It's a...

Well I just can't come out and say it right off now can I?  This afternoon I had a few of my closest friends come over for a little cupcake reveal.  I have to give credit to Pintrest for giving me the idea for the cupcake!  What did we ever do without Pintrest?!?!?  If you don't know about Pintrest, I am sad for you.  But I digress, I mean all you people came for was to see pink or blue!


Here is the set up.  I had the cupcakes, raspberry lemonade and I put out some sweet baby things I already have received as gifts or hand me downs.  

  AND THE BIG REVEAL.......

These cupcakes were amazing!  So yummy and perfect for Valentine's day!  One scoop of brownie batter, one scoop of strawberry cake batter and cream cheese icing (homemade of course!) makes a wonderful Neapolitan cupcake and it's not too bad at revealing that Carl and I are expecting a GIRL!  


We are so happy to be having a girl!  I was able to see the "hamburger" on the ultrasound even before the ultrasound tech told us!  We had picked out our girl name a few days before and as soon as we picked the girl name I felt like that is exactly who is in my belly. It felt so right.  Call it Mother's intuition but I had a feeling it was a girl from the moment I knew I was pregnant. So now for our little princess' name:

Gentry Reaven Hanke 

Gentry was on my very long name list.  I didn't even bring it up to Carl though because I was sure he would veto it.  Well I mentioned it to him while we were having his birthday dinner and he said he liked it!  I can't explain the feeling I had when he said he liked it.  I feel like Gentry has always been her name.  The name means aristocrat.  


Now the middle name is a fun story.  We were waiting for a seat at Chili's with our friends when we were sharing the girl name we came up with the day before. Carl was hemming and hawing at the name, Gentry, cold feet or second guessing it I am not sure.  I said he couldn't do that!  I liked Gentry so much that he could pick whatever middle name!  Well of course Carl chooses Slagathor.  UMMM NO!  I told him to try again.  He then said he wanted to use his best friends' Steven and Reagan's names.  Smoosh that together and you get, Stegan.  UM NO!  That's when our friend Cullen came to the rescue and suggested Reaven.  (sound it out like Raven).  We loved it!  I had a whole list of flower and bird names for this baby but not Raven.  The traditional name Raven means dark mysterious bird.  I like the idea of having a blonde (most likely hair color for our child) Reaven!  Of course we are spelling in exactly like the smashing of REAgan and SteVEN!  It's a middle name so I don't mind the funky spelling!  


We are so excited to meet her but we don't mind waiting for her to finish cookin!  Thank you guys for all the love and support!  


Love,
Carl, Kalena and Gentry

A Face Only a Mother Could Love...

We saw our baby today.

It was all very exciting and despite my crying at almost everything lately this did not bring me to tears.  I think it's because I am in amazement at my Creator and that He is allowing me to have a tiny part in carrying and helping this child grow and develop.

All I could say was WOW.

All I can say is WOW.

The great news is that the baby is growing and thriving!  In fact, the ultrasound tech said that baby Hanke was making her work for her money today!  The baby would not stop moving and made it very hard to get good pictures.  From what the Tech said we are looking at a 1lb 4oz baby that is a whole day ahead of schedule ;)  Everything you want to see in an ultrasound was there.  The heart sounded beautiful at 156 bpm.  Carl and I struggled to make out some of the body parts the Tech pointed out to us.  I also have an anterior placenta which makes it harder to get clear pictures of the babe.  We are waiting to find out if I have placenta previa.  I am not worried because I knew this could happen when I had so much spotting at the beginning of my pregnancy.  Worst case scenario is I have a C-Section.  It's not ideal but if this is the worst part of my pregnancy I am not complaining!  It also explains why I feel like the baby's kicks are a bit muffled!

Here is our little one's face.

this is the best one!

Can you see it?  Tilt your head to the right and squint a little....ahh...ahhh.....THERE IT IS!  Think skeleton baby.

In addition to the baby being very active it's also shy.  We had trouble with getting it to show us it's face!  Apparently baby Hanke likes to look toward my backside.  While baby Hanke didn't want to show it's face it had NO PROBLEM showing us the goods downstairs!  We will have a talk shortly after birth about keeping our privates private but for now I am happy to report that Carl and I are having a....












You will have to wait!  We tricky you!  On Sunday all will be revealed!  You know us Hanke's we like to coincide important announcements with major media events like the Super Bowl!