CT thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is Jared's favorite holiday. And while Fourth of July and Christmas still top my list, I do really love that this day is all about family, friends, food, and gratitude. This year we had a short, but great Thanksgiving weekend in Connecticut with some of our favorite friends from UCLA--the Shamos, Martins and Thomases.

Getting there was absolutely insane, I can't not write about it. Jared had to work a full day in the clinic on Wednesday, and there are 2 little ones that would have made a late night trip (how do I put this nicely?)... difficult. So we planned to take the 7:07 AM train to New Haven on Thanksgiving morning. Once you're on it, it's a really pleasant under 2-hour>

I bet right now you are thinking we must have slept in and had a domino effect of drama as a result. If so, I am sorry to say you are wrong but that you must know me very well, so points for that. Here's what really happened (if this feels like the end of Clue, well then that's awesome)...

Somehow we woke up early enough that we realized, if we hurry, we could get on the subway (A train) leaving at 4:18 a.m., transfer to the 7 train at 42nd Street, make the 5:35 train at Grand Central, and get to CT almost 2 hours earlier than planned. If we missed, we would have to wait an hour and a half for the next train at Grand Central. So it was kind of a gamble, but we went for it. We threw those last items in our bags, yanked the kids out of their cribs, made an unexpected diaper and PJ change for a very wet little boy, tossed those babies lovingly into the stroller, and glanced at the clock on our way out the door. It was 4:09. That meant we had only 9 minutes to take our elevator down 19 floors, RUN (literally) a third of a mile (probably), and take 2 more elevators down to the subway platform. Our train pulled up as we went down in that last elevator, and Jared and I panted and laughed and stared at each other in disbelief and then fist bumped as it took us away. It reminded us that we used to do that kind of crazy, by-the-seat-of-our-jeans stuff all the time when we were young and fun, at least 11 months ago.

Sleeping babies, sleepy mama

Finally at New Haven Union Station. They were just putting up their tree.

Our Thanksgiving meal was perfect. Jared made the turkey and gravy; Jen did mashed potatoes, fruit dip and pumpkin cake; I made my Aunt Carol's famous rolls and apple pie; Jaime made two more delicious pies; and Janae made sweet potatoes, green salad, cranberry salad, green bean casserole, several pies, and was an amazing hostess, and made it all look easy and beautiful, aaaand was heard saying "I feel like there's more I should be doing." Rick & Jared M did all the cleaning up. It all went smoothly and deliciously.

Happy first Thanksgiving, babies!

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing in front of the fireplace, playing with babies, watching Elf and eating leftovers. We also made it out for some early-morning Black Friday shopping (girls only), to Avery's and got a bajillion sodas, to the playground (it was freeeezing but Jared still pushed those kids on the swing like a dedicated dad), and the two Jareds fit in 9 holes of golf. Once again, I didn't get enough pictures of everyone, but at least the babies were well-covered!

Jared waited a long time for the day he could throw his kids around.

By their giggles it seems like they'd been waiting a while too...

Owen, Rick & Isaac

Bethany & the boys drive some race cars

Double-teaming Caleb

Bundled up for a walk

3 sleeping babies

Janae & Isaac

Boys vs girls in Emma's room

Maybe this is where I should include a thankful list. And maybe it sounds cliche but for the last few months I've felt like my heart could burst with gratitude at any moment. For now, let me just say that this Thanksgiving I felt especially grateful for the good people in our lives--the ones we've known forever, the ones we've known for 6 years like our dental school friends (including the ones we missed this weekend!), and especially the little ones we've known for not even 11 months.

tongues of fun

What?! We have tongues??

The twins have made this discovery lately, and Jared caught it on video the other night. Tongue time was cut short by me asking "who's first?" for bath time. But even their reaction to that is pretty adorable.

"cured"

Bethany's post-op appointment was yesterday, and the doctor thinks she's cured! He actually used that word. I'm still cautiously optimistic... I will have an eye on that eye for a while, I'm sure. But still-- this is great news! Yay!

Hopefully this is the last of the eye business (and posts), although I realized I hadn't described the surgery. It's really a pretty routine procedure-- the scariest part was putting her under general anesthesia. I was allowed in the room with her only until she fell asleep with the oxygen mask. She fought that mask but quickly surrendered and passed out, although she was breathing very quickly. I asked Is that normal? as if I were the only one in a room full of doctors and nurses that had noticed this abnormal activity. Yes, it's normal. And then they said Mom, you can go about 12 times before I actually left her side, and even then I practically walked out of the room backwards, watching them papoose her little body.

Just 20 minutes later, it was over. The ophthalmologist had led a tiny probe down her tear duct (that little black dot in the inner corner of the eye), looking for 2 things: (1) to see if the duct itself was smaller than it should be, and (2) to see if there is a blockage. Bethany's doctor actually found both. The duct is just a little bit small, and so he tried to widen it a bit and doesn't think it will be a problem in the future. Further down he found an actual blockage and was able to clear it with the probe.

Bethany immediately looked better after the surgery, which was unbelievable. We had expected maybe some bleeding from the eye or nose, or bruising later on, but there was only the tiniest trickle of blood from her nose. She was cranky coming out of surgery but cheered up after some food and a nap. Later that afternoon she got grumpy again, but was better after some tylenol. She must have been sore, but she toughed it out.

I think she did it. She's done with it. The teary eyes don't seem to be coming back.

We are so appreciative of everyone's prayers, concern, help and offers to help. It's made a huge difference for us. We have felt the love, and love you all right back.

Yay!

a year ago: 32 weeks

It's hard for me to believe that a year ago this week I was 32 weeks with childs and parading around in

<--this condition. Feels like a lifetime ago.

Here's why I remember this particular week...

