Our 20 week Ultrasound!!!

For 2 years Luke and I felt extreme pain and sorrow over our struggles with fertility and our 6 pregnancy losses.  We questioned our religious relationships, ourselves and whether or not we would ever be able to have children... Never in my life had I ever felt like life was so unfair...

But holy crap... good things do come to those who wait and dreams really do come true (as I type this tears are pouring out of my eyes)

16 weeks ago we took a pregnancy test that yielded a very positive result :)  Three weeks after that we found out that there was not just one baby with a good strong healthy heartbeat... but TWO babies with good strong healthy heartbeats growing inside of me... We were in complete shock, but felt so blessed at the same time. After we made it through the first trimester we were finally able to breathe and be optimistic and decided to share our big wonderful news with the whole world... we've taken each day one at a time and I can harldy believe that on Sunday I will already be 21 Weeks!!  Time is flying by...

Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound which also included a gender scan... Luke couldn't stay for the entire 2+ hour appointment because he had to get back to work, so right away we asked if we could take a quick peak and see if they could tell us their genders while Luke was there....

Within just a few seconds of the begining of the scan we were informed that Baby A was definitely.....

our little BOY!

... and Baby B is definitely....

our little GIRL!

Ultrsounds can be incorrect... but apparently what they saw were textbook views of exactly what they look for :)

I couldn't stop crying, (and now I'm crying again, because I am so happy) I now have everything in the whole world I could ever want... A loving and wonderful husband who I already know is an amzing father, and 3 healthy children (2 boys and a girl)... life just couldn't be any sweeter!

Steven is SO excited to be a big brother, and I am SO excited for him.  He kept going back and forth between wanting two girls and two boys...   (Girls won't want to share his toys... and boys can wrestle) I really feel like he is getting the best possible combination :) I can't wait to see how much he loves his babies when they arrive!!!

Steven and Marmaduke are excited to be big brothers

Below are the rest of the pictures from the unltrasound.... I hope you enjoy the sneak peaks as much as I do.  The babies were awake and moving around like crazy... which I can feel a lot now :) and it's such an amazing feeling... but it also makes it very difficult for the ultrasound technician to get decent pictures... (especially when her feet are on his face... I'm sure it's just the begining of that) "Fetus 1" is Baby A, our boy and "Fetus 2" is Baby B, our girl...

So, after the ultrasound technician finished her job, one of the doctors came in to look over everything and make sure that everything they could look at looked good... and everything looks great!!

The babies are really close in size, Boy is measuring a little bit ahead of my due date and Girl is right on with my due date... Boy is 14 ounces and Girl is 13 ounces.... they really need names huh? We have some picked out but we aren't 100% yet

To celebrate the great big fantastic news, I met Gail (my mother in-law) at the store after the appointment was over and she bought the babies a couple of really cute newborn outifts:

So cute!

And then I went to target and picked out a special outfit for each baby to wear at the hospital while I waited to pick up our sushi order so Luke and I could celebrate:

back view

front view

 ... and a couple of cute onsies....

 

I just can't even believe that we are having a boy and a girl!!! I feel like the luckiest person in the whole world!

So, now that you've seen pictures of the babies and how they are growing.... now you get to see pictures of how my belly is growing...  I started showing around 8-9 weeks but didn't take any belly shots until I was REALLY showing:

14 Weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks

20 weeks

oh, and here is Henry and Steven pretending they have babies growing in their bellies :
Priceless!

So darn cute!

When I logged on to write this post today, I realized that it has been almost a month since my last update... jeeze! I've been doing a lot of sewing while I can still fit behind my sewing machine... making all sorts of cool baby stuff for our family and friends too... and I've been crocheting too.  I'll post some of my work on here soon.  I'm pretty proud of the stuff I've made but it's time consuming... that's a fact when your husband tells you that he feels like chopped liver next to your project list.... Sorry Luke.

More updates to come soon!

Thanks for sharing our excitement!

