Day 9-A picture of my friends

I don't have very many true friends that I hang out with all the time. But the friends that I do have, I adore! My best friend is Kim. She, as I said before, is my other third. lol! I love her so freakin much!

The other picture is of our other best friends-Cassey and Paul. I went to high school with Cassey. She was one of the only ones that was there for me when I had my daughter and had just barely moved to a new state. We haven't always stayed in contact after high school but about 2 or 3 years ago, we caught up and have stayed inseperable since. She married her wonderful husband, Paul, who is really good friends with Josh so it all works out!

I love my friends!

Day 8-A Place I’ve Traveled To

I've traveled to many states but the only place out of the country that I have traveled to is Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. My husband and I went for our honeymoon back in 2008. It was amazing! We were on a budget and couldn't decide where to go. Our choices were different places in Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii. We decided on Mexico because it looked so beautiful and it was CHEAP. We spent around $2400 for a week in the Dre.ams Resort. It was all-inclusive meaning we could eat and drink as much as we wanted to. There was the beautiful beach right up on the resort's swimming pools and even a swim-up bar. I have to admit it was a little scary outside of the resort's gates. We did venture to the flea market to buy gifts and it was definitely a different culture. I'm glad that I speak Spanish so I was able to communicate with the sellers and find the best deals on gifts! I loved our honeymoon! I hope that we get to travel more in the future! Boo! I can't find any of my honeymoon pictures on the computer!

Day 7-My Favorite Movies

It's really hard to say what my favorite of things are… favorite songs?! I have no clue. Favorite food?! I have a bunch. Favorite color?! I don't know. My favorite movies… hmm… I LOVE Denzel Washington-anything with him in it! My favorite would be Man on Fire. It makes me cry my eyes out every time. And Denzel-such a great actor. I also have been loving movies with Forest Whitaker in them. I recently watched Repo Man and The Experiment. They were such good movies. Repo man was kinda gory but good story line. The Notebook was an all-time great movie. I like watching horror movies… Saw and Scream to name a few but my husband hates them so it's boring watching them by myself.

I guess it's hard to name a favorite because I love watching movies. I don't go to the movie theater hardly ever anymore especially since the twins were born but Netflix and Redbox are great inventions!

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

What makes me the happiest? My family! How can I not smile when I see pictures of all 3 of these sweet lil munchkins?

Day 5-Siblings

I have 6 brothers and sisters not including me plus my sister-from another mother who is exactly like my sister so I am definitely not lacking in the sibling department.

I will start with my sister, Kayla. She is 23 years old. We have had our ups and downs but man, I love her. She is my only "biological" sister and people say that we look exactly alike except of course she is a ton skinnier than me! Brat! She has my nephew, Marcus who is 17 months. I love this kid!

My next sister is Summer. She is 17 years old and a complete riot. She is a pretty darn good photographer also and I have no doubt that she will do something big with her life.

My brother, Sean is 19. I love him a lot! I cannot believe that he is already going to be turning 21 in just a year and a half. I can't wait to party it up with him in Vegas.

My sister from another mother is Kim. She is actually my ex sister-in-law (my ex's sister). It might be weird but she is my best friend. She is like my other half or at least a third of me if you count my husband! J I don't know what I would do without her. She has my nephew, Rome who is going to be turning 6! I love this kid so much.

I have 3 other brothers: Brandon, Michael, and Jonathon. They live in Michigan and I do not see them anymore. I wish I did everyday and I hope to be a part of their lives in the future. I need to mention my brothers and sister-in-law. I have 3 brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law. We all get along great but I see my brother-in-law, Scotty more. Josh has such a great family. I am so glad that I get to be a part of it!

I love my family immensely! All of them are such a big part of who I am! I couldn't live without them all.

Sean, my brother-in-law Scotty, and my nephew, Rome


Kayla, Summer, Kim, and Devanne


My family

Day 4-My Parents

I have to say-I have the BEST parents!

My mom has never stopped being there for me, EVER! Even when I was driving her insane with all my teenage antics, she never stopped telling me that she loved me. I have never felt that she didn't love me. She is such a good mommy and a wonderful grandma! My kids love her like crazy, especially my oldest. I believe that Devanne loves her grandma more than her own mother most days. I see all these people moving as far away from their parents as they possibly can and I never understand why. I don't ever want to live in a different state than my parents. I cannot imagine not seeing my mom for more than a couple of days at a time. I would be so lonely!

