A Year in Review..

Wow, what a year 2014 was!  I think it was one of the hardest, most exciting, blessed, amazing years of my life! I completed 'A Year in Review' blog post for 2011 and 2012, and must have overlooked 2013.  Since I skipped 2013, here are some key features!

1) I learned to love and appreciate the island over the course of this year.
2) In February, we rescued and adopted out a beautiful little island puppy!
3) In April, my mom came to visit and we had a wonderful time!
4) In April, we also got to take a trip to Florida to visit MomMom & PopPop and Joedy & Gerald.  It was a great two weeks!
5) In July, I did my first major hikes in St. Kitts, including hiking to the top of the Volcano!
6) August brought my time as a teacher at the Ross Prep School to an end... Very sad!
7) August 3rd was a big day!  It was the day I took my first pregnancy test...and it was POSITIVE!  August 6th, a second positive test began to confirm the pregnancy, and a blood test shortly after gave us the 100% positive!
8) End of August we took a weekend getaway to Nevis, paired with lots of nausea and sun!
9) September we found out we were having TWINS!!
10) October we shared the news with our families and friends.
11) November we found out we were having GIRLS!
12) November Joedy came to St. Kitts for her first visit and to take Brinley dog home for us!  Another great week!
13) December I said 'see ya later' to St. Kitts and headed home.  We were home for Christmas for the first time since 2011!

In looking back, 2013 was a pretty great year too!  It seems our life keeps getting better and better!  I am certainly excited for the years ahead and to see what other great things are coming for us!

January 2014... We were so happy to be home for Christmas and New Years for the first time since 2011!  MomMom and PopPop made a winter trip to NY and our families were all together for a holiday!  Unfortunately, Brayton's time home was short and he had to venture back to St. Kitts to complete his final semester at Ross, but the girls and I stayed at home.  It was so incredibly hard to have him leave, but we needed to be close to good medical care.  It is a very good thing we didn't head back to the island because on January 24th I was take to Crouse Hospital by Ambulance from the ER for signs of pre-eclampsia..This began my hospital stay...

February 2014... The scariest, and best month of the year!  After three weeks of being told "plan on delivering tomorrow", "let's wait out delivery a couple more days" over and over, weeks of hospital bed rest and Brayton being in St. Kitts and me being in the hospital, we finally got to meet our girls! As the month of February progressed, the girls grew stronger and stronger but we also had to send Brayton back to the island for 7.5 weeks.  It was incredibly hard to send him off while his babies were in the NICU and know he wouldn't see them again for almost 2 months.  It broke my heart every single day and I don't know how he did it, and did it with strength.  We are so lucky to have an amazing Dad/Husband!

March 2014...The beginning of March was spent with more NICU time.  On March 16th, Elliana got to come home!  I then spent the next week and a half bouncing between NICU and Ellie at home.  It was one of the hardest 10 days!  On March 26th, Juliette got to come home!  Finally, we were ALMOST all together again!

April 2014... After a couple weeks of being home, we were settling in!  We had professional pictures taken at the beginning of the month and spent the next few weeks patiently waiting for Daddy to get home for good!  April 20th, we surprised him at the airport as he arrived home from St. Kitts FOR GOOD!

May 2014... Beginning of May we moved, yet again!, to our new place in Ithaca.  It was really great to finally be a family all under one roof, in our own 'home'.  We took the girls for their first trip to the zoo, celebrated Mother's Day, took advantage of our family time, and cherished each moment with our babies!  

June 2014... The month of June was lots of baby time!  I couldn't have asked for more!  We took advantage of the weather and took the girls on some of their first hikes.  We had a weekend in the hospital so Ellie could begin her Propranolol for her hemangioma, celebrated Fathers Day driving home from the hospital, celebrated Morgan's HS graduation, and Lyndi's wedding shower!

July 2014... July was a fairly uneventful month, spent again being Mom and Dad and cherishing our twincesses!  The girls did have their first swim in Aunt Lo's pool!  While it doesn't seem exciting, and nothing major happened, learning to be a Mom of twins was busy enough, and perfect enough!  Nothing else was needed!!

