Beau or Bow?! Gender Reveal Party!

What's going on with this new trending tradition of Gender Reveal Parties?! Let truth be told, if there's another reason to celebrate such an exciting time in our life then count me us in! Actually, when I first found out that I was pregnant, I had watched a short clip of a random gender reveal party and as soon as I saw the precious reaction of the momma-to-be as she sliced into a cake to discover she had her little pink girl on the way...I just knew I wanted to do that and that I would cry like a baby over my own little baking bundles ;-)

I had my 13 week NT scan to check the entire health of the babies. And we were lucky enough that both of the babies were cooperating to play some show-and-tell! We had told the Doctor to not give us any clues as to what genders she found. We left the office with a sealed envelope disclosing Baby A and Baby B! We were so grateful that they were healthy and growing exceptionally well! It was at that point that the scare of miscarrying early could finally leave my heart.

So, it was Tuesday and we had this envelope. I knew that I couldnt' wait longer than a week to find out the genders and so we quickly put together a small party on Saturday for our close friends and family to come and celebrate with us to find out the big reveal! Aaron helped me make the invitation on Powerpoint (thank goodness for that 7th grade powerpoint class!) to be able to send through emails and text messages. Rushed parties are never fun when putting together the invitation list because it's so easy to forget friends!

Cutting out felt bows, mustaches, and accessories kept me busy during the evenings and nap times.

Does the fabric backdrop look familiar? It's the same banner that I used for Savannah's first birthday party. Repurposing keeps things SO cheap! I simply removed all of the pink fabric strips and replaced it with fun grey/yellow prints and patterns. It's been hanging on the wall as the headboard for our grey/yellow guest room for the past year. 

Guest room-turned-twin nursery ;-)

As soon as our lovely guests arrived, they were able to cast their vote! Beaus, Bows or Both?! I had felt bows and paper mustaches glued to pins to choose from. I made the voting sign by using cardboard from a diaper box and covered it with a coat of chalkboard paint. I picked up the darling aqua-colored doilies from Michael's a few years ago in the $1 bins. It's times like these when I am SO grateful that there was actually a time in our marriage that we had an income, hehe.

My sweet momma's from our little baby buddy group! Each of these ladies are the most supportive and loving people I have ever met. I'm so blessed to call them my friends. 

My incredibly fun girls from my church!! We keep each other sane by always being there for one another.

Moments before the big reveal, we gathered together to snap a photo of our guesses on Beaus, Bows or Both!

Bows!

Both!

Beaus!

On Tuesday night, I rallied a few friends to come over to help me make these confetti poppers that I would use to reveal the babies genders. We punched out tons of blue and pink circles from scrapbook paper that I had on hand. We also chopped up lots of cardboard toilet paper rolls into thirds. Then, we wrapped tissue paper around them and sealed only one side with a twine knot. I sent my sweet friend Melanie home that evening with a batch of 50 of these poppers, along with the pink and blue confetti circles, extra twine to tie up the poppers, and a sealed envelope. I was completely envious of her that entire today. But my curiosity was somehow managed with feeling so excited to pop those confetti poppers at the party a few days later!

Confetti poppers were passed around to everyone 

Three!..... Two!..... One!.......

 

My heart nearly exploded after seeing blue and pink flying around the house after bursting open the poppers! It was exactly what I had hoped it would be, even though I was super happy and prepared for two sweet boys or girls. I can't even begin to thank my Heavenly Father for this special way he has chosen to expand and bless our family. I wouldn't have asked for it. When I heard of a family with newborn twins the word to cross my mind was always CIRCUS! But I can feel that the Lord is blessing my heart to grow anxiously excited to meet our Ethan Aaron and Charlotte Lila. Oh boy, even simply typing their names causes me to turn into a basket-case of tears. 

Yours truly, Me

Twins Announcement!

Crossley Babies #2 & #3 are already cookin'!

Even though our sweet Savannah has no idea what's going on yet, she will be so excited to have 2 little babies coming to join her! Their big debut is scheduled to be December 21st! I'll be 37 weeks and the Loverbuns finishes with his school semester on Friday the 20th and we are so relieved he'll have 3 weeks for the holidays to stay home.

How do I think our little Hunnybuns will do with the twins? In all honesty, I have no idea! But she is a tender girl. She isn't mean, pushy, or bossy. She is still my sweet baby girl. It truly has been one of my greatest blessings to become her mother. To learn of her sweet & crazy nature. I have always wanted to become a mother, and I never imagined how hard and rewarding it would be. 

My heart has felt an aching recently. It's usually when I'm holding Savannah with both my arms wrapped around her while her legs are resting on my hips. Her focus is entirely on my eyes and she's displaying her biggest, beautiful smile. And she is just waiting for me to show her how much I love and adore her. She feels it through my giggles and tickles. Or through my singing and peek-a-boo-ing. And I feel a bit of the ache when I realize that I'll have to share that love and time with her 2 little siblings. I know there's been far too many times she has probably waited to feel it from me...but either my phone or computer was turned on. These precious reality checks are helping my perspective get in line with how I know that I should spend my time. It's such a painful lesson to learn over and over!

