Pregnancy Update - 12 weeks

I officially made it to 12 weeks!  Since the loss of B I've had several appointments to ease my mind and check up on the growth of the baby and to watch what is going on with baby B's sac.  So far the baby looks wonderful, and baby B's sac is still there and hasn't shrunk, however it isn't a concern to the growing baby.  We've had lots of ultrasounds and I think the coolest part of that was going in and seeing arm and leg buds and then going back 2 days later and seeing entire arms and legs.  Our bodies are amazing!

This little one is growing perfectly with a perfect heartrate.  I am feeling a little less tired and still bothered by most smells and don't like thinking about what to eat or feed the family for dinner.  After my last appointment this week I was officially declared by my fantastic doctor, Dr. Branning, to be just a boring pregnant lady....exactly what I want to be.

Brody's School Music Program

Thursday April 19th the kindergartners at Monaco Elementary performed their music program for the year called "A Farmers Life"  All the kids dressed up as farmers, or animals and sang songs all about life on the farm.  Our favortie was the song about worms and then they all wiggled like worms.  It was priceless -- so funny!  Brody was asked to be a square dancer and enjoyed his part very much.  All the kindergartners did such a great job!

 Brody with his friend Jacelyn

Easter Weekend

We started our Easter weekend by dying our own Easter Eggs on Friday night.  With Brody's love of the Solar System, there was nothing else to do except dye each egg as a planet and then of course, we needed a sun!  Brody loved it and tried to make each planet the correct color.

Easter morning the kids found their Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had so cleverly hidden.  They ate candy and opened their present (the traditional swimsuit) from Great Grandma Honey and Gramps.  We spent the rest of the morning watching The Smurfs while Daddy had to go to darn church meetings.

After church we came home and the kids got all ready for an Easter Egg hunt.  It rained all that day, so the egg hunt was inside.  Ella's hair shows the humidity of that day - she has quite the do going on!  Love the curls, just got to figure out how to tame them sometimes!

After the kids found all the Easter Eggs we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Burton and Grandma and Grandpa Mullin.  It was a beautiful Easter Sunday spent with our family and remembering the resurrection of our Savior.

Brody's Kindergarten Easter Party

As part of his class Easter Party, the kinder kids all participated in an Easter Egg hunt.  To help reinforce the kids with their spelling, each egg carton had "Happy Easter" spelled out inside it, one letter for each space and one blank.  The kids had to pick up the correct eggs to fill in all the letters.  It made the Easter Egg hunt last a little longer, and the kids all worked together to help each other find the letters that they needed.  After the egg hunt they headed back inside to fill up on all sorts of Easter goodies!

The Loss of Twin B

On Monday April 2nd we went into the doctor for another ultrasound, hoping to get a better view of the babies and to hopefully see good growth.  We were so disappointed and sad to learn that our Baby B had not made it.  Our hearts were hurting, but we felt strongly that this was Heavenly Father's will.  We were told that if the Baby had made it it would have been very sick.  Hearing this news right after General Conference helped to have us keep an eternal perspective.  Although we don't know if that sweet baby will be apart of our eternal family, we do have hope in Heavenly Father's plan and that's all we can do.

We haven't ever experienced a loss like this before and it really really sucked.  Explaining it to Brody and Ella really wasn't fun either.  I think it has taught our family a lot, and we definitiely recognize how blessed we are.  We are so thankful for all the prayers and love from our family and friends.  After crying many many tears, we are now anxiously looking forward to the birth of one sweet and healthy new baby this November.

First Ultrasound - ITS TWINS!

After waiting for what felt like forever, we finally had our first ultrasound.  I was so worried we'd be disappointed because I didn't feel sick enough!  We were thrilled when immediately we could see a baby and a sac, I was even able to discern the heart flicker on the screen.  The ultrasound tech moved a little to the left and there we saw a second sac and a second baby, with a second heartbeat.  It was a feeling of excitement and relief all over again.  Completely surreal.

We knew that the treatment plan we decided on had a 33% chance of multiple births, but after all we had been through we were willing to risk it.  AND, because I was a poor responder from the medication with only one fully mature and one slightly less than mature follicle we didn't think the chances were likely and we knew at most it would be twins.  And, it was! 

Brody's Field Trip

On Thursday February 23rd all the kindergarteners at Brody's school went to the Dallas Children's Museum for their class fieldtrip.  He was most excited about being able to ride the school bus all the way down there!

They started out by seeing an IMAX movie all about bugs!  It was sort of gross, and made me a little sick to my stomach as they moved the camera to make the IMAX experience...I was glad when it was over!

 Brody and Gini Lu all ready for the movie

Brody all dressed up in a haz mat suit

 There was a sand/rock pit and the kids were able to dig...the room was really dusty.  Brody was digging with his good pal Leo

 Brody and Tori, a friend from school and from church.  They love playing together.

They had an archway to learn what a keystone was.  Jacelyn, Brody, Chase and Quinn

 Brody and Chase, these two were my buddies that day.

 Chase, Brody and Quinn at the lake where we had lunch.

It was a fun trip for all, the kids drove down in the bus and I drove down with three other friends of my own, all us mommies wanted to be with our kidos on their first field trip!

We Are Pregnant!

