Friday, October 30, 2009

Home at Last






After....


73 days in the NICU

212 trips to the hospital

292 hours spent at their bedside

168 times scrubbing in for 3 minutes (8 1/2 hrs.)

8 lbs. 7 oz. combined weight gain

11 inches combined growth in length

Countless prayers and well wishes



Our boys are finally home.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Magically our boy and girl twins are now twin boys. The idea of two boys has taken some getting used to after the original excitement of having one of each. When we found out about the change at the ultrasound the doctor pointed “it” out several times to make up for the previous failure, and now we have more ultrasound penis pictures than we know what to do with. Luckily, we had not done too much boy/girl purchasing or decorating and are finding it a bit easier to plan for two boys. They are set to arrive around October 21. The babies seem to be doing well and growing on schedule now weighing in at a little over 1 ½ lbs. each. I have largely left the morning sickness behind now although it never really was morning sickness: pretty much any time of the day sickness, including my favorite - driving down the interstate at 70 mph with no bag or shoulder to pull over onto.

I have adjusted to the idea of being outnumbered by boys and think it will be fun to play with cars and trucks, sports, and all the boy stuff they do. It is a debate in the household whether we will have soccer or basketball players. Clay bought the boys some stuffed soccer balls the other day so I better get on it if I want the indoctrination to start early. Everything more or less seems to be falling in to place as we prepare for their arrival. We're both excited and at the same time overwhelmed by the prospect of doing everything double. But we can't wait to bring them home.




The first of many, many pictures...




One of the first ultrasounds at 7 weeks when we found out there were two little beans growing inside me.


In this one the boys seemed to be head butting each other. Can't wait till they're doing that out of the womb.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

New Additions

Finally a new post...has it really been 7 months since I've added anything new? I apologize to all those out there who have been dying to hear about the exciting Holland Days. Here's a quick run down of the past months since the last time I posted: Worked every week day for 12 plus hours (and some week ends), took a few days off for Christmas break to host Clay's family for Christmas, turned 29, several doctor's visits a week, took a road trip on Valentine's day in search of the best pie and BBQ in TX, got a new calling as Primary President, more doctor's visits, got pregnant, got really, really sick, more doctor's visits, slept a lot, visit from my parents, and celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss. It doesn't seem like we've done a lot, but everyday life can get pretty busy. We try to keep it fun though and do some exciting things on the weekends. We've been to a few concerts, seen some movies, hung out with friends, and just tried to enjoy the time that we actually get to see each other.



We are now ready for our lives to a get a little bit more exciting. As I said we found out we were pregnant at the end of February. After seven years, and the help of some fertility doctors we are trilled to be expecting a boy and a girl in October! I can't say how excited and thankful we are for this opportunity. I'm now 17 weeks along and comfortable enough to talk about the pregnancy with co-workers, friends, and people at church. Up until about 15 weeks we had only told our parents/siblings and a couple of friends that are very observant. Now, I want every one to know how happy this pregnancy makes me and how grateful I am for the two precious babies we will one day get to hold. Perhaps these new little additions will keep us updating our blog.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Great Cram of 2009



This is what I was doing over my winter break--stacking up books that I should've been reading. On January 12th and 23rd I had my two "comprehensive exams" to determine whether I can continue on in my phd program, the first on political theory and the second on public law. Each exam was an eight-hour exam consisting of three essay questions. The plan was to study over last summer, but when that didn't work out too well, the plan was to study during the fall semester, and when that didn't work out that well, the plan was to study over winter break, which I finally managed to do. The books shown in the photo are several (not all) of the books contained on my reading lists for the two exams. It was a miserable few weeks. However, I am also the master of distraction/avoidance,/procrastination, and even while studying during the last weeks in December and early January, I managed to read two entirely unrelated books (one of which was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which I really liked. I recommend it for any Shakespeare and/or dog fans out there) and beat a video game (Call of Duty: World at War). I learned last week that I passed the political theory portion, and will hopefully find out that I passed the public law portion sometime this week. However, I will add a disclaimer that I think I really botched one of my public law essays. I wouldn't be entirely surprised by an inadequate overall score as a result (okay, a failing score--it is essentially pass/fail). If that is the case, I'd have to take it again in August. Hopefully that is not the case. The exams are graded by all the faculty teaching in those areas, and we can see their grade sheets/comments when they are done. It is an eye-opener seeing the range of grades different graders will give the same exam, some commenting how well you answered the question, others commenting that you didn't answer the question at all. You've got to love academia.