This year we got to go pick our own Christmas tree at Dado's house! Decorating was quite an adventure, as all the pine needles are pretty much like actual needles, and stab you if you touch them! Hence, all the decorations are hung right at the tips of the branches and fall off whenever my stomach bumps into them.
I know everyone who lives in other places always asks me how big I am, so here's a picture I took today, at 6 months pregnant (28 weeks). I would guess I'm pretty close to the size I got at the end of my pregnancies with Alicey and Olivia.
On Friday evening our ward had its annual Christmas dinner. I love this picture! Everyone is so happy!
After dinner, the girls got to go see Santa Claus! Olivia received a little set of plastic squeaky fish, and Alicey a Tinker Bell stamp set.
And here's Alicey last Thursday at her preschool's Christmas program. She was soooo excited about it! Too bad Cesar had his last final at the same time and couldn't come. She sang with her classmates Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
And here's Alicey with her beloved teacher, Miss Lindsay. Alicey LOVES Miss Lindsay! She holds the preschool at her home down the street from our house.
Today Cesar and I loaded the girls in the car and headed off to my obgyn's office... I am 20 weeks along in my pregnancy TODAY, so you can maybe guess what appointment was today. Before we get to the big news, here's a little history of my pregnancy...
At my first appointment, 9 weeks along, I was pleasantly surprised when my doctor said "now let's go into this other room and see if we can see your baby in an ultrasound!" At the first appointment! And that was a very lucky thing, too, because my doctor found TWO heartbeats... TWINS!!! My reaction- total amazement, totally surprised, and very excited!!! They don't look much more than blobs at 9 weeks...
And here's the babies at 12 weeks. Another cool thing about having twins is they want to do an ultrasound at every appointment to hear the separate heartbeats. They look more like babies here
And then we get to today. We walk into the ultrasound room and see a 50+" flat screen TV, a DVD player, a stack of blank DVD's and sleeves, and the ultrasound machine. My doctor said since ours was the last ultrasound of the day, he was going to use a better image (I'm not sure of the connection there) and ended up taking about 25 minutes! Of course, the fact that there were 2 definitely contributed to the time. The girls, though, were ready to go after 5 minutes of not really seeing mommy's babies. So, here's the first picture. You can see one of the babies very cleary and a part of the head of the second...
And now, here's the big news. The doctor found that Baby A was a ...
and that Baby B was a...
So we're having TWO more girls! Yeah for us! We're all really excited, except maybe for Alicey who was a little disappointed- she really wanted a little brother. Maybe next time Alicey. And 5 minutes after we were done, the nurse comes out with the whole thing recorded on a DVD for us! It is so neat to see all those arms and legs and feet and hands waving around together. They are separated in different sacs, but you could never tell in the ultrasound. The doctor wasn't even sure they were separated at first, except that I told him at 12 weeks my previous ultrasound showed separate everything. Anyway, so that's the news! And I'm just now starting to feel them moving around- though watching them today I can't believe I don't feel them more!
This was actually taken this morning at the Eagle Mountain Pioneer Days Parade I took the girls to earlier today. We had lots of fun. Alicey was mostly worried about when more candy was going to be thrown to her... Aren't they adorable?!
A week ago I got back from visiting my parents in California with Alicey and Olivia (Cesar had to stay home to work). It was SOOOOO nice to be able to relax lots, get caught up with some old friends, and play with my girls lots. Alicey and Olivia LOVED being read to, especially by grandma...
We went to the park like every day... Here's Olivia and Sam playing in the sand. I almost bought the girls buckets and shovels when I got home to play in the sand with, but then I remembered that the parks in Utah all have woodchips instead of sand...
We played with Summer, Hank, Leah, and Sam whenever possible! Here we are at the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark.
We got to pick our OWN berries and EAT them! YUM!
They also had these really cute wagons to pull the kids around in. They were VERY helpful when we had to walk about a half a mile to get to the strawberries!
And Olivia was so excited when she finally found a tractor she could ride around on for FREE!
And Alicey had a close encounter with a liger (half tiger half lion). She didn't seem too afraid.
And don't forget the dance parties we had! Olivia just barely made it in to thise one...
And luckily we all made it back to Utah alive last Saturday! My dad drove back with me to help with the girls. We just want to say thankyou to all who made our trip so relaxing and enjoyable- Mom, Dad, Summer, Hank, Leah, and Sam! We love you guys! And Summer, we're SOOOO excited you'll be a Sister missionary in another month!!!!
My angels wearing their new Easter dresses Grandma sent them!
Alicey's joy school group.
Alicey shows off her "Cat in the Hat" hat she made... and a wooden angel?
I love my family!
My Valentine's Day surprise for the girls!
Aren't they adorable?!
Hank and Leah came a month or so ago and we all went sledding together!
COUSINS!
Alicey's fine sense of style! These earrings were some of Nana's that Alicey inherited when we were in Arizona for Pa's funeral.
So I figure instead of never coming back to write another blog entry because of being so overwhelmed by how far behind I am, I better just skip the past half a year and tell you what's happening right now in the Melo home!
Well, we're in the proccess of building a new home in the Ranches of Eagle Mountain, Utah. After looking hard for a newer home on a big lot in many different areas and just NOT being able to find one in our price range (besides short sales), we looked into going through a constructor. We were surprised to find out we could get a brand new home, on a .75 acre lot, for about the same amount as a NOT new home on a SMALL lot. We're going through McArthur Homes, and are very excited to be able to move in sometime this summer! I'll try to update you with some pictures along the way...
Alicey and Olivia are getting big and old FAST! Alicey has recently begun speaking English I'd say the majority of the time. I don't know at this point if I should just forget about it or maybe encourage her to speak Portuguese at home. Of course in the long run that's what I would like, but do I need to enforce this while she's so little? Alicey doesn't like me to tell her what to do, so I'm afraid if I insist whe just won't want to. Why is it such a big deal? Because half of her entire family ONLY speaks Portuguese and I don't want her to lose the chance to be able to communicate with them for the rest of her life.
Olivia loves to play with her "babies"- and doll or stuffed animal- and put them to sleep all throughout the house. She is very independent (unlike Alicey) and is happiest playing by herself. Though, the first thing she says whenever I get her up in the morning is "Poppy? Alicey?" Her vocabulary is definitely growing, but she hasn't gotten much further than 1-2 word phrases. I'm not worried about it. She's still 1. Her hair has gotten really long and always falls into her face, since she won't leave anything in her hair for longer than a few minutes. I don't want to cut it because I love long hair and want her hair to grow!
Last week Alicey and I went to see Disney on Ice with my friend, Railene, and her daughter, Alyssa. The girls had tons of fun, though I'd say Alicey only had patience for the first half of the show. After that, she kept trying to come up with excuses to leave, like going to the bathroom, SEVERAL times. Right before the intermission she waved her hand towards the ice rink and said "I'm tired of all of this!" Too bad, I thought, we're staying 'til the end! Alicey connected with about half of the characters that appeard- the Little Mermaid and the Lions King are two of her favorites, while Cars and the Tinker Bell movie aren't. It was fun to go out with just her for something special and to see our friends Rai and Alyssa! Here are some pictures and videos of the experience...
This curtain is a good abreviation of the entire show!
Alicey and Alyssa- buddies since birth! Tinker Bell coming down from the sky!
Meet the princesses before the show starts! Alyssa wasn't very excited about taking pictures.
I'm the lucky woman married to Cesar Melo and blessed with FIVE angels from heaven (and one on the way)! I love my family and hope you enjoy reading about our adventures together!
Alicey and Alyssa- buddies since birth!
