Baby Update

Today I had another Dr.'s Appointment. We met with the doctor and he said the babies look really great. Baby A is approximately 2.2 lbs and Baby B is approximately 2.3 lbs. They are both growing symmetrically and they are both developing right on schedule. The doctor actually said, "this is probably the healthiest twin pregnancy I have ever dealt with." So that is really great news.

All in all it was a good appointment...other than the fact that the doctor told me I shouldn't be teaching anymore. For some reason I have really selective hearing when those words are spoken so I think I'm still going to teach a couple of my classes that are, in my opinion, low risk. I feel great and he said I could still work out/lift weights, etc. so what's the difference between lifting weights in the weight room and teaching my lift class? None. And so, I continue to teach.

Oh, did I forget to mention that we found out the babies genders?! Silly me. I really just wanted to leave you all hanging. :) Drum roll please..........Baby A=Girl and Baby B=Boy. Hooray!!! One of each. We couldn't be happier.

Momentary Lapse of Motivation

What in the world?! It's been almost a month since my last post. What is wrong with me? It's not that there are a lack of things to post about. Thanksgiving was great and I even took pictures with the NEW Nikon D40 camera Mike gave me for my early Birthday/Christmas gift. Oh, how I love my husband! Problem is, I really...really dislike seeing myself in pictures right now. Pregnant...with twins...enough said.

I could also blog about going to Temple Square to see the lights, finding a house to move into, car shopping, the wedding reception we attended in Idaho last weekend, my parents being here to visit for a few days, or the ward Christmas party where Jack was able to be a Wiseman in the nativity presentation. But I haven't, and now I just don't feel like it.

So, instead I'll just put up a couple of pictures. That's why everyone looks at blogs anyway, isn't it?



Me and the wicked-awesome rolls I made on Thanksgiving.



Jack & Mike on Temple Square. I absolutely LOVE Christmas lights.



Jack with his Great Grandma & Grandpa Bell in Idaho.



Jack taking his "gift" (a Bible) to the Baby Jesus. He had to stop and tell everyone along the way that he was going to see Baby Jesus.



Jack the "wiseman." Although he looked more like the Friar Tuck from Robin Hood.

Nothing To Report

Not all of you know this, but many of you know that I was suppose to find out the gender of the twins today. Well, if you couldn't tell from the title of the post...that didn't happen.

Basically, my doctor said my insurance will probably only cover so many ultrasounds, and since we did one last appointment and saw that the twins are doing just fine (growing symmetrically, etc.) he didn't really feel there was a need for an ultrasound today, but there will be a need for more as I get further along.

While I completely understand that the purpose of an ultrasound is NOT to find out the gender of your baby, I'm not going to lie that I was a little excited. Oh well, we should find out at our next appointment which just so happens to be on my birthday. That will be a fun birthday present!

Stand up and be counted

OK, so there aren't really very many things that I actually interfere with on my wife's blog, but today is election day. I hope that everyone took the time to vote regardless of who you voted for. Also, I have been intrigued by proposition 8 in California. This has been brought up a number of times in our church since we attend a student ward with many Californian residences. This is an interesting matter as the line between politics and morality is becoming gray. However, as a moral issue, as preached in the LDS church, it is not a gray line but a simple right and wrong decision no matter what the government says. The real issue is how this will affect the rest of our lives. It is more than just giving gay people rights, but will affect what society teaches our children and is a direct attack against the family (as defined between a man and a woman as defined in The Family: A Proclamation to the World). It is interesting the church took its stand years ago--and has not changed. As I am not real political, I would encourage you to look at the both sides, especially if you are from CA and vote. Here are some links:

http://www.protectmarriage.com/ - For Proposition 8, defines marriage between a man and a woman only
http://www.noonprop8.com/ - Against proposition 8. Argues that everyone has a right to be a family and defines a family as having two men, women, or one of each married.

http://thepebbles.blogspot.com/2008/10/take-stand.html - This a blog entry I thought was good and made good points for it.

