One month

Dear Joseph and Kenzie,

You are a month old! I can hardly believe it. What a crazy month we had too. We have been to the doctor and hospital more than mommy has been in her whole life. 

Here is Mommy on the way to the hospital. She has seen twin mommies who had bigger tummies, but nevertheless she was ready to meet you (and be comfortable again!).  I already wrote about your birth, so I won't do that again, but here is our first family picture. Joseph took a few seconds to cry when he was born, and mommy was a little worried. Kenzie, you started screaming as soon as you came out. I think that tells us a little something about your personalities. 

Joseph, you came to the room that night. You and mommy bonded over learning how to nurse together and spending those first sweet days just you and I. 

Kenzie, you spent your first day and a half in the NICU. You and daddy bonded as he sang to you. Even though he has a terrible voice, you still love it when he sings to you. 

Kenzie, here is the first time you and mommy saw each other since the night you were born. You were 1.5 days old. It was also the first time you and your brother had gotten to be together since birth.

We went home from the hospital on Sunday. On Monday you got to meet your Mimi and Papa. Mimi was so busy taking pictures of you and helping Mommy out, she didn't get any pictures WITH you. 

When you were a week old, Mommy had to go to the hospital. She was really sick and in a room you couldn't visit. Your Mimi and Papa took good care of you since Daddy was with Mommy. I am so glad you are good babies and only wake up at night to eat! Finally mommy got moved to another room and you could come visit. This is the first time she got to see you in 3 days. 

Mommy got to go home a few days before your 3 week birthday. She was excited to give you your first real bath. Kenzie, you liked it till you had to get out and got cold. You draped your leg over the sling so it could soak in the water. Joseph, my friend, you were not and are still not a fan of the bath. You love to get out and get cozy in your hooded towel. 

When you were 3 weeks old we took your newborn pictures. It took 5 hours because Miss Kenzie, you would not sleep! They turned out great, though!

You guys really love each other, though Kenzie certainly is more interested in you, Joseph. You pretty much ignore your sis, unless you're trying to eat her. 

 You spent your first 4th of July on the couch with mommy. You were obviously VERY affected by the fireworks. 

Kenzie, you made a new best friend. Your Auntie Becky brought her girls over to babysit while mommy went to the doctor.  You had met Moriah a few days before. She really, really, REALLY loves you. 

Just before your one month birthday you made your first trip to Aggieland. Aunt Erin and Uncle Bill came to meet you, and you wanted to show them all the fun traditions on campus. Your Papa says OU, Aunt Erin says Arkansas, and Uncle Bill says UT (the good one in Tennessee). But remember, mommy is the one who grew you for 9 months, and she's the smart one to listen to. Your first word might just be howdy. 

This first month you made some great faces,  but these are my favorite we caught on camera. Kenzie Rebekah, you are DRAMATIC. We get two breaths warning before you are wailing. You stick out those lips and have a great pouty face. Right around one month you developed the ability to cry real tears and you work that into your dramatics now. Joseph, you too have a great pout. But you were the first to socially smile, and it just made Mommy's day. 

One month stats:

J:

Height- Mommy forgot to measure!

Weight- 8 pounds, 8 ounces

Sleep- The longest you've gone is 4 hours. 

Eat- Ravenously! And you make noises the whole time. 

Likes- Eating, sleeping on Mommy's chest, being in the wrap. 

Dislikes- Baths, having gas, being naked. 

K:

Height- Mommy forgot to measure!

Weight- 7 pounds, 4 ounces

Sleep- Little girl, you are our alarm clock. Count on you wailing every 3 hours on the dot. 

Eat- Though you wake to eat every 3 hours, you are a grazer. You'll eat an ounce or two, fall asleep, the wake up a few minutes later mad and hungry and drink another ounce. We just had your tongue tie clipped, so now you nurse with brother during the day and take formula at night. 

Likes- Daddy singing to you, being wrapped up cozy and warm, baths. 

Dislikes- Being cold, any form of discomfort not being fixed immediately, sun in your eyes. 

Happy one month, my sweet babies. I love you very much. 

Love, 

Mommy

The unexpected

So after I went to the appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday I woke up and was noticeably winded when walking around the house. I attributed it to the fact that I'd just had major surgery and everyone told me to expect recovery to be difficult. Also, I'd gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before, so of course I was exhausted. I started coughing a bit too, but everyone who's ever woken up in the same house as me knows I cough. My friends lovingly refer to it as my morning cough.

