Home Owners!

We bought a house! We needed somewhere to bring these babies home to!

It’s so crazy that we own this house, and this is where the twins will remember growing up. They’ll have memories here like I do of my childhood homes. It blows my mind.

Here we are signing our lives away!

Here is a photo tour of our new house!

Our awesome, cute house is about 40 years old, and totally remodeled on the top floor. 

It is in Kaysville, Utah.

One of our dreams was to get a house on a cul-de-sac. I never thought that would actually come true!!! And the house is blue. 

The view from the front. Gorgeous mountains, on a cul-de-sac!! 

Our new home!

Nice big front yard.

It is a split entry, so when you walk in there are stairs up and stairs down. No closet which is a major bummer, but one day we will fix that!

View from the top of the stairs looking down

The living room - looking to the front of the house. The stairs are to the right, kitchen behind.

Beautiful kitchen!

Dining area to the right of the kitchen.

Kitchen doors to the deck.

View from the deck. I am so excited to have a deck!!! And the back yard is big and beautiful. Also, the power lines are buried instead of over the yard.

 Hallway goes to the guest half bath and the master bedroom.

Half bath.

Master bedroom. It's huge! We needed a master big enough for Trevor and I and the twins. They'll be in our room primarily for a while.

HUGE walk in closet!!! 

Master bathroom. The tub is a 6 foot soaker tub with shower heads coming from both sides. We love it!

Looking from the master bedroom into the main area

Stairs to the basement

Downstairs living room

Super blurry, not sure what happened. Laundy room! It is pretty good sized, and has lots of storage.

Off the laundry room is this amazing storage room! The walls you can't see are lined with shelves like this as well. Perfect for food storage.

 Smaller downstairs bedroom

Bigger downstairs bedroom

These stairs come from the laundry room outside.

Backyard

A downstairs deck shot. So excited to BBQ on the deck!

And there is our house! We love it. It is perfect for what we need now. 

I can't wait to paint and make it ours.

Love,

Brittney

First Kicks

I've been going nuts for the last month waiting for these guys to kick me! I know in a couple months I'll be on the other end of that emotion, begging them to stop kicking me and leave me alone.

But you hear women talking about feeling their babies kick your whole life – and darnit – I want to feel these babies move! It’s such a surreal experience, growing babies for 5 months and not feeling anything.

When I went to my 20 week ultrasound, the tech told me the reason I haven’t felt them is I have 2 very thick placentas and both are attached to the front of my uterus. So these babies have to get big and strong enough to kick through the placenta in order for me to feel them. LAME. I mean, awesome my placentas are thick, that is great, but I want to feel my kids!

I finally felt movement on Monday, May 19, at 20 weeks 2 days pregnant. I know where they each are – Loki’s head is about even with my belly button on the right side, and her little feet go down to my pelvis.

Thor’s head is under my ribs on my left side, and his feet go towards my belly button/Loki’s head. They do move around a lot, but these seem to be their home bases.

On my way to pick Trevor up from work on Monday, I felt Thor kick me. It was pretty strong too, stronger than I’d expect for my first kick.

Best feeling ever!!!

I haven’t really felt him since. In 2 weeks.

I feel Loki quite a bit now. She kicks quite a bit and I can feel her moving around. Her kicks still aren’t as strong as Thor’s first ones, but she kicks a lot.

It’s been really worrisome for me – to feel Loki but not Thor. I have been so worried if Thor is doing ok.

I went to the Doctor on Tuesday (May 27) and he said that my placenta gets extra thick in the Thor zone, which will mean it’ll take even longer till I can feel him.

Both babies looked great in the ultrasound. Moving around a ton. I told the doctor that Loki has historically moved a ton and Thor has been calmer. But during this ultrasound, Thor was moving as much as his sister.

He took their heart rates, and Loki’s was 160 and Thor’s was 130. Last time I went to the doctor, they had been the same rates and in synch. The doctor said this is completely normal for the rates to vary more as they age. And also, the rates will change with their activity level. As we were talking, Thor started to move more. So the doctor took Thor’s heart rate again, and it had gone to 150! He said this was an amazing sign for a healthy baby and heart. That it is lower resting, and increases with movement.

I felt Thor today for the first time in a couple of weeks, nothing much but I’m pretty sure it was him.

Feeling these guys move is seriously my favorite thing.

Love,

Brittney

Memorial Day Weekend and Trevor's 27th Birthday!

For Memorial Day weekend, Trev and I both took the Thursday and Friday before off. We haven’t had a vacation together since our Vegas trip. The twins followed us home from that trip, and life has been insane ever since.

It was amazing just to spent time with Trevor. Our lives are really busy, and I don’t get to see him enough.

We honestly didn’t even really do anything much. I’m struggling with mobility, and sickness, and fatigue – bad combination for life.

Friday night was Trevor’s 27^th birthday!!!! We went to see Godzilla – he’s been dying for it to come out for a long time. He’s watched every trailer for it at least 10 times I swear. He’d disagree with this and say I’m exaggerating, and I definitely am, but he has watched it a ton.

The best part for me was Loki loved the movie! During the movie is the most I’ve ever felt her in a time frame. She moved and kicked almost the whole time. She loves Godzilla, just like her daddy! (Or more likely it was the loudness of the movie, but we’ll go with she loves Godzilla).

After, we went and ate at Brick Oven. I’m getting to the point where I can barely fit in a booth. SUUUPER.

Here is the handsome birthday boy, full off pizza!!!

They sang to him and he got dessert pizza. We will do a cake later this week with his family.

For our birthday presents to each other this year, we bought a nice bed topper. With Trev’s bad back, and my pregnancy-everything-hurts we needed one.

I got him two small presents so he’d have something to open on his birthday.

A “REAL MEN MAKE TWINS” t-shirt and a stuffed burger maker! Trev loves grilling and making stuffed burgers.

The next day we went mini golfing, which was so fun! I have been having less ligament pain the last week, which has been a huge blessing. A week ago I would have hurt too much to even attempt mini golfing. I know this won’t last the rest of the pregnancy, but I am so incredibly grateful for this decrease in pain for the time being.

It was fun to see people’s expressions as they read Trev’s shirt and saw my huge belly.

Saturday we went to the pool and it was so nice to be outside in the sunshine. The rest of the week had been overcast and not as warm, so this was the only pool day we got.

Then we headed back Monday.

We had so much fun. Just having these full days with Trevor was so much fun.

Love,

Brittney

Getting Me Through

Life has been moving insanely fast lately. I feel like everything is unorganized and I can’t get my feet underneath me.

This is a quote from Elder Eyring from May’s General Conference that has been getting me through lately:

What a beautiful promise. We became unexpectedly pregnant, found out we’re having twins, and are buying a house, all in the space of 6 months. HOLY COW.

So much change. On top of that, we haven’t been married a year yet. Talk about the fast track.

This isn’t at all how we saw our future. We had discussed maybe starting to TRY for a baby in August. We were looking at becoming parents in a little less than 2 years. We were supposed to go home to Saudi for Christmas, so Trevor could see where I grew up. We were supposed to go on a safari with my family, my #1 big dream I’ve been begging for for years. We were working on some health goals and kicking major butt. We were saving for a house. I was job searching to get out of this horrible job I’m currently in.

And then I got pregnant. I got sick, tired and basically became an immobile invalid. Twins. We need somewhere to bring the twins home to…

Here we are 6 months later, and our plans and dreams have totally changed.

Things are moving so quickly, and not in the direction we expected 6 months ago.

So many decisions we’ve had to make, and still have to make. The financial burden of twins and a house is huge, but we really were left with little choice.

Times like this my belief in God is all that gets me through. I have no idea how all this is going to work out, but I know it will. We are being smart and saving and preparing for these changes as best we can.

We know that the Lord wants us to have these babies – there is just no other explanation for their conception in the first place.

And so we go on, knowing that everything will work, that He has a plan and will provide.

Love,

Brittney

Late Night Snacking

I have to take the chewable prenatals. The regular kind make me throw up. I can't keep them down.

I ran out of prenatals, so we went to the store to get more.

I saw a brand I hadn't tried before, so I decided to switch things up.

When we got home, I took them. They are so yummy. They taste like fruit snacks (I feel like I'm getting more sugar than vitamins with these chewy kind, but any pills I've taken make me sick and I throw up. So I guess this is better than nothing).

Trevor tried them and agreed - they were better than my other kind.

I go to bed earlier than Trevor can stand, so he tucks me into bed and then he has lots of man time. He'll come to bed hours after I've fallen asleep.

So one night, a couple days after buying the new prenatals, he comes to bed late and I wake up. His breath smells fruity and awesome. I ask him what he's been eating? And he says nothing. I may be pregnant and groggy, but I'm still not that dumb. I ask again, "what have you been eating?"

Finally he says it, "I had some of your prenatals."

I about died. "You wanted a treat that bad you ate my prenatals??" He insisted he wanted to keep up on his vitamins, it was about the health benefits.

YEAH RIGHT. You don't take your wife's chewy prenatals at midnight unless you are desperate for some sugar and have nothing on hand.

Love,
Brittney

Girls Weekend

Since I couldn’t go on my Costa Rica trip because of these crazy twins, my amazing friend Sachi arranged for a girls weekend for us in Park City. She is seriously such an amazing friend. I was really stressed about going, since It’s hard to really understand how sick and immobile I am unless you live with me and see it (poor Trevor).

Before she was to pick me up on Friday, I had a breakdown (umm… more like my hormones completely took over and I went a little crazy…). Trevor came home from football and asked me if I was packed, which I wasn’t. I immediately started crying and blubbering on about how he’s my best friend and I love him so much and I can’t leave him and the twins love him so much and …. I seriously lost it. He’s just holding me and I’m sobbing about how much I love him. It’s hilarious looking back, but at the moment I was having quite the meltdown. I told my brother the story, and his response was, “wow, must be a huge ego boost to have your wife say all that”. Hopefully that boosted Trev’s ego, and didn’t make him question my mental health.

I stopped crying, packed and Sachi came to get me. She took me to my favorite place, My Thai. And she had an awesome surprise – Brittney Henderson was coming with us! It was so great to spend some girl time with her as well. We rarely hang out – usually when I see her I’m babysitting or we’re also with Randy.

We went to this gorgeous hotel in Park City, went to the adults only pool/spa, and then watched a movie. It was so nice and relaxing. I fell asleep pretty late, much later than I’m used to. I woke up feeling sick the next morning – which is pretty standard for me until I get breakfast.

At home, Trev is amazing and he gets up every morning and makes me breakfast. Then he wakes me up and pulls me out of bed (so I don’t have to whale-crawl out).

I’d brought snacks for the day, since I knew I’d need them. I ate my protein bar and had water and Gatorade. I still felt sick. I ate some amazing Kneaders bread Brittney had brought – I still felt sick. I ate a granola bar I’d brought – still felt sick.

I started to feel so sick I ate some of the leftover Thai food. I still felt sick.

Sachi woke up and we had to hurry to get our pedicures to make our time. The place was in a little mall and really nice. The ladies who gave us our pedicures were especially nice.

They even added some pink to my toes to represent Thor and Loki.

I’d still been feeling sick, and it was continually growing.

All of a sudden, the twins attacked at full force and I puked without warning. I didn’t have a chance to move. I threw up all over my shirt, my purse, my hair (yeah for having my hair down instead of a pony tail which I almost always sport these days) and this nice Park City pedicure place. I threw up between my legs, so most of it landed in the pedicure foot bath, which made for easier cleaning but was just as humiliating.

New most embarrassing moment.

They didn't have a bathroom in the pedicure place, so I had to walk through the mall to get to the bathroom – covered in puke and holding a rag to my hair to keep the hair puke from dripping. It was horrible.

We went to a place to get some breakfast/lunch after, and I was still not feeling well. Trevor met us there, and we went back to the hotel. Brittney left to go home, and Sachi had to go to work for a couple of hours.

At the hotel I started throwing up again, so Trevor took me home.

That was our girls’ weekend.

I felt so horrible that Sachi and planned this nice weekend and done so much for me, and spent the whole time sick and had to leave early.

This 100% confirms that it is a really good thing I didn’t go to Costa Rica. I would have been sick and throwing up the entire time. I didn’t go mostly because of mobility issues – I can barely walk these days. I didn’t know that the twins had gotten so used to dad’s breakfast every morning they’d freak out and make me sick if they didn’t get it.

