Amazingly blessed.

I don't have to tell many of you that I have an awesome family. We are very loyal, loving, and close. Of course, like all families, we have our moments of dissension, but ultimately we are always there for each other and love one another unconditionally. This weekend (Thurs-Sat plus Mon and Tues) has been no exception!

Mom, Dad, and Paige decided that because:

A) I am getting SO pregnant

and

B) they knew I was a little frustrated b/c I wanted to get our house ready for Jack Henry and Harrison's arrival, but Josh has been working a lot....which is a good thing b/c he's providing for our family, but hard on getting things done around the house

......that they were going to bring in the troops and help!

Mom, Dad, and Paige have been over here every day since Thursday (we're taking today off) for HOURS at a time helping Josh and me clean out, purge, deep clean, and reorganize our entire house! I am AMAZINGLY BLESSED. Not everyone's family would take it upon themselves to offer hours of selfless service, but mine has...and I could NOT be more grateful.

We still have the study and laundry room to go, (plus work outside) but our house already feels like new! It feels AMAZING. We even decided to rearrange the dining room and it looks so much bigger! We also FINALLY decided on some bedding for the nursery (see right pic: we're getting the bumper, fitted sheet, and possibly the bed skirt, but not the quilt...left pic: ordered the middle rug) and were able to choose a paint color....which is actually the same color as our bedroom.

It is kind of a coffee color. It feels great to be making some progress in the nursery!

Sorry about the lack of belly pic this week. Josh took the picture, but with all that's been going on this week, I've delayed posting it. I'll post it when I post my 25 week belly pic. On a bright note, we have our next doctor appointment this Thursday. I'm excited to see our very active baby boys and hear about how well they are growing :)

Hope y'all have a beautiful Sunday! Miley and I are on self-appointed bed rest for most of today after pushing it hard Thurs-Sat...and will do Monday on.

Elsie is with the Lord.

Many of you remember my post about our precious family dog, Elsie, back in September. (http://taylorandjosh.blogspot.com/2009/09/elsie-marie-brannon_15.html) After removing her initial tumor, we've had many wonderful months with a spry and happy Elsie. Yesterday, however, mom took her to the Vet in Auburn to be checked out because she had been having fevers, the shakes, and a distended abdomen-which lead us to believe her abdominal tumor was back. As it turns out, Elsie had tumors all over her body and was given 2 weeks to live. Last night, that sweet girl took a dramatic turn for the worse, and is being put to sleep as we speak.

As you can imagine, it breaks our hearts, especially my momma's, because Elsie is her best friend. Elsie came into our family's life at the perfect time, some might say an angel sent straight from God. She has been through a lot with us and will leave quite an empty space as her spot could never be filled. I'd appreciate you taking a quiet minute to lift my family (especially my momma) up in prayer for peace and healing. We absolutely know that this is what is best for Elsie, so that offers a sense of peace, but a broken heart is not quickly mended.

My parents brought Elsie by my house this AM on the way to the Vet for me to say my good-byes. She was not very responsive, but did open her eyes when I spoke to her. I thanked her for being such an important part of our family and told her I love her. Josh and I came inside and tearfully hugged for a few minutes. We talked about how it seems almost harder to lose a dog family member than a human sometimes. Thinking about it, I feel like maybe it's partly because they can't speak for themselves, telling you when they hurt, but also because they love you SO unconditionally, constantly giving of themselves, only asking for love and relationship in return. Funny to say, but dogs seem to offer the most Christ-like example to us all. . .

ps. Many of you might not know, but Elsie was actually in my wedding. We got married in my parents' garden. During rehearsal, Elsie (aka: mom's shadow) kept following her down the aisle and sitting by her chair like such a good girl that we decided to let her be in the real ceremony. :)

Baby shower.. and nap time at the Keever house

Ok... just got back from our first baby shower that was in Nashville today! There was a great turnout of Regenia's friends, as well as my Aunt Sharon, cousin Laura, close friend Laurie H., and my momma! I am blown away by everyone's generosity, especially since they don't really know me that well (even though the presents were technically for the boys). They still came to the shower and showered our baby boys with love, excitement, and presents. I have gotta say, we got some amazing items, but think that everyone there would agree that the winning present of the shower was from Regenia, Josh's mom... she made me cry! She wrote the sweetest note and in the present was the outfit that Josh wore home from the hospital and the one he wore on day that he was dedicated to the Lord.... complete with pictures of him in the outfits! (both Feltman Brothers) Many of the other women, including my sweet momma, teared up, too! SO SWEET! We are tremendously blessed!

On a random other note.... I just saw this post by my BFF, Eden, and HAD to share it... too funny!
Please check it out. It's a quick one. (Click Here)

Our baby boys...

Here are the latest pics of our sweet baby boys...

Belly pics week 23

Little tidbits

I don't have a lot to discuss in particular, but thought I'd post...

This weekend was fairly uneventful, as many of our weekends will be for a while, b/c Joshy G is on the schedule to work on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I did, however, go run errands with my Aunt Sharon on Saturday, which I enjoyed. She had the brilliant idea of giving us baby books for the boys as an early shower present. They are really cute--Noah's Ark is on the front of them and there are some bible verses sprinkled throughout the book :) It's especially great because we have our first baby shower this next weekend in Nashville with mostly my mother-in-law and Josh's friends, and I'll definitely want all of the guests to sign them! :)

(Addition: I almost forgot! My God-parents generously treated Josh and me to dinner at Flemings with them on Friday night-what a TREAT!)

I have aspirations of doing as thorough of a job filling them out as my Aunt Sharon did on my cousin Rachel's. I looked through it the other day, and was both impressed and inspired. Not only did she have Rachel's "stats" growing up, but she even included adorable anecdotes from Rachel's childhood. One of my favorites was a note my Uncle Ira made about putting 2 or 3 yr old Rachel to bed one night. She would not stay in her bed, and eventually he had to be more stern with her. With tears in her eyes, she looked up at him and said, "God will punish you for what you did!" LOL..... Oh my goodness, that just makes me laugh so much to think about :) It also gets me even more excited about these boys growing in my belly, because I know they are going to bless Josh and me (and others) with hours of laughter.

This weekend, Joshy G and I did put together the boys' cribs! We're still trying to figure out what bedding we'd like to use, and once we decide on that, Joshy G can get on painting the room. Once the room is painted, we can really get to business setting everything up. So exciting!

Last Tuesday, Joshy G and I went on our hospital tour at Brookwood. It was fun to do something baby related and definitely got the two of us more excited for the boys' birthday! Joshy G learned about skin-to-skin contact time and was concerned about the fact that we'll have two and what would we (Taylor) do? (Absolutely precious) The lady said I could put both babies on my chest (which is my plan) and any doubts of whether they'd both fit were squashed after we saw a newborn baby in the nursery. I always forget how tiny they are! I definitely think both of the boys will fit and we'll all share some lovely skin-to-skin time :) Josh did say the thought of whether he might need to strip down and do some skin-to-skin crossed his mind before knowing both boys could fit on me. I adore that thought. and him.

Josh continues to take SUCH great care of me.... making me breakfast some mornings, waiting on the stairs for me at Zoe's yesterday to be a helpful hand, turning on my seat heater in the car before I get in so my bottom will be nice and warm... just to name a few. It means even more to me because his love language is Acts of Service. Not only is he being thoughtful, but because that is is love language, he's showing me how much he loves me by doing those things.

Baby Update

Well, we just got back from our doctor appointment to see the boys and he said everything looked GREAT! They are kind of in an L position, with A up and down my left side and B transverse across the top of my stomach... although they do move around some, as A slid down to transverse across the bottom of my stomach by the end of the ultrasound. Little wiggle worm :) Guess it's HIS feet I've been feeling at the top left of my belly! I'd thought it was sweet little B!

The doctor took my fundal height for the first time today! I am 22 weeks along and measuring 31 weeks! Whew!

We only came home with a few ultrasound pics this time, and I'll scan/post them in a bit. Hope you're all doing well! Josh and I feel incredibly blessed to have these little boys coming and that they (and I!) are doing so well! On another note, Josh is L.O.V.I.N.G. his new job at Verizon. He has worked every day (by choice) since Christmas, except yesterday! I think he's also allowing himself tomorrow off, too. Ha ha. I adore the fact that he loves it! SO happy for him :) He's always looking for more business, so if you're a Verizon customer or interested in switching, he'd love to help you!

Week 22 Belly Pic...

Josh took these of me last night b/c we forgot on Sunday and Monday, our 2 regular belly pic nights lol... ah well... it got done, so I guess that's all that matters :) Thought I'd give y'all an extra treat (if you think that it is... you might think it's gross or TMI to see it) by throwing in my first skin belly shot..and a shirt one for the faint at heart. ;o) I'm glad to report those red lines on my side and on my belly are intentions/lines from my pants and not stretch marks! I'm trying to be open to the fact that stretch marks might happen, but I'm praying that they stay away. IF my mom got them with twins, which she does not recall, they went away, so that's promising for me :)

Belly table...

I've got a great setup :)

Belly pics... weeks 20 and 21

The mouse on the desktop decided to work today, so here are belly pics for weeks 20 and 21. Week 20 was taken on a stack of boxes w/ self-timer and they look a little awkward... so I put 2 b/c I wasn't sure which was better.... or less awkward..

Week 20

Week 21

I want to break free

I know this is probably old hat to you mamas out there (bare with me--it's my first time to do al of this!)....

But...I'm really excited that I just SAW my belly MOVE for the first time!

I think Baby B might be trying to break out haha...

It makes me think of that Queen song, Break Free... ha ha...

Here's the Coke commercial with it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RvQu4X6Xz8

(the music video was a little too weird to post!)

belly pics... explanation

Hey y'all! Don't worry! I DID take my 20 and 21 week belly pics... however, we've been having issues with the mouse on our desktop computer (I'm on our new netbook we got for Christmas at a great price on Black Friday) where I upload our pics. I may just upload those pics on here so I can post them for those interested in seeing them. :) The 20 week pic session was humorous b/c my sweet belly photog (aka: hubby Josh) was house/dog-sitting for my aunt and uncle all last week AND worked all 7 days, so needless to say, he was gone a lot and wasn't around to take my pic. Therefore, I stacked up some storage tubs and set the self-timer... it was interesting trying to get the right pic. Anyways, I just wanted to update everyone on the belly pic situation. The pic below taken on 12/31 was at 20.5 weeks, so you kind of have an idea of the belly, but I'll still work on posting the 20 and 21 week pics. We have our next baby appointment next weds 1/13. I can definitely tell the boys have grown... bc both my belly and the numbers on the scales have grown ha ha. I'm also feeling them a lot more! Josh felt baby B kick for the first time yesterday during church and the specialness and magnitude of that moment brought me to tears. It really touched my heart.

I am so blessed...

I've mentioned what a great job Josh is doing taking care of me...and these baby boys in my belly during this pregnancy. He would do anything for us. I adore it. and him. This morning, his sweet text message brought tears to my eyes....

Hey sweetheart. I love you. Can you believe we're going to be parents this year?

Sigh... I loved it... he is so excited about these baby boys and is going to be such a wonderful daddy to them! I adore the fact that this pregnancy has brought us even closer than we already were. I am going to fall in love with him all over again when I see him with his babies...he is already so proud of them. He beams with pride when I come see him at work and he has the opportunity to introduce me and point out the boys. It's precious. I am so blessed.