I'm pretty much a bodybuilder now

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine ordering a giant tub of protein powder and making protein shakes every day.
I love that the tub says "lean muscle, definition, physique"...yes, that's exactly what I had in mind. ;)
For reals, my doc said I need to be getting something like 100+ grams of protein per day. And I was at about...eh, 30? Pretty much I don't like eating meat anymore and I don't like almonds. So my protein was coming from the milk in my bowl of frosted flakes. Awesome.
Drinking a yummy smoothie everyday isn't something to complain about, but I would much rather have been told to increase my intake of chocolate milk and ice cream. That would be my dream come true.

My made-up recipe = 2 bananas, blueberries, strawberries, protein powder, and ice. Gobble up, babies.

Fruity goodness


In other news, each little girl is almost 1 pound! And they are still playing footsie with each other :D
Baby A:


Baby B:

[praying that baby B's "big stomach" isn't a problem, although we'll find out more in two weeks at my next ultrasound]

awww!

I have some very crafty (and thoughtful!) friends and family! Who knew that I would become so in love with matching onesies?! :) :)

Thank you, Whitney!


Thank you, Candice!


Not homemade, but still in love with these:


I'm finally getting a baby bump (FINALLY--now that I'm halfway done being pregnant!) and I will start posting some pictures soon, depending on how fat I'm feeling at that moment.

❤

This year for Joel's valentine, I made my first attempt at embossing by hand--the cupcake is by hand and the letters are embossed using stamps:



We went to Carrabbas for dinner, and then out to ice cream. It was soooo yummy!

the buns in the oven are....

...identical twin.....GIRLS! :) :) :)

I went in for my 16 wk ultrasound by myself because at 14 wks Sandy told me it would be too early to see anything. So I was expecting to wait another 2 weeks when Joel comes with me! She had the doctor come in to check something and he asked, "Do we know genders yet?" and she said "Well I checked and I know, but she wants to wait until her husband is here..."
Well, obviously I just couldn't stand the wait. I told her to write it down in an envelope and that night Joel and I opened it together. It said:

Am I slightly concerned that he only "thinks" its girls? Yes.
Is this going to prevent me from buying adorable pink bows? No.

We're so happy! Now I get to make these for their nursery :) :)


And...I'm going to need someone to teach me how to crochet these:


Last time I tried to crochet, I went to hobby lobby and spent lots of money on cute yarns, hooks, etc. Then I got home and realized that YouTube is a terrible crochet teacher. Needless to say its going to take a christmas miracle for those baby hats to be done by July.

We've decided to wait until the babies are born until we announce their names. Not that we've actually decided on names--we had only decided on boys names--typical!
Tell us your favorites so we can decide! Picking out two first names and two middle names that all go well together is quite the task!

loathing this weather

Last night joel left work at 5pm during the "snow storm" and didn't get home until 8:50...can I just say how much I HATE winter? Snow in nashville is the absolute WORST. Everything just shuts down and people are terrible drivers!
To say that I am desperate for summer to get here would be an understatement.

So what happens when you are expecting an hour drive home, but it ends up being almost 4 hours?
Well, joel brandon takes matters into his own hands and pees in the tubberware that previously held his lunch.
OH YES HE DID.

I thought when he called and said "don't be mad at me...." that he was about to tell me something involving a car wreck, so I guess I should be thankful it only involved urine in a tupperware.

a few of my favorite things: winter edition

Lately I haven't had much to blog about, so I thought I'd write about a few of my latest favorite things.

1. EOS lip balm sphere
I first saw this lip balm when we took a trip to st. louis and I passed it up thinking I could find it in nashville. well, I never did! until our trip to oregon, where I finally found it. If you are hesistant to try a lip balm in the shape of a kumquat, then you are missing out. this stuff is the greatest! I HATE lip stuff that gives that metallic aftertaste (AKA: every lip balm ever with SPF in it) but this stuff is just pure balmy goodness. I have the fruity pink one, but I think the mint one sounds yummy too.


2. Stay Don't Stray by Benefit--originally got this as a reward sample from Ulta and now I'm obsessed. It works as a primer to keep concealers and shadows from smudging, but also as a highlighter around your eyes to keep them bright and gorgeous. And it lasts forever. LOVE.


3. This place:
Okay, so cracker barrel is on my favorite things list winter, spring, summer, and fall...and also just forever in general. Being pregnant has made those pancakes even more delicious than ever.

4. And finally, is there anything in the WORLD cuter than this baby?

How about twin babies? Okay, maybe. ;)



Things that DIDN'T make my favorite things list?

1) The baby daddy of the hooter's girl who lives in the apartment next to ours.
This guy LITERALLY in the middle of the night, KICKED DOWN HER DOOR when she wouldn't let him inside. WHO ARE YOU?! JACKIE CHAN!? He crushed the entire door frame with his anger...and I totally missed my chance to watch it through the peephole.
Two cops, an arrest warrant, and 45 minutes later we were able to fall back asleep. Awesome guy. Just awesome.

2) The Nicole by O.P.I. collection by JUSTIN BEIBER. Yeahhhh. I do not want to paint my nails with "one less lonely girl" any more than I want to actually listen to "one less lonely girl" Nice try, beibs.

oh, my patience!

My ultrasound yesterday went great! I felt like I should have been more enthralled each time Sandy (my new bff) pointed out "Oh look! Here is twin A's femur!" or "This is twin B's head circumference..." but honestly it was really early in the morning and I'm not going to say I didn't briefly fall asleep. Come on! That room is dark and there is spa music playing! Not to mention falling asleep at night with a stuffy nose is nearly impossible for me, so I've been running on about 3 hours of sleep for the past few nights. Its awesome.

Anyways, BACK TO THE POINT SARA. Doc says that both twins are "measuring beautifully" despite being all crammed up in there. We don't get to find out the sex until February 22nd...bummer! Sandy doesn't like to play guessing games with babies' boy or girl parts. She likes to get it right the first time. Oh well, I'm going to be patient and ignore my urge to go out and buy adorable pink frilly things.
We're praying that both these babies stay the same size as each other every week! That's the only real concern at this point--I have ultrasounds every other week to make sure baby A and baby B are being good and sharing everything equally. [Note to babies: this is NOT a competition! Share with your brother or sister!]
So far so good!

I'll leave you with my favorite restoration hardware nursery: