Sugar and Spice...

And everything nice, that's what little girls are made of! We are so thrilled to announce that Baby GIRL Shepherd will be joining our little family in the spring!

On Thursday, I went to the doctor for my monthly check up. I was one day shy of being 15 weeks, but I was just dying to know how soon I could schedule a gender only ultrasound. So as we were wrapping up my visit (where I had already gotten to hear that precious heart beat with the doppler), I asked my doctor how soon he thought I could try to schedule it. And to my surprise, his reply was, "well let's just walk back there and see if she can do it today!" Of course I jumped all over that opportunity.

If you remember, I found out that Will was a boy at 17 weeks. I scheduled an early gender-only ultrasound with him as well, but I did it to surprise Hunter on his 30th birthday. I wanted to be able to give him something that he would always remember, so I surprised him that night by telling him we were having a boy. He didn't even know I was getting an ultrasound that day (just thought I had an appointment), so he was not expecting it at all.

Well, fast forward to this pregnancy. I had mentioned to him that I wanted to get another early ultrasound if I could, but we hadn't talked about when it was going to be, obviously because I hadn't scheduled it yet. He was (of course) out of town on Thursday when I had my appointment, but I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get an ultrasound while I was already at the doctor's office.

So I got called back for the ultrasound, and she put the wand on my tummy. She fixed the screen so it would go to the big screen on the wall, and for a few minutes we just listened to that sweet, sweet heartbeat, and watched the baby jump around. Then she started moving the wand around until she got "the shot," and the first thing I said to her was, "I don't see a wee wee." (Yes, I'm 30 years old, and I still use baby language for body parts and functions.) And she said, "Because there isn't one honey! Looks like you are having a girl!" And then my emotions got the best of me and of course I cried. And cried. And cried some more. More than anything we obviously wanted a healthy baby, but to be able to put a for sure "he" or "she" to that baby just make it SO real that you have a sweet little miracle growing in your tummy.

Hunter was in a meeting that morning, so I couldn't exactly call him and tell him. So I decided to go ahead and find out, and planned to have the house decorated in either pink or blue when he got home that evening, which was supposed to be about 9:00 in the evening. So not only was I getting this early ultrasound, I couldn't tell him about it, and then I had to keep it a secret from him ALL day, while I was at work! Needless to say, Thursday drug on and on and on. I didn't think it was ever going to be over.

And of course on the one day that I actually would like for Hunter to get home later (so I could have time to decorate), he actually got on an early flight and got back into Birmingham before I even got off work. He told me that he wanted to meet at the park once I got off work so that we could let Will play, so at that point I realized that I was just going to have to take my plan to the park. So once we got there, Will and I greeted Daddy with a bouquet of PINK balloons!

Of course he was excited, but the first thing he said was "I KNEW it! I told you! I told you the whole time! I was right!" Haha! Of course he had to remind me that he was right. ;)

Will was a little less than thrilled about getting pictures, because clearly he had better stuff to do at the park than to sit with balloons while his crazy mom took pictures. So we had to use some distraction techniques- one of which is his favorite thing right now- sunglasses.

Once the sun went down, we headed to Hunter's sister's house to share the news with them. It just happened that his parents were headed that way as well to keep the girls, so that was a perfect opportunity to share with them.

We tried so hard to get a celebratory picture with Aunt Holly, but this is what we got! Ha! (And please note, Princess Caroline in another dress. Excuse me, she corrected me, she wasn't Caroline that night, she was Barbi.)

And then with Nonnie and Pop Pop, who are excited to add a little more pink to their crew. Will is officially outnumbered! And please notice the pink bow Pop Pop put in Will's hair for the picture.

And because my family isn't close by, we couldn't bring them pink balloons, but Mamaw (my mom) actually got her bouquet of pink balloons sent to her house as a surprise, and found out before anyone!

We are so excited about this next chapter in our family's life, and couldn't be more thankful for all of our many blessings! (And I do feel like this picture deserves a disclaimer. Although, yes I am certainly showing very well for how far along I am, I am not quite as big as this shirt is making me look in the following photo. I promise!)