Air Force One and the Thunderbirds

President Bush and Air Force One was here in the Springs last night and this morning for the Air Force Acadamy graduation. The Thunderbirds were also here and preformed a formation fly-over at the graduation. A few days ago the Thunderbirds flew over Pikes Peak for a photo op.

After waiting about two hours (should have brought sunscreen) this morning President Bush finally arrived. However, he left as fast as he arrived, still it was pretty neat seeing him turn and wave.

This is one of my favorite photos with Air Force One taking off in the background of the Thunderbirds.

"And Then..."

Today Matthew and I had lunch at Panda Express. It was quite interesting what our fortune cookies said in light of how we will be embarking on a life long project very soon.

Matthew's fortune is the first and mine is the second.

On a side note, last time we ate at Panda my fortune cookie didn't have a fortune in it. I wasn't sure what that meant...

Moths

During about 2 weeks in May, moths raid the skies during the night here. It isn't just a few here and there, there are quite a few. Every time we opened the door (even when the porch light wasn't on) the moths flooded into our house.

Growing up Matthew lived in South Dakota for a few years. There is also a moth bombardment there too. Matthew told me that he use to run around with the vacuum trying to suck up the moths. I guess in South Dakota it is so much worse. Matthew was telling me that they would come out of kitchen drawers when ever they were opened. It isn't that bad here, but it definitely isn't fun to have 7 or 8 moths flying all over your vaulted ceiling.

Matthew decided to take the vacuum to the moths. I might add that this was particularly funny because this incident happened while he was on Tylenol 3. He was getting so frustrated trying to suck up them up.

Thankfully the moths didn't clog my vacuum.

Unfortunately Matthew wasn't able to suck up all of the moths that night, we had them flying around our house for a couple of days before they were all dead. I wasn't able to get a good picture of the moths, but they are just typical moths.

Pets or Pests...

So every base we have lived at, there has been some sort of critter that decided they were sharing our property with us. Since Matthew has "such a great love" for pets, this is probably the closest I am going to get to having a pet until our kids try to con their dad into having a dog.

In Mississippi we had armadillos...
Other than seeing these things in a zoo, it was kind of cool seeing these creatures running around every where. Although we quickly found out just how dumb armadillos are.

In California we had snails...

One night we went outside and counted over 30 snails. While counting Matthew told me about when his dad was stationed at Vandenberg 20 years ago, he and his brother would catch snails and then throw them against a wall. Apparently they kind of explode everywhere. I am sure his mom sure liked having snail guts on the side of her house.

In Colorado we now have rabbits...
Sometimes the rabbits box each other. I guess it is a territorial thing.

These 2 rabbits were fighting, but I didn't get a good picture of them actually boxing each other. One of these rabbits actually likes to live under our pine tree.

Same 2 rabbits.

This is our rabbit. It likes to sit in a dip in the ground right there. Matthew likes to chase after the rabbits some times. I told him as long as he doesn't try to run them over with the lawn mower then it was okay.

Side story: When my family lived in Nebraska, my dad had planted a nice garden. Well turns out the rabbits liked our garden. On occasion while mowing the lawn my dad would try to run the rabbits over with the lawn mower so they would leave his garden alone. He never did run any over, but he sure tried sometimes.

The Joys of Pregnancy

Matthew found these pregnancy cartoons a while back on google images. We thought they were so funny (yet true) that we needed to share them.

Or in my case, twins...

It is so true, it drives me nuts when complete strangers decide they can rub my belly. I am not Buddha for heaven's sake. Well for that matter, I don't like anyone rubbing my belly (execpt Matthew) unless they ask first. And the answer usually is a big fat NO. I don't go up to bald people and rub their heads... haha.

Now that the babies are moving around a whole lot more I run to the bathroom a whole lot more. For some reason they think that my bladder is a trampoline. I hate it when I just barely went to the bathroom and then the babies decide to move and make me run to the bathroom again.

I actually don't mind when people ask me questions about my pregnancy, for the most part. The only thing that bothers me is after the person finds out I am expecting twins, sometimes the next question happens to be, "Oh are they natural or man made?" Or something to that effect. I guess there are still plenty of people out there who believe that going through infertility is changing God's plan. My response is always, "They are naturally man made, since I did marry a man." That usually makes the person turn red and walk in the other direction. Oh some people and their igonrance.

In all seriousness, these pictures are great to laugh at, but I am so blessed to be able to have these 2 little boys and Matthew and I can't wait until they are actually here in our arms.

3rd Trimester...

I thought I would post the differences between trimesters thus far. I am not sure about other women's pregnancies, but each of my trimesters thus far have been completely different from one another.

