Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentines Day! To explain the picture, it might help to know that we have finally made the firm decision on the name of our son: Charles (after his late great grandfathers on both sides of the family) Hudson (which is what he will be called) Ratliff (as in... THE Ratliffs.) We wanted to take a picture to let Hudson know how much we already love him, even though we haven't met him yet! Hopefully he will get a kick out of it someday. Ben and I really enjoyed our last Heart Day together without any cutie pie kids running around, adding to the excitement. He took me to Amore Italian Restaurant, which is a staple for us seeing as we had our first date there and went there the night he proposed to me. My mom joked that if we weren't careful, I might just go into LABOR there, too! No such luck. But it was very special and I will miss having the opportunity to just pick up and leave for a spontaneous date night with Ben anytime we feel the urge. I will probably miss a lot of things from this life... our lazy Sunday naps... our "sleeping in" (until 8) on Saturdays... our quality time spent with friends at a moment's notice... but I have been told, and I trust, that none of this compares to the precious life we are about to be handed. I look forward to carseats and highchairs- as silly as it sounds. I can't wait to see Ben embrace his new roll of "Daddy", and later on "Coach". :) And I am SUPER excited about taking long walks with Hudson in our new B.O.B Stroller! These are just a few reflections I've had time to think about in these final weeks of pregnancy. I'm ready to dive in to motherhood and begin our new family of FIVE- that's right, let's not forget about our first babies, Margy and Lily.