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!)