The Story of Emma & Nora

I am going to start at the beginning of the RouseHouse.   Before Ty and I decided to tie the knot we had dreams. Big dreams of a big happy family.  Id be lying if I said we didn't want the American dream.  We wanted the perfect cliche of a life: married, our first child right away, a happy little family with a stay at home wife that Ty gets to come home to every night after work.  But the one thing we wanted more than anything in the world was a baby. After marrying the love of my life, we immediately started trying to get pregnant.  A couple months went by, but we kept our hopes high and enjoyed our happy little life. After 6 months passed with no sign of a little bean we started to get a little frustrated.  As everyone around us continued to pop out kids like no bodies business, we kept on trying. Each month slowly turned to more and more heartache and more and more negative pregnancy tests. I even got to the point of telling myself that "maybe that was just a bad test" or "maybe it's just not showing up yet.".  But as the trash can continued to fill with "bad" pregnancy tests our hearts started grieving for the child we longed for so badly.  After 15 months of trying we decided to seek the help of a fertility specialist through our OB.  We each went through rounds of tests to determine that we had a slim chance of getting pregnant on our own. We were completely heartbroken but willing to do whatever it takes.  We did our first IUI (interuterine insemination) and were even more heartbroken when we saw yet another negative pregnancy test.  We continued to pray for a baby and did two more heart wrenching failed IUIs.  After the 3rd one we made the decision that would change our lives, financially and physically.  We decided to try IVF, something we had never thought in a million years we would do.  After almost a month of injections, we were yet again devastated when my surgery had to be cancelled due to dangerously high hormone levels.  We had amazing doctors that explained that it's rare to have it cancelled and helped us out a bit so we could try one more time.  Another month of injections and one surgery later, all we had to do was wait to see if it took.  The longest 8 days of our lives!  The morning of April 4th, just two months shy of our 2nd wedding anniversary, I went in for a blood draw and was told they would call in a few hours to let us know if we were pregnant.  The call came and my heart was beating out of my chest, with sweaty hands and a shaky voice, I answered my phone.  The words "congratulations, you are pregnant" seemed like a complete dream.   It took so long to set in, I sat on the ground and stared at Chevy (my Boston terrier) with tears in my eyes and kept repeating the words "I'm gonna be a mama!".   Since they called hours earlier than we had expected, Ty was not home yet.  I couldn't bring myself to do anything until he got home, my mind was in a complete daze.  How am I going to tell Ty?! I immediately started trying to think of things but my mind was so blank!  Soon, I hear the garage door open, "thank God he is home sooner than expected, I can't take it anymore!".  I sat on the stairs and waited for the door to open.  The minute it opened I burst into tears and could barely talk.  Ty's bag and items from worm dropped from his hands as well as his face.  I finally fought through the tears and blurted out "you're gonna be a daddy!". Instantly his face changed and he realized I wasn't crying because I was sad, I was crying because I was happy.  He too, started crying, we sat there for a minute to let it set in and enjoy the moment.   The phone calls to family came shortly after, we finally got to tell people we were pregnant, something we had dreamed about for so long.   We had our first ultrasound  when we were 7 weeks pregnant, it was the most amazing thing we had ever seen.  Seeing our BABY was a dream come true.  At 8 weeks we went back to get our last ultrasound through our fertility specialist.  After this we would be sent to our regular OB.  Before the ultrasound, Ty and I sat and prayed and thanked God for our little miracle and for the health of our BABY.  We stepped into the ultrasound room anxious to see our little one for the second time, praying that everything still looked okay.  As he started to scan I noticed something else next to our baby.  For what seemed like an hour, the nurse, dr, Ty and myself were completely silent.  It looked like another baby to me but I couldn't justify it in my mind, we had only put in one egg- there was NO way that could be another baby.  No way.  Seriously, we had less than a 1/2% chance of having twins from one egg.  Finally our dr, with his face smashed against the screen in shock, said "are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?!". I immediately burst into tears and nervous hysterical laugh ( sort of sounded like a seal) and Ty was also doing this strange laugh thing.  ANOTHER baby?!! The doctor couldn't believe what he was seeing either, he said this was the second time in 20 years that this has happened to him and was very quick to say that this had NOTHING to do with infertility drugs.  He stated, "this was all you guys and God.". And that right there is exactly what it was, it was all God, going above and beyond to answer our prayers.  We are going to have identical twins!!!  After walking around the house aimlessly not really knowing what to do, we finally called Joey and Kilee ( my brother and sister in law)  of course their first reaction was that we were kidding, there was no way we were having twins!  We had to keep our secret for an entire day, you see, my mom was coming up the very next day to spend the weekend and we decided to surprise her.  The minute she got to the house Ty shoved a beer in her hand and asked if she wanted to see our newest ultrasound pictures.  She was excited but had no idea what she was in store for.  We put them on the tv to make the. Bigger and said nothing as we clicked to the first photo.  She was smiling and excited until she noticed the words "baby A" in the upper right hand corner, she immediately looked confused but said nothing until we came to the next photo.  This one had "baby B" on it. She then looked at both of us and started crying and started asking if we were serious ( and a few other words of excitement, if you know my mom you know these excited words well :).  So began our journey to parenthood.   

