I am a mom.

Today I took all of my kids to the grocery store with me. Yes, I said all. We were quite a sight, I tell you what. I had Callie in my front pack, Kimber in her carseat on the cart, Lane in the basket part of the cart with strict instructions to stay seating, and the others walked next to me. Or in front of me. So I could run them over. Actually, they were very good. And thank goodness. I was in the store for less than 30 minutes and got several, "Are all these kids yours"? Or my personal favorite, "Don't even tell me all these kids are yours." I smiled sweetly at them all and said, "Yes they are all mine. Yes, we are busy. And yes, my hands are full." OK I didn't say that exact thing to everyone I met, but you get the idea.

As we were loading up in the car, I left Kimber, the groceries, and the cart at the back of the Suburban while I buckled Lane and Callie into their seats. I asked Madlyn if she would please watch the cart so no one could take anything. Her reply, "And so no one can take Kimber." Exactly. To which Cole said, "Because Kimber is such a sweetheart...anyone would want to take her." Aaahh, what a sweet big brother. As I was finishing buckling the others, I heard a gentleman say something to Madlyn about a little boy. She said, "No, she's a girl." I walked around to the back of the car just in time to see a man with a cowboy hat walking away. "Mom," Madlyn asked, "Was that OK for me to talk to him like that?" Yes, dear. You did just fine. Just then Cade said incredulously, "Mom...that cowboy thought Kimber looked like a boy!" Haha.

The life I have chosen for myself is not always easy. I have way too many days where my patience as a mother is lacking. Often, I have at least 3 children crawling all over me, pulling my hair, requiring diaper changes, giving me the wettest kisses you can imagine, and stretching my patience to new limits every day. I have way too many scenes in my home where children are testing the boundaries and I am not "mom enough" to be firm, where temper tantrums happen, fights occur, and chores do not get done. I have way too many moments when I am tired, discouraged, unmotivated, and wonder if I will ever make it through these busy days.

I am happy to report though, that while my chosen life is not easy, it is one that I cherish. Because sprinkled in with the tough things of every day life are sweet moments with my children. Moments where I hear my two babies laughing at their older siblings; moments when I see tears in my daughter's eyes as she tells me she is feeling the Spirit; moments when my 5-yr. old gets so excited because he lost his first tooth; moments when my 4-yr. old smiles his contagious smile as he runs to get a ball so we can play catch; moments when my 2-yr. old tells me that he loves me as he plants a big one right on my mouth. Moments like the one I described before - when my kids say the cutest and funniest things. Moments that I immediately call their daddy and tell him about.

Yes, all of these kids are mine. And I love them dearly.

Callie & Kimber: The Story

Kimber, Callie

Kimber, Callie

This post has been a long time coming but better late than never, right? Honestly, I think that I needed to have enough time between the present and the actual experience before I was ready to elaborate the details.

As much as I hoped that I would be able to go into labor with the girls on my own before my due date, deep down I think I always knew that it just wasn't in the cards. I had scheduled an induction date for Monday, Nov. 22, just two days before my due date, in order to give my body plenty of time to cooperate. While I had plenty of contractions and false labor, Jeff & I found ourselves heading to the hospital just before 6am on that chilly Monday morning. Twin #1 was in optimal head-first position, but Twin #2 was lying tranverse on the top of her. I was prepared for a vaginal delivery of Twin #1, manual turning of #2, and if everything went smoothly, a vaginal delivery of #2. My doctor & I were fairly confident that Twin #2 would be able to turn quite easily after #1 was out, considering the extra room she would have and the elasticity of my uterus after 5 pregnancies.

I was put on the pitocin around 7am and everything went smoothly for a few hours. I received an epidural somewhere in there, maybe around 10. Around 11 things started getting exciting and we started prepping to head to the operating room. Twin deliveries are routinely done in the operating room in the event that an emergency C-section needs to be done. Shortly afterwards, we left the familiarity of the labor room and I was wheeled out into the hallway, only to be greeted by several nurses, doctors, etc. lining the walls in their scrubs and face masks. We wheeled through a few hallways to the O.R. where I was immediately overwhelmed by the bright lights, tables of tools, two infant workstations, and even more hospital personnel ready to assist. I looked over at Jeff, who was by my side the entire time, and made the comment that this was a lot different than anything we had ever experienced. It made it seem so scary.

After only a few minutes, Twin #1 was born without any trouble at all. Honestly, I don't even know if I even got through one full push before she was out. I watched as they swept her over to the corner to be tested, weighed, cleaned, etc. Without hardly a moment's hesitation, my doctor started trying to manipulate Twin #2 into a head-down or foot-first position. I faintly heard someone say "7 lbs. 5 oz." I questioned Jeff, "Did they really say 7, 5? Oh, that is so tiny." Jeff went over to watch her and within just a few minutes was back by my side holding a sweet little bundle. I will never forget seeing that face peeking out from her little hat and swaddle - she was precious and I was instantly in love!

