The Family Knows

Ok, we think just about everyone in both of our families knows now.

As planned, we drove to my hometown of Benton on Friday afternoon and walked in totally unexpected around 6:30 pm. My stepmother was cooking dinner, and turned around shocked to see us both. In hindsight, there were some cons to us trying the surprise thing - like some people being so surprised to see us that they couldn't process the news until later. My father was sitting in the living room with his foot up from his recent foot surgery. When they asked what we were doing, I told them we thought they'd want to hear it face to face that they were going to be grandparents. My father started crying immediately and called me over for a hug, my stepmom Carol hugged us as well and wanted to know details right away. Later, after things had calmed down, we walked over to my grandparents (my dad's parents) and did it again. They were surprised and happy for us as well, and my grandfather began wondering almost immediately what type of wood he should build the baby's first dresser out of.

Then came phone calls to my brother and his fiancee, my sister and her husband. After that were the calls to Kim's mom and my mom to let them know how the conversations all went. I also told my mom there was no point in her keeping the news from all of my Bastrop family until Christmas. So now they all know and are excited too. The next morning, we drove over to see more grandparents (Carol's parents) who were also surprised and very happy for us. Mamaw Margie said that it'd been too long since there were any babies around the family. On the way back to my parent's house, Kim called her Grandmother while Kim's mom was telling all of her sisters they'd be great aunts.

We're back in Austin now, and I just made the last call I can think of at this moment to family. David and LuAnn Weynand are my sister-in-law's parents. We love them, but don't know what to call them, so we came up with the term "Other-laws." They were excited, but were shopping in FAO Schwartz - which LuAnn said was a bad place to hear that family members are expecting.

So for now, I think everyone is busy trying to figure out what they want to be called. This baby will have 6 grandparents, 7 great-grandparents, 5 aunts, 3 uncles, and tons more extended family. So we're looking forward to some real creative names. My dad has already decided that he wants his to be "Favorite."