I’ve been meaning to share the photos from our Gender Reveal Party for almost three months now…! I can’t believe we are nearing the end of this pregnancy and our journey to meeting our little GIRL! It still feels surreal some days, but on most days now in the third trimester, I am just ready to meet her!
Head to the END of this post for photos and video of the Gender Reveal moment… or keep reading for the story behind how much this means to us!
We talk about her like she is already here (I mean, in a way… she is)! I’m used to her kicks, her rolls, her stretches… she does exactly what her daddy does when he first wakes up in the morning and he extends his arms and legs so far that they start to jolt. She is totally daddy’s little girl in that way! She has SO much energy inside of me that I’m starting to realize we are probably in for it when she officially gets out into the world! I bet she’s gonna be a little firecracker of a person. I can’t wait to see what her personality is like!
soon to be parents!
Our gender reveal party took place just TWO weeks after we moved into our townhouse. TWO… WEEKS… let that sink in for a second. We moved not only out of our one bedroom apartment, but we also had to bring stuff from my dad’s house that we had never unpacked from our first move because we couldn’t fit it all in our places since! It was two moves in one and let me tell ya, I have never been so thankful for friends. We had about 10 people show up and help us load and unload at THREE locations and I’m just really grateful for that. A lot of them are pictured here in this post!
Somehow, I got our house ready enough for this party (with photos on the walls and everything) in the middle of busy shooting and editing season. I honestly don’t know how I did it. I feel like I would just bounce from working on my laptop to unpacking boxes, all day every day for those two full weeks. I also had help from my friend Melissa, my sister Mia, and my mother in law Brenda getting our stuff unpacked and put away, and that made a WORLD of a difference in getting everything done.
Our friends Emily and Jeff flew in all the way from California for our gender reveal and they helped us decorate, set up, tear down, and clean up! Emily even took pictures while Jeff took a video of the gender reveal moment (you’ll see it below at the very bottom of this post)! Seriously, we have the best friends in the world. I’ve never felt so loved and supported, especially when I NEEDED it so greatly. This party (and our unpacking) would not have happened without everyone’s help!!
We had about 40 people in our tiny little townhouse rental for this event and WHEW was it packed but so much fun. We had people sitting on the stairs and the floor everywhere you looked. One day, maybe we’ll have a bigger space for hosting events! For now, this was just such a fun memory and I’ll never forget the sight of everyone we love in one place to celebrate finding out whether we are having a little boy or girl as our first baby!!
the cake!
I have to give a HUGE shout out to our family neighbor, Kate… she made the cake and it seriously blew me away. She is SO talented. It looked like something right off Pinterest! (It also tasted AMAZING.) She even provided cake pops as well as ordered and bought the props for us to use for the reveal. Without her, the surprise would have been spoiled for us (or at least my sister or someone similar) because someone had to order the smoke bombs! Haha! She did such a great job keeping it a secret, even from her kids… I don’t know how she managed to make the cake, cake pops, AND have the props without them noticing if things were pink or blue!! You’re amazing, Kate!
it’s a girl!
The second the pink smoke came out, I LOST it. I have never cried so hard in front of SO many people! We were convinced it was a boy for the months leading up to finding out, even though we had several distinct signs in the beginning that it was a girl (seriously, from the day we found out we were pregnant)! I remember loading a video to watch together about the first trimester, and the girl who made the video had the name we have always talked about using if we had a daughter. This came after I looked up some scientific “studies” that give you, like, 1% more of a chance of having either a boy or a girl depending on how much you were eating and how much stress you were under at the time of conception. Those signs pointed to a girl! So did the Chinese calendar. These were just a few of the little signs we had… I have them all written down in my pregnancy journal! So crazy.
I also remembered dreaming when we were engaged about holding a little girl’s hand. Since having that dream, I’ve always thought God would give me a daughter… and to be honest, I kinda really wanted this baby to be a girl! I grew up with sisters, tons of aunts and girl cousins, and lots of girlfriends… I kept saying to Justin, “I’m not gonna know what to do with a BOY!” I knew it would be sweet to be a boy mom, but there was just a really sacred space in my heart that was saved for having a daughter. I feel like the Lord saw this and he seriously blessed me in such a sweet and tender way by giving us a girl. I couldn’t stop crying! I was gonna have the little girl I dreamed about. I jumped up and down the second we realized we were carrying her!
I’m so thankful for God’s provision in this pregnancy, a sweet husband who is going to be the BEST girl dad EVER (he already loves her SO much and is so gentle when talking to her and it melts me!), and the most amazing friends that are so excited to help us love and raise this little girl! We cannot wait for everyone to meet her… although it may be a few months until I’m fully ready to let everyone hold her! ;)
Thank you so much to everyone who helped us move, unpack, and set up for this gender reveal party, and for attending and being so excited for us! We felt so loved and so will baby girl when she sees these photos someday. So thankful!!
she is so loved…
Coco – I mean baby girl… – got her first full coordinating outfit from Auntie Em! LOVE the rust. So cute! Of course, Coco had to try it and test it out according to Emily :)
I loved this little Old Wives’ Tales chalkboard poster we ordered! I asked Instagram what they thought, and apparently whenever I checked, it said GIRL! Though Facebook comments leaned more towards boy :) It was an even split with the Old Wives’ Tales! Looking back, I could have said RIGHT for sleeping… because it has honestly been split pretty evenly between right and left! Haha!
So surreal seeing myself PREGNANT and holding my belly! Also, I feel like my face has gotten so much wider since this photo was taken in early December… pregnancy is such a transformation!
Our nephew Jaxon wearing his BIG COUSIN shirt we got him when we shared the news with him and his parents!
Sweet friends!! Katelyn & Seve are an MK couple! I shot their wedding last summer and Katelyn comes to my Bible Study every Wednesday! :)
Ready to FIND THIS THING OUT!!!
Ha! The progression of our faces cracks me up!!
So so happy!!!
I think this is my crying face!!
We’re gonna be parents to a GIRL!!!
SO excited!!!
Coco doesn’t know what she’s in for!! ;) She will love outnumbering Dad with another girl in the family!
No idea what was happening here! Lol!!
My goodness this cake was just so much FUN!!
Look at that ombre cake! So pretty (and YUMMY)!
So many amazing friends! We felt so loved!
Emily and Jeff are the BEST.
So thankful for every moment of this afternoon!! Such an amazing point in this pregnancy – it all felt so much more REAL!
i love these two so much!
Here is the video of the moment we found out we were having a girl!! Thank you Jeff for capturing this. So crazy to relive it by watching this! We are so happy! :)
And here’s a video of it continued after the moment we found out! I love seeing people’s faces in this one and hearing everyone’s reactions. Justin’s mom is so funny with her “Oh no!” Lol… she really wanted it to be a boy. SORRY! ;)
Watch the Video above first!
