We Just wanted to let everyone know that we lost one of our boys yesterday. We are coping with the loss, and are still very optimistic for our other little boy's future. We will keep everyone posted on how our little fighter is doing. We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support- they really do help.

Just like that

the roller coaster ride that we stepped on 5 months ago just took a dive right into a dark tunnel. We cannot see whether the next turn has a light at the end of the tunnel or a giant brick wall to slam into. 2 weeks ago, i went in for my monthly ultrasound. It was supposed to be really exciting, i was supposed to be able to figure out the flavor of the other little peanut inside me. Instead we were given some very heart wrenching news. My babies are very very small....scary small. The doctors think there is an issue with the placentas that prevents enough blood getting through to the babies. In short, my babies are starving and not growing like they should. The doctors also added that if we don't do anything, we will lose both babies!!!! So after being completely devastated, we decided along with my doctor that the answer was obviously to not "do nothing".

So my whole world is upside down for the moment just trying to get these little ones to stay with me. I am now on oxygen 24/7 which i have to say is incredibly not fun! Fortunately, they make portable oxygen tanks, so for now, i am still able to work with the portable tanks. The oxygen helps to enrich the blood that is getting to the babies. I have to take blood thinner, which is in hopes that thinner blood will be able to penetrate the placenta wall better and get more nutrients to the babies. I also have to sit in a luke warm hot tub for one hour everyday (rain or shine) to help promote better circulation. Thank goodness my big brother has a hot tub with a temperature control or i would have already been admitted to the hospital for the duration of my pregnancy. I also am on a eat eat eat diet. Which is fun, but will not be fun when i am trying to lose the baby weight later. But for now, the desserts and soda (yep doctors orders to drink soda :)) are a nice change. I also have to have appointments 2 times per week to monitor the little ones and make sure they are still fighting with me.

One baby is about 3 weeks behind and the other baby is about 2 weeks behind. Both are in jeopardy, but obviously one is doing better than another. we are very hopeful that all of these new remedies will help my little peanuts grow bigger and be able to at least make it to survive, and even better thrive. A few good things did come from this big mess (other than the desserts and soda) was that we had to do an amnio test to determine if the babies were chromosomally normal or if there were additional problem to deal with. thankfully from the test thus far (we are still waiting for the final complete results, we only have a partial) from the partial results, the babies are chromosomally normal. We also were able to determine from this test, that our little ones are both BOYS!!!

So if we can get these little babies to continue fighting like their parents are, we will have two cute and adorable little boys to cause trouble and mischief. All i want is those little trouble makers! So we are asking our friends and family to join us in this fight and if you dont mind to add our little boys to your prayers. We need all the help and faith we can get to make it through this and bring these wonderful little babies into our family and our home.

Its a Boy....and A Surprise!

We were so excited to go to my ultrasound and find out the flavors of our little peanuts. Well.... It didn't quite turn out like i would have liked. We did discover however, that our kids are already being difficult :) I am kidding.... well kind of. My parents say its just payback already, but we had one baby that would not hold still so the tech had to beat my stomach to make it stay still. We barely were able to see that it was a rambunctious little boy! And the other baby was being difficult and hiding behind my belly button. Apparently ultrasounds cannot travel through air, and there is an air pocket behind the belly button which the picture cannot travel through. We had the technician and the doctor try to make the baby move out from behind my belly button, but no luck. So just to torture their mom.... I will have to wait another 3 weeks to find out what we are having with our other child. Fortunately, i am posting this late, and will know in about 10 days...if they cooperate this time. Because one baby was hiding and was was a wiggle worm, We didn't get any good pictures either. The only good one was this one where can see both babies together. I really like the twin pics. I think it is fun to see them both together. We are very excited to be expecting a little boy. Eldon really wanted to have a little boy, so we know we at least got one, so he is pretty happy about that. We are hoping the other baby is a little girl so we can have the best of both worlds, but we will be happy with 2 little boys as well! I just want to know! As for me, sorry I don't have a belly picture to post. I just haven't taken one, but i will update soon. My belly is definitely sticking out. My co-workers make fun that all of a sudden, I just popped out and am very apparently pregnant and getting bigger each week, and that i already have the pregnancy waddle. Well, to my defense, i am glad to look preggo, much better than just looking like i am getting fat! And the waddle is only at the end of the day, when i am tired from working all day and my muscles under my tummy are tired. Life has been a lot easier for me lately. Still not a fairytale by any means, but the morning sickness is finally under control for the most part, and i have been back to work for over a month, so that is definitely positive. I am very tired each day, so my bedtime has been moved to before nine...lame I know, but oh well. I am starting to feel movement, so that is really fun and been the best part of this pregnancy so far. We are really excited and glad that everyone is healthy and things are going good, and we are just waiting for the next ultrasound so the planning can really begin!

