Giddyup, Giddyup, Giddyup Let's Go!

Well, December has literally come and (almost) gone in a flash!  In fact, it's such a blur that as I sit here trying to write down what we've been up to, I'm drawing a blank! 

Guess I'll start with the most exciting news we've gotten this month....baby Herring #2 is a BOY!  Honestly I thought I'd be just a smidge disappointed that we weren't having a girl, but the second I saw that male genitalia on the screen (I spotted "it" before the nurse told us), I was elated!  All thoughts of pink and ruffles have gone away and now I'm just ready for some rambunctious fun around here!  (As if we didn't have enough already.)  Oh, you want to know if we've got a name yet?  Why yes, thanks for asking...we can't wait to welcome Carson Clark to the family!!!  Carson is just a name that Chad and I have always liked and Clark is a family name on Chad's side...it's his mom's mom's maiden name.  Follow that?  It's also Aunt Nat Nat's middle name and our cousin Harrison's middle name!

In other news Griffin went to visit Santa a few weeks ago and did a great job!  We were worried that there would be a lot of tears, but Griffin was so excited to tell him what he wanted for Christmas (Thomas, Spencer and track) that he forgot to be afraid of the big, bearded stranger.  Yay!  Griffin even went as far as to give Santa (or "Clause" as he was calling him at the time) a big hug and blew him a kiss.  Of course the on-duty "photographer" at the Santa booth that hour wasn't able to capture any of that....kept saying that he was waiting to see if G would smile....just SNAP, SNAP, SNAP away mister!  Anywho...here are a few of the shots we paid for.

And just so we can see the difference a year makes...here's G and Clause from last year.  (Not the same Santa.  I'm a little disappointed.)



The rest of December has been filled with shopping, wrapping, playing (with choo-choos primarily), baking and eating.  Though the shopping and wrapping are almost finished, I'm sure the playing and eating will continue in full force for the next week or so.  We're looking forward to lots of family gatherings in the next few days and some time down in Hilton Head as well.

If I don't make it back here before Christmas (and we all know what the likelihood of that is), allow me to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!!

Let Me Get You Up to Speed...

Okay folks, I know it has been a WHILE since my last post, so I'm going to attempt to catch you up on the last few months through a few pictures.  Here goes nothing....

We have been to visit Papa Don and Boo twice since the last post!  We always have fun there, especially since they have this awesome Thomas toy.  Griffin is slightly in love with Thomas the train and everything associated with it!  (Public Service Announcement for family...if you need an idea of what to get G for Christmas...anything - and I mean anything - dealing with Thomas and his Friends!)

Griffin and I went with my mom and dad to visit Griff's great grandmother, Nanny!  Nanny is my dad's mom and is in a nursing home up in Nashville.  She LOVED meeting Griffin and kept commenting on his shoes (she is a shoe lover by nature) and how smart he is!  I'm so glad they finally were able to meet one another. 

Griffin attended his first (and only) Tech game of the season.  You can see here that he was NOT crazy about seeing Buzz up close, however he loved watching him from afar.  He did great at the tailgate, but not so great at the game.  Guess we can't expect an almost 2 year old to sit still through a football game just yet!! 

We had a great weekend at Lake Oconee with great friends!  Griffin, Jack and Leah are a force to be reckoned with.  I remember a point in my life where lake weekends were relaxing....not so much anymore!

The three of us had a great time at Cagles Dairy Farm.  We went on a hayride, fed cows and goats and looked at pumpkins!  Great family fun.

Chad and I had the pleasure of trick-or-treating with the CUTEST spider in the world!

Griffin was so fun this Halloween.  He really seemed to get the hang of the whole thing and, in fact, still says "trick-or-treat!" to me when he wants a treat.  Too funny!  He also loved pulling around this "choo-choo" (as he calls it), that my grandfather made for him to pull around.  Quite the hit!

Contrary to popular belief (after my last post about how rough our first day of school was), Griffin is STILL IN SCHOOL and absolutely LOVING IT!  After many weeks of tears at drop off and pick up, we've finally turned a corner and Griffin walks right into his classroom with a smile on his face and a hug for his teachers!!  This is him and his buddy Tate at "farm day" last week.  When I picked him up today his teachers told me that he is such a good listener (say what?!) and he's always the first to start cleaning up when they ask the kids to clean.  THAT'S OUR BOY!

