Smitten

Chad is completely smitten with our little Megan. Don't get me wrong, I expected him to be a great dad, but I didn't know how his love would be manifested. He just keeps saying, "She's so beautiful" and other things along that line. He took all the pictures below and wanted to make sure that they were on the blog because after all, she's beautiful.

Homeward Bound

All dressed-up and ready to go!


Leaving the room and heading for the car.


Dad is making sure everything is secure.



Welcome home Megan!

Megan is comfortable in all her furniture.

And just so everyone knows...

Surreal

Technically, this picture could go under the "Meeting Megan" post, but it seems to express the "thousand words" that are running through Chad's and my head. We've been expecting Megan for nine months and we were impatient about her getting here, but now she's here and things seem very surreal. She definitely belongs to us, I was definitely there through the 14 hours of labor and she's barely left our sight in the past 30 hours. The idea that she's "ours" and she's going to go home with us tomorrow is taking a while to sink in. She's beautiful but I think part of the reason we can't take our eyes off of her is because we can't quite comprehend this tiny gift (and responsbility) we've been given.

Meeting Megan

Okay, so now that she's been announced, we decided to include some pictures from Megan's first day or so in the world.

Here she is after her first hour.

Grandpa and Grandma Gorrell arrived at the hospital at about 4 am so as to avoid any chance of missing the action.

Grandma and Grandpa Warner, the seasoned veteran grandparents, arrived within a few minutes of Megan being born and joined the welcoming committee.

Megan Elizabeth Gorrell

After much waiting and anticipation Megan Elizabeth Gorrell was born on Memorial Day at 11:47 am. She was 7 lbs 7 oz. and 20 inches long (not bad for parents of a smaller than average stature!)

She is so beautiful!

Our House-Part 2

In real life, we would have to start the tour at the bottom and work our way up. For the virtual tour, we'll go just the opposite.

Welcome to our attic!

We spend the majority of our time up here. Its a hard space to take pictures of, but if you'll look at the outside picture of our house, you'll notice 2 dormer windows. (There is a third dormer on the left side.) The picture above is taken while standing in the dormer in the front of the house. The stairs come up on the right side of the room and the left side of the room has a window. The back of the room is a combination space that holds our computer and my scrapbook empire. A future project is to put cabinets and book shelves into the space. Hopefully, we'll be able to start that in the fall in order to child proof our attic.

This picture shows one of the 2 windows in the front dormer and our sitting area.

This picture shows the stairwell and another angle of our couches. Behind the couch, we also have a little area with our games, a microwave and refrigerator.

Our House-Part 1

For our friends and relatives who don't frequent Pennsylvania, I'm going to do some posts on our house. Our one-year anniversary of living in "Maple Crest" was Saturday, May 5. Since moving in we have painted and re-made all 4 bedrooms and completely gutted a bathroom. All of our projects have made major improvements (although painting the nursery pink was questionable for Chad) and we consider ourselves quite the do-it yourselfers (I would check the spelling, but I don't think that is a word...).

The house is three stories tall. The attic is finished and is where we spend the majority of our time, the second floor consists of 4 bedrooms and a bathroom. The main floor has a mainly empty foyer, living and dining room as well as a kitchen. The basement is large, but damp.

Waiting...and waiting...

If you had asked last week, I would have said I need some more time. Ask me today and the answer has changed. The room is ready, there are plenty of clothes, blankets, diapers and a whole world of other "necessities" that make our parents shake their heads. Now we just need Megan to get here. I've been trying pep talks. Luckily, I don't look 9 months pregnant, so I haven't gotten a whole lot of the "eat spicy food" and "drive down a bumpy road" advice yet. At my last doctor's appointment, he was surprised at how low the baby's head was and how I was progressing, but when I asked when to expect her, he said, "Maybe tomorrow, maybe in 2 or 3 weeks..." I'm pretty sure that I could have come up with that answer myself.

A Series of Firsts

Life seems to be a series of firsts. This May we'll experience several major firsts. Megan Elizabeth being the reason behind most of them. I consider this blog to be a small first, but hopefully it is a good way to keep family and friends posted on some of the other "firsts."