You Got ALL That For HOW Much?!?

I'm not sure how many are aware just how much my family LOVES to go to yard sales.  We're fans.  We're big fans!  In fact, we love it so much we are willing to leave Paradise at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday, drive 80 miles, all for the thrill of the hunt, knowing treasures are waiting to be discovered and haggled over.  This morning was a day set aside for just such a trip.  My mom, sister, niece, husband and I set out for Rocklin after my sister received a flyer addressed to a Rocklin resident by "mistake" advertising an entire neighborhood yard sale.  It noted that last year over 300 residents participated.  Why on earth had it been delivered to her?  WHO CARES?!  We were there! Never had the taste of yard sale anticipation been so sweet!

We were on a mission to find our little one as many things for the nursery as possible.  To cut to the chase, once we got home, unloaded, laid out the spoils of the day, we were AMAZED at all the stuff we found:

• Baby Gate
• Radio Flyer Tricycle
• Green & Brown Elephant Stroller with Car Seat Carrier and TWO car bases
• Baby Monitor
• Aveda Bottle Warmer
• Leather Tool Belt that says "Daddy's Little Helper"
• 8 plastic play tools (hand picked by Danny)
• Changing Table Mattress Pad
• Tabletop Swing
• Dresser complete with diamond plated accents to go with the auto themed nursery
• Construction Rug
• Tractor Toy
• Jumparoo
• High Chair
• Slippers
• Tennis Shoes
• Church Shoes
• Jacket
• Bulldog Jammies
• Rocket Jammies
• Dinosaur Onesie
• Hammer Embellished Cargo Pants
• Happy Camper Onsie
• Daddy's Little Boy Onesie
• Handsome 01 Onesie
• Shhhh I'm watching the game with Daddy!! Onesie

How fantastic is all of this?!??

While our little one can't quite ride a tricycle yet, neither one of us could pass up a Radio Flyer for $5!

 I love the elephants!!

 We made sure there were no recalls and that nothing had expired on the car seat and stroller set.  The fact that it came with two bases was amazing and all for $25!!  Seriously!  These retail for like $150.00.  Also, while I am wanting a video baby monitor, my sister pointed out that these are really good for traveling.  Again, I say, "SOLD!"

 You should have seen Danny picking out all these tool toys for our little one.  He was like a little kid getting to...well, pick out new toys!!  The swing was only used three times by the previous baby, the bottle warmer $2, and the tractor toy was FREE!!

 I had initially passed over this Jumparoo, but my sister pointed out that Elizabeth, my niece LOVED hers, and she had recently priced them out on Amazon at $90.  So for $25, this was a GREAT find.  This is why new parents should not shop for new baby without parental supervision!

This was one of my FAVORITE finds!  When I asked the guy what he wanted for it, he replied, "Well, I wanna get at LEAST...sssssseven out of it.  I would say $5, but the extra $2 are for the hours of hard labor of painting and adding the diamond plating I put in."  Um...SOLD!!  And the changing pad was a perfect fit!

 As we went about our traveling from sale to sale, we found this gem with a "FREE" sign on it lying all by its lonesome in a driveway.  Upon closer inspection, it was filthy, came complete with old Cherrios, but nothing a solid sanitary once over...ok, maybe twice over and a new pad won't fix.  Another amazing find!

 5 onsies, two jammies, a pair of pants (the hammer is embroidered on the back pocket!), two pairs of shoes, and some slippers all for $7.00.  Seriously!!

Thus concluded our time yard saling. 

 So how much did ALL of this end up being in the end? 

$96.00 NOT KIDDING!!

Oh My!  Did we ever score BIG!!

From there we ventured on to Hobby Lobby.  The picture is just a taste of this vintage automotive nursery that is to come.

RDK--It stands for Riley Daniel Knopf.

The BIG Reveal....Boy? or Girl?

There are few days in our adult lives that one can genuinely compare to the anticipation of Christmas as a child.  The days leading up to the anticipated day seem to be so long, constantly quelching the fear that Christmas will never ever get here, and the sleepless night before wondering what will be in those beautiful packages under the tree.  For Danny and I, looking forward to learning what our precious little one would be was nothing short of that same anticipation as a child.

We were so close.  We made it to our doctor's appointment and had the order for our ultrasound in our hot little hands. We made our appointment and so began our 6 day count down to our sneak peek at one of the most amazing gifts God has ever given us.  We had a slight panic on day 4 when they called to say their OB ultrasound machine was down and we would need to be rescheduled.  Immediately I called the radiology department at the hospital, the department where I got my start at Feather River, and pleaded for any available appointment they might have before Thursday when we'd be leaving for San Francisco.  Wednesday at 5:00?  It'd be cutting it close to our plans for our reveal party with our families, but it worked!  I'LL TAKE IT!

Wednesday finally came.  We weren't the only ones itching to know, my sister Kelly, texted me throughout the day to remind me how much longer we had in the countdown....7 more hours....4 more hours.  Seriously! How adorable is she?  It was finally 4:50; with anticipation we could TASTE, we made our way to the hospital.  This was it.  We were going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  

When we arrived my very first question, "Does ultrasound have any ER orders that have come through?"  I know it sounds a bit odd, but I can't tell you how many times I watched pregnant mothers pace that lobby having to wait with VERY full bladders because an ER patient needed to been seen first.  It makes sense that ER patients take priority, and this was the very reason I hadn't schedule my appointment at the hospital in the first place.  The girl replied, "Ya know, she just took an ER patient back."  Of course she did.  It apparently was in the 10% of the things you worry about that ACTUALLY come to pass.  I couldn't help but giggle, she said it'd be 10-15 minutes and then the tech would be there for us. 

An hour had passed.  I did my fair share of pacing the lobby like the women I had seen so many times had done before me.  6:00 came and she was ready for us!  WooHoo!!  I laid on the gurney and in no time my stomach was covered in hot blue goo.  My husband by my side, it was finally Christmas morning.  Quickly she went through the boring measurements, it was clearly NOT her first rodeo.  She was speedy and I was thankful, not so much for the sake of my bladder that she was now pressing on (it was amazing how that SO didn't matter anymore), but we had a gender reveal party to get to!

We soon were at the point where it was time to think "spread eagle" thoughts.  Fear of a non-cooperative little one had plagued my thoughts up until this point.  But I told Danny, "I'm not gettin' off that table until we know confidently what we are having!" But thankfully, we had about 80% cooperation from baby and after a few jiggles of the ultrasound wand and a change or two in its position, we knew.

Tears began to stream.  I looked at Danny and said, "You're going to have a ....."  I can tell you that no matter how I finished that sentence, son or daughter, his reaction would have been the same.  We both wiped tears through the remainder of the appointment discussing the amazing news we just learned and the significant impact it had on how we can continue to plan for our little arrival.  There have been few moments in both of our lives that have been that spectacular....AND BABY'S NOT EVEN HERE YET!  :o)

We finished up and then it was a MAD dash to get some dinner (we were starving) and then the last supplies we would need for the reveal with our family.

Everyone had gathered...we were getting close!

 So Mommy...that's the auntie that's giving me an Alderson cousin?

 

My father-in-law making sure he was all set with his camera.

 I think my mother-in-law was excited!!

I thought it kinda fun to put together a chart of Old Wives Tales pregnancy predictors, not that I put any merit to any of them, but just as a fun way to see if what the Old Wives would say would have been true for us. 

The lips and mustaches are indicators of what each wives tale would have predicted for me. Kinda looks like the Old Wives are thinkin' we'll be having a boy, doesn't it?

We were rapidly losing day light and we had gathered everyone for what only could be described as a one-trick pony show, it was time to let them know, grandson? or granddaughter? nephew? or neice? cousin? or, well, cousin? :o)

The suspense was killing them!! :o)

Just a few (ok, a lot) of pieces of packaging tape until the family knew!

IT'S

A

BOY!!

The balloons were out and so was our news. We are having a boy! Looks like the Old Wives were right this time. To be honest, we were both really hoping for a boy, at least for our first child.  My husband from our very first conversation of kids back when we were dating has said he wants at least one boy and one girl, but if he got to choose, he'd like his son first.  My husband has a very protective nature and was already looking out for a potential future daughter by wanting her to have a big brother who could look after her.  Me? I have said for years I would be more than happy in a house full of boys.  Bring on the Tonka trucks, dirt, worms, superhero capes and cowboy boots. 

Sharing the proof of how we knew for certain our baby is a boy.

We had brought a Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake, since out of all the 31 flavors, not a single one of them was blue (lame!), to share with everyone in celebration.  We all ended up with blue teeth and lips.

It then seemed like a great time for Elizabeth how to throw Uncle Jimmy's frisbee.  She LOVED it.  The following are just an excuse for me to show off how cute my mom and niece are! :o)

(This last one is my favorite)

It was so much fun to share our amazing news with our family (and now friends).  

We can't wait to meet our little man!