What's in a name?

I have a feeling this is going to turn into mostly a baby blog. Sorry if that is boring for some of you. We won't find out the gender for a couple more weeks but it's never too early to start thinking of names...

If it's a boy:
We've had a boy name picked out since before we were even married. We want to name our first son Nathan James. I love the name Nathan and I love that it means "gift from God." I also love having the middle name James because he'll be named after his daddy, Jim is already a jr. though so we didn't want to use James as the first name.
Another boy name I like is Matthew. That is Jim and his Dad's middle name and I would love to use it as a first name for one of our sons.

If it's a girl:
This is a lot harder. I have tons of names I like but I don't know if I would really name my daughter any of them. It's a lot harder for us to agree on girl's names so if it's a girl, she may not have a name for awhile. Also the middle name has to be Julie or Julia because it's a family tradition for 3-4 generations on my mom's side and I have to keep it.

Here are some names we've thought about....
Alyssa-I used to love this and Jim really likes it too, lately though I don't love it so much
Brooklyn-I think this name is so cute. Jim thinks it's weird to name her after a city. He decided though he could live with it if he could call her Bronx Bomber as a nickname and buy her a little Yankees baseball outfit:)
Madeline (Madalyn, Madelyn?)-Can't come up with a spelling I like for this one

Other names I like but probably won't use for one reason or another: Kaitlyn, Lauren, Alexa (Lexie), Savannah, and Emma

Any ideas? Which do you like?

Ultrasound Pics

Here are our first looks at our sweet baby! It seems healthy so far and has a strong heartbeat. We will hopefully find out the gender on March 2nd.

Our Baby at 11 Weeks

The Baby kneeling at 16 weeks

Waffle Cookies

While looking for recipes to try from the cookbook my Grandma and Grandpa McLean gave us for Christmas, I came across this one. You mix the cookie dough like normal but instead of baking them in the oven, you bake them in a waffle iron. I made these mostly out of curiosity but they actually turned out to be pretty tasty! Tastes like a brownie with the texture of a cookie!

My Attempt at a heart shaped cookie for Jim

The finished product

The raw cookie dough

Blog Beginnings

I finally broke down and started a blog. I'm not really sure what to post yet but I for sure want a blog when the baby comes so I figured I'd start one early for those of you who have asked. Here is a little background on our family...My husband Jim and I have been married for almost a year now. We are so excited to be expecting our first child, due July 8th, 2009. We are both students at BYU and will probably be stuck in school forever. If all goes well I will graduate in Home and Family Living in December 2009 and Jim will graduate in Civil Engineering in April 2010. This is all up to the fates however and the people who decide which classes are offered which semester and what times those classes at at. Right now we are just enjoying life together and looking forward to welcoming our baby into our family.