19 week Ultrasound

Pics of Cassidy and Cambria from my 19 week ultrasound. They are situated in utero as if they were in bunk beds - both fairly horizontal, one on top, one on bottom. The ultrasound tech said they will not flip places - so Baby A will always be on the bottom and Baby B will be on the top. So my mother's intuition has determined that Cassidy is Baby A and Cambria is Baby B. Enjoy the first pictures of the Collister girls!!!

Cassidy Dawn profile

Cassidy's beautiful face

Cassidy's foot

Cassi's scary face

Cass says "ROWRRRR Mommy!!"

Cambria making her scary face

Cam lookin' right at ya!

Beautiful Cambria Faith

Cambria's profile

My little surfer girls...hanging 20!



Love you beautiful angel girls

Rest, play, and grow my babies

xoxoxoxo

Love, Mommy

Girly Girls!!

We couldn't be happier to be expecting TWO LITTLE GIRLS!! We found out at 15 weeks and Jeremy nearly threw up. Yes, he's a little nervous but I told him it will all be ok as long as he starts stockpiling chocolate and a pedicure slush fund now. I can only imagine all the fun we are going to have and look forward to building a close mother-daughter relationship with both of them. My friends have started to give me hand me downs and I have spent several hours organizing everything into color coordinating "sets"! My mom and I will go shopping soon for the fabric for their bedding and then I will start to decorate their room. I'm going with a 60's flower power theme (shocking, I know) and am going to glam it up to my heart's content. TWO GIRLS!! Look out world, my children are no wallflowers!! These girls are gonna ROCK this world!!!

Peace, Love, and BABY GIRLS!!!

Mommy loves you girls

Hello my sweet baby girls,

Just thinking about how much I love and adore you and how precious you already are to me! I saw you both at your 19 week ultrasound last week. You bring me so much joy! Dancing and waving and pushing each other around...lovingly of course! You guys are blessed beyond measure, not only because of how much the Lord loves you, but because of how much you already love each other. You are sharing a "home" inside mommy's tummy, and you will share the lifelong gift of being sisters.

I love your auntie KK so much, and all my sisters, and I am so thrilled to know that you will have the same opportunity to develop that unbreakable bond that "CC and Kari" had and still have, and that Devin and Kelsey are learning to appreciate (they're currently teenagers and still fight, but they are slowly but surely realizing that there is no friend like a sissy!!). It took Auntie KK and I awhile to figure all of that out too - it's something you grow into. With us it seemed like between the ages of 15-20, the age gap between us (4 years) started to shrink, and we could relate to each other's experiences more and more until there really was no "age gap" anymore. You two will never have that gap, and I pray that I will do a good job of imparting the value of cherishing your sibling relationships to you at an early age. Your grandma Michelle used to tell us, "You stick to your sister like Elmers glue, do you hear me? She's the only one you've got!". Well that lesson stuck with us all right, and there is nothing we wouldn't do for each other including caring for one another's children if anything ever happened to the other. So I hope and pray that you two will enjoy a similar kind of love and loyalty. There is nothing that should ever come between you two that can't be resolved and forgiven.

I love you both dearly, and I look forward to seeing the love and admiration you will have for your big brother, Vannin, as I never had an older brother and don't know what that is like to have that protective, older sibling like you will have in him. I will teach you to honor and respect him and to do the same towards each other. He is a special light in this world, my first and only son, and I dont know what I have done to deserve him, let alone two more wonderful, shining lights in my life!!

I bless the work of God in both of you as you are growing and changing and preparing to grace the world with your wonderful selves. Look out world, here come my daughters!!!!

Xoxoxox Mommy loves you girls

Peace, love, and sissies!!

12 week ultrasound video

One is sleeping, One is partying down! Hmmmm...sounds kind of like our nights for the next few years!

12 weeks

These poor babies are getting no blogging love from their mama. Well, in between working full time, taking care of a two year old, and going to all my dr appts, I guess things are a little different this time around. I am 12 weeks this Sunday and will "graduate" from the fertility dr. to my regular ob. Last week I was able to stop the twice daily progesterone injections, estrogen pills and patches, and baby aspirin regimen. It is so nice to be able to flop on the couch at night after Vanni goes to bed and not have to jump up to get poked in the butt. Jeremy hates giving them and I hate receiving them so we were both pretty stoked to pass that milestone. Here's a little glimpse of what the "medicine" cabinet looked like for the first 11 weeks.

Syringes, vials, and sharps containers, oh my!!! Bye bye!!!

