Sonograms!!!

We finally have some sonograms to post! (Thanks for scanning them for us, Jack.) Here are several of the better ones we have. Sadly, the images Amy and I see in the office on their HD television are way better than the prints they give us. But you get the idea. :)

Mouse over the sonogram images to help see what the sonogram is showing.

Our twins somewhere around eight weeks

I'm pretty sure this one is saying Gig 'Em Aggies.

It's a boy! In our video, we have a much better shot proving its a boy but this is the one they printed out for us.

It's a girl!

Here is one of the babies looking at us. Not sure if that is our little girl or boy.

Here is the other baby looking at the camera.

Arkansas Canoe Trip

A little more than a week ago, I went on a canoe trip in Arkansas organized by a couple guys at Grace. We were on the river for three days and three nights. Amy was very sad that I was away but let me go anyway. Here are a few of the pictures from the trip.

This was at our third campsite. This is a tree within a tree. The water must have been very tall to make this happen. This tree was our source of firewood on this island.

Here is the tent I shared with another guy. I think this must be the world's worst tent. It was shorter than it appears in this picture (the top touched my stomach when I laid in it), both ends were wide open (which allowed sand to blow through at high speeds), and the bottom six inches of the sides was mesh (which was perfect for allowing water in during the two severe thunderstorms we experienced).

Here is a panorama of our first campsite. This site had the best view but not quite as much sand as the other sites.

Here is our second site. This was the nicest of the three. It was the size of a football field covered mostly in nice sand.

Our third site was on a small island that was around 50 feet wide and 150 feet long. Water was rapidly flowing by on both sides of the island.

Baby Name Suggestions

Amy had a message on her phone from her brother's number. Turns out, it was from our nephew, Will. Here is the message in it's entirety.

"I want to name your babies Jack and Olivia."

He didn't waste any time with pleasantries like, "hello, this is Will," or "good-bye." He kept it short and sweet. Right to the point.

Sorry Will, but I doubt those names will make the cut. I think Jack Case sounds a little bit too much like something inappropriate. And Olivia isn't really my cup of tea. But Will, feel free to keep those suggestions coming.

After writing this post, I saw Amy Baker wrote a comment with her kids name suggestions. Will's was above. Ella thought Zach and Sarah sounds like a good name. Funny thing about that was is last night, we actually had dinner with our friends Zach and Sarah. What a coincidence. Cal's suggestion was great. He likes "Uh" for the girl and "Uh" for the boy. :)

It's a Girl!!! It's a Boy!!!

Amy and I went to the doctor today with hopes of finding out the sex of the babies. We were ready for a long appointment where the sonographer measured all sorts of baby stuff.

It's a Girl!
We started with baby A. Baby A would not sit still (or lay still or float stilly). Baby A really made the sonographer earn her money. Every time the image was in place, the baby would move. Eventually, it came time to check the sex and baby A was very cooperative. It did not take a trained eye to see that baby A is a girl. Another interesting thing we saw with baby A was she was smacking her lips. We could see her opening and closing her mouth quickly.

It's a Boy!
After examining baby A, it was baby B's turn. Throughout the exam, baby B was slightly more cooperative than baby A. About halfway through the scan, we had a full body side shot. I quickly noticed something and so did the sonographer. It was obvious that baby B is a boy. Amy didn't see it at first. The sonographer told her to look at the thing that looked like a turtle.

All the measurements turned out well and everything is good. Our little girl weighed ten ounces and our little boy weighed eight ounces. Both were about a week further along than they should be.

The exam was much faster than Amy and I expected. We thought it might take an hour or two but it was over in around thirty minutes. The exam was really cool. They zoomed in so far you could see the babies brains, hearts (and all the heart chambers) pumping, and internal organs. Multiple times, the sonographer said our babies were by far the two most active twins she has seen in a very long time. I actually thought the twins were acting quite a bit calmer when compared to our sonogram at the emergency room.

After the exam, we called our parents and siblings. Both of our moms squealed.

We have a VHS tape** of the entire ordeal. We need to come up with some way to get that up here. Also, we have a quite a few sonogram pictures that we need to scan and post. I tried to scan them at work today but they did not look good at all. We need to find a better scanner to try out. We'll get them up here some day.

**Amy and I just donated a dozen VHS tapes to Good Will. Then we found out we needed one for this so I went to Walmart. Walmart only had five packs for $7. We will probably just donate those tapes to Good Will in a couple months only to find we need another for some reason. I wish the doctor's office would upgrade to DVDs like the rest of America.

Flutters and the Tape Measure, oh, and a little Arthritis!

I got the best Mother's Day present ever on Mother's Day! Besides the lovely morning sickness that Jason blogged about earlier, I had a much more pleasant surprise that evening! Flutters!! I've been told that babies moving feels like butterly flutters in your tummy. It was great! I loved feeling the babies move for the first time!

On Friday, the 15th, while Jason was canoing in Arkansas, I had an appt at the Dr's office. She did a quick sonogram that was so cute! One of the babies was super active and was waving at me, the other was sleeping soundly. After the last sonogram we had when both babies were so active, I've been a little worried. I envision myself exhausted chasing two active toddlers around the house! Hopefully at least one of them will be a little mellow.

