ALMOST Wordless Wednesday!

My sweet little boys turned three last weekend! We've had the flu and bronchitis at our house, so their birthday post has been delayed! It'll be coming soon!

Wordless Wednesday: 13 Weeks Pregnant!

Soccer Season 2009

This soccer season has been so much fun! We have both Ashton and Bryson playing this year.

Ashton has been playing for 6 years and this is the first year that he has played in a new town. He has played defense for the last 5 years, but this year he has played a lot of offense. It has been so fun watching him learn and improve his soccer skills. Personality wise, he is not a real aggressive person, but in the soccer game, he has really surprised us with his determination. He is so fast too! His games are so fun to watch and keep ya on the edge of your seat!

This is his team picture... Ashton is 2nd from the right on the top row, with the blue soccer ball.






This is Bryson's first year! He has wanted to play since he could walk! He sure does have the energy that soccer requires! He seems to be a natural! His main asset is his speed (just like Ashton)! He loves to get the ball and run down to the other end of the field and score! He has scored 6 or 7 goals so far this year! Dave and I coach his team and we have really enjoyed working with this group of kids! They are all first-year players and all but one little boy, is just 4 years old! They have improved 100% since our first practice! His team is a lot of fun to watch as well, but more for entertainment purposes! There are definitely times we score for the other team! One time, one of our players took to ball to a whole different soccer field and scored a goal! Of course, we all cheered him on! =)

This is Bryson's team picture... Bryson is the redhead in the middle and of course, the good-looking coach in the back is my hubby! =)




Aren't they just so cute!!?!?

"Not Me" Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. What a perfect way to get some things off our chest and admit some things we "didn't" do this week!


I did NOT resort to PINK Barney "big boy pants" for Nolan when I skipped my laundry day last week. I mean, he is ALL boy and I would never even ASK him to put on girl underwear. He definitely did NOT reply with a huge grin and enjoy wearing them for the rest of the day, even AFTER our "boy" underwear were clean and available.






I did NOT just put up my Fall decorations LAST NIGHT! I put my decorations up EVERY year during the 2nd or 3rd week of September because I absolutely LOVE Fall. 5 out of 8 members of our family have birthdays in the Fall... so we OWN it! That's just how WE roll! I am always right on the ball with Fall!





My husband and I do NOT absolutely love chatting it up with my OB-GYN doctor at my monthly appointments. That would be silly, right? They are just regular routine appointments and his upbeat, positive, fun attitude does NOT just totally make our day! And I did NOT just get overly excited to add my OB-GYN doctor as my "friend" on Facebook. YES, I do think he is one of the coolest people that I know and I would totally entrust my life to him if I ever needed to, but a friend on FACEBOOK??? Wouldn't your Ob-GYN doctor be a bit odd to have as a friend???


I am NOT getting stressed out about the HUNDREDS of odd little jobs that need to be done around the house. Everything from hanging a piece of trim to scraping paint off the windows to adding more shelves in some of the closets. For crying out loud, we totally gutted the kitchen and started from scratch and I didn't stress out then, why would I stress out over LITTLE tiny jobs that SHOULD take a fraction of the time and energy???


After sitting in the car-rider line for 15 minutes, Bryson got an urgent look on his face and said "I've got to go pee NOW!". I slightly panicked because Bryson... whom we call "Firehouse Pete"... waits until the very last second to go to the bathroom and peeing on the tire was NOT an option at this point! Looking around the van, trying to figure out what to do, I was NOT thrilled to find an empty water bottle! I definitely did NOT let Bryson pee in said water bottle and then tightly put the cap on it! I did NOT forget to throw it away as soon as we got home (as I had planned to). The next morning, when the girls got in the van... one of them did NOT ask if it is was a water bottle with one of the lemonade mix-ins. Yuck. Gross. Would NOT do that.


Have a great Monday!

11 Week Check-Up

I am a little over 11 weeks along in my pregnancy and we went for my check-up today! We went hoping that we would get to hear the baby's heartbeat and we did! We actually got more! Dr. Shepherd brought in the little portable sonogram machine and we got to take a peek in there at our little peanut! Notice... I said peanut, NOT peanuts! Yep, it looks like there is ONE baby in there! Although our doctor would not give us any guarantees, he is "pretty sure" that there is only one! We are thankful for what God has given us!

We got to see him/her wiggling around. We saw arms and legs kicking all about and being so cute! The baby's heartbeat was around 160. Generally my boys have been around 160 or 170 and my girls were almost always in the 130's. I am feeling like it is a boy and Dave is feeling like it is a girl. Bryson, my almost 5 year old, says that he thinks it's a boy and we should name him "Chinese Harris". Yikes... that might confuse the poor kid! My doctor (who is by the way, one of my favorite people in the world) says he has a feeling it's a girl too! Guess we will have to wait and find out in November! I will be taking a poll before the sonogram!

It was just such a blessing and complete miracle to see our baby! God is so good to us!

Thanks for your prayers! We will keep you updated!

9 weeks and counting....

I am so grateful for awesome friends and family that are so supportive of our pregnancy! Everyone seems to be so happy for us and often check on me to see how I am feeling! And by the way... I am feeling GREAT! Other than having to give up my nighttime eating and my morning cup of coffee (since apparently it did NOT agree with this pregnancy), I have felt so good! Thank you God!

