Weekday Visitors

Grandmommy & Sean both had fall break the same week. They could have headed for the shore or trekked to the mountains. Thankfully, they decided to come and spend that week with us!

Grandaddy sharing a very long curly fry with Jack during lunch at school.

Jack's sweet teacher invited us to stay. Sean read a book to the class.

On Thursday, Sam skipped preK, and we all went shopping. These two were troopers. It was such a treat to have weekday visitors. While they were here the whole crew got to cheer on Sam & Jack at their soccer matches and visit the boys' Awana clubs. It was a fun, fun week!

A different point of view

To celebrate Sean's 14th birthday, we met family in Atlanta and enjoyed a different point of view.

When in Rome

Slightly delayed, but after we recovered from our European vacation, the little boys and I headed to Rome to spend a few days with Grandmommy, Grandaddy, Aunt Kristy, Uncle Jeff & Cousin Sean. The boys had a ball swimming, snacking, bouncing and movie watching. It was plain ole fun, but don't take my word for it...

A Whole Lot of Christmas (part 1)

Christmas has come and gone, and I managed to get almost all my decorations packed away before 2012 rolled in. In my book, that's a huge accomplishment. Everyone knows how un-fun it is to put the decor away. While the decorations were still up though we had plenty of Christmas fun.

We started by hosting Josh's family for a couple of days. After we had tucked the kids in bed (much too late) on the night they arrived, we decided to go ahead and exchange gifts with one another. I'm sure some of it had to be with the late hour, and the rest you can blame of just being a family that loves to laugh, but we really enjoyed ourselves. There was much silliness involved...

Grandmommy got a real kick out of her very own pink pom-pom gloves!

And Aunt Kristy has a great sweater now for her growing neck. This was purchased at a giraffe super store :)

Who has the warmest head and ears around? Grandaddy!

We started the next day with an incredible breakfast at Natalie Jane's in Clarkesville. The poor boys were so ready to finish and get back to open their gifts. They were incredibly patient, and they were not disappointed once the fun began...

"What is it, Sean??" Jack even managed to do okay with taking turns.

Ready to explore with his very own binoculars!

Jack was soooo excited about his "iPad" from Aunt Cindy's crew.

Sam loved this rockin' Elmo and ALL his instruments...once we convinced him to actually open some gifts!

The big reveal felt a little like the Showcase Showdown from the Price is Right! They jumped in immediately!

Sam didn't know exactly where the seat was. Lounging in the floorboard with his arm up. I was hysterical at how comical he was.

Oh, look someone showed Sam where to sit, and not a moment too soon...

Hey, wait a minute!? Shouldn't this steering wheel be attached??

Sean & Jack breaking a sweat with the wii. Jack was too hot to wear a shirt apparently.

I have no idea what they were playing, but they were into it for sure!

Our Christmas dinner spread. It was even better than it looks in this photo.

Sweet potatoes were a hit...especially at the kids' table!

Stay tuned for part 2.

saturday fun

On Saturday, we had a visit from Grandmommy & Grandaddy Garrett. We were excited to have the opportunity to let them experience the Family Fun Fest that evening with the boys. This is the third year we've loaded up and soaked up the fun and basked in our sweat to have a little fun with the little ones.

A little golf

even Sam took a whack at it...

the huge cardboard box maze

this boy has moves...

little brother's puppy tatoo. what a tough guy!

checking out where the firemen ride...and drink lots of 2-liter diet coke apparently

On the way up in the cherry picker

Way up there

What a ride!

Happy Birthday, Grandmommy!

Josh's mom's birthday was Friday. We were so glad that amongst all the festivities for Sam's first birthday that she let us squeeze in a little fiesta for her too. Think she enjoyed the dinner we had at El Campesino?

A Grand Weekend

Jack & Sam had another grand weekend; this one courtesy of Grandmommy & Grandaddy Garrett. We started the weekend with dinner on the square in Clarkesville, where the grandparents met us. We then made the short walk down to Pitts Park for Friday Night Flix. I think I timing was perfect. Jack had about 20 minutes to run wild and play on the overcrowded playground equipment with his best buddy Andrew before 'Up' started.

I fed Sam just as the movie got underway and then he snoozed with his Grandmommy. I wasn't really sure how Jack would do sitting still especially with slides, swings and all sorts of fun things to climb lingering in the background. He surprised me for sure. He sat in Josh's lap for almost the entire movie. When the music heightened or intensified, he was on the edge of his seat. The last half hour he would stand up every 5 or 10 minutes and say, "I be playing." As if to indicate that we could stay and watch the movie, but he would be on the playground playing. Of course, we reminded him we were watching the movie and we could come back and play later when it wasn't so dark. Overall, we absolutely enjoyed our movie in the park and are looking forward to the next one...although I don't know if there is enough actual football in 'The Blind Side' to keep him interested.