Skip ahead a few months to 16 weeks, this week was something we looked forward to since we found out we were pregnant.  The week we got to find out if we were having boys or girls.  To us, it didn't matter, we finally are going to have a baby-x2!! Finding out that we were having daughters was amazing, we already had names for either sex and it was so fun to finally call our babies by a name!  Emma and Nora were already our entire world.  As the weeks passed and my morning sickness finally faded we dove into buying and decorating, unaware that we had only just begun our journey.

The day I turned 20 weeks, we went in for a routine ultrasound.  After seeing or beautiful girls and hearing how perfect and healthy they looked, they checked my cervical length ( something they had been checking for weeks now since we were having twins) immediately I knew something was wrong.  My cervix had been measuring 4 cm in the weeks before which is perfect, on this day it measured 2.1 cm.  Within 5 minutes we were upstairs in a hospital room. They told us they wanted to monitor me over night to check for contractions and told us to prepare for hospital bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy.  Stunned and scared we immediately did what we know best in any situation, we prayed. God had taken care of us through everything we had been through and we would take care of us now.  The next morning, after showing no contractions let allowed us to go home on strict bed rest, only trips  to the bathroom and a 10 minute shower very other day, only sitting up when nessicary.   At  our checkup appointment only a week later, our nightmare continued to worsen, my cervix was measuring only .9 cm.  Back up to the hospital room we went, only this time we wouldn't be leaving the next day, this time we were here until our girls came.  At only 21 weeks it didn't look good for our baby girls, so we prayed.  We got the word out and more people prayed.  Soon we had more people praying for us than we ever imagined.   Ty and I spent the next day getting our thoughts in order.  My mom told Ty and I words that we would live by, " we don't have a lot of control over much in this situation, we can not stress and worry about what we can not control.  We are doing everything that we can and we have to leave the rest to God.  Have faith in him and he will provide.". We kept a positive attitude and focused on our goal: 24 weeks, viability, meaning our girls would have a fighting chance of surviving.  Every morning and every evening they monitored the girls heartbeats and me for contractions for an hour each time.  At the next weeks appointment we had a different specialist dr, she measured my cervix at 2.12cm. We were so blessed!  We continued to thank God for taking care of us.  Onward we trudged and another week went by, at our 23 week appointment I measured at 2.9.!!  The drs were stunned at our improvement and how positive our attitudes have been through the whole process.  At 23 1/2 weeks I was given two rounds of steroid shots to kick start the girls lungs just in case they were born soon.  24 weeks came along, our goal!!  We went cheerfully to our appointment, prayer on our minds, as always before each appointment.  They scanned the girls and they looked beautiful and healthy, Emma tipping the scales at 1 lb 6 oz and Nora 1 lb 5 oz.  we were more than thrilled.  Then came the cervical length, .4 cm.  We were crushed.  The next day I was put on an iv to try some different options to make my cervix stop thinning so quickly.  They told us they would no longer do cervical length checks, it gets us no where and it's a complete roller coaster ride for Ty and I.  We continued to focus on the fact that our girls were healthy and happy and for all they know everything is perfectly fine.  The drs were not sure ow much longer we would make it but prepared us and told us that I would start contracting probably sooner than later.  What did we do?? We prayed.  We thanked God for everything he had done for us so far and how he had taken care of us.  I am proud to say that we are now 26 weeks and 2 days, and much to the drs surprise, still contraction free :).  We thank God for every day that our girls are inside. Every movement and sharp kick to my ribs or bladder ( or both at the same time) is amazing to me.  I will miss feeling them move when they do come out, its such an amazing miracle.  Laying in a hospital bed, fighting to keep our girls inside is the hardest thing we have ever experienced. Being positive and having faith in God is one of the most important things I have learned. Both of those things have such great power, it's indescribable. Remember that it is impossible to worry and hope at the same time. God is greater than anything in this world and through him you can overcome anything. So for now, I lay here with a smile on my face, my girls are healthy and still inside, I have the most amazing husband in the entire world that I wouldn't be who I am without his love. He is so in love with his daughters already, it melts my heart to see him talk to them. I have an amazing family that continues to do so much for us, especially my mama. She is the person whom instilled strength in me. She is the strongest woman I know. So today, is a good day, as will be tomorrow and the day after. Only God knows what the future holds, as for me I only focus on today :)

