Easter Festivities

Happy Easter everyone! Here are some pictures and videos from our events over the past couple of days.

Coloring eggs

Finding eggs

Click To Play

And then of course we had to eat egg salad sandwiches for lunch after Hannah found the eggs but I don't have a picture of that.

Scott's dad made a quick trip to Utah this weekend to visit. Here he is saying goodbye to Hannah last night.

This morning Hannah woke up to some presents that the Easter bunny left her. She got a Dora backpack (which she has been asking me for for weeks now), some crafts, bubbles, and of course, CANDY, CANDY, CANDY. I wouldn't be surprised if all of her teeth are rotten after how much candy she's eaten this week. Scott and I shared a basket. As you can see, I got the movie Twilight, which I actually opened 2 weeks ago and have watched twice since then. Scott got a video game for his XBox. I don't know if we are going to push this whole "Easter Bunny" thing on our kids, though. It's weird to me how we got the Easter bunny and candy and eggs out of the resurrection. Sure, we'll still do it, but just imagining some huge bunny leaving treats is actually a scary picture to me.

Here she is with her new backpack.

This afternoon we went over to my sister's house for another Easter egg hunt with more candy and a delicious ham dinner. Hannah wanted to put her eggs in her backpack rather than in her basket. P.S. This is the only picture you'll see of me during these events. We had one of the three of us with Hannah in a different Easter dress, but I just can't get the guts to post it. Let's be honest, I'm huge and it embarrasses me. I wish I weren't so self conscious because it's ridiculous....I'm having twins!! I should be huge!!! Anyway, I will post more pics on Tuesday since it's my 24 weeks checkup.

Well, we had an awesome Easter. I hope that yours was just as good!

A Few Items Of Business

First off, I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in awhile. We've been pretty busy and I don't get much time on the internet because my husband uses it for homework from the time Hannah goes to bed until we go to bed. Also, I've had a very sick daughter this past week, who now has an ear infection. Poor baby:-(


Second, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who voted on the names and gave us suggestions. I think that we have finally chosen a name. We are going with

BRYNN ELIZABETH!

Honestly, I don't think we would have gone with that name if it weren't for your votes. We like Claire too, but we think Bailey and Brynn go well together. We still have three months to change our minds, but we are pretty sure that this is going to be it.

Finally, even though my daughter is sick, she's still a trooper. She let me take a few pictures of her today in the park in one of her Easter dresses, which she didn't want to wear today because she thinks it is cheap. "That dress is cheap, Mommy. I don't want to wear it." I have no idea where she learned that word from or how she knows what it means. She's a cutie anyway!

These pictures would be cuter if she didn't have boogies hanging out of her nose;)

And The Winner Is...

CLAIRE!!

I've got to admit, I'm a little surprised that Claire is the name that won. When the name was first suggested to us, I immediately pictured an older woman, not a baby. I guess it just reminded me of an old fashioned name. However, over the week it has started to grow on me and I've decided that if that's what we name her, we will call her Clairebear. We haven't decided on that name yet, though, so we are doing another poll this week. Thank you for your participation in last week's poll. I think it's really helping Scott and me see which names we like best. I think we've narrowed it down to two, but we'd still like you all to vote again. We are adding Claire again to see if it wins this week, too.

This Little Light of Mine.....

Please excuse the incredibly blurry picture.

I've been meaning to blog about Hannah's personality, so I think it's time to do it. This is mostly for my benefit, since I don't really write in a journal anymore, and it's much easier to type this up than hand write it. I am afraid that I am going to forget what my two year old daughter is like, so I'd really like to write a few things about her personality, so that someday I can read back and remember it. Some of these traits are two year old traits and I don't expect them to last forever (at least I hope not), but some of these traits are just her personality.

-She's very independent and somewhat bossy. She has to do everything herself- tie her shoes, put on her socks, wash her hands, wipe her bum, etc. Keep in mind that she can't really do a lot of these things and after many minutes of trying, she will finally ask for help. This takes a lot of patience on my end, but we are working on it. She also likes to tell Scott and I what to do...she'll be a great big sister;) She hates it when I wear my hair up and tells me to put it down, she tells me how to fold my arms during the prayer, or she tells me to take off a piece of clothing if she doesn't like it. I don't usually give in to her commands. She whines a lot or throws a small tantrum when she doesn't get her way, which is a typical two year old thing to do, but she is quickly learning that we are going to ignore her requests until she asks nicely. She also likes to help with everything, which is a good thing, but this also takes a lot of patience on our part.
These above traits are some of the traits that are more challenging for Scott and me at this moment, but we are learning how to work with her and deal with them at this time.