I wish the joy at meeting my new baby wasn't marred by what was happening at the time, but it was. While I was meeting one sweet baby, the other one was thrashing around inside of me. At least that is what it felt like. I lied there on that operating table for what seemed like an eternity while the doctor jerked and pulled and did everything he could to turn the baby. I felt like I was birthing a baby deer or something - it was quite intense. I could tell the doctor was using all his muscles and energy, but it just wasn't happening. It was so painful and scary all at the same time. Every minute or so, he would ask someone to check the baby's heartbeat and they would have to search all over my tummy to find it. I just kept praying over and over, "Please help my baby to be OK. Please help her to be born safely." And towards the end, "Please help them get my baby out of me!"

After about 8-10 minutes of this, the doc told me that it wasn't working and that we needed to do a C-section. The anesthesiologist on hand administered more drugs to numb me and within just a few minutes, I felt the tugging and pulling of Baby #2 being born. They whisked her away, I heard "8 lbs. even" and before I knew it, Jeff was by my side proudly holding TWO bundles. I wish I had a picture to capture that moment of seeing him holding our two little babies together, I hope that I never forget the love I felt for all three of them. I could tell that Baby #2 was rounder in the face than #1 but couldn't tell much of anything else.

They made Jeff and the babies leave to the nursery while I got stitched up and went to a post-op room. I kept asking them when I could see my husband and my babies, I am pretty sure I was getting annoying. They let Jeff come into the post-op room after a while to visit and we realized that in the hub-bub of things, we hadn't taken a camera into the operating room. He left to take some pictures of the girls in the nursery and I dozed until I could go into a regular recovery room.

We went to the recovery room and after another hour or so, they brought Baby #1 to us, saying that Baby #2 needed to warm up a little bit more before they could bring her in. We enjoyed some one-on-one time with the oldest of our youngest. Jeff asked me what I thought about naming her Callie and the other baby in the nursery Kimber. While we had been contemplating Kimber since the summertime, Callie had only been an option since the night before when Jeff saw it in a baby name book and thought it was cute. I looked at the baby in my arms and thought Callie was a perfect name for her and told Jeff that if the other baby looked like a Kimber then Callie & Kimber they would be. One hour later, Baby #2 was reunited with her sister and after one look, I knew that she was my Kimber. So it was that after 8 months of agonizing over what we would name them, Twin #1 became Callie Michelle and Twin #2 Kimber Kae.

Thus began our journey as parents of twins and most importantly, of six beautiful children. We love each of our children dearly and feel it a great privilege to have them in our home. We are so grateful that Callie & Kimber were born without major incident and that within 5 days, we were all able to go home together.

**more to come on the first few weeks after birth**

Happy Birthday Lane!!!

Today my baby boy turned 2 years old! We played a little yesterday, flew kites, and all took a trip to Target to pick out birthday presents. Today we had blueberry muffins and went to Stake Conference. The older kids really loved making a big deal about Lane's birthday to him. They sang "Happy Birthday" about a zillion times and Cade called him "Birthday Boy" all day long. This evening we ate lasagna for dinner, had cake & ice cream, and played outside for a while. Here is Lane licking frosting off of one of his candles:

And here he is blowing his candles out - he loved it!

As per LeCheminant family tradition, we all said nice things about Lane while we ate our cake & ice cream. Here are some of the responses:

Cade - "Lane is a fun birthday boy."

Maddie - "Lane is cute and he makes me laugh."
Dad - "Lane gives the best hugs & kisses."
Cole - "Lane is fun and he takes care of us if we get hurt."
Mom - "Lane is the best snuggler and he makes me laugh every day."

We all really love Lane and are so happy & grateful to have him in our family happy & healthy. We were reminded of our scary pregnancy with him and are so grateful he is here with us. Here are some of Lane's favorites these days:

Blue's Clues
blocks
balls
helping in the kitchen
reading books
singing songs
mowing the lawn with Daddy (seriously...he could do this all day)

We love Lane & had a fun birthday with him today - can't believe he is 2 already!

Pregnancy Update

We are slowly making our way to the end of this pregnancy - this Wednesday marks 35 weeks - yay! I had a rough few weeks but this past week was pretty good. I am still pretty tired and have to take things pretty easy but I am feeling like I can make it to the end! I had Cole take some pictures of me this evening so here I am!

These are some other lovely shots that Jeff took 3 weeks ago. I didn't think I had gotten much bigger since then but I guess I have a little.

This Wednesday I get to go down to Temple for another ultrasound/growth check. I am excited to see how much the babies have grown. 6 weeks ago, they measured 3 lbs. 1 oz. and 3 lbs. 7 oz. I'm guessing they'll be somewhere between 5 and 6 lbs. this time - at least I feel like I've got 10-12 lbs. of baby in there!

