12 weeks

Here I am at 12 weeks. Not the most flattering picture I've ever taken. :) Its amazing how much bigger I am at night than in the morning. My belly sure has grown a lot in the last 2 weeks since we found out we are expecting twins. I wonder if its the huge amount I am eating or if my body is like "ok, now she knows there are two in here, I can blow up now." I find that I have to eat every 2-3 hrs or I start getting really nauseous. I've been reading that protein is really important during pregnancy, but especially during a twin pregnancy. This is ironic (is that the right word?) because I can't seem to swallow any kind of meat right now. So I've been eating a lot of cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, milk, and pumpkin seeds. I did manage to eat a small portion of salmon tonight though. I usually love it, but tonight I had to make myself swallow. Fun fun. Other than my varicose veins, everything else is going great.

Garden - April 25th

This evening, as I was making dinner, I looked out the kitchen window and saw this:

My 3 favorite people working together to help make me a new garden bed! How sweet are they??

The picture below shows the mystery melon. Its growing fast! I'm thinking watermelon? Can anyone identify this?

Here is my garden this evening. Not too much to report but I do have quite a few little tomatoes of different varieties. I also found my first female cucumber bloom and there are some little female zucchini blooms growing and should be ready for pollination in the next few days.

First Swim of the Year!

Yesterday we went for our first swim of the year! It was a hot day (96 degrees) so we thought it was a fine day to test out the pool! The water was a little chilly but we had a blast. This is the face Emily thinks she should make when I want to take her picture.

Here are the girls splashing together! Maddie was cold and didn't last too long.

Emily 2.5 years

Emily is now 2.5 - time is flying by so fast. She loves to play "rosies" (ring around the rosies), still loves her babies (and Maddie's) and she says "oooohhhh noooooo" all the time. She is very careful of my tummy and tells me that there is one girl and one boy in there and then she kisses both sides. She has a sneaky streak and loves to get into all our stuff and since there is so much of it, she has lots to choose from!

Here she is with the broccoli we picked from the garden today. I caught her off guard so she didn't have time to scrunch up her nose or look away :) Sneaky Mommy

Maddie - 13 months

One of my favorite garden helpers with her baby

Watching something on the softball field

Maddie is now a walker, a zombie walker that is! She has grown up and changed so much in the month since her 1st birthday. She's quick to smile and laugh but if she gets hungry, watch out! You'll notice in the last picture that she seems to favor her left hand and I haven't even tried to brainwash her. She has started talking and her vocabulary includes mama, mom, Pop, duck, dance, hello, bye, and others that I know I am forgetting. She loves babies like Emily but can't get too attached because Emily is always stealing them from her. If she hears music, she breaks out dancing and looks over to make sure you are watching her. Just like Emily, she makes us laugh several times a day!

First Baby Squash or errrrrr watermelon?

Here is the big volunteer plant in my garden and its the first of the squash or melon family to have a female bloom. Well, I'm not sure what it is, but I know its not a zucchini, yellow squash, or acorn squash because they all look differently. It seems big so I am thinking cantaloupe, watermelon, or spaghetti squash - something from the compost pile! I'll let you know as it grows. On a sad note, I found the 1st two pupa shells from the squash borer vine. Oh no! I'm keeping an eye out for their eggs and will remove them promptly, but its just a matter of time before they wipe out my crop.

Here is another shot of the garden. You can see the volunteer plant on the right bottom with a few big yellow blooms. Tomorrow I'm going to pull out two of the three Brussels sprouts plants so I can use that space for something else. I'll leave the last one in the ground for next year as an experiment. Time for me to eat some green onions!

New Floors (Finally!)

When bought our house back in May of 2005, our intent was to live in it for a year or two, fix it up and flip it. Here we are almost 4 years later and boy how plans have changed. We started out with a bang, got a lot done, and then in July 2005, I broke my ankle playing flag football. I couldn't drive or even put weight on it for 3 months+ and our remodeling plans screeched to a halt while I was laying on the recliner and Joe was taking care of me (along with some entertainment from Shifi). In hindsight, I was probably depressed and acting like a big baby, but I sure felt sorry for myself at the time. About the time I was back to normal, we decided to start a family and ever since January 2006, I have either been pregnant or caring for a baby less than a year old. Oh, and we also fixed up 4 or 5 other houses and rental properties during that time :)
In the last year or so, we have finally begun to change our frame of mind and think of this house as our home and not a temporary living arrangement. There is a lot of room for a family and the little mortgage ensures I can stay home with the kiddos. When we found out we were having twins, we realized we needed to stop just getting by and start getting organized. Two days later, Joe had a crew over here installing new flooring!
Here are the before pictures. We took these right as we were clearing out the rooms so they are even more messy than usual. You can see the concrete floors in the living room and the 30 year old harvest gold, orange, and brown linoleum. Cute. Thanks to all our friends and family who came to visit us anyway.

