Delicious website

While playing around on pinterest, I came across this website. The name of it describes exactly what I'm doing right now (food gawker). All I can say is, you're welcome. I want all of these recipes, in my belly, now. I feel like I hit the food jackpot! Donut muffins, chicken and roasted garlic lasagna, caramel apple cheesecake bars (Mary, these are you for you and baby H if you're reading this).

That strange sound you hear is my stomach growling....

Happy eating :)

Adventures in Baby Food

I think I had mentioned in one of my posts last month that I had planned on attempting to make the girls' baby food. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, if it was going to be too hard, too time consuming, etc. As it turns out, I love it! My friend, Ashley, who made all of her little guy's food lent me her baby food recipe books. The one I absolutely fell in love with was Baby Love by Norah O'Donnell and her husband, Chef Geoff Tracy. Not only are the recipes super easy, but they have their own set of twins (sold)! If they can do it, I can do it, right? ;) I also love that a lot of the recipes for 8 months and older are also ones that I could make for Kyle and I (cinnamon raisin oatmeal, chicken soup...yum). Not only do I know that we are saving a heap by doing this, it's really fun knowing that the girls are eating something that I made for them, and they love everything I've made so far (Campbell didn't care too much for peas, but can I blame her?). I say all of this not to knock Gerber. I think it's perfectly fine to give your babies, and we will certainly be buying some to take with us when we go places. I just wanted to let any moms out there know that this is totally doable and oh-so-easy. So far we've had bananas and rice, sweet potatoes, apples, peas, and tonight we tried pears with prune juice (we are having some regularity issues). This summer I look forward to making some squash, zucchini, and green beans with produce from my father-in-law's garden (organic and free :) In the book, they said it takes an hour for two weeks' worth of food. So far I've just made mine at night here and there after the girls are in bed. Except for the sweet potatoes that have to bake for an hour, everything else has taken me about 20 minutes. Here is a step-by-step of how sweet potatoes went:

Delicious looking, eh?

This is how you freeze it, then just pop them out into a ziplock. When it's time to eat, throw a few cubes in the microwave, and it's ready. 

I promise some adorable pictures of my little piglets scarfing it down, soon. :)

xoxo

Fertility Facts

Although my journey with infertility is seemingly over, I don't think I will ever stop trying to encourage women who endure this battle every day, and I don't think my heart will ever not be with those that struggle with infertility. This blog was born out of my need to "vent" my frustrations, successes, and failures with my friends and family (who began to feel bad about "bugging" me with questions about what the status of things were-I never thought they were "bugging" me, by the way!) And then it turned into a little bit of everything, and now mostly updates on my two success stories. :) I know there are ladies who read this who are fighting, hoping, and praying to become a mom, and I want you girls to know that I still want to keep the "infertility" part of this blog alive and active! I thought I would share some things that helped me through my journey.

Here are some links to the early days of this blog.
The Beginning
Feeling hopeful :)
Faith tested
Some inspiration from Sandra
I thought this was funny...until I got pregnant that month! (and only with 2!)
Hooray!


Fertility Friend: This website was SO helpful to me. I believe there is now also a fertility friend app that another friend of mine used (and is now expecting!). Since I am plagued with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), this helped me to get a good visual of my (crazy) cycles. It also allows you to input every piece of information you can think of (some would be TMI to mention on here). And my favorite feature was being able to view charts of women who had the exact same issues as me (and also encouraging to see the MANY women with PCOS that got pregnant) For instance, I could type in that I wanted to look at women's charts who were a certain age, had PCOS, long cycles, and were on the same fertility drug as me. So awesome! And how incredible to feel that I wasn't alone in this struggle. I HIGHLY suggest playing around with this website if you're TTC! :)

Basal Body Temperature: Ok, people seem to be very divided on this method. One method of TTC (Trying to Conceive for you fertile people), is to record your body temperature RIGHT when you wake up in the morning (like before you really even sit up in bed). You have to get a certain thermometer (found at Walgreen's), and some doctors say it's highly unreliable, others swear by it. The thought is that when you notice your body temperature go up a degree or more, it means your body is preparing to ovulate. The problem is that you have to be very diligent about taking it at the same time every morning, and making sure you literally roll over in bed and grab the thermometer and immediately take it. Otherwise, it's not accurate. I did this for many months. I would wake up, take my temp, write it down and/or enter it right into my fertility friend chart. That way I could see if/when my temps started to rise. Take it or leave it, but I think I liked it so much because it was something I could do every day, and I think it just mostly made me feel like I was being proactive. :)

Ovulation Tests: If you haven't heard of these, you can buy them in bulk from any pharmacy (and I've heard of places online that sell them even cheaper). Again, yet another good thing to help you track the "magical days" you have in your cycle. For the record, I never had a positive one of these. I stopped using them fairly early on because it was emotionally tough for me to continue to see a negative result day after day, week after week, month after month...you get the picture. :) But most fertility docs will suggest them.

