And New Baby Makes Four!

We are very excited to introduce the newest little Gerhard.
Stay tuned for more details about the end of July!


A profile shot at 12 weeks.


Relaxing with his/her feet up.


Looks really comfy in there!

A profile shot at 22 weeks.

A view of the little face. You can just see a nose and a mouth.

Two little feet.

Sharing the News: Kristine's parents

The curling bonspiel in Pilot Mound was happening this year on the Easter weekend. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get together to celebrate the holiday as well as do a little bit of curling. As it turned out, it was also the perfect opportunity to share some very exciting news.

Now, you can't just come out and say "hey, we are having a baby!" It is a kind of game where the new parents set up a situation so that the news is shared very subtly and then you wait to see how long it takes recipients of the news to figure it out. This is the fun part. They did it on the A&W commercial where the couple buys the new grandpa a Grandpa burger. Our friends did it when they invited us over for pie. And we did it with Adam's parents by sticking the photo of the pregnancy test in the middle of the Arizona trip slideshow.

So, for my parents, I bought an Easter card that said "For Grandma and Grandpa".


It took mom 0.3 seconds.

More excited and cheerful madness ensued.

Sharing the News: Adam's Parents

Planning how to share this news is almost as challenging and planning how to propose. You can do the straight up "hey mom, dad, we're pregnant". But sometimes things present themselves that are too good an opportunity to pass up. First, note that we had the picture of the pregnancy test. Secondly, we have just returned from an adventure to Phoenix and the Grand Canyon with Lenore so we had many many pictures to share with family. I nefariously snuck the pregnancy test pic into the set of Grand Canyon pics, and our ploy was set.

We ventured to my parents house for the big show.

We trucked through the pictures in standard format. Sharing stories etc. then we got to the Grand Canyon itself: "Here is a picture of the canyon; here is looking way down at some of the donkey trains; here is our pregnancy test showing that we are pregnant; here is another view of the donkey trains close up; here is Kristine and Lenore..."

It took about 2 pictures past the pregnancy test when my mom said "wait a minute, go back". So I went back to the donkey train pic. "the donkey trains? yea they were pretty interesting, you see they are more stable on the" "No not that!!" "oh this? yeah, Kristine is pregnant".

The excited and cheerful madness ensued.

So it begins

There are signposts throughout life that tell you where to go, where you have been, or where you are about to go. Sometimes they are subtle, sometimes obvious, sometimes a great big neon flashing sign with bells and arrows. This was one of the latter. In 9 months (give or take) we will transition (read instantly shift) from being a couple to being parents. As with most first timers, we have absolutely no idea what we are getting into. Sure, we will read books, watch videos, receive advice (solicited and not) and eventually become somewhat comfortable in our belief that we are ready, but really, nothing can actually prepare you. We will watch and wonder why people who have kids start to smirk or smile knowingly, sometimes with wistful regret that they are past that stage, but usually with something that is a mixture of fondness and pitty, as we share our exciting news. We will eventually figure out why. But for now, before the news is public, before anyone besides us knows, while it is still our news, and our secret, we sit together and stare and these two pink lines that speak louder than any words can: something big is about to happen, and your world is about to change.