Birthdays and Turkeys

November is a fun month for birthdays on my side of the family! We've had fun celebrating Mimi's 60th (!!) and PopPop's birthdays in between their travels. Nicholas was really sweet about making them birthday cards and picking out a very pretty bracelet for Mimi for her birthday. Cousin Kristin's birthday is later in the month and now we just added another birthday to November as we got the exciting news that Cousin Ryan and Natalie's baby was born last night! Welcome to the family Violet Jean Hensley! Can't wait to meet you precious one! Other than all the birthday fun, we also got to spend last weekend at Grandad and Kaki's house which was very fun and relaxing as always! We are all looking forward to heading back for Thanksgiving next week. And today was Nick's preschool Thanksgiving feast which is always so much fun to go see and eat! They sang some great songs for the parents and then we got to eat some delicious food and meet his friends and their families. I am looking forward to this holiday season and am being very purposeful to make it special but not stressful. I am really simplifying and focusing on the important things and trying to make things heartfelt and not commercial. We are so blessed and I hope to just spend this time being thankful with my amazing family--each and every one of you. Here are some cute pictures. The one of the boys is from the other day. I was making lunch for them and came to tell them it was ready and I found them cuddled up in a chair together just like this. They are truly the sweetest brothers ever! How did I get so lucky? ;)

More fall pictures

Well I have too many photos to share so here are some more ;)

Happy Fall Y'all! (sort of)

Once again it's been forever since I've updated the blog. My apologies for anyone that might actually read my blog (all 2 of you!). It's been another sick fall for the Garrison home and I'm using that as my excuse for never updating on here. But despite being so sick for so long, we have managed to have some fun times and have some cute pictures to share. The sick season actually started when we took the boys to their first UGA game. Unfortunately Nolan ran a fever during the game (103!) and he turned out to have croup and bronchitis. But he was a trooper and really enjoyed himself in the beginning. Both boys did a great job cheering on the Dawgs! We also got to meet up with Lauren, TJ and the kids which made it even more fun!
Other fun highlights to our fall include Soccer season. Nicholas had a great time this year playing with his friend Connor. What a difference a year makes! Nicholas was actually really good this year and knew what he was doing. He was a little hesitant at times and sometimes would stay just behind the person with the ball but he soon got over that and jumped right in and did a great job of scoring goals! Nolan did a great job cheering on his big bro and really wanted to get out there and join him!
We also got some cute pictures at Holly's sister Melissa's wedding up in Dahlonega--so beautiful, at our annual trip to Uncle Shuck's pumpkin patch, and my good friend Kim took some great pictures of my side of the family along the river at Roswell Mill.
Then came Halloween! I was very excited when Nicholas decided that he wanted to be Woody again for the 2nd year and both boys were excited for Nolan to be Buzz Lightyear. They were so cute and had so much fun Trick or Treating with family and neighborhood friends! Nolan knew just what to do! Nicholas was actually Buzz Lightyear when he was 2 also and it is so cute to see the pictures of both boys as Buzz!
Nick is having a great time at school this year and learning SO much. He took Daddy's book for show and tell last week for the letter G (Graham Garrison) and ever since that day, he's declared that he is an author. He no longer wants to draw his wonderful pictures of the family that he was drawing all the time, and now he just wants to write! He's been writing thank you cards and birthday cards and is doing a great job on all of his letters.
Nolan continues to crack us up all the time and is really growing! He loves his brother and copies his every move. They play great together and Nolan surprisingly does a great job of playing independently with his new love of trains and cars.
I love these boys so much and all the time we get to spend together, even if we are sick a lot! I'm hoping though that we are at the end of all this craziness and can enjoy the holidays coming up. :)

