our news
I mentioned we had some news that we shared with our friends in our new years card (and a special thank you to our patient friends and family who actually sat down and de-coded the card!). We wanted to share our big news with my parents and our children Bee and C on Christmas morning, so we decided to tell everyone all at once.
I offered to help my parents with their Christmas card this year and decided to do a Family Tree showing how our family is growing (there were 3 new babies in 2009). My parents have six children (I'm the fourth) and between my siblings and I there are 14 grandchildren. While I had everyone together this summer for our annual family reunion, I asked each person to stand against a wall so I could take their photo (mug shot style, with a sideways profile..). Later I traced the photos in Illustrator to make silhouettes of each person in our family. The result was a family tree chart that we printed on 10x14 sheets of paper and folded in fours and mailed out as Christmas cards.
For a gift to my parents I printed a large poster size version, framed it in a simple black frame, and wrapped it up for them to open Christmas morning. My mom unwrapped the gift with Bee and C sitting next to her. Immediately Bee and C wanted to know where they were in the chart, so my mom pointed to their silhouettes. And that's when she realized that this chart had a new addition (fourth row).
A new little baby for our family. It was perfect. My mom screamed, and the children literally jumped for joy (they've been asking for a baby for over a year now). It might be the happiest Christmas morning ever.
03.3.2010
Reader Comments (114)
congratulations Brooke!
love it, as always!
I've been waiting for this! Congrats! how wonderful!
Super Great!!! congrats!!!
congratulations!!! and the family tree looks great! you are so talented and such an inspiration to me.
wonderful news! congratulations!
Congratulations! What a lovely way to tell people and also a really beautiful way to do a family tree. All so very lovely!
Congratulations!1 What a beautiful way to introduce your new bean to your family :)
Congrats to you and your family! What a fun way to surprise everyone. We're happy you'll have another adorable baby to welcome! Hope we get to meet baby R someday!
Did you ever know that you're my hero? This is the best idea. And congrats to the entire family.
Congrats! So excited for you and your family--not to mention future baby blogging :)
Congratulations, very exciting for you and your family! I love the silhouette tree as well, this is my favorite family tree I've seen yet.
love your blog, and now wanted to add my heartfelt congratulations!
congratulations!!!!! this is so exciting. i LOVE how you showed it on the family tree. so beautiful. i'm really happy for you!
Oh Brooke! How wonderful. Lucky mama! Lucky baby! Lucky family! And what a family treasure you have created to mark the occasion. Best wishes to you all!
That is not only beautiful news, but a beautiful way to learn about it! Wow, congrats!!! I loved having three the year we did...but number four made his presence known by the time our third was only six months old. You're going to love having three peas in the pod!
Congratulations! What a beautiful idea.
what a beautiful gift! and personally, 3 is the perfect number ;) ...CONGRATS
c o n g r a t u l a t i o n s ! ! !
When I read this post, I felt the excitement! Many blessings to your family.