Baby Blake!

It's official...Griffin has a cousin! Blake Jacob Boyd was born on November 30th! Mom, dad and baby are all doing great. Natalie is a natural at this "motherhood" thing. It seems that she has just been going with the flow, which is all you can do with a newborn! Blake is absolutely perfect and we're so happy that he's here and hope that he and Griffin will be the best of friends as they grow up.

Who is this Bearded Man?

We couldn't have asked for a better "first visit" with Santa Clause! It wasn't even planned, but we were at the mall one Sunday after church and I decided to at least check to see what the Santa looked like. (For those of you not from Atlanta, there is a huge hoop-la around seeing a certain Santa at a certain mall in town. You've got to sign up in advance and wait in a line. Needless to say, I didn't sign up in advance...I don't do much in advance these days).

Anyways, I thought this Santa looked great and there was NO LINE! (A major plus when you've got a squirmy kid in tow.) Chad and I decided to take advantage of the situation and everything turned out great.

We literally waited in line behind 2 other kids.

Just enough time to snap this perfect photo! Everyone has sincere smiles...does it get any better than that?! (It helped that Dada was tickling the little man.)

Then, Griffin got to have a good conversation with Santa. He was a little unsure, or maybe just confused at first...

Griffin is a pretty curious kid. He likes to check everything out. (I like to say he's nosy like his mama!)

I just LOVE this face. G is a little unsure about this bearded man.

....and here is the professional photo....at least it looks like he's smiling.

I know Griffin is anxious to see if Santa really brings what he asked for...now if Santa would just tell us what he asked for, we're good to go!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

An Extra Special Thanksgiving!

Though it's a close race with Christmas, I think Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday. No pressure to pick out the perfect gift, just time with family to eat and reflect on the many blessings God has given me. This year the family gathered at my parent's house for some yummy food and fellowship...always a good time!

....and, of course, this was our first Thanksgiving with our little man, Griffin! Talk about being thankful!! We love him so much and are really enjoying all of these "first" holidays with him.

This picture isn't from Thanksgiving day, but I think it's so sweet...and I am very thankful that G is a good sleeper (most of the time).

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we headed up to Rock Spring, GA to see Chad's family. (This is a photo of G sleeping in the car on the way up there...I tell you, there is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.)

There was a big group of "Herrings" up there, all anticipating the birth of baby Blake and secretly hoping (or not so secretly) that Natalie would go into labor ahead of schedule! We got to visit with cousins that we hadn't seen in a long time (and some I had never even met before). I know Chad really enjoyed catching up with them!

Though I'll only be hitting the tip of the iceberg, here a few things I am especially thankful for this year:

• Family - I think our little family of three is just perfect, but then you add in add in all of our parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc....we're so blessed!
• Health - we're all alive and kickin' and I couldn't ask for anything more!
• Chad - I am so thankful that I'm married to a great man, who has become such a great dad. Also, words cannot express how thankful I am that Chad works his butt off so I can be at home with Griffin during this special time of life when he seems to be changing daily.
• Griffin - I'm sure every parent feels the same about their child, but I sincerely feel like Chad and I have the perfect son. He makes our lives feel so fulfilled and we love him dearly.

Thank you Lord for all you have given me and my family!

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Little Man Needed a Vacation

Griffin leads such a stressful life, we figured he needed a little vacation!

Just kidding. But, he did go on vacation to spend 5 days with his grandparents in Hilton Head! (Technically, Bluffton, but HH sounds more exciting.) I know grandparents covet that "alone time" with their grandchildren, so Chad and I wanted to give Gram and Grandpa some special time with Griffin without us (mainly me) looking over their shoulder thinking (not saying), "Oh, that's not how I do it..." Also, G's cousin Blake was due to arrive very soon, so we wanted to make the most of G's time as the ONLY GRANDCHILD!

So, to make the hand-off, my mom rode with G and I in the car to Macon. There, we met the Herrings and had a nice lunch a Cracker Barrel before we went in our separate directions. (Yes, I teared up a little bit leaving my boy, but I knew he was going to have the BEST time, so I wasn't too terribly sad.)

As soon as they arrived at Gram and Grandpa's house, G started exploring! They've got lots of fun toys there and lots of windows to look out of (and leave finger prints on)...one of G's favorite things to do!


...and before bedtime, G got to go on a golf cart ride to watch some night golf going on in the neighborhood!

After a long day of traveling and playing, I'm sure everyone was tired and ready for bed.

From what I understand, Griffin was up bright and early every morning!

Luckily, Gram and Grandpa had lots of activities planed! They went for walks on the golf course, ate lots of puffs, played at the play ground, washed some dishes, went swimming in the hot tub (a highlight for sure!), and even ran a few errands around town.

