Fire Trucks

The boys all want to grow up and be fire fighters, especially Andrew. So when the fire station near our home had an open house we just had to go. The boys had a great time. They got to do several things like explore the fire trucks, tour the station, spray the fire hose, and watch one of the big fire trucks spray. It was hot and sunny so they were tired and hot by the time we left and Brian was broken hearted because he didn't get a balloon, they ran out. So on the drive home they forgot how much fun it was. I hate when that happens! Anyways, here are some pictures of the event. (It has taken me a little while to get them posted, the open house was a couple weeks ago, but better late than never). Who knew you could take so many pictures of boys in a fire trucks?!

Ultrasound Results

SURPRISE!!


We ended up getting our ultrasound early (it was rescheduled for Monday, it just took me a day to get the results posted-- just giving everyone ample time to get their vote in-- he! he!).


And now, for the news you've all been waiting for. . . .

It's a BOY!!

and

It's a GIRL!!

Thanks to everyone that was thinking "pink" for us, I guess it worked. I am still a little bit in awe knowing that we are really having a girl. The thought of buying pink things is exciting and yet weird. The boys are all excited-- they, especially Andrew, always knew it was one of each anyway so it was no surprise to them.

Our Ultrasound was a very indepth one done at a Perinatology clinic in a large hospital about 45 minutes away. They measured everything. Derek was quite amazed watching as they announced things like "Here's the kidney," and it was a little black dot that to him looked like all the other black dots next to it. The babies look great-- they are both healthy and growing well although they are short, especially the little girl. The doctor said considering the parents though she wasn't worried. Hmm. . . is she implying we are short! :)

The majority of the ultrasound was done in the traditional view that we are used to seeing but when they would zoom in on the faces they would switch it over to the 3D ultrasound. It was cool to see and looked great on the computer screen, but the printed pictures I don't think turned out as well.

Baby A, our little girl, was quite photogenic and let us see her face very well, so we have some good pictures of her. She was much more modest though and made us be more patient to see her gender. Here are some 3D shots of her. They are both her profile. In the first one she has her fists up by her face-- one at her forehead and one in front of her mouth. In the second her little fists are both down by her chest. Hope you can make it all out. (The longer you look at them the more they take shape-- at least to me).

Baby B, our little boy, on the other hand, was not so photogenic when it came to letting us see his face. He showed us his gender right off with no problems but liked to hide his face. Consequently, we didn't get as good of pictures of him. Once again, these are profile pictures. He also has his hands up by his face. In the first one he has a hand over the middle of his face and his arm at the side of his head with his hand over his ear. The black dot is the shadow of his eye. The second photo is the same only no black spot. His face is a little harder to see than hers.

We get to have an ultrasound like this every four weeks. So we have another one on November 5th.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our gender poll. It was fun to see what people were thinking (we couldn't see who voted what, we could just see the results). By the way, the final results were: 10 votes for two boys, 10 votes for two girls, and 13 votes for one of each. So the majority, barely, got it right. Good guessing everyone!

20 weeks-- Half Way!

Well, we've made it to the half-way point! Although, twin pregnancies are usually a few weeks shorter than regular ones so we actually already passed half way a few weeks ago. I'm sure the holidays will make the second half go by very quickly.

Eveyone around here keeps telling me I still look small for carrying twins. I think it's probably because they didn't know me before so they have never seen me when I wasn't pregnant. At this point I'm usually just starting to think about wearing maternity clothes. It's amazing how quickly I change-- one day I still could zip up my jacket fine, it wasn't even tight, and the next day it wouldn't even come together.

Derek's very excited because he got to feel one of the babies move the other day. They are quite active in there. One cooperated very well and kicked him as soon as he put his hand on my tummy. The other one wasn't as cooperative and kept missing him.

