The Big News....

But the "biggest" news of the July 4th-ish weekend was the announcement of this:(ultrasound at almost 10 weeks in late June).

But to back up the story really went a little something like this. When I was planning Brent's birthday and his main surprise (the Ipad), I had NO clue I would have a bigger surprise for him!
After the Ipad there was one small wrapped package left. Lilli noticed and said something about there being one left to open. Brent knows me pretty well - in that the junky stuff, aka Lilli's selections, come first and the best stuff is last. So he asked "What could be better than an Ipad?"

I think we can all agree this was!Even though I had only kept the secret for maybe two hours I was so glad to finally tell him! Of course I had already texted a few really close friends with the news, because heaven knows I couldn't tell Lilli!

We actually didn't even tell her until the night before we told our families, 10.5 weeks later. She has seen Brent taking his daily belly shots and even put her head up to my stomach - but had no clue why.So when we told her that Friday night, her first response was "Can I take the baby for a ride in my wagon?". I had no clue that she was lacking in wagon play so desperately! She asked a few questions and was very excited - she's wanted to take a baby home from the baby room at daycare for quite some time. The baby's due date is January 23 - the day before her 4th birthday - so it's actually fairly easy for her to understand it's going to be a while. She does actually believe that at her birthday party my stomach is literally going to pop open and she will get a baby. While that would make for a legendary party, we're just going to "stage" her birthday early in the month to make it a bit easier (on me).

Our decision not to tell Lilli until we "had to" proved to be the right one. As soon as pulled into my parent's house she went around back to blow bubbles with her cousins Kacey and Cody. We were still bringing in luggage and it couldn't have been over five minutes that we had been there when Kacey came inside, walked up to me and said "Aunt Rachel, are you having a baby? Because I can see your baby." I told her to hush and then she asked again if I was having a baby and I told her that wasn't nice to ask people. I had no clue where that could have been coming from, but luckily it didn't seem like anyone had heard.

Our plan was to let everyone get there, put Lilli in her custom "big sister" outfit, and have her give the grandmothers a framed ultrasound picture.It was a bit chaotic but got the job done before Kacey could ask more questions! Turns out that as soon as we got there Lilli told her cousins she was going to be a big sister! Cody, being a bit older, had just come inside and whispered to Suzy if she knew anything, while Kacey just took the bulls by the horn.

Once we got back to Nashville on Sunday night we pretty much blew up Facebook with our announcement and had over 100 likes/comments/private messages! There are a few good things about the Internet.

Since then Lilli has told everyone! She actually tells people she is getting a brother AND a sister, so I get a lot of questions as to whether or not I'm having twins. Problem is she also thinks there is a baby in her belly. But she will tell you she wants a sister.

I'm pretty much felt like dog poop the whole time - gagging over everything (especially tooth brushing and cooking) and getting sick some as well. That's actually gotten a good bit better this week and I even managed to cook dinner from natural, raw ingredients three times this week! Raw meat and basically most food in general has just grossed me out for many weeks now. We had an appointment last week at just over 12 weeks and everything was sounding good with a strong heartbeat and measuring right on track.

So that's the "other" story of what's been going on around here!