August = Fun

We had an amazing summer and I feel truly blessed for all of the great times we had, even just the fun of lazy days at home with my boys. The boys have become so close this summer as Nolan continues to grow and is more and more like a little boy and less like a baby, their relationship as brothers only grows stronger. It has been so neat to watch their love for each other and how they truly are becoming best friends. I hope they will always be best friends. And speaking of friends, I feel that this summer was spent focusing on friendships and we really deepened many friendships, especially with our neighbors. Our sweet neighbor, Brandon, spent every Monday with us this summer and by the end, he was just like one of the brothers! I actually loved having all three boys on those days as they had so much fun together--it was easy taking care of them! I've included a picture here of the 3 sweet, silly boys. At the end of July, Brandon turned 3 and had a very cool horseback riding birthday party. I forgot to include pictures in a previous blog so I thought I'd put them here. Nicholas loved seeing all of the farm animals and grooming the horses and then getting to ride one on a long trail. It was a great party! Another fun thing that we did in July and August was attend Gymboree classes. I came about some free and discounted passes so I signed the boys up for one month. They couldn't have loved it more! It was a great bonding time for all three of us too as we did both the music classes, and the play and learn classes. We were all sad to see the month come to an end!
The only thing that put a damper on our wonderful summer was my little booger, Nolan who stopped napping at the beginning of the summer when I took away the pacifier. For the last 3 months he has gone completely crazy everytime I put him to bed (naps or nighttime). It wasn't until the beginning of August that I realized that it was only me that he does it for and if Graham or Mimi (and probably anyone else) put him down, he's an angel and will take 3 hour naps without a peep! For me it becomes an all out WW3 around here. As you can imagine, this became very challenging for me and I finally decided last week to stop the battles and accept the fact that naps are over for my household. Very sad! Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one that misses them! The other crazy thing that has been happening with Nolan is that he is basically potty training himself! I started putting him on the potty before baths at the beginning of the summer and he goes immediately everytime. Now, he's started coming and telling me when he needs to go (today he told me 5 times!) So I guess I'll follow his lead and start full on potty training him! I can't believe this, he's only 1!
Our last weeks of summer were filled with birthday fun! On August 20th, we spent the day celebrating Lauren and Graham's birthdays at Grandad and Kaki's house. We had a great time in the pool, lots of cousin fun, and of course cake and presents! Then came Graham's actual birthday. We started the day off with breakfast at our favorite place, Loren's, then we went to Nick's open house to meet his teachers. After that the four of us went bowling. The boys loved it, even Nolan! Graham beat us all, which is how it should be on your birthday! That night we celebrated with a birthday dinner with my side of the family at Outback. The boys and I agreed that we wished it was Daddy's birthday everyday--what fun! On Saturday the celebration continued as Graham and I headed up to the mountains for a night at our favorite place, Lucille's Mountaintop Inn. It was just as beautiful as we remembered it from our stay 5 years ago. We enjoyed lots of shopping, wine tasting, and relaxing on Saturday and spent Sunday enjoying the great outdoors. We went for a canoe trip down the Chattahoochee. The guides drove us to a creek in the middle of nowhere, dropped the canoe in the water and said "see you in 3 hours." We were on our own to manuever through very shallow waters for what felt like an eternity--talk about a test for your marriage! It only took a little while for us to realize how to work together instead of yelling at each other, to paddle the right way and make it through the "rapids". We only fell in once! There is no way to describe how sore and tired we both were by the end (and for days to follow). It was an incredible weekend though and we are so thankful for any time that we get to get away just the two of us! It helps knowing the boys are having so much fun at the same time with their sweet grandparents!
Last week, Nicholas started Pre-K, although it was no big deal to Mr. Independent. He loves his school so much and is so comfortable there that I don't think he thought twice about summer ending or even any back to school nerves. In fact the night before school I wanted to say a pray about his first day and he wouldn't let me (he only wanted to say the Lord's Prayer). I explained to him that I wanted to pray that God will be with him on his first day. He cut me off and said "Fine, God can come with me on my first day, but after that, I can handle it!" The next morning he tells me "Mom, you don't need to walk me to my class. You can just drop me off, I know how to get to the 4 year old class all on my own!" Wow! He doesn't need God, he doesn't need his Mommy! I'm glad he's confident and not scared but maybe he's taking it a step too far?? Well, he's had a great start to school though and already he's learning all of his letter sounds and able to tell us what almost any words start with. Can't wait for another year of watching him learn by leaps and bounds! And lastly, speaking of learning, this weekend (at the very end of summer) Nicholas learned how to swim! It was so exciting! He finally just stopped being fearful and just swam to me as I was talking and totally not paying attention. He's a little fish now and doing great! Too bad he'll have to wait till next summer to keep it up.

