Colorado Surprise

My family has a tradition that started about 7 years ago when I was a sophomore in high school.  If you know me and my family, you know that running is a big part of our lives.  

A BIG part.  

Each one of the kids tried out different sports to find our own "niche" but for some

reason we all came back to running. 

This post is all about my fantastic family, especially my little brother Bradley, but I want to give some background info first.

Story time: here's how the tradition started...

I'm pretty close with each of my 3 brothers, but during high school I was especially close with Kyle (my older brother).  When I was a freshman he was a senior and that year was a blast.  We both got to run cross country together and we both made it to state and it was so cool to experience that! He went to college in Utah the next year but stayed in tune to how running was going for me and my team. We made it to state again and I knew my brother wasn't going to be able to come home to support me but it was OK because I had lots of family, friends, and a great team there.  Well the morning of the state race I was up early to catch the team bus to Colorado Springs where the race was.  As I was getting my things together I heard a knock on my bedroom door and somebody say, "Bug??" (That's my nickname).  I stopped, turned around as the door opened and there stood my big brother!!!  I was shocked and immediately fell on the floor and started crying!  Haha, he got a really good reaction from me.  I was sooo surprised.  He made a huge effort to be able to make it to my race and it meant so much to me to have my whole family there!

Fast forward over the years and...

for each year that one of the kids makes it to state in cross country the kids who aren't at home anymore have found a way to make it home for the race.  It's such a great way to support each other and it's a blast to all be together again.

Here's a pic from a year we came back and watched Danny race

Bradley is such an awesome person.  I LOVE being able to just talk with him.  He and I always have really easy and great conversations.  He's always been my little buddy.  He is so funny. He seriously knows how to make people laugh!  And he is quite the trooper.  He's endured a lot of hard things in life.  I wish everyone could see the amazing young man he is, because he definitely isn't the type of person to go out and say,"Guess what? I'm awesome!"  He has great leadership qualities too.  He gets things done and will pick up any slack.  

The bottom line is, I love my little brother and I am so proud of him.

This is from several years ago when we played in the rain

I'm sure he'd appreciate me pointing out that he's a lot taller now :)

This year, Bradley is the only child at home.  Danny and Kyle are in Utah and I'm in Minnesota.  The prospects of me being able to make it home for state were very very slim.  This was so hard to accept because Bradley has been the one who has been there for ALL of his older siblings through ALL the many years of running.  He's had to sit through countless races, awards ceremonies, and who knows what else for each sibling.

My wonderful mama had some inspiration though and using sky miles we were able to book a flight to Colorado for me!  I was SOOO excited to surprise Bradley.  The day finally came when I flew to Colorado and got to surprise my little brother!  I got him good.  It was awesome.

Here are some pictures from the weekend

 My amazing parents :)

I sure do love my Papa

The star of the weekend - Go Bradley!

Mine and Danny's weak attempt at dressing up for the Ward Halloween Party

(He's wearing a bear hat and I'm wearing cat ears)

The kids - minus Martin

The Family (minus Marty)

Bradley did GREAT at state (even though he said he was disappointed at his race - the goober).  He placed 63rd out of 200 people.  And that's just the 200 people that even MADE it to the state championships out of the entire state of Colorado! This boy can run a 5k (3.1 miles) in 16 minutes and 11 seconds!  That's so fast!

I LOVED being able to just hang out and talk with my family.  All of the kids were there except for my handsome husband who we all missed so much and kept saying, "We wish Marty were here!" But he had to work and we're saving for twins :)

Speaking of which...here is my 15 week photo!  I was busy packing and getting ready to go to Colorado last week so, unfortunately, I didn't get a 14 week photo.  But it's fun to see the change in my size since my last post!

                       15 Weeks                                                                                13 Weeks

2 Weeks in a Nut Shell

Its been a while and there is a lot to update!  Things that have gone on over the 

past couple of weeks:

Martin went to California for a business trip and got to do a little surfing

I always miss him so much whenever he goes out of town.  I miss snuggling with him the most, especially on cold mornings!  But I have awesome friends who let me hang out with them while he's gone and I always try to find ways to distract myself.  This time I got to do fun crafty things with Becky like finishing a baby room...ta da!

Next, Marty organized an event for his work that was a huge success!  Every year his company participates in something called Girls & Science.  It's a day at the Minnesota Science museum (which is SO cool!) devoted to encouraging young girls to pursue science careers.  Marty was even on the news!  I don't have the video and I forgot my camera but a friend of ours recorded the video so I'm going to try to find a way to get it on my computer.

Another fun thing we got to do was take maternity pictures of our friends, Becky and Jesus!  This is the same friend who I helped finish the baby room for.  It's been really fun to have other prego friends to talk with.  Here's a cute picture of them...

AND they were ridiculously nice and took some maternity pictures of us too!

 We're holding lemons in the below picture because that's about what size the twins were that week.

 I LOVE Martin's smile in the below picture.

And last but not least...my belly has certainly been growing over the past couple of weeks!

Week 12 

(with the cute shirt Marty bought me while he was in CA)

Week 13

It's crazy to me how quickly my belly is growing.  There are lots of friends of mine who are pregnant right now and some are way further along than I am and I'm already bigger than them!  BUT, I'm perfectly OK with that because 1) there are 2 babies inside of me and 2) I'm pretty sure I'd be huge with one baby too because I'm a whopping 5 ft. 3 in. so the only place for babies to go is out.  Haha bring on the babies and bring on the belly!

The Belly is a Growin'

First off, THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of the love, support, and congratulations on our exciting news that we will be parents of twins!  We have seriously felt so loved and blessed.  It is amazing.

On my 10 week mark Martin had a special surprise planned for me.  I came home to a romantic dinner on our porch.  Complete with candles, a beautiful pot of mums, snickers (my all time favorite candy), pizza (about the only food I haven't been picky about lately), apples and cheese (a treat I love combined together), and a warm fuzzy blanket to curl up in because I'm always cold.  Martin is SO thoughtful and it was a great way to celebrate our 10 week mark.

Today I am officially 11 weeks along and things are going pretty well!  I haven't had too many crazy symptoms, but there are definitely some weird ones.

Symptoms:

• My gag reflex is up the wazoo!!!  Smells get me, thinking about smells gets me, talking about yucky things gets me, and it's just bad.  Really bad.
• My sense of smell is outrageously sensitive.  Seriously.  There was literally a week where I did not even go near the fridge and freezer because for some reason they smelled AWFUL to me.
• Very, very, very, very tired.  I fall asleep around 9:30 or 10pm usually.
• Waking up every few hours.  I usually wake up 2 times a night either to go to the bathroom, because I'm hungry/thirsty, or I just need to re-adjust. 
• Headaches - not a ton, but when I get them, they hurt real bad.
• Nausea - just for a couple of weeks towards the beginning, but now it isn't bad at all.
• Mood swings - there have only been a couple, but thank goodness for a caring, patient husband is all I need to say.
• Cravings and pickyness - I've really only noticed 2 things that I wanted really bad.  Potato salad and baked potatoes.  We documented the potato salad craving (see below) because it was my first one :) More foods sound bad than they do good to me, so that's been an adjustment.
• And a growing belly!  I started noticing changes at about 8-9 weeks and was so surprised because I felt like that was sooo early to be showing...but then again, I'm having twins.  The doctor said that my bump will be getting big really quickly!

Honestly, it hasn't been too bad!  The puking because of nausea and gagging isn't any fun, but I have never been happier to feel so cruddy!  As I'm getting near the 2nd trimester things have calmed down a bit, which is a good break to enjoy.  Here are the lovely pics of my baby bump!!!

9 Weeks Along

11 Weeks Along

My first craving