Week 25

Dear Baby,

You are already spoiled! :) Your closet is starting to rival mine and that's no small feat! We've bought all the cute things we run across and Dawn just loves to buy things for you! My dad has even bought some dresses for you. I took some pics to document the evolution of your closet!

I fell in love with this blanket. It's purple and has ruffled flowers! Oh my! You also have a pretty green blanket Dawn bought to match your nursery.

You have quite the collection of shoes growing thanks to Miss Dawn! :) Greg got the penguin shoe/socks. Tis the season for penguins and we pick up everything we find. He loves penguins! I bought the black and pink tutu as soon as I found out you were a girl!

The white suit on the end is a Ed Hardy snow suit that Dawn insisted on buying you for next year. The family is going on a trip to TN next winter and since you won't let me this year, I want to go skiing next! So you will be quite toasty!

It's still growing!

I couldn't pass up the middle picture frame from Hobby Lobby for half off! Your picture will look fabulous in it...most likely a black and white pic. :) The pink piggy bank is from Grandma and Grandpa McDonnell for Christmas. The cute little animal is from them too. It's so soft! Dawn got you the Lucia Trumpet Ribbon socks. They are quite beautiful. She also got you the cutest sunglasses! (they're in the black and white bin) You have a few headbands too. I ordered the puppy and monkey hats from a college friend before I even found out what you were. You will look adorable in them! I also have a stack of cloth diapers as well as a few packages of disposables. So you have a great start!

Christmas also came early for you! This is what Dawn ordered for you, you lucky girl...or is it lucky Mommy? :D Either way, we'll both be quite stylish with this pink circle Coach diaper bag! Dawn spoils us both!

Week 24

Dear Baby,

We had a great time visiting the McDonnell side of the family. We went to Golden Coral instead of cooking and it was so much less work and yummy! I have been eating and eating everything in sight it seems! You make me quite hungry. I went to Steak and Shake while I was in GA and it was amazing! So amazing, that I made your poor daddy go with me several times. He's a trooper! I made sure to get my fill and am crossing my fingers that I won't crave it again.

We also went shopping. I love Hobby Lobby so much! We bought a picture frame for your room and some yarn. It just occurred to me that I needed to start working on a blanket for my baby girl. I researched some patterns and found the perfect, unique one for my little miss priss! :) Greg liked a different one, so I'm going to attempt two!

We did Christmas with Sean and Rhiannon. It was so much fun to see their faces light up! I can't wait until next year when we have your first Christmas! Although, you are doing quite well this Christmas for yourself! That's another post.

Greg had to leave and go to VA for a little while this week. :( But I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. It was quite lovely. I had a great time having lunch with my parents, brother and SIL. We laughed and it was so relaxing. Then we hit the roads to visit grandparents. Though I love seeing all the family, I discovered that sometimes holidays are nice just chilling at home with a good dinner. :) I was supposed to go shopping all night with Dawn, but I wasn't sure I'd make it that long. Instead, I let my family go at midnight and I shopped online! I put in several orders with free shipping. I ended up getting everything I wanted and more without having to deal with crowds. Sweet! I did go out around 5am and met up with Mark and Dawn. We went to Lowes and Home Depot because you cannot use your 10% military discount online without calling customer service. That involves phones and I hate using phones! lol

Overall, it was a great week! I am sad that Greg can't be here, but I enjoyed all the time he got to spend with me the past SEVEN months that I don't feel too down yet. He may get to visit sometime after Christmas. But don't worry, Miss M, he'll be home when you arrive! :D

Love,
Mommy

Week 23

Dear Baby,

This week we put up our Christmas tree. We decided on a peacock theme this year. It was going to be more of a multicolor tree, but we ran across the blue green theme at Michael's and decided to go for it. It turned out beautifully! This is the first year since we've been married that we have used a green tree. We always prefer the white one. The green one is a new one that we bought last year. It's huge! It's 5 ft around the bottom and 7ft tall! I love how it turned out. We had so much fun putting it up together. Your daddy has a great sense of style and it helps that we agree on almost everything! ;)

We are getting ready to go celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa McDonnell. Lots of packing and present wrapping going on this week. Here are the decorating pictures for this year. The last one is my week 23 pic.

What we started with.

Putting on the lights

The mess to choose from!

Handsome Hubby!

Putting on more lights!

Ta Da! All the lights are on! Montgomery is so proud! :)

Adding ornaments.

The Boys are inspecting the ornaments.

Melbourne looks scared!

Greg puts the ornaments on top.

All pretty!

Informal Family Pic

My table! I love tablescapes!

The boys will have stockings too, but theirs get filled! ;)

Mommy, Baby M, and Daddy's stockings.

Montgomery!

Melbourne!

My sweet boys!

Our finished tree topper.

Love,
Mommy

Week 21

Dear Baby,

This week has been mostly about finding you a name. I'm not really sure what you will be called. We were going to name you Greyson Blake if you were a boy. It's kind of ironic that we settled on a boy's name, but I wanted a girl so badly. Unfortunately, I love love love surnames (last names) for first names. Most of these only work for boy's names. There are a couple that would work for girl's names like Harlow or Kensington. I'm still searching and compiling my list before mulling over them. Maybe I'll even do a Facebook poll when I narrow the list down a bit. I like to hear other people's opinions on the names I really like. It provides a first impression from a variety of perspectives. But ultimately it will be your daddy and I's decision and everyone will just have to get used to it. :)

I am really starting to feel you moving around in there this week. Before I thought I felt it, but wasn't sure. Now you make sure I know it's you. :) It's strange and hard to describe. I'm hoping that you will be strong enough for your daddy to feel you kick before he has to go to Virginia. Then he won't really miss all that much while he's gone. I'm trying to hold out a couple more weeks so that I'm really showing before we take our Christmas picture. I want you to be a part of our annual newsletter/picture. I usually like to have them ordered by now, but I imagine people might get them late this year. It takes me awhile to address them all!

I'm still so excited that you are a girl. I look at shops online every day! I'm trying to perfect your baby registry. I love Amazon. I can add anything from anywhere, so I don't have doubles. I will still have to go to a brick store and register for people who don't like buying things online. But I can shop for the best prices on the exact things I want using Amazon. Love it! And because I keep forgetting (that's a huge preggo symptom!) to email a link to the people who've asked, I'll put the link on here. McDonnell Amazon Baby Registry

Love,
Mommy