-Hannah has TONS of good traits about her that we absolutely adore. She is funny and likes to laugh and play. Today out of nowhere she called Scott a pig and I could not stop laughing. I don't even know why she called him that, nor do I think she knows what it means to call someone a pig, but she says such random things that make me laugh. She loves to scare us and pretend that the boogie man is going to get her (again, she doesn't know who the boogie man is, but pretends that he's going to get her nonetheless). She can be shy at moments, but doesn't seem to get embarrassed easily. She can laugh at herself if she trips and falls and doesn't seem to mind if others are laughing at her. She's usually very friendly with strangers and often likes to show off in front of them if they are at our house.

One thing I love about Hannah is how polite she is. She is usually really good at saying please and thank you and often dishes out compliments to others. She's also not a very aggressive person, which is good, but can be a bad thing for her at times. She always waits patiently for her turn with things (except for sharing toys at times), like when she is in line to go down a slide. Kids behind her often push her out of the way or step on her to get in front of her, but she just waits there patiently. I am so proud of her for doing that, but the bad part about it is that she often gets hurt because she's so polite. I've seen her get punched in the eye, slapped in the face, pushed off the slide, etc., and it breaks my little heart to watch her get hurt by others. She is just so gentle and sweet and would never hurt a fly. Sometimes the "Mama Bear Claws" come out (as my mother-in-law likes to put it) when my daughter is getting bullied by others. Ok, she's not perfect, and I'm probably really protective of her because she's mine, but I hate to see it when other children are being mean or too aggressive with her.

She loves to talk on the phone, take pictures of herself, sing and dance, ask us for candy every single day, do puzzles (which she's very good at), pick out her outfits in the morning (which is almost always a skirt), and loves to wear sunglasses, necklaces, high heels, and princess items, but hates to wear anything in her hair. This week she started to say prayers on her own and insists on doing it every single time we pray together. She also started telling us stories that she makes up and every sentence begins with "A lot of the times she..." I usually have no idea what she is talking about in her story, but it's really cute that she's trying.

Anyway, there is much more to her personality, but I could be here all night typing if I write anymore. Like I said, this is mostly for my benefit to write this. I love Hannah so much. Sometimes I don't want this stage in her life to ever end.

We Need YOUR Help....

Ok....Scott and I are having some trouble picking out names. We weren't expecting to have 3 girls this early into our marriage so we really haven't thought of three girl names. I can tell you that one of them will be Bailey Marie. The other one will be _________ Elizabeth. I swear I have gone through hundreds of names this week and can't seem to find one that both Scott and I love. So, here's where you come in. I am going to do a survey every week for the next few weeks and I would LOVE it if you would participate. I will put up 4 names and I would like you to vote on your favorite out of the 4. The next week I will put up the winning name plus three new names. This way we can see what names you guys like. Of course this doesn't mean that that is the name that we will choose, but I think it will help us a little bit. Some of the names I will post are names that were suggested to us by other people and some are ones that we think are just OK. Some of them are unisex names, but they are cute either way. Anyway, so PLEASE do us this favor and vote every week, even if you've never left us a comment before. In the mean time, I'll try to write more blogs.

P.S. I think the nurse told us the wrong weight for the babies. I looked it up online and if they truly do weigh 1 lb 11 oz each, then I should be closer to 28 weeks along. They should only weigh around 11 oz each right now. Also, I have heard of SEVEN different baby girls announced this past month and not one single boy. Something must be in the water!

DRUM ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL........................................







We are having TWO MORE GIRLS my friends!!


I have to go pick up my hubby from school, so I will have to write more later, but for now, just know that they are both healthy and both girls. We are very excited to have two more girls! This definitely means that we are going to have to try for a fourth kid, though, to get a boy amongst all of this estrogen:) They are about 8 inches long and 1 lb 11 oz each right now. I can't wait to meet them!

19 Weeks

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. My mom kindly told me that I need to update it and that she wants to see my belly again, so here's to you Mom. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be posting these belly pictures. I'm starting to get at that "not so cute" stage anymore. Sad thing is that I'm only half way done with my pregnancy.





Here are some fun facts about this pregnancy:

Movements: I've been feeling the babies a lot. I feel them everyday, especially at night. Scott actually got to feel them kick for the first time this week, and I tried to get Hannah to feel them too, but I don't know if she did. I'm excited for Hannah to feel them even more in the future.

Weight gain: Not sure because I've been going off of my doctor's scale, but I know it's much more than 4 pounds.

Self Image: Have you ever had an ugly day? You know, like a day when there is nothing you can do to make yourself look better? Well, I've been having an ugly month. Now that I no longer have morning sickness, I am constantly STARVING. This video basically sums it up:

*WARNING* This clip contains the Lord's name in vain. I apologize for that. Just be aware if kids are in the room.



