Pumpkin Patch- The Incident

Hello there,

I'm sad to report that my Fall bucket list needs some serious help. With all of the good intentions I've had of actually getting some of it done, I can only cross one thing off so far. Taking Baby Boy to his first ever pumpkin patch and getting a tiny pumpkin. However, even with this item on the bucket list, I can only cross off half of it. You might be wondering how someone could only cross off half of an item... Well, let me tell you.

My Mr. picked out a wonderful place to get our family pumpkins. We were so excited to be able to do this. I even bought Baby Boy a little pumpkin hat at Old Navy. So, off we went to Washington Farms. We got there and took lots and lots of pictures with Baby Boy and all of the pumpkins. We had a wonderful time and spent over an hour picking out the perfect pumpkins. The weather was nice. A little chilly and sunny. Once we were ready to head back home, we went to pay for the pumpkins. That was when we learned that they only take cash. Even though my mom always tells me the importance of having emergency cash on me, there was not a dollar bill to be found. Our grand total was $7.40 and we didn't have it...

We couldn't stop laughing about our ridiculousness. We are also extremely grateful that Baby Boy is so tiny and won't ever remember thing happening. If this incident had occurred four years down the road, he would've been one sad little boy. Can you imagine a little one spending all that time finding his perfect pumpkin only to not have money to buy it? He would've gone to school telling everyone that his mommy and daddy couldn't pay for his pumpkin. In all honesty, if he had been older and capable of remembering this, Blake would've driven and found a place to get money and Will would have never known the difference, but thinking about the situation is still pretty funny.

This week we'll head to Publix and get Will a pumpkin. Then I can cross off the whole thing.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Oh, boy! You're Two Months Old!

Dear Will,
These past two months have FLOWN by. How are you getting this big already? You're up to 11 pounds and 6 ounces. I know this isn't huge by any means, but you're growing big and strong. Today you had your 2 month check up and shots. Talk about breaking Mama's heart. You took the oral vaccine so well, but then it was time for the three (yikes, 3!) shots. The first one happened and you screamed so loud. All we wanted to do was pick you up. Then the next two came and the nurse was so fast it was like you didn't really have time to cry before it was all over. You had a little children's tylenol and loved it and now you're sleeping like a champ. I'm so proud of you. While you may have let out a scream, you didn't really cry. My eyes might have gotten a little teary, but you were a trooper. Then on the way home, we stopped so I could get my flu shot to protect you the best I can since you can't get one yet. I love watching you grow.

As your Daddy said, this picture shows the calm before the storm.

And here's the aftermath of the storm...

And here you are getting bigger and bigger...

His two month picture is his pouty face. We took your passy for just a second so we could see your whole face and this is how you looked at us. Sweetest face ever. And yes, you got your passy right back after we saw how sad you were without it. You're rotten already and we don't mind one bit.
This month, you've started to smile and giggle and these moments are by far my favorites. You are so alert and the nurses are super impressed with how well you focus on people and sounds and on your beautiful hair. The ladies really dig it.

We love you so, so much and can't wait to see how much bigger you get for your 3 month picture!

xoxo,
Mommy and Daddy

Off to the Mountains

We went to Helen, GA last week and really enjoyed our time there. Blake's Nana and Papa have a cabin and it's just so fun to get away and stay there. Here are some pictures from our little getaway:

I just love my Mr. and our little pumpkin.

Our friends Dylan and Kahlin and their little girl, Stella, came with us. Here is a little picture of the babies together. 

The German version of my Mr. and me. 

This place has the BEST boiled peanuts. 

The lady at the counter pulled a string that made that creepy lady's hand move around. According to this picture, I thought it was funny, but Blake was freaked out/shocked. Baby boy was entirely unaware of any of it.

Who can resist a fun fall picture?

Here are our sweet friends. Stella got her very first Cabbage Patch doll on our trip to 

Babyland General Hospital. 

I think we found the cutest Cabbage Patch doll. When I was picking him back up out of the crib, a couple of ladies stopped by to ask if he was a real baby. They were serious. 

We always take pictures here. It's just such a pretty place. 

This is my crazy Mr. He likes to reenact this scene from the Lion King. Will seems pretty ok with it.

And there's my sweet buggy. I am just so  in love. I can't believe he is 8 weeks old. Where have these weeks gone?!

Thankful Thursday

I feel like such a blog slacker these days. And by these days, I really mean ever since I started this blog. I really want to be better about updating this, but between cuddling my sweet boy, changing diapers, feeding him, and then trying to catch up on laundry (which, by the way, never seems to stop piling up!) and cleaning up a little I just feel like I have zero time. I'm going to work on making time for it because this whole finding time thing just isn't working and I really do enjoy it!

I think link-ups are really fun. This is my second one so far, but I see many more of them in my future. Here is my Thankful Thursday list. There are so many people in my life that I love to pieces, and I wanted to thank a few of them. Feel free to join in! If you blog, think about writing a post, but if you don't, leave a comment with the things you're thankful for.

I'm thankful for:
-Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks. Yum! It's like Fall in a cup. I had my first one of the season yesterday and it was WONDERFUL!
-Chilly weather.
-A country where, regardless of your political beliefs, people genuinely want to fight for the greater good.
-My cricut machine.
-Logan's rolls. I mean, seriously. Is there anything better in the world?
-The New Normal. I am LOVING that show. So great.
-These people:

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband. He is my best friend. He knows how to make me laugh and how to calm me down. I don't know what in the world I'd do without him.

My Mama. She is my other best friend. We have the same thoughts about pretty much everything. We find the same things to be absolutely hilarious and we are both ridiculously cheesy. She is wonderful and has the biggest heart out of anyone I've ever met. There are no words to say how wonderful she really is. I'm the luckiest daughter ever. 

I'm so grateful to have wonderful friends in my life. There are so many people who have been there for me and my family. Lori, what would I do without you in Athens? I'm so glad we are both here and that our wonderful husbands work together. You are the most generous and giving friend and I'm so glad to have you in my life and in Will's. You are already one of his favorite people.

Charissa, can I please tell you how happy I am that our friendship traveled from Milledgeville to Athens? I am so glad that once again we are only a five minute drive from each other. I can't wait to make even more silly memories with you, my sweet friend. 

Melissa, thank you for putting up with me and my crazy self for oh, what, about 16 or 17 years now? You are a wonderful constant in my life and I'm so thankful for you. Thank you for all of the advice you've given, the sleepless nights we had at slumber parties staying up way too late and eating lots of Reese's, and for making me a stronger person. 

 Kahlin- Thank you for your caring friendship. I can always count on you to check in on me and my family and to genuinely care about the things going on my life. I care about you and your sweet family, too, and I'm so glad that we live closer now so our families can have more fun times together. You have such a caring heart.

Will- thank you for being the most perfect little guy ever. You already sleep somewhere between five and seven hours straight at night which I can't believe since you're only 8 weeks old. You are such a calm, cuddly guy and I can't wait to see you continue to grow. I love you more than you will ever, ever know.

Friday Letters

Today I'm participating in my first ever link up. You can join in too by clicking here!

Dear Blog- I'm loving writing you, but I desperately need to update your look. I have a few favorite templates I've been looking at, but I can't make up my mind. So for now, you'll just have to look like this a little bit longer.
Dear Baby Will- I love you so much I can't stand it. You are the sweetest baby I've ever met, and I am SO lucky to be your mommy. Thank you for everything you have already taught me in just the past five weeks. I cannot wait to learn so much more from you, my sweet boy.

Dear Mr. - You are such a wonderful man. I feel so blessed to be your wife. I am so proud of everything you do for our little family and watching you with our son has made me fall in love with you a thousand times over. Basically, you rock my world.

Dear Athens- Thank you for being such a wonderful place to live. There is so much to do here and so many places to go. I can't wait to get to know you better. Dear Fall- Thank you for showing up. It's been pretty hot around this place and I have so missed being outside. Also, I'm pretty ready to wear some scarves, so if you decided to get even cooler soon, I wouldn't complain. Dear Lori- I'm super excited to start making more banners. Hooray for craft days with one of my favorite people. I'm also so excited for your house! It is going to be absolutely beautiful. Dear Hallmark- I'm so glad that you have your ornaments out. After working for you for three years, I have a deep obsession with all things cute and Christmas-y that you have to offer. I am already excited for the day after Christmas to I can go buy up all the cute stuff that you still have left. And thank you for having such a cute little sale table today. I enjoyed myself.

Hello, Fall!

I just love when the seasons change. In Georgia, it mostly feels like we have two season: hot and cold(ish). BUT- for some reason right now it feels amazing outside. It's chilly and I'm loving it. I even made white chicken chili yesterday (recipe courtesy of Lori) and it was SO tasty! With all of this fall happiness going on, I figured I'd make a fall bucket list. 

• Take Will to his first ever pumpkin patch and pick up a tiny pumpkin for our tiny boy
• Go find a fabulous fall scarf like this one to wrap up in and get cozy 

• Watch Remember the Titans because what says fall better than a great football movie? I already want to curl up in a sweatshirt with a mug of hot tea and watch it. 
• Visit an apple orchard and pick some tasty ones
• Make this pie with the apples we pick. Yum! You know any Paula Deen recipe is going to be wonderful!

