One Month!

Dominic and Avery,

Wow! One month old!! You wouldn't believe how much you have changed Mommy and Daddy's lives. From the moment you each took your first breath (especially you Miss Avery) you melted Mommy and Daddy's hearts. 

As much joy as we have felt since your arrival, it has also been the most stressful month of our lives as well. Since you guys made your arrival a little early, you spent the first 2 weeks of your life in the NICU at Mary Birch. You both were superstars in there and made huge strides!

Avery had a little bump in the road when we found out she has a Grade 2  Interventricular Hemorrhage causing Hydrocephalus. Mommy and Daddy were quite anxious waiting for the results of each of the three ultrasounds you had. Unfortunately, there was an increase in swelling shown at each ultrasound. We thought you were going to be having brain surgery at two weeks old!!! Luckily, we were able to meet with the Neurosurgeon, Dr. Levy, and he reassured us that surgery was not something we needed to rush to. We continue to bring you in weekly to have the nurse practitioner measure your head circumference. So far your head has stayed in normal range. You have a whole army of prayers and positive thoughts behind you little girl! As Mommy and Daddy keep telling you- Heal up that brain!!

Dominic, you came home after 14 days and Avery, you came home just two days later. Mommy and Daddy were ECSTATIC to have our whole family under one roof!! You both slept in your own cribs from night one and stayed on your schedule from the NICU of eating every 3 hours. Avery's first morning at home was quite exciting! Daddy was feeding you and you swallowed some formula the wrong way and were having trouble catching your breath. You scared Mommy and Daddy to death!! So much so that we ended up calling 911. We thought you were choking or having a seizure! Of course as soon as the three very handsome firefighters got here you were fine. One of them had a twin sister and he was telling us all about how he loved being a twin.

For living far away from our family and friends you both had quite a few visitors your first month! Both sets of your grandparents were here on your birthday. So was your Auntie Maddie and even your Great Grandma, Abuela! Ms. Katie and Mr. Lance were your first visitors at the hospital. They had their twins just a few days later! Ms. Caren came to visit too! Once we were all home, Mr. Jeff and Ms. Cali came over Labor Day weekend. They are expecting Baby Brooks in October! The Rogers and Halls came for dinner over Labor Day as well. You got to meet your friends Caden and his sister Ili.

The month went fast and you both grew a lot! On your 1 month birthday Dominic, you weigh 7 pounds 12 ounces and Avery, you weigh 7 pounds 2 ounces!! You both are very messy eaters, eating mostly formula from bottles. You both are very sleepy and sleep most the day. Your favorite places to sleep are on Mommy and Daddy's chests... and it melts our hearts every time!!

We can't wait to see what the next month holds for our family!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Priceless

Last week we made a big announcement... We are expecting TWINS!!! Greg and I couldn't be more excited. It was a long road to get here and we are just ecstatic! I would be lying if I didn't say that we are a bit nervous about being first time parents to two little ones, but I know that we are never given things we can't handle. My due date is September 24, 2014 but they said to expect 3 or 4 weeks early with twins. I am just planning on my birthday, September 5th. As my friends and family know, I love celebrating my birthday MONTH and I couldn't be happier at the idea of sharing it with our two little loves.

Twins run in Greg's family and we were going through some fertility treatments so we knew the chance of twins was higher than average. I had some spotting at 6 weeks and so I went in for an ultrasound just to check things out. The doctor found 2 heartbeats!! It was amazing! All you could see were the two little white dots flickering on the screen. He kept telling me congratulations and I kept asking if they were ok. He reassured me that they were strong heartbeats for being so early and to try not to worry... ya right! I don't think it had sunk in that we were really having twins until after I left the office.

Our first ultrasound!

We went back the next week for what was supposed to be our first ultrasound. This was the first time Greg got to see them live. We were both amazed!

7 weeks and growing!

We were in the process of moving to San Diego during all of this but I went back to Arizona for one final check with my doctor in Arizona before I transitioned to my new doctor in San Diego. This time Greg's mom came with me. The nurse that did my ultrasound was pushing on my stomach and making them move. I got all choked up once I saw them wiggle around in there! I couldn't believe these little babies were really in there and how much they had grown!

One twin is head up and one is head down.

Greg and I are just beyond thrilled. We found a very patient and well recommended doctor in San Diego and I have LOTS more pictures to share. One positive of having twins is that at every appointment they do an ultrasound! My doctor told me to get a book because I am going to have so many pictures of these littles ones before they arrive! 

More to come!

Big Move!

As many of you all ready know, Greg received a great promotion and we are moving to San Diego! He is going back and forth between CA and AZ for the next few weeks and then hopefully by the beginning of February we will be in San Diego! It is a very bittersweet move. We are so excited about living in San Diego but are very sad to leave our family and friends in Arizona. I wish they could just all come with us! Luckily, San Diego is popular vacation destination for many so we hope to have lots of visitors! Here is to new adventures in 2014!!

