Words gotten out. 15 weeks twins Gender reveal. 3d ultrasound #reignoftwins

When I decided to announce on social media, it was my most commented on and liked photo ever.
There was so much support and well wishes it was overwhelming. I really was so nervous for what people would think, and the outcome was the opposite.
I have amazing family. I hadn't considered a gender reveal or a shower. But everyone was suggesting one.
We ended up doing a smaller gender reveal with my immediate family and a few friends.
We found out the genders at a 3d ultrasound location in our state. They specialized in early gender since it was at about the 16 week mark and my anatomy scan would be further out.
We planned a pasta dinner and I baked two small cakes and made them the colors they needed to be, for my youngest to smash into my oldest two childrens faces. They came up with the idea...something different and fun they said.

Its a Boy AND a Girl! Time for pink and blue everything!

Here's some more pictures if anyone is wondering what early scans look like...

OK...It's twins! Now what? #reignOFTwins

This post is all about finding out we were expecting, announcing to family and our gender reveal.
And a little background of testing and symptoms early on.
With three kids at home, and a want for another, we decided to go for it.
From the very beginning, there was signs that things were different.
The morning sickness was worse, sleeplessness, an over all feeling of blah. Even the heartburn, and oh the sense of smell. I could hardly bare the grocery store meat section or preparing freshmeat/produce.
I had never had symptoms so intense. My other pregnancies were a walk in the park.
My first blood draw, my numbers were really high. I remember them asking if I miscalculated.
I joked with my closest friend that twins had to be the only explanation. I was miserable. My numbers were high. That had to be it.
My first ultrasound visit was probably the most confusing of all. The tech was puzzled. She could see two round shaped objects, both different in size, both looking empty, but another view they seemed to cross over eachother. It was at this point where I asked if something was wrong. Her reply?
"I'm not sure." "At this point in your gestation (roughly 7.5 weeks) we should visably see baby and heartbeat by now. What I'm seeing, I'm unsure if its one sac (gestational sac) two sacs, or maybe even cysts. They surely look empty."
She left to talk with the doctor, and returned with the same thought process. They sent me home and asked me to return in about 10 days to rescan. Now while I was checking out, they had already requested that I make a secondary counseling appointment after my next scan. They wanted me to be prepared for bad news and ready to make any decisions warranted. I went home thinking surely this was a loss again. And I had been so miserable because my body was rejecting this pregnancy.
I went home and told my husband that I didn't really have answers and I was basically told not to get my hopes up. For the next week or so I didn't want to face what could happen. I didn't even want him to come to my next ultrasound because I inevitably thought it wouldn't go well, and I wanted to process alone.
Armed with my ice coffee and a head full of emotions anxiety and doubt, I checked in. I was brought into an ultrasound room. Given a talk of how we were checking of viability abd at this point if nothing shows theres nothing more to be done, and did I have a secondary appointment after. Yes. I did.
Meanwhile I was wondering why her whole demeanor was seemingly rude. If she was preparing to give me bad news a little friendlyness could make all the difference. I honestly think she was upset because she had to repeat the same scan she already did and made a educated diagnosis on the week before.
(Now, quickly just to say this was the same woman, that a week before hand told me not to get my hopes up. She didnt think it looked good.)
I laid back and closed my eyes.
Instantly I heard, out loud even- a laugh and a "oh my god" before even opening my eyes, I said whats wrong. Because at this point my nervous brain was wondering if I heard a laugh or a gasp-which would be a bad thing.
I'll never forget the words "Nothing is wrong, I cant believe it, there is two! And they are healthy" she quickly showed me on the screen and then left the room to show a parade of other techs that she had found twins. The only off putting thing was that they were measuring around 6 weeks. Which seeing as how I was 7ish weeks the previous visit. She guessed they were further behind and it was too early to see them before.
That theory needed some debunking...because if I was actually a full two weeks off in my calculations...I would never have gotten the original positive or sky high blood works when I did.
I wouldn't know until later on, that there could have been 3 babies originally. The larger, empty sac, could have been an unviable triplet blocking the view of the healthy twins behind. I say this because it explains that awkward first ultrasound, the long list of medical complications, and one of the babies having a double lobbed placenta nearly 3x the size of average.
Finding out we were having twins was a giant rainbow of emotions. Just minutes ago I thought I was facing another miscarriage (or blighted ovum. Or cysts) and now there is not one...but two healthy little beans growing!
My husband. I still needed to tell him! When he picked me up I immediately blurted out, I'm not sure if its good news or bad news, but there is two! He sat silent. Like if he was making sure I wasn't joking. Then it sat in and he was kind of blank faced and then bounced right back and said wow two! We can do this it will be fine! I made twins! Then I explained they were probably fraternal and he, while he played a part in making them, had no impact on the fact that there was two eggs lol.
Then I called my best friend, who also thought I was being silly. I guess I'm a pretty comical character 🤣. Once she realized I was being truthful. Her response? Shit just got real.
We all agreed, we should keep the fact that there was 2 a secret. So for the next few weeks I went about my days with lack of sleep and nausea to the moon. Until I was in the "safe zone" of 12 weeks. We announced our pregnancy and that a new addition was on the way.
My plan would have gone well. Until the due date confusion came along. My original measurements placed me at may 20th. With the adjustments, June 6th. But with planning my brothers surgery apt and vacations I had gone with "sometime in may". My grandmother wasn't happy with that answer and kept questioning me why I wasn't planning on a June baby and why my dates kept changing. Randomly during one of her bout of questions, i blurted out. I DON'T KNOW MY DUE DATE BECAUSE ITS TWINS.
At this point. Again SHE thought i was joking. She actually yelled and asked why I would joke like that and why I would say there was two. 3x I repeated "because there is!" Then my mother heard, and my children, and the entire house finally got the news and was shocked...excited but shocked.
What the heck will you do with two?
Where will they fit?
How can you handle both?
Are they identical?
That will make 5 kids!
The questions never end.
Believe me I asked them myself. But there was no going back now. Time for twice the fun, twice the fears, two of everything, and 5 children at home.
Now what?

review channel

so is this new age of technology, videos and blogging, vlogging and more. my kids have also decided to start a review channel
they have hopes of reaching 500 subscribers, and 200 videos in their first year
they are on their way with 55 subscribers and 50 videos! since about November!
they love to open and test out new items like toys, and play with things like playdoh and slime. they have even branched out into yugioh cards and science experiments.
there channel can be found here

click on the link below, and press the red subscribe button.

you can turn off notifications in your setting, otherwise you may be emailed when they upload a new video.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs6F6XFwxTfvs27IN_-xA_Q

DIY Balloon stand

The first DIY I want to share with you now is a DIY BALLOON STAND.

The cost for the stand is about $10
(if you already have a saw and a marker, if not you'll have to factor in the price of a saw)
Now since I'm mobil the photos may upload out of order, but I'll try my best to explain.
YOU WILL NEED
2- 10ft 1/2 inch PVC pipes that can be bought at your local home improvement store. The ones I got were $2.69 each.
1- bag of 1/2 inch pvc push on elbows (not screw on) the bag comes with 10 pieces for about 2.50 which makes them $.25 each, they were $.37 each single, so it made sense to buy the bag of 10 instead of the 8 singles. But you only need 8.
1-bag of 10 tconnector 1/2 inch pvc. Same with the above. 6 were needed. 10 was cheaper.
1-hand saw, electric saw etc
1-marker or pencil to make your cut marks.
(the above materials will make 2 aprox 5ft high balloon stands. Any higher you risk them tilting and not standing straight. Additional options include using your teo extra elbows and a 3rd pvc to make a 3-5ft section to go across the top of your stands for a curtain or backdrop to be hung. In which case you can buy a smaller pole, or just get another 10ft and cut it to size)
The square base, I decided on when I was looking to make an X base. I previously had a photo backdrop that only stood on two legs and was pretty flimsy. The square base is more stable. But since they dont have a 5way connector to make an X base with a pole standing out, I came up with this square frame.