Dr. LaTasha Craig: This was my fertility doctor. I can't even begin to say enough amazing things about this woman. She was recommended to me by a friend who also has PCOS. I am a thousand times over thankful to her not only for her skills as a fertility doctor, but her warmth, positivity, and encouragement through our journey. I can still remember the incredible feeling of hope she gave me after our first appointment. And the giant hug she gave me the day we saw our two miracles on the ultrasound in her office. I can't think of many doctors that hug their patients! She has endless amounts of passion for what she does, and we were so blessed to have found her. More information on her here.

(p.s. From the day of our first appointment, until the day we found out we were pregnant was approximately 3 months. We had been trying for about 7 months before that.)

And this brings me to my next important point. I know better than anyone how incredibly hard it is to make that phone call to the fertility doctor. I was still in denial that anything was "wrong" with me the day I did call. I felt silly sitting in that office, answering her questions, and felt confident that she would find no reason why we couldn't get pregnant, and just tell us to be patient. I kept thinking, "my whole family is insanely fertile", "I've always had regular cycles...until now. It's probably nothing", "there's no way this could happen to me" etc. But please, please believe me that making the phone call was the hardest part. It was all good things that happened after that. I'm not saying that it didn't have its ups and downs, but I felt so much more informed and somewhat in control of what was happening (even though I realized at the end of our journey that we aren't really the ones in control ;) And remember that if you aren't having regular cycles for 3+ months, that's enough to go check in with a fertility doctor, or if you've been tracking your cycles/timing intercourse correctly for 3+ months.

Confide in someone(s): This seems pretty common sense, but many girls seem to feel like they have to be hush hush about when they are trying to get pregnant and/or struggling with getting pregnant. I can see why many don't want to voice when they are trying in the event of a miscarriage, but I can tell you with 100% certiantly that if I had not confided in close friends/family, it never would have happened so quickly. By sharing my struggles, I received SO many prayers from people and tons of encouragement. And since then, I've been able to help several other girls go through the same journey. All because I wasn't afraid to talk about it! And it was SO much more fun to share the exciting news with them when we found out because they knew just how sweet it was. :)

Whew. I could seriously type for hours on this issue, but these are some of the big things that helped us in our journey. I should have put at the top of the list that our faith was the rock we clinged to throughout those months. I wouldn't trade what God showed us that year for anything. And as someone who knows exactly how you feel, don't let this time be wasted. As hard as it is, and as many bad days as you have, I pray that He shows you something bigger through all of it. And although you may feel like it, He really never leaves you and is good ALL the time. Although there were many days I swore He had forgotten all about us, I can look back and see it all lead us to where we are now: tired and exhausted from trying to keep up with 2 seven month old girls!

I desperately want to help you reading this and know these perils all too well. I hope you will reach out should you need any encouragement/advice. You will have your own success story SOON. But for now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of ours... ;)

xoxo

Mother's Day

Well I can officially say that my first Mother's Day was a great day! I mean, who doesn't love another day of the year besides your birthday to get showered with love and appreciation for bringing life into this world? It was also a great day to appreciate the two miraculous blessings that allow me to be a part of this holiday. Considering the many months I wondered if God would grant me the chance to be a mother, this weekend was a great celebration of what He has given us. And my prayers are with those women daily who fight this same struggle day after day. I wish I could hug all of you who know this sadness, but I believe with everything in my heart that if God puts the desire to be a mother in your heart, he will somehow, someday fullfill that desire within you. From the time my sisters and I were little girls, my dad would get us cards on Mother's Day and always write in them that he knew someday we would be great moms (mostly because we had a great mom showing us the ropes!) How wonderful it was this year to have my darlings to celebrate it with! 

What would Mother's Day be without breakfast in bed?

The girls wishing they could help me eat this GIANT pancake.

My beauties

Surprise! Kyle came home from Ace Hardware with the hydrangeas I'd been dying to plant.

The goodies. Roses from my Dad.

Aren't those girls sweet? I think Dad must've helped them a bit with this one. :)

I also got to have 3 glorious hours to go and get a pedicure, massage, and of course, buy some cute dresses for my lovelies while Daddy-O watched the girls. All in all, it was a great weekend to celebrate this amazing blessing of being a mom. I can say with great certainty that my arms and heart are full. A BIG Happy Mother's Day to the many inspiring, incredible, amazing moms (and moms-to-be) I know that encourage me on a daily basis.

xoxo

Happy Easter {a little belated-are you shocked?}

As most things are in my life these days, this post is fashionably late. We had a fun, laid back first Easter as a family. Sophie and Campbell can't wait until next year when they can get in on this egg hunting thing!

The Saturday before Easter at the Adams' annual Easter egg hunt. It will be so fun next year to watch the girls crack open confetti eggs (seen in the background) on each other!

The amazing Aunt Sam with her nieces.

First Easter Bunny pic!

Nana and Papa came to stay with us Saturday night and brought lots of Easter goodies for the girls. My oh my how spoiled they are!

We love our Nana and Papa!

First family picture since we brought the girls home (I think). We've gotta get better at this.

Daddy and his princesses

This family picture might capture us perfectly. Canon randomly reached over at the last minute and wrapped his arm around my and Sara's neck. We were laughing uncontrollably!

Bubba felt left out with no head band.

