The beginning

On December 1st 2014, I called Mike who had just started his first day of work in Houston, with some surprising news. We were expecting again. I guess expecting is the wrong word here since we had been expecting this sort of surprise. But whether we had planned for it or not we were having a baby due July 29, 2015!

I managed to keep it a secret for a few more weeks (even from Wendy whom we were living with at the time!) so we could tell our parents with a Christmas present. They were very excited for us. We had Santa tell the girls that they were about to be big sisters. They shrieked like only little girls can and gave me a really big hug.

On March 11, 2015 Mike and I went to the doctor to find out if we would be having another girl or if we'd find out what having a boy was like. As the ultrasound tech told us we were having a girl we couldn't help but laugh. 3 girls! Mike is becoming more outnumbered with each child. 

Rachel thought this was hilarious and anytime someone would ask if she was having a brother or sister she'd tell them it was a girl. "So we will have all girls and my dad will be the only boy. Even our dog is a girl!"

Girls 4                     Boys 1

We decided to have a weekend getaway before the baby came. We drove out to New Orleans March 19th. We kayaked, biked through the town, took a cooking class, and tried all kinds of food including alligator and frog legs! This is the time where I started wearing maternity clothes and had a stranger realize I was pregnant and offer up her seat on the busy street car. She however was a grandma and the street car was packed. It was safer for her to stay seated and for Mike to help me stay balanced. Put it was nice none the less. 

On this trip we decided that our baby girl would be named Grace. But we still had to decide on a middle name. I liked Grace Ann but putting the last name Anderson to that didn't sound right. Mike liked Marie but that's my middle name and I didn't know if it would be weird to have the same name but I was named after my grandma so technically she'd be named after her great grandma too. So about a week later it was settled that our daughter would be Grace Marie.

July got here super fast. Our bags were packed, the room was ready and the hospital was waiting for us. Now all we needed was our daughter to be ready to come and if she wasn't coming on her own then we were scheduled to have her induced on July 30th.