1 Week of LIFE

Calvin and Jett have smoothly entered the world and into our loving and welcoming hearts. I am relieved to say that their delivery by planned c section went well and they came out strong and healthy. I did not get to experience the VBAC that I had originally planned for when I first became pregnant, and still hoped for when I learned they were twins, but making it to 38 weeks and having healthy babies that didn't need the NICU is all that matters to me now. Calvin Judah Staley came out first on December 28th at 7:45pm weighing 5lbs 10 oz and a breach Jett Everett Staley quickly followed at 7:46pm weighing 5lbs 14oz.

Calvin and Jett have melted our hearts, it is a wonderful feeling to hold them both and snuggle their fuzzy baby heads. Piper is also quite taken with her new brothers. She loves to tickle their toes and kiss their heads. The twins brought her home a new wooden doll house when they came home from the hospital which has been a huge hit! The adjustment to being a big sister has mostly been fun for Piper, though she has had a bad cold since the day before the boys were born - bummer.

Piper proudly wears her "big sister" t shirts, loves to unwrap their swaddling blankets and is always concerned if one of them is crying. She is really sweet with them which is fun to see.

It has been a tremendous help to have my parents and Dave's mom here to help ease us into becoming a family of five. My parents arrived on Christmas Day and Alice swooped in a few days after Calvin and Jett were born. Now it is just my mom here and she is doing a fantastic job helping us juggle meals, diapers, swaddling, Piper time, laundry, snuggling and more diaper changing. Thank you MOM!!! We really would be in a world of hurt without the extra hands.

Thankfully Calvin and Jett have been mellow sleepy babies. There was a few days where they couldn't be calmed between the hours of nine and midnight, but even that has tappered down. I am proud to say that I have been successfully feeding both babies at one time, which is a skill that I didn't expect to happen so quickly. Calvin and Jett took bottles from Grandma and Daddy with no problem, so that is encourgaging and we plan to keep that up for future free time as the boys get a little older.

Just so you can tell the boys apart, Jett has the longer oval face and is on the left and Calvin has a rounder face and is on the right in the picture above.

I am so thankful to have David as my partner in this adventure of twins and a two year old...and the journey ahead. It feels good to know we are a team and I can count on him to help or take the lead every step of the way. You are an amazing Daddy and wonderful husband David Staley, I love you!

Shock Value!!

Monday is the big day...enjoy one last peak at this beautiful belly before the boys arrive...

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.