June 2016

Dallas’ second round game 7 loss to St. Louis took a toll on Jamie as everyone on the team thought they were gonna go deep in the playoffs and have a chance to contend for the Cup. Jamie has been sulking around the house for the past week and I have been trying to get him out of his funk as we leave for Victoria next week.

Today is a little end of year party that Jordie is holding before all of the players leave Dallas for vacations and their summer. So I made up a potato salad for the occasion. Jamie usually holds the party but Jordie volunteered to because he said with me being pregnant, he didn’t want to have as much of stress on me. I never minded planning the party, I actually really enjoyed it.

“Ready to go J?” I call while looking into the mirror looking over my outfit choice for the occasion. I wearing a navy blue dress that does a bad job in hiding my 4 month baby bump, with my dress I paired it with white sandals.

“Yeah, is Kelowna outside?” He asks jogging down the stairs.

“I put him in his crate.” I tell him.

“Mads, he weighs more than you, please don’t hurt yourself.”

“He is my puppy, he would never hurt me. PLUS with this baby he does not weigh more than me.”

“Sure honey.” Jamie says.

“Stop worrying.” I scold him.

“I can’t help it.” Jamie wraps an arm around me and gently pulls me into him, kissing my head.

“Ready for today?” I ask Jamie.

“Yeah, it will be nice to see the guys, bittersweet because I wish we were still playing.”

“I know babe. Your new shirt looks good.” I smile touching his new shirt that I bought him.

“Thanks, I still am not used to the colour, it would be nice if it was grey or something.” He smiles.

“You’re so plain.” I laugh grabbing my tote and salad. “Did you put some swim shorts in the bag?” I ask.

“Yeah, are you gonna swim?” Jamie asks opening the car door for me.

“I brought one just in case I want to.” I reply buckling into my seat.

We get into the car and drive to Jordie’s a little earlier than probably Jamie’s other teammates to help get ready and just because Jordie and Jamie love hanging out and I love seeing Ashley and Jaiden. Jordie lives close to 5 minutes away from Jamie and I, and Tyler and Mel only live about 7 minutes from us too. Once we get to Jordie and Ashley’s, I get out bringing my potato salad with me and let myself into their home.

“Hiiii.” I cheer finding Ashley in the kitchen working away with Jaiden jumping around in his jolly jumper, slobber coating his chin and the chest of his shirt.

“How are you?” Ashley smiles coming over to wrap her arms around me.

“I’m great.” I smile, which was the truth. People talk about the pregnancy glow and sometimes you feel like you have it, and sometimes it seems like its the opposite. But at this stage of my pregnancy, I feel the glow. I am happy and feel good after my 16 week appointment the other day, everything seems to be good with the baby. “What about you?” I reply.

“Good, been busy running around with Jaiden and the party, but I like having something to keep me busy. Jordie woke up early this morning and helped me clean the house and now he is outside making sure the backyard looks good and the pool is clean.”

“You are just a bunch a worker bees.” Jamie comments walking in with Jordie from the backyard already with a beer in his hands. Jamie walks over to his sister in law and hugs her tightly.

“Hey Mads.” Jordie says wrapping his arms around me. “You are looking great.”

“Is that a fat joke?” Ashley jokes with Jordie.

“Uh no, it was a compliment.” Jordie stutters clearly taken back with his wife’s words.

“It’s good Jord.” I smile leaning into Jamie who has a hand resting on my waist.

“5 more months eh.” Jordie says walking over to his wife and doing the same thing as Jamie. “You don’t want to rip Jamie’s balls off yet?” He jokes.

“Nope, I feel almost better than I did when I wasn’t pregnant. I just miss my body.” I comment. I had worked so hard to keep in shape and have my fit body that I had when I was playing hockey for university so when my baby bump started and I was losing my shape, it was disappointing. But it is for a good reason.

“Yeah I hated seeing my body get bigger. But its worth it.” Ashley smiles looking over at Jaiden.

“Do you think its a boy?” Jordie asks.

“I do, Mads thinks its a girl. Mom didn’t have morning sickness with us but she did with Jenny and Mads has been having some.” Jamie tells his brother.

“I’m excited for the gender reveal party.” Ashley says to us which makes me smile. Ashley and I have been planning a gender reveal party slash baby shower which is happening next week when we are back in Victoria. Most of the WAGs won’t be there which sucks a little but it was important for Jamie and I to have our families from Victoria at the gender reveal.

“Me too.” I smile as Jamie and Jordie head outside and Ashley and I keep making some plans for how we are going to reveal the gender. I do not know the gender, nor does Jamie. At my appointment the other day, I had the nurse write the gender of our baby on a piece of paper and I am giving it to both Jamie’s and my mom to bake cupcakes with pink (girl) or blue (boy) coloured batter.

I hear the door opening and Mel and Ty come trudging through the door, Tyler’s arms are full which seems like food, beer, wine, and two lawn chairs for the two. Mel’s hand are empty as practically runs over to Jaiden and picks him up from his jolly jumper, Mel bouncing him up and down.

