I am the 1%.

That's right. We're having twins.
Apparently 1 in 100 women have "multiples".

I am the 1%.

However that number can vary based upon genetic factors. For example, in my family two of my aunts have a set of twins and on the same side of the family I have a cousin who has twins. Not sure if these two blessings are identical, but either or would be fine! Babies to come March February (Twins generally come early).

Somehow I knew this was going to happen. As I was going for my first prenatal appointment I had a thought, "it would be so bad if I were to have twins! I'll have to make something special for Matt, to soften the blow, when he comes home so I can break the news...what should I make?!"

I quickly excused this thought with, "you're silly. Don't count your chickens before they hatch! What are your chances of having twins anyways??"

The doctor did an ultrasound and said nothing. It was pretty quick and naturally I was a little nervous. I said, "did you see anything?!" He smiled and said: "I think I see two."

Tears started to form in my eyes, but I wasn't going to loose it just because he "thinks" he saw two.

After he did a vaginal ultrasound he smiled and said: "yup" and pointed to the screen to show me two little sacs floating somewhere in my belly with little alien like creates rotating in each one.

I lost it. The tears came streaming down.

Sweet man gave me a hug and said: "I bet those are tears of joy with a little bit of shocked mixed in with it." My response was almost, "definitely not joy."

Matt was more surprised than I had expected and it made me feel so good. So good. He also didn't seem very surprised, but maybe that's because he was just so excited. Matt is really into being "efficient" and I tell him that two babies instead of one is what you could call a very "efficient" pregnancy.

 Honestly, his excitement really made up for a lot of my fears. As time has gone on I feel a lot more confident and at peace. I've read a lot of things on twins and that mostly consoles my fears, but it also makes me worry about things I couldn't possibly have thought of on my own. There is such thing as The National Organization of Twin Mothers and there's a chapter in SLC. I'm thinking of joining. Apparently they have fondue parties and double stroller walks in the park. I'm hoping one or some of them have 3 or more children under the age of 2 and can give me some good advice of what to do.

With that said...

We are currently accepting donations for diapers! So next time when you are de-cluttering and you're trying to figure out what to donate to your local thrift store and you see those old, dust collecting diapers, think about us! We will proudly take any diapers that are just collecting dust in your attic or basement closet! We really won't be picky. We'll take any size and any brand too!

The only thing we're not accepting are used ones. So no used diapers, please. :)

Heaps Canyon & The West Rim Trail

It's a big deal, even if you haven't even heard of it. :)

Matt has wanted to do this canyon for some time and at the beginning of January made plans to accomplish this dream.

Having people come over to practice ascending a rope in our garage and throwing a bag full of sand across the street was only a small part of it all. Matt read LOADS about doing this canyon. He lost weight. He did lots of other canyons to physically get prepared for what he was going to find in Heaps. I was thoroughly impressed. This canyon is difficult because of how long it is, because of the pot holes you could find yourself in, and my greatest fear, the last rappel which is 500 feet in total but split up into 3 parts. The third part being 300 feet of free hanging rappel-ness.

He's hardcore. What else can I say?

This is the beginning of the 300 foot rappel.

My dad and I waiting at the last rappel to see these guys come down.

Group photo of all who did it...Duke, Jordan, Raul, Matt & Zach

Can I just say that this canyon takes A LONG time to do? Well.... they say like 10-24 hours. (depending on conditions) Matt thought they'd be done by 4. They were planning to start at 3am but got delayed to start at 5am instead. Zach's wife and family came up to watch him do the last rappel and it was suppose to be a surprise. Matt told them to be down and waiting by 4pm, but by Noon Matt was ready for it so he decided to take lots of "breaks" to buy them some time and sent a text (yes he had reception from where they were at) to Zach's wife to let her know he was there.  Matt realized he couldn't hold Zach back much longer and he just went on hoping the text was received and that everyone was down below. They were done by 2-3pm, only because they had to "rest" so that Zach's family could catch up to them. I was surprised I made it! Zach's wife texted me and, and me and my dad booked up to Emerald Pools in time to see them all come down!

