Girl, boy, girl....?

We found out Friday the gender of baby no. 4!  I don't like taking prego shots of myself, not beause I have low self-esteem or anything or think I'm ugly while pregnant, but I just hate taking pictures of myself.  So here's a picture, upon request of me at 18 1/2 weeks, the night before the ultrasound.  

The ultrasound went really well!  It was fun to see all of the little parts, like the fingers and toes and amazing to see the heart and the blood flow and the little bones.  Human life is such a miracle that didn't happen on accident and the way it works together is really a gift from God!  Lucy came along and sat on Dave's lap.  She was kind of confused but really good.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the ultrasound. 

Here's the profile shot.  What a swee face!  Dave and I both thought the nose and mouth and chin looked like Cal!

 

Baby opening mouth.  Looks like the little one is laughing almost!

 

 I like this one of the hand that the tech took.  Our baby is giving us the thumbs up!

 

Here's one of the face, the kids thought it was kind of creepy!

 

And, now, without furter ado, it's a BOY!

Yay!  We were kind of hoping for a boy, since we think Cal needs a brother and we wanted to even things out.  I think Dave was especially excited, so it's fun!

The kids have been discussing whether a boy or a girl for weeks and months now.  Emma's been rooting for a girl, and Cal has maintained the whole time "It's a boy.  I already know it is a boy", and Lucy just goes back and forth and says "boy" or "girl" and really has no idea what's happening.  To break the news to the kids, we decided to put some balloons in a bag, pink for girl or blue for boy, and have Daddy drop them from the loft.  We did this when Emma got home from school.  The were all happy.  Emma said "Cal, you got your wish!"  And Cal said "I knew he was a boy!"

We also had rice krispy treats in blue wrappers for after school snacks that said "It's a boy!" on them. 

We did a few other things to celebrate that night.  We got a blue snake toy, ate snail wrap for dinner, and did puppy puzzle and taught the kids the famous "Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of!" 

We are all very excited to welcome another little guy into our family and even things out!  Now, it's time to play the name game and come up with a name we can all agree on!