First day of school!

Just another exciting day for the Bardos Bunch! I wanted to share the first day of school with everyone.  This year we have 2 big steps for the kids...one going into middle school and another starting her senior year.  Crazy how fast these kids grow up.  You not only hear it all the time but you truly try to tell everyone you know that has babies but wow it just flies by.  Of course, life happens and we just forget to cherish every single small and big step.  Well here is me trying to capture this because trust me, I am horrible at the sentimental picture taking, and save every momento they bring home!  But I still love my babies all 6 of them...soon to be 8!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 8-22-14

Here she is...Ryleigh, 17, our big senior!  What?  Crazy how fast high school has gone.

 

 Seriously, how did he get so big!  Dillan, 12, first day of middle school!

 

Matthew, 10, going into 5th grade!

 

 Devyn, 9, big 5th grader too!

Lyndsay, 9, 4th grader this year! Wow!  She's not a baby anymore!

And this would be the big dork that waited in line to get his picture taken too on his way to work!  Gotta love his fun sense of humor, even if the sarcasm takes over the house because all of the kids are just like him and I am surrounded by a bunch of smartie pants!

 

 

Just a reminder, life changes in the blink of an eye, we forget to take in each moment.  Even though Phil and I run a business my first and foremost job is taking care of these precious kids.  Trust me there are days I take it for granted so much, get tired, cranky and irritated with just about everything.  But in these moments, I remember that I have amazing kids!  Each of them so different, so unique with their own personalities, ways of doing things and big huge hearts! 

 

Kids....

I am so proud of each of you kids, you are all so smart, loving and polite, thank you for allowing me to be your mom!  That goes for you too Belle, I know you don't need a mom to tell you what to do anymore but I couldn't be more proud to know you can still call me that when you need me!  And to you 2 babies that are yet unborn, you are already truly loved not only by me and your dad but these beautiful siblings you have are going to overwhelm you with their love and generosity.  Thank you God for bringing each of these children into my life, no matter how they became a part of me I truly love each of them equally for their amazing little human beings they are!

They're a....?

Last night was the big reveal....

Now I have to update you on my day first. All of you women out there will understand, while all the men just don't quite understand and of course there's nothing wrong with that, it's just the differences between men and women. I woke up in a sad, frustrated mood, hormones you have to love them! Let's just say Phil very simply and politely told me that my shirt didn't really match my skirt...which turned into me in the closet crying because I couldn't find anything to wear. Here I was starting a very exciting day and just couldn't get excited.

Of course, the kids and I still had a day of fun. All of us girls got our hair done, so nice to pamper myself and its even better when you're hair dresser is your cousin and one of your closest friends, plus she has the most adorable daughter, my niece! Love them! We enjoyed hanging out there, then yummy in-n-out for lunch! Then some relaxing while it poured outside, love the rain!

Phil came home from work with his phone on face time...he ran over and we all gathered around. It was our oldest daughter in Colorado, her husband Matt, was arriving home from his tour in Qatar. He had been deployed there for 9 months. If you haven't seen one of those ceremonies, man so amazing, emotional and beautiful. The soldiers entered to the sound Proud to be an American, then they did more patriotic songs that just pull at your heart strings. The soldiers were released, 200 something soldiers running to their families...and there he was, of course we saw someone's back as they greeted each other and then the 2 of them together! So amazing and just awesome! It was a great experience for us to be a part of even if it wasn't being there directly!

Then about 530 pm, our family came over, my parents (of course we live with them so they were already here, lol), Phil's mom, Phil's sister and our nieces and nephew. We all went up the street to the orange groves in our neighborhood where our great friends, Chad, Milisa and their son Jaxson showed up with 2 trunks filed with balloons for the big reveal!

We got set up and everyone said we should open both boxes together...My only request was one at a time. Now no one really understood but when I get the pictures back you all will, lol! Everyone wanted boys, because we have 4 girls and 2 boys, so they wanted 2 boys to even the playing field...not to mention there's enough estrogen in the house!

We opened baby A's box and guess what we saw...PINK! The reaction was classic, smiles, but nothing too huge, I think Devyn jumped for joy! I saw the boys give frowns after they realized what they saw. (Pictures will be up tomorrow late night) We all headed over to the 2nd box for Baby B...Phil looked at me like babe please save me, he was so nervous for more pink. Ha ha! Then there they were....BLUE balloons. No joke...the picture had everyone jumping up with joy arms in the air! So classic! Here is the one photo I have.

A huge thank you to our great friends Chad and Milisa who did all this work to make this happen! We love them so much!

In awe with a single kick . . . Week 13

Last night, I laid down next to my exhausted wife as she had already fallen asleep. She was laying on her side, facing away from me, but she had moved one leg up, so she was almost on her stomach.  As she lay slumbering away unaware of my presence, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to see if I could feel the twins moving.  Up until now, she was able to feel little twinges here and there and had tried to get my hand in the right position on numerous occasions, but inevitably, they would go undetected.  So last night, she lay sleeping and I knew there would be no accessory muscle usage or any other movements besides her rhythmic breathing  . . . 

I snuggled up behind her and took my right hand and slowly placed it under her abdomen.  As I lay motionless, I waited for the slightest movement. Nothing. I repositioned my hand. Nothing. I decided to push a little on her abdomen kind of like the ultrasound tech had done to get them to move . . . PAY-DIRT!!!  

It was the slightest little push back, "knock it off Dad!" . . . and then a second kick, "yeah, what he said, knock it off Dad!" (see what i did there, he?).  It almost startled me, but then I was filled with this immense sense of joy.  Because the doctor can tell you your pregnant.  The doctor can show you a picture of the tiny little babies growing within your wife.  And the doctors can show you a video of babies moving inside her even though there isn't any resemblance of a pregnant lady yet.  But recently, my wife's 'baby bump' has began to grow and the little belly that we admired at first with excitement is becoming more and more pronounced and now, couple that visual representation of pregnancy with a physical touch, that connection to our children, it's such a powerful feeling.  It overwhelms me.  And I'm not going to lie, I had that special little moment all to myself.  Quietly in the still of the night, no one else awake or aware of what I had just experienced.  So cool.

That bump is no longer a bump . . .

And tonight, we find out what we're having!!!!  So exciting and we can't wait to know so we can plan for their arrival.  Pictures and the great news will follow!!!!

12 Weeks!

Okay...here is my first profile post!  Now mind you, I think I had Phil take the picture at least 3 or 4 times.  I am not a selfie girl, I don't have a lot of pictures of me and I am so uncomfortable being the center of attention in this way!  Now, I know most of you would say yeah right, but really I just don't like it!  LOL 

 

As you can see there is a small pooch!  I decided to take the pictures first thing in the morning because that's when it is small.  By the evening it's huge! Symptoms haven't changed much.  This week had a lot more headaches, pressure in my lower back and abdomen.  Otherwise, I am truly trying to just enjoy each moment.  One thing I am amazed by is the amount of people we have run into that have been touched by twins.  We have found a few friends and acquaintances that have twins or are a twin.  We are so excited to continue down this journey!  Thanks for checking in and all of the great responses we have had on Phil's Facebook!

Our first baby project!

I haven't updated you on our house lately but unfortunately we are still in escrow.  We had to start the short sale process over again which has caused a delay but we are patiently waiting. We are thanking God for the journey and the fact that it has not gone back up on the market for someone else to grab. 

But with that said, the planner in me doesn't like the idea of not having a plan for rooms and starting on things!  At this point, if we close when we are supposed to we may be able to move in by Thanksgiving.  Yep, forever away!   I will be HUGE by then and setting up a nursery probably won't be that easy.  Of course, I can do little things now but we don't have the storage at all to buy anything yet.  Hopefully after we close escrow the end of August we can begin buying things and storing in the new garages for now. 

Until then, I wanted to start a project that I will use starting next week when I am officially out of the 1st trimester and start the profile pictures.  I see so many blogs and pictures of chalkboards and dry erase boards used that I knew I wanted something similar yet different.  So here it is.  Mind you at this point, the babies room idea is Nautical, Orange, Navy Blue and Gray, no matter the sex.  I will girlie it up more for girls and if its one of each its a great shared theme. 

 Piece of metal...which can be used as a dry erase if wanted (Thank you Amber for writing on her cookie sheet to figure this our for me!)  Piece of 8 foot wood border that Phil cut and painted orange.

No work bench so he is being creative with a cooler!

Adding the nautical rope!

 

Vinyl numbers for the board.  Hopefully they should peel on and off for me to use with each week.  I was able to cut out number 1 to 7 and the word Weeks, however, I need more vinyl to finish!

 

Last step will be to put it all together and take our first picture.  But you will have to wait until next Friday when I am officially 12 weeks!

Real Babies now!

We finally were able to get to our appointment with our OB.  Now, I absolutely love her so when she walked in very pregnant I was shocked!  Just my luck, I was able to catch her on her last day in the office but unfortunately she is not coming back to that office.  Such a bummer!  But needless to say, the reason I was so excited to see her was the fact that she was so excited to hear we were pregnant!  She knew we were going to go through the IVF process, when she walked in she was just ecstatic. 

We were able to get another ultrasound of the babies and now they actually look like babies.  Arms, legs, fully developed organs, little humans inside of my body!  I am not sure this link will work.  But this day, they were actually moving too.  One of the babies was moving like crazy so we took a video. 

Now don't worry, the other baby is not way smaller.  They are actually measuring only 2 days apart and bigger than average which is good.  The angle of the ultrasound wand is why one looks bigger.  If the video doesn't work sorry! Text me and I can send it to you!

 

 

This journey is so amazing!

Official Anouncement!

On our trip to CO, I was able to take this picture so that we could officially announce the pregnancy!

Fun part...Brielle, Ry and Phil all posted on their accounts, competing to see who could get the most likes and comments.  I think Ry won!

 

 

So our beautiful family will have 2 more added to this!

 

Road Trip!

As if I am not crazy already...I decided to take the kids on a road trip to visit our oldest daughter in CO!  Yep, me and 5 kids, in our little car that doesn't have a DVD player.  Ha Ha!

Can you see the luggage in the back piled on top of the window...oh and that is bags between the girls!

 

 

We drove from our house on Wednesday the 9th to St. George, UT.  This was a quick 6 hour drive and then we stayed the night at a hotel.  The kids did great, the only drove me crazy once we were out of the car....questions, questions, questions!  The next morning, July 10th, my 35th birthday (I'm officially getting older, lol), we got up early had the continental breakfast and off we went for the long 12 hour drive to Denver!  Again, kids were amazing in the car.  The drive was amazingly beautiful and the only downfall was stopping about every 2.5 hours for bathroom breaks!  We met Brielle in Denver for a fun birthday dinner!  We even were treated to dinner by my mom in CA, somehow!  That was fun!  Then off we went for the 2 hours to see Brielle's new house she moved into in Fountain, CO. 

 

The 4 youngest drove that last 2 hours with Brielle, so Ry and I enjoyed to quiet car, ha ha!  We had such an amazing visit with Brielle.  Here are some of the highlights of the week. 

 Zoo near Brielle's house...sorry don't know why my phone did this to this picture!

 Zoo Fun!

 We had dinner and evening fun!  One night the boys wanted their nails painted.  I know crazy boys!

 Yep...these are my boys with painted nails!  Don't worry they took it off first thing in the morning!

This was our stop at the Olympic training center...this place is a free tour and so worth it!  If you are ever in the area stop there!  Brielle worked on Monday so we went while she was at work and the kids really enjoyed it!  We actually got to see people training for the next trials!

 

 This was my favorite part of the trip.  Brielle had moved in a few months prior to our visit but she just didn't finish unpacking or hanging or decorating.  I finally got to be like my mom who has blessed many people many times!  We went shopping galore, Target, Hobby Lobby and a cool store out there called At home!  We bought tons of goodies for her house and turned it into a beautiful home.  The best part was when Belle, who has inherited by frugal attitude told me I didn't need to buy her something.  I turned around in Target and told her shut your mouth, it's not everyday I get to be MOM to you anymore!  Her face was priceless and the kids all laughing at her telling her "Mom, just told you!"  And of course, I meant it in the most loving way.  It was truly so much fun to help her decorate and enjoy the time with her!  

 Guest Bathroom

Kitchen...we added more later in the trip but I didn't take a picture after!

 

 

We stayed for almost a week and truly enjoyed every moment with Brielle.  It was so nice to hang out with the kids all together and see them all interact.  It made me that much more excited to add 2 more kids to our family.  I know some will say we are crazy because of the age differences but to see Brielle at 21 (almost 22) paint the kids nails, snuggle and interact made me think of the memories we have all yet to make with the younger kids now being the older ones one day, or even the amazing years we have ahead with a million grandkids all in one house being crazy when the twins will be teenagers and love playing with them!  Life couldn't be better for us right now and I am excited to share our family with these two new lives!

 

 

PS - the way home was a great ride too!  We even stayed at Phil's brothers house in New Mexico which the kids just loved!  Last 2 hours closest to home were miserable but hey we made it safe and sound that's all that matters!