Sunday, November 09, 2008

Remodel Project

I owe a HUGE thank you to my dad for these past 5 months. My dad retired in May and started working on remodeling our downstairs in July. He did such a great job and we absolutely love our downstairs now. Ryan helped out on the weekends and nights when he could. This is a picture after they had been mudding drywall one day.

This first picture is after they knocked out walls. You can see where the ugly green carpet starts and stops...that is where walls used to be. This is the open area/office area before:Here is the open area after. Ryan, Zach Crawford and my dad installed these hardwood floors in 3 full Saturdays. This was not an easy task but it turned out great! This is a picture of a bookshelf that dad built to hide some pipes that were in the wall. I love having extra storage. This next picture was after dad redid the entire wiring. This was huge task for him because this old house had some crazy wiring going on! He installed 12 can lights and track lighting. This made a huge difference because before all we used were lamps. Here was a storage room before with an old cast iron bathtub in it. There was not any plumbing for a bathroom and dad installed all of this himself! I'm telling you my dad is a man of many talents!! Here is the bathroom after. Ryan installed the tile floor and I helped grout it. This bathroom was much needed considering our house only had 1 1/2 baths before this. Here is the den area before:The den area after! Dad built these columns to go around the existing metal poles. These stairs had ugly green carpet on them before and now here they are after! Ryan and dad knocked these out on one Saturday. I think they turned out really good.
Ryan is already enjoying watching the Titans play in our new space. Thanks dad for all your hard work and time spent doing this for us. I know that we will get much use out of this especially when Reed and Braden get here!

Past Showers...35 weeks pregnant

Laura Karkau and Mandi Terry hosted a book shower for me on October 23. What a great idea for a shower! Reed and Braden received tons of great books and I cannot wait to be able to read these to them! The shower theme was chocolate! They had a chocolate fountain, cupcakes, cookies, mints, etc... The table and decorations looked so cute.
This is me at 35 weeks and 4 days. This sweater is stretched to its max!
The next day, I had a shower given by the math department at Belmont. I got so many thoughtful and practical gifts! A lot of these ladies I have known since I was 5 yrs. old because my mom taught here for 20+ years. They are all like family to me.
Here is one of the blankets that Joyce knitted for the boys. The other one coordinates with this one but it is blue with a yellow border. I cannot imagine the time that went into making these and I greatly appreciate them!

Another handmade gift was knitted booties for the boys. These are so cute and so tiny. Joan started making these when she found out we were having 2 boys. I cannot wait to put them in these cute little shoes!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Updates and Requests

Well, I am currently on moderate bed rest. I went to the doctor this past Tuesday and Reed measured 5 lbs 14 oz. and Braden 5 lbs. 2 oz. A doctor that I do not normally see said that we should go ahead and deliver since I was 37 weeks and 2 days and the boys growth was slowing down some. I didn't really agree with this but who can argue with a doctor. Well to make a long story short, we went to the hospital and they put me on monitors and an IV. Before they were going to induce me, Reed's cardiologist along with my normal doctor that I have been seeing agreed that we would be better off waiting since I am the best incubator there is for these boys.
Reed needs to be placed on medicine for a week before they perform his surgery. If we would have delivered this past Tuesday, he would have had surgery today b/c the surgeon is going to Kenya tomorrow. So, if I can keep these boys in me until Sunday or later then that would be perfect for Reed's surgery since his surgeon will be back Monday, November 17th.
I am not going to the doctor every 3 days to get ultrasounds done. We went today and everything looked great for both boys. The do what is called a BioPhysical Profile(BPP) which is where they check blood flow through the placenta, heart rate, movement, breathing, amniotic fluid, etc... They both scored 10 out of 10. We will go back on Sunday to have another BPP. Please pray that Reed and Braden will hang in there until next week. Thanks and sorry for the long post with no pictures!! My camera is already packed in our hospital bag:-)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Rough Draft of the Nursery

I am finally updating my blog with 3 posts in a row so be sure and scroll down to the other new posts!
I am still not done with the nursery but it is getting there! I still lack some stuff on the walls but we are definitely gettting closer. As you can see below, we still have not even put the mattresses in there cribs. I am currently washing the crib sheet!
The wall hangings above the cribs are pictured below. The colors are not exactly how they show up here but you can get the idea. The border is green which is the same color as their changing table/bookcase. I painted the background a diamond pattern to match with the lattice pattern in the cutains. I thought this scripture was fitting for their nursery.
Picture below is a piece that I drew up and a guy at the flea market made for me. I picked out the paint color to match with the bumper pads. This piece will look a whole lot better once the 1970's computer is taken off...it is sitting where the changing pad will go. I also cannot wait to get some pictures to fill the picture frames on the top with! Hopefully we will not get those pictures for another 3-4 weeks!
I had to buy a smaller chair since our rooms are not huge in our house. This chair matched with the brown on the crib skirt. It is a rocker and glider which will hopefully come in handy!
My sister-in-law, Tina, is so creative with her gifts. She bought Reed and Braden their very first pair of 'cowboy' boots. The leather on them is so soft and they are John Deere boots. I think these will fit the boys around 9 months. The picture frames are ones that my friend Kandice made and they match perfectly with the nursery.
Needless to say, their Aunt Tina has already spoiled them rotten. She also bought them their own little chairs from Pottery Barn. I am getting their names monogrammed on the back. Thanks Tina!
Update on the boys: Two weeks ago, Reed was weighing 4 lbs. and Braden was weighing 3.8 lbs. They were a little concerned with the discordance between their weights so we have begun weekly monitoring. I didn't think a half pound was that big of a deal but it can be a problem with twins. So we are getting ultrasounds once a week and they have gone well these past 2 weeks. They check their movements, breathing, amniotic fluid, blood flow in the placenta, etc.. and they have 'passed' the previous 2 tests. We still need your prayers that these boys will continue to both grow and stay in my belly for another good 3 weeks. The bigger that Reed is the better for surgery! God is good and we know that He will provide but please pray! I feel great and know that I could carry these boys as long as they will cooperate. I am going to have to get onto them for giving me some lovely stretch marks...but I have only gained around 23 lbs so far. I welcome the stretch marks if that means they keep growing!!!!