“I see Ty had to carry everything in.” Ashley jokes with Mel grabbing the containers of food that Ty had brought in. Jordie jumps in grabbing the beer from Ty’s hands and Ty is left with the chairs which he quickly puts them on the deck outside.

“Well Tyler Paul forgot about the date night we had planned and spent it with your husband playing video games so he is in the dog house.” Mel sasses which makes Ashley and I cringe.

“Buddy.” Jamie states clapping Ty on the back.

“Are your balls still intact?” Jordie jokes. “I know Ash would have mine destroyed.”

“I slept in the guest bathroom.” Ty pouts opening a beer.

“Oh Mellll, not the guest bathroom.” I groan playfully, knowing if Jamie ever did that to me he would never see the light of day.

“Well did you learn your lesson?” Mel says curling an arm around Ty still holding Jaiden.

“Yes babe.” He says still pouting.

“Well good.” She leans up to give him a kiss and I smile at my two bestfriends. I’m really happy with my life right now, I have the best friends and family and everything is going great with my pregnancy and Jamie. I’m really grateful.

___________

Victoria

Today is the day of Jamie and I’s baby shower and gender reveal. Jamie’s mom and my mom have been making cute little games for the guests to show which gender they think the baby will be. I am so excited to finally know what gender our baby is going to be, so I can plan the nursery and we can finalize baby names and such.

We are holding it at our house in Victoria and Jamie’s mom has been here since 8 am setting up. They have been busy on Pinterest finding cute ideas to decorate the gender reveal party. Once you get to the house, there is a bowl of clothes pins painted blue and pink and you choose which gender you think our baby is going to be. I choose pink while Jamie choose blue. But to be honest, it didn’t matter to me what gender my baby is going to be. I’m just excited to be a mom and hopefully get my body back to normal after and be the coolest mom ever!

Our house has been completely decorated to match the blue and pink colour for the party and food has been piling up in our kitchen. Jamie and I just had to wake up, get dressed, and go downstairs for our party as our mother’s were very much in party mode. I am very glad both of our mothers were able to do this for us as it will be a moment to remember for the rest of our lives. The gender reveal cake has been sitting on the kitchen counter mocking me as I start my morning with a cup of tea and some fruit. I just keep staring at it.

“Staring at it won’t blow it up.” Someone comments to me behind me. I turn around seeing Mel leaning against the door way.

“What are you doing here?” I squeal getting up to wrap my arms around my best friend.

“Did you really think we would miss this?” She smiles.

“We?” I ask.

“Ty is here too. I think he found Jamie already.”

“Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for coming.” I smile giving her a hug again.

“Now, what can I do?” She asks looking around the busy house.

“You might want to ask my mom or Jamie’s mom. I haven’t been able to do anything.”

“Okay, I will. You can get back to eating your fruit.” She smiles leaving.

I look at the clock and realize that everyone should be arriving soon and clean up my breakfast.

___

The party is in full swing and we have been playing many games that have tested our knowledge on children. Everyone is wearing their pin representing their guess of the gender and it is time to cut the cake, time to find out our baby.

“When Mads came to be a couple months ago with the task of throwing a gender reveal party, she informed me that me, along with Heather would know the gender of our baby before anybody else. That made me quite emotional at the start but now I am feeling nervous and excited for our grandchild to finally emerge from Mads’ stomach so we can just love them to no end. Heather and I baked the cake and using food colouring, we put either blue for a boy or pink for a girl and Jamie and Mad’s will be able to cut their cake to find their fate.” My mom goes on.

“I have known Mads since she was 16 and I have been able to watch first hand my daughter in law and son grow up to be incredible human beings and I strive to be half as good as them. I am fully confident that the pair will be the greatest parent’s ever. I am honoured to know what our little grandbaby will be as we were chosen for this task. It was hard trying to keep my mouth shut and I know there were times where Randy probably wanted to squeeze it out of me. But I stayed true to myself and my children as I would feel terrible if I were to spill my guts. So now we turn it over to Jamie and Mads for the cutting of the cake.” Heather smiles.

Jamie and I get up and stand behind the counter in front of the cake facing all of our guests. I take a deep breath in and look at Jamie. He smiles at me before saying “I first want to thank everyone for being here, especially those who have travelled out of province or country for this. Mads’ and I appreciate it more than you know. Once we decided that we would have a gender reveal party and would give our mother’s the burden of setting this all up, I didn’t realize how much work they would do. I expected maybe a banner saying congratulations but this is nothing I ever imagined. I am so excited to share this moment with you so without further a do.”

Jamie holds my hand as we cut through the cake together. I am the one to see the colour before Jamie, and I squeal tears streaming down my cheeks. Jamie soon figures it out and turns the cake around for our guests to see. The cake was blue.

WE ARE HAVING A BOY.

Notes

Offseason Party
Gender Reveal Party
House in Texas
House in Victoria
sooooo they're having a boy!! Another Benn soon to be hockey playing boy :)