NOW LETS GET STARTED
I DID NOT use a tape measurer. I couldnt find one, so i winged it.
I cut both poles near the center to get two 5ft poles of the same height. The ended up almost 5ft on the nose.
I put these longer poles aside for the balloons themselves.
The other halves, i eyeballed a 3inch to 3 1/2 inch pieces and cut out 12 of these. (6 for each square) then i cut 4 pieces double the length of the small ones. (2 for each square) again i didnt measure just lined up two and marked the length.

To assemble the pieces, you will put 2 of the smaller rods onto one of the t connectors. Then attach a t connecter to each end, so it looks like a letter I. You will then add a small rod into each of those connecter ends (not the center one)

On the end of those rods you will place your 4 elbows, and connect each side together with your bigger rods. You will end up with a square shape and a line through the center. Your 5ft pole goes into that center t...as shown in the photos.

TO ADD BALLOONS
We used 30 balloons on each stand.
7 rows of 4.
And 2 top balloons.
These were 12 inch balloons. If you used smaller you would need more. I wouldnt recommend going any bigger.
Simply blow up the 4 balloons you want for each row. We did 2 green 2 white so we could spiral them around.
Tie your two white together, tie your two green together. Then twist both sets at the center so they lock into eachother.

When placing them on the pole, making a spiral each row is every green white greem white, and you just move the pattern over by one when you put them down. However, if you want each row lock we d in place, you will want the pattern to be 2colors 2 colors instead of every other...in this case white white green green. Once you lay them down on the pole you can twist one white balloon over/around the pole to the other side in between the greens which locks them in place and corrects the pattern to be every other to make the spiral.
If you can't figure this out you CAN just stack up against the pole without twisting them around the pole BUT you will have to go up and down the entire row of balloons with string or elastic so that they dont just fall off.

Now as I said before, if you have the extra pole and elbows, when your finished stacking, you can place an elbow at the top of each stand to connect the pole across. This will enable you to be able to drape a sheet or backdrop, even light in between the stands. You could also twist balloons across is as well.
If you wanted to add an arch,
without helium
you would need a good 4-5ft bendable wire to attach in the tops of both stands and cover with balloons. The wire will keep an upwards arch on its own.
With helium, tie a string with a little slack onto each stand. Tie helium filled balloons onto the string (mostly on the center, the ends can be air filled,) and it will raise and make an arch itself.

Hi guys! its been a while!

I'm still here and can't wait to fill my blog with new an exciting crafts and tips and regular old fun stuff! My first post will be a DIY balloon stand for all your birthday and party needs! Stay tuned!

Steak pinwheels

Changes: I only partically cooked the bacon for 1min in the microwave, and we used shredded pizza blend cheese.

We used two thin pan frying steaks, seasoned the tops with salt, pepper, and adobo,then layered spinach, cheese, bacon, and a tiny bit more cheese. Rolled then up, 4 toothpicks, then cut into slices.

Baked on 350 for about 45minutes, i didnt check any sooner as we like well done meat.

Garlic breadsticks & pepperoni pizza braid

First recipe we tried.
Garlic breadsticks and pepperoni pizza braid. Both came out great.

My tweeks,
For the breadsticks instead of mozzarella and parmigiano seperate we used 1 1/4 italian blend cheese, and instead of garlic cloves a spoon of minced garlic. Cooked on 400 for 12minutes on a regular baking sheet. After 10 minutes it was done but we wanted it more browned.

For the braided pizza we used 1cup pizza blend cheese, and 1 cup italian blend cheese. I also added baby spinach and feta on my end. 400 for 20 minutes. we also did smaller/thinner braid pieces.

Both were a success & the kids did them on their own with supervision.