My daddy is a great daddy and grandpa also. What makes him the bestest is that he didn't have to be my dad. He chose to be. My parents got together when I was 3. My dad has never stopped being a dad since day 1. It's amazing that there are men in this world that take so much better care of their kids than the biological parents!

I can't forget my in-laws that are the best also. I was always scared of having in-laws that hate me and vice versa but I don't have to worry about that with my in-laws. They have been the best with my kids especially Devanne who doesn't ever feel that the twins have grandparents that she doesn't.

I am so blessed to have such great parents. I raise my kids in hopes that I will be half the parent that they were to me!

30 Day Blog Challenge-Day 3-My First Love

My first love… hmm… that is a hard one. Technically, I would have to say my daughter's father. We met in 6^th grade. Is that love? I thought it was. Man, I thought we were going to be together FOREVER! He was going to be my knight and shining armor and no matter what anyone else said (including my mom) we were going to get married. HA! First came the baby. And that is when I truly first loved.

My daughter was my first TRUE love! She taught me how to love unconditionally. I don't know where I would be today without her. I can't believe that she is going to be 10 years old in a couple of weeks.

So even though my first "love" and I didn't get married and live happily ever after, I will never regret one thing; Because without him, I wouldn't have my daughter and without her I would be nowhere. I LOVE YOU, DEVANNE!

30 Day Blog Challenge

I'm already behind but this looks like fun! Here's Day 1 and 2 together-

 

Day 1: Introduce, Recent Pic, and 15 interesting facts

My name is Jessica. Here's a recent picture of myself. I'm the one on the left!

15 interesting facts:

1-I have been married to the love of my life for 2 ½ years.

2-I had my first daughter when I was 15. So I have a 10 year old! Amazing!

3-My twin girls are 11 months old! My kids are the WHOLE WORLD to me!

4-My husband and I want more kids but can't agree on how many more. I want 1 more, he wants a little country! J

5-I am in college right now. I will have my associate's degree in Psychology in 9 weeks, then I will be moving on to my bachelor's.

6-I love to cook! I wish I was good enough to go on Master's Chef or something!

7-I love to spend time with my whole family-my mom and dad and sisters and brothers. Throw in my aunts, uncles, grandparents… now we are having some fun!

8-I am also obsessed with TV series; Niptuck, Queer as Folk, The L word, Reba, United States of Tara, Weeds, Big Love, The Biggest Loser; I could watch a season from start to finish without stopping them.

9-I'm a perfectionist. I get anxious and irritable when I don't do things perfectly.

10-My biggest fear is my family dying followed by my daughter leaving me when she turns 18.

11-I always said that I never wanted to be like my mom when I was younger, now I am exactly like her and proud of it.

12-I want to be a social worker with the Department of Human Services working with foster children after I graduate.

13-I wish that I had more time to spend with my husband every night.

14-I would like to lose about 60 lbs but can't get the motivation up to stay with it.

15-My favorite snack EVER is popcorn with a ton of spray butter all over it! Biggest indulgence!

 

Day 2: The Meaning Behind Your Blog Name

Life has a lot of twists and turns. I believe in fate. Everything happens for a reason. I had my daughter when I was 15 for a reason-to straighten me out and teach me what it is to truly love. I met my wonderful husband for a reason and had my beautiful daughters. I don't know what's next in this life for me but I am sure whatever it is-it's going to be a fun and bumpy ride!

 

 

Cycle Day 13 and a Sickie

So its day 13 and still no positive ovulation. If it goes as last time, I will ovulate tomorrow. I don't feel very much positive energy for tomorrow. We will see. I have been really tired and hot lately; probably from the clo.mid or lack of sleep. I am thinking about making a doctor's appointment to a sleep therapist or something. I don't think I am sleeping very well at night. I get at least 9-10 hours of sleep a night but still feel exhausted. Plus lately, I have been having a really hard time falling asleep. I will lie down around 9:30 but stare at the clock until around 12. Insomnia could be a part of the clo.mid but I have been doing it for awhile. Maybe I have sleep apnea since when I do fall asleep; I have a really hard time staying still… Need to get it checked out.