Because of this, I have grown tremendously in the past few weeks. Actually, I'm starting to see Chris Farley in the mirror when I look at myself (JK). Even my face and arms are bigger. On top of this lovely weight gain that makes my eyes look beady and my cheeks and nose look gargantuan, I've also got loads of acne, dark circles under my eyes, and a hair cut that I despise. So, yeah, it's been an ugly month. I'm still waiting for this pregnancy "glow" that I'm supposed to get with the second trimester. Maybe because I'm having twins my body has decided to skip that whole "glow" thing and just go to the big, ugly stage. Oh well. Like I've said before, anything is worth it to get these babies here, but that doesn't mean I have to like it;) One thing that helps, though, is that my daughter doesn't care what I look like. Many times she'll look me in the eyes and say, "Mommy, you look beautiful." I am grateful to have a sweet daughter and husband who tell me that I'm beautiful, despite the fact that I don't feel it.

Anyway, life is good right now. Even though I don't feel like I look the cutest, I feel great and I love feeling the babies kick inside me. I can't wait to meet them. I will find out Tuesday what sex they are, so be watching back for that!

Victory

Hannah has been ready to potty train for probably months now. I didn't want to start it until I was feeling better, but she was starting to train herself on her own. She had a few accidents while somewhat training herself and I wasn't sure if she was going to understand potty training yet. Well, this week I decided that it was time to train her since I've been feeling better. She has done SO well. I started on Monday and she hasn't had a single accident. She even goes by herself, and sometimes I don't even know she is in the bathroom until she comes out and tells me that she's gone potty. Sometimes we do the "pee pee dance" after she goes (thanks to her grandma Julia), which is her victory dance.

I've been worried this week to take her out of the house with her "big girl underwear" on (P.S., don't ever say the word "panties" in front of Scott. That word grosses him out for some reason.), but I did it today. I made sure that I had an extra pair of pants and underwear just in case, but again, no accidents.

I can not believe how lucky I am that it has been this easy for me. I know that many people struggle with potty training their kids. I probably won't get this lucky with my next two children, especially if they are boys. The only problem that I've had with this whole process is cleaning her poop out of her little potty. I have a weak stomach as it is with poop, and it is extremely heightened being pregnant. For some reason this is way worse than cleaning a poopy diaper for me. I might have to buy a different potty that attaches to our toilet and a step stool so that I won't have to deal with her poop. Anyway, I hope that this potty streak continues. I am just so proud of her. I think I'll go do the pee pee dance right now because I'm so excited!!!

16 and a Half Weeks

Some days I don't feel like I've grown much, and then I look at these pictures that I post on this blog and realize that I've grown.....A LOT.....in the past 3 weeks. These babies are growing like little weeds. Today I had my 16 week appointment. I was able to hear their heartbeats again, which was a relief. It took the nurse almost a minute to find the second heartbeat and I about started to panic. But, no worries, she found it. Anyway, here's the picture from today:




Here are some of my fun facts about this pregnancy:

Cravings- To be honest, I really haven't had too many cravings lately. The things that I crave the most are probably popsicles and Icees.

Weight gain to date- 4 pounds

Sickness- I believe the morning sickness is about over. I still feel a bit nauseous when I wake up, but I haven't thrown up for about 4 days. It has been WONDERFUL!! However, I have been feeling a lot of braxton hicks contractions. They happen often and are usually accompanied by dizziness, but that's okay. The nurse told me that I was going to get that a lot more with twins. As long as my babies are safe, I will be happy with whatever I have to go through to get them here.

Movements- I have been feeling the babies a lot over the last few days. Unfortunately it's not hard enough for anyone to be able to feel them on the outside of my tummy, but I feel them on the inside. It feels like tiny little finger flicks from the inside. It's fun!

Mother's Intuition- Well, I'd like to say that I have this awesome intuition about what sex my babies are going to be, but I don't. I was convinced that Hannah was a boy because I had several dreams about a little boy that looked like Scott. So basically my intuition sucks. If I had to make a guess, though, I would say that these babies are two girls. The only reason I am guessing this is because I am basing if off of a couple of myths. The first is that with girls, you tend to get more morning sickness than you do with boys. I have heard this with many women who have had a girl first and then a boy next, but I also know of many women who have gotten just as sick or even more sick when they were pregnant with a boy. Secondly, both of these babies' heartbeats are incredibly fast, and there is a myth out there that states that girls' heartbeats are faster than boys'. So, this is why I am guessing that they are two girls, but I am probably wrong. I really have no clue. My appointment to find out the sex of the babes is scheduled on March 19th at 12pm, but I'm going to call and see if I can change it to the 17th tomorrow. You better believe that the first thing I do when I get home from that appointment is blog:)

Finally, I just wanted to let you all know that I am having a baby shower in Sacramento on April 18th. We are mostly just inviting family and a couple of friends, but if you would like to come to it, please email me and let me know, even if I don't know that you check my blog. The more the merrier! My email is maralar@hotmail.com.

My Life Right Now....

I was just thinking today about how grateful I am for my life right now. My life is good and I am happy. Things are going to change soon, and that scares me. Life is easy right now. I have a daughter who is fun to play with and who sleeps 13 hours through the night. Her life is not very demanding right now. She's not in school or in extra curricular activities and all I have to do is play with her all day. I get time to myself from 7pm on to do whatever I want. I get to see my husband from 4pm until we go to bed (unless he's got a lot of homework). I love my life right now. Not knowing what's coming for me in the next couple of months is terrifying, but after I get accustomed to it, I'm sure I'll love it just as much. It will be different, and I will never have just one child again. I feel like time is going by SO fast and it makes me sad but happy at the same time. I am excited to see what is in store for my family, but I'm afraid that I will miss this time in my life. Anyway, I don't know why I am writing this. I was just watching my daughter dance today and knew that I would miss this time in my life. I am an emotional, pregnant wreck these days, but I am so happy with where we are at.

P.S. I'll post another pregnancy pic next Tuesday...that's my 16 week checkup.

O-U-C-H

Watch this video before reading the rest of this post.

Click To Play

Do you see that Hannah is walking on her toe knuckles? I'm not sure what those bones are called but for the purposes of this post, they will be called "toe knuckles." The first time I saw this was a few years ago at my sister's house. Her son and daughter, Kaden and Hailey, showed us that they could walk on their toe knuckles and I had no idea how anyone could do that. I tried to do it after I saw them and probably would have shattered my toe knuckles into a million pieces if I would have kept going. My toes are not flexible enough to do that and I have too much weight on my body for those bones to hold up. Try it. I dare ya. If you can do it, you're awesome (actually, that's a really funny picture in my head thinking of a bunch of adults walking on their toe knuckles).

A couple of days ago, my daughter started to walk on her toe knuckles on her own. OUCH!
Who knows, maybe all children can do this, but I certainly can't. Ah.......to be young, light, and flexible again. You don't even know what you have when you're young until it's gone.

Another quick example of being a tough young child that I have to add (that has nothing to do with toe knuckles), my daughter and I have had a pretty nasty cold this week. She takes it like a trooper, playing and running around all day, and I just want to sleep all day. How nice it would be to have a child's energy again.

Here I Grow...

My mom asked me to post a picture of my belly every couple of weeks since she won't get to see me until April. So, I plan on doing this for her and also for my own personal records since I'm growing so quickly. I will probably take the picture in this same place because the lighting is better outside than in our apartment, and this is about the only yard we've got that's not still covered in snow. So here you go.....13 and a half weeks:

Yup, that's a maternity shirt that I'm wearing. The first one that was busted out this week. I can fit into most of my smaller maternity shirts, but I pretty much just wear my regular shirts that aren't tight fitting right now. Luckily, I can still fit into all of my jeans, but I must admit that the buttons are starting to get tight. Boo.

I also tried on some of my other maternity clothes today and realized that I look like a tent wearing them. Seriously, if I were kneeling down I think Hannah could make a fort under some of those shirts. Why do they have to make maternity shirts with that shape? They are so unflattering. I will not be wearing those ones for awhile, hopefully, because they make me feel like I'm 8 months pregnant. At the stage that I'm at, it's cute to be pregnant. In about 2 months from now, it won't be so cute anymore. Then the tent clothing will make its appearance.

Hannah wanted to take a picture with me. I love this little girl!

Along with posting pictures, I thought I would also post some fun things about pregnancy for my own records and for your enjoyment.

Cravings: Depends on the day. Today it was crackers with sliced American cheese on them. When I was really sick, all I could get down for days in a row was Cup-O-Noodle. Most of my cravings are foods that have no nutritional value, sadly. Other things I've craved so far- corn dogs, a big jelly donut (which I haven't had yet), french fries with fry sauce, frozen burritos dipped in Pace salsa, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, mashed potatoes with gravy, and Icees.

Turn Offs: All vegetables and big slabs of meat (mostly beef). Even the smell of beef still makes me a bit sick, which is sad because one of my favorite foods is a nice juicy steak with A1. It's also sad that all vegetables are gross to me right now because those good nutrients would be nice for the babies and me. I have to force them down.

Weight Gain: 0 pounds

Movements: I've felt the babies in there, but not quite full on kicks yet. They are still tiny.

Also, I am changing my due date to July 25th. The doctor told me that they take twins via C-section 2 weeks early if they haven't already come. So no matter what, these babies will not be born after July 25th.

