Australian Angels

Remember how I said back here that I knew my mom was going to just die when she found out I was having twins while she was on her mission in Australia?  Well, she hasn't died yet.  Through our frequent phone calls, emails, and Google chats, I have found quite the opposite.  She is thriving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She is helping the young missionaries share the gospel with the people in Perth.  She is sharing the gospel herself with people she meets.  She is taking care of the health needs of all the missionaries in her mission.  She is getting up at the crack of dawn to take my brother Robby to early morning seminary...or surfing lessons!  She is feeding missionaries and other guests that come to the mission home.  She is supporting my dad in his role as Mission President.  And she is supporting me. Her incredible faith and encouragement...and reminders to "STAY DOWN" are such a blessing. I know she prays for me and the babies and I feel the blessings of those prayers.  I know that so many of the people who have helped me, are helping me because they love my mom and they want to help do what they know she would do if she were here.  And, get this, in her "spare time" she is making quilts for the babies!
 

These are pictures of a "work in progress" but I look at the pictures every day and get so excited about the quilts...and the babies!

My dad is no slacker in the "Bed Rest Angel" department either.  He Google chats with me often and sends me the sweetest...and I mean THE SWEETEST and most encouraging emails.  I am so grateful for his love and example of service.  I also feel his daily prayers on my and the babies behalf and it is wonderful.  My dad and mom arranged to have cleaning ladies come to my house every week and when they leave it's like paradise around here.  A really clean smelling and tidy looking paradise.  Chad calls the cleaning ladies, "the three good fairies". 
Thank you mom and dad for everything!  I love you!

10 weeks down 7 to go

I can't believe I am now 30 weeks along and it has been ten weeks since I have been on bed rest!  To be honest, it really has gone by  fast.  I don't know that Chad and everyone else who has taken over my responsibilities would say the same...but for me it hasn't been SO bad.  I had another Dr. appointment this week and she told me that

1. things are looking good
2. if the babies haven't come by 37 weeks I will get induced...or have a c-section that week

37 weeks just happens to be my birthday.  My mom and my grandmother's birthday is two days after that so I opted to go right in the middle.  That means that unless they decide to come sooner, the babies will be born December 12th!  It is so exciting to have a date scheduled and know that the babies will be here by then.  I am really hoping that these babies turn...at least baby boy (he is lower down so he is the one whose position matters the most) so that I don't have to have a c-section.  But compared to everything I was worried about 10 weeks ago, a c-section will seem like getting off easy.

10 weeks down, 7 to go!

Marian's Talents

1.  Ballet
2.  Training dogs to dance
3.  Learning how to ride a horse

Marian's Primary class must have been talking about talents at church this week because she came home with a cute drawing of what I think is a girl on a horse and a list of three of her talents (see above).  Can't wait to get off bed rest so I can see some dancing dogs!

It's coming...

November 16th! Trader Joe's will open it's first Utah store in Salt Lake. Details HERE

Now I have a new landmark to put on my calendar of things to look forward to between now and December 11th (my birthday...and the day the twins will be technically full term).

I already have my shopping list and Trader Joe's reusable bag set and ready to go for Chad to take to the store.  Now all I need is for Russo's to open a store out here too.  If only!

Trader Joe's Shopping List:
Cranberry sauce
Butternut Squash Soup
Butternut squash ravioli
Canned Pumpkin (so cheap and such good quality)
Dark chocolate covered Jo Jo's (like oreos) dipped in crushed candy cane...heaven on earth
Frozen Fruit - especially mangoes and berries.
Frozen Naan
Canned Lite Coconut Milk - High Quality and Cheap
Chocolate Chips
Dried Fruit - cheap and DELICIOUS. The dried bananas, peaches, mangoes and pears are the best
Thai Yellow Curry Sauce
Frozen Green Beans and corn
Frozen chopped garlic and cilantro
KEFIR
100% Cranberry Juice
School house cookies
Maple Leaf Cookies (Jenn I blame you for my addiction to these)
Organic Unsweetened Applesauce
Dark chocolate pretzel thins
Frozen gnocchi gorgonzola mixed with 1 bag of frozen Penne Arabattia...get ready kids, this is on the dinner menu for the next few weeks!

Fall Porch

Apparently this is what my front porch looks like!  I love it.  Thank you Anne for putting it all together.  It is so fun to look out my windows and see fall appear on the mountains and on the neighborhood trees.  I love the cool night air coming in our open windows.  Poor Chad freezes but to a woman pregnant with twins, it is sheer bliss. 

