Another Baby Shower!

My sweetie customers at Yavapai County Library District in Prescott gave me a surprise Baby Shower last week! Cheryl, Barbara, Ann, Priscilla, and Mary spent part of their afternoon showering me with gifts and cake and ice cream--yum! Other people also sent gifts--Arminta who used to work at Yavapai County and the Sedona Public Library people, Pam, Amy, and Carla. It was such a special treat, and our babies got the most wonderful gifts!

Thank you!!!

Love, j&c

Our weekend and 33-week check-up

We had a really busy weekend. Saturday we finished getting our Glendale apartment cleaned and ready for the new tenants. It looks really good--brand new tub/surround, paint, and carpet. One of our other tenants did all the repair work and painting and did a great job. I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures before the new people moved in, darn it!

Then, we had a basic gun safety training class. Chris bought a Glock 40-caliber for protection. In Arizona, it's fairly easy to buy a gun, and he can carry it now as long as it's viewable. He's going to take another class that will allow him to carry concealed. That'll be next weekend. At the basic class, he got to practice shooting at the shooting range. I was nearby watching, and each time the gun went off, the babies jumped!!! I was worried that the noise would damage their hearing, so I opted out of shooting and sat in the car while Chris practiced. He did great and has a very accurate shot.

Sunday, Chris spent the day over at our Sunnyslope "estates." He worked on our vacant unit and cleaning up/weeding around the property. He's happy because it's starting to get hot--88 degrees already! He really likes the heat and being outdoors. Meanwhile, I worked on our Litchfield Park condo. We are getting it ready to rent it as an executive/vacation home. I had already purchased a lot of kitchen stuff, as well as bath/bedding for the other condo we still have under contract that has not yet closed. So, I washed everything and put things away. It looks really nice. We still need to buy a bed, a dining table and chairs, a dresser, a patio table and chairs, and some other necessities to have it totally ready. Take a look at the new link to see where it is posted for rent. I'll also put some pictures here.

Speaking of the other condo that we have under contract . . . I had put money down on it back in October 2006 and it was supposed to be constructed and ready by May of 2007. Then, the date became August 2007, then October, and then I couldn't get in touch with anyone there! The housing market was coming to a standstill, and construction was basically stopped. We had hoped to have it available for Super Bowl, which was in February 2008, but that didn't happen. At this point, we are a little nervous about going forward with purchasing it, with the babies coming, and the state of the housing market. The only way to get out of the contract and get our money back, is if they don't deliver within 18 months of the original contract--that happens to be next week! So, at this point, we're going to wait until the 18 months runs out and talk to the sales agent about either reducing the price to entice us to follow through with our purchase, or canceling and get our money back.

With all we had to do over the weekend, we didn't celebrate Easter at all. It just came so early!!!

Yesterday, I had my 33-week check-up. They did an ultrasound to check the heartrates--Matthew was at 135 and Thomas was at 137--both are just fine. All is going well, and now I will have to start seeing the doctor twice a week. They'll be monitoring the babies at each visit to make sure they're doing OK. They want the babies to wait until at least 36-37 weeks to be born, so they have time to develop as much as possible. They should arrive in just 3-4 weeks now! I'm getting very ready for them to be here. Moving around and sleeping are difficult, but really everything is going well and I can't complain too much! We are so blessed to be having these little guys!

That's all for now! xo, j&c

31-week check-up and the house is coming together!

Chris and I went to the doctor on Monday, March 10, for my 31-week check-up and ultrasound. The babies are doing great! Baby A, AKA Matthew James, is 4 lbs, 2 oz, and Baby B, AKA Thomas Joseph, is 3 lbs, 15 oz. Matthew should arrive first, and he's the slightly bigger baby, which is good. They are also both head-down, so they're doing what they're supposed to do! Thomas was not in the mood for the paparazzi, so only Matthew has his picture here this time.

I'm doing much better; I think I have almost recovered from the flu. I'm still congested, but that's most likely from being pregnant. Chris and I both have a lingering cough, but it's much less frequent now.

Yesterday we both got so much done. Chris spent the morning over at our Glendale apartments, collecting some late rents and working with our handyman, Matt, on tearing out and re-doing the bath/shower in one of the apartments. It's vacant right now, but new people will be moving in next Saturday. Once the bathroom's done, Ron, one of our other tenants, is going to paint it, and then the carpet is getting installed on Friday. He also collected rents over at our Sunnyslope "Estates."

Meanwhile, I was home finishing the painting in the nursery and washing all the new baby clothes. When Chris got home, he re-hung the blinds and put together the crib. The crib is nice; I bought it used through Craigs List, but it is in great shape. It is quite large--big enough for both babies for many months, at least, and it has a changing table and drawers and shelves attached. Then, Chris brought in all the bookcases, which had been sitting in the hallway for weeks now. He attached them to the wall and to each other, so that they are nice and sturdy and can't be tipped over. I brought in all the books, that had been piled up in the guest room, and loaded them onto the bookcases. They look really cute! I also moved all the condo stuff (dishes, linens, etc.) out of the guest room, and it's all ready to be loaded into Chris's truck and taken to the Litchfield condo today. So, the guest room is now back to being a guest room, and we can walk in the hallway! The living room is also almost back to normal, though it still has the stroller and baby stuff that I haven't yet gone through. Today I will do that and finish writing my thank-you notes!

