Maddie - 16 months

So I fell down on the job on the girls' monthly posts for July. But here is a cute one of Maddie with her Grandma

Emily - 33 months

Our oldest is quickly approaching 3!! I can't believe it. Don't know where the time went... She is her daddy's girl, as this picture shows! I love this picture of Joe too

Check out the boys!

Today we had our growth ultrasound to check on the boys to make sure they were growing and similar in size. Baby A was estimated at 1 lb 12 oz (59 percentile) and Baby B was estimated at 1 lb 10 oz (50 percentile). They aren't as big as the girls were at this gestation, but they are plenty big considering they are sharing a room. However, like the girls, their head circumference is off the charts! Again today, they were transverse with both their heads on my right side and their legs on the left. Its kinda like they are on bunkbeds except that their heads were bumping up against each other part of the time. For the first time ever, we got to see our babies in 3D. If I had to guess right now, I'd say they were not identical.

Baby A with a little bit of his umbilical cord in front of his mouth

Baby B with a little bit of something in front of his nose

For Grandma

This post is for Grandma Reynolds. All three of her kids (+families) are living under one roof and she's not here! I thought she would enjoy these pics of the last few days.

24 weeks

Here I am at 24 weeks plus a few days. I should have chosen a different day to take my picture because I already have done a lot today and it shows, fake smile and all! My last appointment was on the 10th of July. I was 22.5 weeks then and I measured 28 weeks. So I am definitely not the size of a full term woman, but I am bigger than I've ever been at this point in my other pregnancies. On Friday morning, Joe and I have a growth ultrasound where they measure the size of the babies and check to make sure everything is going well. Baby A (the lower one) is making me nervous because he isn't moving that much. He moves just enough to keep me from calling the dr. Baby B on the other hand is kicking me silly.

I have been feeling pretty sorry for myself until today when I met a woman at lunch who is pregnant with her 10th (yes 10th child!!!). She also suffers from severe varicose veins but she doesn't fool with tights. I asked her how she could stand for any length of time without them and she named a few herbs that she takes that really help her. I'm so desperate that I think I will be ordering them in the new future!

Whirlwind trip to Cedar Park

My fancy doctor (MFM specialist) informed me that I should not travel after 24 weeks. Since that is this coming Monday, Mom and I took the opportunity for one last trip to Cedar Park. We stayed with Aunt Lorrie and Uncle John, who as usual, let us takeover their entire house. An added bonus is that their AC actually works!! No 82 degrees at 5pm, it was still a cool 74 degrees! We had a family dinner and got to see most of our Cedar Park family. Here is Emily in Aunt Lorrie's garden hat. Boy does she love her Aunt Lorrie!

The next morning, we headed over to the Pullen's house for a quick visit. Jill was in town with all 4 of her kids including her cute twin little girls. I couldn't resist the opportunity to see them! Here are the littlest three: Ryleigh, Maddie, and Lacye.

We then headed to Leander ISD to say hi to Mom's old coworkers. The girls were really good during all this attention and parading about, so we rewarded them with a quick trip to McDonald's for lunch and playground time. Then we went over to Aunt Judy's and Uncle Marc's house to play with Baylee.

Baylee enjoyed dressing her little friend Maddie in her chef outfit

Here is the retired college football coach showing Emily all of the features of the dollhouse


Baylee and Maddie cooking together

Jackson's first visit

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to host the MacGregor family for their first visit with their new son Jackson. We had a great time just hanging out and catching up. They know I'm struggling to get everything done while all my energy is going towards cooking these little boys, so as a great guesture of friendship, they cleaned my kitchen! Not just washed up the dishes after dinner, but really cleaned my kitchen! On top of that, they visited while we were having issues with our kitchen sink clogging. We managed to fix it before they arrived, but they didn't know that! They must love us :)

Noelle and Rob already wrote up a cute post with tons of pictures of all our kids on their blog, so check it out: Noelle's post.

