It's a BOY!!!

Our ultrasound was at 7:15am on Thanksgiving eve (my Dad's 50th birthday!!)  It really took a long time for the techinician to get all of the photos that she needed to for medical purposes because our crazy baby was moving around so much.  After at least a half hour she finally announced that she knew what the gender was and we both looked at her like she held the knowledge from the tree of life-   When she said our baby was a boy Brandon was so happy which made me even more happy.  I would loved it if it was a kitten for goodness sakes?!  She tried to get a good profile shot, but our little wild man was not having any more of this paparazzi-ridden lifestyle.  To top it off, I was about ready to jump off the table and sprint to the bathroom anyhow.

When I got home from the appointment, I pulled out the sugar cookies I had made the day before and got to changing the white icing to BLUE! 

Even though we were getting constant texts from the grandmas and my sisters, they knew that they had to wait to find out by the icing color on the cookies.  We couldn't hold in our big secret entirely so (I'm sure to our parents chagrin) we called some of our best friends to share the news.  Jon can't wait to teach our son curse words.  Karpy and her car crew all screamed while driving to NC for the holiday, Katie is working on an arranged date between our son and Sophia, and Juice said he knew it was a boy all along.  By telling our friends (and swearing them to secrecy) it made keeping the secret from our families a little easier.  I also caved in and told my dad (it was his 50th birthday!!)  and he said he had a feeling right from the start that it was a boy.  I know he is happy to finally have a little man in his life to teach all of the boy stuff like fishing, and building, and games. 

I got home before Brandon (he was working) so I stopped at Dad's work to get all of my boy excitement out.  Then, when I got to my parents' house (mom, sisters, and gparents all there) I somehow kept all of my pronouns in check for four hours until Brandon finally came home.  My mom was almost bursting at the seams to find out the truth, so B barely got through the door before we had to bring the cookies in.  We gave everyone a final guess (Mom, Tasha, Gram- boy, Kayla- girl) and in the last moments before the reveal, Pap changed his guess from girl to boy.  My mom pulled off the lid and everyone started screaming.  Mom literally jumped into the air, I swear, three feet and into Brandon's arms?!  She is so happy to finally get a boy in our family after so much estrogen all our lives. 

So, it was off to the Studer house where Marianne practically attacked us at the door.  Again, final guesses were given (Marianne- girl, Rudy- boy).  We told her to rip off the lid of the container so it would be revealed to everyone in the room (us and Rudy) but in pure Marianne fashion, she just peeked under the lid and started screaming.  She then looked at Rudy and said, "Well, you're going to be happy" and pulled the lid off.  Rudy, who is always so reserved in emotion, got a huge smile on his face and high fived Brandon which I thought was adorable.  Mare stated that she will now have to re-work all her planning for a girl and that we had ten minutes to tell Grammar before she texted every person she ever knew and then she was going to post it on facebook.

So, it was up to Grammar's house where we also found Morgan.  They were both excited because they knew why we had come up and we had brought up a little plate of cookies for them.  Grammar would have been happy for either- but I know she was especially glad to have another grandson.  Brandon is the only grandson on the Studer side, so (finally!) another boy can hopefully take some of the Kingboy title from him...I doubt it.  Morgan promised to keep it a secret until the next day when we could tell her mom&dad in person.  (And she did keep it a secret!!)

It was a really fun day and so awesome seeing everyone's reactions to the baby's gender.  Sometimes its hard living far away from home when stuff like this comes up.  But with a little self-control and secret keeping we managed to still celebrate at home with everyone with our big big news!

We get by with a little help from our friends (..& family!)

House reno continues with an update to the foyer and the fireplace tile.  My dad came up over the weekend and he and Brandon finished putting up the trim.  Juice arrived on Saturday and the foyer floor demo started.  Jason worked so hard bringing up the parkay flooring in the foyer out and Dad worked on replacing the tile in the fireplace hearth. 

We picked the same color tile for both the hearth and the foyer.  The inspiration was my Hands of Love photograph (I bought on the street in nyc).  All three guys worked on getting the tile down in the foyer and putting the grout in...who knew it took fifty million buckets of water to do that?!  I didn't.

Jon came up the following Friday (Brandon's day off) and they were like to men on a mission.  There were 8 truckloads between the old house and the new; two washers; two dryers; one refridgerator; a king size mattress, and our living room suit.  They only stopped for some burnt hamburgers (I don't know how to work the grill?!) and finished at almost 6pm. 

Brandon's parents came up on Saturday to help some more.  Mare painted the guest bathroom gray, which makes it look a little better than that light blue did.  It still needs an overhaul- but its stock has gone up.  Brandon and Rudy worked on moving everything else that he and Jon didn't bring over...which meant millions of random things.  Its amazing that we have collected even this much stuff just over a year.  We have quite a growing pile of garage sale/donation stuff in the garage.

We have really been so fortunate with our friends and family coming to visit to help us get into the new house.  We are reminded constantly of how lucky we are to be surrounded by love.

Families to the rescue!

Thankfully, we have been blessed with helpful women and hardworking men in our lives.  We had a whole crew of people come up to help us get the house ready to move in.  My parents arrived on Thursday night and got a tour of the house.  By Friday afternoon, my sisters and Jordan arrived and started helping right away.  The boys had a blast demo-ing the bedroom wall.  I think they secretly love tearing stuff down.  The girls got right to cleaning and painting. 

Brandon and I had already purchased tickets for the Darius Rucker concert on Friday night (for Brandon's birthday) so we left my fam to their own devices at our old townhouse and headed out to the concert. 

By the time we got back  (around 11pm) it looked like there was a carbon monoxide leak in the apt!  haha, they were laying all over the floor mostly sleeping or barely awake watching tv.  I guess we worked them too hard! 

Brandon's parents made it to Erie late late Friday night and agreed to sleep in the new house with Rosie!  Saturday morning we all got straight to work and Marianne was well on her way primer-ing like a pro.  The women literally painted for a day straight (unbelievable). 

The men were able to put dry wall up for the walk-in closets, close off the kitchen and expand the foyer entrance.  In just a day, our families had transformed our house into more a home than we ever would have been able to do on our own.  We are so lucky!

On Sunday, we were so happy to stand up for Mallory as her godparents.  She did a very good job in church.  She is such a sweetheart and the cutest little thing.  It was nice to take a break from house work to spend time with family and our goddaughter (and Stef & Justin!) 

By Sunday evening, almost all of our vistors had headed home.  Rudy made the roundtrip of a lifetime to drop Marianne (and Rosie!) off in Pittsburgh then drove all the way back up to Erie to stay and help B with the mudding of the dry wall (ugh).  B and Rudy worked all day Monday and then were joined by Koch for more help.  The guys got all of the dry wall mudded and ready for painting by Tuesday night.  Again- could never have got all of that done by ourselves.  We have a lot of payback for all of this help!  Big thank you party to come in the near future!