And the WINNER is...

TEAM PINK!!!

We are so excited to be blessed with another precious baby GIRL!!! Allison Neal Gentry will be here on or around July 20th. Allison is my grandmother's maiden name, and Neal is my dad's name. Needless to say, our new little Alli will have quite the family name! I absolutely loved (and still love) having a sister-although my sister doesn't remember it as fondly being bossed around by me haha-so, I'm SO glad that Lila and Alli will have each other and grow up so close in age! I just hope they love each other and get along, but I'm sure they will have their moments just like my sister and me at various points in our childhood!  Another plus is not having to buy all new pajamas and various clothing items that can be reused! I, of course, will be dressing them in matching clothes as long as they let me, however. I let my mom match all of us until I was 11! I can only hope to get 11 years out of matching my precious girls :) Josh is already in love with his new baby girl, and I'm sure she'll be a daddy's girl just like Lila!


Here are some pictures of our Alli at 15 weeks 5 days:

 Her nose in the picture above looks just like Lila's, I really hope they look alike :)

Special Family Birthday Saturday

Lila's birthday is this coming Thursday, although I cannot even believe it is only a few days away!! Since we're going to be a having a rather large party for her in Atlanta, we wanted to first celebrate here in Texas with out little family unit. After Lila's nap yesterday morning, we dressed her in one of her birthday dresses and took her to the park to play, walk around, and of course, take some lots of pictures of her! It was a beautiful, partly cloudy day today which was perfect weather for what we wanted to do outside! After letting her play for a while, we went to eat a fun lunch. I can't really get her to each much more than berries or bananas these days, but she did okay on her turkey and cheese sandwich. After lunch, we all went back home, and Josh got the cake ready for her. He couldn't decide which one to buy, so he bought a cute giant cupcake and a mini-pink butterfly cake. He put candles in both and presented them to her as we sang "Happy Birthday." She didn't quite know what to expect, but dug into the cake right away. She picked her favorite one, so we'll save the giant cupcake for ourselves :) She LOVED the cake (who wouldn't right?!?!)...and so did Chevy. She fed Chevy a good bit of cake, and he also snuck in several licks when she wasn't looking. I'm so glad that we could celebrate at our house with just us three before her big party next weekend!

 feeding Chevy a taste

Re-arranging

As many of you know, we are buying another crib and setting up a second nursery in our house. One reason is because I don't want to kick Lila out of her bed just because of a new baby.  The second reason is because I want to keep Lila confined to a crib as long as possible to make it easier on all of us! I ordered a beautiful dark brown crib and changing table/dresser for the new nursery from Pottery Barn the other day, expecting it to be here sometime in March (as that was the delivery time frame for our last crib, but from a different, but similar, store).  Well, to my amazement, they called yesterday wanting to set up delivery for February 4-10th! We will be out of town for Lila's party until the 6th, so Monday the 7th it is! We were not prepared for such fast delivery as the old playroom needed to be mostly emptied to make room for the furniture. Yesterday afternoon, we began moving all of the playroom things into the old study to eventually have a new, bigger playroom for both of the kids. It is definitely a work in progress, but we got a lot accomplished in the short hour that we worked yesterday!

 old playroom (picture up and down)

 old playroom slowly becoming a nursery-we (Josh) still needs to take down the bookshelf, letters, and mirror

 we have to wait to see what this little critter is to figure out the decor/paint colors to add

old study

 view from the hallway of the old study/new playroom (in progress)

 need to order more color tiles and finish the flooring

Lila's Scrapbooks

Lila absolutely loves to look at pictures! She flips through the photo albums on the coffee table daily and smiles as she points to her photos and says "baby". Well, each month for the first year of her life, I've made her an electronic scrapbook from www.mixbook.com. It allows you to create online scrapbooks that actually resemble the paper kind that I used to spend HOURS making. Lila loves to pull these off the shelves in her room and flip through them as well. Here is her this morning checking out her books.

Gender Poll craziness

I'm not sure what happened with the gender poll, but yesterday there was 45 votes and the boys were winning. Today there are only 25 votes and the girls are now winning! Technology is crazy!!! Oh well, we will see for sure next week (hopefully!!).

Special Poem

I was catching up on a friend's blog yesterday, and I came across this sweet poem. She and her husband actually decided not to find out the sex of their baby until it, now a beautiful baby girl, was born. I wish I could only be that patient, but waiting the minimal 16 weeks has been hard enough!! We will hopefully find out what this baby is a week from today! If not then, than we will find out February 16th. Either way, we can't wait until mid-July! I thought this poem was so sweet, because no matter what the gender is, God has blessed us with a second wonderful gift from Heaven! 


Some folks pray for a boy, and some
For a golden-haired little girl to come.
Some claim to think there is more of joy
Wrapped up in the smile of a little boy,
While others pretend that the silky curls
And plump, pink cheeks of the little girls
Bring more of bliss to the old homeplace
Than a small boy's queer little freckled face.

Now which is better, I couldn't say
If the Lord should ask me to choose today;
If He should put in a call for me
And say: "Now what shall your order be,
A boy or girl? I have both in store-
Which of the two are you waiting for?"
I'd say with one of my broadest grins:
"Send either one, if it can't be twins."

I've heard it said, to some people's shame,
They've cried with grief when a small boy came.
For they wanted a girl. And some folks I know
Who wanted a boy, just took on so
When a girl was sent. But it seems to me
That mothers and fathers should be happy
To think, when the stork has come and gone,
That the Lord should trust them with either one.

Boy or girl? There can be no choice;
There's something lovely in either voice.
And all that I ask of the Lord to do
Is to see that the mother comes safely through.
And guard the baby and have it well,
With a perfect form and a healthy yell,
And a pair of eyes and a shock of hair.
Then, boy or girl- and it's dad won't care.

Edgar A. Guest

Our morning in pictures

Lila is into anything and everything these days and is quite the busy little bee! Here are some pictures to describe our mornings around the Gentry house. This explains why I haven't gained any weight this pregnancy yet...I'm following this little one and her travels!

 How do I get into that room, mommy??

 can't get into that room, so I'll just find something else to get into

 Why is Chevy outside and I'm not?? 

 I'm going to push open the door to mommy and daddy's room, what's in here?

 aww, I found a pretty card on the floor of mommy and daddy's room, who is it from?

 That was fun, now off to the kitchen...

 Why can't I get up these stairs?? I want to climb!

 I do not like wearing my sweater, it's so restricting!...but it does match my outfit SO well!

Come on, mom, and grab the diaper bag, I'm ready to go out!

The joys of having a Golden Retriever

There is always massive amounts of dog hair all over our house, it drives me insane!! I vacuum at least 4 times a week, and Lila's (and all of ours for that matter) clothes still end up looking like this.

Gotta love the dog slobber that gets on the pants too from Chevy licking off the dropped pieces of banana goo from the pants.

But, I know my sweet Chevy can't help it, and we still love him!