We all started at the West Rim trail, Matt all those guys that did the canyon, my dad,  and James on Friday afternoon and they set off early Saturday morning to do the canyon. The West Rim Trail was GORGEOUS! Matt wanted me to go along and do Heaps with them but I had my own reservations, one of them primarily being the 300 foot of free fall rappel-ness.

Besides, I always wanted to hike the West Rim. :)

Summer Bliss: Turning One is About Survival

We made it! Well.... actually.... our little Baby C made it! Wahoo!! I never thought this day would come, really. I thought it would only be too appropriate to have a "survival" themed birthday party for him. There was no theme to this party.It was just to fun celebrate his first year of life. Huzzah!

We had a small party with family and a WATERMELON CAKE!

                       

Aline cut off the top and bottom parts of the watermelon and then just cut out in the inside to get the shape of this cake, then she added the fruit and whip cream. She added leaves because it's his birthday and he can eat what he wants to.( Calvin likes to eat leaves and grass. :))

The cake was too cold so Calvin wasn't really into it. I'm telling you, this kid HATES cold things. You put something chilled in his mouth and he'll spit it right out. I've spoiled him with really making sure his milk is warm, maybe even hot. 

We had a pinata! What's a party without a pinata?!

   

  

 

 

 

He is my favorite! 

I posted a lot of pictures but I can't get enough of him. :)

Here are some stats on Calvin. 

Weight: 19 lbs

Heighth 29 inches

29 percentile for heighth

10 percentile for weight

He hates cold food but will eat anything that's sufficiently warm

He loves to clap his hands 

He will sing along with a few tunes

He loves to climb up on top of things

He loves kids and babies 

NO TEETH!

Summer Bliss: Tonga

What kind of mother would I be if I didn't let my son touch the Pacific Ocean?!

I knew I wanted to blog about Tonga but I knew there were so many things I could write about that this blog post was going to be unusually lengthy and no one would really be that THAT interested to read EVERYTHING that we did. So, this is my attempt to be brief.

Here are some fun facts about Tonga.

+They have one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
+They are at the same latitude as Rio de Janeiro
+They are besties with China (China seems to give them LOTS of money. LOTS.)
+They are a christian nation

You can't talk about Tonga history without talking about Queen Salote. It's suprising how often this comes up in conversation.

So.... in 1952 at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II it was raining. All the dignitaries and politically important people world wide were there to witness the event. In short, as someone rushed to give Queen Salote an umbrella or something or other to cover her head from the rain she refused it in order to show respect to the Queen of England by not having her head covered.

I'm not kidding you that people in Tonga are still talking about this more than 60 years later.

Anyways here are some photos to maybe explain our travels a little more.

The whole reason my mom even went to Tonga was to attend her High school reunion, which is cool. Here's another fun fact, they have one EVERY YEAR. My mom's been going to Tonga for the past 3 years as soon as she knew they were doing this. This is her and her friend Tai from high school. It says "50th Anniversary of '62." .....

Yeah those are totally from last year.

Anyways to kick off the "reunion" they have this huge parade where we march in the streets waving flags and waving at people. It's kind of a big deal.

There were, I think, only 6 of them representing the class of '62

I feel like the whole island came to our little parade, seriously, the WHOLE ISLAND.

Most people were just holding banners and waving. My mom thought she'd go the next step and bring a horn. Just so that people would notice the Class of 1962. Baby C and I just smiled and waved. 

Where all the kings are buried. I couldn't get closer to take a better photo.

My sister complained last year that there is no McDonald's or fast food chains in Tonga. But.... I found a Mr. Chicken!

Our "cruise liner". Yup... riding in style. Baby C's first cruise ship. ;)

Let me explain why I included these next set of photos. (My mom took these.) When you enter Highschool you get put into a "house", just like at Hogwarts. I dont even know what the houses are called here but when you enter high school they just throw you in one of these, randomly selected, and when you play sports and do other stuff you play for your house. Each house has their own color. In this school the colors that I saw were red, yellow, blue, and green. My mom belonged to the red house. 

