Our Christmas Celebration

What a blessed Christmas season our family had! Before I get to the week of Christmas, let me catch up on earlier Christmas festivities. On Wednesday the 15th, I took the boys out to meet Graham at work and then to meet Santa at the mall. Nicholas really understands exactly how the whole Santa thing works this year. Especially since Buddy the Elf has been here for quite a while. Every morning Nick can't wait to get up and find where Buddy is hiding after his trip to the North Pole while he was sleeping. So he was so excited when I told him that Santa had come down from the North Pole and was going to be at the mall so we could go see him and get our pictures taken. Nick did great and sat right on his lap and told him that he wanted a Transformer, Skyfire (he made up this name) for Christmas. Nolan on the other hand was quite afraid of Santa and screamed anytime Santa looked at him. We did manage to get one good picture though and that's all I wanted!
Then on Friday was Nick's Christmas Program at school. Unfortunately there was an ice day on the day of the performance so it had to be rescheduled for Friday, Nolan's birthday. This made for a busy day for me with the doctor's appointment and then the program but thankfully I made it to both! Nicholas did such a wonderful job singing his songs and doing all of the hand motions! He had been singing the songs at home for the last month so I knew he knew them well. How he loves to sing and perform! In fact, he did so well that he didn't even notice when the little girl standing right beside him threw up everywhere! But of course that couldn't stop the show and the rest of the children did great. I'm so thankful that Graham got to come for it too on his lunch break!
After our birthday celebrations that weekend for both Nolan and Ashley, the Hensley's arrived into town on Monday. We spent much of the week hanging out with the entire family and enjoying lots of family dinners. After 2 nights out at restaurants, I was exhausted from the work that takes with the kids so Wednesday night I made dinner for everyone at our house--Tamale Casserole and Margaritas what fun! On Wednesday, Graham and Kristin and I took the boys to a new kids bouncey place called Catch Air right near our house. This place was awesome for both boys to play at! I will be spending lots of days here now that I've discovered it! On Thursday night, Papa treated us all to dinner at the club. This would have been lovely except that when we arrived there Nicholas started to complain about his tummy hurting. I spent the entire dinner taking him back and forth to the bathroom until he finally puked by the dinner table. We quickly left to go home. He got sick one more time at home and that was it. Very bizarre.
For Christmas eve we all attended the "Family" service at church. I have to say that it was kind of odd, I guess it was geared toward a bit older kids. I think it missed the mark and didn't appeal to either the boys or the adults. But the music was sweet and we all enjoyed singing Silent Night at the end with our glow sticks. We then came back to our house and had another yummy dinner and everyone enjoyed playing with the boys. The boys opened their Christmas PJ's and then we read the Christmas story from the Bible and it was bedtime. Santa got busy at work once the boys were in bed and we even had some help from Kristin. Christmas morning Nicholas did a great job of coming into our room first and waiting until Nolan woke up. The boys had fun playing with the toys from Santa and their stockings until the rest of the family came over a little bit later. We had a wonderful morning of gift giving and enjoyed a big Christmas breakfast. Around noon the snow started falling! This was the first time we've ever had snow on Christmas! We went over to Mimi and PopPop's house that afternoon for a delicious Christmas dinner. We got quite a lot of snow and the next day had to postpone our Christmas with the Garrison side of the family because of concern for ice on the roads.
This week I've enjoyed a relaxing week of having Graham at home. It's been so nice having him around for 2 weeks to do special things and also just to have fun and relax at home. We even got to enjoy some time just the two of us as the boys stayed 2 nights at Mimi and PopPop's house. We had a great date night and spent the rest of the time doing much needed projects around the house that never can get done with little ones at your feet.
It was such a special Christmas and I am so thankful for all of God's blessings in our lives. Most of all I am thankful for the gift of Christ--for his life and his sacrifice for me, and for this wonderful season to celebrate Him with the ones I love! It is also such a joy to share this with the boys and each year see them learn and understand more and more about Christ.
We are so thankful to God for all of the blessings of 2010 and look forward to a wonderful 2011. God is SOO good!