At each appointment, my doctor would measure my belly to estimate/confirm how far along I was. I'm pretty sure they do this for everyone (right?). Of course, having twins makes that number misleading, but I still thought it was fun to know: "ah, so this is how I would look/feel at ## weeks with one baby."

At the appointment 2 weeks before this picture, my 30-week appointment, my measurement was 40 weeks-- that's full term! So I was anticipating (and pretty amused about) going in and getting a higher than full term number. It was crazy to think that as the pregnancy went along, I would just get further and further past full term size. I had heard of some twin mamas measuring as large as 52 weeks!!

My official measurement at 32 weeks: "Enormous." That's a direct quote from my doctor. She never even gave me an actual number.

We know, however, that at 30 weeks I was measuring 40, and at 35 weeks she managed to get over the enormousness enough to calculate me at 43. (I eventually delivered at 38 weeks measuring 45.) So apparently, somewhere between week 40 and 43 is where the medical profession has identified the "enormous" range. Just in case you wanted to know.

cuteness for your Thursday

Their daily--no, several-times-a-day-ly--ritual of dumping the shoe basket and pulling all the board books off the shelves (I finally got smart and moved the tearable ones out of reach):

And just a massive double dose of cuteness:

Bye!

left eye

Our little Left Eye had her surgery this morning. Everything went so well and we feel nothing but gratitude and relief.

Did I even put it on the blog that Bethany was going to have surgery? Last week was such a blur... Two Saturdays ago we were excited to have a little girl that had just finished her antibiotics and a left eye that looked better than it had in weeks. Just a little swelling. By Monday the infection was obviously on its way back. By Tuesday it was full blown. Back to Monday, we called our ophthalmologist (the 2nd one) who referred us to an ocular plastic surgeon, who was able to squeeze in an appointment on Wednesday, and recommended surgery to clear out her tear duct as soon as possible, and before I knew it we had an early morning appointment at the Manhattan Eye Ear Throat Hospital the following Monday. Today.

Special surgery jammies!

Squeezes from/for Daddy.

Everything went so smoothly, I couldn't believe it. Even Isaac helped out. B had to be put under general anesthesia, so since she wasn't allowed to eat within 4 hours of the surgery, I had planned to wake her up and feed her by 4:30 am. At 4:15, my alarm went off. At 4:20, I finally wake up to my alarm... and a crying baby. Isaac. What? I was supposed to be waking up Bethany! It turned out to be perfect because I was able to nurse him, put him down, wake her, nurse her, put her down. It's always better when they can stay on the same schedule, aaaand (more importantly) it got me out of bed to feed her before it was too late. When Andrea came to babysit him, she said Isaac must have been looking out for big sis. I think she's right.

Bethany said that if she had to wear a crazy surgery outfit, I did too.

I took that challenge and raised her a crazy blue hat.

The doctor said the surgery went well (hooray for incision-free surgery!) and we made a follow-up visit for next week. I'm hoping, hoping, hoping this is the end of blockages and infections and swelling and antibiotics.

Feeling good after surgery, a feeding and a good (rare) nap in Mom's arms.

She still took revenge on the IV for poking her.

Can I just say (again) how amazing this little girl has been? Bethany charmed the socks off of everyone we saw at the hospital and on the way there and back. She's been charming the socks off of everyone as I've toted her around in the Bjorn for all of her appointments. All around the city there are subway cars and waiting rooms full of people not wearing socks.

Happy to be on the way home.

I'll charm your socks off, too!

Not to be forgotten, there's this sweet little boy...

Oh, hello.

What made this all sooooo much easier x 1,000,000:

* friends that babysat for Isaac

* friend that brought us dinner

* friend that arranged all of the above (did you know that Abbie is short for Above and Beyond?)

* boy that loves to play with our friends while we take care of his sister

Gratitude and relief.

gettin' lucky in kentucky

A failed attempt to get all the babies lined up... They move fast now!

From Ohio we moseyed on down the road just a little to see another group of great friends in Louisville. How lucky in Kentucky is that! These are our BYU buddies that Jared & I have known since freshman year. The guys all lived together and I was just, um, around a lot. The fellas picked up their own gals along the way who are even mighty finer than they are (wink, nudge).

So, now we try to make it a habit to get together every year or as often as we can. In past years we've hit up Portland and Seattle, upstate New York, Connecticut, and Texas hill country. This year we lived large at Chateau Fiet-- Kevin & Rachel's gorgeous new home near Louisville.

This was also the first year (of many, it would seem) that the entire reunion was completely baby-centered. Between us we now have a 3-year-old, and 4 under the age of 16 months. This is evident in the fact that all of my pictures were completely baby-centered. The only way an adult got into any of my shots was if they were holding a baby or in the background. I didn't even get a shot of our one night out as big kids for an amazing tapas dinner (but I will never forget that stuffed date, and I didn't even think I liked dates).

Good thing all those kids are so adorable. Some serious gems being served up right here...

Twin time on the swing!

Can we install 100 of these in NYC please??

We immediately locked up Bethany. Thanks for the heads up.

Rachel tosses Isaac in the sink after an especially good meal.

Sink bath for Bethany, wahoo!!

Bennett

Liam

Saxon & Andrea

Isaac & Kevin

Tyler & Saxon

Bennett tickling Isaac = boy laughing at boy laughing at boy laughing...

Happy birthday Bennett! Now eat this cupcake.

Isaac parties like a 3 year old.

Bethany could not get enough of those indoor columns (neither could I).

Ground-floor windows are the best...

...THE BEST!!

Another attempt at a baby pic. Toys help keep them in place, a little.

Such good times, such good friends. We love you and are so lucky to have you! Can't wait til next time.

And that, with the Ohio trip, wraps up October! Hooray!