Oh baby....

Tomorrow morning we have our 28 week appointment, glucose screening and ultrasound to check the positioning of my placenta since it was "low laying" at 19 weeks.
We'll check in later tomorrow with a pic of itty bitty Elliott #3!

XOXO

Oh Our Talented Friend/Nanny/Photog.....

Steph Bloom http://www.stephaniebloomphotography.com/ is at it again!

Taking beautiful pics of my beautiful family!

1 Year pics were a few weeks at Hyland Park Reserve! Little tricky with a very cranky Harper.....but who would know looking at pics!

Here are a few sneaks we got this week....can't wait to see the rest!

Twin talk?

Tonight's dinner conversation was a whole lot of high pitched squeeling and jibberish. It went on and on and on for the entire dinner...so I had no trouble catching a minute of this joyful conversation between the babes!

What was so exciting/funny? I'll never know. Guess it'll be one of the many secrets they'll share!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm48UWW8-9A

Blessed

Hudson, Harper, baby Elliott #3 and I are so blessed.

Because we get to wake up to THIS man everyday!

What a great day. What a great weekend! We had all kinds of fun! Saturday, we loaded in our big family-mobile (Blake, me, H & H, Karn, Ryan and William) and visited "honorary" grandmother" to Karn, Blake, Katie and Adam. Florence, their neighbor growing up, has had a tough few months and so we thought two cutie pies could bring her a little sunshine!

We had a BBQ with the Moenings after and Blake and I watched a movie.

Sunday we hit up the Mpls Farmer's Market and then home for playing outside and a visit from Grandma Marit and Uncle Adam.

Blake scored and planted some new flowers, shrubs and I am thrilled with the little herb garden sprouting away with yummy smelling herbs.

Great weekend, great time with family and GREAT fathers day with the most amazing, fun, beautiful, loving daddy I know! We count our blessings daily....but sometimes it feels too good to be true! We are SO blessed!

Random Ramblings

How is it the middle of June already?
It seems we waited forever for summer to arrive, it came with a vengence (hello 103 degrees) and then left as abruptly as it came.
???

Nonetheless, this 75 and sunny suits us just fine!

We've been busy. Here's a few things we've been up to:

~Plans for the addition were dropped off at the city promptly this morning by Blake....we were told 2-4 days until we hear back on the permit.
~I went dress shopping with my mom and sister this weekend and my gorgeous sister said YES TO THE DRESS! She ordered a dress that couldn't be more perfect and or more stunning on her. Ahh...it was so fun.
~Harper is walking! She's finally mustered up some bravery and started walking into the open spaces (vs. walking from me to the couch or couch to the wicker table). She's full of bruises from some unsuccessful balencing....but she's learning and getting more confident by the day! More on this in a seperate post with a video!
~These two are on the fast track to learn. It's amazing that daily, they seem to pick up on things. They can point to things, they find the ball or book when we ask them, they are imitating us like crazy, they are starting to do great with signing and they are starting to really babble, though the words are quite difficult to make out! Haha

This age is the most fun and challenging age yet. They want to be independant, to communicate but they just can't do it all yet and it's frustrating to them. Harper especially, get's VERY frustrated with things, with objects and with that twin brother of hers. They are showing each other SO much affection lately......mixed in with a little sibling rivalry as well!

Month 11

Woweeee......big kids!
1 month left until you're big 1 year olds!
I recapped most of what was going on at 11mos when you turned 1.....but for mommy's record-keeping; here's a breakdown!
2 nappers each still a day at 9am and 2pm. Sleeping 7pm-7am.....ahhhh you two are amazing sleepers.
6 oz of formula by bottle, 4 times a day and 3 meals plus a snack. At a week before your 1st birthday, we started mixing in milk to your bottles to get you ready for the BIG transition.
Hudson
You're walking! On Mother's Day, you started to really make some major progress. You've been doing your first steps for sometime now but you really started to get brave on Mother's Day (aww).
You say Mama, Dada, Nana (?) and can clap, wave Hi, pretend talk on the phone with your hand up to your ear, you know who mama, dada and the puppies are. YOu can sign "more" and "all done". You LOVE to lean over and give kisses to your sister!
You love those blankies still......instant cuddle session as soon as you see them!!
You're super happy, have 6 teeth, love the wagon, love those dogs, and love your daddy!!!

