The Name Game

Let me just start by saying, I don't remember the process of naming a child being so hard!  
For those of you that know me well, you know that I am a planner, a worrier, and an overthinker! To say that those things have effected this process is an understatement. Jonathan and I agreed on two names shortly after we found out that this precious baby is a girl. Since then, I was given many hours to just sit and think as I was on bed rest. Sitting and thinking really isn't the best situation for this girl! :) We really want start calling baby girl by her name and we just cannot decide. My parents say to just wait until we meet her, but that goes against every bone in body! So, I would love some input from my blogging friends. Our families have been very generous in their opinions - most of which were not positive - but we need some unbiased opinions.

Before I tell what names we are trying to chose between, let me just voice a few of my concerns. We love family names and have found it be very important to us to pass these names to our babies. Caroline Elize is named after my Dad's sister Carol and Jonathan's papaw Elzie. Jonathan Carter is named after his Daddy and Carter was JD's grandma's maiden name. We didn't purposely choose C names, it just happened that we liked the names and actually agreed on them! Now with this little girl, will she feel left out if her name isn't a C name? Will she feel left out if all of her name is not family based? Jonathan kind of wants to stay away from the C names and kind of want to stay with them. (Did I mention I was an overthinker?!)

So with all of that said, here are the names and the family tie, or lack there of. PLEASE tell me what you think...

• Charlotte Rose (Charlotte has no family tie, Rose is Mammaw's middle name and my aunt/ Godmother's first name)
• Charlotte Elizabeth (Elizabeth is my middle name and a long time family name - is this name too long? Would she ever learn to write her own name!?)
• Nora Elizabeth aka Nora Beth (Nora is Jonathan's great aunt, his Mamaw's sister)
• Nora Claire (Claire is my baby sister and she is named after my great-grandmother Clara)

Ok, there you have it! Thanks for your help!!

Surprise, Surprise!

Wow, it's been a long time since I sat down and blogged! With two small children and a job that consumes a great deal of my time, it's hard to find time for anything recreational! With that said, I'm going to guess that soon, the blogs are going to get even fewer... Jonathan and I are surprised, but feeling overwhelmingly blessed to announce that we will welcome baby #3 to the family in August! There have been so many emotions involved in this announcement, but after having an ultrasound and seeing (and hearing) that tiny, fast heartbeat all we can feel is thankful. God has a plan for us and He must know that we can handle this! My thoughts have been... Three children, holy cow, how will we do that?! Will they all feel loved and will we have enough time to give each of them? Will Caroline feel replaced if it's a girl, will Carter feel left out of it's a boy? Will either of them resent having to a share a room for a little while? Will we ever sleep through the night again?! Will we be able to afford for them to do the activities they choose? How will we pay for college? I've kind of been in panic mode. I'm so thankful for the gift of being able to see our little bean on the monitor because now that I know that he or she is healthy, nothing else matters. We will make it work. There will be more love than ever in the Hodges' household. We will be giving our two older children the greatest tangible gift we could ever give. And who knew it could happen, but my heart just doubled in size again! Please whisper a prayer for us as we embark on this journey! I have been VERY sick and my poor kiddos just can't understand why. We will tell them tonight about that Mommy is pregnant. (We wanted to make sure that everything was fine before we shared the news.) I can't wait to hear their name suggestions! Caroline has said for years that she wanted a baby sister named Holly. Holly Wood Hodges to be exact! Ha! My guess is Carter will want to name the baby Mater. :) Love to all! Lori

"Big School"

I don't how it's possible, but yesterday my baby girl started preschool. We have been preparing her (or maybe just preparing us!) for this day for some time. She picked out her perfect back pack, we made a special "girls" trip to Kroger so she could pick out her lunch foods, and she picked out her 1st day outfit. When I woke her up yesterday, she stood up on her bed, put her hands on my either side of my face and said, "MOMMY! I can NOT believe I get to go to Big School!" She was one excited girl, I on the other hand was having a hard time not crying. When we got to school she was so happy to see so many of her friends walking in. She said, "Oh my goodness, look! There's Kennedy! And Olivia! And Jayden, and ...". The list went on. She did great finding her cubby and then going to sit on rug. Her excitement was only made greater by the fact that Evy is in her class! They were so cute sitting on the rug together! When it was time, I left her. She was smiling and waving, and I barely made it out the door before I started crying. I know she needs to go to school, I just seriously cannot believe that she's already old enough to be there. I had to go home for about 30 minutes before I was with it enough to go back to work.

Carter wanted a picture with his Sissy

Look how big my baby looks in front of the school! Caroline and Evy

Circle Time dancing

Day 2 - She just looked so darn cute, I had to take her picture!

