And then there were two...

Jason joined me on my first appointment with my OB where we got to hear the heartbeat!

After my exam, my doctor said she wanted me to have a sonogram because she thought I was measuring a little bigger than she expected. I told her "as long as you don't add weeks onto my pregnancy, I'm fine." I was also excited because we were only scheduled to have one sonogram in our pregnancy and that wasn't going to be for another 9 weeks or so. A couple of days later, we went in to see our baby for the first time. When the sonographer began, she asked us if we were ready for our first baby. We both said yes then she said "Well, how about two babies?" Wait...what?

I couldn't believe it, but there they were, plain as day. If you're having trouble seeing them, Baby B is laying sideways with it's head under the "B" and it's butt is in Baby A's face. The sonographer told us that everything she said we wouldn't be able to remember...she was right. I remember nothing after she said there were two babies in there. I started crying immediately. I felt so blessed! Jason just laughed and held my hand. We couldn't take our eyes off the screen. One of the babies made a big movement and waved it's arm at us as if to say "Hi Mom & Dad!"

That was easily one of the most memorable moment of my life. The excitement of seeing my baby for the first time was was good enough. Then I find out that I've been blessed with two children and Jason was there right by my side... it still makes me tear up.

We didn't wait long to tell our family. In fact, Jason called his mom as we were waiting to talk to my doctor. He said "Well, you're going to have two grandbabies." and then his phone dropped the call. I'm sure she thought we were kidding but when we finally got a hold of her again we told her again and swore we weren't joking.

I called my dad at his work. I said "We were having twins!" and he said, "What? Hold on a second. I'll have to call you back." Seriously?  When he called back a minute later he said, "Now, tell me the truth." I said "I am! We're having twins!"  He was tickled.

My mom was the same. I knew she was going to be busy with the lunch rush soon so I wanted to tell her before she got too busy.  I couldn't think of anything clever to say so I just said "We're having twins!" She said "What? No way! Oh my God!" Then she proceeded to tell everyone at work. I knew word would spread fast now that mom knew so I called the rest of my family quickly.

I called my brother's wife, Kim and luckily, my brother and their kids were with her. I told her we just had our first sonogram and everything looked great. She said she was so excited for us to which I replied "You're going to be really excited for us now then because we are having twins." They all went nuts. My nephew Carson said "That's a LOT of diapers!"

Next up was my little sister, Katie. She knew we had our first sonogram today so she asked how it went and I started at the beginning and told her what the sonographer said (how about two babies) and she didn't believe me!! I had to tell her over and over that I wasn't kidding. I even had pictures to prove it. She said she'd believe it when she saw the pictures. I couple of hours later I emailed her the picture and she was still in shock.

It took me FOREVER to get a hold of my sister Sara. She's a teacher so I knew she would be in class and couldn't answer her cell phone so I called the school and asked if I could talk to her on her classroom phone. She answered right away and I apologized for interrupting. I told her everything was fine and I was calling because I had good news. After I told her she yelled "What? My sister's having TWINS!" and then I heard her whole class start cheering! That was awesome.

I feel really bad that I didn't call my little brother, Jon but I knew he would get in trouble if he answered his phone at school so I just let mom & dad tell him that night. I should have called him. That stinks. I feel like a bad sister..

I called my sister-in-law Laura and told her. She's always wanted to have twins so she was very excited for us. Her husband, David got a call from Jason. Now, if you know Jason at all you know that he jokes a lot so naturally, David thought he was kidding until he saw the picture. He said "Either you guys are really good a photoshop or you're really having twins."

Kevin & Kaylee had the same reaction. Jason told them that there were going to be two new babies instead of one and both of them thought that David & Laura were pregnant. It didn't even dawn on them that we were having twins.

Like the videos of us telling our family, I want to be able to share with the twins how our family reacted when they found out we were having twins. Forgive me if this goes on and on but 1.) We have a big family and 2.) each person's reaction is very special to us and I want to make sure I document all of their reactions while they are still fresh in my mind. 

As of today, I'm 26 weeks pregnant. Twelve more weeks and they will be here and we'll be making many, many more memories. I can't wait!

Start Spreadin' the News

I know that Christmas was months ago but I wanted to document us telling our families we were pregnant for the first time. Again, I think it would be cool to show this to our baby someday. I would have loved to be able to see my grandparents and aunts & uncle's reactions when my parents announced they were pregnant with me.

On Dec 23rd we headed home to celebrate Christmas with our families. We were home just 4 weeks earlier for Thanksgiving but this was the first time we'd been home since finding out we were pregnant. We were staying with my parents and I was so worried that I was going to be sick and they were going to suspect or even worse, ask me if I was pregnant before we had a chance to pull off our surprise. Luckily I was able to hide my morning sickness pretty well thanks to Jason sneaking a bowl of cereal downstairs for me.

First up on Christmas Eve was the Friedberg's. Ours will be the first grandchild in Jason's family and Jason's mom has been not-so-mildly hinting that she wants a grandchild for years now (yes, years) so we knew this was going to be a fun surprise.
This year we celebrated over at David & Laura's with a Mexican fiesta. We arrived around 9:00am to help make the food. I always have so much fun cooking with Laura. I feel like we've really become sisters over the past year. (love you Laura!) After eating our delicious meal we opened gifts. I bought a onesie that said "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's" for Jason's mom, Beth. We saved her gift until the very end so everyone would see her open it. What we didn't plan on was having the Chief's game on tv and them getting ready to kick the game-winning field goal right when she was opening the gift. Needless to say, none of the guys (except Jason) were paying attention to Beth's gift. :)

I could watch this video over and over! I love watching everyone's reaction. From Laura's "Eeee!!" to Kevin's "Uncle Kevin is in the building!" Everyone was so excited. I'll never forget it. We ended the day by playing the lottery game. This is a tradition in his family and last year Jason & I added a little twist to the game. Instead of just drawing numbers to see what lottery tickets you got we added charades that had to be performed before you could get your tickets. 

