Gender Reveal Party {Baby Martin 2.0}

Thanks so much for all of the sweet comments about our little baby girl!! We are absolutely thrilled and I think still in shock that it's a girl. I wanted to share the details from the gender reveal party as it was such a special time! Though I'm not sure I would call this so much a "party" as we just had our reveal before eating Thanksgiving meal. Either way, it was loads of fun and I'm so glad we waited to find out with our family - though the suspense nearly killed me at the end!

 

As I mentioned in this post, we had an ultrasound done on Monday, but the results were sealed. I bought a stuffed animal and made a little brother and little sister onesie using my Cricut. I planned to take all of this to a family friend to have her wrap up the surprise for us.

I enlisted the help of my best friend's mom, Miss Sherrrrriii! (She taught my nephew's Sunday School class and he always called her that...then it stuck with the rest of us -- I'm sure much to her delight.) Anyway, she did the honors of looking in the envelope and fixing up our stuffed animal and wrapping it. Of course she went above and beyond, adding a little pink poofy bow to the stuffed animal as well as mixing up blue and pink layers of tissue paper in the box to keep us guessing. :) You are awesome Miss Sherri...thanks SO much for doing this for us...we love you bunches!! :)

Then I added this chalkboard piece I cut with my Cricut so everyone could make a guess on the gender. (Thanks to Shannon for the idea!) As you can see, the girl votes definitely dominated...unlike Manny's Gender Reveal Party! I guess we have a pretty intuitive bunch. :)

I also cut some lips and mustaches with my Cricut so people could show their guess that way. And yes, I did switch to girl at the last minute. I decided to switch based on all of the old wives tales saying it would be a girl because of my symptoms, and it was right!

Patrick stayed strong with his boy guess though, even though he says he knew deep inside it'd be a girl. :) My niece Lani's expression cracks me up in this picture!!

 I even let Manny guess by having him grab the tulle on the package. He guessed girl! :)

Then the moment of truth came! Manny didn't want to participate as much I'd hoped, but what can you expect from an 18 month old? He did sit on my lap but he didn't really want to open the box...he was a good sport though as I know it was pretty overwhelming with all of us talking and screaming. We're not exactly a quiet bunch. :) It took a minute to register when I saw the onesie said little sister...I was so excited I was shaking! I think all of this is just still like a dream to me....such a blessing!
 

This picture makes me laugh SO hard. This would be Patrick digging through the box after I opened it...I'm not sure if he was looking for something that said, "just kidding!" or what...he was definitely in shock and asked to see the ultrasound pics so he could verify it really was a girl. He is very excited, but coming from a family of 4 boys he's a little nervous about having a daughter. I know he'll be an amazing daddy to her though!

And finally I have to share the video my niece Gabi took of us opening the package. I LOVE this video because it's just chaos and you can hear everyone talking at once. My Aunt Babs was visiting from Wisconsin and her commentary cracks me up!! This was definitely a special time and I'm so thankful that we were able to do this as a family. :) I will always treasure this video!

Though the ultrasound tech said she was very certain it's a girl, I'll probably wait until my official ultrasound next week to confirm it's a girl before I buy anything. :)

Manny is thankful for...

This Thanksgiving, we have SO much to be thankful for. And Manny is so thankful that he is going to have a little sister! :)

 

More to come soon. Happy Thanksgiving friends!! :)

The results are in...

but we don't know what they are yet! Sorry for the tease. :) A friend did an ultrasound for us on Monday, and she was able to see the gender of Baby Martin 2.0. However, because my husband is a fun killer fan of waiting to find out the gender, we made a compromise...much like when I was pregnant with Manny. You see, if it was up to him, we would wait until the birth of the baby to find out the gender. But no way, no how, is that happening for this nosy mama Type A planner.

So, the tech wrote down the gender and sealed it in an envelope - which she signed, by the way, so I could prove to my untrusting husband that I hadn't tampered with it. We will have a little reveal on Thanksgiving day with family, and can't wait to see what this little bambino will be!

I have felt boy all along, and Patrick has said girl...until this weekend, when he changed his vote to boy. The majority of people are guessing girl. How about you? Click on the poll below if you care to wager a guess! I can't wait to find out and share the news with you all.

Happy Thanksgiving friends!! :)

Yep, I crafted!

Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration as this isn't super crafty...but when you haven't made anything in months...this is something to be proud of. 

I decided to put my awesome new Martha Stewart turquoise chalkboard paint to use. I needed to make some gifts for Manny's teachers for Thanksgiving, so I thought a chalkboard frame would be a simple and inexpensive thing to put together. As I mentioned, the chalkboard paint came from Michael's ($5.99 but you can use a coupon to get it cheaper), and the frame is also from there ($2.99). I painted two coats of chalkboard paint on the frame, then put a piece of scrapbook paper as filler until they put a picture inside. (I'm still debating on if I want to put a picture of Manny in it instead.) I wrapped the end with some twine and stuck a piece of chalk through it. Very simple, and I think it makes a fun little gift.

