It's a ...........

Well first I have to say- I was WRONG! I really thought it was a boy and a girl.
Then my dad had me convinced that it was 2 boys.

But what they really are is




BOTH GIRLS!!!!!!!!!



So congrats to the only 9 who voted for both girls. You have bragging rights over the rest of us!


We will leave their modesty intact and just give you a shot of their precious feet.
Baby A is on my left side and Baby B is on the right. So Baby A is first and Baby B is second.



No names yet. Lots of pink and dresses headed our way!

umm Pictures

Grandparents are always asking why we don't have as many pictures of Gianna as we used to.
John asked her to stand and smile in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.
Here is what happened:

I'm in front of the tree.

But you can't make me stand!!!!

What?

Tree what tree? And you can forget about standing.

Catch me if you can!

Alright I'll allow Mommy to hold my in front of the tree, but smile, NO WAY!

Big FAT Bummer!!!

Our doctor's appointment got changed to 4:30 in the afternoon from 9 am! I am a bit bummed out. Now I have to wait an whole day longer!!!!
I cannot imagine what millions and billions of women had to do for thousands of years and wait for the entire 9 months!

Oh well, I guess it will build character! We'll let you know as soon as we can so keep looking tomorrow after 5!

Cookies!

Fun to make- Yummy to eat!!!!!!

Wonderful Birthday Weekend!

My wonderful husband surprised me with an overnight trip to Austin for my birthday! He planned the hotel, and the restaurant and who would take care of Gianna! I had a wonderful time!
We stayed at The Four Seasons Hotel in Austin overlooking Town Lake (now called Lady Bird Lake, but it's Austin and everything has to have a minimum of two names.) We went to Truluck a seafood restaurant for dinner and enjoyed Austin Friday evening.
Saturday morning we slept in until 8:30!!!!!
Fellow parents can you believe it?
We had a leisurely birthday breakfast Saturday morning and then I got a maternity massage! I was pampered and loved and it was nice.
John always does a good job at celebrating my birthday. It's a hard job with it being so close to Christmas, but he is a good celebrator.
We enjoyed just sitting watching the lake and all the rowers and swans until check out time and then went to PF Chang's for lunch. We gathered our relaxed selves and went to claim Gianna at her Great Grandma's house in Temple.
Gianna of course had a blast hanging out with Great Grandma Aunt Lisa and Cousin Julie. They fed her every imaginable food with sugar- just like all Grandparents should. They let her stay up late and played and entertained her greatly.
We all enjoyed our weekend of fun! Happy Birthday to me!!!

You know when you're the mother of a toddler when...

You know you're the mom of a toddler when...

... you accept open mouth snotty wet kisses as normal and kind of cute

... you willingly eat McDonald's just for the playground

... you rate the quality of the store based on the potties

... you sit with your toddler for 1 hour while she "eats" her food

... you listen to your toddler chant no no no no no no no no no no over and over again in our ear while you hold her

... you patiently instruct your toddler to not do something in a calm voice that you are sure you told her 5 minutes ago not to do

... you willingly get up every day and do it again. (See the first one!)

Winter Wonderland!

Here are some pictures from last Wednesday when we had not one but two times of snow in one day. It didn't even melt throughout the day! We woke up to snow and in the evening it snowed again!
Thankfully we got Gianna's hat handmade from Granny in the mail just in time to stay warm!

The Countdown is On

Up Yours?

by John


In the middle of the night we heard a large crash. It was in our room, and is not a very pleasant way to be awakened. I got up half scared and half curious as to what happened. Our clothes that we put on the top shelve within a few boxes had fallen down. I whispered to Charissa what happened and we both tried to get some sleep after that.

The next morning before I went to work, I was picking up the clothes and putting them back in the boxes. Gianna walked in to watch me. She came and gave me a hug, smiled, then stood in her managerial stance to see what I was going to do.

I picked the box up over my head to put in on the shelf, when the coo of my little girl said "up yours". I thought surely not, this was a mistake that I heard. She probably meant to say "up there". As I reached for the second box she said with more excitment "up yours". Now this time I could tell that's what she said. She did not mean to, she was trying to make a sentence but that's what it sounded like. Kept going through my mind, "what is she trying to say", but before I figured it out she said with a smile "up yours". I try to ignore it and preceded to leave the room so I could laugh and not draw attention.

