It's a...

GIRL!!

 

We are thrilled that we will be welcoming a sweet baby girl into our family in just a few months!! Because Joseph has so many brothers, I have always pictured us having all boys, but I guess I was wrong! The Lord knew I needed a little girly-girl shopping buddy :)

 

Last Tuesday, November 20th, Mom, Joseph, and I went to our 20 week ultrasound. Baby appeared to be growing and healthy. She weighed about 11 oz and her little arms, hands, fingers, legs, toes, and body parts appeared to be there! It was difficult to see on that little screen so I am excited to get the 4D ultrasound soon. When the doctor wrote the gender on the screen, Mom was the only one to look. She was sworn to secrecy for the next 2 days until Thanksgiving!

Joseph and I went to Sumter Wednesday afternoon and ate dinner with my family before heading over to Lauren and Chris Locklear's for a little Friendsgiving get-together. It was SO much fun being with the girls. We don't get to see each other often so we had a late night of talking and catching up.

 

 

Thanksgiving arrived and we were anxious for the reveal but waited patiently until after lunch. My entire immediate family (minus Robin) was in town so it was fun to celebrate Thanksgiving with everyone...even all 4 kids, 3 and under :) Can't believe we're about to add another to the wild mix!!

 

 

After our "real" family picture, everyone guessed if they thought baby Jones was a boy or girl with a balloon:

 

With everyone gathered around us, Mom gave Joseph and me each a cupcake. We quickly took big bites of the cupcakes looking for pink or blue icing in the middle, only to discover green icing!! Mom then handed us a package wrapped in green paper. We carefully unwrapped the green to find pink paper and then blue paper. She definitely kept us in suspense for as long as possible!! When we opened the box, there was a small package wrapped in tissue paper and, of course, that was in 3 layers of different color tissue paper! When we finally got to the bottom of all of the colors, we pulled out two adorable pink and white gowns :) They were so sweet and we were so excited to finally find out that we will have a little girl!

 

We headed back to the beach Thursday afternoon to reveal the gender to Joseph's family. When we arrived, they had all made gender guesses along with name suggestions:

...my speech kids at school also made some predictions:

 

We quickly handed out cupcakes and Grandma was the first to bite in and say "It's a girl"! It was so much fun to share it with everyone and watch their reactions.

 

Mckenzie came to the beach Thursday night and we promptly started our "Black Friday" shopping at 9:30 PM at Target. We did wait an hour in line but it was very organized and fun to get some good deals for gifts! Friday we woke up early to head out again and we shopped all day long!! This pregnant girl was tired but was excited to head straight to the baby girl section in every store!! I did contain myself and only bought her one sweet little outfit, but get ready because Aunt Mckenzie is ready to spoil this baby! I love spending time with my sweet sister and am very grateful for her!! I pray that Baby Jones will have a sister and best friend just like I've been fortunate enough to have. Mckenzie stayed until Saturday afternoon and even helped us decorate for Christmas. I love Christmastime SO much and I love when our house is decorated!

 

We ended the weekend with a Gamecock victory over Clemson for the 4th year in a row!!!! Kim and Zach came over to watch the game and the guys had fun cheering for the cocks while Kim and I discussed all things baby because they're expecting twins in June!! We're so excited that Baby Jones will have lots of sweet friends :)

 

What a wonderful Thanksgiving break! We have SO much to be thankful for and it's wonderful to have a day set aside to recognize all of the rich blessings God has poured out on us over the past year! "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting." 1 Chronicles 16:34

 

P.S. Joseph has officially felt Baby Girl kick multiple times now and thinks it's really cool!

19 Weeks!

Counting down the days until we find out BOY or GIRL!! We will go Tuesday for our 20 week ultrasound and then the reveal will take place on Thanksgiving day so a little less than a week before we find out. I'm ready to buy some pink or blue :)

19 week pic:

 

Joseph still hasn't felt Baby kick because he/she stops every time Joseph puts his hand on my stomach but I can clearly feel the kicks from the outside now. Hopefully, Joseph will catch it at the right time soon!

This week has been good but longg!

Monday: Supper club at the Nobles house. We had a Thanksgiving feast and everything was delicious! It's always fun to spend time with good friends.

Tuesday: Bible study with sweet girls. We had a great study this week and all got to know each other a little better, which was great! Can't believe we're already halfway done with our Esther study.

Wednesday: Sweet little Wells turned 3 years old!! Here he is after his little bday party, finishing off his candy cake. Boy loves candy!!

 

Thursday: Joseph's last day as the FCL at the Surfside branch is today so last night his sweet staff took us to dinner at Abuelos. It is bittersweet that Joseph is leaving because he has had a great experience at Surfside with a wonderful staff but we know that his new job is a great opportunity. Please pray for Joseph as he transitions into this new phase in his career!

Joseph always takes pictures of people with mullets so his staff gave him his very own mullet wig (and they even had one for me to wear too!):

The great Surfside branch staff (+me):

Today: We are heading to Columbia when I get off of work to celebrate the marriage of Joseph's good friend, Charlie, and his new bride, Meredith! They were married 2 weeks ago and took a nice, long 10 day honeymoon to the Dominican and tonight is their "reception" party!

We are thankful for another great week!!

18 Weeks!

18 weeks = 2 weeks away from finding out if sweet baby Jones is a boy or girl!! Baby is now the size of a sweet potato and I'm feeling a lot of movement, which is so much fun!

18 Weeks pic:

This week recap:

Joseph and I went home to Sumter this past weekend to babysit our sweet nephews and niece! I just love those wild little munchkins :) It is quite the handful having all three of them at once (Caroline, I don't know how you do it every day)! We had fun playing and spending time with them while Taylor and Caroline were involved in activities for Caroline's sister's wedding.

Joseph getting in some practice with the two babies:

When the kids left for their wedding, Joseph and I hurried off to Meg Saunders' wedding in Columbia. Meg was a beautiful bride and it was fun catching up with Natasha and Lyndsay at the wedding!

Sunday, we returned to Sumter to pick up Hippy and spend some time with Mom, Mike, and Kenzie! I love spending time with family!!

Monday was a BIG day for one of my very best friends! Rebecca and Branford got engaged!!! We've been waiting on this day for a longgg time now and I'm so excited for them! Looks like we'll be celebrating shortly after Baby J arrives...the big day is tentatively set for June 1, 2013! Isn't her ring gorgeous?!

Last night was Joseph's Mom's birthday so the family girls and some of Charlotte's friends had a get-together to celebrate. Charlotte always makes the party fun!

Another great week! Can't wait for the next week and a half to fly by so we can find out the gender! Yay :)