2 Year Olds

Raising a 2 year old is so much fun. I know most parents don't agree, so maybe it's just Mckinley, but anyway, I just love this girl to death and can't get over the cute things she says.

This morning she was begging to wear a dress (what's new?) and I told her no, you need to wear pants today. So what does she say? "I'm kind of scared of pants." Ha ha ha. Then a second later she wanted to watch a movie so I told her if you wear pants you can watch a movie. So she is happily wearing pants today. What a crack up. I just love her to death.

Here's a belly shot from yesterday at 34 weeks 1 day. I keep meeting people who tell me they didn't make it as far as me with twins. I'm still hoping to get all the way to 38 weeks.




The other day I was laying on the couch and out of the blue Mckinley said "Oh Mom I just love you so much." Then she ran over and said, "I want to kiss the babies." And gave me a kiss on the stomach. She is the cutest. This is her kissing the babies yesterday.


We saw out the window today that the neighbor boys were taking a dip in their jacuzzi "pool" so we went out and joined them. It was fun. They soaked me with all their splashing, but it was worth it to "take Mckinley swimming" without having to actually go anywhere or put a swimming suit on myself. :)

Cute Girl

Isn't this girl just the cutest? Her outfit got more and more pink as the day went on.

This is Brandon's new favorite picture of her.

 

We had a fun, crazy sleepover at my parents' house on Friday night this weekend. They went to so much work to make it a fun family party and a lot went wrong, but we still had a fun time. Mckinley needs to spend more time with the cousins on my side of the family. She hardly knows any of them.

 

I had an ultrasound this week and the twins are looking good. Baby boy measured at 4 lbs 9 oz, baby girl at 4 lbs 5 oz. I am almost 34 weeks and things are looking well. I can't believe they will be here in a month from yesterday! Or less. We are so excited to have them here.

Shwimming

We have had a blast the last two Saturday mornings at Seven Peaks. Mckinley loves to go "shwimming" and asks to go all the time. Too bad we waited till the end of the summer when I am so big and uncomfortable, but at least we got a few times in before the twins come. If we're lucky, we'll go a few more times before it closes.

Mckinley loves going down the slides in the kiddie pool by herself.

Brandon and Mckinley 

Brandon and Mckinley going down the tube slide together. She loved it and asked to go again as soon as they got down. 

Mckinley loves living by her cousins and asks to play with them every day. This picture is from a really fun BBQ we had with Brandon's brothers on Friday night.

31 Weeks

Well, I am 31 weeks pregnant today. The babies are still in there and I am so glad about that! They kick and move like crazy and I absolutely love every second of it. You can see them move from the outside pretty easily now. It's so fun for me to watch and feel.

Everything is going pretty well as far as this pregnancy is concerned. My SI joint has been bugging me since day 1 and is really killing me right about now, and of course there are some other usual discomforts of pregnancy, sleeping, peeing your pants, etc. but I'll take all of it for two sweet healthy babies! Holy cow, I can't wait.

Here is a picture of me at 31 weeks today.

And just because I think comparison pictures are so fun, here is a picture of me last time at 41 weeks, the morning I went in to the hospital to be induced. I haven't gained quite as much weight as I had by then, but I think my stomach is about as big around. And still 7 more weeks to go this time. Yay. :) 

I am so incredibly excited to meet these two babies. A girl who moved out of our ward hooked me up with boy crib bedding and all the boy blankets I could ever need, along with some other sweet stuff. It was pretty awesome and such a big help. I still don't have many boy clothes, but we've got time to figure that out (and white onesies in the meantime).



Last night we went to see Fiddler on the Roof with some of my family at the Scera Shell.

The rest of Utah County was there too (free for Pass of all Passes holders). 



We didn't stay the whole time. As if I need another excuse on top of being 31 weeks pregnant with twins, I've had a horrible cold the last few days and wasn't feeling the best. But it was fun while it lasted.

Life is so good. Mckinley is starting to say the most adorable things. I've said this since the day she was born, but I always wonder if she can get any cuter or any more fun, and then she does. Every single day. We are so in love with her.

She had a bad 4 day streak of waking up around 5:30 a.m. ready to go for the day (so not fun for Brandon, who gets up with her while my pregnant self tries to keep sleeping in bed). She's back to waking up around 7 now (still an hour too early if you ask me, but what do you do?). The other night at 1:30 in the morning she started yelling at the top of her lungs "give me water or milk!!!" over and over. It totally cracked me up.

First Hair Cut

Mckinley got her first hair cut two days ago. I had been wanting to cut it for quite a while but Brandon didn't want to. I just wanted to even things up and not have such long scraggly ends. Anyway, I finally convinced Brandon to let me do it and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I cut it myself.

Before shots:

After shots: 

She did so well and just sat still pretty much the entire time. It turned out a little shorter than I wanted but it still fits up in pigtails which is the most important thing.

 And of course we saved a lock of hair for her baby book.

July Pictures

Oh my gosh, I can't believe tomorrow is August. If it's August, that means we are having twins next month! Crazy! I'm so excited to hold them.

Here I am today at 30 weeks. (I know, I'm huge, but remember, there are TWO in there.)

And now just some random pictures from July.

I found Mckinley sleeping like this one day during her nap. She pulled the sheet up over her face. So cute!!!

We've been to the park a few times to see the ducks. We've seen lots of baby ducks this year. It never gets old for me, I love it!