After a yummy breakfast at Stoney's Saturday morning, we went home to prepare to celebrate the fourth birthday of two of our favorite little girls, Bree & Blythe. Jack loved the mermaid/ocean theme and really enjoyed himself in the pool at the Aquatics center. It took him a while to warm up, but he was soon kicking and swimming around unassisted (unless you count his life jacket). We might have a fish on our hands.

Spring Breaks

Around here spring break doesn't mean much other than Jack asks every other day if he's going to school. I'm thinking he's going to be pretty disappointed when the answer is "in a few more weeks" instead of "tomorrow." I'm sure we'll find a way to pass the time this summer...like with potty training. Ugh! Seriously though we are looking forward to fun playdays at the park, trips to the water park in Gainesville and more. In the meantime, we enjoyed what spring break meant to everyone else. First, it was a visit from Aunt Emmy a couple of weeks ago when her school was out. As always, Jack had a blast playing with Aunt Emmy.

Last week, it was Grandmommy's turn. She came and spent the afternoon with us on Wednesday. We had fun taking her to our Wednesday night fellowship dinner at church. Jack enjoyed playing some baseball in the yard before we all piled in the car to take advantage of the DQ Blizzard anniversary...does anyone know where to get a blizzard around here? Anyway, here's a pic of Grandmommy Garrett with two of her favorite things: grandkids and ice cream! We loved celebrating the Blizzard's 25th with you!

Coming Soon...

A new blog header I guess. We're eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newest member of our family, Samuel Boyd Garrett. He's certainly making his presence known these days and making progress toward the outside world. Unless he makes an appearance in the next 36 or so hours, we'll do some encouraging on Wednesday morning.

We've been busy spending lots of time together on these our last days as a family of three. When the sun has emerged (albeit briefly), we've braved the cold and enjoyed time outside. Jack loves to play football in the yard and really loves his bubble mower...although the brisk wind usually makes for difficult bubble production.

On Saturday, (after much of the snow melted away and we were sure the roads were safe and I wasn't going into labor) we headed down to Atlanta to meet Josh's parents to celebrate his mom's birthday. It was such a chore, but we agreed to eat at Maggiano's...lol! Jack was a fan of the tiramasu, and I could have eaten 10 more dishes of creme brulee. Afterwards, we visited a couple of stores in the mall and Jack couldn't get enough of these sunglasses. I think he enjoys looking at himself in the mirror...what do you think?

Anyway, not sure if I'll get a chance to update the blog again before Sam's arrival. I'll try not to take too long a hiatus since these posts are such riveting news!

Here's what we've been doing

Celebrating Christmas has made for such a fun weekend (and several more days it seems). Enjoying the excitement of the season has kept me from updating my loyal blog followers (read with extreme sarcasm) and for that apologize (for both not updating & making that terrible joke!) There are too many pictures to share here, so a good sampling are in my December album.

Jack & I spent early last week with some friends at the new Babyland General in Cleveland. And shame on you if you didn't know that was the birthplace to millions of Cabbage Patch Kids until after clicking the link. Anyway, the new hospital is enormous and was jazzed up for Christmas. I wasn't sure how interested Jack would be in the baby dolls. He seemed to gravitate towards the stuffed animals and loved it when we spotted an Elmo doll. His second favorite part of the tour was probably the giant Cabbage Patch doll, Noel. Her fuzzy outfit was irrestible to him! I also managed to get him to sit on Santa's knee, which was a huge accomplishment! He loves Santa from a distance. As you can see, he wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but there were no tears...so I deemed it a success.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Athens to celebrate with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Jack had a great time at Mema & Pop's house. He loved his new camera...he's still learning, but looking forward to keeping up with his mommy and his Pop in the photo department! He was over the moon for his new bubble mower, courtesy of Uncle John & Aunt Lisa. We headed to my grandparents for dinner with my cousins. It was a fun night, and Jack stayed awake all the way home!

When Jack woke up (after 8, which was a nice treat), we saw that Santa had come. He left the most fun surprise for Jack...a shopping cart that he has been pushing around for days! Jack finished the morning with a bubble bath with his new Elmo bubbles, a gift from friends!

That afternoon, Josh's parents and family joined us for dinner and more Christmas fun. He loved his talking Elmo and Little People racecar track. He also got his very own rocking chair. We also enjoyed "sort-of" surprising Josh's parents with their gallery of family photos from our shoot with Sue Ann back in October.

The next day, Josh's aunt & uncle and cousins, as well as my parents, all joined us for lunch and a little gift swaping game...which remained pretty tame. I love Nathan's expression in this photo of Ryan opening a set of TV trays! We don't get to see them as often as we'd like, so it was a real treat to get to spend the better part of the day catching up. The kids had a blast. We are looking forward to ringing in the New Year in a relaxing fashion tonight. See you in 2010!