Gender reveal and Family pictures 2015

Since I had the chromosome test done for this pregnancy (I'm a little older now and they have a super easy blood test that insurance will pay for), The midwife knew the gender of our baby. We decided to wait until the 20 week ultrasound to find out, but as Christmas neared...I wondered if it would be fun to know earlier. My ultrasound was scheduled for Dec. 28, so at my December appointment I had the midwife write the gender on a card, and seal it. I gave the card to Kristie, and she filled an ornament with pink or blue glitter and wrapped it up for us to open on Christmas day. John had also gone shopping to pick up something for the baby. Him and Jay wrapped up two items, one for if it was a girl and one for if it was a boy. The presents sitting on our shelf waiting for Christmas morning:

Side note: I was sure it was a boy. Kristie (the only one that knew), happened to refer to the baby as a "he" and then corrected it and said "the child" a few days before Christmas. I didn't tell anyone because I wasn't sure I heard her correctly. I mentally prepared to end up being the crazy mom of 3 boys. I even had dreams that we opened the present and it was pink, in the next dream it was blue. Jay and I were up at 6:20 Christmas morning, but we let John and Andy sleep until 7:30. I asked Jay a few min before we woke them up what he thought the baby was. He said.."umm...I think it's a boy. Kole told me". Which led me to believe Kristie's son had actually told Jay the gender the night before at Christmas Eve service. Turns out Kole didn't ever know. Then the boys opened their legos and new clothing items. Then we took out "the present". The blue wrapped white box had pink and blue tissue paper in it. Then a blue bag with another box, which was wrapped in pink, to which we opened blue tissue paper...and a PURPLE/PINK glitter ornament. I was SHOCKED. John said "it's a GIRL!", and I said WHAT???, No way! I grabbed the ornament from John and inspected it. Yep it was purple. Next I said "where is the card from the midwife?" It was on the top of the box and it said "open me last". I opened it and it said...

I sat there stunned. I can't remember a time when I was so shocked. A few tears streamed down my face, and John looked the same way. The boys were excited, but immediately wanted to open "her" present. We opened it and it was a pink football.

After saying a few more..."wow's" and reflecting for a second, I told John how I was sure it was a boy. Then I texted Kristie to say thank you for the beautiful ornament, and a few girly gifts.

On the way to our photo shoot with family in Denver, my sister Lori called (She hustled out of church to call us and find out) and she was pumped. Then we told my parents on speakerphone in the car, and talked to my brother. When we got to the photo shoot, John waited until Jack and Cherry were seated with the grandparents and then threw the pink football at Jack. he caught it and held on to it trying to smile, but not realizing why it was thrown at him. Andy, who was sitting on his lap, said to Grandpa (that means it's a girl), but he didn't hear it. We collected the football again and waited until later in the photo shoot to revive it for our family pictures and then Davina and Cherry caught on and were yelling "it's a girl!". We included it in a bunch more photos, and I edited this one of the boys with the pink football by my belly.

Eventually we texted our friends, and I posted on facebook so my church friends and co-workers could know. Still so excited. Here is the ultrasound picture in the cute frame from Kristie:

Here are some of the family pictures from Christmas Day:

Christmas week 2015

We spent the majority of the week at Jack and Cherry's this Christmas, while John drove back and forth to work for about 8 trips total! Here are some highlights: Playing in the snow and building a snowman...and placing grandma's bulb lights in a pattern in the snow.

They also rode bikes a bunch the first day before the snow came...which was very exciting because Jay got a new bike and Andy got a new helmet for christmas.

The next night was the Block Christmas party, which was a lot of fun:

We had family Christmas the next night:

The boys got to go sledding with grandpa and grandma a few times:

We went back up for Christmas eve service where we played and sang and Jay was a shepherd and Andy was an angel:

On Christmas morning we opened a present that Kristie wrapped for us with an ornament with either pink or blue glitter in it. I will do another post on that with pictures, and our Photo shoot that morning. There were a lot of games of Jenga...

Some "throw the animals over the balcony, much wrestling, and of course bedtime stories of goldilocks...

Even though it was cold, they played a few rounds of football outside:

Good times!

Mid Decembers snow and more

The boys have been having a good time lately: We had a snow day and they thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was cold:

We didn't do much for Christmas decorations, but the boys put together some legos as a wreath.

The boys have spent a good amount of time playing star wars characters (because the movie came out last week):





















VIDEO HERE when I get it to work.

Our church friends hosted a "black tie-ish" get together for Christmas this year and it was awesome.

Andy got a much needed haircut.
Before:






































After:

Andy looked sharp at church this week, and so did Charlotte: