Life with boys

I just have to share 2 funny stories from the past two days of my "boys". Yesterday I was vacuuming the house. Like always, I moved the kitchen chairs into the kitchen to vacuum under the table. Nicholas spent a while "helping" me and following me around like he normally does. After a while though, I realized that I hadn't seen Nicholas or Baxter for awhile and went to investigate. As I turned the corner of the kitchen, I found Nicholas standing on one of the chairs by the counter. His arms were holding Baxter, who was standing on top of the kitchen counter finishing off a pan of brownies that were on top of the microwave!! It was straight out of one of Nick's books, "Bad Dog Marley!" While Nicholas could have been trying to get Baxter off of the counter, it looked a lot like he was holding him up there and helping him get a snack!

Then today, I was cooking myself some much needed (and craved) homemade chicken soup in order to soothe my cold. Nicholas and Baxter were playing throughout the house while I was chopping veggies. I was pouring the chopped veggies into the large soup pot when all of a sudden Baxter's ball comes flying and lands right in the pot on top of the veggies! I was stunned, and couldn't believe my eyes. Of course the one time that Nicholas has perfect aim is straight into my soup that I had worked so hard on! Thankfully there was no broth in the pot yet and I claimed the 1 second rule ;) And I have to say, the soup was delicious.

I can only imagine that these are just a few of the numerous stories I am going to be collecting over the years with my THREE boys--and for those of you that know Baxter, you know that he very much counts as a third boy!

Trunk or Treating

Before I update about other things, I am so excited and can't contain myself! I have to share the exciting news that my baby sister is ENGAGED! Jay proposed to Ashley last night and we are SO happy for them! I can't believe she's going to get married! AND, my wonderful friend Nadine also got engaged on Saturday! Congratulations to Nadine and Michael too! Very exciting times around here. I cannot wait to see these beautiful brides and share in their very special days :)

As for our family, this has been a challenging week for us. Nicholas got very sick with croup this weekend. It was very scary as he had difficulty breathing, a barking cough, and a high fever. He's been pretty pitiful. At the same time, Graham left to be with his dad in Nashville for the week as he gets his cancer treatments. And of course, I became sick on Tuesday. I've been very thankful that Nolan is still inside my belly and I didn't have to worry about taking care of him as well on top of all of this load by myself!

But yesterday Nicholas woke up from a long nap and for the first time in many days his energy level was back up and my happy boy had returned to me. So I decided we needed to get out of the house and have some fun! A local church was having a Trunk or Treating, where people decorate the trunks of their cars with different themes and the kids go trick or treating in the parking lot. Mimi was even able to join us too! It was so cute and so much fun! Our little Buzz Lightyear had so much fun and caught on quickly to the trick or treating. Last year Nicholas got a stomach virus on Halloween and didn't get to go trick or treating (notice a pattern here?) so this was all new to him. It was so fun and festive. They had a hay ride, great music, games, balloon animals, a model Halloween train, and of course tons of candy and great costumes.

Can't wait for Daddy to get home this weekend and join us for more Trick or Treating! Hopefully we will all be healthy by then too!

I've included some pictures of last night, as well as some pictures of Nick in his Big Boy room :)

Our Bouncing Big Boy and his baby brother too!

The past couple days, I've had a lot to report on our blog, however no time to do it. I overworked myself last week doing things around the house and getting Nick's room ready and I really paid for it. I found myself exhausted and aching a lot. When I went to see my midwife on Wednesday she was concerned and said that I really needed to rest and slow down. Therefore, I've been taking her advice and napping when Nick naps and going to bed early--so I've had no time to blog! Another thing my midwife discussed with me was the option to induce delivery at 39 weeks if we choose. Because Nicholas was such a large baby for my frame, they want to avoid that with Nolan. I will get an ultrasound at 36 weeks to check his weight and then we will most likely induce on Monday 12/28. While I hope inducing won't make my delivery more difficult, we feel like having Nolan the last week in December is best for both of our families and hope that both sets of grandparents may get to visit that week and meet our new addition. 10 weeks to go, I can't believe it!

Friday evening, we decided to take Nicholas to Monkey Joes (a bouncy, jumpy place). We've taken him there one other time a long time ago and I don't think he remembered it. It took him a while to warm up and he spent at least the first 20 minutes just walking around staring in amazement and would not go into the jumpers. Finally after some encouragement, he finally agreed and caught on quickly and had a great time. If there was a bigger kid in the same jumper he would copy everything they did, it was very cute. Sweet Graham got a great workout himself going through all the different jumpy things and slides to help Nick as he was too small to do a lot of them on his own. What a great Daddy!

That night, Nicholas moved into his new room for the first time! The transition has been so easy, it's incredible. He did not even make a peep that night and when I checked on him hours later he hadn't moved an inch from where I had left him. He's done fabulously with naps too! He has always been a wonderful sleeper but it seems he's doing even better in his bed! He sleeps later, until after 8 am now, and has been taking 3 and 4 hour naps!! And he tells me that he really likes his Big Boy Bed.

On Sunday my sweet friend and neighbor, Kim, through me a wonderful baby shower. It was small, with only 8 of us, but it was perfect. It was wonderful to have some time to focus on Nolan and to get some special new things for him. Everything always seems to be about Nicholas these days so I really enjoyed the chance to celebrate our sweet baby. We played a few fun baby shower games, had some yummy food, had good conversation, and opened presents. :)

Lastly, today Nicholas and I went to the library to return books, get new ones, and sit for story time. He's been very much into the library these days and loves to check out movies and books at the library! And he loved the sing along and story time! It was one of those moments where I so enjoyed watching his face light up as he sang the songs and did the hand motions. It's days like these that I am so thankful that I am so blessed to be home with him and experience him growing and learning.

The good, the bad, and the very smelly

We had a super busy weekend--both good and bad. Unfortunately it started on a very sour note (literally) as we discovered a horrendous smell coming from our master bathroom. We believe that an animal has died somewhere however it is now Monday as I write this and we still have not discovered the source of the smell. We had a full weekend planned and decided that the best way to deal with this really big problem was not to deal with it at all and to not let it ruin our weekend.

So Saturday morning we headed up to Fairmount to spend the day with Grandad and Kaki. Unfortunately, the UGA game was pitiful and definitely made the bad list for the weekend. However getting to spend the day with Grandad and Kaki before they headed up to Nashville on Sunday was special. Nicholas just Loves going up to their house and playing with all of their special toys. It was exciting to see the new sunroom and porch that they added to their home and soon the pool will be done too (weather permitting of course)!

On Sunday after church, our Sunday School class traveled up to Dawsonville to Uncle Shuck's corn maze for some Fall fun! Nicholas is very excited about pumpkins this season so he loved seeing the Pumpkin Patch. He enjoyed the hay ride and kiddie maze but was a little frightened by the sound that the corn cannon made everytime it went off. Actually, he seemed to be most interested in eating while there and we spent more time filling his endless stomach. All the festivities wore him out quicker than we expected and we actually never made it into the corn maze. Honestly, this was ok with Graham and I as we were quite tired ourselves too. Nicholas fell asleep quickly on the drive home. I've included lots of pics of our time there--I thought they were cute. The group picture of our class is hysterical. There's no way you can take a pic with all those kids and it not be chaos! And then I had to include some belly pics too (even one with me eating a pickle--furthering pregnancy stereotypes!)

We came home to tackle the house with full force. Graham got to work attacking the smell with everything he had. After cutting a hole in the wall, emptying all of the drains, inspecting the crawl space and the attic....he was even more baffled than before. Meanwhile, I got to work setting up Nick's new room. Graham painted this week so I cleaned up and pulled everything together in the room. It looks so cute and Nicholas has loved playing in there the past two days. We hope to move him in by this weekend! (I'll include a picture once the room is complete).

And finally an update on the baby and pregnancy. I'm very happy to report that I have now entered into the third trimester and am 7 months pregnant now! And I am even happier to report that my morning sickness is finally behind me!! It is so nice to start my days puke free!! We are so anxious for Nolan James to join our family! Nicholas has enjoyed feeling baby Nolan kicking in Mommy's belly and talks to him everyday. Today when I was making mac & cheese for us for lunch, Nicholas said "Come out, come out Baby Nolan and eat some mac & cheese!" So cute!