A little while ago...

Shortly after Christmas, my brother Kelly and his wife Esther (and baby Asher) came down from Salt Lake to do some rock climbing with Lisa's family. Fortunately, we were invited along - here are some highlights.

Bennett doing his best 70's photo impression

Spencer has become known as a fabulous story teller. You can see how he's captivated Aneya and his cousins!

Too hot for this kid

Audrey the rock scaler

How does he do that with his nose?

prego update

I haven't been very dedicated in this belly growing documentation - but at least I've been taking the pictures, or Rob has. Here's the last four weeks during which I've grown considerably. I don't think I've ever felt more pregnant, and there's still more than a few weeks to go!

We felt that it's important to give names to these children even though we're in the habit of waiting till the last minute. This way, we can pray specifically for them plus give them individuality from the start. Our baby boy is Samuel, named after the Biblical Samuel who was born as an answer to his mother's prayers. We haven't settled on his middle name as of yet.  Claire Elyse is our baby girl - Claire being a name we've loved since Bennett came along and Elyse for my dear friend of many years. Thank you for letting us use your beautiful name!

I know that many of you are praying for Samuel and I ask you to continue.  A meeting with our specialist this past week confirmed some of our worst fears - that his lungs don't have the room to grow as big as they need to be at birth. This reduces his chances of survival significantly. I think this is simply a test of our faith as we continue to plan for his arrival and pray and learn to trust that Heavenly Father has a plan for him. We will cherish whatever time we get to have with him. If he endures his surgery and recover well, there's a high likelihood he'll suffer from brain damage or other complications. We welcome any thoughts or advice that would help us to plan for dealing with special needs.

Samuel and Claire cooperated for the first time and let the ultrasound tech get some great profiles.

Claire at 24 weeks

Samuel at 24 weeks

This is Claire kneeling with her bum in the air... love it!

Here's what we have so far in the nursery. They'll share a crib till they're too big for it sideways. I'm thinking of doing some pink accents with a rug or art on the walls.

20 and 21 weeks pregnant

21 weeks with our boy & girl

 Falling behind in my belly shots. Here's some we took 2 and 3 weeks ago!

20 weeks

Weekend in LA

We got away last weekend for our 10th anniversary! Lisa was a saint and kept the kids for four days while we saw the sights of LA. We got to see the musical Wicked which I've been looking forward to for a couple years now. It was amazing and we've had its fantastic music in our heads ever since.

We also hiked the hills of Hollywood and got to see the reservoir, walk the famous Hollywood Blvd, visit the LA temple and play on the beautiful Santa Clara beach. It was a dream to spend so much time together and forget about reality for a little while. I love being married to Rob - it feels like the years have ticked by so quickly.

Moby's house, well mostly just the gate house from this view, in Hollywood Hills.

It's true!

The weather was gorgeous and it looked like springtime with so many green trees and beautiful flowers.

Touching the ocean, it's been a while!

We had a yummy lunch at the restaurant you can see behind Rob here.

We stayed in a little house just up from Hollywood Blvd with a fun swing and a ballet bar...
we felt like we were living the Hollywood life!

We had an ultrasound the week before and found out we will have one boy and one girl! The children are super excited.The ultrasound also revealed a diaphragmatic hernia in our baby boy. This is a fairly serious condition where the diaphragm didn't form correctly and has left a hole where the the organs from the abdominal cavity can be pushed into the chest cavity. Our baby's stomach and intestines most likely, have been pushed close to his heart. This will require us to be in Salt Lake where they have pediatric surgeons who specialize in this treatment when the twins are born. I'll deliver at University Hospital where they'll stabilize him and send him in for surgery to straighten things out and repair his diaphragm. In case they come early, we have been advised to temporarily move to SLC at the end of April till they're born and he's breathing on his own. We won't know till he's born how severe his particular case is, but we welcome all prayers and thoughts on his behalf.