I just LOVE these pictures in the hot tub. You can tell that both Griffin and Grandpa are just having the BEST time!

G got some cute, new Christmas pj's too! They attempted a photo shoot, but G was not in the mood to cooperate. (Sitting still is NOT his strong suit.)

On his last day there, Grandpa too Griff to downtown Bluffton to buy some oysters at the May River. It looked like a fun field trip!

I just loved this picture of Gram and Griffin...I like to joke that Griffin doesn't give hugs and kisses, but instead, head butts! It's so cute when he just charges towards you and nuzzles (trying to make it sound sweet here) his head up against yours. Sometimes painful, yes, but I honestly think it's a sign of affection.

Obviously Griffin had a blast with his grandparents and I think they were thoroughly worn out by the end of his stay! We're so lucky that G has wonderful grandparents (and great grandparents) in his life...he doesn't know what a lucky boy he is!

Thanks Gram and Grandpa for spending a fun-filled 5 days with Griffin. More importantly, thanks for documenting the trip with tons of pictures! I didn't miss him as much I as would have had I not received daily photo updates! Y'all are wonderful!

I Promise I'll Catch Up...

Seeing as how it has been almost a month since I've blogged, I've got a lot of catching up to do! So much has happened that the thought of blogging about everything feels like a daunting task, but I MUST do it to preserve these precious memories!

I'm setting a goal for myself to get these exciting events down in writing...

• Griffin spent 5 days with Gram and Grandpa!
• G's first Thanksgiving
• Our visit with Santa
• BABY BLAKE!!

Stay tuned!

9 Months?....No Way!

Yesterday we went for Griffin's 9 month check-up (though now he's about 9 months and 1 week). Besides being a bit under the weather (pesky cold and the croup), Dr. B said that he looks great! Here are his stats:

• Height: 29 inches (75%)
• Weight: 18 lbs. 14 oz. (25%)
• Head Circumference: 45.5 cm.

We were a little worried about his weight gain, or lack there of, but Dr. B said she wasn't worried at all. She said she could tell that he was a very active child and that was probably the reason he wasn't gaining much weight....he burns a lot of calories through out the day!

Here are a few pictures of our skinny-minny from the last few weeks...

Here are a few of the things Griffin is doing as a 9 month old...

• Talking up a storm!....we just don't know what he's saying. The noises that ARE audible though are priceless...he's saying "da-da-da" and "ma-ma-ma"...we're not sure that he knows what he's saying, but I think he's definitely close to realizing that those names are associated with us. So neat!
• Learning to wave...at least I'm going to call it a wave. Sometimes he even gets the timing right and does it when someone says hi or bye to him. It's a funny, spastic, arm up and down kind of wave.
• He's intrigued by other kids...he loves to look at them and "talk" to them.
• As I mentioned above, he's still as active as ever...if he's awake, he's on the move!
• This is kind of weird, but he loves to pick the rocks out of the fireplace. It's bad because his tiny little fingers love to pick away at it and little rocks fall out....then he tries to EAT THEM! Needless to say, it keeps Chad and I very busy trying to keep him from doing it.
• I've said this before, but he loves the outdoors. Only now he's not as content to just BE outside...now he wants to get down and explore everything...which would be great if he wouldn't try to eat everything. haha!

Okay, that's our boy in an itty-bitty nutshell. All 9 months of him! We love you Griff!

Halloween!

We had the BEST Halloween! I can't even imagine how fun it will be in years to come when Griffin gets excited about dressing up and trick-or-treating. He seemed to enjoy it this year too, but I guess it's kind of hard to tell.

We started the day with by going to our neighborhood's fall festival with our friends Daniel and Jennifer. Griffin was a giraffe and Leah was a pumpkin. They were so cute!

Griffin was pretty tired after the fall festival, so we went home and napped. But after that, we decided to go out to a fun playground where we could enjoy the awesome fall weather. We had fun swinging and sliding!

After the playground and dinner, we got back in costume and headed out for some trick-or-treating! We only went to one house, but Griffin had fun playing and eating candy with his buddy Tate.

I love this picture of the boys snacking on Twix....in the wrapper! Maybe next year they will get a real taste of candy.

The next day (on actual Halloween) I took Griffin over to my parents church for another fall festival! He got to ride a pony for the first time and seemed to have fun. It was funny to see a giraffe riding a pony. haha!

We had such a great weekend making memories with our little man. This was our first "first holiday" with Griffin and it makes me really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas...it's so fun to see everything through his eyes and see how he reacts to things. It's just so neat!