Thanksgiving 2011

Just wanted to share some pictures of my funny girl! She would not be still and was dancing and playing the whole time I was trying to get her picture. Happy Thanksgiving! We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Everleigh with her cousin, Skylar

The Windy City (11/2011)

I had been telling Cody that I really wanted a weekend away with just the 2 of us before our 2 newest family members arrived and we were busy for, well...the rest of our lives! He wanted to plan it and not tell me anything and he did a great job keeping it a secret! The only thing he told me was that the weather would be similar to Nashville's so to pack like we'd be at home all weekend. He pretended to slip up and tell me where we were going at least a hundred times, so it didn't surprise me when 2 days before our trip, he slipped up and said something about "the weekend after Chicago". I laughed it off and tried to move on, but he was so mad he had just said that, that he gave himself away and I knew where we were going. I was so excited to say the least! He was not excited I had found out when he worked so hard to keep everything a secret and tried to tell me that he changed the trip and we were now going to Atlanta. When we got to Atlanta, it was just a layover and we went to Chicago! We had such a great time. I was tired and swollen from walking so much and we had to rest a lot. By that point, I was 22 weeks pregnant with Hayden and Charlie and was starting to really slow down (Don't worry - Cody had the hospitals mapped out in case we needed one). Besides that, we saw everything we wanted to. We went on an architecture boat tour, which was beautiful. We went to the Science and Industry Museum, ate Chicago-style pizza, and went to Navy Pier. I have to say that the best part of the whole trip is that Cody budgeted time and money (we are big budgeters) for me to have a shopping spree on the Miracle Mile all day on the first day we were there. Major bonus points for the hubby! I've never had a shopping spree and it was SO fun. I think he might have been regretting that decision about 2 hours in to H&M shopping. It would have been a lot worse except that I was pregnant so I couldn't try many things on. I wasn't about to waste money on maternity clothes - YUCK! So fun! Thanks, honey. You truly are the best! :)

Chicago pizza after a long day of shopping

Navy Pier

Science and Industry Museum

You are seeing this picture corectly - we are dorks

Happy Halloween (2011)

We went to Walden Farms Pumpkin Patch this year and that smile did not leave Everleigh's face the entire time! She loved all of it! We will definitely be going again next year.

maze for little kids

Daddy behind her trying to keep up

We tried...

Running every where!

Yes - she kissed a goat. I know...gross, right!?

Charlie and Hayden were there, too - 18 weeks pregnant

This was her favorite part - the corn crib. She could have stayed here for hours dumping corn on herself

Riding the train with Daddy

One of my favorite pictures of her ever

Silly girl!

18 weeks - I have a picture in this same spot pregnant with Everleigh 2 years earlier

Carving our pumpkin

Our little super hero at Trunk-or-Treat

She loved getting all the candy and said "Please" to everyone to get it.

TWINS!!

It's been entirely too long since I have blogged and there's A LOT to catch up on. I almost quit, but remembered that the main reason I do this is for my girls so that they have something to look back on. I'm going to jam a lot into a few posts probably and then try to do better! Here goes!