SF Trip!

Who doesn't love flying shrimp and an onion volcano! In case you think I have lost it... I'm talking about Benihana's! My BFF, Lena, LOVES this restaurant! She has gone almost every year for her birthday. This year she had an extra special celebration of her birthday with a group of 10 of us there to partake in the fun if teppanyaki! It was so nice to be in SF to celebrate Lena's birthday. We all had a great time.

The next night, we were off to another birthday celebration for my Nana. My Nana and Pappie are my "adopted" grandparents. I grew up across the street from them and they are a very important part of my life. Saturday was a milestone birthday for Nana- her 80th! And to make it even more special, family and friends had flown in from all over the WORLD to be there to celebrate with her. Her daughter, Lisa, and her granddaughter  Lisette, and her boyfriend had flown all the way from Australia to be there. It was also Lisette's 30th birthday and so we were celebrating 110 years of birthdays!

It was so much fun with delicious food from Kingfish, dancing, and most importantly catching up and spending time with some very special people.

2nd Anniversary Getaway!

Greg and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on March 5th. We had planned to go to Sedona, like we did last year, to celebrate. Unfortunately, I came down with a yucky virus and so we had to postpone our trip. Last weekend, the beginning of my Spring Break, we headed up to Sedona for a much need relaxing weekend!

We headed up Friday afternoon. Driving up the I-17 always reminds me of the MANY trips I took to Flagstaff when Greg was at NAU. We headed to The Enchantment for their beautiful view and yummy cocktails! After the sunset, a few pictures and some appetizers, we went back into town for dinner at Oak Creek Brewery, home of Greg's fav beer- Nut Brown Ale.

Saturday, we headed out to explore some of the wineries in Northern Arizona. We started in Jerome. What a fun little town! It is perched up on a mountain, overlooking the Verde Valley. We braved the wind and had tastings at Bitter Creek Winery and Caduceus. We really enjoyed Bitter Creek's, Cat's Meow, and decided to take home a bottle for our very empty wine fridge. Check out this sprawling view from the Bitter Creek tasting room!

We headed down to Cottonwood, for 3 more tasting rooms. We LOVED the quaint little main street the tasting rooms were on. We picked up some delicious olive oil from Verde Valley Olive Oil Traders.   After a tasting at Pillsbury, we got a bottle of the 2010 Diva. We really enjoyed Burning Tree and grabbed a bottle of the 2011 Mirror... We also LOVED 2011 Poet but we were trying to control our wine purchases :) Our FAVORITE tasting of all was Arizona Stronghold. We took home a bottle of the Lozen and the Pick 3. We loved the wine SO much that we ended up doing a membership, so we get to enjoy their wine throughout the year. Plus going and picking up our wine will give us an excuse to bring friends and take advantage of our 12 tastings a year... Who wants to go!?! We finished our Northern AZ wine country tour with Page Springs in Cornville. They have a great tasting room and deck that we had been to on our last anniversary with some friends. This year, we did a tasting, relaxed and had some truffle potato chips and bruschetta for lunch. We had so much fun!


We finished our amazing day with a delicious dinner at Elote in Sedona. Yes, the wait was long but SO worth it! Sunday morning we had a couple's massage, lunch, and then headed back to Phoenix. The weekend was really perfect... so relaxing and it was great to get away with just the Hubs and I.

I'm Back!

After a LONG, LONG hiatus, I'm back to try this blogging thing. My husband and I just celebrated our 2nd anniversary and it got me thinking about how I had wanted to start a blog when we got engaged.... way back in 2009! So with a little motivation from my fabulous friend Mande at All you Need Is Love, I decided to try and get back into the blogging world. My goal is to create a "scrapbook" on our blog that will chronicle what is going on in our lives. I hope down the road this will be something fun to look back at and reminisce about our journey together.

Graduation Celebration!

Greg has officially completed his MBA program from ASU. I am so proud of him! The last week has been so fun to have him around after work, for the last two years he has been working on school. On Saturday, we went with Greg's parents, Mark and Sylvia, to Binkley's in Cave Creek. It was FABULOUS!!! Greg and I agreed, one of the most spectacular meals we have ever had! Here are some pictures that show some of the culinary arts that we dined on.

Delicious Pepper Cured Copper River Sockeye Salmon. PS- The little Cheerio like thing is actually a miniature bagel!

Sylvia and I could not get over how cute this little Sloppy Joe was!

This is how they presented my Black Cod Entree.

Then they cute it open at the table. The smell was amazing. Truly a feast for the senses!

This was Greg's Cobia. Beautiful!

Before dessert they brought us these little "jello shooters". They were on this light that made them look like little lava lamps. So cool!

Greg's raspberry tart with a message to the graduate.

What an amazing evening! The food was spectacular and I think every meal should have wine pairings. We had amazing company- thank you Mark and Sylvia for such a treat. And I am so proud of my husband!