Twas the Night Before a Kidney...

Wait, that's not right. But with all the "kidney stuff" the past few weeks, I haven't had time or energy to really focus on Christmas. Thankfully, I had already done most of my Christmas shopping prior to all of this yuckiness so I am not too far behind. And it has saved me from stressing too much about once again hosting a holiday at our home. I am sure my family is grateful that they have not received excel spreadsheets or multiple emails trying to piece together the holiday. So I guess we'll just wing it, which is probably more fun for everyone involved.

I guess it's about par for the course, but I never seem to deal with medical issues the simple way. Last Monday I finally got my stent removed --- and they had warned me that the pain would be decently substantial after the removal. Something about your body readjusting and contracting again after not having a foreign body in it. Anyway, they were right, but then I had some other scary symptoms that indicated infection so by Tuesday night I was back at the ER. They actually admitted me for an overnight stay but due to a horrible ER doctor, a terrible nurse and some other factors which I'll spare you the 15 minute story on -- I ended up checking out against medical advice. Fun.

Fortunately when my mom found out that I was yet again headed to the hospital, she jumped in her car and drove down from Dallas to be with us. I was so thankful to have her here even for a short time --- I truly had finally reached my breaking point after 2+ weeks of pain and was pretty much in hysterics by the time she arrived.

The next morning I had an early morning appointment with my doctor who reviewed my CT scan from the night before and assured me that all was ok for now. Basically I had let my pain get out of control (I was trying to not take more painkillers than absolutely necessary), so I never could catch up to it that afternoon --- that's where the low grade fever was triggered along with the chills. The CT scan showed my kidney was still really swollen but he wasn't necessarily surprised by that and said it needed another week at least to start healing & for the antibiotics to take down the infection. Anyway, after another round of tears, I left his office feeling at least better about the situation and ready to take a good nap. Next week I will get to have a fun special x-ray test called an IVP to check my kidney for permanent damage and to see whether I have a structural abnormality as he potentially suspected during my surgery. We didn't even honestly go into what that would mean if that was the case, so I'm not thinking too much about it or even googling it. Very un-Meagan like. But there's no point. We'll deal with it if that's the case. Until then, I am just focused on feeling better and enjoying my babies very 1st Christmas.

Thankfully I made some sort of a turn around this past weekend and actually got almost  full nights of sleep in me. I'm  not pain free or med free for that matter, but much, much better than what I was. I am so thankful all of this happened when it did ---- if I had to be down and out for Christmas, I would be truly bummed out. So now the next few days will be a rush of trying to get everything else ready and purchase a few last minute gifts.  I FINALLY got out my Christmas cards on Saturday afternoon so they won't be New Year's greetings as I had feared. Definitely not as early as I would have liked, but better than the one year when everyone got Christmas cards for Valentine's Day.

I am so excited about this holiday. It's hard to believe that this time last year, the babies were the size of apples or something and now they are actually here & will be dressed in adorable reindeer outfits. We feel incredibly blessed. We also will be baptizing the babies on Christmas Eve which will be such a special moment for our entire family. I can't think of a more appropriate night to do it. I wish all of our family members could be here to celebrate the special night, but to get everyone in town at the same time pretty much takes an Act of Congress. So hopefully we'll get it on video and everyone else will be able to at least see it.

But I can't wait to dedicate the babies and pledge in front of everyone to raise Ryan and Quinn in the Christian faith. My biggest hope for my children is that they will know and LOVE Jesus. I want them to know how awesome it is to have a relationship with Him and how they can turn to Him at all times. I pray they will have a heart for serving Him and His people. No matter what they decide to do with their lives as they grow up, if they KNOW and love Christ, then Matt and I will be thrilled and feel as if we did something right in this parenting journey.

So for now, hopefully no more posts on kidneys. Bring on Christmas! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

P.S. I came across this video from Kelly's Korner - I thought it was just so awesome! Take a peek. If you are a Facebook fan, then it will be that much more fun :)

In Him,



A Clanahan Family Christmas - 2010

A couple of Fridays ago, our family met up with our favorite photographer (and also one of my closest friends) to take yet another round of pictures of the twins. I think this is at least the 4th time she has photographed the babies (including after delivery) and 5th or 6th to take of Matt and me. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that she hasn't fired us as clients yet :)

The first twin shoot we had lasted well over 3 hours and we were all beat after that was over! And as I have mentioned before, I would typically rather be hung upside down by my toenails than have my pictures professionally taken. I sometimes resort to a glass of wine before the shoots now so I look somewhat relaxed and not so uptight about every little piece of hair. And then I usually have a glass of wine when I get the pictures back so that I don't repeat over and over again how bad I look. Self-esteem issues much? Si. I would much, much rather have pics of the babies and Matt taken all day long. But family pics generally include the entire family so apparently my presence was necessary. However, Kendra always manages to capture pictures of all of us that even I like. And she has the patience of a saint. And she makes me laugh always.

