She's here!!!

Introducing our precious baby girl... Livy Bryn Powell

Mother's Day was especially special this year...we went into labor! Everything went off without a hitch and Livy made her debut at 10:14am on Monday, May 11th. From the first moment we saw her, we were in love. She had a gorgeous head of brown hair and the sweetest little cry. She weighed in at 7 lbs and 2 oz. Without a doubt, her birth was one of the most special days of our lives....so, here's to many more years to come with our precious Livy Bryn. :)

SURPRISE shower! :)

So I work with some awesome people! THIS we know...and I'm so thankful for...however, today they blew me away! Started off as a very ordinary morning filled with answering the phones and such and then I had a meeting with my boss about my impending maternity leave. Well anyways, the meeting was wrapping up and she asked me if I could make a pot of coffee for her in the large conference room, since she "didn't know how to work the thing". So...walked into the conference room and BOOM...there they were, about 20 ladies from the office and my mom. :) Took me a second to realize what was going on and then it was like "oooooh" lol...a little clueless these days. :) Anyways, it was decorated in a tea-party theme...with adorable cupcakes and cookies and delicious chicken salad sandwiches with pasta salad. mm! They even bought me some TED DREW'S...which as you well know by now, I have been LOVING these days! Everything was so well thought out and they pretty much covered the odds and ends of things we still needed to purchase --binks, burp clothes, a few more diapers, a photo album and a front carrier for the baby-daddy to use :) and they even threw in a GC to Babies r Us. What a blessing! Today was so much fun and I'm so thankful to have such caring people in my life!

Baby Powell

Today was our 33 week appt and ultrasound! Everything looked great.... Our baby girl weighed about 4 and 1/2 pounds and was deemed to be in the 55th percentile. She was also already in the right position for birth, which was a relief. The sweetest part: the tech mentioned that our baby had very full lips...so she gave us a profile shot and sure enough, she has her daddy's kissbale lips... :) Pics to come! :)

Other mentionables:
*We had a wonderful baby shower last month...filled with friends and family. Everything was beautiful, the food was delicious and we were so thankful to everyone for coming! Because of all the people who blessed us, we were left to buy very little. We just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we love you!

*Her room is almost ready!! We'll be posting pics of the completed project soon...thanks to my sister Kimmy for finding us a perfect rocker at a garage sale last weekend!

*We just completed our birthing class last Sunday...overall it was a great experience and it made us all the more excited to meet our baby girl. :)

*God has, as always, been reminding us of His faithfulness..it's not easy preparing for a baby...mentally, financially, etc... but we're growing in our faith. We're thankful for His grace.

That's all for now....soon we'll have more pictures for you! Love you!

Saturday was a busy day for us. We had a blast getting our pictures taken at Watson Trails Park (also happens to be where Paul--Steve's dad works). The weather was a tad bit overcast, but the rain held off! We were glad to finally have some pregnancy pics, as we are both horrible about taking pictures! Hopefully with our baby girl coming, we'll get much better...I'm sure we will, how could we resist?! :)

Just chuggin along... :)

Steve has recently discovered his green "Powell" thumb and has been vigorously working on creating a garden in our backyard! He recently planted some strawberries (mm!) and is planning to plant squash, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes in the coming weeks (pics to come).

Seems as though Steve's "honey-do" list is piling up as we prepare for our baby girl. We've decided that we need a goal for each week in order to get it all done before she arrives. This weekend; paint her room! We've selected a lovely shade of green and can't wait to see it up with the white crown molding! I sincerely appreciate all my hubby does and am continually amazed at the strength God gives him to carry the extra load (while I'm pretty much a bump on a log)! ;)

Well, I'm officially in week 3 of my class through Meramec...and selling party-lite! Let me know if you need candles, I can hook you up and please let me know if you'd like to host a show!! I can always use new homes to "party-lite" in! lol...

Hope everyone's doing well and as always, we love you!

Random Things...

Lots going on this month...so I thought I'd give a little update! In 2 weeks I'll be taking an online course through Meramec...needing this class to get into grad school by Fall 09'. I'm excited to get going on this! Also, beginning next week I'm going to start selling party-lite...also trying to get into tutoring a couple of hours a week. If all goes well with these two ventures, it could be the key to staying home with our baby girl. We have been praying for direction and provision and trust that either way, God has His hand on our lives and will guide our footsteps. Steve's work has been picking back up with Spring just around the corner...he also plans to have his official LLC by mid March, as we know it will open more doors for business.

Preparing for baby: last week we were blessed with a free bassinet and car seat. Once Steve put the bassinet together and I had feverishly cleaned everything with it/ on it...it began to feel VERY real! We're having a baby!! Holy cow! Every time I pass her room and look at that empty bassinet my heart flutters thinking about her sleeping in it. :)

Finally, we just want to say a heartfelt "thank you" to all of our family and friends who have been praying for this child for years...what a blessing to have this hope finally fulfilled in our lives. Every new experience has had that much more meaning with your love, support and excitement! Love you all! :) Happy Valentine's Day! :)

IT'S A GIRL!!! :)

We are OVER the moon excited!!! Got to see her today and couldn't believe she already weighed 1.1 pounds!!! :) We love you baby girl....you have our hearts! :)