Working Mom

I miss my kids. A sad way to start a post I know, but I really do miss them. A few weeks ago, Caroline turned 4. That night as I was tucking her into bed, the reality that my baby girl isn't really a baby anymore, hit me like someone slapped me across the face. I have one more year before school starts for her, then I surely will not be able to keep her from growing up! I love my career, but I love my job as Mom a LOT more. This balance of two worlds is sometimes so hard that I can't think straight. I feel like I am missing everything! Carter talks in full sentences and wants to do everything for himself. I'm not even allowed to rock him anymore! He'll say, "Momma, no rock. I want Carter bed." It crushes my heart! Almost every night I go back in his room after he's alseep and pet his head and hold his tiny hands. When did my babies decide to not be babies!? I know this is a struggle that has gone on for decades, but how do you deal? Where do find the balance that you can live with? How do you hand your babies over day after day and not eventually fall apart with heartache? How do you convince yourself that you're a good Mom when you feel like you're never there? God has blessed me beyond measure with the lives of my precious children. If I felt led to stop working, I would do it. I have prayed and prayed and God has not given me that direction. So I will continue to press on and do the best I can for my children with the hours that are given to me each day.

I miss these sweet faces!

A Year of Happenings!

To blog or not blog; this is the question I have asked myself so many times! It seems there was never time to blog. Lots of things worth blogging about, but no time! I recently read a few of my posts (obviously from some time ago) and realized how much had escaped me. I can't believe how much I had forgotten. Since my last post was of Carter turning 1 and we are currently nearing his 2nd birthday, I am so sad that a whole year went by without documentation! After a little encouragement from a friend, and fellow blogger, I have decided to re-enter the blogger world with this post - a re-cap of our last year!! Rather than write about all of our happenings, I created this slide show... Enjoy!!

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My big boy!

Carter is becoming a big boy way too fast for me. I took him last week for his 1yr old check up and shots. I hate shots! He was grinning and talking and then all of the sudden, shots in his legs. He was heartbroken and looked at me like, how could you let them do that. It killed me! Carter weighed in at 24lbs 6ozs and was 31 1/2 inches long. That is 75th% in weight and 95th% in height. Looks like he'll be taking after my side of the family with the height! Carter is drinking out of a sippy cup, eating everything that we eat, and talking, talking, talking. We're not sure what language he's speaking, but he sure speaks it A LOT! This past weekend he hit his biggest milestone - walking! He is just so proud of himself! Here's a pic I took this morning. It's hard to catch a picture because he already very fast!

We had Carter's party in Lexington a few weekends ago. Here's a couple of pictures from that. I think he enjoyed his cake even more this time!

My brother Jordan and me.

Great-Grandad and a messy Carter!

The girls! (And Carter)

L to R - Caroline, me, Carter, Aunt Katy, cousin Alex, Aunt Claire

Happy 1st Birthday Carter!

I'm not sure how time continually goes by so fast, but my baby boy turned 1 on Saturday! He is such an amazing little man - and ALL boy. He is into everything, but with that sweet face it is sooo hard to fuss at him! It is wild having two small children, but I wouldn't trade one minute of it. Here's a picture of my tiny man 1 year ago. How do they grow so fast?

6 lb 12 oz, 19 inches long

Friday night we took the kids to Ice Cream and Moovie at Chaney's. Caroline had seen the commercials, so she HAD to have the blue ice cream like the little girl on TV. We got birthday cake ice cream for the little man! They both did great, and to our surprise, Carter really enjoyed watching the movie.

Since we have revival this week at church, we decided not to have a big party. We celebrated on Saturday with Jonathan's family and then we'll travel Lexington in a few weeks and celebrate again! On Saturday morning we made chocolate pastries for breakfast. Carter finally did the sign for "more"! (I guess if chocolate pastry won't do it, than nothing will!) We did quite a bit of sign language with Caroline and she started talking really early. Her speech has always been way advanced, so we thought it would be good to continue this with Carter. He has NOT been interested. While Caroline started signing at 10 mos., Carter just looks at us like "yeah right"! We were really excited when he signed! After breakfast we took the kids to the park. The weather was perfect! Carter wanted to slide by himself, he would push our hands away. I'm not sure I like this early independence!!

This is his new funny face. He has MANY of them, but they are hard to catch on camera!

Opening presents was a chore... Carter was really just interested in eating the paper! Caroline pretty much took over after the first couple presents. She just couldn't stand the waiting!

Carter was more than ready for his cake! He had it destroyed before I was able to get pictures! I got the cake for everyone else and when I turned around, well ... you can see for yourself!

After we got cleaned up (yes, I said WE), everyone went outside to play. From the looks of these pictures, I am definitely raising a country boy! Isn't this funny?!

YEE HAW!

Daddy couldn't resist...

I love this picture of Caroline! She had insisted that her face was clean and that icing was off...