Can't blog right now....

...because I am too obsessed with The Host.
Anyone else?

The Great Debate

VERSUS

So, now that Jeremy has graduated we are like, "What are we doing here?"Thanks to our handy-dandy chalk board in our kitchen, we now have some answers... or maybe just more questions. Here is what we have come up with in the last month or so.

CONS OF UTAH:
Weather (snow sucks)
No Family
Raise Children in Utah (sorry if you are from here)

PROS OF UTAH:
Great Job
Yearly Vacations
Bigger House

CONS OF CALIFORNIA:
Expensive
Fear of new job
Populated/ Traffic

PROS OF CALIFORNIA:
Family
Weather
Everything!

What do you think?

Our Wacky Wild Weekend

We made it through our busy weekend and are still trying to recover. Right now Kennedy and Ted are sick, and the rest of us are starting to feel a little gross. But, Jeremy is a free man now! That is, if he passes his accounting class (he he he). The weekend broke down as follows.... Thursday at about half past midnight my cousin Wayne and one of my best friends Melissa came into town, along with Jeremy's parents. Friday, we had graduation. I've got to be honest, I am a nerd and usually totally love graduations, but for some reason this was a little different. I wasn't digging it. Although Sally and I both teared up when Jeremy walked in wearing his cap and gown, the rest was just o.k. But the whole being done "working on homework all night long thing" is going to be awesome.

Standing up as the grads walked in

Jeremy in his sexy gown. (please notice the jeans and tennis shoes... yes my husband is w.t.)

The group

Melissa and Wayne in their color coordinating clothes with the girls.
They look good with kids (wink, wink).

And last, but not least the HUGE cold sore on Jer's lip!

Then Saturday... we had a little party at the park to celebrate Jeremy - and the girls 1st birthday party! Pretty much we just invited some friends to come and have a BBQ and cake with us. It was fun, but the weather was a little cold and windy. (Freezing temps in April is something I need to add to my "dislikes of Utah" list). Sorry I did not get pics of everyone, but here are some highlights of the B-Day party!...
The girls eating their dinner on the grass in their high chairs. You can't tell from the pics, but Kennedy had a meltdown almost the whole time. We should have had the song "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to" playing in the background - yeah, it was that bad.

Jer and his Uncle Shawn, Cousin Anna, and Aunt Jill.


Jer's parents and their BFF's Ralph and Jan

Manni, Carter, and Kaylene

Cake that read: Congrats Jeremy!
Happy Birthday Twins!

Pretending to blow out the candles

Bailey getting feed cake... she LOVED it!

The Rich Family
We are weird looking.

Opening presents at home after morning nap.
THANK YOU to everyone who brought something... these girls are sure spoiled!

Sunday brought some rest as we said good bye to Melissa and Wayne who went back to Vegas. That evening Stacia, Nate, and Maylie came over to play! It was so fun. They LOVE their new wagon that the got, and are making Sally give them rides around the house! We need the Knapps to move closer so that our girls can grow up together like Stacia and I did.

The girls

Bailey, Maylie, and Kennedy = BFF!

One more day...

Jeremys say the Darnest Things...

One of the best selling items of all time, are anything that has "Bush-isms" in them. We find something funny about a man who is not eloquent in his speaking. I would like to introduce the first chapter of what I hope will be the next big seller... Jeremy-isms. I dare say that they are just as funny, if not funnier than anything George has said. And without any further delays, may i present you 10 quotes straight from the mouth of my hubby....

• "Go past the Inverted Speed Bump" When giving directions to someone who needed to pass a dip in the road

• "I could almost be a vegetarian" "But you don't like vegetables" "Oh Yeah" When he saw a piece of fat on his chicken (Yes, he is a picky eater)

• "Let's play it by year" Instead of let's play it by ear"

• "We are in the same vote" Instead of ... well, if you don't know maybe you and Jer are really in the same boat.

• "Hello! My name is Jeremy. I am bald and fat." How he often introduces himself.... he says it breaks the ice
  

• "Oh Bob!" What he whispered to me one night when we were dating and making out ... don't worry, it ruined the mood =)
  

• "It's not rocket scientist" When describing how to do something to his friend Aaron

• "You are so cute!" In a little baby voice as he was speaking to one of the babies while calling one of his friends. His friend answered at that moment and quietly said "thank you."

• "Yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-..." When answering the phone one time and attempting to say "yo, yo yo." He began stuttering and could not stop!

• "Keep it up Patrick!" When I was scratching his back one evening while he was half asleep. WEIRD!

Hopefully these original quotes make you laugh as much as they make me laugh. Feel free to add any personal moments that you have had with Jeremy that could be included in my new book: Jeremy-isms. I am anticipating volume 2 to be out by Fall. And now, I leave you with one last quote that sums up how I feel about Jeremy. From the wise words of a prank call my friend Amanda and I received our freshman year of college, "I love my babies' Daddy, I'd never let him go."