Beach Bums

The boys and I just got back from an amazing week at Hilton Head with my parents! We were so sad to go without Graham and the rest of the family (Ashley, Jay, Papa and the Hensleys were all very missed) but we still managed to have a wonderful time just the five of us! Mom and the boys and I drove up on Saturday. The boys were so well behaved the entire car ride--they did so good! After dinner that first night we rushed down to the beach to enjoy the sunset and a little playing on the beach (also hoping to wear out the boys so they, Nolan in particular, would sleep well in a new place). It was a great night! The next day we got down to the beach fairly early and we were very excited to enjoy the water. Mom and Nicholas were floating on the boogie board and I was just holding Nolan and we were floating in the water. It was very nice even though there were a few waves but we had gone out past where the waves were breaking. All of a sudden, the largest wave I think I've ever seen in my life was forming way above my head. There was no getting over it and in a second in crashed down on top of me, slamming me to the ocean floor. I held on so tightly to Nolan who was like a doll in my arms and the wave continued to tumble us multiple times and I could not get up through the force of it. We finally made it up and thank goodness Nolan was fine (he is so brave and not bothered by the water). Thankfully Nicholas had gone under water but shot right back up and quickly found Mimi. I had a badly skinned elbow and both Nick and I lost our sunglasses but thanks to the boys life vests, everyone was shaken up but fine. Needless to say, we did not go back in the water the rest of the day and Nick and I headed to the pool instead. That evening we headed into Sea Pines and ended up at a hole in the wall pizza joint but Nicholas loved it because they had a small putt putt green outside that he loved playing at. The next day we decided to take a break from the beach (and the waves and the jellyfish which were really bad all week long) and we headed to the pool in the morning and then off to shop the rest of the day. The next morning we were excited that PopPop would be joining us. He had stayed home to play golf at a qualifier for the US Senior Amateur tournament and we are so proud that he qualified!! He will be playing in the tournament in Virginia in September. We are so proud of you Dad!!
We spent our days at the beach the rest of the week with no injuries or mishaps or jellyfish stings! It was so amazing to watch Nicholas as every day he made new friends, literally everywhere we went. He is so social and has never met a stranger! So thanks to Nicholas we met lots of families during the week and looked forward to meeting friends at the beach each day. We even met another little Nolan (Graham was his middle name!) who was Nolan's age! The boys loved the beach and playing in the sand and tide pools. One of our favorite things was that I rented a kiddie kart attached to the bike to ride the boys to and from the beach each day. The boys love it and it gives me some great exercise pulling them around! We would come back to the house each day for Nolan's nap but Nicholas was so excited about everything that he rarely napped. Many afternoons he and I went back to the pool and on Wednesday, he and PopPop had an exciting afternoon of putt putt. Nicholas and PopPop both got a hole in one! They kept playing and playing, probably 36 holes in all, and the only way PopPop could get him home was to bribe him with ice cream! He sure loves his golf, just like PopPop!
Tuesday night we headed to Shelter Cove for dinner, shopping, bouncing in the bouncy castles, and Shannon Tanner's show which the boys really enjoyed. Unfortunately the fireworks were rained out by a massive storm that sent everyone running in a mass exodus! Later that night our power back at the house went out for the entire night. That was a long, hot, and pitch black night for me as I shared a room (and tiny twin bed) with a scared Nicholas.
Wednesday night we headed down to Shelter Cove for dinner at the Crazy Crab and Gregg Russell's show. Nicholas loved it and wanted so badly to sing a song for Gregg but he was not called on (next year we'll have to make a sign). And Nolan wore me out running everywhere, in between the crowd and up on stage! Nick's favorite part of that night was getting to ride the Trolley throughout Sea Pines.
Thursday night we ate at Hudson's, a favorite of ours and then we went down to the beach to see the full moon and play tag in the dark. What a wonderful memory this will always be for me as I watched Mom and Dad chase Nick and Nolan all along the beach hearing the boys scream with laughter!
Friday night we headed to a new area for us, South Beach, and we headed to the Salty Dog Cafe for dinner. Nick got to see a magician which he enjoyed and then of course we did some shopping.
We were so sad to leave the next day and to put an end to the relaxing and fun but we were also very excited to see Graham. The boys were so well behaved all week and by some miracle, Nolan was a great sleeper!! It was so great being away from the daily chores and responsibilities that are at home and just have an entire week to have fun with the two sweetest boys in the whole world and I loved having quality time with Mom and Dad too. Thanks for a great week and wonderful memories, Mom and Dad!

