Merry Christmas!

We are soooo excited because we finally got to tell all of our family members that we are expecting! It was so hard to hold it in for so long, in my opinion, but Devin doesn't have a problem with keeping secrets. In the past two days we have been able to tell the most important people in our lives. I am going to give a brief run-down of how we told everyone and why. Sorry in advance for our crappy video taking! We are amateurs!

On Wednesday night our good friends Tyler and Jessica came up to visit from Petersburg. We went to school with Tyler and he was an usher in our wedding. We decided that it was safe to tell them because we really wanted to tell them in person. They arrived and we went to dinner then came back to our house. We decided to test out the baby quilt on them to see if it was obvious or not. Apparently it was not obvious because it took them probably 2-3 minutes to figure it out. We thought the word baby would give it away, but we were wrong. But, Jessica finally figured it out and they were so excited. They kept saying they shoulda known if they had paid attention. I guess they had found Tyler's crib that day and had talked about baby names. Sadly we didn't take a video of telling them. I wish I had because I would really like to know how long it took for them to figure it out!

We also tried to get Bryan Karneboge to come over on Wednesday so we could tell him, but he was too busy with friends being in town and holiday parties. However, we were able to get him to come over on Christmas Eve right before we left for church. Devin quickly wrapped up a piece of paper that said "We are having a baby, and we won't use one of your names." For those of you that don't know Bryan real well he is obsessed with baby names and the day after we got home from our honeymoon he came over with a baby name book and said okay now that you are married lets talk baby names and proceeded to tell us what names we could not use. The video of telling him is short enough it doesn't need edited so here it is!

After telling Bryan we headed to Mike and Stacy's and then to church (an hour early). It felt like the longest service ever, but I know it really wasn't. And of course after church we had to eat and do all the presents before giving the present that told. To tell the Burks side (Grandma Burks, LeeAnn, Neal, Toni, and Sydney) we made a baby quilt for Grandma Burks. It was a crossword puzzle quilt. We thought that grandma or LeeAnn would catch on right away, but it took a while. If you see LeeAnn acting funny in the background right in the beginning its because Grandma had previously elbowed her by accident while opening a present. We chose to make a baby quilt because we go down to Grandma Burks' house quite a bit for Sunday lunch and we thought it would be nice to have a quilt for the baby to play on. Plus, I know she will have a blast showing it off to all her friends! :) We had a huge discussion on how to fold the quilt, we decided to fold it so the word grandma showed because it wouldn't give it away right off the bat and I think it was the right decision.



This is a picture of the crossword quilt. If you can't see it the words on it are Great, Grandma, Baby, Laugh, Happiness, Mommy, Miracle, Daddy, and Love.



LeeAnn and Grandma are reading the quilt! Trying to figure it out! Great picture Jason!



.... And Grandma figured it out! This is probably my favorite picture of the night. Thank you Jason for taking it!

I love how LeeAnn stands up and throws the quilt down to read it! Also, after watching the video a few times I think they knew sooner, but just wanted to make sure there was a baby involved before they guessed that.

Christmas morning we went out to Mike and Stacys and then to my moms. When we were opening presents at my moms, my dads brother called to wish us Merry Christmas and she told him that she was going to be a grandma. He assumed that it was my brother Eric, but we straightened him out!

Next, it was time to head down to Karen's to tell Stacy's side of the family. Shortly after we walked in to Karen's house Sophia was eying Devin and more importantly the piano behind him, and Karen said "Devin shes got her eye on you" as if it was a hint. Little did you know, Karen! We went downstairs and ate then I had to get going back to my moms, but I wanted to see Grandma Budke open her quilt. Devin went and got her presents and she knew to read the quilt label right away, so she figured it out easily. The label said, "To: Great Grandma Budke; From: Devin & Christy Burks; December 25, 2009; Baby Burks due July 2010. I think the funniest part of this video is Ruth yelling "What'd it say?" Cracks me up everytime, although in her defense Grandma didn't read it too loud. Karen, I am sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, I didn't know I had to, but at least you knew before all your sisters! I hope you rub it in their faces!



This is what Grandma Budke's quilt looks like, I really like it and I think she did too!

Also, note Gail running in the room, she was off playing with her grandkids so she missed it! I wish I would have been able to stay longer and play with the twins! They are growing so fast!

After I left Karen's I went back to my moms to have Christmas with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. My cousins were there when I got there, but my aunt and uncle didn't get there until about 5:45 because my aunt had to work (apparently hospitals don't close on holidays). By the time they got there I was bursting at the seams to tell them so I kinda interrupted their meal to tell them. I told them by showing them the jersey that Brittany got us.

Right after Devin walked into my moms house from being in Manito, Carleigh my youngest second cousin who will be two in January attached herself to Devin. She would not leave his side. Although I did win her over for a few minutes while I opened her building blocks that she got. Other than that she wanted nothing to do with me!

Here are two baby related items that we got for Christmas. Devin bought the little Nike Shox and wrapped them for me. Brittany got us the little Cardinals jersey which is awesome! She gave it to us on Christmas Eve after we told everyone!







So, all in all it was an AWESOME Christmas for the Burks family! I feel relieved that all of our family knows! Now we get to tell our friends and co-workers! I can't wait until the whole world knows! Tomorrow we are planning to get alot of our friends together at Goodfella's and tell them. Then Sunday we are going to call our friends, and Monday tell our co-workers.

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes, support, and for checking in! Sorry this post is so long, but I wanted to include everything!