Harper
You're doing mini-cartwheels and are scaling the wall. You've taken 3-5 steps on your own and will be walking very soon!
You say Mama, Dada, Num a Num, and a whole slew of other words in your own language! You're a chatty cathy.....always talking or singing!
You clap, sign "more" and "all done", pretend talk on the phone, wave Hi, blow kisses with your hand and love to give kisses to us, the pups and your brother!
You have 8 teeth.
You're still my little drama queen, happy, frustrated and happy in seconds.....love the puppies, pushing toys around, standing in the window, books and dancing to music!
Love you amazing people in my life. I'm so incredibly grateful.....words can not even begin to tell you how lucky I am to be your mommy!

House News....

We're adding on!
Not only is our family growing....but our house will be appropriately growing as well!

We've been working diligently with an architect to have the perfect plan drawn up.....and we just got it folks. Signed, sealed, delivered!

We'll continue to make a few modifications along the way.....but we're adding on to this house and can not WAIT to get started.

We're converting our current master into a large bedroom for the twins, making their nursery the nursery for our new baby, adding a new master suite, new bedroom/office, new dining room, family room, sunroom/porch. It's going to be SO much fun to see the transformation.....just hoping we can get the bulk of it done by Sept 17th when we're due!!!

I can't get the file to save as a jpeg so that I can share on here. Boo! We'll be sure to update progress in pictures!

Morning Fun Video!

Cute video from a week or two ago where these two were ALL smiles and giggles! They are obsessed with eating with their OWN spoon or fork.....I should say TRYING to eat with their own spoon or fork.
Most of the food ends up on the floor (dogs love that) or in their lap. But....they love it so who am I to complain!

Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/cXB7uMaDLow

A post for baby #3

Life with 1 year old twins, a full time job, 2 dogs, a busy/hard working husband and WAIT.....a LARGE home remodeling project/addition means that this tiny little human I'm growing sometimes gets left off of our blog.
Fear not people....this baby is NEVER forgotten. I'm 24 weeks today and here's a few little tidbits about baby #3.
WILD- this is a wild child. I was told at 19 weeks that my placenta is in the anterior position which means I'm feeling (and seeing) TONS of movement. This child is active....swift kicks to the left, jabs to the right.....Imay not be great about documenting this pregnancy in pictures but there isn't an hour that goes by that I'm not socked in the ribs to remind me of this teeny, tiny blessing.

HEALTHY- this little baby is perfect! No health concerns, no pregnancy concerns....we're doing great! It was at exactly this time with the twins that my contractions got out of hand and I had to be admitted for pre-term labor. Literally, life changed at week 24 last time around.....and I'm SO happy to say that I haven't felt a single contraction this time. Nada 1~

BIG- I was measured today at my 24 week appointment and I measured 26 weeks! This baby is BIG! And so is this mama! I feel huge already and I"ve got a good stretch of time left to grow still! YIKES!

All in all, we're doing great! We'll have an ultrasound at 28 weeks to check the position of my placenta.....but other than that...all is well!

In preparation for the baby, we're starting to talk to the twins about what's in mommy's tummy, having them feel my belly when the baby is kicking....though I'm not sure any of it is registering at all. Harper got a baby doll for her birthday so we do a lot of holding, kissing, loving on the baby doll. That's followed by hitting, poking the eye's, putting it on their push toy, pushing the baby on the push toy and then OOPS running over the baby on the push toy. They are too young to understand...but I have to admit I'm a leeeeeeeetle nervous with how rough they both are around their "baby" but also around my beautiful niece, Ileigh. Eeek!!!