It's A...

Girl! A precious, healthy, beautiful baby girl! Levi and I couldn't be more excited or blessed! Enjoy her first picture!

We had our first ultrasound this morning at 8:15. So, seeing the baby for the first time and finding out the sex, was double the emotion! The ultrasound tech goes through everything about the baby's body before telling you what the sex is, which they save for last. The experience didn't get emotional though until she brought up the side profile picture. When we saw it, both of us started tearing up. It was a "Wow, that is our baby" moment, which hit me harder than I expected.

Then when she said it was a girl, the flood gates opened! Both of us were hoping for a girl, but almost everyone else in our family felt like it was going to be a boy. Because of this, we were shocked when she said girl! The tech also told us that I was carrying her very low, and that she was laying directly on my bladder :) Today, she was head up, bottom down and her heart rate was 155. As far the name goes, it will be kept secret until the day she is born. We want that to be a surprise for everyone!

Tonight we celebrated with family and friends both in person and over the phone. We did cupcakes with my family (thanks Brooke and Sarah). My brother's girlfriend Tiffany makes the best icing and cupcakes and she was nice enough to make them for us. As you can see from the picture everyone was leaning more toward boy.

God is so incredibly good! Levi and I are overwhelmed that he has picked us to raise this sweet little girl!

New Family Member!

Carrigan Hope Gurley was born this past Monday, March 9th, 2009. Her proud parents, Luke and Julia, are our first cousins on Levi's dad side. As you can see from the picture they both graduated from Georgia Tech. Carrigan was 5 weeks early, but both mom and baby are doing well! She weighed 5~2 and was 17 in. long.

She is the 2nd of five new cousins who will be born in Levi's family this year, with Baby E being one of the three yet to come. The first Briley Adelle was born in January, and we are expecting one more this month, one in April, and us in September. Holiday get togethers are about to be even more crazy than before! Both of us have very large families and we wouldn't want it any other way!

Congrats Gurley's on your new addition! Carrigan...we can't wait to meet you in person!

As Promised...

My first baby bump picture! I am dressed up because we were actually getting ready to drive to Birmingham for a family member's baby shower. Weirdly enough, I am glad to finally be showing and for others to know, not wonder if I am expecting. I will say one thing though, maternity clothes are expensive...if anyone has any that they would like to sell or pass along, let me know...I just might take you up them! I have bought several pieces at Motherhood and a Pea in the Pod...all I can say is that everyone is going to get used to seeing me in the same clothes over and over again!

**Don't forget to vote for what you think Baby E will be. I posted a survey a few days ago. Our appointment is two weeks from today!

Let The Countdown Begin!

In less than 3 weeks (March 23), we will have our first ultrasound and hopefully find out if we are having a boy or girl! We are so excited, that we can hardly take the wait. However, the most important aspect of the ultrasound will be checking to make sure everything is physically normal with Baby E. Please pray that everything is perfect and that Levi and I will not dwell on the things that could be wrong. Pray that we will continue to trust God, and rest in the knowledge that everything will be according to His plan.

Meanwhile, my 14 week checkup was Tuesday morning. Everything is progressing perfectly...and I have actually started to show! This time they found the baby's heartbeat almost immediately and kept it long enough to measure it at 169 beats per minute. Another highlight of the visit, was that I had lost an additional 2 lbs. That will probably be the last time that happens for several months :)

I will post a picture this weekend of my bump...I would tonight, but I look like I have had a long day. So I will wait till Saturday when I feel and look a little better.

Until next time...

Crazy Weekend Weather: Part II

Although we endured much bad weather at home (read my post below), we also had the joy of seeing much more snow than we do down here. Most years, we actually had to take our snow days and some of the biggest came during February and March. Sunday’s snow reminded me of being home again. God is so good…after a day of storms he gave us a day of unimaginable beauty. I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as we did!

We started our day at 7:30. My sister, who went back to our hometown this weekend, called and asked if it were snowing here and informed us that they had 3 inches so far. Doubtingly, I got Levi to look out the window and astonished he said, "the ground is covered." We immediately went to get my Mom up, she spent the night with us Friday, and began planning our day. We played in the yard for a while and then drove around downtown, lastly stopping for coffee at Taylor's Bakery.

Some of the student's had a sling shot for snowballs in front of Samford and were hitting cars as they drove by. I was trying to take a picture and they decided to fling two into our car. I am telling you, if one had come through my window into my face, it wouldn't have just been snow on the front page of the OA news Monday morning! Before we went back in for the day, Levi said...this is the most fun I have had in a very long time...I absolutely have to agree!

Crazy Weekend Weather: Part I

Wow! What a wonderful/scary weekend it has been...Our Sunday was awesome! We were like little kids once we saw there was snow on the ground. But I will begin with Saturday morning…

Levi left for work in Tallassee at 5:30 a.m. because they needed an engineer to make sure a new part was up and running. All week the news had been reporting that there would be storms Friday and Saturday morning, but that they didn't think they would be severe. Well...they were wrong. Long story short, Levi ended up having to go to his company's "safe place" because a funnel cloud was spotted over their building. A tornado actually touched down a couple of miles from where he was, but thankfully no one was injured. A little later in Auburn, we were placed under a tornado warning and I along with our dogs, headed to our "safe place" in the hallway. I wish I had a picture of us three sitting there with the flashlight and weather radio...the dogs were truly scared, I think that they could hear the wind more than I could. The news kept saying if you are within 5 or 6 miles of Tigertown take cover now...so we did.

As most of you know, Levi and I are from what I like to call "Tornado Alley" Northwest Alabama. We take tornados seriously, because almost everyone from home has been personally affected by their devastation. My mom's house was blown away when she was 10 and I mean it was totally gone, nothing left. Ironically enough, the next day after that storm it snowed too. Without a tornado warning…Levi's family's business, his car, and most of downtown Haleyville was blown away in November of 2001. These are just a couple of examples, I have many more. So you can see why when growing up, if there was a threat of sever weather, my mom always made my siblings and I put our shoes and pants next to our bed so we could be ready to head to the basement.

Here, no one takes the warnings seriously. It baffles us. Just remember, if you are with us during a tornado warning, prepare yourself to head to a place of safety!