Anyway, this was an interesting photo shoot as always because just a day and a half before, I had my visit to the ER where I was pumped up on drugs and fluids. So in half of the pictures, I am pretty much a miserable girl because I was hurting so badly. Then I think in the latter half, the pain medication finally kicked in and it was easier to pose and smile a little more genuinely (if not a bit giddily). And fortunately for me, most of the pictures were of the kids -- and they did GREAT. We even managed to get an outfit change in there and NO ONE spit up on their clothes. Now that's a Christmas miracle. And we must be getting this photo stuff down because the shoot just lasted about an hour and then I was on my merry way to jump back in my pjs and crawl under my covers.

Looking back at the photo shoot we did when the twins were just about 8 weeks old, I can hardly believe these are the same kids. No more sleepy babies. We had alert, little infants on our hands. It was quite the chore to get them to smile at the same time AND be looking at the camera - so half of the time they are smiling in different directions but what are you going to do? I can't wait for them to be sitting up on their own so we can get some good ones that way. We attempted to use this little rocking chair that we borrowed from a friend but poor little things kept tipping over when they were sitting in it. A couple of more months when we have this sitting thing down, we'll have to take some more :)

Ryan has this new smile where he sticks his tongue out - it's totally precious and makes me melt every time. I think he does it because he likes feeling his tongue on his 2 new bottom teeth. It's hilarious. And Quinn just cracks me up. I am soooo thankful that Kendra was able to capture some geat smiles from her (these are just a small, small portion of the photos she took). My dark-ages camera does not take the picture fast enough when she is laughing or smiling at home, so we are typically stuck with this open mouthed look as she is "coming down" from her smile. But now I have proof that the child smiles and laughs all the time. Whew!

Kendra, thank you as always for capturing these special memories and moments in time! You are so talented. I love you & the babies especially love you :) Thank you for being one of my closest friends here - I am so blessed to have you in my life.

http://www.kendramartinphotography.com/

(If you live in the Houston area, I highly recommend her!)

In Him,

Probably a post that's TMI.

I'm not sure why I think you all really care about my kidney. But let's be honest, outside of my little world of the 3 B's (babies, bottles, and baths), it's pretty much the most excitement (and pain) we've had around here since the twins were born.

So last time I posted about the kidney, we were pretty sure I had a 6 mm stone and it was perhaps going to have to be "blasted". So Monday I headed back up to the dr. for an xray and to pray that blasting would not be necessary.

I knew I was in trouble when he walked in the room and the first question out of his mouth was "Well, did you call your mom or mother-in-law to come help you the rest of the week?"

Uh no. No, I did not. Because I really didn't think the procedure thing would happen. And even if it did, I had all hopes that I would recover quickly and Matt & I could take care of it.

Turns out he couldn't see it on the xray. Neither could his colleague. When you can't see it on the xray, you can't just blast it from the outside because you don't know exactly where it is.

So I was scheduled for uterscopic or uteroscopy or some other utero-pain word. Basically (without getting overly graphic), they put you to sleep for an hour or so, thread a small camera with a laser on the end through your urethra up into your kidney and blast it from the inside. Then, for the really fun (read: burn like hell) part, they send you home with a stent that has to remain in place for at least 3 days.

Then he had what he calls his "come to Jesus" talk with me where he told me what I was about to go through would cause pretty signficant pain and numero uno, with 2 infants, I needed help.

 (Oh, and did I mention that my doctor looks like Drew Brees minus the birthmark?!? I was more excited about that when I thought he was going to blast me from the outside --- less excited when I found out that it would be from the inside. Then I wanted the old man or woman to take his place. Oh, and the whole Drew Brees thing was disclosed to Matt following my first appointment. He met him prior to surgery and couldn't disagree. )

But besides him being a look-alike of my favorite NFL QB (or really the only QB I could probably name besides the Manning brothers and Romo), he also happens to a nice guy who's a darn good doctor. He's also very honest. Thus, "the come to Jesus talk".

