Big News!

Travis's sister, Brooke, is expecting! Why am I posting her big news here you might ask? Well, because I'm her gestational carrier. What does that mean? Well, here's the whole story...



A little over 4 years ago Travis' sister, Brooke, was expecting their first baby. She had a rough pregnancy and seemed to have the worst of pregnancy side-effects (ie. water retention, super tired, in pain, couldn't breathe well, etc.) Her water broke, but labor didn’t start until she was at the hospital. The Lord was definitely watching out for her because when her labor started, she went into congestive heart failure and had to have an emergency c-section. It turns out that she had developed a pregnancy related heart condition which was causing many of the "pregnancy side-effects", not the pregnancy. She has made a full recovery, but all the doctors she's seen think another pregnancy would be far too risky.

While I was pregnant with Ally, I kept thinking about whether or not I could do this for Brooke. I really felt it was what the Lord wanted me to do, so after much prayer and fasting, Travis and I offered for me to carry a baby for them if they chose to go that route.

They were a little concerned about the risks to me and felt like they should pursue adoption. Adoption has been a very long and heartbreaking process for them. Over the past couple of years, they have been contacted by a few birth moms who went a different way and even a few scam artists. This past summer a birth mom was very interested in them, communicated w/ them for close to 3 months even meeting them in person. They really felt that this baby was meant for their family and then the birth mom decided to keep the baby 1 week before it was due. They were heartbroken and didn't think they could keep going down this road.

They contacted me and asked if I'd still be willing to carry a baby for them. I said I'd be happy to. So the process began. None us knew anything about In-vitro fertilization or how this would all work, so I contacted a fertility specialist near me who was wonderful. They have done this before and were able to give us great information. Timing-wise everything just fell into place. We were able to get an appointment right away w/ the Dr. due to a cancellation, Brooke was able to start her medication the day after our appointment and I started a week later. On Dec. 11, they created 5 embryos from Brooke and Jason's biological contributions. They watched the embryos for 5 days to make sure they were developing properly before implanting or freezing them. So on Dec. 16th we had them implant the best embryo in me.

On Christmas Eve I started feeling nauseous and was pretty confident that I was pregnant (and surprised the morning sickness was starting so early). I was supposed to take a pregnancy test on Dec. 26th, but felt guilty not letting Brooke know I was pregnant since I was confident I was. So I took the test early and found out on Christmas that I was pregnant. They were so happy and felt it was the best present ever!

Things kept moving along. I don't get terribly sick when pregnant, but sick enough to look forward to it almost being over (I hope!). The fertility specialist did 2 blood draws to make sure my pregnancy hormone levels were increasing, which they were and had me come in for an ultrasound at about 7 weeks to make sure all was on track before sending me back to my regular OB. The ultrasound was going well, the baby had a strong heartbeat and looked good. Then when he was almost done, he saw ANOTHER BABY!!! They couldn't believe it! IDENTICAL TWINS!!! There is less than a 0.5% chance that an embryo will split and they've never had it happen at their office before. They had to start the ultrasound all over labeling both babies. They measured 5 mm and 7 mm. I still can't believe how tiny they were to have 2 little hearts beating there on the screen! So instead of 1 baby, Brooke and Jason will get 2.

The fertility Dr. couldn't tell if there were 2 yoke sacs and 2 amniotic sacs and told me to get an ultrasound soon w/ my OB to make sure there were 2 sacs. She couldn't see 2 either, so she sent me to a specialist who was able to see the tiny thin membrane separating the babies. I can't tell you what a relief that was! Having both babies in the same amniotic sac means that their cords can tangle up, cutting off the blood and food supply to one or both babies or the cords could wrap around each other chocking them or restricting limb development. I would have had to be in the hospital once I reached 28 weeks, then they would take the babies prematurely. I would have had to be monitored very closely up to 28 weeks as well. There were several very stressful tear-filled days between my OB ultrasound and the specialist ultrasound. We were all so grateful, happy, and relieved to know that there are 2 sacs and that we don't have to worry about all that. There are obviously more risks that come w/ a twin pregnancy compared to just carrying 1 baby, but I feel confident that everything will be alright and whatever hiccups we face will still be better than having the babies in the same sac.

Definitely Twins!

So that's our big news and why I've been so behind in blogging. I've been really busy and growing twins sure makes a person tired!