I don't know if I ever mentioned on here that I was finally able to go to my cabin for the first time in three years. The only picture I took was this one. Kristen at 20 weeks and me at 28. She won't take her own belly shots so I have to take them for her. :)

Brandon and Mckinley stayed home and went to the Spanish Fork rodeo without me. I was sad to miss it.

Brandon is seriously the best dad in the entire world. He was so excited to have Mckinley all to himself and even did her hair in PIGTAILS by himself. Is that not impressive or what?????

This is a picture of Mckinley playing dress ups at Grandma's house.  

July was a really fun month. We did so many fun things. My only plans for August are to keep the babies in my belly!!! I'm super excited to meet them, but I want it to be in September.

BEST Surprise Ever!!

So, Brandon came home with a pretty awesome surprise today.

A car!!!

Oh, you should have seen my reaction. This guy can keep a secret...for a long time.

I'll try to keep the story short. We have been shopping for a van for a while now to accommodate our growing family (wahoo for twins, can't tell you how excited I am!). We looked at a few different vans, test drove some, and talked about it a lot. Brandon knew which one was my top choice and today he did the coolest thing ever and went and bought it for us!

He came home from work and we ate some food, did dishes, whatever. He was trying to get me in the garage to see the new car but of course I am dense and wasn't picking up on any of his hints. Finally he said he was going to go work out in the yard and asked if I wanted to come. We went out front and I was going to do a little weeding (I should have picked up on this because usually he tells me I'm not allowed to do anything out there because he doesn't want me to go into labor). So we go out there and I decided I needed some gloves so I went and opened the garage and as it slowly opens, I see that there is a different car parked in there and it totally took me a minute to realize why there would be a different car and what car it was. It was the van I wanted! I pretty much freaked out and couldn't stop hugging him and almost cried. I wanted to jump up on him but I have a rather large belly that didn't allow it.

(This is what I saw when I opened the garage.)

So anyway, yay, a HUGE item off our to do list, DONE! I am so happy. And yay, we don't have to share a car anymore. He sold our Camry about two and a half weeks ago and it really wasn't bad at all sharing a car for a bit but this will just be so nice and not that we want our twins to come yet, but we are ready for them now. Wahoo!

That really was the short version of the story by the way. Made for a VERY happy evening.

And speaking of the twins, I realized today I am just about as big as I was when I delivered Mckinley at 41 weeks and I still have 10 weeks (hopefully) to go. Yikes!!! This could get scary...

I need to get married

Last Saturday we decided to take a fun little trip and go have a picnic at the temple. We didn't even realize it was closed but it ended up being awesome because we could sit by the fountains in our shorts and flip flops and not feel stupid.

Right when we got there Mckinley started talking about getting married (she's seen our wedding video like a hundred times) and I said yeah, Mom and Dad got married here. And then she said "I need to get married." Yes you do Mckinley, but not for like another 20+ years. :) 

We went to Yogurt Land after for ice cream. It was a really fun night.

I could go on forever and ever about how amazing Brandon is. He gets up with Mckinley every single morning and makes breakfast. (I get it served to me in bed like once or twice a week. It's awesome.) He even made pancakes the other day when he couldn't find the recipe, he just tried to remember it.

The two of them making pancakes. 

One of the best things about making pancakes is getting to eat the leftover ones the next morning without having to make them again. Mckinley has some awesome bed head every morning (and after every nap) that I have been throwing up in the cutest ponytail ever.

Tell me this girl does not look SO grown up.

Have I written on here how obsessed she is with How to Train Your Dragon? It was playing at RC Willey the other day when we were there and she was HOOKED. 

27 weeks. Mckinley joined me for my belly shot this week. I am feeling pretty darn big these days but at the same time I find it incredible that there are two babies in there measuring 14 1/2 inches long and weighing in at 2 lbs 5 oz (boy) and 2 lbs 4 oz (girl) - according to yesterday's ultrasound. That sounds so big and I don't know how they fit in there! But big babies are what we want so if it means one huge stomach with lots of stretch marks, I'll take it. I feel (and see) them move all the time and I absolutely love it. Pregnancy is so incredible.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We woke up early and went down to the parade. We got our usual awesome seats in the shade and had a good time. Poor Mckinley has been sick this week with a cold but we still got some smiles out of her.

She was excited to see the panda. She doesn't know him from Kung Fu Panda, but she knows pandas from her baby einstein movies so it was still really cool to her.

 

She was way excited to see the princesses at the parade and she went up to Rapunzel and said "I like your purple dress." She loves dresses and loves to tell people she loves their dress. Especially my Grandma Bishop who is always in a dress. :)

 

Family shot. She looks so sick...poor thing.

For lunch we went over to my sister's house for a BBQ/gender reveal party. They made us wait forever and a half to start, then we had to eat first, and then they finally cut the cake. It was going to be either pink or blue inside.

They both wanted a boy and are SO excited!

Kristen trying to have a belly at 18 weeks and me with my massive twin belly at 26 weeks. I still can't believe we are lucky enough to be pregnant together.

Later that night we had a BBQ with Brandon's family and did some awesome fireworks outside their house. We had a great time. We didn't stay up to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks, we just went home and went to bed.

Mckinley had fun throwing and stepping on snaps but didn't want to hold a sparkler. Maybe next year... She did like the fireworks though and wasn't scared of them.



Check out this awesome sleeping position today during her nap. I don't check on her very much while she's sleeping but Brandon can't keep himself away. She napped really late today so she was still asleep when he got home and I'm glad he went in there to get such a sweet picture. I had no idea she moved around so much in her bed.