"Am I Having a Baby Bruda or a Baby Sista?"

So this has been Elizabeth's continual refrain since the time we found out that we were having another precious one. We told her only God knew at that point and that He had already decided. It actually turned out to be a great way to teach her trust and contentment because our mantra around the house became, "God knows if the baby's a brother or sister, and I can be happy with what He gives me."

Well, the same week of Elizabeth's birthday, we also found out the gender of this new one...

IT'S A GIRL!!

We were SO pleasantly surprised because Matt and I had truly expected a little boy. We had a name, a nursery theme, even some boy clothes...the whole works. :) So hearing that it was a little girl brought unexpected tears of joy to my eyes because in my heart I had really hoped for another little girl. (Maybe because we have been so blessed by this first one.) Elizabeth, though perhaps not fully aware of what was happening, was briefly interested in finding out it was a girl. But to explain, she was also distracted by some cool toys the sonographer kept in her office.

Perhaps she also felt the confidence of knowing she had predicted correctly. She kept saying she wanted a sister and that the baby was a girl. That makes her record. 1-0. Matt's is 1-1 (he correctly predicted Elizabeth). And I am 0-2.

Anyway, enough typing, below is a great pic from the ultrasound.
















I rotated the picture for you so that you could look directly at her face. Though she looks a little like a skeleton in this pic, it's cool because you can get a general idea of the shape of her little face. We think she might have a more oval-shaped face like mine as opposed to E's round-shaped face like Matt's.

Elizabeth's THIRD birthday!

Before I begin, allow me to first say a quick apology to all who have so faithfully come back to our blog and wondered why there had been no updates since JULY!! Of all things, Shannon, what have you been doing? :) I do humbly ask your forgiveness and hope that I can make it up to you by turning a new leaf (a little fall joke!). I hope you will see more frequent posts in the future. Thank you to all of you who asked me personally for more pics of E. Your love for her is so dear to me.

Now back to the matter at hand! I simply cannot believe it, but Elizabeth turned three years old last week! Of course, we had a party, complete with balloons, lots of friends, and CAKE!! In fact, it's hard to say what Elizabeth was more excited about: the friends or the cake. As friends began to come one after another, Elizabeth became more frenzied. She definitely knew it was her birthday party! The first pic is of her literally bouncing off the couch in our living room with heaps of joy . Her pal Maxwell casually looks on and is probably wondering, "What go into her? " :)

















We got her to stand still long enough to take some family pics. (That's our dear friend Maria in the background. She is not technically a Morton, but we love her lots! She's also Maxwell's mom.)














Before we had cake, Matt and I gathered everyone and publicly told E one thing we really love about her. Matt said he loves how she is so joyful and so much fun to play with. He told her how he loves being her daddy and coming home from work to see her. I told her how I love her tender heart towards the Lord. She really loves to sing, read the Bible, and ask about people who are hurting. She is a compassionate, thoughtful little girl. After Matt prayed for her, we sang "Happy Birthday." (Sadly, E cried through the whole song. Perhaps it was too loud! We're not sure.)

Then it was time to eat the cake! I actually put together a "cupcake tree," which is on the table in the center.
















Elizabeth's favorite girlfriend, AnnaJoy, helped E eat the cupcakes.















Then, they played in the kitchen; no doubt, making more cupcakes! :)















Then, they played outside on the jungle gym which my parents got her for her last birthday. Here, E is truly delighted to be swinging. I think she could do this for hours if I let her.





































Sadly, the party had to end and our guests began to leave. I took these last ones of her as some of the last guests said their goodbyes. (Yes, she's wearing a play stethoscope. Matt and I got her a little "doctor's kit" for her birthday. Also, if you look closely, you can see that she is sweating. She really worked herself up during her party. :))



























































Bye-bye, everybody! Thanks for coming to my party. :)