The most disappointing aspect of this has been the justification of many. I recently read an entry on the internet with some really weak arguments stating that the Bible never condemns homosexual activity. It is one thing for a political issue, but as a moral and religious issue, especially in the LDS church where we believe in modern revelation, this should be a non-issue as there is no question that in God's sight, marriage is only between a man and woman.

I am for it, but I am not a CA resident. I believe that marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman. This issue attacks the family which is the moral fiber of this nation and will only lead to further problems, i.e. see Sodom and Gomorrah, in my opinion. If it does not pass, we may see a ripple affect through out the rest of the nation, or we may not. It will interesting to see how it turns out.

I am sorry if I offended anyone and this is purely my views, I have not consulted Katie on this matter, but I felt like I should voice my opinion and stand up for what I believe to be right.

Halloween

Here are a few shots from some of the fun things we've done surrounding Halloween. I really do love Halloween...but maybe that's just because I like candy...

Oh, and it has honestly taken me since Halloween night to get my computer to allow me to upload these pictures. I'm really not that big of a blogging slacker.


We visited the pumpkin patch with our good friends Susie, Brigham and Olivia. I know the shot is far away, but it was so cute to see Brigham, Olivia and Jack all stick their little heads through these cut-outs.



Jack showing us 'the goods.' Jack had such a good time. We only went down 2 streets, but he kept saying, "let's go to another neighborhood." I think he meant another house when he said 'neighborhood,' but Mike and I got a pretty good laugh out of it.



Here we are on the porch just before we went trick-or-treating. Our little pumpkin family was suppose to be in the picture too, but Uncle Cody was taking the picture standing on the stairs, on crutches, so we'll cut him some slack for not including the pumpkins in the picture.

Just Another Day at the Doctor...

I had one of my routine doctor's appointments today. Those of you that have had a baby before know that these are pretty predictable. You go in, see how fat you've gotten (a.k.a weigh yourself), pee in a cup, and then meet with the doctor to have your belly measured, and to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Well, we were listening to the heartbeat and my doctor said, "You know, I think you may be further along than we thought. You're measuring a little further than I expected. Let's hop next door and do a quick ultrasound to see. We may have to bump up your due date." My response was, "Well, that would be a pleasant surprise!"

So, we went to the room next door and the doctor proceeded to start the ultrasound. I was trying to talk to Jack about making sure not to spill his crackers and cheese and wasn't really paying much attention to what the doctor was doing. I glanced over just as the doctor said, "Just as I suspected...you're having twins."

Holy crap...


These are their two little heads. Both are healthy and fine. It's too soon to tell the gender. I know I said I wouldn't find out the gender in my previous post, but I'm thinking with twins I might need to know. Starving graduate students have got to prepare for these things well in advance!

Sewing Projects

I've wished for years that I wouldn't have been such a stubborn teenager and actually learned how to sew when my Mother tried to teach me so many years ago. I regret it terribly and am trying to redeem myself.

So, here are a few projects I've been working on. I did the blanket mostly by myself, but had some awesome guidance and help from my Mother last spring. Mike's Mom helped me tremendously with the new crib bedding while she was here last weekend. I still need to sew the ties on, and I'm going to make another quilt out of the scraps leftover from the bumpers and mattress cover.

Thank you to my amazing Mothers for teaching me how to be domestic. Oh, and did I mention we're having a baby (hence the new baby crib bedding)? Just over 19 weeks down...roughly half way done! And no, we don't know what we're having and we won't find out. I like surprises.


Ducky Blanket



Baby Bedding

Baby Jack-Jack

Today is my little Jack' 2nd Birthday!! I can't believe how fast it has gone by. I swear it was just a few weeks ago that Mike and I brought Jack home from the hospital. It has been such an amazing two years. Who knew how much this little guy would teach me? Who knew how much joy he would bring me? I look at his cute face and I just beam inside...I love him so dearly.

Happy Birthday Jack! We love you SO much!!!



Jack is just a few days old in these pictures...you can still see the jaundice on his skin.


