DrumRoll please!!

It's another BOY!!!

I'm not going to lie, we are surprised... VERY surprised! But super excited too! We ALL really thought it was a girl!

I went into the Doctor last week after some pretty bad contractions just to make sure everything was okay. I'm used to having a lot of contractions a long time before I'm due but these felt different and I was concerned because they were SO early that I might be having a miscarriage. Everything was fine and it ended up just being my regular irritable uterus contractions but they felt different because my uterus is so much smaller than it usually is when I start having contractions, so it felt more like cramps than contractions. Anyway, the reason for my telling you this is that we did an ultrasound just to see the baby moving, just for peace of mind after being concerned about miscarriage. It was not an ultrasound tech that did it and we only spent a few short minutes looking at the baby, but I was pretty sure that I saw a pretty clear shot of his manhood. It caught me off guard and since it was only a glimpse and no one else confirmed what I saw (the Dr was hesitant to say one way or the other since it wasn't my official ultrasound and Peter wasn't there with me) I wasn't fully convinced. But I did call Peter and let him know what I thought I saw, and I tried my best to prepare the kids, especially the girls, since they were SO set on a girl! Unfortunately nothing I could say would prepare them for the confirmation we got yesterday!

The girls were pretty upset when they found out that Logan was a boy but eventually got excited about it as we brought out all of his cute tiny clothes and started really imagining a darling little boy in them. So I decided that I would try to include those cute clothes again in my telling them that this one was a boy, hoping it would get them excited about it from the beginning. I also knew that candy and chocolate are always helpful in comforting a sad child, so we threw some of that into the gender reveal as well! I made a trail of blue m&m's through our driveway and up to the front door so that they would see it when they got off the bus. Then I put a blue teddy bear blanket on the wreath on our front door (yes that's still our Christmas wreath, don't judge!) And then right inside the front door on the stairs was a bunch of baby boy clothes and shoes and blankets and the ultrasound pictures as well as a sign that said, "It's a boy!"

Then I sat on the front porch to film their reaction. Maddie was the first one home and she stopped when she saw the m&m's and groaned, "Awww... it's a BOY!" then she and Emily both started to cry and went inside and buried their heads in the couch pillows. Meanwhile, Tyler came up to the house and saw the m&m's and said, "Woah! Mom, can I eat some of these?" and I said, "Yes. Do you know what they are there for?" and he said, "Nope." then started scooping up the m&m's and eating as many as he could. Then all of the sudden he jumped up and said, "OH! It's a BOY!!!! Yay!! Wahoo!!!" As the girls still sobbed and howled on the couch inside!

It was pretty funny. I'm trying to upload the video but having a hard time with it. The video's from my phone are in a different format than the ones I used on my camera so I can't seem to figure out how to edit them and shrink them down in size. Oh well. I'll have to have Peter help me with it when he gets a chance... so it might be awhile! :)

Anyway! We are super excited!

*Sorry about the photo a day flop! I haven't taken any pictures recently, probably because I have been taking a nap almost every day and then spending the rest of the day trying to do disaster recovery! Things have looked absolutely chaotic for at least a portion (if not all) of every day recently and I've been in my jammies a lot recently, and so have the boys who, like me, don't have to leave the house much. Anyway! I should have been documenting that stage of my pregnancy too, but I haven't, and I'm sure I won't miss it. Although this quote might suggest otherwise:

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

This quote is part of a talk given by President Thomas S. Monson called Finding Joy in the Journey click here to read the whole talk. Here's another great quote from the following article called "Cleaning 'Wonderful Handprints' Can Wait" by Orson Scott Card:

"Our goal in life is not to keep our houses clean. Our goal is to raise civilized children with the skills they need to master their own worst impulses. So when the kids make a mess, when they disobey, when they're careless, our response is not to judge and punish them, but rather to judge and teach them.

When they grow up and leave — as that little girl and her older brother have long since done — we'll wish for the Legos spread all over the floor, the spills, the fingerprints, the decorations taped to the windows and walls, the paper cuttings like confetti that keep turning up in odd places for several years after the project"

It's always good to be reminded of this. I need to print these quotes out and stick them all around my house... including on my front door as a disclaimer! Lol!