February 2014

February brought amazing news for us!  As anyone who reads my blog knows we have struggled with infertility for our entire marriage.  We lost a sweet baby before becoming pregnant with the girls and we lost another sweet baby last February.  Even though it felt like a hopeless cause we just couldn't give up.  We did for a few months but then went back to treatments because we just knew our family wasn't complete yet. 

On February 5th I took a pregnancy test and although I was feeling like I was pregnant I was still pretty cautious with my emotions because honestly so many failed attempts had left me pretty jaded to the process.  It was another bad weather day so our whole family was home.  I can't even begin to describe our feelings when we saw this...

Even though it was a level 3 snow emergency for Wood County we ventured out to Bay Park Hospital because I HAD to have blood work confirming this positive test.  We live in Ottawa County so technically we were only illegal for a few miles! ;)  I wasn't due to miss my period for two days but I took the test anyways.  We drove to the hospital very slowly and cautiously and had my blood drawn.  My doctor's office called to confirm our fabulous news! They told me I would need a repeat test two days later to be sure that my HCG was doubling as it should but that everything looked good. I had googled HCG levels just like I did with the girls and I began thinking that day that it might be twins again!

My sweet friend, Cheryl, made me a little chain link countdown to our ultrasound when I would find out for sure how many babies were in there and if everything was going okay.  I was so very nervous for this appointment because of what had just happened one year before.

 The day finally arrived for the ultrasound.  It was 20 days after we found out we were pregnant and man was that a long almost 3 weeks! We only told a few people that we were pregnant prior to the appointment because we just didn't want to deal with telling everyone bad news if it didn't turn out to be a healthy pregnancy.   At this point I was going crazy.  As we were waiting for the doctor to come in for the ultrasound I asked Wes one last time what he thought - one or two babies.  He held up two fingers and said "Dos".  I smiled and laughed because I pretty much thought so too.  The second the ultrasound got started I saw the two sacs.  Even though I think we were prepared for it, seeing it on the screen and making it official was a shock!  I really couldn't believe we were going to have twins AGAIN!  We were over the moon excited that everything looked healthy and we were released from our fertility doctor to my regular OB at that point.  I had a little bit of tears in my eyes saying good bye to them because they were such a big part of our life for 7 years, but I was also thrilled to not need their services anymore.

 We stopped at Kohl's and bought the girls a big sister shirt and a big sister book at Barnes and Noble.  We headed home to share our amazing news with them.  To say they were excited is an understatement.  Their reaction was priceless and we became even more excited about everything.

 We shared our news that day with the world and because I'm friends with so many parents and co-workers on Facebook my class pretty much knew by the next morning when I got to school.  One of my girls made me this crown! :)

Here are a few other random cute pictures from February, but the main event was obviously the news of our pregnancy.

A visit to Daddy's classroom on a day off.

 Seeing the Frozen Sing-a-long with YaYa and YoYo!

 Cutie Patooties ready for church.

 Ice skating at the BGSU ice arena with my siblings.

 Sissy snuggles!

January 2014

January 2014 brought the Polar Vortex! It extended Christmas break and in total by the end of it we had missed 15 school days! It was pretty fabulous and we had a whole lot of family time.  We played outside on the days that it wasn't bitterly cold and we played board games, read books, wrote pen pal letters and watched movies on the days that were so cold and when it was a level 3 so we couldn't legally leave our house.  We really enjoyed it!

Christmas 2013

Christmas needs it's own post because there are tons of pictures to include.  If we were able to attend all of our family functions we would have 9 Christmases every year.  We can never make that happen, but we do try to get to as many as possible without making our lives too crazy.  So here goes....

Christmas at Grandpa Rethman's house was up first. 

Next we headed to YaYa and YoYo's house.

Christmas at my Grandma and Grandpa Konesky's was up next.

 The great-grandkids.....just missing Lexie, who is now in college!!!!!!

 Exchanging gifts with Reesie.

 And this is what she's learned from hanging out with our girls! Nice!

 The grandkids.

 The grand kids with Grandma.

Christmas at home came next.  We got ready for a visit from the Jolly Old Man by sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn and setting milk, cookies and carrots out.  We had told the girls ahead of time that we had talked with Santa and they would be receiving four gifts.  The gifts would fit in these categories: I want, I need, I'll wear, I'll read.  They also had a stocking.  It worked out great and this will be the way we do Christmas from now on.

 

  

Christmas morning breakfast.

 

After breakfast we got ready and headed over to my parents' house.  We always wear Christmas jammies so even though we take showers and get ready we are all super comfy! I love that!

Whew!!!! What a whirlwind, as always! But we love spending so much time with the ones we love!