It's a...

BOY!

We are so ridiculously happy, excited, overjoyed, and super surprised to announce... It's a BOY! 

Watch Us Find Out by Clicking Here!

Blue frosting!

We still are trying to convince ourselves now that it's real, but our little pumpkin is a boy! Most of you already knew we were hoping for a boy first (mainly because we love the idea of an oldest brother to the rest of our little ones) but of course we would have been so happy either way. For some reason, I was absolutely convinced it was a girl from the beginning, even though I'd hoped for a boy first, while everyone else (literally, everyone) was convinced it was a boy. So when I bit into the cupcake and saw that blue frosting, my eyes were pretty big (understatement of the year) and literally filled with tears of happiness and total shock. I couldn't (still can't!) believe we have a little boy on the way! I'm pretty sure someone caught the wide-eyed look I got on camera :) Mike of course jumped up and down with happiness and keep saying "It's a BOY!?!?" with crumbs and frosting spewing out his mouth over and over, and I managed to throw frosting at myself when I jumped with happiness, so it was quite a fun surprise. He is SO excited he's going to have a little guy to take sailing and hunting and camping and fishing and all the manly things men must do. I'll be honest, I'm excited I get to stay the only girl of this household for a little while longer too :) I'll probably eat my words once I get peed on a couple times, have to pull bugs out of his ear or come home to our little guy and the two dogs doused in mud. But for now, I am very VERY much so looking forward to this new adventure in being mommy to two crazy dogs and a little trouble-maker (and we all know that's exactly what he'll be). We both feel so incredibly blessed and surrounded by an incredible amount of love. 

Getting ready for cupcakes!

For anyone who does plan to find out the gender of a baby in their future prior to birth, now speaking from experience Mike and I both would say we HIGHLY recommend doing a Gender Reveal party! We knew the idea of a gender reveal party was a fairly new development (only in the last few years or so), so we decided to try it. And we had such a fun time and it was so wonderful to find out such an exciting part of our future while surrounded by our family and friends. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us! Each one of you made us feel so special yesterday, we truly are grateful our little boy will be coming into a world of family and friends who so obviously care and love us dearly us. We could not ask for a more amazing group of family and friends. We know many of our family members couldn't make it and we missed every single one of you there, but just know you were in our hearts all day and we couldn't wait to tell you and send our hugs and thank you's for all your support from far away :)

Now for the exciting part- planning and decorating and getting to refer to him as a "he" and no longer "Baby" or "It"! Holy beans, this baby suddenly has turned from a little stranger who kicks me every 5 minutes throughout the night into a little boy we get to dream about and soon meet, and who we're now hypothesizing to become a national soccer star by the time he's 5 years old! Watch out Target and Babies R Us baby aisles! (Or more accurately... watch out Mandy's wallet!). Here's a photo from our 3D ultrasound at 19ish weeks that we got because he wasn't cooperating, hehe :) Look at his little nose and lips!