Friday Angels

 On Fridays my mother and father-in-law come over to hold down the fort for the day.  Linda always has a new stack of magazines for me to look at, books to read, or something else to help occupy my time.  I love it!  Linda brings me snacks and lunch on a tray, visits with me when I am in bed, organizes things around the house and takes Lucy on walks.  One time she drove a stir crazy Marian over to where there are horses grazing near our house and they fed the horses apples.  Marian was of course thrilled.  Evan comes in and without a word gets right to work, cleaning up the kitchen, fixes things that are broken (drawers, lights...anything).  When I got put on bed rest our un-furnished living room was a nightmarish dumping ground of opened boxes, books, papers, and all sorts of random items.  Thanks to Evan and Linda it was all moved downstairs into storage (until we get bookshelves!)  Linda often calls just to check in on me during the week which makes me feel so loved.  Evan and Linda have also been great sports for driving Jack to 2 of his cross-country track meets.  One was way out on the west side of the valley, and the other one was held in the pouring rain.  Thank you Evan and Linda for all of your support!

My sister in law Hillary is our weekend source of fun and entertainment for the kids.  Most weekends (either Friday afternoon or Saturday) she comes and picks up the kids and takes them to her house (aka the land of fun and happiness) or on an outing.  This week she took all three kids to the Zoo!  Last week she took Marian to a fall carnival which Marian keeps reminding me had a HUGE bouncy house that apparently brought her true happiness.  If Hillary takes them to her house they are thrilled because that means delicious food (Jack eats ANYTHING Hillary puts in front of him) Maisy the dog (picture a curly white version of Nana from Peter Pan), a trampoline, a back yard fire pit, and wonderful cousins Camilla, Clark and JB. Thank you Hillary!

Next up: my daily angel (that's you Chad), and my Australian Angels

Thursday Angels

On Thursdays, Chad drops the girls off at either his sister Sonia's house or his sister Nina's house. This week it was Sonia.  (Nina was in Italy...lucky!) She keeps the girls all day.  ALL DAY until Chad picks them up on his way home from work.  As you can tell from this picture Marian and Lucy (and Jack even...there was no school that day) LOVE being at Sonia's house.  Not only is Sonia incredibly nice, but her basement is full of toys and her house is full of 6 fun kids of her own including cousin Maddie who Lucy worships!  Although I am not there to see it, I have no doubt that Sonia loves my girls, gives them fruit snacks (their favorite things ever) cheers them up when they are sad, puts band-aids on their owies, puts Lucy down for a nap, helps them to share and probably lets them get away with a lot.  All that while running the busy schedule of her own family.  Thank you Sonia for all you do!

From the Mouth of Babes

Lucy:  Daddy, DADDY!  SHHHH!
(Said when she was trying to watch her new favorite show "Doc McStuffins".  We are all thrilled that there is another show besides Caillou she will watch.  Especially since we were down to only 3 episodes on our DVR and Caillou isn't in Utah PBS.)

Marian:  Mom!  Why do I always have to be under your command?

Lucy:  (on the phone with Aunt Kate) Hi Kate...I want to see Rich (Kate's husband)

Chad:  Lucy if you get out of your big girl bed you'll have to sleep in your crib
Lucy:  No way Jose!  I stay in my bed.

Marian:  Give it all you got girl!  (said to herself when she was cleaning up the family room)

Jack:  School is so hard.  They only want us to work.  We never get to play.  School is just supposed to be fun!

Lucy:  No daddy!  That's mine (said while Chad leaned over to kiss me on the cheek)

Marian:  The Cosby's sure are a nice family (we've been watching a lot of Cosby Show re-runs around here)

Jack:  Do you want me to say a prayer that the babies turn around right now?  (after  I mentioned that I sure hope these babies turn head down because they are ALWAYS breech when I go in for ultrasounds).

Lucy:  I want my LIPS!!  (meaning MY lip gloss)

*This isn't a quote but I didn't want to forget that the other night when I couldn't sleep I walked across the hall to peek at my sleeping kids.  The girls' room was totally empty, so I went into Jack's room and saw Jack and Marian cuddled up together in Jack's bed with all their stuffed animals.  They stayed that way all night.  Still no sign of Lucy so I carefully crept downstairs and saw her asleep on the couch with Chad.  I made myself some hot chocolate (1 part cocoa powder, 2 parts pure maple syrup, lots of parts warm milk = perfect mid-night snack), crept back upstairs and while I sipped my hot chocolate in bed I thought how much I love this family of mine.

Wednesday Angels

Wednesday mornings Jack and Marian head off to school and Chad drops Lucy off at his sister Alicia's house...which means that on Wednesdays, Lucy gets to enjoy 4 of her main pleasures in life

1. Packing up her "pack pack" with diapers and wipes and going for a ride in "daddy's car!"  (Glad someone still loves that old Corolla)
2. A trampoline 
3. Roxy (Alicia's dog)
4. Aunt "Leesha"

                                

(fyi I think Alicia's pictures from when she was a little girl look just like Marian)

Alicia brings Lucy back around 1:00 and it is evident that Lucy has spent her morning jumping on the tramp, riding scooters or trikes on the side walk, playing with cousins Ava and Carter  (and Roxy), eating fun snacks and food, being well loved, and basically having a ball.  Alicia usually visits with me for a minute (highlight of my solitary morning) then sings Lucy a song, finds her "binkie and bobbies" (blanket) and lovingly tucks Lucy into bed before heading out the door to do all the things a mother with 5 of her own children needs to do.   Since Alicia and her family live just around the corner, she is also our go to emergency phone call for things like last minute babysitting needs and when the kids just need to get out of the house!  Thank you Alicia!

