Christmas and Belly Love

Christmas is approaching fast, Piper is beyond excited. So much is going on. She knows that the baby brothers are coming, Santa is coming, Grandma and Grandpa are coming, everything is happening at once. It is so fun to watch her experience all the beauty of the season. She loves all the decorations and music and the anticipation of Santa. Piper loved meeting Santa in person. We were the first ones there, so she got to hang out on Santa's lap while they got the camera all set up. She wasn't scared at all and told him she wanted purple toys for Christmas. She especially liked the candy cane he gave her as a special treat!

We had a fun visit from Uncle Topher for Thanksgiving. He and Piper hit it off from the start and had a blast playing toys, reading books and simply enjoying each others company. This was the 3rd Thanksgiving in a row that Uncle Topher has spent with us, officially making it a fun tradition! Last weekend when I was just about 35 weeks, a few friends gathered to celebrate this pregnancy of twins! Besides the good company and yummy food, the highlight was doing a belly cast. This will be a fun memento for years down the road to help me remember how big my belly really got. And really its getting bigger...it has only been one week, but I don't think the belly cast would fit around my belly today! Yikes.

Not every Pregnant mama will say this, but I really do love being pregnant. I am definitely starting to get uncomfortable, but it is such a special time and unique experience to watch my belly transform to the size it is now. It is weird to look down and not see my toes, but I think my belly is beautiful. I also really love feeling all the movement from the babies inside. It is like a little secret between me and the babies. An amazing connection that no one else can see or feel except us. I remember missing the movement after Piper was born. It is still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that two babies are in there. And even harder for me to imagine what life is going to be like once they come out. I have no idea what to expect, but I do realize it is going to be a wild ride. For now we are enjoying the calm before the storm. I have been taking naps and plan to enjoy a nice breakfast date with David tomorrow morning while Piper is a school.

Send good thoughts our way, hoping to keep these babies cooking another 2 weeks!

Nesting

Check out our latest home improvement! It has been so fun making our house feel like a home. We have been "nesting" and putting lots of energy in choosing different household items that never really seemed important before. For example we finally just ordered a bed for our new mattress. For the last 8 years that we have been in Bend, our bed has been on the floor of our bedroom. We always loved where we lived, but always knew that we wouldn't be there for the long haul, so it just wasn't a priority. I think the move into this new house has felt so right, and it finally feels like the time to make some of these investments. Anyway, another fun project has been this cherry blossom decal in Piper's room. It was a birthday present from Piper's Grandpa Richard and Grammie Lynn - Thank you!!! We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when we started, but over the last 2 weeks, we have probably spent more that 10 hours placing the tree and each and every blossom on the wall. It has been a fun project and Piper loves it. What an improvement from her first "room" - the dead end hallway in our rental house!

And finally as promised, here is the latest belly picture, I am almost 33 weeks pregnant! Last week I wasn't feeling that great, really waddling around and wondering if any activity was going to send me into labor. I felt like a walking time bomb! Then on Thursday I had my doctors appointment and got some reassurance that as long as I wasn't in pre-term labor, meaning having real contractions, walking around wasn't going to send me into labor. So after I left the appointment, the time bomb feeling went away and I felt ten times better - I think my head was getting the best of me. The bad news from my appointment was that twin B flipped and is no longer in the head down facing position. A heart breaker for the hopeful VBAC I was wanting to experience. I am handling the news better than I would have guessed, but still disappointed. Overall I am feeling great and excited for this wild ride of twins and a two year old. Our long list of to-do's is getting shorter, which feels good. One last major purchase will be the mini van, we are bummed to have to give up the Subaru, but realize that swallowing our pride and tossing out our cool card is for the greater good of practicality.

