She's Kicking

Hannah Claire has made her presence known.  Last Friday while waiting in an office I felt something in my belly.  Of course my first thought was gas, but then it happened again.  I quickly realized it was Hannah Claire kicking.  Now she may have been doing it for a while but this was my first realization of what was happening.  Since then she has been active.  Just let me sit still for a few minutes and there she goes.  On Saturday, Shane was able to see my belly move and feel her kicking.  Shane has said from the beginning that all of our kids (boy or girl) would train to be a kicker for Alabama of course.  If her activity is any sign she's already on her way to being the first female kicker at the Capstone.  Roll Tide!

Snow Fun!

I'm a little slow on uploading pictures but I finally got around to it.  We got some great pictures of the dogs playing in the snow and of course our snowman.  We had a blast.  I just wish it would have not melted away so fast.  This is one of my favorites.  Junior (the black hound) is scared of the camera, he has not yet figured out we are taking pictures so he is still playing. They were inside during the snow until we went out to play.  Let the fun begin.

Now Junior realizes the camera is out:

We even had a snowball fight (poor Allie):

Here is our cute little (grassy) snowman:

Week 22 Checkup

We went for our 22nd week appointment today. The clinic suggests that we meet all of the delivering physicians just in case Brandi goes into labor when Dr. Christine isn't on call, so we met a new doc today. He was very funny and seemed like a good doctor, which eased our concerns over someone else delivering our little girl. Hannah Claire's heartbeat was normal and Brandi's belly measures at 21", which is also normal. I think Brandi is a little nervous about the glucose test that she has to take at the next appointment...only because she can't have anything to eat or drink for 2 hours before the test. I guess I need to buy her some breakfast after we get outta there?

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I am quickly learning that once you become pregnant there are many decisions to made. Not simple decisions either. Doctor, pediatrician, daycare, furniture, bedding, and most importantly a name. Some of these are easier than other. The name has not been an easy decision. Maybe since I was convinced we were having a boy I only really thought about boy names. Then we found out she was a little girl. Start over, we were back at square one.

While at Shane's parents over Christmas I got out the name book and started a list. Shane then crossed off ones that he didn't like. We reviewed the list on the way home from my parent's house. Still no decision. Once we got home I had a Brandi moment and got really frustrated that because we had so many choices to make and some needed to be made right then. I know, not the best idea but we had done some preliminary work so I thought we might be okay. Shane knows how to handle me so we got up, measured the nursery, taped it off with masking tape and made a decision on furniture! Thankfully one decision was made. We ordered the furniture today. I tried to post a picture but can't figure out how to. Here is a link to the website. http://www.munirefurniture.com/urban_01.htm We are so excited.

After deciding on the furniture I got our name list out and started paring names (first and middle). It was also a great time because the 2007 list of most popular names was all over the internet. This helped to cross off a few of the names we really liked. (I was one of 3 Brandi's in my kindergarten class of less than 20. I didn't want this for my child). Of course this also crossed off my mom's favorite name, Maddie. Maddie wasn't exactly on the list but Madison was at the top of it. After a day or so of throwing around names we decided our little girl would be...drum roll please... Hannah Claire.

Hannah means having favor and grace. She was also the mother of Samuel in the Bible. She was a woman of prayer, when she couldn't have a child she promised God that she would give her child to Him if she could only have a child. She was blessed with Samuel and she followed through on her promise to God. She dedicated Samuel to God's service. God rewarded her for following through on her promise. We pray our Hannah is a woman of prayer who follows God's will for her life.

Claire means famously bright. We pray she will be a bright spot in the world around her. We pray that others will see God shining brightly through her.

Now I can rest because decisions have been made!!!

She looks like a Hannah Claire doesn't she?