Nate's Post

Hello Everyone,

  I finally got Stacy some fast reliable internet and decided to try it out first.  It downloaded all these pictures in under 10 minutes...So you will see a lot more posts from her in the future!  Sorry it's taken so long!  It's my turn to step in and fill you in on our journey together...that's an understatement!  So are we having twins?  Someone needs to tell me how and when it's going to finally hit me~  Don't get me wrong, we are doing everything we can to get ready for these little buggers, but twins??? Nate and Stacy are having TWINS???? I would have never thunkened it! We find out after the fact that there are actually twins in our family!  I can't count how many people have told us the sleep horrors of having twins and everything that goes along with that stuff.  Yes STUFF! You all are reading this and thinking..."oh you just wait!!!"  Anyway, put that all aside- I can't wait for my two boys to join Stacy and I on a new journey!  It has been so fun getting ready for them to arrive.  It's to the point where I have dreams about what they look like and how they will interact.  But I couldn't have picked a better situation to be in.  Stacy has done unbelievably well during her pregnancy...me? just gained some weight is all! I am finding out that is not unusual!  I'm glad I can join the club.  The house is where I want it to be before the boys come.  We got the smoke smell out, walls painted, baby room decorated, baby things put together, and basement remodeled to where I want it by Thanksgiving! We are excited to have the WHOLE immediate Spencer family for Thanksgiving!!! I wish the twins were already here for the convenience of everyone being here, but I understand their patience.  Well, I need to get ready for the workers coming tomorrow night as well as Rob and Ruth.  Ryan and Amy are coming Wed. night and Eric and Jen are coming Wed. night or Thursday. Stacy said she will blog tomorrow so I will hold her to it.  She has no excuse now!  She has to tell you about her new kittens, baby shower, finishing the baby room, and other things she hasn't touched on! Thanks for checking in on us and have a great week!  -Nate

Kayman is the looking me in the eyes!  He is getting up to 115 lbs @ 8 Months

He decided to destroy the decorative square hay bale we had on the entryway.  The hay is now everywhere!!!

Fits Perfectly!!! Started to install the second one when we noticed all kinds of scratches and scuffs...Thanks to mom, she took it back for an exchange!  

Stacy's birthday present! I might actually use it more- it is on my side of the bed!

I had to do this to make it real!  Stacy freaked out when she looked in the back seat.  

Taking down the ugly border...3 borders to be exact.  What were the previous owners thinking?  One for each season?!

I got grief from mom about this..."What? Its Stacy's platform?!" 

Insulating his doghouse! He doesn't come out now!  

Basement before remodel!  What a mess!!!

Bathroom before remodel!!! Yikes...

Finally after 5 months we have security!  Hung up blinds in the whole house.  Makes a huge difference!

Starting on the framing.

Finishing the framing for the basement utility room, bathroom, extra bedroom, and entertainment center!

Finally Finished

The new basement supported 15 guys for the bonfire get-together!

Stacy working on the Iowa State room...Border finally removed!!!

Mom...I mean, Grandma assisting in painting the Iowa State mud room!  

This is the first of 3 panels of my model that I have been working on.  It will hang down from the ceiling so the boys can look up from their beds and see their favorite safari animals walking to the marsh for some water.  Each animal has  a mom and it's two babies.  There are elephants, african antelope, zebra, water buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, ring-tailed lemurs, gorillas, and the whole cat family.  There are lights that shine up through the model on the animals' faces that the kids will see when it is dark.  The marsh is made up of glass pebbles and lights shine up through them to illuminate the whole marsh at night.  You can see the hippos and crocodile wading nearby.  Hopefully I used enough adhesive and glue so it can be a success!

traveling the U.S. (with medical records along)

Life has been crazy busy for us lately - so much to blog about!! If only the internet would let me... I'm sitting here at Starbucks because I thought I would have a better chance of getting pictures uploaded here with a good internet connection. Turns out it's not much better here than at home.

As the blog post title states, we have been traveling the U.S. Well ok, not the whole country.. it just feels like it. We made a trip to Tennessee and then one to Oklahoma.

At the end of September, we made the 12+ hour road trip to TN for Knoxville convention. It was so nice to get the meetings, see the grounds again (this time during convention), spend time with lots of family, and meet new people. It was also very encouraging to see my parents settled and happy in their new location, even if that means being in a camper for the next few months.

Two weekends after that, we traveled to my brother and sister-in-law's house in OK for Ryker's 5th birthday celebration. They've lived down there for over a year & a half so it was great to finally be able to see their place! We spent Saturday morning with all the animals at the Tulsa zoo and later that evening, Ryker shared his monster cake with eyeballs with all of us.

~ Knoxville pics ~

the 4 cheeses

5 kids looking at an ant hill

the Spencer bunch at Knoxville, TN conv

Grandpa Spencer with ...

2 of his 3 children

5 of his 7 grandchildren

and all 8 (10 if you include the unborn) of his great-grandchildren

only 29 weeks here ... keep them in as long as possible!

____________________________

~ Ryker's 5th birthday pics ~

Eric, Jen and ..... uh-oh, looks like 2 zoo animals got out!

Nate bravely going face to face with a ferocious mama cat

looks like Alivia outweighs her daddy!!

Dad making friends with a turtle

Ryker opening his birthday presents
... and Alivia helping him :)

haha LOVE this face :D

playing with an animal matching game

"monster cake with eyeballs"

I must say, eyeballs that taste like cake are pretty good!!

Since it wasn't too far out of our way on the road trip back home, Nate & I decided to stop near Claremore and sneak a peek at the house my family lived in way back in the day! I remember learning to ride a bike in that front yard when I was about 4 years old! It was fun to see the house again :)

construction zone

our latest home project = the nursery

Step 1. find out the genders of the babies

Step 2. search Pinterest and google images for twin baby boy nursery ideas

Step 3. choose a theme/colors for the room

Step 4. find a handy man who has home improvement know-how (luckily I didn't have to search very far)

Step 5. watch handy man take the ceiling fan down, plastic the walls, scrape down the popcorn ceiling, texture the ceiling, paint the ceiling

Step 6. measure and mark the wall for painting stripes

Step 7. tape off the stripes

Step 8. pick out paint colors at Lowe's

Step 9. stay away from the paint smell as the striped wall and other 3 walls were painted

Step 10. admire paint job

Step 11. find wall decals on amazon.com (also find cute hamper and lamp in the meantime) and eagerly anticipate their arrival

Step 12. carefully place decals on walls

Current Step:  wait for babies  :)

growth update - all looks well and babies are measuring at 2 & 1/2 pounds each

scraping down the popcorn ceiling

texturing the ceiling

smoothing down the texture

getting ambitious and texturing the laundry room ceiling too!

painting the ceiling

measuring for stripes

taping off stripes

painted stripes complete!
(brown, orange, very pale blue, green)

placing decals on wall

decals in place, complete with hamper and light switch cover

more decals, and lamp!

monkeys!!

alphabet on the door ...
I triple checked to make sure I got my a b c's in the right order

hmm ... what is this??
hint: it's a 3D ceiling model with safari/jungle animals

finished product and pictures yet to come! :)

baby boom of the 21st century

Nate & I had the privilege of being at Brownstown, IL convention this past weekend. It was so wonderful to get there again and catch up with many people that we haven't seen for awhile!

With four other couples who are expecting, and some families with new little ones, nearly 99% of the conversation between mtgs revolved around "babies." Usually this is a topic I tune in and out of. Now expecting babies of our own, Nate & I commented on our way home that we had no idea we'd ever enjoy talking about it so much. In the past, I've always looked at the group of pregnant ladies and families with babies as being SOO old ... and now it's us! But that's ok, I will take feeling old if it means being so excited for everyone as they start their little families. I just wish we didn't all live so far away from one another but it will be fun to get together from time to time and have play dates :)

It was really nice to see Eric Jen Ryker & Alivia there but we really missed mom & dad and Ryan Amy Lara & Calliegh. It was strange not to take a family picture Sun. morning with the whole clan! 

I was talking with Talisha Bloemker a little bit at Btown, and she put it perfectly when she asked me if it felt like there was an octopus inside of me. Yes, yes it does... the 8 limbs are constantly squirming!! I remember being so excited to feel the first obvious kick when sitting in the airport in Knoxville, TN. Now it feels like there is a party in my tummy every day! I've heard that these next few weeks might be when I feel the most movement. They won't have as much space to roam around towards the end, so I say that they are claiming their space right now. This got me to thinking about the types of movement that I have felt so far in my pregnancy and I've divided them into 5 separate categories.

The 5 types of movement:

1) the kick- like someone putting their pointer finger behind their thumb and then releasing to give you a swift flick (from the inside) ... sometimes it's so strong it makes me jump a little

2) the flutter- literally like someone tickling you on the inside, which often makes me giggle out loud

3) the tightening- usually my tummy has some bouyancy to it, but there are times when one of them sneaks to the belly button area (maybe curling up?) and makes it really, really hard to the touch, like a basketball. It's only for a minute and then he lets my tummy go right back to it's former semi-squishy state

4) the roll over- this feels similar to the twisting and turning of feeling sick to your stomach. However, it doesn't come with nausea or result in running to the bathroom, unless one of them finds my bladder in the meantime

5) bouncing baby boys- I'm pretty sure one of them turned his placenta into a trampoline and invited his brother over to play this morning. I awoke to the most movement I had ever felt. I just laid there and watched the left side of my tummy jump and jiggle

*Update on the growth of George & Harry:

24 weeks, measuring at last week's appt. at 1 lb 6 oz each

Brownstown, IL conv 2012

Nate & I (due Dec. 15th), Brad & Kalee (due Oct. 27th),

Craig & Kenna, Addison (almost 2 months), Marty & Beth, Zoey (5.5 months)

The ladies:

Amanda, Lauren, Me, Kalee, Kenna, and Beth

We are showing the progression of motherhood: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and post-pregnancy

2012 so far ...

Goodness. What a year this has already been!

This morning, I was thinking back to the beginning of this year and all that has happened between then and now. So far, 2012 has brought many drastic changes! If someone had told me on January 1st of all the things to expect this year, I probably would have went into hibernation.

By breaking down the last 7 months, here are just a few of the biggest things ... some changes, some accomplishments (not necessarily in order):

Nate quit his job at FedEx and started working with his dad in construction

I quit my job

We bought a house

We moved out of state

We got a great dane

We found out we're expecting ... twins

I trained for and ran in a 10k race ... while pregnant with twins

My parents sold their house and moved to TN

It's no wonder I find more gray hairs every time I look in the mirror. Even though I see these all as good things now, each one was a stressor at the time. I was able to give my input for many of these changes but not all of them were of my choosing. However, I understand that what I may want is not always best and I see many of these now as blessings in disguise. It's so hard to see the future and it's impossible to know how it will all pan out. I find it easy to get ahead of myself at times but am thankful for the reminder that it's a day at a time and I can't control every outcome.

What I do know is that I am happy today. It's not easy being so far away from all of my family and knowing that I won't get to see them as often as I'd like, and it wasn't easy to leave familiar places behind and be separated from friends that I really miss. But I choose to see what I have at the present time and look forward to some awesome things in the near future!

I feel like enough has already happened this year that we could just go ahead and wrap it up a few months early!! But I suppose I would miss out on conventions, Thanksgiving, and the birth of our twins, so I better hang in there.

Highlights of 2012 Photo Gallery

Mom & I made this cake for Nate in celebration of him switching jobs

In case it's too small to read, it says:

"FedUp

Shipping Out

N8 Stidolph

4 The Future

Moving On, IA 4-27-12"

Amanda, Leann, and me before the 10k race April 28

Moving day June 15 - leaving Baytowne

Kenna, Kalee, and me at Kenna's baby shower

baking a blackberry cobbler with Amy, Lara, & Calliegh

Kenna and me at mom & dad's house a few weeks before they moved

My contribution to the moving sale at mom & dad's ... my pig collection! Believe it or not, someone actually bought the slippers.

The fam at Seaworld in Orlando, FL

Orlando, FL - after Sun lunch at outback steakhouse

finally, a normal pic of the kids :)

Kayman loves his new doghouse (big enough to fit a growing great dane)

Fancy is enjoying being the only remaining occupant in the fish tank/hamster cage that once housed 3.

his ...

... hers

19 weeks bump

us at Darin & Kyla Goza's wedding (21 weeks)