Smooches from GiGi

Prettiest girls around!

And a pitcure taken with our Easter baskets (naturally, several days after Easter)

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the true meaning of Easter!

xoxo



Six Months {a little belated}

Well, the time has come. My girls are now closer to being one year old than kicking around in my belly. I'm starting to realize why parents get sad when their babies grow up. If you had told me at 4 weeks old that I would be sad my babies are doing big girl things like sleeping through the night, eating rice cereal, and almost sitting up on their own, I would have said, "Get real! This is what you have been praying for!" But, alas, my heart now races with anxiety that I'm not loving them enough or cherishing every smile and snuggle because I realize on the 22nd of every month that time is ticking, and it's ticking fast. I can say with 100% honesty that I have NO earthly idea how these last 6 months have gone by so fast. Lord, let the next 6 slow down...just a tiny bit. Ok, here are what my precious little dolls have been up to (for those of you who care to still read further) :)

Campbell Jane Nevels

weight: 15 lbs. 4 oz.

Well, apparently miss smiley pants overheard me telling her friends that she was, ahem, a little bit dramatic. The best we can figure is that she started seeing a life coach behind our backs, and now this little ray of sunshine is exactly what you see in this picture...nearly all the time. Not only does she smile at anyone who pays her one second of attention (including creepy strangers at Super Wal-Mart), I can't recall the last time this child woke up between the hours of 8 pm and 6 am. Dream child, I tell you. I started to notice the change about a week before the girls turned 6 months. Sophie got a horrible virus (more on this), and I swear it was like Campell sensed that she needed me more and became the easiest/happiest baby ever. I also credit her awesome Aunt Sam for coming to the rescue that week and taking her out of the house, and giving her tons of love and attention. But whatever the cause, it's been wonderful. Here are some other fun things she is up to:

-Daddy has found her ticklish spots and really knows how to get her cackling

-still loves being read to like crazy (and now tries to reach out from her bumbo and grab whatever book we're reading)

-SO close to sitting up on her own!

-takes rice cereal in her bottle at night now

-screeches and squeels non-stop. Just picture the happiest sound you can imagine a baby making and that's the sound we hear all day.

-enjoys letting sister suck on her fingers

-drools, drools, and drools some more. I keep waiting to feel a little tooth any day now.

-loves being in her bouncer

-prefers playing on her back, but will hang out on her tummy for awhile, too.

All in all, we love this smiley little pumpkin like crazy!

Sophie Kay Nevels

weight: 15 lbs. 7 oz.

My sweet Sophie girl. Again, this picture sums up this little sweetie so perfectly. It's so amazing to me to see everyday how differently and immensly I love these girls. Their personalities could not be more different, and I love each of them in such different but equal ways. When Campbell's face lights up with a smile, my heart sings. When Sophie looks up at me with those eyes and gives me her sweet grin, I melt. So incredible the love I have for them. Ok, back to sweet Soph. Bless her heart. This little girl has had quite the month. Just when we had finished getting over these stinky ear infections, she gets hit HARD with what had to be the worst virus ever. Her fever peaked at around 104 degrees. Not only did it give us a heart attack, we made 3 trips to the pediatrician and 1 trip to the ER in a week (and for the record, we won't be going back there until blood is spewing uncontrollably out of one of them). But, being the brave girl she is, she fought back, and is now doing great. There really is nothing worse or scarier than your baby getting sick. I wish I could say that I handle it with poise and common sense, but when I see that temperature go above 98.6, it might as well be a deadly disease. It's a good thing my husband knows how to stay calm in these situations because I am an absolute crazy town wreck. But all is calm now. At least until the next sickness hits. Here are some things this little cutie is up to:

-Is a little more leary of people than her sister. She has to make for sure you are someone she can trust before she gives you a grin. Oh, and that what you're doing is actually worth smiling at.

-Gets so wide-eyed when you do something that intrigues her.

-like sister, SO close to sitting up!

-could live on her tummy. When I put her on her back, she flips almost immediately over. She is now also officially a tummy sleeper.

-both girls have found their feet, and boy do they loooove grabbing them.

-eats rice cereal with a spoon and LOVES it (to our astonishment)!

-still is very jumpy and hates anything that makes a loud noise (doors, Teddy barking, me talking to loudly, etc.) but laughs like crazy when we play peek-a-boo. Go figure.

Sophie, you're a sweetie. We love you so much!

My big girls! The only thing I know for sure is that I will love you more at 7 months than I do now. You girls change so much everyday, and I see everyday how blessed I am to be your mommy.

Here's a few more pics from April...

jean skirts=my new fave wardrobe item

First trip to the zoo with our friends Brynn, Miley, and Aiden (and their mommies).

Sophie girl hanging out

CJ lovin' those fingers

Helping Mom and Dad plant flowers

Hanging out with our friend, Annie Seat. We also enjoyed meeting our future boyfriends, Graham and Gibson Gotcher's mom. We can't wait to meet those handsome boys!

Hanging out with our Auntie Kim and Auntie Brooke.

Sophie snuggling with Dad while sick. :(

Campbell doing a little light reading.

Til May 22nd...

xoxo