A Visit to the Farm!

Like i said earlier, the last week in July was a busy, busy week! After my bday celebrations on Monday and Tuesday, we had big plans to visit Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cathy's farm in Madison, Ga! But before we left, we enjoyed a great visit with Emily!!! She was here visiting some friends and family and included me before her trip home :-) How FUN!

She also treated us to breakfast from Chick-fil-a! Yum!!! We had a great time catching up and Jeff was sweet enough to take a quick pic of us before she left! Doesnt she look cute preggo?! She's tiny :-) And i'm wearing no makeup. Oh well.

Before we left, Rhyan had to love on her glowworm. She's such a good "mommy"

The kids did great on the drive there (it takes about an hour). Mack slept almost the whole way there and literally woke up AS we pulled in the driveway! Rhyan was a tiny bit whiny, but then, she typically is in the car. One day we're gonna suck it up and start showing her dvd's, but we're putting it off as long as possible!

Aunt Cathy seemed to enjoy holding him! He wasnt fussing here, really... it was a big yawn!

Rhyan, "reading" while we waited for lunch

How cute! Uncle Wayne and Mack.

Aunt Cathy made the most FABULOUS meal. I mean, seriously, she is such a good cook. I always look forward to our visits to the farm for the great company, of course, but the yummy food certainly entices us to make the drive as often as we're invited!!! :-)

After lunch (cheesy chicken enchilada's which happened to be "light"), Uncle Wayne, Jeff and Rhyan took a trip to visit the dairy down the road that Uncle Wayne has been doing some work for. They have lots of calves and one was even born a couple of minutes before they got there. The mom was delivering the placenta when Jeff, Rhyan and Uncle Wayne arrived (dont worry, Rhyan had not a clue)... that's how recently the baby had been born!!!

Rhyan loooooved the "baby chow"'s and had a GREAT time!

Aunt Cathy and I had a great time chatting while Mack napped. He didnt take a great nap but that was totally ok... it gave us a chance to visit with him awake which is always more fun!

When Rhyan and the guys got back, she was begging for "nite nite". She was soooo tired! But we needed to wait a little while before leaving so that we could feed mack 1st. I felt like we stayed a little too long b/c of that, but newborns kind of run the show, dont they?! Their feeding schedule comes 1st! ha! I mean, we didnt want to leave and then him get hungry on the way home and have a crying baby in the car for 30 min or something... so we fed him a little early and hit the road, which worked great. And Aunt Cathy and Uncle Wayne were kind enough to not kick us out :-)

By the time we left, Mack was full and we were all ready for a nap. Unfortunately for Jeff, he had to drive. But Rhyan, Mack and I enjoyed a little snooze in the car!

Gotta love his tractor onesie!

Just to give you an idea of how tired Rhyan was... she woke up about 10 min before we got home and started crying HARD. As soon as we got home she asked to go back nite nite. The problem was it was 4pm! She's normally getting UP from nap at 4pm! But seriously, she was so tired. So she went to bed and we had to wake her at 5:30. Of course, then she was not ready for bed, but it was time. We had a big day to follow ( a day at the ZOO!!!).

I'm telling you, it was a crazy, FUN week!

31

Well, I've turned 31. It's official. I'm like waaaay out of my 20's :-) But i dont mind. Life is better now than it ever has been before. That's worth celebrating!!!

Jeff did a super sweet thing this year... he organized a little get together with my side of the family! A little party! He had set it all up for Monday (my actual bday) but i had already asked Ronni to keep the kids and we knew she could on Monday but didnt know if she could any other day. So I asked if it would hurt his feelings if we did my family thing Tuesday so we could still do the movie on my bday. He didnt care and neither did my family. They're all up for free cake and ice cream, so it didnt matter to them when we had it!

My yummy chocolate bar cake my sweet Mama made!
She also outdid herself with a FABULOUS pound cake that i'm STILL craving!

My thoughtful mom went out and got ice cream, too!

Little Maxie... who POOPED on my carpet. booooooo.

My sweet family on my birthday :-)
ps. i promise we brush rhyan's hair... its just crazy. and
she had been playing outside and got her shorts dirty so she doesnt match. blah, blah, blah.
she's a toddler and looks like one!

I want Jeff to know how much i appreciate him taking the time to plan this little get together. Family is absolutely the most important thing to me and to get to celebrate with them was so fun!

July Maddness!

Life's been busy!! The end of July was quite a whirlwind. We wanted to do some things this summer with Rhyan but with a newborn its hard... Mack finally got predictable enough to feel comfortable taking him out for a whole day in about the last week of July... right around his 6 week bday :-) Theres something about the 6 week mark that feels really good. Like you finally find a groove.

