Author: Rachel Stoops

Another FaceTime call was in order to tell the rest of the fam. I had my mom rope everyone in saying she missed us and just wanted to see everyone so that no one would suspect anything. My brother, Scott and his girlfriend, Sima were there, my brother, Talor and his wife, Nikki were on, along with my Auntie Robin (AR) and Uncle Tim (UT), and of course my parents.

Again… the nerves were real!!! But we started off with casual conversation – for almost 30 minutes. 😂 My family is made up of a bunch of talkers. Finally, I asked when everyone was going to come visit us in Colorado to see our new home. My mom knew this was the cue so she asked when would be a good time. Mike and I replied: “maybe September/October?” and my mom said “oh yeah? why is that?” And then Mike and I looked at each other and he grabbed the ultra sound photos and I said “so you can meet our baby!”

So much excitement for a new family member!!!

Next up was letting my coworkers in on our little secret. If I haven’t already said it – I am not a good secret keeper. I had told a few of my coworkers earlier on. I just couldn’t completely hide it! I see them every day!

I knew food needed to be involved – Chick Fil A was a top contender, but Nothing Bundt Cakes ultimately won. I got two boxes of bundtinis and had two of the girls who knew help me out by getting everything set up.

On my letter board, I wrote out: Unscramble the words for a special message. Then had printed out and individually cut up the words: A baby bundtini will be joining the _____ family September 2020. We gathered the team telling them we were practicing a game that we were thinking of doing at our upcoming sales event.

Our competitive team quickly began assembling the words and started making their guesses as to who was sharing this exciting news. After a number of guesses, we had everyone close their eyes, and put a photo on the board. Everyone opened their eyes to see:

Baby Bubbles is on the way!!! (My nickname at work is Bubbles 😂). Again – So. Much. Excitement.

Sharing baby news is truly the best. Reactions are always priceless.

Laugh Often – Rachel

I wanted to tell Mike the very same day that I found out. I am NOT a good secret keeper and wanted to make sure I could tell him in a cute way. Just days before taking the test, I ordered a book on Amazon of Dad jokes. (Can you tell I had my hopes up and was pretty sure this was happening? – either way I was ready for whenever it might happen).

I opened the Amazon box, trying to think of the best way to give him a gift without it being too obvious or out of the blue.

I placed a little blue ribbon around the pregnancy test and put it under the book. I covered the book with tissue paper so he couldn’t see exactly what it was as he opened the box. I then resealed the Amazon box and placed it on our kitchen counter and sat on our couch waiting for Mike the sleepyhead to wake up.

A while later, he came downstairs, said good morning, and on his way into the kitchen noticed the box on the counter. “What’s this? Another package for you?” he said. “It’s actually for you!” I replied. “I forgot I had ordered you another Hanukkah present that had been on back order, so it finally came.” He carried on, grabbing a glass of water, petting the dogs, wandering around aimlessly. I didn’t want to put too much attention on the box so it wouldn’t look too suspicious, so I sat on the couch playing on my phone; just waiting.

Moments later, he went back into the kitchen and grabbed scissors from our drawer and began opening the box. My heart began beating a little bit faster, but I was trying to play it so cool. Still looking at my phone, just glancing over to him occasionally.

He opens the box. “Tissue paper!” he exclaims. He pulls that off the top, to see the book of dad jokes. “Oh cool – I’ll like these.” He says. Now I’m looking at him with a sly smirk on my face – I can’t tell if he’s catching on or not. Next, he sees the pregnancy test. He grabs it, brings it over to me and says “Cool – it’s one of those tests – now we have one.” And he turns around to go back to the box. I look at him, pause, point to it and say, “did you read it?” He turns it around, trying to get a better look. “Pregnant.” … “You are?” And he ran over to give me a kiss. I might have teared up a little bit here. He was so excited. I really wasn’t expecting much of a reaction from him. He’s not very emotional and can be hard to please. But this was the perfect moment. And then, I made him promise not to tell anyone…

The best part is that we have cameras in our house, so this was all caught on tape. But he had come downstairs in only his underwear, so I’ll spare everyone from seeing that, but I’m glad it’s a memory that the two of us will be able to keep forever!

Of course afterwards he asked why I didn’t wait until he put clothes on, but I just didn’t want anything to seem out of the ordinary!

The excitement is real!!!

Laugh Often – Rachel