Nolan strikes again

Today I hosted a playdate brunch for a few of my friends and all of our kids. We had so much fun! There were 9 kids (8 boys and 1 poor girl!) ranging from the age of 5 to 14 months. They all had so much fun and played incredibly well together. And all of us moms had a great time visiting and getting to know each other.
Well right before everyone got here, I was cooking in the kitchen and the boys were playing so nicely in the living room, or so I thought. Nicholas had asked me if he could take a quick video using the flip camera and I had said he could. He then comes back to proudly show me the video he captured. I pressed play, only to discover that he captured Nolan as he wrote all over the ottoman with a pen. Needless to say, I was not happy with either my artist or my filmographer! Here is the lovely video for your enjoyment: http://youtu.be/YLRROWACO7s
On a side note, on Sunday while at Aunt Ashley's house after a quick swim, I went to change in the bathroom and little Nolan had to join me of course. As I was washing my hands, I turn to find him throwing all of my clothes that I was about to change into, into the toilet! Had to add another toilet story for the blog. I sure hope this entire blog isn't going to turn into nothing but misbehavin' Nolan stories!

Boys will be boys...

Lately I have been feeling like Nolan has made it his personal calling to indoctrinate me into life as a Mom of boys. It almost feels like I didn't have a boy until Nolan came along. Don't get me wrong, Nicholas loves cars, trains, Transformers, and trucks as much as any other boy, but he's such a sweetheart and a pleaser and doesn't like to get messy, so I really don't have any crazy "boy" stories with him (that I can think of). Essentially, he's a first-born to a T. Now along comes Nolan and I feel like I have a new crazy or disgusting story each day! It started probably 7 months ago, when Nolan was just 1, when it was Nolan who started to loudly pass gas and then laugh, teaching his older brother the art of the fart joke! In fact, Nicholas didn't even know the word for passing gas (or farting, toot, bottom burp, or barking spiders as some have been known to refer to it). All he knew was that whenever that would occur I would say to him "Say excuse me". So I cracked up when one day, sitting at the lunch table the boys entered into a contest if you will, and Nicholas laughed and turned to me and said, "My excuse me was louder than Nolan's excuse me!"
Now I have mentioned on here how Nolan likes to keep me on my toes and is always into everything. Well about a month ago he added the toilet to that list! It started out with him playing in the water--gross!! And one time I caught him at the last second before he dunked my hair brush into the toilet! But the grossest thing yet happened the day after we got back from the beach. We were all hanging out in our bedroom when Nolan went into our bathroom and closed the door behind him. He was in there for a mere 30 seconds before coming out and coming over to me. I touched his head to realize that he was soaking wet. I couldn't imagine how it happened and went to investigate, only to find water splashed all over the toilet seat. Somehow he had managed to dunk his head and shoulders in the toilet!! Thankfully he has not touched the toilet since then and I hope his interest has waned.
Last week I added yet another wonderful story to my list as I was changing his diaper. As I was putting some diaper cream on him, he loudly passes gas (I promise this is not the only thing my child does, it just happens to be incorporated in all of these wonderful stories) and thought it was the funniest thing ever. So of course during the next diaper change he decides to recreate the humorous moment. He strains to do so but is unsuccessful, instead he manages to force himself to pee all over me! I start screaming and telling him no, which only makes him laugh and try harder. He peed on me 3 times before I managed to get a dry diaper on him! He continued to try to do this at the next few diaper changes but thankfully I was able to avoid the spray ;) I can only imagine the stories that I will add to this colorful list as he grows!
Over the weekend, Nicholas fully embraced his boyhood on his special alone weekend with Grandad and Kaki. He had such a wonderful time swimming in the pool and the hot tub, playing at their house, and going to Chuck E. Cheese. But the most exciting parts of the whole weekend were catching toads in the pool and going walking on a trail with Grandad where he taught him how to shoot a BB gun and they even saw a cow skull (and shot at it). I know he made so many wonderful memories during that special time with them. And back at home, we enjoyed our rare one-on-one time with Nolan. We had a low key weekend but Graham did enjoy taking him to Catch Air while I hosted a baby shower at the house.
Despite the craziness, or probably even because of it, I love everything about my wild boys!

