Only 7 weeks until the due date and there's still plenty to do before our little one's arrival. Here's the plan of attack: I will be in Chicago until my 36 wk appointment, and hopefully they will clear me to fly. The next day, I am flying to Phoenix to settle into our new summer home only .5 miles from both mine and Brandon's work. Meanwhile, Brandon is driving our car out to AZ with all of our baby stuff in tow that same weekend. He will then fly back to Chicago for two weeks to finish finals. As soon as finals are done, he will fly to AZ and start his summer internship while we wait for our little girl to come. We will be in Arizona until mid-September and then back to Chicago for our last year of law school!
As much as I feel like we have a lot to do, there is one thing that is done....the name! This part was easy. Her name will be
Rachel Faye Hale. Do you like it? Not that it will change anything. :) There is a lot of family tradition that comes with the name...
She will be the ninth generation of Rachel Hale's. In fact, there has been a Rachel Hale alive since 1767! On Brandon's side, the tradition is that a Hale son names a daughter Rachel and I love the name, so it was simple. Here's the generations -
1. Rachel Johnson Hale (the first, who took on the name Hale through marriage in 1767)
2. Rachel Johnson Hale Savory (born 1798)
3. Rachel Johnson Savory Hale Hoagland (born 1829)
4. Rachel Susan Hale Clark (born 1857)
5. Rachel Louisa Hale Tuttle (born 1891)
6. Rachel Hale Christensen Cunningham (born 1927)
7. Rachel Kay Hale Gonzalez (born 1959) - Brandon's aunt
8. Rachel Elizabeth Hale Murray (born 1985) - Brandon's sister
9. Rachel Faye Hale - Brandon's soon to be daughter!
There's tradition with the middle name as well. My middle name is Faye and my mother's first name is Faye (although she goes by her middle name, Elaine) and my Grandma Thompson's name is Faye.
Anyway, we're really excited to be parents to a little girl soon! See pictures below - all taken in Utah two weeks ago.
Picture taken with Faye Thompson, Faye Elaine Parker (mom), pregnant me, Nancy Hale (mom-in-law), and Bonnie Allred (Brandon's grandma aka Pookie)

Picture with Rachel #7 and #8. Brandon's aunt, Rachel and Brandon's sister, Rachel. Don't get too concerned that there will be any confusion - we'll distinguish them by calling our baby "Rachel Faye" when we are with the Hale family.

This is my, "I love the sideshot" sarcastic smile. Here's me at 31 weeks: