Sunday, November 27, 2011

17 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 17 weeks
Size of Baby: Size of an onion
Total Weigh Gain/Loss: Gained 4 lbs at last doctors appointment
Maternity Clothes: Yes, pants mostly
Gender:  Twin Boys
Movement: Felt a few little flutters that I thought were movements but unsure
Sleep: Sleep is much better since I bought a body pillow (LIFE SAVER)
What I Miss: Wearing my tall black heeled boots
Cravings: Seems like I've been eating Chick-fil-a alot lately. Don't really know if its a craving or not
Symptoms: Nothing
Best Moment of the Week: We registered at Babies R Us; bought 2 space saver high chairs on Black Friday; my sister gave me a TON of baby boy clothes; and we bought our 2 car seats, bases and double stroller from a girl who I met at a consignment sale.

17 weeks belly shot

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

IT'S TWIN BOYS!

We found out yesterday at our 16 week doctors appointment that we are having TWIN BOYS! We are so excited and thrilled. We were not expecting to find out this early but we are 100% sure that we are having 2 boys. We suprised our parents last night with an "It's a Boy" ornament from each baby to each grandparent. They were shocked and suprised as well. We told them we were not going to find out until December 21st at our next doctors appointment but it was so evident that both babies were boys!

In case you are wondering, Baby A will be named William Rice Steven Penny and Baby B will be called Jonathan Andrew Douglas Penny. All names are family names except Andrew. They will be called Will and Drew. We couldn't be happier right now. God has truely blessed us with 2 precious boys and we cannot thank him enough! I pray that these boys will be the best of friends and love us unconditionally! I'm already on the hunt for little boy stuff. This is all so knew to me from growing up with 2 sisters. But I know I will quickly learn soon.

Enjoy the pictures of our sweet boys! I've got videos of our parents reactions so when I figure out how to upload those I will do that.

The ornaments we gave both grandparents to open from Baby A & Baby B.
It says "It's a Boy"




As you can tell there is strong evidence that both are BOYS! Again we are thrilled and can't wait till May 2012! 



16 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights
How Far Along: 16 weeks
Size of Baby: Twins are the size of an avacado
Total Weight Gain/Loss: + 6 lbs (according to my scale)
Maternity Clothes: Yes, pants mostly
Gender: 2 BOYS
Movement: Nothing yet
Sleep: Much better
What I Miss: Being able to eat and taste the foods I loved but hate now
Cravings: Nothing yet
Symptoms: Stuffiness in the head; Back to normal and feeling energized
Best Moment of the Week: We found out the gender of the twins!
 
Here is a 16 week belly shot!
 


Monday, November 14, 2011

Welcome Maddie Mae

We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Miss Maddie Mae Penny. She is a shih tzu poodle mix, 13 weeks old, and is full of energy. We decided to get her after our dog of 9 years, Ellie Mae, passed away about 3 weeks ago. Maddie is so much fun! She loves being outside, chasing leaves and of course eating them, and sleeping in crazy positions. I just caught her laying on her back on the couch with me with her legs sticking straight up. This reminded me of my father in laws dog, Abby. She is doing really good about potty training. So far we've only had 2 accidents and she is getting the concept of going outside to do her business. She is spoiled rotten already but that's okay with us.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Maddie Mae. I'm sure there will be more to come.

The first day we had her, we put her in the crate but she eventually figured out how to jump over it.

In the crate again

Already learning to sleep on the couch

Playing outside and loving it!

Nursery

We got a great surprise when we returned home from our trip to Phoenix. Our CRIBS and CHANGING TABLE arrived!!!!!!! We were so excited that Doug, who is the BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD, put them together within 24 hours of us being home. Thank you honey for putting them together because YOU ARE THE BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course I had to document the special occassion. Yes I'm only 15 weeks and already have my cribs and changing tables here and put together. I'm just planning ahead. Sorry!
The start of the changing table

Hubby is mad at me for taking his picture

Almost there with the changing table

The finished product of the changing table

The crib pieces all laid out on the floor. The first one was semi difficult and required my help and the second one was soooo easy because the hubby did it all by himself

Hubby hiding behind the bars of the crib

This is how you put the mattress thingy on the crib, redneck style. You pile the mattresses until the mattress thingy is supported and then you screw it in.

The cribs are completed!

It is all so surreal now that the room has furniture. We are just patiently waiting to find out what colors we will be decorating with. Only 5 more weeks until we know! 

