Together again!

Yes, I'm alive.......WE'RE alive!  Lilli and I survived the 13 hours of flying plus layovers.  We survived the 5 hour flight from San Francisco to Charlotte.  We, scratch that, I survived the day without any sort of nausea or vomiting (maybe a little nausea), and things have been relatively better since that day.  Lilli and I also survived the next 8 days without Ben at home.  We survived running errands in a car that has no air conditioning, driving in 105 degree weather (Yes!  It was THAT hot!).  We survived it all!  Not to mention the TWO surprises that came within 2 weeks.  The first, obviously, was when we found out we were having twins.  I found out during just a routine check-up with my doctor the day after Lilli and I had that long day flying back home.  I have to tell the story.  Most of you already know it, so bear with me.

Like I said, it was just a routine check-up.  I didn't get to bed until 1 in the morning and my appointment was at 9am.  So both Lilli and I were pretty tired.  Anyway, we get in to the office and my dr (Dr. Asplund, who was awesome!) decided that rather than doing the doppler thingy majiger, he would just go get the ultra sound machine.  So he preps me (puts that really cold gooey gunk on my belly) and proceeds with the ultra sound.  All of a sudden, he starts furrowing his brow and saying, "Interesting........Very interesting."  Several times.  I keep asking him WHAT? what is going on, but he just kept saying the same thing.  So I'm kind of freaking out but not really, because if something were really wrong with the baby, he would have acted more concerned.  But my first though was, "Oh my goodness, my baby has got a growth," because all I saw were two little bubble things.  Well, then he tells me that he sees two babies, and of course I told him to shut up, that there was no way there could be two babies.  Then he showed me.  Plus, he called in two other doctors, who also confirmed there were two babies.  So I was still in denial, or it just seemed so surreal (it still does), so I had another appointment this Tuesday (with a Dr. Homeyer, also a good doctor) and, sure enough, there are in fact two babies growing inside of me.  They had their first photo shoot, kind of.  While Lilli was screaming and getting in to everything, the doctor was making sure the babies were growing okay.  He said that one baby is about 5 days behind the other, which is normal and actually really good (the dr said).  So now I have a "real" ultra sound on the 29th of August, hopefully they'll be able to tell us what we're having then.  I'll be about 21 weeks then.  So that's the first surprise!  What a great surprise!

The second surprise was that Ben came home a day earlier, WITHOUT TELLING ME!!!!  So he didn't get home until about 1 in the morning.  Yeah, totally freaked me out!!  I woke up as he was barrelling around the bed towards me.  I pulled the covers over me and kept saying,"Who are you?"  Then he turned on the light and said, "I'm your husband."  I couldn't believe it.  I just kept saying What?  It was another great surprise!  Lilli loves having her daddy home.  She's so cute!  He went up to get her the next morning and she was so excited.  It was hilarious!  I feel like since he's been home, we've just been going going going.  We went to the movie WallE, all the doctors appointments, yesterday we went to Atlanta to get our iMac fixed.  Today we got our car fixed, plus my phone fixed (water spilled all over in my purse and broke my phone).  So, some of our adventures haven't been so fun, getting all of our broken things fixed spending even more money.  It's been stressful, because we know we have double things to buy for the kids, PLUS we have to get a new vehicle to accommodate our growing family.  Very very stressful!

Anyway, so those were our two surprises!  Good surprise huh!?!?!?!?!  Lilli and I thought so.  So now we're just enjoying Ben's time from work this last week and next week, spending time together as a family.  It's been great!  Sorry this is so long, and there are no pictures.  I was going to put our ultra sound pics, but you can't really tell that they're babies.   They kind of look like aliens right now.  But still, so cute!  I'm so glad that our family is all together again!!!!  Thanks to all of our wonderful friends who helped us out!  We love you all!!!

Lest There Be Any Confusion...

Recently, some of may have noticed  comments on our blog from friends and family pertaining to Shari's pregnancy that are, how do I put it, incredible and OUTRAGEOUS! And so, at the request of my dear wife, I am posting to dispel any rumors you may have heard. Shari and I ARE in fact expecting TWINS and are VERY excited to share the news with all of you!

We are both also very impressed by the speed at which the news has been spread by both sides of the family. Shari needed only call both of our mothers and, in a matter of just a few short hours, the news had come full circle in the form of emails, phone calls, and blog comments. We count ourselves blessed to expect and welcome into our home not one, but TWO of our Heavenly Father's choice spirits into our growing family. We will continue to post and update you all on Shari and The Twins' status and progress and we look forward to any advice, support, and encouragement from all of you as we prepare to triple the population of children in our household.

Shari and Lilli have returned safely from their vacation in Wyoming/Washington and I look forward to reuniting with them at the end of this next week. It has been a long six weeks away and I am ready to be back home. I will be taking a couple weeks off from work when I get back to spend time with my girls and hope to do some traveling around the local area and have some fun. I look forward to seeing everybody again!

