Adding another branch to the Family Tree....BABY WALDEN!

Yes, it's true and we are so excited!  Jake and I are going to be welcoming a little one into the world sometime at the end of February [Due Date Feb 25th]! 

I'm 11 weeks right now, and we have been pretty much bursting at the seams so we decided it's time to share with the world.  It's still pretty surreal. 


How I found out...
The good Lord above gave us the best anniversary present we could have asked for this year, with a positive test very, very early in the morning back on June 11th :)  We had just gotten back the night before from our anniversary vacation to Nashville, super tired, and the dogs woke me up in the middle of the night to go outside.  I thought--heck, why not, I'm going to take a test [I was a few days late at this point but took a test before our trip that was negative so not feeling very optimistic]...Well, maybe it was early or maybe I was impatient, but I looked at the test right away and saw one bold line.  Yes, I know it says "May take up to 3 minutes to appear" but I was looking for the instant gratification.  Well, thinking it was another negative test I just set it down on the counter and let the dogs back inside.  On my way back upstairs I picked it up to throw it away and looked again.......I FROZE.  I kept blinking and rubbing my eyes to make sure that I saw that second, beautiful, faint pink line.  I couldn't believe it. 

Can you see the 2nd line? So faint, but you don't get false positives!
I also ended up taking 3 more in the following days that were much bolder...

I had my own little dance party in the kitchen.  My heart was beating so fast and I couldn't stop smiling.  But, it was 4am, and I didn't want to wake Jake up because I had always thought that, just like the guy gets to do the marriage proposal, this was my special thing.  I wanted it to be really memorable.  Of course, I couldn't fall back to sleep because my mind was going a mile a minute, so I just tossed and turned and daydreamed for the next 3 hours before my alarm went off to get ready for work.  I didn't know exactly how I would tell him, but I knew that by the time I got home from work I better have a plan!


How I told Jake...
So, on my drive home from work I came up with this--call him and tell him I'm running late because of traffic.  Totally believable..thanks I-77.  I quick went to Books-a-Million searching for the perfect children's book.  Something that we would be able to hold onto for years, make memories with, and something that would represent the bond of father & child.  That's when I found the absolutely most fitting bedtime story possible.  I quickly paid and drove home, hoping that I would get there before him.  Nope.  I pulled into the driveway and tried to figure out how to cram the book into my purse and get upstairs to hide it from him.  I needed to wrap it and write a note to him.  Our plans that night were to meet some friends at a pizzeria for a 21st birthday party [yes, on our anniversary. But we had just gotten back into town from 4 days of "date time" and we missed our friends! Just call us social butterflies...] so I hid in our closet while I was changing and did a laughable wrapping job and scribbled a note out.  I was so worried he would find me mid-scheming, but thankfully he didn't!  I brought the gift out to him and said "I know we weren't supposed to get each other any more presents, but this is just something little..." to which I was fussed at because he said "You always do this! and I didn't get you anything!" I kept telling him to just open it, it was something small and it was okay.  He didn't realize what the book was a first because he saw the back cover, but then he saw the note fall out and read..."Daddy, I thought you might want to practice reading this to me...I can't wait to meet you in February!"

So, it's overwhelming and crazy and we are so blessed.  Thank you all so much for your love, support, and kind words!  Follow along on here if you want to read more updates on Baby Walden :)