We are still working on names for these little ones - it is much harder than I thought it would be. I don't want them to be matchy matchy names but I want them to be the same type of names, ie. old-fashioned & old-fashioned together, not old-fashioned & trendy...does that make sense? Our top choices are: Sarah & Eliza, and Kimber & Jolee. We plan on using our moms' names for their middle names so that part is easy. I would like to have another set to choose from before they are born but we'll see.

So...the countdown begins - 5 weeks!!!!

First Day of Preschool 2010

In September, Cadeson started a little preschool that we do with some other friends of ours. He goes every Tuesday for 2 hours and he is really loving it. On the first day of preschool, he took his dinosaur for show 'n' tell and this is him modeling it:)

We had to get a shot of Lane - doesn't he look so grown-up?

These two boys have gotten to be pretty good friends since they get to hang out together all day every day. I love watching them together!

And here's the big preschool boy posing for the camera!

Cade is doing such a good job with preschool. He is very intellectual and interested in academics, which is somewhat surprising since he is also so athletic and physical. He is constantly practicing his writing. He is extremely good at writing his numbers and is working on his alphabet. He really likes to count things and is often lining things up according to size and shape. He likes to ask me questions and teach me what he knows, it's hilarious! Cade is such a sweet boy and I love watching him learn & grow!

First Day of School 2010

Do parents ever think that their children aren't growing up quickly enough? I know I don't. I really can not believe that my little man is already 5 and off to his first day of Kindergarten today. And it is all-day K too - from 8am to 3:20pm - what a long day! He was pretty excited about going, even though his excitement is not evident from this shot:) Isn't he so handsome though? Reminds me a little of someone else I know!

Cole is in Mrs. Brewer's class and she seems very nice so we're glad about that. When I went to drop him off this morning, there were a bunch of parents & children all hovering around her classroom door and Cole told me, "Mom...I changed my mind. I don't want to go." He literally dug in his heels and would not go in the classroom. So we opted to take Maddie upstairs to her class first. By the time we got back to Cole's room, kids were sitting in their seats and all the parents were gone so it must not have been so intimidating to him because he just walked right in. I sure hope he is having a fun day!!

These two are best friends and play so well together - I love watching them! Madlyn has been such a mentor to Cole and has been teaching him all about what he can expect at school. I hope they get to see each other at some point during the day.

And of course, Madlyn had to do a cute pose for her picture! Madlyn is in Mrs. Posey's 2nd grade class and is a professional student at this point. When we dropped her off, her room was empty and the teacher wasn't there yet so Madlyn was going to wait outside with one other girl who was already there. When I asked her if she wanted me to wait with her, she seemed almost disgusted that I would even ask:) Before we found out which class she would be in, Madlyn was a little worried because "sometimes the 2nd grade teachers yell at their classes". I am already very impressed with Mrs. Posey though and I don't think Madlyn will have any problems at all:)

The two little guys & I have enjoyed our day so far. We have done a little laundry, taken an elderly lady in our ward shopping, played with some trucks & tools, eaten some Cheetos (our special lunch snack), and now Cade is sitting next to me watching some Diego while Lane rests. Now if only I had a little more energy...

Speaking of my lack of energy, here is the reason why:

Yep, those little girls just keep growing and growing! I am now 3 months from my due date (and trust me, I will probably go that long). I almost felt like announcing that I was pregnant with TWINS in Relief Society yesterday because apparently there are many people who do not know and I have to constantly explain why I am so big with my due date not being until the end of November. Here's just a sampling of the comments I got yesterday:

(whispered to her seat neighbor) "She looks like she's 9 months pregnant"

"So WHEN are you due?"

"Do you always get this big with your pregnancies?"

"Wow, you are PREGNANT!"

"Hey, you could at least try sucking it in!"

Oh, and just so you know...the last two comments were from some jokesters in our ward and of course, they were being funny. The others though...completely innocent!!

My favorite is the look I get when I tell people my due date (without mentioning the twins thing). It really is hilarious! It's like you can see the wheels in their heads turning and then they try to be polite and not make any rude comments. Of course, I tell them after that.

Well, that is what is happening here. I will post some pictures from Cole's birthday and our AZ trip (I only have a few that I stole from my sisters-in-law) soon. I'm hoping to do a better job in the blog department. Maybe just having two kids at home will help that!

Healthy & Happy

Jeff, Madlyn, & I headed down to Temple today to see a specialist for our 18-wk. ultrasound for the babies. We were so happy & relieved to see that both babies' growth is right on track and that they are healthy. I didn't know what they were looking at most of the time but the doctor said that he didn't see anything abnormal or out-of-the-ordinary so we are extremely grateful.

To Madlyn's excitement, we found out that we are having two little girls! We can't believe our family numbers are evening up after so long but we couldn't be more excited for our little "wiggly" girls!