Adam loves to keep the names of our babies a secret until they are born, but with these twins he has felt different. After the first ultrasound, he told me that he thought we should pick out names quickly so that we could pray and refer to our babies with a name rather than Baby A or Baby B. That first day, after he had gone back to work he called me and asked, "How about Sydney and Sarah?" These names immediately felt right and for me these were the names from that point on. We of course had to have fun and go down the alphabet to see if there were any other two names that would fit, but Sydney and Sarah won.

My dad served his mission in Sydney Australia and has always mentioned to all of us children that he would love a granddaughter named Sydney. With 5 girls, this is as close as I can come to naming someone after my Dad.

Sarah is after Sarah Priscilla Leavitt, Jacob Hamblin's wife, and also Sarah Denton Moulten, a pioneer ancestor on the Garlick side of the family.

Before we found out we were having twins, Adam told me we should think of girls names in case it was a girl. As I started thinking, all I kept thinking about was that I would love to name my daughter after my Grandma Simmons. In the same thought, I had just finished reading Grandma Bangerter's book and felt a strong desire to name my daughter after her. This also seemed very neat since we are living in her house. Whenever I thought about it, I could not decide between the two; I wanted both of them! I finally decided not to worry about it until after the ultrasound because I thought, "If we find out we are having a boy, then that is an easy solution to my problem." When we found out that we were having twin girls, I immediately knew there middle names.

(Baby A is Sydney Louise Bangerter)

(Baby B is Sarah Geraldine Bangerter)

 Last week I was 25 weeks. I had an appointment with Dr. Lawrence on Thursday and then my ultrasound with the maternal fetal care on Friday. I feel like I learn something new every time I go to a doctors appointment and our ultrasounds.

I learned from Dr. Lawrence that the age of viability, or in other words the age when our babies could be born and have a good chance of living is 28 weeks. She said that you might think to baby yourself at the end of your pregnancy, but the next three weeks I need to baby myself.

This was good for me to hear. Not, that I am worried about them coming that early, but this pregnancy has been different altogether. I never remember having Braxton hicks with the other girls, but I have them with this pregnancy.  I do not remember feeling pressure this early on with the other pregnancies, so for her to tell me to baby myself is helpful to really take the cues my body gives me seriously.

(I love this picture because it shows how squished they are; it is Sydney's foot and Sarah's head)

The ultrasound was informative because the doctor that I saw still cannot decide if the girls are identical and sharing one placenta or not. We have seen three different doctors for these ultrasounds and they all have a little different opinions. There is a thick membrane  between Sydney and Sarah which would indicate that they have different placentas. Placentas can grow together, but they usually form a peak in the middle; the doctor could not find a peak. She thinks that we should still treat me as if they are identical. She informed me that they do not let identical twins go past 37 weeks ( I am 37 weeks on Christmas Eve). She also said the national average for twins is that 60% are born by 36 weeks, but with the IHC records, their records show that 90% of their twin patients are born by 36 weeks. Wow, that is close! There is a lot going on between now and then. I am trying to take one day at a time.

(Sarah kept putting her hand in this way and then I thought it was cute that it was right in front of her face.)

Some of the highlights of last week was the girls going fishing with Grandpa. This month the girls are learning about Fish, and I asked Grandpa Bangerter to teach the girls about a fishing pole; he suggested that he take them fishing. They had a blast, and I think Grandpa did too.

(Page was happy until it was time for the picture!)

(Grandpa and his fishing buddy Alina.)

(The girls loved watching the fish try to bite the bait. It was very entertaining.)

(This was our view as we drove to the park to go fishing. Beautiful!)

(I was so close to the rainbow that it was hard to get it all in.)

For months now we have known that we have needed to kill three roosters, and Dad Bangerter had a lot of hens that he need to kill as well. We have been planning on doing it the old fashioned way, but someone in Dad's ward had the whole set up that made it very easy and efficient. I have always wanted to learn how to do this process, so I really enjoyed it. In fact, Mom Bangerter offered to take the girls to home to put them to bed so that I could finish the process. I had a lot of fun and have felt a sense of accomplishment and self reliant as I look in my freezer and see our frozen chickens that will help provide food for my family this winter.

(Adam and the wonderful machine that takes all the feathers off the chickens in 30 seconds. )

(Alina, our farm girl)

One of the fun things about being back in Utah is how many cousins that my girls get to play with. If they are not playing with one of their first cousins then they are playing with their second cousins. They even recognize that it seems like everyone is their cousin. This weekend Adam's cousin Spencer and Anna and their family were in town and the girls had a blast playing with them.

(The girls had a blast at our BYU tailgate party with their cousins.)

(My girls can never get enough dress ups)

It was great to end the week with General Conference and listening to a prophet of God and the 12 Apostles. It was fun to watch how excited the girls were to see President Monson and the apostles on the t.v., and they did amazing at listening and paying attention.

 

 (Page and Noah, who is taller than her and is 6 months younger.)