A/N Nearing on 200 reviews, thank you, and hats off to LAH for her contribution .x

OffPiste

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At the end of October, our families descended on Tahoe. With Edward feeling torn about the time he was going to be away from me and the babies, and me feeling anxious and emotional about the same thing, some sort of silent decision had occurred and it was going to be all hands on deck to support us.

Carlisle and Esme had a timeshare about ten minutes away which they secured for the winter. Renee and Phil made their first big trip from NZ since they came to watch my Olympics in Turin. They rented an apartment in our building, two doors down from the one Jasper and Alice rented with Charlie. Alice was taking some time off post-honeymoon, before starting a new job the next year. I really appreciated the fact my family would give up their time to be with us.

The place was quickly abuzz with everyone coming and going. We planned on making a decision about buying a bigger house somewhere once the Olympics were over. Our apartment was a good size, but I wanted our kids to have a yard to play in. For now, though, it was one thing at a time. Or two at a time when it came to the babies.

Twins apparently had a tendency to arrive early, so I could go into labor any day. My specialist encouraged me to be on bed rest as much as possible. I was well - blood pressure good, body coping – but I'd definitely slowed down in the last month. The babies were quite little, but doc told me not to be concerned, they still seemed healthy and quite content in my belly. I upped my intake of Edward's specialty dish, Italian lamb ragu, and my favorite ice cream from New Zealand that Renee had cold freighted over before she left.

The weekend after they all arrived, Esme and Renee threw me a baby shower. Together with Alice and Rose, they had baked up a storm, with pink, blue and white everything. They decided to play it safe and just cover all color bases, given we didn't know the sexes.

Our apartment was filled with happy, raucous females, who were way too generous to me and the bump. I didn't think that there was a single thing left that we needed for these kids. I was glad Edward and I had only bought a couple of little bits we hadn't been able to resist. We now had a stupidly flash double stroller from Carlisle and Esme, as well as two single ones "just in case they came in handy". We had cots, a rocking chair, soft toys, onesies, socks, bibs, cloths, swaddle wraps, contraptions for my boobs which I had no idea how to use... For small humans, they came with a hell of a lot of stuff.

Tanya made the trip over from Aspen where her and James had been. They were looking to buy a house, and I was thrilled to hear that Tahoe was at the top of the list. My manager Rachel came out from LA, bearing gifts not only from her, but also some cute branded mini snow hats, socks and mittens from my friends at Dynastar, and two miniature ride-on Audis from my old sponsorship manager who now worked with Edward.

It was an afternoon for the girls, but at 5 p.m. all the males were allowed back for drinks and nibbles. I was on the sparkling water, and Edward was downing cola. He told Emmett it was because he was in training, but I knew it to be otherwise. The long suffering baby daddy probably would've killed for a Heineken. We let the boys join in on the guess the sexes and weights game. Emmett wanted to play guess how big my belly was, but Rosalie vetoed that idea with a quick smack across the back of his head.

As Esme told a story of how Carlisle had made similar accidental male species insensitivities when she was pregnant with Rosalie, Edward kissed my temple and rubbed his hand over his favorite round; as if on cue, one of them gave a fluttering kick for their daddy's hand.

Surrounded by everyone that night, I finally felt ready for our babies to arrive.

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