What's in a name?

I've always had the plans to keep a name secret until birth because I never wanted to hear negative reactions towards the name I picked out. However, Tater really didn't want to keep it a secret (he's terrible at keeping secrets) and basically told me to get over the fact that everybody has an opinion and sometimes we just simply don't agree with those opinions. So I sucked up my sensitive nature and we decided to spill the beans. Our little girl's name will be Gattlyn Goldie Roan.
We love names with meaning so I will try my best to explain ours. I love to stay for the credits at the end of a movie just to look for names (it seems people in Hollywood always have the coolest names) and one day I saw the name Gattlyn. I loved it and so did Tater so we wrote it on our very long name list. We got to thinking how cool it was that Gattlyn is obviously alot like Gatlinburg, TN. Gatlinburg is where we spent our honeymoon and lots of other special vacations. Also, I grew up in Tennessee and it will always hold a soft spot in my heart and for some odd reason I always wanted one of my children's names to play a special "shout out" to my homeland. I know this sounds so wierd to some of you but it's honestly how my mind works!! So long story short Gattlyn is a special name because it represents my childhood and a big part of my marriage. Trust me- I wish I could just come up with a random name that means absolutely nothing, but I just can't!
Goldie is the name of Tater's beloved grandmother. She was such a huge part of his life as well as a very special woman to him. Tater describes Granny as a second mother to him and words will never be enough to describe the type of love he had for her. Unfortunately, she passed away in February 2008 and after that we knew instantly that our first child would be named after her. We are so grateful that we are able to name our child after such an inspiring, wonderful and loving woman who truly had a heart of gold.

Halloween

For Halloween, I dressed us up as Jack and Jill. Perhaps I got carried away with the makeup because no body got us! Everyone thought we were a couple who liked to fight? Go figure. We even had name tags and we still had to explain who we were. The sad part was that none of the children knew who Jack and Jill were! It's got to be the easiest story to tell and yet I guess people have stopped telling the tragic tale of Jack and Jill! I swear we stood their for thrity minutes simply explaining the story to a group of kids. Granted our faces could have been a distraction, but I still find this a sad reminder that stories are no longer told! Ok, I will admit it's not their fault they didn't know who we were. I suppose I will also admit I read into the story a little more than I should have. Anyways, this is me at 18 weeks. Some people really didn't like the idea of a pregnant woman falling down a hill. I thought it was hilarious!

Belly Pics

This is me at 17 weeks. Not only was it this week that I felt "officially" pregnant, but I also got to feel Gattlyn move for the first time!

Sweet Baby Girl

We found out yesterday that we will be blessed with a baby girl!!! On Wednesday, we went to the doctors to find out the sex unfortunately our child was not willing to show us who she was. Her legs were on lock down the whole time. We tried for about 30 minutes until the nurse finally said it just wasn't going to happen. I was so bummed. Don't get me wrong, I was very happy to learn that the baby was healthy and growing the way she should however when you want to know the sex you just want to know!! The entire family was anxious to know and I just hated that we couldn't give them any news. So that night I scoured the internet to find a place where I could get another ultrasound done. Mom had come in all the way to be there when we heard the news and I wasn't about to let her leave without knowing. We found this awesome pregnancy spa that performs ultrasounds in 2d, 3d and 4d and of course they set your pictures on a cd or dvd with music!! I really loved this place and was so glad that we went to it. The technician was awesome. At first, the baby was being difficult again but the technician flipped me over like a pancake and had me move in all different directions so that we finally got the money shot!! Of course, all three of us started to cry like babies. Tater and I are so excited to have a little girl! We just know that this is the special spirit the Lord intended us to have and we couldn't feel more blessed. Yay a girl!!!!