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A quick update on the basement...

Last weekend my dad (once again) came down and helped me with the basement. This time we insulated all the exterior walls, and also the bedroom wall and ceiling (above). We insulated the interior wall and ceiling in order to keep the sound out if people are downstairs or the TV is on upstairs. With all of my dad's help, we got enough done so I had time on Sunday to do a little much needed yard work.

BTW, my dad was up at 4:00 am on the Saturday he came to help me. He took Haley to the airport in Omaha. He started helping me at about 9:30 am after we picked up our new mini-van. I'll let Jamie post some pictures of that. Jamie keeps saying, "I can't believe your dad is 70." He's pretty active. :)

On Monday, I stayed home while the drywall was delivered. After lunch, two guys came and started hanging the drywall. They worked until around 7:00 or 8:00 pm. They then spent the rest of the next day hanging drywall as well.

Drywall makes a lot of dust, and our house is covered in it. Only one more week, then we'll be able to give the place a good cleaning.

Today two new guys spent the day taping the drywall. There was a slight miscommunication (they weren't too good with the English) and they put mud all over parts of the concrete backer-board for the tile in the shower. I scrapped it all off and took a towel to it. It's fine now. I also taped and mudded the backer-board to make sure everything is solid when I put up tile. They should be able to see what I scraped off and what I mudded, enough to understand what I want.

Here is a picture of the living room with drywall. It sure makes a big difference. All the mud is drying, and the finishers probably won't be back until Friday.

And finally, here is a picture of Abby in her future room. I think she likes it. :)

That's all for tonight, time for bed.

I am officially 25 weeks pregnant. If all goes well and the babies are good and ready, I might only have about 12 weeks left. I'm really getting excited! A lot has happened this week. Here are a few of the highlights:

On Friday night we went to the Lincoln Area Multiples club consignment sale. We found a few clothes and two Nap Nannies. These are like a squishy foam recliner for infants. They cost $130 new, and we picked up two of them for $70 each. They are in great shape and look brand new! It was a good night...I had them on my wish list and now I don't have to wish for them! I've heard from several moms that Nap Nannies are life-savers with multiples.

On Saturday my sister-in-laws (with the help of my mother-in-law) hosted a wonderful baby shower. It was really great. They invited the Kohtz/Hansens, and my mom was able to come as well. It was really nice to see everyone, and we got a ton of great things! The dessert table was amazing....the cake-pops were a huge hit! Thanks Haley and Jackie (and Jeanne, of course). We now have an AWESOME stroller, mobile, musical gym mobile, and a bunch of clothes, blankets, washcloths, etc. We even got some adorable Star Trek onsies and some Swiss onsies! Those will be better shown off later when they are being worn by adorable babies, so we will wait on the pictures. Here is a picture of the shower guests, the dessert table, and some of the loot!!

On Monday I had a doctor appointment. I had to take the glucola test, where they have you drink the gross sugary water and then take a blood sample after an hour to see if your body is digesting sugar as it should be (to see if you have gestational diabetes). The level needed to be below 120, and mine was about 70. So no issues there. My iron counts were right within range as well. The babies heartbeats were nice and strong, and I measured exactly where I should at this point. All is going very well! I have gained about 28 pounds, which is why I'm getting so darn tired lately! I've been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but the doctor said not to worry unless I start having more than 5 an hour. I just need to take it easy and keep those babies in as long as I can. Our next appointment is May 5, and I will get another ultrasound then. More baby pictures!!

We also made a big and very difficult purchase on Monday.....our new mini-van! We ended up getting a dark blue 2008 Honda Odyssey. It has heated leather seats, automatic sliding doors, XM radio, rear heating and air conditioning....the works. It has everything but the DVD players, but we can live without those for a while. It only has 23,000 miles on it, so it should last us for a long time. The decision was a bit humbling, but I am actually really excited about it and I think we are going to love the extra room and convenience. Especially when the twins are born! The painful purchase part is over, they are fixing a few scratches and we get to pick it up on Saturday. Conner and Abby are even excited about it!!

On Tuesday, we went to tour the Family Birthplace at Bryan LGH East. It was really cool! We were able to see the labor and delivery rooms, the post-partum rooms, the nursery, etc. It is a really nice facility....much different from when Conner and Abby came into the world over 13 years ago! They even have a snack room for hungry dads (oh...probably moms too!!). It's really nice, and I can't wait until you all can visit us and our new babies there!

So that brings us to tonight. We went to a rehearsal for Conner's confirmation ceremony on April 30. We are so proud of him. He has loved every minute of his confirmation experience. He has so many nice friends and he really worked hard to get to this point. Yay, Conner!

Well here is the Week 25 picture. As you can see, I'm continuing to grow and I'm not even in the 3rd trimester yet! I'll get through it. A few months of agony for a lifetime of joy....right?? Right??? In any case, the babies are about 1.75 pounds now, and 13.5 inches long. My iPhone app says they are the size of a rutabaga. A what? I don't know what a rutabaga looks like, so that comparison is lost on me. Point is....they are growing.

Like I said before, the drywall people are coming on Monday. I have a list of things that I need to get done before then.

Pretty much everything on this list is now crossed off except "shower walls", "shower pan", and "insulation." I have one 3'x5' concrete board screwed into place for the shower, but have several more to go. Most will require some cutting. I think I'll get this done Saturday morning. After that will be insulation. I put some up already (behind one of the shower wall) and I think it will go pretty quick. This will be a Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning (after church) job. If all goes well, I'll be able to finish up the shower pan and maybe work on the yard some.

Here are some more pics of things I've done recently.

Bringing water to the bathroom was a little frustrating. You can see the PEX in red (hot) and blue (cold). My dad and I spent about 3 hours at Menards, trying to figure out what to buy. Luckily they had someone who knew his stuff. When we finally got home, we spent a lot more time just trying to figure out how we should do things. We finally made our decisions, worked for a few more hours, and then had to quit. I spent part of the next day finishing things up, but we now have water. No leaks!

I also added the lights to the hallway. This required some insulation and drywall. There wasn't much room in the ceiling because of a lot of duct work, so I had to use some post-construction light fixtures. They basically attach to the drywall, so that's why I needed to get that up there. In doing so, I realized that my decision to have professionals do this was a good decision. Even this little bit, with holes for 3 lights, took me a lot longer then I had hoped, mostly due to errors on my part.

I think once the drywall is up, things will seem a lot more finished. There will still be a lot to do though. We'll need doors and baseboard installed, carpet, tile, paint, a shower door, toilet, vanity and faucet, ceiling fans, a few more lights, light fixture bevels, outlets, switches, and switch plates. I'm hoping this all goes relatively quick. The longest part will probably be the doors and trim, then the paint, and then the tile. Still a lot to do.

I just scheduled the drywallers for next Monday. Still have to finish up the shower and insulate. Should be able to get it all done this week. Fingers crossed. :) I'll try and get some more pictures up tonight or tomorrow.

I'm getting excited! We bought the CUTEST laundry hamper for the twins' room this week. It's not something that we needed, but it will look really great with their bedding. It's a wicker elephant and I just love it! Craig was reluctant to get it (it was pretty expensive) but he made the final call. I'm sure with two babies we will need a large laundry receptacle, and it is really adorable! Here is a picture:

I'm also excited that we joined the Lincoln Multiples Club. There is a consignment sale going on this weekend, and the members get to shop the night before. There should be a lot of twin stuff there, so hopefully we can find some of the bigger items that we need at a good price. Through this club we can meet other families expecting or that already have twins. They even bring meals to our house after the babies are born! I think it will be a good support group for us. I've had two children, but this is going to be a whole new experience for me and especially for Craig. It's great that we get to share something so new and exciting....but it sure will be nice to meet others in the same boat!

We also have our first baby shower this weekend which I've very excited for! It's being thrown by my awesome sister-in-laws so will mostly be Craig's side of the family. My ever-supportive mother will also be there. It's so wonderful to have such a great family on both sides....we need so much stuff and this will help out tremendously!

I'm feeling really good...I've had about 3 or 4 people at work tell me that I had the "pregnant waddle" this week. People just LOVE to comment. It really is funny how helpful and nice people are to me now that I'm visibly very pregnant. People literally jump to get out of my way when I'm "waddling" down the hall. If I drop something they scurry to pick it up for me. It's nice, but it does make me feel a little helpless. I guess I'll take it while I can. Once I'm back to normal it will surely stop!!

A small emergency happened last week when Jamie's dad visited. He went down stairs and the beer fridge wasn't cooling our beer! I shook some wires and it started working again, but this fix was short lived.

Late last week I went online and ordered a new relay which I think is the problem. The new relay is apparently waiting on our porch as I type this. I'll keep everyone updated as I know this will be an important tool for dealing with two babies.

UPDATE: The beer fridge is now functioning properly. Day, saved.

Hello everyone! I haven't posted for a few weeks. I'm starting to lose track! I think I've finished up week 23. On Wednesday, I will be 24 weeks along. Things are really starting to go fast now. Although I can't WAIT to be done with the pregnancy, I'm starting to get a little nervous about having everything that we need when the babies are born. It's been overwhelming for us to plan for the basement and also for the babies. After much discussion and debate, I think we have a plan to pay for everything and not be in huge debt when we have to start paying for daycare (which will be about $1500 per month). That will be much in part to my mom helping us out for several months when I go back to work. Thanks mom!!

We found a daycare that we liked a lot last week. It's called "Kelly's Kids", and it's about 2 minutes from our house, and conveniently located on the way to work. It's a smaller daycare, and they don't have any school age kids. I think that is a plus. We are still going to visit a couple more daycares, but this one looks really promising. Luckily (again thanks to my mom) we won't need daycare until March/April of 2012, so we have time and flexibility to wait for spots to open up.

We finally have a few things for the babies! This week we got some car seats which was very exciting because they are the first necessary items that we have bought. A friend at work knows a girl who has twins that are 2 years old. Therefore, they are growing out of a lot of the things that we need! We paid $100 for both, which is about 1/3 of what they would have cost brand new. They are in perfect condition! So now we can bring the babies home from the hospital. Check.

We have been buying diapers for quite some time. I think we have about 300 newborn diapers and about 600 size 1 diapers so far. Yes, they are disposable. I know that cloth are better for the environment, but we aren't going to have time to mess with that. And, I really don't agree that the "biodegradable" diapers are any better for the environment than the disposables. So please keep your opinions to yourself....I really don't need the stress!! We do what we can for the environment, but this isn't going to be one of those things. We will go through about 20 diapers per day, 140 per week, 600 per month. So, we can diaper the babies. Check.

My cousin Lauren is expecting a baby girl in May. We were in McCook visiting my parents for Abby's 13th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!) and Lauren stopped by. I was glad to see that I wasn't a lot bigger than she was....she is doing really well and she looks fantastic! Here is the obligatory belly to belly shot of Lauren and I.

And finally, here is the week 22/23 photo. The babies are about 12.5 inches long and weigh about 1.5 pounds each. I've still got about 14 weeks left, so there is a lot of stretching that still needs to occur! Someone told me last week that from the back you can't even tell I'm pregnant....so I've got that going for me for now. When I'm feeling uncomfortable, Craig and I shake our fists in the air and say "BABIES!!!". It makes me laugh, and I know that this will all be worth it because I have the best husband and family that I could have ever hoped for. I just can't wait to hold both of them!!