I am determined to get back into the crafting spirit, so hopefully I'll be back with some fun things soon. Have a great weekend, friends! :)

Halloween Night

Since it was pretty cold on Halloween night, we just decided to stay at home and let Manny pass out candy. He wore his Bam Bam costume and looked SO precious! He wasn't a fan of the strap going across his chest, and kept taking it off, but other than that he seemed to enjoy the costume...particularly the club. :)

I also wanted to share this video. He got SO excited every time the doorbell rang and would squeal and run to the door. I just love this kid to pieces! :)

Homecoming & Pumpkin Patch

I've talked about my "little" niece Gabi before, the one Manny absolutely adores. Well, she's not so little anymore and is growing up too fast! At the beginning of October, we went up to watch her as the sophomore homecoming attendant. She looked gorgeous and I can't believe the little girl that was my flower girl in my high school homecoming, is now in homecoming as an attendant herself! Time goes by way too fast. Here are some pictures of Gabi with all of the grandkids on my side of the family (10 total!) and then a picture of Gabi, my mom, my sisters (the blond on the far left is Gabi's mom), and yours truly. We love you and are so proud of you Gabbers!! :)

We stayed up there for the weekend, and on Saturday we all headed out to the pumpkin patch.

There was a lot of fun stuff to do there and the kids had a blast jumping, sliding, and riding the cow train.  We also went on what was quite possibly the longest hayride ever...but still fun. :)

Manny was obsessed with the little area of "pumpkin ball". He stayed in there forever trying to make a basket...it was so sad! My sister Jenny saved the day and helped him out. It was funny to watch him in there because he wasn't phased by the big kids at all...he just acted like he was the same size.

There is nothing quite like a weekend spent with the best family on this planet. :)

Fall Fun

shirt via SheShe Made

Since Thanksgiving is next week, I thought now would be the perfect time to share some pictures from our October trip to the pumpkin patch. (that would be written in my sarcastic font in case you didn't pick up on that.)

We decided to head out to the pumpkin patch late one afternoon, and the weather ended up being a bit cooler than we anticipated. We only stayed for about an hour because of this, but still managed to pack in a lot of fun. We have the token pictures with the pumpkins, which all Manny wanted to do was climb on of course. We took a train ride around the farm, which he LOVED and said, "wheeee" the whole time. It was precious! 

There was also a carousel that Manny couldn't wait to ride. When he finally got on, it was a little while before it started because they were waiting for it to fill up. And I have no clue where he gets this, but patience is NOT one of Manny's strong points...hence the Mr. Grumpy Pants expression he's sporting in the above picture.

But once it took off, you better believe the "wheeee's" were out in full force! He would've stayed on there all day if we let him.

He also had fun sliding with daddy and playing on the playground. I pretty much played photographer the whole time as I was feeling nauseous, and the last thing I saw myself doing was going round and round on the carousel. Pretty sure the ending to that story would not be a happy one. Oh, and yes, I am wearing one of Manny's blankets as a cape/poncho. I definitely wasn't dressed for the cooler weather, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

Manny kept pointing to the horses so we finally took him over there, but of course he was all talk and froze up when the time came. Maybe next year!

Well that's all for today...I'll be back soon to post pictures from some of our other fall fun!

All I've Got is Some Randoms

--Remember when I said I was going to blog more? That was funny. At this point, I'm just so far behind I don't know where to start. Or even have the time to do so. I guess you could say I'm in the dreaded "blogger's funk" right now. But I'll get back in the swing of things. This kid is so much fun right now and goes non-stop...so I want to keep documenting things as he changes every single day! Something he has recently started doing is bringing us tennis shoes to put on him. In the morning, he likes to take his pants off (naturally) and wear tennis shoes around the house.

--I get a lot of emails asking about the giant sock monkey I used to take Manny's monthly pictures with. I purchased ours at Wal-Mart for $20 a couple years ago, and since then anytime I've seen them they've been $100 and up. But good news for those of you who are still looking for something like this! I was at Walgreen's the other day and saw one a lot like ours, and it's only $20. So go grab one while you can - I'm sure they wont last long.

--I am 15 weeks pregnant with Baby Martin 2.0, and am thrilled to say that I am feeling so much better! The first trimester was rough. Lots of nausea and throwing up - which I always just had to remind myself that meant a healthy baby - but man it's no fun. I am so thankful things seemed to have evened out. This pregnancy is very different than my pregnancy with Manny. I feel like it's a boy, but Patrick thinks girl. We hope to find out in a few weeks...I can't wait!

--Have you guys seen the amazing line of Martha Stewart craft paint at Michael's? I want it all...the colors and types of paint are absolutely amazing! I had to grab this turquoise chalkboard paint. No clue what I'm going to use it for, but it's so fun.

Happy weekend, friends!! :)