Travel Day

On Saturday, we got up at 3am to start our trip to the Reynolds family cabin on Ottertail Lake in Minnesota. We were in the cab by 4am and through the security checkpoint by 4:45am. We had 2 flights just under 2 hours and the girls slept through the 2nd one. I can't believe how smooth everything went up until this point. NWA didn't screw up at all. Simply amazing.

Btw: we FINALLY got a new camera

Here is where I turn into the grumpy pregnant lady. I rented a full-size car thinking that it would be big enough for me to be reasonable comfortable in the back seat between 2 carseats. I knew that it was unlikely that Joe or Pete who are 6'4" and 6'8" respectively would be able to fit in the back seat. SUVs and minvans cost 3 or 4x more to rent, so I thought we would be cool in the full-size. Full-size just isn't full-size anymore. I was pretty much miserable the entire 3.5 hr trip from Minneapolis to Ottertail Lake, making everyone stop every hour. I seriously had less room than on the airplane. You've seen the pictures - I am huge!! But it was worth the trip to see these happy grandparent faces!

More Fun with Emily

Emily wanted to fix Maddie's hair again yesterday and Maddie willingly climbed up onto the couch to let her work her magic. Here is an action shot and a few of the finished product.

And here is her own hairstyle she created today. I especially love her ears folded over.

Getting excited...

The new picture in the heading of the blog is the view from the dining table at the cabin (courtesy of Pete). The picture below is of the boat dock at the cabin. Thought a few of you out there might like to picture where we are hanging out for more than a week. Can't wait for those serene moments...

20 weeks

Yep. I'm big and getting bigger and no one lets me forget it. I haven't stepped on a scale lately, but I think my concerns about not gaining weight are over. I am definitely bigger in all areas, not just my tummy. Of course, I wanted to gain weight for the sake of these babies, but now that I am carrying it around, its not so thrilling. I passed the 3 hr gestational diabetes test which my doctor always insists I take even though I never have it. Our family just makes big babies!! But the blood test came back that I was anemic and I now have to take iron pills 3x a day. Yuck! That also means I have to take Colace as well. Double yuck! My veins are working overtime and I am already having trouble standing more than 10 minutes at a time. After all this complaining, I just want to say that the babies are totally worth it and I know I am truly blessed that I can even get pregnant.

We are leaving on Saturday for an 11 day trip to stay at the Reynolds family cabin on Ottertail Lake in Minnesota. The highs are 78 or 80. I think it will be heaven and a great relief for this pregnant lady!

The Garden - June 23rd

Here is today's harvest - lots of little orange cherry tomatoes, a couple of cucumbers, a zucchini, and the volunteer butternut squash. Gotta love it. There probably won't be much more in the future. Its just too hot and dry. If I have the energy and mobility, I'll start over in August!

Future Career?

Emily loves to "help my sister". Today she helped her by doing her hair. Ummm yeah....

Happy Father's Day Joe!

We love you and are so glad you are the one who comes home to us! You are doing such a great job running your business and our household. We appreciate you working so hard for us! Emily told you "Happy Birthday Daddy!" after telling me "Happy Father's Day Mommy!". Tee hee. :) Gave us a good laugh.

Joe with his daughters who were not interested in posing. I need to capture their faces when he gets home from work. It is definitely the highlight of their weekdays!

Joe entertaining the girls!

Maddie sharing Daddy's ice cream

Birthday Weekend!

Mom and Joe planned a birthday celebration for me Saturday since my actual birthday was on Father's Day. Of course, the special treatment stretched over into Sunday too. I'm a lucky girl.

Early Saturday morning, the girls and I cleared out of the house because Joe and Pete were servicing the AC. (Our old and undersized AC is having trouble keeping up with the heat wave, so Joe is doing what he can to get it working better for his huge pregnant wife.) We did some garage sale-ing and then headed over to my parents' house. Emily helped Mom make the cake which she was very proud of.

Meanwhile, Dad kept Maddie occupied.

Aunt Sherry and Uncle Lee stopped by on their way to Beeville. Aunt Sherry wanted to get some sugar time and she was lucky that the girls felt like cuddling right after naptime.

Blowing out the birthday candles after a day of swimming, lounging, and a dinner of chicken enchiladas. Nathan, April, Eric, and Pete were also there for the festivities. I especially loved being able to relax with so many people on hand to watch the girls.

