Did you think I had forgotten all about this blog?? Sorry for the weeks of silence, it has been crazy town around here! Right after we got home from the beach, we went straight into work mode, laundry mode and well, life I guess! Kip is at a dinner for work tonight so I thought this would be a great time to sit down and write. Get ready for another picture overload. I thought I would do a little recap from the beach and life lately. So here we go!

The beach was fabulous. I need my emojis with the smiley face and heart eyes. To me, that is how you describe fabulous in emoji language. Sorry. ADD. Okay, so the beach. Thank goodness tropical storm Erica didn't mess up our week. We were afraid she was going to at first. We were at the beach for 11 days and only lost a day and a half due to rain. Not too shabby. The weekend started off....with a bang. Of poop that is. The 2 little ones had upset tummies for the majority of the trip. Poor little guys. It's hard to be on vacation with the runs and everybody eating delicious food around you and you can only eat the BRAT diet. They were great sports about it though. A little sand, sun and ocean water as a distraction doesn't hurt

We don't get to see our niece and nephew from DC very much. We FaceTime, but we don't much ACTUAL face time. They are 4 yrs old and 2.5 yrs old. It was so much fun to see their little personalities and truly get to interact with them

This little girl. She is precious. She gives the most genuine hugs. You can be across the room and she will look you straight in the eye, you know she is coming for you, and she will deliver the biggest, most genuine hug I've ever received from a child. She has a sweet soul. A sweet voice. Is ALL girl. Everyday when we would go inside for lunch, she would shower, put on a pretty dress, brush her hair and then make her debut to everyone upstairs. You could see her imagination going; she was a princess or a ballerina in a beautiful gown. And she has cute clothes. Like, I'm kind of jealous of some of them ;) 

Seriously, my heart melts

See that smile? It is going to get him very far in life. This little love muffin can be the sweetest boy in the whole wide world. And he can be a 2 yr old boy who just wants to haul off and hit his sissy, and then love her. He can literally do something wrong, but then opens his mouth with that sweet voice or will shoot ya a big fat grin and you forget that he did something wrong and your heart melts. His voice, literally, completely adorable. Every once in a while, I would hear him randomly call my name, I would go see what he wanted, and sometimes it would be to show me something, but sometimes, he was just keeping tabs on where every body was. I'm in trouble if we have one like this. A mama's boy for sure. 

A picture is worth a thousand words. That foot went into the plate. Sour cream EVERYWHERE. 

That ocean may as well be the puddle from my heart melting again. My husband is going to be the best daddy in the world

For Labor Day, all the neighbors on the street at the beach rent a huge water slide that is fun for all ages. This is my main buddy Cole. When I met this kid, he was 4 years old. Now, he is turning 9 on Friday!!!! Where does time go! My brother's name is also Cole and so we used to refer to my brother as "big Cole" and this Cole as "little Cole." Well. He informed us (a few years ago) he is "medium Cole" and now, he is working his way to being "big Cole." I used to hold him like a baby, now, he is almost my size! We have dance parties together (he taught me how to whip and nae nae) and I taught him how to play MASH in the car on the way home. Do y'all remember that game?? We had a blast playing it. At first he thought it was lame, but once we finished the first game, he was hooked and we continued to play. We went down the water slide together for my first time. That thing is no joke! I had no idea how fast I was going to go! 

That's my sister in law to the left of me. We went down together and with my mother in law as well. We may or may not have had way more fun than we should as adults

The biggest kid of us all. My Kipper

My family was also at the beach. A different one though. But we were only 40 minutes away from each other. Kip and I took a little road trip one day down there and played with my cousin's baby (I will probably refer to him as my nephew because he feels more like a nephew than a second cousin, oh that is so weird to type! Let's just not be politically correct and call him nephew) Anyways, he just turned 2 in June and has been the light of our family as he was the first baby our family has had in a looong time. And remember, my family is baby crazy. (We now have another precious little boy in the family, my other older cousin has a son, although sadly he wasn't there so I don't have a beach picture of him)

This is Hill. He is another one that that smile is going to get him far in life. (I'm seeing a trend here) This baby will test the limits. He will look at you with those big blue eyes and a sideways grin and test the waters for something he knows he shouldn't be doing. He will stop right before he knows he is about to go too far and you can't help but to laugh! Growing up, my cousin and I would fight over who's Tata (our grandmother) she was. Well, I started that with Hill and now he does it with me for everything. Hearing him say "Tata" is literally music to all of our ears. The sweetest sound ever. He also tries to compete with me with "my cup" which is actually "my Kip." This child. So funny. 

