Dixon Doubles: *Announcing Our Secret*

On Tues, Sept 1, Nick & I went to our first ultra-sound. I scheduled it to be right after work for me, so Nick had to have someone cover a class or two for him at the gym he coaches at. His office manager is also our neighbor & very good friend, so Lexa was curious as to why Nick had to leave to go to the doctor. Needless to say, Nick was too excited when he returned to work to not share our secret with his co-workers....he was on "cloud 9" after finding out it was twins! Within 24 hours of finding out we were expecting twins, we were traveling to Indiana for my Uncle Bill's wake. We went to my parent's house first to rest & get cleaned-up for his viewing. Nick & I had been unsure if we were going to announce our news, but once we found out it was twins, we knew we wanted to, it was just a matter of when. It was really hard being at my Mom & Dad's house & seeing them & my younger sister, Trista, and yet not being able to tell them about the twins. On our way to the funeral home, we decided we would announce our big news that night since most of our family would be present. Towards the ending of the night, I asked my family members to go outside to take a family photo. My family is big in taking pictures, but for some reason, they were all being quite difficult. We took some family photos at Gramps' funeral, so I guess that didn't see the need for more. After we finally got most of them outside we gathered together for a big group shot. Tera & Trista kept asking "why is Nick taking the picture & not in it?" My response was, "don't worry about it, lets just take the picture & get it over with." For the first picture, Nick said "everyone smile- Tracee's pregnant!" My brother's response was "ha, that is funny." Finally, my family believed him & were very happy to hear our news. We then took a 2nd picture and Nick said "everyone smile- because it is TWINS!" This time, everyone was shocked into silence except my sister, Tera, who started jumping up & down screaming. We got to spend the rest of the evening & next day visiting with family about our newly announced secret! Since we had only known it was twins for 24 hours, Nick & I were also still in shock! When we traveled down to Evansville to meet Nick's family for dinner, we were also happy to announce our news to them. Nick asked his parents if they would be happy about getting new grandchildren. It was so sweet when his Mom, Kitty, said "oh is Marley having puppies?" Ha ha! I think it was my BIL, Ryan, that finally caught onto what Nick was asking and said, "Oh she's pregnant!" Nick's sister, Les (Ryan's wife) and Nick's sister, Shannon, were super happy to hear our news as they have been waiting patiently for us to have kids. Although it has been a rough year losing my Gramps & Uncle Bill, we are very happy to bring into our family 2 new members. The twins make it "Papaw's 6 pack" for both of our dads.

"Smile Tracee's pregnant!" (Notice everyone smiles, but no one believes Nick.)