Adelyn & Avery

We are so happy to have our little angels with us! Everything went really well; the twins were born on August 23, 2011. Adelyn Eva Purcell was born at 11:06 p.m. at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and Avery Lelei Purcell was born at 11:15 p.m. at 7 lbs. 6 oz; both were 19". We feel very blessed to have such happy, healthy babies with us finally! More details to follow, but here are some pictures!!!

Adelyn Eva Purcell

Avery Lelei Purcell
Uncle Lynn with twins after wonderful delivery!

Mom & Girls!

Skin to Skin with Daddy!

With Mama & Papa Purcell!

With Grandma Cindy!

Fantastic Four!

Bad and Good News

Bad news first:

1. I said next time I would get on would be to announce some babies...nope.

2. Just had an appointment and no progress in dilation. I was also told that they probably won't come in the next week unless my water breaks.

Good news:

1. They are both head down now. Yay! So hopefully they stay that way and it can make for a nice, natural (natural=vaginal, not without pain medication) birth.

2. I will be induced next Thursday afternoon, a week from tomorrow, if they haven't come by then. So they would either be born late that night, or early the next morning. I am so excited to have a date I can look at that we will for sure have met our babies. Yay!

We Are Waiting!

Hopefully you read the title and recognized it as a quote from Ever After.

Seriously though. Becky asked me if I was going to do another post before the babies and I said probably not. However, I think I am just going to start assuming they won't be born for a few more weeks because hopefully I'll be "surprised" before then.

Last Tuesday I had three appointments. An Ultrasound, Non-stress test and a Doctor's appointment. From the ultrasound calculations, one of them is 5.5 lbs and the other is 6. She even referred to them as gigantic. One of them is head down with the head so low she couldn't see the face and the other is head up and she kept saying how amazed she was at how high into my ribs her head is. So that is where my rib cramping is coming from! And that it why I have a very lopsided stomach. :) So we are very happy they are big enough, but I am starting to get nervous for my arms in a couple months. She also said even though their size is good, we can't tell how developed their lungs are. Then at my Non-stress test the lady said I was definitely having contractions, but I wasn't feeling any. These were the only appointments scheduled and were supposed to help give an indication of if it was safe for Tia to go to Hawaii this last weekend for his grandma's funeral on Saturday. They suggested I meet with a doctor that day and see what advice he would give me. Well he checked me and I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced and said that if Tia went it was a 50/50 chance he would miss it.

So here we are Monday evening with no babies to hold. I know I need to be enjoying every bit of time I have with Tia, every bit of sleep I have before they come, and the knowledge that every day that they have in me to continue to develop is really good. But last Tuesday got us a little too excited and we got all ready and have started planning on them coming anytime. I started cramping and feeling what I thought were minor contractions on Friday but I have felt that way ever since then. No progress. And quite frankly, even though I know labor will be much worse, I don't want to make it to my appointment on Wednesday to be checked again for dilation. It hurt!

As you can tell, we are extremely anxious to see and meet these little girls and to hold them in our arms! I am also excited to take really deep breaths, not go to the bathroom every hour or so, to walk and then run in a couple months, sleep on my stomach, and hug Tia (or anyone) without sticking my bum way out. Hopefully the number of stares in public will decrease as well at least when I go out to do something alone. Meanwhile, their carseats are all set up in the car (Tia did that last Tuesday night), their empty bassinets sit waiting, the hospital bag is ready, and all of their newborn up to three month clothes are wanting to be worn. Okay, maybe I'm wanting them to be worn.

I also have to say in the meanwhile, I am being spoiled and taken very good care of. I woke up the other night groaning in pain because I had a really bad charly horse in my calf and Tia jumped up out of sleep amazingly fast to massage it until I fell back asleep. I have also been so blessed to receive blessings very often from him whenever I want. My mom won't let me do or help with hardly anything and the other day she up and gave me a pedicure so my feet would look nice at the hospital. And Jessie and Becky are nice to move whenever they are in a chair that they know I would be more comfortable in and have been super sweet in many ways. I am lucky to be surrounded by people who treat me so well.

Soooo... sorry about all the random thoughts. Hopefully next time we will have pictures and announcements of two little angels who have joined our family!

Blessed

Tia and I feel so blessed in so many ways. Recently we were given two baby showers, one from each of our families. My cousin, Barbara and my aunt Margaret put on the first one and it was simply beautiful and perfect. We had yummy food including little baby cupcakes and personalized m&m's that have their names written on them: Avery and Adelyn. It was perfect because my family had just had a family reunion so a bunch of cousins and aunts were still in town. We got so many darling things for our little girls. Below is a picture of everything. It was such a fun night and we had so much fun going through the items we received and looking at them over and over. Thanks Barb and Aunt Margaret and everyone that came!

