Gender Reveal Party

if you are friends with me on facebook, you are already aware of this.  but, if you're not, here's the big announcement...

it's a girl!!

and we are tickled pink.  (pun intended, of course.)  :-)  from the beginning, i just knew.  i'm certain that i would have been equally thrilled with a boy, but i have to say, girl just feels right for us... at least at this point in our lives.  who knows what the future will hold!

so, we had our ultrasound on wednesday, and on saturday, we had the Gender Reveal party.  can i just tell you how hard it was to keep my mouth shut for that long?!  but i'm so glad i did.  the party was so much fun!  here's how it all went down...

 

i made two strands of bunting from scrapbook paper.  i hung the "boy or girl" strand from the mantle, right under the framed ultrasound pictures.

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

the "baby lougee" bunting was hung in the window between the kitchen and living room.

i didn't get a great shot of the food table, but here it is...  i prepared foods that i have been craving throughout this pregnancy: fresh fruit salad, deviled eggs, sweet party sandwiches, salt and vinegar chips, and lemon bars.

 

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

and then there were the cupcakes, which would be used for the big reveal.  i used yellow cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling -- and a few extra drops of food coloring just to make sure the filling was nice and pink.  :-)

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

we asked all of our guests to wear pink if they thought it was a girl and blue if they thought it was a boy.  here is Team Pink!  (and purple... my sister claims that she does not own a pink shirt.)  :-)

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

and here is Team Blue!  you can see that blue was the majority.

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

the whole crew

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

after eating and socializing, it was time for the big reveal!

photo credit: megan wark of blackstone photography

pink filling!  it's a girl!!

it was such a fun day!  steve and i feel so fortunate to be surrounded by such a fantastic group of friends and family.  baby girl lougee is sooooo loved already.  we continue to praise the Lord for this amazing gift!

shout out: many thanks to my friend megan wark for capturing these memories for us!!!

projects, preparations, and pending news

so i've been a bad blogger lately.  but really, there just isn't much to talk about.  so far, my second trimester has been gloriously uneventful.  i feel healthy and alert and (on most days) pretty darn happy.  oh, i still suffer from the occasional FREAK OUT / I-CAN'T-HANDLE-THIS moment, but i'm just going to go ahead and blame that on pregnancy hormones.  :-)

steve and i have been keeping pretty busy preparing our home for the baby.  having moved into our first home just 9 months ago, we are still learning the ropes and working on some fairly major projects.  we've made a serious dent in the jungle that was our yard.  it's coming along nicely!  we're also making very slow progress on the second floor, which basically had to be gutted and re-built, thanks to some significant squirrel damage (that went unnoticed by our home inspector -- don't even get me started on that!).  looking forward to the day that i can post some before-and-after pictures!  (just FYI: the baby's nursery will be on the first floor, right next to our bedroom, so at least the construction chaos is out of sight.  BUT, this project really needs to be completed before the baby arrives or it will just never get done, i'm afraid.)

some pretty exciting news is that our first ultrasound is set for this wednesday, july 20!  i was a little bummed that we didn't get an ultrasound before now, but my OB only does early ultrasounds if there are complications or something.  so, on wednesday, we will finally get to see the little person growing inside of me!  YES, we plan to find out the gender.  (i mean, really.  have you met me?  i need to plan, plan, plan as much as possible!)  :-)  and YES, we intend to tell everyone.  but, for a bit of fun, we've decided to throw a little "gender reveal" party on saturday, during which we will share the results of the ultrasound with some close friends and family.  i certainly hope that baby lougee cooperates with us on wednesday.  this is probably the only time in my life i will say this, baby -- please don't be modest!  :-)

so, i'm about 4 months along now... almost 18 weeks.  how about another bump update?

yeah.  still not much to write home about.  there is an ever-so-slight protrusion in my lower abdomen, but it's hardly noticeable.  and yet, very few of my clothes fit (which is maybe why i look so ticked off in the picture... sorry about that!)  it's interesting how i can feel so big and so small at the same time.

well, i suppose that's all for today!  feel free to leave your guesses -- boy or girl??  for the record, i think it's a girl.  steve is on the fence but is leaning towards boy.  (which is not to say that he is hoping a boy... in fact, he starts to glow a little bit every time he talks about having a little girl... so cute.)  :-)  either way, we are going to be over the moon with excitement!