New Year's Eve

I forgot about these pictures from New Year's Eve. The kids all got silly string from Santa and had a big silly string fight. It was fun!

Ally did NOT like all the craziness and commotion! She just cried and ran away.
Bryson thought that I, the camera person w/ no way to defend myself, should get in on the fun. I love the determination on his face.
Someone got Travis in the eye and thought it was hilarious! They had to have a picture!

Once everyone else ran out of silly string and things settled down a bit, Ally got in the spirit and w/ a little help from grandma got everyone too.

Here they were getting Bryson and accidentally shot him in the mouth. My mom felt so bad, but it turned out to be Bryson's favorite part! Go figure?!

The aftermath! I think most of the silly string was on them!

At least it cleaned up pretty easy. Bryson collected as much as he could for his silly string ball. The rest vacuumed up pretty easy once it was all dry.

Fun stuff! If we make this a tradition, we may do it outside next time - easier clean up and no one would care if we just waited to clean it up the next day.

1st of many Pinewood Derbys

In January, Jacob got to participate in his very first Pinewood Derby. He was so excited and had such a good time making his car w/ his dad. His car is the red one in the middle w/yellow lightning on it. They gave it number 4.

Jacob's car wasn't the fastest, but he did win a few races. Travis already has plans to do something diferent to the wheels next year to make it faster. Boys! Gotta love 'em!

Jacob was pretty excited about his award. He loved the way it looked and liked the award for "Best copy of a real racecar".

Here's a little video clip of one of Jacob's winning races. I think Jacob was off camera to get a better view of the finish, but you can hear him when he wins. YEAH! :)

Bryson's Alien Birthday!

Bryson turned 6 in January. We do friend birthday parties for even birthdays and he really wanted to have an alien party this year. I'm not sure why he's so into aliens lately, but ever since Halloween (he was an alien for Halloween) he's been really into them.

Here's my best attempt at a fun "alien" party. There were not as many ideas to be found on the internet as I usually find, but I think it turned out good.

Here is pin the antenna on the alien.

I made this comet toss game. (I got the idea from here.) The kids loved throwing the comets at the solar system. Now we still have a fun dart type game to play later!

We made flying saucers (another idea from here). They were fun to make and even more fun to throw. They fly pretty good when you throw them like a Frisbee!
Here is the alien cake that I made Bryson. He totally cracked up about the huge head on the tiny body. He loved it and it was a pretty easy cake to make. Win-win!
Make a wish!
Look at them scramble for the candy! Pinatas are always a hit!
We also played hot asteroid, decorated goodie bags w/alien stickers and flying saucer foam stickers, and played freeze dance.

All in all I think it turned out pretty good and what matters most is that Bryson had a great time!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We love Grandma

My mom was able to spend Christmas with us. We loved having her, as we always do.

Here are some pictures we took just before she left.

Come and visit any time!

Christmas in Feb.???

OK, OK, I know that it's Feb., but I've had a really hard time finding the time and energy to blog lately. Plus we got a new camera and network storage device, so I don't know how to get the pictures off the new camera and onto the new storage thing. I'll have to have Travis show me so I can post pics of Bryson's birthday next.

Anyway, here's a snapshot of our Christmas.

What silly gooses (geese?)!
We were lucky enough to have Santa come to our ward party. Here are the kids telling him what they want.


Ally was terrified of Santa, but saw the candy cane the kids got and wanted one too. This was her "brave" attempt at seeing Santa. At least she wasn't crying, but there was no way she was going any closer either. Maybe next year.

My little rag-a-muffin and her haul. She was so thrilled that Santa brought her baby doll stuff like she wanted!
Bryson was excited to have his very own MP3 player, but pretty excited about the bike too! He really needed it!
Jacob was really excited about his new golf clubs to get to go golfing w/ his dad!
Maddy was excited about her golf clubs too, but I think she liked the zhu zhu pets the best since that's about as close to a real pet as she's going to get. (Travis is definitely not a pet person.)

Well that was a quick catch up of our Christmas, the healthy part anyway. We had a bout of pink eye infect Jacob, Bryson, Ally and myself, but at least we were all healthy on Christmas. We were lucky to have my mom w/ us for Christmas too. I wanted to post pics of her, but they're on the new camera. Maybe tomorrow.