1ST TRIMESTER
CRAVINGS:
-Kraft Mac & Cheese, but only the character kind, for some reason I thought it tasted completely different than the normal kind.
-Mexican food, I mostly craved the nachos from Chili's.

SYMPTOMS:
-Morning sickness, although I was able to keep my food down most of the time, I felt horribly nauseous all of the time. Quite often I would tell Matthew that if I could just throw up I would at least feel better for a couple of minutes. Thankfully the combination of Sea-Bands, Preggie Pops, and Vitamin B6 saved me from morning sickness in time to make the major move.
-EXTREME irritability... I constantly had to keep my temper in check because the smallest things pissed me off.
-Fatigue, I couldn't get enough sleep.
-I had quite a few girls tell me that when you are pregnant you don't lose your hair. That isn't the case for me. I am still shedding just as much as I did before I became pregnant. But my hair did grow about 2 1/2 inches in those 3 months.

WEIGHT GAIN:
-I actually lost 15lbs. I was never sick enough and I was constantly eating even when I wasn't feeling good. My Reproductive Endocrinologist chalked it up to water weight from the ovulation injections I did prior to pregnancy. That wasn't the case either. I just for no reason lost 15lbs.

MAJOR MILESTONES:
-Dec 11, 2007: Well of course, found out I was pregnant.
-Dec 17, 2007: First ultrasound, found out we were having twins.

2ND TRIMESTER
CRAVINGS:
-Chinese/Japanese food, for the first half of this trimester I couldn't get enough of Panda Express. I still love that restaurant, but I have tried really hard to cut back because it gave me heart burn.
-BBQ, particularly pulled pork sandwiches and ribs from Famous Dave's.

SYMPTOMS:
-Hungry all of the time. I end up eating every 2-3 hours.
-This trimester I had little to no irritability. Actually almost anything would set me off on a laughing tangent. Matthew says it is really funny because he had always heard that pregnant women are hard to live with. According to him, this last trimester has been way fun to watch me laugh hysterically at almost anything.
-I'm still shedding like normal, but my hair continues to grow, this last trimester it grew another 2 inches. I am glad it is growing so fast, I had a horrible hair cut 8 months ago and wish I never chopped it off.
-At the beginning of the trimester I would get very painful headaches. But I am not sure if that is related to the pregnancy or if it is trying to get use to the high altitude. Moving from sea level at California to 6200 ft, here in the Springs, did a number on me as far as head aches and fatigue.
-Heart burn/Acid reflux... It is to the point that I have to take medication for prevention, not treatment. It is only going to get worse. The medication I am currently on doesn't work very well anymore and my peri is already talking about putting me on something else like Prilosec.

WEIGHT GAIN:
-Thankfully I have been gaining a little bit. Still I have only gained a total of 13lbs. My perinatologist is getting nervous and is talking about putting me on high protein shakes to help me gain. With twins a normal woman is suppose to gain about 50lbs by the time of delivery. The peri said that I should be eating on average 3000-4000 calories a day. I am lucky if I make it to 2700 a day even with eating junk food. Since I only have at most 9 weeks left I have a lot to gain in a short amount of time.

MAJOR MILESTONES:
-Beginning Feb: Moved from Cali to Colorado
-Beginning Feb: Between week 13 and week 14, first felt baby flutters. In a normal pregnancy that is kind of early, but the doc said for twins it was completely normal to feel the babies move since there are 2 and not much room.
-Mar 27, 2008: Found out the twins are both boys.
-Mar 28, 2008: Started buying for the nursery.
-Mid April: Baby flutters turned into major kicking.
-May 4, 2008: Matthew felt the babies move for the first time.
-May 11, 2008: First official Mother's Day

3RD TRIMESTER
Since I am just barely into the 3rd Trimester I am making predictions or wishes and will then post the results after the trimester is over.

CRAVINGS:
-I have been craving a little more than normal sweet things. Not sure if that will last.
-I hope to crave vegetables more. I think I eat plenty of fruits.

SYMPTOMS:
-I have been feeling more fatigue lately.
-Restlessness, I am already having a hard time sleeping with my belly getting bigger.
-Swelling, I have already started to experience this a little with the weather warming up. Hopefully it won't become too bad. We will see...

WEIGHT GAIN:
-I hope to gain enough weight that my peri won't want to put me on a protein diet.

MAJOR MILESTONES:
-July 1-31: Babies born. The doctors want me to make it to at least 35 weeks, but for some reason I feel like the boys will come between week 32 and 34. I just feel I need to be prepared for them a little sooner than expected.