So, at the end of July, Rhyan finished up her swim lessons!

blowing bubbles!

With Mrs Jannette

"Graduating" with Owen!

Rhyan has also been busy making sure that her little glow worm gets a bath...

...and that her monkey gets to swing. Poor Mack cant use any of his baby gear!

My birthday is also at the end of July! I turned 31 this year. I'll admit, my body feels like its getting older (i guess that comes with the territory of having 2 kids and not working out... boo) but i still feel like i'm in my 20's or something! Jeff asked what i wanted and all i really wanted was to go see harry potter :-) He hates harry potter and i love it, so it was quite the sacrifice for him! Ronni and Andy kept the kids for the evening and we headed out. FUN! I also treated myself to a little shopping trip (more out of necessity... no clothes fit... double boo!)

And last but not least, I had my 6 week check up with the fabulous Dr Pohl. I took little Mack with me so I could get a quick pic of the two of them together.

Interesting tidbit about my 6 week checkup... Dr Pohl mentioned that mack's delivery was a little "scary" there for a while. I knew that he was awful serious and focused during the end of the delivery, but didnt know why. I trusted him to do his best and take care of both of us. So i asked him what made it scary, assuming it was b/c of the cord being wrapped around his neck. But he said it was actually the fact that Mack's shoulder was stuck. I asked why that is so scary and he said its the most litigated (sued over) problem that arises out of deliveries in OBGYN practices... b/c apparently when they are as stuck as Mack's was, its not uncommon for their arm to be PARALYZED! Oh my.

He admitted that he's never had a baby have any lasting issues from shoulder dystocia and that he knows its because the Lord takes care of him and his patients. It is apparently one of the most frightening emergencies that a doctor faces in delivery and is not all that common, occuring in only an approximate 1% of vaginal deliveries. It's a hard thing to predict but is most commonly associated with a very obese mother during pregnancy (i only gained 30ish lbs so this wasnt true for me) or gestational diabetes (nope for me, either). So there was really no way to predict this in my case. But now i know why my nurse said that Dr Pohl is fabulous (she actually claimed him to be the BEST dr that she's ever worked with at gwinn. med) and that every other dr up there would have taken us for an emergency c-section. Wow.

Man, i love my doctor :-)

So, this catches us up till the middle of the last week of July... lots more to come!

10 Year Anniversary

As I sit here typing, I'm watching Rhyan literally walk all over her Daddy, asking for pony rides and him happily obliging. This is only one reason I love him. One of a million.

I'll write a little history in case some stranger is reading this and really, so that when this blog becomes a book and we're too old to remember how we met and what the first few years were like, we'll have a reference.

The spring after I turned 15, my Daddy encouraged me to get a part time job. I applied at Kroger in Lawrenceville and got a job as a bagger. Apparently, the managers recognized my mad accounting skillz and before it was even "legal", moved me up to being a cashier (you have to be 16 for this job). I had been working as a cashier for a couple of months when one day, there was a new guy working the register behind me.

He was immediately drawn to my printed panties that you could clearly see through my white skort (obviously, i didnt know this until he told me years later). He was flirtatious. I acted appalled. But i wasnt. :-)

We flirted so much so that the managers had to move us to opposite ends of the lanes... me closer to the express checkout and Jeff on lane 12 or something really far away. Still, we found times to chat :-)

We flirted and chatted a good 2 months before going out for the first time. As i mentioned before, I was only 15 and wasnt allowed to date until 16. I had told him this and he seemed ok with it. Although, honestly, he had not asked me on a date. It was obvious that we both liked each other, but he was a little gun shy about asking me on a date.

So a few days before I turned 16, I slipped him my phone number and said it'd be nice to have someone take me out for my birthday and that I wondered who that would be. (hint, hint). Looking back, i made it too easy for him :-)

So he started calling and i guess he eventually officially asked me out. I wouldnt have gone out w/ him unless he did, but i dont remember the actual asking out of said date...

He picked me up from work and took me home so that he could meet my parents before we went out. Rest assured that my Daddy had already done a background check to make sure he was a good guy from a good family (interesting seeing as how if anyone did a background check on my family, i'm sure i'd be banned from dating their sons...).

Daddy asked if Jeff did drugs. "no sir". Did he drink. "no sir". Did he smoke. "no sir".
And it was at this point that my Daddy brought out this MASSIVE, slightly rusted needle that he used to get epidural injections with and said "good, then you wont mind me taking some blood and running some tests"... to which jeff said "ok" and put his arm out. I'm pretty sure he would have DIED if my Daddy would have gone toward him with the needle... and i'm also pretty sure he was seriously hoping Daddy was kidding. But daddy also had his double barrel shotgun sitting beside him, so idk what jeff was thinking other than "what the crap have i done by asking this girl out!?

