It's been a bit-

My babies are a week away from being 7 months. How in the world did that happen? We are doing well and trying to declutter our house before our move to Tucson, AZ in July. I am also supposed to be researching apartments in the area, but I just make food and watch babies all day.

Bruce is a smiley guy at home and shy in public. He can sit up by himself now and still loves nursing all day every day. He's 18 lbs, jibber jabbers all over the place, and loves to cuddle his mommy.

Cordelia is smiley too and doesn't hold back for anybody. She has tons of hair and the longest eyelashes around. She can almost crawl and is all sorts of spry. She's always contorting herself and every once in a while gets stuck or face plants.

October I spent every spare moment watercolor painting for the craft fair I've done the last couple of years with my friends Holly, Sarah, and Kiwi. We also did body scrubs and hair bows. Mostly we sold body scrubs, but it was nice to have painting practice to air out my creativity. I also painted a couple of things for my brother Grant's Christmas present and my Dad.

The babies came with me to the craft fair and were extremely well behaved. They are usually like that when we go out. They do very well, then they crash at home. It is a good alternative to crashing while we're still out.

Thanksgiving was fun for us. We went down to the LA area to see Charles' brother Paul's family and my friend Peggi. It has been a long time and it was awesome to meet her charming husband and see her super cool house. Those were the best of times. The worst of times were the 6.5 or so hours it took to drive in pre-Thanksgiving traffic. Our babies did not do well on their first long car trip. We had screaming babies for most of it. It was also a time when we reflected often on the importance of acquiring baby car mirrors.

Christmas was another fun time to see Paul and family. We also saw my cousin Caryn and her family. We had loads of good food and had some fantastic conversations.

We flew to Houston after a couple of days and the flights were uneventful. In the airport, we did have some serious delays because of airport security and got to the gate as everyone was boarding. We even got there 2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. It turns out if you get stuck in a line where preferred passengers cut, you do not get processed in a timely manner.

I almost lost my cool a couple of times, but the worst was when the lady hand-inspecting our carry-on bags went on a 10 minute break midway through checking our stuff after 6 groups of preferred flyers had cut and my babies were starting to fuss. We just stood there.. for like 30 minutes. It was the ultimate in ridiculous situations.

The silliest part was the guy who checked our id at the beginning changed stations multiple times and was there to help us take apart all our baggage to go through the x-ray machine. He then finally changed stations again, after the lady took her 10 minute break, and hand-inspected our baggage. Thank goodness we didn't miss our flight.

When we got to Houston, our babies had fevers. We took them separately to the emergency room and got ear infection and flu medicine for them both. We would have taken them together, but Bruce didn't have a high temperature until the morning after we took Cordy. So that was fun. Poor Cordelia, she was still dealing with acid reflux issues and teething, so she had a pretty miserable vacation. Bruce had cold rags on his head for a couple of days, but he also sleeps more than his sweet sister.

We watched many movies and played fun family games. We had a rootbeer judging contest. These babies are now eating mashed food and almost crawling. I might've cried yesterday because Bruce was cuddling next to me and it was so sweet.

Netflix original movie review

True Memoirs of an International Assassin- So good. It was about an author who got kidnapped because of a book he wrote.

Bright- So bad. I got an hour into the movie and had to turn it off. It was a thinly veiled movie completely about racism. Not an interesting plot. Acting blah. It has Will Smith, so I was expecting a more interesting watch.

Other movies

Stonehurst Asylum- I don't like scary or gory movies. This wasn't either, just suspenseful. The ending was unexpected in a great way.

Think Like a Man- A funny and silly romantic comedy about how to make different types of men commit.

To two too cute cuties and the handsome one

I just delved into my phone. It turns out someone took a million pictures of my babies with it. So I posted some of those pictures. We have Breanna and Stacy here currently holding babies. It's loads of fun. We've have a lot of help before and since these babies were born. Our ward has visited, brought meals, done our laundry twice a week, and just dropped by to help. We've also had family here constantly since these babies arrived and it has made all the difference.

 I have recently experienced the joys of spit up. See below for an artistic rendition of love by regurgitation.

 Skinny jeans never looked so good.

 I don't want to brag, since it was such a hard road to get there. However, I started at 155 lbs, weighed in at 174 lbs right before birthing these babies, and am currently at 138 lbs. That's what constant heartburn and twin cramming does to you. Here I am at 2 months post partum.

 Boxing lessons anyone?

 My Dad, taking care of babies for 3 weeks.

 Cookie, holding babies all week and loving it.

 Epic Christmas part deaux 2015 never before seen pictures.

 Charles and I recently celebrated our 4 year anniversary. Charles and I have the same anniversary as the sister/brother-in-law pictured here. This year, he was in Tucson for our anniversary and his birthday. Since my sister was in town, and since we share a wedding anniversary, we went to see Valerian. It was actually pretty good, even though everyone who we told hadn't liked it. Thanks for letting us see an alien movie and celebrate our anniversary without you Charles!

 St. Patrick's Day is a great day to slaughter muppets. Delicious eats. Charles is a great cook and a thoughtful husband. These pictures are from 2 years ago, but he is as wonderful as ever. Thanks for cooking for me my whole pregnancy, even when I couldn't eat anything you made Charles. Also, thanks for finishing my breakfasts when you cooked me one egg and I couldn't fit it all in my shrunken stomach. You are a pregnant lady's dream!

 These are the before and after pictures from when I donated my hair in 2014. Charles was shocked and appalled by my haircut. He now texts my hairdressers and pretends to be me. In those texts he tells them not to let me do any drastic cuts. Thanks for watching out for me and keeping me from making silly decisions Charles.

 This is a picture from when I visited my friend Emily for my other friend/mission companion Astrid's wedding. We had so much fun and I had an awesome visit. Thanks for letting me visit Utah without you for 4 days Charles. I know it was hard for you to sleep without me shoving you to the edge of our queen-sized bed.

 Charles is an expert waffle making machine and makes them for all our guests. They are fluffy, freeze well, and taste divine. Thanks for being such a handsome waffle maker for your sweet wife and visitors.

 This was the time I got a wax. It was spectacular and totally worth it. I will one day do that again. My friends are supreme weirdos, just like me. Thanks for being weird with me Charles.

 My sisters and I had the opportunity to paint together one day. It was the best. Charles has always been supportive of me, my family, my artistic development, and all other aspects of my development. Thanks for letting me grow Charles!

 When I was cleaning a Cutco spreader in our sink our first year of marriage, I cut my finger. Charles no longer lets me open cans, clean knives, cut large items, or grate cheese. Thanks for protecting my appendages Charles! I love you and have kept the rest of my fingers because of you!

Happy 4 years and 2 babies to us my sweet husband! I love you so much and can't wait to pick you up and take you home on Saturday. Woot! Love you my little Reeses addict! Oots poots!

Betting on Baby

"Call me Judgy McJudgerson. When I was younger, living in a family of 10 kids, I always assumed every womb had the same capacity for creation. I would see people with one or two kids and think what a shame it was that they only had a few children. We had so much fun as a large family and who's going to clean the house with only 4 people there?

Now I am older and have heard the stories of many parents that longed to have more children, their own children, or the opportunity to be a parent.

It is a hard thing to learn by experience. However, I have found out I'm pretty good at keeping secrets. The steps to keeping a secret:

1. Do not anticipate any sadness
2. Have someone dare you to not tell anyone
3. Tell half truths
4. Cry at home
5. Assume that when you finally tell others, they will be impressed by your fortitude

I attended a support group for women going through the process of In-Vitro Fertilization(IVF). There were a couple women who had messed up their medications- oops. That means they had to start the process over again- an expensive and devastating mistake. There were a couple women starting again because sometimes it doesn't work the first time. Imagine giving your body magic pills and telling it to make way for a baby. Sometimes that magic just doesn't work.