bedrest already

this is more for journaling and personal purposes, so sorry if this is boring, but last week and yesterday were two of the scariest days ever. Last week I started bleeding, not much, but enough to make it a very rough and scary night since I wasn't able to get a hold of the doctor. All I could think about all night was losing one of my babies or both. It is amazing to me how important these little ones are to me already. i have only been pregnant for 3 months and only known about having 2 for about 6 weeks, but the idea of not having two is one of the worst thoughts i can imagine! We are still adjusting to the idea of instant family of four but now all our planning revolves around 2, not 1! Thankfully, the doctor was able to see me the next morning and we were able to do an ultrasound, and again thankfully, my little ones were doing just fine, and had grown quite a bit. The bleeding was caused by the placenta coming away from the uterus lining, which is still not a good thing. the connection provides blood to the baby, so it is pretty important, but the nurse said the baby could lose up to a quarter of its blood supply and still be ok, so the amount of blood that i was losing was not enough to harm the baby. however, it was important that the blood stop, so i was put on strict bed rest for a week until the bleeding stopped. I was beyond bored! but thankfully my dad and my little brother was able to come and help me out so that i was able to stay off my feet. They also kept me from going insane by myself. so the bleeding stopped, so i went back to work on Monday. the day was rough, but went fine, but last night i started bleeding again and this time it was worse, so again, I was sitting here fretting about the potential of losing one of my precious little ones. I had another ultrasound and this time went to a special imaging place, so i was able to see better pictures of the little ones. Thankfully again, everything is just fine, as far as the doctors can tell, the babies are perfectly healthy and growing on schedule. The ultrasound also didn't give any reason for the bleeding, which is good and bad. There doesn't seem to be anything to be concerned about, but yet, still blood, so we will see what happens, but my biggest concern is that both babies are doing good. Baby A was very cooperative and Baby B was very stubborn, so apparently I am going to have a difficult one. Which fact I am totally fine with if I can just get them both here safely and healthy. so here are some fun pictures from today's ultrasound. It was really neat, the clinician showed me the 2 halves of each babies brain, the 4 chambers of the hearts, 4 arms, 4 legs, and 2 healthy cords doing what they are supposed to. I was 5 days too early for the doctor to tell me the sex, which is really frustrating!!! So close to not having to wonder anymore!

so here is both babies looking at the tops of their heads.

here is baby A, and it was sucking its thumb (sorry dont know gender and I have had too many guesses that keep changing so I am not going to guess yet). Since Baby A was being so cooperative, we got a great 3-D Picture.

it looks like the baby thought it was too bright, even though there wasnt any light. Maybe it was just sleepy and rubbing its eyes :)

This is Baby B, upside down. Its legs were crossed which was super cute to see!

Can it be, already 3!

This is going to be a quick post, and is about 2 weeks late, but I wanted to write it. Eldon and I have now been married for 3 whole years. I cant believe that 3 years ago, we were dying for the day to come when we would be together. The time has absolutely flown by! And now our world is completely different. we have come a very long way in 3 years.... Married, moved 3 times, bought a house, bought 2 new cars, got a dog, changed jobs I can even count how many times, and are expecting 2 little miracles in a few months! Crazy Crazy! I just wanted to tell Eldon how much I love him. I am so grateful that he chose me to be his eternal companion. I truly am the luckiest girl ever! It has been such a happy 3 years! We have definitely had our highs and lows, but I have never been happier in my life and it is all because of the amazing man that I married. Happy late anniversary honey! I love you with all my heart!

Joining the Club and then some

We are thoroughly pleased to announce that we are finally joining the club..... The mommy and daddy club! It has been a long road (many have longer but still) of more than a year of hoping and trying with 2 failed pregnancies, but we are finally pregnant! I am about 7 weeks along (which is still a bit early, but we are just too excited to keep the good news to ourselves!) This little bundle definitely took some work so we are hoping the work will pay off and everything will go smooth.


