Gender Reveal!!!

In a recent post, I shared that we would soon reveal the gender of this acrobatic monkey inside me. Now, at 24 weeks and 14 extra pounds, it's time!

Let me preface with... Finding out the gender didn't seem like a big deal to me. We have one of each. I'm okay not having the nursery completely painted prior to arrival. I've saved all my boy and girl baby-goods. I never knew in advance with Cade or Layna, and survived just fine. And honestly, I didn't really care either way. I truly down played the whole experience.

But, I was making a big deal of it "for the kids". So, (with the help of Pinterest) I planned to have an old friend of ours join us for an afternoon of {awesome} photography. I prepared a cardboard box for hours and sent Jarin to the florist for balloons. 35 balloons to be exact. And for all of you party-throwers out there... FYI, there is a helium shortage. Yep. 35 balloons equals 75 bucks. Trust me, the bean-counting husband of mine was not thrilled.

But he bought them as instructed; we corralled our neighbor to help get them from the black bags to the cardboard box without us seeing. And in the back of the mama-van they went. To find out what happened after that point, you'll have to tune into the video below:

As you can imagine, it was the best experience of my life. I didn't expect emotions to run over me like they did. And the best part of it all was that we could celebrate together. I wasn't tied down to the ultrasound bed, or paralyzed from an epidural. I was free to grab my kids and my husband, and embrace the new baby girl that would soon join us.

And as I turned around to watch all those balloons float into the heavens, I realized that those whom I loved the most, those who couldn't be with us to celebrate these new milestones... they were the ones finding out first.