He was very sweet on our visit hardly making a peep while we were there. He also made his first trip to church!

On this trip down to the farm it was really hot. Gage found a little tree frog to bring home.

He made it home alive but only lasted one more day. RIP Frederick.

Gracie had a terrible trip down to the farm, getting carsick and throwing up on the way there in the canyon. Then she got sick all night the second night throwing up in both her bed and ours. The good news is she's recovered and is really getting good at this whole walking thing.

She's up to about 10-15 steps at a time. It's adorable because she gets SO excited and looks around for everyone to cheer for her! 

Yesterday we met Gage's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ennis. He seemed very comfortable in the classroom and we're all looking forward to school starting next week. Today we went shopping for school supplies and he was upset that I was going to be giving all of that to his teacher instead of him! It was a list that really made me laugh. Kleenex, 4 packs of dry erase markers, 4 containers white glue, Clorox wipes, 3 boxes of crayons and so on. I laughed because without hesitation I went and got everything on the list. In my own classroom the only thing on my supply list was a 25 cent composition book and it was a blessing for a student to actually bring one in!!

It's been SO unbearably hot we've hardly spent any time outside. Last night we took some time to get out and play catch.

Since it's been over 105 degrees all week our outdoor play was short lived, but better than nothing.

Tomorrow I fly out to Dallas to see two of my best friends, Gabby and Kelsi. Expecting twins I realized it was now or never so I'd better get out there and pay them a visit! Gracie's joining me and the weather should be no better than here but I'm looking forward to what might be the last big getaway for a while!

Love.

Bigger, better, and more......

Sometimes it just sneaks up on us.....materialism. I mentioned in the last post that I don't want to get caught up in having bigger, better, and more.

The home I live in today would have been a dream to me as a child. Last weekend we were at my moms going through old pictures and I found one of Amy and Josh taking a bath......in some of the most disgusting bath water I've ever seen. It was just rust in the water but honestly it was so tragic to look back at that little house we lived in and the rust that came with it.

I found this pic of me and I actually see a little bit of Gracie......

The house we live in now was beyond my imagination as small child and our cars the same. I don't think anyone in Dos Palos drove a BMW when I was growing up (there might be one or two now); I didn't even know what that was........but we don't live in Dos Palos. We live in a place much more materialistic, and it's TOUGH not to let it seep in.

We've been researching how to prepare for twins, what baby items we actually need two of, what we want one or two of, and which we can live without at all. At the same time I've been reading Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (semi-companion to The Glass Castle if you've ever read it). At one point the main character is discussing the introduction of indoor plumbing to which her father responds, "Who would want a shitter in their house?" ........funny to consider another perspective on something I can't imagine living without. I enjoy thinking about the old, maybe it's the old soul I'm said to have. It made me think though.......no matter how much I tell myself I need that overpriced double stroller with the toddler seat attachment for Gracie........


the fact is, we don't need much at all. Just marinate on that stroller for a second.........how crazy is that?

I can't even begin to express the gratitude I have for a husband that feels the same about needs, wants, and materialism........who knows that happiness can be found in the simplest times in of life and that money is just that-and doesn't bring contentment at all. At the same time he works so hard to provide what I would have considered a life of luxury when I was a child. Three years ago Matt was single and living with his best friend in an apartment......I came in like a tornado with a child in tow and in no time he was a married father of.......four. We joke about it often, but I know he is honored to take care of us. I'll remind you unmarried girls again-marry someone smarter than you.

Getting online to do my research for the twins and talking to all of my expecting friends it's so easy to get the wants and start to focus on material things. Just like the minivan I remind myself that I don't need bigger, better, and more. We've already got that with twins on the way-bigger, better, and more family.......and nothing beats that.

Love.