Living as Ladds: Baby What a Big Surprise!

About the Author

I love my life! I am a working wife and mom trying to catch my breath and every once in a while sit back and enjoy the many blessings I have.

My husband Buddy, whom I call "B", works 45 hours a week and then goes to school full time (yeh, I didn't know if was possible either). He is the hardest working person I know and I so admire his drive and dedication. We met 5 years ago and I knew from "Hello" that he was it. He is definitely my Prince!

My Prince also happened to have a carseat on the back of his white horse making me a stepmother (minus the evil) to 9 year old Tanley Grace who I affectionately refer to as "My Pretty".

In October 2011 we added a "little nugget" to our family in the form of a baby boy named Franklin "Crew" Ladd. Crew is already a little charmer and we are so in love!

We also have a 2 year old Maltihuahua (Maltese/Chihuahua mix) named Briggs... we believe he is the smartest and most talented dog in the world... judging by the time he spends looking at himself in the mirror, he thinks he is the most handsome. And so we now call him "The Handsome Pup".

When I am not working, cleaning, cooking, and loving on my family I love to decorate my house...and then re-decorate! I love thrifting and then turning my junky treasure into a beautiful piece in our home. And somehow I fit all of that into my life as a Ladd!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Baby What a Big Surprise!

On December 27th my wonderful husband will turn 30!!! Both Buddy and I are December babies so birthdays are typically pretty low key as we are in the throws of Christmas but I knew that I could not let 30 just slip on by:) I began talking to some of our close friends months ago to figure out a good date for a surprise party... I know that everyone is traveling and Christmas Partying so I wanted to make sure I could pick a date that would allow for a good crowd to be there. I finally decided on Monday, December 13th (just 2 days after my birthday) and the place would be Mama Mia's, one of Buddy's favorite Nashville restaurants. I told Buddy that we were going to eat out with some friends for my birthday and he completely bought it:)

I wanted to make sure we had some fun with the big 3-0 so I enlisted the help of my dear friend, Tiffiny to make t-shirts for everyone to wear that said "I'm With The OLD GUY. Happy 30th Buddy!" I also cut out pictures of Buddy's face and attached them to sticks so that when Buddy walked in everyone would hold up the faces and yell "surprise!" Buddy is also a big cigar guy so I had a cake made at Publix that said, "Like a Fine Cigar, You Just Get Better With Age. Happy 30th Birthday Buddy!" I cannot tell you how excited I was once the day finally arrived... I am not good at keeping secrets and this was a huge one to keep!

My husband is notorious for being 30 minutes early so it was quite a task to keep him delayed (knowing that if we go there too soon it would ruin the surprise). Once we finally got to the restaurant he could see that there was a large group inside and immediately thought that they were throwing a surprise party for me! He was kind of upset as we walked in because they had not included him in on the surprise and even when I said "Well maybe this is a surprise for you!" and he looked out at the crowd of "OLD GUY" shirts and his face he still didn't get it! It took about 15 minutes for him to figure out that every one was there for him:) It was a success!!! We had such a great time and I am so thankful for my sweet friends who helped me pull it all off!!! Here are the pictures!