What a weekend!!

I don't think we could have crammed one more thing into this crazy, fun and exhausting weekend. Sit back and make some time for this blog, I'm sure it'll be a long one to share all about our recent events!
Our busy, fun events started on Thursday. I picked Nicholas up from school and we went over to play at Eli's house. The boys had a great time playing of course, Kim and I loved catching up, and it was adorable seeing Nolan's fascination with baby Leah (now 4 months). We got caught up in all the fun there and had no time for naps before heading to a doctors appointment to get Nolan checked out for his lingering cough, tummy problems, and diaper rash. We left there, prescription in hand and headed home to pick up Daddy and a quick bite and then it was back off to Nick's last soccer practice. He had a great time of course, especially with his little friend Cayden. The two of them just get into their own silly world out there, it's so cute to watch!
Friday was another busy day (preschool, Bible study, a little shopping) and then we headed out that evening for the Parade of Nations for his soccer team. It's like a mini World Cup Parade of Nations where each of the soccer teams, all different countries, line up and parade around the field waving their flags. There was music and food and tons of crazy children running circles around the field. It was lots of fun except that Nicholas learned the word "poopyhead" and was the victim of this other little bully who kept pushing him down. Nicholas actually took this all well and thought it was funny--I did not. I am not ready for the potty talk and aggressive boy-play! I am praying this was a fluke night and this will not be the normal interaction with other boys these days. I know it will come sometime, I'm just not ready yet!
Saturday we knew we were going to have to start things early but Nicholas had even earlier ideas. At 5 am he came into our room wanting to get in our bed. Knowing that I could not give in on this as we had just recently conquered this issue, I told him it was not time to wake up yet and he had to go back to bed. Nick freaked out and fell hysterically in the hall, kicking and screaming--right in front of Nolan's door might I add. So we found ourselves giving him a spanking at 5 am. Not how we wanted to start our day!
Nick's final soccer game was that morning. He did a great job and got a goal and had so much fun doing it. Mostly I was so proud of him for having a great attitude and having fun! He got an awesome trophy and certificate and was so proud!
We left the soccer game and drove to Dawsonville to Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Farm and met our Sunday School class. And we were so thankful that Mimi joined us for the fun! Nicholas loved the Kiddie Corn Maze--so much so that we never had to pay for the real corn maze! We went for a hay ride, had lunch, and took some not very good pictures in the pumpkins (sadly the pic of the two boys with the pumpkins is the best one of the both of them!). We got tired quickly and headed home, both boys passing out in the car.
Our next adventure was not a fun one. On Friday I quickly ran into a new Goodwill next to our home and found a beautiful TV armoire. I called Graham and then went back and purchased it, however we had to figure out the logistics of getting it home. We had until 8 pm on Saturday to get it and this proved to be much more difficult than I ever imagined. After much stress and many phone calls to figure out different options, we ended up at Lowe's to rent a truck. A very kind employee there ended up being so generous and brought the truck to Goodwill for free! It took 4 LARGE Goodwill employees to get it into the truck. I then called all my girlfriends in the neighborhood and in a matter of 2 minutes, we had 5 husbands (and one much needed hand truck) in our driveway to move the armoire! I can't get over how wonderful our neighbors are! It was a miracle but it all worked out and no one was injured and thankfully our marriage is still intact! I'm so sorry honey! And after everything calmed down, we were able to watch our TV in our new armoire and see the Bulldawgs win!
(At this point, you are probably tired just from reading all this. As exhausted as we may have been, we still had a full day planned for Sunday!)
We started the day as I wish I did everyday, with worship and fellowship at church and Sunday School. Afterwards, Mom and the boys and me headed out to East Cobb Park (Graham earned a day off after the debacle from yesterday) for Nolan's modeling debut! Nolan had a photo shoot for a baby catalog where he was modeling a pacifier clip. He's been practicing his model face (Magnum style) for weeks now! The pictures turned out amazing and I can't wait to get them. And I was so excited to get the free baby gear as payment. After playing on the playground, we moved on to our next stop to visit my friend Nadine's new house nearby. We had a wonderful visit and tour of her beautiful new home (I'm so happy for you Nadine!) and Nicholas had a wonderful time playing with her husband Michael in the backyard.
Our final stop on this whirlwind of a weekend was back home to our neighborhood pumpkin carving party. We had great food and fellowship with our neighbors. In fact Nicholas was having so much fun playing with all the other little kids that he would not stop to eat. The biggest surprise was that one of our neighbors owns a tractor and trailer and offered to come by and give hayrides for everyone! We've always sort of made fun of this home as they have goats and chickens (yes, that's right, in our neighborhood in Alpharetta, GA) but it seems having a "farmer" for a neighbor paid off! Graham and I took turns, each going with the boys for a hayride. And in the end, we had so much fun and there was no time for pumpkin carving!
Thankfully, all of my boys (Hubby included) are now fast asleep after our crazy weekend! I am so thankful for all of the experiences that we are able to provide for our boys. I just hope that we can teach them gratitude and appreciation along the way. Now I better get to bed too!

Just the two of us

Last weekend Graham and I had the rare pleasure of getting away just the two of us. Of course it's not as easy these days to just "wisk" away, even when it's just for one night. And I doubled my work by inviting our friends and their 2 children to house sit for the weekend and take care of Baxter. So I worked like crazy cleaning the house, doing many loads of laundry, and packing for all of us. I didn't get much sleep Friday night (what's new) and I was very much looking forward to my one night of hopefully uninterrupted sleep and the chance to sleep in on Sunday morning. If I could just stay awake during the day Saturday! We started out the morning with Nick's soccer game, which went pretty well, then off to Mimi and PopPop's house to drop off the boys. Graham and I spent the day at Atlantic Station. We had a great lunch, shopped at the street vendors and in the stores, experienced Dialog in the Dark (incredible experience of what it is like to be blind), and went to the movies. An entire day of things that are challenging or impossible to do with our little guys in tow. Most of all, it was just wonderful getting to spend an entire day with just Graham and me. I am so thankful for a husband that I love to spend time with and who continues to encourage us to do things like this. I hate to admit it but as a mom, it's often easy to get caught up in the day to day of raising my boys and the extra work that goes into trying to get away can often stop me from planning things like this. But I'm so glad we did--we had a great time with our day of freedom! We spent the evening back in our old neck of the woods--Vinings. We recently stayed there for Nadine's wedding. However I stupidly forgot how allergic I was to the bed until I woke at 3 am because of a loud hotel guest in the hall and remembered how badly I had felt the last time we were here. Needless to say, I did not get that long and restful night's sleep I have desired for as long as I can remember. And unfortunately Sunday was spent at the car shop and minute clinic as both the car and myself needed a tune up! At least we had a great Saturday!
The boys had a wonderful time with Mimi and PopPop. Nicholas loved reading all the books and playing with all of the toys there. He played lots of golf and his favorite thing was going on two different walks through the neighborhood to see all of the Halloween decorations. They even got a personal tour inside the notorious Halloween House on the corner with the million decorations! Unfortunately, Nolan wasn't feeling so well and decided he needed some Mimi-time throughout the night. Sorry Mimi! He turned 10 months on Sunday--Can't believe it! We met up with the boys and Mimi and Aunt Ashley at a local church that had a pumpkin patch. It was fun and Nick loved the maze.
This week so far we've just laid low as Nolan continues to have a cough and upset tummy--but you'd never know it as he remains his sweet self. We did have a great treat on Tuesday when we met up with Holly and Caroline and went walking in the park. It was so wonderful to see both of them!
In other big news, this evening as Nicholas and I were cooking dinner, Nolan was playing in the tupperware in the kitchen (total craziness in our very tiny kitchen) and I looked down and realized that he was crawling, for real crawling! He has been "army crawling" for about a month now and he just picked himself up and started crawling across the room. So cool! Unfortunately his biggest motivations to crawl long distances are to get cords and the drawers of the entertainment center. I'm sure I will forever say this about Nolan but it's going so fast and I can't believe in 2 months he'll be 1! It's not like everything ends then but for some reason I am so sad for his babyhood to be over. I just want to wear him in the sling forever! Do you think he'll let me "wear" him as he heads off to school??

