baby #4 is a...

{the technician was sweet enough to write it down on a piece of paper for me and slip it into a top secret yellow envelope so i couldn't peak! we opened the envelope tonight as a family...the girls couldn't wait}

{hannah & madeline especially love the bottom shot...
their new little sis is throwing them the "i love you" sign}

wowzers! 

i can still hardly believe it!

for the last few years i definitely pictured a little boy next...and the way the pregnancy went (nauseous as a doggie just like grant's pregnancy), i was convinced my mother's instinct was right on.

another     G I R L I E ! ! !

steve and i are just laughing to ourselves because we now know some of what another daughter brings...more pink, more fancy, more drama, more prancing/dancing, imagining/pretending, another mini mommy, another daddy's girl, more playing "daughter" (the aunts & uncles are VERY familiar with this "game")...which also means more "kitty" and "family", more determination, another independent little spirit, more hair to detangle, more stress over outfits, more fights over the last of the clean pretty skirts, more cooks in the kitchen (literally and figuratively), more sweetness/softness, more snuggles, more talks about feelings and trying to understand all of our complicated emotions, another sister, another wedding to pay for (steve's worry), more innocence to protect (my worry), another to laugh at grant's "jokes", another daughter of mine, another friend to-be...

it all gets me excited. real excited thinking all of the good that comes with bringing a little girl into this world.  and even more so thinking that she is going to be the 3rd daughter, and completely unique, talented, beautiful in all of her own ways. what a miracle and testimony to me that there is more to where we came from than it all just starting at birth. 

and i guess it answers my next question i've been stressing over...if it was a boy, i was teetering on ending there, two girls, two boys.  but now that it is most definitely a girl, i'm gearing my mind up for #5 in hopes of one more boy. after that, the factory is closed. but one baby at a time...