My Public Expressions Of Gratitude-

I just need to give a public shout out to these two for putting up with me for the past couple of months. Despite the fact that I have been a lazy, bad mother/wife, they have done their parts to make life pretty easy on me. Above is my hubby painting Hannah's nails. She loves to have her nails painted and because I was unable to do it at that time, Scott took the time out of his busy schedule to help her out. It's seriously a really sweet picture. So thank you to my hubby for being so patient with me. And even though Hannah has been a serious brat toward me this week because her Grandma is in town (please excuse the word "brat," but she truly has been), she has mostly been an angel for me. Well, except for the fact that she rarely takes naps for me anymore (although I got her to take one today, Whippi!!) and she has been getting up around 7:15am when she used to get up around 8:30am. But other than that, she's been a good girl, and I am grateful for her patience with me. I love these guys so much and I could not do this whole pregnancy thing without their patience and love for me, so thank you, thank you.

And finally, I'd also like to thank my mother-in-law for being here this week and deep cleaning my entire apartment, providing dinner for us every night, letting me sleep in until 10:30am, and playing with Hannah. It has truly been a dream come true for me (except for the part about Hannah being a brat toward me this week because she wants nothing to do with me).

Anyway, I just had to publicly thank these people in my life for being there for me. This sickness will be gone soon, and I will be my normal self again. HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!

I will post another pregnancy picture in a couple of days because I am literally growing every single day, so stay tuned for that!

Sigh.......And Relax

I can finally take a deep breath and relax a little bit. I've hit a big milestone: 12 weeks. This means I can stop freaking out about having a miscarriage. I went to the doctor's today and heard both of the twinners' heartbeats, which means they are both alive and doing well. Of course this doesn't mean that I will stop worrying completely, because I know that twin pregnancies are always at high risk, but I can certainly relax a little bit more and start worrying about other things, like what in the world I'm going to do with two newborns. I can't think about it too much or I'll start talking myself out of being excited about having twins. Right now I just have to focus on how much fun it will be to have two babies, rather than how much work it's going to be.

For those of you who are wondering about my morning sickness, it's still here. It's not nearly as bad as it was the last time I wrote about it, though. I still throw up every morning, but I feel better around lunch time, and then I get nauseous again after dinner. At least I get a 7 hour window in there where I'm feeling somewhat normal and good, which I'm grateful for.

Here's the latest picture of me. I just got a facebook account last week, so a lot of you have seen this pic already posted on there. This was taken last week, so I'm probably even a little bit bigger this week. I already look and feel like I'm 5 months preggers. Hugeness, here I come:)

Christmas, Finally

Wow! It's taken me a long time to post about Christmas. So this past Christmas we stayed here in Utah. My mom and step-dad decided to come up, which made it feel a little bit more like home. My sister lives about a half hour from us, so we decided to spend the night at her house on Christmas Eve. The kids put on a Nativity scene, which turned out really cute. I don't think Hannah got what was going on, but she played a cute little lamb (and Scott got to play the donkey- hee haw). Unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries as soon as we got to my sister's house, so these pictures are all from my mom's camera.




Christmas day was wonderful. As I mentioned, I didn't throw up once, and we were able to open up presents, eat breakfast, and eat a lasagna dinner with sausage and meatballs without any "incidents." We also told our families that I was pregnant, which is always exciting. I made my mom and dad calendars of all of their grand kids that said "Sprague Baby # 2" on the month of August. This was before I knew that we were having twins, who will probably be born in July. We also wrote Christmas cards to Scott's parents to let them know that we were expecting.

Hannah got two adorable tutus from her grandma Julia and decided that she wanted to wear them both.

She also got a makeup kit in her stocking. Bad idea. It got everywhere when she tried to put it on.

Here's Hannah enjoying her eggnog french toast for breakfast.

That Saturday we went sledding. My other sister from Arizona came up to Utah the day after Christmas, so it was fun to have a lot of my family here.

Hannah did really well on the sleds. She's such a little dare devil!

And finally, here are a couple of videos of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Again, these will probably be boring to anyone except grandparents, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Click To Play

Click To Play

P.S. I have gotten my piece of pizza since my last post, thank you very much, and it was delicious;-)

My Reality

Eventually I will get around to posting about Christmas, but for now, I've got babies on my mind. This post might seem like a lot of complaining, but just know that it is meant to be more humorous than anything and is also meant for me to look back one day and say, "Man, I'm glad I'm not in that stage anymore." I'm not going to sugar coat anything, because this is my current reality, so please bare with me.

Today's topic: pregnancy

Some women love being pregnant. I am not one of those women. Pregnancy and I do not go well together. We're like pickles and ice cream, orange juice and brushing your teeth, peanut butter and mustard. I just named off a bunch of food, all of which I currently can't have because I am too sick. These past few days have been BRUTAL for me. I think I threw up something like 16 times today. I couldn't keep a darn thing down my gullet. It's sad how much I miss food. I would love to take a bite of a delicious pizza, a juicy steak, fried shrimp, donuts, ice cream, a yummy salad, whatever.... Instead, I get to eat crackers most of the day, and then I get to throw them up. If you've never experienced morning sickness like this, just pretend like you've got the stomach flu for 3 months straight. That's basically how it feels. Some days are better than others. In fact, Christmas week was awesome. I didn't even throw up once on Christmas day. It was a Christmas miracle! For some reason, this week has been exceptionally bad. I'm hoping it's at it's peak, and maybe after this week the sickness will go down a bit. I need it to go down because I am almost completely useless right now. The house is a disaster, I can't make dinner for my family because the smell often makes me sick, and I feel like I've been a terrible mother and wife. Don't even get me started on changing Hannah's stinky diapers. If Scott is home I make him do it.