And here are the afters! We chose a multi-colored carpet in order to hide the inevitable stains that come along with children and dogs. In these pictures, the house is not put back together, but you get the idea. Now we are shopping for a couch with a chaise lounge on one end. We are shamelessly copying both some old and new friends after we enjoyed theirs so much! We can't wait to say goodbye to the stiff old couches and chairs, but we are thankful we had them when we needed them.

Easter Egg Hunt!

Both of the girls were really into the hunt this year! It was so fun to watch and it quickly became clear that quality was more important than quantity. They each really only needed a few to be happy and were more interested in finding out what was in each egg rather than finding the next egg. We were able to tear Uncle Eric away from the Masters tournament long enough to participate, but not long enough for Emily to smash a cascarone over his head. She did get Grandpop and Daddy though! It was impossible to get them to look at us for pictures :)

Maddie with her first two eggs watching everyone else help Emily find eggs

Easter dress pics from Good Friday

My camera died on Good Friday, so I only have a few. I'll have to get more from my mom who was snapping away before we went to church that day. Better late than never...

This picture would be much better if I was standing next to my parents when I took it. The girls were very excited to see them! Hopefully Grandma George has one from that angle.

The Reynolds Family is Growing!

Pictures are worth a thousand words, here are 3...



So, did you catch that? I know everyone isn't accustomed to reading ultrasounds, so if you need a little help - not only are we pregnant, but its TWINS!!!!!!

Yep, scroll back up and check it out again. There are two little heads in there together in the 3rd pic.

They are due November 9th, 2009 which puts me at 10 weeks and 2 days. Baby A measured a week ahead and Baby B measured 3 or 4 days ahead. Most of you know that I tend to make fairly big babies - Emily was 9 lbs 7 oz at 40 weeks 5 days and Maddie was 8 lbs 11 oz at 38 weeks. They both measured ahead at this point too. I am terrified of carrying around 2 big babies! My guess is I won't make it til 40 weeks.

Joe and I are shocked, although I knew something was different with this pregnancy and I actually had a feeling it might be twins. I had no idea that twins run in my family until we told my parents. My Grandad's grandfather (dad's side) was a twin and then on my mom's side Great (x3) Grandma Stevens and Great (x2) Grandma Ives had twins.

We know how to take care of a single baby, but this twin thing is totally new to us. IN 7 short months we will have 4 kids. Oh dear. We have a lot of researching to do to learn about twin pregnancies. My OB said that because there are 2, I'm automatically considered high risk and will have to have more ultrasounds and tests. More info to come...

MOPS playdate

Last Wednesday we met some of my MOPs group over at a great playground near us and then went to MoMak's for lunch. Here are most of the kids together, can't believe they sat still like this! I usually can't even get Maddie and Emily together for a picture!

This was a big day for Emily and I. She ran right off to the slides and was able to play independently! This was the first time she went down the big orange slide by herself. Its crazy that she is so hesistant at the playground when she will climb everything at our house. She tried to play with the other kids too, especially when another little girl was trying to figure out the water fountain. She can't resist water! Maddie also loves the slides and crawling around after all the other kids. She especially giggles when a "big kid" holds her in their lap while going down the slide.

The garden on April 7th

More pictures of my garden. Yet again, I took the pictures at the worst time of day as far as lighting goes. Here is a closeup of the big bed.

Here are the smaller beds and the border bed in the background. Almost everything in these beds I started by seed indoors. This is my first attempt at this and so far I'm not that impressed. Seems like they are all stunted. I've had better luck planting staight into the ground. Joe's mom has great luck with starting seeds inside, so I'll have to compare notes with her later. Maybe I need to fertilize?

