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With the inlaws we have MIL a Mother's Day present of a picture with our feet and baby shoes...it's an overused idea but we liked it and it was simple (:

Next time we plan to do the big sister shirt too (:

We waited until after our 12 week ultrasound and then framed an ultrasound pic with a caption "Arriving March 2013" and then wrapped the frame and gave it to them. MIL started crying when she opened it! And my mom said "Are you kidding me?!??" She thought we were never having kids, haha.

@hellocupcake: we did the feet and baby shoes picture, too!

We framed the pic, wrapped it and put it in a gift bag of souvenirs from our honeymoon (that's when we conceived) and gave it to them. I wish I had gotten their reactions on video!

DS1: We were home visiting for Christmas when we got our BFP. We went out an bought a pair of Georgia Bulldog booties and gave them to my parents as a late Christmas gift. My dad still keeps one on his desk at work. DH called his parents a couple of days later.

DS2: I ordered a shirt for DS1 that says "Only child expiring October 2013." We took pictures of him, framed them, and mailed them to my parents and grandparents. They were told they would get a package but not to open it without talking to us first. We Skyped with them and got to see their reactions. It was so fun! DH texted the picture to his parents after that. He didn't think they would wait to open the packages and would blow our announcement.

We bought two copies of Little Bear's Visit and gave both sets of grandparents the book on Christmas (when we were 8 weeks). My in-laws were under instructions not to open the present until they called us so they knew something was up!

For my mom I called her a few hours after I tested, and she apparently "knew" already.

For my ILs I printed out this poem on nice paper, framed it, wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree in our Yankee Swap gift pile. My MIL chose it, started to read it, realized halfway through what it was, tried to start reading it aloud and then had to stop and pass it off to my SIL because she was crying too hard. I thought it was a little cheesy, but my MIL actually kept it--it's still hanging up in their den:

I do not have a face to see,
Or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss,
I don't yet have a name.
You can't yet hold my tiny hands,
Nor whisper in my ear.
It's still too soon to sing a song,
Or cuddle me so near.
But all will change come August,
That's when they say I'm due.
I'm the littlest McKn-----,
I can't wait till I meet you.
All I ask between now and then,
Is your patience while I grow.
I promise I'll be worth the wait,
Because of all the love we'll know.
So what I have to give you now,
Is a wish to you from me.
I cannot wait to be a part
Of this wonderful family!

And I just called my dad and stepmom after the first U/S.

Several weeks ago (before we found out) I ordered a big brother t-shirt off Zulily figuring I would be holding onto it for a while. We are doing the same thing, just putting the shirt on each time we see our parents and waiting for them to notice I'll have my camera ready to catch their reactions!

@BabyBoecksMom: that shirt is awesome! You have to take photos of her in it!

@FutureMrsMcK: OMG, that poem totally made me tear up!

We just called and told them.

We told his family on New Years when we were ringing in the New Year! We said we wanted to start the year off with some good news!

Oh god, that wasn't fun at. all. Keep in mind that we weren't married yet so forgive the following reactions/how we handled things.

The first time around, DH (just then fiance) told my father after work one day (they work at the same company but that's not how I met him). Had a man to man talk about it. Then my father told DH not to tell me because my father wanted to tell my mother. Then my parents didn't tell me they knew until the next day. I died. I was out grocery shopping with my mom (because I still lived with my parents) and my mother was disappointed that I didn't feel like I could tell her! I was 21 and scared to tell my mom that I got knocked up! I know, it's ridiculous, but I came from a reeeeeally small town where most girls didn't finish high school because they got K-Ued and they never really amounted to much so I still had this whole small town mentality even after living in a city for 12 years... ugh.

Funny part of that was that my mom actually had to tell her parents that she was pregnant with my eldest brother before she and my dad got married and she was 19. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree?

With the ILs, we were just sorta sitting in his mom's kitchen while she was ironing and she was talking about grandchildren (a frequent subject even before we got married, I hate to say) and DH just sorta slips it in - Well, we know we'll have at least one child. His mother stops and does this whole double take and ask us if we're serious. Then thinks we're joking. Then asks if we're serious. His dad was out of town at the time so his mother tells him later and apparently his reaction (because they're good 'Christian' folk and we did sin) was - Dang it. Yes. Dang it. Yes. They'd been dying for grandchildren since DH is 7 years older than I am.

It was awful. Second time around I went to my mom's office, showed her an ultrasound picture, and we did something similar for DH's parents. Of course by this time we were married but it was still a shocker since DS was only about 8 months old at the time and I was about 13 to 14 weeks along already....

Funny fact. My siblings are 16 months apart. My children are 13 months apart. When I told my mom she said, Yeah about that. I forgot to warn you about that. Um, what? Apparently it hadn't been important enough for me to do the math before. I have vowed to warn my daughter at a later point about our apparent fertility...

ETA: Woah! Novel. Sorry about that!