Back to life!!

Due to popular demand I will be starting my blog back up again.  For those of you that don't know, I am currently almost 17 weeks pregnant with identical baby girls. AHHH, so exciting :)  This has been our dream for the past two years and God decided to bless us with 2.  So I decided what better way to restart the blog than with this giant "project" I am working on.  Of course we have tons of other projects that need to be in the works very soon (the nursery!) because this mama is definitely not getting any smaller.  So until we start the nursery, hoping Ty starts painting this week, I will just have to plaster pictures of my beautiful babies ultrasound pictures and pictures of my fat belly to tide you over.  No, really, its not fat.  But i do feel as though I have a giant beer belly this summer that is starting to get in the way of the fridge closing at 3 am.  Ooops, did I really just tell you guys that I was eating at 3 am. Yes I did and I am not ashamed, these sweet little girls have the appetite of their father-giant, so yes, I do get up almost every night and have a snack.  Its insane how much you eat when carrying a baby, especially 2.  I have never eaten so much in my life.  Our dr actual referred to our children as parasites.  Isn't that lovely.  I guess waking up at 3 am every morning starving, and then at 630 am starving, oh and then I'm STARVING at 8 (continue every hour-hour and a half throughout the day) would be considered parasitic.  I just refer to them as Ty-sized babies.  Anyone that has seen/met my husband knows exactly what I am talking about.  But, damnit, he is the best giant husband in the world.  He is so protective of his 3 girls its adorable.  Chevy (our Boston Terrier)is also getting a bit protective of me, however, we wonder what she is truly thinking in her head since she knows i am pregnant.  She has been the baby for almost 8 years.  Should be interesting adding a couple more to the mix :)

      The Day we found out we were having twins! Surprise!  Cutest blobs ever :) This was at 8 weeks

                                                     Cute little shrimps at 9 1/2 weeks :)

                                                             Sweet babies at 11 1/2 weeks

Hanging out at 13 1/2 weeks

They are now too big to fit in the same screen.  This is our cute little Nora at 15 weeks 6 days

Emma wouldnt give us a good profile shot so here is a cute picture of her leg and foot

The mad cupcake scientist

   When I am asked to bring cupcakes for something my mind instantly goes into this weird warp and I turn into some strange robot that must find the best cupcake recipe known to man. After blacking out for a few hours and becoming some mad cupcake scientist, I have before me delicious cupcakes ready to be gobbled up.  Don't worry, I am never injured in the blacking out process.

