Tickled Pink!!

We are having a Girl!!

What has been going on????

That is the question! So much has been happening, we have tons to be very thankful for!
*Josh is now working days! He got a promotion to a new department. Josh is now just working weekends at the Branding Iron. It is so very nice to see my husband again!
*We sold Peter (my/Joshua's car:). We are buying Amy's Suburban (I know it is very anti-hippie, but it will have to work:). We needed a larger car for our growing fam, but did not want a payment. We are commented to debt free living, it is so hard! But, we know it will be very rewarding and we will be much more free to serve God.
*Josh is doing GREAT in school! He is loving it!
*We are packing up to move. We will be moving at the first of the month. We are not moving very far, we will still be in the greater Mena area!
*The kids are doing so well! They really enjoy living so close to all the Grandparents. This is the closest we have lived to them in years. They are enjoying some serious spoiling at Pop & NeNa's this weekend!
*We have big plans for Easter. Our CHURCH is having a huge egg hunt on Saturday, it will be a ton of fun. On Sunday we will attend church and ohhhh and ahhhh over all the little kids and they can over ours in their Easter finery:). After Church we are going to Papa & Memaw's for a cookout and egg hunt. We will probably end up back at Papa & MiMi's for something sweet! It will be a very busy day!
*EJ told her Children's Church teacher that "Jesus was great, but I am going to marry me that Spiderman!"
*Guice loves to carry money in his pocket. He always ask his daddy for a "ollar"
So much more to share.....until next time!

G's hair cut!

And you thought we would never do it! Well, it was not on purpose! I had told the lady that we did not want your traditional boy cut. I just needed it trimmed up where the goats (or NeNa) had gotten a hold of the bangs. And a LITTLE in the back. Well she had other ideas! He does look super cute, but I miss all his hair! I cried like a baby! He looks like such a little man now, and SO much like his Daddy! He looks completely different! It's crazy what a hair cut can do! The jury is still out on if he will ever get another one:)!
Long Haired Baby Boy! Blond hair blue eyes, watch out ladies!
Blond curls! Nothin' cuter!

Our little man!

All gone!

BOY OR GIRL?????

That is the question! Josh and I have decided to find out, for a couple of reasons. I have had 4 ultrasounds and have at least 2 to go. During the scan there is no "look at the cute feet" or any of that. The scans are not the least bit fun, they are very medical. They call our baby a fetus the whole time, yes seriously. With EJ and G (who together had a grand total of 3 scans;) the tech went on and on about this or that and how sweet, cute, ect.... everything was (yes, I know they do that with (almost) everyone). I miss that. I dread, for obvious reasons, the scans. I am not crazy about having a ton of them. We just want something to look forward to instead of dread. Also, when they say fetus we can say "Oh, its a __________!" Maybe they will refer to the baby by the gender instead. So if you were waiting to the last second to vote, you better get to it! We should know Tuesday!

please pray....

We still need prayers for our little one. At my appointment yesterday we learned that the baby has abnormally low amniotic fluid levels (the level was 7 and needed to be a 10) and also the heartbeat is high. I have a ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday. I will update then.

The results are in.....

First I have to say we felt completely elevated in prayer today! Thanks to you!!! There was a peace and a calmness that could only be the Lord. Extremely amazing. The ultrasound findings are good, great actually! There were no abnormalities found, no soft markers for down syndrome. That lowered our ration to 1/400. We were offered an amnio and have decided absolutely not to have it. I have a follow up scan in 3 weeks! And the news you have also been waiting for the baby is..........................still a SURPRISE!

The ultrasound.....

For whatever reason, I feel the need to blog about our upcoming scan. This blog is mainly for me, really. I love looking back, seeing what we were up to, what I was thinking about, what was going on. I really want to record my feelings about the possibility of the baby being born with Down syndrome. So, at some point I can look back and remember this time in our lives, it has been unbelievably clarifying for us. First and foremost we have sought refuge in God and his perfect plan. Because of seeking our Lord, we have grown much closer as a couple. I can tell you now we have been very blessed the past two weeks. Also, I would like to answer questions that I have gotten over the past couple of weeks. I should begin with saying, we are not devastated about having a child with Down syndrome, I think this really throws people for a loop. It is the exact opposite really. Josh and I are humbled that God would see us fit to parent such a beautiful spirit. We are however, concerned with the medical side of things, having a medically fragile baby. We will lean on God and each other if this happens to be the case. I am also a little unsure about providing attention, care, and love for 3 under 4 if one happens to need a little extra. I am fortunate that we live closer to our families now and they have been completely supportive! We also have a wonderful church family, it is very nice to have that source of love as well!
As you can imagine there are a ton of unknowns. Even after the scan we will not know for sure. We will be given another ratio. The only way to know is to have an amino. Although we ruled it out early in pregnancy, we might consider it later on. It is not that it matters, we just want to make sure we give this baby the best start. To do that we would need to have him/her in Little Rock if he/she happens to have an extra chromosome. Mena Regional is simply not qualified to adequately care for infants with special needs. I had the quad-screen and it came back with a seriously high positive, considering my age. It has a much lower false positive than the triple-screen.
With all of that being said.....please keep us in your prayers! I am going back tonight (bye bye internet, it has been fun:) and Pop and NeNa are bringing in the kiddo's on Monday. They really wanted to be in town for the ultrasound. I will update as soon as I can on the results! Thanks in advance for your prayers!