Birthday love from Emily (but not Eric)

Dance Party!!! (with hats)

The girls love to dance. Unfortunately for them, they inherited Joe and my abilities to dance (also known as flailing around). Poor little white girls. They also love to wear hats, especially Daddy's nasty smelly hats which are worn to construction sites and the golf course. On this day, only one of Joe's hats was available so Emily had to settle for a cute little girly hat.

A little blurry, but cooperative picture of Maddie

And a real smile from Emily

I don't know who that witch cackling in the background is...

Big catch!

Joe caught these two beauties this afternoon after work. They were giggling and thought it was hilarious until it took me forever to find the camera. By the time I was ready to take a picture, I guess all the blood had run to their head and they weren't too excited anymore.

Hanging out at the house

We went to the library this morning but spent the rest of the day at the house. The girls better get used to this because I have a feeling we won't be going out that much for oh, the next 6 months or so. Today they amused themselves with puzzles and climbing on the hideously ugly yet incredibly functional toy chest. That toy chest has been the savior of our living room - we just tell the girls to throw all their toys in there when its time to clean up. Then I shut the lid and no longer have to look at the throw up of colorful toys! I'm hoping to paint it black or something in the near future. Any suggestions on color??

Maddie has been wearing these butterfly shoes for over 24 hrs - she refuses to let me take them off. Of course, I could insist since I'm the mama, but I'm kinda curious to see just how stubborn she will be. So far they don't stink...

Using the Garden's Bounty

Ha ha, I used the word "bounty" - I am a dork. This post is about using up large amounts of produce from my garden. If you are aren't interested in that or gardening, you will really not enjoy reading any further.

Outside it is hot and dry and my garden is winding down its production. We go on vacation in 8 days or so and my garden probably won't survive our 11 day absence. I am trying really hard to not let anything go to waste so I'm having to get creative so as not to bore Joe and Pete with lots of repeated meals. I bagged a bunch of onions and hung them downstairs in the laundry room closet. They aren't touching each other so I hope they make it until I need them! I am also going to try putting the extra zucchini and cucumbers in the Green Bags that a fellow MOPS mom recommended to me. They are supposed to double the shelf life of produce.

Earlier this week I made a yummy fresh salsa with tomatoes and onions from the garden plus some cilantro, jalapenos, garlic and lime juice. We added some guacamole and quesadillas made with leftover steak. Today I made tomato basil soup and a zucchini quiche. I think I'll keep both recipes.
Joe wasn't crazy about the soup, said it was a little tangy, which I think can be attributed to my homegrown tomatoes or slightly-past-its-prime basil. He also said he expected something like Campbell's canned tomato soup (bleh!) and that was definitely not my desired effect. Emily ate a little, but Maddie and I gobbled it up! I must have had 3 bowls. I made the soup as the recipe specifies - full of fat and cream because everyone here is trying to gain weight or at least not lose any. However, a lot of the comments on the recipe were about cutting the cream and butter and they were happy with the outcome.

The zucchini quiche was rich, but good and it used an entire large zucchini. I'd make it again because it was hearty and filling even though it was meat-free.

Here are some not so great, practically unappetizing pictures of our meal. I'm really jealous of all those great pictures on food blogs. Maybe someday I'll get a fancy camera!

Emily - 32 months

Emily - This month you are 32 months and boy can I tell you are approaching 3! I think you are past the terrible twos and you are really starting to understand the world around you, at least as much as someone your age can. You love your "Daddy-O" and ask me "Daddy at work?" every morning. Today on the way home from a sleepover at Grandma's, you asked me to call Daddy and see if he was at home already because you wanted to "give him hugs and kisses when me see him". You also love your in-utero baby brothers. "Baby B" and "Baby A" (also known as "Baby E") are due to make their appearance "in 4 months" and by that time they will know your voice better than anyone else's! You are always hugging and kissing them and talking about how they are swimming in my belly. Puzzles are still your favorite activity although watering the garden always keeps your attention. Your mommy has a terrible memory - you always say cute, funny, or observant things but I forget them and never tell anyone. Hope you love me anyway!
We sure love you!!

Wearing Daddy's heavy boots!

