Layla's Christening

Okay, okay, I know I haven't done well keeping up at this! I'm sorry! I just can't find time, but my new promise is to do better! So I'll start with today and try and stay up on what we've got going on, and try and fill you in on the last few months!

 Layla is just shy of 5 months old! She is so big.  And she really is just the sweetest baby.  She is happy most of the time and just goes with the flow.

This morning at church we had her baptized.  It was such a sweet, special day for our little family.

We had such a sweet group of family and friends join us at the church.  After the church service, everyone came out to our house for a meal.

Layla is wearing my Christening gown, which my Nonnie hand made for me.  Megan also wore it for her Christening.  It is just the most beautiful gown and I know there is so much love and prayer stitched into it.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for coming to celebrate this beautiful day with us.

IT'S A GIRL!

LAYLA ELIZABETH MITCHELL is here!

Born May 24th 2012 at 2:14 p.m.
8 lbs 3 oz 20.5 inches long

And she is beautiful if I do say so myself!

I went into labor around 4:30 that morning!  I really didn't think this was "it", so I tried to get Luke to go to work, however, he decided we would go to the hospital instead!  We got there about 8:20 a.m.  After we got confirmation that we would have a baby that day, we gave our parents a call!  At 11:45 my midwife said it was go time, so i thought that meant we would meet our baby fairly soon!  Wrong! After 2 and a half hours of the most physically exhausting work I've ever done, our sweet baby arrived!

We are so excited and so happy our baby is here!  We (especially Luke) were very surprised when it was a baby girl!  Sooo many people said they thought I was having a boy, that we almost started to believe it!

A family of three!  This picture was taken a couple hours after she was born.  Our parents came back into the room about 4:30.  We were ready to show her off!

Proud men in her life!  

She looks just like her Daddy!

The next morning!  Instant love for sure!

Mama B is in love too!

I looked over there the 2nd night in the hospital and they were even laid back the same way watching tv!

Going Home!

And if you want to see a gazillion pictures, It may take a day or two to go through them all!

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, prayers and love over the last ten months! We can't wait to introduce you to sweet Baby Layla!

The Final Weeks!

These are the pictures from the final weeks of my pregnancy!  Despite what EVERYONE said, this baby was not going to come early! Even one of the midwives had me thinking that Baby Mitchell would be here by Mother's Day!  Here are just a random sampling of pictures from the last two months!

Installing the car seat.  This was in early April! Yes I was all set and ready! 

May 12th.

 I felt like I was holding the sun! I didn't quite realize how this shirt looked!

Then Daddy had this idea! It turned out pretty funny!

This ended up being the day before the baby was born.  I just finished my last day of work! I decided I could not do another day! I worked on my due date!  I think Megan felt sorry for me laying on the couch, so she came to hang out with me and "Baby Baby"!

We are discussing when baby baby is going to make his/her debut!

At this point, I was not miserable, but I was very anxious and excited to meet my sweet baby!  This was the day after my last doctor's appointment which was on Tuesday the 22nd.  On the way over to my appointment, I saw a church sign that read, "God's timing is always right."  I commented to myself that while that is exactly what I needed to be reminded of, at the same time, that's not what I wanted to hear!  At my appointment, my midwife scheduled me to be induced on Friday May 25th. I called back Wednesday morning and asked for more time!  They said I would need to come in Friday to be monitored with a non stress test, but they would give me until Tuesday (they would not do any inductions on Memorial Day!)  So I knew that we would at least have a baby here in a week from the day these pictures were taken!

Easter

I wanted to post this because there are some of the cutest pictures of Megan!
She was soo much fun at Easter this year.  I have always loved to dye Easter eggs, so having a two year old niece was a good excuse to be able to do so!

Even Granddaddy came to help! Of course he was being silly!

Uncle Luke inspecting our work! 

Easter fell after Mama's spring break, which means Megan was home with her all week.  They worked hard decorating the dining room for Easter, and making an Easter cake!

She was so proud of herself and was so excited showing everyone!
We also went to an egg hunt and the Dixie Baptist Church.  It was so much fun.  We thought she would be scared of the Easter Bunny that came to visit, but she LOVED him!  She wanted her picture taken "again and again"!

And we all made it to church together!  I'll post both just to prove everyone was there!

 And the Mitchells! Patiently waiting on Baby!

There are a ton of pictures, and I'm not good at sorting through to delete duplicates! Here you go!

Baby Shower

I know it's been forever, we have had A LOT going on. So I'm going to try and catch up!

 On March 31st, some sweet sweet friends of mine hosted a baby shower for us.  So much thought and detail was put into everything!

The shower was at the home of the Stalveys.  The yard was set up beautifully, but rain was threatening so we stayed inside.  Baby Mitchell received lots of beautiful things.  It was so good to see so many people as well.

The food was delicious!

They decorated with my baby pictures.  Guests wrote sweet notes to the baby and hung them on the tree.

Camryn and Megan were such big helpers in opening the presents!  Really I couldn't bend down to get them so I was thankful for their help!

Gigi and Mama B are excited to meet Baby Mitchell!

My sweet sweet family drove up from Gainesville for the shower.  I was so excited to see Aunt Brigitte, Uncle Gary and Stacy, HOWEVER we were all sooo excited to meet Addison!  She is already a year old and this was our first chance to see her!  She is so adorable!

Last but not least, Luke's brother Thad and his wife Ashley had a couple's shower for us the same night.  They have a beautiful home in Hahira that is perfect for hosting parties!  The meal was delicious and some of our close friends came to celebrate with us.  I don't have many pictures because my mama wasn't there!  There are a few mixed in though.  See the rest of the pictures HERE!

Getting Huge!

So these are just a few random pictures to show just how big my baby "bump" is!  Just for you Stace!
To start with though, I brought home the amazing cake from my Lake Hartwell baby shower.  The next Friday Megan devoured what was left!  She had it everywhere! but she loved the "shower cake"

This picture is from March 2nd, and I am 28 weeks, and one from a few days later at a birthday dinner for Me, Luke and David.

David also came home to see us during his Spring Break.  He brought Megan her belated birthday present.  She loves her Uncle David so much!

On another note...I thought I'd share this....in order to tell Mama, Daddy, Brandon and Andrea that we were expecting, I made Megan a shirt with the announcement.  I put it on her a few weeks ago, and took some cute pictures.  Here are a couple!  She is going to be the best big cousin!

Other than that, I am now 31 weeks.  We have nine weeks left, or roughly 2 months until Baby Mitchell is due.  My appointment before last, I was measuring about 3 weeks bigger (32 weeks instead of 29 weeks), so they decided to do an ultrasound at my 31 week appointment to check the size of this baby.  This past Wednesday we went for our 2nd peek at our sweet baby.  They are measuring the baby at about 4.4 lbs (they say average is about 3-3.5lbs at this point) and it is in the 80th percentile.  We were not able to get any good pictures, the baby had it's arms hands, legs and feet all around it's face!  They didn't spoil the surprise, so we still don't know what we're having!  Please continue to keep us all in your prayers!