Those Special Fall Weekends.

It feels so darn good to finally clean up our act this week.

No more laying in bed. 

No more sick.

Work, Clean & Play.

It felt incredible to wake up with a schedule and the energy to actually tackle it!

To get back to work, finally let me feel like me again.

The house is in order, I'm on top of it all again!

(Feeling oh, so good!)

Brian brought another truck load of firewood home for the season.

This means lots of cozy nights to come, and that means a happy home! 

It's been a much lighter end to our week than beginning.

..with Halloween birthday parties!...

And a Saturday afternoon to play outside...

-Sunset from the Haymes home!-

Fall is wonderful. 

It was a perfectly warm/cool day yesterday.

My grandmother is here in town, so she cooked for us all last night.

She didn't have to persuade me too much to stay.

I've gathered a few easy, fun fall recipes to try out this week and in the weeks ahead, they'll be in my next blog post to come. 

(Hope you love sweet things!)

Halloween will be here in three days!

The Bum Life & Kitchen Miracles.

Life lately has been grand. 

A slower pace.

   We're enjoying life by the little moments that really count. We spent a free day as a play date with a girlfriend of mine and her little guys. We've spent more time outside playing in this glorious fall weather that passes through South Carolina too quickly, and then... we got sick. Thankfully, little Brady J didn't catch this cold, but Brian and I surely did. Thankfully, in-laws to the rescue, Brady spent two days away with them so my husband and I could get some rest.
 
        This took us back to the -before kids- scene. We're both feeling rough, so what do we do? I sit down and pin Christmas ideas all day and Brian continues his workday, not resting enough to get well. He just reminded me "If we didn't have kids, we'd still be the same as we used to be. You'd be a bum, and I'd be out playing golf all day." A BUM, he says. Well, thank goodness child #2 is on the way, right??? Men.

     Yesterday was, besides feeling miserably sick and huge (I've hit 30 weeks, hallelujah!) simply wonderful. We hardly had any food to eat in the house, so I did a quick scan through the cabinets and in the fridge... We had just enough ingredients to make the best cookies ever. We also had exactly one cup of milk left. A half to drink, and a half to add to chocolate oatmeal cookies recipe.

Hello, miracle! 

This was my entire day yesterday.

I can't remember the last time I was in bed sick. 

Or a day without a to-do list.

Or even forgetting the day of the week for that matter.

  I'm feeling better, trying to gather my energy, and Brian is sitting. Literally sitting still. If you know him, you must know this is yet another miracle to happen in this household. He just checked the front porch for a delivery. He's wandering around the house with no clue what to DO. He's sick and can't be still. I'd recommend Pinterest, but I doubt it'd do the trick for him like it does for me... 

 Thank goodness for children. We miss the little man, and we'll be seeing him in just a little while. We've embraced the sometimes chaotic lifestyle with a toddler and can no longer function any other way. We stay busy, we're always getting things done, and in two short sick days, I've quickly resorted back to my "bum" stage, says Brian.

    I'm off to make a plan for tomorrow! 

Nighttime Update on My Crazy Pregnant Self.

   You know how they say "nesting mode" happens near the end of your pregnancy, where you clean out a closet or two and tidy your home to welcome baby. Well, yes, it's a real thing and it happened before Brady arrived. I remember washing his tiny clothes and collecting diapers and creams and all those funny baby necessities you just might need.

   This time around, something wild is happening to me (quite opposite of what I thought more female hormones could do) I'm falling into this weird "survivor" mode. When any unnecessary money spent, and I mean any...puts my mind in a complete frenzy. Things all the sudden appear as clutter, when yesterday it was something we needed. 

     I have morphed into another creature within two years. Every meal has a plan, every day has a checklist, and every hour has a routine. It's sick. But that's how I function. I used to be the girl who never had plans for dinner. Where the grocery store was a place to pick things up before a cookout, and home was a place you slept in between work and play. Who was that girl?

 My hormones are up and down, I worry that I think too much. Yes, that's truly happening.

I can see my sister roll her eyes now.

  It's a crazy thing these hormones, how they can make you angry, make you worry, and best of all, make you feel absolutely positively insane. It's 11:16 pm on Tuesday night. I should totally be in bed. I ate a wonderful Italian dinner that will most certainly keep me awake if I try to sleep now. (Heartburn is fun, too.) So, besides reading the hippie book I've checked out from the library, I figured blogging was the next best thing. Brian's still outside by the fire, Brady's sleeping tight in his big bed, and I'm here in the office feeling like crazy woman. I couldn't sleep if I wanted to, I'm counting down the weeks (days, really) until she's here, and I just made a mental note to take a Benadryl tomorrow night to knock me out by 8 pm. 

    I sure hope this doesn't scare any of you away from having children. Just prepare yourselves to become someone you never knew. And add a little crazy to it...

