We could not be more excited to announce that we are expecting our first child. Baby Thompson is due December 2018!!!! Since today is Father’s Day it makes it even more special to share it with you all today. Father’s Day has been a pretty tough day for me (Anna) for the past 8 years because I lost my Father. So it brings me so much joy to share our story today and celebrate Kevin as a new dad along with all the amazing fathers and grandfathers that have impacted our lives. We knew when we met over 6 years ago that the whole world was at our fingertips. We have been fortunate to have so many incredible experiences along the way from starting a business to traveling to some pretty amazing places. Kevin and I have always viewed life as an adventure and have always decided to live it to the fullest.

Having a baby was always something that we knew we wanted, but deciding when the perfect timing would be for us was probably one of the most difficult decisions. Running a full-time business and loving our freedom to travel made the thought of adding a little one scary. So we prayed really hard and asked God to make it clear when we should try to plan our baby. With having lost loved ones in the past and recently having a scare of losing a loved one close to us we decided that spring of 2018 was the time to see if we were meant to have a baby.  We decided that we would honor our couples and only try for a limited amount of time to make sure that everyone would be taken care of. Everyone kept telling us that, “That’s not how it works. The baby will come when it decides.” We knew that our baby would have to be born in the winter to not interfere with our wedding photography business. We trusted God and knew that if it was meant to be that it would happen. We were ok if we had to wait and try again next year.

I remember on Easter thinking I was so tired and I would give anything just to go home and sleep. A week and several symptoms later I worked up the courage to take a pregnancy test. I didn’t want to at first because I thought there would be no way that we could be pregnant that fast. I didn’t want to waste a test because both Kevin and I didn’t believe I was pregnant. In fact, I kept telling myself that I was making up all the symptoms in my head. So finally I worked up the courage just to give myself peace of mind. Well, sure enough, it was positive. Kevin didn’t believe me at first until he saw the proof for himself. At that point, I diagnosed myself to be about 4 weeks. So we made our first 8-week appointment. Seeing the ultrasound for the first time made it so much more real for us. I could see what I thought was the heart beating really fast. I mentioned it to the doctor and she turned it on for a few seconds so we could hear it. I immediately started to cry and thought wow this is actually real.

We couldn’t wait to tell all of our loved ones but we wanted to do it in the most perfect way. So we thought about it and looked at the calendar and realized that mother’s day would be the perfect day. We made this decision at about 6 weeks so waiting another 4 weeks to tell our loved ones was extremely difficult. It upset me so much that I caved late one night at a gas station and told the cashier that I wasn’t crazy for buying pickles and ice cream because I was pregnant. When mother’s day rolled around we created a gift to give both our mothers. We met with my mom and family for lunch and Kevin’s mom and family for dinner. We found clear frames and put an updated photo of Kevin and me in the front and a photo of the ultrasound on the back. We made sure to have them open the gift so that they would see our photo first. We told them that we thought they might want an updated family photo and then asked them to flip it over. Both of our mothers had the same reaction. At first, it was aw…… which then turned into a scream because it finally hit them. It was such a fun way to surprise them and worth the grueling wait. The best part is that we got it all on video.

I have been so blessed to feel as good as I have felt through this pregnancy. With just a few cases of morning sickness here and there I started to realize what triggered it and how I could avoid it. In my case, I have to eat all the time. Also, exercise has been my best friend and so shooting weddings has been great. As far as cravings go I haven’t had anything too crazy. I just love sweets more than I normally do from fruit to popsicles. So far our sweet yellow lab Glory hasn’t noticed any changes but I’m thinking my cats have. Emery loves to sleep on my hip every night next to my tummy and Ollie has been sleeping on my lap while I work. These are both things that they never used to do before. I will be 15 weeks this Tuesday and in the next coming weeks we will be finding out the sex of our baby! We are so blessed to have had a healthy pregnancy so far. Please keep us in your prayers that both the baby and I continue to be healthy! We can’t wait to continue sharing our journey with you. Stay tuned for our gender reveal coming soon!