Jan 19th baby checkup

Sorry all you faithful readers, it's been a while....

Lisa had her last checkup on Friday and it was a good one. This is the appointment that most pregnant women look forward to because it's the first time they get to see their baby for 45 minutes while they do all their measurements. We are spoiled because twins require one of the apppointments every month so this is the third time we've seen the 3d pictures and we get 45 minutes PER BABY...but this was the "scheduled" 20 week checkup. We are so spoiled with these twins.

Lisa's mom was also in town so she was able to accompany us and see her grandbabies in action for the first time. They put on a great show. Both were very active to the point where we thought they were fighting. There was a lot of squirming, punching, kicking, and dancing. These are going to be fun babies.

The doc printed out 14 pictures for us.....14!!!!! Here are a few.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On December 30th, we took a road trip to see the most famous castle in Germany, Neuschwanstein. While we were flying back to Anchorage, Lisa and I talked about our favorite parts of the trip and we both agreed that day was #1 for both of us. For me, the castle was amazing but I most enjoyed driving through the countryside and seeing all the picturesque villages along the way. One of the highlights was when we stopped for lunch on the way back off the beaten path. I'm still not sure what the name of the village was but it was not a place many American tourist probably stop. Anyway, here are a few pictures from that day.

One of said picturesque villages enroute to the castle. This one was in Austria, I believe. We actually drove through Austria for about 30 minutes.


Carriage ride up to the castle.



...view of Schwan (Swan) Lake from inside the castle


Lisa outside of Neuschwanstein


Ludwig built his castle so he could keep a close eye on his Mommy and Daddy down the road who lived in this little castle.

Ski Jumping

Dec 31, 2006 qualifying jump in Garmisch, Germany.

Ski Jumping on New Year's Eve

Some pictures from our New Years festivities. The way I understand it is that Garmisch is 1 of 4 ski jump hills on a circuit in Europe. It is a huge anual event and one of the main reasons why we wanted to be in Garmisch during this time of year. We went on New Year's Eve for the practice and qualifying rounds. Finals were the next day and it RAINED...hard. We watched the finals live on tv in a lodge down the street and were amazed to see how many people braved the rain. Here are a couple of shots from that day and then that evening during the party....and a "Andy and Lisa's Adventures" first, a video from our digital camera.

We're HOME!!!

We finally made it home early Friday morning after 3 days of travelling. We left Garmisch on Tuesday and took the train to Munich. After an overnight stay at a nice hotel near the airport, we left around noon for a 9.5 hour flight to Philadelphia. We couldn't get a connecting flight out of Philly that same evening so we stayed overnight in Philly and left Thursday afternoon for the last 2 flights back to Anchorage. They were each 5 hours long and proved to be more exhausting the than the initial pond crosser. Luckily we were able to use miles to upgrade to first class on the last two legs but even so, we were both VERY anxious to get off the plane.

This first picture is the sunrise on our last day travelling from our hotel room in Philly. Obviously, our clocks were a little messed up so we were up a little early.

Before we got on the plane, we found an AWESOME Philly cheesesteak place down the street from the hotel. It was perfect. Here is Lisa washing down her cheesesteak with some water (I haven't seen her eat that much since we found out she was pregnant) with some of the decor in the background. The article on the wall behind her was about how President Bush and his entourage ordered 80 cheesesteaks a couple years ago while there were visiting the city. There was a signed picture on the wall from the crew of Air Force One.

Home...we knew it had snowed while we were gone but wow were we surprised to see just how much. Our next door neighbor kept our driveway shoveled but left the snow on top of the Bronco to show us how much it had snowed. I'm still in shock. The road back to our house is one lane because the snow is stacked up so high on each side. Our deck had more than 2 feet of snow stacked up so I got a little worried about the weight and shoveled some off. Madison ventured out into it but didn't like it too much.

Happy New Year from Deutschland

Lisa and I are still in Germany and having a blast. Our vacation is coming to an end and will be begin our long journey back to Anchorage tomorrow. I can't wait to share photos and stories with everyone. For now, I thought I would give a little teaser of some of our adventures.

A reason to celebrate

Today, Lisa and I celebrate our 7th anniversary!

GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We found out yesterday...we're having girls! :) What can I say? I didn't have a gut feeling either way but am now finding out that everybody "knew it". That's the most common response so far, even at work.

The appointment went great. It took over an hour for the doc to see everything he wanted to see. The babies, I mean the girls, looked fantastic. They were both squirming around and one always seem to move right when the doc was trying to get a picture of something. We think it was the same baby that was dancing around so much last time too. We were able to see cross sections from head to toe.

Toward the end, he showed us the "girl parts" and told us the good news. He then switched to the 3-d ultrasound and saw some amazing pictures. I took the video camera and recorded some and hope to share that on here after I figure out how to transfer it. In the mean time, here are some still shots.

Looks like to me the one on the right is smiling.

The ladies chilling. Looks like the one on the left is waving with her right hand and saying gig'em with the other. Good little ags!

...and the money shot.

She's starting to pop

We have our next appointment on Friday but I'd thought now would be a good time to update the expanding belly. Lisa's had some growing pains and is getting over her cold slowly...but overall things are going okay. We're really looking forward to Friday.

Lisa had me laughing out loud tonight. She had a terrible day at work, came home and cried, and then spent 3 hours at the computer writing up reports. But we were just getting ready for bed and she let out a little scream in the other room. I perked up and asked if everything was okay and she walks over to me with her shirt up pointing out her belly button. She says, "I just sneezed and my belly button popped out!!! Feel it! FEEL IT!!!" She was freaking out. She has an outie now.

December 5 Checkup

We needed a pick-me-up today and we go it. We were able to ease our worrisome minds with some reassurance from our doctor that we're doing everything right and the babies are perfectly healthy. The doctor determined that Lisa's cold is a viral infection and antibiotics aren't necessary. The best course of action is to drink plenty of fluids and keep taking Sudafed. All the cramping, throwing up, sniffs, and gagging is a natural part of being pregnant and will eventually pass.

So after that settling news and getting a nice pep talk, we headed over to get a quick ultrasound. Unfortunately, it was not the 3-d ultrasound like the last one but we did make an appointment for next Friday to have that done. That will be VERY exciting because we will most likely find out the sex of the two little ones during that next visit. This ultrasound was to just do a quick check to make sure they're alive and kicking.

And now for the best part of the day...the second the doc put the wand on Lisa's belly, this perfect image of baby number 1 popped up on the screen. He/she was wiggling around and showing off for us again. Baby number 2 wasn't as easy to see. He/she was situated in a way that we could really only see the top of his/her head and the upper torso. Afterwards, I was brought to tears. I was SO excited to see those little ones doing so good. It has been challenging for us, especially Lisa, and it was so rewarding and comforting to see our happy babies alive and well...and GROWING!! They are really starting to look like little babies.

So here are the pics of the two little ones. In the second picture, if you are having a hard time seeing it, the top of the head is on the right and the spine and upper torso goes off to the left.

We're at an all-time low over here

What a weekend! After a fun snow day on Friday, things went downhill fast. Friday night we spent with Lisa and Ben and probably stayed out a little bit too late. Saturday was house party night. We went to 3 different parties eventhough Lisa was feeling a little under the weather.

Sunday...the floor fell out from us. Lisa is as sick as she's been since we found out. She has a nasty cold and nothing seems to be helping. That in combination with the morning sickness is bringing the morale way down.

So we're feeling bad, right? I decided while Lisa was in bed to do some cleaning Sunday. I get out the vacuum and when I start it up, smoke starts pouring out of the side! This is 3 year old $200+ vacuum we bought to deal with all the dog hair...guess that didn't pan out too well.

So today, I decide to get some laundry done. I start the washer up and laid down. I hear an awful sound and run to the laundry room only to smell AND SEE smoke coming from behind the washer!!!! What are the freaking chances!?!?!? 2 appliances in 2 days practically catch fire.

So what's the good news? It can't all be bad, right? Well we have an appointment with the doc tomorrow morning. Certainly the doc will be able to give Lisa some relief from her symptoms. Both of our fantasy football teams won. We're leaving for Germany in 17 days. All signs are that the babies are doing well. Hopefully that'll be comfirmed tomorrow at the appointment.

Say a little prayer for us.

I leave you with a picture from Friday night at Lisa and Bens. We played Monopoly by the fire until...well until Lisa B won.

Big Snow = Big Fun

Friday, December 1, was a good day. We got 5 to 7 inches of the white stuff across town. It was my first day off so Lisa, Ben, Lisa R, Venessa, and I made the most of our afternoon. After I bought my snowboard!!!!!! we went up to Russian Jack Park to go snowboarding/sledding. It was a blast. The snow was untouched so we were able to make our own trails and I was able to experience snowboarding down some fresh powder. I've heard it compared to floating on a cloud, that is accurate. It was like nothing I'd ever done before. It was very forgiving and lot of fun. Here are some pics from this evening's festivities.


My first attempt


Lisa R giving the snowboard a try and doing pretty good.

I thought this one looked like an album cover or something. It'd be better if it was in focus but you get the point. It was funny because it was so spontaneous, too. I just said, hey let me get your picture as they were walking up the hill and this is how they stopped and posed.

An actual "blog"

I thought I would just write something. I realized that I haven't been posting as much as I hoped I would when I started this blog. I think that's because I wanted this to be mainly about the pictures and I figured I'd get less interest if there's all this crap to read through to get to the pictures. Well screw it...there've been many times where I wanted to share a story but hesitated because I didn't have a picture to accompany it. Too bad.

Update on Lisa...the best I can say is it's been "up and down". We had a great Thanksgiving (pictures coming as soon as I get the film developed) and Lisa felt pretty good the entire day. Friday wasn't as good...Saturday a little worse...and Sunday was just bad. I was wondering if it was because she wasn't at work and didn't have other stuff to keep her occupied but whatever it was, Sunday was a bad day. Thanks to a couple of timely phone calls from friends and family, I think she was feeling better by Sunday night. Monday went pretty well. She came home from work and declared, "I'm hungry", which I hear 3-6 times a day. For whatever reason, the babies wanted Mexican so we hopped into the car and went to our local Mexican restaurant.