We also just had our first ultrasound. We were really excited for an opportunity to hear the baby's heart beat. Unfortunately, it was a little too soft to hear, however, we did get an even better treat. The doctor started the ultrasound and immediate stated a very interesting little tidbit..... Can you tell from the pics (sorry they are blurry, its hard to have a picture of a picture)



If you know anything about ultrasounds early on in pregnancy, you know that this early, the baby is very small and its pretty difficult to distinguish anything, but you can see the yolk sac which is the black hole looking egg in the picture. The interesting little tidbit was that there happens to be 2 little black hole looking eggs which means.....WE ARE HAVING TWINS!!!

Definitely a shocker for us! We were absolutely not expecting that little surprise and are still pretty much in shock, but absolutely elated for this little roller coaster ride we stepped on to. We are very hopeful that everything will be safe and smooth for our little ones to join our family! They are due to arrive sometime around the end of March....like the 22nd or so, but twins usually arrive early, so I am guessing late Feb, early March, but we will see when they feel like having a birthday. :) Because there are two sacs, it means they are fraternal (not identical) twins. so who knows what the flavor will be. Eldon and I have both had many dreams about twins and they typically involve and boy and a girl, so that is my guess, but we will see what Heavenly Father has in store.

So since there are two, I have pictures of each, but its really hard to make out. Hopefully we will have better ones to post in the future when they are bigger than a little dot on the screen!

So here is Baby A.

and here is baby B.

Everything looks good so far and my blood work and hormones are right on target. Although we couldnt hear the heart beats, we were able to see them flickering on the screen. I am doing ok. I already definitely feel a difference in my tummy (but its probably in my head). I have been fairly nauseous, but havent been sick yet. Mostly, I am absolutely exhausted and just focus on keeping my eyes open at work. So if we go a bit in between posts...thats why! But with the exciting news, i will try to keep the blog updated on events. And just for posterity, even though I dont like the picture (So bare with me) This is the belly shot at 6 weeks. I was already chubby before, but have now added a few pounds and have a swollen abdomen.

we have been busy

And I have been a slacker!!! Sorry! Its really hard to have the desire to hop on the computer when you are on it all day long at work! And the weekends have been full of trips, family, and fun little projects. Usually, when I take a while to blog something, I cheat and just back date it. Well, I am just meshing all our recent adventures into one giant blog, so sorry if this is really long (and it is really long).... like I said, we have been busy!

Going back to May.....

As a quick update, Eldon's family names their cars. Not sure why exactly why, but they do, so we thought we would follow tradition. It took a little bit to come up with the name but then we found the perfect one! The Black Pearl!! :D

If you know me, then you know that Pirates of the Caribbean is like my all time favorite movie... All of them. And it just fit so nicely. It is black, its a treasure (pearl) and like Jack Sparrow, I have been after the pearl for a very long time!

Ok, now to the events

Our sweet little niece Olivia had her Honor Choir concert. She did an amazing job and even though I may be prejudice, she was by far the prettiest girl up there.


My Grandfather (my Dad's Dad) passed away.

It was very sad, but (and i know it sounds morbid) a little happy. My Grandpa had been sick for quite a while and was really suffering from Alzheimer's to the point where he learned his beloved wife had passed away several times a day as if it were the first time he had heard it. Can you imagine your heart breaking with the worst news ever multiple times a day. He also physically was to the point of being dependant on others for pretty much everything. My grandpa was too proud to ever want to live like that, and he missed my grandma dearly, so for that sake, it was time and i am glad he is reunited with the love of his life. We went to California for the funeral. It was really hard, but got even harder when I saw my uncles and my Dad and how hard it was on them. My Grandpa was a great man, and I love him very much. He will be greatly missed!


On a happier note, a week after the funeral, we made a trip up to Snowflake to see our 2 Nieces graduate from 8th grade.

In Snowflake, Jr. High graduation is almost as big of a deal as the high school, so we wanted to be there. The weather was kinda crazy that weekend. While we were driving up it was raining like crazy but the Black Pearl (my X-terra) made it through like champ.... Eldon's driving helped too. :P The graduation ceremony was awesome, my nieces looked beautiful and all was good....until we got a terrible phone call.... well i guess it could have been worse, but still not fun. Hollis (Eldon's brother) and his family were also on their way up to the graduation, but their vehicle lost control in the bad rain storm, hydroplaned and spun right into a guardrail, broke through it, and drove down the cliff into the ravine.


