A baby boy revealed in pics

I'm not even sure what to say about these photos.  I love them of course.  She captured our expression and that is exactly what I wanted.  It is just funny to see how shocked we are! 

To KT, sorry G was not feeling you that day.  He just wanted to run and play and sitting was not in his game plan.  He is a total mommas boy though and that is quite apparent here.  I still love his serious little face.  We'll bring his favorite "bubba" as a prop for his birthday shoot next month.  That should do the trick :)

To Kendra, your clothing choice was adorable.  As I was putting them in the closet this last weekend, I was getting excited for him to wear them.  He will be all cuddly in them and look adorable of course. 

From beginning to end....here goes:



It is the perogative of an almost 2 year old to do the opposite of what you ask. 
Such is life!

Patiently waiting

Not so patiently waiting.



It's A.......
 



BOY!!!!  Clearly the fact that those are boy clothes was quite entertaining to me. 





We look shocked and I just realized Mark hasn't even moved his arm.  LOL

Now we hug and celebrate.  Hehe
Mark is smiling.  That is a good sign!

G looks a bit terrified. 
Yes son, you are getting a baby brother!  Hide your toys :)

OMG I love his face!

Still digesting what all those little boy clothes could possibly mean.

 

 

3 weeks of torture over with just one pull of a clothes pin. 

Happy to know that it is a boy and so excited to get everything ready for him. 



Our creative photographer. 
Love the way we receive pics now :)

 

The BIG Reveal

The outside of the card I made to hold the gender sonogram

 This child is a blessing.  It is not just another pregnancy.  This baby was not owed to us and we certainly are not worthy to be another baby's parent, but God saw fit.  For that we are thankful and we celebrate!  We cannot wait to meet this baby and introduce to the friends and family waiting to love and celebrate this new life. 

To my husband, thanks for going along with my crazy ideas (this one and the many more that are sure to follow) and waiting an extra 3 weeks to find out what we are having. I love you.

 

To Kendra, Barney, KT and Cassandra, thanks for being part of our private celebration and reveal and for making it so incredibly unique and special for us. 

So, without further ado....

The inside of the card I made.  Kendra filled it in and attached the sonogram. 
 

I can't lie!  Mark and I always hoped for a son and a daughter...and in that order, no less! (darn the planner...dare I say...Emerald in us...I wonder if those that know what the heck I am referring to are even reading this!)  A baby is pure love no matter the gender so while in one moment our family became something we had not imagined, it will still be something spectacular and we count down the days until we meet this little guy.

Curious about the name?  If you remember blog posts and FB posts from the Garrett days when he was noted always as Baby G, we shall call this little one, Baby B, short for Blake Cash King.  Fitting for the second prince of our family, don't you think!

I feel like he must know that we found out he is a boy.  He has been kicking me hard since last night :)  That's okay though, I like knowing he is in there growing and getting strong.  

If you have a moment, watch our reveal video.  Barney worked really hard to video the reveal for us.  Zooming ain't easy folks :)  I kid, I kid!

More pictures will be added once we receive our flash drive from the photographer, but the one below will have to suffice for now.  I will be stalking her FB page for a sneak peak and frequenting my mailbox until it arrives.  I'm not impatient...nope, not me...just in love with the thought of the memories that will be held on that flash drive and all the cool artwork that will be adorning our walls!

 

NOW TO BEGIN SHOPPING AND DECORATING!  FINALLY WE KNOW WHAT DIRECTION TO TAKE :)

*Mark just reminded me that with the addition of boys, it means additional cars to be bought.  Oh dear!!!!  I'm going to need a much larger garage.   

 

The Making of a Gender Reveal

Have you ever noticed that large box of Freezer Wrap in the foil and plastic wrap section of your grocery store?  I never noticed it before, but in my online search for a way to make a template I came across a blog that used this awesome paper.  She traced an image onto the paper and then cut it out.  I knew there must be a better way. 

Insert Home Printer!

Cut your freezer paper to a sheet that will fit into your printer, this will also limit the size your template can ultimately be so this is great for smaller projects (t-shirts, bags, pillow cases, etc).  In the case of my printer and Word too, I was limited to a max of 9"x22" which was perfect for my project. 

 

If you have an image that is not large enough, trace it onto regular paper, scan it and resize using Word, or your favorite program.  Word is the only one I was able to figure out :)

 

 

Once you have all your images on the computer, load one sheet at a time through the feeder of your printer and hit print.  My printer reminds you to have the printing surface facing up when you feed it through.

 

Cut out your templates with an exacto knife and iron onto the cotton item of your choice using the cotton setting on your iron.  Make sure to iron it down really well so the edges are sealed. 

 

 

 

Fill in with fabric paint using a foam brush.  You want to tap the paint on to fill and then lightly brush from the outside edge toward the middle to smooth it all out.   

 

 

Once the paint has dried, peel up the corner of the paper and continue to pull at about a 45 degree angle to remove your template.

 

 

 

I decided to outline the edge of my crowns with more of the fabric paint so they stand out a little more since my project will be used for a photoshoot. 

 

 

 

Project complete!

