Celebrating "Beauty"

After finding out that we're having a girl, Bryan and I asked the boys if they wanted to pick a new nickname for the baby.  Joel thought for a minute and came up with up a keeper: "Beauty."  So now our little girl is affectionately known as Beauty.  We've been celebrating her life a lot the last couple of weeks, and I'm still getting used to the idea that she's a girl!  Both boys wanted to use some of their Christmas money to buy her a gift.  Joel picked out a little pink bunny, and Caleb picked out some cute little dresses for her.  It's adorable to see their enthusiasm.  One night we went to Rita's for pink colored Italian ice -- though the boys ended up picking a nasty looking army green mint chocolate flavor.

The day after we found out that we're having a daughter, the Thiels threw us an "it's a girl!" party.  They had us come over for pink desserts -- strawberry ice cream with pink coolwhip, strawberry topping, pink sprinkles, and pink lemonade.  It was pretty precious.  Though I hope my daughter is not dressed in pink every day of her life and I secretly hope she's not crazy about the color, I thought the pink party was great.  Here are a few pictures of the fun we've had:

Bryan also made family pancakes this week.  He made a special pancake for each of the four of us and one for Beauty too.  We've recently fallen in love with Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny books, and he made a different character (or phrase as you will soon see) for each of us.

It has been so fun to celebrate our hope for this little girl.  Bryan and I still don't make any assumptions that we'll have a little girl to bring home with us, but we are grateful for this time to enjoy her life and celebrate her regardless of what the future holds.  We certainly hope that in 5 months we have a healthy baby in the house, but no matter what, it is a gift to rejoice in her life now.

And while I'm at it, here are two other pancakes from Bryan's recent creations.  The first is a LEGO version of Lando Calrissian from Star Wars, and the second is Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.