Apple painting, Cousins visiting, and Hot Air Balloons Galore!

I love Saturday mornings. Jared takes Kyler to the gym so I get a solid 2 quiet hours to do whatever I want! This morning, I thought I'd catch up on the blog (mostly just posting pictures). We've been so busy the last few weeks!

I've been trying to sit down with Kyler everyday to teach him preschool, since he isn't attending one currently. We mostly just review letters, counting, days of the week etc. It doesn't happen everyday, but I'm okay with that! He's three and learns mostly through play anyway. Occasionally, we go to Chalk Preschool online (google it- it's free and pretty cool) and we do their little lessons, songs and art activities. This one was painting with apples:

We went to the aquarium in the mall again with some friends a week or so ago. They have a "toddler tuesdays" special, and the pricing isn't bad at all!

 Have you seen Meet the Mormons in theaters? We saw it and it was great! One of our family friends from Georgia was in it, so it was neat seeing her and her fam on the big screen. I love this music video they showed at the end :)

My brother and his wife came to visit us from Utah! My niece, Charley, got her ears pierced. She was so brave... love her face in this pic:

Kyler loved having cousins to play with all weekend:

He also loved having an uncle to rough house with:

Aunt Meredith painted some nursery furniture for me while she was here. My good friend practically gave us a few pieces that she was done with (She bought them from the ikea in France and had them shipped here last year). I love the furniture! So I tried to buy a matching crib at the ikea here in Charlotte, but the colors here don't match the colors in France...so a little white paint fixed the problem!

...and after we painted them we realized that the American crib is much bigger than the one from France haha oh well I still love them, and can't wait to get the twin's nursery put together!

Last Sunday was my niece, Little Miss Andie's, baby blessing:

Also last weekend, we were able to go to the Carolina Balloon Fest! It was such a fun experience. We went mostly for Kyler, but Jared and I ended up loving it as well! We got in for free, and they had free bouncy houses for the kids, and other fair activities like face painting and little games, and tons of food- so fun! But obviously, Kyler's favorite part was the hot air balloons:

Kyler was slightly scared that the balloons they were inflating were going to tip over and pop (can't blame him, that would be a very loud pop)!

There were probably 50 or so hot air balloons that lit up at night- so cool to watch!

iMovie created this cute little video from all of the random clips I had on my computer from the past few months...love it!

july-october video from Char Charr on Vimeo.

October 15th.

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Two years ago, our pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Two years ago almost seems like a distant memory, like a different lifetime, especially now that I have two healthy babies growing inside me now.  However, I will never forget how I felt, and the comfort I received through prayer.  If you haven't read about our miscarriage experience, you can do so here.

Jared and I have this picture displayed in our room; it was a gift from my mother in-law.

The artist says this in his description:

"Holding a new baby in your arms, the only way to describe him or her is precious. Their tiny hands grasping at everything; their wide eyes taking in the world; their toothless grins that melt your heart... babies are truly treasures. They are most precious to the Savior because they are His. He purchased them with His own blood. When Jesus takes a baby in His arms, He sees beyond that tiny fragile body to the possibilities, the potential, the destiny of that child.. both in this life and in the world to come. An eternal destiny made possible through His sacrifice. We hold precious that which we sacrifice for. He holds most precious that which He sacrificed for the most." - Precious by David Bowman

I hope that our story gives others hope. Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers---and families truly are forever.

One last trip before the babies come!

We snuck away to the beach last week for a few days. Our last beach trip as a family of three! 

Schramma and Schrammpa sent us a package from Chile, and among the many items were a few balloons for Kyler. He still loves balloons, and begged to take one out on the beach. He had fun with it for 15 minutes...until this happened:

He wasn't too happy about it.

 Jared snapped a baby bump picture while we were out playing on the beach. This was right before Kyler rubbed his wet sandy hands all over my belly ;P

 I promise I'm way bigger than the picture looks haha. That picture was taken at 29 weeks.

Annnnd.... to celebrate not having gestational diabetes, I indulged in a bowl of sugar for breakfast.

{It's actually really good}

We had some shrimp boat gazing to entertain us between conference sessions 

{which, believe it or not was even better than the above bowl of cereal...love LDS conference!}

Uncle Calvin caught some crabs, which Kyler thought was really neat. Eating them, however, was a different story. He took one look at them and then turned to his new little friend and said "You have to eat those." haha.