In other exciting future mother of twins and a toddler news, we did what any family in our position would do - we bought a mini van! Oh, what we do for our children!!! Gone is the vanity, the cool quotient, and the days of zippy little cars. I am the proud owner of a big ass bus!!! In all honesty, I love the minivan and it's the coolest looking one I've seen. (Nissan Quest) Even my sister Karis, the fashion goddess, was impressed. But she said she still wouldn't drive one. Lol. The car fits up to 7 and everyone we talked to including the doctor and the car salesman (who could've sold us a more costly SUV) told us that with 3 under 3, the minivan is the way to go. No struggling to get to someone over a row of seats. We could probably camp out in there, there is so much room to walk around and get to whoever is screaming for attention the loudest (soon to be story of my life). So we really are the proud, happy owners of a brand new minivan. Heres to the kids destroying, errrr, thoroughly enjoying it!!

Lastly, I wanted to share this funny snapshot of the direction my life is headed in. I found a crazy clearance deal on some good bottles, so I went for it. I got 6 bottles for each baby, and two types - tiny bottles for the first few months and bigger ones for when they start to have eating contests with Vannin. So in total I walked out of that store (fresh and easy) with TWENTY FOUR bottles.



Pretty sure this is just one indication of how SUPER SIZED our lives are about to get. In fact, that's what the doctor should have asked before the embryo transfer. Instead of asking us to sign a waiver acknowledging the "risk" of multiples, he should have just asked if we'd like to super size our pregnancy. Mmmmm....fries sounds good right now. (what doesn't? I'm an eating machine!)

Until next time...

Peace, love, and 3 under 3!!!

I'm 8 weeks pregnant with fraternal TWINS!! Most of you reading this have already heard the news, as I couldn't contain my excitement. I sort of had a feeling that we might end up with a double scoop when the embryologist came into the room right before the frozen embryo transfer and was gushing about how "beautiful" and "perfect" the embryos were. She went on to mention how they applied a little bit of embryonic super glue to one of them just to help it "stick". Then she put a paper in front of my face asking me to sign and acknowledge the "risk" of multiples. I thought about it for a nanosecond and said "Let's do it" and signed on the dotted line. (Oh yeah, and Jeremy was away on a business trip so I made the executive decision. And yes, like the Holy Mother I did get knocked up without the interference of a man...LOL!!) Anyways, that was quite a "talk" we had to have when he came home. Just kidding...we discussed ahead of time of course.

We figured, hey they put two embryos in when we conceived Vannin and only one stuck - and those were fresh, these ones are frozen. What are the odds they'll both take? We'll gamble.

So she asks me to sign the waiver, First of all, what was I going to do - put one back in the freezer? The babies have been chillin on ice for the last 2 years - was I going to send one back?!? No! Plus, if you remember from when I was going through IVF with Vannin, I was excited and hopeful then that we could possibly have twins. It must have been a desire that God planted in my heart, because I don't know a whole lotta people that HOPE for twins (including Jeremy)! But I know that I know that I know that I am destined to be these children's mother, we are destined to be a family, and I truly have peace (of course, I also have sleep right now which makes it a bit easier to have that ever elusive peace...LOL).

There are the usual questions such as how will we handle it all, afford it all, live through it all. But I can't help but believe that if God chose to bring both of these babies to life, then he will provide all the resources to not just survive, but thrive. (Starting with a really good nanny....) I consider it my highest calling, honor, and privilege to serve God by bringing these beautiful human beings into the world, and to help them discover all of the gifts and intentions and dreams he has for their lives. I love all of you that followed me on the journey of my pregnancy with Vannin, and those that have stood by us as we celebrated bringing him into the world, and walking alongside him as his parents. When we were getting ready to do the frozen embryo transfer this time, I told the Lord - if all I ever have is Vannin, that is more than enough. And I meant it. But God is good, he can only do good, and he chose to expand his blessing on our lives by giving us two more precious ones to love.

I went through alot of pain and longing in my journey to conceive Vannin, and I have several friends who have gone through or are still going through the same. I don't know why God allows us to go through periods of suffering, and unfulfilled longing. But I choose to believe that he sufffers alongside us, he catches every tear, and even in our darkest moment, as we trust him and surrendur our will to him, he is moving every molecule in the universe to bring about His will, His purpose, His plan. And it's better than anything we are imagining it could be. I know from experience that the only way to survive the valleys without losing your joy is to cling ever tightly to Him, to pray for increased faith to continue to trust him, and to receive the hope he is holding out in his hand to give you as you wait. I pray blessings on all of you - may God minster to you, breathe upon you, and hold you tightly while you wait for him to release the desires of his heart to you.

I am basking in the light of His face this very moment, as I feel his love for me through these two tiny little lives I am carrying.

Peace, Love, and Lots o' Babies,

Sierra

The "beautiful" and "perfect" embryos, right before they were implanted.

First Ultrasound - 4 weeks - 2 gestational sacs

7 week ultrasound - angle is wierd so one looks super tiny, but they are actually measuring only 1 day apart - both are about half an inch long