15 weeks

I thought I should start doing week by week pregnancy updates. So here goes.

Pregnancy Highlights
How Far Along: 15 weeks
Size of Baby: Twins are the size of a navel orange
Total Weight Gain/Loss: + 5 lbs (according to my scale)
Maternity Clothes: Yes, pants mostly
Gender: Won't know until Christmas :(
Movement: Nothing yet
Sleep: I sleep good but around 3-4am I'm tossing and turning like crazy
What I Miss: My skinny jeans
Cravings: Nothing yet
Symptoms: Just tired; Never been sick
Best Moment of the Week: The nursery furniture came in and we put it all together

Here is a 15 week belly shot. These may or may not happen every time but for this time, here you go.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Ellie Mae

Our sweet dog, Ellie Mae, passed away on Friday, October 21st at the age of 9. She had been sick for a few days but never imagined this would happen. I was with her when she passed and it was so sad. Her vet doctor said she passed from a heart attack. She was so active and in good health that it just came all of a sudden. It has been very difficult lately to know that she is gone. We had her cremated since it was hard for us to part from her so she is in our study in the sun (her favorite spot) surrounded by two of her favorite toys, the original Mr. Bear and the Mr. Bear replacement.

Ellie Mae was our baby for 9 years and we loved every minute with her. She was spoiled rotten. She loved laying in the sun, roaming around in the backyard, sleeping in our closets, going bye bye, drinking lots of water, eating ice cubes, eating grapes, and eating bread. Every time we had a piece of bread or even opened the bread sack she would literally come running to the kitchen. She loved us unconditionally. She loved being lazy with me on Sundays as we watched football or Nascar races. She was the perfect lap dog and the best cuddler ever. She would cuddle up to our feet and we would be out in a few minutes.

We got Ellie Mae while we were in college at Ole Miss and has been with us through 2 houses and also the excitement of when we found out we were having twins. I knew she would make a great big sister because she was always very protective of us when we were by ourselves. It hurts me to know that she will never get to meet these 2 precious babies that are on the way. But we know that she will be their guardian angel looking down over them. We had some pictures made professionally that were to be used as our Christmas card pictures this year and we finally got those framed. Our family picture with Ellie Mae is hanging outside the soon to be twins nursery.

I know some of you are thinking this is crazy to talk about a dog like this but she was literally a huge part of our lives. Doug and I are animal lovers and they deserve the same amount of respect, love, and attention as anyone does. We are planning on getting another dog before the twins arrive. Since she has been gone our lives have not been the same. We lived our lives around her making sure she was taken care of while we were out of town or had to work late. We need our routine back and so we have decided to get another one to love and care for again. Ellie Mae can never be replaced and we know that but there are several dogs out there who would love to be loved by someone.

Throughout the years, we took several pictures of Ellie Mae. So as a tribute to her, we leave you with a few pictures over the years of her life.

Everytime we put our Christmas tree up, Ellie Mae thought she had to lay under it. She loved to check out all the packages to see which ones were hers.

She HATED sweaters! She would always tuck her tail and hide whenever she had to go bye bye with a sweater on.

Laying on the couch. She had the run of the house and would lay wherever she could find a good spot.

We were moving and packing boxes and Ellie Mae decided she would lay in the middle of all our boxes. I guess she didn't want us to forget her.

She loved her spot in our bed. She would curl up between us and we would always squish her and she would make the funniest grunt noises. Some mornings I would wake up and her head would be on my pillow.

Our official dishwasher licker. She always loved to lick the dishes after we would put them in the dishwasher to be washed.

Going bye bye. She always fell asleep though. Sometimes we would honk to wake her up and shout "cow" and she would bark her head off. So funny!

Outside under the ceiling fan. I was laying out this summer in my "redneck blow up" pool on our back porch and someone got embarrassed and turned around and couldn't look at me.

Sleeping in her bed. Can you see her eyes peering out from behind that hair?

Chillin' out on the bench on the back porch. This was her favorite place to lay in the summer.

You talking to me?
Her nana sent this picture to us while we were in Chicago. She loved going to Nana's house. I think in this picture she was saying "when are you guys coming back?"

Our last family of 5 picture. Yes I was pregnant with twins at the time these pictures were taken.


I hope you have enjoyed these pictures of Ellie Mae. We miss her terribly and the little things she did each and every day.