Catching up... Sunday Funday Family Field Trip

I was just talking to my dear cousin Tanya over the phone, and when I told her I was attempting to catch up on my blog (from almost two weeks ago now) this afternoon- she had the right answer... I don't recall her exact words but something along the lines that my blog doesn't have a schedule and I write my blog when I have time... well put Tanya- I haven't had time... or maybe I haven't made time... but either way my blog is meant to be something that is relaxing for me and not another stressor in my life.  So, I'm "two weeks behind" oh well :)

So, recently... (two Sunday's ago) Luke, Steven and I took ourselves on a field trip to, dun dun dun...

CAVE OF THE MOUNDS

I don't remember exactly why, but Steven was over tired and quite crabby that Sunday morning (If I remember right it was daylight savings and he woke up at 4:30 in the morning to play) and he did not want to go to Cave of the Mounds ("whatever that place is") to save his life! He tried to convince us that he had already been there when he was "little" and he did not like it at all!  He wanted to watch TV, and go to the park that day and he wasn't happy with us that he didn't get to decide what we were doing- so very unhappy that he actually cried.  Tough tootles we told him and off we went.  Luke and I have been planning to take him there since last summer, but we were always too busy camping or doing something else fun that we never made it... and reality was finally beginning to set in- with two babies on the way, my belly is growing bigger and bigger...fast!  So fast that I thought if we waited even a couple more weeks to go on this field trip I wouldn't be able to fit through the narrow passages they take tours through... Off we went!

If you have ever been to Cave of the Mounds you know that the very first part of the tour starts out with a film explaining the history of the cave, in a dark room-which caused Steven to get a little nervous about going in the cave but we convinced him that it wasn't actually scary and he should give it a try.  Once we got down the first set of stairs I think he had a smile on his face for the rest of the tour.

Oh, and the quality of our pictures totally stinks because even though we remembered to bring our really nice fancy camera along on this outing, we left it in the car.  HA! Thankfully my phone has a decent camera and we at least have pictures to share.

Luke and Steven heading down the first set of stairs into the cave

Pictures of inside the cave

(here is some of what we saw)

Flow stone

the end of the cave in one direction

The "Red light" which signifies the lowest depth of the cave
which is also directly below the flag pole (see picture below)

Steven and I attempting to take a decent picture

Steven peaking at part of the cave

attempted family photograph

Attempt number 2....

looking at the lifeline of the cave (on the ceiling) 

Looking up at some stalactites

Another failed family photo ;)

The left over trunk of a broken off stalagmite

Steven!!!

A chuck of stalactites broken off and laying on the ground facing up

Luke and Steven standing in front of a beautiful view of stalactites and stalagmites

Here is Steven and I

A "column" where the stalactites and stalagmites grew together

After our tour, we looked around the gift shop and Steven decided he wanted to buy a bag of sand and rocks and mine for fossils...

this is "the treasure" he found

nice fall day- here are some leaves I thought were pretty

the flag pole which is directly above the red light in the cave-
I can't remember exactly how many feet below this point
we actually were- but it was quite substantial

A half-way successful family photograph to end the trip before walking to the car

So, as we were leaving Steven was very grateful for our field trip to Cave of the Mounds!  He said thank you over and over and asked if we could come back again soon because he liked it so much. He had a lot of fun, and learned new things too :)  Luke and I had a lot of fun too!

After leaving the cave we headed to Gail and Gib's (Luke's Mom and Step-Dad) house to have dinner with them, which is always fun and delicious.  We did Steven's homework before we left (in fear that he would fall asleep in the car on the way home- which he indeed did) and got home just in time for bedtime.  Luke and I relaxed and headed to bed early too.  Regardless of the daylight savings time we were both exhausted as usual.

If you would like to learn more about Cave of the Mounds or actually see some "quality" pictures of the cave you can visit:

http://caveofthemounds.com/

I highly recommend taking the tour, it is really quite an amazing and beautiful Wisconsin treasure.

More updates coming soon!!