We love this picture. Such a funny pose. Oh, and yeah...Jack sucked on a binky for about 1 day.

Tagged Again

I've been tagged a couple of times in the last two weeks and they have both been for the exact same tag I got back last November. So, lest people think I'm just some jerk that doesn't respond to tags, click here if you'd like to see what I had to say last November.

Watch Your Mouth!

It all went down on the way to the gym this morning. I was pulling up to a green light at which I was going to turn right. Naturally I looked both ways, just out of habit, but I didn't stop all the way because my light was green. Thankfully I was going slow enough to hit the brakes while some dude on his bike sped through the intersection going the WRONG way!!

In case you didn't know, bikers should always ride WITH the flow of traffic...not against it. Running is a different story, but bikers should ride with traffic.

Anyway, this dude comes screaming past and I said, "Whoa dude...what the heck? You're going the wrong way!" Life went on and we continued on our way. It wasn't more than 1 minute later I hear Jack say, "What the heck! Going wrong way!"

Looks like I really need to watch my mouth because although I don't think saying 'what the heck' is all that bad, it really doesn't sound so good coming out of an not-quite-2 year olds mouth.

UCLA Beatdown

I know I am usually not the blogger here and that most of the readers would rather hear from my wife, but I could not let this historic and one of my best weekend's here in Provo go without a blog entry. For hose of you who do not know, Katie and I love to go to the BYU football games. Last weeks match up was with UCLA.



To preface this game, this was the third game with the Bruins in 370 days since we played them last year in CA and in the Las Vegas Bowl. We lost in CA after coming out slow and with some sloppy play. The Cougs dominated the Bruins statistically, but turnovers (and some might say controversial home-cooking penalties) ultimately lost them the game. In Las Vagas, the Cougars again shot themselves in the foot and were out schemed by UCLA's defense, but were able to scrap by with a win by blocking a field goal as time expired.



Fast forward to last Saturday, BYU has just come off of a win over Washington where they had never won before winning by blocking an extra point. The win was tarnished, however, by the media blowing up over a correctly called but controversial unsportsmanlike penalty. It was a game that BYU should have won by more, but again turnovers hurt the cougs and Jake Locker was able to run when in counted (not to mention the HORRIBLE commentary who tried to keep reminding us that BYU was lucky to be able to play with the caliber of players in the Pac-10). Anyway, the media made it sound like the refs had lost the game for WA and BYU was given no credit for the win.



Now, we enter game time. I was a little nervous, remembering the Las Vegas Bowl and how our offense struggled and knowing the UCLA had knocked off #18 Tennessee 2 weeks previous. I was optimistic though and predicted BYU 37-UCLA 21. I told Katie that I predicted that this game would be the game where BYU would gel and have a complete game (Offense, defense and special teams would all do well). Man, was that an understatement. BYU came out well and at the the end of the first quarter it was 7 to 0 with BYU poised to score again. Then magic happened, 35 (yup thirty-five) points were scored in the second quarter (28 in the matter of like 5 minutes). BYU was on fire. The offense could not be stopped, the defense was flying around knocking people's heads off and causing turn overs. It felt like the game could have been over after the first half. With 8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, BYU pulled its starters out of the game and to my utter delight BYU pitched the shut out and was the back ups were able to score against UCLA. For those who do not know, the final score was 59-0. To put that into perspective, BYU has not pitched a shut in years and this was the first time against a BCS opponent since 1977. To add injury to insult, that beat down was second worst in NCAA history second only to when USC beat UCLA something like 80-0 almost 80 years ago.



Just to make everything a better day, BYU showed that they could play with anybody. And Austin Collie had an amazing day. Here is a picture of the Collie scoring a TD and also the corner that had to defend him. I was happy to see him have a good day, although I always root for Mike Reed to have bigger games, I just really like him as a player and I would have liked to have seen Chambers get the ball on Offense, but I guess that I can't be too picky. I was also pleased to see a Nickel package and Brandon Bradley (who is in our ward) get playing time. I only hope that annoying guy from FSN was able to see how the "unathletic" cougs walked all over the "superior" UCLA Bruins. Keep it up Cougars!!! OK, thanks for letting me document this historic event.