Devanne stayed home sick from school today. She has been vomiting and having diarrhea since last night. Poor baby L. I hope that she feels better soon and that the rest of us don't get whatever she has.

October already?!

That is crazy! I can't believe that it is October 1^st today. I am sure that I said this on September 1^st and August 1^st. This year seems to be going by so dang fast. When is everything going to slow down? Probably not anytime soon… L

The babies have been having a really hard time falling asleep and staying asleep lately. Adey has never been a great sleeper but she seems to be getting worse. She'll whine in her crib for about 30 minutes before falling asleep for a 20 minute nap. Jocey has always been my great sleeper. She can take 2 hour naps and sleeps all the way through the night until yesterday. She learned how to sit up from laying position yesterday. She refused to nap for about an hour and then finally fell asleep and woke back up after 30 minutes-happy as a clam to be sitting up! This morning they both woke up at 5:30! And to top it off, when I went in to get them, Jocey was standing and rocking the bars like she was in prison! I'm seriously SOL! I really hope that Adey starts catching up with her sister. I feel so bad when Jocey crawls away from her and she starts bawling her eyes out. Yesterday, she attempted to pull herself up on a toy but couldn't even get her butt off the floor. At least she tried though, that's better than just staring at the toy that you want. This morning she has really been scooting around in circles and even army-crawled about 3 steps when she thought that I wasn't looking. Hopefully, it will just be a few more weeks. Last night, Josh and I swear she said "Da!" She said it twice. I felt like crying. I know everyone says to not compare babies and that every baby is different but Adey just seems so far behind. She's so smart though and is going to catch up!

Devanne is doing great also. She has really improved in soccer. I can't believe how much she has improved from last year. She loves her sisters. It is so great to see her interacting with them and to see how much they adore her. When she left for school today, Jocey cried! I just love my kids so much!

I will start testing on Monday for ovulation. Maybe we will have a 4^th kid in the mix by this time next year!

Cycle Day 7

I cannot believe what just happened. I went in to take my last two pills of Cl.o.mid; while I was opening the package, one pill flew out and went straight down the bathroom sink. I tried to look down the drain but it was gone. L I took the one pill I had left but I can't believe it… I wanted to break down right there. We will see what happens now. It's all in God's hands. I should start testing on Sunday but if it goes as last time-day 14 will be Wednesday, a week from today. I am still having hot flashes and headaches. I looked it up on the internet. Hot flashes occur in 10% of women while headaches occur in 1%. I am so glad that I am in the minority!

I can't help but look at my beautiful children and wonder if I am asking too much. They are healthy and wonderful and there's 3 of them! Why do we want one more? I can't explain it but I feel like we will be complete at 4.

Cycle Day 5

I started taking Cl.o.mid on Saturday. I realized that I never wrote down what I was feeling when I took the Cl.o.mid last time. Josh said that I was well, pretty bitchy. I don't remember being bad but who knows. So I decided to write everything this time in order to remember if I EVER want to do this again.

The last couple of days have been pretty good. I don't feel like I am having many mood swings. Maybe we should ask the husband since he knows it all. J The main complaint that I have is that I feel so hot. I feel like I am having heat waves throughout the day. At night, I have to have a fan directly on my body and I haven't been using blankets either. I also feel like I am having a lot of headaches. Now I do get headaches on occasion anyway but not usually this bad. Other than that, I feel good physically.

Mentally, I am all over the place. I am anxious, worried, scared, terrified, excited, happy… I know that it is all in God's plan as to how many more kids I have and He won't give us more than we can handle…but more than one at a time would feel like it's way more than I can handle! The chance of multiples again is a big thing. I have convinced myself that if it is twins again-I can handle that-but more! I don't know… I am anxious to even know whether the Cl.o.mid is going to work in the first place. I will start testing next Sunday. I could be pregnant in less than 2 weeks! That is so crazy. The nurses tell me that getting pregnant again with the first insemination is very unlikely. Will it happen?!

