Updates from Oklahoma ~ Christmas Day

What is a Christmas without a little Star Wars battle?  Those are my nephews Isaac and Alex playing with their favorite new toy.  Christmas was so wonderful this year!  The whole Layton family was together in my parents house.  It was fun to have little kids there to bring the magic of Christmas back.  I had memories of when I was 8 and opening my "main" present - a little doll that talked and pooed and cried.  I loved her already.  And then my mom said, "Oops! Santa messed up, that's Stephanie's doll."

I didn't really understand how Santa could mess up but I handed the treasured gift over to Stephanie and apprehensively opened my REAL main present.  It was a shiny blue and red talking interactive computer-like toy that read facts about different things from information cards you put in the side.  Santa did know me...I liked this even more than the doll (dorky kid).

Being pregnant over Christmas was interesting.  I have more of an appetite than ever, but less room than ever as well.  So I ate in shifts, usually a little plate of something every few hours.  One night I woke up at 3:15am to my stomach violently growling.  All I could think was, "something else has to be going on, there is no way I am hungry."  But those babies are growing and I was indeed hungry so I wobbled downstairs and got a piece of toast, a banana, some crackers, and juice.  At 3:15 in the morning.

Here I am 7 months pregnant

Steph called me "Preggo" the whole trip.  My whole family was nice about doing things for me and helping me avoid the following activities:

1. bending

2. twisting (followed by bending)

3. sitting in a hard chair

4. refilling my drinks

5. bending (did I mention this?  cause I really can't do it anymore)

My sisters and me - Stephanie on the left and LeAnne on the right.

Here are just some of my mom's decorations.  Did I mention Martha Stewart gets most of her decorating tips from my mom?  Seriously this woman is talented.

Me and Pops helping with Christmas dinner.

Isaac (A.K.A. Alvin) setting up his new game "Trouble."

And this is my sweet little 11 month old nephew Nathan.  He is the happiest little chunkster around and when he gets really excited, his arms, legs, hands, and feet spin up and unwind while he scrunches up his face and laughs a sort of screechy old man laugh.  Now if that visual didn't make you smile then you need to reread and use your imagination.  It's adorable.

"And God Bless You And Send You a Happy New Year..."

Just chillin with "Teppy"

Guess he was still hungry after the bottle.

My brother Brandon manning the meat station

Alexander the Great (A.K.A. Simon)

Nathan and Papa - They have a special bond

Merry Christmas from Us

Slightly Updated Baby Photo - 3D is so cool...

I have been neglecting posting pictures of me lately because, well, I have crossed over.  Crossed over into the, "oh wow she must be due any day now" phase.  And I'm not.  Not by a long shot.  I am 6 1/2 months as of yesterday but with dos bebes in here, I look (and am measuring) about 8 1/2 months.

I don't blame strangers for their comments.  How are they supposed to know I have 2 humans inside of me?  But some people just say things that baffle me.

Here are some of the latest things people have said:
1. Are you happy you're having twins?  Seriously?  What am I supposed to say to this.  "Meh, it's alright."
2. You should quit sleeping at night because every morning you look like you've doubled in size.  No comment.
3. Wow those babies are really putting on the weight now because you're huge. The only problem with this one is I still have quite a few weeks to go...so if I am already "huge" what am I going to be in 10 weeks?  Scary.
4. Favorite of the week asked by one of my students: How sure are you that your husband is the dad?

It's all quite amusing actually and I enjoy coming home and telling Dave all about it at night.

But guess what?  Our babies are famous!  One of our ultrasound pictures was framed at the doctor's office.  It is a 3D image of them where they appear to be cuddling.  Pretty cute stuff.  I felt so proud of them already, like they just won their first little league game.

This was a month ago, so they are already much bigger than this now.

Dave and I registered at Target and it was really really (really) fun.  We registered there 5.5 years ago when we were engaged.  I think everyone should get to register somewhere every 5 years. It was hard for me to resist registering for a few cute clothing items, but we tried to scan things we need the most since the babe's room is still acting as our storage unit right now for all our boxes.

We leave for Oklahoma tomorrow and are so excited to spend some time with my family.  I will blog some updates from there (here's hoping that it's 60 degrees like it is in Austin right now).

Backyard Bliss

This is the time of year that I really love living in Texas.  June, July, and August (also maybe May and September) are not my favorite months here.  Simply put, they are just too hot for me.  I don't enjoy burning myself on the metal part of the seat belt, sweating my make up off AS I am putting it on, or going outside to water my plants at 10:00pm and it is still 100 degrees.

But October - April...love it here.  I love the sunny, windy days where a jacket is optional.  Now mind you, it does get down to 30 somethings here at night right now.  The other day I found myself running to my car because I was so cold and then I saw on a bank marquee that it was 52 degrees.  I guess I have acclimated.

My Backyard at Sunset:

Thanksgiving Morning it was 9 degrees!

Thanksgiving in Utah was a whirlwind of fun times, cold weather, family, food, movies, and games.  Just the way I like my holidays.
First stop the morning after we got there was Magleby's Fresh for the french toast:

          Dave and me with his 3 brothers (left to right: Jonathan, Bryan, and Layton) 

Jonathan enjoying his french toast and hot chocolate 

                            Dave's dad and mom - Matt and Pattie

The next day was Thanksgiving and we headed to Dave's grandma and grandpa's house for the meal of a lifetime.

We had a word search race...Bryan won but just so you know I was ahead most of the time.  I choked at the end on "Thankful."

Thanksgiving was delicious, thank you to all who prepared it and wouldn't let me help with the cooking or the clean up! 

Friday Pattie and I went shopping for fabric for baby quilts!  We picked out some adorable stuff and here I am intently trying to decide where to place different squares.  Very serious business.

By the way, see the "Congratulations David" sign in the background?  It's because he finished his thesis for his Masters program at the University of Colorado.  I will do another post on that later because it deserves its own!

Weekend Updates

This weekend was so much fun!  Friday night we went out to eat to celebrate Dave finishing his thesis from his master's program in Colorado.  It's nice to finally finally be done with school.  But that also means guess what's going to start coming in the mail?  Those student loan repayment bills.  Ew.  I hate those.
Saturday was amazing.  We spent the afternoon in Austin volunteering at the Celebration of Love event which is where you collect toys for families in need around the Austin area and military families.  They had all the toys separated by gender and age in this HUGE warehouse and we packaged them up for families.  It was something my school volunteered to do and the only students that showed up were a handful of my students, holla to my class since they are the best!! :)  I'm just a little proud of them.

After the event I headed over to Old Settlers Park to for a photo shoot which turned out great!  The Rencher family was adorable and their little boy Gavin smiled the entire time.  Angel child.  Photographer's dream.

Friday night, Dave surprised me with tickets to go see my favorite favorite (no for real like my favorite) band, The Weepies.  The concert was downtown Austin on 6th street and it was so much fun.  It was at a little place called Momos that only holds probably 200 people so we were super close.  I could not believe it when they walked right by me to get to the stage.  I could practically smell them. They sounded so great! Check out a few of the photos and a video clip below: