NEW BLOG!

You should check out my new blog for updates! =)   http://web.me.com/melanie.ann

If you know how to move over all of these posts to my new blog, you should let me know!  It's a work in progress but I already love it so much more than I like blogger.com.

(so... I wrote this yesterday and my pictures never uploaded...so let's just pretend that it's still yesterday so I don't have to re-write my post! =))  Hopefully I'll post a picture or 2 soon!

What an incredible day this has been!  We went to the dr. today and found out that we will be welcoming a baby girl into this world July 25th.  God has truly blessed our growing family and I am so thankful!  After our appointment we went to Target and picked up a few things for our precious little one, but then I had to go back to work (blah!).  Gavin and I decided that we wanted to tell his parents the news, but we wanted to wait and do dinner with my parents and Mer and Jordan tonight to break the news to them.  It was so hard keeping a secret from all of my friends, and especially some of my co-workers who kept asking and trying to find different ways to get it out of me, but I didn't budge! I was so proud of myself!  I can be a big push-over sometimes and just give in, but not this time! =)  I pray that Gavin and I will grow to be the Godly example that we are called to be and that our child will never know anything but love!  

I think we've decided on a name for her, but we're holding off on telling everyone because it's not set in stone yet.  Gavin doesn't want people to get attached to the name just yet, because we haven't completely decided on it (even though we're like 98% sure it'll stick).  For now we'll just pray that Baby Girl will continue to grow stronger and stronger each day!  20 weeks down, 20 weeks to go!

So...just real quick--I started the Beth Moore bible study tonight called 'A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place.'  I already love it!

Just a small piece of insight from tonight...

"The day our Savior bore the thorns in His flesh was the day God perfected the ultimate sufficiency of grace."

Nicely put.  His grace really is enough for me.  Now if I could just live like I believe that... 

Have a blessed week!

Halfway Point!

Well, I'm 20 weeks tomorrow and I really just can't believe how fast time has gone by!  I realize that for about 8 weeks of that time I didn't know that I was pregnant, but I like to pretend like I did so I make myself believe the next 20 or so will go by just as fast! =)  

Okay we have our dr. appointment on Monday and we find out if we will be welcoming a son or daughter into this world! What a blessing! We will be absolutely thrilled with either one, but we are having a hard time being patient and waiting to find out!!  I'm thinking girl...What do YOU think?  

Gavin and I went to Babies R Us last weekend--what an overwhelming place that is! Holy cow, there is so much stuff to look at!  I can't wait to go register for all of that fun stuff to make way for baby Greer! YAY!  I can't wait to hold our precious little one in my arms!  I've heard that you never know how much you can love something/someone until you hold your baby in your arms...I can't wait for that feeling!

Sonogram pictures to come......

This week.

Just in case you were curious as to how big Baby is getting and what's going on this week....

Week 19

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting.

Ya know, I was talking to Teresa at church about how incredible the development of a baby is...you may be thinking, what?!  However, it completely blows my mind to think about how tiny the little peanut starts out and in just over 12 weeks all major organs have been formed and in place--granted they can't all function yet, but seriously, it fascinates me more than anything.  In my life, this has reminded me what a mighty and powerful God that we really serve.  I am not sure how else to describe the development of a baby inside the womb....every organ develops in the right place and can fully function, the heart divides into 4 chambers, I could really go on and on---but do people really think this just automatically happens and it's by chance that everything is placed right where it should be?  Gosh I hope not.  I am not sure how we could find any other explanation than it being the Divine hand of God who is forming each and every child and designing each of us with such intricate detail.  Blows my mind.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. 

Have a GREAT weekend!

MG

Meet Farley

Well, this is my pride and joy, Farley.  He is almost 2 years old now and is pretty much the best ever (contrary to what Gavin thinks)!  However, Farley is quite the mischievous one and seems to constantly find himself in trouble with Gavin.  So, in the near future, my little man is going off to boot camp for Obedience School!  We've decided to do this because I could never dream of giving Farley away when the baby comes, but he is too out of control to be around such a little bitty baby!  We're just looking for him to calm down a little bit---You see, he has this problem where he just can't contain his excitement.  This is something that I have grown to love about him because he is the first one to greet me when I get home from work and jumps all over me and is just overly excited about me getting off work; however, now that we have a baby on the way, I have a feeling this quality of jumping up and uncontrollable excitedness is not going to be near as cute.  Anyway, I'll keep you posted on when we decide to do it---but we're thinking it will be in the next few months.  It will be hard to part with him for a while, but I think it will be for the best.  Anything to convince Gavin we should still keep him around!! =)

12 days and counting until the BIG day that we find out whether we'll be decorating with pink or blue!!! Yay!

Memorable Weekend Trip! =)

We're back from our weekend get-away to Oklahoma, and it was nothing short of fabulous!  Gavin wanted to combine Valentine's Day and our Anniversary all in one since I'll be super pregnant by the time the end of May rolls around, so he took Sunday off from church and we packed up the car!  We stayed Friday night with Gav's parents and, as always, it was so great to see them!  They really are such a blessing and it was great to share some sweet time with them!  Saturday we got up and got ready for the day and headed off to the mall.  Gavin let me buy some new clothes (ALWAYS a treat!) and I wore one of my new dresses (in the pic above) that night to dinner.  I was extremely stubborn about it because I really wanted to wear my new dress to dinner despite the fact that it was like 25-30 degrees outside and it was a short-sleeved, knee-length dress!  Yes, I did freeze, but dangit I got to wear my new dress! =) While we wanted to go somewhere super fancy, apparently Gav and I don't really plan ahead that well because we neglected to call anywhere to make reservations until early Saturday afternoon, and by that time everything was booked since it was Valentine's Day.  Anyway, we ended up going to Cheesecake Factory and it was fabulous!  We ended up staying one more night in Oklahoma and we came home today (Monday) just in time for my dr. appointment.

Basically, this weekend was exactly what Gavin and I needed---just to get away, with no agenda and just have fun!  It was a weekend full of laughs and good memories, and a special time that I'm sure we will never forget!  This was probably our last 'just because' trip just the 2 of us for a real long time since we have a little one on the way, which made this trip all the more special!

My appointment this morning went well--we heard the heartbeat again and the dr. said everything looked and sounded good and healthy!  AND the most EXCITING part of the visit was that we set up our next appointment and on March 9th we will find out whether Baby Greer is a boy or a girl!  Oh my goodness I can hardly stand it!!!  3 more weeks!!

Well, that's it for now.  Until next time........

Oh--here are a few pics.  Gav thought he could make his tummy stick out as far as mine....and this is my "I will beat you everytime look!"