You can see from the pictures it was a scary drop!! Thankfully everyone was OK... A few bumps, bruises and frightened kids, but no permanent damage! The car was totalled completely, but everyone was OK!

Once everyone finally made it safely to Snowflake, the family fun began. Nothing special, just good times together. The kids always love jumping on the trampoline

and the newest form of entertainment is a dual bike that Eldon's dad built from 2 separate bikes.

He is pretty freakin talented! It was pretty fun to ride.

That same weekend (it was Memorial Day weekend so we had a 3 day weekend that we turned into 4 for the graduation) we went camping with my family.

We got to break in our new tent,(not pictured) and see how Zeus did in the wild. I definitely think he enjoyed it....He was very dirty and not my white clean little pup anymore.
The X-terra did great as well! I am still really loving it!

at the end of the May (yes all that above was in the month of May) was the Brett and Angela's twins (Payten and our angel baby Zoe) birthday. It is definitely a bitter sweet day! We had a blast celebrating with Payten. She was super cute, loved her cake and her gifts and she especially loved Zeus! She just wanted to hug and squeeze him all night. Then we went to the graveyard to remember and send our love to Zoe. It was really cute, we let Payten send the first balloon and told to her give it to Zoe and she walked right over to her grave and let the balloon go. She was trying to put it on the ground, and was a little sad when the balloon floated off, but she knew that when we spoke of Zoe, that is where she is. I think the picture of all the balloons looks really cool and really shows all the love we have for our angel baby and how much she is missed!



PS....doesnt Zeus look funny. He just chills and is content to be held.

Our Dog has class

At least that is what our bumper sticker says. Zeus graduated from obedience school yesterday. They had a little ceremony of sorts. We got to take pictures with a little graduation hat on and they played musical paws...like musical chairs but you have to get your dog to do a trick before you can sit down. It was a little lame, but the classes were great! Zeus learned how to sit, lay down, shake, come, stay, do push ups (sit and lay down over and over again), and he is just a more obedient dog over all. We still have our struggles...like he wont leave one of my decorative pillow alone (he likes to eat the buttons) and rarely we will have an accident :( but it has been a long time. He still chews on fingers when he is really excited but he doesn't really try to hurt and he is getting better at that. We are taking a break from the classes for a bit, but the next class we are going to put him in is a trick class. He will learn to play patty cake, crawl, take a bow, and jumps and stuff. We are excited for that, but are glad to have our Saturdays without a class in the middle of the day. Good Job Zeus!

Bountiful Baskets

Check out our latest find. Its a co-op for produce. It is called Bountiful baskets and it is all over the phoenix valley. Basically, this company buys produce wholesale because they buy in bulk for all the people that join. Some of it is fresh from local farms and other products are the same are you would get a store. This was our first week trying it, and we love it! It costs 16.50 each time you do it. (the first time there is an additional 3.00$ charge) Pick ups are on Saturdays and you select your location from about 30 different location choices. you go to the location at the designated time and they have 2 small round laundry baskets full of food ready for you. The food is different each time, but basically you get about $50.00 worth of fruits and veggies for 16.50. This week got a huge bag of potatoes, a huge bag of broccoli, a giant cauliflower, a carton of cherry tomatoes, 3 very large cucumbers, a carton of strawberries, about 4-5 oranges and 4-5 apples and 4-5 plums, 2 big peppers, a large package of ready made salad, and 2 bunches of bananas and a cantaloupe. I think that is everything. Anyways, it was a lot of stuff( ps. its hard to tell from the picture, but the laundry basket is a large one....it takes up half my table) which made us wonder if we would really eat it all. So far we are doing really good. We figure as long as we eat at least 16.50 worth of it, we are doing good. Everything is really tasty and helped us at least this weekend to eat healthy. If you want to check it out go to http://www.bountifulbaskets.org. I definitely recommend it!!!

New Neighbors

So the house next door has been vacant since we moved in, unfortunately, we now have some new neighbors that we hate! Bees!

The home is still vacant, which makes this an even bigger problem. No one want to take responsibility to take care of it. Fortunately, we do live in a neighbor with an HOA, so they are giving the current owner 2 weeks to take care of it themselves or they are getting a bill from the exterminator that the HOA hires. Still not fun! We havent been stung yet, but last week when Eldon was trying to mow the lawn they kept bugging him! Yikes!