new year, new baby...

oliver jack's shirt relays a story that we have long been keeping secret. on friday, kyle and i went to our 18 week anatomy ultrasound...that's right...18 weeks! we have known since the beginning of october that this baby was going to be the next, and final (breathe all those who worry of our economic well being), installment to the murray clan. i thought it might be fun to wait as long as we possibly could to break the news because, let's face it, the punch line loses umph after a while. i would have never thought that we would be able to make it this long! instead of gaining weight over the first and into the second trimester i managed to lose...never happened before...in fact, as my body and i continued to keep this secret i began to question whether or not i was even pregnant. i had ultrasound pictures and dopplar heartbeat evidence to prove otherwise, but it did my heart good to be able to finally embrace everyone into this experience! finally, it's real!

we did not tell harper or calvary about the baby because in calvary's own words they, "are not very good at keeping secrets." so, needless to say, friday was an exciting time.

harper is thrilled to have yet another baby to take care of. when calvary was asked on saturday if he was excited about the baby he responded, "this one is for harper; oliver jack was for me."

funny. i'm nice like that. i have babies for my babies.

as if it was not exciting enough to break the news to our family that we were a carbon footprint nightmare, we were also able to tell them that this baby is A GIRL! i prayed and prayed that we would have a girl, but i kept trying to remind myself that i could not be disappointed if i found out otherwise...i was convinced that she was a girl because my pregnancy with her has been so much like my pregnancy with harper, but i tried to convince myself that it was a boy so i would not be disappointed--terrible i know---but true. even when the technician told me that the baby floating around inside of me was a girl, i would hardly let myself believe it. so today, i've shopped online for everything from strollers and car seats to dresses and hair clips. what an exciting venture!

so, again...yes, this was planned. yes, we know what causes it (or at least we have narrowed it down to a few things). and yes, we can afford it---or at least we believe that God will provide just as He always has.

in lieu of baby gifts, christmas gifts, birthday gifts, st. patrick's day gifts, flag day gifts, or gifts for any other holidays we will be accepting loaves of bread and gallons of milk. undoubtedly there will be illnesses among the disease infested bodies of these cuties, so we will understand if no one wants to visit. just leave the bread and milk on the door step. :)