A little bit of family

My sisters birthdays happen to be about 24 hours apart. So this year since they were both at home for the summer, my parents decided to fly me out to Houston to surprise them for it. I was super excited! I hadn't seen my family since Christmas and we were due for a reunion. The surprises didn't go exactly as planned but everyone was still surprised anyway. Sarah even cried :)

It was really nice to be with the fam! I had been missing all the fun all summer long. The plan was to spend a week and a few days in Houston with everyone then drive out to Pensacola and meet up with GB and have a nice little family beach weekend.

So while I was there we did a lot. I was extremely grateful that my body held up. I took a lot of naps but I was still able to function pretty well. Honestly I have been extremely worn out this pregnancy and this anemia has totally kicked my trash. But the two weeks I was with family I was able to do everything everyone else was doing. I really think heavenly father knows when you need extra strength and gives it to you. I was grateful.

Anyway, back to all the awesome stuff we did. First of all....I ate pretty well. I had every little sweet my babies hearts desired...home made red velvet cupcakes, Jamba Juice, Shipleys Donuts, ice-cream, oh so many yummy things. Plus all my favorite home cooked meals.

 I made my poor step mom my little slave laborer. I had her sewing her little fingers off making things for the buds.  She made each baby a hospital blanket (PS they coordinate) two boppy covers, and 4 sheets for their carry bed. I am sure I am forgetting something else. We had fun going to all the fabric stores and picking out fabric and putting things together. We also hit up some baby consignment places and I snagged some adorable outfits for baby L. Including...BABY UGGS! SO stinking cute!

Baby L's Boppy! I was in LOVE with this peacock fabric at the store...I am pretty sure I may have squealed.

Poor Baby Bud B's fabric wasn't enough. The stupid instructions were wrong and I didn't have enough fabric cut...so she is gonna mail me his. Trust me its gonna be cute!

Here are their Hospital blankets. Again, I immediately fell in love with this fabric. SOOO gorgeous. 

My sisters and I spent the week hitting up the gym, pool, and staying up way too late talking, laughing, watching movies, eating junk. It was awesome. We also went on a sisters date to Ooo La La desert place and then went to the dollar movie. 

We also all went to the temple and did baptisms as a family early one Saturday morning. It was really special to be there all together with little Mitch. We saw a big roach, and my sisters and I had an "interesting" experience trying to get all our showers done lol. We are silly but we make great memories everywhere we go.

We also all crammed in the car for the two hour drive to San Marco river to float. It was really fun. We got mauled by a group of delinquent children every time we tried to climb up the exit ladder...but my sister Deedee and I set those little terds straight. It was a really fun day even though we were all smooshed.

After about 10 days it was time to make the 7 hour drive to Pensacola and meet up with the GB. We won't even discuss how horribly  painful the drive was all cramped in a three seater back seat. EWW. It was worth it at least. We had a great weekend just being all together. We met up with my Dad's brother and got to go out on his sail boat. Pretty relaxing and we got some good sun too.

Our boat got stuck on a sand bar and GB and my dad used all their "man" power to get us off. They succeeded.

We spent some time on the beach and in the pool. My dad being his classic self insisted we sneak into a pool that we were not really allowed to be in. I do have to say it was a pretty sweet little pool. But as always, we got caught...and as always...it was Heidi and I that got caught first and had the pleasure of dealing with it.

While we were there, I managed to somehow break the screen door. :/ oops. My sisters and I had fun playing "clue" with my less than enthusiastic father about what was broken, what room it was in, and who broke it.  He guess me, but we agreed to not tell him until we were gone. GB fixed it anyway and it was no big deal.

Our last day we went to the Naval Aviation Museum on the army base. We had a little too much fun there.

I'm not gonna lie, that place was pretty awesome.

For the last night I had planned on doing a few maternity shots on the beach. It just so happened that my sisters had similar dresses to mine so we decided to have a "sister shoot" as well. Garrett and Heidi took the pictures and I think they turned out pretty swell! Sorry if you are friend with me on FB and have seen these already. It is my blog...so deal :)

The picture below I love. It truely captures the "essence" of us and our relationship. We really are great friends.