The next day everything was worse. I took a Zyrtec, thinking the cough/congestion was allergies. Throughout the day my breathing became more and more labored. I messaged Beth and she said she'd come by and just check. We both thought it was because of all the above symptoms as well as my blood pressure issues that were lingering from pregnancy. Later Beth said she'd had the fleeting thought that it could be my diagnosis, but it was just so rare. By around 4:30 my breathing was pretty bad. Mom put the babies in the car and we prepared to go to Beth's for her to check me out. By the time mom got in the car I told her we needed to go to the ER. I couldn't breathe. We went back to Woman's where I had delivered my sweet babies just a week before. I knew they had my history and figured this was linked to the c-section. We got to the ER and I was taken back immediately. I was put on oxygen, and spent the next 2 hours struggling to breathe. They reassured me that my pulse-ox was 100%, but that doesn't really matter to a person who feels like they can't breathe. They immediately did an EKG, a chest X-ray, and an echo cardiogram.  The chest X-ray revealed both lungs about 2/3 full of fluid. I had pulmonary edema- my body and lungs were overloaded with fluid. They started a drug that made me pee all the time and put in a catheter to collect the fluid. By the time they sent me to the ICU (a few hours) they had drained out 9 pounds of fluid and I was breathing much better. By an hour or two later i was hungry and wanting to eat (a good sign according to Beth). 

The next morning we got the results of the echocardiogram. I had developed a disease with a 1/4000 chance. It's called peripartum cardiomyopathy. So basically your heart generally pumps out 60% of the blood from your heart each time it beats. Normal/low normal is at least 50% and above, heart failure is 40% or below. This percentage is called your ejection fraction. Mine was only 34%. This was a big deal. I could have died, and the indicators were that I wouldn't really live a 'normal' life. With my type, peripartum (which means it developed in the last few months of pregnancy- 6 months postpartum), there was a 50% chance of full recovery but not till at least 6 months out. Another echo would have to wait at least 3 weeks because it wouldn't show enough change. 

Now there's a lot more to the story, but you don't really need to know it all. The important details are that I was I'm the hospital from Thursday to the following Wednesday. My parents and husband are amazing for taking care of me and my week old babies. I was in the ICU for 3 days and couldn't see the babies. I was released on 2 medications and wearing a life vest- a wearable defibrillator i had to wear at all times except when showering. They pulled out 15 pounds of fluid. In 2 weeks I had lost 53 pounds. 

I was feeling loads better when I got home. I am blessed to have a doctor best friend who helped me get an appointment with an awesome doctor. That awesome doctor changed my medications so I could breastfeed. She ordered a follow up echocardiogram. I had the follow up last week and today received the results. You ready? In a miraculous amount of time my heart is COMPLETELY NORMAL. She took me off all meds and the vest. She told me to go be exhausted for normal new mommy reasons. She told me to go live life as normal mom. I am so grateful to God for full recovery. The only thing affected in my life is that I cannot carry any more babies in my body (too much risk of this happening again). For that reason I am all the more grateful that God foreknew what would happen and gave me two babies- and one boy, one girl. As I sit here with my two precious sleeping angels, I could not be more grateful. 

The first time I heard this song after this it became so much more meaningful. He truly is our lighthouse. 

http://youtu.be/dSn9HW5P-sA

Babies and birth stories

So... We haven't told any baby stories yet, and I'm gonna have to go back and write our pregnancy story,  but before I forget too much I want to write the birthday story!

So, in mid May my doctor stopped saying "You're making this twin pregnancy thing look easy"! Up until 32 weeks that's what I heard each visit. But at 32 weeks my blood pressure slowly began creeping up. We did weekly testing to make sure I didn't have protein in my urine (a sign of preeclampsia). At 34 weeks he asked if i was still working. Thankfully, the day of that appointment had been my last day of teacher workdays for the school year. My rock star best friend, Beth, monitored my blood pressure daily. It continued to creep up. However, let me insert that our green card interview for Chile was scheduled for June 12- my 36th week of pregnancy. If I didn't appear with him at the interview we would have to go to immigration court, or possibly delay once again (loooong story, but this is our second go-round with the green card process). So we'd all been praying that the babies would make it until the 12th. On June 11 I went to the doctor. My bp was up again, and the protein was slowly  creeping up. My doctor was looking ahead to the weekend. He would be out of town. He didn't want anything happening while he was gone and he wanted to be the one to deliver me. He no longer saw the benefit of waiting till June 17 (when my c-section was originally scheduled for). He thought it was best for my health that we went ahead and delivered. THE. NEXT. DAY. JUNE 12. As in, the DAY of the interview. So we scheduled the c-section for 6 pm. We had to arrive at 4. Our interview was about 45 minutes away at 1:45. So crazy. But if you've read the "Our Story" posts, you know this is sort of how the Chiles roll. God was totally laughing at us- "You asked me if you could just make it till the. 12th, right?"  I left the office and called Chile. He, of course, was shocked. Apparently he left a training to answer my call. When he went back in he was speechless and dumbfounded to the point the manager running the training had to stop to see if he was ok. He couldn't get it out at first, but when he finally did everyone clapped and cheered. 