At 21 months old, he is quite the little rascal (though we already knew this).  He gets into anything he can, and since he's getting taller, that means he's getting into just about everything!  As I recall, he did NOT help me clean up this mess that he created.  Maybe I need to find out what the secret is from his teachers at school.

In exciting family news...I'm going to be an aunt again!  Ramsey and Jenna are expecting a sweet baby boy...due date is March 3rd!!  We all can't WAIT to meet him.  Obviously he's already taking after his daddy and is hamming it up for the camera. 

More exciting family news...GRIFFIN IS GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!!  Baby Herring #2 is due just about 2 months after his/her cousin...how fun will that be?!  May 2nd is our due date and we are beyond excited.  We should find out if we're having a boy or a girl in early December.  We've told Griffin about the baby but he really has no clue what's going on.  He knows that we tell him to "kiss the baby" in Mama's stomach - which he does - then he points to the baby in his stomach and in Dada's stomach.  Haha! 

As you can see, life has been busy and exciting and we have nothing to complain about!  God is good!

First Day of PreSchool

Griffin has started school!  His first day of preschool was on Tuesday and in the words of the preschool director, Mrs. Cindi, he had a "rough" day.  haha.... 

Let's back up to the night before...

This mama was nervous and wanted to make sure I had everything prepared for the next day.  Here's everything that needed to go in his bag.

The Griffster is sleeping away...no clue what awaits him in the morning (though we have been talking about school a lot to try to get him use to the idea).

We started our day with a healthy breakfast and some light reading.  Luckily Griffin couldn't see the big boo-boo square on his forehead.  I'm sure he would have been embarrassed if he could.  Hopefully this isn't foreshadowing of a big ole' zit on the first day of high school or something.  ;)

All ready to go, but we had to take pictures first with our new bag!

He liked carrying it himself .  It's almost as big as he is!

Here we are!  He actually started running towards the door all by himself.  I was thinking that this would be easier than expected!  But - when he made it to the door I said, "you ready to go in?"  He quickly responded with a sweet, "Nooo!" and turned to run the other way.  haha.

We waited for our friend Tate to get there so we could walk in with him (hoping it would make things easier).  I love the look on Griffin's face here...mom?

Griffin and Tate....I realize I should have left at this point but I was still holding all of Griffin's things, so I wasn't sure what to do!  (I'll have to work on a quick exit next time.)

He has now realized that I've left.  Doesn't that face just break your heart?!

So, once I left I was fine.  I wasn't sure whether I'd be emotional or not, but luckily I was with a friend and, frankly, was so excited about some alone time to get too teary about things.  I figured Griffin would calm down and have a great time.  Apparently that wasn't really the case....

Pick up was at 1:00, so Chad and I decided to meet for lunch and go pick him up together, anxious to hear how great he did.  We were waiting in the lobby of the church for them to open the doors.  There were a lot of parents waiting and then out comes the preschool director.  We made eye contact and she asked whose mom I was.  I said, "Griffin Herring."  She said, "Ohhh, he's had a rough day."  WHAT?!

Apparently he just cried off and on all day.  He was fine when they were playing outside (duh), but just kept missing us!  It sounds like he got a lot of personal attention - evident by the smell of women's perfume all over him.  I think he was well taken care of, which makes me feel good.  When they opened the doors to let parents go to the rooms, Chad and I headed in that direction.  We could hear Griffin crying before we even made it to his door.  We peaked in the room and the rest of the class appeared to be resting or sleeping, laying on their nap mats.  Our kid was sitting up (on his nap mat - aka a folded over blanket from home) with a teacher reading a book to him, trying to keep him from disturbing all the other kids I'm sure.

Oh well, so much for a good first day of school.  We'll just have to take it one day at a time and hopfully it will get better and better each day.

Here's his "report card" from the first day.  I'm not sure how reliable this is seeing as how the teacher has circled "quiet" and "sleep" in the "end of the day" column.  Sleepy?  Probably.  But I know he wasn't quiet!

We're heading back tomorrow for day two.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!



Forgive and Forget?

So, I know Griffin will forgive me for the traumatic events of today...but will he forget?  I'm not so sure.

We went to one of the fancy-schmancy haircut places to get Griffin lookin' good for his first week of "school."  {We've got a week before he starts.  Yay!}  I was hoping that he would love - or at least be distracted by - the toys, the snacks, the movie showing on the flat screen TV, and the totally awesome police car (complete with steering wheel) that he got to sit in.

He. Did. Not. Like. ANY OF IT!

