Double Stroller

Our first big baby gift has arrived! Grandma Bunny was nice enough to purchase us a double stroller for the boys! Aspen tried it out a little bit too :)





The Twinkies are doing great lately. We got out today to purchase some things for the house including a new bedroom set and a refrigerator. They were pretty good and enjoyed trying out all the new mattresses! I don't know how much longer I'll be able to shop all day, but for now I can still run from store to store!


They sure are growing!!

New Home

I have been excited to share some pictures of our new home! We went on Sunday with a crew which included Mom and Dad Schmidt, Lyndsay (Adam was out of town) and all 6 Mangins (you might see some in the pics).

We close on February 19th, and can't wait to rent out the condo and move to the new place. We are so appreciative to our Realtor, Rich Kirk, who got us an incredible deal. We love the neighborhood and the location, and the house is great too! We do have an odd lot, and a smaller yard than we wanted originally, but it was worth the sacrifice for the house and location!

Enjoy!

Offer Accepted!!

The Twinkies will have a room!

We just found out that the offer we had on a house has been accepted! We are all set to close on February 19th, and we couldn't feel more blessed!

Today is our 10 year dating anniversary, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate!

We're going to see the house on Sunday, so we'll post pictures then :)

We hope you can visit soon!!

Boys Boys Boys!!!

Well, the ultrasound went very well! Other than getting light headed and almost passing out because I was laying flat, the ultrasound was great, and the babies are doing very well. They are already 13oz each and moving around like crazy! The heartbeats were strong, and we found out they are both BOYS!! We are so excited and cannot wait to meet the little men. Here are some pics of us telling the Schmidt's and thier excitement! My family got picture texts of the outfits and immediate calls. Everyone is so excited to have more boys in the family!






I also had a doctor's appointment today, and everything looks great! I'm measuring 26 weeks already, but I think that's if there is only 1 in there :) I'm feeling great and excited to start thinking about all the fun stuff I need to get to prepare for the boy's arrival! If only I had a house... I'm learning patience! Here are some pics of the boys.. we didn't get too many because they were moving too much and I was getting tired of laying on the table!!







We are now working on names, but don't ask us what they are because there has to be some suprise when they come!! I want Eric to have something fun to announce when they come, so stay tuned.. hopefully it will be a while!!

Thanks everyone for voting, sorry you didn't get it right!

Time to Vote

We are headed to our 2nd trimester ultrasound tomorrow where we will find out the genders of the twinkies. I know this is last minute, but please feel free to vote on what you think the babies will be! Check back on Tuesday for the results!!

Hilton Head with Purcell's 2010

Well, we made it home safe with no tickets!! :) We had a wonderful time in Hilton Head this year with my side of the family. It's an annual trip that we both look forward to. This year was a little colder than usual, so the boys only got to golf 1 time, but we still had a fantastic time with the family. Jack is now 3 years old and is such a joy to be around. He was swimming like a big boy all week and is growing into a fine young man!




Jack loves Uncle Eric, especially when he plays with him!!

When we first arrived, we spent some time opening gifts together after watching both the Eagles and Bengals lose miserably!






We also got out for a nice dinner at Frankie Bones one night. It was a really cute place with a lot of variety.





During the middle of the week, we decided to throw dad a suprise birthday party at the bowling ally. Uncle Chuck and Aunt Tracie joined us too as they are staying in Hilton Head for the next week with Mom and Dad. They had fun too!





Overall it was a great trip, and we talked a lot about babies, and all the excitement to come. As you can see from the belly pic below, the Twinkies continue to grow big and strong.



We're excited for our ultrasound coming up January 18th where we will hopefully find out the genders :) I'm feeling great and continuing to eat and eat!

Family of Criminals

We made it safely down to Hilton Head for our annual Purcell Family trip yesterday, but it wasn't without some excitement. We left on Friday afternoon after a demoralizing loss by the Flyers in OT of the Winter Classic. We were off to a great start after about 6 hours and found a hotel to take a break. We woke up the next morning with just 6 hours to go, but this is when the excitement began.

Eric, being the gentleman he is, didn't want to make his pregnant wife drive, so he took the burden himself. This didn't come without a price, though. Around 10:30 AM, we have some bright lights following us, and low and behold we got pulled over. This was in North Carolina, and the nice cop just gave us a lovely warning and asked us to slow down. We were probably going about 10 over, if that, so we knew it was fast, but not too bad.

After this, I was watching the speedometer carefully from the passenger side,and encouraging my husband lovingly to continue slowly. Much to our surprise around 12:15, another officer had his lights on behind us. We were both dumbfounded! Apparently he clocked us going 84 in a 70, but we continue to declare our innocence. The meek wife that I am, I may have questioned the officer and his ability to accurately do his job. He didn't like that too much. Needless to say, he gave us the lovely ticket below which we will cherish forever.

Don't you think Eric looks innocent??

So it ends up that now I live with 2 criminals.

We have heard that Aspen had another incident as he is staying with his Grandma and Grandpa this week. They came home last night and he had gotten into the trash and strewn it all over the house. He had another guilty look as he hid from them when they came home. Apparently my parenting practice wasn't effective, so it's a good thing I have a couple more months to continue working on my speeches!!

Little Thief

I've been enjoying my first couple days at home with Aspen. I think he's getting a little spoiled having almost no time to himself. Eric and I decided to run some errands last night, and we came home to a suprise. Eric used his investigative skills to discover who stole the donuts.


The evidence...

The Crime Scene...

The suspect...

You'll also notice he had a FULL food and water bowl when the crime occurred.


I had to scold Aspen to let him know that eating 2 donuts for such a small dog was not a wise decision. We are getting some good practice on this whole parenting thing :)

Goodbye St. Louis!

