Nursery Update

Here are new pics of the nursery and crib bedding as we make progress on it. We now have a dresser with two coats of stain and two bed skirts! Progress feels good! I also included a pic of the other fabric patterns so you can get a hint of what's to come. My favorite is Morgan's "frustrated" face as he shows off for the camera. It really only took the two of us a total of 2 hours to put both cribs together.

I Can't Believe.....

how tiny these little ones are going to be! This is a Huggies sample I got from the hospital or from registering and I couldn't believe how tiny it was. It's a newborn diaper! I guess I should be grateful it's not too much bigger because that would be bad news for my growing belly with two of em' in there!

Growing by Leaps and Bounds!

Our lil' beans aren't so little any more, and they definitely don't look like beans! They have grown into a 1 lb. 6 oz. baby girl and a 1 lb. 8 oz. baby boy. Wow! Just four weeks ago they were 8 oz. and 10 oz. How much will they weigh in another four weeks ... probably double!!! Good news for the babies, but not so much for my stretching belly:) Both are very healthy and the doctor says I'm doing great too! There is no talk of me not going back after the holiday break so I will keep trucking along. I have another appointment in about four weeks so we will see what that visit brings. Can you believe that after that visit I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks to monitor the babies?! That means D-day will be here before we know it. We better get cracking on the nursery! Speaking of....we have made it to stage 2 of the nursery. Morgan and I received both cribs (thanks to my AWESOME parents) and we put one together on Monday night and then the other on Tuesday. We set a record on Monday of 1 hour and 15 minutes putting the first together (some parts we put together more than once), but on Tuesday we knocked the second crib out in a mere 40 minutes. They look great and I'll get pics on here soon!

The Nursery

Decorating and organizing the babies' nursery has begun! Just this past weekend we painted the walls a lovely shade of butter yellow and are anticipating the arrival of our new cribs any day now. We are excited that the room will house two dressers that at one time belonged to my dad and his siblings when they were kids. They also resided in my sister and I's room when we were growing up. However, they have gone from a walnut stain to a more nautical looking treatment of blue and white, and are now going back to a dark stain. Morgan has been working diligently to strip them of their paint so we can stain them a dark espresso color. It should look stunning against the butter colored walls. Over our Christmas break Morgan and I are going to battle it out and see who can create and sew the best bedding for the cribs. We have picked out an array of coordinating fabrics that include colors such as slate, cream, brown, and even some lighter blue and tan. There are some darker patterns and of course, some lighter ones too. It seems like the boys bedding (which Morgan is sewing) will be on the darker side, whereas the girls (which I will be sewing) will be on the lighter. Here's a peak at our progress!

23 Weeks and Counting!

I have had many requests for updated belly pics so here is my post. The babies are growing full steam ahead with kicks and punches to boot! Our little boy who resides in the left half of my belly is quite the fidgeter and Morgan and I are both thinking he has Mo's ornery personality already. He just doesn't like to sit still - wait....that could actually be MY personality! Our little girl resides in the left half of my belly and she took her time really getting her kicks in. Her new favorite move is to give me repetitive jabs right under my rib cage that actually feel much like a muscle twitch. She is quite content to just hang out, but occasionally will get some energy and really go at it. I swear I can feel her do somersaults in there! We can actually see some of their movements from the outside now and it is quite entertaining for Morgan to sit and watch them as they poke and jab at me. We are now at the 23 week mark which puts us at almost 6 months - WOW! The projected arrival date the doctor has given us falls somewhere in the middle of March. All in all things are going well for ALL of the Asay's!

So here we are at 4 months and then again at 5 months and yet again at 5 1/2 months (week 22) Funny that in the 4 month picture I am still able to wear "regular" jeans and then at 5 months not so much:)

Jack O Lanterns!!! That Kids Stuff!!

For those of you who don't know that I, Morgan am very competitive when it comes to art projects and completely meticulous when it comes to detail, I give you the two pumpkins I carved for Halloween 2008. I know it's a bit late, but who keeps track of time anyway. If any of you are wondering how long it took, it took about two hours a pumpkin. Also, they are not cut but carved into the skin of the pumpkins and they glow from the inside. I see resemblance, but do you? Anywho, I hope everyone had a great Halloween and we'll post for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.

Are you Ready?

The big moment has finally arrived! The arrows should say it all, but for the majority of us who are ultrasound illiterate here is what you have all been waiting for. For those of you who guessed that baby A was a girl are correct! For those that guessed baby b was for boy you are also correct! Yeah!!!! A lil' Mo and a lil' Mel to share with the world - Boy, I hope you're ready for em'!

And the Answer is.....

Well the answer will be announced after 4:00 p.m. tonight. OK, OK, before you all get angry and sent hatemail our way, there are two certain people who we want to tell in person first (i.e. Melissa's parents) who have access to this website. If you want an answer you can call Morgan on cell after school to find out. Have a great Friday!!!

BOYS---GIRLS---BOTH?

Baby B

Baby A

So this is my first time blogging on our site. Obviously this is Morgan. Melissa and I had our 19 week ultrasound this afternoon and we found out the sex of our twins!!! The challenge is to see if you can tell what the sexes are of the twins. There will be two ultrasound pictures and the sexes of the twins will be revealed on Friday!!! Good Luck and happy guessing!!!

Lofthouse-Like Sugar Cookies

I have been searching for a sugar cookie recipe like the soft, melt in your mouth, Lofthouse cookies that all the grocery store chains seem to sell. I also had a friend's mom in college that made these same cookies. They were so yummy, but I never got the recipe from her!

I finally found one that I think tastes pretty good - and is fairly easy to make too!

Lofthouse-Like Cookie Recipe
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar until lifth and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients onto a piece of wax paper (a bowl works too), and add alternately with the cream to the butter-egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Drop by tablespoon-fulls onto parchment lined baking sheets and flatten slightly. Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes.

Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Cream everything together until light and fluffy
Frost cooled cookies and enjoy!

Bumpin' it Up

I've been promising some baby pictures and I guess it doesn't get any better than this, right? What's cuter than a quickly protruding baby bump. The first picture is after our first month-at four weeks pregnant-one week before finding out that we were expecting twins. Three months later you see the small bump that proves that there IS actually life in there. No definitive kicks yet, but they will come soon enough as yet another reminder of the tiny bundles that will soon bless our lives!

My Lil Sis Got Married!

My little sister was married October 4th! The entire fam headed down to Destin, Florida for the big event. We had a great time as we prepared for the big day and then were able to enjoy the fruits of our labor at the wedding and reception. Kristen rented a gorgeous house for family and friends to stay in right on the beach. The weather was beautiful and, as you can see, so was the bride! Here are some pictures from our extended weekend trip. Congratulations to the newlyweds - Kristen and Josh!

Our Little Beans

It's been awhile since we have posted on our blog. Needless to say we have been busy. Just a little over 8 weeks ago we found out that we were pregnant! About 3 weeks ago we found out that we were pregnant with twins! Bonus! I have included our first ultrasound of our "two lil' beans" which we are so excited to bring into the world.

Week 5

Over the past three weeks we have gone through about every emotion possible, but all lead to thinking of these two lil wonders as the best blessing in the world! I'm including our week 7 and week 8 pictures of our "beans" as they have really begun to sprout. For those of you that love to have a visual of how big they are, they are now each about the size of an olive. It's amazing - they grew twice there size since last week when they were only the size of blueberries:)

Week seven we think looks quite alien-like, but at times it feels as so aliens have taken over my body! Week eight we can see traces of the umbilical cord, which also could make the embryo's look like tadpoles:)

My Summer Creations

The summer has gone by so fast - but that is to be expected as every summer does the same thing. It is slow getting used to having the extra time off and then when you finally fall into a summer routine - it's OVER!

Despite the summer flying by I have had time to create at my whimsy! Here are some of my summer creations that are for both play and purpose.

Our school t-shirt design for 08-09. I think it "rocks"!

This is a project that my mom and I started one day while she was home recovering from her pneumonia bout. Neither of us finished in a day, but we sure had a blast picking out fabric and figuring out patterns!

Always a fun creation - jewelry! There is nothing more exciting than going to the bead store and looking for the perfect bangle for a necklace or bracelet. I actually made the necklace my sister will be wearing in her wedding in October (that will be in a later post).

Hope you have enjoyed my crafty side!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Something that I have wanted to do for a long time is make strawberry jam. It is sooooo tasty and I just can't wait around for someone to give a jar to me for Christmas!

I have a friend that happens to have a large, maybe even huge, strawberry patch. He assured me that he would call when the strawberries were ready. On Monday we got the call, so Morgan and I put our grungies on and headed out about 45 minutes from our house to pick two large buckets of strawberries - which turned out to be 3 full plastic grocery sacks. We did have some help, which was much appreciated!

I called up mom and we decided that Thursday would be a great day to make Strawberry Jam! We were both super excited and mom actually remembered doing the same thing with my grandma when she was a kid. That makes it tradition, right?

We used a recipe that called for...

4 cups ripe strawberries mashed (mashed they make 2 cups)

4 cups sugar

1 box of SureJell fruit pectin

various plastic/glass jars

The first step was to clean and hull all of the strawberries, which was then followed by our favorite part - mashing them. We were going for the taste of our favorite jam from the Beef House so we made sure to mash them to look like Beef House Jam.

After mashing them we added the gobs of sugar that the recipe called for a let the mixture sit for 10 minutes. The SureJell had to be boiled in 3/4 cup of water for one minute and that was also added to the mixture. Finally, we poured the finished jam into containers for freezing.

Yum! When we were all done we did get to enjoy some of the spoils as we treated ourselves to strawberry shortcake, but the best part of the entire day was just getting to do all of this with mom.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

This past week we decided to take the young women out to Orson's (Morgan's grandfather) house to plant him a flower garden in front of his house. He has been in and out of the hospital as of late and we thought he could use a little pick me up. Mo tilled up the garden for us the night before so on Wednesday night we could just "dig in"!

Here are some fun pictures of the girls and leaders as they got their hands dirty!

Sneaking a bite to eat in between planting!

Who's Got Two Thumbs and a New Job!

This Guy!

Morgan has landed his first teaching job, and boy we couldn't be more excited! He interviewed for two positions in the Lafayette area and was offered both! He says it was his natural ability to teach, but I say it was his boyish charm and good looks. He will be the art teacher at Happy Hollow Elementary school where he will teach 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out.....

http://www.wl.k12.in.us/hh/

Congratulations Mo!

Home Improvement Project # 5

The beginning stages - taking the before picture, clearing the area, imagining what it will look like.....

Then the work really begins!

The measuring.... The cutting ........ and recutting!

We decided to start our project at 9pm on a Saturday night, after spending a couple hours at Chuck E. Cheese for our nephew's birthday party. Not the brightest idea! After picking up the rest of our supplies at Lowe's on the way home we began work on our tiling project. Morgan measured for the first cut, and as you can see above, it didn't work out quite as well as we planned. Neither did the second cut, or the third for the matter :) Finally, after a few tries we finally got the cut we needed and started to adhere the first tile sheet to the wall. Unfortunately, we got only one sheet up before needing to make yet another cut. Needless to say, our patience and energy wore out at about 11pm and our tiling project was cut short for the night. We had bigger plans for the evening, like getting all the tile up before pooping out, but as you can see below, we didn't get very far! Our project continued a couple days later and went swimmingly as Morgan mastered the art of cutting tile. You'll notice that in most (really all) of these pictures Morgan is the only one pictured working! That's only because I took a break to snap pictures of our progress:)

Finally, the tile has been laid and the wait begins until we are able to grout - 48 hours couldn't come soon enough. We were both excited to see the final product, and after a grueling two hours of mixing the grout, grouting the tile, and then cleaning up we were finally done!