With all of my pregnancies, I seem to have a day where all of a sudden, my belly just pops out! With the last couple pregnancies, it has happened earlier and earlier. Well, this pregnancy is no different! I had a "pop-out day" on Friday for sure! I absolute love watching my belly grow, it is such an amazing miracle! So I decided to take some pics and keep track of my ever-growing Baby belly!

So here's my 9 Week Belly shot....







So the crazy thing is....I had another "pop-out day" today! I think I have doubled in size since these pics were taken! Yikes! Ha! Have to do a new post with pics soon....

Frequently Asked Questions.... TWIN TALK

When we go out to Walmart or anywhere that is in the public eye, we usually get hounded with attention and questions. It usually starts out with "Are these ALL your kids?", then comments about all of the red hair, and then once they figure out we have two sets of twins, the questions really come POURING out! Quite honestly, I can't believe how rude some people are... saying things like "Did you use fertility drugs?" or "Glad it's you and not me!" right in front of my children. BUT most people are very nice and friendly, and usually will compliment us on how well-behaved or cute the children are. Most questions that people ask, I believe, is just out of curiosity and not to be rude. We generally don't mind answering the questions that most people have. Dave and I have joked around about typing up a FAQ Sheet that we can hand out when people start asking questions! We wouldn't really do that... but since many questions are arising now that we are expecting again, I figured I would type up a few questions that usually get asked....


Question 1. Are these really ALL "your" kids?
YES! They are! Neither of us have been married before, neither of us have children with anybody else!

Question #2. What are their ages?
At the present time, 10,8,8,4,2,2....

Question #3. "Do twins run in your family?"
This question can be the most confusing.

~Dave's side has no PREVIOUS twins that we can find when we searched back several generations.
~My side has ONE set of fraternal twins. They are actually my first cousins, that are my age, and I grew up very close with them! Very sweet boys!

THAT being said...Here are some basic twin facts....
~Identical twins are NOT genetic. Identical twins are made up of ONE egg and ONE sperm. Once fertilized the egg splits. There is technically no rhyme or reason for the egg splitting. It just "happens".

~Fraternal twins ARE genetic. It runs on the woman's side. Usually a woman only releases ONE egg per cycle, but a set of fraternal twins takes 2 eggs and 2 sperm.

Our first set of twins was our identical girls. We were told that since they were in separate sacs when in utero, that they could be identical or fraternal. When the placenta was tested at birth, it came back that they were 100% no doubt identical. Since they were identical, we were told that we had NO chance of ever having twins again. At least, not any more of a chance than anyone else... which is about a 3% chance.

Fast forward, about 5 years later, we found out when I was 17 weeks pregnant, that we were carrying another set of twins. These twin boys were "set up" the same way as the girls were, so once again we did not know if they would be identical or fraternal. When they were born and looked SO much alike, we really thought they were identical. When we sent the placenta away for testing, it came back "inconclusive". We COULD have done DNA testing, but we really didn't care if they were identical or fraternal... we love them like crazy no matter what their "label" was. Once they turned about a year old or so, they really started getting their "own look" and we unofficially deemed them fraternal. They don't have the same hair color, which makes it easy to know that they don't have the same exact DNA!


Question #3 1/2. "Do twins run in your family?" PART TWO.....

Twins did not PREVIOUSLY run in our family. (the fraternal set of twins that were on my side of the family, genetically would have ran on the female side. I am NOT blood related to my Aunt, she was married to my dad's brother, therefore, I would not have any of her genes passed down to me.)

BUT.... since we have had our twin girls 8 1/2 years ago, my husband's sister had a set of fraternal twins and my brother and his wife had a set of identical twin boys!!! It's crazy, I KNOW!!??!?

Question #4. "Did you use any type of fertility drugs?"
NO. We do just fine on our own!


Question #5. "What are the chances of you having twins again?"
The statistics go like this:
~Once you have ONE set of fraternal twins, you are 70% MORE likely to conceive twins again.
~Oddly enough though, the chances of having 3 sets of any type of twins is VERY rare... only 1 in 500,000.


Question #6. "Were your twins born healthy?"
YES! Praise God! I had wonderful pregnancies and deliveries! I was actually out playing in the snow the day before I had my girls! With my girls, I was induced 2 weeks early, mainly because of my doctor going out of town and because the girls were getting "too big" to wait too much longer. They were both born naturally, weighing 5lbs 9 oz, and 5 lbs 14oz.
I went into labor exactly 4 weeks early with my boys. My doctor decided to proceed with labor (instead of stopping labor) since their lungs seemed to be developed already and they were "big" as well. They were both born naturally, weighing 5 lbs 13 oz, and 6 lbs 11 oz. None of my twins had to go to NICU. I have been truly blessed to have wonderful pregnancies and deliveries with all of my children!


I have some doctor appointments this week. I don't know when we will have our first sonogram. Technically, it's not suppose to be until I am 17 weeks. I am going to try to pull some strings and see if I can get an early sonogram. I just want a healthy baby. Period. If God wants to give me two...I will praise him twofold! Please pray for smooth appointments! I love the peace that comes with seeing/hearing a little perfect heartbeat!