I keep telling myself that it will pass eventually......only 6 more weeks of this (fingers crossed). The only good thing that comes out of this morning sickness is that I know my babies are developing. Morning sickness is often a good sign that the placenta is growing, and I would actually be worried that something was wrong if I didn't have morning sickness. I must admit, though, I would much rather be one of those women who doesn't get it at all.

So eventually the morning sickness goes away. The second trimester is definitely the best of them all. This is the trimester that the morning sickness goes away, you get to find out the sex of the baby (or in my case, babies), and you usually get to feel the first kick. It's fun to feel the baby kick for awhile, but after a month or two of getting kicked in the ribs, pelvis, or belly button, you tend to get sick of it. Hannah used to always kick when I was trying to sleep and it got really annoying. Again, though, if she hadn't kicked for longer than a couple of hours, I would get worried.

The last trimester is a tie with the first trimester for being the worst trimester for me. Those last two months are hard. Another reason that pregnancy doesn't go with my body has to do with the fact that I gain a lot of weight. According to my doctor, a woman should only gain between 25 and 30 pounds. I gained 40 with Hannah. In fact, in my 6th month alone of pregnancy I had gained 20 pounds. The doctor told me that I needed to lay off the sweets. He told me it was okay to eat canned peaches but that I shouldn't drink the syrup that the peaches are in. Who in the world would be so deprived of sugar that they would have to drink that thick, nasty syrup that canned peaches lie in? I must admit that I was a bit offended at first when he said that to me, but I knew that I wasn't pigging out on sweets, so I brushed it off. It's actually pretty funny now. Anyway, with this pregnancy, I plan on gaining at least 50, if not more. So imagine me looking like this, but 10-20 pounds bigger and two more chins. Also with the third trimester comes lots of heartburn, painful ligaments stretching, having to sleep on your side when lying on your back is your favorite position, not being able to bend over, and waddling like a duck.

Then, there is the labor and delivery. This is another reason pregnancy and I do not go well together. I can't have children naturally. If I were born a hundred or so years ago, I probably would have died giving birth to Hannah. I am SO lucky to have been born in this day so that I can deliver all of my little pumpkins via C-section. Don't be fooled by the size of these hips; they can't bare children because the pelvis is too narrow.

And finally, there is the lovely week after the birth. The actual C-section was very pleasant and easy. You just lay there while the doctor is taking the baby out of you. After the C-section was a different story for me. I think that I'm pretty good with pain, but I can distinctly remember two times when I cried because my incision was burning me. Both times were merely because I was trying to lift my leg over the tub to get in the shower. You don't realize how much you use those lower muscles until they've been cut. Every time you laugh, cough, sneeze, lift your legs, stand up or sit down, try to climb into bed, etc, you are using those muscles. I think what made it worse for me was the fact that I was SO swollen with water after Hannah was born that it was causing a lot of pressure on my incision. I've said this before, but I weighed more after Hannah was born because of the swelling than right before she was born. Look at this picture:


Talk about "cankles." This wasn't even the worst of it. I remember my mom laughing at me as I was walking down the hall because I looked like I should have been rolled down the hall by a couple of umpa lumpas, like this:


Luckily after a week, the swelling went down and I felt really good. Hopefully this time will be better.

After all of this complaining of what I get to go through over the next 6 months, just know that I know that I am lucky to be able to have children. Also, I know that some women have it even worse than I do (those who have to be on bed rest their whole pregnancy or those who have to wear an IV because they are so dehydrated). I would do this over and over again to get another little chubby pumpkin like this:


This time I get two chubby pumpkins, which means a 2 for 1 with this pregnancy. That's great news. Who knows, this might be the last time that I get pregnant (although I think there might be one more spirit out there for us after these two are born), so I had better enjoy every minute of it.

My Thoughts On Twins

First off, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your comments and/or phone calls. They really helped to make Scott and I excited in this confusing time;) I will try my best to answer all of your questions. I've been reading a lot on the internet about twins, and a few websites that I've read said the most common question that the parents of twins will get asked is if it runs in the family. Yes, it does run in my family on the Irish side. I guess almost every generation has a set of fraternal twins back into the 1800s. I don't personally have twins in my immediate family or even in my extended family (my cousins/aunts/uncles). But, my grandma has cousins that are twins, my mom has cousins that are twins, and my mom's cousin has twins. So, my guess is that my twins are fraternal and somewhere I picked up that gene from my mom, but we won't know for sure until they have run some tests on them. Yes, they have their own sacks and placentas.