ANYWAYS.... they were having some type of celebration too and these were their floats. Yup... made from the back of a truck. I thought how economical and practical that would be! Can you imagine the Macy Day Parade with trucks?? People would save SO MUCH MONEY!!

Well at this reunion they have a ball where everyone dresses up really fancy. I think this is my Mom's favorite part. She made sure I brought a dress too but I was so tired I decided not to go but as soon as I saw my mom's dress I threw mine on just to take a picture.

This year this ball happened to be a masquerade and everyone needed to bring their own mask. My Mom bought a black one before she came but while in Tonga she found a blue mask that, no joke, went perfectly with her dress.

  

Notice the conservative colors of the dresses of her friends. ;)

To wrap things up...

1. There was a HUGE FEAST where the families of the current students at Tonga prepared food for the visitors for the last day. It was the BIGGEST Feast I have ever been to. I have never seen so much food.

2. The bread in Tonga is the best. So soft and tasty.

3. Everyone in Tonga speaks English pretty good, although they all speak Tongan to each other.

4. Calvin is a ladies man.

 

I dont know any of these people. They aren't related to me and maybe my mom knew who they were. I took more but I am having a hard time loading them. Calvin loved strangers. Women would flock to him and pick him up and Calvin would smile and be cute and I thought I'd take a picture for the future. If he's having self-esteem issues in the future I'll just throw these out.

I'm sure my son could move in with strangers and he wouldn't even care. All he would want is to be fed. 

Summer Bliss: Zion with Aline

I dont think I'd mind the winter cold very much if the days were just as long as they are in the summer. I feel like that the sun is meant to go down no sooner than 8pm. The thing I hate the most about the winter is that it's dark at 6. (At least in Utah.)

Anyways, with all the extra time for sunlight.... we must live it up. Viva Summer!!

In case you don't know we go down to Zion National Park, in Southern Utah, quite a bit. When Aline came back from Boston we decided to go camping down there with her. We've gone camping with Calvin already a few times but now that he was almost 11 months (at the time) this was a much different experience.When we took him when he was 3 months he was kind of just like a vegetable okay with whatever was happening and .... well .... "obedient".

Calvin was like a puppy in the tent. The first night we immediately set up the tent so we could put him in there while we unloaded the car. Calvin crawled around the tent and as we threw in sleeping bags and pillows it seemed to increase his excitement. He would burry his face in the soft pillows and sleeping bag. He would scream and shout as if Disneyland was contained in the middle of our 4 person tent. I thought he would calm down so we could all go to sleep in peace but I couldn't be farther from the truth. Once we were all in the tent that seemed to have created an adrenalin rush for this little man and he wanted to crawl all over all of us, sitting on top of us, burring his face in our pillows, pulling our hair (ouch!). He wouldn't stop. Eventually we all forgot about it and Calvin just found a place to sleep.

The next night Matt slept in an hammock and Aline and I slept in the tent. Calvin was SO HYPER. Eventually I was so exhuasted I just closed my eyes and went to sleep. Aline did too. A few hours I woke up looking for Calvin and I couldn't find him any where. This is how it went:

Rhiannon: ALINE! WHERE IS CALVIN?!
Aline: *sleepy voice* He is sleeping right by you.
Rhiannon: No he's not!
Aline: uh....

I looked around frantically, making sure the zipper was closed. Earlier in the day he had figured out how to open the zipper and get out. So I imagined my son lying on the ground surrounded by ants right outside the tent. Luckily, Calvin was curled up in a ball on the other side of a sleeping bag in the corner of the tent. (The tent is not that big, but a mother worries when her baby is lost for a second.) *phew*

We did a lot of hikking with Calvin. We brought a spray bottle along. It was 107F (41C) outside. (The nights were so hot!) There was water to wade in, in a few spots, and Calvin loved to splash. Personally, this trip was more fun because of Calvin. :)

 Here are some brief views of what we saw.

The beginning of the Narrows

He loved the water!

I love that we do all the work and he can nap where ever he wants.