Massey Shower

My parent's next door neighbor, Mrs. Massey, and her daughter, Sonia Hoover, had a shower for me this past weekend at Sonia's beautiful house. They did the whole shower super nice. When we pulled up to the house, there were two men waiting to help you up the stairs and take your gifts for you. They then took us to the Art Gallery which was off of the pool to enjoy a piano player and some appetizers. (I am 34 weeks in this picture)

This is the Art Gallery. They have beautiful paintings displayed everywhere and a lot more paintings stored in a back room. The walls were even air conditioned to a certain temperature for the painting! I felt very "cultured" being there!!!

This man was a great pianist and he would play anything you would request.

All of the picture below are of people that attended the shower. We had a luncheon outside the pool area then I got to open gifts!!
My mom, me, nanny and granny

High School Shower

Meredith and her mom hosted my shower for my high school friends, their moms and some other ladies from my parents church. Pictured below is: Sarah Scott, Kara Gaylor, me, Tina(my sister-in-law), Meredith and Martha. All of us went to school K-12 together except for Tina. There are 4 other girls that could not come that I also went K-12 with. This was a gift that Ryan sent to the shower. He is always so good about surprises. I know that Reed and Braden will love these John Deere tractors when they get older.
My mom and I. I think that I was around 32 weeks at this shower.
Thanks to Mrs. Cilla and Meredith for a great shower. The cooked tons of food and showered me with too many gifts! Meredith made her mom strip the wallpaper that was in the room we are standing in. From what I understand, it was quite an ordeal but the room looks beautiful.
These were two day gowns that Teresa Pirtle made for the boys. She smocked them by hand and I absolutely love them!

Monday, September 22, 2008

My First Baby Shower

Thank you to Heather, Vanessa, Natalie and Amanda for hosting my college friend shower plus a few extra Nashville friends. They had everything decorated so cute and the food was delicious. They, of course, did way too much for me. Our friendships go back to our freshman year in college and now we all live in Nashville. I am so thankful that God brought all of these girls into my life!
I had to post this picture for a "shout out" to Jaren since she couldn't drive all the way from Oklahoma...I don't know why not! Thanks J for these cozy covers, I know they will come in handy this winter. I got several monogrammed burped clothes and bibs which I absolutely love. Reed and Braden are going to have a lot of matching stuff and some really cute burp clothes. Here is the belly shot for those of you who keep asking for it. This is me at almost 31 weeks. So far, these boys have stayed mostly in my belly but I am still waiting for the rest of my body to expand:-) I still don't reallly feel that pregnant besides a belly that causes me to not be able to see my toes and the constant fighting these boys already do in my stomach! They had these cute craft projects at the shower. I mshould have taken some pics of the final products. Everyone either painted or sewed on shirts, onesies or bibs...they are so cute!
Thanks Nat for having the shower at your house. I cannot wait to find out what she is having. I am really hoping that it will be a boy so that our boys can grow up together.
Martha Lynn, Heather and Sara
Mom and I. She was the only "adult" of the group but she has known all these girls for a long time.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we went with some friends to Centerhill lake. Martha Lynn's parents have a cabin up there which was a bit crowded with 10 people but made for a lot of fun. The lake was really not that crowded for being a holiday weekend.
The guys threw football while the girls layed out in the water. The hard thing about being pregnant at the lake is not being able to tube, ski or ride the jet ski really fast!
Saturday night we all went back out on the boat. This is Ryan and I headed for the dock.
This was the girls right before we went out on the lake. You can definitely see my belly now!
Josh, a.k.a "Juice", and Lindsay Story
Josh and Lori Willeford
Josh and Mandi. Can you tell that there are way too many Josh's in this group...that is why they all have nicknames.
Josh Story was the entertainment on the boat. I told him that his shirt must have come from the gay weekend at Pensacola Beach on Memorial Day weekend!
It's bad that I don't even have a picture of Martha Lynn and Zach who were responsible for letting us go to their cabin! Thanks though!