One Year Anniversary

One year ago today I had the privilege or marrying my best friend.  Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that we were returning from our honeymoon.  But then I sit back and think of all that has taken place since our wedding and it feels like we have been married for ages.  One thing is for certain though, this year has been the very best of my life.  There is no doubt in my mind that Annmarie is my soul mate.  She completes me (corny but true).

The really crazy part is that two years ago today, Am and I hadn't even met.  We went from strangers to dating in three months, dating to engaged in four more months, engaged to married in five more months, married to parents-to-be in another five months, and now are just weeks away from seeing our twins enter this world.  It has been an amazing journey and I can't fathom having done it with anyone but Am.  I can't wait to see what God has for us this next year and in the years to come!

Just for fun, here are some pictures from the journey:

The first time Am and I had some time alone to talk was when she volunteered to be on my work team for the Kidney Walk.  We stuck around after the walk for a BBQ festival and chatted for a couple hours.  This was when I first began to think that this could go somewhere!

Unfortunately we fast forward significantly here as we did not take any pictures in the early days when we started dating.  This picture is from the 1 1/2 month mark.  We spent countless hours walking together and just getting to know one another.  My phone shows that this walk was 8.5 miles...and we still had to walk home!

Am sacrificed and has been cheering for VCU...unless they are playing JMU.  This game was the semi-finals of the CAA tournament.  Winning this game was what tipped the scale that got VCU into the NCAA Tournament where they eventually made it to the Final Four.

Am and I discovered that we shared a love for nature.  This was a hike up to Humpback Rocks off Blue Ridge Parkway.

We celebrated Am's birthday three times in March - three months into dating.  As you can see, my mom was already thinking long term as she bought Am "Love and Respect" for her birthday.

Here is birthday celebration #2 at Joe's Inn with Am's brothers.

And then I took Am to Melting Pot to celebrate.  This was the first time that I told Am I loved her.  She cried which told me everything I needed to know.  I started to think about proposing right around this time.

I showed Am off to my coworkers at the Junior Achievement Bowl-a-thon.  Here we are with Libby and Doug - our awesome team.  As you can see from the score, I am not the bowler of the group.  I came in last with a 50 pin difference between me and 3rd.  Josh - 87 / Am - 142.  Glad she didn't dump me after that poor showing.

Am and I went to Winter Jam and rocked it out with a bunch of Christian bands.

To really show my devotion, I took Am to a ballet so she could see a friend perform.  Yep, definitely earned some points for this one.

And then the day came for us to take our relationship to the next level.  I made an album that chronicled our time together and told our story and gave it to her as a gift at Melting Pot.  Midway through the album there was a picture of me down on one knee with the ring.  I broke out the ring and she said yes.  This was a great day.

At the 6 month mark Am and I headed to India for a missions trip together.  It was a great experience of us serving God together.  And we made some awesome friends seen here in this picture.

Am and I went up to PA to hang out with my brother Dave and sister-in-law Shelley.  Both are awesome photographers and they took some engagement pictures for us.  This was one of my favorites.

And then the big day came and Am and I tied the knot.  Isn't she breathtaking?!?!?!

Am and I headed to Ireland for our honeymoon.  Two weeks of adventure in one of the most beautiful areas of the world.

Am and received tickets to a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert from mom for Christmas.  We had a blast hanging out with Dave and Shelley and watching a great concert.

In February we found out that we were going to have a baby.  But in May we got the big news that we were having twins!

In May Am and I headed to Myrtle Beach for a fantastic vacation.  We had an awesome view of the ocean from our condo.  It was a great vacation!

Next up was a trip to Las Vegas.  It was actually a work trip for me but Am joined me for the weekend and saw the sites.

We have watched Am's belly expand as our babies continue to grow and prepare to enter this world.  This is Am at 21 weeks, 25 weeks and 31 weeks pregnant.

With two kids on the way, we decided it was time to buy a house.  We found a great one in Caroline County that gave us the space we needed for a very good price.

And there we have it - a quick look at our adventure to date.  It has been a great ride!!!  Thanks to all for your love and support over the past two years.  

A special thanks goes out to the Breens who entrusted me with their great treasure.  I stand by my commitment to spend every day trying to protect Am and make her happy.

And to Am:  you are the love of my life and my dearest friend.  Every day with you is precious and I count myself the most blessed man alive.  Thank you for making my life complete!

Pregnancy Pictures - 31 Weeks

We are officially at the 31 week mark and are well overdue for an update on Am's progression.  I read the other day that a woman pregnant with twins at 30 weeks is about the size that she would be at full term with one baby.  So those of you who have been pregnant before can image how uncomfortable this stage is for Am.  She is a trooper though and just keeps on trucking.