Cake and Presents

Have you ever wondered what little children think, when their whole lives you have never let them taste anything sweet, and then one day you throw a cake in front of their face and let them eat it? Well, I should have guessed it... that my "twins" who do nothing twin-like had very different reactions.

Kennedy waited until no one was looking and then devoured her cupcake. When I went to take her picture, she reached out for the camera like she was going to eat that next.

And little Miss Sensitive, thought something was awfully wrong. Maybe she would have preferred a chocolate cake over yellow?

Unfortunately my family will not be able to make it out for Jer's graduation, so they opted to come last weekend instead. And while we are planning a party for the girls birthday/Jer's graduation on the same day, we decided to celebrate their actual birthday with homemade pizza and cupcakes. We had a great time with them. And Jeremy wanted to especially thank them for the bikinis they got the girls... he just might have to borrow one sometime....

HAPPY ONE-YEAR BIRTHDAY GIRLS!

Holy Cow! 9 Months ago, I never would have believed that this day would come. But here we are... tomorrow, my babies are one-year old. Jeremy wants to wake them up at the time they were born (6:01 a.m.) and sing "Happy Birthday to you." I'm gonna be honest, that is probably not going to happen - but it is a cute idea.

I remember one of the many times I was hospitalized for going into premature labor, and a social worker came into the room to ask me, "On a scale from 1 to 10, how planned were these children, and how do you feel about having children?" Obviously, she was screening me to see if there was any reason I had resentment/did not want/was not ready for the girls. I had to laugh, "Oh, they were very planned - and EXTREMELY wanted."For those of you that don't know the story (and because I am using my blog as a journal), I will tell a quick recap of how these little embryos in a petri dish came to be. *I will not be offended if you do not wish to read all this jazz.*

Rewind to Jeremy and my second date (no we were not trying to make babies back then, if you think that is where this is going). He sat me down and wanted to have a talk. It was then, that I learned something vague about not having children, jacked up sperm, etc, etc..... O.K. Thank you. I was just looking for a free dinner and a good night, but thanks for sharing. Fast forward to one night when Jeremy and I were playing a dating game, and he was asked "What is Britni's biggest fear." He guessed something silly like cockroaches when my true love, Stacia, pipped up and said, "No, it's not being able to have kids." Jeremy went silent the rest of the night, and I couldn't place what had turned his mood around. We had a talk that night where I learned more. He carried a genetic disorder. In brief, this "balanced translocation" messes with chromosomes 7 and 20 resulting in multiple birth defects and death. Our little nephew Hunter, passed away from it two years after we were married. After seeing the pain that my brother and sister-in-law had to go through, and the hurt from losing such a perfect little guy, we knew there had to be more options. We learned that one could do in vitro with PGD (Preimplantaion genetic diagnosis.) Which basically means that you would do all the shots to stimulate your eggs, take out the eggs, fertilize them with "the sperm", and then biopsy one cell from the embryo and ship that back east where a lab can use fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to tell us what embryos we should transfer. Whew! I know that is a lot, and that is the condensed version! We knew the odds were against us, but went for it anyways! So, you can now see the humor when the worker asked me if they were planned!

Here is a little picture tribute to the babies formally known as Twin "A" (Kennedy) and Twin "B" (Bailey) ....

Kennedy Jaine Nelson
4/13/2007
6:01 a.m.
(Named Kennedy after her Grandma Kristy's maiden name)

Kennedy the "tummy time expert." I remember going to church when she was this little and she would lay on a blankie on her tummy. People would come up to me and ask me how I got her to do it. Apparently no one else has kids that like "tummy time." She loved it, especially when she got the hang of holding her head up and looking at the bright colors on her blanket and toys.





Kennedy the "food lover." O.K., so the first time we fed her rice cereal, she screamed bloody murder like we were trying to poison her. But once she realized that it was food, and food is good, she became a big fan. In fact, she now gets so excited for meal time that I can hear her legs kicking and her screaming while I am trying to get it ready. Obviously, I am just not fast enough.


Kennedy the "happy hygienist." She LOVES to brush her teeth. Awesome.

Bailey Graice Nelson
4/13/2007
6:01 a.m.
(Named Bailey after her Grandma Sally's maiden name)

Bailey the "sleeping angel." Yes, she was an angel... when she slept! Boy, what an awakening experience into motherhood, not only did I have two babies, but Bailey had acid reflux. That made for a very unhappy, needy awake baby. As tired as and frustrated as I ever got, all I had to do was look at the little sweet face, and it seemed to be worth it.




Bailey the "happy model." From a very young age, this little girl sure could smile. And as she got a little older it seemed as though she was posing for the camera. Every time I got the camera out, she would grin and resume her "ta-da" position!







Bailey "the ponderer." She is always in thought (and sometimes dazing out). She is growing into a very independent girl who loves to explore the house and use all of her 5 senses to get to know her world better.

We can't believe they have been here a year.

We love you girls - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love, Mom and Dad