Here are my containers - basil, patio tomatoes, dill, zucchini (to be moved to front yard in hopes of escaping squash vine borer), lime green salad tomatoes, and a new hybrid that my neighbor bought for me. The container in the back is self-watering and I had great luck with it last year.

MacGregor Time

The day after Joe's birthday, we packed everyone into the car and headed to Katy. We had a fun, but jam-packed weekend filled with dalmations, baby-showers, and paint fumes. The MacGregors have already posted about the weekend on their new blog (along with before and after pics), so check it out: http://www.themacgregorfamily.com/2009/04/showered-with-love.html

Here are a few pics I took. I love this picture of Rob and Maddie. Rob is great with kiddos, but my two girls are slow to warm up to men in their 20's and 30's. Not sure why, because they have 4 great uncles and lots of 2nd cousins. She finally warmed up to him and may have even crossed the line to clingy.

Here is a pic of Noelle holding Emily holding Maddie - all in a chair meant for one person. Keep in mind that Noelle was about a month from her due date in this pic. Not much room, but the girls love her so much, they didn't mind.

More about the swing

Now Emily likes to push Maddie or her baby in the swing. She's getting better at it and Maddie loves it! No more swing assaults. And yes, my kids are frequently running around in diapers or panties only. If we are outside, then they are watering plants and getting dirty. I got tired of stain-treating every single thing they wear. This is much easier and since its already hot as h-e-double hockey sticks here, it works for me!

Joe's birthday

In the beginning of April, we celebrated Joe's birthday with ribeyes and shrimp. Yum! We also had some grilled asparagus. Double-yum! I can't believe we are turning 29 this year. We started dating when we were 19, so this means we have been together for almost 10 years. Crazy!
This next picture cracks me up. I almost didn't post it, but I realized that some women show more cleavage than this on a daily basis. Maddie has made this somewhat of a habit. I guess since I just weaned her in the last month she is kinda missing her old food supply.

Trinity Softball in March

Normally, one of my favorite spring activities is to go watch Trinity softball play a game or two while I catch some rays. Last year I was huge pregnant with Maddie and then I had a little baby so I only got to see one game I think. This year has been occupied with the many chores over at the duplex, so I have missed most of the season, BUT, Mom and I made it over there in mid-March with the girls to catch a double header. It is especially important that I should try even harder to make it over there because Nicole Dickson Smith is the head coach. She is a good friend and was my third baseman my first 2 years at Trinity. And yes, I did refer to her as "my" third baseman. Most of the girls I have ever played with are mine :) Luckily they have a few more games in April and then the championship will be here too. Fun!

Emily is starting to pay attention to what is happening on the field, assuming that there is not a dog nearby. Everytime we drive by a softball field (which is frequent in our daily routes) she says "watch softball??" and if I don't address the question quickly, it escalates to "Mom, Mommy, watch softball there?" said in a much louder, demanding tone. Ha ha. Here are some pics of us sitting in the shade (no sun for the babes), relaxing, and watching the games.

Our garden

We haven't had time for much nonessential activities lately, but one thing I make sure we have some time for is our vegetable garden. Here it is in Mid-March. Most everything in the smaller two beds were seedlings so they aren't visible in the photo. Excuse the quality of the photo. I hope to post a current pic of it soon.

The picture above is the early spring garden with broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, onions, leeks, and one celery plant. The only thing I have grown before is the broccoli. Hard to mess it up. The cabbage and brussel sprouts are struggling with an aphid infestation. I don't see too many aphids now, but I wonder if the damage has been done...

The picture below is what I harvested that same day I took the rest of the pictures: spinach, head of broccoli, and a green onion. The girls and I ate it all that night for dinner. Poor Joe had to work late.

The Swing!

The MacGregors got Maddie a tree swing for her first birthday. Like most of Maddie's presents, Emily calls it "Mae's" but adopts it as her own. It took awhile for Emily to understand the path of the swing and to avoid it - 4 or 5 collisions I believe. It was hard, actually impossible, not to laugh as Maddie and the swing plowed into her only to have her stand back up again and get hit again as Maddie swung the other way. The swing has become part of our daily lives as they both want turns every day!

First, here is a picture of Joe moving the ropes to a better location so the girls won't crash into the tree. I decided that if the commercial A/C business doesn't work, or the whole PE thing falls through, then Joe has a backup career as a coconut farmer. Seriously, this tree is tall and he climbed it with no problem.