Joelie is Three! Questions?...

What is your  favorite color?  Pink

What is your favorite toy?  Animals

What is your favorite fruit?  Banana

What is your favorite TV show? Lion King 

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Sandwich

What is your favorite outfit? Dora Shirt 

What is your favorite game? Zingo 

What is your favorite snack? Chips 

What is your favorite animal? Lion 

What is your favorite song? Friday 

What is your favorite book? Simba and Bambi books 

Who is your best friend? Chase, Pacey, Mommy, Daddy, Venus and Sequel

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? iPad 

What is your favorite thing for breakfast? Eggs with Cheese 

What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cake

What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm gonna be Joelie and a mom. 

Mommy, You Are My Best Friend...

Those are words I hope to hear for the rest of my life! 

Five years ago I started dreaming about having one more baby, a girl. I was already a mom five times over to a handful of amazing boys... but I longed for a little girl to complete our family. I knew it wasn't something that I'd easily talk Casey into trying for. I remember him telling me when we found out that we were pregnant with Chase that we were DONE. There were no discussions about it.
 
For the next few years I accepted that we would never have a daughter. I stopped thinking about it and enjoyed making memories with my boys. It wasn't until Chase turned 2 and started outgrowing the baby stage that I started to feel the ache again. 

I became obsessed with reading blogs and forums about increasing our chances of conceiving a girl. I even found a local clinic that would spin sperm in unique situations to help a couple choose the gender. I gathered all my information and prepared myself to present it all to Casey. It was time to talk him into it.

I was shocked when he didn't slam the door in my face and actually listened and considered what I was saying. He wasn't thrilled about the idea of paying money to spin his sperm, so that wasn't an option. In the end he finally agreed... we would try ONE more time and if we didn't get our little girl, or even if we did... we were really DONE!
I was so thrilled! In October I started charting my ovulation. The blogs and forums I read all said to have sex 3 days before ovulation and always with me on top. Looking back it seems silly that I really believed in all the stuff that I read, but boy did I ever.
We didn't actually start trying until December. I followed the charts, we had sex like clockwork 3 days before ovulation and always with me on top.
It wasn't until June that I starting noticing the changes in my body. We were getting ready to move and I remember standing in front of the mirror, Casey walked in, looked at me and said, "You think your pregnant, don't you?" I told him yes. We didn't bring it up again.

The weekend of June 20th we started moving into our house. We were all suffering from Salmonella poisoning and ending up spending our first weekend home laying around puking our guts out. Sunday morning I woke up at 4am and decided to head to Walmart to get some more medicine for the kids... and pick up a pregnancy test. I took it when I got back home... POSITIVE! I knew it! 

I had no doubt  from the beginning that we were pregnant with a girl but I didn't allow myself to say it out loud until we had our gender ultrasound confirming it. That was a day I'll never forget. I cried so hard the sonographer had a hard time finishing the scan! I think Casey got a little teary eyed too!

It has been 3 years (come February 5th) since I first fell in love with my chubby cheeked, blue-eyed baby girl. She has proven to us all that she isn't just our dream come true. She's the gift that just keeps giving. We are all amazed by how loving and sweet she is every single day and by how much joy she brings all of us.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl!