Big News!!

This post is long overdue, but that makes it no less exciting.

Let's back up a bit....when I was pregnant with Anniston, Jake and I would talk about our plans for our next little one.  He would say that he wanted them to be really close in age, probably around 18 months apart...I on the other hand, had a time frame of about 2 1/2 years apart in my mind.  I had no idea what I  would think about being a mom and no idea what to expect and the earliest I even wanted to talk about another one was after Anniston was a year old...then Anniston came along.

When Anniston came along, both of our stories changed.  Jake wanted to wait longer.  He wanted to take time to enjoy Anniston and not rush into another kiddo.  I was so in love with motherhood that I wanted to have more kids as soon as possible- I wanted to throw every practical thought I had out of my mind and continually churn these amazing creations out as quickly as possible.  Well, as we talked and planned, we also had in the back of our minds Anniston's story.  The story that reminds us that we are not in control and the story that reminds us that His plans are always better than ours.  So we landed on starting to talk about another one when we returned from my 30th birthday trip in Mexico- knowing also that we were trusting in His perfect timing.  Mexico was our starting point because I wanted to feel 100% on my trip and able to eat great food and sit on the beach and drink my Pina Coladas...and then come home and think about more babies....well- the week before we departed for Mexico, I held in my hand a test confirming that once again, God's plans are better than ours.  We were having another one!  I was so excited but wasn't sure what Jake would think, as this wasn't our plan.  So he came home from work and Anniston and I were there to greet him and let him know that it was time to CELEBRATE!  And celebrate we did- he was ecstatic as well, just as I hoped he would be.  We laughed and rejoiced and praised God for His perfect timing once again.  How fun that after such a long season of waiting for Anniston, this little one comes as a surprise!  He is so so good isn't He?  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  So we found out that by the end of October, our family would be a family of four!  The next week we packed our bags and headed off to sunny Mexico, full of yes, great food and a few virgin Pina Coladas!  No complaints here!

We went with a pretty standard way of spreading the news when you have a second one coming- you use your first one to do it!  Anniston proudly wore her shirt around to tell our family about the new arrival.

I think the longest part of pregnancy is between the time you find out you are pregnant and when you find out what you are having.  I'm always SO excited to find out and it feels like forever until that day comes.  Well, the day finally came and we are so incredibly thrilled that IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!  We are so excited about the arrival of our son in October.  We already had a name picked out because well, Jake picked out the names for three of our kids, assuming we would have two girls and a boy, years ago...for a boy, we really like alliterations, so something that started with a B to go with Bauer.  We really love the name Ben but didn't feel like Benjamin was the right name...so we landed on Benton Bauer!  Benton's middle name will be Clay, after my dad.

We can't wait for October to get here so we can meet Benton Clay!  We love him so much already!