Halloween!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays…I think it's so much fun dressing up in different costumes, not to mention all the yummy candy :) :) :)

Now Halloween is one of my favorites because I get to dress up our little munchkin! This year Jayden was Minnie Mouse and seriously looked TOO cute! I think if she understood she would have been pretty excited too since she loves Minnie! I was even surprised she wore my Minnie Mouse ears and kept them on almost the entire night!

This year we decided to try Blocktober at Saddleback since I've heard amazing reviews, plus I wanted to volunteer to pass out candy in the MOPS room :) Before we left for church, Jayden was dying to put her costume on all day…so I let her put it on early and wonder around the house with it on! She was so excited!

When I asked her where her Minnie Mouse ears were…this was her response…

TOO CUTE!!!

Since I was working the first shift, there weren't very many kids yet trick-or-treating, so Jayden got first pick out of our tub of candy!

After my shift, we were off and Jayden was SO excited! She loved seeing all the other kids and running around at church! She picked up pretty quickly that she got a treat at each door…her favorite was reaching in and grabbing the candy herself!

We had so much fun roaming around ~ they even had a petting zoo and games for kids to play. After we hung out at church for a few hours, we headed back to our neighborhood to hit up a few houses and see some of our neighbors. Everyone loved seeing Jayden!

By the end of the night…she was a pro and could go up to the house & knock on the door all by herself! It was SO adorable! She would even wave goodbye as she walked away! :)

Up the street, one of our neighbors goes all out decorating for Halloween every year and this year we made it up there to check it out! Jayden was a little scared…luckily she had her brave daddy with her :)

We had such a fun Halloween this year! I can't waitttttttt for next year! It's going to be crazy with 2 more babes in costumes!! :)

Boys, Girls or One of Each???

Time has been flying by and ever since I found out I was pregnant, and especially since I found out we were having twins, I've been DYING to find out what we were having! Since our twins are fraternal, we could have 2 boys, 2 girls or 1 of each! Well…since I was deadly sick a few weeks ago and I started feeling the babies move last week, I decided to go in for an early ultrasound to see the babes and find out the gender!

I told the ultrasound tech to put the results in an envelope and triple seal with tape so I wouldn't peek as I wanted to open the results with Jonathan! I then headed over to Nothing Bundt Cakes to get little bundtinis with flags "it's a girl" or "it's a boy" coordinating with the gender. So I told the cashier to look at the results and put the appropriate flags on the cakes. I also told him to put the opened envelope inside the box and triple seal the box so I wouldn't peek! 

Once I was home I waited patiently for Jonathan to get home so we could open the box together! 

We were so excited when he got home we took the box outside and unwrapped the surprise. When we got the box opened we saw the flags!!!! …………………….

"It's a Girl!" & "It's a Boy!" ….. We were THRILLED! We were hugging each other, hugging Jayden, celebrating our twins and drinking our Martinellis! After a few minutes of celebrating, I wanted to see which twin was which gender, so I opened the envelope and saw the pictures… Baby A - Girl and Baby B - Girl … we were so confused…turned out Nothing Bundt Cakes put the wrong flags on the cakes and we are having twin girls! We were shocked! 

Looks like the Erickson clan is going to have a mini softball team :) 

Team Pink…here we come!!!!

Luke Bryan!!

AWWWWW last night my amazing mom took me and my sis to see LUKE BRYAN! We had such a good time!!! I still can't believe how good our seats were!! I'm sure I was probably one of the only pregnant mamas there, but it didn't stop me from dancin' the night away with my mom & sis! 

We loved how he opened the show! Singing and dancing on a truck surrounded by fire! It was amazing! And the concert just got better and better!

At one point one of the girls in the pit got up on stage and chased after Luke!! She wrapped her arms around him before being escorted out of the Forum by security! Wish I would have gotten a pic of that! It was hilarious!

Lee Brice was one of the opening acts and Luke Bryan had him come out and sing Crazy Girl, which Lee Brice wrote for Eli Young Band!

This one I recorded just for Jonathan (who was awfully jealous we were going to the concert without him)…

Thanks a million to my AMAZING mama! I'm so, so, so lucky to have the coolest mom in the world! 

Can't wait for our next girls outing <3 <3 <3

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Yesterday we took Jayden to the Irvine Regional Park for the Pumpkin Patch and it was so much fun! We went bright and early so we could beat the crowds, and I'm so glad we did because when we were leaving the line to get in was about 100 cars long! 

When we first arrived we decided to go on the train since there was no line. I forgot how cute the train ride is :) It's probably been 20 years since I've been to the Irvine Park and on the train, so it was fun to go with Jonathan and Jayden!

Jayden had so much fun she was even waving to all the kids we passed! It was hilarious!

After the train ride we walked through to see all the pumpkins…Jayden and Ella were so cute together! At one point during our mini photo session, a little Asian kid about 8 years old came over to get in our picture! He totally photo bombed our pics! I wish I would have taken a picture because it was so funny! He left a couple seconds later only to have his mom tell him to come back over so she could take a picture of him with our girls! Weird…but pretty funny! 

I couldn't believe how many different things they had at the pumpkin patch! They had carnival games, face painting, and tons of photo booths! Jonathan was all about the photo booths and wanted to take a pic with Jayden at almost every one! 

They even had a John Deere Tractor Race for kids! All I could think was how much Bryson and Hunter would have LOVED not only the whole pumpkin patch, but especially the tractor race! Since the girls were way too small to race, pictures on the tractors will have to do for this year :)

Ella giving kisses to Jayden <3

We had so much fun! I can't wait for next year! I think the girls will LOVE it!! Who knows…we might have to even pick out a pumpkin next year for the girls :)

Our little Smarty Pants

One of our favorite things to do with Jayden is read books and lately it's been so much fun since she's starting to learn different objects and can point to them on the page. We bought her some Mickey and Minnie Mouse books from Target and she knows almost all of the pictures on every page! I can't believe how we can tell her what something is one time and a few days later she still remembers!

The other day at my moms house I was reading a book about colors to Jayden and asked her where the leaf was…I knew I had never pointed out the leaf but she used process of elimination and guessed right! :) I seriously couldn't have been more proud of my little peanut! She's one little smarty pants that's for sure!

Now that I'm feeling better Jayden and I have been spending more time outside and going for walks again! One of our neighbors up the street has little statues outside in their yard and Jayden LOVES to stop and touch them, point to them and talk to them! If I say "let's go see the statues" she will take off RUNNING up the street to see her little buddies! It's hilarious!

I'm sure if it was up to Jayden, she would probably bring them down to our house and put them in our yard!
If only our neighbors knew how much Jayden loves their little statues!

ER & IVs

The past 5 days have truly been some of the roughest days of my entire life…

Thursday evening I was on my way to a MOPS mom's night out when I started feeling tension in my upper belly area…I swear they reminded me of the contractions I was having when I was in the hospital with Jayden…so naturally, I called my doctor to see if I should be alarmed. Since my OBGYN is wine tasting and taking cooking classes in Italy (yes, I know, I'm jealous too)…his associate doctor called me back and told me it couldn’t be contractions since they were too high on my belly for 14 weeks and it was probably something I ate and to call her back ASAP if it gets more painful or if I start bleeding.

When I got home around 9:30 that night, I knew it must have been something I ate because I didn’t feel very well. The tension finally faded around 3 in the morning and I was able to finally fall asleep. 

The next morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks…as soon as I lifted my head off the pillow I thought my Hyperemesis Gravidarum was back! I was beyond nauseous and I literally ran downstairs to try and eat something…before I could even take a second bite of my pumpkin muffin I was getting sick in the sink :( All day long, every time I tried to eat, drink or even take one of my lemon drops (which were my lifesaver for my morning sickness) everything would come back up within minutes…sometimes seconds. Friday Jonathan came home early from work because he wasn’t feeling well either, personally I thought he was using it as an accuse to leave work early, but when he started getting sick that night I knew we must have had the same thing.

Fast forward to Saturday night, after nearly 48 hours of not being able to keep down any liquids or foods and losing 5 pounds, I called the doctor who sent me straight to the ER for hydration treatments. Let me tell you, if you ever want to see a doctor right away…being pregnant is the trick. I wasn’t even in the waiting room for 5 minutes before they called me back! They immediately hooked me up to an IV and pumped 4 lbs of fluids into me along with some anti-nausea medication. Jonathan said when we walked into the hospital I was white as a ghost and after the treatments I looked like myself again…even though I still didn’t feel like myself. The doctor told me I was (obviously) dehydrated and I had a gastrointestinal virus. They didn’t want to give me antibiotics because it can sometimes make the swelling in the intestines worse, so I basically had to wait it out and follow up with my doctor on Monday. He said I should be on a liquid diet for the next 24 hours and then on the B.R.A.T. (bananas, rice, apple sauce and toast) diet for the 24 hours after that. They also gave me supplements since some of my vitals came back low.

That night and the next day I still continued to throw up anything and everything I ate or drank…it was awful. Monday Jonathan called in sick since he still wasn’t feeling well and I was still sick. I called the doctor in the morning who gave me more anti-nausea medication and told me to call back if it didn’t help…luckily it did! I was able to keep down almost everything I ate that day, which was only 2 pieces of toast and about 8 ounces of water, but it was an improvement!

Today I’m happy to report I have been able to keep down everything (yay!) and I’m starting to feel so much better. I’m still exhausted and I don’t have very much energy, but I’m sure within the next few days I’ll be back to my normal self :)

Overall, it was probably one of the worst weekends of my life. I lost nearly 12 pounds (so did Jonathan)…I lost 5 pounds the first 48 hours, then the hospital pumped 4 pounds of fluids into me, I then lost those plus an additional 3. You know something’s wrong when you see your mom and she tells you that you need to “plump up” (I don’t think anyone has EVER told me that before LOL).

Luckily the worst part is over and the light at the end of the tunnel is finally here…and so is 15 weeks :)  Only a week and a half left before we find out if there are girls, boys or one of each inside!!!!!

13 Weeks

That's right! I'm already 13 weeks and officially in my 2nd trimester! :)

I can't believe my pregnancy is already 1/3 of the way over! I'm feeling HUGE these days…I know I have two little ones these size of peaches growing inside my belly, but I'm already as big (if not bigger) than I was when I delivered Jayden! I still have a long way to go, and I know this belly is only going to grow!

I had my OBGYN appointment yesterday and he said the babies look perfect. Baby "A" was a little wiggle worm and wouldn't stop moving the entire ultrasound, while baby "B" was just hanging out upside down. We find out in a few weeks what the genders are…I'm DYING to find out! I can't wait! Jonathan and I have also been talking about names, so once we find out what we're having, I'm sure we will finalize what we will name our baby Ericksons :)

My morning sickness has definitely eased up the last week or so. I'm only getting sick about two or three times a day…so that's a huge relief! I still don't have much of an appetite but if I go too long without eating I start feeling sick, so I find myself eating small meals every few hours. I still don't have any cravings, besides the one time I was craving McDonald's french fries. I'm still nauseous throughout the day, but I found that almost anything lemon or citrus scented has helped relieve my nausea. I've been sucking on these lemon drops (which help SO much!) and I have lemon soap and hand sanitizer all over the house!