The babies are extremely active and love when mom lies down so they have some extra room to move.  This, combined with difficulties breathing, has made sleeping quite rough.  Am decided to give the couch a shot where she can sleep while sitting up which helps a lot with the breathing. While this still does not provide for a full night's sleep, it does give her a few hours which is loads better than lying awake all night.

Keeping fed is another challenge.  There just isn't much space in Am's stomach for food and yet those babies seem to soak it up once it gets in there.  That makes for lots of mini meals throughout the day.  Am had some issues with heartburn early on but has learned what foods to avoid and is doing pretty well in this regard.

All in all, Am and the babies are doing great and moving along well.  Hard to believe that we likely only have 5 to 7 more weeks to go!  We have our next ultrasound on Tuesday and will post some new baby pictures then.  Thanks for your continued prayers!

Our New House

With two babies on the way, Am and I decided that it was time to put our townhouse behind us and look for something with a bit more space.  We really wanted something that we could keep long term so we started searching for a house with enough space for 3+ kids but also one that we could afford comfortably on just my salary.  Unfortunately that didn't leave a lot of options within the West End area of Richmond where we had been living.

We knew that with two munchkins we were going to need all of the help and support we could get.  We decided the ideal house would be one that was in between Richmond (where my mom lives) and Fredericksburg (where Am's parents live).  We have some friends who live in Lake Caroline in Caroline County.  While on a trip to visit them, I looked at what houses were going for in their community and found the prices were great!  We did some Zillow searching, picked out some houses we wanted to see and contacted a realtor to check them out.

After looking at the 7 that I picked out in Lake Caroline, the realtor took us to a house we hadn't seen in a nearby lake community called Lake Land'or.  We fell in love with that house and put in an offer the very next day.  It was a VERY long road with many delays but we finally moved into the house just over two weeks ago.

Lake Land'or is a gated community which helps keep crime low.  There is a sandy beach on the lake that will be great for the kids as well as a community pool and several tot lots.  The lake is large enough that you can take gas engine boats out but also quiet enough that we will be able to take kayaks out (that is on our purchase list for next summer).

A lot of you have been bugging us to take you on a picture tour, so here goes.  Explanations for each picture are below each shot.

We will start with an outdoor shot from the treeline right by the road.  As you can see, the house has a good size front yard with a little bit of grass and a long driveway (going to be great fun in the winter).  The backyard has a privacy fence surrounding it.  The front yard is surrounded by woods on one side, the backside of our neighbors privacy fence on the other side, and then right behind me in this picture is trees that separate the road from the yard.  We love the privacy and quiet of the property (the loudest noises are the crickets at night).

The backyard is in rough shape.  It is very private but the grass is few and far between.  Dogs, a big playground area, and what we believe was an above ground pool all contributed to the dirt patches.  This needs some serious work.  There is a patio out back that is uneven and really should be torn out and replaced.  This is on our list as a project for the next year.  Overall though the house exterior is in great shape and most of the needs are simply cosmetic.

Here is the view when you come in the front door.  To the right is a half bath and to the left is the office (it is really a dining room but we are making it an office).  The open doorway you can see on the right goes into the kitchen.  The first door on the left is a closet and the second goes to the basement.  At the top of the picture is a banister from the second floor.

Here is that room that we are going to use as an office/sitting room.  What you see in the dead center of the picture is the entrance to the staircase to the upstairs and beyond that an entrance to the living room.

Here's that staircase to the upstairs taken from the living room.

Turning around from that last picture is a shot of the living room.  We fell in love with the open floor plan that flows from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen.

Here is a shot of that living room from the other side.

Here is the dining room looking into the kitchen.  Right behind me is a sliding glass door out onto the deck.

And here is the kitchen.  One of our future projects is to put in a small island to add some counter space and a little more storage.  The previous owners took all of the appliances when they left (the house was a foreclosure).  This worked out well for us as the bank put in a new dishwasher, stove and microwave.  They painted the whole house a nice tan color and put in brand new carpet.

On the other side of the kitchen is a small laundry room.  This is a huge step up from having those items in our kitchen at the townhouse.

The final room on that main floor is a one car garage.  Nothing fancy but we love the high ceilings as it will allow us to put in a loft for storage.

Moving upstairs, this is the view from the top of the stairs.  You are looking at the entrance to our bedroom on your immediate left followed by the kids bathroom, the guest bedroom down the hallway, and the little girls bedroom to your far right.

Shooting from the doorway in our bedroom and looking toward the front of the house, you have the stairway to your immediate right and the banister looking down on the foyer straight ahead.  The door to the right of the banister is the little boy's bedroom and the door to the left goes to the little girl's bedroom.

Here is a shot of the master bedroom.  We love the hardwood floors.

And here is the master bath.  It has a shower to your left followed by a soaking tub, the toilet, our walk-in closet, and the his and her sinks (a must for Am).

