With Thanks...

With the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday approaching it is easy to go to the "thankful" place in our hearts, but I truly want to be thankful every day. I hope that I tell God enough how thankful I am for the blessings of my life and I just wanted to share with you all my many blessings.

* I am so incredibly thankful for my husband, he is such a good man, who truly loves God and seeks to know Him more. He is an amazing father who loves his boys to the core and gets giddy with excitement about his baby girl. He loves me unconditionally and without reservation. God truly knew what he was doing when he gave him to me.

*I am thankful for Mason and Boston and the joy they bring to me. They are both so special and amazing, I often wonder how I got so lucky. They are my heart and my soul, both in different ways.

* I am thankful for this new miracle of life growing inside of me. I still get butterflies when I say "my daughter" and I am so thankful and honored that God trusts me enough to raise her.

* I am thankful for my family - for a mother who taught me and continues to show me unconditional love, for a step father who loves me like his own, for a sister who knows me better than any other and for brothers who make me hope, laugh and love.

* I am thankful for an amazing "in-law" family that raised my husband to love God and to be a good man

* I am thankful for friends, old and new, who make life bearable, laughable and fun

I am most thankful for GRACE AND MERCY that come from God - the two things that allow me to have and enjoy the blessings of life.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and take time to reflect on ALL that you have to be thankful for.

Update on My Mom!

We just got the news that the tests all came back good and my mom is A-OK!! God is so good and we give Him the glory! Thank you so much for your prayers. I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Fall and a prayer request!

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather and fun, we sure are!! I also want to ask all of you prayer warriors to pray for my sweet mom. She went to the doctor about a week ago and had some blood work that came back "elevated" which COULD possibly indicate a serious health problem. She went again yesterday and they re-ran some tests and we will know more in a couple of weeks. So the waiting game continues. I rest in the promise that God hears our prayers and I just ask that you pray for her health, safety and a peace of mind for her. These three boys sure do love thier Gamma...

Our Little Gobblins!

Every year my best buds and I have a little Halloween party so we can get our little pumpkins together in their adorable costumes and have a little fun! This year everyone loaded up all their kiddos and brought them out to the ranch! We had a great day and we are an extremely BLESSED group of ladies. I love you girls, thank you for sharing your kiddos with me!!

All of our sweet little monsters! :)

Kaden the "mad" hamburger!

Boston the Pirate and Mason the Dallas Cowboy football player!

Austin the Turkey and "Buzz" Davis!

Brynn the Ballerina and Caden the Skeleton!

Blakely our little CHI O Owl!! Hoot hoot!

Jacie the Angel!

Kyler the football player and Kason his football!!

Molly the Red Raider Cheerleader!

Regan the Princess and "Humpty Dumpty" Reece!

"Buzz" Will and Elli the flower child! :)

Pregnancy Update and the color PINK!!

This pregnancy has been progressing along rather uneventful (thankfully) and I havent had much to report, until yesterday....

We had a big day planned, we had dentist and doctor appointments in town and we had our "big" sonogram. This is the sonogram that you find out A) if the baby looks healthy and B) if its a boy or a girl. So, we planned to all take the day off, to come to town together and to have a big family dinner after Mason's baseball game. Our plan was to have the sonographer put the picture that told us the sex of the baby in an envelope, we would take the sealed picture to the bakery and they would make a cake that had either blue or pink inside - depending on the sono picture - and when we cut the cake with our families we would all find out together if Ladd Baby #3 would be a boy or girl! Well, all went as planned and most importantly the sonographer told us our baby looks "perfect" and we got a huge surprise - WE GET A SPLASH OF PINK IN OUR LIVES!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how surprised we were and we are over the moon with excitement!!

Here are some pics from our night:

I absolutely LOVE having boys and would have been thrilled with another bouncing baby boy, but to raise a daughter is a blessing and dream. I cant believe it!

We also decided on her name -
Emmersyn Dawn Ladd, "Emme" when she is young :)

Micah chose the name Emmersyn and I chose the name Dawn. Emmersyn is a name we have always liked and talked about and he thinks "Emme" will fit our little darlin! I chose Dawn because that is my sister's middle name and I always knew if I had a daughter I would name her after my sister. I love that she will have Tiffany's name sake - Tiffany is not only my sister but she was my first "baby" (yes, I have always been a mother hen, just ask ANY of my younger siblings) :) and we have been through every aspect of life together. The ups, the downs and through it all she has always been right over my shoulder. She has grown from my first "baby" to be my best friend and I pray that someday our sweet Emmersyn Dawn will know and love the Lord, be strong, beautiful and faithful - just like her aunt, Tiffany Dawn.

Here are a couple of other pics from our night. Boston and Kaden found their way to the cake and helped themselves. We had forks, but they opted not to use them. These two keep us on our toes, but oh they are fun!!

I have said it before and I will say it again and again, I have more than I could ever need.
"My cup runneth over." Psalms 23:5

Why I love Friday Nights...

I am a football girl. I have always loved Friday nights. I dont know if it has anything to do with growing up in Eastern New Mexico/West Texas (where football is king) or not, but never the less, I love watching football and cheering on my team! But, I love Friday nights now for a whole new reason.... watching my two boys before, during and after the game is priceless. This is how Friday nights look to me now:

PREGAME - Mason is intently watching the players warm up and then often pretends to be "playing" in his own game. Boston just follows along and tries to keep up. Every once in a while, when they dont know their mom is watching I catch a big brother loving on his little brother.

GAMETIME - Mason is watching the game and Boston is watching Mason. Whenever Mason cheers, Boston cheers.

POSTGAME - Both boys running out on to the field to hug their dad, the coach.

Yes, I love Friday nights...

Back in the Saddle...

So school is back in session and we are back in the swing of things... or back in the saddle out here at the ranch! We are busier than ever with Boys Ranch football and Mason's baseball. We love fall though, and we love being busy! :) This time of year also means time for the Boys Ranch Rodeo. This year Mason participated again as a Mutton Buster. (This is where he rides on a sheep and hangs on for dear life.) The first day he let go of the sheep right out of the chute. So, day two, Guy, (Randy's brother in law) made a deal with Mason -if he held on to the sheep for atleast 5 seconds Guy would carry a pink purse around the rest of the day at the rodeo. Mason of course thought this was hilarious and not only did he hold on for five seconds, he took the sheep to the ground!! Here are some pics from our most eventful weekend!

Guy and his purse he had to carry!!