Next up was the Lane's. My parents always have a nice dinner after everyone goes to church on Christmas Eve night. This year, mom overdid herself once again and made prime rib. It was DELICIOUS! Last year Jason & I played the lottery game with my family for the first time and everyone seemed to enjoy it so we decided to play it again this year. Only this time, we rigged it so I would get a charade and that's how we would tell everyone we were expecting. I pulled up each grandkid along with my sister, Katie who was going to have her first child in 2 days. I pointed to each one in order of their birth and then pointed to my stomach, held up 5 fingers and waited for them to figure it out.

We also went over to both of my grandma's houses and told them. They were both so happy for us! It was so much fun telling everyone. It was a Christmas we'll never forget!

Long time, no write.

So my sluggish attempt at writing a blog failed again. I'm going to start fresh with this in mind...third time's a charm!

Oh so much has happened since my last post. Our move to Missouri was pretty easy other than driving through a torrential down pour the night we moved. What typically takes 3.5 hours took us almost 6 hours. Not fun. But we made it safe and sound and the next morning the semi truck with all of our belongings pulled in front of our house and a couple of hours later we were surrounded by boxes. (again) Here's a few pictures of our new home.

Our dog, Cesar, had a hard time with the move. He all of a sudden was very anxious and didn't like to be left alone. I guess he missed his home. Luckily, we have a friend, who happens to be a veterinarian, that lives right down the street from us. She was nice enough to come check on Cesar and play with him a couple of times a day while Jason & I were at work. He has since settled down and is pretty much back to normal.

Work is another blessing. Jason is really enjoying his new job. It has many challenges but if anyone knows Jason you know he's always up for a challenge. Luckily, I was able to transfer my job duties up to St. Joe. The working conditions are nothing like what I was used to. I'm all by myself in my freezing office / conference room that, let's face it, stinks. I'm not sure what I was expecting. I do work at a food & ethanol manufacturing plant so of course the is going to be an, ehem, aroma but this is just gross. But at least I still have my job so I can't complain.

About a month after we moved I realized that there was one thing that was missing...
Funny how one little test can change your life forever.

On November 30th I found out that I'm going to be a mommy. I couldn't believe it. I was so happy, so scared, so excited and so shocked. How was I going to tell Jason? Well, stupid me took the test on a break from work and I had the whole day to think about it instead of work. Needless to say I wasn't very productive that day.
When Jason came home that night the only thing I could think to do was to tell him straight up. I decided to film it without him knowing because I thought it would be cool to show our kid his reaction someday.  I said "I took a test and I think I'm pregnant." Although you can't see his face in the video (darn it!) he got the biggest smile on his face and threw his arm up in the air and said "Really!" I showed him the test and said I made an appointment with a doctor to confirm. From that night on, Jason has kicked into daddy mode. It's so cute! I love how excited he is.

I had two days of pregnancy bliss before morning (or should I say all day) sickness set in. It was awful. I was nauseous all day and all night and nothing seemed to help. I was so worried that it would never end. I was sure that I was doing something wrong and at 6 weeks pregnant, I was a bad mother. It took us a week or two but we finally figured out the secret to feeling better. Note, I said better. I still wasn't feeling great but after weeks of being sick, I was willing to settle for just feeling 'better.' Thank God for Jason. He brought me a bowl of cereal every morning before he left for work and he even cooked dinner a couple of times when the smell of raw meat turned my stomach upside down. It was SO hard not to tell anyone. We only had to wait a couple of weeks until Christmas when we would share the news with our families. We got video of us telling them and as soon as I figure out how to edit them so they are shorter, I'll post them.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

The story of us.

This is my second attempt at writing a blog. Let's hope it turns out better than the first...

The first time I attempted blogging my intention was to write about special events that happened in my & my husband's lives. This time the intention is the same but also to keep our family & friends updated on our lives. 

I love telling the story about how we met so here it goes.

Jason & I met in 2007 on my first day of work. We were friends for about six months before I started (shamelessly) flirting with him. It was totally inappropriate, but I couldn't help myself. We flirted with each other for a couple of weeks until my aunt decided to set me up on a blind date with one of her co-workers, Bryan. I made sure Jason was close by when I told my co-workers about my upcoming blind date. As I was leaving work that night Jason asked me if I had any plans for dinner. Finally! I guess Blind Date Bryan was the little shove Jason needed.

We went out and had a great time. He told me that his number one rule was 'don't date anyone from work' then he asked me for my number. The rest, as they say, is history. We spent as much time together as possible, which was pretty easy because we both worked for the same company but also difficult because Jason was finishing up his MBA.

After our one year anniversary we took a vacation to Hawaii. We had an amazing time. Hawaii is SO beautiful!  While we were there, Jason had a very important question for me...

Source

Although, I hoped for it to happen, I was completely surprised by the proposal. I'm so glad Jason hired a photographer to capture that moment. It was great to be able to share them with our family & friends. Nine months later, on July 11th, 2011 we tied the knot. It was a great day! Of course, I may be a little bias.

Source: Field of Memories Photography

Two years later we are planning our next big adventure. No, I'm not pregnant. We're moving to Kansas City!!  Jason got a great job offer that we're both really excited about. Now we just have to get our house ready to sell and find a place to live in KC. We've got lots to do, I'll keep you posted!