I really think a big part was that they could sense my distress at leaving Trevor, and then I didn’t get enough sleep, didn’t get my normal breakfast, and they could sense we were in a different place and dad wasn’t there and they just got upset and made me sick until Trevor came and took me home.

And there you have it. My new most embarrassing moment.

It was so fun until I got sick. I'm so grateful for such great friends!!! Sachi setting it up, and Brittney coming. It was so fun to spend time with these amazing friends.

Love,

Brittney

Thor and Loki - 20 Week Anatomy Scan

We went in today for Thor and Loki's 20 week anatomy scan.

They go through their little bodies and measure and make sure everything looks good. It's very thorough and took about half an hour for each baby with the ultrasound tech. Then a resident came in and for 15 minutes seemed to awkwardly redo what the tech had already done. Then the doctor came in and went over some parts of their anatomy the tech couldn’t get (couldn’t get Loki’s spine or a part of her heart. Couldn’t get part of Thor’s heart). So it was a good 2 hours for the ultrasound.

We've definitely got a boy and a girl. Neither is shy about their goods, and Thor is definitely well endowed. For a 10 inch baby at least. Trevor was very proud.

Here is our little man strutting his stuff:

This is the only girl shot of Loki, and I love how you can see Thor's spine next to her. It's so hard to get good shots of them together.

It was amazing to see their hearts beating zoomed in. You could see the aorta and the four chambers, all of it. Same with all the intricate parts of the stomach, lungs, spine, brain… I don’t know how people have a baby or see an ultrasound and doubt God. It truly is an amazing experience.

They look very healthy and good. All their body parts checked out and looked healthy.

The placenta is thick and they each have lots of fluid in their sacs. Apparently sometimes there isn't much fluid and that is bad. Also, the sac separating them is nice and thick and that is really good as well.

Thor continues to be pretty mellow, while Loki is all over the place. It was hilarious while they were trying to measure Thor's head, you kept seeing Loki's hand go in and out of the frame like she was punching him in the head (which she probably was). She also kicked him multiple times. He just sat there and took it. Poor kid is going to come out bruised. 

Here Thor is giving us a big thumbs up to let us know he's doing ok, despite his sisters' beatings:

Loki is also measuring bigger than Thor by 3 ounces. Her estimated due date (based off size) is Sept 24, while Thor's is Oct 4.

They are both measuring large for their age, which is very unusual for twins. That is very good news for them, but pretty bad news for me. 

Here's a good shot of Loki's hand/arm. You can see the bone. So cool! 

Loki's cute little feet! You can see the thick sac separating them, and then there is something of Thor on the other side. Does it make me a bad mom that I look at some of these ultrasounds and have no idea what I'm looking at?

Here is Thor sucking his thumb. Not the best picture, but I've been hoping for a thumb sucking picture of one of them! Thanks for cooperating, Thor!

And finally, a profile shot of Thor:

I haven't felt much, and no kicks yet. I've been pretty morose about it, but the reason is my placenta is super thick (which is good) and is attached to the front of my stomach, so these little guys have to kick hard enough to feel through the placenta, which will take a bit longer.

I did feel something the other day by my rib cage on my left side. I didn't consider the possibility that it could have been one of the babies, because it was so high. When I went in to see my new doctor a couple of weeks ago, he said Loki was still in my pelvis and Thor a little higher.

In those couple of weeks, the babies have risen significantly higher, and that feeling was most likely Thor kicking me. 

It was so cool to watch them during the ultrasound. Loki was moving significantly more than Thor, but they both shifted positions a lot. Loki started out below Thor, upside down.

At one point they were laying parallel. 

Then Thor was clear up by my left rib cage and Loki was down on my right side.

So Loki generally is lower than Thor and on my right side. Thor is higher and is more centered, but shifts to the left.

It's amazing to me I still can't really feel them, but they are so sprawled out inside of me.

It was so fun to see them today. I miss them so much and can't wait to see their beautiful little faces.

It'll be fun to see if their personalities are what they seem to be now - Thor calm and easy going, with Loki restless and always moving! The little diva also wouldn't let the tech see her organs/measure. She put up an enormous fight, while Thor just let the tech do her thing (most of the time...).

We are so grateful for these little babies and love them so much already!

Love,

Brittney