Piper the Park Ranger

Piper was a hit in her Grand Canyon Park Ranger Halloween costume this year! We have discovered her to be quite the Candy Monster, which is no surprise considering her Daddy's sweet tooth too. Piper loved trick o treating at the Old Mill shops and had so much fun seeing all the other kids dressed up as well. She liked the witches the best. Grandma Alice came for a visit, Piper loved being spoiled with attention and love. Especially getting special sweet treats at the local bakeries and ice cream shops. Grandma Alice gave us a nice treat too, by getting up with Piper every morning and letting us sleep in...something soon to be a thing of the past once the twins arrive. Speaking of the twins, I am now 32 weeks pregnant and all of a sudden really feeling it. I have felt a noticeable difference in my body really needing to slow down. David has been wonderfully ready to do what ever needs to be done, I just need to let him. We want to do what ever it takes to keep these babies cooking. My belly has officially grown bigger than where it was when Piper came out, I will work on getting a picture uploaded maybe for the next post!

Happy Birthday Piper - You are TWO!

What a privilege it has been to spend the last two years getting to know Piper Vida Staley. Especially this last year her communication, understanding and interaction with us has been so fun to see her sweet personality blossom. To think back to a year ago, Piper was not even walking(she started walking at 14 months), though she made the best elephant sounds in town. She said few words, like Llama Llama, car and baby. Now at 2 years old Piper is running, bossing Mango around, talking in sentences and POTTY TRAINED! That is right, I said potty trained. Since September she has been wearing her pantalettes (underwear), and very proud to not pee in them.

Of course I would say this as her mom, but Piper is really smart! The things she says and her understanding of the world around her is well beyond her 2 years. One of her favorite words right now is "otherwise." For example, she will say, "Don't pee in pantalettes, otherwise Piper be sad." Or "Don't fall down, otherwise, mommy will kiss you."

When Piper sees something that might be a little scary to her, like a Halloween witch decoration, or a spider, she will ask me, "Is it nice?" I think it is her way of making sure she is safe even if she feels a little scared.

Some of Pipers favorite things these days are: reading books, walking Mango on leash around the house, dragging her balloon on a string everywhere she goes (even if the helium is gone), doing sticker books, pushing around her baby stroller, taking walks in the woods, throwing rocks in the river, "organizing" Daddy's desk drawers, getting big tickles and watching Mango have the puppy crazies.

Piper is very good at melting our hearts. She has started saying "Hold me everyday, Mommy" and "I need a hug Daddy" and using the word love. At first she would say "I love Mango," or "I love my balloon," but more recently she said "I love Daddy and I love Mommy too." She is a good cuddle-bug, especially when reading books. Piper is looking forward to tickling her baby brothers toes and likes to give my belly kisses. Piper has a sense of humor as well. She likes to say, "Daddy is chopped lizards...Mommy is queen of the world!"

We love our Piper so much, it is an amazing feeling to experience this love of being parents. I never would have guessed the amount of joy and happiness this little one could bring into our lives. Thank you Piper for opening our hearts to a new level and bringing a smile to our faces every day.

Happy 2nd Birthday Piper!

Summer flew by,now it's time to nest and prepare for the arrival of TWO babies

I have had two months now to wrap my mind around the news that we are expecting twin boys. The reality is still hard to comprehend, but we are excited to experience the adventure of twins. The logistics of feeding, holding, changing and all other needs coming at us double time is overwhelming. Especially when I think of my sweet Piper having to share the attention. I think it is going to be hard and just crazy for the first couple years, but the picture in my head of our three kids playing together and the opportunity to watch two more babies grow and become their own little selves brings a smile to my heart.

We took full advantage of enjoying our favorite season in Bend this summer. Loving our downtown location we spent our days walking or riding our bikes to parks, concerts, farmers market, the river etc.

Our dear friends Shannon and Kyle and their 4 kids (Ella 7, Luke 5, Nolan 3 and Alice 18 mo.) came for a visit from Seattle. What perfect timing to get to watch their family of 6 be so well behaved and fun to be around as they rolled into town just 45 minutes after we found out the news of our twin action. Thanks Tylers for showing us what fun it will be to have a big family.

