The AMAZING Molly Jean

Okay so let me start with my little, here's to the woman who is the godmother of my babies story. I have touched on some of her remarkable characteristics once or twice, but this post is all for her.

Molly is one of those women who works her tail off, makes all her friends feel special and then for those of us who let her totally in, she changes your world. I am sitting here right now thinking of my life 5 short years ago, yes I knew my husband and I knew my family and I was happy. Now I look at all I have and I just want to cry, okay let me be honest, I do cry. How is it that I have all these people who I love and who love me back? Okay back to Miss Molly...

She has taught me that it's okay to have someone to vent to, daily, hourly, whenever you need it and to be that person to your friend in return. Before Molly Jean, I thought it was normal for a person to keep all your dark secrets and all your crying for your spouse? Man was I wrong, if you get the wonderful opportunity to have a friend who listen to you unconditionally and then not kill your husband even though he was pretty stupid that day or tell you to leave him, you are a lucky woman.

Oh don't let me forget, Molly also taught me to stick up for me once in a while, who knew? Don't get me wrong, I'm selfish and think about myself way too much, but in certain situations you need to listen to your heart and go with "what YOU want." Okay so back to her, she works 6 days a week, and still finds time to listen to me complain. Her husband is going to kill me if I don't start only talking about "great pregnancy things" otherwise she will be waiting even longer to have a few of her own...he will be thrilled to know, yep week 14.5 RULES and now that I have energy again, I will make sure and tell Molly all about the good pregnancy things too.

She will be this mom who invites her son/daughter's entire class over after school for snacks and games, and the kids will want to go. Her children will be smart, gorgeous and will treat each and every human being with the utmost respect. She is going to go to every basketball game, ballet, musical, & math competition. Her children will not hide their faces when their mom walks in, but run up and hug her because they knew she would be there, Molly is always there when you need her. Not too mention, she is a stunning woman and who wouldn't be proud to have her walk in to see you...

I would give this woman the world, the funny thing is, she never asks for anything. My wish is for everyone to be lucky enough to have a person in their life like I do, Molly is one of a kind and I hope she has a small idea of how much she means to me.

Freezing in Iowa....

So it's freezing and icy and to all who know me, I suck in bad weather any way....So I decided to work from home today. This brings up an interesting story for me, why is my boss laying me off now? It's strange how you can do all the crap work for 3 years and have no problems. No problems making coffee, running errands, doing all these things you would have thought your college degree made you exempt from and then when you need a little loyalty back, TA DA you get laid off.

Here's the weirdest part, I'm going to be okay, my babies are going to be okay and yes even though he is working 60 hours a week in case, my husband is going to be okay. I just want to scream and yell and stand up for myself and instead, I will move on. I have babies now, who needs a crappy job? Okay I need a crappy job, I need to buy diapers and cribs and clothes and well I'm sure grandma and family will cover toys :), but you get what I'm saying.

I will look for a job and that is that, great timing boss man, I'm so glad I respected you enough to tell you before I told my family and respected you enough to give you a head's up so you could let me go.

Enough about that, let's talk about the blessing that I have been given. Here I am 34 years old and about to have TWO babies, seriously. How in the world did I get to be the luckiest woman on the planet? I have an amazing husband who let's me put my cold feet on him and now we are having two little miracles!!! I can't stop smiling now that I'm not sick everyday. I have a very best friend who has been so supportive and my rock as always, a twin of my own (Gemini Mandy Belly) who is going through this whole thing with me in warmer weather, even though she is 8 weeks ahead and she didn't get morning sickness :).  We have even more amazing friends who will find out Friday that we are expecting and it's been all I can do to keep this fantastic secret!!!! Thank goodness my husband is a rock, I would have told them all way before now :)

Oh and I want to thank my family for letting me call them and freak out about silly things so they can tell me for the first time, "you are normal." I love them and I am so thankful, especially now when people are complaining about the holidays and the stresses of seeing everyone and surviving, I am thankful. We are a crazy fun family who would drop everything and get to the person who needs us. We are lucky and I know my babies are going to feel more love in their first year than most people get in a lifetime, for that I am thankful.

ONE WORD: MIRACLE!!!!