So when I asked him on Thursday morning right before they wheeled me to the OR if he thought I would still be able to host a baby shower on that coming Saturday, I'm pretty sure I saw him roll his eyes. He was like "umm, didn't we just have the CTJ talk? You won't be doing much of anything for at least a handful of days."

Me, still being stubborn, rolled my eyes and said "Well, Dr. K, you don't know my ability to tolerate pain. I think I'll be ok". At this point, I think he just laughed and let it go - and mentioned something to Matt about when she complains about being in a good amount of pain, believe me, she's not exagerrating. So take care of her, or something to that effect. All very interesting side conversation.

And now that I am 3 days post surgery, I would like to say to Dr. K - sir, you were right. I surrender. I barely made it to the shower today. I hurt. I missed the baby sprinkle I was HOSTING. I missed two Christmas parties & ornament exchanges. Huge bummers. (Yup, although I am not proud to admit it, I have thrown a few pity parties for myself). And I haven't left the house except for a 5 minute trip to Walgreens to pick up yet another prescription. The pharmacist calls me by first name now. To be honest, I'm surprised it took this long. That Walgreens has been open well over a year. I should have been on their top clientele list for awhile.

And now for the interesting part, at least to me and my kidney. No 6mm stone to be found. However, they did find a large obstruction in the area between my kidney and urethra, and I earned myself an extra week of antibiotics since it appeared my kidney was swollen and infected. Awesome. See, when I get kidney stones, they are big.

 But then apparently, I get kidney stones that don't exist and instead mean blockage? And swelling and infection? What? I don't know. And what causes this? I really don't think my little friend Diet Coke had a role in blocking part of my kidney. At least I hope not. I miss DC.

I'll find out more at my appointment on Monday when they remove this darn stent and hopefully that will make me feel 100 times better. I was on signficant amounts of drugs obviously when Dr. K came to see me so I don't recall much of what he said. I just remember crying because my back hurt so bad (it apparently was spasming (sp?) but I had no idea). So he obviously told Matt the situation, but between the sleep deprivation and then secondhand details, this seems like the best we can piece together at the moment as to what happened.

So obviously it was a different turn of events than we expected. Much worse than the pain though has been my frustration in not being able to care for my kids for the first time in six months. On Thursday and Friday I couldn't even bend down to kiss them or pick them up. Today was a little bit better and I was able to help out more and give a few bottles and actually play with them a little bit.

All I can say is that my husband completely rocks. He has not complained a single time about having to take care of them almost 100% since Thursday. He has only left the house twice by himself since then and that was for quick trips to the grocery and the drug store yet again. I don't know what I would do without him. He is truly my partner in all of this, and I am so grateful. He dressed Q every day like I do, with a matching bow. And he even finished decorating the Christmas tree, which is normally my job.

But I'm willing to bet he's actually looking forward to getting back to work on Monday :)

6 Months Old???

Yup, the babies are 6 months old...these have been the most rewarding, joyous, challenging, sleep-deprived, wonderful six months of my life. I wouldn't trade them for anything in this world. While I wish they would slow down in their growing just a bit, it's also so exciting to see the new things they discover each and every day. It seems everyday that Matt gets home from work, I excitedly tell him about the "new" and "amazing" thing that one of the twins is doing. It's too fun. My camera has never gotten so much use as it has in the past six months. I also don't think I've laughed this much in my life. There's just so much joy.

So below, here is what R&Q are up to at 6 Months!!!

Ryan: What You Are Up To @ 6 Months Old!

- You now weigh 15lbs 9oz (25th percentile!), you are 25.75 inches long (16th percentile) and your head is 44.5 cm (whoa, 75th percentile!). You are fully in 3-6 month clothes from most places and wear 6 month sleepers. I think we are going to have to move you soon into larger sleepers because you like to be able to move around at night, and some of those are getting a little skin tight! You will probably be in 6-9 month clothing very soon --- too soon for Momma, who still has way more outfits for you to wear that are 6 month size. But some of them get stuck in your big noggin' and you don't like that very much :)

- You grow new hair every day it seems! It's so soft and I love to run my fingers through it. It's definitely brown and you have the most gorgeous blue eyes. Now that you are 6 months, I believe they are hear to stay. You can thank your grandfathers for that one!

- You are still just about the happiest and easiest going baby I've ever seen. You pretty much just go with the flow and you only cry if you are super tired  or super hungry. When you are done eating, you will just give me this precious grin and just toy with the bottle. You never seem to get mad about anything! Except when I pull those too tight collars over your head.

