19 (weeks) and counting

that's half way for me!

woot woot!

i know i'm already looking very pregnant to friends and strangers, but i don't feel huge yet, i think i thought i'd be bigger at this point. so i guess i should be happy with that, ha. sleeping is beginning to get uncomfortable. i'm switching sides lots of times during the night, my SIL let me borrow her pregnancy pillow (those c-shape ones, know what i'm talking about?) i'm definitely investing in one of those myself, those things are kinda amazing. i'm sporting the baby (babies) bump pretty dang obvious these days and i'm starting to eat a lot more food than i used to. i remember i felt maxson kick (from the outside) at 19 weeks exactly. at 19.5 weeks i felt the first kicks with these boys! it was such an exciting day! funny thing is, during ultra sounds, baby B(my left baby) is always the SUPER wiggly one, that boys never stops moving. baby A (on my right) moves, but not nearly as much. well it felt like it was the baby on the right, baby A that i could feel the kick from! funny huh? we had the anatomy scan at 18.5 weeks with them with a high risk doctor and everything looks great. they couldn't tell if it was one placenta or two, and were going to look closer at that. i sure hope it's 2! she said we may not be able to tell just because it's already getting pretty squished in there, but we could see the membrane separating them. i'm beginning to feel a lot less room when i bend over to get something, not looking forward too much to not being able to bend over much especially with all of the messes maxson makes on the floor, ha.

we found a video last week of me pregnant with maxson at 39 weeks and OH MY GOSH. I WAS HUGE. seriously you guys, so big. my nose was swollen, my whole face, my belly was ginormous, the bigness just never ended anywhere. we talked about baby names and oddly enough, maxson was the last name we mentioned. we weren't sure if it was maxwell or maxson on our baby name list we liked. i complained about being 39 weeks : "i'm so tired, my fingers are swollen and numb, my back hurts, it's so hard to sleep, casey is so nice and massages my swollen ankles, i feel fat, i just want to be done being pregnant" etc. oh poor pregnant full term kimber, i really was miserable there at the end, ha. i hope i don't swell as much this time :( i just don't grow gracefully as a pregnant woman i've decided.

pregnancy this second time around is definitely going faster, hopefully that will prove to be the case at the end too, maxson just keeps me so busy and occupied and can't only focus on being pregnant now. it is such a fun thing to be pregnant though, i rather enjoy this amazing thing my body does. it's so crazy to think i'm growing TWO LITTLE HUMANS IN MY BODY right now! it truly is  miracle of life!

remembering great friends

tonight i was thinking of all the coincidences of great friends we've come across here in nebrasaka. meeting people for the first time is kind of a strange feeling, especially when you're the newbie, and you know that you'll inevitably become great friends with these people over the next few months and years. here are some experiences we've had when our time started out here in nebraska:

(names have not been changed because i want to actually remember these stories and people in 10 years when i go back and read this.)

the ox in the mire men: jared, josh, adam. when we first moved our stuff from utah to nebraska on our way to new jersey we happened to stop through nebraska on a sunday evening to hurry and unload some of our stuff but had to keep going that night. these 3 guys met us at the storage unit that was almost 20 minutes away from where they all lived to help us unload the uhaul and continue on our way.  we essentially loaded that whole thing by ourselves with help from a brother or friend here or there on random things so we didn't think it was that big of a deal to have people help us. wrongo. i was pregnant and wasn't much help unloading stuff quickly and efficiently. these guys got hard to work (remember on a sunday) to help us in a time when our ox was in the mire, the ox didn't care what day of the week it was. this gesture remains so close to our hearts and was such a huge help. funny thing, those 3 guys have become some of our closest friends here in nebraska

the chirstophersons: jared (same jared from above) reached out to casey via Facebook only a couple months after he was accepted to Nebraska'a dental school. through tons of messages, jared answered a billion of our questions and even let us come stay the night at their house in the spring when we came back out to look at the housing situation. we barely knew them yet both jared and katie made us feel so important and so instantly welcome. later that summer katie drove an hour away to the airport to pick me up and bring me back for a quick doctor's appointment in lincoln. again, i barely knew her but she made the hugest kindest gesture to help me when i knew no one else. they fed me dinner and got me back to the airport in time for my flight. we now live immediately next door to jared and katie and call them some of our absolute closest friends.

the milmonts: adam (same adam from above) also helped us move all that storage unit stuff into our house the day we finally did move to nebraska. talk about having to move someone's crap twice. and then the same evening his lovely wife susan invited us over for dinner at their house for our very first night in lincoln. again, we had no clue who they were really but they reached out to us in the kindest manner and helped so much, a simple meal goes so far into hungry people's bellies, ha. we are so sad adam and susan moved away this spring after finishing school but the last 2 years, again we became such close friends with them. it's these simple first impressions that have made the biggest lasting differences in our lives.

josh george- same josh mentioned in the 1st story, josh has become one of casey's best friends. he helped out that one day and so many times since and now i kid you not, those two love to man bond all the time aka video games. we joke that if josh was only into basketball he would be casey's soulmate ha

emily and jenny- the summer i came in town for a quick doctor's appointment i remember meeting emily and jenny from across the street. they were so sweet and were some of the first people to know i was pregnant and having a baby boy. then when we moved to nebrasksa emily was able to borrow jenny's air mattress and put it in our little place and  turn on the AC for us before we got there so we arrived to a cool place in hot humid august. i really didn't even know this girl apart from adam. again, smallest gesture ever, but i'm tearing up just writing these things. emily and jenny lived in nebraska our first year here and i think those two girls are some of the sweetest ever and felt so lucky to get to know them and here wise advice from their 3 and 4 years of parenting, ha

***

this list for sure isn't everyone but it's those that i can remember at this quick moment. there are SOOO many other friends who made wonderful first impressions and have helped us out immensely over the last 2 years. the currency of life is truly the relationships we are building on this earth, and i already feel like the richest woman in the world. 

i also urge you to reach out of your comfort zone and help those in need around you, especially those you only kind of know. casey amazes me in that he's at nearly every move in and out of our ward, always lending a helping hand (in his case 2 biceps, 2 strong thighs, and a hard working back) to those in need. i try my best with meals because that's almost always a way my pregnant or non pregnant self can help. a couple friends on my street are always offering to help watch kids when the time is needed. just look outside yourself, who needs your help? how can you do some good in this world today?

called to serve

this beautiful girl left on her mission this last week and we couldn't be more thrilled for her!

tayli, casey's younger sister, has been called to serve a mission for our church, the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, in the billings, montana mission. she is going to do soooo wonderful. she is a gem of a girl and will have so many great experiences serving others and the lord while she is out there. i am so jealous she gets to go at the young ripe age of 19. such a courageous and exciting decision to serve the people in the billings, montana mission by sharing the gospel and bringing people closer to our savior jesus christ. without Him, i would not be the woman i am today, the mother, or friend. with Him all things truly are possible.

tayli, we are so proud of you, you will be an amazing missionary and we know the spirit will guide you as you keep the commandments and have a true desire to share with others your love for our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. we will miss you so much!!!!!!

take me out to the ball game (to die of heatstroke, get sunburned, and complain of the humidity)

last week we got to go to one of the college world series baseball games and it was so much fun! i love baseball games. they're so relaxed. they're so american. and they're so summer. as my blog post title says, it was flipping hot. it was super humid, and we almost got sunburnt except for the fact that we sprayed sunscreen on our selves (especially the sunny side of us) like 3 times during the game. but the weather could have been so much worse (i can't believe i'm saying that but it's probably true). here's how the evening went down:

general admission tickets (bleachers seats that miraculously have backs to them), don't get sold until the day of the game, and we heard they go fast. so we got there 1 1/2 hours early to buy our ticket and get a seat. casey looked for parking online before the game and saw that most everything was $8-$10 to park except for 2 free lots designated ADA parking where you have to show your card and he thought "great! i have my ADA card (American Dental Association) and we'll get great parking. we find the lot, the parking guy says you have to have a pass for this lot and casey says "isn't this ADA parking? i'll show you my card" so he shows them our card and they let us in and we think we've scored the jack pot because it is right next to the stadium where as people had been walking from way far away to get to the stadium. i remember saying to casey "man, that dental tuition, is paying itself off! yay for you being an ADA member!" *jump forward to after the game when we're pulling out of the parking lot i see a sign that says ADA parking with a handicap sign underneath…i'm guessing it was the American Disability Act parking thing, ha! but they never specified that before! we innocently did believe we were in the right place with casey's ADA card. we thought it was funny

we get into the game an hour early find seats and continue to roast for the following 2 hours in the sun it seemed like. although maxson wouldn't sit for long (we never expected him to do such) we took turns going up to the walkway opening where it was shaded and breezy to let him run and walk around as he pleased. i think doing that was what made the gem more bearable weather wise. casey made it feel like a super special occasion when he bought not one but two ice cold lemonades, oh man they were heavenly. and then near the end of the game we bought a big ol thing of popcorn in hopes that max would stay put for awhile eating it, ha, which he did. max loved to clap with excitement when the audience did so, casey also showed him the pitchers warming up in the bullpen right in front of us which he liked. maxson also loved mingling with all the strangers around us, sharing food, taking their food, and waving bye bye to them, he was a charmer for sure.

going to this college world series game was definitely a once in a life time thing. college sports atmospheres are so much fun and the players are really so talented. such a fun evening with my little family!

ironic that casey is wearing an LA dodgers hat (the area he grew up in) and myself a D-backs hat (my home area)

love from home

back at the end of may/beginning of june my parents came out for a quick visit and it was so wonderful.
it's just so nice to have family around in our neck of the woods.
we love it when anyone visits us (come visit us!) but especially when it's either of our parents.
parents just make you feel like you're the number one person in the world, right?
and i can totally see how, because oh man, i sure think the same of maxson.

we really didn't do anything overly special while they were here, just normal day to day stuff with maxson: walks, toys, swinging, bike rides, naps, target run. 2 more "special" things we did do with them were going to the dairy store on campus (as seen below) and then my wonderful dad watched maxson and put him down for nap while my mom went garage sailing with me (where we found some pretty awesome stuff, i love garage sailing season!). we played games a few nights, we watched a movie, and we just talked. talked about the present and the future. oh how i love my parents dearly!

a. the new blocks we got at a garage sale
b. papa time
c. ice cream
d. watching home videos

thanks for visiting mom and dad, we miss you!!!
and i've said it a thousand times, but thank you for our water toys!!!

picturas de iFono

a little recap of june mostly

a. bath time after mud time
b. running in the front yard (very likely playing in the mail box)
c. an adorable twin gift from an aunt
d. maxson's crazy sleeping positions (wish you could see this better)

a. & b. slowly falling off the couch during a nap, so funny
c. ended that nap on momma
d. maxson selfie

a. & b. splash pad opening day!
c. & d. ice cream post splash pad, which led to the messy ice cream pictures in this post

a. & b. the solution to keeping the chairs down like such so max doesn't crawl on the table has been compromised…
c. snuggles
d. big shoes to fill

a. sprinklers and pool time ! (thanks granny and papa!)
b. facial during maxson's bath, reminded me of the picture of my nephew in this post
c. even after momma drains out all the water after bath time, the bath is still fun
d. casey and josh working on the toddler bed (with a few extra little helpers)

a. & b. & c. i decided we needed a donut run one morning to lamar's, they were delicious
d. and then apparently later that day he also got an oreo cookie. 

