Click, Click, Click.....You're Going to be a Grandparent!!!

July 27, 2015 Courtney Foster Shearer

Telling your family you are expecting a baby, which in turn will make them a grandparent or great grandparent, is obviously a big deal and an event we really looked forward to. We knew our families would be super excited about this news especially since this would be the first grandchild/great-grandchild for most of them, so we wanted to be sure the way in which we told them was special and memorable.

Our goal was to tell as many of them together as possible so we decided to wait until Father’s Day weekend to reveal our news. This gave us some time to figure out how exactly we wanted to tell everyone. We tossed around a ton of ideas, but nothing felt right quite right until one day, out of nowhere Brent came up with a genius idea.

Do you remember these things from childhood? They are called View-Masters and even if you didn’t actually own one, you are probably familiar with the concept. Insert picture reel, hold contraption up to your eyes and click through to view the images. So, Brent’s all like "what if we could find a way to have custom reels made for each dad/grandfather? And what if we filled their discs with pictures of us and them and then what if the last picture was the ultrasound..."

Um…..YES!!! It sounded like a great plan! No one would see it coming. The guys would think it was just a fun gag gift and would never in a million years expect to click to a picture that delivered that kind of news. It was brilliant, so we began perusing the Internet to see if custom reels were even possible. Well, guess what, they ARE possible and there is a company called Image3D that makes creating one simple with a capital "S".

We had 5 reels to make and each reel had 6 slots so we began gathering pictures of each dad/grandfather/step dad and preparing the customized reels. The site allowed you to name and save the reels and edit each of them by adding or deleting photos as we refined our selections.

We had a lot of fun crafting each reel and working on the final product. We opted to purchase a view master with each reel so they would be good to go upon delivery. Each view master + real came in it's own small white box which we put a bow on and poof our Father's Day gifts were ready to go.

Our plan was to give three of the view masters out in person and two would be sent down south to Tifton and Florida. To ensure no one was able to crack into the gift before we were ready we purchased two boxes from Michaels that Brent outfitted with locks and a note that said we would call them with the code when it was time to open.

Father’s Day weekend rolled around and we were so excited to get this cat out of the bag! It had been a long 13 weeks! We had my dad and Brent’s dad in town and all of us headed to my PapaJack and Grandmother’s house for a lasagna dinner. We decided to be open with the exact timing of the gift giving. We didn’t want to seem too eager or unnatural so we just kind of let things unfold organically. After we finished eating, we were all sitting around the table chatting when I announced that Brent and I wanted to kick off the gift giving with a fun silly gift. I handed out the three boxes and we sat back and watched…..

Initially the table laughed when they saw the view masters and the dad’s began clicking through the pictures one by one. They thought it was fun and clever we got all of the pictures of them inside and laughed and commented as they click, click, clicked through. Suddenly, almost simultaneously they all clicked to the last slide:

and said “WHAT!”

Almost instantly the table burst into screams and gasps as everyone grabbed for the view masters for their chance to look through the lens. They screamed, cried, laughed, clapped and did all of the other things you do when you are genuinely freaking out. It was awesome! Shortly after we got on the phone with the rest of the gang and gave them the code to open their boxes. Their reactions were equally as hilarious and enthusiastic. It was awesome! I'm pretty sure we win the prize for best Father's Day present of all time and come December, we will have best Christmas present in the bag too. Sorry, siblings....muhahaha.

Our parents and grandparents loved us before, sure, but this baby has been a game changer for us popularity wise. It was literally as if in a flash you go from "oh yeah, we love you Courtney and Brent" to….YOU ARE OUR FAVORITE PEOPLE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Can we get you ANYTHING?! A sandwich, a back-rub, a pony?? Instant rockstar status.

As excited as we are about this baby, having our families in on the news just sweetens the deal!