We are PREGNANT!

On December 11th, 2012... we found out that we were PREGNANT!!!

We couldn't wait to tell our families..but we wanted to make the announcement in a super awesome way. After much deliberation...and very careful secret keeping... we decided we'd announce it in a few different ways.

On Christmas Eve, we were with Noor's family. It was the perfect time to spill the beans because his brother was in town as well! We wrapped up 4 blocks that I made, each with a letter of "BABY" on it. And gave them each a bag to open. When all 4 blocks were out, there was a bit of confusion as to what exactly it meant. But once it set in, the excitement and tears began to erupt! This is the first grand baby for Noor's parents!

I also made this sweet ornament for my Mother-in-law's tree.
"Growing by "2 feet" August 2013"

My family had to wait a bit longer. We wanted to tell everyone all at once. Luckily for me, we had family pictures scheduled on New Years Eve! I called the photographer, who is a friend of mine, and told her what I was scheming to do. She was so excited to help with the surprise! So...on photo shoot day, I was soooo nervous! We all started taking pictures and our photographer said, "This one is a really important one...make sure you are all looking at me and smiling!......because Katie and Noor are PREGNANT!! It was so fun to see the phases of everyone's reactions! At first everyone had regular "picture taking" faces on...but in the frames to follow, their expressions changed to "Are you serious?" and "You kept this a secret?!" and then into the happy laughing and excitement.

 I just love this picture below..it captured the emotion of the moment so well!

 When we announced it to our families, we were only about 6-7 weeks along. So we expressed our caution in spreading the word. Noor and I just felt more comfortable waiting a few more weeks to make our news public. Plus...we kind of liked knowing it was an intimate family detail for a little while. It just felt quieter...which we enjoyed.

However...the news quickly became so much for us that we had to share it! (...and my bump was starting to show..so we knew we didn't have all that much time left before it was obvious..:)

So, I put together our announcement and we put it out for the world to see and share in our excitement!