It's a Boy!

This past Saturday was one of the best days of my life...right up there with my engagement day, wedding day and the day we found out we were having a baby.  We found out we were having a baby BOY!

Needless to say, we were both shocked.  I was 99.9328% sure we were going to see pink balloons, so of course, I had Clay convinced (and everyone else I know).  This goes to show you shouldn't rely on the heart rate (which has been above 150 the entire time), or any old wives tales or gender predictor games or quizzes!  All of them said we were having a girl, so I just knew we were.  I'm kind of glad we were so convinced though, because it made for some very authentic surprised faces!

Clay and I are so excited to be having a baby boy.  We love the fact that his siblings will have an older brother to look after and protect them.  I'm so happy that Clay will have a partner in crime that he can pass on his love of baseball, Clemson tiger football, hunting and fishing to.  I can.not.wait. to see Clay with our sweet baby boy.  I know it will fill my heart with a love that it has never known before.  Plus, we know that little boys love their mama. ;o)      

Tons of people have asked how we pulled off the reveal without anyone, including ourselves, knowing.  Here's what we did:  We had the ultrasound tech write the gender on the back of our gender reveal party invitation.  She covered it with a post-it note to ensure we couldn't see through the envelope.  The morning of the party, we took the sealed envelope to the flower shop, along with our box.  While we were gone they blew up the blue balloons, put them in the box, and sealed it for us.  Luckily, they made sure not to put the color of the balloons on the receipt ;o).  We took the box home and decorated it.  We left it inside until party time so the balloons wouldn't fall from the heat.  I can honestly say that no one other than the ultrasound tech and the flower ladies knew what we were having. The same could be done if you wanted to do a cake reveal (pink or blue frosting in the center).  You would just take the envelope to the baker instead.

We are so happy we had a gender reveal party.  The waiting was absolutely worth it.  We had to go two whole days not knowing what we were having, which seemed like an eternity.  It was so much fun to be able to watch the video of us opening the balloons.  The best part of having a gender reveal party instead of finding out at the ultrasound, was that our family and friends were all there to celebrate with us.

My favorite part of the reveal was definitely Clay's reaction.  He screamed before I even had a chance to open my eyes!  If you get a chance to watch, the video is posted on my facebook page.  It's hilarious.

Here are some more of my favorite pictures from the day!

We also announced our name!  For the name frame, I took a picture of our girl and boy names in the sand at Ocean Isle Beach.  This is my favorite place in the entire world, so I thought it was fitting to take the picture somewhere that is so special to me.  I put the pictures in a frame and when we found out we were having a boy, I ran inside and switched the pictures so that the boy name was in the frame.  We decided to name our little boy Stuart Brooks Johnson.  We've always loved the name Brooks and knew that's what we wanted to name our son if we had one.  We decided on Stuart, after my daddy, because we love the name and wanted to honor the man who helped make me who I am.  What is even more special about the picture of his name in the sand is that my daddy's ashes were spread in the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean Isle Beach, so I like to think little Brooks already knows his grandpa.

We are so grateful to all of our family and friends for helping to make our party so special.  We couldn't have done it without you!