For the first time.

First of all, for the first time this year I am sitting on my deck while I write this blog. It is 60 and sunny outside - FINALLY, and I am taking full advantage of it. My pup Lenny wanted to lay out there first thing this morning and wouldn't come back in so I finally decided to join him :) I have had a week or so to let the idea of having a little girl soak in. I will say, it has been an emotional roller coaster. At first when we found out it was just a shock to me, I was convinced it would be a boy! I am of course ecstatic either way, but I am absolutely terrified to raise a miniature me. My mom always told me some day I would get revenge by having a daughter and it is coming sooner than any of us expected. After finding out the sex of the baby, I felt this tremendous bond between Clint and I. I have never been happier in my life, or more in love with my life. There is this song by The Script, called "For The First Time" and it talks about how the times are hard and basically if you get down to what matters and sit across from the person you love and talk like you haven't had time to in years it's like your looking at them for the first time. It's so fitting to Clint and I right now. I feel like I am meeting him for the first time, but already knowing him so well. There is this love there that nobody could get in between and I hope that every person in this world is able to experience that love at least once. So now that I have gushed about my love for Clint I can go back to what I was originally talking about. After we left the appointment we went to MOA (Mall of America) and after the shock wore off, Clint, my Mom, and I were just standing inside the Sears entrance all looking at each other in the  midst of crying and laughing. In that moment, Clint's brother Kurt who is serving over seas in the Navy right now called Clint's phone from some random 800 number. Kurt was in the middle of the ocean somewhere over in the Middle East and was able to call and share the moment with us. It was awesome! His first comment was something along the lines of "I'll get her her first Harley shirt". Very fitting if you know Kurt. 

So since then we already have a corner in our house of little gifts from random people. Lot's of pink :) It's so awesome to have so much support during all of this. It really makes this first pregnancy as exciting for me as it should be! 

Easter Sunday was yesterday and we had a lovely morning with Clint's Dad's side of the family. We went to church at St. Ambrose Catholic Church of Woodbury and had brunch at The Afton House Inn. Clint's Step-Mom and her kids are Catholic, but Clint's Dad, Clint, and I are not. Being as unfamiliar as I am with the "motions" of being Catholic it's always interesting going to one of these services. It's amazing a room full of 3-4 hundred people all knew when to kneel and when to put their palms out to pray and make a cross across their chest. In the middle of one of their prayers the Man that was next to Clint went to pray with his palms out. About 30 seconds later, Clint - extremely unsure of himself - went to grab the guys hand thinking we were all supposed to join hands. He completely startled the man who just went along with it after that. This was obviously not the practice. So then Clint and I are having trouble breathing from laughing so hard in the middle of this prayer. It was so comical, especially if you know Clint. I had to work after that, but Clint traveled the rest of the day to make a stop at each side of the family. Here is a picture of my little family on Easter Morning :) 

Now its time for Mamma to start planning a nursery for the little one. I'm not crazy about an overload of pink so I am thinking we will paint a color (or a couple different colors) other than pink. I found a beautiful pink bedding set at Babies R Us and an amazing chandelier. Lot's to do there still. My brother is living with us right now, living in the nursery, and is planning to move out June or July 1st so the real work will begin then. We have some name ideas but are still narrowing it down. Emma Marie is our favorite so far. Marie was my Great Grandmothers name (who I was very close with as a young girl) and her Mothers name was Emma. The only thing stopping us there, or really just me, is I have a coworker who just had a baby girl and named her Emma Rose. But the more I have thought about it, it really doesn't matter. We will see! I'm sure we will change our minds a million times before she comes! 

18 weeks on Wednesday - almost half way. When we found out the sex the guy told us that he told people how confident he was on a scale of 1-4.
1- He really had no idea and they should come back when the baby is bigger.
2- He was leaning towards one but couldn't say for sure.
3- He has enough evidence that he can say he is 99% sure it is one, but will let you come back for free to be sure and
4- It's a girl or he will pay you 100$.
Well, we got a 3/4 - so basically he was sure enough to say it is a girl but we get another free ultrasound to be sure! So this Friday we are going back to get a better shot to reassure us that she is a girl. Then two weeks later, we have our 20 week anatomical ultrasound under our midwife - so in the next month or so we really get to see our little girl grow a lot by peaking in there every couple weeks :) I will post another picture after the next ultrasound.

XoXo