So the next morning we got up and went to breakfast.  I wasn't allowed to eat or drink after 10 am. We then ran some errands and got ready to go. We got to our interview site at 1:15, per instructions. At about 1:43 we heard someone mention how the things can run hours late. I began typing a text message asking our friends to pray for it to be at least close to on time because we didn't have time to waste. Before I even finished the message they called us back, right at 1:45. What a blessing! Our interview lady was super stoic. We answered questions to prove that we were actually married and cohabitating (wasn't my belly indication enough?!). We showed her our paperwork. We told her the babies we arriving that evening. No emotion. About 20 minutes later she told us she would review our file and let us know within 2 weeks. I wasn't worried- it was pretty obvious we were legit. Since we had so much time we went home. We relaxed and watched an episode of Shark Tank, and then headed to the hospital. 

At 4 we checked in and things got rolling.  They put an IV in me (I should say I have impossible veins and the nurse blew out 2 veins before calling an anesthesiologist to do it). Randomly, our nurse was a Cuban American. She recognized Chile's accent immediately and they started chatting. After they got me all ready they rolled a terrified me into the OR (I had never been in the hospital even before). Chile had to wait while I got the epidural put in. As they were doing the epidural they were speaking amazed about some black guy who was speaking Hebrew to some Orthodox Jews who had just come in the waiting room. "That's my husband actually. To make it even crazier, he's from Cuba." Honestly, the worst part of it all was getting the epidural. I am unable to not flich, which isn't good when they're trying to get a needle into a 1 cm space in your spine. Soon enough Chile was in the room and the super hip, motorcycle riding, single and loving it at 40, anethesiologist was narrating the c-section for us. It went fast. They held Joseph over the curtain and we both just started crying. Then he did too, which was just about the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. 2 minutes later Kenzie emerged, red and screaming. 6 lbs 13 oz and 5 lbs 1 oz respectively, they screamed and cried and settled as little bundled burritos on my stomach. And I'm pretty sure I cried again. 

They rolled me to the recovery room and brought both babies to me. They told me to try and nurse them. I remember thinking, "Ummm, no one is going to show me HOW?" We figured if out though. After a while they came back and took the babies. :-( Kenzie was headed to the NICU because she was small. Joseph was headed to the regular nursery because his blood sugar was low. I was rolled to my room. Thankfully, after an hour and a half, Joseph joined us. They monitored his sugars throughout the night, but he was fine. We spent that sweet first precious night snuggling and getting to know one another. 

They called my room to inform me that Kenzie would be staying in the NICU a bit longer. She had an irregular breathing pattern, which meant she would breathe for a while and then stop, and then start again. The doctor told me they would put her on an oxygen mask to help her regulate. If she improved she would move to a nasal cannula, then room air, then be released. If she didn't improve she would be given caffeine, but this meant she would have to go home with an apnea monitor. We all got to praying, and got a much sleep as we could that night. Friday Chile spent most of the day with our sweet girl in the NICU. She was doing well and progressed from the oxygen all the way to room air. I wasn't allowed out of bed almost the whole day, so I had to get phone updates via Chile and take care of my little man. Late in the afternoon the word was that she was doing great and was ready to leave the NICU. However, we got stuck in weekend rounding and the doc didn't write discharge orders before leaving Friday, so we had to wait till Saturday. Unfortunately, the rounding doctor (since it was the weekend) didn't come till lunch time so my girl didn't join us till the afternoon. 

Needless to say I was grateful to have two healthy, big, beautiful 36 weekers.  I know we were exceptionally blessed that they didn't have issues. 

My doctor had told me we could go home either Sunday or Monday, whatever we chose. I was recovering really well (not even taking extra pain meds) and was ready to stop being bothered by nurses checking all of our vitals at different 4 hour intervals thought the night. Sunday afternoon we gathered everything and headed home as a family of 4! 

