Choosing His Name

Landon Lloyd Willis

Landon - We just liked it!  It was the front runner on our boy names list from the beginning & it stuck.

Lloyd - My maiden name.  Blake has always been an advocate for using my maiden name as a middle name for a boy, so that was easy.

Willis - I don't think I really have to explain that one.

Choosing a name was a bit stressful.  It's just so darn permanent!  So, even though we had the middle name established and we both really liked Landon, we still felt the need to spend some time looking through those silly 100,001 names books and confusing ourselves.  Ya know, just to make us feel like we'd done our due diligence.

It's a BOY

June 30 was our 20-week appointment...yea!  Blake and I are ultra-anal-planning-CPA's.  We HAD to know what this baby was.  We were the first appointment of the day, so after getting up early and drinking my 32 oz. of water and 8 oz. of Dr. Pepper (the best Dr. Pepper I've ever had, by the way), we made our final guesses (we were both wrong!) and we were off.  Of course, the one real storm we had in Waco all summer was that morning, and all of the traffic lights on the way to the Dr.'s office were blinking, so we were afraid that we would get there and there would be no electricity.  But, there was!

We both knew it was a boy before the technician told us.  You couldn't miss it!  When the technician was taking pictures for the Dr., I saw it.  Apparently, Blake did too.  He said he looked at me and saw that I was smiling and knew that I already knew.

So, here he is!  Pretty darn adorable, don't you think?

It has become a Willis family tradition that on the day of the sonogram, the parents host a little dinner party to announce the gender of the baby to the rest of the family.  So, that's what we did.  But, since my sister's in Cali, I decided that I would go ahead and tell her early since she couldn't be at the party.  So, we came home and called her up on iChat.  Both Dylan & Jaydon (our nephews) said that they wanted it to be a boy.  "No Grils (Girls)!"  So, they were pretty excited.  When we held the picture up for them to see it, Jaydon said "Mommy, he lives in a cave?"  And then they wanted to know if he would be here when we went to Colorado in August.  I think they were pretty excited about their new baby cousin!

So, time to get ready for dinner.  The menu was fajitas & taco salad with a German chocolate cake for dessert...yummy!  And, I didn't even have to cook any of it -- even better!

I think all of the family was excited by the BOY news.  For the Willis family, it's the first boy.  For the Lloyd family, it's the third with no girls.  But, Grammy and Granddad love their boys!

Someone asked me who was the most excited about us having a boy.  Naturally, Blake and I are thrilled.  I had always wanted a boy first, but totally didn't care once I found out I was pregnant.  Blake's never really indicated a preference either way.  I think he'd be an incredible dad to a boy or a girl!  But, besides Blake and I, I think the grandfathers are the most excited.  Except maybe Lynita.

Here are some pics from dinner:

The Big News!

It's old news, but it's still BIG news -- Blake and I are having a baby!  Due date is November 17, and we are super excited!

Allow me to catch you up on the last six and half months...

St. Patrick's Day 2009 was the day we found out that we were pregnant.  I was eating lunch at Jason's Deli with a great friend of mine who asked the big question..."SO, are you pregnant yet?"  I laughed it off - yeah, right.  I went back to work and couldn't stop thinking about the possibility, so I decided I'd run home (it's only like 5 minutes from my office) and take a little test.  As I was walking to my car, I was trying not to get my hopes up.  I mean, it would be perfect timing since Blake and I were going with my parents to see my sister's family in California soon, and it was SUPER important to me to be able to tell my sister the exciting news in person.  So, I go home and take a test, and there it is: "Pregnant". Yep, the digital one that actually says it.  I think I experienced every possible emotion in those 5 seconds before I heard the front door unlocking.

Yep, Blake was walking in the front door.  Now, I had talked to him an hour earlier at which point he told me he was leaving his office to come home and let Champ out.  Oh, but he didn't.  So, I didn't get to tell him in any fun and creative way.  I just walked out of our bedroom and said "I'm pregnant!"  As I recall, his face turned red, he kinda smiled, and then he didn't say anything.  So, I responded with "You're excited, right?"  Then, he gave me a hug and immediately started praying.  Let me tell you, at that point, I fell in love with my husband all over again.  I knew I had a good man, but that just meant the world to me that his first reaction was to pray over our new little family.  Then, he said "I was just coming home to let Champ out."  It was pretty funny.  So, after reapplying the makeup and trying to get my nerves in check, back to work we went.  I'm pretty sure we both smiled constantly for the rest of the day.

Shea (my Jason's Deli friend) was the first to find out.  I called her immediately after getting in my car to head back to work.  I had to tell someone!

Now, Blake and I had to figure out how to tell the family.  We wanted to do something special, so Blake came up with the idea of making a countdown book to the baby's arrival.  On the front of the book was a poem that we put together that revealed the big secret.  Then on the inside, there was a page for each week that told how the baby was growing.  Blake actually did almost all of the work on it, and it turned out so cute!

My parents and my sister's family found out on March 26 - the evening that we flew into California.  We flew in early that day, but I couldn't tell them until that evening when my brother-in-law got home from work and we were all together.  I was dying!  So, finally when we were all sitting down to eat dinner at my sister's house, Blake and I gave them their "Easter gifts".  My mom and sister were opening them at the same time and I thought they were never going to get to the end of the poem and figure it out!  Then came the reaction...PRICELESS!  It was perfect!  My sister exclaimed in tears "She's having a baby!"  FINALLY!  I could breathe.

We told the Willis family on April 2 after eating pizza and watching (on TV, not in NY) the Baylor men's basketball team play in the NIT final.  Of course, the announcement to the Willis family would have to involve some Baylor athletics.

And then we finally got to go to the Dr. at 8 weeks and see this:

What a relief to see that little heartbeat!

Even more incredible was getting to hear the heartbeat at 12 weeks!

So awesome.

Let's Try This Again...

Ok, I got so darn frustrated with this whole blogging thing after my first post that I gave up on it.  But, then I decided I better give it another try - and it seems to be working for me now!  I have lots of catching up to do, so I better get started!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Since our family is growing, we decided it might be a good time to start a blog. Whether anyone ever looks at this blog makes no difference to me. It’s mostly a place where I can quickly post pictures and record memories. And, it’s a way to keep my far-away family in the loop on all of the Willis family happenings. We’ll see if I can keep it updated!