The second one I had was a huge surprise. Tia told me we were going to a "family dinner" and looking back there were lots of clues but I was completely oblivious. We drove up to his home ward church building ("because they were going to play basketball after") and he parked in front, which was very unusual. So we walk in the cultural hall and people are sitting and I saw "Avery" and "Adelyn" up on the wall. I don't think I have ever had a surprise party or shower so it was really fun. Tia's sisters and parents put it on. We started with a few games. One was a guessing game on baby foods and then melted candy bars in diapers. I thought I would be really good because my senses are sensitive, but I was quite horrible. Then we had a little relay race and then we had lots of yummy food. Once again, Tia and I were touched by all the nice gifts we got and it only made us more excited for these girls to come! Thanks Purcell sisters and parents and everyone that was able to come!

Now besides feeling blessed from those two showers, Tia got a job that will give us great insurance right away! And, I have been feeling lots better than most mothers of twins. Yes, I am getting large and getting quite a few stares, but I haven't been on bedrest and every time I go to the doctor's, they say they are looking really good! I will put pictures up soon of the showers and our latest activities!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes I know that is a Christmas song but I think the most wonderful time of the year is now! I love Christmas, but this late spring/early summer is such a beautiful time. And I love it in Provo. Here are a few of my favorite things about this time of year.

- Waking up to birds chirping
- How green the mountains are
- The smell of lilacs (best smell in the world!)
- The hot sun shining down but it's still cool enough to be outside
- Seeing the blossoms turn into big green leaves
- Tulips
- The clear blue sky
- Seeing tons of people outside just enjoying the weather
- Being able to wear flip flops
- Leaving the windows open in the house for some fresh air
- Rivers running high
- Seeing baby animals outside
- Going on walks with my husband at night
- Driving in the car with the windows rolled down
- Mt. Timpanogas still snow capped




Seriously, it is so easy to be happy when these are the things that I'm surrounded by. I am so grateful for the beauties of the earth!

Tribute to Timpview

As this was our very last day of class at Timpview, I wanted to write a few highlights and special times that I will always remember of our year here.

1: St. George Tour with all the teams
2: The extreme unity and focus of the teams at Nationals and being able to watch them do amazingly after countless hours of hard work.
3: Getting nice emails from parents or students
4: The baby shower that was thrown for me just a few weeks ago
5: Watching the Student Choreography Night from the audience
6: Signing their yearbooks
7: Teaching private lessons and watching them improve and get better
8: Watching little romances throughout the year (of course they thought we were oblivious :) )
9: Painting the room blue at the beginning of the year
10: Enjoying an organized, clean office
11: Having faculty like Kim, Susan, Michelle, Cliff and others welcome us and always be so friendly
12: Going to sleep on Saturday night after Thunderball, Winter Concert, and Spring Concert.
13: Burger Supreme with team members (a little embarrassing with how loud they were, but we left before anyone got kicked out)
14: Being forced to kiss each other in front of everyone
15: Using a microphone after weeks of my voice hurting at the end of the day
16: Starting a new winter semester with no latin class
17: How everyone would call it "Story Time" when we sat down to talk. It usually was not as interesting as they probably would have hoped.
18: Talking with Tia about everyone at home (all good things of course)
19: Competing in November and having a supportive little cheer section from the students
20: Students that would stay after they needed to or come in to help extra not because they wanted anything, but because they sincerely wanted to help.
21: Varsity California Tour
22: Hearing Tia say things that Lee (our old coach) used to say that we would always laugh at Lee for.
23: Announcing we were having a baby to the teams
24: Watching how well accepted the team was at basketball games and assemblies. The crowd loved them.
25: Teaching the social dance class try dance for the very first time
26: Seeing the mirror with a bunch of different messages, mostly love notes, from the students written on it.

Thanks for the memories! We don't have very many pictures but here are a few...

Things I got at the baby shower they threw for me.

Living it Up!

I was telling Becky (my sister) that I haven't updated the blog because every time I update it I want to talk about our babies and I don't want to become one of those people that can't talk about anything but their children. I will put up a non-baby post in the near future, but she let me know that people wanted to hear about it so I'll risk sounding like someone who isn't aware of anything but her kids...

I had an ultrasound yesterday and it was so cute to see the babies again! We learned a few things
1. They are the same size right now: ~1.5 lbs
2. The lining in between each of their sacs is very thick, meaning they are probably fraternal.
3. One is head down, and one is head up.
4. She kept commenting on how much they were moving! (and I can feel them so much!)
5. Unless there is a huge health concern, they never induce twin births, so I really have no idea when these little girls are coming in August.

As far as the blog title is concerned, Tia and I are truly living it up. We have been trying to take advantage of any time we have to do something fun together, any time we have to sleep, and any time we have to go out somewhere. Besides finishing up at Timpview and Tia looking hard for a job, we have kind of been party animals in a lot of ways. We like watching movies together late at night, sleeping in on weekends, spontaneously going out for dinner, going on hikes or walks together at this beautiful time of year, watching music videos together, etc. We are trying to enjoy these last few months of our own time together. We have minimal responsibilities, a lot of freedom, and free time where we aren't exhausted. While we are so so so excited for our babies, we know this period of our life is special and it will all change in a few months...