Easter 2011

First of all, THANK YOU to all of you for your sweet congratulations and comments about our new baby boy addition. I am overwhelmed with gratitude! We are so excited and were thrilled to share our news.

We had a great Easter weekend full of good family time and wanted to post a few pictures from Sunday. We started with early 8:45 church and Kinley was sleeping late but, as soon as Ben woke her up and told her the Easter Bunny came to see her...she was wide awake and so excited.

Her most favorite things from her Easter basket were her lip smackers lip gloss and her Princess Tiana and Rapunzel stickers.

This face is hilarious...she is really eyeballing those M&M's

After church we went to Aunt Jan's for Easter brunch. Kinley was the only one to hunt eggs this year. Seriously, this is the first time in my life that I did not hunt eggs. (Evidence...last year.) It was a weird generation change over...but, so sweet to see Kinley hunting around the front yard. I can't wait until she has a sibling and lots of cousins to hunt with too!

I love this pic of her with all the green grass.

Aunt Jan was super thoughtful and creative and made eggs for Kinley that spelled out a message. (Even though the eyeball was a little creepy....haha Aunt Jan!) The sentiment was great and Kinley had a blast!

Kinley was very thankful.

I brought over some make-your-own candy necklaces for all my cousins...since we didn't have eggs to hunt...and that was fun. Even as adults it is fun to act like kids...plus they are delicious and you just can't stop eating them! This is Katie showing hers off....

And Kinley is very serious about trying to eat Amy's off her neck.

Then we took some family pics....welcome to our family gatherings...lots of group pics. (Evidence...last year again...christmas....and even new years eve on our creede ski trip.)

It was also an exciting day for Momma Gay and Pepa because they showed off Momma Gay's brand new car! I hope when I am 86 and still kicking Ben buys me a brand new car. Love it!

Happy belated Easter to you all!

Gender Reveal Dinner - It's A .....

Last night Ben and I hosted a small gender reveal dinner for our family. It was an intimate gathering with just our immediate family and it was so sweet. Ben and I had found out the sex of the new baby earlier in the day together and it was so hard to keep it in once the family started arriving. They were trying to read our faces and listen carefully to what we were saying to see if we gave it away. It was tough!

I had only a few decorations and they all came together VERY last minute...I mean, during that same day last minute. I really wanted to make a sonogram garland and decided to play off that color scheme and go with black, white and grey with a 'Boy or Girl?' Banner and our table linens.

I also wanted to use the grass I had grown in the eggs and jars and, since it is also Easter weekend, I think it turned out really cute.

I tried to set out some things that would build the anticipation like a list of my cravings, an Old Wives Tale Gender Prediction Quiz, and a chalkboard where everyone could vote whether they thought it was a boy or a girl.

Kinley is voting 'Girl' today apparently.

The final count was 6 Boy to 4 Girl Votes (including Kinley's)

I had made a cake after the sonogram and dyed the inside to reveal the sex and I was the one that could not take the neutral, "don't read me" conversation...so, we decided to cut the cake first thing. The grandmas cut it together and their reactions are priceless...

IT'S A BOY!!!

This is mom stripping off her pink sweater (since she wore blue and pink).

My results from the Gender Prediction Quiz were not even close...so I couldn't show that until after the reveal.

Everyone loved eating the blue cake

This was such a fun way to tell our family the sex of the new baby. Ben thought it was a little over the top...which I am sure it is..but, the anticipation was so fun all week and it is just something special that we did for this baby that we didn't do with Kinley. Everyone had a blast and stayed late into the night to celebrate.

I can't tell you how much Kinley LOVES Matt-Matt. She voluntarily just goes up and hugs him all the time and climbs into his lap. It is so cute.

Kinley is opening a sweet present for the baby that Alex and Mendy sent since they had to be out of town in Abilene for Easter weekend.

After we texted our sweet friends, Joe and Emily, they were so excited they wanted to stop by with sweet Baby Isaac and congratulate us. Ben and Joe were already talking about future fishing trips to take their boys on.

Practicing my Boy-mom skills.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and everyone who called and texted in anticipation of the day. Overall, it was such a fun night and we are just overwhelmed with gratitude for our sweet baby boy to come.

We think his name will be Ty Anson Harrison. We have loved the name Ty since before we had Kinley and it was really the only name in the running for Ben this time. Anson is my great-grandfather's name, Inie's dad, and my dad and my brother, Bart's, middle name and we are honored to use it as a middle name. It was so special to celebrate this wonderful miracle on Good Friday and what perspective it is to remember what Christ did for us on this weekend that we may have LIFE abundantly in Him. We pray for a happy, healthy baby boy who comes to know Christ at an early age and strives to be like Him.