Sugar and spice and everything nice...

...That's what little girls are made of!


And, we are THRILLED to announce that the little one I have cookin' in the oven seems to be made of all those things!  That's right folks...IT'S A GIRL!

Now, I know what you all are thinking.   Isn't it a little early to tell.  I thought so too, so I'll just give you the account of how the gender identification came to be.

I had my 15 week appointment (actually 14 weeks 6 days, but who's counting?) last Wednesday.  The night before I told Bryan that I was going to ask if it was possible to see the gender yet.  First, because I was DYING to know and second because we were going to see my family over the weekend and I wanted to surprise them with the news.  See, my mom lives in Singapore most of the year and is only in the states for a few weeks, so it would be the only opportunity I had to do something cutesy to surprise her.

I went in on Wednesday, and the conversation went something like this...

Doc:  "Everything seems to be fine on your lab work and with the doppler.  Are you having any problems or do you have any questions?"
Me: "Nope."
Doc:  "OK, then.  I'd like to see you again in 4 weeks."
Me:  "Actually I do have one question...and I normally wouldn't ask this.  Is there any possible way we'd be able to determine the gender today?  The only reason I ask is that my mom lives in Singapore and is only in the states for a few weeks and I'm going to see her this weekend and would like to surprise her..."
Doc: (Excitedly) "Well let's go see!"

I jumped off the table, grabbed all my things including Jackson and practically ran to the ultrasound room.  Unlike Jackson, this baby did not want to show it's goods.  The ultrasound tech tried for what seemed like an eternity to move it around and even had me turn over a couple times, but that little goober would not uncross it's legs.  Finally, I got up did jumping jacks and hip circles and it FINALLY spread 'em.  (I can honestly say this is the only time I'll ever encourage her to spread her legs!)

It's still a little early but if you know anything about the anatomy of boy and girl parts, I think you can see that it's pretty clear that this one's a little girl!

Uh, yeah...definitely girl parts!

I actually didn't see for myself during the ultrasound.  The tech wouldn't even let me look at the screen.  She put the pic in the envelope and I rushed to Bryan's office where we sat in the car in the pouring rain and opened the envelope together.  It was a special moment to do be able to do it together.

I was able to keep a lid on the secret (for those of you who know how big my mouth is, this was huge for me) and surprised my family with the news when we got to Pigeon Forge Friday.

I wrapped 4 gifts - one for my mom, stepdad, brother, and sister in law - and had them open them all at the same time.  The gifts were clues about it being a girl -- a Mounds bar (because Almond Joys have nuts, Mounds don't), a box of tacos (I don't have to elaborate here, do I?), sugar, and spices.  It took a minute for them to get it but, of course, my mom was the first to figure it out.  They all were overjoyed and my mom and stepdad cried...SHOCKING! :-)

Now onto the coolest part of the story...the name...

Bryan and I have known that for some time now that we wanted our little girl's first name to be Ocie, after his grandmother.  But, we also knew we didn't want her to go by Ocie, so we wanted a good, classic middle name that would be cute for a little girl but that would also grow with her and sound just as good if she was the CEO of some huge company someday.  We'd tossed a few names around and narrowed it down to Ocie Claire and Ocie Ruth.  I know, you're thinking, how is this cool?  Just wait...

In July, Bryan started a journey to read the Bible from cover to cover.  Almost everyday he's read 3-5 pages.  On the day of the ultrasound (keep in mind we had no idea if we'd find out that day), he started the book of Ruth!  In typical Bryan nerdiness, he did some statistical analysis of the probability of that happening and came out with the probability of him starting that book on that particular day at 0.02%.  (I know...he's such a dweeb.)  

Anyways...that pretty much settled it for us!  We are super excited to welcome our little Ocie Ruth in March.  We can't wait to meet you Ru-Ru!

I'll leave you readers with a few of my favorite pics from our weekend in Pigeon Forge.  We had a blast!!

XOXO

I love a mountain view!

Waiting on the Shakonohey show at Dollywood.

Had to get one with the owls.

He LOVED the carousel!

Riding the elephants with Nana.

All those rides wore him out!

"One, two, three...GOOOO!"

Outside at the Apple Barn.

Swinging on the porch of the Apple Barn with Uncle Brad and Nana.