We’re Having a …! Pictures from a Phenomenal Weekend

Well this past weekend was pretty stinkin’ wonderful. It was full of good food, family and friends, and some pretty great surprises, which all left my heart feeling the fullest it’s felt in a while.

Here are a few pictures and stories!

On Saturday morning, we threw a gender reveal party with our parents and close local friends. We invited everyone to come over at 10 a.m. for breakfast and be a part of finding out what baby #3 will be.

Most of you know that Jamie was deployed during both of my pregnancies, so we’ve been excited to have a whole new experience this time around together. Doing a gender reveal just for the heck of it seemed like a fun(ny) way to celebrate with our loved ones and create a wonderful memory not just for us, but for our families too. Plus, we love any excuse to throw a shindig at our home!

We served sausage balls, fruit with fruit dip, Chick-Fil-A minis, little cakes from Baby Bites, and chocolate chip muffins. We also had orange juice, juice boxes for the kiddos, lots of coffee, and sweet tea.

I joked with my girlfriends that if I was going to drag their families out to a gender reveal for a third baby, I might as well feed them well to make it worth their while. 😉 (They told me I was ridiculous for having that thought, but good food never hurts!)

My girlfriend Amira (in the pink hoodie) graciously offered to use her new camera and take some pictures for us, and I can’t wait to see more of what she captured! I wish I would have taken more pictures with those who attended, but I’m sure Amira did a good job of that.

For now, here’s a picture with some of my girlfriends that I grew up with who all happily came over on a rainy Saturday morning to celebrate us (with their husbands and kiddos too!)

We ordered a balloon from Gina’s Balloons here in north Alabama, and working with her was fantastic. Local friends, I can’t recommend her balloon artistry services enough.

We had a five-minute elective gender scan the Wednesday prior, and the tech knew immediately (and I mean immediately!) what the baby was. Of course this led us to believe it was a boy, but we also knew that the tech is very good at her job and can differentiate genders very quickly. She wrote it on a note, put it in an envelope, and then I immediately drove it Gina’s home. I didn’t even want to look at the envelope because I was so nervous I would see the writing through it!

As soon as all of our guests arrived, I couldn’t wait another second and grabbed that balloon for the big reveal.

We let Hadley be a part of all of this and pop it because we knew she’ll remember all of this, and we want it to be a great memory for her as well. This will be a big life change for her too, but we’re optimistic that she’s going to love having a new baby in the family. She kisses my belly five times a day!

And… IT’S A GIRL!

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I really didn’t have a feeling either way, but I think I was just so shocked because I’ve never envisioned my life with three daughters. You know how sometimes you just get a hunch or an idea of something you may hope for or just simply potentially see in your future? Well, I never saw raising three daughters.

But oh my good gracious, I am so happy. I already feel like my heart has grown so much bigger with expectancy of another princess. I look at my girls and can so easily see another little girl to tag along with them. I am excited for them to give them each another sister and lifelong friend. Ah, I could go on and on.

We had convinced ourselves of a millions reasons why either gender would be incredible so that we wouldn’t be disappointed with either gender, so I was already mentally prepared for why it would be awesome if it was a girl.

I just wasn’t expecting pink for some reason, so seeing it was true shock. I could barely talk! It was funny.

Here’s a full video! Thanks so much to my amazing friend Amy for taking this great video.

But we had more this weekend besides just the gender reveal, which in reality was only from 10 – 11:30 a.m.

My mom and mother-in-law were crucial in helping clean up after the party because I had a total adrenaline crash and needed to sit for about 30 minutes after everyone left. Ha! Once I got my act together, Jamie and I changed our clothes, kissed the girls, and hopped in the car to head 100 miles south to Birmingham.

One of my incredible, beautiful sorority sisters was getting married at 4 p.m., and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Her wedding and reception was beautiful, and getting to spend the afternoon/evening with a handful of close college friends (and their awesome husbands) was a total blast.

I love love love these girls. We have the best memories from our college days!

I roomed with Mary E and Hannah in college for three years, so getting to be together like this was so much fun. We’ve had this same goofy college pose for 12 years, so we couldn’t miss a chance to take another picture like this. 😉 (My friend on the left, Hannah, is the one who got married in Turks and Caicos last May!)

Celebrating our friend Christy’s wedding while also reuniting with each other was the best way to celebrate a birthday. Getting to be with college friends is always so bittersweet because location-wise we are SO spread out, and getting together is hard. Our friendship has never faded though. We all agreed that we need to hopefully be more intentional about planning long weekends to be together now that everyone is married and we won’t have excuses like this to be together. 🙂

As far as celebrating my birthday itself, I didn’t want any of that. I knew Saturday was busy enough, so I told Jamie “NO Saturday birthday surprises.” I knew I was going to be with all of my loved ones anyway, and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Of course he still recognized my birthday in a sweet way, just one day early. The girls requested that I have a princess party, so he put up Frozen decorations Friday morning, invited my parents over for pizza and an ice cream cake (his parents had arrived in town that day too!), and we all enjoyed a night in together eating, playing games, and spending time together.

We had a busy Sunday with church commitments in both the morning and in the afternoon, but we were still riding such a high from a happy weekend. Sunday night though, we hit the pillow hard. Thankfully Jamie is off of work today for MLK Jr. Day, so we are fixing to take the kids and my mother-in-law to the Space and Rocket Center to enjoy a cold, but sunny holiday indoors.

Tonight, we rest. 🙂

Thanks for sharing in on our excitement on Facebook and Instagram! It was fun to share the gender reveal video with you. xo

More: Telling Jamie in Afghanistan that Hadley is a girl | Sadie’s gender reveal

Also, should you find out baby’s gender before he or she is born? A handful of people weigh in.