She was not cursing, and no, did not hear it from us. But as she is trying to learn how to communicate she has sounds that come out very funny.

So I bid you farewell, which in baby means, "up yours" :)

Not a bah humbug!

I got to thinking that my post about Christmas carols would lead you all to believe that I don't like Christmas.
That in fact is WRONG! I love Christmas and all that comes with it. You see I kind of have to- I'm a December Birthday. And well, you have to embrace it or grow bitter and I've chosen embrace a long time ago.
I love starting new traditions and carrying on old ones with Gianna. A old one that we use to do in my family is the advent calender and the Christmas story chain. John's family has the tradition of red and green M &M's and making snowballs great cookies rolled in powered sugar!
A new one that we do is go and see the Christmas lights at our Central Park that is totally decorated beautifully. And we also make a new kind of cookie- Chocolate Crinkles.
This year will be our first Christmas morning to be spent as just us. We will go to John's family after breakfast and presents.
But my favorite part of Christmas is actually going to Church on Christmas. We light the advent wreath and sing Holy Christmas songs. I like the old ones the best. You know the ones, where you sing the first second and fourth verses.
Last Sunday we had the choir sing the Christmas Cantata and I really enjoyed listening to the words of the holy songs. It gives me chills when I hear O Holy Night, and Joy to the World , and even Silent Night.

The Savior has come! A thrill of Hope, the weary world rejoices! Son of God- Love's pure light!

Amazing and powerful...

Being pregnant over the holiday's really let's me identify with Mary. Now, I know I didn't have an angel come and proclaim these little one's birth, but they're still a major miracle to me! I hear the songs and hold my breath a little and think- What will the world hold for them? What does God have in store for them? And I pray a little prayer that they too with have Silent Nights where all is calm and all is bright! And especially that they will follow in Jesus' foot steps when he was asleep on the hay- NO crying he makes!!!!!!
But I do pray for them, that they would be filled with joy, peace and know Jesus' love at an early age and never want to depart from it. Just like I prayed for Gianna two years ago and still do.

O Holy Night

(1.) O holy night! The stars are brightly shining.

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til he appeared and the soul felt His worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born.

O holy night -O night -O night divine!

Lights

Every morning we have a new routine in the Ludlow house. We used to wake up and get Gianna and she would say "milk, MILK" in a long pitiful cry.
Now that we have our Christmas tree up the new routine is to cry, "light, LIGHTS." This repeats until we are able to walk fast over to the Christmas tree and search for the foot switch and frantically turn the lights on. We hid the switch not wanting Gianna to find a new toy to play with. She already loves our remotes for our ceiling fans and will turn them on every chance she can. So we hide it and the double foot stomp dance is common until you find it.
Then we go around and look at the decorations and she requests that the other lights be turned on. She used to say hot hot when she got close to the lights. Now after she has sneaked enough touches in, she just points to the tree and says, "Christmas." The funny thing is that I had enough energy to decorate the house and put up the tree but we still have no ornaments on the tree yet. We are considering not putting any up this year. Well John is, I'll give him a couple more days to think that and then we'll get out the ornaments!

After the house inspection every morning, then it's back to normal- "milk, MILK!!!!!!!"

Baby Pics

Well, no news on the gender today. We will have to wait until they are a little bit older. But good news- we will get to find out at the end of this month! So make your final selections you have until Dec 30 to vote. That's when we go to our next appointment. We will get another ultrasound too! But MAJOR praise- I have absolutely no placenta previa! The placenta has totally moved away from the cervix and is in a good spot. Thank you all for your continued prayers.
Our technician told us today that she did an ultrasound everyday for her babies! She has 15 month old twins.
The babies are doing great. Baby B pictured first measured exactly at 13 weeks 4 days which is what I am. And Baby A would not cooperate by stretching out for us to measure!

Baby B laying down with the spine up and face down legs crossed in the back.


Baby B with her back towards the camera! Photo shy already! Sleepy like her momma.
Guess who's the peanut?


Baby A was entertaining us. He was awake and active! He gave us a wave and a dance.



Baby A waving. Little hand near the face.



Dancing and moving.

Twin tidbits: My twins have two different sacs so there is no way that they can be identical. They are fraternal twins.

The babies are named A or B by there position in the uterus. The closest one to the way out gets the A.

Christmas Carols

It's the Christmas season and now is the time for singing Christmas songs. I love most of them, but I will say there are a few that I could do without.
Are you allowed to hate some Christmas songs? Specifically, I hate a particular CD that we own. I know, I know, it's a CD I can choose not to play it. But every year I pull it out and feel like I HAVE to listen to it. (As I am doing right now.) But I actually can't stand it. It's called Traditional Christmas. It has traditional songs. Now I like traditional songs, just not the version that these folks have come up with. Yet I am compelled to keep it in the CD rotation because well, it's a Christmas song and you have to like them all don't you?

My favorite one to not like:
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause
followed by any one butchering Little Drummer Boy
And finally Any long extended 12 days of Christmas!


What do you think? Do like all the Christmas songs or are there some you can do without?


By the way- we go to the Doctor tomorrow and we might find out what gender the babies are so get in your last minute votes. (No voting twice- Dad and Aaron besides you two are voting for the opposite genders!)

Because frankly, you deserve it

I give you alot of pics, just because you deserve it.

Fall in our backyard.  

Honestly, while I was vacumming this is what I saw, "supervising"

More fall in the backyard

In the park with Dad

Keep on Movin'

That's what we've been doing here at the ol' Ludlow Bungalow. Just keep on Movin.
I've been feeling so much better this week. Monday, I felt so good I even cooked dinner. Yesterday, I felt so good that I decided to tackle laundry too. I wore myself out, and had to rest all afternoon, but the laundry got done!
Gianna really is expanding her vocabulary and has been busy changing her doll's diapers. Today she said that her doll had poo poo and laid her down and pretended to get wipes and change her. She also is getting good and following one step directions. Like- "throw this away for me. Put it in the sink. You baby is in your room. Go get it." She has been humming quite a bit. She does have a song in her heart and is full of joy. John and I constantly look at each other an smile. We are so glad that she's ours!

The Fire fiirrre

Yesterday we went with our playgroup to a fire station. One of the dad's is a fire fighter and he gave us a first hand look at the fire station.

Gianna kept saying "Fire Fiiiiire" for Fire fighter. She mostly had a good time. She wasn't so sure about him when he put on all his gear. And sitting in the fire truck wasn't her thing either. But on the front where there was lots of chrome and a place to sit- SHE LOVED!!!! She even told her dad all about the "fire Fiiire"
And thanks once again to my good friend Ang who gave me some pictures when I forgot my camera- AGAIN!

Mama get the moon

Last night John had to go to Bible study and because of the time change and shorter days the moon was out at 6:45.
Gianna and I walked John/Daddy to his car and she was upset. I tried to distract her by showing her the moon. She LOVED it. One of her favorite words is moon. (I think because it's so close to moo! ) She wanted "up! up!" I think she thought I could get it for her. I tried to hold her as high as I could and she said, "Get it!" I laughed and remembered this book:

It's by my favorite children's author and one that was always fun to read to my classes. It's a story about how Monica wanted the moon too. And she asked her papa to get it for her. He got a really tall ladder and brought it back for her to play with.
I guess I'll have to find it in my teacher stuff and read it to Gianna. But no- I can't "get it."

A realization

Sadly, yesterday I realized another food that I cannot/ should not eat during this pregnancy.

It's chocolate. And I'm so sad to have to miss my favorite food group.

Don't ask how I found out- just know that I will not be partaking of any ultimate chocolate brownie mud slides anytime soon. Or that puppy chow stuff with Chex and chocolate chips, or chocolate Carnation instant breakfast, or straight up chocolate chips, or chocolate ice cream, or even my favorite- Reese's peanut butter cups. Oddly enough, chocolate pudding seems to be ok.

Why it took me so long to make the connection- i don't know. But I vow now- no chocolate will pass these lips (for a few weeks at least.)




Well, I must go. I really have a craving for some hot chocolate!

