Handy Man.

I am proud to say that I have a live in handyman. Not only is he handy, but he is good at being handy. While I have been resting my bottom on the couch or in bed for over a month now, Eric has been completing a large amount of projects in and outside our house in order to get ready for these twins. When we moved into our house we planned our rooms set ups with the idea of having another child or two in the future. We knew that with a third child we would probably have to rearrange some rooms, but we had time. Or so we thought. We never thought that we would have to change around 3 bedrooms so soon in order to accommodate two babies at once. Let me just say that our house has been turned upside down with these tasks. Tyler had the second biggest bedroom in the house. The guest bedroom was the next smallest and the office was a lot smaller. We had planned this so that when another child came along, they would share the bedroom with Tyler. Well now that two babies are coming, that has all changed. We decided that Tyler would have to move into the smallest bedroom, the guest bed and office would be combined into the Tyler's old room and the Twins would get the middle size bedroom or the old guest bedroom. I know that it sounds a little confusing. Well trying to move everything has been just as confusing.
Our main goal first was to get Tyler into his new bedroom ASAP. We did not want him to have too many changes all at once so we needed him to get used to his new room before the babies came. The most exciting part of this new room was that he was going to have Bunk beds. Can you see our minds looking towards the future of these twins also using them. For right now, it also provided a more beds for cousins to come stay the night. Tyler was really excited about his new room and had no problems with getting accustomed to it. I even like to go lay down on his bed and look up at his really cute sky ceiling. Ty's new room before it was set up. Its a pretty small room.
His cute bunk beds, new dresser, and bedding were all extremely discounted from a pretty high end kids store. We love their warehouse sales. His toys also fit really well in the room. Good use of a small space.

Next Eric worked on the new guest bedroom and office. The major upgrade was that this room used to be bright blue(Micky Sailor Blue). When we first picked out the color for Ty's room, we had in mind to paint the ceiling white, but when we closed on Escrow so late, we only had 3 days to paint the entire house so the ceiling was also painted the same color as the walls. I have to say that I have loathed this bright blue ever since. Well now the walls are the same neutral Haze color as the rest of the house and the room has taken on a more serene feel. Eric took more time with this room, but it was finished in a total of 3 days. Decorating it will have to come later after all the rooms are set up.
The next project that Eric did was to build custom shelving in our master bedroom closet. I have a lot of sewing and craft supplies. Since we had to condense the office and guest bedroom into one room, we also had to condense the closets so I decided that I would put my stuff in my closet. My sewing desk and sewing machine was also moved into the Master bedroom. I told Eric how I wanted to organize my stuff and he went to work and did a fantastic job. This project took a lot longer than Eric wanted it to because of all the cutting of the wood, painting, and installing. Now I just need to put my supplies on the shelves in my own organized way. It is going to be a slow project right now since I can't be on my feet for too long, but I am so excited about it.Before shot. It was very hard to keep my clothes and fabric in nice piles.
The finished project.
The very last project is yet to be finished and that is the nursery. I have worked hard on organizing the closet and putting all the clothes in the drawers by size and with outfits already put together so that we can just go and grab one without looking for a shirt that matches a pair of pants. This weekend we will set up the cribs with the help of my parents. And then we will just clean up and organize the rest of the house.

Getting ready for these babies has been quite an ordeal. We have procrastinated a lot because of a lot of unknown events and circumstances in our lives, but I am so glad to be able to still have some time to get these projects done before the boys arrive. Eric has also had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders as he has completed each project and he is so proud of his work. I am so proud of Eric for his hard work and dedication to make our home more comfortable and I am love having a handy man in the house. Can't wait for all our sons to help their father with projects in the future.

My cup runneth over.

Today was one of those days that I have truly felt the love of God. I have been given the strength to endure and I have so strongly felt the spirit.

It has been hard the last couple of weeks being on bed rest. I keep thinking to myself that I should not complain. I bet there are many people out there who would love to just take a break from life and responsibilities and be on bed rest. Overall, my life has become a little easier, but at times it's so hard when I can't pick up my son and hold him when he is tired or hurt and that he now goes to his father for this comfort. It has been hard to have to stay laying down or sitting when Eric is working on the house and he is so tired and at the same time has to attend to Tyler's needs because I can't. It has been especially hard not being able to go to church for the last couple of weeks. I have felt that I had lost some of that spiritual rejuvenation that I got after attending church each week. I also hadn't taken the sacrament in 2 weeks.

This week I decided that I just could not stay away from church. I know Heavenly Father wanted me to attend and I felt that I just needed to feel the spirit to help me through life right now. Oh boy, did I feel the spirit. I happened to pick a great day to come. Today our wonderful Bishopric was released and we learned who our new Bishopric was to be. I can't say enough wonderful words about the Bishopric who had been serving our ward. For Eric, as ward executive secretary, he has come a lot closer to them and I have seen an extraordinary increase in blessings in our family because of this calling so I was very emotional when they were released. I could not stop crying. In fact, I was tearful from the moment I stepped into the church building this morning. Then they called the new Bishop and 2nd counselor and the spirit became even stronger because I knew that these two men were called specifically by God. I was just a cry baby through out the entire meeting. This whole week there has been a lot of discussions within our ward on who would be our new Bishop and we have been praying for a smooth transition. I know that Eric will be blessed for working with these people and I have so much love already for them and so much love for the Bishopric that we had.

So it has been a very emotional and spiritual day and I knew that I was supposed to be at church today. What was even greater was that even with all the crying, I did not have one contraction in that 1 1/2 hours of sacrament meeting. I don't remember the last time that I had felt relief for that long. I also remember feeling so much happiness in taking the sacrament and felt that it had a new meaning for me. It's so strange how life experiences change your feelings and perspectives on activities that have become a sort of routine in your life. I hope that I don't take this for granted again. I also know that as long as I am up to it, I am going to go to sacrament meetings from now until these boys are born because I need to fill my spiritual cup every week.

He has been preparing me.

With the change in circumstances in the last 2 weeks, I have had the opportunity to just sit and sit and sit and contemplate my life. I thought a lot about how this pregnancy has changed my life, but more importantly how my life, my families lives, will change dramatically change within just 5 weeks. The biggest question I have had has been, "How am I prepared to have 3 children?" More importantly, "How am I prepared to have 2 babies?" I have to admit, I am scared to death! What has prepared me for this moment that Heavenly Father feels he can trust me with 3 of his precious children and twins for that matter. This last week as I was contemplating all of this and trying to make list of things we need to do before these babies arrive, I was hit hard in the heart with my answer. Heavenly Father has been preparing me and blessing me.

He has been preparing me by giving me the opportunity to have a long Maternity leave from work. The time that I have been away from work has relaxed me so much. It has given me the much needed time to concentrate on my family, to enjoy visits from so many family and friends, and it has helped me to think about the really important things in my life. Being on bed rest these last 2 weeks has forced me to slow down and take care of myself and accept services from others. I have been blessed so much with wonderful support from family and friends and the out pour of love from them has been humbling. It's really hard to accept service when you are used to giving it. It is even harder to say I do need some help. Not being able to take care of Tyler on my own these last 2 weeks has been the hardest thing for me. I feel like I have failed as a mother. Eric has picked up my job and become the mother and father. My brother's family has taken care of Tyler when Eric has needed to get work done on the house before the arrival of the twins. Of course, I get to do all the fun stuff with Ty and I enjoy nothing more than just sitting with him and holding with and reading a book with him, but I miss all the other parenting stuff that I was able to do.

Heavenly Father has been preparing me for twins by helping to me get a job as a nurse in Labor and Delivery. I have had the most wonderful experiences helping women during their pregnancies and deliveries. I have had the opportunity to see the complications that are associated with a twin pregnancy and to help many families deliver twins. I feel my experiences and knowledge have helped me to prepare for this time and not freak out about every little thing that has happened during this pregnancy or that may come in the future. Let me just say that everything about this pregnancy was way different then my pregnancy with Tyler. This delivery is going to be even more different because I am going to have an epidural instead of going natural, I am also going to have a c/section instead of a vaginal birth, and I know that these boys are going to come early, 37 weeks being the latest scheduled time for their delivery.

Heavenly Father has been preparing me for twins by giving me a wonderful family to look to as examples of great parents and a wonderful husband who is so great at being a dad. I get asked all the time, "Does twins run in your family or your husbands family?" The answer is "No, not really....But...." Eric has been blessed with a big family. His mother was remarried to a wonderful man when Eric was a teenager and with this wonderful man came a large wonderful family. Eric has 3 biological sibling and 5 step siblings not including their spouses. We have 24 nieces and nephews just on that side of our family. On his step family side there are 3 sets of twins. Eric's step brothers are identical twins and we have two sets of nieces and nephew who are twins. I have the best resources right in my own family to refer to for parenting advice. I have to say that I absolutely love my large family. I love all my sisters and brother-in-laws and my brother, of course. We have so much fun when we visit with each other and I love being an aunt to all my these wonderful kids.

There are a lot more ways that Heavenly Father has been preparing me for this time in my life and I could write forever. The most important thing I realized was that we are not given more than we can handle and we are being prepared for what we are given even if we do not recognize it. Heavenly Father blesses us in so many ways and I feel I need to recognize these blessings more in my life instead of complaining.