In other news, Adey army-crawled for the first time today. She was so frustrated. I took away her toy and put it a few feet away from her. She cried and screamed but she finally did it! I couldn't get her to do it again today so we will have to see.

I’m Finally Learning…

I'm so excited. I never knew that I could type blog posts in Microsoft Word. I found out by accident. I always wondered how people got the pretty fonts on their blogs. What is weird that I tried to type on Microsoft today and copy and paste…that didn't work. I was doing my homework tonight. I pressed new for a new document and noticed that it asked me if I wanted to post a new blog. What?! This is totally awesome! I know, I'm a dork!

Testing

The decision has been made...

It has been decided…we are going to try for another baby. We haven’t told anyone yet. Josh really thinks we should make it a surprise for the rest of the family since we aren’t really able to surprise them with a “planned” pregnancy. Some people are going to think we are crazy. Our twins are 10 ½ months…money is tight…etc. But there are many reasons why we think the time is now.

We already know that we want to have a 4th child in the near future. We were going to wait until next year but have decided not to. The main reason is I want to go back to work at some point in the near future. I am in school right now. I will have my associate’s degree this December and will be starting my bachelor’s program in January. It will be 2 years from then until I graduate. If we have another baby, the girls will be in preschool and the baby will be 2 and hopefully ready for daycare. I will be able to go straight to work after graduating. We need this. We want to buy a house and pay down our debt. This just isn’t going to happen on 1 income. Both Josh and I do not want me to go to work for at least the baby’s 1st year or more. So if we wait until next year, I will have to wait to go back to work. Secondly, we are just plain excited to have another baby. I am a little worried about having multiples again, but I know that this is in God’s hands. It is all decided by Him.
Last month, I went in to my doctor to talk to him about having another baby. He did my yearly work-up and gave me the prescription for Clomid again. We signed all the consent forms for the IUI and were just waiting for my period to come. Then my gallbladder got infected. I had to have surgery in order to get it out. I was 4 weeks late having my period. I thought it was never going to come again… until…
YESTERDAY! Aunt Flo came to visit with a vengeance. So tomorrow I start the Clomid. We are taking 100 mg this time instead of the 150 mg that we conceived the girls with. If it all works out like last time, I should be going in for an IUI around October 7th. YIKES! This is happening… Pray for us.

Sick Babies

Ahh...!! The last 2-3 days have been crazy. First, Jocey got a runny nose. I was hoping and praying that it was only because she was teething but the next day Adey had a runny nose too. Full-blown colds came! Thankfully, they seem almost better because they have been so miserable. But I must say it was kinda nice yesterday when all they wanted was for me to hold them. I know those days are few now anyway and soon they will be obselete. :(

We are praying that my husband hears back about a new job that he applied for. It is for the same thing he was doing before but A LOT more money and full benefits. Praying... praying... praying!

Walk and Birthday

Today was the annual Walk for the Cure. This was the first year that we participated in it and it was really fun! Devanne loved looking at all the people. The girls were actually great and loved the BOB that we borrowed. I have to get one of those. I am going to post pictures later!

Today is also my husband's 27th birthday! We went to Red Robin with all of our family and friends. We had a great time.

Josh- I love you more than life itself. Thank you for being the BEST husband, BEST father, and my BEST friend! Here's to another wonderful year!

Rainy Soccer Game and Binkie Update...

So we had our first rainy soccer game of the season but it actually went pretty well. We set up a half-tent for the girls so they could still see out but not get soaked. I sat under there with them because let's face it, I didn't want to get soaked! The girls did very well-even my little crawler who SO wanted in the mud. My big girl did fantastic! She started as forward and almost got a goal! She finished off as defense-she never let a ball get by her! That's my girl! They ended up tying-not too shabby!

The girls did great on their first night without their binkies. They cried for 22 minutes-believe me, I counted! Adey still woke up at her regular times, 2 and 6, but fell asleep by herself within 30 minutes and slept until 7:15 so I would have to say that was pretty much a success. I wonder if she is EVER going to sleep all the way through. She has only done this 2 nights her whole lil' life. Any tips?

Where I live Friday-Living Room Edition

I'm participating in the "Where you Live Friday." We live in an apartment right now to save money in order to buy a house in the next couple of years. Although, I never really wanted to live in an apartment again, I have to say our apartment is pretty nice. It works better for us than our house that we rented did. Our babies have room to crawl and lots of places to crawl around and eventually walk.

