We told the NEW Grandparents!

So, I'm a planner! This is kind of an UNDERSTATEMENT! I like to plan EVERYTHING! I HAD planned to wait until after the first trimester to tell anyone about the pregnancy...including our parents. I know, I must be crazy, right? Especially since "Brayley" is the COOLEST thing going on in my life BY FAR and I talk to my parents and sister every single night!!! I don't think I could have kept the secret much longer...seriously! Besides that I was starting to feel guilty about leaving them out of all the cool stuff that's going on....like the first ultrasound. I knew my mom would be SO excited and SO excited to experience it with me. So, we decided we just had to tell!

Hays and I decided at the beginning of last week (the Monday between our 1st and 2nd ultrasounds) that if everything looked good with the 2nd ultrasound (the baby was the correct size and the heartrate was good) that we would tell our parents that weekend. We had already planned to go home this weekend anyway, because with football season starting soon (NEXT FRIDAY is the first scrimmage) we wouldn't be able to come home again for a while. So I was to think of a cute way that we could tell our parents. We came up with a bunch of fun ideas, but the one I liked best was an invitation to the baby's first birthday party- the BIRTH!

Well, everything with Thursday's appointment turned out great! So after work I went to Kinko's and had some invitations printed that said "You're Invited to the birth of your first grandchild, March 26th, Central Baptist Hospital" (Rachel and Whitney's said niece/nephew instead of grandchild, of course). I also had the 2nd ultrasound picture printed on the back of each of the invitations. So, now we had a plan- this was really going to happen THIS WEEKEND! Yippee!

When Hays and I got home on Friday night, I was about to bust! We decided we were going to spend the night with his parent's Friday and my parent's Saturday, so we would just drop by my parent's house for a bit Friday night to tell them before we went to his parent's house. We came in and talked to them normally for about 20 minutes and then I gave Daddy his glasses and got the invitations out of my purse. I handed them out and nonchalantly told them that they were invitations to a party we were having. Rachel and Mama looked at each other and said "A PARTY?!?!?" before opening theirs. I guess I'm not much of a party animal! Hehe!

Well it wasn't long after they opened the card that the screams and tears started! I cracked up when I saw Rae because I've truly never seen anyone start bawling that fast- it was pretty incredible! My mom started screaming and jumping up and down. It was HILARIOUS! We all hugged and I told them it was for real...they were going to be grandparents! They were so happy! When I hugged Rachel she said "Wait....how did this happen?!?!? I need DETAILS!!!" We were like "ummm....I think you know how this works!!!" LOL- I was cracking up!

So we sat there and chatted with them for another half hour or so and then Daddy said "Are we the only ones that know? You better get over there and tell John and Karen!!!". We knew they'd be so excited too. We approached it much of the same way- we just came in and talked about normal stuff and updated them on our lives. Then we started talking about the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (of course! less than 50 days away now- eek!!!) and Hays said "Oh yeah....we have your all's personal invitations to the Games. Jess has to send invitations to her family." and he handed them the invitations to the birth. Karen started asking about Dr. Lyons' birthday this week and if these were invitations sent by him personally. I could hardly keep from laughing and just said "yeah...yeah...that's what it is". Once she got it opened up it wasn't .5 seconds before she lept off the couch and came and hugged us! Then John said "Well, I didn't see anything about the Alltech Games on this invite!". This was a MUCH better invitation than to the Games, that's for SURE! They were so excited too! Karen even went to her hope chest (that she's been working on for about 10 years) and pulled out our first baby present: size 1 football shoes! They are pretty precious! She has had them since before Hays and I even got married! WOW!

Needless to say, we suprised both parents and everyone was so happy!!! We had decided that the next day we would tell our grandparents (the great-grandparents to little Brayley). We went to Madisonville on Saturday to eat lunch with NanNell like we usually do when we were home. On the way there Hays texted Whitney a picture of her invitation and she immediately called and started screaming and said "Was that for ME?" LOL- she was shocked, but seemed so happy! I can't wait to see her and give her a hug!

I was feeling pretty crummy most of the morning on Saturday, so I drove to Madisonville (for some reason that helps me from getting car sick). I had really only eaten crackers and water all day. I was trying to put on a healthy face, but I think NanNell saw right through it because when Hays came back from picking up lunch he said "We have something to tell you" and she guessed "You're Expecting!!!!". She was really happy too!!! She's going to be a great-grandmother again!!! Hays is the youngest grandchild on that side of the family, so now the baby is having a BABY!

That afternoon when we got back we went to my house, where Mama had already decided to have her family over for dinner. Nana and Poppy were the first ones there, so we decided to go ahead and tell them too. They were looking at a mining cap that Poppy had found at an estate sale that day and Nana said she needed to look up close at part of it and needed a magnifying glass, so I said "Well, while you've got that magnifying glass out you should probably look at this (and held up the ultrasound picture)!" She started screaming and she and Poppy jumped up and hugged us. About 20 seconds after we told them Poppy said "I sure hope it's a little girl in there!" Hehe! He loves baby girls! But later he said, "You know, I'd take a little boy too!", he just loves babies!

A little later Judy (Mama's sister) and Wayne (her husband, I know it's crazy that both of them married men named Wayne, right?!?!) came in and Judy saw Ginger Ale on the counter as one of the drink options and she said "Why is there Ginger Ale? Who is drinking Ginger Ale?" When Mama said that I was Judy said twice "Jessica, why are you drinking Ginger Ale....why ARE you drinking Ginger Ale?" (she's a pretty quick one, that Judy)! I said.."Because I'm HAVING A BABY!" They were super excited too, and Wayne even said he felt like he was about to find out there was going to be another baby in the family because that afternoon when they were out at Target shopping he found himself looking at Congratulations Baby cards. WOW! Crazy, huh?

A few minutes after that Jenny (Judy's daughter) and her girls: Lauren (and her boyfriend Thad) and Maddie came in. I waited a little longer to tell them because they were all eating and talking about other stuff. We got into a conversation about You Tube and Daddy was showing them some videos on the computer. I went and got the ultrasound picture and after the video ended I said that there was something else on there they needed to see and I held up the ultrasound to the computer screen. Jenny's face was PRICELESS. She was like "Is that what I think it is? Whose is it? What is it? Oh my gosh!" They all started screaming when I said it was mine!

So now almost our entire family officially knows. I know I had originally planned to wait to tell everyone, but after I told my parents I knew it was going to be impossible to keep it from everyone else. Plus, this would be the last time I'd be home for a while and I wouldn't get to tell everyone in person if we didn't do it this weekend. So, I feel good about it. Everyone is excited and we are SUPER excited too!!!