School Shower

Some of my fellow English teachers threw me a shower at the school. Everything was beautiful, and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of teachers that showed up. That day at school was a crazy day so this was a wonderful way to relax. It really makes you feel good when people are so nice! :)

Family Shower!

My dad has a really big family, and they know how to party! In this family, a shower is more like a family reunion. Everyone shows up, and they have a good time. The shower was held at Raeassia Jacob's home out in the country. She has a beautiful house, and it the perfect setting for parties. She went above and beyond on this party. She and all of the other hostesses put together a shower that looks like it should be in a magazine. I have a whole album of pictures on Facebook, but here are a few of my favorites. See the cake? Rae made it!! If you every need a cake for a party, shower, or wedding, she is the girl to call!

Gender

Brad and I went to the doctor on January 21, 2011 to find out the sex of the baby. To say that I was ready and excited about finding out would be like calling the Superbowl a little football game. I had restrained myself up until that point, and I had not really bought the baby anything. I did not want to spend a bunch of money on neutrals when I could bide my time and get what I really wanted. I knew that I wanted to tell our family in a special way so I had made previous arrangements with the Screen Stop in El Campo to have t-shirts made right after our appointment. As soon as we left our appointment, I would need to call them so they could print the shirts. I gave them two designs so that we would be prepared either way. They would then print the shirts and put them in a sealed box. Then my sister would come and pick up the shirts for us since they would be closed by the time we got back to EC.

I was so anxious as the ultrasound technician started looking at the baby. I wasn't sure when she would look at the sex of the baby. She looked at the head first since the baby was in a good position for those measurements. Then she finally looked at the sex. When she said it was a girl, I was shocked! I wanted a girl so bad, but I just knew that it was going to be a boy. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved a little boy too, but I WANTED A GIRL! I felt my eyes start to fill up, and I looked over at Brad. I asked if he was disappointed that we weren't having a boy and he said, "No Way!" He is so sweet! Here is a picture of our little girl's face. Brad agreed to take me for a short shopping expedition after we found out. It was only fair since I had been such a good sport about not wasting money thus far!


Next, we called my family and told them to meet us at Casa Hernandez for dinner. Wendy and Jason had made a trip down to EC as well so they met us at the restaurant. We had our t-shirts on underneath our coats (it was cold outside). We ordered our food, and then we pulled of our jackets and said, "It's a girl!!" Everyone was really excited, and the whole restaurant started to clap. It was a sweet moment. Brad was on the phone calling his family while they took our picture.

Unveiling the Surprise

I love to throw parties. I will throw a party for whatever reason that I can come up with...it does not take much of an excuse to get me to pull out the serving dishes and party hats. I wanted this news to be a really big deal so I decided to throw a party. In order to be fair about the order that we told everyone, I decided this would also be a good option. I invited my parents, sisters, cousins, and Brad's family to come down to our house for a party to break in our new karaoke machine. I told them I would cook a big dinner and we would hang out and sing. Since I had invited everyone, I decided that they could not get mad if they did not find out first if they did not show up.

After finding out which people were attending, I went around buying small gifts for everyone that would be there. I kept them off to the side until we were ready to talk with everyone. As the guests arrived, they sang karaoke and snacked on fried pickles and jalapeno poppers. For dinner, we served chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and sweet tea. For dinner we had homemade cheesecake and cherry topping. After everyone finished eating, we had them all sit in the living room. Then I started handing out the presents. This confused them because they were afraid that they were supposed to have brought something. I told them not to worry it was part of a game, but not to open their gift until we told them to.

I had my mom open hers first. As she opened it, she and Britt were trying to figure out what was going on. Britt even said you aren't having a baby are you? I said no, and mom opened her package. It was a frame for three pictures that had "Grandchildren are a Blessing" engraved o on it. She was confused so I took that time to tell everyone to rip into their packages. As they opened them everyone started crying and shrieking "ARE YOU PREGNANT?" "THIS ISN'T A JOKE IS IT?" They were all so excited! It was exactly the response that I had wanted to get from everyone. I will try to post the video so that you can see it. Caution: you might cry!

Anyway, we were six weeks along when we told them so we made them swear to secrecy until we were ready to go public with the information. They all promised even though they said it was going to kill them to keep the secret. Here are a few pictures from that night!

Christmas

Christmas this year was much less hectic than last year. We had our Christmas and gift exchange with Bradley's family a week early. This enabled us to spend a whole weekend with them instead of just one day. We like to do a gift exchange with that part of the family. In the past couple of years, we have done several different kinds of exchanges. We have drawn names and brought gift cards, but this years was my favorite: a white elephant board game exchange. I know this sounds incredibly nerdy, but I am not ashamed to say that both Brad and myself love playing games. We love to have people over or go to my parent's house and try to con people in to playing a new game. Brad's family loves games as well so the gift swap turned out great. We came home with the game that I took, Bezzerwizzer, and a game called Buzzword. After dinner we went outside to take a family picture!




On Christmas Eve, we traveled to Channelview to have Christmas with the Nelson side of my family. It is tradition in our family that on Christmas Eve, we eat "snack food." Do not be fooled by the causal name. We have a feast of different kinds of dips, appetizers, sandwhiches, and other tasty treats. After everyone is so full that they can hardly stay awake, we open presents. Because of how large our family is getting, we choose to do a white elephant gift exchange this year. This W.E. consisted of two parts: a $25 gift card swap and a $10 gag gift/present. The gift card exchange got a little heated, but the sparks really flew during the$10 exchange. I really wanted my gift to be the most popular gift, and I put a lot of thought into how I could make this happen. I had a lot of ideas, but I eventually thought of the one thing that would make a bunch of people ready to fight each other...a custom picture of the newest baby in our family, Halle. My dad opened the gift, and Dana, Halle's mom's eyes were like saucers. Her husband, Steve was next to steal and he grabbed the picture like it was a life preserver in the middle of a tropical storm. There was one steal left and the baby's grandmother had the next pick. We tried to get her to take it, but she decided that she couldn't be that mean. She picked another gift and Dana was next to choose so she stole from Steve to lock in their gift. It was a lot of fun, and I am already trying to decide what I will take when we do it this year!




We didn't spend Christmas with my dad's family until January. No turkey and potatoes for us this year. We were all sick of holiday food so we went to a Mexican buffet. It was DELICIOUS, and I didn't just think so because I was pregnant! :)

Telling Our Secret

We had told a few people about the baby, but we did not want everyone to know until the pregnancy was further along. Coincidentally, the twelve week mark was VERY close to Christmas. I always send out Christmas cards. They are probably my favorite part of prepping for Christmas. The second issue that the cards solved was the problem of who we would tell first...this is one of those things that could lead to a lot of hurt feelings. SO, the cards solved this problem. Along with our Christmas card, I enclosed another card in the envelope. It told everyone that we were having a baby and when "it" was due. This way, I had no control over who found out first. I put the envelopes in the mail, and the rest was up to the USPS! I am attaching a copy of the card, Enjoy!

Confirmation

I made an appointment with a doctor in Sugarland to confirm the pregnancy. Here is a picture that she gave me to show Bradley (he had to work so he did not get to go to the appointment). It was like it finally became real when she told me I was for sure pregnant! She set the due date as June 11, 2011!