The pictures are of my newly moved office (it used to be in the room that is now the nursery) and the still-a-work-in-progress nursery. I need to hang the border, and we're going to bring Alicia's dresser over from the condo. Otherwise, it's pretty much done. There is also a picture of their first shoes! Jill, Babs, and Shannon and Craig all gave us the most adorable shoes. They're different sizes, so they'll have shoes for a while.

That's all for now. xo, j&c

Baby Shower!

Chris's mom and dad hosted a baby shower for us and Megan and Aaron on Sunday, and we had such a wonderful time! It was so nice to spend the day with family and friends. Kathy made beautiful table decorations and a darling gift table. She had the food prepared by Cappizolli's, which is their favorite local (Oceanside) Italian restaurant--it was delicious! Megan and I are both having boys, and all the gifts were adorable! I can't wait to have the time this weekend to slowly go through everything and oogle over it! Thank you to everyone who shared the special day with us!

xo, j&c

Starting the 3rd Trimester!

We got the labs back, and everything is fine. I'm not going to get near any more cats besides our own! Yesterday was 28 weeks, which is the start of the 7th month/third trimester. We are so excited for our little guys to arrive! If they arrive at 36 weeks, then there's only 8 weeks to go.

Saturday I finally finished painting my new office, and yesterday we moved in. I still have some boxes to go through and throw out/organize, but for the most part, it looks really good. Next step is to paint the nursery and put up the border. Then, we can move the crib and other furniture in--and out of the hall, guest room, and living room!

Yesterday I posted our Litchfield Park condo for a vacation/business rental on Craigs List. We've already gotten 3 responses, so I think it's going to work out well to do it this way, rather than as a regular rental. Alicia will be moving to Yuma on March 1, so we'll need to get it ready on the 2nd and during the following week. We already have someone who wanted to rent it starting on the 1st!

We also have a vacancy coming up over at our Glendale apartments. I posted it for rent yesterday on Craigs List, and I've got two people scheduled to come and see it on Tuesday evening.

Next time, I'll post pictures of the house and baby stuff. xo, j&c

27-week Check-up

Sorry for not posting for so long! Here are the latest pictures of our little guys. They are both doing fine. They're a week ahead of schedule in their growth, which is good, since twins often come early. They weigh about 2 1/2 pounds each already! They're likely about 15" long.

I got into a tangle with a cat over at one of our apartment buildings last Sunday, and I've been panicking about a disease called Toxoplasmosis. It's not harmful to adults, but it can hurt the babies. I talked to the doctor about it yesterday, and they drew blood to test for it. About 50% of people in the US have already been exposed and are immune to it. I'm hoping I'm among the 50%--it's likely since I've lived with cats for so long. The test can determine if you're immune or if you've been recently exposed. If I got it from this cat, then I'd likely go on antibiotics to prevent the babies from getting it.

Chris and I both caught a terrible flu--he had it for about a week and a half, and I had it for about 2 1/2 weeks. It sidelined us from doing a lot of things we had planned around the house getting ready for babies.

We're going to be making our upstairs front bedroom into my office, so I got everything moved out (it was my craft room), and I started to paint. It's about half done, and I hope to finish painting this weekend. We'll make my current office (the back upstairs bedroom) into the nursery. So, once we move out all the office stuff, I'll paint the nursery and start moving all the baby stuff in.

We bought a crib through Craig's List. It has a changing table attached, with drawers and shelves, so it will be very handy. We also bought a co-sleeper through Craig's List; it is a soft-sided crib that attaches to the bed. In the night, I won't have to get up to feed them. If they wake up, I can just reach over and bring them into bed with us.

Chris's mom, Kathy, bought us a wonderful dual stroller, as well as two matching car seats. We also bought a glider and ottomon that arrived last week. It's an upholstered chair-and-a-half, and it's a beautiful lavender color that perfectly matches our bedroom. So, we had to move out the chaise (which is now in the family room), and the dog crates, and then Chris "encouraged" me to clean out our bedroom--he was right, it was a bit of a disaster! So, it's now all nice and clutter-free and clean. We hope to be able to keep it that way.

Bye for now! j&c

23-week check-up!

Chris and I went to the doctor for our 23-week check-up this week. The babies are both doing fine! They're right on schedule as far as their size for their age. They both weigh about 1 lb, 5 oz. The nurse took measurements of their heads, chest, and femur to gauge their size and weight. The pictures are getting a little harder to see, because they're now too big to fit entirely on the screen. So, these pictures of of their faces looking right at the camera! I hope you can see them well enough.

We also had our first childbirth class last Saturday and will have our next one this Saturday. We learned a lot. There is one other woman in the class also having twin boys!

xo, j&c