And a few days later, the Oranen's came to town for some summer time fun in Bend. Their sweet boy Wesley and Piper had a great time playing and just being cute. The rest of the summer was filled with camping, lake days, floating the river, and swimming at Juniper outdoor kid pool. We went to the Deschutes County Fair with Piper's play group and David and I even had the chance to squeeze in a couple of date nights, our favorite being anchoring in the middle of the river to poach the concerts at the Old Mill Amphitheater. The third annual Droullard family Oregon coast trip was another highlight of the summer. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for keeping the tradition going, it is such a special time for us all to get away together and simply cook meals and play on the beach. We even learned about letter boxing thanks to Kevin and Lisa who started us off with our very own hand made stamp.

Now it is officially Fall. We hit the pumpkin patch today, here are a few pictures of Piper living it up being cute as can be.

Since the Spring

Okay, I have to get at least a handful of consistent blogs before I can safely say "I have a blog!" So here goes another try at blogging...entry number three.

I am happy to say that life with Team Staley is never dull. Since this spring we have traveled to Costa Rica - leaving Piper at home with Grandma Alice, bought a four-plex in Scottsdale, AZ, got pregnant, and bought a brand new house for ourselves to live in.

The trip to Costa Rica was thanks to my boss Tom, who so generously invited us along on the company trip to a fancy resort. Having the time to be just the two of us again was so refreshing and fun to be free of eating, napping & bedtime schedules. We were so excited to just be outside at night! We were able to check email and hear that Piper was doing great and having fun. Just knowing that she was okay and happy getting spoiled by Grandma, let us relax and enjoy our time on vacation.

While in Costa Rica, we remembered how much we loved to travel and had fun reminiscing about all the crazy adventures we had traveling before we settled in Bend. These conversations sparked an idea we are super excited about. We made a goal for the year 2020 to take our kids out of school for a year and TRAVEL the world! What an amazing time and opportunity for our family to experience together. This decision feels so us and feels so good, we are excited.

This is where the properties in Arizona come into play. Unfortunately for some, but fortunately for us, the real estate market has taken such a fall that we are able to make good buys now and plan to use this as our vacation fund to fuel this goal of traveling with our kids in the future.

Speaking of kid(s) plural...we do indeed have another one on the way. This little one is 15 weeks along and plans to arrive the middle of January. This still seems so far away, but I know time will fly and we will be holding our new bundle in a blink of the eye. We are so excited to see Piper interact with the new baby and be the big sister.

Piper has been such an amazing kid to watch grow and develop. She is talking non-stop and always baffling me with the concepts she understands and talks about. This is such a fun age. It will be fun to start over with a new baby and go through the wonder of this new little one growing and becoming their own little self. I feel so thankful for the opportunity to be a mom and have this intimate view of discovering life from the eyes of a child. So cool.

And finally, our new house! Ever since we sold our Choctaw house two years ago, we have been renting in downtown Bend. We love the neighborhood and lifestyle it allows to own just one car, walk or bike to parks, restaurants, the post office, and especially Newport market for last minute items or the best meat or fish in town. We weren't even planning on buying a house for another year or so. But one night were were browsing online the houses for sale, just to get an idea of what was out there. For the area we like it was mostly tiny old houses for more than we would want to spend. But then we came across the one we bought, a foreclosure, brand new, never been lived in, three blocks from the rental we were currently in. We looked at the house on Saturday, then again on Sunday, made the decision that night and submitted our offer Monday morning. It all happened so fast, but we are so happy and love our new place. Best of all, we have room for visitors!

Family Fun in the snow

Here is another practice run...am I really going to keep up this blog? As you can see the last one was this fall after our annual Droullard Family Cannon Beach trip. That was 5 months ago!!! Wow does time fly. We are so amazed at how evident the passage of time is now that we have Piper. Before five or six months could go by without much change or anything really to account for. Now, we can see so much change and development with the growth of our sweet little one. Just five short months ago, Piper was just crawling and could make a pretty convincing elephant sound. Now...she is walking, actually running, and has so much to say. The other night we took the time to write down all the words Piper says and we came up with 40 words! Her favorite word of course is Mango!

Here are a few fun pictures from last weekend when my parents visited to get a quick Piper fix! We had fun lots of fun playing in the snow and sledding at Wanogo Snow park.