Kyler also got some bonding time with his new little cousin, Andie. He wanted to hold her nonstop. I mean who wouldn't? Look at her- she's adorable! He is going to make one good big brother!

Weeks 25-29

Previous pregnancy related posts here.

***
Today is September 22, 2014. I'm currently 27 weeks, and both babies are doing great! Twin A (boy) is vertex and Twin B (girl) is transverse.

They are about 2lbs 7ounces and 2 lbs 8 ounces, as of today, and just over 14 inches long each. That's a lot of baby to squeeze in my belly! They are both still measuring ahead of schedule size wise. Baby girl is much more active than baby boy, whom is mellow the majority of the time. I wonder if I'll see that in their personalities later? Here are their ultrasound pics from today: Baby boy was snoozing away, and Baby girl kept kicking her own face; so she is blurry...but it looks like she is smiling :)

I failed the one hour glucose test today, so I have to go back to do the three hour test next week to see if I have Gestational Diabetes. My chances are increased, because I have twins- so we'll see! I also failed the first test when I was pregnant with Kyler though, and then passed the three hour one, so I hope I get lucky again.

***
Today is October 2, 2014
Great news!!---I just found out that I passed my 3 hour glucose test, and don't have gestational diabetes!

How far along? I'll be 29 weeks in a few days. Most people tell me I don't look like I'm carrying twins, but I think they are just being nice haha. I'm 5' 3'' and there isn't much room for the babies to go other than out at this point... my belly is measuring about 40 weeks (by the measurement scale they use for one baby inside) The biggest I got with Kyler was 37ish weeks, so yes- I'm giant.
Movement: So many kicks; I love it.
Cravings: Spicy foods...especially hot sauce!
Labor signs: I've been getting frequent Braxton Hicks contractions (about one an hour) but they are so mild and usually painless. If I walk for more than 20 minutes (whether its for exercise or just walking around a store) I start getting more painful contractions....Doc says to stay off my feet as much as possible and try and get two naps in a day--- okay Doc :)
Belly button: Out, but you can't see it poking out through my clothes yet.
Looking forward to: The twins will be here in less than 10 weeks!

Sorry, I don't have a belly picture this time (I need to take one!)...but I do have a picture of myself making my belly giant.

Funny story. I really wanted ice-cream, but we only had one ice-cream bar left...and I did NOT want to share with Kyler. So, while he was in the bathroom, I snuck it out of the freezer and hid in a random corner (in a room we never go in) to eat it. When Kyler came out of the bathroom, he spent 15 minutes trying to fine me, and I was cracking up in the corner while enjoying my ice-cream, and taking a video of the whole thing because I thought it was hilarious, and couldn't believe I was actually hiding from my 3 almost 4 year old in order to eat ice-cream. The above pic is a screenshot of the video that's why it's so blurry. Oh pregnancy. The end.

Random iPhone pics- I mean super interesting blog post.

Time seems to be flying by lately! I have a ton of random blurry iPhone pics to share :)

Sooo I decided Ikea is pretty much the place to be on Monday mornings. They serve you free breakfast, and it's delicious!

The one with ranch is Kylers. Just had to clarify. I don't like ranch with my eggs.

Plus, the Small Land is always free, and Kyler loves it... and I love walking around looking at pretty stuff child free (saves me a lot of "don't touch that!" 's. Oh and you can't beat their 99cent fat free frozen yogurt~!

Wow, I've shared two pictures so far, and they are both about food! Am I pregnant with twins or something? Last weekend, we went to Lazy 5 with some friends. It's the perfect time of year to go! The weather was great and they had tons of cute little fall festival activities to do.

 Feeding animals:

I love this pic:

He kept saying "Here Billy!" (don't know where he came up with that name?) and showed him how to open his mouth each time he dropped the food in (kind of like mom's do when feeding babies haha).

Wagon ride:

He really does randomly give me millions of kisses through out the day. I love it :)

Pumpkin launching:

Pumpkin painting:

Annnnd here's a picture of our dog watching another dog on TV:

You're welcome for all of the random iPhone pics :)