- You are MOVING. A lot. You just roll and roll and roll. I can't leave you alone on your play mat for a second because before I know it, you have rolled yourself almost under the coffee table. You like toys, and you love your "lovey" but you are pretty much just into trying to move your body these days. You have also taken up what we call your "yoga pose" --- where you lift both your arms and your legs off the ground while you are on your tummy and just leave them hanging in the air. When I look at you when you are doing that, you just give me the biggest smile and look heartbreakingly grown up!

- Speaking of smile, you officially have 2 bottom teeth that have come in! They are not all the way through but most of the way. You started getting them at Thanksgiving and now you just have these two perfectly formed SHARP teeth. Amazing. You grabbed my hand the other day and start sucking on it and for a second I forgot about your teeth until you sunk them into my flesh. Yeah, that didn't hurt at all :)

- You are sleeping through the night and would probably sleep more if I would let you. You are still taking 3 good naps a day, and I am so grateful for that. Your morning nap and afternoon nap are probably your best ones and I can count on you to go for at least and hour and a half to two hours. LOVE that.

- You are still my snuggle bunny, no matter how big you get. I can always count on you to be my "cuddle monkey" and I love it.

- You still eat 5 times a day and typically have between 6-7 ounces per bottle. We just started rice cereal by spoon and so far, you are not the biggest fan. But we're working on it. You don't exactly hate it, I just think you are confused why you suddenly have this metal/plastic thing in your mouth and not a soft nipple. But you'll catch on soon!

- You giggle and laugh all the time and make tons of sounds. I need to pay closer attention but I think you are starting to babble in 2 syllables now. You also in the last couple of days have been saying the "mmmmm" sound which I take as a positive sign that maybe, just maybe, you will say "Mama" first! (crossing fingers, ha)

- I love you, sweet boy. I love the way you interact with your sister and are so interested in what's going on around you. I love your calm nature and your drooly smiles. And your daddy and I can't wait to see the boy you will become in the next few months ---aghhhh!

Quinn: What You Are Up To @ 6 Months Old:

- You now weigh 13lbs 6oz (10th percentile), you are 23.75 inches long (6 or 7th percentile) and your head is 41.3 cm (25th percentile). You are wearing all 3-6 month clothes now except your 3 month onesies from Carter's still fit pretty well. I get very excited everytime I pull something new out of your closet that I have been waiting for you to wear and it actually fits!!

- You also have quite the extensive bow collection. We have expanded into the realm of these thin, stretchy headband bows because they look much more proportionate on your little head. Which by the way, you have the most perfect little round head - it's like a baby dolls! You still don't have much in the way of hair but lately, I've noticed a few little new sprouts. Hard to tell what color it's going to be, but I am leaning towards just brown with maybe a little blonde thrown in. Natural highlights, perhaps? Your eyes are also fully hazel now and change colors depending upon what you are wearing. Mommy & Daddy both have hazel eyes and think it's very special that you do, too!

- Your personality has become so developed over the last month or so. You are such a joy. You are most happy when you have not one, not two, but at least 3 toys in your hands or between your feet. You are easily bored and like to be amused and entertained at all times. You will entertain  yourself for at least 30 minutes on the playmat as your lift your legs up and grab all sorts of things. You will grab 2 of the hanging toys with each of your hands then lift your legs and somehow grasp onto another. It's amazing. Your grandmother Barbara calls you "Nadia" because you have all the litheness and flexibility of a gymnast. I will be crazy if I don't put you in tumbling classes very early on :)

- Your Daddy calls you "Thunder Kick" because you will just bring your legs almost up to your ears and then slam them down with all of your might --- with not a care in the world with what may be below. We have to keep a close eye on you because you have almost smashed your brother in the face a couple of times. I don't think he would have liked that too much. You are fearless - yikes! So was I as a baby and I would just run full force into coffee tables, doors, people, etc. Something tells me you will be the same way.

- Your fine motor skills are so developed - you must be into everything, touching everything, moving all the time. And you are working so hard on your gross motor skills. You will now roll front to back and back to front again and again until you get tired and start screaming for us. You are starting to sleep on your tummy more and more and I think you like it there --- until you wake up and get confused why you don't see the ceiling anymore. You are also freakishly strong and can hold yourself in a sitting position for a long time with my hand propped behind you. I know you will sit on your own very soon! You also can hold yourself up really well on your legs with assistance. I think that's where your petiteness really pays off. But sweetheart, the way you move around, no one would ever guess that you have a "different' heart! It's amazing.

