Nursery Progress

Well we've made a lot of progress on the twins nursery!  Excuse the fuzzy pictures, they're all taken on my phone but at least its a preview.  We are keeping Tori in the same room since it is the smaller room and the twins will be sharing.  Their room is a good sized kids room with a walk-in closet for all their clothes.  The room was originally purple.  We painted the whole room orange then added a fuscha stripe.  I used a paint pen to make the circles (matches one of the prints in the bedding). 

 We've only bought one crib so far but we got it put together and decided how we will arrange the furniture.  Here's one crib with the bedding in the room.  Its starting to look like a nursery, but we still have a long way to go.

 Ok, so this is a super blurry picture but it is such a cute story.  Tori likes to have all of her stuffies at the foot of her bed but the other night she threw them all on the floor to play with them.  We left them when we turned out the lights and put her down to sleep.  She didn't fuss about the animals at all and just said her normal good nights and I love you's.  After we left she must have climbed out of bed and put them all back on the bed and arranged them all around her.  We went in the check on her before we went to bed ourselves and this is what we found. :)

St Louis Hot Air Balloon Race

We went to St Louis last weekend for the Great Forest Park Balloon Race in St Louis.  We've gone every year since before Tori was born and it never disappoints.  We drove the van down Friday night to go to what they call "The Glow" where they let you walk onto central field to see the balloons up close and watch them use the furnaces to make the balloons light up. 

 Tori was a little scared of the furnaces so we had to keep a distance from them but she had so much fun pretending that the balloons were going to fall on her.  She kept holding up her arm to block the balloons and yelling "watch out!" 

 The STL zoo balloon was Tori's favorite.  She loves "Emmetts" (elephants) and kept trying to tickle the balloon from far away.  I even showed her this picture and she tried to tickle the computer :)

 After the glow they cleared the field and had a firework display!  We haven't been to the glow for a few years so this was a new addition for us.

 Then we spent Saturday morning at the zoo since its right by central field where the race is held and we got great parking since we were there so early (we had to walk 1.4 miles each way the night before!).

 The hippos were posing for Tori and she was loving it!!  There were other little kids around and she kept asking them "You see it!?!?!" 

 And then we finally saw the elephants!  She's been talking about seeing them for days....  She also got the see the lions (pumas, tigers, leopards and other big cats too which she called all of them lions) which she proceeded to "Rawwwwrrr" at as loudly as possible!  One the the leopards was sleeping on a rock fairly close to where we were able to stand and it actually woke up and looked at her like she was crazy. 

 Then off to the balloon race.  There were supposed to be 90 balloons this year, but I think many of them didn't show since there was rain in the forecast.  Remember last year when it was scorching hot?  Well this year we wore jackets and hats!  It was actually a little chilly!  It was fairly windy also so the huge Energizer Bunny and a few of the oddly shaped balloons couldn't make it off the ground.  There were still many that did tho, and Tori had a great time cheering them on.

 One of Tori's favorite snacks right now is popcorn so she was very excited to see the giant popcorn bag.  We just had to bust out our own supply for some fun pictures :)

It was still a fun day and we had such a great parking spot that traffic wasn't even an issue (I think it took us an hour just to get out of the park last year).  We finished off our trip with a run to West County Mall for some chick'fil'a and a shopping spree at Motherhood.  We're not sure if we're going to attempt the trip next year with all three kids but we will definitely continue the tradition as the kids get older!

Its a ......... and a .............!!!!

Well we weren't expecting to find out the genders of the babies this early but they did a sonogram at my 16 week appointment to check on them twinkies and the sonogram tech did a gender determination too!  Brian didn't come to the appointment since we weren't expecting a scan so she had me hide my eyes while she labeled the pictures and put the in a sealed envelope so I could take it to Brian at lunch and we could find out together. 

Baby A is now on my lower left side, head down (such a good baby!) and in great position!  Definitely a girl!!

Baby B is on the right side of my tummy higher up and head up but the tech got a great view of her tush and definitely another girl!!!

Well we were definitely not expecting to have three little princesses but we couldn't be happier or more excited!  Time to go shopping for more pink!!!

So Pretty!!

Tori got several dress up sets for her birthday and she LOVES them!  Its so cute, she loves the dresses, jewlery, and shoes especially.  She loves to get all dolled up and let me take pictures.  She runs all over saying "Tori so pretty!!"  She's going to be trouble some day but for now its so cute!!  My favorite part is watching her try to walk around in little high heels!!   

Hello Second Trimester!!!

Thank goodness the second trimester is here!!  Phew that was a ruff couple of months!  I am sooo lucky that I have never had a bout of morning sickness with Tori or with the twinkies but oh my gosh the fatigue and food aversions sure got to me!  I am now 14 weeks and feeling much better.  I still get tired easily but I have the energy to make dinner and do a little cleaning even after work.  The babies are getting large enough now to cause a few 3rd trimester problems like sciatica and back pain but most days they don't bother me too much.  I can now feel lots of movement!  This is my favorite part of being pregnant!!!  I feel pretty good and I get to enjoy feeling my babies kick, stretch, and roll.  It is rather strange feeling kicks on both sides of my belly at the same time but I love it!  They've even managed to get a few good kicks in already!  Another exciting thing is that we've made our gender determination appointment!  We find out the sexes of the babies September 16th if they cooperate. Just over 3 weeks to wait!  :)  We're so excited to start working on their room and start shopping for those oh so cute newborn clothes!!

I found a good picture to give you an idea of their size, and the picture is even of fraternal twins.  Its hard to believe they're this big already!

Tinkle Tinkle Lil Staaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

Haha, I love this video so much!!!  We've been working on changing Tori's room to a "big girl room" complete with a full bed.  We both love being able to lay down with her and read some books as a family before bed time.  She loves it too!  Tori decided one particular night that she wasn't tired so she was going to put daddy to bed by reading him "Twinkle Twinkle."  Haha, I think you'll enjoy the interprative dancing and singing as much as we did!!  I'm not sure how "sleepy" daddy was after this but he sure was smiling!!!

Tori's Second Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from our munchkin's Elmo second birthday bash!!!

Tori's birthday present from mommy and daddy was a small inflatable bounce house!!   

Elmo smash cake :)

 We decided to do another pull-string pinata this year since Tori was really too small last year to enjoy it.  She loved it and after the party wanted to pull the rest of the strings :)

She had such a fun day!!  Thank you to everyone who helped make her day so special!!!