That first night was baptism by fire.  They fussed and whined all night. We were exhausted. My parents arrived the next day. It was a calm day. Thankfully the next night was exceptionally better. They actually slept when they weren't eating. Thank goodness for the magic that are Sleep Sacks. Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Chile went to work, my mom took me to the ob and all of us to the pediatrician. We were all doing well, though I was pale and obviously anemic still. I was encouraged to eat lots of iron to help me recover from what the babies had drained me of. The babies got a clean bill of health and were sent home with the regularly scheduled 2 week appointment. 

The next day, without realizing it, my health took a turn for the worse. This will be another long entry, so you'll have to wait, but I don't want to scare anyone who doesn't follow me on fb- what happened was serious and still has health implications for me today, but I am home and doing fine. Hopefully that part can come tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with their beautiful stats:

Joseph Nathaniel Chile

June 12, 2014 at 6:42 pm

6 pounds 13 ounces

20.5 inches

Kenzie Rebekah Chile

June 12, 2014 at 6:44 pm

5 pounds 1 ounce

18.5 inches

Our Story: Marriage- The first six months

If you aren't married, you might feel like this post is a bit of a downer.  If you are married you'll understand the honesty of this post.

The first six months were NOT fun people.  Let me clarify, it was really the first four months that just plain stunk.  We had a lot of stuff against us, but thankfully we have our faith and moral commitments on our side. I'm not saying it was all bad.  But there were definitely more bad days than good days.  

Let me list the challenges of these first six months:

Challenge #1- Introvert vs. Extrovert

I (Jen) was working.  So I was gone all day long.

Conversely, Chile was not allowed to work.  So he was home all day long.  

Combine those two with our personalities- I'm an introvert (I promise I really am).  I have to leave the house all day.  So I get home and just want to stay, have some alone time, and then spend the rest of the evening with my husband in my house.  Chile is an extrovert.  But he couldn't leave the house because of challenge #2 (he didn't know how to drive and didn't have a license), and challenge #3 (he wasn't allowed to work). So when I got home he wanted to express all his extrovert-ness on me and he NEEDED to get out of the house and be social.  This caused many an argument.

Challenge #2: Driving

Chile had driven minimally in Cuba (think: less than 5 times).  And then imagine that your WIFE is the one who's teaching you how to drive.  And then remember the stress you caused your parents and the strain on the relationship as they taught you how to drive as a teenager.  And then seriously picture me teaching Chile how to drive in the fourth largest city in the U.S.  With lots of traffic.  And crazy drivers.   Y'ALL.  SO. MANY. STRESSFUL. TIMES. AND. ARGUMENTS.  Oh yeah, he also didn't know the city so I was the navigator.  But English is not his first language.  So there was confusion there with the verbal directions as well.  

I very vividly remember one Sunday when we were driving to church.  This was probably somewhere in month 3.  He misunderstood my directions and went the wrong way.  He almost got in an accident because of this.  He blamed me.  I blamed him.  We were both stressed and angry.  There were lots of tears.  I told him I didn't want to go to church.  He turned around and went back to the apartment.  I got out of the car.  He pulled out to drive to church on his own.  I was sobbing.  He wouldn't answer the phone.  It was a mess.  He came back.  We went to church.  I cried through the whole service.  I think I cried actually the whole rest of the day.  Words were said.  Words that involved how much easier it was to be single and how marriage wasn't any fun.  This was a real low.  

Thankfully, This was all part of the healing and growing together.  Chile likes to tell people about the Hebrew definition of the word "day".  In ancient Hebrew culture, the new day starts with the sun setting.  This means that the cycle of a day begins with the night.  After the night, the sun rises and you have your daytime.  He talks about how the Hebrew people used this as a comparison for life, and how God intended the cycle of our lives to be.  You see- the "day" begins with the "night"- AND it's all part of the process.  You have to go through the night to get to the day.  This was certainly what was going on in our household.  We were learning about ourselves and one another.  The other side of this is that it provides optimism because the day always comes.  And when the day comes you can see what you were unable to see during the night.  This is one explanation of Psalm 30:5b: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. The thought is that the cycle is the revelation of the will of God- the day is when God shows what had been "hidden" before (the night)- what you were unable to see in the struggle.  