We had an idea that we might be looking at having multiple babies after having blood-work levels done at 3 weeks. We had an ultrasound scheduled at my 6 week check to see if there was 1 or 2 or even 3 babies! I have to be honest, after hearing the possibility of having twins, I would have been a little disappointed if it weren't true. I had prepared myself to see 1 baby sac but was secretly hoping for 2 (same story with finding out that we were having a girl when we were pregnant with Savannah). The ultrasound tech showed us the screen and as soon as I saw the 2 sacs I started balling hysterically! My heart was so full of shock and excitement for our little miracle babies. Words can't describe how ecstatic we were to see those 2 baby sacs at 6 weeks! Then the laughable reality came. We need another car seat, another bouncer, boppy pillow, bumbo seat, more clothes and bottles, double the diapers, and a crib! Will our double stroller work or would we need a triple? Omg we just bought our small suv for the future day when we would become pregnant with #2. Will it fit 3 large infant/toddler seats in the single bench seat?! How on earth do you juggle 2 crying newborns plus a 23 month old? All of these questions came simultaneously while I was staring the the 2 sacs and heartbeats on the screen. And so all I could do was laugh. And laugh hard, I did. As in, she ultrasound tech needed to tell me to calm down because she couldn't get the measurements with my body convulsing from deep belly laughs. The rest of the day, Aaron and I just laughed and grinned.

We are so grateful for this sweet and unique blessing to have 2 babies come join our family. I can't help but wonder why Heavenly Father is sending 2 spirits together to our home. It makes me humbled as I imagine the purpose that these sweet spirits will have on this earth. We know that He has given us financial and spiritual blessing after blessing during these past few months as we've prepared for the new editions, and we couldn't be more excited and anxious to meet these little ones!

Yours truly, Me

Getaway to Seattle!

Unedited photos! Most were taken with our phones and so the quality might be crummy. And if it looks like all we did was eat...Well, we did. No highchair = endless eating out! Special thanks to Grammie Crossley and Brittany for taking our Hunnybuns for the week. We feel incredibly lucky to have you!

Daily breakfast from the classy 7-11.  Naked's protein smoothie = nastiest drink ever.

working out = more eating out

  

Rent A Wreck! We found this gem across the street from our hotel. It was half the price of the typical rental company and we saved on the Hilton's $25/night parking fee! 

27 mile Burke-Gilman Trail. Beautiful way to tour Seattle! It was so sweet to date each again other because it usually happens like, incredibly less with our little one. 

Theo's Chocolates! It's the first organic Bean-to-Bar chocolate factory in North America. Super fun flavors. We were short on daylight and decided to skip the factory tour to hang out in the sampling section. My favorites were the Salted milk chocolate, Chili dark chocolate, and Coconut milk chocolate. We had to grab a Salted chocolate bar before we left.

Pike's Place Market! Loved it so much that we had to visit it again

Hot, melt-in-your-mouth donuts! The cinnamon was our favorite! 

Seattle Art Museum. A sequence of old cars flying through the air with LED light rods sticking through them. Super cray-cray!

I loved the daffodils! Reminds me of the original Willy Wonka ;)

Oh, and here's the 2 hour commitment that justified our week-long Seattle trip ;-)

Aaron presented his orthodontic research from last summer at the American/International Dental Research meeting. I take for granted how great of a student he is. We're hoping it'll pay off...one day!

MOD Pizza place in downtown. Thin crust pizza! We got the Ulysses that had mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, gorgonzola, garlic, fresh chopped basil. We left out the mushrooms and added spinach, chicken and red onion. Hopefully we can re-create it here at home. So good it didn't even have or need any sauce! Each bite was awesome. So delicious that we had to go back for seconds.

First Starbucks ever! This little piece of history retains it's original look. We guzzled down a Cinnamon Dolce hot chocolate with Caramel. It's my favorite hot chocolate!

Unique sculptures in front of the space needle! Spiderman isn't the daredevil he used to be...

At the Crab Pot enjoying the crab stuffed shrimp. Best thing ever. I fell in love with the combination. And we're not even seafood people! And we found a yummy Groupon restaurant called the Mayan. The Sopapilla fried ice-cream was the bomb!

                          

 Cute chili pepper shop at the Market

Ivar's Fish & Chips! It was so cheap and yummy, we went there a few times. The cool weather, seafood, ocean, green rolling hills--it all reminded us of England.

                                                  

Not sure how we are willing to admit that we felt about these empty restaurant high chairs.

                                 

Beautiful time at the temple. It even had a ton of escalators... super rad.

Alki beach has spectacular views of the Seattle skyline during sunset. We found Pegasus Pizza along the beach and enjoyed a stacked Hawaiian pizza. We just love food!

Yep! We're still in Seattle! I guess it didn't turn into the west-coast NYC that they had originally dreamed of Seattle becoming...

                                                                                  And because it wasn't already cold enough, we indulged with an enormous single scoop of a peanut-buttery/chocolatey goodness.

The famous fish throws!

Seattle, we've fallen in love you and I. 

Yours truly, Me