Florida Vacation

This sounds crazy, but we have never been on vacation with just the four of us.  We decided that we needed just that before the Rookie comes in November.  The kids only request was the beach...all they wanted to do was play on the beach.  At 25 weeks pregnant, that was something I could definitely do.  We ended up in Clearwater Beach, FL and had the best time.  We spent hours every day on the beach, went on a pirate cruise where we saw dolphins and ate lots of seafood (per Parker's request).   While there, Rowan decided she was going to live at the beach when she grows up...we decided that she was probably going to be a street entertainer and swim all day and dance hip-hop at night to make money.  She is definitely the free spirit in our family.  We also realized that Parker is so.much.like.me...after a couple of days at the beach, he was ready for something new.  I usually plan our vacations down to the hour, so this was not the norm...he is so my child.   He also found a new friend every day we were there to play football with on the beach.  I loved watching them so joyful.  

The Rookie

When Rowan was around two, I started talking about wanting a baby.  Brady thought I was joking...we had always said we wanted two kids, a boy and a girl, and lucky us, that is what we had!  Why in the world would we want to add to the crazy?  We have man-to-man defense, one child per adult, the perfect scenario to make our life the least amount of complicated.  I couldn't let it go though...a longing for a bigger family...a knowledge that life would be crazy and hard for a few years, but the joy would be so worth it.

About a year ago, Brady said that he was willing to see what happened.  We both prayed about it, and in our hearts believed that God would provide our answer.  It was a need of mine to let go and let Him take control.  An acknowledgement that everything good in our lives has happened when things didn't go exactly to our plan (see the originally title of this blog: shocked and knocked up:)...lifting the burden of planning everything to the minute.

Warning, TMI coming...in early February, I was a day late and just had a feeling.  I was running errands while the kids were at church and decided to buy a test at Target.  Normal people would wait until they got home...I'm not normal...I couldn't wait...I took the test in the bathroom (after I paid, of course)...POSITIVE!  I called Brady right away and we both just laughed.  We had our answer...we were going to have a baby.

I had a rough first trimester...nausea, vomiting, exhaustion...keeping it a secret from the kids was hard.  We told them around 8 weeks...we originally wanted to think of a creative way to share, but we're too impulsive.  One night at dinner we just couldn't keep it any longer...we turned to the kids and said, "we have a secret to tell you..."  Parker's response, "you're pregnant aren't you?"  Ha, no fooling that kid.  They each called our parents and told them and were so excited...probably Row more than Parker, ha.

In the weeks that followed, our secret was out...I'm pretty sure at least twenty people knew within 24 hours of telling the kids, ha!   We also had to find a name to call the baby...we are not finding out the gender so it couldn't be too specific.  For a while, Row was calling him/her 'sucker'...all I could think of was 'welcome to the family, sucker!'  So, we finally decided on The Rookie.  It is the perfect name for this perfect little babe.  He/she will be the rookie of our family and the kids are definitely going to show him/her the ropes.  Our hearts are so very full.