Y'all- it WAS (in those days) easier to be single.  That's because ALL those things you avoid when you're single and ignore- the problems you are totally aware that you have but also completely pretend you don't have- those problems suddenly come to light.  Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's just because you have another person living in such close positioning to yourself.  But you can no longer ignore those things.  You have to accept them or fix them.  You have to bring them to light.  You have to see yourself for who you truly are-- and it's all the fault of that other person in your marriage.  Without them you could go back to your happy, deceptive oblivion.  So it's HARD.  It's hard not to blame them, because let's face it- IT'S THEIR FAULT YOU'RE DEALING WITH ALL THIS.  

Now we're a whole year removed from all of this.  And I'm SO grateful for the night that led to the day.  It was so necessary.  But going through it was hard.  

Challenge #3: The need to provide

I'm sure you are all aware of that innate thing in a man that drives him to provide for his family.  It's such a good quality from the Lord, but such a challenge when you have no choice but to reverse the roles.  For them (or at least Chile), it doesn't matter if the wife is working and providing plenty.  It matters if he is capable and accomplishing the task of providing for his wife (and children if there are any).  But until March, Chile was not allowed to work.  We had to do the change of status with immigration and wait for them to approve his work permit.  So he had to sit at home and wait.  I don't need to detail this struggle, but it was just an added challenge in the first six months of our marriage.  

We are so very grateful to the Lord for providing the work permit and a job that allows Chile to provide for our family.  Even that was a difficult thing as Chile's degree is worthless in America.  But instead of just accepting that and working as a cashier or dishwasher, Chile worked hard.  He learned a new career.  He learned how to sell cars, IN ENGLISH, with technology he had no idea existed.  And y'all, he's good at it.  I'm so proud of him.  

I'm not going to say that after six months our challenges just melted away.  But I will say, there was a moment somewhere in month 4, that we looked at each other and realized we'd gone a whole week without fighting.  And then the space gradually widened and we learned that we were both growing and changing.  We were figuring each other out, and we were figuring out who we were now as married people.  We learned how to balance our personalities, Chile became a (pretty) good driver, and was able to get a job.  Life got a whole lot better slowly, gradually, and almost without notice.  We still have our days, our moments.  But I'm so grateful for the first six months, because they've made this next year so much better.  For our six month anniversary Chile took me to a super nice restaurant in Houston.  It was not only our 6 month anniversary, but the next day was also my birthday.  We celebrated being together, all the good things God had done for us, and SURVIVING.  And we were happy.

Our Story: The wedding

So I've brought you right up to the month before the wedding.  FINALLY Cuba released Chile and let him come to America.  I am so grateful for all those who prayed on our behalf because I was just really, really angry.  His birthday was October 11th.  I had dinner with the Kisers and the Stearns.  Karis and I sung him a happy birthday and made a wish that he would get to the U.S. SOON! My dad prayed specifically that he would receive his exit visa as a birthday gift.

Guess what?  He DID!  The very next day he received the exit visa. I immediately bought his ticket, and he made plans to move from his current apartment back home and spend that last week with his family. On October 18th he was on his way to Miami.  We won't discuss the fact that he didn't call when he landed in Miami so I had NO IDEA if he'd made it to America (flight to Houston wasn't till the next day so that he could spend time with old friends) or the fact that he realized I was panicky and then called me at 2:30 in the morning.  We won't talk about how happy that made (or didn't make) me.  

So exactly one month before our wedding I took a half day off of work and headed to the airport to meet him.  What a crazy feeling, finally seeing him in the U.S.!  But we didn't have much time to think about it.  This was the ONLY weekend my whole family could meet up in Arkansas so that he could meet my parents before the wedding.  Therefore we got in the car, went to have a yummy first meal in America together at The Cheesecake Factory, stopped very quickly at what would become our apartment after we got married, and then got back in the car and drove 7.5 hours to Little Rock.  We arrived late that night and he briefly met my parents.  We spent that weekend together, introducing him to American football, football food, and family.  He even tried to teach the family how to salsa.  

Sunday we went to my dad's old (mega)church.  Poor guy.  As if America wasn't already overwhelming enough, this church is HUGE.  Chile was fascinated by everything.  Maybe one day I'll see if he'll write a blog entry on the culture shock (shopping, driving, cities, grocery stores, restaurants... the list goes on).  But no time to be fascinated, I had to work on Monday!  So we got back in the car Sunday afternoon and headed back to Houston.  That night I dropped him off at our new apartment, told him I loved him and would see him after work, and drove to Sugar Land to the house I would live in until the wedding.  

