California Trip

We had a wonderful vacation in California last week filled with lots of family time, friends, activities and, of course, tons of recreational eating! It was a busy, busy, busy trip with not much down time, but we all enjoyed getting out of "routine" for a little while.

I have to confess that I have totally fallen off the wagon with taking pictures these days. I either forget my camera all together or bring it with me and remember AFTER the fact that I even had it. So, I'm sad to admit I barely took any pictures of the really important parts of our trip (our brothers' college graduation, the beach, time with friends and family, our trip through AZ to see Mark's grandparents, etc.) I'm hoping once the twins are born I'll find a new passion/reminder to take more pics! But, for now, the pictures I did take will have to do!

We stayed in South Orange County with my dear friend, Kathleen, and were able to visit many of the places we used to go when we lived there. One place was the Rancho Santa Margarita lake. Mark and I used to frequently go on walks there when we were first married so it was fun to take Asher around the lake too...he had a great time feeding the ducks!

silly bubba

One day we made a trip down to Sea World in San Diego. Asher LOVED it! He's been into big "ishies" (aka. fishies) recently so he was enthralled by all the cool stuff.

We saw sharks....

Elmo and Grover (that's normal for Sea World, right??)

Excited about the Sesame Street play area at Sea World

Two cute penguins

A huge Walrus...Asher's favorite thing. Seriously. We probably stood by this window 20+ minutes while Asher watched the huge Walrus eat and regurgitate a fish. Yep. It was SO disgusting and I'm not sure why he loved it so much but we couldn't pull him away!

The Shamu Show

Asher's feelings toward the hot sun and heat during the Shamu show -

And, the Dolphin Show (sorry about the lame picture)

I captured this sweet picture inside one of the exhibits - I love them so much!

One of the last days we were there, my awesome brothers came down and went to Taco Tuesday with us at one of our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants. Mark and I used to go almost every Tuesday for dinner and we miss it so much! Colorado Springs just doesn't have authentic Mexican food like SoCal does!

Asher loves his uncles...he frequently refers to them as one name "DrewDerek" when "talking to them on the phone". :)

Um, and yes, the only picture I got with our whole family in it!

Ah, I told you I've fallen off the wagon.:)

So, there you go, our vacay. I'm planning to get a few pictures from graduation off of my parents camera so I'll post more when I do!

23 Weeks

After a few requests for a "belly shot," I finally pulled out the camera last night and made Mark take a picture of my growing stomach. Honestly, these days I'm almost always wearing sweats and am not feeling so cute. So, I decided it was a prime opportunity to take a picture when I had some semi-decent clothes on (before our date last night). At 23 weeks, it's not much to look at but here you go!

The Babes

I had my in-depth ultrasound about a week and a half ago and everything is looking good so far! Both of the babies are growing and developing as they should which we are so thankful for. We were able to get a few cool shots of them - one where they were belly to belly - and see them moving all around. They are currently positioned where their heads are next to the other's feet so they are constantly kicking each other in the face.:) It was also great to finally find out the gender of the other baby...we are so thrilled and excited to be having both a boy and a girl!! We feel absolutely overwhelmed by God's goodness and blessings right now. Here are profile shots of both of our sweet babies:

Baby "A"

Our little girl

Baby "B"

Our little boy (notice how he has his hand up to his mouth:))

Also, I think we finally decided on names for our twins but are gonna wait a few more weeks to announce them.:)

Children's Museum

A couple weeks ago we headed up to Denver for the weekend to spend time with Mark's parents and go to the Children's Museum with Asher. He loved all the cool exhibits and had tons of fun! (Though I would NEVER recommend going middle of the day Saturday like we did - crazy.)

Here he is building things with dad -

The kid already knows how to use a screwdriver

Standing in a weird, nest thing. Should have paid more attention to what it was.

Super excited about coloring a picture (like we don't do that everyday at home or anything??)

And, of course, "shopping" at the grocery store. This was by far his favorite, favorite exhibit!

He also enjoyed painting a picture...until the paint got on his hands. Then he was very concerned and kept saying, "wash paint off." Um, can you tell he's my child?? Oh boy.

Silly bubba gave us a puppet show...

In the "Veterinary Room" he listened to my heart as a good Veterinarian would do.:)

It was a fun day and I'm glad we finally got to experience the museum!

Easter (for lack of a more unique title)

A week late, but here is the documentation from our Easter -

Asher looking at a picture of himself after opening his monstrous coloring book from G&G Brokke:
My brothers hid 47 eggs for Asher to find....he was in heaven!


So proud of his treasure!

Ash with Grandma and Grandpa Brokke

Our little family :)

As one of my dear friends pointed out from this picture, next year there will be 5 of us....whoa.

Well, I Wasn't Expecting That!

I was planning (and had been planning for a while) to announce yesterday that Asher is gonna be a big brother to Finzel baby #2 around September 12th....we are so excited!

However, I was not prepared for the news that we are expecting Finzel babies #2 & #3!!! Yep, crazy as it is, we are expecting TWINS! Reality has not really sunk in and we are still in a state of shock, but we are excited, scared, nervous, overwhelmed, hopeful, thankful and prayerful with this news!

Right now we are starting the process of finding a new Dr. who can deliver twins (I was using a midwife up to this point), and we are talking through all that needs to be done to prepare for two babies instead of just one. I know God will give us the strength and grace to walk this journey together and we will have support from our families and dear friends along the way. But, when you think of it, could you pray for us? Thank you! Wow.

These girls...

are amazing. Was able to spend some time with some of my best friends from college (and a couple from high school) last weekend. My dear friend Amy was in a town for a few days so we planned a girls' night at Rico's downtown. It was so special to enjoy an evening together - catch up on all that has happened over the past year, and share a little of our hearts with each other. I have been blessed with so many incredible friends and, while time, distance and life separate us, we are always able to catch back up and pick up where we left off. These women are amazing and I love them so much (we missed you Ashley, Holly and Heather)!

Kendra, Amy, Brook & Me (Mandrea, thanks for taking the picture!)