Well THAT Was A (Very Happy!) Surprise!

Halloween was drawing near.  We had already made plans to spend All Hallow's Eve in St. George with Peter and Sheri.  This plan happened due to the fact that miss Siena, oldest of Peter's children, was getting baptized, and we wanted to be there, even though it was happening on Halloween itself.  Of course we were going!  Not only did we want to support the family who has been more supportive to us than anyone else has been able to, but it sounded kind of nice to shake things up a bit, have ONE year where we weren't subjected to the Elementary School Carnival, and maybe enjoy a warmer Halloween.  These all sounded like fabulous reasons.

Then, the Sunday before Halloween, we got this funny little afternoon text from Peter saying, "Hey guys....so how's YOUR day?" or something very leading and quizzical and curious like that.  And then he followed up with something along the lines of, "...because our's has been pretty great!" Then he sent us this picture:

Doh oh my gosh that is a baby and you were not supposed to have a baby until four more weeks and oh my gosh how beautiful and....wait, is that a boy or a girl?

You see, Sheri and Peter had decided to not find out the gender of this fourth and final (I'm pretty sure...) baby.  I myself was absolutely convinced beyond convinced that they were having a girl. Duh.  Of course they were.  They have THREE girls.  It seemed rather clear to me that that's just the way Peter and Sheri do things.  Girls.  But still....I was slightly suspicious.  And I wanted to know immediately if my suspicions were correct.  I believe I pretty much demanded that I be told right now the gender of this beautiful baby (who was very nearly born in the hospital parking lot, thanks to Sheri's insistence and genuine belief that she was not in labor despite clearly being...you know...IN LABOR). However, they were not coerced by my demands and made us wait until their daughters knew first.  Jerks.

They were immediately forgiven when they sent this video:

....which was not only completely adorable but absolutely blew my mind.  A BOY?  I had multiple and varied reactions.  Joy, disbelief, astonishment and also quite a lot of tears. I think partly because I was so happy that Peter and Sheri get to experience children of both genders, but also that it somehow brought my baby Matthew to mind quite exquisitely.  So I had a good long happy baby boy cry. And then I promptly began sending further pestering emails about this baby's name.  The name took a couple of days but when it landed, it felt good.  Samuel Miles.  I love it.

I did wonder if, due to this excitement, they might not want us to come stay at their house in five short days, but they did some real arm-twisting and convinced us to still make the trip.  Clearly we were only too happy to oblige and celebrate Siena and see our cousins and most definitely to get our hands on baby Sam.