Go Shout it on a Mountain: The Sequel

Author's Note to our Sweet New Bundle:  The documentation of our telling people the news of your existence will likely be less verbose and picture-laden then your older sister's.  Please know this has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of excitement, joy or interest and everything to do with the fact that over time your Mama's ability to be patient with secrets and their documentation has been reduced to nil.  Know, always, that you are and were as equally anticipated and fawned over as your sister.  Just because the documentation is spotty doesn't mean the emotion was!

RYAN (Baby Daddy)
As I shared here, I found out about our newest little nugget the evening of March 4th.  On a somewhat maniacal whim, I took a pregnancy test right before I went to sleep.  I immediately walked out of the bathroom, got in bed and told Ryan that we were going to be a family of 4.  We were both incredibly excited, nervous and surprised.  I don't recommend taking a pregnancy test at night because it makes it really hard to sleep.  Like the night before Disneyworld.... except 9 months before.

MOM, DAD & JULIE (Nonnie, Grampa & Aunt Julie)
Due to the fact that I had an important (read: bridesmaid) dress to fit into that I already owned, I knew that time was of the essence in telling Aunt Julie.  Thus, we weren't really able to wait as long as my inner-paranoid mother self would have preferred.  It just so happened that on March 29th my sweet sister had a wedding dress fitting scheduled that my Mom & I decided to make a day out of.  The plan was to hit up the wedding dress fitting, go look for Mother of the Bride dresses and then grab lunch together.  After some convincing from Ryan that telling them that day wouldn't be spotlight-stealing, and that I needed to get the dress situation worked out so I wasn't constantly harassing him to help me shove towels into the dress to "imagine", I talked myself into telling them over lunch.

The day before I took about 5 kajillion pictures of Emery in our backyard as a means of revealing the big news.  As you may know, taking pictures of a 1 year old is like wrangling cats - even if there's only one.  I eventually called it a day and settled on 2 pictures.  So over lunch at La Madeleine, I told my Mom & Sister I developed a few pictures of Emery for them and handed them the following:

Someone to play with?!  Eeeee.

Wait... I have to share though?  Never mind.

There were a quite few happy tears spilled over some Chicken La Madeleine.  Luckily my sister agreed to still love me despite being pregnant for her big day.  Bucket & Emery have no idea how lucky they are!

My Dad was, of course, not a part of this girls' day so I gave my Mom permission to show him the pictures as a means of revealing it because she was way too excited to have to wait to tell him until I would see him next.  Ryan and I immediately received a bunch of happy & excited texts from him that evening.  I wish I had taken screenshots, but I am fairly certain they involved him spouting off ideas of things he could spoil a new grandbaby with.  Tractors.  Life Size Dollhouses.  Baby iMacs.  You name it, it was probably swirling through his mind.

RYAN'S MOM, DAD, TIFFANY & KYLIE (Grandma, Paw-paw, Aunt Tiffany & Cousin Kylie)
Ryan & I waited a few weeks to tell his parents only because they didn't have any important items of clothing that I had to squeeze the big ol' belly into for them and I wanted to make sure I got my first doctor's appointment under my belt to ease my paranoia.  We told them Easter Sunday when we went to go visit.  We gave each of them an egg filled with jelly beans and a note that said they were going to be a _____ (Grandma, Pawpaw, etc) again in November.

They were all, of course, super excited.  After all, the only thing better than 2 precious grandchildren is 3, right?  I should have taken pictures of their reactions and the eggs, but I did not (are you sensing a theme here).  To create the atmosphere, check out this post and imagine everyone with a huge grin.

JEN 
Jen & I went on a soul mate date to Perry's (because we are fancy) one Friday in April.  As any good BFF is apt to do, she immediately forced me to order a drink upon sitting down.  I made sure to order the same thing she was having.  Right after our waiter left I told her that I was with child yet again and pushed my drink across the table to her.  Of course she was also super excited.  She worried about the fact I wouldn't get to drink at Julie's wedding, but I made her promise she would take care of enough drinks for the both of us and all was good.

Also, that meal was delicious.  BFF's are the best!  (This is the important commentary you receive when a preggo forgets to write all this down until well into her second trimester during lunch time.)

MY INDIANA FAMILY
We took a big break from telling everyone after Jen until I hit 12 weeks on May 5th.  As I stated about 10x above, this Mama is paranoid and wanted to make sure I got a few appointments with heartbeats in before sharing the good news.  What more appropriate time to let people know you're sober for the next 9 months than a day who's emblem is the margarita?  So I went for it.

Telling the Indiana family was particularly exciting this time because about 2 weeks before my cousin Miranda told us Houston folk that she was pregnant and was due November 7th.  It took a lot of willpower for me not to tell her that I was just 10 days behind her when she told us.  Last time I took a lot of screenshots which I completely failed on this time.  Trust me though- there were a lot of emoticons flying.  Drinks.  Babies.  Bows.  Trucks.  There's never a shortage of excitement from that crew!

RYAN'S MISSOURI FAMILY
We told Ryan's Missouri family on the day of the marg as well.  As stated above, keeping secrets really has gotten difficult for me!  Like with my family- no screenshots were taken but there was LOTS of excitement.  Mainly that I had agreed to keep Ryan around for at least one more child peppered with concern that he would be influencing yet another young mind.

EVERYONE ELSE
We told basically everyone else on Cinco de Mayo as well via alternate forms of email/text, etc.  I haven't individually named all of you but trust that telling each of you was equally as exciting and meaningful for us.   This time there wasn't any confusion as to the baby being twins thanks to two ultrasound pictures.  I know I sound like a broken record, but there were LOTS more emoticons, exclamation marks and capitalized fonts.  I really can't emphasize enough what an awesome emotion it is to get to share such big news and have your excitement reciprocated by the people who mean the most to you.

Suffice it all to say that everyone has been so kind and celebratory that it just reminds us how fortunate we are to be loved by such an amazing support network.  You all have been so integral thus far in Ryan & I's parenting journey and I know that you will continue to be even more so as we add sweet Bucket to our brood.  Thank you from the very bottom of our overflowing hearts for all your well wishes, prayers and love!