This was pretty much a pattern for the next month.  See each other after school, I would leave and go to the other house, then work, then start again.  Since Chile a) didn't have a driver's license b) didn't know how to drive c) didn't have a car and d) didn't have a work permit (he couldn't get one till after we were married) he pretty much just had to stay at the house all day long while I worked.  So that was no bueno for him.  

It was really hard to just sit around in a new country feeling slightly purposeless.  Add his feelings to my feelings of craziness (if you've ever planned a wedding you understand this one) and you have a volatile situation.  Oh, and add to the fact that you've never lived in the same country before so you have to have all your typical dating fights say, now, a month before your wedding, and you've got a situation friends. That month was HARD.  We had so many, ehm, "discussions" about whether this was America Jen or Crazy-Wedding-Planning-Mode Jen.  There were lots of tears.  Lots of growing pains.  In fact, we got into a HUGE blow out on the way to get our marriage license.  Then we got the license, got back in the car and resumed the battle on the way to print the wedding bulletins.  I remember pulling into the parking lot of Office Max and just sobbing.  And him being unsure he actually wanted to marry me because I wasn't the same person he had met in Cuba.  People, this was a HARD month.  

This was a good month too though.  We were finally in the same place.  Yes, it was hard, but we were starting to work through important things.  And we were together!  So we did enjoy that too.  And I knew that a lot of my crazy was about to end with the wedding, and he was patient enough to believe me when I told him it really would all be different.  

So that brings us to November 18th.  Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  My family had arrived.  His friends from Miami had arrived (just in the nick of time if I recall).  The pastor had arrived.  We were ready to go.  Things were finally falling into place.  And I finally got to the place of, "What ever happens I just don't care anymore."  So then I was able to enjoy myself.  We had a great rehearsal (poor Chile was so super nervous about all the repeat after me's in English!) and a wonderful dinner at Pappasitos.  The happy was setting in.

The next day was hands down one of the best days of my life.  I had a great night before sleepover with my girls.  God graciously helped a very pregnant Becky not to snore, so we all got a good nights sleep.  We went down in the morning to have breakfast at the hotel and then went to get our nails done.  I have no idea what the guys did all day, but they all made it to the wedding and ON TIME (impressive for a group of Cubans).  We went to get our hair done and before I knew it, it was time to take photos.  We had agreed to do a "first look" since photos on the beach were important to me and our wedding was in the evening.  I absolutely love the first look photos though.  It was such a precious moment and helped both of us not to be so nervous for the ceremony.  

                                          

                                              

The ceremony was wonderful.  Again, I could not have better memories of the day.  In between the ceremony and reception Chile and I watched a video his friends in Cuba had made him, congratulating him on the day.  It was pretty emotional.  But then we went back upstairs, ate BBQ, and had a party!  It had been a long journey, but we had done it- we were married! 

 Friends praying for us and our marriage.

 I LOVE this one!  All of our sweet little flower girls and ring bearers.  Some of my favorite memories are from those two little guys, just 6 and 8 at the time.  Just before I walked down the aisle Jay, then 6, looked at me and said, "This sure is a special day for you, isn't it Ms. Jen?"  It was too sweet.  And then I found out later that when Gabe, 8, sat down next to his mom he teared up.  She asked him what was wrong and he told her he was just so happy for us.  I love those precious memories of those tough but sweet little boys.

Throwing the bouquet- check out the 2 girls in the back.  I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH.

 Chile was so happy because I trusted him (after practicing less than a month) to drive us the few blocks to the hotel.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a little scary.  And never teach your husband how to drive.  

Oh the arguments that ensued the next several months...

We stayed in Galveston the next week for our honeymoon.  My family stayed too, so we went over to their house on Thanksgiving and had the traditional meal with them.  Then my dad took the family to Pleasure Pier, a small amusement park.  Have I mentioned how much Chile does not enjoy heights?  These, along with a FEW others ;), are some of my favorite memories of our honeymoon.

 Chile on his first "roller coaster".  That's my four year old niece in the cowgirl boots and jeans.  

She's pretty relaxed.  He is too, before the ride starts.  

 Mind you, this thing just goes up and down and is not all that high.  It's a child's ride after all.  

I NEVER buy roller coaster photos, but we had to get this one.  This is me, my sister, and dad all screaming in delight.  And poor Chile holding his breath.  Now, to give him some credit, this IS a real roller coaster and it has a pretty much straight down drop.  So props for riding it at all.  However, the face, OOOH the face- it's a priceless memory.