Our ultrasound is in one week (8 October) so if you haven't gotten your vote in on our poll located in the side bar then you better hurry. The results so far show that not many people have much hope for the girls. Ah well, Brian already informed me that we can't have any girl toys at our house anyway. I asked him if we had a girl what she would play with and he said, "Cars!" Andrew, at least, is more empathetic. He definitly thinks a baby girl would need some girl toys to play with. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Hospital Visit

Well after the last few days we are much more acquainted with the hospital here than we were before. It’s been awhile since we last had an Emergency Room visit so I guess it was time to have another. Andrew started having problems with is asthma late Sunday night. We did what we could at home but by Monday afternoon I knew he needed more than what we could do for him at home. Luckily Derek was available and was able to take him to the Emergency Room while I stayed home with the other boys. They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the ER only to finally be admitted that night. The next morning he was doing worse and so they moved him to another floor to a specialty ward where he could get closer monitoring. By Wednesday he was doing much better and was able to finally come home late that afternoon. Yeah!! So by the time we were done we had seen the ER, the 4th floor, and the 2nd floor of the hospital. The OB floor is the 3rd so soon enough we will have seen almost the whole hospital. What an accomplishment! :)

Andrew is doing better now. He has a cough but he can breath so all is well. The cold season is only just beginning and that’s the worst time of year for asthma so it could be a fun winter. We may end up seeing much more of the hospital than we want to. I guess we will see what happens.

Luckily Derek was able to have all the time Andrew was in the hospital off school. So he was able to stay at the hospital most of the time with him while I ran around taking care of the other kids (Brian and Timothy both have colds too) and kept things at the house going. The only bad thing is he was behind on all his school work before this happened and now he is really behind and wondering how he will ever get everything done. He has several papers due next week as well as his midterms. Gotta love the way kids mess up your plans for getting things done! Derek just shrugs and makes some comment about how he can stay at the school for 12-13 hours a day doing work but he still gets to come home at night. It’s amazing how deployments change your thinking. Not much else matters to him, as long as he gets to come home to his family at night! :)

Ironic that this all happened on the day Brian took the cast from his broken arm for show-and-tell.

Modeling his mask used for Nebulizer Treatments (special breathing treatments):

The mask is a dragon face. During the treatments smoke comes out of the holes on the sides so it looks like a fire breathing dragon. Andrew thinks it's pretty cool. He calls it his "Dragon Mask."

He wears the mask around the house like this:

Showing off the sticky left from the monitor stickers:

Showing the spot left from his IV:

He was very brave and the nurses commented on how good of a patient he was when they put the IV in and took his blood. They even told him that they had adults that didn't do as good as him. He was a very brave and good boy through the whole ordeal.

1st Day of School

Well finally it's our turn-- it seems like everyone else has been posting their back to school photos for weeks. I guess we just got a longer summer. :) Brian started the 1st grade on Tuesday, September 2nd. He was very excited and had no problems getting on the bus and going off to his first day of school all by himself. We are trying out sack lunches since school lunches are $2.40 this year. He was so proud to carry his lunch box-- he wouldn't let me put it in his backpack, he had to carry it. Silly kid!

All ready to go:


At the bus stop:

Getting on the bus:

Waving bye!:

After school he rode the bus home too. He was the first one off the bus and he had a big smile on his face so I guess he made it through okay. I asked him how it was and he said, "Good!" Boys are so descriptive!! I finally got out of him that, "The first day of school got me excited!" and "We had PE." I asked him if he made some friends and he said, "Yes. One." When I asked him about his friend he said, "He had a shirt." Well, I 'm so glad to know that he had clothes on. After a little more probing I also found that he had "Speedracer" on his backpack and that he was in his class and sat by him on the bus. You have to be a super-sleuth to get any info out of him!

At school Brian got this notebook thing that he has to take to school with him everyday. It has a calendar in it like a daily planner. I'm not sure what it's purpose is yet and of course he can't/won't tell me. He writes things in it like, "Today was sunny," or "Today was sunny and hot." Today I asked him what he was supposed to write in it. He looked at me like I was crazy. When I continued to ask him about it he finally told me it was a, "Magenta." Magenta?? I kept asking him over and over, "What's a Magenta?" and he would just shrug and say, "It's a Magenta." I don't know how but something clicked in my brain and I said, "Oh, do you mean AGENDA?" He smiled and said, "Oh yeah! It's an agenda." :)