2 Things That Make Me Smile

I don't know about you all but I am so excited about silver and gold finger nail polish this year! I mean does it get anymore fun? 

Came across this quote from Anthony Bourdain, who happens to be one of my favorite celebrities (chef) ever. I love this quote. I love it because if I could tell any 22 year old some words of advice, this would be it! I love it also because I totally got the opportunity to travel, a lot, before the responsibility set in. Finish college people! Get married young and travel before you have kiddos! you will never ever regret it. I feel like I am so content in my season of life right now because I know I "did" the things I needed/wanted to before we started a family. Now I love getting to "stay home" and enjoy every second of my children's lives. I know not everyone gets the opportunities I do/did but if the opportunity is offered to you to get an education, travel, be spontaneous, DO ITTTTTTT!!!!! You will not regret it, swear. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I have been so slack in blogging! It's not because I don't think about doing it, I do. I just have been so tired once I get the time. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the big family a few weekends ago. Then I celebrated with my friends, our 4th annual GNO Thanksgiving feast, such a fun time with girls that mean the world to me. Emery had a Thanksgiving feast at school on Monday, needless to say we have had our share of turkey this year! haha... so today Benji's mom and dad came up and helped us put up our tree. I cooked steaks! The kids were so excited about finally getting the tree out!

 I have been looking forward to this "time off" so much. I know my routine doesn't change much, but just having Benji home and Emery not in school takes half the load off my shoulders. I covet family time because Benji is SOOO busy. I LONG for the days that we are all at home, sharing meals and playing with the kids.

 Jesse is starting to say recognizable words, finally! I've been kind of worried for awhile that he may be delayed in speech but at almost 21 months he is just starting to really show some progress, daily. We have a hearing screening appointment in December so we will see how he progresses until then, hopefully we will cancel the appointment.

Benji had a busy day on Monday frying about a dozen turkeys for the Celebrate Recovery program at our church. I think they had a little fun out there, being men, cooking meat.

Okay! think we are mostly caught up. Hadley is doing great, 2 and 1/2 lbs already. I know how fast the next few weeks will go, which means she will be here before we know it. Can not wait!

Restless, Nesting, Ready To GOOOO!

Y'all for real, I am so restless.

I want to like run a marathon, or go to Europe, or climb a mountain or do anything but dishes and laundry and dishes and laundry! ha!

It's got to be a combination of the gorgeous weather and the fact that I'm just waiting around on Hadley to make an appearance. I guess part of me knows that once she is here, the chapter of "child bearing" years will be over for us. I will mentally be able to start working more on getting my self back together, ummm losing weight #1. Finding an outlet/hobby #2.

Every day I have these grandiose ideas of cooking crazy things, wanting to start some project on the house, clean out the attic, whatever is ridiculous, I think about it and want to do it..

 
CRAZY Pregnant hormones!

So on a whim and a very impulsive night. I ordered these Veronica Slouch Frye Boots from Zappos, on a Friday night and they were on my porch Monday morning. I have to say I have never, ever spent this much on boots, but I am so glad I did. These are seriously some of the most beautiful hand crafted boots I have ever seen. I know I will wear them forever. No buyer's remorse here! Early Christmas present from Hadley to me. :)

 Am I the only one who thinks about Paris everyday? 

This may seem contradictory since I just posted about splurging on a pair of boots, but I swear it's not. I am so, so grateful for where God has me and my family right now. My cup is overflowing with blessings. My husband is the LOVE of my life, my best friend. My home is my favorite soft place to fall and my kids keep my heart beating. That TRULY is all I need. The boots just add to the fun of having to wear shoes. * 

My Boy. My True Love, Jesse. Makes my heart skip! 

Filet that I cooked the other night. If I had cooked 4 I would have eaten them all. For realz. 

My fake, fat, pregnant girl ring I got for 40 bucks to wear since my wedding bands don't fit! ha FUN! 

Hadley Carrie Ladd

Here SHE is!!!!!! It's a girl!!!! talk about a shocking and exciting day! We were all so convinced it was a boy.

I've gotten over the shock and am super excited about having another girl to raise.

A little background on her name: I take naming children VERY seriously. One of the most stressful parts of pregnancy to me. I want my children's names to be unique, but not weird, full of heritage, but not old fashion, Their initials have to fall in place nicely, no ASS or BOB for initials...haha. No names starting with the same letters. I wanted each child to have their own letter. Picky I know but that's just me.

HADLEY- is a name I have always been fond of. It was always southern sounding but not heard a ton. Then I took a class on Hemingway in college and learned that his first wife's name was Hadley. It is believed that he never really got over her and that she was his one true love for the rest of his tortured life. I LOVE Hemingway, I know people either love or hate him.....Anyway in the early stages of my pregnancy I read The Paris Wife. A historical fiction about the early years of Hemingway and Hadley's marriage. I fell in love with the name again and decided "if" the baby was a girl, Hadley would be her name.

Just recently Benji's maternal Grandmother, Maw Maw passed away. Benji spend many, many days at his grandparents house and was very close to both. Wallace, his grandfather taught him to hunt, he passed away when Benji was a teenager. Jesse's middle name comes from him. 

Anyway back to Hadley, when I found out what his Maw Maw's middle name was, Carrie, I was set! It was the perfect middle name for our next daughter, if indeed we were having a daughter. 

On October 2nd. We found out that in fact there would be no Rocco coming in February but HADLEY CARRIE LADD will join our family! 

Saturday, The Best/Worst Day Ever

 One of Benji's former youth plays in the band for USC. His parents have season tickets and had 2 extra that they so graciously gave us for the UGA vs USC game! It happened to be one of the biggest college games of the season as both UGA and USC were undefeated. ESPN Game Day broadcasted live that morning from the USC campus.

Benji's birthday is today, Monday, so we sent the kids to Georgia and spent Saturday in Columbia, SC.

Obviously, we lost, BIG TIME. :( But we had a great time with some great people from our church. They for realz tailgate in style! We ate lunch at Groucho's Deli, went back to our friends massive motor coach (I'm not even really sure what you call those) but it was air conditioned, had a bathroom and a couch for me to nap on. We watched other football games on T.V. then our friends shuttled us all over to the stadium. Where we experienced the loudest, craziest, game ever.....and watched Georgia get their rear ends handed to them.

We drowned our sorrows in hot coffee and hash browns at the Waffle House (at about 2am) on the way home.  The next morning my body rebelled against our long day and reminded me that I am indeed 34 and 6 months pregnant.

We had a Blast, even though we lost! This week was a long one! Jesse got tubes put in at the beginning of the week. Tuesday we found out the sex of our baby. Sunday thru Wednesday Benji had staff retreat about an hour away so he drove back and forth for Jesse's surgery and my OB appointment. 

Crazy week! but I'm getting used to our life being ridiculously busy. 

Sky Top 2012

 I got friends in high places. No really. My sister and a few of my close friends are incredible photographers. So the only one of these I can take credit for is the apples. :)

Anyway,  few weeks before things settled back into routine a few of my girl friends and all our kiddos headed up the mountain to Sky Top Apple Orchard. This has quickly become one of my favorite traditions of late summer. It is more fun to go in the late fall when the pumpkins are out but then all the apples are gone and it is SUPER crowded. So we have been going earlier the past few years and it works out great. We still get to pick a few (like 4, haha) apples and then just buy a bag. Then we have the apple slushies & cider donuts.

This year Jesse was even big enough to pick a few apples and sweet boy carried his own basket the entire time! LOVE HIM.

I think all these pictures of them show how similar they look. I'm sure if they were both boys or both girls I would have to mark their names on every picture because they favor so much. I can not WAIT to see what this next one looks like.

Waiting On Fall

I made it! Emery started school, College football is back in season and the air is turning cooler. Finally. Those final weeks of summer were tough! I am feeling so much better now in my 2nd trimester. Emery and Jesse are settling into a nice routine with Pre-school and church activities starting back.

As usual we have had a busy few weeks. We had the privilege of heading to Athens for the first UGA game of the season. We had a BLAST! I love, love, love going to the Georgia games. I grew up in Athens and my Dad was a huge UGA fan as it was his Alma Mater. When I am there I feel like Im honoring his memory and one  of his favorite things.

October 2nd is the big day that we find out the gender of baby #3. Although I will be surprised if it is NOT a boy, we welcome either gender and are so excited to find out! I've only bought a few things here and there for baby. A diaper bag, a Sophie giraffe and a set of gender neutral Aiden and Anias Blankets. The blanket set had the cutest bee blanket and owl blanket included so I would have bought it  even if I knew the sex.