"Mother-to-Be"

"If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together, there is something you must always remember: You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.”  
-A.A. Milne

To all of you who are reading this now, we are so, So, SO excited to announce WE'RE PREGNANT! We found out in early May, and decided we didn't want to share the news until we hit at least the 12 week mark and heard from the 1st trimester screening that everything was peachy-keen, jellybean. (And you have NO idea how hard it was not to tell you!) And, voila! No more first trimester for us! But because we know we'll have a million and one questions from our friends and family, we decided it would be fun to record our journey through the coming months. Partly to share the fun and news with family and friends, and partly as a way of remembering what it was like to make it through our first pregnancy. In the following posts (newest to oldest in descending order), you'll find our comments and little memories from each week or so as we start this amazing, super exciting, and sometimes scary new beginning :)

For those who are interested, here's the scoop on when and how we decided when to start adding to our little family...

As many of you already know, Mike and I both have always wanted a big family. We both came from families of 3 children each: Mike was the middle child, I was the baby by 17 years (yes, I was quite the unexpected surprise). We both always had big holidays growing up, and loved having extended family come to the house or going to aunt and uncle's houses and getting to play with siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces. But, Mike and I both agree, there's just something about having a full house of your own and lots of little feet running around that's incredibly uplifting, exciting, and life-giving. So until we decide that we're done and just can't handle the terrible two's, the tween whiny-ness, the teenage drama or college tuition anymore, we're planning on a big family, and what time better to start than now?

We've been talking about when we would start our family for quite a while now- it was discussed long before we ever got married, even before Mike asked me to marry him. Believe it or not, we've had our boy name picked out that long too (girl names were so pretty, we just couldn't make up our minds)! We were sitting on the swings at a park one evening only weeks before Mike would propose, and he asked me how many kids I wanted to have one day, which started the conversation of when. So, we decided, once we were settled with comfortable jobs, a comfortable home, and had enjoyed enough time just to the two of us to say, "I'm ready to add one more," we'd start our family. And so here we are, three years after sitting on those swings, we took that leap and are ready to welcome our first little one into our lives.

As I write this, we're four weeks in, on Mother's Day 2013. And lo and behold, when I came home from work today there on the counter was waiting for me a big bouquet of roses, accompanied by a Mother-to-Be card and a shower of kisses from my incredible husband. These next few months will likely be some of the most unglamorous of my life, but Mike has already reassured me that these will be some of the most beautiful and memorable days of our lives together. And even without knowing what's in store for us in the coming months, there's one thing I know for sure: there's no one I'd rather have beside me through it all. Big, happy thank-you's to our families in advance who found out (or figured it out) early on, and still managed to keep it a secret. We're so incredibly thankful to have all of you beside us and look forward to the coming months filled with planning, surprises, and hearing plenty of your own stories, too.

As you read through our blog, the order will go from newest post to oldest (as in, the oldest posts are at the very bottom of the page). We began writing this blog the week we found out how blessed we are to have the opportunity to welcome this little one into our lives. Feel free to comment, to email us, to give us your "do's" and "don'ts" and share your laughter and tears with us- we want to hear what you have to say! We can't wait to embark on this journey with you, and share in the little moments as we begin this next stage of our life.

All Our Love,

Mike & Mandy

Estimated due date: January 16, 2014
Birth date: January 10, 2014 at 5:24pm

A very special "Thank You" goes out to Angela of ELA Images, for taking beautiful photos for us of this special time in our lives!   And a very special "Thank You" to Mandy's mom for knitting the cute little baby booties for our pictures!