Surprise?

So as many have heard, Jessi and I have been inundated with appointments at the hospital the past seven months. On Wedsday we went for our normal weekly checkup, and due to her blood pressure ended up staying longer that the normal hour appointment...in fact we are still there! With our Thanksgiving plans awash, our days have been filled with routine vitals checks and the pleasant sound of Holden and Hora's heartbeats. Thus far we have been told that Jessi has a mild case of Preeclampsia, and that she will not be going home until she delivers our children. She is having contractions, but nothing to severe to report just yet. Jessi and the kids are doing great, and all of this is being done because of the "What If" scenarios that are out there. Better safe than sorry. Jessi and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. As you can see above Jessi and I still found a way to celebrate...even in the scariest of times. Please continue to pray for the health of the entire Burns family.

We get decent service in the room we have been placed in if you want to call us...Please remember the 5 hour time difference if you live on the east coast...Thanks!

Sleepyheads

my two cuties...

Maternity Pictures

Mike and I had a friend take some maternity pics for us this weekend. They are really good and if you are in Hawaii and need a photographer, check out Jill. Her website is http://www.jillpawlinphotography.com/ .

When i get the actual cd i will post them on my pics website, but until then here's a look at a few of our favorites!

Whoa Baby!

Aloha friends and family! We had our monthly growth scan today and the babies are doing great. I keep telling mike how i just feel so heavy and tight-- like there's no room for them to go. Every move one of them makes i feel it and most of the time we can even see it.

Well today confirmed my thoughts: Our twins have had a growth spurt and i am 33 weeks along now carrying around 10 lbs of baby and although they can't tell exactly, the ultrasound techs always comment on how long their leg and arm bones are.

Nora's estimated weight is at 4 lbs 14 oz --which puts her in the 78th percentile.
Holden's weight came in at 5 lbs 3 oz--which puts him in the 90th percentile.

These percent charts are based on single babies--so its safe to say they are healthy...really healthy.

I think the funniest part about all this is the SUPER HUGE grin on Mike's face from the time we were first watching the ultrasound through the whole drive back--where we had to split up because he had to go back to work--but if i were to guess i would bet that smile is STILL there. He even insisted on taking the pictures with him to work--which is why i don't have any to post. He's like the proudest dad and all the babies are doing is growing and breathing strong...i can't wait to see how he's gonna be when they actually come out and start doing things. I even earned a high-5 from him for being a (in his exact words) "super convection baby making oven"---whatever that is??? He cracks me up.

33 weeks down...4ish more to go??

Me at 33 weeks--my word for the past few weeks is SWOLLEN.

We were a bit worried that there may be some complications with all the swelling i am experiencing, but my blood pressure and everything still looks good, thankfully. Wow though, between my face, hands, legs and feet being so blown up i just don't feel like me and i certainly don't look like me.

Everyone has been asking if we have any news about when the babies may make their appearance, and the answer is no. Really we're still no different than anyone else, babies seem happy to be inside and we're just waiting on them. We did ask the doctor about our chances of c-section vs natural birth and he really didn't have a good answer. How we deliver depends on so many things we may not know anything until we go into L&D. I'm still hoping for a natural birth so that i will have a quick recovery--gotta help mike with those little ones...that's all he needs--3 people to take care of!

This past week Mike went to Fort Irwin, CA. We call it NTC, or the National Training Center for deployment preparation. Mike's brigade is heading there sometime in the beginning of next year and he had to go with a small group of guys to do some RE-CON and planning. It was either now or in December, so thankfully he got it done now. Even though i wasn't excited about him being gone this week, i would been a whole lot more upset had it been right before or right after the babies come. NTC is just a few hours from Vegas, and the guys took some time to play around a bit before catching their flight back to HI. There are some pics below.

This is NTC--not much different than being in the Middle East from the looks of it, huh?

The Bellagio--Mike's fav place to go to in Vegas for food and slots. Apparently he made out with a win this time, a whole $14!

The Paris Hotel

And just for fun, here's our sweet Olie. He keeps me company while i sit on the couch by sunbathing in the window. On this day, he was completely knocked out. Oh, to be a cat...these days getting that comfortable is only left to my dreams!

oh, and today's is my moms birthday, well at least it still is here in HI, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom! Mike has a message for you having to do with how many more years you have until you can get senior citizen coffee at Mc Donalds...but we'll keep that exact number a secret!

and the time has come...

that's right... the time has come to reveal the Burns Twins names.