                                                     

• Try to learn more about the rules of football. I've been a little distracted during the first couple of UGA games since I'm home taking care of my little one, but as our schedule gets more defined, I think I'll be able to actually pay more attention and learn a thing or two (or twenty). 
• Go on a picnic with my guys. This really is perfect picnic weather.
• Make my own marshmallows to put in hot chocolate.
• Celebrate my baby's first Thanksgiving
• Make handprint/footprint art with Will

So, what's on your fall bucket list?

Oh, Baby! Happy 1 month birthday to Baby Will!

Oh, Baby! Happy 1 month birthday to Baby Will!

Since today is Will's one month birthday, it feels like the perfect time to rehash our birth story and how our handsome little man got here.

There are no words to express what motherhood is like. I look at this little baby boy and cannot believe that he is mine. I feel like I just met this little man and that I have known him my whole life. I am amazed by each and every little thing he does. Every time he does something new I am in awe and every time we cuddle and he falls asleep on my shoulder I feel this overwhelming happiness and thankfulness for such a sweet little baby. 

While I love him to pieces, getting him here was no easy process. Due to high blood pressure mixed with a couple of other issues, my doctor decided that being induced at 37 weeks was the best and safest plan, so Blake and I went to the hospital on Sunday, August 19. Other than when I was born, I have never been in the hospital. Getting checked in was scary and a little overwhelming. Of course, they had problems getting my IV in. After one nurse couldn't find my vein, she called in another nurse. This lady stuck my right hand twice with no luck and then, after saying that she was going in blind, stuck me in the bend of my wrist on my left hand. They started me on a medicine to get labor going, and while it kind of worked, it also didn't. I began having contractions and had them all night long, but by Monday morning I hadn't made too much progress. However, I had my amazing support team there with me, so I was easily distracted. 

My doctor broke my water and my labor continued. They started me on pitocin and we waited to see what would happen. Around 11:00 p.m. Monday night I began to really feel my contractions. I was trying to be tough and wait as long as possible to get my epidural because the last thing I wanted to have happen was for it to wear off during delivery. At 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, my doctor called the hospital to tell the nurse that I should go ahead and get my epidural since I still wasn't progressing much. The anesthesiologist came in and, of course, told me that I was one of the most difficult epidural sticks he's had. It took quite a while, and honestly, it was the worst part of the whole process for me. With the epidural safely in, I was finally able to get some sleep. By the way, I feel that it is very important to tell you that at this point, I had only been allowed to have liquids since Sunday. Once I had the epidural I could only have ice chips, but I had to limit how many I had. Talk about miserable.
Tuesday morning got there and my doctor came to check me. I had only gotten to 4 cm since Sunday night, even with multiple types of medicines and my water breaking. At 2:00 p.m. he checked again and I was officially stuck at 4 cm. That's when the doctor decided that a c-section would be the best option. They initially said that we would be going back in an hour. Then the one hour turned into three. Then after the three hours, we had two more 30 minute delays. Every time my sweet nurse came in I  would start to cry because I just wanted to have my baby already. I know, I know. I was whiney. But can you really blame me?

Eventually the wheeled me back and it was baby time. Blake was such an amazing hubby through it all. Not only was he a trooper for the entire time we were there, but he decided he wanted to watch my c-section. He held my hand the whole time, but he stood up to watch over the paper curtain. It took a good couple of weeks before I would let him tell me what it looked it. I was expecting to feel lots of pressure and pulling during the surgery, but before I knew it had even started, the doctor told us that the head was out. Just a minute later, out came our sweet pumpkin. At 37 weeks, he weighed 7 pounds 10 oz and was 19.5 inches long. And- my wonderful hubby captured the first time I ever saw our sweet baby boy. This may be my favorite picture of all time.

Here is the proud papa holding baby Will. My handsome men. :)

My wonderful nurse knew that our whole family had been waiting forever to finally meet this sweet boy, so they allowed them to come back two at a time to the recovery room. That nurse gave me a gift I didn't think I'd have. I got to see my mom and the rest of my family the first time they ever saw Will. My mom (Will's Grammy) is on the left. Blake's mom (Will's Mimi) is on the right.

                                                                            

He is the first grandbaby on both sides, so spoiled doesn't even begin to cover it. He is so loved and has been for so long. He is one lucky baby to have a family so in love with him and to have lots of aunts and uncles in his mommy and daddy's friends who have been so thoughtful and helpful ever since we found out he was on his way.

So, little Will. You made quite an entrance. After being in labor from 7:30 p.m. on Sunday until 5:13 p.m. on Tuesday you finally made your way out. You have been such a sweet little baby and every bit of those few days was entirely worth getting to have you to snuggle and cuddle every day.

And, I just have to say that we had some amazing photographers do Will's newborn photos. Two Chics Photography is the best ever. Sometimes I just  go to their website to look at all of the beautiful pictures they have taken, not only of babies, but of weddings and all sorts of other occasions. Here are a few other sneak peeks they sent us. We cannot wait to see the rest!