My bigness, and the baby quilts

I had Ben take a quick picture of me just now so that ya'll can see how big I am.  If I look really big, that's because I am.  If I don't look that big, well, then the photo doesn't do me any justice.  I've also taken a picture of one of the two quilts my awesomely talented friend made for the boys.  The other quilt looks just like this one only with a brown back to it.  I love them, and she also made matching crib skirts as well.  Very cute!  

A little behind.......

All right.  No pictures.  Sorry.  But I'll TRY to keep this short.  I guess I'll write updates how my friend did them (good idea Megan).

Lilli:  She is still going strong with the whole potty thing.  Only a few accidents.  She's starting to lose interest, but as long as we keep reminding her to go potty in the big girl potty she does really good.  I haven't tried the night time potty training.  Going out is good.  I put a pull-up on and underwear over and sometimes she does good and sometimes she pees in her pull-up.  Any ideas on how to train for the overnighters?  Other than that, she's getting more and more sassy and bossy.  She's ready to be a big sister and will do wonderfully.  We love her so much and she brings such joy to our lives.

Ben: He's getting older.  Today is his 28th birthday.  We went out to dinner at Chop House and had some yummy prime rib.  I had more than he did.  Then we stopped and got him FIFA 09 for our Wii.  Now he and our neighbor are playing it up.  He's doing really good at work as well.  He's looking into changing shops and hopefully that will happen here soon.  He's in much need of a change.  We're definitely re-enlisting next June and feel like it's the right thing for us.  He's also looking at doing an internship/TDY overseas during that time as well.  He's been quite successful at work and is such a great support at home.  He's wonderful and is always so helpful. 

Me:  I'm surviving.  I'm ready to have these babies.  I have weekly appointments at the NST clinic.  AND I have one last ultrasound this coming Monday.  I really try not to complain but I'm so uncomfortable.  I just start crying sometimes from the pain.  They're so rambunctious and are constantly moving it seems.  I know people feel sorry for me.  I'm growing bigger everyday and need help with everything.  But I'm anxious for these babies to be here.  I finally feel ready for them to come.  Everything is all set up and we went on our tour of the hospital so we're good.  I'm 34 weeks now and would be okay with having these babies in the next week or two.  We'll see how much longer.

Thanksgiving was fun.  It's so nice to spend the holidays with good friends.  We miss our families and wish we could spend it with them, but good friends are a good second family.  Those of you who live close to family, appreciate them.  Spend the Holidays with them!  You don't realize what you have and how lucky you are!  We're looking forward to Christmas and just having these babies here.  I'll try to take one last picture of my bigness.  You really have NO IDEA how big I really am!

Potty Training Day 4

Totally awesome!!!  My little booger went on the toilet ALL day, BY HERSELF!  She's a pro!  Watch, now that I say that, tomorrow will be a downer day.  Oh well.  I still need to keep with it, because I know I'm not going to want to do it after the babies are born.  I'm so proud of Lilli and this hurdle we're crossing.  It's going to be quite an adjustment once the babies are here, but she'll do great!  I'm such a proud mama!!!!

ALS Graduation, Halloween, and other updates

Let's see.  Where do I start.  Ben graduated from ALS October 30th.  I drove up to Columbia and attended the ceremony.  It was cool to meet a lot of the people from his class and some of his supervisors.  He was a top graduate (1 of 4 out of 50 people), so I was very proud of him for that.  He wasn't expecting it at all.  It was a fun surprise.  Also, another surprise..........he sang the National Anthem for the ceremony, a capella.  That was another fun surprise for me and he did so awesome!  He really has a beautiful voice, I wish he would sing more.  Anyway, thanks to our good friends the Pilk's for keeping Lilli overnight that night.  I heard the girls had WAY too much fun!

Then we had Halloween.  Lilli was a cute little kitty cat.  She had so much fun trick or treating.  She's so not shy and would run up to the people with that candy and in her sweet little voice say trick or treat.  They all thought it was so cute.  They would let her get the candy and she wouldn't take just one handful, she had to take a couple more.  Yeah, we had to put a stop to that.  We went with our good friends the Gernat's.  They have a little boy about the same age as Lilli.  They had so much fun.  We only went to a few houses, but ended up with a lot of candy.  Neither Ben or I are much candy eaters, so we'll probably have the candy for a while.  We've been using it as a treat for potty training.

On to THAT subject.  The day before yesterday I decided it was time to start potty training.  It has to be done, and Lilli did awesome.  No accidents the whole day except at the end.  Yesterday I wasn't feeling great so I didn't do it, but today I am.  I know.  It's all about consistency.  I'm having a hard time with keeping her in her underwear even when we go out.  I get nervous.  Does anyone have any good ideas?  I need to just do it and just make sure I have extra clothes for her to wear.  But, so far so good.

I'm feeling okay.  The babies are just getting bigger and therefore there's not a whole lot of room for them to move.  I'm starting to go in every week now to the Non-Stress Testing Clinic, or NST.  I don't know what that entails.  We'll see come Monday at 9:30am.  My doctor said that they'll hook me up to "the machine."  Whatever that means.  The last couple of days I've been feeling a lot of contractions, and to be honest, it's my fault.  Lack of water and lack of rest is not a good combination.  I was really scared Tuesday night because I had 3 contractions within 20 minutes of each other.  So I've been really trying to suck down the liquids (and food) and just take it easy.  I'm excited for them to be here, just not right now.  Maybe in a few more weeks.  Speaking of a few more weeks, I'll have one last ultrasound just to make sure the boys are still doing okay.

Oh!  Another big development (atleast for us), we've picked names!!!!!!!!  Yea!!!!!  We're very excited.  Now it's just a matter of picking middle names, which we've kind of picked but I'm still hesitant on one of them.  I'm not going to say what they are because we could change our minds tomorrow (or Ben could), but they're very cute and I'm very happy.  Ben was actually the one who "picked" them, but they were names that I had suggested to him (and he wasn't sure about).  We're, okay I'm very excited about that!

Well, I think that's about all that's going on in our lives.  We're all healthy and happy!

Another Ultrasound

I know I have a lot of catching up to do.  I still have pictures from Ben's graduation and also Halloween.  I'll post them later, because I know you're all just dying to read my blog and then you will have something to look forward to.  

Anyway, yesterday we had another follow-up ultrasound.  The babies are still growing good.  They're both almost 4 pounds a piece (well, 3lb 11 oz and 3 lb 7 oz).  That's almost 8 pounds of baby right there.  And boy am I feeling it!!!  One of the babies (Twin A) has made his way right down into my pelvic area (he's dropped a lot since my last ultrasound) and the other (Twin B) was kind of head down as well.  Twin B's head was in the side of the other, so Baby B was basically in a ball sideways.  I told Ben I was going to try to manipulate BB so he was head down as well.  That would be a perfect scenario.  I would no longer have to choose if I wanted a C-section or naturally (w/ an epidural OF COURSE).   I would definitely go natural.  We'll see.  I have another dr. appointment next Monday and she'll be able to see how BB is positioned.  I'll be having regular weekly appointments from here on out, which is comforting.  I'm pretty big (bigger than my picture, if you can imagine).  Ben says I'm as big as I was with Lilli days before I had her.  So.........I'm huge!!!  We're getting anxious and excited for their arrival.  I feel like they're constantly battling for good positioning in my belly.  It's crazy!  My whole body moves when they're duking it out!  Anyway, babies are healthy!!! 

Making cookies

So I decided to try this yummy sugar cookie recipe that my friend always makes.  They're seriously the best sugar cookies IN THE WORLD!  But sadly, my attempt at making them was not so great.  The dough was really particular and it was just hard to roll out and cut.  So while the dough was in the fridge, I gave Lilli a little bit of dough and let her at it.  She had so much fun.  She wanted to do the whole rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutter.  As you can see, I didn't really give her a whole lot of dough to work with.  I think we may have a future chef on our hands.  By the way, my cookies turned out okay, but nowhere near the yummy deliciousness of my friends!

Pictures

These are pictures of Lilli in her cat costume before we left for the Ward's Trunk or Treat and also the flowers Ben sent me for my birthday.  They were beautiful!