In other news...the temperature is up a little. It has been COOLLD this November. We hit -10.1 Sunday morning with a high of 3 degrees. But it snowed finally Monday morning...just a little. With the clouds and precip, the temps jumped up into the upper teens. It felt like spring, it was soo nice and warm.

It was funny driving home this morning in the snow, I was having a hard time determining where the road started and stopped. I was focused so hard on the road I nearly missed 3 adult moose RUNNING toward me about 15 feet off the road like they just robbed a bank. I got a good laugh out of it after I changed my shorts.

That's all I have for now. I'm working through Thursday morning...hoping to finally buy a snowboard and go out for the first time this season. I'll try to limit these posts and keep it interesting.

Thanksgiving pics and updated Lisa photos coming in the next couple of days.

Remembering the moose

I have a sad story to share. I was working night shifts this past weekend and one night a momma and a baby moose stopped by the office to say hello. Lisa R. and I watched the two tag-team the shrubs and then lay down next to each other in the snow and take a long nap. It was a very sweet moment. It's especially nice when the moose come around the house or the office because we usually see them on the side of the road as we drive by at 40 mph and we don't get to observe them close up and personal like that.

Well...a day later I was on my way to work and it appeared that the baby had been hit by a car and had been killed just a hundred yards or so from the office. It was really sad. Luckily I didn't see the mom anywhere when I drove by but I was still a bit heartbroken thinking about the two of them just 24 hours earlier laying down side by side in the snow.

So...I thought I would go through some of our pictures and find some to remember the good times. At last count, Lisa and I have seen over 250 moose this year and have loved every one of them.




Twins

Growing....

Mom and babies are doing great. Lisa has been feeling better since she started the anti-nausea pills. We have our next appointment December 5 and can't wait to get more pictures of the little ones. Until then, here's a picture of Lisa and her growing pouch.

Thanks for all the emails and phone calls we've been getting. It is extremely nice to get all this support. I don't know if the news has even set in yet. We're still kind of taking it easy. So far, I don't think we've made many changes in our lifestyle except that I'm working out more. I realized that after the twins are born, I won't have the time to go to the gym anymore so I better lose all the weight I can right now. Otherwise we haven't made any purchases or started changing the office into the nursery although I'm going to start moving stuff soon.

If you're wondering about our winter here...it is really kicking our butts this year. November has been COLD!!!! After our decent snowfall in late October, it's been clear but cold. The low at the house so far has been -0.2 degrees but almost every night this month has been in the single digits. To make it worse, now we have some wind. The last two days have been really windy with the high temperature only reaching 12 degrees. That puts the wind chill around -10. It could be worse...the area about 20 miles to the north of us is having wind funnelled through the mountains so they're getting winds higher than 60 mph with a high temperature during the afternoon in the lower teens. No thank you.

You can always check the temperature at our house on the Anchorage Mesonet. Our house is "Dimond and Minnesota".

Drop us an email or give us a call. We always love to hear from you.

Baby on Board

We are expecting!!! Most of you know that we are expecting our first child in early June of 2007. I finally hooked up the scanner so I could share our first ultrasound pictures.



That's our dot! Isn't it cute?! We were a little surprized to find out that we were going to have a baby but we weren't not trying so we weren't completely shocked.

Next step was yesterday...we went in for our first scheduled appointment on Friday the 3rd. Lisa beat me into the exam room for the ultrasound (I was in the bathroom of course). As soon as I walked in the door, the doctor says "oh good, you're here. Do twins run in the family?" The question caught us off guard but we thought about it for a second and politely answered...still not knowing he was about to drop this bomb. "Well, you're having twins"!!!!!!! We were, and still are, SHOCKED!

So here's the cool part. Our hospital just received a new 3-D Ultrasound machine so we were able to see some very special images of our little babies.

The rest of the appointment went great. All the bloodwork is perfect and the only "abnormality" was Lisa's hormone levels were through the roof...well now we know why, which also explains why Lisa has been SO sick the last couple of weeks. The doctor prescribed some anti-nausea medicine to help Lisa out and she's been feeling better today.

As for whether or not twins run in the family, apparently that is irrelevant. Later during the ultrasound the doc said that they are going to be identical twins. He can tell because they are sharing the same placenta so the egg split at sometime early in the pregnancy. I've been doing some reading and it appears that fraternal twins are hereditary or as a result of fertility drugs, identical twins are a statistical anomaly...I mean a blessing from God!

We still don't know the sex, which will be the same, and shouldn't be able to tell for another 8 weeks or so. All of our efforts are being doubled...actually right now that just means we have to double the naming process. I'll post a link to a website soon so you can see what names we're thinking about and you can give us some feedback.

Otherwise mom and babies are great. The babies even were dancing for us during the 3-d portion of the ultrasound and we were able to hear each babies heartbeat.

We are extremely excited...shocked...nervous so keep us in your prayers. I'll start posting some before pictures so you can keep up with how mom's wasteline is evolving too. HA