Grandma Marian on the left (Feb 2012)  

*She was scheduled to get her hair done the day after she was here this week and claimed she wasn't "picture ready".  I totally disagreed.  She always looks wonderful but I am glad to have a chance to use this adorable picture from our trip to Utah in February.

Each Wednesday afternoon my wonderful Grandma Marian arrives at my front door (often with dinner for that night) ready to fix me and my little Marian lunch, wash as many loads of laundry as we will give her, vacuum our carpets, admire little Marian's most recent pre-school craft, get dinner ready and hold down the fort till Chad gets home around 6:30.  Not only does my grandma do all our laundry, but she irons things too!  Chad says he can't remember the last time he had so many ironed shirts at once.  One time when my grandma was ironing a skirt of Marian's she said she hoped she'd ironed the pleats right.  I reluctantly told her that that skirt had never been ironed before and Marian would probably think it was new it looked so good.  She reads stories to the girls, teaches them finger rhymes and is just plain fun.  Yesterday she had Marian and Lucy giggling up a storm.  They were outside throwing a water balloon at the sliding glass door while grandma, safely inside, pretended to get hit with each throw of the balloon.  The girls thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.  Even I couldn't keep from laughing!  Thank you Grandma!

I am so blessed to have such wonderful grandmothers close by.

p.s. Don't expect to see any current pictures of me on this blog for a while.  If you want an idea of how I look right now...think of, oh I don't know, a whale, maybe a nice elephant, or a hippo even.  In the mean time, I am going to picture me looking like I did in this photo from February. Actually, do me  favor and picture me looking like this too.

Dear Marian

"At 4 pounds 7 ounces she is quite small..."
That's what the nurse said when you were born.  Because you were coming 4 weeks early, they had a team of NICU doctors in the room for the delivery just in case you needed special care.  Even though you were "quite small," what none of us in the room realized was that our Marian was born with 4 pounds 7 ounces of sheer determination.  Even though you were the tiniest baby in the nursery, you thrived and were healthy and strong.  You have been that way for 5 wonderful years.  Determined and strong are perfect words to describe you Marian.  You know what you want (and don't want) and you are not swayed by the opinions of others (no matter how hard we might try).  I am thrilled to have those qualities in a daughter because even though it leads to some battles of will at home, I know those qualities will serve you well all your life.
After five years of loving this little girl, here are just 10 of the many reasons I love you with all my heart,

1. You love to bake and can crack an egg like a pro- no shells or anything
2. You give the best and most sincere hugs
3. You have started taking your role as big sister seriously and take such good care of Lucy.  You cheer her up when she is sad, get her food, make her laugh...and usually you do it all in your high pitched "mommy voice".  So cute!
4. You are always drawing pictures and writing notes and cards for people.
5. When you want to know how to write a certain letter you draw it in the air with your finger and say, "like this?"
6. You are completely self sufficient!  You can dress yourself (although it is often the same outfit day after day), do your hair, get food, and get your school bag ready....and you LOVE doing it!
7. You love numbers.  You will randomly come up to me and say things like, "Mom, 6 plus 6 is 12!)
8. You love dance and tumbling class and are constantly leaping, twirling and somersaulting around the house.
9. You are very proud of your name and write it on everything!  Books, dressers, closet doors...inside the car. 
10. When you leave to go anywhere you always tell me you love me and usually sign X O X O with your fingers several times.  I melts my heart.

I love you Marian Rose Pugh!  Love, Mom

Marian is 5

The amount of photos I take has unsurprisingly dwindled to just about nil...but I did manage to get at least one shot of the b-day girl and bribed Chad into taking pictures when they rode horses.

Marian was thrilled to have the next door neighbors over to share the cake from Aunt Hillary ( I can vouch for its deliciousness.  I think that cake had more to do with my maternity clothes no longer fitting than even a certain pair of babies in my belly.)

I wasn't sure if Marian would be thrilled or terrified at the thought of getting on a horse.  She has been really into horses lately but she is not known for her fearlessness around here.
I needn't have worried one bit.

Direct quote, "I loved it!  The horse was totally under my command!"

Jack benefited from Marian's b-day surprise and had a great time as well.  I wish I could have been there to hear their giggles and see their delight but I am so glad it turned out to be such a success!

Tuesday Angels

Tuesday morning my sister Anne walks in my front door with a bouquet of fresh flowers from her garden.  Every week fresh flowers to adorn my mantle place and give me something beautiful to look at.  Along with Anne and the flowers comes Little John and baby Henry who is as chubby as you could wish for in a baby.  She cleans up my house, convinces Marian and Lucy to let her do their hair and then when she is not being super fun and letting Marian trace her entire body on paper...she decorates my house.  She hung my Europe plates..which made me feel officially moved in.

We took this picture to decide how to lay them out before we hung them...I still haven't got a picture of them up on the wall yet!  She hangs things just like I do...we sort of measure then hammer away...then  adjust if necessary.  She set up my entry way table and decorated it with books and the Boston map.  She took my credit card to Target and Home Depot and came home with a wreath, a potted plant of mums and a welcome mat.  Now we finally look moved in from the outside!  She is literally "home-making" for me in the same way my mom would if she were here.  I should add that Anne also drew the short stick and had to take Marian and Lucy for their immunizations last month...and sometimes she even rubs my feet.  That is love!

Thank you Anne!

In the afternoon my friend Heather and her adorable Samuel (the love of Lucy's life) arrive to feed us home-made zucchini bread, play in the back yard, get Marian ready for dance class and out the door (Jack walks her around the block to where Aunt Alicia is waiting to drive Marian and her little girl to dance...so cute to see Jack "take care" of his sister), then Heather loads up Sam, Jack and Lucy in our mini-van and heads off to Jack's cross-country practice.  When she gets back, Heather gets us all ready for diner and often has delicious food of her own to stock up our fridge during the week.  You should know that as the wife of an honest to goodness Frenchman, she is perfecting French cuisine and we are the direct beneficiaries.    You should also know that this wonderful woman (who has been a dear friend since the 8th grade and basically hooked Chad and I up in high school) works full time but uses her day off to come serve me and my family.  Talk about an angel!

Every Tuesday this beautiful woman, my Grandma Jean, sends a wonderful dinner along with my sister Anne.  My grandma is known for her amazing cooking.  She can make canned beans taste good.  Her dinner rolls, hot fudge sauce, rice pudding, meringues and aspic (if you don't know what that is you are missing out) are legend.  It is such a service that she performs by preparing an entire meal for my family every week.  I know most people say that they only like their mom's meatloaf...well I only like my Grandmas (which is maybe the same as my mom's) either way...it is amazing.  

Thank you Grandma Jean!

My sister-in-law Alicia is another Tuesday Angel  for driving Marian to dance class each week...but she is also a Wednesday morning angel so I'll get her next time.  I totally dropped the ball after Tuesday and forgot to take pictures of everyone...so I'll follow up next week!

My Monday Angels

Every Monday morning, my little (yet taller) sister Megan walks in my front door with 3 year old Emma and almost 1 year old James ( I am trying to get her to call him Jimmer...so far no luck).  She comes in with a smile, a diaper bag full of educational toys/cards for Lucy and asks, "What do you want me to do first?"

How can you not love someone like that?  She treks out here to the burbs from Downtown SLC every week to clean my house, go to the grocery store...some times more than one if the first store doesn't have the exact thing her crazy pregnant sister really wants (today it was a specific type of hair elastics for Lucy's out of control hair) plays with my kids, tries to get her adorable James to nap in an unfamiliar crib and she does it all with such willingness.  She has also done all my returns for me...which to anyone who knows what a pain it is to return things at the Children's Place, you know that is real love.  (I ordered ALL of Marian's back to school clothes one size too small!)  I love you Megan!

My fabulous sister-in-law Liz shows up in the afternoon with her two little ones in tow, just in time to get Lucy out of her crib, change a diaper...or two or three, convince Jack to go back to school for play practice ( he tries to skip it EVERY week!), meet Lucy's every need (today it was a bath) and somehow she is always cleaning up my room...a haphazard collection of my stuff and an endless assortment of things the kids bring in to show me and then abandon in piles around my bed.  She is always happy to come sit on my bed and just chat about whatever is on our minds and I love it! Brian I am so glad you married Liz...I still say meeting her was your reward for helping us drive the moving truck to Boston 7 years ago.   That drive only took you a few days.  Just think of what you are going to get by sharing your wife with us for months!  Just kidding I have no idea... but we sure are grateful!

Monday night also means dinner from a family from our church.  People have been beyond generous and kind with the wonderful meals they have been bringing over.  Tonight however we had dinner  (and entertainment) brought in from, wait for it, wait for it, my sister Kate's husband's parents.  How sweet is that?  Rob and Liz came with a delicious taco soup and a new Family Home Evening tradition that led Jack to say after the 1st 5 minutes of being with them, "you guys sure are fun people".  Liz took pictures, I will put them up as soon as I get them.

Thank you Monday angels.  We couldn't do it without you.