I'm dead serious. Not making any of this up. For real

Daddy and Jeff proceeded to the back yard where they sat in the gazebo where they sat for literally almost an hour. Apparently Daddy was giving him the "be respectful of my daughter, touch her and you're dead" speech and Jeff was thinking more of "omg, i'm never coming back here", i'm sure.

So, after all of that, we were given permission to go out. Whew. (just fyi, i had brought one guy home before that was allowed to stay for dinner but who i was NOT allowed out with and another guy I had told daddy the name of and he came back to me a week later saying not to even invite him over. I'm telling you, he did background checks for real. Good glory.)

We dated for 3 years and then got engaged (way too young, i may add) and were engaged 2 years before getting married. We both had to finish college after we got married and that made the first few years of marriage a little interesting (and broke) but its been good.

I say all of that to say this. It may seem like Jeff was my ONLY choice of guys to date (of who was approved by Daddy), but thats not why we were together. I sincerely find him to be the most likeable, kind, funny guys i've ever known. He makes a few too many jokes sometimes for my taste, but if thats the most annoying thing about him, i think we'll be ok :-)

I'm blessed to be Mrs. Jeff Ford. I love that we share our lives together. Kids. A home. The whole 9 yards.

I love you, Jeff. I have for the 15 years we've been together and I will until death does us part.

Wordless Wednesday: Mack Man

My Sweet Babies

Just wanted to share a few sweet pics of my babies. In the first one, Mack was happily cooing and then Rhyan rushed in to hug him. She loves her baby brother!

And after hurricane Rhyan came through with her love

Being admired by his fans, Grandmother and Uncle Jonathan

Handsome boy!

Funny faces :-)

I have about 200 pics of Rhyan holding "baby" by now... she loves to hold him but always wants a "piture"

Dont be jealous of the double chin!

Our BIG girl ready to swim!

Our babies bring so much joy to my life! I'm so grateful for them both!

Mommy/Daddy/Rhyan Day!

Jeff and I have been wanting to take Rhyan and spend a couple of days with just her before the summer is over. She's been such a great sport this summer, not being able to go and do very much. Its not a lot of fun to be stuck around the house with a Mom and Dad who are sleep deprived and dont want to play all the time... or to have to be quiet (which, if you know Rhyan, she is LOUD... so i dont mean that we try to keep it silent in the house when Mack naps... just down a decibel or so!) because her baby brother is asleep. But Rhyan has been a little champ this summer. She's loved her brother and not seemed to mind that its a little boring around here!

So last Wednesday we asked the fabulous Tracy to keep Mack for us so that we could take Rhyan out with the two of us after swim lessons. We debated on what to do and settled on something simple. And cheap.

We headed up to the mall of GA! We started out by exchanging some clothes at Macy's. Rhyan just loved running around the store!

Then we walked down to the little play area and let her roam. This was an interesting part of the morning b/c it was the 1st time Jeff and I got to observe Rhyan playing around strangers. She is pretty passive and it aggravated me a little that she wouldnt stand up for herself. Other kids were constantly breaking in front of her in line and getting on the toy she was getting on while she just backed off. We agreed that we may not make it through sending her to school w/o having to beat up on some kids for her :-)

Then we ate an early lunch at the food court.

Followed by a carousel ride. Which she loved. She petted her "horsey" while she rode and told him to go "higher" :-)

And lastly, the FOUNTAIN! This was the only part I had my camera for. It was in the van and Jeff was kind enough to fetch it for me. Such a sweetie.

She wasnt so sure about it at first, as you can tell from this pic!

But she quickly warmed up to the idea!

And decided that she was big stuff!

But not too big to ask Daddy to "mere" and play with her!

She put on her best "pease"....

... and tugged and pulled on Daddy... but was not successful in luring him in!

So she decided she would have fun by herself a little while longer :-)

When we told her it was time to go home she protested with a "noooo" and lay herself on the concrete. If she wasnt so tired, she might have earned herself a spanking. But lucky for Rhyan, her Mama and Daddy were pretty tired, too :-). So instead, I took the time to promise her that we'd come back some other day and that we needed to go home, to which she replied "i ty-yerd! onna go nite nite!".

And indeed she was "ty-yerd". 5 minutes into the ride home and she was out like a light.

It was a great time with our sweet firstborn and I'm grateful for the time we shared! Looking forward to another couple of outings this week before Daddy goes back to work!