Week 10

Charissa is in week 10. The nausea is slowly leaving, energy is slowly coming back. Not that she is ready to run a marathon or anything, but its progress. God has been so good to us too. Gianna has been on her best behavior the last few weeks. I will put up some pics of her at the bottom for you to ooh and ahh. Speaking of which, here is what I am oohing an ahhing over now. My wife.

So here is the love of my life with the next generation.


And as promised, the big sister herself...

2 Babies 2 Heart Beats

Or can also be titled- "The Peanut and the Blur."

We went in Thursday for our fist prenatal appointment in town. We saw two babies and two heartbeats!
They gave me some trouble last week as I had some spotting. The Dr said that it was just some placenta moving. Apparently it does that as it grows with the baby. He said nothing to worry about and just to keep an eye on it. And so we will. Next month we go in for a better ultrasound and maybe have a better look at our babies. John and I call them the Gingerbread people as the resemble that now, with big heads, small torso, and little arm and leg buds!

What I enjoy about Gianna

This week I have been really enjoying Gianna. She has been super cute.
She is busy repeating every word we say. We have begun to be on high filter alert for what we say.
Her favorite words are:
truck
plane
bird
moon
and
"ooter" for Scooter

We carry on conversations and she repeats some of my words back to me.
We've been enjoying books too. Not a lot of books, but the same three books over and over and over again. But she knows the words and she will "read" it back to me.

We also have been working on body parts too. She knows
head
hands
feet
mouth
teeth
ears
eyes
sometimes knee
sometimes chin
and our favorite
"belbow" for Elbow

She still loves shoes. In fact, I got her some new tennis shoes and she insists on wearing them every day!

October pictures

Here are some pictures of Gianna and the pumpkin patch and her Dallas Cowboys outfit for Halloween!

More photos for your enjoyment at the photo link on the right

Go TECH!

Did you see the game last night? We sure did. You probably were enjoying your extra hour of sleep when you fell backwards in the time change. We didn't, we watched the entire game. Gianna and I watched the first play together. I clapped after a big play and she watched me and she clapped too. We even got her to say, "Go Tech!" Though we didn't get her to say it she really wanted to say it.

I did not write a blog after the Tech win over A&M because most of my readership is from College Station and well, I have to be nice to my friends. But we won that game too. But my brother, I can tease endlessly and so I will. He went to texas and I went to Tech. He's had the advantage the past say 150 years or so, but this year Tech won! Ha

The game last night against texas was one of the best I've ever seen. I cannot believe the last 1:23 seconds that Tech came back to win the game. John and I were jumping up and down and he twirled me around the room. Not the safest activity for a pregnant lady, but we could not contain our excitement.

We've finished off all Texas teams and now for Oklahoma teams!

GO TECH!!!!!!!

.... we will hit 'em, we will wreck, hit 'em, wreck 'em Texas Tech and the victory bells will ring out!!

It's cold!

John let me break his "no getting out winter clothes before Halloween," rule because it's finally cold!
And by cold I mean highs in the 70's. I know my Alaskan parents and Canadian friends that our winter is your summer. I know because I am wearing a sweater today that I wore in Alaska this May when we went to visit. I know that you laugh at us and get a kick out of us turning on our heaters at night when the low is in the 60's. But my dear cold weather peeps- it's all about perspective.
For us hot is not until it gets into the upper 90's. That can come as early as May and not leave until after October. You might melt, we just go to the mall.
Granted when it gets below 32 degrees I don't think I can make it from the car to the house. But I am sure glad for that one day a year that my car has a seat warmer!

Poor John

I was not feeling too well this morning and it made me grumpy about picking out clothes to wear for church. While I was debating on going or not, John (tried to) got Gianna ready. I know I've shared that she has an opinion on shoes, but today she went through a wardrobe malfunction too. She did not like the first two dresses that we put on her and demanded that she keep on tights from one outfit. I managed to get her into tights that matched her third dress and she finally settled down with what we put her in, after much crying and tantrum throwing.
But poor John. After this morning he said, " I used to not care if we had a boy, but man...."
"I know," I said. "You need a boy or you might not be able to survive Sunday mornings!"


I stayed home and Gianna and John went to church. I slept the entire time they were gone. I was much less grumpy after they came home!

Sam's trip

So I went to Sam's the other day to get some good bargains and to try to find some things that John could cook that I would not have to give him a lot of directions on how to do it. That's right- John has been taking over the cooking this past week. John is great at following directions to recipes, but I just have not been up to meal planning at all. Bless his heart.
I have been given the special gift of pregnancy nose. I usually have a good sense of smell any way, but man, during pregnancy- I can smell BO from across the state. So it's usually best if I avoid the kitchen.
(Any one else have pregnancy nose?)
OK back to Sam's: So Gianna and I were cruising up and down the frozen food isle. It seems where the most prepackaged food is, and all I wanted were those frozen burritos that we used to get as kids. Nothing fancy, just something that I felt would not cause me to gag and have more dates with the porcelain king. But alas, No BURRITOS to be found. What they had were these fancy ones that were chipotle and spice. Um no thanks. Stomach said, NO! So off we went to find something else.
I looked at the pot pies, since that is a great comfort food to me. My mom made turkey pot pies after every Thanksgiving. So I look at the package and almost turned into a pillar of salt because the salt content was 1100 mg of salt per serving. That was OVER 65% of your daily intake. Back into the freezer they went. I kept up my burrito search, but no luck. I settled for a gi-normas bag of tortellini and some frozen stuffed chicken breasts.
I also got a large tube of ground beef and some crackers. John laughed at the meat tube- it is 15 lbs! But hey, I thought I might like a hamburger. Now he just has to make it. Any one have a recipe?

What a Cutie

Charissa dressed her so well this day, had to take a picture of her "cooking" with mommy.

Gianna grabbed my hat, keys, and computer and went to the door, like daddy goes to work.

We went to the park yesterday to see the ducks.

Har Har Grandad

Today is my Granddad's birthday. He was 85. He died this morning in his sleep.

He was a very good man. He loved to tease and joke and always was looking for a laugh. He loved to poke at you with a joke and his cane. He was married to my Granny for 63 years. More than most's lifetime.
He was a baker. He became one during the depression when he looked around and saw that people everywhere still bought a loaf a bread even when they had nothing.
He loved to fish, but didn't like to eat it. My Granny did. She could eat it everyday- even for breakfast. He loved to love her. He called her "wife mate." I never heard them fight in my whole life.
He loved sweets. Mostly to bug my Granny who wanted him to watch his sugar. She made him walk everyday and all along the way he made friends who shared pies, cake and sweets galore just because he made them smile.

He was a man of few words. But when he spoke- you listened to what he said. He meant it .

We are sad not for him- for his joy is in heaven. But for my Granny who lost her husband, and best friend of 63 years. For my mom who lost her Daddy. For me who he always said "Har Har Kiddo Biddo," and I knew that he always meant "I love you."

Gianna and Great Granddad May 2008

Pregnancy- Round 2

So I'm already beginning to notice some differences this time around from the first.

Number one- I have not gained any weight so far, but my tummy is already pouching out.
I hear this happens in your second pregnancy and even more so with twins, but come on, it's only been 6 weeks!

Number 2- The significant increase in the nausea. I'm mean off the charts people. You caught me at a good time because John is home and Gianna is fed and mostly it's calm. And it's the middle of the day- my best time for the all day "morning" sickness!

Number 3- I have a toddler to chase this pregnancy where as last time around I just had John.

Number 4- TWINS! It can be a bit overwhelming to think about, but I know how to feed a baby, keep it warm and survive on little sleep!

Well got to go- me and the porcelain king have scheduled some quality time together.

Pumpkin Patch

We visited Dewberry Farms yesterday. Here is a link to all our pics.
Thanks Angela who took most of them because I forgot my camera!
Two things I noted:
1. It is MUCH easier to go on a field trip with just one child to look after. I mean after you've watched 20 four year olds with 5-6 of them having special needs- just one is a BREEZE!

2. Umm I was amazed to think that next year if I went back to the farm then I would be trying to keep up with 3 babies! That's right we got the official word today- TWINS

We went last week and saw the two egg sacks, but today confirmed it- we heard the heart beats and saw the flutter. TWO
Looks like it's a minivan for us!

Some pictures