Now, my latest pregnancy symptom (the things they never tell you about) is that I feel as though I have a mild case of arthritis. It's developed over the last few days. I read briefly about it online, it's fairly common in multiple pregnancies since most of the blood in my body is centered in my abdomen, my limbs are getting less circulation, causing the ache in my joints. Oddly enough, one way to increase the blood flow is to sleep on my left side. Thankfully, my sweet mom and niece Ella picked out a pregnancy pillow called the Snoogle for me! I've slept on it the last few nights and I love it!!

Oh, and one of the most fun things I've done is start my registry! It's by no means complete at all, however, when my sister-in-law, Amy, was in town, I decided to lean on her expertise (mom of three and nurse) to help me with the registry. I basically followed her around Babies R Us with the Registry gun scanning everything she told me to while taking in all of her advice! I have a feeling this won't be the last advice I get from her!!

We go to the Perinatologist to find out the sexes of our little ones this Thursday! I can hardly wait! I hope they both cooperate!

Russell and Becky's Wedding

Saturday (May 9th) was the wedding of our good friends Russell and Becky. It took these two awhile to get together but Amy and I are glad they finally did. They just needed the timing to be right.

Here are some of the pictures Amy and I took at their wedding (and rehearsal). I bought a new flash and used the wedding as an excuse to play with it. Amy doesn't think I share the camera with her enough so she liked that I was busy much of the time with best man duties. She definitely got her fair share of the camera time this weekend.

Russell and Becky practicing the night before

Amy worked hard to line up this shot of the rehearsal
It actually took several takes to get this correct. Russell was told to turn to his right so the audience could see Becky during the kiss. This proved difficult for Russell. (I blame his Texas Tech education.) In the actual ceremony, Russell did a triple take before picking to tilt his head to the correct side.
Here is the beautiful bride soon after the ceremony.
Now introducing, Mr and Mrs Russell Stanford!

Anna, the cute daughter of our friends Stephen and Penny. Anna is very friendly and seems to love everyone.

Jeff and his boy, Micah. The mariachi band was a little loud for Micah.

The first dance

Father/daughter dance

Mother/son dance

I like this shot of Mike. He and his wife, Courtney, were the wedding photographers. They do awesome work. Check out Courtney's blog.

Heather and Peter tore up the dance floor
Another one of the bride

Russell was a little nervous to start out the night but was obviously over it by the time this picture was taken

Congrats Russell and Becky!!! We're thrilled y'all joined us in the marriage club. Maybe a honeymoon baby would let y'all transition into the parent hood club with us?

Happy Mother's Day

This was Amy's first Mother's Day as a mom. She strongly hinted that I needed to do something for her. I think the twins must have overheard. Sunday morning, they had a little surprise for Amy...morning sickness! Before today, morning sickness has not been much of an issue. Hopefully, it was a one day only gift. After feeling sick, instead of going to church and Sunday school, Amy really wanted to sleep in. I think that understandable with two little ones inside so I agreed to let her sleep in.

For lunch, Amy and I went to Pappasito's with her parents for some fajitas. (Everyone other than Amy also enjoyed some shrimp and lobster.) Normally, Pappasito's gives away Mother's Day mugs to the moms. Amy was looking forward to getting one but they didn't give them away this year. Maybe next year. Amy was happy to get a couple chocolate covered strawberries as part of the Mom's Day special.

We Had a Little Scare...But Everything is Okay

Amy and I had a scare Wednesday night. At 4:45 pm, Amy noticed a little...let's say, spotting. She left work and called a nurse who suggested we head to the emergency room. With it being so late in the day, her normal doctors had gone home for the day and their offices were closed. Amy paged her normal doctor, called me, and we headed over to the emergency room.

Soon after arriving at the ER, Amy's doctor returned her page. After talking to Amy about what happened, he said he was not worried and that stuff like this happens...especially with twins. It was probably just a burst blood vessel. But to be safe, he thought we should go ahead and get it checked out. His phone call made us feel a lot better.

After waiting for about 45 minutes, Amy's name was called and we went back to a room. Soon, Amy saw a doctor who said they would take some blood, give her an exam, and then do a sonogram.

The sonogram turned out to be the longest sonogram ever. It was at least a half hour long. I was able to watch the entire thing but the doctor had the screen angled so that Amy couldn't see a thing. Amy missed out on seeing the two little babies (who are 15 weeks old and the size of apples) completely freaking out (in a good way). They were frantically kicking, punching, twisting, and turning. Basically, I think the Case twins were krump dancing. When the two of them weren't having a krump dance off, they would be still, get really close to one another (face to face) and would seem to be talking to each other. The doctor kept saying, "man, these kids are going to be trouble by the time they are two!" She said it is rare for twins to lay face to face for so close for so long. I think we all agreed they were already plotting something for when they break out of the joint.

The side by side baby competition, whether it was dancing or a form mixed martial arts, made me think we are having two boys. But then again, the face to face time sounds like two little girls practicing their communication skills. I guess we'll need to wait a few more weeks to find out the sexes.

After all the results finally came back, we learned that everything is okay but they don't know what caused the spotting. I'm betting our first doctor was correct. We may have spent four and a half hours in the emergency room, but at least we got the piece of mind that everything was okay. Here is a picture of Amy with her I went to the ER and thankfully, everything turned out okay but now I'm really hungry and need to pee very badly look.