 After pictures the boys wanted to go fishing in the surf...and if you don't know my sisters and I too well, we really don't appreciate being left out...EVER. So we went too. It was traumatizing for me..but everyone else really enjoyed it.

The following is the sequence of events, or "emotions" rather that took place as I caught this fella. In a matter of seconds I went from joy to fear to absolute devastation.

( *sidenote: don't be fooled by my laughter, I tend to laugh when I am scared, really angry, or crying hysterically...basically laughter is my go too. ) yes, it does make it hard for anyone to take me seriously. 

This is me for the 30 seconds that I was actually happy about catching the fish.. 

This is me  experiencing Fear; after my dad and brother has informed me to be careful because his fins could sting me. 

and my devastation.....my dad is laughing so hard he can't even talk....

I was sad to leave me family. We had the most fabulous time. I am really grateful for the strong bonds we all have. No matter whats going on in life, together is where we most like to be. I love that my little brother is so protective of us and caters to our needs (even if we tease him). I love that my sisters WANT to be with us and choose family over friends and that we are really good friends. I love that my dad adores us and spoils us rotten and always makes us laugh. I love that my Step mom likes to be involved in all each of us are doing and genuinely cares. I love that GB fits in with us all so well, its like he has always been there. These little buds of mine are going to be so loved by this little clan of mine and I can't wait for them to meet them. 

And I am gonna end this monstrosity with a sweet little video from my baby sister to the buds...

 

Belly Progression

And for those who don't follow me on instagram, here is a little belly progression for you.

Currently:
Week: 22 (no picture yet)
Weight gain: 11 lbs.
Feeling: tired ALL. THE. TIME. but surprisingly Upbeat! ( for all my fellow how to loose a guy in 10 days fans)
Craving: honestly they change frequently but I always want a baked good
Babies: ACTIVE these little guys love to move. It kinda makes me nauseated when they are both flipping positions at the same time but its pretty spectacular.


K so here we go...

I feel like it took awhile for me to starting showing, but I am there! I feel like it gets bigger and bigger every hour lol. So far I have held on to all my regular clothes. Lets see how much longer that lasts...my guess is two weeks. We shall see....

PS: I just realized how much stinking hair I cut off! Wowzas!!!

Growing Buds

I hope that later in life when my babies are no longer babies and they ask me about various "scars" from pregnancy, I smile and warmly tell them that they are love marks they left on mommy when I grew them.
I am not sure what I expected when I dreamed about being pregnant, or when I first became pregnant. In some ways, its exactly what I expected, and in others...not so much.

 In a lot of ways this pregnancy has been kicking my trash. I remember all the things friends and acquaintances warned me of and complained about. The back pain, the hemorrhoids, the crazy hormones, the nausea...yep had all of those fantastic little gems and then a few more. For me the anemia has been the hardest, I get bored easy and its hard to just rest and not do the million things to the house that I want to get done to "nest". Don't even get me started on the newly developed "gas pains". By the way ladies, a charlie horse feeling is not pre-term labor if its only on one side. (just to save you the embarrassment of a phone call) yea, thanks Bud B. I for sure have my moments when I start to get frustrated, but they don't last long.

All that being said,  I try really hard not to ever complain about all the lovely things that accompany growing a precious miniature human, or two in my case. I stop myself and think about all the women who would kill to feel sick and vomit their guts out at the mere thought of scrambled eggs. I know because not too long ago I was that girl, I try not to ever forget that. I think about the women who will never get to experience pregnancy and I am thankful. Several times a day I pull up my shirt and just stare at my bare belly in awe at the magic of it all. I love watching my belly get bigger and it think its the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I feel the babies get stronger with each passing day. I am already so proud of them. Not even born and they are already practicing every day to become a dancer/soccer player/ baseball player. Just kidding, actually, I am pretty sure they are trying to be UFC fighters. I don't care what it is, I love all their movements. It is the most amazing feeling to know there is life inside of me. I love all their little kicks and punches and whatever the heck is going on in there. I feel like this has been the biggest privilege of my life and I feel so honored to be their incubator/mom.

