How We Told the Family

Being far away from family (and even if we were still in Tucson) we had to be creative with how we broke our pregnancy news.

Telling my family was simple and sweet. I called my mom on her birthday, September 17th (I found out on Gregory's birthday, September 15th) and asked her, "What happened on your birthday exactly 20 years ago today?" She didn't hesitate.

"That morning I found out I was pregnant with Lars, and crawled back in bed. Then your father invited the whole branch over to wake me up by singing happy birthday to me in my room and then we all ate breakfast." (We were stationed at the Naval Base in Rota, Spain)

So I told her, "Well, I can't cram the ward in your room for birthday breakfast, but I can tell you that you're going to have another grandbaby." It just seemed perfect.

So I swore them to secrecy, because I had big plans for telling Fred's family. I had come up with it long before we got pregnant and it had "Olsen" written all over it...

I wanted it to be a total surprise, but hoped that my method of deliverance wouldn't make them suspect. Eric's birthday on October 18th was perfect. Sending a package then wouldn't be suspicious, and I'm sure they figured any pregnancy announcement would come at Christmas, like it has in the past.

I kept the First Response box that my test came in AND the individual foil wrapper the pee stick itself came in. Then I grabbed 2 popsicle sticks and wrote on one, "Yes, we're pregnant, too" (my sister-in-law is 7 weeks ahead of me). On another I wrote, "You didn't REALLY think I'd send you the actual pee stick, did you?" I taped them together, written sides facing out, trying to imitate the shape of a real pregnancy test.

My in-laws are huge duct tape fans, so I first "sealed" the foil wrapper containing my popsicle sticks with a piece of duct tape. I put it in the original box, wrapped that first in paper and then in duct tape (so not to rip away the box's labels when he unwrapped it).

My sisters-in-law were awesome. They schemed with me and were ready with the camera when it was birthday party time. They also called both Fred and I on cell phones so we could "be there" for it.

Without further a due, here's the video of Fred's family finding out about our #4: