hi,
I would like to use a gif that has a logo fading into the picture as opposed to using flash. Is there a way to make your animated gifs not continuously repeat over and over?

Yes, but I don't know what graphics application you are using.

If you are using Fireworks, you can click on the "Gif Animation Looping" button at the bottom of the Frames panel and specify how many times you want the animation to loop.

I personaly, maybe I am old fashion but I use the whole adobe suite, photoshop pages, imageready to animate/optimize and GoLive to code. So maybe try getting ahold of ImageReady. They make it really easy to simple animation. If you need any help PM me

add a stop action on the last frame,
or if you're using adobe suit; photoshop click on 'no repeat/loop' when saving to web.