Nolan's First Birthday

I'm not sure how it happened but my baby is now 1 year old! This year has flown by so much faster than I could have imagined and it doesn't seem like things will be slowing down anytime soon. What a special year it has been with our sweet, smiley Nolan. Nolan has added so much joy to our family and I am so thankful to God that he blessed our family with him!! Of course we've had our challenges during the baby stages and have lost some sleep but the love and laughter from our sweet Nolan James has made up for all of it 100 times over! Nolan has such a sweet and happy personality and a great curiosity for exploring the world around him. I love that he loves his Mommy so much and lets me know by shouting out my name all the time and always crawling for me wherever I may be in the house! The smiles and laughter that he has for his Daddy is priceless. He always gets his Daddy's attention, then tilts his head to one side and flashes his beautiful gummy smile and giggles. I know it melts his Daddy's heart every time. And oh how Nolan loves to follow his big brother around and tackle Nicholas. No one can make Nolan laugh like his big brother!

I have to admit that for a while I was quite emotional about the thought of my baby no longer being a baby! Every milestone has been more emotional for me with Nolan as I want so badly to savor each moment of his babyhood yet despite my efforts, everything seems to be moving even faster this time around. But that being said, I now find myself excited for this next year in Nolan's life and the changes that will come. I am so looking forward to watching Nolan continue to learn and grow and discover his world. I love seeing his personality develop with each day and can't wait for him to learn more words so we can hear all he has to tell us (if he can get a word in with his big brother around). And one of the most special things of this year is seeing the relationship develop between these sweet brothers. I look forward to seeing that grow as well as they play more and more together with each day (although I know with that will also come more fights but you take the good with the bad, right?).

These days Nolan is cruising and crawling around everywhere! Still no walking on his own but that doesn't stop him from getting anywhere he wants to go. He's super fast and super curious. He still loves cords and outlets and the dog bowl and basically anything that he's not supposed to get into, however, surprisingly he mostly ignored the Christmas tree (much to my delight!). He is great at eating his finger foods and loves his bottle and is refusing to have his milk in a cup. His favorite game is throwing his cup on the floor and feeding the dog. Nolan has 2 bottom teeth and is currently cutting all 4 top front teeth (poor guy). His favorite word is Mama and he also says Dada and NiNi (night night) and of course lots of other lovely sounds. He's still my sensitive little guy and frightens easily from the dog's barking, vacuums, and some men (sorry Uncle Cliff and Santa!). He is the best starer in the world--you do not want to enter a staring contest with him because he will win! And at his 12 month check up, he weighed 24 pounds and 9 ounces and was 30 inches long. I feel so blessed to have Nolan in my life each and everyday!

We celebrated Nolan's first year with a family party on Saturday the 18th. Nolan did not disappoint with the cake and dug into his own cake with fistful after fistful immediately as the cake was put down in front of him. He was covered in cake and just kept going! After he ate HALF of his individual cake I finally took it away from him but I'm confident he would have kept going had I let him! He loves his sweets! And he got some fun and cute presents although I will say that Nicholas was more into the opening and then playing with all of the new toys than Nolan was. It was a wonderful party that I was actually able to enjoy instead of stress over!
Here's to another wonderful year with our growing boy! I'm sure the second birthday will be here in the blink of an eye!

NACF and Trip turns 5!!!!

Prayers were answered in a big way this week and we have remained healthy! For the first time, we were able to attend the North Atlanta Christmas Festival at church as a family (without someone being very sick). This year, Nicholas was old enough to attend with us instead of staying down in the nursery and I'm not sure who was more excited about it, him or me. I had told him that at the end of the show we would see the story of baby Jesus and he could not wait! He sat on the edge of his seat the entire time, each song and performance more exciting than the last. In the begining he saw Frosty the Snowman and two huge Panda bears and Toy Soldiers. I wondered if he would enjoy the middle section where the choir sings but he loved all the lights and songs and sang right along, even when he didn't know the words. The show ended with the miraculous story of Jesus's birth. The costumes are tremendous and it's as if you are truly there with the shepherds and the wise men! Nicholas couldn't contain himself and begged me to run up and meet baby Jesus and hold him! (Little did he know that baby Jesus was really baby Kate, my friend Stephanie's daughter, who we had been over playing with on Monday!)
It was an amazing performance and God moved in powerful ways! We are so thankful for all of the people that work so hard to put the production together! It is the best way to start off the Christmas season and remember the miraculous birth we are celebrating.
Saturday we were off to Peachtree City to celebrate Trip's 5th Birthday! How is it that five years have passed since this precious boy came into our lives?? He is so BIG now and almost in kindergarten!! I can't believe it! We had a great family dinner with pizza, cake and presents! Nicholas just loves spending time with Trip and the cousins are all so cute together. And as Nolan keeps getting bigger and is playing more and definitely moving more, it was so fun watching all 4 cousins together. We are so blessed with our wonderful family, and the kiddos just make our times together even more fun! Happy Birthday Trip! We love you!!

Thanksgiving photos

Here are additional pictures from Thanksgiving :)

Halloween and November recap

Once again, this cold season hit our home hard. Myself and the boys spent the entire month of November, plus a few days, very sick with bad colds and sinus infections. At least one or all 4 of us were sick the entire month--myself and Nolan getting it the longest. Therefore, this blog has been long neglected. Even though we were sick for so long, there were some events that we did manage to attend.
So here's what we've been up to:
Halloween was a great week of fun which was wonderful since every Halloween we've had so far has been spent with Nicholas very sick. We went to Trunk or Treat at a church that I had taken Nicholas to last year. This was Graham's (and Nolan's) first time as Graham was in Nashville with his dad last year. Even though Nicholas was only 2 last year, he totally remembered it and was talking all about the train that he hoped to see again. Because of bad weather they moved the Trunk or Treating inside. It was craziness but lots of fun. Nicholas (otherwise known as Woody) knew exactly what to do this time and got tons of candy. And he found the model train, which was even bigger this year, and Nick was mesmorized. Nolan, I mean Mickey Mouse, spent the whole time watching the craziness from his stroller. I know next year he'll be jumping right in!
Then Trick or Treating on Halloween night was so much fun! Nicholas totally had it down from the beginning and went running from house to house--he did a great job using his manners too! It was so much fun seeing all of our cute neighbors throughout the neighborhood--we even came across a Big Woody! Nolan once again was such a trooper, just along for the ride in his Mickey Mouse costume in the stroller.
The first weekend in November we spent a weekend in a cabin in Helen with Mimi, PopPop, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jay, celebrating Mimi and PopPop's birthdays! It was such a special weekend! We had a beautiful cabin with an AWESOME game room that Nicholas couldn't get enough of! We enjoyed the mountains, did some shopping, had some great food, watched lots of football and had a fabulous time together.
Next came Nick's Thanksgiving Feast and Thanksgiving party at preschool. As room mom I had lots to do to plan and organize these parties, including making the entire class's costumes along with one other mom (quite stressful when you are sick and have a sick baby but it all was pulled off). They all looked so cute and Graham, Nolan, Ashley, and I were able to enjoy the feast with Nicholas at school.
Thanksgiving was spent at Grandad and Kaki's and while it was so nice to be there, unfortunately we had two very sick boys on our hands. I was so thankful to have Grandad and Kaki to help take care of them though. And while Nicholas basically slept his way through the holiday, the rest of us had such a wonderful dinner at the Newman's home. And they were so kind to invite Mom and Dad and Papa to join everyone. It was so wonderful having both sides of the family together!

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??