This is before the scissors were even in sight!  He panicked the minute we put him in that chair.

After these first 2 pictures I had to put the camera away and try to offer any help possible to Griffin and/or the poor woman cutting his hair.  I thought he was crying pretty hard in the first place, but when the lady pulled out the electric razor this kid LOST IT!  (At least she was nice enough to warn me.)

After about 3 minutes of "torture" we were done and Griffin was back at the train table.  I went to pay (still think it's too expensive...especially since I felt the need to give a decent tip to the poor lady) and then came back to play with him for a while.  I thought it would be good for him to realize that this place is pretty cool.  Everything was great until he heard a loud BUZZ from a room in the back.  I think it may have been laundry, but Griffin must have associated it with the deadly razors cutting his hair.  The water works started again so we packed up and left (to the delight of everyone else in the store, no doubt).

So, Mama rewarded him (for his good behavior??) with a DumDum afterwards and life was good again.  His haircut DOES look fabulous, but I think we will do a few more home-grown haircuts until I can't keep up with it anymore.

From here, we headed to JoAnne fabrics for me to pick something up.  Unfortunately the woman in front of me was having a piece of foam cut...foam is cut with an electric knife...an electric knife sounds a lot like the deadly razor.  Needless to say Griffin lost it again.  Unfortunately for the other patrons in the store, this Mama drove a long way to get there and I wasn't leaving without my fabric!!  Turns out I'm good at giving mean looks right back to the ladies who like to cast annoyed glances at my screaming child.

{DON'T MESS WITH ME WHEN MY NERVES ARE ALREADY FRAZZLED!}

So, Griff...Sorry for the traumatic day.  I really do feel bad, but your hair looks fantastic!

Summer Travels

I didn't realize how much we've been on-the-go until I saw it all here, in this post.  We've had some great trips this summer and still have a few more planned as we creep into Fall.

We started our summer with a very cool {literally and figuratively}, much needed get-away for Chad and me...just the two of us!  This year marked our 5 year wedding anniversary so we decided to really celebrate with a trip to San Diego, CA.  Neither one of us had ever been and it was a spot we wanted to check off our list.  We spent 5 great days touring around the city, taking in the sights and ended the trip with a beautiful drive up the coast, stopping in a few awesome beach towns!

We were able to catch a Padres game.  Beautiful stadium!

We couldn't go to San Diego and not check out the zoo, right?  Turns out it was well worth the cost.  Very cool zoo!

Torrey Pines was high on Chad's list.  (Isn't our convertable sweet?  Made for a very fun ride up the coast.)

A picnic lunch on Laguna Beach.  A highlight of the trip for me!

Our next trip was also just for us "grown-ups!"  One of my BFF's, Bri, was getting married and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid...an awesome excuse for a long weekend in Charelston!

Beautiful Bride!

Fun hanging out with Shannon!

The little man was in tow for our next adventure to Daytona Beach for July 4th.  We were dreading the long drive, but Griff did a pretty good job!  He didn't sleep much, but he was content to watch his Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder videos.  We arrived late Thursday night and stayed until Tuesday.  Ramsey and Jenna joined us on Friday...it was great to have everyone there for some fun in the sun!

1. 2. 3...weee!

Griffin was never too far away from his dump truck!  It took him a little time to warm up to the sand and water but once he got comfortable with everything, he loved being on the beach!

Heading to the water with Aunt Jenna and Uncle Ramsey.

Griffin learned to surf on dry land....

...while Dada gave surfing a go in the water!

2nd annual 4th of July family photo.

Next, we headed down to Mobile, AL for Haley and Cam's wedding {Haley is Chad's cousin}.  It was a great wedding and an even better weekend seeing the Purvis side of the family.  We don't get to see them a lot, so it's always good to catch up.  Thankfully the wedding was the perfect occasion to get everyone in one place!

Cousin love!

The perfect bench for these two rascals.

Chad, Griffin and the Parsons kids!

Sweet picture of Chad, Griffin and Grandma Purvis.

The boys in their matching outfits.

As moms we've got to caputre moments like this when we are showered, WITH make-up on, and cute outfits!  :)

Luckily Griffin slept a while on the ride home!  All that traveling wore him out :)

So, there are our summer travels in a nutshell.  It has been busy and great with much needed family, as well as much needed Chad and Rachel time.  We love being with our boy, but it's so nice to get away every now and then to rejuvinate ourselves...plus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?!