Mommy Badges

This morning I sip my coffee (a new serious addiction for me thanks to Nolan's sleepless first 6 months) after a much appreciated good night's sleep (following 2 all-nighters with my sick boys) and find myself in a sentimental and retrospective mood. These days I often find myself stepping back and observing the life and growth that is happening around me and I want so badly to remember it all. Remember the good and the not so good. Because I feel with mommyhood, as in life, it's making it through those challenging moments (or weeks or months) that make the good times so much better. And since for some reason they don't give out badges to us moms when we make it through those challenges, I'm trying to store up those mental badges in my quickly depleting brain. I've earned lots of badges so far, some of them multiple times over--Pregnancy Badge, Labor and Delivery Badge, Breastfeeding Badge, Sleep Deprivation Badge, Reflux Baby Badge, Surviving Year One Badge, Terrible Two's Badge, Potty-training Badge, Sick Baby and Child Badge (there's a special badge for Stomach Viruses and I have way too many of these)... I'm currently working my way toward earning the Trying Three's Badge, the Room Mom Badge, Baby Food Making Badge, and Cloth Diapering Badge to name a few. There's way too many "Badges" to list. If only I had a vest to display them with. I'm so thankful that thus far we have been so blessed to have all of the run-of-the-mill parenting "challenges", but even still, I have learned so much from all of these experiences. So here is a mental snapshot of both of the boys these days:
Nicholas. I never gave much thought to what a three year old boy was like prior to having one myself but I definitely couldn't have imagined as much personality, imagination, moodiness, and intelligence as is rolled up into our little Nick. One of his favorite things to do these days is to tell stories. It is usually during meal times and he declares "I'm going to tell you my story. My story is called..." and he will give the story a title and then proceed to tell an elaborate tale of monsters or aliens or two little boys who went to play or whatever he can think up. He tells these stories just as the books we read tell their stories. My favorite was yesterday when he told of one Happy Boy who went over to his friend's house to play. The other boy was Grumpy Boy and he did not want to play with his friend. But then, Grumpy Boy's attitude started to change (he really said that) and he turned into Happy Boy too and he decided to share with his friend. Isn't that adorable! It's moments like those that I realize he is taking in the things that I say and he's learning how to manage his roller coaster of emotions. One moment he's telling me spontaneous "I love you Mommy"'s and wanting hugs and kisses and the next moment he's shooting me with his invisible lazor or crossing his arms, furrowing his brow and sticking out his pouty lip and saying "Don't tell me that MOMMY!" I swear he didn't get this drama from me! ;) But he loves to learn and is doing it at warp speed these days and he really does want to be obedient and I can see that he's trying hard each day. I love my Nicholas more than I could ever have imagined--drama and all!
Nolan. My sweet, precious little curious Nolan. He is 9 1/2 months now and is changing and growing each day. This week he's perfected the army crawl and getting into a sitting position all on his own (which he likes to practice during naptime or at 4 am). He's pulling up on furniture and is even taking steps while holding onto your hands! He is into everything and works so hard to get his hands on anything he sees across the floor--especially Nick's things (Nichols did not see this coming!) He is much more interested in cords and outlets than Nicholas ever was (not good for me). This week we had to lower his crib mattress to the lowest setting and flip the mattress from the Infant side to the Toddler side. I silently screamed in my head "No! He is not a Toddler!! He is still my baby! This is going way too fast!!" He is 9 months old but wears 18 month size clothes!! He is doing great with finger foods and loves feeding himself fruits and veggies and cheerios. He loves clapping and smiling and laughing and talking more and more. He is such a happy baby and I really hope he stays that way! And somehow there is room in my heart to love Nolan more than words can say.
So while I know I won't have the ability to remember all of these moments as they grow, I'm thankful for time to enjoy them as they happen and pray that the important things stick in my memory. Here's to change and growth, and good coffee to get me through.

Celebrating Life!

What a special week this was! I am so pleased to announce the birth of beautiful Caroline Coe Blackwell on Sunday, September 26th! We have been excitedly and prayerfully awaiting this day for so long! On Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church, I got a call from Holly telling me that her water had broke--the baby would be coming today! Because of a low platelet count, Holly was not going to be able to get an epidural so she waited out at home for 6 hours or so to get things progressing. But God is so faithful and when they got to the hospital she learned that He had answered our many prayers and her platelets were up and she was able to get an epidural!! Thank goodness because things were progressing pretty slowly and Holly was having back labor as well so she was in a lot of pain. After a long time of waiting (19 hours) Holly was finally ready to push! Less than an hour later, Caroline Coe was welcomed into the world! Things got pretty scary there for a while as Holly's platelets dropped during delivery and she was bleeding uncontrollably for an hour! Caroline also had a lot of mucus in her mouth and was having a little bit of trouble breathing. Finally the doctors got all of this under control and the family was able to meet their new precious addition! I am thrilled beyond words for the Blackwells and can't wait for lots of cuddle time with sweet Caroline! Graham and I did get to have a brief meeting with her in the hospital on Monday and I look forward to many more :)

Our celebrations have continued this week as Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of Butch's cancer diagnosis. What a year this has been for him and our family! A year of highs and lows, of physical, emotional, and spiritual transformations! God has healed Butch of the cancer in a miraculous way and Butch's body continues to heal from all that it has been through in this year. His strength and courage and positive attitude through it all has been an incredible inspiration to all who know and love Butch. And most importantly God has transformed his heart in an incredible way and his testimony is remarkable! We are so thankful for this year with Butch and for the many, many years to come! We love you with all our hearts Grandad!!

And lastly, for an update on the boys. Last Saturday Nicholas had his worst and best soccer game of the season. Worst because he was so upset and crying and refused to play for a long time. Best because once he finally got out there he scored not only his first goal, but he scored 3 goals!! Go NICK!
Nolan has had a busy milestones week. Each day he is closer and closer to fully crawling. He has worked so hard this week and rolls all around, army crawls, pushes backwards, and gets up on all fours and rocks like he's about to take off and race! Any day now he will be able to pick up that arm while up on all fours and crawl forward. I also discovered on Thursday night that he is finally cutting his first tooth! With all of this hard work that he has been doing this week, he's had no time to sleep! Instead of napping, he spends all of his time in his crib trying to crawl and he's waking up in the middle of the night a lot too. Hopefully we get through these things soon and he's back to his normal sleep routines. And let me just say, my sweet, calm baby that was content to just sit, is now into EVERYTHING. I am going to be in big trouble now keeping up with him!
Nicholas quote of the week:
Last night we went to Party City to get a Halloween costume for Nicholas. He stared at the huge wall full of possibilities and finally chose Woody from Toy Story. As we drove home he asked me what I am going to be for Halloween. I told him "I'm going to be Nicholas and Nolan's Mommy." His response "No mommy, they didn't have that one."