Quesadilla - Minus the Cheese

Jack request a quesadilla for lunch today. I was pulling the tortillas and cheese out of the fridge and Jack said, "No cheese Mommy." I said, "Well Jack, if you don't want cheese on your quesadilla then it's just this." And I handed him a plain tortilla. Jack's response was, "tanks" (that's right, it's 'tanks' not 'thanks') and off he went. He told me he was going to go lay down. I followed him around the corner to find this...my sweet Jack laying on the floor eating his quesadilla...minus the cheese. I'm pretty sure you just call that a tortilla.

Deep Thougths...

I never get too deep on my blog...okay, who am I kidding, I never even come remotely close to getting deep on my blog. However, I can't resist today. Disclaimer: there are no pictures today, just words.

Yesterday we were blessed to have Stake Conference (I think the majority of my readers are LDS, so I'm not going to expound on what Stake Conference is. If you have questions about the LDS church click here). It was actually Regional Conference where 135 stakes in the region met to listen to some of the Apostles speak. Of the Apostles there, we were blessed to hear from Elder Uchtdorf. I just can't stop thinking about the challenges he gave us and I thought you may all like to ponder these ideas too.

Elder Uchtdorf asked us two questions:

1. What are you personally doing to increase your faith in the Lord, and our Savior Jesus Christ?

2. What are you doing as an individual & as a family to strengthen the eternal family and eternal marriage?

What am I doing? What am I doing every day to personally renew my faith in God and Jesus Christ? Honestly, some days I don't know that I do anything. How awful is that? I do believe that I strive most days to strengthen my family and my marriage. Those are two things that are so vitally important to me that I don't want to let a day go by where I don't at least try to be a good example to my husband and child. But there are even days there that I know I could do better. So much better.

And while I feel completely down-heartened at my efforts for personal faith and conversion, Elder Uchtdorf spoke in such a way that I know there is hope. It's never too late to make today the day that I try a little harder. That I'll stop what I'm doing for 10 minutes to read my scriptures and say my prayers. What is more important that that? Cleaning? No. Watching "Ellen?" Definitely not. Reading "Harry Potter." Again, no.

"Focus on matters of ETERNAL consequence." That is what Elder Uchtdorf said and that is what I'm going to try to do from here on out. Here's to making changes and sticking with them.

First "Major" Injury

I knew it was bound to happen, but Jack had his first "major" injury. By major, I mean his first injury that actually bled. It could have been MUCH worse. Thank heaven it wasn't. Oh, and this happened about a month ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.

This summer we spent pretty much every day at Seven Peaks so that we didn't die in our non-air conditioned apartment. One afternoon Jack was running from the pool to one of the kiddie slides and all of the sudden stopped in his tracks and started crying. I hurried over to him to see what was wrong and he pointed to his foot. Sure enough right under his little foot was a fragment of tile from the side of the pool. Jack had stepped on it at just the right angle that it sliced the bottom of his foot open. It was bleeding quite badly so I scooped him up and hustled him over to first aid. As I was half-jogging/half-speed walking to first aid the blood from Jacks foot was dripping off his toes and down my leg. Every one we walked past would say, "OH! Bleeding child! Watch out!" I thought it was kind of humorous.

Anyway, in the end Jack didn't end up needing stitches. The tile had sliced more along the surface of the skin (you know when you get a cut where basically you have a big flap of skin hanging) as opposed to deep into the skin. Jack was either really frightened by the whole ordeal or he has a seriously low pain tolerance because he cried, screamed and whined most of the rest of that day. Poor kid.

Down And Out

Have I ever told you that I despise our digital camera? Seriously, it is the biggest hunk-o-junk ever! As a result, I am currently a lame blogger because I get so frustrated with my camera I don't even attempt to take pictures of anything.