Maddie - 15 months

Maddie - this month you are 15 months old. Boy what a month its been! You are learning new things on your own everyday! You are learning to use a fork and you refuse to eat without it and you also refuse help, which makes for very long mealtimes. You taught yourself to buckle yourself into the highchair. You are learning how to put Legos together and of course you want no help with that! You are a rough and tumble little girl but you are obsessed with clothes and accessories. You love necklaces, bracelets and earrings and anyone who wears such things. Poor little thing, your mom and Grandma George forget these things on a daily basis. You want to wear everyone's shoes and bring several pairs to me everyday to put them on you. You and Emily are learning how to share and you are slowly teaching her to not walk all over you - she often gets bit or loses hair when she takes a toy from you. You can stop the biting anytime now.
You are a little tomato thief. I can't turn my back on you in the garden or little green tomatos will be quickly plucked from their homes. We are so blessed to have you and you make us laugh everyday!

Holy Zucchini - Garden - June 10th

It is a miracle! My zucchini plants are still alive and producing despite the evil squash vine borer. I thought for sure they would be dead by now. I can only attribute it to the Garrett juice and garlic pepper spray that Aunt Lorrie gave me! I'm usually too cheap to try new-to-me products but now that I've seen how well this works, I'll be buying my own next year. Thanks Aunt Lorrie! I usually pick my zucchini when they are young and tender but since we have been sick, a few stayed on the vine longer than normal. This is 2 of the 3 big ones. Longer than a foot and bigger around than a soda can. I used them to make stuffed zucchini but the after picture wasn't pretty enough to put on here. In fact, it didn't look good at all, but it sure tasted good!
The zucchini are sitting next to the tomatoes (from the garden of course) for bruschetta which is waiting for the addition of basil. I also made french bread on this day. Yum!


I know you were waiting on the edge of your seat for the outcome of that quinoa dessert I recently posted about. Honestly, it was disappointing. It took forever to get to the right consistency and in my impatience, I think I burned it a little bit. And there was just way too much spice. Oh well, I'll still eat it.

18 weeks

Well here I am at 18 weeks. Besides the veins and the cold last week, everything is going well. The twins are in their own sacs and also have their own placentas so the Maternal Fetal Specialist assured me that these are the least risky type. My OB thinks everything is going well so I won't visit her again for 4 weeks. Since the average twin pregnancy is 36 weeks long, this may be my halfway point, which seems crazy to me!

Twin pregnancies are different in many ways from single pregnancies, but the biggest difference I've found so far is the amount of weight I am supposed to gain. The leading multiple pregnancy book by Dr. Barbara Luke recommends gaining 24 lbs in 24 weeks with the total being somewhere between 40-55 lbs. The goal is to gain a lot of healthy weight in order to ward off preterm labor and help your babies grow large enough to avoid NICU time after birth. To do this you are basically supposed to eat around the clock - lots of protein, dairy, and healthy fats. Of course I have no trouble eating in general, but I just can not seem to meet the book's weight gain recommendations. After my appt on Friday where it was verified that I did not gain enough weight for 18 weeks, I decided to hit it hard again! Tonight I made quinoa, a high protein grain that was recommended by my sister-in-law. There was quite a bit left over so I had fun making it into a dessert similar to rice pudding. This recipe is power-packed with good stuff. We'll see how it turns out...

Lazy Sunday

Today was a lazy day, at least for us 3 girls. Joe took care of us, fixed some stuff at the duplex, and cooked us three meals. I'm starting to feel normal but now Emily is sick. Here are some of the highlights...

Emily asked me to take her picture, sick eyes and all.

Sisterly Love - Maddie climbed in the dog kennel and Emily promptly locked her in...

Veggie and beef kabobs for dinner - Tomatoes and onions from garden

Emily with the kabobs and a fake smile

White onions ready to be stored. Not sure how I'm going to do it yet. Probably dice some up and freeze. Not sure if the rest will keep, we don't have a "cool" place in the house here in South Texas.

Garden - June 5th

Everyone but Joe has been sick around here so there haven't been very many fun picture opportunities. I am home sick today and Mom has the girls (bless her). I am currently coked up on Tylenol and Robitussin DM and had a few minutes of feeling ok so I went outside to check on my neglected garden. Here is what I've harvested over the week. The green ball on the left is the mystery "squash" which is actually a canteloupe. It either fell off its vine because of weight or a bug munched it off. I don't think it was done growing on the fine so I'm not sure how the future will turn out for it.

And here is what harvested this evening. I have to pick the tomatoes before they are fully ripened or the birds attack them. There is one little white eggplant and you can just see the little butternut squash peeking out from it vine in the background.