Papa, 92 years young!

With the start of this new year, I've just finished studying the book of Genesis again. Genesis is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I love reading about God's Creation and following the stories of God's people. My favorite thing about Genesis though is seeing God's love through each generation of the Four Fathers. It's amazing to me how when God blesses us for our faithfulness and love, He doesn't just bless that person, but He blesses them for generations to come and their descendents experience God's blessings, all because of that one person. I am certain that Papa has experienced that same generational blessing! What an amazing life he has led. It is quite an accomplishment to celebrate your 92nd birthday as Papa has done today, but it is even more remarkable to have lived 92 years full of faith, love, courage, generousity, dedication, and joy as he has done!! I am so thankful for his legacy both for my life, and for my boys. So often it is the other way around and families pass along generational sins and troubles. Instead when I look through our family line, I see God's love and faithfulness. I pray that we all will continue these blessings for many generations to come! Thank you Papa for your example of a life well lived!
Nolan, Ashley and I had fun taking Papa out to lunch at Jason's Deli today to celebrate. Then Papa came with me to pick up Nicholas at carpool and that was very exciting for Nicholas too. Tonight we celebrated again with dinner at the Olive Garden with Mimi, Graham, Ashley, Nicholas, Nolan, myself and of course the Birthday boy. It was a great day! And even though he doesn't look over his sixties as the waitress said, as Papa says "It adds up to 92!" And our celebration will continue this weekend with cousin Ryan coming into town for his birthday.
Here's to many more Papa! Maybe one day Willard Scott will tell him Happy Birthday!

Snowpocalypse 2011!!

Things are starting to get back to normal around here after a very strange and wonderful week of snow and ice. The weatherman had given us all lots of warning that the snow was going to come and of course everyone swarmed to the grocery store to clear out all of the bread and milk. The Governor declared it a state of emergency and schools were cancelled--all before the first snow flake appeared!! But low and behold the weatherman actually got it right this time and it really did snow--a lot! It started late Sunday night and came very fast. In a mere 20 minutes, everything was covered and sticking. And it just kept snowing hard! Of course everyone was on the edge of their seats, watching the crazy news, watching the windows, and Facebook was lit up like crazy with activity and pictures of the snow. We went to bed that night after being glued to the news and woke Monday morning to 6 inches of snow! No one was going anywhere for a while. In fact for the whole week. The problem was that the snow kept freezing and turning into ice each night and temps never made it over freezing during the day. We actually still have a lot of snow and ice in our front yard and driveway, 8 days later!
So with no place to go, our family had a truly wonderful week of staying home and being together. It was so nice having Graham home with us all week! We had fun playing in the snow everyday. We even put the boys in our laundry baskets as makeshift sleds and slid them down the street! Nicholas loved it but Nolan actually had no reaction at all. No smiles but no tears either. I had fun doing lots of cooking (and we all did lots of eating). We watched movies and home videos and played with lots of toys. I also got so motivated to clean and organize the house! We ventured out once to the grocery store on Wednesday and then on Thursday we met some friends at Burger King to play. On Friday Mimi and PopPop ventured out and came over and we went out to dinner. Saturday we joined Mimi and PopPop again at Discover Mills and had fun shopping at Bass Pro Shop (Nicholas loves looking at the huge fish there and the waterfalls), having lunch, and shopping. Then the boys played glow in the dark PuttPutt golf while me and Mimi and Nolan shopped.
The ice and snow are almost gone but it sure was fun and I'm thankful for all the memories we made!

Nolan's First Haircut

This is definitely a time of transition in Nolan's little life (and therefore lots of transition for me too)! First we made the glorious switch from formula to milk--Halleluya! I am so grateful to not have to buy formula anymore!! Nolan has had a much harder time with the switch from the bottle to the cup. But on Sunday I decided that we just had to suck it up (ha, no pun intended) and he's going to have to just learn to drink from the cup. He's made some progress and is a little better than he was but he's still not drinking the amount of milk that he should. Of course he still loves to throw his cup too. I really hope he stops that soon. I'm still giving him a bottle at night for now, just to make sure that he gets a good amount.
The next change that we made was turning his carseat forward facing on Monday. I can't tell you how cute it is to look back in my rearview mirror and see those two adorable faces staring back at me. Nolan has done so well and just loves looking around at all the new sights. On Monday we spent an hour and a half in the car driving to and from a friend's house and I never heard a peep out of him!
The fourth transition is that of moving from 2 naps to one. He's been showing signs that he's ready for the change but getting him to stay awake all morning long until after carpool at 1 so that both boys nap in the afternoon, is going to be very challenging. I've only had two days so far of trying to keep him busy and engaged all morning and I'm exhausted and running out of ideas! Yesterday we went to the mall to play and meet up with Holly and Caroline for Holly's birthday. Today while Nicholas was in school we went to Target and slowly went down every single aisle. Unfortunately that only lasted me until 10:20! What in the world would I do with this cutie for the next 2 and half hours??
Well after he was mistaken for a girl twice yesterday at the mall, I decided it was time for his first haircut. I was amazed at how well he did, and how different my two children are! Nicholas screamed hysterically at his first haircut, and basically every haircut after that. Nolan on the otherhand, never cried once and would every so often look back at the man cutting his hair and smile and laugh. He was wonderful! So then I wasted all the time that I could there and finally had to put Nolan in the car and of course he fell asleep immediately--11:00! Any ideas of what I can do with him tomorrow??
One more adorable note on Nolan: I realized that he has another word that he is saying now--Baa for Baxter. He chases Baxter around through the house and screams BAAA! It is so hilarious. Of course Baxter isn't as excited about his little fan.
I can't let this blog end without a cute story on Nicholas. He's such a great helper anyways but the other night he wanted to help me do the dishes after dinner. Since that would mean Nolan also hanging on the dishwasher, I told him thank you but he and Nolan can go play and I'll do it. Nicholas responded "No Mommy, I'm a Superhero for God, I have to help you!" Well how do you say no to that!

P.S. We had a great time on Saturday visiting with Lauren and TJ and the kids and Grandad and Kaki and celebrating our late Christmas. It's so much fun getting all of the cousins together! I had to include this awesome picture of sweet Mady sharing all of her naked baby dolls with her Uncle Graham. This daddy of cars and transformers had no idea what to do with all the baby dolls!

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 :)