My Growing Belly

I've begun a photo log of this pregnancy since I'm sure to surpass any limits to which I previously thought my belly could stretch. The first pic was taken Christmas Day (17 weeks pregnant) and looks bigger than the one we took last week (18 weeks pregnant), so I guess it depends somewhat on what I'm wearing.

The ultrasound is tomorrow! I must admit I've been counting it down to find out what we're having. Any guesses? Rob feels sure it's two boys. I've already bought adorable baby girl clothes (used), but I could probably love boys if that's what they are :)

This is today - 19 weeks

Breakfast with Santa

Our only current believer. Jeremiah has taken to wandering around the house in a Santa cap shouting Ho Ho Ho, Merry Chrifmas!

There you have it... breakfast and Santa. Breakfast consisted of chocolate donuts and Sunny D. Oh and candy canes.
You can bet there was a significant sugar crash shortly thereafter.

Bennett and Audrey found this wonderful Christmas classic and enjoyed it thoroughly while I watched with delight.

We attended this ward tradition last Saturday at a ward member's home. The kids had a great time and we got to meet some more people in the neighborhood, aka, our ward. It's so fun to live in Utah - we're adjusting!

At our ward party that night we got to go to an outdoor amphitheater 10 minutes up the road to see a live reenactment of the Christmas Story. It was beautifully done in an amazing setting up against the red rocks. I love this season with so many chances to make memories with my family!

love that fall leaf crunch

Packing - check, moving - check, unpacking, hosting family, Thanksgiving - check.

Now for time to enjoy our new home (almost twice the space!) and regain some sort of order to life. The move did go smoothly, although it's never a walk in the park. My sister, Lisa, came and cracked the whip to get us packed in Cottonwood, then left with her four and two of mine 5 days before the move. My mom flew in the next day and helped with all the final touches... huge understatement. We had lots of help from ward members and  other friends and felt truly sad to leave our home in Arizona.

We were very relieved to finally see our house here in Saint George since Lisa had done only a 10 minute walk through and we had handed over a fair bit o money and signed the lease, sight unseen. It's a great place for us with a nice big yard and super friendly neighborhood. Did I mention it's half a mile from Lisa's new house? Yay!

The tree which was green and leafy when we moved in a few weeks ago, decided to lose just about all its leaves two nights ago. The kids have loved playing in the mounds of leaves, although I'm trying to encourage them to put them in big black bags. Here's a few moments we captured. 

You may notice Mo in the picture with me. He's my parent's cute little fluffy dog that we're borrowing for a few months till my mom comes back to help when the babies are born in May! The kids love having a pet again.

thing 1 and thing 2

Jeremiah's Three!

So my baby turned three a week ago. He hasn't allowed me to call him baby in some time but I'm sure none of you will tell him I referred to him as such.

We celebrated by taking a long-anticipated trip to Out of Africa, a wildlife park 15 minutes down the road. The kids got to feed the giraffes, take a safari ride through the "Serengeti", see a tiger show with two Bengal tigers, pet a 15 ft. reticulated python and watch as all the lions and tigers and bears were fed. It had been 3 days, and boy were they excited. By the end, the outrageous price we had paid to get in seemed well worth it. I couldn't believe that was in our backyard!

Rena, a friend of mine, came along with her two children. I watch them on a regular bases while Rena teaches Audrey about her horses and how to trail ride. Rena also makes, of her own design, stick horses. They are beautiful, meticulously made and super affordable. Check them out at http://www.etsy.com/listing/68062372/stick-horse-chocolate-paint-hobby-horse?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=stick+horse&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

So Jeremiah was the lucky boy who got one.

You can't see it, but Jeremiah is mounted on his horse and flying around the house here

Play dough now plagues our house on a daily basis

Jeremiah has been requesting birthday cupcakes for two months. Can you feel his excitement?

On his actual birthday, we took a trip down to Mesa. While Rob and I got to do some family names at the temple, the kids had some Grandma and Grandpa time with Rob's parents. We all went out to eat later before the drive home. They gave him a pillow pet frog since... well, Jeremiah was a bullfrog.