I am in love with life right now. I go to bed each night with a tickle in my heart and a smile on my face. I lie next to that one special person I get to annoy for the rest of forever, a sweet pup or two curled up to me, and babies kicking me good night. It makes all the yucky stuff I deal with through the day all worth it. When its all said in done, these are the gems of life. I couldn't ask for more out of life than this. I am in love with being pregnant, and while I am so excited to meet and hold my little buds, part of me wants to keep them in there forever. In my belly I know they are safe, I can feel their bodies and every now and then, I can feel their sweet little spirits too. I am soaking up every second of this tiny period in their lives. Its beautiful and magic and I am the happiest I have ever been.

Family Visit and Gender reveal

I was lucky enough to get to have my mom, aunt, and a few cousins stay with me for a week while my siblings and other cousin went to EFY. It was a great week. We cooked yummy food, went shopping, swimming, laughed, went to the gym, and ate more yummy food. We even squeezed in the Aquarium. It also could not have been more perfect timing.  It was the same week we were getting our gender Ultra Sound, so my mom and aunt were able to be in the room.

Before I get to Gender stuff here are some pics we took while they were here.

The Belugas are my FAVORITE

Not sure what is going on with these Starfish.....

My bump looking esp. round :)

If you couldn't tell, we had a great time at the Aquarium 

Cade...LOVE him

                                       

When we got home from the Ultrasound this sweet little thing put his hands around my belly (not my back, just my belly) and said I am hugging the babies I just love them so much. MELT. MY. HEART! Oh Cade, they are going to love you almost as much as I do. 

This was Cade most of the time. He and the Charles were buds

                                     



Gender Reveal:

The Ultrasound was really special for me. I was so thrilled I got to share it with my mom and aunt. It was really fun and I always LOVE seeing my little buds on the screen. It had been a month since I had last seen them and I could not believe how much they had grown. Their little profiles were so cute I teared up. My baby guy let the tech know he was a fella right away, but little miss Bud was being stubborn. (I may have my trouble maker). The Tech had warned me not to get my hopes up cause the position may not be good, but she made her tiny self known and the tech wrote the genders and sealed it in an envelope. The suspense was KILLING us!!!

Since we weren't sure if my buds were going to reveal themselves the Gender Party was last minute. There is NO way I could have pulled it off without the help of my Aunt and mom. I wanted to do a bee theme to go along with the bears we were opening.

Friday GB and I made our way to Build  a Bear and had the ladies at the counter assist us. They were so pumped about it, it was really cute and made us more excited. We picked out two boy bears, two girl bears, and two outfits for each. Then we handed it all in with the envelope and left our phone number to let us know when they were done.

We were dying when we went to pick up the bears.

My Aunt busted her little bum putting my party together with me.I was so grateful for all the help, my family is really great at lending a hand. My mom and cousin Ben were my little cleaners and made sure my house was spotless. My awesome friend Darcey made all my cupcakes. It was a little stress full it came together. Everything was EXACTLY how I envisioned it. I was SOOOOO happy with it all. 

Don't Darcey's cupcakes look amazing! They were Caramel Apple. The caramel on top looks just like honey.

Cade was pumped! He kept telling me all week there was one boy and one girl in my belly. Smart little sucker :)

                                       

Opening my little fella!

Finally! A Bradham Girl!! We did it

I still feel like I am living a dream. I have always wanted twins, and really wanted boy/girl twins. I can NOT believe I got it. I love these little monkeys. I started to feel them and it is the most wonderful feeling. Being pregnant is everything I thought it would be and then some. Thanks all the family and friends who helped, came, and watched via internet. It meant a lot to us and we were so glad we got to share that experience with all the people we love. My family left the next morning and I was sad. I love having them around. Thanks for all the help Mom and Shelia!! You are awesome and I love ya to pieces.