 





Since we will be hanging this up on a clothesline, I decided to use some of the paint to decorate a few of the clothes pins.  

Naming Babies

Only 1 of these names is a contender. 
All names were pulled from nameberry.com as predictions for 2019 LOL
 

Was your husband super opionated when you were picking out baby names? I never thought it would be something a man would care about. Yep, I realize that is sexist. When I was pregnant with Garrett I realized how wrong I was. He not only had an opinion, he was passionate about it. I have always kept lists and at some point I must have made a baby name list on my computer. I don't even remember this list, so it must have been quite old. We had been married 8 years before we got pregnant with Garrett, so I had plenty of time to gather names. Mark wanted all sorts of crazy names I did not approve of so one day he found this list I supposedly wrote and found the name Garrett on it. He said he liked it and since I had already written it down, surely that meant that I liked it so in his mind we were in agreement. Men! But yes, I do love his name. It is unique and manly without being too futuristic or cute and I even love the middle name Mark gave him, Sky.

So, insert baby #2. We do not know the gender yet, but it is never too early to start thinking and planning. We have the boy name pretty much nailed down. I actually am getting more and more excited about that one. I wasn't thrilled with it at first as I have a name I love that Mark just does not understand. I have a girl name I love too, that he will not even consider. So for girl names, he thinks we have that nailed down too, but I only somewhat love the first name and hate his middle name choice. I mean HATE. Yep, super strong dislike. Yesterday I decided on a new girl name that I think I am in love with. It is unique and girly and perfect for our family. Still working on convincing him.

Do you love your kid's first and middle names? I am never going to like the middle name Mark has for a girl, but not sure it is worth fighting over. How do I explain to my potential future daughter that I love her and hate her middle name? Would that be weird? I'm not sure I have ever even asked my parents how they came up with my name. Do you know where your name originated? So, maybe it doesn't even matter. Am I overthinking this?

1ST SONOGRAM

IT IS STILL A BABY!!!! 

 

I had the fetal development scan yesterday. It was quick, too quick. All he told me is that the baby weighs exactly what it should at 17 w, 6 days (1/2 lb). It literally lasted 5 minutes, which is how long he told me it would take. My scan at this stage with Garrett took close to 30 minutes. She measured every single bone and made sure all the important innards were accounted for (stomach, heart, kidneys, brain, etc). Not this guy. I am getting more and more disappointed at the thought, but I am with midwives for a reason I guess. Minimal intervention is the name of the game here. My next appointment is in 2 weeks so we'll see what the midwife says about the baby.

So, clearly I am not making any huge announcements regarding gender today or I would have said it by now. I had the sonographer print out a picture of the revealing body parts and write girl or boy on a piece of paper and enclose in an envelope. A special helper will be getting this envelope soon so we can do a special gender reveal with our photographer. I can't wait! Watch for pics (and hopefully a video) coming soon.

In the meantime, here is the only picture I have of this little one.

Looking straight at the sweet face!
 

Here is me at 18 wks.

The magical gender envelope.


Dying to know what is in here!  Have to give to secret agent fast before we peak :)



 

Gender Reveals: Yes or No?

cute invite from Zazzle
see it here

I am planning to have photos taken when we find out what we are having but I want to do it in a fun way. I don't have any pictures of our sonogram with my family from when we found out we were having our first child, a son. I loved sharing that experience with them, but I wish I had that look on their face captured forever or at least a picture that shows we were all there together.

So as I'm making plans and googling ideas I have come across some hate filled blogs on the subject of gender reveal parties. I have read things like self absorbed, self indulgent, continues our me, me, me society, just another boring party for your friends and family to make time for, children have been born forever why get all excited now, and the list of negativity goes on.

At first I thought, well, maybe they are right. Being a culture of social media our society has maybe become a bit oversharing. But, you know what? I think it is okay to share our excitement with those we love and if they love us back then they should be just as excited as we are. I waited a long time to have kids. Long after my friends had finished that part of life, but I was still excited for them. Why wouldn't you be excited for your family or friend as she starts this new adventure in life?

We are not planning a party, but instead a gender reveal photoshoot so that me, my husband and our toddler son can find out in a fun way what we are having and have the looks on our faces captured. Sure I could have just had the memory of the sonographer telling me, do you see that extra leg right there? Well, it isn't an extra leg. It's a boy. Yes, that is great, but there is nothing wrong with making a celebration out of it and having fun pictures to look at forever. Sure, I will post a collage of these pics and maybe a sample of the video I am hoping to have made at the same time on social media, but the intent is to capture this for our joy and memories and for those that love us, to be able to share in our joy no matter how far away they may live.

So if you are out there annoyed and horrified by these so called self indulgent parties and photos, just remember, someone shared in your joy too. Even if you thought no one cared that you had gotten pregnant like billions of women past, someone did care and was excited for you. I bet you even counted down the days until your sonogram so you could find out if your house was going to be filled with pink or blue onesies. Why pretend this is not a joyous occasion? I can't imagine such a boring world where no one celebrated or found joy in simple things such as the gender of your child. Life is worth celebrating, so party it up!

If you don't mind sharing in our joy, please come back later in August when our pics are up.

Tell me your thoughts?