      

  

Wild Boy & The Mountains

  Right now, I'm listening to Brady cry his own name from inside his room. He's feeling sorry for himself having to take a nap. (Poor child.)  In a brand new, full size bed filled with pillows and his parents down comforter, no less. I believe it's a parents job to put their children first before themselves always, of course until days like today occur when my brain has gone fuzzy. He calmly says "No." in a store when I tell him to sit, and starts a domino effect on any shelf when he comes within distance. It's funny when it's not your child. Ha. Ha. Today, he screwed off the cap and poured an entire bottle of eye makeup remover on himself at Target. He quietly said "Uh ohhhhhh." while all his clothes and everything in the cart was soaked in oil.

                                                I start adding up a few of the "funny" things he's done.

                                -This summer, he jumped in the deep end of the pool without swimmies. 

         Sunk straight to the bottom. 

          -Ran across our retaining wall in the backyard and slipped off, falling straight into the bushes. Screamed only because we had to go inside.

        -Last week, I opened a few windows to let fresh air in the house. He quietly kicked out the screen of a window... and  jumped. Thankfully only onto the deck.

        -He has atleast one busted lip a week, and his first black eye has finally healed. 

         He hates band-aids, I think because he wanted everyone to see his battle wounds.

I promise the entire family does everything in their power to prevent this behavior...

    I told him we needed to sit and "have a talk" earlier this morning. He smiled and ran towards my lap. He sat, so I started... "It's time to calm down. We do not touch everything we see, and you say YES when mommy asks you to do something." His response? The kind of laughter where you throw your head back and cant contain yourself. He laughs, runs away to the next thing he's going to terrorize. So before I make the awful decision to go wild on this boy... I can only wonder exactly when I'll be checked into a mental hospital.

   It's 11:57, almost noon, and I realized I've been too busy with this little animal to even eat or drink anything today. So, because I'm too frazzled make sweet tea, I'm drinking water. (Betcha tequila could've done the trick.) And shoveling dark chocolate m&m's in my mouth... and letting my nerves calm down. This is the point where retail therapy couldn't even calm these nerves, so you get the pleasure of my seeing my reaction firsthand. Deeeeep breath, mama.

  These moments are what make me thankful for the blessing of one healthy toddler, and one soon-to-be baby girl. (sigh of relief.) Two children. And looks like we'll do everything in our power to keep it that way. Just two.

     Meanwhile, during this stage of pregnancy, (I'm 28 weeks today!) my back is starting to really ache, I'm doing all I can to avoid the "waddle". I've been treating myself to lots of reading when I can sneak to bed early. I'm truly ready for complete hibernation mode come wintertime and baby! Last week, Brian and I took a little time together in the mountains for our 5th anniversary, and a little downtime to hibernate ourselves. We visited Cashiers, NC where I was so pleasantly surprised by all the dahlia gardens!

Needless to say, it was a beautiful getaway. I finished my book. We took long naps. We sat by the fire. 

It was a restful way to calm our little selves down and mentally prepare for the season ahead. I've bought one Christmas present, and Brian brought home an entire truck bed of firewood. We're preparing ourselves for a growing family, a chilly season, all while experiencing truly funny (yes, I'm over it now) moments to look back on... 

Somehow I know we'll miss this age he's at.

After all, we did pray for a wild little boy.

Savannah, Disney World, and Slowing Down.

A quick shot while we were in Savannah of a pretty place.

I have no idea what this building is, the old brick & green shutters just made me smile.

Savannah is beautiful, and Lady & Sons sure treated us right for dinner.

We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort in Disney World.

It was truly magical, all the details that make up every corner of Disney World.

His daddy couldn't help but buy him the balloon he screamed for!

Happy little fella.

Moments like this are what made our trip special to me.

To see his little face light up with wonder.

I sort of felt like a princess near the castle.

Like being a little girl again!

This is basically what meeting every character was like for Brady.

Mickey was great from a distance. Personal space was invaded, and buddy couldn't quite handle it. 

He made it clear. 

This was the "Tree of Life" in Animal Kingdom.

It was by far my favorite park.

The special moments, the smiles, the laughs and even during the temper tantrums...

the three of us were together. And not a thing in the world (not a crazy crowd, or even the chaos) could keep me from being content around these two.

I love my family. 

I love how we need each other.

Now, for the part that we slowed down...

I'm very thankful for my mother and sister-in-law who planned this entire Disney Trip.

I'm definitely a planner, though I do not plan trips. 

I know nothing about Disney World, meal plans, monorails, fast passes or anything of the sort...

(I do know margaritas on the beach and room service...)

So, this was entirely new to Brian and myself. It was definitely the most fast-paced trip of our lifetime, but it was a wonderful experience to have with Brady.

Thank you to my in-laws for a special trip with the entire family that we'll always remember!

Now for the three of us...we're settling back into our family routine. It may be our personalities, or the fact that we're about to settle down with two little ones, but it's safe to say we live a slower pace. 

I'm now in my third trimester, and counting down these quickly passing weeks is something I can barely keep up with. Reminding myself that we'll be holding a precious little girl is something I still can't quite wrap my mind around.