- You are still fiesty, spunky, and lovable, and you pretty much have the most precious giggle in the world. It goes from a giggle into a full blown chuckle in a matter of seconds. I love that you are so happy now because for a little while when you first came home, I wondered if you liked us :) But obviously you were just adjusting to being in new surroundings, and I guess you figure you like us now!

- You are also making all sorts of babbling sounds. I have caught "bbbs" and "uhhhhhhs" and a few others. I think I've caught a couple of doubles from you as well - wow, I really need to pay closer attention to those from you guys!

- You still take 5 bottles a day. You vary tremendously in the amount of the bottles but we are starting to figure out a pattern. As long as you are growing, your dietician and doctor are ok with that. So, you aren't the most consistent child :) You will eat a big ole bottle for breakfast (almost 6 ounces sometimes) but then, even if we wait 4 hours, you may still only take 2 ounces the next bottle. And then the 3rd bottle you are back up to maybe 4 - 5 ounces, then 4th feeding is about 3oz and 5th before bed is usually another good one of 5 ounces. Whew, you can wear me out sometimes thinking about all of that! But like I said, you continue to grow and gain weight, so that works for you! Plus, since you are still taking high-cal formula with the rice cereal, you just stay a little more full longer. And you really, really liked the rice cereal spoon fed to you! You had a total advantage having had the taste of in your bottle before, so really you just need to learn the whole spoon & swallow thing. By the second night, you had it down, and we could see how proud of yourself you were. Precious!!

- We love you so much, baby girl. Your chubby cheeks make me melt. And to see you thrive and continue to grow as well as you have --- well, it just shows me that God is still in the miracle business for sure. My heart is full and my cup overfloweth.

Love you, precious angels - and can't wait to celebrate your 1st Christmas with you in just 2 weeks! Man, I have a lot of outfits to put you in between now & then!

No Sick Time for Mommy

It's been quite the week to say the least. It all started Tuesday with a dull backache on my left side. Of course, with lugging 2 kids around, I always seem to have new aches and pains in my back and knees so I pretty much ignored it. By Tuesday night I was getting some weird pains but I chalked it up to exhaustion and headed to bed at a blissful 8:30pm. Slept ok, but by Weds there was no question it was getting worse. By the time Matt got home from work, I was almost delirious with pain --- all through my back, left abdomen. Yuck.

So we called our awesome neighbors to see if they could stay with the kids (thankfully they could!) and headed up to the ER. In a matter of an hour, I was thankfully hooked up to pain meds, IV fluids and had a CT scan --- and diagnosed with a kidney stone. I know these things are pretty common but with all the ailments I've had, kidney stones have never been one. Actually shocking considering the amount of diet coke and lack of water I drink. Anyway, the thing came back measuring about 6mm. They sent me home with some more meds, told me I had about a 60% chance of passing it on my own, and to see a urologist soon.

Luckily in all of the appointments leading up to our invitro stuff, we fell into a great urology practice so I was able to get in pretty quickly. On Friday I went to see him and he was not as positive about the 60%  chance. He thinks probably "slim to none" that I'll be able to get rid of it myself. Awesome. So I head back on Monday for an xray to see if they can see it with the naked eye & if it's still there (and trust me, as of Sunday, it is!), they'll have to blast it sometime this week.

Unfortunately, Mommy really doesn't have time to be sick. I have Christmas cards to get out, a tree needing to be decorated, clothes that need to be washed, dinners that need to be made, and not to mention 2 kids who would like to be fed on a semi-regular basis. Thankfully Matt was able to take a 1/2 day on Thursday to help me out and he has every Friday in December off. So he has been a HUGE help taking over many duties. It's times like this when I realize there is NO WAY I could raise these twins on my own. As much as I'd like to think I am a pretty independent girl, I NEED my husband. And not so much for the things that he does for me and how he provides (although he's wonderful at that) but for the emotional support he gives me. I literally cannot count the number of times that he has had to be at my bedside in a hospital, ER, or urgent care. Poor guy. But he is always a trooper and is always trying to make me laugh or whatever to take my mind off of what's happening. Truly blessed to have him by my side. I just wish he didn't have to be by my "bedside" quite so often!

