And the story begins...

I wanted to tell everyone the story of how we let our families know we were expecting. Brad and I found out we were pregnant at the beginning of November, but we wanted to wait to share the news until after I was farther along, in case anything happened. So Brad and I decided that Christmas would be perfect because I would be about 10 weeks along, and the "critical period" was over.

We decided that we would make copies of the ultrasound picture and frame it for my parents, aunt and uncle, and grandmother, and for Brad's parents, sister and brother in law, and grandparents. We found some little frames at Target and my next door neighbor Cheryl worked very hard at making them look great. They started out as white frames, and after she painted them, and faux finished them, and put the acrylic letters on, they looked absolutely wonderful. Here is a picture of what some of them looked like.
Well, our Christmas plans didn't work out quite as we had planned. The morning of Christmas Eve, Brad woke up with food poisoning. This is the day that his side of the family celebrates Christmas, and the day that we had been planning on telling his family. But he ended up being too sick for the ride to Munford. We were so disappointed because we had been living with this exciting news for so long, and had been waiting for this day for what seemed like forever, and we had to continue waiting.

On Christmas Day, Brad woke up feeling better, but not 100%. We were having my family over for Christmas so we knew that we would be able to tell them our news. My mom came over first and helped me finish getting the food ready. After everyone got to our house, I just couldn't wait any longer and basically demanded that we open presents right then. I passed out the frames (which were wrapped) to my mom, aunt, and grandmother. I watched as they opened; and I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, my mom figured out what the picture was of, and what was written on the frame.

She didn't realize at first that we had put a picture in the frame, she assumed it was the picture that comes with the frame, it was after pondering the picture for a moment before she decided to read what was on the frame. It read, "Our Grandkid".

Next were my aunt and my grandmother. They were pretty excited too!

That night, Brad's parents came over to finally celebrate Christmas with us. We gave them the frame as the last present. His dad opened the frame, and wouldn't let Vicky see it. Once they both saw it, they were pretty excited, too. Although, Vicky already guessed I was pregnant. (We had gone to Nashville on Thanksgiving weekend to do some shopping, and all I wanted to do was sleep in the hotel room the entire weekend. She kept asking Brad if I was pregnant.)

A few days later, we went to Brad's grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. At first, Gi thought the same thing as my mom, that it was just a picture frame, but then, she read what it said, and here is her reaction:

And last but definitely not least, we did Christmas with Brad's sister and brother in law, Kati and Travis. When she was unwrapping the frame, she thought it was a DVD she had asked for. Then she saw what it was, and I think she was pretty excited too!
We are so blessed and lucky that our families are supportive of us, and our growing family. Both of us were raised by wonderful people, who have instilled a love of family in both of us. Not only can we not wait to meet our little one, but we can't wait for the rest of the family to meet him or her.