Here is the little boy's room.

And here is the little girl's room.  She got the bigger closet...

Here is the kids' bathroom.

For many of you, this is the most important room.  This is what Pappa and Mamma Breen call the FROG (finished room over garage).  This room will be the official guest room once we cough up the money for some furniture.

Downward to the basement.  There is a huge open room with built in bookshelves that will be our den.  We are looking forward to getting some furniture for this room that will allow us to use this for family movie nights and Bible studies.  The door on the right goes to a half bath and guest bedroom.

Here is that second guest bedroom.

And here is the basement half bath.  We are hoping to find a way to squeeze in a shower to this bathroom at some point in the distant future.

That concludes our tour.  The longer we are in this house, the more we love it and the more it feels like home.  Special thanks go out to each of you who have helped us get the house up and running.  You guys rock!!!

Ultrasound @ 27 weeks and 2 days

Am and I went in for our 27 week ultrasound this morning.  As mentioned earlier, we will have ultrasounds every 4 weeks throughout the pregnancy to ensure that both babies are growing the way they should.  The fear is that one baby will begin to move far ahead of the other baby and will hog the majority of the nutrition.  While this is not as big of a concern with fraternal twins, it is still something they like to monitor.

We are very happy to report that both babies are progressing well and are right in line with where they should be in size.  Our baby boy is currently weighing in at exactly 2 pounds and our baby girl is weighing in at 1 pound 15 ounces.  You may remember that our boy weighed 1 pound 4 ounces and our girl 1 pound 3 ounces four weeks ago.  So both babies have gained 12 ounces or an average of 3 ounces per week.

Apparently the babies have been shifting positions some so we have not always been blaming the correct child for sleepless nights and brutal karate chops.  It is still really hard for me to visualize who is where.  Am definitely has a better grasp on that. 

We did get further confirmation that we are looking at a boy and girl and that both appear to be healthy.  We need a little more shifting to occur in order for them to be in position for a natural birth.  Currently they both are more in a feet down position.  But overall it was a very good report as we come down the homestretch that is the third trimester!  Here are a few pictures from the visit (they still don't scan very well but are better than nothing).

The first is the two heads and you can see that they are still right next to each other.  In a lot of the shots from the 3D ultrasound it looks like they are constantly sticking feet and arms in each other's faces.  I didn't quite understand how this was possible considering they are in separate sacks.  But the doctor confirmed today that the sacks are very thin and they definitely can and do mess with each other.  So we already have some sibling bonding going on (or squabbling depending on how you want to look at it).

The second shot is one of the girl's face.  You can't see it very well (especially in the scanned version) but it is a lot better than previous shots of her face.

And the final one is a shot of the girl's feet.  Again, not a fantastic shot but she had her feet together which was quite cute.

3D Ultrasound Video

We just received the 2 minute video of the 3D ultrasound.  Portions of it are kind of cool and portions of it leave you scratching your head on exactly what it is you are looking at.  I guess 3D ultrasounds are kind of like playing the lottery - you may get lucky and have an amazing experience with video of your baby sticking her tongue out or swallowing or smiling at the camera or you may get nothing more than confusing pictures of a what appears to be a squirming alien (or in our case, two squirming aliens).  We were somewhere in between but probably leaning more toward the latter.  We did have a normal 2D ultrasound today - more on that later when I have more time. Until then, here is the video (beware the creepy music):

3D Ultrasound - 26 Weeks

Am and I went back and forth on whether or not it would be worth the money to get a 3D ultrasound done.  The 2D ultrasounds that you get at the doctor are very cool but you can actually see features in the 3D ultrasounds and you can get a DVD and electronic versions of the pictures to share.  We originally decided against it as we didn't feel it would be worth the money.  But then came the constant kicking and moving that Am feels pretty much all day and night.  We decided that would be really cool to see!  We guessed doing it at 26 weeks would be good from the standpoint that the babies still have room to move but bad from the standpoint that they don't have much meat on their bones yet.  We decided the movement was more important to us so 26 weeks it was.

So we did some research online and decided to use Inner Child Imaging in Innsbrook.  We showed up for our appointment this morning and were met by Dave Onesti.  Dave was absolutely fantastic but our babies decided not to cooperate, especially our baby girl.  The babies are literally lying right up against each other which limited the angles available for viewing their faces.  That said, we loved being able to see all of the movement and to realize how close they are to each other.  Their heads are side by side and their legs and arms seemed to be all over each other.  This constant contact probably explains why they are awake and moving so often.  It was also nice to count fingers and toes and to see that both babies appeared to be doing well.

Many of you have already stated that you find 3D ultrasound pictures creepy.  Sorry.  We received around 50 of them but many are hard to make out so I am limiting my post to 3.  Hopefully we will have our video to post online by mid-week but for now the pictures will have to do.

This first one shows a side view of our baby boy's face.  You can see him looking down with one arm in front of his face and his other hand underneath his arm.  Right above his head is the head of his sister.  She was resting her head on her brother's neck for most of the ultrasound.

This next one shows the view looking down on their two heads.  Each of the babies has a hand up by his/her face.  The joke was that they are telling each other secrets.

This final one is just kind of funny.  This is a side profile of our boy and makes it look like he is in a thinking pose.  Our babies will spend the rest of Am's pregnancy fattening up but you can definitely see that they are quite skinny at this point.  One thing we read today that was really cool, though, is that if the babies were to be born this week, they would still have a 95% chance of survival!  Oh, and yep, that is still baby girl's head lying in his neck.

Now we just have to decide if we are going to go back and give it another go in a week or two.  Either way, we will post the video later this week.

Pregnancy Pictures - 25 Weeks

It has been 4 weeks since our last round of pregnancy pictures so, much to Annmarie's displeasure, it was time today to do another set.  We just completed our 25th week so we are nearing the 2/3rds mark.  Our babies are most definitely growing fast in this stage but Am continues to be a trooper. One thing is for sure -  she is still EXTREMELY beautiful!!!!!  Here is my beautiful wife and the mother of my babies:

Ultrasound @ 23 weeks and 2 days

Am and I went in for our second ultrasound this morning.  The twins have upped our classification to a "high risk pregnancy" which means we get to go have these pictures taken on a much more regular basis.  The doctors want to be sure each of the babies is growing at a good healthy rate and that we don't have a situation where one baby is hogging the nutrition.

The ultrasound went great (with the exception of my trying to record a video of the ultrasound on my iPad only to find that somehow I didn't hit "record").  The babies are both growing well and "everything looks perfect".  Am's suspicions about who is hanging out where were confirmed and the babies were very cooperative in terms of positioning.  Here are some shots (not great ones - using the copier at work as a scanner):

 (This one is from the side looking directly down on the two babies' heads.  Baby B is our boy and Baby A is our girl.  Both brains look highly intelligent to me!  Our boy is up high in Am's stomach while our girl is riding very low.)

 (Here is our baby boy looking at the camera - I think they are going to be photogenic like their mother.)

 (And here is our baby girl looking at the camera)

We also had 100% confirmation that our boy is a boy and our girl is a girl (they left no doubt - we have a picture but our boy was being quite the exhibitionist and I wasn't sure it was internet appropriate).  Our baby boy is sitting at 1 pound 4 ounces and our girl at 1 pound 3 ounces which are both right on target.  Next official ultrasound will be 4 weeks from today.  Thanks for your continued prayers!!!

Pregnancy Pictures - 21 Weeks

I have suffered much harrassment thus far for not posting much in the way of pregancy pictures of Am.  It gets worse when I explain that I have not even taken any pregnancy pictures of Am.  How in the world could a guy who fancies himself a photographer not have pictures of his wife's first pregnancy?  As hard as I have tried to come up with a good response, it has escaped me.  We have committed to take pictures every weekend for the past month but something always comes up that gets in the way.

Until today.  We swung by University of Richmond after our Father's Day lunch (Firehouse Subs, yum!) for a few quick shots.  The lighting was awful as we had the mid-day sun glaring down on us but my hope is that these shots will keep the mob at bay.

We are officially at 21 weeks and 1 day pregnant with 18 weeks and 6 days to go.  With twins on the way, chances are that 18 weeks and 6 days will end up shrinking by a week or two.  Am has officially passed the awkward stage where people are unsure whether she is pregant or sneaking a few too many snacks.  People we don't know are now openly comfortable coming up to ask about the baby(ies).  Am's belly growth has really taken off over the past few weeks.  I am guessing the babies just didn't want to spoil the surprise of twins so they held off until the announcement to really hit their growth spurts.  Unfortunately this belly growth also means more back pain, discomfort and trouble getting out of bed.  But Am is still being a trooper and keeps soldiering on.

Our nurse midwife had to bail on us as twin births are considered higher risk so Am and I are meeting with our new doctor this Tuesday.  We are excited to begin building that relationship and start to get some advice on any nuances of being pregnant with twins.

Am is also now far enough along that she can feel the babies move...a lot...all night long, actually!  This morning I received an amazing Father's Day present as, for the very first time, I was able to feel one of the babies kick - twice!!!  It was an AWESOME experience.

Alright, without further ado, here are the "21 weeks" pregnancy pictures (and I promise not to wait another 21 weeks to post more!):

This one is especially fun as Am and I spent countless hours walking around this pond getting to know each other when we first started dating (hard to believe how short a time ago that was - can you believe that at this time two years ago, we didn't even know each other?).