Along with our crazy week, we also had our Christmas card picture session scheduled for Friday. I really didn't want to have to cancel because I knew we wouldn't be able to do them again for at least a couple of weeks & I really wanted the pictures for the Christmas cards. So I popped a couple of pills, half-heartedly attempted to do my hair, got the kids dressed and headed out the door for an hour long session. My photographer Kendra is SUCH a trooper - and put up with my drug-induced haze and always present self-consciousness.

I had a sneek peek of the pics this a.m. and all I can say is that it is WAY obvious that in the beginning I did not feel well at all. It was also fairly obvious that I should have spent more time on my hair. Ha. But towards the end, I suppose the meds kicked in and I looked a little more pleasant. And of course I am completely biased, but all of the pictures of the kids are sooo cute!! I can't wait to get my hands on them & figure out which ones to use. I spent way too much time planning their outfits & accessories and of course, we didn't even have time to get through half of the outfits I brought with us :)

We did have some good news yesterday though --- God always seems to know when I need that! We are blessed that Quinn qualified for the ECI program through the state -- which means she gets OT every month as well as monthly visits from a dietician. We love love love our dietician and she is always available when I have questions or need support. So she made her monthly visit out to our house on Saturday (another plus, we don't even have to travel to see her!) and gave us great news about Quinn. She has continued to gain weight steadily and is right on track for her adjusted age and given her heart condition. She is now at around the 10th percentile for both length and weight and she is perfectly proportioned for her size. Her scale had her weighing in at about 13lbs 3oz --- I actually think her scale weighs a little light, so I'll be interested to see what our pediatrician's scale says at their 6 month appt on Monday.

 But this was just blessed news considering Matt and I were about to start pulling our hair out again after a couple of very difficult weeks of feeding her. Luckily in the past 4 days, she's rallied and done much better again -- but there is nothing worse than knowing your baby needs to eat so she can be big enough for a life-saving surgery and she wants nothing to do with it. Heartbreaking is a word. Frustrating is another.

She also gave us the green light to start spoon feeding some rice cereal to both babies. She had really wanted to wait until they had better head control and they seem ready now. And when we offered just an empty spoon to Quinn, she sucked mightily on it so we're hoping it will go well. We still need to break the  high chairs out of the boxes but plan on starting the cereal tonight. I pray, pray, pray that my daughter just LOVES solids and is just incredibly bored with bottles and formula. I know we still have a ways to go before they will strictly be on solids and I can pitch these bottles, but if the next 6 months go by as fast & furious as these former, then we'll be there before we know it. And my bottle angst (and Quinn's) will be a distant memory.

So that's pretty much our week in a nutshell. Probably a lot of meaningless stuff that bored all of you :) But such is our life! Getting a little cabin fever having been in the house for the most part since this past Tuesday but my bed seems to trump most outings. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Maybe this thing will pass overnight and no "blasting" will be necessary. That's my prayer for sure. There's no sick time for Mommy!

Coming next: R&Q's 6 month updates as soon as we go to the doctor tomorrow! How are they 6 months old already??!!

Thanksgiving Hangover 2010

So Thanksgiving has come and gone way too quickly. All that time prepping Excel sheets, sending emails, coordinating arrival times, cooking, eating, cleaning, and then eating some more --- and it's gone! Down came the Fall decorations yesterday and up go the Christmas ones today, if I can get my act together. As usual, I wish the weekend would have lasted just a little bit longer --- there always seems to be more that I want to do with my family and it's just not possible to get everything done.


Anyway, as is the Anderson tradition, the dishes served this year were the "BEST EVER!". We say that every year. Who cares if it's true or not? I think it's because the pumpkin pie & oyster dressing usually only makes a yearly appearance so we forget how good it all really is.


And while I will say that I am definitely not the hostess with the mostess, I enjoyed having everyone here. I will say I get a little (ok, a lot!) stressed thinking about having that many people in my house. But after the 2nd (or was it the 4th?) glass of wine, I was able to R.E.L.A.X. and really enjoy myself. Thank you to my mom, Steve, Blaine, Christina, Denver and Putty for making the trip. We love you guys!


We took a lot of pics - more so than usual just because of the babies. Typically in our marriage, Matt and I have not been the best at recording our memories and taking pictures but 2 babies changes all of that! It's actually been a lot of fun to be able to look back at their earliest pictures and just see how far we've come. Amazing. And amazing that they will be SIX months old in just a few days. We've survived :)

Love to you all and hope you had your BEST Thanksgiving ever!