There was a woman there who was doing the process alone. She wanted a baby, was in her forties, and her husband was done working toward that dream. So she was in the middle of a divorce and trying to have a baby alone. She advised all of us newbies to tell family and friends about our experiences, so they could grieve with us and rejoice with us.

It is a hard secret to keep. However, we didn't want to let our family and friends down when we didn't have news right away. So, instead of telling everyone the good news, we are telling everyone the bad news. This sadness is hard to share, but it is harder to keep the grief inside."

The paragraphs you have just read are from a draft I wrote up a while ago, but never published. As you now know, the magic pills/injections finally worked for us and we are expecting twins sometime in July. It was a hard road. The nice thing about riding on gravel, is you get used to the bumps after a while.

Infertility is a hard road, but the craziest part about all of it, is pregnancy is also a hard road. Surprise, surprise.

Now, instead of shooting myself with needles every day, I am sitting at home watching movies. Sadly, I cannot eat bon bons while doing so, because pregnancy has put me off chocolate. Oh the sacrifices we make for our children.

I've been relegated to couch potatoism by my doctor, since I've gone into the hospital 3x in the last 3 weeks due to regular contractions. Did you know that having contractions at month 7 in your pregnancy is actually quite normal? One doctor explained it as capacity readiness- once your uterus hits a certain capacity, it is ready to empty itself. Amen, uterus. However, with twins, that can happen sooner than you want, since there are two babies sharing the same space. We're currently 31 weeks in, but would like to at least make it to week 36 before they pop out.

So I sit on our couch, and dream about eating tomatoes, chocolate, oranges, Mexican food, spicy food, and really, any regularly-sized portion of any food that currently gives me heartburn.

Sadly, my heartburn digest is quite extensive. So I sip from my water bottle and keep a tums tally on my hand as the weeks pass me by.

We have been very blessed with baby items. Our babies will be the best dressed babies in the world. Our cars seats were ordered and sent back because they were too large to fit in our Honda Fit. Strange. We are currently arranging our one bedroom apartment into a baby paradise. We have had lots of help- people have come to clean, organize, return items, and to store some items for us.

I have also been dreaming of having these babies, and them being old enough to talk. Last night my dream involved having twin girls- whose names I could not remember and had to ask family members multiple times what they were. Perhaps in my subconscious I am nervous that they will grow up too fast. I had another dream recently about birthing my babies and having them be around the age of 2 years. Very peculiar.

One nice thing about being on partial bed rest is I can sleep from 8-8. I still wake up like 5x a night to use the bathroom, but I usually fall asleep pretty quickly again. I figure if I can stock up on 12 hour nights, perhaps I won't be as tired when those babies come.

On my last trip into the hospital, I was given two bags of fluids. Apparently my baby pools needed some help to be refilled. While I was being re-hydrated, the lady in the room next to mine was screaming bloody murder. Ah, the joys of natural childbirth.

It is indescribably weird and beautiful to feel the aliens growing within me and moving around. I imagine their tiny hands resting against the inside of my belly and cannot reconcile those movements with two babies I will be meeting in the next two months.

I am most fearful of:

1. Painful birthing/recuperation
2. Postpartum depression
3. Ugly babies
4. Babies that cry all the time
5. Never leaving my house again
6. Death
7. Mucus

I am most excited about:

1. Eating food again
2. Beautiful babies
3. My own babies
4. Visitors
5. Tiny clothes

Those are not in any particular order, but do reflect some of my anticipated fears and joys. And now, some photos. Photographical proof that aliens do exist. One from the side:

 One from the front- this one's Cordelia rubbing her eye

Here's a fantastic one of Bruce. We call it angry baby with monocle. 

 Poor Charles, he's so busy all the time. Sometimes life can make you ingenious. Here's what he did to wrap our bread loaves one night.

 Here's how happy he was to have one more thing to do. Pregnancy, it's so easy for everyone involved. In case you were wondering, he just stuck them sideways in a pot and covered it in plastic wrap. We usually wrap them individually in plastic wrap.

That's a wrap!