This is our living room from the front door.



This is our audio center that I am pretty proud of. I'm not a very crafty person so designing an audio center for our needs is pretty awesome. The design at the bottom?? I put that in... OH yea!



Our t.v. and our "living room" toys. We have toys in pretty much every area of the house!



The look from our living room into the dining room.

Baby Schedules

Everyday I get asked how I do it. "How do you handle twins when I can not even handle my one?" I think this is a dumb question. What am I supposed to do, not take care of one? When you have two babies you just have to take care of them both-you don't really get a choice. But I do know one thing: having a schedule with twins for me is KEY! Since the girls were born, I have kept a pretty strict schedule. It is hard to remember sometimes that they are two seperate babies but for the most part, the girls have ate, slept, and played at the same time, TOGETHER-which has saved me numerous hours of sleep and work. Of course, as they have grown older, I have had to switch around naps and bottles according to their needs but they always do everything together. Right now, they are taking two naps and drinking 4 bottles a day. But I can see that they are starting to not want that second bottle so at some point, I am going to switch it around so they won't be starving by lunch. That is a big factor to scheduling for twins-you have to go with their needs or it will never work.

Some people think I am nuts because I rarely go away from our schedule. I find that when I do, the babies are cranky and do not eat or sleep well. This might be to my detriment when they get older but I think it is the parent's responsibility to make sure that your baby knows what they are going to do during the day. It gives the baby a sense of security knowing exactly what is going to happen. Not to mention, that it makes it 1000x easier when they are newborns. Here is what we do during the day:

6:30-7 A.M: Wake-up for the day; 6 oz bottle
7-8:15-Playtime
8:15-8:45-Breakfast
8:45-9:00-get dressed; read books
9-10:15 Naptime
10:15-11:00-Playtime
11-6 ozs (but they are really eating about 2-3 now)
12:15-Lunchtime
12:45-2 Playtime
2-3:15 Naptime
3:15-4 Playtime (depending on how cranky they wakeup we might have a snack)
4-6 ozs
4:15-5 Play with daddy; most of the time we take walks outside
5-6 play with daddy
6-dinner
6:45-7:15 Bathtime (we love bathes!)
7:30-6 ozs and bedtime

This is what we do pretty much everyday over and over. If I go out such as if I need to go grocery shopping or want to go somewhere, I do it during one of their playtimes. I try to never go out during their naps or even when they are supposed to eat. It's hard feeding two babies on the go! On the weekends, we have a lot of leeway. Since daddy is with us and he can help with feeding and crankiness, we go to big sister's soccer games, grocery shopping, out to eat, etc...

I think having a schedule has really helped my children to be such good little girls! :) Hopefully, I can make this happen with any other children I have.

Look at these beautiful girls!!

When are we going to get some sleep??

So sleep around here is a rare commodity. Well, maybe not that dire but seriously aren't 10 month olds supposed to sleep through the night? Let me clarify: Jocey sleeps like a champ=Adey throws parties every morning starting around 3:30 and ending at all different times. Sometimes they don't end...Let me start off by saying that my 9 year old slept in bed with me. There might be some people that absolutely love co-sleeping-I have no problems with that but I hated it!! I can't sleep, I need to be able to roll around and sleep like an angel if I want to. Devanne slept with me until she was 2 at which time it took me MONTHS to get her to sleep in her own bed. When I was pregnant with the girls, I told my husband, NO way, NO how were they going to sleep in our beds! And I have pretty much stuck to that. We had a co-sleeper that we hooked to our beds when they were newborns. I always put them down in their beds, I rarely held them when they were sleeping. As they got older, I tweaked their schedule to their sleeping needs. When they were 3 months olds, we moved them to their own cribs in their own rooms. We would feed them at 7, go to bed, dream feed at 10 and they would sleep until 5 where they would dream feed again and go back to sleep until 9. Man! those were the days...

