The twins room and the BIG NAME REVEAL!

For those of you keeping track at home - I am nearly 34 weeks pregnant with these twins and there was A LOT left to be done before they arrive.  As of 33 weeks the "twins room" was storage for a queen sized bed, a crib, a lot of out of season clothes and dust.  But thanks to a LOT of very talented and generous people I am happy to report that they officially have a nursery!

Mom and Dad arrived late Tuesday night (early Wednesday morning, 12:35 AM) and let me tell you they were ready to work!  After they slept, of course.  And it has to be said that of course they came to spend some much overdue time with Natalie as well.  We had a great time, although the days went by MUCH too quickly.

Now to the pictures of their labors...

BEFORE:

Hard to see here but it was dark and full of "stuff"

The closet, pre-makeover

The bed and curtains and stuff everywhere

AFTER:

The tree on the wall will likely be replaced but you get the idea

The closet - After! :)

My Aunt Delores' handiwork. 
She is SERIOUSLY talented!

The beautiful curtains that Aunt Crystal and Mom made!
And the dresser in the middle was one that Leslie refinished before Garrett was born.

 And of course - the moment many of you have waited for....

The "Baby Chair" which was purchased BEFORE Leslie was born,
and the twins names, up on the wall!

Jon Jr. and Rylie will arrive on August 29th if the don't decide to come early.

It was a busy few days but I am thrilled with the final result!  What you can't see from these pictures is all the organization that went into the room as well. Jon and I have so many other people to thank for hand-me-down clothes for the babies that were washed, and packed according to size/season and labeled by Mom so that there will be one less thing to do when they arrive.

Jon and I finally feel that we might be ready for these babies - or as ready as you can get - thanks to all the hard work and generosity of all our friends and especially our family.

Now we will just be counting down the weeks and enjoying every possible minute with this sweet face until the day she becomes a *very* big sister!

What a sweet face!!!

Natalie Prays

I don't have any pictures to share but just a cute little story about my sweet girl - and how she is growing up WAY TOO FAST!

 

Jon is out of town until Wednesday evening so Natalie and I are taking slow, short walks around the neighborhood and generally trying to stay out of the heat (Heat Index of 109 today!!!).  Last night before bed we did our normal reading two books, singing songs - and Natalie now sings with me - she knows all the words to "You Are My Sunshine" and "Jesus Loves Me".  Its a regular sing-a-long at bedtime.  But last night she wanted to say prayers in the chair.  So I said the prayer that I normally pray, with a few additions here and there, then she climbed into bed.  Once I covered her up she asked to say prayers again.  I agreed and started to pray when she said "I want to pray".  :)

 

She started out by saying "Dear God, Thank you for..." and she went through the list of family members.  She started with Daddy (we always do) and then it was Pops and Papaw and then Roscoe and on down the line.  It made my heart so happy to hear her list of blessings in her own words.

 

I'm absolutey cherishing every last minute I have with this sweet girl as an only child and at the same time looking forward to all the special moments when there are three precious little people in this house!

A little bit of everything...

It was quiet around my house over the long 4th of July weekend.  Too quiet.  Jon and Natalie flew to NC to see Nana and Pops.  Since I'm well into the third trimester with the twins the doctors recommended I stick close to home and rest.  I know they had a great time playing, but I sure missed my people! :)

So, since I don't have fun pictures of our Red+White+Blue fun over the 4th, here is a mish-mash of updates from the past week or two:

The big girl bed

Natalie loves the big girl bed.  In standard Natalie form she adapted to the big girl bed without a single issue.  She jumps right in after stories, songs and prayers and goes right to sleep.  Such a big girl now!

My sweet girl and her sweet puppy

On Friday before the holiday week Roscoe got sick.  VERY VERY sick.  We thought it might honestly be the day we have to put him down.  He couldn't walk and was completely "gone" mentally.  But by some miracle we saw a great vet on Saturday who suggested a couple of inexpensive meds to try and he is MUCH better.  So here we are enjoying the sunshine and helping Roscoe take it easy.  We hope to have at least a few more years to enjoy our sweet puppy!

My incredible little girl

Not that you can tell from the picture above but on Sunday Natalie got sick.  VERY sick.  She had a fever that topped out at 104.2.  However - she didn't let it slow her down.  She carried on throughout the day with minimal complaint.  But with a fever that high we were at the doctor's office at 7:30 the next morning.  Everything they could visually check looked good (eyes, ears, throat, nose) so they were left with only invasive tests to try and figure out the issue.  So poor Natalie had to have blood drawn and a catheter to test for bacterial infections.  The miracle part of all of this is she didn't cry, ONCE.  I think she was so interested in the process that she wasn't too bothered with the discomfort.  The doctor came in and remarked (several times) that Natalie was just incredible.  Natalie just looked up and without hesitation told the doctor "I'm a tough girl". 

Yes, yes you are!

Here is a picture from Nana, post nap, and you can see a little in her eyes the last of the virus taking its toll.  But she was fine by Thursday with no fever and back to her wonderful happy self!

Happy girl at Nana and Pops' House

The other thing to note about this picture is that she is riding a tricycle.  Nana and Pops picked one up just for Natalie to enjoy while they were there to visit over the 4th and I think MANY of her waking hours were spent in that seat.  She loved it!  

Brittany and the twins. 
31 weeks

You won't see many pictures of just me on here - I have cuter subjects to photograph (see evidence above) but this picture is just too funny to me.  I'm doing well and the twins are growing along great. I just look like a bit of a circus act with this huge belly!  Hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures of the twins room.  Mom and Dad are coming up next week and bringing curtains, furniture and other decor items for the twins room.  None too soon since we have a date scheduled for the C-Section of August 29th!

 

Baby COWS!

I know we are a bit all over the place recently on the blog but I left out one very important day of our vacation.  The day we went to the Amish Dairy farm!  This will be picture heavy, but that's the best part!

Hello there!!!

Our first encounter was with a lovely volunteer at the farm that was responsible for feeding the baby cows - those younger than 3 months.  She was so kind to talk with us and from the looks of the picture below, she and Natalie shared a lovely chat as well.

 

You been farming long? ;)

She was a little suspicious but happily posed with the calf for us

 After we had spent a good bit of time petting and talking to the baby cows we went inside the barn to meet some of the older cows - those 3 - 6 months old.  But that didn't interest Natalie much - she was MUCH more interested in the kittens napping and playing on the feed bags.  She was in LOVE!

She wanted to hold each one individually

The 3-6 month cows eating their lunch

This picture says it all! 
I just love her expression!

The twins and I petting the younger cows. 
If you were standing close enough they'd nibble your skirt to get your attention.

Then we moved on to the bigger cows - those old enough to milk.  They were BIG and Natalie was even less sure of them, but she was curious enough to stand and watch/talk to them.

They really were beautiful animals

Having a little talk with the big cows.

She was brave enough by the end to pet them if I was close by

The farm also had a pair of peacocks and several English Bulldogs

This was a hilarious encounter.  The cow explained
loudly that she didn't want to share her lunch....

The final stop on our self guided tour of the farm was to join the cows in the milking parlor while they were being milked.   This was the only real interaction you had with the family that ran the farm and they asked kindly that no pictures be taken of them, only the cows.

The milking parlor: Very clean and efficient

Cows being milked

 And just before leaving (and getting our ice cream to go) we had to check on the corn.  Its a little short just yet but it looked good from Natalie's view!

She loved everything about the farm

It was a great day!