a. & b. & c. unbeknownst to our knowledge just 3 days later was national donut day so we had to head back to lamar's for our free donut! it was 9 am and there were still plenty of donuts left, yay! so different from last year.
d. making cookies for the gender reveal party. i'm usually awesome at making cookies, somehow i overcooked half of them, ugh! the stress!

a. max is most excited to go to church because he liked to play with the balls in the gym
b. just doing some quick work on the church computer
c. & d. book time

a. max has to find dogs wherever we go and he has to go say hi to them every time, he loves any dogs, big or small
b. casey the best husband ever, playing with the kids. he was the only adult to play in the water with the kids, go down the slip-n-slide, and just be all around awesome. i love that man so much
c. maxson so excited to vacuum
d. we dropped casey off at the airport one day and as he left, he gave max the rest of his drink, max was in heaven

a. we watched this big (loud) truck clean our the street drains for a solid half hour. maxson was enamored
b. more bath time
c. & d. i adore these pictures oh so much. i wish so badly the first was focused but they will be some of my all time favorites, his smile, his tilted head, his little teeth, that squinted nose, the joy of eating that cookie. he was so happy in this moment

a. grocery shopping (how will i do this with 2 more in tow!?)
b. insisted the balls swing with him
c. i laughed when i saw him squished in this rear facing car seat, i've got one tall boy
d. trying to slice the cheese like momma (he soon gave up and started nibbling at the chunk)

i love these 3 pictures. our friend jared is trying to fly a kite and the kids just think it's the best thing in the world. so flipping cute

a. max and my kisses we sent to casey on father's day during church (remember, he wasn't there)
b. casey's father's day shrine
c. the gender reveal painting, which we love
d. on a bike ride

17 week update

17 weeks

17 weeks = size of avocados
(funny thing, those lemons from last week were way bigger than these avocados, eh you get the point;)

yesterday i was officially 18 weeks but we'll get there.
weeks 15, 16, and 17 were all about the same.

it seemed like i had a doctors appointment nearly every week for different reasons so i've been seeing those babies a lot. they are super wiggly in there nearly always which is a great sign. at 16 weeks we found out we were having BOYS which was so very exciting. it was just the other day that it registered in my mind that i will have THREE BOYS all crazy close in age. oh man our house will be crazy. i hope they are the best of friends. those 3 will be in high school at the same time for 2 years together, i hope that's a great experience for them. oh man, boys, lots and lots of sports i foresee in my future…

but back to this pregnancy, i don't know if i mentioned it but that first trimester you could "say" i had a craving of chicken noodle soup, that stuff always sounded good, although i rarely got to have it. this second trimester i'm back to normal eating habits, i don't feel yucky if i din't eat often enough and can eat anything. i do feel like i'm starting to eat bigger portions. sleeping is just beginning to get a little less comfortable. i've welcomed in "maternity" clothes already because holy heck people, they are just so much more comfortable! why do women see how long they can go without it? i'm not really sure but i am pro comfy clothes and not squeezing into tight clothing at this stage already.

although i'm getting much bigger much faster already, i oddly have gained barely any weight which i think is really strange, how does this belly area not weigh more? i completely understand why. maxson. that kid keeps me so active, sometimes it feels like there's no down time ever. i imagine i'll end with the equal amount if not less weight with this twin pregnancy than i did with maxson's.

the great thing about pregnancy this time around is that since i'm having twins, i'm supposed to be getting bigger much quicker so i don't feel a lick of the need to compare my size to others at this week or that week. i'm just happy. i wish we as all women didn't have the need to compare their sizes, especially when pregnant. you're growing a human being in your body for goodness sake (in my case TWO human beings)!! you're not supposed to be little. all bodies are different and that means pregnancy will be different on everyone so stop comparing and just enjoy the time.

ok, now that i'm off my rameumptum, pregnancy has been so great so far. i love these little flutters inside that i can feel and i can't wait to feel some bigger kicks in just a couple weeks!

