It's a ...

BOY!! Ahhhhhh!!! My awesome sister-in-law Jodi planned a gender reveal party for us while the whole family was together at Lake Powell. Since it's looking like this might be the last baby on this side of the family, it was fun to do something a little special! I'm so grateful to Jodi for doing this - it was a fun way to celebrate!!

We almost weren't able to have it as my doctor tried but couldn't tell gender at my 16 week appointment. But we were all so excited about it that I decided to go to one of those for-profit ultrasound places a week later to see if we could get a better result. Thankfully, baby cooperated and it was money well-spent! I had them call Jodi to tell her the gender so she was the ONLY one who knew before the party!! She planned some super cute things like having everyone write their guesses on a photo mat framing an ultrasound picture and having bowls of plain M&Ms (no nuts) and Peanut M&Ms (nuts!). She also had a little game where I answered questions about my pregnancy that are supposed to be wives tales to tell gender. The results of that were actually even. After we did those things, she had a box filled with colored balloons that we opened to reveal we're having a BOY!!!

I honestly had very mixed emotions, which is funny since I cried at finding out both Madison and McKinley were girls. But I seriously love my girls so much and can't imagine my life being any different! Girls are so much fun and I just love how close these three sisters are and I hope will continue to be. Having a boy just seems so foreign! On the practical side, we didn't really want to have to buy all new stuff since this is our last kid and as we've been looking forward to buying a house, it makes so much more sense to just divide four girls up two to a room. Plus I worry about silly things like him being a little on the "sissy" side with three older sisters and eventually having only one daughter-in-law in the family. Everyone keeps telling me how much I'm going to love being a boy Mom, and I can see that in some ways, but I'm also worried about how that might affect my girls. Everyone who finds out we're having a boy automatically implies that's the reason we're done having kids, that we "finally got our boy." To me, this devalues my girls, like we just kept having kids until we could have a boy because that's all we really wanted. Again, I LOVE my three girls and wouldn't want it any other way. But I know Heavenly Father knows exactly what our family needs and that this boy will be a blessing to all of us. So I'm getting used to the idea :)

Everyone also assumes that Jordan is thrilled to finally be having a boy, but I think he's even a little more nervous about it than I am!! He is seriously the BEST girl Dad in the world and has embraced all things pink and glittery! He is so wonderful with these girls and they ADORE him!! He's a little worried about being a boy Dad because he thinks he's not very good at "boy" things like building stuff or fixing stuff. Of course, I know he's wonderful and will be such a great Dad to this little man. I'm so grateful that our boy will learn how to be a husband and father from someone I think does it pretty darn near perfectly!

Anyway, we're having a boy!! Wish us luck :)

Granny signing the photo mat

Cuteness!

All these photos are basically the progression of our faces as we found out. Some of them are pretty telling ;) 

The wives' tale results