I can't wait to see all of these little nuggets continue to grow and to see their personalities continue to flourish. They are all similar in ways. All are stubborn, all are persistent, all are sweet and all love to make us laugh. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful families on both sides. Kip and I are so blessed to have the best families in the world. We laugh together, we have fun with each other and we are all functionally dysfunctional. And I would't have it any other way

When we returned back to reality, we went to work and then got to have more fun! Kip's friend from college who now lives in Tennessee came to town Friday night with his adorable family. We got to go to dinner with them and another set of friends that live here in town and then got to have breakfast with them Saturday morning. As if we hadn't already gotten in some great time with chunky thighed babes, Saturday afternoon we went to Charlotte for a birthday party for my bestie from college's baby boy Wills

I mean, y'all. Don't you just want to gobble him up!!!???? This normally smiley babe wasn't too sure about what was going on. He had sooo many people in his house, a personal cake was given to him to eat freely and a set of golf clubs, who wouldn't be overwhelmed!? Even through all of that, he was still absolutely precious. I don't get to see any of these babes nearly enough! Can we all live closer together, please!!!!!!!

A little something to bring this to a close and make you smile. PS- ignore me, just watch the kids

Tonight. Tonight started off like any 'ole normal night. I knew before even getting to the beach that I wanted to send off balloons. Two white ones and a pink one to be exact. Well, tonight we went out to eat and on our way home, we decided to get the balloons and that tonight would be the night that we sent them flying. Into the air. Out of our sight. Towards Heaven. Just like our angel babies. Typically when I plan something having to do with our angel babies, I am prepared. I don't cry. Well..... lets just say, tonight changed that. We were in the grocery store buying the balloons and the tears started there. The woman blowing up the balloons probably thought I was crazy. I literally had tears running down my face as she was inflating them. Two whites and one pink. The two white ones were inflated first. Then the pink. And then the tears REALLY started streaming. At this point, Kip told me to just go to the car and wait, he would handle everything from here [insert: he told the woman we had lost 3 pregnancies and that is what the balloons were for] So hopefully, I didn't seem too crazy after all. He said she understood and felt horrible for us

That's the thing though. I don't want people to feel bad for us. I don't want them to feel pity for our situation. God has chosen this journey for us. I'm not really sure why, but I know it will be revealed. I know that when that baby is in our arms, we will realize why God chose us for this. Okay, sorry, I digressed. We walked down the same exact pathway that we walked to get engaged. Little did I know at that time, I was about to be asked for my hand in marriage by the most amazing man in the whole wide world. Little did I know, that 3 years later, we would be making that same trek....holding 3 balloons. Two white ones and a pink one. For our angel babies that we will ONE DAY get to meet

Before we let go of the strings, I kissed each balloon, twice. I couldn't let go. The tears, the pain, the physical being of those balloons. Meant more to me than I was expecting. It was like all of a sudden, there was a physical "thing" in our hands. And I could not let go. Finally, I was able. We both let go of the strings and all 3 of those balloons, they intertwined and they floated away, up, up and away, all together. They never separated. They never let go of each other. Those are our babies. Together. In Heaven. All 3 of them. We watched until we couldn't see them anymore. I cried. And I couldn't stop. To be honest, I'm not sure if Kip was crying or not. He was holding onto me and not letting go, kissing my head and holding me tight. I never truly saw him to see if he was crying or not. The Lord knew when he sent Kip to me. He knew that this man was the perfect man for me to experience life with. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad. After we finally decided to head back, I went to the beach alone for a few minutes. I wanted to pray. As much as I love my husband by my side at any given moment we are allotted, I just needed a moment. Between God and I. When I got back to the house, there he was, waiting for me with arms wide open. Waiting to comfort me

As we were walking back after releasing our balloons, I said to him, "you know, when we have our baby, however we do, that will make us a family of 6." His reply..... "thank goodness 3 of them are getting a free education" You have to find humor. As horrible as it sounds. In any way you can. Bottom line, I love my husband so much and I am so lucky and blessed and happy that I get to do life with him

***

Okay, we now have pictures uploaded. I'm just going to warn you, be prepared for a picture overload. The pictures are real. They are definitely not the best of me, but they capture real emotion and so I am putting my pride aside and still posting them....