August 2014... August brought the girls first camping trips!  The beginning of August, Mom, Dad and Gram were camping in Ithaca and the girls loved hanging out at the campground, swimming in their kiddie pool and hanging out with family! We also had a spectacular river weekend!  The girls loved being out in the boat!  Later in the month we had our second camping adventure, this time at Cedar and staying at the campground the entire time!  The girls had a great time!

September 2014... What a great month this was, and so busy!  MomMom and PopPop came up North and spent a few days with us on their way up!  It was great to see them and have PopPop meet the girls and MomMom be able to see them again!  We also had professional pictures taken again by the wonderful Amanda Lessner!!  The ladies all celebrated Lyndi during her bachelorette party and the guys all celebrated Travis in his bachelor party.  The best part of the month was Lyndi and Travis' wedding!  It was a perfect day, and we all had such a wonderful time!

October 2014... October was also a busy month!  We began solids with the girls using the baby led weaning method, and they both started getting teeth!!  We took our first trip to Albany to visit Bit and Tim and see their new house.  The girls also had their first colds!  Mom and Dad spent a weekend in Ithaca for their 30th wedding anniversary and we took ourselves on a wine tour!  October, of course, also brought the girls first Halloween!  We didn't do anything except dress them up and take their pictures!

November 2014... November was a pretty mellow month!  We had a visit from the Szczepaniak's, had our first library trip, experienced our first snowfall of the winter, and of course had our first Thanksgiving!  We had so much to be thankful for this year!!

December 2014... I didn't do a Christmas blog, so I will catch up a bit here!  The beginning of the month was uneventful, we just hung out at home!  Bit came to visit us and we had so much fun with her here!  Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas this year.  There was no snow (which I am totally okay with!), we didn't exchange gifts with each other and only did a few small things for the girls.  We were also in Ithaca just the four of us, which was really nice, and it was just like a normal day!  Since the weather was so nice, we bundled the girls up and took the dogs and went on a nice hike!  It was so nice to spend Christmas day with our little family, enjoying the outdoors and making memories!  I would love to be able to hike or be outside every year on Christmas!  We headed home on the following Saturday and spent lots of time with our families.  We told our families to be light on the gifts as our place is small and we would be moving soon, multiple times...but they didn't listen!  It was the girls first Christmas, and they are the first set of grandkids, so I guess that is to be expected!  The girls were spoiled with gifts, but more importantly, we were all spoiled with a great deal of family time!

                 

 

          

 

    

 

               

   



I truly believe that Christmas is SO much more than material gift receiving, and I really want to teach my children that.  As they get older, I plan to spend our holiday seasons giving to those who need it rather than piling our own home with gifts we don't really need.  I know Christmas is such an exciting time, but seeing people post pictures of their abundance of gifts all over Facebook made me feel so sad for the people viewing those, or the people in general, who weren't as fortunate.  So many people spend the holidays feeling the pressure of providing gifts for their children and families and society makes it so much harder.  I appreciate the excitement and feeling proud that one can provide so much for their families, I just wish it wasn't such a public announcement.  I saw this floating around a lot this season regarding gifts and I really like it. Give something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, and something to READ. I also really liked this....

Our time at home over the holidays was so busy, but it was a wonderful reminder of how incredibly loved our girls are, the people we have in our lives that are so important and that we need to truly cherish our moments with those special people.  

After a week of visiting, we were happy to come back to our quiet and the girls have both ended up with colds, so we are spending our week snuggling and getting better!  I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday!  

As we move in 2015, I am so excited for the year ahead of us.  We have so many things we are looking forward to and many things in our life that will be changing!  Let us find the positive in life, strive to be better than we were today, reach our dreams and live life to the fullest! Happy 2015! 

   

100 degree temperate changes...what?!?!

We are officially back in America.  We left St. Kitts on Saturday, Dec. 14th.  Assuming the airport could be chaos trying to travel with Nevi and all our bags, we got there about 3 1/2 hours before our flight left.  As we learned throughout the day, flying first class has many benefits.  One of the benefits is not having to wait in line and getting to cut right to the front in the first class line!  With that being said, we were checked-in, through security and waiting in the airport within about 45 minutes!  We had no issues with getting Nevi (who was registered as a Service Dog - Emotional Support Animal) through and she was such a great dog!  Our flight from SK to Charlotte was perfect - made it just in time and had no issues.. Another benefit of flying first class, comfort!  Space! Meals consisting of shrimp cocktail, salad, beef, macaroni and cheese, ravioli and raspberry cheesecake for dessert make it so worth it!  Nevi curled up on the floor with a blanket on her the entire flight and was perfect!  She loved looking out the window and saying hi to everyone.  We also get to be the first on and off the plane and our bags are marked with priority.  Our layover in Charlotte was only an hour and a half, so making it through customs and immigration was a concern, as well as hoping our flight wasn't delayed or cancelled getting to Syracuse.  Mother Nature was on our side and our flight to Syracuse was right on time.  We made it through immigration and customs and to our gate with about 10 minutes to spare before boarding.  The flight to Syracuse was quick and we were finally home!  Mom and Dad were waiting for us in the airport, and Nevi was NOT excited about being asked to pee in the freezing cold, snowy world we brought her to!  She pranced on the sidewalk and quickly leaped into the truck!  Our ride home was snowy and blowy but we made it safe and sound, just as we had hoped!

Good Bye St. Kitts!! 

Watching the sunset from the Sky.. Simply Beautiful! 

Brayton's First class dinner

Leann's first class dinner (with a big bump bulging into the picture!)

First Class Dessert

Nevi - Sleeping on the plane, enjoying her first class blanket and floor space

It's a rough life being a service dog!  

Checking out the snow as we landed in Syracuse

Sunday was our day of unpacking, visiting, relaxing and a few visitors.  Mom made an amazing ham dinner and it felt so good to have a nice, home cooked, American meal!!!

Monday was the day we had been waiting for since we found out we were pregnant, finally seeing an American doctor!  We had another full anatomy scan appointment with an ultrasound tech which was about an hour long.  It was amazing to finally see them move and feel them move simultaneously.  Post ultrasound we got to meet with Dr. Spadola, who is the ob/gyn we will hopefully be doing all of our delivery and q/a stuff.  She spent at least an hour talking to us, explaining the practice, the delivery process, and answering all the questions we haven't had answered in the past 22 weeks of our pregnancy!  So far, everything is perfect, the babies both look great and are weighing in at about 1 pound 4 ounces each.  Dr. Spadola said with this type of twin pregnancy, if they are healthy and ready to go, we will schedule an induction at 37 weeks!  That means only 14 more weeks until babies arrive!  It was very reassuring to hear that bed rest is not something that is recommended or done unless absolutely needed and that there is no evidence showing that a c-section has more benefits than a natural birth.  Hopefully all goes well, and we will have a natural birth around March 24-25th.

It has been snowing and below zero here since we got home and it is beautiful out - but truly COLD!     The next few weeks will be extremely busy with us being home for the first time in 20 months, and Brayton only here till January 4th but I will do my best to try to keep up with the blog!         

How far along? Mid-week 23
Maternity clothes? FINALLY!!  It was so nice to come home, and have a bunch of maternity clothes that actually FIT!  I am so much more comfortable!
Stretch marks? Not yet and in need of getting myself to Watertown to get some good belly cream!
Sleep? Our big king size bed and being home is making it much easier!
Miss Anything? Being Warm...
Anything making you queasy or sick? Nope
Mood? Overall, it's been good!
Weekly Wisdom? Count your blessings and be thankful all day, every day
Looking forward to? More American Doctor appointments
Total weight gain/loss? According to the doctors scale on Monday, +17
What’s new this week? We are finally back in America, enjoying the winter cold, snow and seeing American doctors.
Measurements? 44 1/2"at the belly button
Best moment this week? Being able to feel definite kicking and movement, and Brayton being able to feel the babies kick from the outside.
Movement? Lots, mainly when I am sitting or lying down. A lot of rotating and kicking/punching
Food cravings? Nope
Gender? America confirmed, 2 girls!
Labor Signs? No
Belly Button in or out? Still in.. but barely!
What is the baby up to? According to Parents.com and WebMD Pregnancy and Baby Center, their sense of movement is well developed and babies can feel you dance.  Now that they are more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about the size of a large mango), you may be able to see them squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in their lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking - probably won't faze them when they hear them outside the womb.  Babies are about 11-12 inches long and weigh about 1 lb 4 oz (weight is according to the doctors Monday)

A few pictures from the ultrasound- the girls weren't showing their faces!
and....
My pictures this week are awful.. Hopefully we will get some good winter ones in soon!