Until recently, I had them going to bed at 8:30 and wishing that they would sleep until 7:30. I figured out that this wasn't working for Adey so I switched to have them sleeping at 7:30 and waking up at 6:30. This worked for about 3 days. Last night Adey woke up at 3:45 and had a party in her bed until 5. At this point she was screaming her head off and I had to get up to give her her binkie. She actually fell back to sleep which I was grateful for because this does not always happen.

This weekend I am planning on taking away their binkies. I feel mixed on this because I know that I want them gone by 12 months but those are my lifeline to getting ANY sleep. I have read books, I have a super strict schedule-what else can I do?

New Blog and a Promise

So I started a new blog because I couldn't get the other one I had to look the way I wanted it to (blogger designs is a WHOLE other post), but I am determined to do a better job at blogging. When the twins came I promised myself that I would write every little thing down in their baby books but they are only about half-way filled up. I feel like time is passing crazy fast and I want to document my family's lives before I become old and senile. So here's an update:

Devanne is going to be 10 years old next month! She just started 4th grade and doing wonderfully as always. She is such a little smarty pants. Her biggest milestone as of late is getting a cell phone. I always told myself that I wouldn't let her have a cell phone until she was at least 13 (even though everyone else has one, MOM!) but I decided to let her walk to school this year. Usually I am pretty strict about making her go everywhere with me or another adult but I just couldn't see getting the twins out of the house every single morning like I did last year. The school is only .3 miles away and there are crossguards on every corner so I let my baby fly the nest. I did get her a cell phone (which she was more than thrilled with) and she has to text me every morning when she hits the school doorsteps. She has done pretty good at that except for one day-I automatically called the school asking if she was there!She is playing soccer again this season and has gotten quite good. I really enjoy going to her games now! She is still my little helper with the babies. She loves them to pieces and their eyes light up everytime she enters the room. I can't believe how big she is getting. Before I know it... she is going to be a teenager!

Jocelyn and Adelyn are 10 months old (did I just say that?). 10 months! 2 more months until their 1st birthday!!! That is insane to me. My two babies could not be more different than one another. Jocelyn is outgoing and constantly moving. She learned how to army crawl a couple of weeks ago and will now not stop until naptime. SHe is constantly rolling and crawling. She is a terror of our kitties. But her smile and eyes will stop you in your tracks. She "talks" constantly and can say "mama," "dada," "nana", and "lala." Her new favorite is "goo-goo, gah gah" Way to be such a baby! She is constantly interacting with anyone that crosses her path. She laughs hysterically. She has started pulling herself up on things now and even almost escaped the bathtub last night!

Adelyn is my little sweetheart. She has not learned how to crawl yet. She gets so frustrated when her sister crawls off without her. She does not babble as Jocey does but mainly just listens to her sister. She has had a few health problems that are all starting to come together. She was having febrile seizures that landed her in the hospital for a week at a time. She would stop breathing and Josh even had to do CPR. It was the scariest moment in my entire life. We have since figured out that she has kidney reflux. It is where her pee refluxes back into her kidneys causing UTI's. The UTI's cause fevers and then she has seizures. She is on antibiotics for the next year. We are hoping that she will grow out of the reflux so she won't have to have surgery. She was on a seizure medication when I decided to take her off of it (against medical advice). She was a little baby zombie. She wouldn't sleep at night-tossing, turning, moaning, and groaning so during the day she couldn't even keep her head up. She wasn't moving or talking at 9 months old. Since taking her off the medication, she has really started to open up. She is starting to squeal and get her voice out there. She is rolling and trying to crawl. She has started to drink from a sippy cup-all of this in a span of 2 weeks. She loves her sisters and loves to "talk" and laugh at Jocey. She loves her mama...she is still having a hard time going to sleep and staying assleep but I am not sure what we are going to do about this.

Josh and I are doing fine. We love our life with our kids. They really are everything to us. Josh got a new job working for the state which is about an hour commute each way. He hates it but it is paying the bills and gives us great health insurance. I hope he finds something soon that he will enjoy doing. We are contemplating on having another child. We both know that we want one more and the time just seems right since I am going to graduate with my bachelor's degree in 2 years and would love to go back to work after. The new baby would be old enough for daycare and the girls would be in preschool. It seems so crazy but right. We will have to see how that one goes.

Hopefully, I am going to post everyday at least a little something. Without further delay, here's my beautiful kids!