So, I'm putting a request out there. I know many of you are better-than-decent photographers and probably have some camera preferences. I'd love to hear your suggestions on a nice camera. I'd actually really like to be able to do things like play with lenses and such, but for now we may just have to start with the camera. Are there any cameras out there I can sort of build up as I go (aka as we get more money)? Oh, and we're looking at probably a $400-$500 limit. We can get something decent for that price, right?

I know, I could probably research all of this information on the internet, but I figured if I've got friends sitting out there with this knowledge already in their heads it sure would save me a lot of web searching. Ahh yes, and any suggestions on where to buy said camera would also be greatly appreciated. Am I asking too much?

Orange Julius

For some reason I had forgotten about the goodness of a nice, cold Orange Julius. Last night we made some for dessert after our dinner and, as can probably be imagined, Jack was a huge fan. We had to catch some shots of him slurping up the OJ goodness. Oh, and you may also notice a piece of leftover broccoli on his chin. Sick.

More Sacajawea Photos

Well, my dad sent me some photos from our trip to Lake Sacajawea and since my school computer is lightyear's ahead of my home computer, I thought that I would share them and save Katie some time since she had previously promised to post more pictures. We sure had a great time and are looking forward to next year already. Without any further adieu:


Katie getting ready to do an ollie 180:



Katie getting some air:


Here I am doing a "wake jump":


And I am attempting some type of an invert here. It looks like a tantrum, but more realistically I was probably attempting a backroll (I still need some work;)) :



Finally, here is a family photo of us relaxing. Notcie how the nice the water is. We enjoyed nice water most of the week...so what were doing wasting the good water just sitting around in a tube?



The smooth water brought up one more point. I don't if Katie brought this up or not, but her parents came out and joined us the last part of the week and enjoyed some great dutch oven cooking and chatting. The funny part though is that Lloyd/Pa Bell is a slalom skier and brought up his own ski. The day he got up to the lake we took him out and water was extremely choppy. The smooth water never really returned, so out there in a White-cap filled cove we all (Pa Bell, Cody, my Dad and my self) strapped on the slalom ski for a run as we could not be out done by Katie's dad :). In our mentality, we never want to waste smooth water on water skiing, might as well use it for wake boarding, so we were OK taking our slalom runs on choppy water. It was quite fun trying to make rooster tails while you're bouncing up and down. We did get out the wake surf and Pa Bell did very well on that, even better than my brother Cody I might add.

The Bell Family Reunion - 2008

Last week we were able to attend the Bell Family reunion. It took place partially in Utah (where we played at Seven Peaks the first day and Lagoon the second day), and partially in Idaho where we stayed in a cabin for 2 nights on Henry's Lake, and did some sight seeing at Yellowstone Park. My cousin also brought is boat over from Montana for one night and we did a little wakeboarding. Correction...Mike did some wakeboarding. Unfortunately we ran over the rope and had to be towed back in to the dock to unravel the rope from the prop. By then, the water was chop central and I didn't get another opportunity to go board...so sad. The last day we stayed at a Girl's Camp in Idaho and tried to stay away from the mosquitoes and run-away cows.

I must give some mad props to my parents for all of their planning and hard work. It took a lot of effort, patience, planning and money to host such an amazing family reunion. We had a blast Mom and Dad...thanks for everything!

Note: yes, we are all wearing the same shirt. My parents had reunion shirts made for us. My parents own an orchard in Oregon and so the shirts have a picture of the logo on them. Those red shirts sure were easy to spot at Lagoon.

LAGOON

Day #2 of the reunion was spent at Lagoon. Oh, can I just tell you how much I LOVE roller coasters? It's a good thing Mike does too. And, come to find out so does Jack. We had such a fun day. It was hot, but still a lot of fun.


Jack on the Carousel. He loved this thing!



Me, Mike and Nick getting ready to take off on the rocket...or whatever you call it.




Me, Jack and Mike high atop the Ferris Wheel. That's what you call this thing, right? I can't remember for some reason.



