Abby's 1st Birthday

I can't believe my little munchkin turned 1!!! It's just amazing to me how much she's grown up and how much God has blessed us in the past year. Abby started out her birthday in style with an oatmeal facial (she decided to smear her breakfast all over her face). After that she watched a little Baby Einstein, played with the puppies and took a good nap to rest up for all that was in store the rest of the day.

After her nap and lunch she then moved on to a session of afternoon reading before getting ready for her party.


Grandma decorated her ladybug cake and we were so happy with how it turned out!



That evening was the party and there were a lot of people that came - she was so fortunate to get all these nice gifts! Thanks to everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us it meant a lot!

Now this was definitely not her first time eating cake but it was her first time we let her eat it without a fork...she wasn't too sure what to do - I think she was more excited about all the friends that came to celebrate with her.

It's amazing how quickly time flies during the evening and with it being a school night most of her friends had to leave before she could even open presents. We couldn't believe how much she got and all we kept thinking was where are we going to put everything!

The next day Dustin had off so we got all her presents out and assembled them. The puppies were pretty excited about all the new things Abby brought home.

Mom and I knew that we had to do something with all the clutter since the living room was becoming the baby toy room, so we re-organized the office so that half of it is Abby's play room. After Christmas the rest of the room will become Abby's permanent room as Abby's current room will become the Twins nursery. You got to get creative when you're going to have 2 adults, 1 toddler, 2 babies and 2 puppies living in a 3-bedroom house. So we finally got our living room back and Abby now loves her new play room.

NC Aquarium

While we were at the beach we went to the Aquarium that was a few miles from the hotel. It has been so nice having the NC Zoo Society membership because you can get in free to most all Zoos/Aquariums nationwide. Abby's favorite parts were being able to splash in the sting ray pool water and also watch the fish/sharks in a frenzy during feeding time.

Impromptu Beach Trip

I woke up Friday morning knowing that Mom had left a few days before to go Idaho to help Michelle get her house together to move and thought what are we going to do this weekend? Dustin had it off and wasn't racing anywhere so I thought lets get-away and take a quick weekend trip to the Beach. I had a ton of hotel points through Sheraton so I found that the Sheraton Atlantic Beach was available and booked it. I also realized that there was an Aquarium minutes from the hotel which was perfect since we are NC Zoo Society members and would get in free. So unbeknownst to Dustin I got he, Abby and I all ready and packed, found some great friends to check on the puppies for the weekend and we were all ready to go.

I made sure that Dustin was going to get home on time so we could leave as soon as he got home an showered. So when he got home I told him to hurry up and get showered because we were going to the beach. He was definitely surprised and excited to get away for the weekend as the week had been long at work. He said later that he was surprised that we were going but yet not really because he never knows what I'm conjuring up in my head for our family to do...yep, I always keep him on his toes haha.

So we headed off to Atlantic Beach, NC which was about a 4 hour drive away. We got there about 11pm and headed straight to bed. About 1am we heard this beeping and in a groggy state asked each other what it was. From working in hotels for years I started realizing that I thought it was the fire alarm but the majority of the time it was a false alarm so we laid there for awhile. After hearing several hotel room doors shutting I thought I'll just call the front desk to see what the deal was. Indeed it was a fire alarm and indeeed we needed to evacuate. Despite the inconvenience we decided we weren't going to let it ruin our vacation. So we grabbed Abby in her jammies and her blanky and headed down 6 flights of stairs. We waited outside for awhile and found out it was probably someone smoking in their room (it was a non-smoking hotel) and they dismantled the smoke detector so they wouldn't get caught. This is a common occurence in non-smoking hotels and it doesn't make sense since there were balconies off each room. So we hiked back up the 6 flights of stairs and went back to bed. Oh what fun!

The next morning we got up and went to breakfast at a local diner (the food was mediocre) and then went to the beach outside the hotel. Abby had never been to the beach before and loved every minute of it. She especially loved grabbing big handfuls of sand and eating it...yum! The weather was perfect and so was the water temperature. We had a great time!

TWINS?!? I'm at a loss for words (and that's not often)

Yesterday Dustin and I went to the Dr. for our first soniagram. I figured it would be fairly routine and what we experienced when we saw Abby for the first time. Thankfully Dustin actually got to take off a little early and go with because the surprise that happened soon after would've been hard to swallow alone, not-to-mention sad that Dustin missed it.

With Abby coming into this world not too long ago and my surgery (removed a 3"cyst, my right ovary & right tube) in April, Dustin and I are pretty familiar with my insides and knowing what is what. As she started the scan we started to see 2 black spots and then a baby in each. The lady said "Do y'all see what I'm seeing?" and as Dustin and I look at each other in disbelief she says "Y'all are having twins!". Shock is not even the word for it...this blind-sighted us so hard that all we could say was "Oh wow & how is this possible since we don't have twins in our families."

From the start when we found out I was pregnant with Abby we said that fertility was a blessing and children are as well. Now that we are "blessed" with 2 more on the way, we are praying that God "blesses" us with the tools/space needed to take care of these blessings. Please pray that our faith would remain strong knowing that God will provide. We are very grateful and thankful that my mom is next door and has already helped and will continue to help us tremendously. We are also very thankful for the friends who have already offered babysitting, baby stuff and prayers!

With all that said they've given me a new due date of April 1st and hopefully they will be early (as twins usually are) so that they don't have that birthday :). If anyone has any tips on twins or websites for freebies hehe please let us know. For those who have already voted on our poll we're sorry but you'll have to vote again as the poll has changed.

TWINS...I keep on having to say it so it will hopefully sink in! And for those wondering Dustin is coping fine...excited, but still in shock. Nothing we've ever done has been conventional so why start now, right?

God's new gifts on the way...

In the middle of July we received a phone call from my niece, Emily, that my sister Michelle is pregnant with her 2nd child. We were all so excited to find out the news and even doubly excited because Josh and Michelle are going to be stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, NC this coming Winter (and more than likely for the next 3 years or so). Goldsboro is 3 hours away and that trip seems like a hop, skip and a jump compared to Mountain Home, ID where they have been the past 3 1/2 years. Michelle is due March 1st and Emily is elated to have a new brother or sister.

The following Thursday, Dustin and I also found out that WE TOO ARE EXPECTING!!! This was not planned by us, but by God and we are very excited to have another addition to the Keath Family, Abby and the baby will be 18 months apart. The thought of double strollers, double car seats and double the diapers was a little overwhelming at first but knowing that God is in control has put our minds at ease and we know that with His help we will adapt just fine. My due date is April 3rd and we're praying that I'm not too early and Michelle isn't too late because Grandma can only be in one place at one time and we would like to enjoy each birth individually haha. I put up a poll on our side bar (at Emily's request) for everyone to vote what they think the baby will be.

We are truly blessed!!!

Back to Iowa for Dustin

It seems like Dustin has been in Iowa every other weekend racing and he was back again for the Inaugural Nationwide Race. Austin drove in the #2 High Point University Chevrolet and did great in practice being 5th quick. Friday night they had the Sprint Cars at the track so the guys came back and watched the race from a suite (thanks Chuck!). They had all kinds of great food and enjoyed a great race and then afterward also got backstage passes to the Kellie Pickler concert. It was neat that they got this great opportunity to relax and have fun because they definitely work long, hard hours at the track each day.

On Saturday was qualifying and Austin qualified 16th. The race unfortunately didn't turn out too great as Austin got wrecked a few times and had to be towed off pit road. It was definitely a bummer day for the guys...but hoping to make a comeback at the Michigan Nationwide Race on the 15th.