That is it for now, if anyone else has predictions or comments it would be fun to hear them....

Katie graduates to the 3rd trimester

For all those interested...Katie is officially in the 3rd Trimester today...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC

Well...today, May 18th is Erics Birthday.

For his birthday I thought that I would post a few photos of him.

Here is GOOD Eric...

...And this is BAD Eric!

Notice the lady in the background on this one!

Happy 23rd Birthday Eric...your cards in the mail...

Funny Things Matthew Says While On Codeine

Yesterday Matthew had a minor outpatient surgery to remove a sore on his leg. He is completely fine except he was given Tylenol 3 with codeine in it. In the 4 1/2 years that we have been married he has never been on any sort of narcotics so I have never had the pleasure of experiencing what he is like while on them. It has been quite funny to listen to all of the different things he says.


Famous Quotes From Matthew

-"If I move my head real fast, it takes a second to catch up." (He said this while moving his head back and forth rapidly.)

-"You can call me flabio" (This was said right after a shower, but I might add that I don't think he is flabby at all.)

-"I just said do-do" (He said this tonight while on the phone with his sister Stephanie. He was explaining what he is suppose to be doing in his job. Sorry Stephanie, but this explains why he kept rambling and saying weird things.)

-"What's up bung-hole?" (He said this last night while explaining to me how we was going to start the briefing he gave today to his commander. But I might add that the codeine wore off in time for him to give his presentation today and didn't take anymore Tylenol 3 until he got home from work. His briefing went really well even though he was in minor pain.)

-I want to go for a pee. (I said I needed to go to the store, and Matthew turned to me and instead of telling me he needed to go to the bathroom he slurred his words together and said, "I wanna gopher pee.")

-The other night while Matthew was getting ready for bed he went to brush his teeth and thought to himself, "I need toothpaste." But instead of getting toothpaste he squirted our foaming hand soap on his toothbrush. Thankfully he realized what he was doing before the soap reached his mouth. He says, "I looked at it and thought that something just doesn't look right."

That is all he said for now, but I sure have been able to get a lot of laughs out of him in the last 24 hours. If he says anything else unusual or funny I will be sure to update this post.

FYI

Lately we have been receiving comments that are completely inappropriate and from people who we don't know. So we recently enabled the option to review the comments before we allow them to be posted. We love people reading our blog and commenting, but from now on if we don't find the comment appropriate or it was left anonymously then it won't be posted. So if you would like us to post a comment then please leave a name in the comment or sign up for the free gmail account. We do apologize if this is a hassle for some of you, but if you read some of the comments we have been receiving then you would completely understand. For now we are leaving our blog open since most of our friends and family do not have gmail accounts. But if we continue to receive disrespectful, perverse comments we will have to make our blog private. If that happens a person will have to be invited to see the blog and will have to have a gmail account. Just giving a heads up, again we apologize if we deleted anyone's post. It was because we had no idea who it was from.

Week 26...Almost into the 3rd Trimester

Here is a recent photo of Katie, now six months pregnant. I know we haven’t posted in a while and a few people have been asking how she is looking. For the most part Katie feels good with minor pains and discomforts. Since transferring from the Army base we have been really impressed with our new doctor. She is seeing a perinatologist. I guess that is a requirement with having twins. They are very professional and appear ready for almost any difficulties or problems. Last week we were able to take a little tour of some of the facilities…Pretty impressive so far. When it gets closer we will be able to tour other facilities they have such as the birthing rooms and even the NICU, in the event the boys are born early-they’ve given about a 50% chance of coming before 36 weeks and will be here for sure by 37 weeks. We are now on week 26…as far as coming early the doctors stated that they and we can breath a sigh of relief after 28 weeks…this because they have a greater chance of survival after 28 weeks. At this appointment we were able to sit down with one of the RNs and go over some preventative ways of stopping premature births. One way, which hopefully it doesn’t come to it, is for Katie to be placed on bed rest either at home or in the hosptial.

4mo, 5mo, and 6mo...

April Showers Bring May... Snow?

The last 48 hours have been interesting. Yesterday the temperature was 78 degrees. Then this morning I woke up around 9am and there was and inch of snow on the ground. These two pictures were taken a few hours later when the snow started to melt. Matthew was telling me that at Schriever it was a blizzard. The news is saying that tomorrow it is suppose to be back in the 60s. I have to admit that the snow wasn't too surprising. Matthew's cousins told us when we moved here that they have lived here for the past 10 years and have seen it snow every month of the the year. Good thing we haven't put away our winter coats or snow shovel yet.

Picture of our drive way from the front door.

Picture of our front yard from the front door.