But here is a funny picture of them:

Day 9: Last Full Day at the Cabin

We spent the last day cleaning up after ourselves, making a few minor repairs (or should I say Joe made a few repairs), and saying goodbye to Jennie and her family. The girls got their first baths in cold lake water, which always reminds me of my Grandma. We ended the day with a trip to the Shoreline Restaurant and Granny's pantry. Joe and the girls shared a dish of Blue Moon ice cream. I don't know how they all like that stuff, but they do! Emily still remembers the name of it!

Day 7: Saying Goodbye and Group Pictures

On this day we said goodbye to all the grandparents and Pete and his Cornell teammates. As is customary, we also took a ton of group pictures. These will give you an idea of just how many people we crammed into a 3 bedroom, 1 bath cabin.

The Family at the Cabin

The Family plus 3 really tall guys (seriously one was 7 feet plus)

The Boosey Family

At this point, the kids were really sick of pictures. We were all laughing at their misery

Four Generations, sorta

Day 7: Feeding the Minnows with Daddy

Day 6: July 4th in the dirt

We had a pretty low-key July 4th, a lot of relaxing and being outdoors. There was a little swimming off the boat dock too, but there will be no pictures of that for previously stated reasons :) The girls found the horsehoe pit and decided it was close enough to a sandbox. Of course I had already dressed them in their cute patriotic dresses. These next pictures may give some of you an anxiety attack. You know who you are...

They were having a blast so we decided just to go for it. Take off the dresses and give them "tools". Emily's hair looks all crazy because she whipped her head around so I couldn't take her picture.

Maddie ate some dirt

Jennie found a much cleaner alternative for Dylan

Day 6: Trapped

The kids wanted to escape outside at all times. Lucky for us there was a screen door with a lock to keep the rugrats in but not keep the breeze out.

Day 5: First Swim in Minnesota

While Grandpa was sleeping:



Joe and I took the girls for their first swim in Minnesota. We walked down to the bridge area since there was a walk in beach area. You'll notice that aren't any pictures of us in the water. Thats for 2 reasons - 1. The water was freakin' cold - Maddie screamed the whole time and they weren't in very long 2. No way I am posting pic of my pregnant body in a swimsuit unless its crazy flattering.

Maddie anxious to get her coverup off and into the water. At this point she has no idea its freezing.

Maddie running away from the water!


After swimming we went back to the cabin for some strawberries. Emily painted her body with the juice.

Maddie was just eating, but she ended up colorful too

The girls with Grandma Rech and Grandma Reynolds

Day 5: Turtle Races!

Every summer Thursday in Battle Lake, MN, there are turtle races for the families. Usually you rent a turtle from the organizers, but since Pete had caught a turtle, we just used it. There was a lot of waiting around for our heat, but it was good people watching. Our wild turtle was just too smart for such a simple race unlike those dumb tame turtles that everyone else had. He started out of the inner circle and was in the lead when he realized that he was running straight back towards his captors outside of the large circle. He froze and then took off in the opposite direction. Smart turtle. I'm glad he didn't win his heat because then we would have had to hang around and wait for the finals!

Here is my sweet little girl keep watch over their turtle in the box before the race.

Emily and Maddie taunting the turtle. Emily is a slight bit scared!

Dylan and James waiting for the fun

After the race, Joe and Emily released the turtle into Battle Lake and we headed over to Granny's Pantry for some ice cream. Do you think they liked it?

Day 5: Early Morning Fishing

For James' first day at the cabin, Jennie, Joe, and Pete took him over to the bridge at the exit to Walker Lake for some early morning fishing. They were finally successful! Here is James braving the reeds for some fish.

Jennie on the bridge

The morning catch on the bridge

James and Joe cleaning the fish later that day. Fun stuff

Day 3: Turtle capture

On his way home from fishing, Pete saw a turtle crossing the road. He caught it and brought it home for the kids to see and for them to use in the turtle races. Emily was kinda scared of getting too close to it, but Maddie and Dylan (Jennie and James' son) were pretty interested. Poor thing remained in captivity until Thursday when it did in fact race!

One of the few pictures of all 3 kids together. Man, we must have been doing something really stupid to get their attention. They think we are crazy.

Emily and Dylan together at a windy dinner at Zorbaz