New year, New baby!!

We are thrilled to announce that 2012 will be the year that our little family grows from 2 to 3 . . .  or 3 to 4 if you count Bella, which I guess we must do because I have been told by everyone that after the baby comes Bella will quickly give up 99.5% of the attention that she now gets.  

You might remember that I cooked my Turkey upside down at Thanksgiving.  I may have been a little off my game on that day.  We found out on Thanksgiving morning that I was pregnant. We were thrilled, excited, and to be honest I was in a bit of a state of shock.  What a gift to find out that we would be blessed with a baby on the day that is meant for giving thanks.  Our poor kid will live every Thanksgiving down by hearing that on that exact day, we found out that he/she would come into our lives.  We are thankful indeed!

We had our second Dr. appointment this week and everything looks good.  We are due August 3rd, just 2 days before our 6th wedding anniversary.  I am sure that  Boise's 100 plus degree late summer temperatures when I am hugely pregnant will be awesome :)

Breaking the News:

Having the holidays and my 30th birthday while pregnant meant that we couldn't keep our little baby secret for long. 

We told our parents by wrapping up a baby's first Christmas onsie as a Christmas present.  My mom got it right away and screamed in delight, something tells me that she was waiting for this day.  My dad and Robin looked at us with surprise and my dad whispered the word, "Baby?" in a soft voice almost like he couldn't believe it was happening.  He then cutely asked when they could start telling people. We may have surprised Chris' parents the most.  They were playing with little Sophie on the ground and opened the present,  looked at it and said "Sophie, this must be for you."  Then they looked at each other, looked up at us and realized what was happening and again cheers erupted.

We told Chris' sister over a toast for my 30th birthday.  As we raised our drinks Chris said, "One thing, Ali cannot actually have that drink."  Elizabeth took a few seconds and then said, "Why because she is pregnant?"  I guess that Elizabeth caught Chris off guard by asking when we would hop on the baby train just a week or so before and Chris, who is the most terrible liar, gave her some answer that I was too career focused so not any time soon.  Elizabeth completely bought Chris' lie and figured that her kids would remain cousinless for a while longer. So telling her may have been most fun.

Of course I told my sister long before anyone else.  I sent her this picture and said, "I parked here today."

She quickly hung up the phone with her husband and called me asking "Does that mean what I think it means?"  Then we giggled together like little girls.  I have never been more sad to have Erin live so far away, but due to our morning chats I've already consulted with her regulalry. 

We've loved sharing our news with our friends across the nation, but if I go into those details this post will grow exponentially. Thanks to all for sharing in our excitement during this time.  2012 will most certainly be a wonderful year filled with blessings and major personal growth as we tackle the hardest (and hopefully most enjoyable) job on earth. 

Stay tuned for more baby updates along the way.