Cokeville Trip Part II

This last week has been a pretty eventful week.  We decided that Monday we would go to Bear Lake and let Lilli play in the sand and swim.  The water was pretty chilly so she spent most of her time playing in the sand, which is her favorite thing to do.  My sister Breanne drove down from Logan and met us there.  It was a lot of fun to have her there.  We had a great day at the lake.  Some of McKenzie's friends found us and swam with us.  We were there for about 5 or 6 hours.  On our way home we stopped to get shakes and then headed home.  We were all exhausted by the time we got home.  We were planning on going camping the next day, but that didn't happen.  All of us, except Mom, forgot or rather just didn't put on any sunscreen.  Thankfully I had my arms and shoulders covered,  but my legs were bare.  I did put sunscreen on my face.  Anyway, Tuesday I could barely walk my legs were so burned.  I looked like a lobster.  2 days later, Thursday, I was walking a little better and we headed up Pine Creek Canyon and camped for the night.  Well, barely.  We got up to our campsite, set up the camper, then hung around until our tinfoil dinners were ready.  Lilli was running around like she owned the place.  She was having so much fun.  Then it was time to go to bed.  No problems, except for the fact that she had her jelly shoes and her feet were filthy.  So I had to wash them.  There was no way I was going to let her put her gross feet in our bed.  So we all went down pretty good until at around 12:30am, I had to go potty.  So my mom and I went outside, I came back and got in bed and it was all over.  Lilli woke up, disoriented, cold and scared and wouldn't stop crying.  She cried until my dad suggested I take her home.  Then Lilli was happy.  No lie!  She knew!  So I drove the 20 minutes home to find the door locked (My sister Kandyce had gotten home from coaching a vball camp and locked the door).  So I banged on her window for about 5 minutes until she got out of the shower and heard me.  We FINALLY got in the house and I laid Lilli down in her bed.  She was out in no time, but only after she said hi to Kandyce.  The rest of the night was very nice.  Then Lilli and I went back up to the campsite and ate some pancakes and eggs.  Note to self: either don't take Lilli camping OR take Lilli camping MORE so she knows what to expect.  It really was a lot of fun though.  We just stayed for one night, which was plenty.  Then Saturday we headed up to Logan for my other sister McKenzie's 15th birthday, and to see Breanne.  We at Olive Garden, then spent the next 5 hours shopping.  It was a long day, but really fun.  Lilli and I fly back to Georgia this coming Wednesday.  We've had such a good time here it's going to be sad to leave, but I'm ready to get back and await Ben's homecoming.  I'm sooooo excited!  Today, during my nap, I had a dream that Ben was flying out to see us here in Wyoming.  As you can imagine, I was very excited.................then I woke up to realize it was only a dream!  I was very disappointed.  

Well, here is another montage of pictures from our fun happenings.  

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Happy Birthday, America!

Today is Independence Day. Here in DC it was, for the most part, uneventful. Having been here for a few weeks and, having already seen the monuments and the sights, my dorm-mates and I decided to lay low rather than to brave the masses who had come to see them. There were all sorts of displays, and hippie marches, and concerts to enjoy. Unfortunately, it had rained on and off all day. We became a bit skeptic as to whether or not the fireworks would go off as the rain continued on into the evening. It looked as though it would be the fourth time in five years the fireworks would be pushed back due to weather.

Just after nine o'clock, JB, one of my dorm-mates and I were just sort of bummin' around trying to decide what to do for the evening when we were interrupted by the first couple of booms. We looked at each other surprised, scrambled to grab our cameras, jumped in the elevator, and trotted down the street to find a good spot from which to take pictures. We found a decent view right across from the State Department building just down the road from us. The show lasted about thirty minutes-plenty of time for me to play around with the settings on our camera and try some different things and get some good shots. I took nearly three hundred photos in about 20 minutes. These happen to be the best of the bunch.

Pictures

These pictures are from the past week.  My mom, Kandyce (my sister), and my little brother Kennan went to Logan and took Lilli to Willow Park.  They have monkeys and wolves and all sorts of birds and other animals there.  Plus it's free, and they have a playground area.  It's a really cool park, if you're interested.  I was sick (no surprise), but it was nice of them to take Lilli with them.  So the first few pictures are from that.  There are also pictures of Lilli helping my other sister McKenzie feed the lambs.  She's carrying the food for her, and following Kenz around like, what else, a little lamb.  It was cute.  The last pictures were taken yesterday.  I had asked my mom if she would take Lilli's pictures.  We have no recent one's of her and what better opportunity.  Some of the really cute ones turned out kind of blurry, but they were still cute and I like to show off our beautiful little girl.  Can you blame me?  Just kidding.  My mom did Lilli's hair and everything.  I thought Lilli looked adorable.  So enjoy the pics, especially you Ben (sorry, had to do a shout-out to my wonderful hubby who we love and adore and really miss)!

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