So - after the last blog of us at the beach, I found out (the day we got home actually) that I was pregnant again! Yay! We were so thrilled! When I was about 5-6 weeks along, I had some complications and called my doctor's office. The nurse told me to come on in and they would do a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby had implanted correctly and that I hadn't miscarried. She said to be there in an hour. I called Cody to let him know, but he had an important meeting he couldn't skip out on, so he couldn't be there. I thought that was no big deal. I was sure everything was fine, so there was no real reason for him to drop everything to come with me. So me and Everleigh went to the doctor by ourselves. The ultrasound tech told me that with it being so early she wasn't going to tell me anything about what I was looking at and that I would have to wait on my doctor to give me the report. There was no need for her to tell me what I saw on that machine. It was clear as day. 2 little sacs with tiny dots in each one were up on that screen. I laughed for a few seconds and then asked her if what I was seeing was really 2 sacs. She stopped the test and put her hand on my leg and said, "Yes, honey. There are 2." That's all I heard her say even though she was still talking. I was in complete shock. 2 BABIES!! Was I even ready for 1 more baby? I had been doubting that! And now there were 2 coming. I was in shock for a long time. I waited and saw my doctor - shaking - and then called Cody from the car. I wanted to tell him in person so I asked if I could come up to his work. Of course, this freaked him out because he thought something must be wrong if I wouldn't tell him over the phone. So I said, "The baby is okay. And so is the other baby." I think he might have thought I was talking about Everleigh except that then I started crying hysterically. If anyone else has ever been told they were having twins and were not expecting it, you may know the feeling. I had a million thoughts running through my head - how was I going to work? (you aren't going to); how are we going to afford 3 children? (prayer, faith and a hard-working husband); do I have to buy a van? (yes, but you will LOVE rockin' that van!); how hard is this pregnancy going to be? (so hard and painful, but well worth every single second of it); am I going to have to have a c-section? (nope); how am I going to breastfeed twins? (the good Lord gave you 2 for a reason! It can be done); I don't want to get fat! (too bad). Plus about a million more. Cody got me calmed down and told me to meet him for lunch and we would discuss everything. He made me feel better over lunch, but I have to admit, it took a little while before we were thrilled with this new change in plans. We waited a while to tell our family and friends. We needed some time to wrap our heads around 2 babies and all the changes that were coming our way. Our family was almost as shocked as we were, but so excited for us. 

We found out pretty early with the million ultrasounds I had that we were having 2 girls! The pregnancy was hard. I had a hernia that was very painful and hurt to walk a lot of the time, so that ruled out exercise. My back hurt constantly. I was nauseous for the first 10 weeks (with Everleigh, I was nauseous for 15, so this was an improvement). I got bigger a lot faster this time around and all the aches and pains of pregnancy were multiplied. A lot of it was not fun, but there were some really cool things too. I could feel the girls kick me, but they would also have little "fights" and kick each other which was really cool to feel. Hayden got the hiccups several time a day and they shook my whole stomach (She still gets the hiccups almost every day and hates them). Hayden moved a lot toward the end and she flipped over every ultrasound (I had one every 2 weeks). Charlie (Baby A) was always head down like a good girl. :) She was also less active than Hayden. Charlie was very hard to get pictures of and hated the monitor they put on me. She would never stay still long enough for them to get a good heartbeat on her and the ultrasound techs always had a hard time measuring her. Hayden was amazingly still and was easy for them every time. I'm so glad to not be pregnant any more, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat if I got them at the end again. They are wonderful and so worth it. We are so in love with them! More on that later though...

8 weeks

11 weeks

19 weeks (Hayden)

19 weeks (Charlie)

14 weeks

22 weeks

25 weeks

31 weeks

Hottest game of putt-putt EVER!!

We went to the beach with my sister and her family and my dad and Karen and Chris (Karen's son) for the week of the 4th. We had an amazing time and the kids had a blast. These are pictures from our putt-putt game, which was the hottest thing in the world. I have no idea why it was hotter than anything else down there, but you would have thought they had heaters all around the course. We were all sweating and sticky the whole time, but we had a great time. Note to self - don't take a 17 month old who cares nothing about what you are doing or about golf, but wants to play in the water surrounding everything and all the dirt around the trees, to play putt-putt. Bad plan, Lauren. Bad plan. Oh well...it was fun and Cody won with John just 1 point behind him.

Dad and Isabella waiting to start playing

Daddy and Everleigh

Is this how you play?

Playing with the dirt around the tree. She is not scared to get dirty.

Waving her pirate flag she got when we were leaving

The Little Zoo That Could

While we were at the beach, we went to their zoo, which was surprisingly really great. They had tons of animals that the kids could feed and they had a huge selection of animals. The kids all loved it. Everleigh really loved the petting zoo part.

The lion was roaring right in front of us, which was awesome!

Everleigh waving to the lion

The crack in the cement was just as interesting though

Beautiful, hot little face

Cole after a nap and finishing his bottle - happy boy now!

Just thought this one was sweet (I made this little dress, too - it was my first project and what I learned to sew on)

Everyone looking at the camels, I think

Everleigh feeding the animals

She was giggling the whole time

Isabella really loved feeding them. We couldn't leave until she used every piece of the food given to her. :)

Rudolph!

Petting the bunny

Petting the duckling

Petting the sheep - she thought this one was very funny