   Ty and I had a couples babyshower to attend on Tuesday night and I was asked to bring the cupcakes.  Of course, I was ecstatic!  I instantly went to researching cupcake recipes.  Let me tell you, I always love unique recipes and will try all the weird ones JUST to see what they taste like.  This time was different though, I wanted something basic, but better than just the basic.  The best basic.  So I went with a chocolate cupcake and peanut butter frosting.  I, on the other hand, don't really like just making chocolate cupcakes.  I feel like they always come out kind of dry or just not the right flavor.  This time I finally found my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe.  Sour cream chocolate cupcake.  Its so moist, dense and delicious!  On to the frosting.  I. along with most chocolate cupcakes, hate frosting.  Probably 95% of the frosting I make has a cream cheese base.  It keeps it from getting too sweet.  So naturally I made a cream cheese peanut butter frosting.  It turned out better than I had expected, it tasted exactly like the inside of reeses pieces!  (Martha, feel free to steal this recipe for your website.  Email me and I will send you the secret recipe)  Enjoy the pictures, they aren't quite as yummy as the cupcakes actually tasted.

  

That same day I was asked to make cupcakes for Ty's work.  They were having a bake sale and he volunteered my cupcakes.  This one I wanted to do something crazy and completely out of the ordinary.  I found this recipe and HAD to try it.  Cream soda cupcakes with browned butter frosting.  Yes, browned butter frosting.  DELISH!  This was not cream cheese based but it had browned butter, enough said.  The cupcake was good, I didn't think it was amazing but it was good.  Ty's work loved them so that made me happy.  I thought they were adorable, so enjoy these pics!

The John Deere Way

So to start this post off, I want to first tell you how proud of my husband I am.  He has an amazing job and is even more amazing at it.  He works so hard to provide for us and is truly the most amazing and hard working  man I know.  I got the opportunity of seeing where all the magic happens this past weekend.  Not only did I get to see his work place but I got to see his NEW work place.  John Deere has been building this new building for a while and they finally got to move in 2 weeks ago.  It is a "green" building (not John Deere green!), everything in the building is made out of recycled materials or natural stone.  It is beautiful!  I sure wouldn't mind going to work there everyday!  So like a teenagers mother who constantly embarrasses them, I took my camera with me.  I tried to get as many pictures without being the creepy wife.  I know the pictures don't do it justice but I hope you enjoy them anyway!

They brought in equipment for the Grand Opening

Back in the late 1800's all the John Deere buildings had a bronze deer out front.  Over the years they slowly disappeared.  They found them in a warehouse and started displaying them again.  This is one of the last ones.  His name is Hershey, he looks like he is chocolate.

The Grand entrance!  I wish I could have gotten it all.  Off the right was a waterfall down the wall with a copper backing.  To the left is a hallway with meeting rooms and the cafeteria. 

Ty's cube!!!  He gets to be right next the window on the 2nd floor.

The view from his cube:

One of the meeting rooms

Another meeting room.  This building has tons of windows!

A small meeting room. They all have different names.  This one is representing good ol' DC!  HAD to get a picture!

Apparently its a common thing for birds to fly into all the windows.  There are these birds "prints" all over the windows.  I am sure this bird is fine though...... 

The cafeteria.  They have outdoor seating that overlooks the lake.  Its beautiful!

A new sprayer that was displayed.

A new 9670

This is the entrance to when you pull into the drive

They even have a lake with a fountain when you enter.

Office Space

After 3 days I finally finished the office and it is now a guest room AND an office!  Clever, huh?  With the help of my trusty side-kick: Ami, this room looks completely different, and the best part is???? I did it all for $68!  Luckily I had some paint left over from our bedroom (refer to "The Big Reveal" post) so that was "free".  A new desk, a few baskets and a little elbow grease were all we needed.  The room before was purple-a pretty gray/purple I had painted for my husband and put all of his K-State memorabilia up on the walls.

  The desk before was giant.

  You know what, that's an understatement, this thing was monstrous!  Not to mention, not the prettiest thing.  The previous owner had left it in the room because of its size, it physically could not fit through the door unless you smashed it up into a million pieces.  Which is exactly what Ami and I did.  With a hammer.  

After the demolition, we realized we had better find a desk, and QUICK!  I found this adorable desk at walmart for only  $40.  Wow what a steal! It cant have THAT many parts.  Wrong.  It had so many parts.  And screws that you had to screw at an angle.  Lots of them.  Thank God for Ami, I would have never gotten it done with out her.  Next up:  the closet.  

