The Big Reveal

God did it again. His timing is perfect! I was far enough along to where we were comfortable telling our families over Christmas. I've always known that I wanted to waited until I was about 8 or 9 weeks before we told anyone. Not that I was worried anything would happen, I just wanted to keep it between us for a few weeks.

My mom, sister in law (Tara), and I spent days trying to come up with some fun, creative way to tell everyone. I didn't want to do something common or typical, I wanted it to be special and preferably hand-made. (I hope that doesn't sound offensive, I just wanted to do something special and hand-made...that's how I like doing things.)

After many, many ideas, we finally figured out what to do. There was a little difference of opinion between Danny and I on what we should do. I wanted to make crafty things, etc., and he wanted to wear party hats, blow party horns, hold a banner, and shout "Hooray, we're having a baby!" Thinking back to that...that would have been perfect for him. It would have been just as special, especially because it was his idea. I wish I would have put that idea in the trash so soon. Sorry, Danny. Maybe for the next one?

Here's a picture of what we ended up doing. It's angled weird because of the glare I was getting. Either way, you get the point. :)

On Christmas Eve we celebrated with my mom, Mimi, Mike, and my sister Lexi. We went the Christmas Eve service and then to dinner at Chili's, and then headed home for presents. As it came time for Mimi and Lexi to open the presents, I was getting really nervous. It was a really strange feeling...something that I would feel over and over again as we were about to tell people.

For Mimi and Lexi, we didn't do the canvases. We ended up doing calendars that I made on Shutterfly. Lexi's calendar had pictures of us on every page along with a quote about sisters. For July, there was a picture of the sonogram with a quote about an being an aunt.

Mimi's had family pictures of all of us throughout the past few years. For July, there was a picture of the sonogram. Under the sonogram it said, "I can't wait to meet you Mimi!"

*You might get a little queasy watching this. At first I was recording and then decided that was a terrible idea, so I handed it over to Mike. Sofie and Mia were adding to the chaos with their new toys, sorry.

On Christmas morning we were at Jim and Amy's (Danny's mom and stepdad) in Uptown. Tony, Tara, and the boys came over along with Amy's mom, Virginia. We had delicious Eggs Benedict--thank you, Jim--and then opened presents. I was fine while everyone was opening their presents, but Preston kept grabbing the baby present and telling them to open it. When they finally did, my heart was going crazy. I was so nervous. Amy was opening it on the floor and Jim was sitting on the couch with Virginia--I was curious how this was going to play out. There were lots of tears...happy tears. :)

After Jim and Amy's, we headed to my grandparents in North Dallas. I started getting nervous again because we would be telling my grandparents--Grandma and Grandaddy, cousins--Chelsea and Carrie (and their significant others--James and Stephen), and my Dad, his wife Elaine, and their boys, Richard and Trip. Needless to say, there were a lot of people. They had all already opened presents, so we decided to have them open theirs right when we got there. It was a bit chaotic because there were so many people...but it was still wonderful. :) So exciting.

The day after Christmas, Danny and I, Tony, Tara, and the boys heading to Norman, OK to see their dad's side of the family. The tricky part about telling everyone was making sure that no one posted anything to Facebook so the Oklahoma family wouldn't find out. It's amazing how big social media has become over the past few years. Fortunately, it stayed off Facebook until we had shared the news with all of our family. We are so very blessed to have such a big family to share the news with.

Things were pretty busy once we got there, so we ended up waiting until later in the afternoon to have Larry and Carol and Mimi and Pop open their presents. Also, this baby makes 7 great-grandchildren for Mimi and Pop, Danny's grandparents. Pretty amazing.

Once the rest of the family came over, Larry gave a little speech to let everyone else in on our little secret. I think some of them were expecting it. :)

I think part of what made the announcement so special is that a large majority of the family was not expecting it. We had been pretty quiet about everything and hadn't really shared that we had been trying, or what our plans were. I'm glad it was that way...it made the announcement so much more fun...and emotional.

Thank you to our families and friends for all of the support and well wishes. We are SO very excited about couldn't be more thankful for this little blessing with a heartbeat.