a painting adventure

we went a painting last week!
after perusing pinterest for  little bit one day i thought to myself "kimber instead of pinning more stuff, find something you already pinned and get it ready for max when he wakes up from his hibernation nap!" i found this super easy homemade paint pin from this site, whipped it up in a jiffy and waited for maxson to wake up.
SUPER EASY flour paint:
about 1/4 c flour
water (just keep adding water until you like the consistency)
food coloring

i mixed mine up in little cups and it went great! i just cut the side of  big cardboard box for the canvas because i'm fancy like that ;) max loved it so much. i'm glad i did it outside because he made a mess. and i'm glad the paint was only flour and water because literally the first thing he did was stick that paintbrush in his mouth that had paint all over it, ha. that is definitely my child.

i definitely recommend this activity for your toddler ;)

the 18 month old maximus

oh my heck, maxson is 18 months old. definitely no baby, although i call him my baby all the time and tell him "no, babies can't do/play with that." he's such a character, so much personality, opinion, spunk, tenacity, and determination. and i proceed with the list of things i would like to remember about 18 month old maxson (the terrorist) cutler.

words he says (that us parents can understand ;) : dada, mama, papa, ball (ba), shoes, teeth, cheese, no no, more, love you, choo choo, yeah, buh-bye, bubbles (bubu), thank you, baby. there's probably a few others but that's what i can remember for now

whenever he gets hurts (and it hurt enough to make him cry) he runs to us and then points at the object that hurt him be that the ground, a chair, a toy, a slide, etc. overall, he doesn't cry about getting hurt which is amazing i think, and when he does cry, it lasts less than 5 seconds usually

the only gestures he does to us now are "all done" always waved frantically with much gusto, and when he's pooping he tells us. hoping that pooping gesture helps in the future.

he's intrigued by babies. i wouldn't say he loves them, but whenever he's around one he keeps coming back to them to point in their face and says bay-bay. comes back over and over again, points and runs away. hoping that intrigue mixed with distance will help in the future ha.

he thinks it's so fun to wipe himself. he gets a wipe out as often as he sees the pack and starts wiping himself, he loves it, and it's just funny to watch

loves cars, balls, and books so very much, and as of lately watching tall towers made of blocks fall down as he runs through them.

he runs fast. like super fast i think for an 18 month old, his arms are tight to his body, bent at the elbows, his knees drive diagonally forward and his hips twist with every movement but man oh man he is so fast. sometimes he leans a little forward too to get places faster and other times he kinda just run phoebe buffet style

he gives the best hugs and kisses whenever asked to, and sometime they just come out of the blue. he puts his little arms right around your neck and squeezes real hard for a few seconds. for kisses, he puckers his lips up and gives you big wet one freely, sometimes pulling your face in with his little chubby hands if your face isn't close enough for his liking. and in the past couple months he's added a great smacking sound affect to all his kisses, we love it.

he loves to eat mud, it's awful. there's this tiny area on the sidewalk outside our back door that always turns muddy and he's ALWAYS stuffing it in his mouth, urgh. he'll then spit (most/some) of it out but you know that some got in his tummy, it drives me bonkers.

i've begun to give into the iPad/iphone. we've found a few games that i feel are really educational and are helping his learning progress. we love endless alphabet, lotto 1, happy baby, the children's primary songs, and a few of the fisher price apps that teach about shapes, colors, and animals. the first 2 i mentioned i've especially seen progress in his matching skills and he's realized things only have one match. i figure it's better than a tv of just zoning out

he loves doing actions to certain songs: monkeys swinging in the tree, popcorn popping, daddy's homecoming, monkeys on the bed

he's obsessed with animals. dogs and cats mostly. he just loves them to pieces. i really wish we had a dog because that would be hours of entertainment for him, hours.

he loves meat, especially steak and roast, ha. he guzzles that stuff it seems like.

very intrigued by small bugs on the sidewalk, always trying to pick them up.

grabs you by the hand to show you what he wants from where.

he loves saying goodbye to people, anyone, anything. i think he may secretly love leaving things so he gets to tell things buh-bye and wave (his wave mimics that of a little pac man)

when singing songs to go to sleep, he must have everything that's in his crib in his arms: monkey and 2 blankets. when i go in to get him when he wakes up he gives me monkey and the 2 blankets first and then gets out. habits i guess

he's sleeping 11-12 hours at night with a 3 hour nap during the day. i swear he's sleeping longer now in a 24 hour period than the did that first year of babyhood, i don't get it...

34 in tall // 92%ile
28# 15 oz // 94%ile
19 1/4 in head // 75-90%ile

yep, we've got one big kid on our hands.

a happy father's day!

happy father's day to my main squeeze.

to the father of my child(ren).

people keep saying ill be a great mother of all these boys, no no no no.

casey will be the much better father to all these boys.

dang that guy is so much fun.

he's everything i imagined in a husband and father.

today he was supposed to be driving back from indiana all day, he completely surprised me by leaving early early in the morning and arriving in the afternoon instead of the late evening, sweetest gesture ever.

and i can't forget my wonderful father, my forever knight in shining armor. i love him so dearly, and he returns that love a hundred fold. i'm so lucky to be his daughter!

and casey's dad too! man he's such a wonderful guy, i'm so blessed to have him as another father figure in my life!

bows or boys or both? // twin gender reveal party

with my pregnancy with maxson, we didn't really get to celebrate his announcement with anyone in person and casey wasn't even with me at the doctor when i found out the gender. so for the twins, i wanted to make it special and fun with family and friends involved. we ordered invitations from tinyprints and were obsessed with how they turned out. i saw this invitation on their site and figured it would work just good enough. BUT they had a designer who looked at my invites, saw i was having twins and customized it specially for me at no extra cost, i was beyond wowed with their service! definitely check them out my friends. having these little invites made the occasion just a tad bit more special, which i so loved!

the dessert table.
mustaches and bows a plenty.




the children were so happy when i said the dessert table was now up for grabs, ha.

pre-gender reveal, so nervous and excited!
me at 16 weeks
also like i mentioned, maxson was beyond happy with the amount of cookies he sneaked.

trying to get everyone on for FaceTime.

and here was the long awaited gender reveal!

i really was so nervous but so excited.

top right is finding out there's one boy and, i believe, second row to the bottom on the left is finding out there's a second boy. the picture just to the right of finding out there's a second boy is casey asking me "how did you know" and i at the same time saying "i was right, i knew it!"

i also love seeing  a few of our friends in the background

^^you see our friend katie just over casey's arm? she's the one who made my vision of the balloon popping all come together, she's a gem of a friend and i LOVE that she's in the background of these pictures with such excitement for us, it's seriously so sweet.

here was what our friend set up for us: she put different colors in balloons, and we threw darts at the canvas to pop them, it was so fun and very thrilling

fyi, since it was 2 boys it was blue and green,

2 girls would have been pink and purple,

and 1 of each would have been some combo of a boy color and a girl color

the canvas actually looks so pretty and i'm stoked to put it in the children's room

here's our sweet friend katie. funny story, as she was pinning the balloons to the canvas, one popped ALL OVER her, with a white shirt on, ha. she ran away in a rush and called casey on the phone to tell him we could throw the darts. she did end up covering up with a sweatshirt so she could see all the excitement from far away.

and i loved maxson's paint splattered face.

and thus we see, 2 more mustaches to add

fyi- if you are ever going to do balloon paint-popping for a gender reveal here's some tips katie did. 

1. she put different amounts of water in with each balloon so the consistencies of the running paint would be different on the canvas.

2. she put glitter in some of them

3. she used a funnel to help with the mess of putting the paint in the balloons and then blowing them up

4. there were different sized balloons: think regular sized balloons and water balloon sized balloons.

ps- as i'm writing this post, it's the first time i can see the movement on my stomach of the babies, the boys! so exciting, at just 17 weeks!