It's a..........

GIRL!!!! We are having a baby girl and we couldn't be more excited (although we would have been just as excited had it been a boy--there just wouldn't have been as much hyperventilating on Johnny's part haha! Johnny was definitely thinking about 16/17 years into the future when boyfriends start showing up and a wedding comes into play and oh all the drama that girls bring; but we all know that that sweet little girl is going to have her daddy wrapped around that cute little finger of hers!) If you would have asked me I would have thought it would have been a boy, but I am THRILLED that there is a little girl coming our way. (Guess my motherly instincts aren't quite present yet--haha!) Johnny said he knew it all along but of course he wouldn't take a guess.....party pooper!

In our doctor visit on the 25th (our last with the doctor in Evansville, which is so sad because we absolutely love her!) she said that all the organs, umbilical cord, placenta, bone development, etc looked fantastic. The only thing that she saw was that our little girl (love being able to say that!) is a little bigger than normal at this stage, but said there was nothing to worry about at all and most who are a little bigger than normal, average out throughout the pregnancy. (This "big" thing definitely threw me off because Johnny and I were both around 6lb babies and I've still only gained 4 pounds....so the weight I have gained really is all baby.) Needless to say, we were and are on cloud 9!! Now it is on to buying all kinds of girly things!

We definitely want to thank our friend and Johnny's assistant Mallory for coming to stay at the house with the movers while we went to our doctor appointment, we truly appreciate it! (By the way, we are so excited for Mallory and her husband Nick who we threw the shower for in April as they just welcomed their little boy Camden!!!!!!!!)

After much discussion, we have decided to name our little girl Mellany Elaine. We both just fell in love with the name Mellany and we are giving her a family middle name. Elaine is my mom's middle name as well as mine. We had a hard time at first deciding on a name, particularly between two: Milayna and Mellany. But, after giving Mellany a "trial run" we decided it fits pretty well. Finding the right name was a much more difficult task than I thought it ever could have been. Your name is your name that you have for your entire life which is a ton of pressure in itself and being a teacher made it even more difficult to find the perfect name because I think I've been around almost every possible name that exists so finding one that I don't associate with a former student was pretty hard. But all in all we are extremely happy with the name Mellany and just cannot wait till she makes her arrival!

Here are the pictures we got from the ultrasound (which they so nicely put on a disk for us!) It's amazing how much we already love her!

Boxes, Boxes & MORE Boxes

I think that yesterday might have been the most hectic day I have ever had. Between Johnny and I there were a million things to accomplish and nothing seemed to be going our way. Our movers came to pack us up and while it was so nice not to have to do it ourselves, the mess that was left when they finished (at 8:00 p.m. mind you) was almost unbearable for me. But it is what it is and we are VERY thankful for the moving company.

Today is my last day of work (for the next oh, 5, 6, 7 years) as I will be staying home with our baby(ies) until they reach school age. I'm excited that I will be able to stay home but it is very surreal to be here at my last day of work for a few years. We are actually on a 2 hour delay today as well because we had some bad storms roll through last night which caused many residents to be without power (hence the reason I am able to complete a post!). Luckily all we got was some wind, but of course it added to the already long day.

In front of our first home together :-)

And the chaos inside.... 

The movers will load up the semi-truck today and haul it off. This is our last night in Evansville and we're off to spend the weekend in KC tomorrow. We still close on the house on May 31st but it is looking like there's a possibility for that to get delayed which means we'll be staying in a hotel for a while.....I had planned for this when we were packing so it's not too much of a devastation but definitely not ideal.

Here's to hoping for smooth moving! 

Baby Shower

Terri Jo & I threw Amy a baby shower this past weekend in preparation for Daxton's arrival. Daxton is already so loved! Hopefully I'll be able to put more pictures up soon-things are just nuts around here!

Eating and visiting

Decorating quilt pieces that will be put into a quilt for Daxton's room (more on this later)

Lots of gifts!

Yay for cousins! Amy at 31 weeks and me at 17 weeks

18 Weeks

Almost half way there!!! Things are still going great, I just have an increasing belly size. I can still somewhat feel Baby B moving in there, but no kicks or punches yet. We head to the doctor tomorrow and we'll find out wether we've got a boy or girl on the way; which means we get to actually see the little one and we absolutely LOVE that!

We have ordered baby furniture now that we are closing on a house in NE and it will come in towards the end of June. I just can't wait to start putting things together for him/her. Neither of us can really believe that it is all going so quickly!

     



We're wrapping up our last week in Evansville and of course we have like a million things to do. We are hoping that our close date of May 31 sticks otherwise we'll be in limbo until we can close--and those of you who know me know that this will be an adjustment/growing period for me because I'm not a "limbo" kind of person! Please pray! ha :-)

16 Weeks

(as of Monday May 9)......and feeling great! I have lots of "butterflies" moving around in my belly and I'm so excited to be able to feel the actual punches and kicks of our little one someday soon. I have fully converted to the elastic waistbands which is a nice change. We went to the doctor on the 3rd of May and she said everything was great. Baby Barrett's heartbeat was 150 and strong and I've gained a whopping 2 pounds to get the weight gain train moving. We will find out the gender of our little bean at our last Evansville dr. appointment on May 25th and we are very anxious for that!

16 Weeks and really starting to show some more! 

This past week was very crazy for us as we were in Kearney, NE finding our home! On Monday, we spent the day looking at 14 homes, yes, 14! Needless to say, I was beyond exhausted that night. Once 5:00 hit, I was done. BUT, we did find a great home in our price range and we put an offer in that next morning. By that night they had countered the offer and we accepted! The house is brand new construction in a great location near many parks and a new elementary school. Since the house is brand new and vacant, we are able to close on May 31! This means we have TONS to get done in the next 2 weeks; including move and sell our house. Luckily Cargill takes great care of it's employees and all we have to do is be present while Allied packs up our things and hauls it off for us. And, if we don't sell our house Cargill will take care of that too. But that does still leave us with plenty to do to finish things out here and get things taken care of for our new home. We're beyond excited for this new adventure but will still be sad to leave Evansville and all the friends we have made here. 

Pictures to come soon, hopefully! 

Surprise!

I absolutely love surprises and today's suprise just made my day! My day was already starting out pretty good knowing that we were on a 2 hour delay so I had a little bit of extra time to sleep and get ready. But when I got to school it got even better. Two of my students surprised me with a "baby celebration". They came in to school extra early and had our custodian let them in my room. Then they worked as hard as they could to keep me out of the room once I had gotten there. When I walked in I saw the streamers, balloons, food, gifts, etc and was instantly overwhelmed with happiness. (These are the same 2 girls who gave me the list of recommended baby names. lol) There are some days with teaching that are more difficult than others and it is days like today when I feel that somehow, I really am making a difference. It definitely makes you feel good!

I thought I would post some pictures of what the girls did for me. I am so thankful and appreciative!

With my 2 "celebration" givers. Notice the balloon...it says "It's a boy" and then on a piece of paper they wrote "Or girl" :-)

Love the signs on the chalkboard 

Opening my cards and gifts 

They got me a bottle.... 

....and a sock and mitten set

  

 The signs...

The food... 

And the sweet sweet girls!  

This is one of those days that I don't think you ever forget as a teacher! 

Baby BBQ Bash

This past Saturday (our last in Evansville since we will be in KC every weekend in May) we hosted a baby shower for Johnny's assistant Mallory, and her husband Nick. We had burgers and brats, cookie cake and presents among many other fabulous food creations. Johnny and I really had a great time having everyone over and it just showed us that we don't have people over near enough. I'm not quite sure how we ended up in the garage for the gifts, but everyone had plenty of space and didn't seem to mind so that's where we stayed--just doesn't make that great of a backdrop for gift opening.

Nick & Mallory

It's the Mallory Monkey! 

Amara wanted to help with opening the gifts