GENDER REVEAL...We're Having a _____!!!

Tuesday night we had our GENDER REVEAL.  We kept it really small...just family and one of my closest friends and her family, and it was great to share our exciting news!  (We had already told my sister and Ryan's brother because they both live out of town and couldn't be there...but they both did a FABULOUS job of keeping our secret before the party!) 

We had to wait a little bit for everyone to get there...of course both sets of grandparents showed up early, but we couldn't reveal until everyone was there.  =)

Anxiously waiting...

We had everyone write what they thought the baby would be...

My mom WOULD NOT CHOOSE...so she wrote her name in the middle.  HA!

To "reveal" I just got an easy idea off of Pinterest.  I just bought a black tank top and we ironed on
"I'm a ____" over my tummy.  When everyone was there, I pulled the top shirt up to let them read what it said...here are their reactions...I am so glad Ryan was able to take these pictures...they are PRICELESS!

And here is what Ansley, Brynn, and Millie thought about all the excitement...HAHA!

Lots of hugs afterward...

Then we all went downstairs (no one was allowed until after the big reveal because there was either pink or blue treats downstairs...) to eat some sweets!

And in case you haven't figured it out yet...IT'S A GIRL!  Brynn is going to have a little sister...we are so excited!  Obviously either way we would have been thrilled, but we are really excited for Brynn to get to have a sister!  =)  (Although Ryan did tell our OB he was going to have to get a really manly dog just to get a little more testosterone in the house!  HA!)

We had pink lemonade, brownies and ice cream, pink-chocolate dipped pretzels, and some of this popcorn stuff stirred with pink-white chocolate...YUM!


We are so thankful to God for our good news and are continuing to pray for a healthy pregnancy.  We can't wait to meet our baby girl!

Ultrasound Sneak Peek

Yesterday was our BIG 20-week ultrasound!  I'm not giving away the gender on this post because we are having a little "reveal" with our families tonight, but I thought I'd post the pictures just to make the grandparents squirm a little more.  (Yes....they are all dying to know and they are driving us crazy!  HA!) 

Ryan's physical therapy offices are just one floor below my doctor's office, which is awesome.  He just took off a couple of hours and was able to run up and do the appointment with us.  The best part was that everything looked good...praise the Lord.  I just never want to take it for granted how amazing it how to see a baby's little spine or to see four chambers of the heart.  

We took Brynn with us to the ultrasound and then she played in the gym's daycare (if you are a member your kiddos can go there if you have a doctor's appointment in the building) while we went to see my OB for my actual appointment.  Brynn was hilarious.  She was a little shy at first and we kept saying "we are going to see pictures of our new baby" and she seemed to understand it.  When I was laying down on the chair she kept saying "get up mommy" and then I told her I had to lay there while Mrs. Catherine (a friend who did my ultrasound) checked mommy's belly.  Then she came over and sat down and said "hold hands mommy??"  It was adorable!  By the end she wanted to lay all over me and would peek up and say "HIIIII Mommy!"  Meanwhile, Ryan was trying to decipher every bit of the ultrasound screen...HA!

Hold Hands Mommy??

Then she would peek up and say "HIIIIII Mommy!"
I could not stop laughing!
And...let's just discuss how attractive my belly button is!  NOT!

Mom...I promise I did fix her hair before we went!  HA!

Looking at the ultarsound...Ryan was INTENTLY trying to figure out the gender.

They were looking at the screen and we were trying to tell Brynn "there is the baby's this or that."
I finally just stopped because I can't "read" those things worth a darn and I would say "I think
that's the baby's head" and Catherine would be like "no, that's the stomach!"  HA!
I clearly have no future in ultrasound readings!

I think we took this picture toward the beginning and Brynn was still being a little shy...she is looking
at Catherine like "who are you and what are you doing with my mommy!?" 

The appointment went so well and we are so thankful for good news!  Stay tuned in a day or two for the GENDER REVEAL!  Any guesses?

Random iPhone pics...

I don't think I've uploaded pictures from my phone for awhile...some people's phone pictures look so clear (I'm guessing that's because mine is a 4 and theirs are newer?) and mine is just blurry so I really try not to take many pictures with it, but there are always times I want to take a quick picture of something and don't have my big camera with me.  Here are a few things we've been up to in the last couple of weeks...



Ryan's youngest cousins (a twin boy and girl) are SENIORS this year.  Mollie had her last home soccer game last week and we went to her senior recognition game.  Brynn was sporting the Jackson black and red (yes, my sister is probably freaking out, but Linz...gotta tell ya...I am loving me some red and black these days!)  Ansley and Brynn were having a big old time eating popcorn and hanging out watching the soccer girls!
-


On Mondays and Thursdays the gym has a little class called "Leaps and Bounds" for kiddos two and up.  When Brynn turned two I started letting her go to the class while I worked out.  It is ADORABLE...they stretch, dance, walk on a balance beam, play with scooters, etc.  She loves it and her favorite part is when she gets a stamp (pronounced "tamp" by Brynn) after the class.  I LOVE to walk around the track and peek down to see what she is doing.  Here she is "stretching."  I'm not even kidding when I say the first day I saw her walking on a balance beam I started tearing up...HA!


We went outside one day when it was nice and had a little popsicle...


Oh, and THESE TWO...I don't know what we are going to do with them when they are in their teenage years.  I jokingly tell Sarah (well not jokingly) that I am praying Ansley is the best kid ever because Brynn worships her and the day Ansley comes home with tattoos and a nose ring, Brynn will want to do the same thing!  HAHA!  They fight just like sisters, but love each other SO MUCH!   (For the record, I didn't make Brynn wear a helmet to ride in the car...ha!  She had put it on earlier, with elbow and knee pads...hilarious...when she got out a scooter.  I guess she wanted to try everything on??  She took the knee pads off but kept the helmet!  LOL!)


I don't think there is EVER a dull moment with these two...we LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

Steamboat Triathlon

This past Sunday Ryan and his training guys competed in the Steamboat Triathlon.  They swam a 500, biked 15.5 miles, and ran 5 miles, and it was all around Cape so we were able to watch a bunch of it.  The weather wasn't the greatest, but it was good enough that we were able to run around and drive around like crazy people trying to find Ryan on the course.  =)

They swim at the Bubble, and one person starts every 15 seconds.  They swim up and back every lane.
We sat at the opposite end of the swimmers and got splashed a BUNCH!  HA!

Uncle Jason

Ryan

I had never seen this happen before, but in the middle of people swimming, the lanes came unhooked!  It was right when Ryan got to it, so he was trying to dodge all the crazy lane markers.   He came up out of the water and of course had no idea that had happened, so he was hitting his head on it, trying to swim under it, etc.  LOL!  After several swimmers had to navigate through the lane dividers, a girl finally jumped in and fixed it!

After the race Ryan was joking that he should have gotten a few seconds shaved off his
time for having to go through that!  HA!

When Ryan was almost done with the swim, Brynn and I ran outside to watch him "transition" from swimming to biking.  Prepare yourself for major sexiness with this outfit...Heather, I'm especially talking to you!  HA! (You guys know I just LOVE how attractive the triathlon outfits are, right?  NOT!)

After he left on his bike, Brynn and I ran home because I had to go to the bathroom SO BAD!  HA!  (Then we drove back to the library because it's a good spot to watch the guys ride through on their bikes.

I think Jason is the second one...it's so hard to get pictures of them riding their bikes because you can
hardly tell who is who until they are super close.  And then if it turns out NOT to be them, I feel
like a moron because they are probably like "why was that girl trying to take my picture?" HA!

Ryan started like 10 minutes after Jason so we had some more time to kill before Ryan came through.  Brynn had some fun playing around with the sign and playing with some babies she had brought along.

Brynn really got into cheering for everyone.  She yelled "Go Daddy" at everyone (even girls), and then
I would remind her to just say "GOOD JOB!"  It was really cute!

Trying to take a picture of us.  =)

Then Daddy came through!  GO DADDY!

We were able to see him ride through on his bike, and then drove to a couple of spots to watch him run through.  I have no idea how I'm going to manage doing this next year with TWO KIDS!  I guess I'm definitely going to have to learn how to use a wrap to keep the little one right next to me.  And I don't think we will be driving around nearly as much!  HA!

Finishing...YAY!

He finished in an hour and 31 minutes.  Jason didn't do the run portion because he hurt something on his leg a couple of weeks ago and did the race "relay-style" with a team-mate, so there was no brotherly competition this time around.  =)

I always think it is crazy to look back and see how things have changed the last few years...here are some pictures of us from two years ago, then last year, and then a picture of this year.  =)

2011 - she was four or five weeks old

2012

2013

Before we left, Brynn was "helping" Ryan put his bike away.  She got to "ride" it back to his truck.

After big naps by EVERYONE, Brynn helped Daddy stretch out his sore muscles.  I think we might have a future physical therapist on our hands!

It was a FUN Sunday!