This is how a guest room closet looks inside, people.  If you say yours doesn't, you are lying.  Unless you are my grandma in which everything is always beautiful and tidy or Martha Stewart.  But you aren't my grandma nor Martha Stewart.  So you have a messy guest room closet.  Naturally mostly everything in here is junk and can be thrown out, that's what you do with junk, you stack it high behind doors of a closet.  Its human.  So after sorting through and throwing most of the stuff away or putting it in boxes for storage in the basement, the closet was soon empty.  After removing the doors, we now have an extension to the bedroom!  Which I have macgyvered into a cute little closet office.  To match the desk I spray painted an antique chair of my grandmas black (yes, the tidy grandma) .  It was a light yellow and didn't match anything.  Not it looks super chic.  

What happened to all the K-State memorabilia, you ask?  Well its still going in the room.  The plum colored drapes and accent pillow on the bed bring in the purple for the K-State memorabilia to match as well as Ty's K-State diploma.  We haven't hung them yet, I am waiting for Ty to help with that.  He is tall.  And a man.  They do stuff like that better.  Alright, I wont keep you waiting anymore, here is the room:

Happy Birthday Wyatt Paul!

One year ago today my nephew, Wyatt Paul, came into the world.  Little did he know he was coming into the best world he could ever ask for.  He was greeted with loving arms by his mama and daddy and has definitely grown to be a mamas boy.  I would too if I had a mama like that!  He has the best parents a little guy could ask for.  Of course, big brother, Fisher, wasn't going to let his transition be am easy one.  He had to show him the ropes.  For the first week of Wyatt's life I witnessed these "ropes" being shown by Fisher sharing his toys with Wyatt, bringing them out one by one, as not to overwhelm Wyatt with too much to play with.  While napping he did the same gesture with his blankets, piling them high on his feet to keep him extra warm and snuggled.  It was a tough job for little Fisher, but someone had to do it.  Wyatt loves his big brother and I know he will always look up to him. He will always be teaching Wyatt and showing him the ropes, even if Wyatt is the BIG little brother.  Now, a year later, they are the same size. Wyatt has a "tough guy" way about him and likes to take Fisher's toys from him all the while keeping the adorable dimple grin wide on his face.  Perhaps the tables have turned!  Or maybe they are just brothers that are going to grow up to be best friends that love each other even more than they do now.  Either way, Wyatt has changed Fisher's life.  Wyatt has changed all of our lives just by being in it.  We love you, Wyatt!!!  Happy 1st Birthday!!

The beginning......

Dabbling in a different decor

Fall is nearing closer everyday, everyone knows what that means!  Yes folks, if we are lucky, possibly a week of blissful weather before the harsh winter gets here.  Why does fall have to go so fast?!  I wish I could keep it around a bit longer, so I do.  I decorated the house with not only fall trimmings but Halloween as well.  If you know me, you know that I LOVE to decorate for the holidays.  I have even conned my husband into letting me decorate for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving.  After all, it is deemed the most wonderful time of the year.  Obsessed? No. Just ask Martha, she is known for going over the top with decorations and look how successful she is.  And if you are asking yourself:  Is Jeni going to put up photos of decoration ideas she learned from Martha this Christmas?  Then the answer is yes.  Phew, glad we got that covered. The anticipation was almost unbearable.  I am more than thrilled to get decorating for Christmas.  But, for now, I have to pace myself and focus on the holiday at hand.  I never have really decorated for Halloween.  Growing up the main focus was on Christmas, but never really Halloween or Thanksgiving.  This year I have tasted the waters of new decor.  Thanks to hobby lobby and a little elbow grease I have officially decorated for Thanksgiving and Halloween-a month early :)

The centerpiece on the dining room table.  The hubby named the bird of course, but I don't like to get too attached. 

OOOOOOOO, Scary mantle!!!! Kidding.  We really do clean and don't have giant spiders and birds living in our house. 

The Entryway.  I made the wreath for $10.  Pretty thrifty, eh?

Soon my pretty pink flowers with die and another mum will replace them, but for now summer is still in the air.