Thanks to all that participated! It was fun for us getting to hear all the guesses...good and bad...and talking to some people that we haven't talked to in a while.

The winners are:

for Nora Grayce, we had quite a few people guess the right name in the end, just not all spelled correctly!
First Place--Michelle Little
Second Place--Jennifer Allen
for Holden Reece, although i saw the name guessed within a large list--no one ever settled on it, so we have decided to award the prize to the 2 people who considered it first.
First Place--Dad and Anne
Second Place--Jennifer Allen

I would also like to give out some honorable mentions/facts of everyone's guesses:

The most popular guessed boy name was by far Hayden...very close, but no cigar!
The most popular guessed girl name was Natalie.

The most creative and well-thought out guess award goes to both Katie Kirkpatrick and Michelle Little. They included explanations with their name guesses, like Noelle for its Christmas association.

The most energetic and funny participant award goes to our Aunt Lou Ann--she repeatedly cracked Mike and I up.

The worst name guesser award goes to Jake Sweatland...we love you, but really? Horatio Rasputin and Noah Gorbachov? we're glad you did a better job with your own son!

The quickest guesser award goes to Dad and Anne. Although, Nora was spelled instead with an H--they had ALL the correct names on their lists after the first week. We were thoroughly impressed!

Okay well, i guess the only thing left we have to keep you all waiting, besides seeing these lovely babies faces, is the nursery. And i get LOTS of requests for pics...i'm not holding out, i am just trying to finish it up. Curtains came in this week, so there are just a few more things to do, if my good friend Marybeth would just lay her busy life aside for awhile and come help a poor pregnant girl out i'd be done! Pics will be up soon, promise!

Hint #4

sorry i'm a day late.... i honestly forgot yesterday was friday!

okay, here's the last hint...results will come out on Monday...but that's Monday my time, so unless you are a VERY late-nighter, i can't promise it'll be out before you go to bed!

Both first names have a literary connection

--i would like to say that we didn't choose these names because of this hint, it just so happens to be true!

Happy Guessing! and Have a good weekend!

Hint #3

Origins are this weeks hints....this should definitely help narrow things down for some of you!

N (English) G (Latin)

H (English) R (Welsh)

The next hint will be given on Friday and then you will have the weekend to narrow down your answers. Monday we will announce the winners. Happy Guessing!

Crazy Cankles and Possible Coneheads at 31

Hola Everyone,

Here i am at 31 weeks...news as of late is that i just keep getting pointier instead of spreading out...it makes me wonder about the shape of these little monsters! Really, i know they are just working with limited room and for some reason both prefer the front of my stomach as to the sides--i think we're all 3 ready to get on with this! Being front heavy causes for all sorts of balance issues as well as sitting issues, standing issues, laying down issues....blah blah blah--Mikes become my personal body mover/stabler....he's for sure getting his workouts everyday!

The most recent and in my opinion 'gross' symptom is my cankles. I never really understood till now, but when people joke about intertubes around your ankles, they really weren't kidding! This is followed by fat feet that look like someone blew up a latex glove too much and then calves that when you touch them i can't even really feel it from all the water in there. I just want to stick myself with pins and deflate...

A funny recurring event is that while i am at church upstairs with the kids, inevitably at least one kid a sunday will try to poke my belly button back in place. Half of them don't even say anything, they just do it in passing...i just think its funny, some of their parents try to apologize, but hey, its at their eye level and i can definitely understand the urge to do so. I've read that some people tape or band-aid them down, but its kind of like my trademark at this point, i like to think of it as the cherry on my sundae.

Well, enough with the preggo stuff--hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. We just took it easy, ate homemade meatball subs, passed out candy--and completely ran out (which secretly makes me sad) and watched scary movies. It'll most likely be the last calm/uneventful Halloween we'll have for the next decade or so. We did try to bring out the old kitty costumes from last year, but Lulu must have know better and was nowhere to be found while Olie was just too big...and the sad thing the poor guys been on a diet now for since April. I guess next year we'll have to get them new outfits in bigger sizes to go along with their new brother and sister's costumes... i personally can't wait! I'll leave you with a few pics of them from last Halloween just in case you missed it. Happy Monday!