Sensational Summer

Well summer is halfway over now and we sure have had a blast! The first month of summer Nicholas had a very busy schedule. First he had a week of Space Camp at his school that he loved. He loves his school so much that he doesn't understand why he has this silly long break called Summer and many mornings he still asks me if he gets to go to school that day! That first weekend in June, Graham and I escaped for a wonderful weekend up in Dahlonega. The boys had a blast at Mimi and PopPop's while we relaxed at a Spa, visited winerys, hiked to waterfalls, and enjoyed shopping and delicious meals. It was a much appreciated getaway!
We returned home to start the very busy week of Mt. Pisgah's VBS. I was a crew leader for Nicholas and 13 4 year olds. Nicholas had a little bit of a difficult time handling the loud music at first and the jam-packed activities, but he did better as the week went on and ultimately loved it! It was totally exhausting for me but I have some wonderful memories and it was great to be able to share the experience with Nick.
That weekend we celebrated Nicholas' 4th birthday! It was truly a wonderful birthday party, I could not have asked for a better experience. The party was at Farmhouse in the City and the kids had a great time with the animals, playing dress up, painting pottery, getting their face painted, hunting for candy, and of course enjoying a delicious Transformers cake. After the party, all of the family enjoyed a great pizza birthday dinner. I cannot believe my firstborn is 4 years old! I also can't believe how much Nicholas has grown up in this year. He is truly a boy now, no longer a baby, and he reminds us (and everyone he comes in contact with) of this every day. He is constantly pointing out "I'm 4 now, I'm a kid now" and he'll frequently ask, "Is this for 4 year olds?" about anything and everything I might offer him like toys, books, movies, even food sometimes. He lights up my world and I am so thankful for the wonderful, loving boy he is!
The following week Nick enjoyed yet another VBS, this time at the church where he goes to preschool. He enjoyed this one as he got to be with 2 of his closest friends from school. And I enjoyed not having to work at this one and getting to spend some one-on-one time with Nolan.
That next weekend was spent celebrating all of the Father's for Father's Day as we spent the weekend with Grandad on Saturday and then PopPop and Papa on Sunday. We are so blessed to have such amazing Daddy's and Grandpa's all around!
Other fun things that we've been doing this summer include spending lots of time with our great neighbors. I started a walking group and we get out almost every morning with our friends to get some exercise. I have also been watching our neighbor's little boy Brandon every Monday which has been fun for all of the boys.
Then last weekend we traveled to Tybee Island with Grandad and Kaki, Lauren, TJ and Trip and Mady. It was such an amazing trip--I wish we were still there! Grandad and Kaki rented a fabulous beach house that we enjoyed so much! It was just a short walk to the beach and we spent every morning at the virtually private beach. The house had a great porch with a hammock and dining table, a terrific living room/kitchen area, 5 bedrooms, and a rooftop patio complete with hot tub. I think the best part of the trip was having all of the kids together for so many days to play. Nicholas and Trip were inseperable and got to share a room and never fought once the whole trip. Mady enjoyed lots of cuddle time with each of the adoring adults and jumped right in to the boys playing when she wanted. And Nolan was his normal self, getting into everything and being a total ham. In spite of Nolan's major sleeping (screaming) problems, it was a terrific trip. We really never needed to leave the beach house/beach, which is a good thing because we discovered that there is not much to do on the actual island. The restaurants weren't very good and the shopping was downright horrible. The guys did enjoy going to a museum one day and taking the kids to the lighthouse/fort another day. We enjoyed watching fireworks from the roof each night as we could see them from all directions and one of the most magical moments was 4th of July evening when we went out to the beach and saw what must have been 20 dolphins swimming very close to shore. With the beautiful shrimp boat and birds just behind the dolphins and the sunset in the backdrop, it was breathtaking! This trip was truly memorable and we are so thankful to Grandad and Kaki for making it happen!
P.S. I love the picture I included here of Grandad and Kaki trying to wrangle up all of their grandkids into one smiling picture for the photographer--Classic! "Like herding cats!"
(Sorry for all of the pictures! There were just too many good ones to pass up!)