Our Baby Gender Reveal Party

Omar wanted to know the sex of the baby and I didn't. Omar said he wouldn't tell me or anyone else so I could have my surprise, but I knew that wasn't a possible thing for him. We figured that since we have been doing so much stuff to our house, it might make sense to find out what the sex is so we can decide which room should be the baby room.

Of course if we are going to learn the sex, I wanted to have a gender reveal party. Thursday, February 19th was the date we saw the doctor. Omar became crazy thinking that he would have to wait to find out and so we planned to have the party the weekend after seeing the doctor.

We have had friends that have done various types of reveal parties --- the balloon reveal, the cake reveal, the silly string reveal, so we knew we needed to do something different --- something....

SPILSBURY STYLE

The Reveal Idea
My sister Kelly came over and we started bouncing ideas off of each other. It started with my idea of having the reveal have something to do with glow-in-the-dark paint. But after researching it, it didn't seem like it would work as I was thinking as glow-in-the-dark paint doesn't work like invisible ink.

Kelly and I somehow thought of fireworks, which is perfect because Omar is obsessed with fireworks and next to our neighborhood there is a fireworks store open 365 days a year. We had to make some changes as a typical baby reveal is with colors Pink and Blue but you can't really purchase a separate pink only firework. So we did red and blue... here is our invitation.

We had people choose which team they were on when they arrived and to provide some ideas for 4-letter baby names...

The Menu
Baby Bacon Burgers
Red Chili Hot Dogs
Red Strawberries & Watermelon with Blueberry Yogurt Dipping Sauce
Blue Corn Chips and Red Salsa
Firecracker Popcorn
Sparkling Red & Blue Punch
Crackle Cake

The Party List
We kept the party small --- hoping to celebrate with others in a less formal way.
Aaron Schreiber, Nicholas & Caroline
Gail and Dane Hill, Koben & Kianna
George & Lisa Long
Laura Wakefield


The Big "Boom"ing Reveal
About 6pm I handed Aaron Schreiber the envelope to see which firework he should light. We went out to our cul-de-sac so we could see if it would be a boy or a girl.

Check out the video

Myself and Gayle were the only ones who guessed it would be a girl...

Afterward we went back and enjoyed the 2 cakes my mom and I made....

Now to pick a name...Too bad the name at the top of the list made at the party is out...lol
These were the suggestions of 4-letter names.
Thor
Lily
Jack
Boby
Emma
A-ron
Omar
Jeni
Kate
Kimi

Valentine's Day 2015

I knew I would be working all weekend long for the end of "Obamacare". Valentine's Day took place on a Saturday and Health Care Reform Enrollment ended on Sunday the 15th. So Omar booked us a Groupon Friday night the 13th for a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater that takes place at the Omni Hotel.

We were supposed to go with Ashley and Mark but they ended up going to see Seinfeld instead so that left our table 2 seats empty at our table. This was not our first murder mystery dinner as a couple. We are good...we guessed the murderer. It was one of our waiters --- Bruce Bruce.

We had a good time, I was just tired you can tell below --- prego.... uhhh.

Saturday - Valentine's Day - Omar made me breakfast and then when I went to work he cleaned the kitchen and family room and bought me chocolate and flowers before going down to Orlando with the dog. I had a night all to myself. It was kind of nice. It will probably be one of the last times for some time too.

For a guy that doesn't "do" Valentine's Day or real flowers --- he did an exceptional job this year!

Upgrade Our Home: The Kitchen

It all started with changing the flooring. That caused us to upgrade the counter tops from laminate to granite. Both shown in other posts. That led to a new kitchen sink --- which is amazing. It is even activated by touch.

Then it was painting the kitchen to match the rest of the family room from green to grey.

Of course then we have to ensure that we add hardware to the cabinets and even added some under cabinet pull out storage.

Then time to purchase some new barstools. Omar bought these from some homeowners from really cheap --- they fit perfectly!

Top it all off we needed new appliances to make it look better ---

Samsung microwave and double convection oven with warming tray

4 Door Samsung Fridge

Cabinet hardware and Bosch dishwasher

What a gorgeous kitchen!

Upgrade Our House: Granitize it

Kitchen Exotic Granite

Guest Bath Exotic Granite

Master Bath Exotic Granite

Guest Bathroom After

Guest Bathroom Before

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After

Kitchen Before

Kitchen Granite After

Notice old green color

Notice the granite backsplash

Our Little Peanut: The First Trimester

THE STATS

Date of my last period:  October 10, 2014

Estimated due date:  July 17, 2015

My shoe size pre-pregnancy:    9.5-10

My weight:   It looks like I have gained only about 2 pounds during the first trimester

What smells I can't stand:   cooking meat, gas (human or not),

What foods I can't eat:   Some of my loves --- salad, onions, fruit, cereal and milk, sausage and everything basically that isn't on my foods I eat list. Little to no interest in sweets or desserts including chocolate.

Foods I mainly eat:  hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, soup, cheese pizza, Arby's roast beef sandwiches, taco bell tacos, chips and salsa, bland foods

How I feel: Exhausted --- I go to sleep typically around 9pm and have trouble sleeping much past 4am. I really don't have morning sickness but all day and all night sickness but have only thrown up twice and plenty of dry heaving.

6 weeks

12 weeks

THE DOCTOR VISITS

Doctor Visit #1 --- It's a Viable Baby ---  December

After forever waiting, I did the "pee test" and then had an ultrasound completed where we saw the baby's heart beat.

All you can really see is the heart beat

Doctor Visit #2 --- Get to Know the Doctor --- December

I was curious to know how much weight the doctor anticipated me gaining during the pregnancy. From reading I have done and that I'm technically considered obese by BMI standards (story of my life...lol) and so I should only gain 10 pounds during my pregnancy to be healthy. My doctor told me that was crazy and that he expects me to gain 30-40 pounds.

Another sonogram was completed but I can't locate the picture unfortunately. However it was less than a week later that this visit took place so not a lot of growth took place



Doctor Visit #3 --- Checking for Down Syndrome --- January 14, 2015

Omar thought this visit was going to be where they would inject a needle into the baby and pull out some blood and so he did not come to the visit. That didn't happen - a sonogram took place and that was the first time I heard the baby's heart beat rather than just seeing it and it was at least 15 minutes of watching the baby move around. He really missed out on this appointment. Lesson learned, sadly enough.

Our little peanut moved around a ton! We had some good shots of the baby, You can see that the placenta is on top which means that I will not feel the baby kick as much and it will take longer for me to feel the baby's first movements.

can see the baby's feet to the far right

baby starting to turn

Baby looking right at us - you can see the eyes and mouth

We're Pregnant!

So it is official! We are pregnant. 

Every story isn't perfect ... but it is the truth ...

FINDING OUT I'M PREGNANT


Fall is a really busy time for me at work. This was my 2nd enrollment season but first year of re-enrolllment for Obamacare for my Retail Center. I was working most days of the week and typically 10-14 hours a day. I was extremely exhausted and around the 17th of November I realized that "my friend" hadn't arrived yet and so I checked to see when that was supposed to happen, to only learn that I was late. I kind of doubted that I was pregnant since we had been trying for 2 years and so after a few days finally bought some pregnancy tests. I woke up at 5AM on Thursday, November 20th and took the test. When it said I was pregnant I put the test back in it's box and laid back in bed thinking for a while..

I went to work an hour later for a long day of meetings, one where I had to train a lot of people too and I was kind of in shock, not sure what to do. I debated if I should tell Omar right away. He gets so excited about things and isn't good at keeping secrets because of it.I knew it was still really early and a doctor hadn't confirmed the pregnancy so I didn't want everyone to know.

I was kind of going crazy at work so I called this girl, Sarah P., that works at the corporate office and was still around because it was later in the evening. I told her I just found that morning I was pregnant and she was the first one to know. She told me that I had to go home to Omar and tell him. I told her that I wanted to do something cute to tell him but wasn't really feeling it. My idea was to maybe put a sign on the dog's collar about being pregnant that he would find. Sarah told me to do whatever even if it was giving him a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce.

TELLING OMAR

I was feeling pretty down about the whole pregnancy thing --- total hormone craziness --- and didn't want to tell Omar until I was feeling better about it. Since Sarah from work pushed me to tell Omar --- when I got home about 8PM  I was sitting at the dinner table with Omar and he asked what was wrong and I just started crying and told him I wasn't sure if I should tell him. Then I just finally did. He didn't believe me. I told him I was being serious and then he said, "prove it." So I walked into the bathroom and showed him the pregnancy test. He of course was super excited.

TELLING MEGAN & EDDIE (Brother & Sister-in-Law)

Somehow a pinterest board entitled, "first baby" that I made "private" wasn't so private after all. Megan texted me asking me if I was pregnant and I asked why she would think that. She then said she saw my pinterest board. It was too early for anyone to really know so I basically responded that just because I have a pinterest board about kids doesn't mean I'm pregnant. Omar and I were itching to tell someone and so we called Megan & Eddie up. They were snowboarding for the first time and we told her that we were pregnant. Right then the service went out of the phone on the mountain. She called back and said she was screaming from excitement and that she knew that I was pregnant and told Eddie and that she knew I was lying to her about it. Since we weren't ready for any of the parents to know yet they had to talk to Jayden (our 6 year old nephew) about making sure he didn't accidentally leak that we were pregnant since he overheard the conversation.

TELLING KELLY & LINDSEY

I called Kelly and told her that she was going to finally become an aunt and then did the same thing to Lindsey when she came home from work.

TELLING MY PARENTS & MICHAEL

Every year for Thanksgiving we write in a book where each person who attends our Thanksgiving shares what they are thankful for that year. Our book has been going for many years and the pages have been full for quite some time. My mom has tried for years to locate a new memory book without success so we have added white pages to the old book so we could continue with our tradition. 

I was trying to decide how I wanted to tell my parents about our first child and their first grandchild. I told Kelly my idea was to buy mom a bouqet of blue and pink flowers as a Thanksgiving centerpeice and put inside it my positive pregnancy test. Kelly gave me the suggestion of writing it in the Thanksgiving book. I decided to search again to see if I could find a new Thanksgiving book. I found 2 of them after searching multiple ways. I bought both of them and had them shipped to my mom's house overnight. 

I was very diligent about having everyone sign the book that day. Then after Aunt Nancy and the boys left everyone was in the family room watching football and I told mom that we needed to read what everyone wrote in the book. This is what I wrote...

My dad was cleaning up in the kitchen and refused to come sit down. I recorded the whole thing. It was funny because Michael was like, "Are you recording this?" I responded, "No. I'm just playing with my phone." So the video quality was not perfect...but still a great keepsake. 

OMAR TELLS HIS PARENTS

The night after I told my parent's Omar left to go spend some time with a friend. When he came home Megan, my sister-in-law, texted me to tell me that Omar told his parents. I was like, "what?" She said that they had lost the boys for a while during the lighting of Temple Square and were sad about Omar's grandpa dying, so he wanted to cheer them up. Omar had walked into the house and hadn't said anything to me about it. I was pretty upset that he told them without me.

TELLING MY DAD'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

Everyone got together virtually on my dad's side of the family to celebrate the life of my grandpa since he turned 90 years old on December 7th. Everyone had a chance to talk to grandpa through the internet and we had a whole slide presentation from family and grandpa's friends. I texted my mom through Omar's cell phone asking if we should share that we are pregnant. After our turn already took place my mom said to the family since she was the host of the online session that Omar wanted to share something else. He told the family that we are pregnant.

TELLING MY MOM'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

My sister's and I threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my mom at my aunt's house. I decided that since most of my aunts and uncles would be present it would work well to tell them there. I wanted to tell them all together and I told them I have a picture I wanted to show them when my uncles were done with what they were doing. My Aunt Dianna (Marshall) was like, "you're pregnant aren't you?" She ruined the surprise but everyone was really excited. This is the first baby on the whole Wallis family side.

TELLING MY BOSS, CO-WORKERS, AND EMPLOYEES

I shared that we have an interesting statistic at my retail center where since our doors opened up in September 2013 we have had a baby every year. 2013 my employee Tanya had a baby and then in 2014 my employee LaToya had a baby. Now for 2015 we have to keep up the tradition and I am going to have a baby.

TELLING THE WORLD --- AT LEAST THE FACEBOOK WORLD

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Thanksgiving 2014

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year. Omar, Lindsey, Goldie (our dog) and I drove down on Wednesday evening. It took a little while longer to get there because we had to make 2 pit stops with the dog. Thanksgiving Day was not anything out of the ordinary this year. It seemed like a smaller crowd than normal. My brother Michael, my Aunt Nancy, Jamie, Aaron and his 3 kids came over. Nancy also brought a recent convert/single woman named Linda to the meal too.

We had most of the normal Thanksgiving food. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, jam, bread, 2 kinds of green bean casserole, creamed squash, creamed onions, an asian shrimp salad, and sweet potatoes with pineapple. The exception is Nancy decided to not go so traditional this year and did a different type of sweet potatoes and bread instead of rolls and Aaron brought the salad. Omar decided that next year we are going to host Thanksgiving and that Nancy is coming but she must do make pecan pie, coconut pie, sweet potatoes, and bread. Poor Nancy.
 
 There were lots of football games on and my mom rented "The Expendables 3" not realizing what the movie was about. In general this season has been disappointing for movies in the Theater so we did not keep our annual tradition of going to the theater. This year Black Friday became Black Thursday. I think my dad was sad that we didn't participate this year like in year's past. We ended up going last minute after pushing and prodding him to go to Best Buy around 4pm on Friday. He was all bummed because he couldn't get my mom to commit to purchasing a larger TV and so decided he didn't want to go anymore.

 Friday morning we went to the Orlando Temple. My dad just got his Temple recommend. My dad has not been to the temple in years! My mom said it has been 10 years, but I am not sure that it has been quite that long. It was wonderful to attend. My dad, mom, Omar, me, my Aunt Nancy, Jim & Diane Rowland and Mo & Tim Merrill. What a great day!

Me, Omar, Dad, Mom, Aunt Nancy

Me, Omar, Dad, Mom, Aunt Nancy, Jim Rowland, Diann Rowland

 Following we went back home and then went and got PG's wings with my folks and Lindsey. 

Saturday morning slept in a little bit and then Nancy, Aaron and all the kids came over again because Aunt Corrine, cousin Christine and her family just flew in the night before. We talked and had lunch and they then left for the beach after 1 pm while we left for home. It was good to see them.