Joey was right!!

Our big ultrasound for our newest little one happened on 2/17/11. I was 19 weeks and 3 days along.

Joe met me at 3:40 while my mom watched the baby.  We contemplated bringing him along, but ultimately decided he was a little too young to really get it and it might be better to keep him home.

Our ultrasound was fantastic! The baby was developing perfectly, was moving all around, and was very cooperative so we were able to see everything we needed to see. We decided to have the ultrasound tech write down the gender on a piece of paper which we delivered to a local bakeshop.  Joe and I never looked at the piece of paper and we asked the bakery to make a cake with the interior dyed either pink or blue to indicate the gender.  The intention was to find out along with our family at a party the next day.  My mom was nice enough to watch Joey so that Joe and I could go out to dinner after our appointment.  The baby was craving Chinese :o).  We have gone to eat after all our ultrasounds and I love this time together.  It's a time to talk and dream, and reminisce and hope, and bask in the reality of pregnancy.

 Joe's mom allowed us to have our little party at her house. We are so lucky that our children's grandparents are so helpful and love to have them around. Immediately after I got home from work on Friday, our little familty went to pick up balloons, decorations, and pizza. My mom had already picked up the cake and still nobody had peeked.

We let everyone take one final guess as to what the baby would be as we ate dinner.

My Aunt Ann did the gender test with the needle and it revealed boy and then switched to girl.  We agreed that the boy must mean Joey and the girl must be this baby ... we were sure I'm not having twins!

 We snapped a few pictures of the cake after we opened the box.  We were relieved that the bakery had followed our plans and there was no way to tell the gender until we cut the cake.  I wish we were able to get better pictures this night but my camera was not happy and neither was Joey.

 Our family took pictures to text to our family who was not able to be there that night. 

 One last family picture before finding out what we would be having, with Joey clearly demonstrating this was not his best night.

 And then we cut the cake and we could not have been happier! I love this picture of Joe's mom capturing our reaction as Joe leaned in to give me a kiss.  It captures the moment perfectly.

We will be meeting our Grace Genevieve in July (unless she has other plans).

 Everyone enjoyed the cake and talked of all things baby girl. The cake was fantastic and fantastically pink!

  My mom gave us our first baby girl outfit, and a big brother shirt for Joey.I hope to find the coordinating one for Grace :o). She came equipped with both boy and girl presents to be prepared for either case.  

 We were so happy we decided to find out this way!

It was so nice to be able to share the experience with family and give this pregnancy its own special something!

We can't wait to meet you, our sweet Baby Grace!