Mike, Jack and I coming out of the Haunted House. We did not intentionally take Jack on this to scare him to death, it was just one of the few rides we could all go on together. Jack was a little nervous, but I don't think he'll be scarred for life.

West Yellowstone

The morning after Lagoon we headed up to West Yellowstone to stay at a cabin up on Henry's Lake. As previously mentioned, my cousin Matt brought his boat over from Montana. Other than the fact that we got the rope caught on the prop, and it was a little windy and downright COLD, oh...and that Mike was the only one that got to wakeboard before the rope incident...it was a BLAST.


Jack enjoying the ride...and telling us about something very important, I'm sure.




My cousin Matt trying to flag down the only other boat on the lake to come help us. They didn't see us. That, or they just didn't want to help. People at this lake were a little less than pleased to see a big wakeboarding boat on their "fishing" lake.



Me freezing to death.



Jack having no problem keeping himself completely occupied.

Kickin' It At The Girls Camp

For the last night of the trip we traveled about 1 hour from our cabin in West Yellowstone to this Girl's Camp in Idaho. I can't remember the name of it, but other than the vicious mosquitoes it was a lot of fun. They had a swimming pool, horseshoes, basketball, etc. Seriously though, the mosquitoes were deadly and I'm still scratchin' most of them.




Jaike, Jack, and Johnny. These three were all born the same year. Jaike belongs to my sister Becca, Jack to me, and Johnny to my sister Bethany. They were like three little triplets running around together. I think they developed a love/hate relationship because if they weren't cracking up at one another then they were hitting or pushing one another.




Jaike and Jack playing with the sprinkler. For some reason this was very entertaining to them, even though the water was not on they played like this for quite some time.



Nick and Dad playing an intense game of horseshoes. I'll have you know that Mike and I played a game too and I whopped all over Mike. It was awesome. Love you Mikey.




Two of the cabins we stayed in. There were about 8 cabins like this, along with a bathroom/shower building and a central cabin with the kitchen and eating area in it.

More Boating

Click here (and then scroll down the post on July 9th) to see a pic of me wakeboarding. We went out boating earlier this week, and Janni and Marvin caught a few shots of us behind their boat out on Utah Lake.

Lake Sacajawea

We returned from our week on the lake and what a fantastic week it was. However, I am sitting here scrolling through the pictures that I took during that week and there aren't very many of them. As a matter of fact, there is not a single picture of Mike or I wake boarding and that was the entire point of the trip! I know Mike's Mom took pictures of us boarding so I'll have to get those from her.


In the meantime, here are some shots from our fun on the lake.



On our way to the lake we stopped at Mike's Aunt Nina and Uncle Ritchie's house in Baker, Oregon. They are true farmers and Jack LOVED "driving" the tractor.


Mike and Jack giving us the "thumbs up." This is a new trick for Jack and he does it all of the time now.



This was one of Jack's favorite things to do. Mike would dip Jack behind his head so he could put his hands in the water. Jack thought it was so funny!



This would probably be the least favorite thing Jack had to do: get his poopy swim diaper changed on the swim platform of the boat. It was a nice boat and we didn't want to get poop on everything so the swim platform it was...much to Jack's dismay.



Jack's other favorite thing to do was stand on the swim platform and kick his feet in the water. The water was a little frigid (60 degrees) due to a late summer, so Jack wasn't too thrilled about getting all the way in the water, but he sure did love to kick around it it.

What Are You Doing This Summer?

Here's a little photo diary of what we're doing so far. Can I just say that I LOVE summer!!!

Playing and reading books in our indoor tent and tunnel. My favorite is when Mike climbs in there with Jack and reads stories to him. So cute.


Digging in the garden. This was the garden pre-planting. It looks much better now and much to my surprise our vegetables are actually growing! (Note: Aunt Lindsey sitting on the stairs in the background).


Helping Dad wash the car.





Mackin' on the hunnies from the ward.


And, playing our hearts out at Seven Peaks Water Park. I always forget to take our camera to the park, so this is the view from our back balcony. Can you see the slides in the distance?