Okay so here is the deal, we went in for our 12/13 week check up and thank heavens the doctor felt more comfortable looking at heartbeats than hearing them. She said that with twins how could she possibly tell if she was actually hearing two different heartbeats or the same baby's heartbeat? I could have HUGGED her right then!!! I think it was because she has twin girls :)

Oh and the pictures are terrible and I don't even care, I wish you could have been in that room, it was magical. One twin, who we have nicknamed Seabiscuit moved ALL OVER the place, seriously. You could see the baby's arm, then head and then whole body, it was magical. The most important part, you could see the heartbeat, strong and wonderful and perfect.

The other twin, who obviously takes after his/her mother was comfy just laying there and trying to take a nap :). It reminded me so much of Saturday mornings at 7 am when I am willing to go back under the covers and sleep for a couple more hours and Adam is bouncing all over the place trying to get the family up and moving.

I couldn't stop smiling, I still can't stop smiling, I am the luckiest woman on this planet! By the way, because I know my husband won't be reading this blog very often, he hears me talk enough as it is, I'm going to take sometime to thank him. Last night after working an 8 hour day, he made it to the appointment, in perfect time by the way and then went back to work until 10pm that night. I have the hardest working husband on the planet. He thinks carrying two babies is rough, at least I get to hide at home under the big red comfy blankie. Adam I love you and I'm so thankful to have such an amazing husband to share this whole experience with. Please remember this if I say anything rude in the delivery room :).

Telling my brothers, all 3 OF THEM!!!

Kyle gets to go first, he is after all expecting too!!! We wanted to tell all our brothers in person, sorry Jay, so we waited for a trip Kyle planned to tell him...keep in mind he made me wait longer to tell because his brother wanted "the perfect moment." So Adam, Kyle and I were in the living room and he had been at our house for a WEEK already, okay not a week, but it sure felt like 42 days I tell you.

We are all in the living room and I get the signal from Adam, we FINALLY get to tell him. Trust me there were PLENTY of PERFECT opportunities before that, BUT Adam is trying to teach me patience, poor man. SO I head to the bedroom to grab the Hawkeye pacifiers my wonderful husband bought when we first heard we were pregnant.

I say, "Kyle do you want to see what Adam got for me when he went to Iowa City for work a couple weeks ago?" Bless his heart I think he was worried I would come out in some crazy costume of some sort, good thing he didn't faint or vomit or something :). I hand him the pacifiers and again he has this weird, what is she trying to show me look on his poor face. He must think I'm insane...So then we tell him, your baby is going to have a cousin, in June.

Wait for it, but Kyle, your baby is going to have TWO cousins in June. Kyle picks up Adam, they steamroller all over the couch and I think Uncle Kyle is probably still smiling as we speak!!! The he reminds Adam of all THE PERFECT times we could have told him, but didn't. I told you we could have very easily let this secret out MUCH earlier, but Adam wanted to tell his mom first.

JAKE A ROO :)

Now keep in mind, Adam wanted to tell both brothers in person, yet we told Kyle and then we had to WAIT for Jake to get off work. We decide to put the bassinette together and put it right out in the living room so when Jake came over he saw a baby bed in the room first thing...Yes we are an odd family. So Kyle text Jake to make sure he was coming over after work and you could see the proud uncle BEAMING and wanting to tell his brother the good news, but knowing Adam and I would strangle him if he did :)

Jake walks in and I was listening in the back bedroom. I can imagine how this plays out, I'm guessing Jake is wondering why we would put together a gift for Kyle to take to Florida when it would have been a million times easier to just ship it in the box...

That's when Adam said, "It;s my bassinette, not Kyle's." Immediately Jake knows exactly what's going on and he's taking it all in when I sneak in and tell him the kicker. "jake, we actually need TWO bassinettes, TWO cribs and TWO of everything else, we're having TWINS!!! Jake is the kid whisperer, just ask my sister, I'm sure he is more excited about the walking, learning, laughing times of toddlers than the pooping and eating times of newborns, but he will be GREAT. I know it, I've seen him in action.
Oh and one other thing, I have been calling Jake Uncle Jake for as long as I can remember, even to his siblings, sorry Sabrina, I know he's your brother, I just can't help it and Ash I know he's your daddy and not your uncle, but at least with my kids I will get it right :)

JAY or JUSTIN JAMES HOLLAND NORTHRUP

I told my third brother on the phone, I couldn't help it, see poor Adam and his quest to grant me patience. My brother, the brilliant man that he is said, "well every family has one bad apple and since you are having twins, you are guaranteed to like at least one of them." He cracks me up I tell you. I can't wait to see him at Christmas this year, it's been WAY too long.