Gender Reveal Party

I know I already revealed our news on facebook, but I still wanted to document the day of our gender reveal this past weekend. The anticipation of finding out Baby S' gender was so exciting that I'm glad Ross & I didn't do it any other way (and no, we didn't cheat or know anything before the reveal!! We waited patiently!). I was so happy to get to spend the celebration with our family and friends back home :)

We decided to keep it low key and just invite our families over to mom & dad's house for dinner. (Of course this meant us having to fly home to Pgh, but it was worth it!) My girlfriends and their guys joined in on the fun as well so I was really happy to get to spend the day with my favorite people!!

Here's Ross & I before the reveal. He kept goofing off. The pics make me laugh :)

Here's a shot of the whole gang! I asked everyone to wear beads for their vote. You can see it's pretty evenly split, boy vs. girl!  I voted 'Girl.' I've always dreamt of having a boy first, but since the day I was pregnant, I had a sneakin' suspicion it was a girl. God has a sense of humor like that... I've learned :) Ross really had no preference or idea either way, but decided to vote against me once I peer-pressured him enough to choose a side!

My best friend, Ang, and her husband, in the middle, were neutral since they were the 'secret keepers' and in charge of buying the balloons. They did a fantastic job :)

A few more pics from that day before the reveal...

Michelle made pink and blue punches. It was adorable, and even more important, both were delicious!!

After dinner, it was finally time!! I was so nervous!  The video I posted on fb perfectly captures how excited we were to find out!! I love it so much and could stare at these pics all day :)

It's a girl!!!

And yes, both Ross & I are happy to raise her as a tomboy :) (if she agrees!)

And a few after pics!

This picture cracks me up... and so perfectly captures us! Ross gets this look a lot when I'm yelling at him :) He popped his balloon from playing with it too roughly! Luckily, we had plenty of extra balloons on hand for photo ops.

And here we go again! Ross goofing off....
 


I love these girls more than words can express!!

I joked with my grandpa that he had the same baby bump that I did :) haha...

Lastly, a few more pictures of the box! I had to buy and decorate the box the day before and LOVED how it turned out (I was a little nervous it wasn't going to turn out well). My friend at work made me the 'boy or girl?' text from her Silhouette machine and Ross & I cut out the polka dots from scrapbook paper. Ross was also nice enough to help me wrap the box with brown kraft paper to cover all of the logos and give us a clean slate... but don't ask him, he'll deny any involvement in the activity :)

Love, love, love my box. And then my dad destroyed it afterwards in front of me when the party was over. Rude. I wanted to have a memorial service for it. Too bad Southwest wouldn't just allow me to bring it back home with me on the plane. *sigh* And can we all just take a moment to recognize how gorgeous my parents backyard is?!! I love it back there... and that yard makes an awesome backdrop!!!


Also a quick pic from the day after with mom and Michelle (and Luca, hehe)....

So that was it! It was a really special day. And the fact that we're having a girl is finally sinking in. I will love her with my whole heart.... even if she does love dresses and princesses. I might eventually learn to love them too :)

*Kristin*

20-Week Appt.

It's official... I have a sealed (aka *stapled shut!*) envelope sitting at home with our baby's gender inside :) I absolutely won't peak, people don't believe me... but I can't wait for our gender reveal party on Saturday with our families that I absolutely don't want to spoil it for myself! I also want to be surprised. And I've enlisted one of my closest girlfriend's to be the secret keeper and purchase the right balloons for our gender reveal box.

The appointment this morning was so much fun, seeing Baby S again. I think once we know the gender it will actually feel real to me because I can talk about 'him' or 'her' and not 'it!' Or maybe when I can feel the baby kick, hopefully soon, then it will all sink in.

I realize I'm halfway through pregnancy now but part of me still feels 'blasé' about the whole thing. It hasn't sunk in yet that I need to start looking at daycares NOW to get on a waiting list, that I need to figure out the classes at our hospital, start adding stuff to our baby registry and figuring out what we need/don't need, that maybe we should start shopping for the nursery. *eek* So many to-do items that I only get overwhelmed and tired out. I guess I should make a to-do list... Or google a list :)

I'm also excited just to be visiting home this weekend and getting to share this experience with our families and our closest friends. Everyone has been so sweet it truly makes me thankful for the people we have in our lives. And I will definitely be sharing the gender reveal on Facebook, hopefully soon after we find out!

And as far as picking out names, we haven't discussed it at all. All I know is that I'm going to be the difficult one. I hate every name out there. *sigh* Hopefully pairing it down to a gender will help! We shall see.

*Kristin*