I'm sitting in the St. Louis Airport for hopefully the last time in a long time! This is my final flight back to Philadelphia as my project is ending. There are lots of holiday travelers all around, and excitement is in the air! I had a busy week packing up my apartment and saying goodbye to my teammates. This was truly bittersweet as it's officially the last project I will be a part of before the babies arrive. After this major life change, I can only imagine that my experiences will be vastly different than they have been in the past. This chapter of my life is coming to a close, and while the 6 1/2 years of travel was not always easy, I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything. I have learned so much and opened my mind to many different people from varying backgrounds. I have made some truly wonderful memories in my travels along with some life-long friends, and I will always cherish them. The people I have worked with have never ceased to amaze me with their integrity, dedication to the work we do, and overall fun loving outlooks on life. They are the reason I have endured some of the client ridiculousness that I have :)

I have been assigned to a development project with my company until June, and I'll be involved in some very cool cutting edge stuff. The best part is there will be limited to no travel involved, so Eric and Aspen will get to enjoy myself and the twinkies for many weeks to come. I'll be happy to have someone there to run to Wawa when I need olives or milk (or any other fun cravings that are coming my way)!

We are very excited for this Christmas as it will be our last to just focus on each other and our families. While next year will be very different for us, we are ready for the change and will be overjoyed to see our children's excitement for many years to come. We will be spending Christmas with the Schmidt's including Grandma Bunny. Aspen especially loves Grandma Bunny and sometimes chooses to sit with her over myself, Grandma Schmidt and even Aunt Lyndsay. He will also be spoiled with gifts, perhaps for the last year :) Then we head off after the new year to Hilton Head to be with the Purcell side. What an exciting couple weeks we have coming up! We can't wait to see our favorite Nephew, Jack!!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you are blessed as you spend time with friends and family.

Twinkies Update (and other stuff)

Since I'm new to this blogging world, it's hard for me to think of interesting and fun things to update on. I figured since I just had another doctor's appointment, I could update on how the Twinkies are doing. I've gained about 12 pounds already, and my belly is really starting to show! Even my bellybutton is starting to disappear, which I thought would take a lot longer, but I guess that's the reality of two babies in one belly :) My blood pressure still looks really good, and we heard both heartbeats! What an amazing sound that makes it even more real than seeing them on an ultrasound. They sounded strong, and it was music to our ears! I have to go see the maternal fetal medicine specialists soon to have another ultrasound, and hopefully learn the genders! We plan on having them write it down in an envelope, then doing something fun to find it out together! We are having a really hard time thinking of cute names that go together, so hopefully we'll have some inspiration once we know if it's boys, girls or a combo. So far we are just so excited that they are doing well and growing normally. Below is a picture of how my belly looks now. We really can't wait to meet the Twinkies!!




Eric is doing very well. He has finally gotten the promotion that he was promised over a year ago! He was supposed to begin training Monday, but it got moved back to after the new year (hopefully for the last time!). It will be a huge adjustment as he will be working third shift which is 10:00 PM-6:00 AM or somewhere around those hours. Luckily I should be home for the first few weeks (as long as I don't get assigned to my next project), so I can help Aspen adjust :) It will be interesting to see how that will work out once our babies arrive! I guess I'll be on night duty with the feedings and diapers...

I am finishing up my last couple weeks in St. Louis now. It's been a great time, and I've really enjoyed the city and the client. My team has been awesome, and I will miss everyone on my team! We will be doing a full day celebration on Thursday complete with 80s costumes and surprise fun destinations... hopefully all that are pregnancy friendly!! The upcoming assignment is still very unknown, and I'm hoping for a couple weeks at home after the holidays.

We will be staying around here for Christmas and New Years, then we head to Hilton Head with the Purcells the first week of January. It is an annual trip where we get to see Drew, Keri, Jack, Joel, Mom and Dad, and even the crazy Handy's for a couple days. We always enjoy all the golf, shopping and hot tubs at night, although I'll probably have to sit out of most of the activities this year, but it will be awesome to just be with the fam. We always have an amazing time together, and it always makes me wonder why families can't all live close. If only jobs, houses etc. etc. didn't always get in the way!

And here's a pic of Santa's newest reindeer, just for fun! He doesn't like the bells on the collar, but he puts up with the outfits I love so well! He will be happy when I have some babies to dress up instead!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We headed to Medina and Cleveland this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We always look forward to the full house with lots of food and lots of family. This year my entire family was going, and we were going to stay with Drew and Keri for part of the time, and at the Handy's as well.

The drive there and back was great with no traffic and limited pit stops :) We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving twice as we had most of the family there on Thursday, then 6 more additions to celebrate on Friday. All the food was delicious, and it was a wonderful time with the family. Since everyone was together, we were able to take some family pictures!

The Findlay/Hoenig Family

The Fawcett's/Kemp's (baby Sevrin)

The Handy's/Poknis' Family

Sarah Handy and her beautiful girls


Purcell's/Schmidt Family

Eric likes to stay with the Handy's on Thursday night so he can venture out on Friday morning to shop Black Friday. They left at 2:30 AM and headed to Best Buy where they got some great deals on a TV, camcorder and blue ray player. He came home after his adventure and got a couple more quick hours of sleep. I got to head out and shop later that day with my mom and sister-in-law, Keri for my first maternity clothes. They suprised me at checkout by paying for all the new clothes, which I was thankful for (but secretly not happy at all!)

After another full day of eating, we headed back up to Cleveland to celebrate my favorite nephew, Jack's 3rd birthday. Drew and Keri had decorated that morning after Jack left with his grandparents so when he walked in the door, everything was decorated and ready. He was shy at first, but warmed up once he blew out the candles and started opening gifts! What a wonderful little boy!!