We will not be moving back to California after the babies are born. Scott will still have 8 months left in school, and then we will move where ever the job takes us. It would certainly be nice to have all of those extra hands to help, though. Oh, and no, we will not be going to the family reunion in August.

And finally, Angela, I would LOVE it if you took some pictures of them.

Alright, hopefully that answered all of your questions. Now, onto my thoughts and feelings about having twins. I always wanted to have twins when I was little. I used to pretend that my barbies were twins or that they had twin babies. In fact, I had two sets of quintuplet dolls that I used to play with a lot. I was down with any type of multiples. I also wished that I had been a twin. Then, when I started to grow up and become a little wiser, I realized that I didn't want to be a twin. How hard it would be to have to share EVERYTHING (I'm a selfish person) with someone else and always be compared with someone else. I've heard of people saying things like "He's the cuter twin" or "She's the smarter twin." Not only are twins often compared to each other, but they don't seem to have their own identities. They are always labeled as "The Sprague Twins" or whatever the last name may be and they always have to do everything together. They have to share the same birthday, clothes, friends, presents, etc., and I remember thinking how awful that would be.

After I got married, I decided that I didn't want to have twins because of that comparison/sharing thing, and also because it would be hard to raise two babies at once.

Well, now my mind has COMPLETELY changed. Scott and I are SO excited to welcome two babies into our home.

Let me tell you how it all began........ I found out a few weeks ago that I was pregnant, and I was really excited. We didn't tell our families until Christmas because we were afraid of having another miscarriage. All last week I kept joking about the fact that I could be having twins because my belly seemed awfully big for only being 8 weeks along (see Exhibit A). Of course I didn't really think that I was having twins, but it was always on my mind. Then on Monday I went in for my 8 week checkup, and the doctor felt my uterus and said that it felt pretty big. I knew I wasn't just imagining it. He scheduled an ultrasound for the next day to make sure we knew the exact due date. Monday night I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking what would happen if we were having twins. Then on Tuesday, the ultrasound technician did her magic and immediately said, "Well, I have some big news for you." I knew instantly that we were having twins. I started to cry and Scott just looked confused/worried the whole time. As the days have gone by and as we are finally starting to realize that we will have two more kids here in a short few months, we have grown incredibly excited. And as worried as I am about them having to share an identity, I've also heard of some amazing stories of how twins LOVE being twins. They always have a friend that they can count on, someone who knows them better than anyone else.

Sure, it will be hard. I probably won't get any sleep for months and months and will constantly be annoyed and impatient with people. I have no idea how I'm going to breastfeed two kids at once or how we're going to fit 5 people in this apartment and in our car. I feel sad for Hannah because she won't get as much attention anymore. But darn it, we are going to try to be the best darn parents that we can be. I will do my best to give all of them attention and treat the twins like they are individuals rather than two halves of a whole person (Sure, if they're the same sex, I might dress them alike occasionally, but not everyday).

I keep praying that they will be healthy and grow stronger everyday. I am still terrified of having another miscarriage. How sad I would be to lose one or both of these babies. Right now, I just feel so blessed that Heavenly Father has given us this opportunity to almost double our family size. It will be a long and hard ride, but I think we are going to grow tremendously from it.

Exhibit A

Speechless

WoW! I have some news! Some BIG news!!!! I was going to write a cute little blog about the fact that I am pregnant. That's really not even big news compared to what I learned today. We had an ultrasound today to see the real due date of the baby because I had a miscarriage right before I got pregnant.

Well, I AM HAVING TWINS!!!!! OH. MY. GOSH. TWINS.


I am FREAKING OUT here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The due date is August 8th, but I'll probably have them a few weeks early. I'm only 8 weeks along, so hopefully it doesn't nip me in the butt that I am posting this on my blog so early, but I just had to share the news. Plus, I just can't hide the fact that I'm pregnant anymore. My belly is already gargantuan and I am SICK SICK SICK. Details will come in next post.

A Post That Turns Out About Hannah....

Well, let's see. These past two weeks have been somewhat eventful for us. We've been sick in this house, which is definitely not fun. Hannah has had a nasty cold for the past week and a half, which means less sleep for all of us. I'm trying my best to take away her binky too, which she only uses to help her fall asleep for naps, but have been failing miserably because she won't take a nap without one. Stubborn little girl! I NEED that precious 1 to 1 1/2 hours to myself. So that leaves me in a pickle.....do I take away the binky and give up my free time, or do I continue to give her the binky, despite the fact that she's too old to have it, for my own selfish reasons?

Besides this constant battle that has been going on in my head for the past couple of weeks, here are a few other things that have been going on:

Activities:

Ward Christmas party- We had a yummy Christmas feast and talent show with our ward a couple of weeks ago. Santa didn't show up, however, because our Bishop's cabin started on fire that same day, and unfortunately, he's probably the only one in our ward who could pull off Santa. Sad day for him and his family, though.

Work Christmas party- This year, good old Staples threw a pot luck as a Christmas party at the store because funds were too tight to take all of the employees out to eat. The food was good, though, and they had a white elephant gift exchange, which ended up being pretty fun.

Christmas Primary program- At church on Sunday, Hannah got to participate in her first Christmas primary program. She's not really in primary yet, just nursery, but our ward is different because we are all young students. There are about 7 kids, all ranging from 16 months to 2 1/2 years in the "primary." The parents of the children all had to go up with their kids, considering the children are still so young and have no idea what they are doing. They sang "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam," and I found myself getting emotional watching Hannah sing and lift up her prop sun every time the word "sunbeam" was sung. It was so cute to see my little girl growing up and yet so sad. I just can't believe where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was holding her as a newborn in my arms, and now she's practically in primary.
What the "h?" (H stands for heck, by the way;)

Hannah flirts- Another indicator that my daughter is growing up. We met with our bishop on Sunday and Hannah was flirting her way into his jar of candy. It was seriously the funniest thing I've ever seen. She was batting her long eyelashes, cocking her head to the side, giving a cute half smile, and sticking her hand out for him to touch it. She charmed her way into getting four pieces of candy out of him.


A few other indicators that my daughter is trying to be a big girl:



Yes, that's Hannah shaving her legs. I caught her in the bathroom, hiding in a corner, trying to shave her legs. Thank goodness the cap was still on the razor this time, but I did catch her once really shaving her face. Luckily there wasn't any blood.

Despite the fact that my daughter has been really good at throwing tantrums lately, getting into trouble, being extremely stubborn, etc., I've really had the chance to just step back and look at her this Christmas season and see what an incredible little girl she is. She makes up for all of her stinkerness by the cute things that she does, such as playing pretend with her baby, calling her dad a "scraggle muffin," putting her arms around me and giving me a kiss without being asked, and using certain phrases such as "I'm just...."

"Hannah, stop touching Dad's Xbox."
"I'm just pushing the buttons."

"Hannah, I need to change your diaper. Come here."
"I'm just hiding in the corner."

Anyway, I love this little girl more than words can describe.

Somehow this post turned out to be about Hannah, but she's really just a sweet little girl and I am thankful for her.

Christmas At The Sprague's

Almost every year since we've been married, we've been able to go to California around Christmas time. Because we went to California for Thanksgiving this year, we will not be able to make it there for Christmas. I've decided this year that because Hannah is getting old enough to recognize what Christmas is, it's time to start some of our own traditions. We put up our decorations on Monday and I was actually quite proud of the way the tree turned out. We usually just have random ornaments that were given to us by our parents and no cute color scheme. Last year I bought some red and gold decorations after Christmas, so I got them for a good deal. The tree actually has a small theme going on this year. Sure, I added the important ornaments from our parents (Some are hidden in the back. Do you have those ugly ornaments from when you were born like we do?), but a lot of them are new!

One tradition that I enjoy is that every year we decorate the tree together. This year we did it while watching Frosty The Snowman. When we are done with school and have a house to fill with decorations, we will get a real tree every year that I hope to be able to chop down with my family. There is nothing like the smell of a real Christmas tree; believe me, I've tried the Christmas tree scented candle.....not even close.

Cost of two strings of lights: $10
The feeling of seeing Christmas lights in a bush on the outside of your apartment, even if it is only two strings and looks absolutely pathetic: priceless

some day:


As part of the Christmas tradition, we also like to make goodies for other people. These cookies were the grossest sugar cookies I've ever tasted, so we didn't give them out, but we'll try again next week with a different recipe.

A tradition that I've started this year was something that my mom did for us as kids. She used to make bear Christmas ornaments every year for each of us. I used to get very excited to see what my bear would look like. She wrote our names on the bottom of it, which made me feel special. I still have all of my bears and hang them on our tree every year. This year I made one for Hannah, one for me, and one for Scott. I plan to do this every year for each of our kids. Hannah loved helping me make the bears and hang them on the tree, and I really enjoyed making them.

Other traditions that I enjoyed as a kid were reading the nativity story on Christmas Eve, lasagna with sausage and meatballs on Christmas day (we're Italian), and not seeing ANY of my gifts until Christmas morning (It leaves a fun suspense to do it that way). I plan on keeping those traditions with my kids as well. Feel free to take any of my traditions if they interest you. I would love to hear some of your favorite traditions (or you can just leave a comment even if you don't have any traditions).