This became my home away from home for the months of January and February!  After over a year with no luck on becoming pregnant on our own or with the use of clomid we were referred to Dr. Ku for further testing.  Well...come to find out my ovaries have a difficult time producing a mature egg.  So we decided on a treatment plan which included giving myself shots everyday of a gonadotropin fertility drug, Gonal-F.  I'd go in every other day for bloodwork and ultrasounds to watch the follicles mature.  Theoretically they were hoping I'd have 3-5 mature follicles.  With each of the ultrasounds we'd watch and see the follicles grow, and then some would grow and others would no longer grow.  I started out with eight and by the last ultrasound I had one that was ideal and one that was just smaller then what they consider mature.  With my one follicle being ideal, the doctor said it was go time.  I gave myself a shot of Ovidril to induce ovulation, and then the next morning Brandon and I went back to the office to under go Intra Uterine Insemination.  Brandon's "sample" was washed so that only the best swimmers were placed directly back into my uterus.  Once the procedure was done, we just had to wait!  I was super disappointed that we only had like one and a half follicles and that we wouldn't have been successful.  There is a lot of emotion that goes into the process and I didn't want to have to go through it again.

On February 21st at 1:50am I woke up (not realizing what time it was) and did a test at home.  It came up positive almost instantly!  I was SO EXCITED, relieved, my mind was going a mile a minute!  I knew that if I woke Brandon up to tell him he'd be excited and then he'd roll over and go back to sleep...so I decided I'd make him wait.  I left the test on his sink so he'd see it in the morning.  I tried to go back to sleep, but for some reason I just couldn't!  I finally fell back asleep after 4:30 or so, and then was woken up by a very excited husband just after six!  We had been waiting for so long that the news that we were successful was such a blessing!  We told the kids and our parents that day, because they were all expecting the news the next day, so we were able to surprise them a day early!

On February 22nd I was scheduled for my "official" blood test, and found out that day again that I was pregnant!  I was just as happy to hear it a second time!  I had another blood test two days later to check the levels and see that they were rising properly, they did indeed and I was then scheduled for an ultrasound three weeks later so we could see what was going on.

Ella's Field Trip

Our preschool group spent a fun filled morning at "Going Bonkers"  it is the biggest indoor playplace in Texas -- which surprisingly was big, but not as big as I expected!  The kids had a blast playing and riding on some of the toys! 

The Start of Brody's New Room

Along with the trampoline project, we had to get started on the little man's big boy room.  We decided to move him into what was the guest room so he stayed in his old room until his new room was ready.  We painted two walls blue - those are the space walls.  He wanted black, but I wouldn't go for that.  We did the other two walls with a silhouette of Dallas.

I also painted a dresser and nightstand to go with his new look.  Dad is still working on getting a desk refinished for him.  I love the way it turned out - it took forever!  I'd add more pictures, but I have to wait until it is cleaned up a little more!

Brody's 6th Birthday & The Kids Birthday Party

Brody's birthday happened to fall on Monday this year - also on the Martin Luther King Day holiday, just like his actual birth day.  We arranged to have a double birthday party at Gattitown for Brody and Ella on Brody's birthday.  Brody was willing to share his birthday with his sister for the party time only, the rest of the day was his!

 Getting ready to go to the party...sporting their birthday shirts.  I used my new silhouette I got for Christmas to make the kids party shirts...they were my first ones and I liked the way they turned out.

Poor Brody...he came down with Pink Eye on Saturday and we promptly got him on the antibiotic drops and we were okay'd to have the party as scheduled!  Pink Eye was going around his classroom for almost 2 months...fortunately Brody only got it once, and no one else in the family got it either!

 The birthday boy was very happy with the set up of the party room!

 Ella was too...I was too...having a party somewhere else was wonderful!  The day turned out great!

 We had cupcakes for everyone after they had pizza and salads

 I also used my Christmas present to make these super cute treat boxes to hand out to our party guests

 The birthday kids enjoying their cupcakes...you can see the pizza they enjoyed still on their faces!

 Next came the presents, the boys all surrounded Brody and were all willing to help and wanted to see what fun things he got.

 The girls were all thrilled to watch as Ella was gifted with all girly things!

 Grandma and Grandpa Mullin gave Brody a full sized globe that he really wanted...he got a 5 inch one for Christmas, but it was his obsession.  His new globe gets lots of use and is pulled all over the house!

 Two very happy birthday kids!  All the party guests were then allowed in the game area and played and played and played!

After the party we headed home and celebrated Brody some more!  He played with his new toys and we spent the afternoon at home together.

 He requested macaroni and cheese for dinner, but he specified he wanted no vegetable.  It was his birthday, so I obliged, but typically there is something green with the mac n cheese :)

 He had a whole stack of more presents to open and was very happy with all his new toys!

 Daddy and Ella watching

 We got Brody a solar system for his room that hangs from his ceiling.  He really wants a new city and space room

To end the night, we had some ice cream and sang Brody happy birthday.  We had a great day celebrating how special Brody is to us.  By the end we were SO tired!

At 6 years old Brody has many interests.  He is so into cities, the United States, Space and the solar system.  He loves to write books about all these topics and teaches us all what he is learning.  He likes to be outside when the temperature is just right...not too cold, not too hot!  He is a caring big brother and plays with Ella whenever he can.  His favorite TV Show is Cyberchase, but he doesn't ask to watch much.  He loves school and says he has no friends, just best friends.  We love Brody and he keeps us on our toes!  Happy Birthday Buddy!