Baby Amador Gender Reveal Party!

Pretty soon after Miguel and I found out we were pregnant we talked about finding out the gender of our baby and thought it would be a fun idea to do a Gender Reveal Party with our family and friends!

We had our anatomy ultrasound on the 8 year anniversary of our first date! I love that the dates lined up that way! It's crazy to think about how much we have done and how much our lives have changed together over the past eight years! Two nervous kids (or at least I was nervous) going to a Braves game to two nervous parents-to-be going to our first child's gender ultrasound! 

The baby gave the ultrasound tech a difficult time trying to see the sex and sat in indian style almost the whole time. Haha! We turned our heads and kept our eyes closed while she was down in the leg region though and she was able to capture an image between the legs! 

We had four days between our doctors appointment and our reveal party. I actually think Miguel was more tempted to peak than I was. But we both really wanted to be genuinely surprised at the party and practiced our self-control. 

We went to the Perinatologist a couple of weeks ago to ease my fears about the baby being exposed to the CT scan I had while in the hospital. Everything is A-OK with the baby, but they gave us the opportunity to come back for our anatomy ultrasound because their equipment was more advanced. 

Both our families came into town for the reveal (minus a few who had previous commitments). I am SO grateful for everyone pitching in to get the party set up the day of! Big thanks to my dad for running errands (picking up balloons, food, ice, etc), my mom and sister for helping set up, arranging flowers, keeping me sane, Miguel for carrying the heavy things, and Jared for taking photos!!

This is just a small portion of all the diapers we received! We have very generous friends and family!

We asked our guests leave us advice for the future!

My mom and mother-in-law sent me pictures of Miguel and me as babies that I framed and displayed at the party, along with a banner reading "Pink or Blue We Love You!". 

Yummm! Bakers Pride Cupcakes!

With the grandparents!

LOVE this little girl!

She's pretty much everyone's favorite!

Also love this little blue eyed boy!!

Sisters! 

Thanks Erin and Jonathan for driving down from Atlanta FOR THE DAY to be a part of our party!!!

I had a special floral wreath made for the day. The only colors I wore were the blue and pink flowers.

We asked our guests to wear blue if they thought Baby Amador was a boy and pink if they thought baby was a girl. Obviously, the majority of people voted boy... or they at least owned more blue than pink! 

We gathered everyone together after the team photos and did the diaper raffle draw. The prize was a basket full of movie night snacks and treats and a gift card to Redbox. 

I didn't get a great picture of the gift...

Drawing the name out of the bin...

Pria and Travis you won!

The winners! We're laughing because Pria actually helped me put the whole basket together a couple of days ago!

After we did the diaper raffle we got ready for the big reveal! Neither Miguel or I had any guesses as to the gender! No strong feelings of what it was either way! We were SO surprised! 

!!!! IT'S A GIRL !!!!

We were so shocked! Miguel was particularly happy as he was hoping for a girl! I was excited for either, but am also so, so thrilled about our baby girl! I cannot wait to start buying all things pink and glittery with bows! I was so shocked it was a girl that I think I must have subconsciously thought we were having a boy! You can watch the reveal in the videos below!

The confetti was EVERYWHERE! Even in my wreath!

So, so, so happy that baby is part of TEAM PINK! 

Olivia Jane Amador, mommy and daddy love you so much and cannot wait to meet you and hold you in our arms in December! God knows you are exactly what and who we need in our family and we praise Jesus for you everyday! 

Barcelona Day 1

Monday morning was sort of a blur as we hustled to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona. We did manage to figure out the train system to get to the airport but definitely had help figuring it all out with help from some very kind Catalans who were also on our flight. Thank God they were there because the system was confusing! Train to bus, bus to airport... But what terminal? We didn't know! Seriously so glad they were going to the exact same place as us! One cool thing about the Prague airport is that they have pianos at the gates that passengers can play! We really enjoyed the pretty music while we waited to board! 

Waiting on the bus to take us to the Prague Airport

Prague Airport

The flight went fine. We flew over the Mediterranean which was cool. Vueling airlines is a cheap travel option and they charge for everything and anything including all onboard drinks and snacks. It felt nice, however, to have a Spanish crew after being in Prague which felt so foreign.  

Barcelona's airport is very clean and pretty but a bit challenging to navigate. I thought I had done a pretty good job of getting us organized and getting directions but turns out they weren't that clear. For example a lot of times our directions would tell us which metro line to take and then when we exited the metro station it would just say "walk 1/2 mile to destination"... Um which direction though? It was never just straight ahead.  At the airport we took a crowded train to the city center and then the metro to our hostel location. 

Our hostel was on a very swanky and expensive part of town on the Passeig de Gracia. We had Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada as neighbors. And Gaudí's famous Casa Mila two blocks down the street from us. I, of course, enjoyed all of this! 

Entrance to our hostel

Casa Mila

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, even though we arrived after the check in time of three o'clock. That was super frustrating as both Miguel and I were ready to get in our room to shower and relax after a stressful day of travel. While we waited for our room to be ready we sat outside on the pretty garden terrace, drank free coffee and hot chocolate, and used the wifi. 

The patio

After about forty minutes our room was ready. We were on the forth floor, which is actually the fifth if you're walking up from the ground level. I climbed those steps many times as the elevator option was from like the thirties and had all sorts of warnings posted about the max weight and allowing only two occupants at a time. So Miguel took it up with our luggage and I met him at the room. Our room was smallish but we finally had sheets instead of just a comforter! The bed was also the most comfortable hostel bed we had yet. The other mattresses made it feel, according to Miguel, like we were camping. Our room had a balcony overlooking the busy and beautiful street below. I loved that! Though I hardly stepped out there as the height made me nervous!

The central, spiral staircase, and small elevator shaft

Miguel and the suitcases took the elevator... I took the stairs

Views from our balcony

We unpacked our things, changed our clothes and headed out to a Rick Steves recommend restaurant that was close by. The restaurant was busy even though we went at around five o'clock. It was bigger than I had imagined and we were seated around a bunch of locals which I thought was a good sign! Though half way through our meal two sets of Brits came in with their luggage! I really missed trying the wines in Spain! Miguel ordered a beer that was local to Catalonia. We ordered a selection of tapas which were all tasty but my favorite was the patatas! No surprise there! I'm a potatoes girl! 

After we ate we walked back to the hostel and hung out on the terrace enjoying happy hour sangria (Miguel only of course). The terrace became very busy and provided great entertainment with people watching. There were people from all over and of all ages. Children to seniors and of course the expected college crowd. The smoke was bad here though again. Not in the city but at the hostel. We tried to make it to nine when there was going to be live music and fresh paella served but neither of us could hang in there and so headed to bed. 

We had a great first impression of the city but traveling really wore us out. We were excited to start this part of the trip and looked forward to day 2!