Thursday, June 20, 2013

What's in a Name?


     The month of April was full of fun new things for us.  As an early celebration for Brad's birthday in June, we got tickets to see Elton John in concert April 5th.  We splurged and bought excellent floor seats for the concert.  We were 12 rows back from the stage, giving Brad the perfect view of Elton John playing the piano.  I was so glad we were able to go downtown for a night and have a delicious dinner, watch one of Brad's favorite piano entertainers, and stay in the luxurious Hermitage Hotel.  With our due date for the twins only 1 month
after his actual birthday, I think this was a smart decision!

 
 
 

     At this point, we were finally able to start deciding on names for the babies.  We had agreed long ago that if we ever had a boy we wanted to name him Carson Wade.  So, that was a given now that we knew we would have a boy.  Wade is a family name on Brad's side...it is Brad's middle name as well as his dad's middle name (Jeffrey Wade).  So, for sure we would have the first born son named Carson Wade Alsup.  Now was the hard part.  We researched and practiced saying names over and over again to find another "C" first name for the other son.  Eventually, we decided on Cole.  Since, we used a family name for Carson's middle name, we wanted to carry on this tradition.  After talking with my dad about his family tree we learned that his grandfather's middle name was Warner.  This fit perfectly!  So we agreed the second son's name would be Cole Warner Alsup.  We are excited to explain to the boys one day that their names each have meaning to our families.
     Now that we had names, it was time to really get down to work on the nursery and playroom!  This was a fun process.  I think putting the nursery together made the whole pregnancy seem even more real to me.  I decided we should do a nautical theme in the nursery with a calm, relaxing feel.  So, we went shopping for nautical themed sheets and decorations.  We had the walls painted a soft blue/gray color to create the calming effect I was looking for.  My mom made some curtains to match the bed skirts we bought for the cribs.  Brad and I made a "swing shelf" modeled after one I fell in love with in Pottery Barn's magazine.  We found sailboat figurines and various other cute decorations for the room.





     The playroom I decided to make bright and fun to inspire a learning yet fun environment for the boys.  My favorite part was having the walls painted "spinach" green:)  We bought some great storage bins for the playroom to store the many toys that will accumulate in this room!  I purchased a map of the US off the internet to teach the boys about the 50 states.  I also plan to use this to mark all the states we have each been to.  This will be a cheery, happy room for them to play in in the future.



     Our appointments this month all had good outcomes.  The boys were both growing at excellent rates and had good, strong hearts.  I was doing well physically progressing along despite it becoming harder and harder to work my 10 hour shifts 3-4 days/week.  So, I started gradually cutting back to 2-3 days/week.  This helped a lot not to be on my feet so much every day!  I started feeling small "fluttering" in my belly from the boys moving around about this time:)  Then, finally, the evening of April 22nd, Brad and I both were able to feel swift kicks from the boys.  This was an amazing experience!  Each little kick brought tears to my eyes.  Every month God sent us little reminders of how much He loves us by giving us these two sweet miracles growing inside me. 

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